Washington (AFP) – Six lions and three tigers at the National Zoo in Washington have tested positive for Covid-19 and are undergoing treatment after falling unwell, the zoo said Friday.

“Last weekend, animal keepers observed decreased appetites, coughing, sneezing and lethargy” in six African lions, a Sumatran tiger and two tigers from Siberia, who all tested positive for Covid in preliminary tests, the zoo said in a statement.

Results of tests to confirm the diagnosis are expected in a few days.

The sick cats are being treated with anti-inflammatories and anti-nausea medication, as well as antibiotics to ward off pneumonia.

People who visit the zoo are not at risk because of the distance between them and the felines, and no other animals have shown signs of infection, the zoo said.

The bout of sickness comes as several US zoos including the one in Washington announced Tuesday the launch of a vaccination campaign for animals susceptible to Covid-19.

Primates in several zoos have become infected. Several gorillas at the zoo in Atlanta tested positive last week.

To protect them from Covid, animals at the Washington zoo will be injected with a product developed by Zoetis, a drug company that makes vaccines and medicine for pets and livestock.

Los Angeles (AFP) – The Emmys honoring the best in television return Sunday for the first in-person ceremony since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to the return of a (small, socially distanced) audience, there are plenty of potential records and historic firsts to look out for:

Posthumous win?

Michael K. Williams, forever remembered as Baltimore stick-up man Omar Little in seminal HBO crime drama “The Wire,” died earlier this month.

His tragic passing will not influence voting — the suspected drug overdose in New York occurred after Emmys voting had closed.

But Williams is the favorite to win the award for best supporting actor in a drama for supernatural horror series “Lovecraft Country.” He was nominated four times in the past but never won a statuette.

Many viewers will hope for a victory for Williams, which would make him part of an elite group of posthumous acting winners at the Emmys — one that includes Ingrid Bergman.

Transgender first?

FX’s “Pose” — about New York’s 1980s underground ballroom culture — has already done much to advance LGBTQ representation.

Two years ago, its star Billy Porter became the first openly gay black man to win the best drama actor prize.

On Sunday, another cast member has a chance to make history.

“Mj Rodriguez has a shot at being the first trans winner in lead actress,” Los Angeles Times journalist Michael Ordona told AFP. 

“But she’s got a tough row to hoe, because I think there’s a lot of goodwill toward Emma Corrin for her portrayal of Princess Diana,” in “The Crown,” he added. 

Biggest loser?

“The Handmaid’s Tale” was the first ever streaming show to win best drama at the Emmys. Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel strongly resonated with voters back in 2017.

Since then, the Elisabeth Moss-starring series offering a bleak portrait of an authoritarian America has seen diminishing returns — in terms of both critical response and awards tallies.

Still nominated for a whopping 21 statuettes this year, it has won zero in the technical categories handed out so far — meaning it will become the “biggest loser” in a single year of Emmys history if it fails to convert at all on Sunday.

Netflix record?

Netflix needs 10 wins Sunday to tie the all-time record for most Emmys wins in a year — 44, set by CBS network way back in 1974 when shows like “MAS*H” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” ruled the airwaves.

Such an impressive haul is not necessarily beyond the streamer. 

Chess-themed “The Queen’s Gambit” has already bagged nine awards in fields from costumes to cinematography, and should contend for more awards Sunday including best limited series, directing, and actress for Anya Taylor-Joy.

British royals drama “The Crown” is tipped for the night’s top prize — best drama — and has frontrunners across the acting categories including Emma Corrin, Josh O’Connor and Gillian Anderson as Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Margaret Thatcher, respectively.

‘Short straw’

After last year’s pandemic-mandated virtual event, the nominees are to be welcomed back in-person at the Emmys — but only a lucky few of them.

Each nomination will earn a maximum three invitations to the socially distanced 500-person outdoor venue (the ceremony typically has an audience of 4,000-6,000).

This has caused a scramble among those up for best drama, best comedy and best limited series, as each show usually has a large number of producers listed as nominees and eligible to attend.

