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Will you show up on Friday 6 February 2026 and represent the inclusive kaupapa of the bear community? Go on then – enter here! Every year, Bear New Zealand Week brings together one of Aotearoa’s warmest, furriest, most proudly eclectic corners of our rainbow community. And right at the heart of it sits one of […]

URGE has never been the kind of night that simmers. It boils. It pulses. It erupts. Born on K’ Road back in 1997, the iconic bar-with-attitude has evolved into Aotearoa’s ultimate gay dance-party giant—and for its 28th birthday, the beats were so hot the fire alarm did actually go off. From the moment the doors […]

In Aotearoa, fewer than six percent of career firefighters are women — and the number of queer, takatāpui, and gender diverse firefighters is so small it doesn’t even show up properly in the stats. That absence is exactly why the Wāhine Toa Firefighter Calendar has landed with such force. Bold, cheeky, a little thirsty, and […]

Labour’s Rainbow spokesperson, Shanan Halbert, has condemned the Government’s decision to halt new prescriptions of puberty blockers for transgender youth, calling it “one of the most damaging and ideological moves we’ve seen in our health system”. The criticism comes in response to Health Minister Simeon Brown’s announcement that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues will no longer […]

Comedian Lily Catastrophe discusses flipping the script on gender-affirming care in Aotearoa.  There’s something quietly radical about a trans woman standing on a stage in Aotearoa and saying, “This is my life.” For comedian and cabaret artist Lily Catastrophe, the act of speaking – and laughing – about her experiences is both art and advocacy. […]

Ahead of the premier of his starring role in Set In Stone as part of Fringe In The ‘Stings, Eru Heke tells us what it’s like to be a young drag queen living in Hawke’s Bay. For 19-year-old drag artist and actor Eru Heke, Hawke’s Bay isn’t just home, it’s where art, identity, and community […]

YOUR EX’s Oliver Hall talks to Body Positive Executive Director Mark Fisher about the organisation’s new sexual health clinic, Test’n’Treat, and how this community-first model is changing healthcare in Aotearoa New Zealand.  It’s a sunny Thursday afternoon on Karangahape Road, and you’ve just turned onto Poynton Terrace to walk into a sexual health clinic. But […]

DJ Winner Mick, aka Mick Whitty, is known to community members for his sets at URGE parties, but recently he swapped the decks for boxing gloves. He tells YOUR EX about his physical and mental journey to stepping in the squared circle. When Wellington’s DJ Winner Mick — known off the decks as Mick Whitty […]