(Image via Out)

Check out Wilson Cruz and Laverne Cox talking about their coming-out experiences on this very special day, National Coming Out Day ...

If you're surprised that adorable Rent star Anthony Rapp and equally adorable My So-Called Life star Wilson Cruz — both talents, both out, both busy with other great things since their most impactful roles — are turning up as major parts of Star Trek: Discovery, so is Rapp.

In a new interview with CBS, both men dish on their characters' romance, a gay first in the entire Star Trek franchise ...

“Wilson Cruz will be playing my love interest, my partner — my man love — and we’re both officers on the ship.” — Anthony Rapp

Towleroad: The first two gay characters in the Star Trek TV franchise will be played by ... gay actors! Congrats, Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz.

Gays with Kids: See how this adoptive gay dad reacted when his young son casually called him a “faggot.”

Twitter: Yassss, Liev Schreiber! He let his son dress up as Harley Quinn. 

Liev Schreiber is an awesome dad for this! 😍 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/NzrE0wc9jF

— Common Gay Boy (@CGBPosts) July 22, 2017

OMG Blog: Jimmy Kimmel shows Jimmy Fallon how to conduct amusing, but pointed, political interviews ... with Caitlyn Jenner. Any Trump regrets?

The Daily Beast: Your ticket into Gore Vidal's “cliffside palace of sex, scandal and celebrity.”

Kenneth in the (212): Bruce Penhall, now 60, back in his Speedo days.

This is him Bruce in shorts ... the Speedo look is even more flattering. (Image via Teen Beat)

IM CRYING IM HAVING A GAY BRUNCH IN WEHO AND BERNIE SANDERS WALKED IN pic.twitter.com/4z7iRIGuRF

— horace malik (@alcohorace) June 5, 2016

Bernie Sanders drops in on a drag brunch in WeHo with Wilson Cruz.

Hillary wins primaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands & Puerto Rico; Sanders campaign cries foul in PR, PR Dem Party says Sanders campaign requested fewer stations.

The Los Angeles Times endorses Hillary Clinton ahead of Tuesday's vote: “[S]he is vastly better prepared than Sanders for the presidency.”

Hillary has bounced back to a double-digit lead over Trump—and she hasn't even clinched the Democratic nomination yet. See YOU next Tuesday.

Conservative David French won't be running for prez after all, thinks Hillary and Trump are unfit to run for town council.

STILL NOT READY TO MAKE NICE: Dixie Chicks depict Trump with devil horns on new tour.

The Dixie Chicks mock Trump in concert with devil-horned photo of presidential hopeful https://t.co/jxkjVhm90n pic.twitter.com/Vk9Ioa7bXK

— People Magazine (@people) June 4, 2016

(Image via Attitude)

KNOCKOUT! Trans model Laith Ashley covers Attitude with a Speedo and a thrown punch.

Kevin Spacey impersonates Bill Clinton, roasts Trump at amfAR Cannes event: “Foreign films contain 2 things Donald Trump hates the most: foreigners & reading.”

One of Trump's Supreme Court hopefuls (Work Unfriendly) has a nudie past, thinks people have no right to sex outside wedlock, is rumored to be a Karl Rove plant.

(Image via Badpuppy/The Sword)

Cher turned 70 this weekend. She was touched by all her fans' messages of love and support.

Linda Perry inadvertently shaded various Paisley Park artists, especially Sheila E., while explaining Billboard's bottom line in asking Madonna to salute Prince. 

Your chance to help a film about an AIDS activist falling in love (starring Alan Cumming, Wilson Cruz, Zachary Booth) is waiting here!

Dina Manzo and this Black Swan queen: "Perfect!"

I just returned, with my at-gunpoint cameraman José, from the 25th annual Night of a Thousand Gowns, a benefit thrown by the Imperial Court of New York to honor LGBT activist David Mixner and Princess Boy author Cheryl Kilodavis that raises cash for the Trevor Project and the Ali Forney Center.

Ru the day: Alexis Mateo, Delta Work, Manila Luzon & Sahara Davenport

As you know, I have done drag—I made a right camp Sam Fox. However, the Imperial Court is not bullshitting around when it comes to drag. They're a serious (and seriously regimented) org; camp was in short supply even if half the sequins on the East Coast were in the Marriott with me.

We arrived to find a larger-than-expected area for the press line. However, as guests began arriving—I'm not sure why some queens did the photo call and others didn't—it was apparent that NO print press showed up and very few online outlets, leaving me as the first person on the line. It was awkward, so we just began grabbing interviews where we could, either as attendees arrived or after they'd posed for the photographers. I was especially interested in (my new pal) Ally Sheedy, Honeymooners legend Joyce Randolph (who later received an award for which she was asked to kneel—not cool to ask of someone cruising toward 90, girls) and Carson Kressley...so of course not one of them did the carpet. Still, the people who did were quite diverse and easy to grab and I was able to chat with Joe of Joe.My.God. and more formally meet Mr. Broadway, Michael Cusumano.

Bill Cunningham (and Matthew Rettenmund) New York

I was most excited to meet and chat briefly with Bill Cunningham, the legendary octogenarian fashion shooter for The New York Times. A new documentary on him (Bill Cunningham New York) is getting lots of good press, something he seemed a bit shy about when I mentioned it. "I haven't seen it," he told me, "but I understand the filmmakers deserve a lot of praise." He remembered my name when thanking me. It was fascinating to watch him work the line; so many of the queens had no idea who he was and seemed bemused when he would hand them a pad to write down their names. (This old-school method is fail-safe, though, if you want to avoid being Miss Identified.)

Mike Ruiz of The A-List: New York and his partner Martin Berusch are supernice and supersexy each time I meet them. Ruiz noted that two more A-Listers are on the way for season two—and that the show was seeking supervillains. Super!

Don't ask—we won't tell

I grabbed Dan Choi—with a new friend, as in, a drag queen he met at the elevator, on his arm—and asked him a bit about marriage equality. He's a nice guy to talk to always. I feel like he has his regular personality—a little shy, nervously joking around—and then when he speaks about serious subjects he kicks into his activist persona. It's nice that he has a sense of humor; he needs one considering the schism in the community over whether he is our new Harvey Milk or is just milking every opportunity for attention. I don't think he's a messiah (and I don't think he thinks he is, either), and I occasionally disagree with him, but I like him and there's no denying he's had a major, grassroots impact on DADT and other gay issues. And he's hot in a suit.

As a bonus, I finally got to meet LGBT activist David Mixner, a gracious dude with a righteous sense of conviction about getting 'er done, rights-wise.

Amanda LePore walked right past me as I asked to take her picture. It felt like there was no way she didn't hear me, but she was as methodical as a glacier if a bit faster about it. It was...odd.

Ari Gold knows how to make an entrance...

...but his slaveboys know a thing or two about making an exit!

Ari Gold—who released his new single as "Sir Ari Gold" thanks to being knighted by this group last year—made an entrance that would have had Lady Gaga gagging with jealousy: He waltzed in clad in a gold Arabian number with two boyslaves on leashes. I hope he curbed them. I wish I'd seen the reaction of the gorgeous hospice dog that was in the house! (Dude brought his parents. He's one of the lucky ones who could do such a thing.)

He looked sexy in his version of drag, but it was soon back to the more traditional, can-I-pass-as-a-flamboyant-chick style of drag.

The hombre that got away

Last night was the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards; it's always a fun event, if you remember my coverage from last year.

This year was really fun, with one major exception—I was red-carpet robbed by this jerk who was with Ricky Martin. More on that later.

GLAAD was happy with my past coverage, so they granted me an extra body on the carpet—my partner José attended as my cameraman. We were placed just after a large column and between an adorable guy working for AfterElton (Tim O'Leary) with his pretty friend and someone's tripod. I liked our positioning in that we were at the very front of the online media and the column meant no pushing.

