Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment. Under the deal announced Friday, the insurer will make coverage of artificial insemination standard for all customers nationally and work to ensure that patients have equal access to more expensive in-vitro fertilization procedures, according to the National Women’s Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in the case. Aetna, the health insurance arm of CVS Health Corp., covers nearly 19 million people with commercial coverage, including empl ..read more

It’s a story of success that also acknowledges how important LGBTQ books are to New York, and how important New York is to those books. “People come in from all over for this event — from the West Coast, the Midwest, Canada, and the Deep South,” said Perry Brass, one of the four main coordinators for the Rainbow Book Fair. “It is now the biggest LGBTQ book event in the world. I kind of wish it weren’t, that someone else was doing something bigger. But it’s New York’s good fortune, and a huge amount of work in the part of the four coordinators.” The three other coordinators are Sarah Chinn, Dar ..read more

The spellbinding, brilliant, and, to quote the song from the show, “perfectly marvelous” revival of “Cabaret” on Broadway is nothing short of genius. Director Rebecca Frecknall has blown the dust off the often-revived 1966 musical with the force of a hurricane. Like Daniel Fish’s bold reimagining of “Oklahoma” in 2019, Frecknall has fearlessly looked into the darkest reaches of the material and come up with cultural context, vision, and theatricality that is profound — and wildly entertaining. It’s no easy task. “Cabaret” is, to many, forever identified with Liza Minelli’s Oscar-winning perfor ..read more

Every year when Mother’s Day approaches I think of my friend who work sin real estate, who once told me that she repeats this mantra to her clients: A home is the most important buying decision you’ll ever make in your life. I suppose that’s true, but I have another friend who says she feels the same way about buying a gift for her mom on Mother’s Day. The Mother’s Day gift-buying calculus is different for everybody: Too cheap. Too expensive. Too cookie-cutter. Too sentimental. Not sentimental enough. Too disposable. Maybe flowers? But flowers die. How about a plant? Photo book with the grandk ..read more

The non-profit New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), which has supported LGBTQ and HIV-affected survivors of violence since 1980, fired its executive director last month in a move that sparked a public back-and-forth between the ousted leader and AVP’s board over fundraising, board changes, and other issues. Beverly Tillery, who led AVP for more than eight years, was already planning her departure from the organization after she announced in February that she would be leaving at the end of July. But she was fired on April 25 amid allegations by the board that the organization is in financ ..read more

Seven grand marshals will stand in the spotlight on Pride Sunday in New York City this year. The grand marshals slated to lead NYC Pride’s June 30 march include Miss Major, a trans activist who participated in the Stonewall Uprising; Raquel Willis, a trans activist and author who released a book last year called “The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation”; and DaShawn Usher, a Bronx native who serves as senior director of communities of color and media at GLAAD. There are also three grand marshals in the Youth Activist category: Baddie Brooks, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and song ..read more

Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out our roundup of events below: Poets of the Archipelago Thursday, May 2, 7 p.m. Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, #210, New York, NY Join poet Bruce E. Whitacre in celebrating the launch of his new poetry collection, “Good Housekeeping.” Witacre will be joined by Kelsea Valentine, gigi, and more. Copies of the collection will be available for purchase; the event will also be live-streamed on the Bureau’s YouTube channel. Pop Quiz Trivia Thursday, May 2, 7 p.m. Club Cumming, 505 East 6th Street, New York, NY Drag k ..read more

With only three films, Jane Schoenbrun has proven themselves a great poet of technological loneliness. Their budget rose drastically with their second feature, “I Saw the TV Glow,” which is distributed by A24, the current master of selling independent film to a wide audience. But their vision remains the same. The extreme alienation of their characters in “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” created by a dependence on screens and geographical isolation, persists in “I Saw the TV Glow.” At the time they wrote that film, they were still figuring out their own gender identity. Introducing “I Sa ..read more

The writing is on the wall at NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò until May 31. It is a groundbreaking exhibition revisiting 20 years of Italian LGBTQ+ activism and organizing, “1982-2002: A Chronology for Italian Queer Movements.” Porpora Marcasciano with Sylvia Rivera in 2000.Nicholas Boston The show is presented as “an open archive,” according to co-curators Michele Bertolino and Giulia Sbaffi, displaying hundreds of reproductions of photographs, documents and memorabilia appended to the walls of the Casa’s first floor in a continuous loop. Since the loop rings the entire circumference of th ..read more

IN REAL TIME: Attendees at Sip N Twirl watching a live broadcast of the Kentucky Derby on the nightclub’s center screen.Photo by Mike Borowski Spring is in the air and so is the Kentucky Derby this weekend! Businesses are reopening, the Harbor’s cherry trees are flowering and the ferry schedule keeps expanding. Another major sign of the new season is its first big-themed event: the annual Derby Party, which is being held on Saturday afternoon, May 4 at Sip N Twirl.  Featuring a live, nail-biting telecast of the Kentucky Derby (“The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports”), the celebration wi ..read more