They called them the 'most iconic.' What do you think?

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The actor never hid the fact but he never discussed it either.

Jim Parsons was on top of the world. But even though he was starring as Sheldon Cooper on the hit television series Big Bang Theory, he never felt comfortable enough during the show’s early days to publicly discuss his sexual orientation. He recently revealed the reason to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I was scared that it might cause trouble, quote unquote, for our big television show,” the 47-year-old Parsons explained.

Parsons was 33 when Big Bang Theory first aired in 2007. At the time, the working actor had some minor roles on television, film, and Off-Broadway, but he was perhaps best known for his quirky portrayal of a man raised by wolves in a hilariously odd 2003 Quiznos commercial.

Times were different for LGBTQ+ persons back then. While society was certainly more tolerant than in the past, Parsons recalls it wasn’t “even close to the era we are in now, as far as what it meant to tell somebody you were gay.” In response, he never really denied he was gay, but he also made a point of not talking about it publicly.

“So I was scared,” he confessed. “I wasn't scared about losing my job. And I wasn't scared to the point of denying my sexuality. But I was scared enough to make it my mission not to talk about it.”

He eventually came out (sort of) during a 2012 interview with Patrick Healy of The New York Times. Parsons was portraying Harvey in The Normal Heart on Broadway at the time.

“I can't remember the exact question, but he asked about something to the effect of, 'Was it more meaningful to be a part of The Normal Heart being gay?'" he recalled. "I said yes. I remember leaving there going, well, I sort of just took the back door out, as it were. I remember thinking it was kind of poetically perfect.”

RELATED | TV's Highest Paid Actor, Jim Parsons, Is Gay, and So Are Many of His Contemporaries

It's time to do your research.

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It's time to do your research.

We also have the new date.

With the ongoing protest, sparked from the police killing of George Floyd, many brands and organizations have altered their schedules. Things have been pushed, refocused, and even canceled. With its initial roll out set to occur on June 19, Love, Victor has decided to change things around.

"This coming June 19 — Juneteenth — will mark 155 years since slavery was abolished in America," the Love, Simon spinoff wrote in an Instagram post. "This date represents an important turning point for our nation and for human rights, and we believe that now, more than ever, it deserves to have its own day in the spotlight.

"For this reason, we are shifting the premiere date for Love, Victor to June 17."

The decision comes as a national conversation about race has been resurfaced and in ways reignited in this country. As a component of that, some have asked that Juneteenth be recognized as a federal holiday. And while the Hulu show fell short of going that far, it is bringing a spotlight in its own way.

Love, Victor follows the titular Victor trying to figure himself in the wake of Love, Simon's Simon while being a student of the same Creekwood High School. As is pretty evident in the trailer, there's clearly a guy in the show he's interested with Benji, but he cautions that things aren't straight forward.

"My story is confusing," he says. "Some guys like guys, some guys like girls, some guys like both. I'm not even sure what I like." 

The full series will debut all at once on Hulu June 17th.

RELATED | 'Love, Simon' Is Going to College In a New Sequel

The nonbinary star of Billions and Orange is the New Black writes a letter asking the guild to take "immediate action."

Asia Kate Dillion, the gender nonbinary star of HBO’s hit series Billions, has sent a letter to the Screen Actors Guild (SGA) questioning their continued use of gender-specific categories for their SAG Awards. The star’s letter asks the guild to take “immediate action to combine your acting awards into gender-neutral categories,” according to an exclusive report from Variety.

“Separating people based on their assigned sex, and/or their gender identity, is not only irrelevant when it comes to how an acting performance should be judged, it is also a form of discrimination,” Dillon wrote in the letter dated June 10. “Not only do your current categories erase non-binary identities by limiting performers to identifying as male or female / man or womxn ( which not all SAG members, like myself, do), they also serve as an endorsement of the gender binary at large, which actively upholds other forms of discrimination, including racism, the patriarchy, and gender violence.”

Dillon made entertainment history when they became the first gender nonbinary actor to portray a nonbinary character on a major TV show. They play the role of hedge fund manager Taylor Mason on Billions. They had earlier played the role of the racist white supremacist Brandi Epps on Orange is the New Black, another HBO hit series.

Initially, SAG had reached out to Dillon, asking them to serve as a judge on the 27th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Motion Picture Nominating Committee. They were asked to judge performances of male actors in lead and supporting roles, and female actors in a supporting role, as well as two other gender-neutral categories. Dillon took issue with the gender classification, questioning whether the need still exists for the binary framework for acting awards.

“The distinction between male and female acting categories was implemented as a means of combating the chronic and systemic overlooking of cis-women, particulary (sic) white cis-women, when it came to acting awards,” they explained in their letter, noting there were no similar gender-specific awards for “director/cinematographer/sound designer, etc.”

Previously Dillon had worked with the Emmy board regarding their gender-specific awards. The board told them Emmy rules allow performer to enter “either category for any reason.” This time around, Dillon is advocating for the elimination of gender-specific categories altogether.