“Can you imagine the defining moment in your career — you’re nominated for an Emmy, and you just drew the short straw and you can’t go to the ceremony?” said Variety awards editor Clayton Davis.

“That’s going to happen to a lot of people.”

Max Harwood had limited experience of drag before starring in ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’.

The 24-year-old actor plays the lead role in the film adaptation of the hit stage musical of the same name as teenager Jamie New, who becomes the drag queen Mimi Me, and was excited about being transformed into a drag artist.

Asked if he had attempted to drag before taking on the part, Max said: “Not really. I dressed up as a kid; my sister and I would perform ‘Grease’ for the family, and I would swap roles so I could play Rizzo.

“But I’m a huge fan of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’. I was incredibly excited to have a makeup artist put me in drag.”

Max revealed that he studied YouTube videos so he can perfect his costume for the movie, which also features Richard E. Grant and Sharon Horgan.

He told Variety: “I followed YouTube videos when you learn things like how to glue down your eyebrows. Honestly, some of the things I put on my face were really questionable and awful. But I’ve gotten better. I can actually do an OK drag face for myself, so I’m super proud of that.”

Max explained that it was very difficult to learn how to walk in high heels and how the technique required hours spent practicing with a coach.

He said: “It was really hard! And I’d done ballet, so my feet were quite strong. I worked with an amazing heels coach named Shawn Niles, and we spent hours in the dance studio just walking around, playing Whitney Houston, learning about hip placement and strengthening ankles and things like that.”

Washington (AFP) – Creators of a new reality show pitting activists promoting charitable causes against each other were forced to change course following a massive backlash, with a top star apologizing Thursday for her participation.

“The Activist,” whose launch was announced this week, was to be broadcast on American network CBS in October and co-produced by non-governmental organization Global Citizen, with celebrity hosts such as the singer Usher, actress Priyanka Chopra and dancer Julianne Hough.

But no sooner had they unveiled plans for the “groundbreaking” programming they insisted would inspire real change, the producers announced they were dramatically reformatting the show, jettisoning the competitive activism-themed contests and switching to a one-time documentary rather than a multi-episode series.

“We got it wrong,” Global Citizen said in an online apology. “Global activism centers on collaboration and cooperation, not competition.”

CBS had said the audience of the original show would follow the adventures of “six activists from around the world working to bring meaningful change to one of three urgent universal causes: health, education and the environment.”

The finale was to take place at the Group of 20 summit of world leaders in Rome in late October.

But CBS said they recognized that format “distracts from the vital work these incredible activists do in their communities every day,” and that the concept would be reimagined into a non-competitive prime-time special.

“I have been moved by the power of your voices over the past week,” Chopra told her 27 million Twitter followers Thursday.

“The show got it wrong, and I’m sorry that my participation in it disappointed many of you.”

Hough, posting on Instagram, said she recognized that for some the show idea “felt like the Oppression Olympics” and disrespected activists who have faced abuse — or even have been killed — fighting for their causes.

“The judging aspect of the show missed the mark,” she said.

Los Angeles (AFP) – The world’s biggest trees were being wrapped in fire-proof blankets Thursday in an effort to protect them from huge blazes tearing through the drought-stricken western United States.

A grove of ancient sequoias, including the 275-foot (83-meter) General Sherman Tree — the largest in the world — were getting aluminum cladding to fend off the flames.

Firefighters were also clearing brush and pre-positioning engines among the 2,000 ancient trees in California’s Sequoia National Park, incident commanders said.

“They are taking extraordinary measures to protect these trees,” said park resource manager Christy Brigham, according to The Mercury News.

“We just really want to do everything we can to protect these 2,000- and 3,000-year-old trees.”

Millions of acres (hundreds of thousands of hectares) of California’s forests have burned in this year’s ferocious fire season.

Scientists say man-made global warming is behind the yearslong drought and rising temperatures that have left the region highly vulnerable to wildfires.

On Thursday, two fires were looming down on the park’s Giant Forest, home to five of the world’s largest trees, including the General Sherman.

