Year in review: Queer stories to look out for in 2023

The queer community in 2022 didn’t have the best year but we saw some positive global trends emerge from the US midterm elections being called the ‘rainbow wave’ due to the many queer politicians elected to the recent development in Israel with the first openly gay speaker Amir Ohana being elected.

The African queer community also had some positive developments in the past year with better innovations in the fight against HIV coming out, an injectable ARV is still in testing phases and an injectable PreP was launched in 2022.

As for representation in mainstream media, 2022 was a better year, with the 80th Golden Globe Awards announcing that this year it has the biggest queer representation in the history of the awards.

From comic books to politics, here are stories from 2022 that we would like to see take center stage in 2023:

LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY AS SUPERHEROES

DC comics this year not only made sure it shows off with queer superheroes but it made one of the major comic book heroes queer, superman’s son came out as bisexual in 2022.

We look forward to more superheroes in 2023 coming out, every child needs a hero that reflects who they are, well done to the DC universe.

Superman’s son has finally come out to his father as bisexual

DC Comics announced that Superman: Son of Kal-El Jonathan Kent aka Jon Kent son of our favourite superhero Clark Kent will have a same-sex relationship. In November 2021 it was revealed that Jon was bisexual when he started developing feelings for Jay Nakamura a journalist and activist. The relationship was built gradually over 16 issues of the comic book. In the 17th issue of Son of Kal-El Jon finally gets the courage to come out to his superhero father after Clark returns from a year-long mission on Warworld. Continue read here

Transgender representation is also something we need to see a lot more of in 2023, this year we saw an openly trans teenager become a lead character in a mainstream movie.

2022 LGBTQ must-watch shows and movies – Anything’s Possible

Anything’s Possible directed by Billy Porter and written by Ximena García Lecuona, is an American coming-of-age romantic comedy with a trans main character. IMDb also said that the movie is a “delightfully modern Gen Z coming-of-age story that follows Kelsa, a confident high school girl who is trans, as she navigates through senior year.” Starring: Eva Reign, Abubakr Ali and Renée Elise Goldsberry. Continue to read more

QUEER REPRESENTATION IN POLITICS

LGBTQ candidates make HISTORY in midterm election

LGBTQ candidates are running in all 50 US states and the capital Washington for the first time in this year’s midterm election, as the community becomes an increasingly powerful voting constituency. The milestone comes amid a surge in gay and transgender voters that analysts expect to redraw the electoral landscape over the next generation, nudging the conservative US heartland in a more liberal direction.A new report from the LGBTQ Victory Fund found that of the 1 065 LGBTQ hopefuls who ran primary campaigns for November’s midterms, a historic 678 made it onto the ballot — an 18 percent increase over 2020. Continue reading here

We are seeing more queer politicians are the world, but we are still far from queer representation being enough, especially in Africa.

In 2022 we saw more queer representation in politics and we hope to see the trend continue in 2023.

A HEALTHIER AFRICAN QUEER COMMUNITY

The HIV epidemic has been a crisis in the queer community for years now, in recent years we are seeing more innovations in the fight against the virus.

In 2022 we also saw two innovations that will ensure we continue to win the fight against the HI virus.

Cabotegravir: South Africa approves long-acting injectable PrEP

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) announced the day after World Aids Day. That it had registered Cabotegravir, a long-acting HIV pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP). Cabotegravir is an antiretroviral drug (ARV) that can be used by HIV-negative people to prevent HIV infection. Furthermore, each cabotegravir injection lasts for two months and will be sold in South Africa under Apretude. In October, the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe announced its approval of long-acting injectable cabotegravir.  Continue reading here

ARV injection: Once a month long-acting HIV treatment

This antiretroviral (ARV) injection called Cabenuva is a combination injection of Cabotegravir and rilpivirine used to treat the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. In 2021 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Cabenuva for people with an undetectable viral load. Three African countries were identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to trial the injection in Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa. Continue reading here