In a video taken by Ayala and shared with NBC News, the employee can be heard saying “hombre, mujer” repeatedly, which translates into “man, woman.” She then says, in a mix of English and Spanish, “Everything correct my family: hombre, mujer, nino y nina,” adding the Spanish words for boy and girl. In a separate video shot by Ayala, the woman can be heard repeatedly apologizing.

Mike and Carol Bruno did everything right to avoid Covid-19. They refrained from hosting the big, traditional family gatherings they were used to. They stuck to phone calls and video conferences with family even though they didn't live far away.

But a simple family visit to get a haircut claimed both of their lives.

The Brunos were married nearly six decades before they passed away from the virus, their son Joseph Bruno told CNN. The Chicago couple, who died 10 days apart, are now among the more than 337,000 people who have died from coronavirus in the US.

Bruno hopes his family's grief serves as an important reminder of how easy it can be to contract Covid-19, no matter how safe you are.

The rapid development of several COVID-19 vaccines has compelled numerous web commenters to accusingly ask why the same hasn’t been done for HIV, a pandemic that has lasted nearly 40 years longer than the coronavirus.

However, a closer look at the different virology of coronavirus and HIV helps explain why the former has a soon-to-be widely available vaccine and the latter doesn’t.

The aforementioned critics often claim that the lack of an HIV vaccine is due to the fact that HIV has most affected men and trans women who have sex with men, Black people, people of color, and intravenous drug users — marginalized people who tend to have less money and political power. Thus, the lack of an HIV vaccine can seem like a conspiratorial way to let these communities die off.

A recent report by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) found that LGBTQ families are experiencing disproportionate challenges due to the pandemic.

The report, based on the results of a summer survey by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that LGBTQ households are experiencing greater financial strain, more unemployment, and bigger struggles to balance work and childcare than non-LGBTQ households.

The report found, for example, that 66% of LGBTQ households have experienced a serious financial problem since the pandemic began, compared to 44% of non-LGBTQ households.

It also found that 52% of LGBTQ households with children have had trouble keeping their kids’ education going, compared to 36% of non-LGBTQ households that have experienced this challenge.

Healthcare has also been a huge challenge for the LGBTQ community, with 38% of LGBTQ households reporting they were unable to get medical care or delayed getting medical care for serious issues. This compared to 19% of non-LGBTQ households.

Michael Alig — the infamous nightlife legend, “King of the Club Kids,” and convicted murderer — has died by apparent overdose in his Upper Manhattan home on Christmas Day, the New York Daily News reports from official sources. He was 54.

According to reports, Alig was doing heroin shortly before he lost consciousness around 3 a.m., his boyfriend told police, and medics found him dead at the scene.

George Michael’s ex was busted for smashing his way into the late pop star’s London home — just days before the fourth anniversary of the singer’s Christmas Day death, according to reports.

Troubled hairstylist Fadi Fawaz, 47, was confronted Tuesday morning after breaking a window to get into the “Last Christmas” star’s empty $6.75 million home, the Sun said.

“This is my place. George wanted me to have it,” he allegedly yelled at officers who arrived at the house that Fawaz was kicked out of by Michael’s family last year, the UK paper said.

Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey shared a third annual Christmas Eve video Thursday that left many wondering whether he knew how to read the room.

The nearly 2½-minute YouTube video, which he also posted on his Twitter feed, featured Spacey, 61, addressing the camera directly while walking in an unidentified park.

“Protect our children,” one picket sign read. “Do not wait until there are victims.”

The unnamed principal’s relationship with his partner was reportedly outed via Facebook on April 2020.

One protestor claimed the principal admitted to having sex with his partner in front of parents, that the principal called it a “mistake” and offered to resign in July, but hasn’t done so. The protestor also claimed that 300 parents signed a petition demanding the principal be dismissed; some are reportedly worried the principal will install secret cameras in the children’s bathrooms.

The “evidence” against the teachers included suggestions that they “used magical powers to seduce the children and render the crime scenes invisible,” reports The New York Times.

Many know Adonis Bosso's face. He has been a model working in high fashion, commercial, runway, and editorial over the past seven years. He has become known on social media via his handle SeptumPapi, where he's introduced the world to his son Saphir, as well as his own original music created from his poetry. Now, in a new interview, the well-known face is introducing an aspect of himself to the wider public: he has come out as sexually fluid, a move that came as a result of his ex Slick Woods.