Around 500 personnel were engaged in battling the Paradise Fire and the Colony Fire, which together have already consumed 9,365 acres of woodland since they erupted from lightning strikes on September 10.

The enormous trees of the Giant Forest are a huge tourist draw, with visitors travelling from all over the world to marvel at their imposing height and extraordinary girth.

While not the tallest trees — California redwoods can grow to more than 300 feet — the giant sequoias are the largest by volume.

Smaller fires generally do not harm the sequoias, which are protected by a thick bark, and actually help them to reproduce; the heat they generate opens cones to release seeds.

But the larger, hotter blazes that are laying waste to the western United States are dangerous to them because they climb higher up the trunks and into the canopy.

(Reuters) – Colorado Governor Jared Polis, the nation’s first openly gay man to be elected governor, has tied the knot with his partner of 18 years Marlon Reis in a traditional Jewish ceremony attended by close family and friends.

The marriage between Polis, a Democrat, and first gentleman Reis, a writer and animal advocate, marks the first same-sex wedding of a sitting governor.

“The greatest lesson we have learned over the past 18 months is that life as we know it can change in an instant,” Polis wrote in a Twitter post. “We are thankful for the opportunity to celebrate our life together as a married couple.”

Polis and Reis both contracted COVID-19 last year and Reis was briefly hospitalized https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/3706-update-first-gentleman-marlon-reis in December. The couple, who got engaged late last year, are parents to two children age 7 and 9, according to a statement from Polis’ office.

A 2015 landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

While LGBTQ people remain “severely” underrepresented, the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in the United States has increased by 17% between June 2020 and June 2021, according to a report https://victoryinstitute.org/out-for-america-2021 by the LGBTQ Victory Institute.

Earlier this year, Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and presidential candidate, became the first openly gay https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-transportation/pete-buttigieg-becomes-first-openly-gay-cabinet-secretary-confirmed-by-u-s-senate-idUSKBN2A22IQ U.S. Cabinet secretary confirmed by lawmakers.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani, Editing by Mark Porter)

Miley Cyrus idolises Dolly Parton because of her “steadfast morals and values”.

The ‘Wrecking Ball’ hitmaker has praised her godmother for both her “incomparable career” and her humanitarian work and insisted it’s easy to understand why she is a role model for so many people.

Writing in praise of Dolly for Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people, she said: “Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? I never have.

“Dolly is not only my idol because of her incomparable career—she’s also my role model because of her steadfast morals and values. At her core, she is the definition of a humanitarian. She’s also the world’s most impeccably purposeful walking contradiction, having developed her iconic look after being inspired by the town tramp. Now she’s known as a saintly, even godlike, figure…

“But though she created an identity that she downplays as being built on wigs, lots of gingham and silicone, the foundation for this empire is actually her honesty, truth and her faith. People look to Dolly for guidance, and she knows that.

“She wears that responsibility with the same grace and pride she rocks a two-piece Nudie suit. She recognizes how impactful her choices will be as one of the most iconic and powerful voices in country music, and she leaves no one behind. Dolly has diligently celebrated the queer community and her Imagination Library provides millions of books for kids. (The only thing Dolly loves more than glitter is children.)”

The 28-year-old singer went on to praise the ‘9 to 5’ hitmaker’s donation to coronavirus vaccine research and how important that has been for the music industry.

She wrote: “Last year, she donated $1 million to COVID-19 vaccine research, which helped in critical early stages. There’s a multitude of reasons why vaccination is important to protect other people. But it’s also to get the show back on the road and bring live music to our audiences again.”

And Miley admitted she wished everyone was able to meet her “fairy godmother”.

She concluded: “There’s a theory that you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but I wish everyone had the chance to meet Dolly Parton, because she’s even better than your sparkliest dreams. She may be my fairy godmother, but I think she’s that to everyone else too. I am happy to share her with the world.”

A pregnant man is among the new emojis released by the Unicode Consortium.

The draft list of the newest emojis was unveiled earlier this year by the non-profit company and aims to promote more diversity in gender.

