Beach Volleyball Pro Alex Ukkelberg Comes Out: ‘I’m Thankful That I’m Gay’

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Beach Volleyball Pro Alex Ukkelberg Comes Out: ‘I’m Thankful That I’m Gay’

Growing up, Alex Ukkelberg played basketball, football and baseball, and ran track. He knew he wanted to be an athlete. From the messages he was getting, he thought that meant he couldn’t be gay.

Now a professional beach volleyball player based in Los Angeles, Ukkelberg has shared that story publicly in an Instagram video. One line captures how far he’s come: “I’m thankful that I’m gay.”

Why He Shared It Now

Ukkelberg had been out to family and friends for years. As he explained in the video, he still found it difficult to talk about his sexuality on social media. Even after recording it, he felt the pull to delete it.

He decided to share it because he remembered what he’d needed when he was younger: to hear an athlete talk openly about being gay. He says he’s come to see his sexuality as part of what has made him more empathetic.

Friends on the Sand

Ukkelberg took a winding route to professional beach volleyball. His Stackletics profile traces his path from indoor volleyball at Grand View University to playing professionally in the United Kingdom and eventually competing on the sand. Outsports reports that he and playing partner Logan Webber won the AVP Laguna Beach Open in 2025.

Among his friends on tour is fellow out pro Charlie Siragusa. The two have played together and share a group chat with other gay volleyball players. They call it GayVP.

That kind of visibility has already made a difference for other players. When Kyle Friend and Tim Brewster shared their engagement story, part of what made it so lovely was hearing how much it had meant to Brewster to know a player who was out and comfortable with himself.

Ukkelberg remembers wanting to see someone like that when he was growing up. Somewhere, a kid who loves sports can now hear it from him.

📷 @alex.ukkelberg @crabclaw.shots

Brett Jones Is Set to Become Alabama’s First Openly Gay Sheriff

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Brett Jones Is Set to Become Alabama’s First Openly Gay Sheriff

In 2002, being outed put Brett Jones’s Navy career at risk. On November 3, voters in Madison County, Alabama, chose the former Navy SEAL to be their next sheriff.

Jones, a Democrat, defeated Republican incumbent Kevin Turner, who had held the job for two terms. PinkNews reported that Jones will become Alabama’s first openly gay sheriff, a milestone the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund highlighted when it backed his campaign.

According to Huntsville News Today’s reporting on the unofficial county results, Jones received 84,068 votes to Turner’s 74,639.

A Life in Uniform

Jones served in the Navy, worked in protective operations for the CIA and went into local policing, according to his campaign biography. The early part of that career came with a personal cost. A 2015 Los Angeles Times profile traced how a voicemail led to his being outed and a Navy investigation during the era of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The same profile caught up with him years later in northern Alabama, where he had built a family with Jason White, a former police detective. That earlier chapter gives the election a personal dimension. Jones once had to keep a relationship secret from his teammates. This week his name was on the ballot in the part of Alabama he had made home.

What He Plans to Change

Jones’s campaign platform called for independent reviews of deaths in custody and more training for deputies and corrections officers. In his post-election interview with WAFF, he said he did not plan to renew the office’s contracts for Flock license plate readers. He also said deputies would need warrants to access cameras operated by other agencies.

In that interview, Jones described the work ahead in terms of public safety, jail reform and constitutional rights. WAFF reports that he is due to be sworn in in January. That’s when Madison County will start to see how he puts those promises into practice.

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Two Friends Brought Drag to Finnish TV. Now Happy Gays Returns

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Two Friends Brought Drag to Finnish TV. Now Happy Gays Returns

In the late 1970s, two friends named Jolanda and Mummo shared a stage in a Finnish drag show called Happy Gays. The performance made it onto television. Nearly half a century later, a group of younger drag artists is finding out what it takes to bring the show back to life.

That meeting is at the heart of Fruitcakes: Dawn of Drag, a documentary by Vesa Kuosmanen. The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival lists the film’s world premiere for November 7 at Apollo Kino Plaza.

Two Friends in the Spotlight

The festival describes Happy Gays as Finland’s first drag show. It also describes two different experiences of visibility. Jolanda, now a retired archivist, spent much of his life in the closet. Mummo became one of Finland’s earliest openly gay men. In April 1988, Mummo was murdered in his home.

For Jolanda, opening his archive means sharing a piece of the life he and his friend had before that loss. There was a show to put on, a stage to share and an audience that would eventually extend beyond the people in the room.

When a New Cast Takes the Stage

The Finnish Film Foundation describes the project as a collaboration between Jolanda and a younger generation of drag artists. Kuosmanen brings footage from the 1980s together with staged scenes and present-day rehearsals. The festival programme describes moments of friction and humour as the new performers encounter the traditions of the older show.

A revival gives the performers something concrete to talk about. Which parts of the old show still get a laugh? What do younger artists want to do differently? Those questions give the history somewhere to go: back into a room where people are making a show together.

For viewers who never saw Happy Gays, the documentary offers a chance to meet Jolanda and remember Mummo as his friend and fellow performer. They once got to share the pleasure of putting on a show. Now a new cast gets a turn.