He must be taking the cancellation of the 2021 Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge pretty hard.

Hugh Jackman was spotted out on a Hamptons beach with wife Deborra-Lee Furness on Monday, and despite it being December in New York, the pair went for a swim!

Furness was wearing a wetsuit, so she at least hasn’t taken complete leave of her senses, though Jackman opted for just a pair of swim trunks despite the water temperature in Montauk being recorded at 44 degrees Monday. Either way, they’re both clearly made of sterner stuff than we are.

“They literally ripped them out of the ground, and wiped their asses with them, and carefully laid them at the base of our Pride Flag... I thought things might get stolen, but never in a million years did I think this would happen. I'm completely in shock,” he said.

Someone asked me the other day what my favorite movie was, and I immediately said Arthur, like I always do. Then they said, “Never heard of it? When did it come out?” I didn’t answer 1981, nearly 40 years ago. At that moment I felt old, out of date, and superficially shallow.

Thus, I was not surprised by a new report from The Fenway Institute that found older LGBTQ+ adults in the state of Massachusetts have been diagnosed with depression at twice the rate of their straight, cisgender peers. It could be Massachusetts or any other state, or any other country because depression among older LGBTQ+ people is real, and no doubt much more widespread than we ever realize. I always tell people that if it could happen to me, the proverbial life of the party, it can happen to anyone. Having dealt with severe depression, and then having sought out many older LGBTQ+ people who also experienced similar circumstances, I found it remarkable that we all suffered from some sort of PTSD from our youths.

Again, not surprised that the report also found that LGBTQ+ individuals were twice as likely to fall and be injured in a fall over the past year, and I wouldn’t be shocked to hear if some of that was related to dangerous behavior about feeling alone and useless. Another woman, a lesbian, told me that she had a life-threatening operation, and has not been the same since and feels there’s nothing to live for, except her cat, who is 10. Otherwise, she is alone, without her partner who died, and without a family to take care of her. The family has made her feel shame for who she is, and she worries about being alone for the remainder of her life. Some days, she doesn’t feel like getting out of bed, and subsists on her Social Security checks, desperately afraid that she’ll end up in a nursing home left to die. We didn’t discuss it, but I’m sure she feels equal trepidation about not being able to pay the costs of round-the-clock care.

Izzy Wouters is making her truth known.

The Below Deck newcomer came out as a lesbian in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“The face of the straight men who slide into my dm’s when I say - HELLO MY NAME IS IZZY AND I AM OUT AND PROUD,” she wrote alongside two photos of her making faces, adding the hashtags #LankyLezzy and #OutAndProud with rainbow emojis.

Her fellow Below Deck cast members shared their love for Wouters in the comments section, with Eddie Lucas writing, “Get it girl!! You the best! ??????”

Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government.

Buttigieg would be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary should his nomination make it through the chamber.

"Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a patriot and a problem-solver who speaks to the best of who we are as a nation," Biden said. "I am nominating him for Secretary of Transportation because this position stands at the nexus of so many of the interlocking challenges and opportunities ahead of us."

Biden added that he sees the Department of Transportation as the "site of some of our most ambitious plans to build back better" and that he trusts "Mayor Pete to lead this work with focus, decency, and a bold vision."

Hig Roberts, an American former World Cup alpine ski racer who skyrocketed to the top as a member of the U.S. National team, has come out as gay.

Roberts, who is the first U.S. Alpine Ski Team member and the first male World Cup alpine skier in the world to come out, opens up in an interview with Out about struggling with his sexual identity, how he felt “muted” by the Olympics organization, his evolution toward accepting himself, and what he believes needs to change in the world of sports to create a more inclusive environment for players.

"[Being in the closet] took away a lot of the experience and the joy I could have experienced during this life and that’s a shame,” Roberts tells Out. “I had moments of standing on the podium with national titles and still feeling depressed. I was almost in a daze because of the mental anguish I would feel. I had sleepless nights. I had anxiety attacks. I had big bouts of depression. I had to closet all of that from my teammates and my coaches.”