With Stonewall 50 here, it is only fitting that our most prominent museums are featuring exhibits with a gay focus. Although it is not an exclusively queer-themed show, as was Fashion Institute of Technology’s “A Queer History of Fashion” in 2013, this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute is focusing on “Camp: Notes on Fashion.” Comment

Over the past several weeks at Pride events across the city, Gay City News checked in with a wide array of folks to gather responses to two questions. Comment

The family of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco, a trans woman who died under mysterious circumstances at Rikers Island on June 7, announced at a June 26 rally that they are filing a federal civil rights lawsuit in response to her death. Comment

Tiffany Cabán just may have completed what was deemed unthinkable mere months ago: The 31-year-old public defender who identifies as a queer Latina has claimed victory in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney, further shaking up the political makeup of a borough that just one year ago saw Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez upset an entrenched congressional incumbent in Joe Crowley. Comment

Alphonso David, who for the past four years held a key post at the pinnacle of New York politics as counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo, has been named the new president of the Human Rights Campaign, the group announced on June 25. Comment

Advocates were unable to prod New York State lawmakers to move on three criminal justice measures that disproportionately affect LGBTQ people — especially trans women of color — before the end of the legislative session on June 21. Comment

Ruling in one of the lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s new ban on transgender military service, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has delivered neither a complete win for the government nor one for the plaintiffs. As a result, Karnoski v. Trump will go forward before District Judge Marsha J. Pechman in Seattle. Comment

Crosswalks were painted in rainbow colors, large Rainbow Flags waved in the air, and LGBTQ residents in the Bronx were all smiles as they celebrated queer liberation on June 23 in the final borough-specific Pride event before the WorldPride March on June 30. Comment

In a scathing June 10 opinion, a New Jersey judge ordered the immediate dissolution of a so-called conversion therapy organization that he found was an “alter ego” of a group convicted in his courtroom four years ago for violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act. Comments (1)

A 2016 ruling from New York’s highest court that overruled a 25-year-old precedent barring a same-sex co-parent without legal or biological ties to a couple’s child from seeking custody or visitation rights could be in jeopardy as the result of a gay biological father’s appeal to the US Supreme Court. Comment

The season that just closed was notable for the diversity of its shows — from the complex and moving “The Ferryman” to the ridiculous and hilarious “Tootsie.” Comment

Pride runs strong in Puerto Rico. That goes equally for the LGBTQ community and for the “fuerza Puerto Rico” power that rallied the island after 2017’s devastating hurricanes. Comment

Well over a year ago, out of the blue, I was contacted by Rebecca Klassen, assistant curator of Material Culture at the New-York Historical Society (NYHS). She had been tasked with crafting an exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, and heard through the queer grapevine about my collection of flyers and other ephemera from New York gay clubs from the 1990s. She wanted to take a look. Comment

Twenty-one months after a Bronx classroom fight that left one student dead, another slashed, and a third charged with manslaughter and assault, bullied gay teen Abel Cedeno, who says he used a knife to defend himself against an attack from classmates Matthew McCree, the deceased, and Ariane LaBoy, told Judge Michael A. Gross that he is forgoing his right to a jury trial and will let the judge decide whether he is guilty or not. Comment

The newest member of Brooklyn’s Community Board 9 made history on June 18 when she became the first transgender person to be sworn into the board — and she is also believed to be the first out trans person on any community board in the borough. Comment

Just in time for WorldPride, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on June 18 landmarked six important sites in the city’s LGBTQ history. Comment

Efforts to pass gestational surrogacy in the State Legislature have withered in the lower chamber and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie confirmed on June 20 that the bill is dead for now, citing concerns about women’s rights and fears of commercialization. Comments (3)

Building a coalition, like building a community, is about addition, not subtraction. It’s about multiplying, not dividing. Comments (2)

Police have identified a suspect in the June 10 fatal shooting of a gay man in the Hamilton Heights section of Manhattan. Comment

Twenty-one months after a Bronx classroom fight that left one student dead, another slashed, and a third charged with manslaughter and assault, a trial judge has been assigned to the case of a bullied gay teen, Abel Cedeno, who says he used a knife to defend himself against an attack from classmates Matthew McCree, the deceased, and Ariane LaBoy. Comment

The defense in the 2005 killing of Rashawn Brazell has filed an alibi notice that the accused killer was attending a driving school in St. Louis during the week that the 19-year-old gay man was murdered and his body parts were found in a Brooklyn subway station. Comment

When hummers don’t help. Comment

The city’s month-long celebration of WorldPride festivities continues through the end of June and culminates with the annual Pride March on June 30. There are numerous other events to check out during the week and into the weekend leading up to the final Sunday of the month, from family movie nights to the Dyke March and rooftop receptions. Comment