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Lucille Frances Lawless is a New Zealand actress. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series. Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder.
Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital. The show was first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992 and is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 7,900 episodes and 32 years. It is one of the most watched television programmes in New Zealand.
"There's Something About Marrying" is the tenth episode of the sixteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. In the episode, Springfield legalizes same-sex marriage to increase tourism. After becoming a minister, Homer starts to wed people to make money. Meanwhile, Marge's sister Patty comes out as a lesbian and reveals she is going to marry a woman named Veronica. The episode title is a play on the Farrelly brothers' 1998 romantic comedy There's Something About Mary.
Anika Rose Moa is a New Zealand recording artist and television presenter. Her debut studio album Thinking Room, was released in September 2001, which reached number one on the New Zealand Albums Chart and provided two Top 5 singles, "Youthful" (2001) and "Falling in Love Again" (2002). Moa competed at the Rockquest songwriting contest in 1998, which led to a recording contract. She is the subject of two documentaries by film-maker Justin Pemberton: 3 Chords and the Truth: the Anika Moa Story (2003), detailing her signing to a record label and the release of Thinking Room, and In Bed with Anika Moa (2010) on her later career.
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New Zealand lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are some of the most extensive in the world. The protection of LGBT rights is advanced, relative to other countries in Oceania, and among the most liberal in the world, with the country being the first in the region to legalise same-sex marriage.
New Zealand society is generally accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) peoples. The LGBTQ-friendly environment is epitomised by the fact that there are several members of Parliament who belong to the LGBTQ community, LGBTQ rights are protected by the Human Rights Act, and same-sex couples are able to marry as of 2013. Sex between men was decriminalised in 1986. New Zealand has an active LGBTQ community, with well-attended annual gay pride festivals in most cities.
Maia Anne Jeffries is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. She was portrayed by Anna Jullienne from mid-2004 to early-2011, with the character starring in numerous high-profile storylines alongside her on screen family. The character returned as part of the show's 20th anniversary in May 2012.
Christopher Banks is a New Zealand journalist, musician, record producer, songwriter and film-maker.
GayNZ.com is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community website for New Zealand.
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"The Puppy Episode" is a two-part episode of the American situation comedy television series Ellen. The episode details lead character Ellen Morgan's realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out. It was the 22nd and 23rd episode of the series's 4th season. The episode was written by series star Ellen DeGeneres with Mark Driscoll, Tracy Newman, Dava Savel and Jonathan Stark and directed by Gil Junger. It originally aired on ABC on April 30, 1997. The title was used as a code name for Ellen's coming out so as to keep the episode under wraps.
Historically, the portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in media has been largely negative if not altogether absent, reflecting a general cultural intolerance of LGBT individuals; however, from the 1990s to present day, there has been an increase in the positive depictions of LGBT people, issues, and concerns within mainstream media in North America. The LGBT communities have taken an increasingly proactive stand in defining their own culture, with a primary goal of achieving an affirmative visibility in mainstream media. The positive portrayal or increased presence of the LGBT communities in media has served to increase acceptance and support for LGBT communities, establish LGBT communities as a norm, and provide information on the topic.
Jessica "Jay" Copeland is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street who was portrayed by Jaime Passier-Armstrong from mid-2004 to mid-2007. She was the show's first lesbian regular character and longtime love interest for Maia Jeffries.
The demographics of sexual orientation and gender identity in the United States have been studied in the social sciences in recent decades. A 2022 Gallup poll concluded that 7.1% of adult Americans identified as LGBT. A different survey in 2016, from the Williams Institute, estimated that 0.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender. As of 2022, estimates for the total percentage of U.S. adults that are transgender or nonbinary range from 0.5% to 1.6%. Additionally, a Pew Research survey from 2022 found that approximately 5% of young adults in the U.S. say their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth.
The depiction of LGBTQ characters in Western animated series in the 2000s changed significantly from the previous decade. This included series such as Queer Duck, the first animated TV series with homosexuality as a predominant theme, The Boondocks, American Dad, bro'Town, W.I.T.C.H., The Venture Bros., Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, Moral Orel, Lizzy the Lezzy, and many others would include LGBTQ characters.
References
- ↑ Labbet, T. "Gay and Lesbian Television Audiences" [ permanent dead link ], 4 July 2006, retrieved 18 October 2006.
- ↑ "NZOA research: Kiwifruit responds" Archived 11 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine , GayNZ.com, 28 September 2006, retrieved 9 October 2008.