“Not only is it possible to combine all of your leading and supporting nominees into the same gender-neutral categories, there is precedent,” Dillon wrote. “On May 7, 2017, I presented the first gender-neutral acting award, to Emma Watson, at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, noting, ‘It’s so cool to be here presenting the first acting award ever that celebrates performance free of any gender distinctions. Tonight we celebrate portrayals of the human experience, because the only distinction we should be making when it comes to awards is between each outstanding performance.’”

Dillon closed by noting they would be “thrilled to serve as a judge, provided you take immediate action to combine your acting awards into gender-neutral categories. This courageous and overdue step from my union would send a wide message that SAG not only supports me but supports all its non-binary and gender non-conforming members.”

RELATED | Alicia Garza & Asia Kate Dillon Are Fighting For a New American Revolution

The news, the drama, and everything else you need.

Two down, a lot more to go. Tonight was the second episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars season five. Featuring Tessa Thompson and Madison Beer as celebrity guest judges, the show had a little bit of drama, a little twist, and a solid lip sync featuring a lip sync assassin who is a bit of an icon in the show's history. 

The News

The reality of this season of All Stars is that it is going on as things that are much more important are happening in the world. Protests persist nationally for the Black Lives Matter movement, calling for justice in the case Breonna Taylor. Taylor was killed by police who entered her home under a no-knock warrant. Her killers have not been charged or arrested. Drag Race honored her life with a spot.

The Challenge

As is the show's habit, this week the queens are paired into groups and have to write and record verses to a new song. As a side note here: we didn't know that the queens actually can make real bank for this sort of thing once Ru releases it on streaming platforms. On Instagram last week Aquaria revealed that after episode 12 of season 10 premiered she's been getting monthly royalty checks for her contributions to the cast recording of "American." Now, almost 24 months later, her latest check is still about $340!  Anyway, back to All Stars 5.

This week the queens had to write verses for the song "I'm in Love" that were odes to their celebrity crushes. Shea Coulee, Blair St. Clair, and Jujubee were clear top performers. Coulee does this!! And that came through on stage. It's worth saying here that Alexis Mateo was also extremely good.

The Drama

Last episode a few of the queens sort of got on Ongina about not having confidence in herself. That vibe carried over into this week and Miz Cracker takes it up a notch, saying that she should have tried to send Ongina home. It plays out in a lot of feelings and behind-the-back whispering, but it no doubt underscored what Ongina may have been feeling a bit. The result is one of Ru's favorite things to discuss: her inner saboteur.

The Lip Sync Assassin

Miss Coulee if you nasty won the maxi-challenge and was matched up against the lip sync assassin. Her challenger: Alyssa Edwards. And while it certainly was a fun little show, it was clear pretty early on in the lip sync that Shea wanted that $20,000 tip and wasn't getting off the floor until she had it.

She ended up sending home Ongina.

RELATED | This Is How Much Cash 'Drag Race' Has Awarded to Queens in 12 Years

Law Roach, I just want to talk!

My name is Jasmine Masters and I have something to say: Jazzul Escada was robbed!

A few weeks ago HBO Max premiered and one of its first original series was Legendary. That competition show matches up five members of eight actual ballroom houses — get a little history of each house here — in a set of weekly battles with one house being sent home weekly. We've already seen categories like performance (voguing), runway, face, and more. This week, the Western-themed ball served up the show's body category and we would like a recount!

For the uninitiated, ballroom's category is more about body confidence than it is an actual shape. There are a variety of subcategories within it: you can have the muscled, sculpted body (usually butch queens,) or more of a fuller, "luscious" form (mostly fem queens and cis women). Whatever body you have, like many ballroom categories, you have to have confidence and conviction, bordering on cockiness about what you're presenting to the judges. And I would like to submit to the judges — particularly one Law Roach that Jazzul Escada had it all.

I'm going to say here that I actually love Roach on the show. People criticize his credentials — to be frank, his credentials outrank Meg Thee Stallion, Jameela Jamil, and the vast majority of the show's guest judges as someone who has patronized balls since he was a teenager — and his divisive approach to critique but this is television. We need a judge that's going to shake it up and give us good television! Roach gives us that. But this week, we have to disagree.

Escada came out onto the floor looking like the teddy bear we all want to fall asleep with. He slowly made his way down the judging panel, gave a pittle pec bounce, and made eye contact with each and every judge. To be fair, his body was not like the body of any of his competitors, but there was an inner confidence there that read through to the viewer. It wasn't the brash, muscle flexing, twerking confidence that we saw from some — which, to be clear, we also enjoyed — but not all confidence is like that, and it doesn't need to be. 

Sadly Jazzul was chopped by Roach and didn't get to battle. It would have been nice to see him go up against someone like Gorgeous Jarrell Gucci (that is both his name and an accurate descriptor) or any of the other contestants.  And even though rightfully Packrat Lanvin deservedly took home the $5,000 cash prize from the category, Jazzul will always have a special place in our hearts. 

RELATED | Meet the HBO Max 'Legendary' 8 Houses of Ballroom

Hmmm.

If you ask the girls on Twitter, SpongeBob SquarePants is gay. Not just because of like how he is depicted on his hit series, but because of a new tweet from the Nickelodeon account celebrating Pride month. Let's look into it.