Another new emoji is a handshake featuring two different skin tones in response to a year of action surrounding racial inequality.

More new emojis include hands making a heart shape and somebody biting their lip, as well as faces melting, saluting, holding back tears and peeking out between their fingers.

The list contains 37 new emojis and takes the total amount up to 3,633. The new additions will be rolled out on devices over the coming months.

A large majority of the new emojis will be presented as a man, a woman and gender-neutral – for example, a crown emoji has now been added alongside the prince and princess emoji.

The Unicode Consortium revealed last year that it was releasing a new batch of emojis in 2021 to reflect on the crazy events of 2020, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

The new additions include a heart with a bandage wrapped around it, a heart on fire, a face exhaling, a face in the clouds, and a shocked face with spiral eyes.

A small number of new emojis were released last year after being hit by a delay due to COVID-19.

Unicode tweeted: “With #Unicode14 delayed due to COVID-19, this is a minor #emoji release. It is also a bit of a change from recent years where announcements have been made between January and March, and landing on platforms by September/October.”

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is developing a “new system for international travel” that will include contact tracing for when it eventually lifts travel restrictions that bar much of the world’s population from entering the country, a senior White House official said on Wednesday.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients told the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board the administration does not plan to immediately relax any travel restrictions citing COVID-19 Delta variant cases in the United States and around the world.

Reuters first reported early in August that the White House was developing vaccine entry requirements that could cover nearly all foreign visitors. The White House previously confirmed it was considering mandating vaccines for foreign international visitors.

“The American people need to trust that the new system for international travel is safer even as we – I mean at that point – we’ll be letting in more travelers,” Zients said on Wednesday, adding it will eventually replace existing restrictions.

“We are exploring considering vaccination requirements for foreign nationals traveling to the United States,” Zients said.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at the same meeting that the spike in COVID-19 cases is preventing lifting international travel restrictions. “We want to move to a metrics-based system,” Raimondo said. “Before we can do that, we have to get a better handle on the domestic situation, which requires us to get everyone vaccinated.”

Zients said the new plan would replace the current restrictions and would be “safer, stronger and sustainable.” He did not lay out specific metrics for when the administration might relax restrictions.

“Vaccination rates matter here at home and other countries,” Zients said, urging travel companies like airlines to quickly mandate employee vaccines.

Some industry officials fear the Biden administration may not lift travel restrictions for months or potentially until 2022.

The extraordinary U.S. travel restrictions were first imposed on China in January 2020 to address the spread of COVID-19. Numerous other countries have been added, most recently India, in May.

The administration wanted to lift travel restrictions “as soon as we can,” Zients said.

CONTACT TRACING

Zients said the new system will include collecting contact tracing data from passengers traveling into the United States to enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to contact travelers if exposed to COVID-19.

The Trump administration in 2020 blocked an effort to require airlines to collect contact tracing information from U.S.-bound international passengers after some senior administration officials cited privacy concerns.

Zients said they want the new system to be “ready to press go on” when it is safe to lift restrictions. “We get the importance of this,” Zients said.

The United States currently bars most non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

The United States separately bars non-essential travel by most non-U.S. citizens at U.S. land borders with Mexico and Canada.

Critics say restrictions no longer make sense because some countries with high rates of COVID-19 infections are not on the restricted list while some countries on the list have the pandemic under control.

(This story refiles to correct spelling error in the headline)

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Bernadette Baum and Aurora Ellis)

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) -A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, that challenged the National Security Agency’s mass interception and searching of Americans’ international internet communications.

In a divided ruling on Wednesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the lawsuit must be dismissed after the government invoked the “state secrets privilege”, which meant that a full exploration of the issue in a court would damage national security.

The Wikimedia Foundation had said in its lawsuit that the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance program captures some of its international communications and is a violation of the U.S. constitution’s First Amendment free-speech rights and its Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

“Although the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the government as to Wikimedia’s standing, we agree that the state secrets privilege requires the termination of this suit,” Judge Albert Diaz wrote in a majority opinion by the court.

Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, who dissented in the court ruling, warned that the majority opinion “stands for a sweeping proposition: A suit may be dismissed under the state secrets doctrine, after minimal judicial review, even when the government premises its only defenses on far-fetched hypotheticals.”

Upstream’s existence was revealed in leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 and the lawsuit was filed in the aftermath of those revelations.

The Wikimedia Foundation said it disagreed with the ruling on Wednesday and is considering options for further review in the courts.

“In the face of extensive public evidence about NSA surveillance, the court’s reasoning elevates extreme claims of secrecy over the rights of Internet users,” said James Buatti, senior legal manager at the Wikimedia Foundation https://bit.ly/2XwK14n.

The lawsuit was first dismissed in 2015 after a U.S. District judge found lack of evidence that the NSA was conducting surveillance “at full throttle.” But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived the case in 2017 https://reut.rs/2XuMRXx and sent it back to the lower court, which again dismissed it in 2019 https://bit.ly/3hVOepp.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes)

Lil Nas X was convinced he was “going to die” when he got famous.

The 22-year-old star went though a period of anxiety when he first started making music, which escalated when his single ‘Old Town Road’ became a global hit, but he credits his career for ultimately providing a distraction to allow his worst thoughts to subside.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, he said: “The entire time I was making music, I thought soon I was going to die for some reason. Worst anxiety period.

“You know, I lost my grandmother and was the first person that was close to me that I had ever lost. I was like, ‘Oh my God, everything’s building up.’ And then especially when ‘Old Town Road blew up’. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m definitely dying soon.’ All of these artists that were coming into, or starting to pop into the music industry were passing away, I was like, ‘What the f*** is happening?’

“I guess I tried to ignore it until it went away. And then that’s when I found belief in the universe, for sure. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m really not alone in this.’

“That’s another thing music was for me though. It was something I love, but it was also a distraction from those thoughts. It’s like, oh, those thoughts, here’s the song guys.”

Nas came out as gay publicly in June 2019 and he admitted he expected some people to be “shocked” by the admission.

He said: “I knew some people would be shocked. Because a lot of people, when they hear a song, they maybe look up the artist and don’t think much don’t, don’t get too involved into your life or what they’re talking about, or their captions or what they’re posting on their story or whatnot. So then it’s just like, ‘Wait, what the.’

“Because there’s a lot of songs I like right now and I’ve seen the artist’s face, but I have no idea about them outside of that. So that’s how it was for… It was like, ‘Oh, this cowboy country? Wait, huh? How’s that possible?'”

The ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ hitmaker feels a sense of “responsibility” and wants to put in “even more effort” to push boundaries because of his sexuality.

He added: “I feel responsibility. I don’t know if I want to say a lot, but it’s certain things that I see in the world that fuel me to go harder or put even more effort, or to make sure I’m getting across.

“Because I feel like, I said this before in the past, when people come out as gay or whatnot, it becomes like, ‘OK, let’s sanitise the hell out of this. Let’s make sure it’s appropriate and super safe.”

“And it’s like where they don’t do anything that’s considered too far, even the things that we see other artists doing. And even to defend ourselves… I feel like we still haven’t reached a place where I can do something right now that no straight person has done that’s considered too far. Because then, it’s really too far because no straight person has done it yet. You know what I’m saying?”

Watch the interview in full on Apple Music at apple.co/_MONTEROInterview.

Ed Sheeran is planning to give Sam Smith a 6ft-tall marble penis.

The ‘Bad Habits’ hitmaker has revealed he’s having the life-size phallic model made for the 29-year-old singer after the ‘Dancing With A Stranger’ saw the unusual decorative piece in the flame-haired hunk’s pub at his home in Suffolk, England, recently.

Speaking to Zoe Ball on BBC’s Radio 2, the 30-year-old singer said: “I’m having a life-size one made for Sam Smith as well because Sam saw one of them in my pub at home and said, ‘Oh my God, I’d love one of them’. So I’m having one the size of them.”

This isn’t the first time Ed has gifted a marble penis to a friend, as he also gave Elton John one for his birthday in March.

Elton, 74, said previously: “For my birthday this year, he [Ed] gave me a giant marble penis.

“I don’t know if that’s because I’ve always been a p***k or what. It’s really big, it’s beautifully made.”

The iconic musician admitted his husband David Furnish wouldn’t let him put the X-rated statue in their garden because of their sons Zachary, 10, and eight-year-old Elijah.

He laughed: “It’s hidden in an area in the house where they wouldn’t see it!”

When it comes to raunchy gifts, Ed has a history after Courteney Cox previously revealed he’d sent her a “leather gimp mask”.

Ed – who is close friends with the 57-year-old actress – revealed how he thought up an X-rated prank when she told him she could buy anything she wanted from her Alexa device.

He explained: “So, she walks out the room, and I go, ‘Alexa, order me a leather gimp mask’. “Unbeknownst to me, Courteney’s assistant opened the post, and she finds this mask and instantly goes, ‘Oh, I don’t think I was meant to see that,’ and leaves it on Courteney’s bed.”

The ‘Lego House’ hitmaker revealed the ‘Friends’ star found out about his joke, and he’s kept it up by ordering more and hiding them in unusual places.

He added: “Anyway, she found out the story, and now every time I go back there, I order her another gimp mask. “And she has maybe 12, and I hide them in people’s bedrooms. So they’ll go in a drawer, and they’ll just find this leather S&M mask.”

Dan Levy’s Met Gala 2021 ensemble celebrated “queer love and visibility”.

The ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star wore a Loewe costume depicting two men kissing inspired by the late LGBTQIA+ activist and multimedia artist David Wojnarovicz’s art based on a homophobic cartoon at the fashion fundraiser at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday night (13.09.21).

The 38-year-old actor, who was accessorised by Cartier, also revealed that Loewe made a donation to the charity Visual AIDS.

Sharing the meaning behind the bold look, Dan explained on Instagram: “A big heartfelt thank you to @cartier for so generously welcoming and accessorizing me tonight. What I’ve so long admired about the Costume Institute is its commitment to educate and inspire people through fashion.

“I was fortunate enough to also get to work with @jonathan.anderson and the incredible team of designers and craftspeople at @loewe on a look that meant something to all of us. With support from the estate of American multimedia artist and LGBTQIA+ activist, David Wojnarovicz (1954-1992), Jonathan and the design team built upon an image of two men kissing from Wojnarovicz’s work, F*** You F-t F*****, named after a homophobic cartoon the artist had come across. But rather than feed on the message of hate, we wanted to celebrate queer love and visibility – acknowledging how hard artists like Wojnarovicz had to fight, while also presenting the imagery in a way that offered a hopeful message. Tonight, we’re celebrating the resilience, the love, and the joy of the community while honoring a crucial American voice that was taken from us too soon.

“To mark the collaboration, Loewe has made a donation to Visual AIDS, an organization Wojnorovicz supported, that continues to promote AIDS awareness and education (sic)”

Dan came out as gay to his parents – actor Eugene Levy and screenwriter Deborah Divine – when he was 18.

Museum founders in New York have broken ground on a site set to become an LGBTQ+ museum opening in 2024.

The museum is an expansion of the New-York Historical Society and will tell the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, as well as others who feel they belong to this group.

Founded in the early 19th century, the Historical Society is primarily dedicated to the history of metropolitan New York.

“We are so happy that the museum has found a home,” former professional tennis player and activist Billie Jean King said at the Tuesday groundbreaking event. “It’s our time, for our American LGBTQ+ community, to tell our stories.”

The whole world will take notice of this museum, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “People will come from literally every corner of the world to learn, to be educated, to be inspired, to remember that, yes, a change can come, and it did here in New York City.”

The 1969 “Stonewall” riots in New York, when revellers resisted a police raid at the popular gay bar the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, are widely considered the birth of the movement.

Every year, parades around the world celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and their resistance to discrimination.