1. The Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winning actress Cynthia Nixon, best known by many as Miranda from “Sex and the City,” has announced she is running against incumbent Andrew Cuomo for governor of New York in the Democratic party. If elected, Nixon, who is married to political activist Christine Marinoni, would be the first female and the first LGBTQ governor of the state.
2. The new Oxygen documentary “Aaron Hernandez Uncovered,” which premiered on the cable channel over the weekend, suggested that the late New England Patriots star, who committed suicide last year while serving time in prison for murder, was a closeted gay man.
3. National Geographic explores the disturbing state of emergency-room treatment for the transgender community, with one patient telling the magazine the experience made them feel like “a freak show.”
4. There’s some good news and some bad news: HIV rates are going down overall, and researchers found a decline of 14.8% from 2008 to 2015. But the decrease among white gay/bi men was only 2.7%, and the rate for Latino gay and bisexual men actually went up 3.1%. Rates also increased by 5.7% among MSM ages 25 to 34.
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: Watch “Transgender Revolution and Its Right,” an insightful new TEDX Talk from Jennifer Marie Long, who holds the office of Post Commander for her local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 1302 in New Jersey.