5 LGBTQ things you need to know today, April 18

1. Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, has just reversed its decision to ban all gay content. The service, which is similar to Twitter, initiated a crackdown last Friday to purge their online community. Also included in the ban were depictions of pornography and violence. The immense backlash made Weibo reconsider their position. According to LGTBQ Nation, Xiaogang Wei, an LGBTQ activist from China, said “We must pressure these companies and show them it’s not easy to discriminate against an entire community — no matter who orders them to do it.” The official mouthpiece Peoples’ Daily said in an editorial that it was “common sense” to respect “people’s sexual orientation.”

2. On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May told 53 leaders of Commonwealth countries that she “deeply regrets” the Commonwealth’s history of LGBTQ oppression. She urged the Commonwealth countries to remove colonial-era laws that punished LGBTQ persons. Last year, May said that the United Kingdom had a “special responsibility” to fight against anti-gay policies.

3. Donna Red Wing, a longtime LGBTQ activist, has died at age 67. Once called the “most dangerous woman in America” by the Christian Coalition, Red Wing succumbed to cancer on Monday in her Des Moines home. The Advocate once named her Woman of the Year. She headed the organization One Iowa as executive director from 2012 to 2016. During her career, she served in a number of important LGBTQ organizations, including Obama for America’s 2008 LGBT Leadership Council. In the 1990s, Red Wing helped to defeat Oregon’s Measure 9, a proposed statute that would have changed the state’s constitution to bar all LGBTQ-inclusive civil rights laws.

4. Scott Purdy, 23, has alleged that Lyrica painkillers made him gay. Purdy originally took the medicine for a broken foot, the result of go-karting adventure gone awry. The unemployed British man described himself as “happy” with the alteration, and praised the change, telling the tabloid Mirror that “I’m not angry because it’s made me who I am.” Pfizer, the maker of Lyrica, defended their drug. When asked if the drug “caused” homosexuality, the corporation told PinkNews they had “no further comment to add in relation to this story.”

5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: “American Idol” drag superstar Ada Vox teamed up with Lea Michele to sing “Defying Gravity.” Watch below: