Arts & Entertainment
Lance Bass says ‘Finding Prince Charming’ cast member is HIV-positive
Bachelor thinks ‘It’s really a stigma that we have to resolve now’

(Screenshot via LOGO)
“Finding Prince Charming” host Lance Bass has confirmed rumors a cast member will reveal he is HIV-positive on the show.
“It is true,” Bass told People Magazine about the gay dating reality show. “This is one of the things I love about the show â it’s a fun reality show, it’s dramatic, but there’s a lot of heart in it and amazing story lines that you’re going to shed a tear over. And one of those is finding about this guy’s HIV.”
“All of us know someone that is living with HIV, and I think the stigma is still really bad out there â people are just so uneducated about it,” Bass continued. “To us, obviously it doesn’t matter at all, we’ve been around it so much, but I think this is really going to educate a lot of people. I’m excited for people to watch it, especially this episode.”
The contestants will be competing for the affections of Robert SepĂșlveda Jr. who told People Magazine that the contestant’s HIV status did not deter him from giving him the same chance at love as everyone else.
“For me, it’s like: Is someone HIV-positive not worthy of love?” SepĂșlveda Jr. says. “That’s really the question, and it doesn’t matter to me. ‘Prince Charming’ would be accepting of anyone, and that’s how I am.”
“In the gay community, in just any community, if you have a disease, it’s not going to be anything that someone’s going to push you away from,” SepĂșlveda Jr. continued . “Again, me being ‘Prince Charming’ â the guy that everyone’s vying for their attention â I’m not going to not date someone because they’re HIV-positive. That’s ridiculous. It’s really a stigma that we have to resolve now.”
“Finding Prince Charming” airs on LOGO Thursday, Sept. 8 at 9 p.m.
Italy
Olympics Pride House âreally important for the communityâ
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympicsâ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milanâs MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph NaklĂ©.
NaklĂ© in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italyâs only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (âHeated Rivalryâ stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italyâs Veneto region.)
NaklĂ© said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is âactually our main objective.â
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the countryâs nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations âin order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.â
âą Marriage equality for same-sex couples
âą Depathologization of trans identities
âą Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
âWe are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,â NaklĂ© told the Blade. âThatâs why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.â
âWe want to use the Olympic games â because there is a big media attention â and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,â he added.

NaklĂ© noted Pride House will host âtalks and roundtables every nightâ during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what NaklĂ© described to the Blade as âthe importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.â
Seven LGBTQ Olympians â Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons â are scheduled to participate in Pride Houseâs Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles â West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlaniâs documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles â West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
âThe objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,â he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the womenâs downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a âhard timeâ with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sundayâs medal ceremony.
âI was disappointed because Iâve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking âabout being decent â human rights and decency,â said Glenn, according to the AP. âSo that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.â
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
âNot only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,â Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. âThat includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.â
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
âHis performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,â said Serrano. âHe embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the âonly thing more powerful than hate is love.ââ
Drag artists perform for crowds in towns across Virginia. The photographer follows Gerryatrick, Shenandoah, Climaxx, Emerald Envy among others over eight months as they perform at venues in the Virginia towns of Staunton, Harrisonburg and Fredericksburg.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)



















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