Let’s be frank: It’s been a tough year. But LGBTQ Nation has worked hard to highlight positive stories each and every week to remind us all of the strength, creativity, resilience, and love that keep our community surviving and thriving.
To keep our community’s fire and passion burning bright into the new year, we’ve collected five of this year’s most engaging good news stories. Each one demonstrates how a little solidarity can make a big difference and even give us hope for a better world.
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Angel Murphy Brown, the 18-year-old son of comedian Eddie Murphy and “Scary” Spice Girl Mel B, surprised and delighted us all by updating his Instagram bio to share he uses the pronoun, him. But it was even more heartwarming as both of Brown’s famous parents showed how simple it is to love and support your child, even in the limelight.
The news was all the more surprising considering that Murphy began his career making homophobic jabs, anti-gay slurs, and jokes about AIDS; jokes that he has also apologized multiple times for. In 1996, he said that the “misinformed 21-year-old” making those jokes was far from the “informed 35-year-old man” he had become.
Police raided the Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ venue P Town Bar in the middle of a drag event. About 20 police officers in bulletproof vests showed up and kicked the patrons and performers out. But the patrons and performers refused to let the cops quash their spirit. Instead, they created their own public performance space.
It was a great moment of resistance and queer solidarity, especially considering the numerous ways that conservative political forces have tried to denigrate drag performers and queer spaces. Our modern-day movement was born in bar spaces by queers who refused to be dragged down. That spirit endures, as this amazing tale demonstrates.
When Arizona state Republican lawmakers passed three bills to push transgender people out of public life, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed them and then criticized the GOP legislators with some harsh words that were refreshingly frank.
Hobbs may have felt especially empowered to criticize state Republicans because of her state’s unique political makeup. Though Arizona is largely considered a red state, its residents voted for a Democratic president by slim majorities in two of the last 10 national elections. As such, it’s a bit more liberal than some Republicans may think.
Right-wing city council member Mike Munzing, known among his opponents as “MAGA Mike,” lured a standing-room-only audience to council chambers one night with his proposal to ban all flags on municipal property in the city of Aliso Viejo.
At the proposal’s introduction, the MAGA loyalist was joined by two other far-right members on the five-person council in support. But Munzing received quite a surprise by the end of the six-hour meeting. In fact, a famous football player joined in, and was one of many who helped give the city something to truly take pride in.
If the current presidential administration is a raging dumpster fire, then former Secretary Pete Buttigieg is like cool water from a competently directed fire hose, seeking to quell the fiery politics of division with common-sense takes about how we can lift one another up as a united force for good.
In this case, Secretary Pete succinctly explained how Democrats can present a winning message to counter the White House, without throwing marginalized people under the bus. It’s a positive message that bears repeating, especially as the United States moves into the 2026 midterm elections and, hopefully, a brighter future for all our queer and allied siblings.
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