"Celebrating Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," the network wrote in a post. The post also included photos of SpongeBob, Schwoz Schwartz from Henry Danger and Korra from The Legend of Korra. They are all presented wearing some version of rainbow colors.

Korra is canonically queer as per their script. So that's that on that. Michael D. Cohen, the actor who plays Schwoz, is a man of trans experience. So the inclusion of those two is pretty easily explained. But what about SpongeBob?

As TMZ points out, in the early 2000s show creator Stephen Hillenburg said that Spongebob was asexual.

"We never intended them to be gay," Hillenburg said of SpongeBob and Patrick in 2005. "I consider them to be almost asexual."

That would definitely go within the + part of LGBTQ+. Maybe they could have changed their minds and made SpongeBob some other letter underneath the massive umbrella but it's important to realize that those who are asexual are queer as well and are just as welcome to dawn rainbows and celebrate Pride this month.

RELATED | 'Supergirl's Chyler Leigh Comes Out, Doesn't Specify Sexuality

Michelle Visage, Deborah Cox, and even a Drag Race U.K. cameo.

Well ladies, only a few episodes into RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season five and we are already in full Canada's Drag Race roll out. Having already announced its queen, the debut season of the new show has just releaed its first full trailer, complete with guest judges, and a peek into the competition.

"After many years of dreaming, it's official," Ru intones on the trailer — though she may not be in the Canadian Werk Room, she's still apparently doing voiceovers! "We're looking for Canada's First Drag Superstar. Oooooh Canada, start your engines."

The trailer serves up more of the show's trademark shady one-liners. It's all extremely fine! Our personal favorite?

"These queens should be afraid of me because they're here because of me," Tynomi Banks said. Well! Let's see about that. A close runner up?

"I am the queen of social media," Kyne said. And it's true that she is certainly a viral sensation. "I've taught 100,000 people how to do drag in my videos, and I'm here to teach 11 more."

Outside of all the boasting, the trailer also previews the lineup of guest judges. Pulling out at the top of our list are Michelle Visage and Deborah Cox. They join the squad alongside BIDDELL, Amanda Brugel, Elisha Cuthbert, Tom Green, Jade Hassoune, Traci Melchor, Mary Walsh, and Allie X. The judging panel is anchored by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, and Stacey McKenzie.

We get a peek at the expectedly sexy Canadia Pit Crew — are they going to have a name like the Brit Crew — and even a cameo from RuPaul's Drag Race U.K's Crystal, who is actually Canadian. Canada's Drag Race will debut on Crave in Canada as well as on Wow Presents Plus in the US and select territories on July 2. The show will air on BBC Three in the UK beginning July 3.

RELATED | 'Drag Race's Season 2 Winner Wants You to Forget Them

If you thought the first season was wild, you might want to buckle up before viewing season two.

Netflix just released the trailer for season two of Ryan Murphy's The Politician and it promises new episodes will be just as offbeat and loveable as before.

The Netflix original series follows Payton Hobart (played by Ben Platt,) the adopted rich kid in snooty Santa Barbara, as he runs for a series of elected offices en route to his quest to become President of the United States. In season one, he’s helped (and hindered) in his campaign to become president of his high school by friends, advisors, and even opponents. While Hobart eventually wins the election, he’s later forced to resign in disgrace.

Season twoo picks up where the first season ended, three years after high school where Hobart is still feeling the impact of his resignation. In that season's finale, his friends return and convince to run for the New York State Senate against incumbent Dede Standish (played by Judith Light) and her scheming campaign manager Hadassah Gold (Bette Midler). Gold is always up for some good “countermeasures” so expect plenty of dirty tricks (and, yes, throuples) in the upcoming season.

Returning are popular characters Alice Charles (Julia Schlaepfer), Infinity Jackson (Zoey Deutch), James Sullivan (Theo Germaine), McAfee Westbrook (Laura Dreyfuss), Ricardo (Benjamin Barrett), and Skye Leighton (Rahne Jones). David Corenswet, fresh off his performance as hunky Jack Costello in the Netflix original series Hollywood, returns as River Barkley.

You can watch the trailer for season 2 of Netflix’s original series The Politician below.

RELATED | Netflix's 'Hollywood' Scrapped a Few 'Raunchy' Scenes

While the former America’s Best Dance Crew performers didn’t invent the genre, the style most of the world is familiar with today traces back to them.

Leiomy Maldonado is known as the "Wonder Woman of Vogue" for a reason. A title bestowed upon her by Icon Gorgeous Jack Gucci, one of ballroom's most influential figures and a bit of a name maker, it refers to her innovation on the floor — most notably, her 360-degree, gravity defying spin into the air before landing on her back with a leg extended, or in a "dip." But this summer, with her competition days largely behind her, Maldonado, along with fellow icon and "King of Vogue" Dashaun Wesley has been helping to usher in some of the scene's newest talents via the debut season of HBO Max's Legendary.

