As the second half of the year got underway there was a massive global discussion about drag queens at the opening of the Paris Olympics.
There was big news in the world of HIV research, a lot of stories about musicals, and many notable celebrity deaths too.
Dive in and see everything that happened in July.
News and Politics
As exit polls were announced as voting ended in the UK election it rapidly became clear that the Conservative Party was facing its worst result in centuries. Sir Keir Starmer became the countries new Prime Minister. Kellie-Jay Keen’s Party of Women secured zero seats, and the aspiring politician also failed to find support.
A legal challenge over the UK government’s decision to ban the use of puberty blocking medication in the treatment of youth with gender dysphoria was unsuccessful.
The world lost its mind over the opening ceremony at the Olympics, while Lady Gaga delivered a lovely tribute to French cabaret star Zizi Jeanmarie.
The Liberal Party conducted a review to consider if they’d made the right decision in dumping incumbent Senator Gerard Rennick. They decided it was definitely the right choice. He later decided to form his own party.
The party’s state candidate for Albany, current City of Albany councilor Thomas Brough, refused to attend council ordered diversity training.
NAM AIDS Map, one of the world’s leading providers of information on HIV announced it was closing down. The Australian Defence Forces made a major change to their policies. There were big announcements at the World AIDS Conference. Llamas turned out to be a path of research for a potential HIV treatment, and our story apparently has a picture of an Alpaca, and OMG the mail we got.
There were renewed calls for a federal LGBTIQA+ commissioner.
NSW police added more charges in the case against alleged double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon. A Canberra man was jailed over the rape of a teenager he met on Grindr. ACT police were also investigating a series of assault of gay men related to use of the app. NSW police looked at giving the informant that led to the arrest of the man who killed Scott Johnson a massive reward.
Religious activist Wendy Francis from the Australian Christian Lobby announced her retirement. So long, farewell, au revoir, auf widersehen, goodbye.
Babette Francis, the Catholic activist who for decades campaigned against abortion rights, same-sex marriage and transgender rights has died aged 93.
AFL rookie Lance Collard got a six-week suspension for using a gay slur during a match. If you’re keeping counts of gay slur stories so far, the score is ALF 4, Pope 2.
Dateline explored the stories of surrogacy.
US President Joe Biden announced he was pulling out of the election.
Singapore’s LGBTIQA+ community called for equality at Pink Dot. Zaniar Matapour, the man convicted a shooting rampage on the eve of Oslo Pride in 2022 announce he would appeal his sentence.
A concert promoter in Malaysia moved forward with their $2.4 million lawsuit against rock band The 1975. Lead singer Matty Healy caused controversy by kissing the band’s guitarist on stage.
On the Local Front
6PR claimed there is a WA police officer who identified as a rabbit before host Karl Langdon repeated his belief that kitty litter is provided in WA schools (yes, it’s an urban myth).
The City of Belmont knocked back a request from a local resident to remove LGBTIQA+ themed books from its libraries.
The AN/OTHER festival explored intersectionality. The Bears were signing.
Culture and Celebrity
Popular TV series Elite released the trailer for its final season. It was announced that Deadlock would get a second season. We got our first look at Agatha All Along. The team at The Umbrella Academy got ready for their final adventure, and Australians finally got to see the second series of Interview with the Vampire. On the reality TV front Rylan Clark had a new show about dating naked.
Alter Boy shared new song Portrait of God, TIN also had new music. Sam Smith recorded one of his hits to make it non-binary. Kylie let it slips that a World Tour was coming. Michaela Jae had an impressive video, Keelan Mak had new sounds, Budjerah teamed up with G Flip, and we loved Dyan Tai’s Bubble Tea.
Troye Sivan’s Australian leg of his world tour was announced, and Perth was left off the itinerary, fans were not happy. Rumours abounded that Sivan had been booked to play PrideFEST until some pesky journalists from OUTinPerth ended the rumours by asking if it was true, it was not.
Rebel Wilson faced new legal challenges.
It was announced the musical Jesus Christ Superstar would be making a comeback in 2025. Grease was amazing and Marcia Hines killed it. Jinkx Monsoon impressed with her rendition of Les Miserables, and there was a local production of The Wedding Singer. Plus, we learned that Casey Donovan would be heading back to Perth for Sister Act in 2025.
Actor Mike Heslin, best known for the TV series Lioness, died aged 30. Fitness guru Richard Simmons also passed away, as did actor Shannon Doherty. We marked the passing of singer Evelyn Thomas and Australian actor Janet Andrewartha.
Julia Fox came out. Author Holden Shepard announced his next novel would be called Two Kings.
