Queer Kentucky: Kentucky's only LGBTQ+ newsroom

Kentucky Black Pride marked its 10th anniversary with four days in Lexington, centered on the Woodland Park that has made room for queer Kentuckians since the 1950s.

Louisville’s resident “Rocky Horror” troupe returns to PLAY Louisville Oct. 16-31 with a witch-inspired 13th annual production, starring drag queen May O’Nays as Frank N Furter.

Organizations offering mental health care had some of the busiest tables at Louisville Pride. Queer Kentucky’s 2025 Community Health Survey shows why the need outlasts the festival: roughly 7 in 10 LGBTQ+ Kentuckians say the political climate has harmed their mental health.

Black Soil KY trained 30 Kentucky farms to be harm reduction first responders, then opened two Lexington “farmacy markets” where Narcan and fentanyl test strips sit alongside fresh produce. Now the nonprofit is treating voter registration as harm reduction too.

The National LGBTQ Task Force profiles Queer Kentucky executive director Missy Spears on satire as organizing, building a newsroom out of Covington, and what she wants the country to learn from Kentucky at Creating Change 2027.

Jess Folk watched Jane Schoenbrun's slasher send-up from a movie theater in Bowling Green, the town where John Carpenter was raised, and found a film about pleasure, excess and consent.

On Thursday, Oct. 8, Queer Kentucky joins 17 other LGBTQ+ newsrooms for Local LGBTQ+ Media Giving Day. One donation, divided among every participating newsroom, with $6,000 in matching funds.

Taylor Marshall, the final protester still facing charges from the July 17, 2025 Roebling Bridge protest, was indicted Monday on one count of felony riot and taken into custody at a routine pretrial hearing. Bond was set at $2,500.

SAMHSA's shift away from harm reduction cost the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition a $400,000 grant and cut off federal funding for syringes and fentanyl test strips. The Kentucky organizers serving Black and brown communities explain what they lost, and the workarounds keeping people alive.

Lexington is the first major Kentucky city to pause data center development. Councilmember Liz Sheehan, Kentucky's first openly bisexual elected official, explains what a moratorium actually does, why these projects keep landing in marginalized neighborhoods, and what comes next.

Trans author and DIY educator Mercury Stardust brings "Lost and Found: A Compassionate Guide to Homeownership" to Louisville's Northeast Regional Library on Oct. 8, with a message that taking up space is one of the most radical things a trans person can do.

Louisville native Drew Shryock spent 22 years in city economic development before turning a lifelong love of bourbon into the Whiskey Row Walking Tour, a gay-owned walk down Main Street that runs during Bourbon & Belonging.

Louisville Roller Derby kicks off spooky season Oct. 3 at Triple Crown Pavilion with a Halloween-themed double header, junior derby at 2 p.m. and the main bout at 4:30 p.m.

The 3rd Annual Boone County KY Pride Festival runs noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4 at Y'Alls Stadium in Florence, with free tickets, 70-plus vendors, two stages and a wellness zone.

From her back porch in Louisville, Old Forester’s Master Taster Melissa Rift guided me through how to enter the world of bourbon. She suggested starting with cocktails, like whiskey sours and highballs, then working up to lower-proof pours in the 80-90 proof range. She said that while her personal favorite pour changes with the seasons, […]

The Winchester Pride + Inclusion Festival returns to Depot Street on Saturday, Oct. 3 with the theme "The Story of US," free community yoga at 10 a.m. and the festival opening at 2 p.m.

Be queer. Be brave. Leave the real flames at home. Those are the rules at Smoke & Queers, the troupe that built its own burlesque stage when nobody else would build one for them.

Hickman's own S.G. Goodman plays two Kentucky rooms in two nights this week, a festival stage in Louisville and a former church sanctuary in Newport. Here is why both stops matter.

McClatchy's latest round of layoffs cut the Lexington Herald-Leader's newsroom by 52 percent, eliminating entire beats and raising alarms about the future of local news in Kentucky, especially in rural communities and news deserts that already have few alternatives.

More than 12,700 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Kentucky since reporting began in 1982. Here's how to find HIV-competent doctors you need from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to the Bluegrass Care Clinic at the University of Kentucky.

From Eastern Kentucky's Appalachian hills to the bars of Louisville and the small-town pride festivals of the Bluegrass, drag artists across the commonwealth are performing, organizing, and showing up for their communities in ways that go far beyond the stage.

Western Kentucky LGBTQ+ violence rates top the state average. Most of the region has no fairness ordinance and KY's hate crime law excludes trans people.

Queer people are connecting to Andrew Sa’s sound because he embodies the “Lavender Cowboy” subgenre of country music.

Four years in the making, Songs of Silas sets the poetry of Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House to music composed by Grammy-winning Louisville Orchestra Director Teddy Abrams and performed by University of Louisville baritone Chad Sloan. It makes its world premiere September 13 at Comstock Hall — and admission is free.

WAVE Foundation's 20th Annual Make WAVEs Gala returns to Newport Aquarium on September 11. The queer-run conservation organization invites guests for an after-dark evening of cocktails, animal encounters, a silent disco, and a silent auction.

And Then There Were None Louisville opens Sept 4-13 at Highview Arts Center with queer director Joy Beth DeWitt-Riley and a mostly LGBTQ+ cast.

The National LGBTQ Task Force is bringing Creating Change 2027 to Louisville this January, and Task Force President Kierra Johnson had a clear message at the kickoff: Kentucky's organizing is something the whole country needs to learn from.

Governor Andy Beshear's growing national profile is raising questions about what his presidential ambitions could mean for Kentucky's LGBTQ+ community and the state he still governs.

New data from the 2025 Queer Kentucky Community Health Survey paints a stark picture: more than half of LGBTQ+ people in Western Kentucky have no regular healthcare provider, and the region's HIV never-tested rate is nearly 20 points higher than the state average. Nick Fulton reports on the education gaps, care deserts, and community organizers working to change it.

From Independence to Fort Mitchell, Northern Kentucky cities are pulling back on AI-powered license plate reader cameras after rare and unified public pushback, even as police insist the technology is working.

Sex-positive Ohio LGBTQ+ print magazine nymph(o) returns with Issue 4 on August 29, exploring collective liberation through art, poetry, and photography rooted in the vision of activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

Democrat Zach Dembo and Republican Ralph Alvarado are squaring off in Central Kentucky's 6th Congressional District- one of the most competitive races the Lexington area has seen in over a decade. Here's what it means for LGBTQ+ Kentuckians.

Louisville's largest LGBTQ+ event, the Louisville Pride Festival, returns to Bardstown Road on Saturday, Sept. 12, with two stages of entertainment, 100+ affirming vendors, and family-friendly activities — free and open to all.

Throughout the weekend, attendees can expect nationally and locally recognized performers, drag entertainers, DJs, community organizations, small businesses, food vendors, networking opportunities, and experiences that celebrate the richness and diversity of the Black LGBTQ+ community.

More and more Northern Kentucky police departments want Flock Safety cameras, but residents across the region are fighting back. At a July fiscal court meeting in Kenton County, more than a dozen people showed up to say no, calling the AI-powered cameras a government-accessible record of everyone's movements. Newport just cancelled their contract. Fort Thomas is reconsidering. Here's what these cameras actually do, who's pushing back, and what happens next.

TBALLER, a Northern Kentucky artist blending funk, pop and queer self-expression, talks influences, identity and his upcoming EP.

McConnell has missed 47 Senate votes since his hospitalization. Here's what Kentucky actually loses while he's out, from the Farm Bill to SNAP.

Henderson KY Pride issued a public response after a letter to the editor called for pride events in the community to end. In their rebuttal, the organization's board pushed back point by point.

It comes after Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has urged the Republican senator to resign from office if he cannot serve.

Kentucky law says the governor must appoint a replacement senator. A 2024 Republican-backed bill says hold a special election. A UK law professor says the conflict could end up in the courts.

Kentucky's governor has fewer options than most people realize when a sitting senator goes absent but hasn't vacated their seat. No removal. No forced replacement. And the law around special elections is murkier than it sounds.⁠ We broke down every option Beshear actually has, including the one hiding in plain sight.

Queer Kentucky, the Commonwealth's only LGBTQ+ newsroom, reached 8 million readers in 2025, according to its newly released annual report, despite a sharp decline in funding.

Nathan Wilson was once a patient at HIV health nonprofit Matthew25. Now he manages facilities for the organization that helped save his life.

The "I'm Feeling Queer Today" podcast returns July 30 for Season 4, with young LGBTQ+ hosts interviewing writers, drag artists, and storytellers shaping queer culture. The show is a free artistic mentorship program through The Future Perfect Project, a nonprofit co-founded by Celeste Lecesne of The Trevor Project.

From 1980s hankie codes to today's watermelon stickers, queer Kentuckians have long relied on safe signaling to find each other without outing themselves in a hostile political climate.

When Sen. Mitch McConnell disappeared from view, Kentuckians wanted answers about his health. The Constitution says he doesn't owe them any.

Rocky Adkins, former Kentucky House Majority Leader and senior advisor to Gov. Andy Beshear, has announced his candidacy for the 2027 Kentucky governor's race, joining a Democratic primary field that already includes Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.

Rep. Thomas Massie shut down talk of running for Mitch McConnell's Senate seat - and the reason is a civics lesson. Even if McConnell were to pass away, a Kentucky special election would only fill the remainder of his term, which ends in January. Massie, who lost his primary and is already leaving the House in January, called the Senate "the same circus with different monkeys."

Brandon Hill filed a federal lawsuit against the Covington Police Department and two officers, alleging excessive force and civil rights violations during the July 2025 Roebling Bridge protest.

Pikeville native Samantha Ratcliffe draws on her Appalachian roots, the punk scene, and the literary community to write poetry and music that pushes back against hatred and harmful stereotypes. Her upcoming thesis collection explores what it means to live openly as a queer person in the South.

As the University of Kentucky aligns its policies with state and federal directives, queer students and organizations on campus are navigating the loss of institutional support. Research suggests that perceived lack of university support is tied to worsening mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ students nationwide.

Founded by Louisville artist Tayzzy, the event features R&B performers Baby Grace, Just Joey, and Penny Marguax, plus face painting, tarot readings, and local vendors LOUISVILLE, KY — On Thursday, July 23, from 7:00–11:00 PM, Louisville’s Jubilee Field will transform into a vibrant celebration of music, creativity, and community during the inaugural Love Out Loud […]

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear sent a letter to Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office in Washington, D.C., demanding more information about the senator and his health.