Rainbow Briefing | Tuesday 27 Jan: Order of Australia, AJ Ogilvy, Heated Rivalry, Oscars, TasPride

Hi, I’m Louise Poole, and this is the Rainbow Briefing for Tuesday the 27th of January. Your daily LGBTQIA+ news catchup.

Recorded and produced on Yugambeh and Yuggera land. Where stories have been told for thousands of years. Sovereignty was never ceded.

Three LGBTQIA+ advocates have been recognised in yesterday’s Australia Day Honours.

Ben Bjarnesen received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his work supporting Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ communities in the domestic and family violence sector. A former police officer and domestic violence survivor himself, Bjarnesen founded the LGBTQ Domestic Violence Awareness Foundation in 2019 and established a national awareness day on May 28th. Since then, the foundation’s work has spread to more than 20 countries.

Also receiving a Medal was Victorian clinical neuropsychologist Dr Judy Tang — former President of the Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council, current Board Director of the Victorian Pride Centre, and one of Victoria’s twelve Multicultural Commissioners. In accepting her honour, Dr Tang acknowledged that while Australia is a land of opportunity, it is also land that was never ceded.

And Dr Nicholas Andrew Medland was honoured posthumously as a Member of the Order — a higher honour than the Medal. The sexual health physician worked tirelessly for more than two decades advancing HIV treatment and prevention through his work at the Kirby Institute. He served as President of the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine and was remembered as a true champion of human rights and health equity.

Retired basketballer AJ Ogilvy has come out as gay, revealing he’s been married for eighteen months to a man he met while playing for the Sydney Kings.

Ogilvy had a successful career spanning Europe and Australia, playing for the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks where he served as captain. But he says he wasn’t living his authentic life during his playing career.

He made the announcement in a video with Adelaide 36ers star Isaac Humphries — the NBL’s only out gay player — ahead of the league’s Pride Round, which runs until February 1st.

He credited Humphries’ coming out in 2022 and the marriage equality vote in 2017 as turning points that helped him speak publicly now.

The stars of Heated Rivalry helped carry the Olympic flame on Sunday.

Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie — who play rival hockey players in a secret decade-long romance on the hit series — carried the torch through Italy as part of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics relay.

The show follows two closeted professional athletes who are rivals on the ice but have been secretly in love for years. It’s become a cultural phenomenon with a huge Australian following on HBO Max.

Videos of Williams and Storrie in matching pink-and-white tracksuits have been shared by official Olympic accounts — and the response from fans has been overwhelming.

The 2026 Oscar nominations are drawing criticism for minimal LGBTQIA+ representation.

Wicked: For Good — the musical beloved by queer audiences for decades — was completely shut out. Neither openly queer star Cynthia Erivo nor Ariana Grande received nominations, despite both being nominated for last year’s Wicked.

Daniel Craig was also overlooked — this time for Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man, where he plays queer detective Benoit Blanc.

What did make the cut? British short film A Friend of Dorothy, starring Miriam Margolyes. KPop Demon Hunters picked up a nomination for Best Original Song for “Golden” — co-written by queer songwriter Mark Sonnenblick. And animated feature Elio, co-directed by gay filmmaker Adrian Molina — though the lead character was originally queer-coded to reflect Molina’s identity, but that was slowly erased during production in favour of more “masculine” traits.

The 98th Academy Awards air March 16th in Australia.

TasPride Festival kicks off this Friday with the Pride Flag Raising at Hobart Town Hall.

The ceremony begins at 12:30pm, with the flags flying proudly over Hobart for the festival’s duration. Stay for light refreshments inside the Town Hall, then head to the Opening Cocktail Party that evening at Battery Point.

The festival runs through to March 1st — a state-wide celebration of pride, diversity, and community, championing visibility and connection right across Tasmania.

That’s the Rainbow Briefing for Tuesday the 27th of January.

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