Conchita Wurst Wants Quality Time With Putin

Photo by George Pimentel via Getty Images

1. Gorgeous, articulate and wildly talented, Conchita Wurst won our hearts and votes at last year's Eurovision Song Contest. Since then, the bearded drag queen has used her fame towards international activist, recently appearing alongside UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In an interview with Austrain paper Kurier, Conchita expressed a desire to spend a week with Putin in order to better "understand" him. She also said how touched she was to have so many fans in Russia (her winning ballad, "Rise Like A Phoenix," was number one on Russian iTunes after her victory), despite Putin's cultivation of such an inhospitable environment. (Towleroad)

2. Massachusetts Demorcrat Maura Healey is set to become the first openly gay state Attorney General in the United States. (PinkNews)

3. Left-leaning Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, offers a summary of LGBT highs and lows in the Middle East. From Lebanon to Turkey, Israel and ISIS, there's "mostly bitter, but some defiantely sweet" stories from "one of the world's most violently homophobic regions". (Haaretz)

4. It's been announced that Canadian Idol finalist (and hunk) Marshall Williams will play the openly gay 'football stud' in final season of Glee. (Towleroad)

5. As with Iran, in the light of the criminalization of homosexuality, it seems that some gay people in India are opting to become transgender rather than face life in the shadows. (Newsweek)

6. If you're not familiar with openly gay rapper Big Momma, you missing out on one of the years breakouts. His second mixtape, The Plague, was named some of the year's best music by The Backlot. To round of the holidays, here's his surprise single, "Dear Santa": (The Backlot)