LGBT

Transgender NCAA swimming champion Lia Thomas is firing back at those claiming her dominance is unfair to biological women ... saying trans athletes will not destroy women's sports.

The University of Penn athlete broke her silence on "Good Morning America" on Tuesday ... saying she knew she'd face backlash once she started competing against women, but no amount of scrutiny would stop her.

"I was prepared for that, but I don't need anyone's permission to be myself and do the sport that I love," she said.

Many have denounced Thomas' participation in women's sports after she finished first in the women's 500-yard freestyle back in March ... with everyone from Caitlyn Jenner to Florida governor Ron DeSantis to Joe Rogan, who called it "an assault on women's sports."

But, Thomas argues that shouldn't be the case ... saying, "Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions."

"Trans women are not a threat to women's sport."

Thomas added, "Trans people don't transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves."

Despite the outrage, Thomas -- who started hormone therapy in 2019 -- still plans to compete in the Olympics in the future.

Dave Chappelle and others -- like Ricky Gervais -- are free to make all the jokes they want on Netflix, including ones about transgender people ... again reaffirmed by its top dog.

The streamer's CEO, Ted Sarandos, tripled down in his defense with the NYT, saying that he views the airing of such specials -- such as DC's 'The Closer' or Gervais' new "SuperNature" -- as freedom of expression ... a value he thinks is lost in American society.

He says, "I think it’s very important to the American culture generally to have free expression," going on to add -- "We’re programming for a lot of diverse people who have different opinions and different tastes and different styles ... We want something for everybody but everything’s not going to be for everybody."

Sarandos went on to say the decision to back Dave actually wasn't difficult -- seeing how he's the comedian of our generation, and that he discusses the issue in a nuanced and thoughtful way. Of course, that's up for debate ... those offended might argue otherwise.

In the wake of Chappelle getting tackled at the Hollywood Bowl, Netflix sent a memo to their staff -- basically saying, if you find some of our content so offensive, beat it.

You can tell Netflix is sticking to their guns on this issue -- not only have they allowed 'The Closer' to stay on their platform, but they've inked even more deals with Dave. And Sarandos even said the backlash over not censoring DC is oddly different than it once was.

He says, "It used to be a very liberal issue, so it’s an interesting time that we live in ... I always said if we censor in the U.S., how are we going to defend our content in the Middle East?" BTW, these comments also apply to Gervais who caught flak for his own trans jokes.

Caitlyn Jenner didn't intentionally skip out on Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's wedding, fact is, she just wasn't on the guestlist ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to the couple tell us Caitlyn never got an invitation for the weekend affair in Portofino, but the couple has no hard feelings toward her. We're told Kourtney and Travis wanted a very small and intimate ceremony, and Caitlyn simply didn't make the cut.

Our sources say it's not that Kourtney and Caitlyn don't have a relationship -- they do, but don't see or speak to each other all that much, so Kourtney didn't feel the need to invite her.

As for what Caitlyn did over the weekend while the rest of the fam was celebrating the newlyweds? She was busy cheering on her newest passion, Jenner Racing. Driver Jamie Chadwick won her 5th W Series race in a row, taking the prize in Barcelona.

Shortly after Chapman's victory, Caitlyn tweeted a photo of the driver with the caption, "Win! Win! Win! No matter what!" So, she still found plenty of joy, just not wedding-related.

It's worth noting, Caitlyn did attend Kim and Kanye's wedding in Italy back in May of 2014 -- the year after splitting from Kris Jenner, and the year before announcing her transition.

Caitlyn Jenner says Kim Kardashian didn't have it easy being married to Kanye West ... and dating Pete Davidson's been a completely different experience for her.

Caitlyn says she was blown away when Kim recently brought Pete by the house ... remarking on how well the 'SNL' star treated her famous stepdaughter.

While Caitlyn told Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark and Fred Taylor on "The Pivot" podcast she got along great with Kanye, praising him for being supportive of her transition, she says Ye was a complicated guy who was difficult for Kim to live with.

Caitlyn says Pete is a 180-degree turn for Kim's love life ... and Pete's good for Kim because she's had a lot of tough times in all of those previous relationships, not just her marriage to Kanye.

The man accused of tackling Dave Chappelle -- and who seems to be copping to it -- says he did what he did because he was "triggered" by DC's LGBT jokes ... which is an apparent change of tune.

23-year-old Isaiah Lee did an interview with the New York Post, and explained his reasoning for hopping up on the stage and attacking the comedian -- and wouldn't you know it ... he says he was, in fact, offended by Dave's material, and wanted him to know about it.

Lee is quoted as saying, "I identify as bisexual … and I wanted him to know what he said was triggering." He adds, "I wanted him to know that next time, he should consider first running his material by people it could affect."

Dave is reported to have addressed his transgender controversy that night before Lee allegedly rushed the stage -- talking about how he didn't have a problem with trans people, until now ... when he says they took his 'Closer' content out of context and warped it.

Here's another element that apparently sent Lee over the edge ... jokes that Dave apparently made about homelessness, which Lee says personally hurt him -- as he himself had experienced it at a young age.

Lee says, "I’m also a single dad and my son is five. It’s a struggle and I wanted Dave Chappelle to know it’s not a joke." Plus, jokes earlier in the night (made by an opener, it seems) talking pedophilia rocked Lee as well. He says he was sexually abused as a minor.

On his gruesome injuries, Lee said ... "They spat on me and twisted me as if on purpose." He also acknowledged having the fake-gun-turned knife on him that night, adding Chappelle asked why he did it. Lee says ... "I told him my mother and grandmother, who fought for his civil rights to be able to speak, would be upset at the things he said."

All of this is a new and different twist on Lee's motives. As we reported, Chappelle has said Lee told him backstage -- before he was arrested -- that he'd rushed onstage to draw attention to his grandmother's plight in a gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn.

John Mulaney is usually beloved by all, but right now -- he's getting slammed big time ... all because he let Dave Chappelle open for him, and the guy told "anti-trans" jokes.

Here's the deal ... John had a comedy show Friday night in Columbus, OH -- where phones were locked up in a pouch so no one could record -- and according to folks who flocked to social media afterward, DC was a surprise guest who did a set before John came out.

A lot of these people say they felt ambushed by Dave's presence, especially since he allegedly went on to tell what they characterize as transphobic/homophobic jokes.

The argument is that these paying customers came out to see JM -- not Dave -- and many of them are either part of the LGBT crowd, or consider themselves allies ... going on to say they never would've purchased tickets if they'd known Chappelle was going to show up.

Of course, this all dates back to the controversy over his Netflix special, "The Closer," which some have said is transphobic -- despite DC denying that, and the streamer sticking by him.

As for what exactly was said that's transphobic (in these users' minds) ... you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually detailed the crack(s), but someone finally did. The supposedly harmful joke was about the stage crasher and the gun/knife he had on him.

Dave apparently said something to the effect of ... it was a knife that identified as a gun, which some took as an allusion to gender fluidity -- and sure, that's a fair assessment.

He moved on from that -- this after getting laughs, it seems -- and then made a joke about a couple of audience members he speculated might be gay ... adding, not that there's anything wrong with that. Apparently, that's about all that was said ... but it's got people up in arms.

We'll say this ... Dave does seem to be obsessed with joking about trans topics -- he did so during his Hollywood Bowl sets a few weeks ago ... and even said something about the alleged attacker, Isaiah Lee, joking that it was a "trans man" after he was tackled.

Bill Maher ventures into dicey areas all the time, and he did not disappoint Friday night when he argued ... gender reassignment with kids has gone too far.

The "Real Time" host began his weekly editorial with some interesting stats ... before 1946, only .08% of the population identified as LGBTQ. That number shot up to 2.6% among Baby Boomers. It shot up again to 4.2% with Gen X, 10.5% among Millennials and 20.8% with Gen Z.

Maher says much of the rise in percentages is a good thing ... that people feel comfortable enough to say who they are to a pollster, but his take is that some of the rise is attributed to trendiness ... i.e., it's now trendy to be LGBTQ.

Bill's argument is laced with humor, but at its core, he's saying especially when it comes to kids, their feelings are not always innate ... he says they often react to trends, to friends, to social media and parents should not reflexively take their children down a path of gender reassignment until the child's self-identity is certain. He zeroes in on hormone blockers on young kids, the consequences of which he thinks have been glossed over.

Ezra Miller gave cops a stern warning during their arrest in Hawaii, don't hurt their wrists ... and get their pronouns right or face hate crime charges.

More police body cam has surfaced from the March incident where Miller allegedly went after several bar patrons, getting busted for disorderly conduct and harassment.

The footage starts with Miller in handcuffs complaining of pain in their wrists, and telling cops they need to be careful, as Ezra's a musician and any damage to the nerves in their wrists could be catastrophic to their music career.

Then things get even more tense as Ezra's being transported to the police station, when one of the officers addresses Ezra as "sir" Ezra fires back, saying, "I'm not a sir. I'm transgender nonbinary."

The cop says he was only trying to be respectful, but Ezra continues, "If you fail to do that again, it is an act of intentional bigotry and it is a technical hate crime according to U.S. Federal law."

Once at the station ... Miller continues to complain about pain in their wrist, but is much calmer than during the drive over.

Kendrick Lamar is stepping into territory seemingly every mainstream rapper has refused to enter ... bringing attention to the trans community and offering his support through the telling of his own personal experiences.

In his song, "Auntie Diaries," Kendrick starts by rapping "My auntie is a man now" ... and then, he goes on to talk about his transition. Later in the song, he reveals his cousin is trans as well, rapping, "Demetrius is Mary-Ann now."

Kendrick says, "I mean he's really Mary-Ann, even took things further. Changed his gender before Bruce Jenner was certain. Living his truth even if it meant see a surgeon."

Of course, many folks took to social media to share their thoughts -- with many calling it a groundbreaking rap song and pointing out the fact that this hasn't been done before, at least not by such a celebrated artist in the genre.

It's pretty significant ... Kendrick raps openly and candidly about learning to understand and grow from these family members. He even talks about being in elementary school and the mistakes he made, including when he'd use homophobic slurs.

At one point, he says "The day I chose humanity over religion the family got closer, it was all forgiven" ... clearly taking a stand against homophobia, especially in the church.

"Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause has rebounded from her romance with Jason Oppenheim ... she's now dating G Flip.

Chrishell dropped the news on the "Selling Sunset" reunion special ... she and the nonbinary Australian singer are an item. She said, "I recently have been spending a lot of time with someone that's very important to me. Their name is G Flip. They're nonbinary, so they go by they/them. And, they're an extremely talented musician."

The 2 were seen leaving The Abbey in WeHo, spending 4 hours partying until 2 AM -- with plenty of PDA.

As for how they hooked up, Chrishell said, "It started because I was just going to be in their video. And, it's about this chaotic love story. I come from soaps, I love acting. And, with the job that we have, I don't always get to do it. At first of course I was like yes, let's do that."

The 27-year-old musician is reportedly living with Chrishell, 40, in her L.A. home. As we reported, Chrishell bought the home, in part, with the loot she got from selling her wedding ring courtesy of ex-hubby, Justin Hartley.

The 27-year-old musician hails from Melbourne and is known for their songs, "GAY 4 ME," "Lover," and "Drink Too Much."

Chrishell flew to Denver last weekend to watch her partner perform with Lauren Sanderson ... the 2 collabed on the song, "GAY 4 ME."

The first black transgender Victoria's Secret Model, Emira D’Spain, has just done a little tune-up on herself ... getting a Brazilian butt lift just before summer kicks off.

Emira was in NYC last week where she underwent the minimally invasive BBL, along with liposuction of the abdomen and waist with fat transfers to the butt.

She tells us, she's always been insecure about her lower stomach, especially after dropping 30 lbs, but now, "I finally have the curves I’ve always wanted."

Dr. Ryan Neinstein, who specializes in modern body sculpting techniques tells us Emira had light sedation for the procedure which allows a quicker recovery because she's on the go and doesn't have a lot of time to waste.

We're told the procedure cost Emira around $20k and she's fine with that ... Dr. Neinstein says with diet and exercise she wouldn't be able to achieve the bikini body look she wanted, so this got her over the hump just in time for her next VS photo shoot.

In case you didn't know, back in 2020 Emira became the first Black transgender model to work with Victoria's Secret as a part of their Valentine's Day social campaign.

NBC News' social media team could use Elon Musk's proposed edit tool on a tweet about the reigning "Jeopardy!" champ ... all because they focused on her sexuality and job title, confusing and even angering a lot of users on Twitter.

Mattea Roach has won 17 consecutive games, which ranks No. 8 all-time, qualifying for the game show's Tournament of Champions and bringing her current winnings to $396,182 ... but NBC News decided to highlight the fact she's a "lesbian tutor" in a story about her achievements.

The controversial tweet was blasted out Friday to NBC News' 9 million followers, with many people reacting to the "lesbian tutor" description, showing confusion over the choice of words and even anger.

One user's hilarious response ... "Oh ffs. What on earth is a lesbian tutor? You mean she helps people become better lesbians? Be better @NBCNews & know that this incredible woman’s sexuality has absolutely no bearing on her amazing @Jeopardy streak & smarts!"

The tweet is still up as of this post, and it doesn't get much better when you click the link ... the headline for the NBC News story reads, "Mattea Roach becomes latest LGBTQ 'Jeopardy!' phenom."

Bill Maher went in hard on Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, for "demagoguing" the culture war issue over LGBTQ+ mentions in schools.