But the first star we encountered had been before we even got to our spots—we'd run into Joe Jervis of Joe.My.God. checking in. Joe was a nominee for his blog (the first time GLAAD has nominated blogs...about time!) and was convinced Pam of Pam's House Blend would win. "I'd bet the Powerball on it," he'd confided. (Later, he totally won, as I expected, but he had no idea until some attendees informed him since the category wasn't deemed worthy of inclusion in the actual program.)

Joe rocks (every time someone said "rock" or "Rokk," Rokk Vodka donated $100 to GLAAD)

Considering some of the stars scheduled, I wasn't altogether thrilled with the carpet—Tina Fey was a nominee but didn't walk (come the fuck on, Tina), Patrick Wilson was a presenter but also was a no-show (perhaps wisely fearing being devoured and eaten a la Sebastien Venable) and the Rev. Al Sharpton was on hand to give an award to Russell Simmons but did not do press. Vinny Guadagnino from Jersey Shore? Fuhgeddaboudit.

We made the evening our belated anniversary celebration

But on the other hand, the stars who actually did the carpet were nice and fun, and even Ricky Martin himself did lots and lots of press. Just not me. We're getting to it.

My first carpet catch was 17-year-old Bianca "Nikki" Peet, a dynamic girl who was initially denied the opportunity to form a gay-straight alliance at her Corpus Christi high school but whose perseverance against Principal James Crenshaw paid off—she now has her GSA club! She was the picture of intestinal fortitude in her wheelchair, her eyeshadow as sparkling as her personality.

Next up was Jarrett Barrios, who explained to me how GLAAD decides what's offensive and what isn't; a hard task, I can agree, considering the varied opinions my own occasionally outraged posts sometimes elicit. You think something is duh-obviously offensive—like that Vanity Fair piece casually calling the Glee boys "fags," GLAAD (among many others) points it out, then you read AfterElton sniping that it was no big deal. (In context, the writer was gay and felt it was an ironic or "cheeky" usage...which to me was not as readily apparent as, say, during a viewing Wet Hot American Summer.) I asked him about this more in reference to Ron Howard's "so gay" joke, which I think is a lot more in those troubled waters of nuance where a large part—if not the majority—of the public would not go along with calling it offensive.

Dapper Mike Ruiz, from The Gray List

Mike Ruiz was warm and quite dashing up close—no poodle hair! He was happy to talk about why The A-List: New York seems to have at least as many haters as lovers and to introduce his boyf to anyone who asked.

I'm not a regular The Fabulous Beekman Boys watcher, but José is, and he warned me not to ask about "the pig." I knew it referred to them killing a pig they'd raised, but I imagine, "Don't ask them about the pig!" could be good advice before interviewing just about any reality TV stars.

Boys of the red carpet Zac Young (Top Chef: Just Desserts) & Wilson Cruz

Of course I dirty-love and clean-admire Wilson Cruz—who doesn't, and why don't they? I asked him about the Glee kiss, his recent excursion into shirtlessness in bars and his pet cause (and it's much deeper than that phrase), LGBT teen homelessness. 

Gail Simmons of Top Chef: Just Desserts—I don't think it was a boob query

Jane Velez-Mitchell—with her bombshell girlfriend, who she meet at last year's GLAAD Media Awards—was the picture of poise and confidence, picking the Westboro clan as the gay story of the year when I asked her to choose something. The carpet had gotten a bit clogged up, so I almost missed her while jockeying to get some time with the event's host, Andy Cohen.

I'd never met Andy, so wasn't sure what to expect. I think I thought he'd be bubblier or more flirtatious but he definitely wasn't a stick in the mud. I stumped him with a question, but he recovered and was game to talk Housewives a bit. As he departed, he muttered, "My breath is atrocious!" and got some kind of oral relief from his PR walker, but it really wasn't...maybe it was mine!

Laverne Cox of TRANSform Me is as stunning as you'd expect, about eight feel tall and not shy with her "girls" or her opinions—her desire to transform Charlie Sheen was genuine and fierce.

I'll have a dash of ki ki on my sandwich, please