The new show, which premiered on the streaming service in May, features eight houses competing head-to-head in a smattering of categories where the winner will be given a historic $100,000 prize. Contestants are required to show face, to pump down the runway, and turn out more than a few awe-inspiring looks. And they are expected to vogue, many of them borrowing from the vogue fem dramatics, sometimes “wild child” style, that both Maldonado and Wesley have helped to popularize over the last decade as two of ballroom's biggest performers who made their names being unapologetically themselves.

“I always tell people that I am a part of the Unapologetic Era; we were unapologetic about the things we did,” Wesley says. “The Golden Era came before us and they created it and showed how everything should have been done. Then we came along and we were unapologetic about the things that we did. They would try to tell us how to do it and we were like, ‘No, this is me.’”

Maldonado’s introduction to voguing and ballroom’s community of mostly Black and brown queer and trans folks came by chance. While attending the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, she saw one of the women who worked in the kitchen dancing. When the worker, who later became Maldonado’s mentor, noticed that the teen was interested, she came back a few days later with a surprise: a VHS tape. The cartridge was a “mixtape” featuring footage of different vogue performances at balls.

“That specific tape, that’s when I fell in love with my two inspirations: Alloura and Yolanda,” Maldonado says referring to two icons of vogue fem performance. “At the time I didn’t know who they were but seeing them both, even though it was a compilation of a bunch of different trans women, they stood out for different reasons. Alloura was more dramatic, it was exciting, hands-on, and very strong. Yolanda was more playful, still powerful but she would do things with her hair or her body, or do these little antics or detailed things that stood out. That’s how Leiomy was born.”

Though she came to it in 2003, vogue performance is a more than 40-year-old art form with multiple styles. It began with the styles known as Old Way and Pop, Dip, Spin. According to different tellings, those styles originated either with Paris DuPree at a club or within the prisons of Riker’s Island in the late 1970s. It prized highly stylized poses where dancers would pop into position, sometimes incorporating spins from breakdancers — this is seen most prominently inParis Is Burning, Madonna’s Blonde Ambition era, and Pose. Over time, tastes began to shift to New Way, incorporating hyper flexibility, a style performed most famously by Willi Ninja. But in the early 1990s, trans women, known within the community as fem queens, began to innovate a different style of performance.

Names like Latisha Revlon, Sandy Ninja, Alyssa LaPerla, and Kristina Richards were some of the first trans women who mastered Old Way and began injecting femininity into their performance. As they experimented their style began to crystalize, incorporating five elements: catwalk, duck walk, hand performance, floor performance, and spins and dips. This new version began to popularize with even gay men — known in the community as butch queens — imitating it in a category known as "butch queen voguing like a fem queen." Over some time this was shortened to vogue fem, splitting into two bloodlines: “slow and sexy” like Sinia Alaia (ex Ebony) or “daring and dramatic” like Ashley Icon (ex St. Clair), as a category at a 1997 House of Mizrahi ball described it. A generation of women followed, including Yolanda and Alloura, all shaping a dance style that would eventually go global, in part through Maldonado.

“I wasn’t taught by the scene how to vogue,” the performer says. “I saw it and I emulated it based on my feelings and how I felt it was. When I came into the scene, they thought I was way too dramatic and too athletic to be a girl and I wasn’t doing classic voguing. They would call me the wild child and would say crazy things about me.” That was in 2003 when Maldonado made her major ball debut at the Legends’ Ball. She got chopped — as did Wesley who also walked. But when she came back a year later for the same event, she took home her first trophy.

2006 was a pivotal year for Maldonado. In a now-iconic clip from that year’s Collections Ball, she is one of four members from the House of Mizrahi channeling the great performers that have come before them. Maldonado’s imitation of Alloura (at minute 3:45 in the above clip titled "Mizrahi Production") brought the whole ball to its feet. Three months later at the People of Color in Crisis Ball, she battled Meeka Prodigy in her first face-off against a Legend. She beat Prodigy but, more importantly, the battle was the first time she ever executed her now-popular 360-degree dip. Though she had done iterations of it before, spinning into the dip, this was the first time she lifted herself from the ground, spun, and landed with her leg extended. But the praise wasn’t immediate or consistent; other performers in the scene would continue to critique the dancer’s style and body. 

“Honestly, within my transition and becoming the comfortable woman that I am, it bothered me a lot,” Maldonado says of those remarks. “Especially because I felt like this would be the community where they would be more supportive. To them, it seemed like a woman being athletic was masculine and I didn’t like that.” While she was criticized, Maldonado watched other performers imitate her moves and be praised for them. This happened not only within ballroom but in the mainstream as well. On the second episode of 2008’s America’s Best Dance Crew, the all-girl group Fysh N’ Chicks performed to a remix of Beyoncé’s “Freakum Dress.” At the performance’s dance break, the track changes.

“Clap if you pumped, clap, clap if you pumped,” a voice said. “Leiomy on the girls, Leiomy on the girls,” it continues. The dancers swung their hair in a move that had come to be known as the Leiomy Lolly, originated by Maldonado. 

“We saw that and we were like, ‘Wait a minute,’” Wesley says. That “we” came to be Vogue Evolution, the five-member dance crew of voguers that would go on to compete in the fourth season of ABDC. Among the team members was Wesley, who was similarly pushing up against the trendier, softer style of voguing that was popular in the early 200s.

