5 LGBT things you need to know today, May 12

1. The Italian parliament legalized same-sex civil unions on Wednesday, ending the country’s status as the last Western European nation not allowing them.

2. Meet the GOP senator blocking the historic appointment of gay Army secretary nominee Eric Fanning.

3. Rapper and sometime human being Azealia Banks had another homophobic Twitter meltdown—this one aimed at singer Zayn Malik. She was promptly dropped as a headliner at the Rinse Born and Bred Festival in London.

4. “Over the years O’Neal made dozens of home movies—of house parties, drag performances, skinny-dips, travels with his partner—many of which captured the rhythms and intimacies of gay social life long before it was allowed to flourish in the open.” The New Yorker has a piece on the moving revelations of old gay home movies.

5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: “Boycotts are a powerful tool, but you know what is even a more powerful tool? Not electing a bunch of transphobic numbnuts who are going wreck the state economy to catch a nonexistent predator.” Samantha Bee takes on North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and the state’s anti-LGBT law.