Storm a Star Wars Indie, Funny or Die

5 LGBT things you need to know today, Dec. 18

1. Social media has been in a frenzy since the Trump administration announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a list of words “banned” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including “diversity” and “transgender.” The CDC’s new director said Sunday that “there are no banned words at CDC.”

2. A judge in Kentucky who was scheduled for a disciplinary hearing over his refusal to hear cases related to same-sex-couple adoptions failed to show up for the hearing.

3. Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen said he’d love to play Gandalf in the upcoming Amazon TV adaptation of “Lord of the Rings,” but he hasn’t been asked. “I haven’t said yes because I haven’t been asked. But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I’m not too old,” he joked on Graham Norton’s BBC Radio 2 show.

4. Hamblen County, Tennessee, is voting on a resolution this week that would ban same-sex marriage in the county two years after it was made legal in the U.S. The town of Portland within the county tried to ban drag shows in September but the measure failed following legal threats from the ACLU.

5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: A lonely Stormtrooper named Ian meets the Rodian of his dreams, against all odds, in this hilarious “Star Wars” parody on Funny or Die.