Wesley had discovered ballroom at the age of 14 on the Christopher Street Piers in the West Village. From there, he would practice his craft at the Hetrick Martin Institute’s after-school program — which is also where he met Maldonado for the first time. He walked his first ball in 1999, also learning from the VHS tapes featuring Alloura, Meeka, and Sinia. But he knew there was something different about his performance. 

“I knew I was a dramatic person but it wasn’t big in numbers back then like it is today. There wasn’t a large number of people doing it,” Wesley, who is now the International and Los Angeles father of the House of Lanvin, says. “I just knew that something inside me was dramatic and I would find my place within it.” And find that place he did, falling within a lineage of butch queen vogue fem dramatic performers that started with Mystery Dior and included Pony Jourdan-Zion — both of whom Wesley cites as inspirations. 

Criticisms of his performance were similar to Maldonado’s, but so was the infatuation. Around the same time as the Fysh N' Chicks incident, a clip of Wesley voguing went viral. People took the dip he was doing and dubbed it a “5,000.” It was similar to a move popularized by  Lil Mama and Chris Brown dancing to DJ Webstar’s “5,000.”

Alongside Pony, Prince Miyake-Mugler, and Melechi Mizrahi, Maldonado and Wesley helped to stamp vogue as a form of dance, just as valid as any other on ABDC. They incorporated the style into the weekly challenges, mixing it with other choreography, and after the show, took it around the world in a series of classes and competitions. What was mocked and referred to as the dance for “people that want to look cool but ain’t really got no rhythm,” in the debut season of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, was now worthy of applause, awe, and adulation at the influential World of Dance.

Since then, the pair has go on to do other great things with Wesley dancing with Rihanna and in NBC’s The Wiz Live while Maldonado performed for Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” and signed an ongoing, multi-year partnership with Nike. Within ballroom, she started her own house with the House of Amazon back in 2015.

But within performance specifically, Maldonado and Wesley helped cement dramatic performance as the style of the day with the generation after them pushing things further: Omari O’Ricci, Divo Ebony, Baby Hurricane West, and the late Kassandra Ebony among them. This summer, they will shine a light on the next wave.

With Wesley as MC, and Maldonado as judge alongside actress Jameela Jamil, rapper Megan Thee Stallion, and image architect Law Roach, HBO Max’s Legendary will be television’s first competition show based on ballroom. Viewers will be introduced to eight modern-day houses via the show’s teams, and will get to learn their stories and see their talents. And they will also see how voguing has evolved in the decade since ABDC.

“Right now we’re in an acrobatics moment where people have to do the most just to get seen,” Wesley says. “They have to do a 1080 spin in the air, or five backflips back-to-back.” And he is not wrong: over the past few years videos go viral — depicting members of the ballroom community putting their talents on display — typically have featured performers like Makayla Lanvin, Honey Balenciaga (ex Labeija,) and Destiny West flipping or spinning into oblivion, generally while wearing heels. In one Makayla, who is in Wesley's ballroom house, slides down a few feet of a basketball court headfirst.

“On the show, I’m really so adamant about them being clean” Maldonado says. “They don’t connect the passion with the artistry; it’s all stunts.” And her children are also prone to over the top dramatics as well; at a 2018 ball in Toronto, Canada, Amazon Brian made his entrance on an over six-foot speaker, dropping off of it and landing into a dip in the crowd. 

“You know, I always say everything has its era,” Wesley adds. “I feel like there’s going to be another shift where soft and cunt is going to have a moment. What it’s going to shift is getting back to the excitement of what the real beauty of vogue is: the lines, what can you say with your expression.”

But until then, it looks like we have a new set of unapologetic, wild children on the block.

To read more, grab your own copy of Out's Pride issue featuring Atlanta-based musician Damez as the cover on Kindle, Nook, Apple News+ and Zinio today, and on newsstands June 30. Preview more of the issue here. Get a year's subscription here. The issue was guest edited by photographer Alex D. Rogers.

Legendary's Leiomy and Dashaun Are Blueprints for Voguing Today

Want to learn the culture? Here are six places to get started.

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Learn It: 6 Movies and TV Shows About Ballroom and Voguing

Want to learn the culture? Here are six places to get started.

I guess that would make them our ... kings in the north?

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I guess that would make them our ... kings in the north?

Wow, what a moment.

15 years after it began its history-making and yet-to-be matched run on scripted television, Noah's Arc is getting the gang back together. Announced today, the characters from Patrik-Ian Polk's groundbreaking series are teaming up for an hour-long special and virtual reunion.

Originally airing on Logo, Noah's Arc made history as the first scripted series to center a group of Black gay men — it actually still stands alone in this aspect. The characters Noah, Alex, Ricky, and Chance, gave an alternate version of Sex and the City, depicting a myriad of narratives and perspectives. Through its work, the show looked into conversations about relationships, intimacy, STIs, and more. It was complex, funny, and just downright good television.

The special episode comes 12 years after the show ended (and the release of the affiliated film Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom) and is titled Noah's Arc: The Rona Chronicles. It will air on July 5 at 8 p.m. EST and be followed by a live Q&A moderated by Queer Eye's Karamo Brown. Cast members Darryl Stephens, Jensen Atwood, Rodney Chester, Doug Spearmen, Christian Vincent, and Gregory Kieth, will all be a part of that Q&A.

Gilead is a title sponsor of the episode's premiere and it will stream on Patrick-Ian Polk Entertainment's YouTube and Facebook pages. The event will also support charity.

Polk has built for himself a full collection of work that was formative for a generation of Black gay men. In addition to Noah's Arc, he was the brains behind The Skinny and Punks. Through these works, as well as the work he still does, he allowed Black gay men to not only see versions of themselves but also provided them digestible venues for the pragmatic sex education that few others would provide. Since, he's gone on to be the co-executive producer of Being Mary Jane and the upcoming P-Valley.

For those who haven't seen Noah's Arc, all nine episodes are currently available online. The feature filmJumping the Broom is available to stream as well.

RELATED | ‘Noah’s Arc’s’ Patrik-Ian Polk Is Still Telling Black, Queer Stories

It's not just you.

There is a hell of a lot of talent on Legendary. Truly! If you saw the final battle of the latest episode alone that was clear — more on that at a later date. And while we are not trying to brush any of that very real talent, and these, the reality is that so many of these contestants — ahem Jazzul Escada, Jamari Balmain, and Carlos Exclusive Lanvin are all my personal taste — are just like undeniably hot. The most undeniable of them all? Father Gorgeous Jarrel Gucci.

Again, we will say here that Jarrell is extremely talented. He is one of the overall fathers of the Gorgeous House of Gucci, which is an international house meaning that he has kids all over the world. Over his ballroom career he has seen some major success in a variety of categories including realness, realness with a twist, and even sex siren. And on Legendary, he's definitely taking home grand prize for the latter.

The House of Gucci has been sort of going through it on the show, notably having one member actually leave. There's been some interpersonal issues (some of which led to the afforementioned departure) but there's been one constant for the house: Jarrell's face and body!!

On the latest episode of the show, even the judges couldn't keep themselves for thirsting over Jarrell.

"Is that Jarrell?" Meg Thee Stallion asked as the House of Gucci made its entrance for the competition this week. "Oh, he got a beard bitch! Whew!"

"We love hair!" Leiomy Maldonado added. Jarrell was wearing a fake beard for his costume — and Maldonado was right, we do love hair! She went further later.

"Jarrell, you look like a snack-ington with that beard," she said. And well ... tea.

As the episode just came out we don't want to spoil what happens, but as we all know it pays to look good in ballroom! To bide our time until we can talk more about the episode, here's a couple of posts from his Instagram to pore over.

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Now THIS is a performer.

There was a lot of drama and a lot going on in this episode so let's get into it.

The Challenge

This week queens were matched up into teams for their Shantay, Enjoy Your Stay challenge. For the competition, each group had to come up with resort ideas, design and execute them, and then sell them to the judges in  a TV spot. So in essence it is an interior design challenge, as well as a bit of a comedy challenge. 

This might be a controversial take but I honestly didn't feel genuinely wowed by any performance. I'm not sorry! That isn't to say that they were all bad but personally, they weren't very exciting. Jujubee was funny, and Alexis Mateo had her moments, but on the whole, it was slightly underwhelming. That said, the judges chose Blair St. Clair and Mayhem Miller as the best suite with their 24 Karat Gold Experience — which arguably was the strongest. Jujubee rightfully was called out as the top All Star of the week.

The Runway

While the maxi-challenge didn't do it for me, the runway did — sorta! Queens had to do three-in-one looks. The results were varied but mostly solid. Of the highlights were Alexis Matteo — though as Ross Matthews pointed out, one of her looks didn't go with the other two although it did look great, — India Ferrah, Miz Cracker, and Jujubee. Oh and Shea Coulee.

Yes, the judges said that Shea's look was "crafty," but the judges were absolutely wrong. Absolutely. Wrong. Period. And that's that on that.

The Lip Sync Assassin

When all was said and done, our dear queen Shea Coulee was put in the bottom alongside Mariah Paris Balenciaga and India Ferrah. The queens deliberating discussed the extremely valid idea of knocking Coulee out as she's clearly a top competitor. But after deliberations and votes, the lip sync assassin was revealed: the one and only reigning All Stars winner herself, Monet X Change. 

We all know Monet to be a powerhouse performer with a hell of a lot of onstage charisma, true dance skills, and expertise in perfectly timed stunts and gags. She bottles all that up with her trademark comedy and it makes her a tough competitor to face off against. It is worth it to note though that Jujubee is also a really strong performer. It's actually because of this that we are led to believe she threw the battle, flubbing multiple words and getting herself out of the hot seat.

The Verdict

In the end, after Monet's win, it was the whole cast's decision on who had to go home. The lipstick that she revealed: Mariah Paris Balenciaga, who was in the bottom for the second time. 

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The season five competitor also discusses activism and her heritage.

The girls are going home on RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars season five. Just two episodes in and Drag Race season one runner up Ongina was sent home. The writing was a bit on the wall as the Filipino queen threw herself into the proverbial fire for elimination. She had come into the Werk Room on a high, in a traditional costume, and saldy it was a bit downhill from there.

Here we talk to Ongina about nerves, representing her Filipino heritage, and why she should have stayed one more week. 

What was it like coming?

It was truly really incredible to walk on the All Stars stage and be back finally years later, but it was also very nerve racking and scary at the same time. So imagine all of those feelings and multiply it by 5000.

Do you think that ended up being sort of what we saw on the show?

Absolutely. I think that I had so much pressure that I put on myself. I was thinking about me and performing for myself and doing well for myself but also for my fans, and that pressure really got to me and it really like messed with my head. Ultimately my fire was a little bit put out — actually it went out all the way. But I'm happy that I found that confidence back on the very last episode, and I think you can really tell that I was having a good time. During the girl group challenge performance, even though I was sick and I was feeling a little bit down on myself.

Before All Stars you already had a pretty big legacy on the show having performed really well in your season and also revealed your HIV status. What's that been like over the past decade?

Yeah. So I was saying you know like mentally I really did prepare and I was very confident with the overall package that I prepared for all stars, and I was like, 'oh, I've seen every episode of every Drag Race season, I'm going to be fine.' But honestly, you don't know what and how you're going to feel until literally the very first moment you are picked up by the van, in your 25 pound entrance outfit, going to set. You don't know until you start sweating bullets, like of nervousness and getting on set. So going into it, I did, I had the confidence, I had the package, I had, you know, I had every emotional intent to do well. But unfortunately the performance was less than what I wanted, but overall, like I was happy to be able to show people who Ongina is how Ongina has evolved and really genuinely Ryan, as a person.

One of the things I felt watching you on the show was a more visible side of your heritage and I wanted to know if that was purposeful or if I just didn't see it before?

Yeah! Well starting with the last runway, being loving the skin you're in which was like a perfect runway to exit out of the competition, I got to showcase how proud I am of being a Filipino American immigrant, which I did not in my season. I hadn't been home to the Philippines since 2005 and went home two years ago, and I just fell in love with who I am, again. I think along the way, I may have forgotten or not been as vocal and showcased more of who I am. But now in reconnecting with my family and my culture I promised myself 'If ever I get back on All Stars I want to showcase that. I want them to know where I come from, why I am the way that I am.' It's because of me being Filipino. 

That runway actually fell on Philippine independence day, which is like incredible was there challenge that you were really excited or looking forward to. 

Was there a challenge you're really excited for?

I come from visual design and interior design and visual merchandising and the hotel suite design challenge and bitch ... let me tell you something. I am so mad.

You've been an activist and advocate around a few things from HIV/AIDS to being API and queer. In this moment when there's so many protests and so much activism going on, what is it like for you?

Everything is going fine. Mentally I am good, and I always said that I want to use my platform for good and. and I want to be able to use that for every everything that needs a voice. I have this platform in pop culture where I can really voice out what I believe in to really promote inclusivity so that's what I'm doing, and I have not been doing not incredibly consistently. So I was reminded that now more than ever I need to speak up for our Black brothers, brothers and sisters — LGBTQ+ and beyond. I think the injustices are so incredibly unfortunate so I want to be able to be a voice for those that don't have one in the same way that I have a voice for HIV and AIDS, and the same way I have a voice for our my API community and my Filipino community. That's what I promise to do and will continue to do because people are watching. The younger generation is listening so I hope that it reaches them. And I hope that change, and justice will come sooner than later because it's needed.

The Legendary judge also spoke out on whether she would work on RuPaul's Drag Race if offered.

The ballroom community is in an unprecedented time right now: with HBO Max's Legendary, the community has its first televised competition show. Many have connected it to Pose, the Ryan Murphy drama that airs on FX. But Pose actress and choreographer Leiomy Maldonado said in a recent interview that the series isn't actually a ballroom show.

“Being a part of Pose for me was so surreal," Maldonado told Queer Review. After making history as the first trans woman to appear on America's Best Dance Crew in 2008, the star has gone on to become one of the most visible vogue performers globally. "When I first got the call about being the choreographer I was like ‘wow, this is such an amazing experience’. I had to do some research myself because I wasn’t out in the 80s and early 90s and I had to research what I was going to bring, and what they wanted to see." Between the start of Pose and the end of her season of ABDC, Maldonado had also notably appeared in projects like Willow Smith's "Whip Your Hair" video and fronted a Nike campaign.

"I felt like it was so important to see my sisters out there sharing the stories we went through, our own people sharing the stories that we went through ourselves, and how educational the show has become for so many people," she said of the FX series. Although Pose is not a ballroom show, it’s a show about the LGBTQ community which happens to play around the time where ballroom was a highlight."

And it's true, Pose is not a ballroom show. While the Steven Canals-created series certainly uses the house-led ballroom scene as a backdrop, and sometimes an inspiration point, it is not really a ballroom show. It moreso uses the community as a setting through which to tell the stories of Black trans women. This is a nuanced distinction, likely due to the fact that as of season two, Pose had no one from the ballroom community in the writer's room — they were only commissioned as consultants after scripts were written. Still, the show is no doubt a celebration of the community. 

