NEW YORK ― Against a backdrop of dragons and dancers parading down the streets of lower Manhattan Sunday, Lanny Li described how it took her conservative Asian mother over a year to accept her coming out as a lesbian. But now Li’s mom is fully supportive. She spent the weekend on the sidelines cheering as Li marched in Lunar New Year parades.

In times of political and social turmoil,the role of artists and entertainers in our society becomes clear. Creatives can distract us from reality and help us process collective trauma and grief through a comedic lens.

Granted, I don’t believe it necessarily needs to be a “relationship” in the traditional sense in order for one party to be ghosted. It could (or should) also include entanglements that involved meeting up or hanging out or hooking up with someone two or more times before the other person vanished without a trace.

Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court may be all mild-mannered and cuddly, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t in a heartbeat deny your very existence under the Constitution if you happen to be queer. Neil Gorsuch has been presented as being ideologically in the mold of his self-described icon, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was a flame-throwing homophobe and surely the most anti-LGBT force ever on the U.S. Supreme Court.

But there was another equally remarkable, though admittedly quieter, moment in the first five minutes of the show that you might have missed: Stewart, for the first time ever, publicly used the word “gay” in reference to herself (see the above video at the 2:26 mark). Stewart’s sexual identity has been the subject of rumors for years.

Whether this order happens or not, now or in the future (White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters who inquired that it wasn’t happening “at this time”), it reveals the intentions of those in Trump’s inner circle and the will to get this done.

I just want to make sure you know that many of us are counting on you to address what’s going on in America right now during your performance. I know you care about this country and I know you care about the women and the queers and the people of color and the immigrants and the Muslims who live here and who are terrified of what could happen to them over the next four years. I watched you powerfully address sexual assault at the Oscars.

The LGBTQ community held its collective breath on Monday after sources close to The White House ― perhaps even inThe White House ― claimed that President Donald Trump was scheduled to sign an executive order sometime this week that would severely limit or revoke a collection of rights currently held by LGBTQ Americans.

Juchitán has a lot of parties, or velas.Sometimes there are velas for saints, and sometimes there are velas for marriages and national holidays. But for this vela there was a celebration of muxes, a third gender stemming from pre-Colombian societies.For some muxes, the Western/American label “cisgendered gay man” is one they’re comfortable with, while others would find “trans woman” more appropriate.

David Bruinooge said he was profoundly moved last weekend when millions of people turned out in support ofWomen’s Marchesaround the world.Bruinooge watched on TV as a sea of pink “pussyhats” flooded the streets of cities like New York, Los Angeles and D.C., then decided that the LGBTQ community needed its own march on Washington.