The "Real Time" host railed on DeSantis for the draconian action he took against Disney World, yanking their tax status and independence because the Mouse House took a stand against the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Bill said he has every reason to hate Disney -- after all, they fired him for comments he made on "Politically Incorrect" -- a bonehead move, given the name of the show, right?

Nevertheless, Bill feels sorry for Disney because they seem to be in a no-win situation ... the left hated them when they didn't take a stand on the bill, and now they've taken a stand and the right hates them. As Bill said, Disney's initial response ... "We just make fairies and elves, riding teacups" ... and that triggered the left. Now that they won't donate to political campaigns of those who support the bill ... well, the right went nuts.

Atlantic writer, Caitlin Flanagan, said she hates the way Disney waffled, imploring the company to "have a backbone." Conservative, Mary Katharine Ham, took a different stance ... "The key might be neutrality on these big culture war issues."

Isaiah Rashad broke his silence this weekend about a sex tape that appears to out him as LGBT friendly -- and he's taking all the love and support he's received in stride.

The TDE artist -- who's had a solid and loyal fanbase for years, dating back to the 2010s -- performed Saturday at Coachella ... the first time he's taken the stage publicly since a private tape of his leaked back in February, showing him engaged in a sex act with two men.

The clip went viral, conjuring lots of reaction from the hip-hop community, including shock. Fact is, Isaiah had only ever indicated he was into girls ... at least in his music, anyway.

While there were some who chimed in with homophobic jokes and insults, there were just as many who spoke up having Isaiah's back -- including some prominent figures in the industry, like The Game, who said people's private lives were no one else's business but their own.

Isaiah was clearly keeping tabs on all the chatter that surfaced, as he compiled a lot of it into an intro video that he played before coming out to rock his set.

IR performed with tons of energy and didn't explicitly say anything about the sex tape until later on when he was nearing the end ... giving thanks to his fans for the solidarity, even indicating they may have saved his life with their messages of positivity and embrace.

It also appears the guy was getting emotional during one of his songs -- eagle-eyed viewers watching the live stream from home spotted what look to be tears coming down his face.

Tons of people are giving Isaiah props for tackling this issue head on at Coachella, the most public of spaces. Also ... him getting embraced like this is indicative of where we are as a culture ... namely, it ain't that big a deal if a rapper is anything but straight these days.

50 Cent is revealing some pretty intense homophobia by attacking Young Buck after the rapper claimed 50 forced him into bankruptcy ... suggesting YB is gay.

Young Buck was on the "It's Tricky with Raquel Harper" podcast when he talked about his fallout with 50, blaming the G-Unit honcho for some legal and recording issues.

Clearly, 50 saw the interview, because Wednesday he posted on Instagram with the caption, "Young Buck, Benzino just embrace who you are but don't pat nobody butt when they score a basket 🏀fool. LOL😆Hahaha, Nah 🤔FOR REAL! PUNK."

The caption was accompanied by an old video which allegedly is a recording of "Love & Hip Hop" star Benzino talking about his sexual preferences. Buck isn't in the video, but 50 obviously made the attempt to tie him in.

Turns out Young Buck also addressed his sexuality during his 'It's Tricky' interview ... saying he's a heterosexual man who "loves women" and "loves p****."

Sam Elliott is backing down from his harsh take on the Oscar-winning movie "The Power of the Dog" -- words many considered homophobic ... something that isn't lost on the guy.

The actor -- who's often cast as a cowboy type, and who apparently has some ties to the rancher community -- apologized for what he said about the flick back in February during an appearance on the 'WTF Podcast with Marc Maron,' where he went on the attack.

On Sunday, however, Sam was given a chance to clarify -- because, frankly, his train of thought was all over the place and hard to piece together. And yes, the guy issued a full mea culpa ... saying he didn't mean to hurt people, including those in the LGBT community.

While making an appearance at Deadline's Contenders TV event, where he was plugging his new show '1883,' Sam said he meant no harm ... and got pretty emotional as he recounted how many friends he has that were apparently offended by his remarks.

ICYMI ... Sam slammed 'POTD' for what he considered as a warped depiction of the American West -- bringing up the fact a lot of farmhands in the movie are portrayed shirtless like Chippendales dancers and seemingly taking issue with allusions to homosexuality.

He also didn't appreciate the fact director Jane Campion shot the film down in her native New Zealand and tried to pass it off as Montana ... so his diatribe was aimed all over.

Benedict Cumberbatch reacted to Sam's comments at the time, saying he found 'em to be "odd" -- which Sam made sure to acknowledge in his apology ... specifically saying sorry to the brilliant cast, but especially to Benedict -- who plays a closeted gay man in the film.