📷 PÖFF

Colton Little Opens Up About Acting Struggles—and Choosing Himself

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Colton Little Opens Up About Acting Struggles—and Choosing Himself

Colton Little has helped bring a gay love story to daytime television. Now, the Days of Our Lives actor is sharing a difficult chapter of his own: deciding when to step back from a career he has spent years building.

Little, known for playing Andrew Donovan, discussed his financial and professional struggles in an October 31 Instagram video. According to USA TODAY’s reporting, republished by AOL, he said he owed roughly $2,000 in SAG-AFTRA dues and showed an apparent notice that his membership was scheduled to terminate on November 1.

The notice does not independently establish his current membership status. His message does, however, make clear how difficult this moment feels.

Giving Himself Permission to Pause

After about 15 years of professional acting, Little described struggling to find opportunities and feeling torn about pulling back from his dream.

As EntertainmentNow reported from his video, he said he had decided not to pay his outstanding dues and would focus on himself unless the right opportunity came along.

“I’m going to prioritize myself for now,” he said.

That leaves the door open to future work. It also gives him room to acknowledge that a career can matter deeply while becoming difficult to sustain.

A Life Beyond the Characters

There is a real-life love story alongside Little’s television work. He and fellow soap actor Adrian Anchondo, known for playing Marco Rios on General Hospital, went public with their relationship in late 2025, sharing holiday photos from Puerto Rico and Florida.

Their public messages have also offered glimpses of the support behind an acting career. Following Anchondo’s departure from General Hospital in March, Soap Opera Digest reported their affectionate tributes to each other.

Anchondo thanked Little for rehearsing lines with him, encouraging him and offering comfort through difficult moments. Little, in turn, celebrated Anchondo’s work ethic and the care he had shown his colleagues.

Those earlier exchanges add a human dimension to Little’s latest update, without telling us how the couple is privately navigating it.

The Union’s Position

In its October 25 member FAQ, SAG-AFTRA said regular dues enforcement and membership terminations would resume on November 1 following pandemic- and strike-related relief.

The union said affected members had received repeated notices and 12 months to bring their accounts current. It also described payment options and a reinstatement process that allows individual consideration of financial hardship.

The Work Still Matters

For gay soap fans, Little’s portrayal of Andrew carries its own significance. In June 2025, Andrew married Paul Narita, played by Christopher Sean, on Days of Our Lives.

As Michael Fairman TV reported at the time, Little spoke about how meaningful it was to portray love that felt authentic to his experience as a gay man.

Taking a pause does not erase that contribution. For viewers weighing their own difficult decisions about work and identity, his willingness to talk about it may matter, too.

📷 @littlecolton @javichando

Twenty Years After Banning Gay Marriage, Virginia Votes To Protect It

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Twenty Years After Banning Gay Marriage, Virginia Votes To Protect It

In 2006, Virginia voters put a same-sex marriage ban into their state constitution.

Twenty years later, voters have chosen to replace it with protections for marriage equality.

Now that is an anniversary worth raising a glass to.

Virginians have approved Question 2, a constitutional amendment removing the old prohibition and establishing an affirmative right to marry.

For gay couples who remember being the subject of those marriage-ban campaigns, the turnaround carries a particular emotional weight.

They have spent the intervening years building homes, celebrating anniversaries and doing the wonderfully ordinary work of sharing a life.

Now their state’s constitution is getting a long-overdue update.

What Virginia Voters Approved

According to the Virginia Department of Elections, the amendment protects lawful marriages between two adults regardless of sex, gender or race.

It also requires those marriages to be treated equally under state law.

The protections therefore cover interracial marriages as well as same-sex marriages.

VPM reported that the Associated Press called the measure’s passage on Tuesday evening, with official certification still to follow.

Under the legislation authorizing the referendum, the amendment takes effect on January 1, 2027.

That gives Virginia a new constitutional starting point for the year ahead.

Why The Old Words Still Mattered

Same-sex couples can already marry in Virginia.

The Washington Post reports that a federal appeals court struck down the state’s ban in 2014, before the Supreme Court established marriage equality nationwide in 2015.

Yet the discriminatory language remained in Virginia’s constitution.

As VPM explains, supporters wanted to remove that provision and establish state constitutional protection against the possibility of federal marriage rights being reversed.

The vote therefore addresses both the words Virginia uses to describe marriage and the legal foundation protecting couples.

For husbands planning their future together, that foundation matters.

A marriage includes the joyful photographs, certainly, but also the practical commitments that stretch across decades.

It is the person you call first, the household you run together and the promise to keep showing up when life gets complicated.

A Different Answer After Twenty Years

Equality Virginia traces the old ban to the Marshall-Newman Amendment, which voters approved in November 2006.

The organization has advocated for removing that language and replacing it with an affirmative right to marry.

Responding to the result, Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson celebrated the removal of a discriminatory provision and the strengthening of marriage protections, according to LGBTQ Nation.

For readers who remember when their relationships regularly appeared on ballots, the significance needs little explaining.

Twenty years ago, Virginia voters approved exclusion.

This time, they approved constitutional recognition and equal treatment.

For the couples who have loved each other through those changing political seasons, that is a milestone worth celebrating together.

📷 Canva Stock

For more LGBTQ+ stories, visit B-Gay on YouTube.

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