Photo Credit: Logo

Every week, The GLAAD Wrap brings you LGBT-related entertainment news highlights, fresh stuff to watch out for, and fun diversions to help you kick off the weekend.

1) At the Film Independent Spirit Awards held on Saturday, Mya Taylor made history by winning the Best Supporting Actress Award. Taylor was not only the first trans actress to win the award, but she was the first to win any major acting film award. She won the Spirit Award for her role as Alexandra in the 2016 GLAAD Media Award nominated film Tangerine. Watch her moving speech below.

2) South by Southwest film festival has announced that Ellen Page and Ian Daniel of Gaycation will be keynote speakers at this year’s fest. SXSW will be held in Austin, TX over the week of March 11 – 19, with Page and Daniel speaking on March 12^th about LGBT inclusion, cultural awareness, and their own careers. Page and Daniel join other prestigious speakers at the festival, including President and Mrs. Obama.

3) The crowdfunded short documentary Out in Alabama will have its world premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA. Out in Alabama follows the lives of many LBGT folks living in Birmingham, Alabama, and the relationships forged between them. For those in the Bay Area who want to check it out, the film will screen March 6^th, 7^th, and 9^th, with the director Bonnie Blue Edwards in attendance. Tickets are available through Cinequest’s website, and you can check out the trailer below.

4) Fair Haven, an independent film from director Kerstin Karlhuber, is about to start the festival circuit. The film tells the story of a young man coming home after ex-gay conversion therapy, and having to deal with all the consequences that this entails. It deals with themes of familial expectations and forbidden relationships. You can check out the trailer for Fair Haven below.  For news on screenings, visit www.facebook.com/fairhavenfilm and www.twitter.com/FairHavenFilm

5) The Handmaiden, a lesbian thriller from South Korea, has been sold to 116 countries, including Amazon studios in the US. The film is based on the British novel Fingersmith and tells the story of an orphan girl in colonial Japan who tries to con an heiress, but ends up falling in love with her. The film is expected to sell to even more countries, and will be released in June in Korea.

6) Logo has released the first extended trailer for their new show Gay For Play Game Show Starring RuPaul. The pop culture quiz show includes host RuPaul, as well as a panel of celebrities including Todrick Hall, Michelle Visage, and Ross Mathews. “I wanted to capture the gay voices from my TV youth,” said RuPaul on the show. The show will premiere on Logo on April 11^th at 10/9c. Check out the trailer below.

7) In TV news, Orange Is the New Black has released another trailer for their fourth season, poking fun at awards shows. The show is set to return to Netflix on June 17^th of this year. Speaking of Netflix originals, Titus Burgess of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has released his own Pinot Noir based on his viral hit “Peeno Noir” from the show. The wine is available to buy online and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt returns April 15^th on Netflix.

8) Filmmakers Graham Kolbeins and Anne Ishii are midway through making The Queer Japan Project, a documentary about the expression of gender and sexuality in Japan. This includes interviews with a manga artist, a drag queen, and an HIV activist. Currently they are raising money to film in more rural parts of Japan through their Kickstarter. Check out the trailer and visit their Kickstarter for more info.

On Monday a coalition of 40 Latino organizations operating as the National Hispanic Latino Agenda sent out a press release highlighting their policy priorities which include strong support for issues that impact lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Latinos. Although some of the member organizations, significantly the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), have demonstrated their vocal support of LGBTQ issues in the past, this announcement is important both because of the broad cross-section of support that each of these leading organizations represent but also because of the specificity and comprehensiveness of the policy initiatives they included.

Respected institutions like ASPIRA, the first association created by Puerto Rican educators to address the educational attainment of Latino youth and The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) which celebrates 41 years increasing voter participation of Latinos attached their names to these policy priorities.

One of the top items calls for the expansion and full implementation of the President’s executive actions (DACA and DAPA) that provide deportation relief for some undocumented immigrants so that they also include LGBTQ people.

Other points specifically highlight the discrimination faced by LGBTQ people in healthcare settings. Many address the exclusion of the care of transgender people from health plans including state Medicaid programs. NHJLA also brings attention to the need of more training for medical personnel to ensure that LGBTQ people do not confront discrimination when they are accessing care.

This level of detail shows a deep and thorough consideration for policies that impact the day to day lives of transgender Latinos.

Among the LGBTQ specific policy concerns outlined in the statement are items that impact the health and wellbeing of transgender Latinx such as:

• Opposing discriminatory healthcare policies that impact the Latino LGBTQ community.

• Removing arbitrary transgender-specific exclusions from all health plans, including state Medicaid programs.

• Ensuring the enforcement and implementation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the non-discrimination provision that bans sex discrimination in health care programs and which would also provide protection on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

• Encouraging health care providers to increase their knowledge of personal bias and increase their understanding of multiple issues that victims of violence, including homophobia and racism, in order to provide accessible and tailored care.

A full list of the LGBTQ related policy priorities is available here and a full list of the organizations in the coalition is available here.