But what about that other show that people always talk about when it comes to the ballroom scene and voguing? What about RuPaul's Drag Race.

"I feel like a lot of times people think because you’re part of the LGBTQ community that anything LGBTQ is the same or it relates, but it’s not," Maldonado, who is an icon in the ballroom community, said. "Yes, the ballroom scene started with drag, that’s where it initially started, but when it comes to ballroom that’s not the main thing. The drag world, that’s a whole different type of world."

And it's true. As the story goes, the house-led ballroom community broke off from the drag scene in the early 1970s as a result of ongoing racism in the scene. There was the hope of creating a new space where Black and brown queens — many of whom we now know to be women of trans experience — could be rightfully recognized. Over time things shifted and there was an influx of butch queens (gay men), and many of the drag queens began to identify as femme queens (trans women). Drag queens have continued to exist within the community, but are in the vast minority.

The two certainly have lingering influences on one another and reference each other, but they are not the same as some people believe. Yes, Drag Race has a "ball challenge" referencing the ballroom scene but it doesn't actually look like the ballroom scene — and on top of that, the show has routinely used the incorrect nomenclature for various moves in what Maldonado calls cultural appropriation. But would she, if given the chance, go on the show to give expert guidance from ballroom if Ru hoped to do things authentically?

“I decline," she said. "I wouldn’t. My brand is to only be a part of things that celebrate trans women and the people of our community in a genuine way and that’s not a platform that I would be a part of.”

Well, that's that on that!

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In a recent interview, the cast revealed that it was an emotional day.

Pose gives us a lot, and its because the actors put so much into it. We are treated to exhilarating highs, often with the ballroom scenes — or one of Elektra Wintour's thrilling reads — and then faced with sobering lows. The duality is one of typical life, but certainly within the Black queer and trans communities in the 80s and 90s. But in season two of the FX show which is currently streaming on Netflix, one of those lows came with the death of Candy Ferocity, played by Angelica Ross.

On the series, Ferocity was killed by a client in a story similar not only to that of Paris Is Burning's Venus Xtravaganza but countless unnamed trans women. But in a new virtual roundtable, the cast who played a part int he episode revealed that the tears we saw on screen weren't all acting.

“Before we started filming, I brought into the room with me — into the funeral scene — a list of names," Ross said during Variety’s Virtual TV Fest’s Pose panel."Before we started filming, I read all of the names of the trans women who had died that year. I brought their names into the space and I encouraged everyone to just use this moment to be cathartic.” The cast was informed of the death of Muhlaysia Booker, who was shot and killed in Dallas, that day.

It made filming emotional according to Mj Rodriguez.

"There were times even outside of the scene where there was setup, I would watch and look at the casket and cry," she said. "It just triggered a lot of things that happened to a lot of women like us. It was a hard scene for me just delivering it, let alone seeing it.”

For Janet Mock, who co-wrote the episode, a part of the point of the episode was showing the ongoing epidemic of violence against trans women of color. That said, it was also important to celebrate Candy. And though at the beginning of the episode she tries (unsuccessfully) to vogue in a Madonna inspired look — which was amazing we would like to point out — by the episode's end she has a true moment to shine in a lip sync to "Never Knew Love Like This Before."

“The one thing about that episode and the way that Candy’s sendoff spoke volumes is the fact that our community usually comes together at drag bars and stuff like that for church,” Dominique Jackson said. “In this kind of manner, we actually tapped into the survival of a lot of trans women, which is having to do performance shows whatever stage you’re at.”

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The All Stars season 5 contestants weren't expecting this.

Last week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars was a wild one — truly. It started by way of drama between Alexis Mateo and Miz Cracker with Mateo calling out Cracker for what she had said to Ongina, and then ended with a set of bottom queens that we can't say anyone saw coming. Shea Couleé, who had previously been flying high and who had just bagged a whopping $20,000, was now in the bottom three queens. Truly wild. But it presented the competitors with a unique opportunity: do you take the chance presented before you to get rid of a star performer who is favored to win, or do you kick off the weakest link?

This is the game ladies.

At the episode's end, it was Mariah Paris Balenciaga who was sent packing. Whether she truly was the weakest link of the existing cast — or of the bottom three — is highly debatable, but this is where we are.  She is ultimately sent home by a cast vote but in the preview for tonight's episode, when the full results of that vote are revealed, the girls are a bit gagged.

"Thank y'all for keeping us," Couleé says at the top of the new clip. 

"Well, we don't fully know that," Jujubee says. Here comes the count.

At the end of the counting, Mariah ends up with four votes to Couleé's two and India Ferrah's one.

"Who's that?" Blair St. Clair asks when the first Shea lipstick emerges. Who indeed! A few who voted for Mariah pretty quickly admit their votes: Ferrah, Clair, and Jujubee all fess up. And while the clip cuts before the rest of the cast says who they voted for, in a confessional Mayhem Miller explains her process.

"We all know Shea's a powerhouse," she says. "I thought the group was going to be like, shea's in the bottom? Let's get her out. 

This backfired on my ass."

Whew, fate saved us from another Manilla Luzon situation.

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