A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to support Miss J. Alexander after the America’s Next Top Model alum revealed he suffered a devastating stroke that left him partially paralyzed.
Alexander, the queer model and runway coach best known as a judge on the long-running franchise, disclosed in the Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model that he experienced a stroke in December 2022 that left him unable to walk or speak.
He spent five weeks in a coma and underwent a year and a half of intensive rehabilitation, enduring additional mini-strokes and seizures that required further hospitalizations. He has since regained his speech but remains unable to walk.
“For the past three years, Miss J. has been bravely fighting his way back and struggling to live independently. We are hoping to secure full-time, round-the-clock care and help with the on-going regular physical, speech, and occupational therapies,” the GoFundMe page reads. “Your donation — no matter the size — will go toward rehabilitation services, in-home care, medical bills, and essential living costs incurred on this long road of recovery.”
The campaign has raised more than $31,000 so far.
The documentary arrives as America’s Next Top Model faces renewed scrutiny, with critics revisiting the beauty standards it promoted, the treatment of contestants, and several controversial or culturally insensitive challenges.
Some viewers may not have known about Alexander’s health struggles after his contract was not renewed ahead of cycle 19 — reportedly at the network’s request. His candid appearance in the documentary, detailing behind-the-scenes tensions, has prompted some to see him as one of the show’s casualties.
As reported by The Blast, an Instagram user questioned organizer Steven Grossman about launching the fundraiser, citing his status as a Hollywood manager and producer.
“Because he kept it private for years until the Netflix documentary came out and it wasn’t my news to share,” Grossman replied. “For clarity though I’ve never repped Miss J. He’s just a friend.”
A GoFundMe has been launched to purchase surveillance cameras to monitor the flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument in New York.
The effort, launched by longtime LGBTQ activist Michael Petrelis, seeks to monitor the flagpole that has, at various points, flown the Pride and Progress Pride flags.
National Park Service employees recently removed a Pride flag bearing the agency's logo and the year the Stonewall National Monument was designated a national monument.
Lio Cundiff was sitting on a bench near Chicago's Belmont Harbor on February 18, talking on the phone with his aunt, when he looked up to see a woman screaming and chasing a baby stroller rolling toward the water after being carried off by the wind.
The National Weather Service had warned of sustained winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts reaching 50. The force of the wind sent the stroller -- carrying an 8-month-old girl -- into the lake.
While the baby’s mother stood in shock, Cundiff, a 31-year-old Chicago transgender man and server at the local restaurant Oak and Honey, jumped into the lake and swam to the stroller, despite not knowing how to swim. He fought to keep the infant from slipping beneath the surface.
King Tyra, best known under his former stage name Tyra Sanchez, has announced an apparent lawsuit against RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and World of Wonder (WOW) Productions, alleging “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, false light, and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage,” according to a Statement of Claim he posted to social media.
In a Facebook post, the winner of the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race claimed there has been a “systematic and malicious campaign” to “discredit and destroy career and livelihood.”
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