Dear readers, welcome to the LGBTQ+ community in art spotlight! This issue, I want to bring to the readers' attention an amazing TV series that debuted this year on Netflix.

The show is called Young Royals, and trust me when I say this: you will fall in love with this six-episode series. (Gah! Too few episodes for such an amazing show!). Young Royals is a Swedish show (subtitles and dubs are available in English) that is about a boarding school for the wealthy in Sweden called Hillerska and its teenage students. The show deals with the arrival of the main character, Wilhelm, who happens to be a prince. The show sees Wilhelm finding himself, and exploring his sexuality and the potential ramifications of it due to his position as Prince in a traditionally conservative monarchy.

Young Royals is not your average, cheesy teen-angst show though, as the acting is really top-notch. The music used throughout is at times sad, but also uplifting. The show highlights issues of class inequality and bullying, and the power of social media and its (at times) dark impact. But Young Royals also deals with a changing culture and modern world where barriers are being broken. It's a wild ride, and you will come to love the multi-layered, imperfect characters. They make mistakes, but they also grow from those mistakes to become better people.

What I loved about this show are the tender moments throughout. Young Royals is not your average drama story wherein people are suddenly in love within seconds. It's more of a slow and realistic build up that shows the early moments of a relationship, and this is particularly significant in its reflection of a relationship between two individuals who are still coming to terms with their own sexuality.

Young Royals is definitely worth a shot if you are in search of something new to watch, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that it gets a second season!

We'll start off today with some positive news from inside the U.S. The show RuPaul's Drag Race has had a transgender contestant win for the first time in its history! Previously, Angele Anang won the Thai version of Drag Race in 2019 as the first trans winner, but this is the first time the original show has featured a trans contestant as its victor. 38-year-old Kylie Sonique Love won the race with a $100,000 prize, and will receive a place in its hall of fame. She participated in season two of the show prior to starting her transition, and RuPaul stated that her journey has been an inspiration to many.

At the end of August, news came out that the artist JoJo Siwa would be participating in Dancing with the Stars together with someone of the same sex. For the American version of the show, this will be the first time a same-sex or same-gender pairing is participating! Israel was actually the first country to have a same-sex couple dancing in the show, and in 2019 a male duo (Jakob Fauerby and Silas Holst) won the Danish version. JoJo came out earlier in this year as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but is still figuring out her own identity. For now she feels okay using the terms gay, queer, and pansexual.

Next up, a celebrity who recently made a very distasteful comment relating to HIV and its negative stigma surrounding gay men has met up with several Black leaders from HIV groups in the U.S. GLAAD, the U.S. LGBTQ+ organisation, wanted to "call him in instead of calling him out" in an attempt to educate him on the comments he made. He's listened to people's stories with a lot of respect. This matters because celebrities play a huge role in defeating the existing stigma, and GLAAD is hopeful that he will use his platform for the better now that he's had this education.

Over in Europe, the EU is still trying to persuade two of its members to have a more inclusive stance towards the LGBTQ+ community. A region in Poland still refuses to disband the "LGBT-Free Zones" which are intended to ban promotion of LGBTQ+ ideologies. They risk missing out on more than €2.5 billion by not revoking this declaration. Hungary has announced a referendum on the "Children Protection Act", which is stated to be for the safety of children, but also bans LGBTQ+ education from being taught. The EU is proceeding with legal actions against the country.
Russia has also recently rejected the EU's Court Order of Human Rights in denying same-sex unions, as they see it as a contradiction of Russia's foundations. Senior lawmakers have said the court was "meddling" in its internal affairs.

In Italy, the centre-left Democratic Party MP has tried to propose a bill that changes the "mancino law" that outlaws hate crimes and discrimination to include sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disabilities. It also seeks to recognize the international day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia as well as gathering information about the public opinion and anti-LGBTQ+ related discrimination in the country.

Lehlogonolo Machaba is running as the first transgender contestant in South Africa's national beauty pageant. She is hoping that this will help the country towards a greater acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community. Transgender contestants have been allowed to participate since 2019, but it's certainly always scary to be the first.

That's all we've got for today, readers, but we hope to see you next time for a news update!