Gina Rodriguez

5 LGBTQ things you need to know today, March 9

If it’s Friday, that means a Friday Funday edition of 5 LGBTQ Things! We’re all overwhelmed with troubling, stressful headlines on a daily basis, so enjoy a dose of good news, inspirational stories and pop culture nuggets as you begin your weekend!

1. Among the LGBTQ celebrities on People’s new online “Coming Out Stories” series are Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy, “Madam Secretary”/”Grey’s Anatomy” star Sara Ramirez, former NBA player Jason Collins, “Love, Simon” director Greg Berlanti, “Teen Wolf’s” Charlie Carver and Ilene Chaiken, creator of “The L Word.”

2. Adam Rippon has a candid one-on-one with The New York Times on sudden fame, the sex scene in the Olympic Village and where he’s headed next, revealing, “I’m just going to be me who loves trashy music and wants to skate in something that’s kind of slutty.”

3. Attention, Whovians: Out actor Alan Cumming is appearing on an upcoming episode of the cult favorite BBC sci-fi series “Dr. Who.” On the podcast “Homo Sapiens,” Cumming said he will play Scottish monarch King James I. “I’m a nice baddie – I’m James I. I’m like a kind of dandy, foppy coward who comes alright in the end. And they’ve said he might come back!”

4. “Jane the Virgin” star Gina Rodriguez (currently on the big screen in “Annihilation”) will guest star on an upcoming “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” as the love interest of Detective Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz, who is openly bisexual IRL). In January, Rodriguez tweeted to @Brooklyn99FOX: “Um…can I get an audition? *applies lip gloss and puckers lips*”

5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: In her unforgettable acceptance speech at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards, actor and screenwriter Lena Waithe urges other LGBTQ African-Americans to come out and says she hopes to “be a shining light for all the little lesbians in training.”