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In a brief online elegy for Dolly Parton, with whom she’d worked on the women-empowering film “9 to 5,” actor and famed liberal activist Jane Fonda made it a point to note that Parton cared about her queer fans.

“To her gay and trans fans, I want you to know that she loved you,” Fonda wrote. “You know that without me telling you.”

Indeed, we do.

Dolly meant something special to the LGBTQ+ community, in part because she represented an America where we are accepted — not just in big blue cities, but in one-room cabins in East Tennessee and in every rural, American-flag-flying corner of this big country.

Dolly was colorful and vivacious and unapologetic, and had more than a bit of drag queen in her. But she was also an unabashed ally with a country twang — a friend from the part of America where many queer people still instinctively put their guard up.

Of course, a country twang and queer acceptance can go hand in hand, and often do.

The Human Rights Campaign just last week cited a new U.S. Census Bureau analysis showing a record-high 12% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or gender diverse.

That’s more than 25 million people, and they live all across the country. Many sound like Dolly. Many are surrounded by loving, supportive family too.

Yet it remained important, particularly as LGBTQ+ rights have come under increasing attack, that Dolly — big, beloved, down-home Dolly — had our back too.

She wrote and sang the Oscar-nominated song “Travelin’ Thru” from the 2005 movie “Transamerica,” about a transgender woman and her son. She collaborated with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus on “Rainbowland,” a tribute to gay pride. And she made no secret of where she stood.

“I have some of everybody in my own immediate family and in my circle of employees. I’ve got transgender people. I’ve got gays. I’ve got lesbians,” she said in 2023. “I know and love them all, and I do not judge.… That’s who they are. They cannot help that any more than I can help being Dolly Parton.”

The LGBTQ+ community has watched in recent years as corporations and other supposed allies have backed away and gone quiet amid shifting politics and the Trump administration’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion and the transgender community.

But not Dolly. We saw her stand her ground, next to us. And that meant something. Dolly showed that you can appeal to the whole of America without throwing LGBTQ+ people under the bus.

She showed that you can stand behind LGBTQ+ people without twisting into socially awkward or politically damaging positions, no matter your audience. Sometimes it just takes plain language about accepting everyone as they are.

She showed that holding onto faith, patriotism and the American way of life doesn’t mean you can’t also hold space for LGBTQ+ people to live their own happy lives.

She showed that we are all more alike than we are different, and that it’s easier to see eye to eye when you aren’t looking past one another.

Dolly showed that a country star and all-American icon, beloved as much in rural dive bars as big city queer clubs, could transcend the bogus narrative that LGBTQ+ lives are a political issue rather than a part of our collective humanity — and that all of us can too.

Dolly represented the America that LGBTQ+ people love and remain loyal to, the open-armed, diverse, compassionate, take-people-as-they-come version of America that is still all of ours to enjoy if we just work for it a little — just like Dolly did.

Dolly loved LGBTQ+ people, and we loved her — in part because she showed us that our country still loves us too.

HAYDEN Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend was by her side when the star died – and showed police a “bag of medication”.

Brian Hickerson did not become visibly emotional until EMS declared the 36-year-old actress dead, according to a heavily redacted report released by Greenville Police.

He was at the rented Airbnb apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, where the beloved Nashville and Heroes star was found “unresponsive” on Sunday, according to police bodycam footage that is yet to be released to the public.

Brian showed officers the medication that Hayden was taking at the time of her death, NBC News reported.

His brother, Zach, also witnessed her death, and was “very emotional” as emergency medical services professionals were “working on Hayden.”

Responding officer Matthew Bryan said he first spoke with Zach at the scene.

TOXIC ROMANCE

Hayden Panettiere’s dark relationship with Brian Hickerson before her death

FINAL HOURS

Hayden Panettiere investigation ‘ongoing’ as autopsy shows ‘no signs of trauma’

According to TMZ, Zach actually first discovered Hayden sitting in a chair in the living room when he entered the home on Sunday afternoon.

Brian had been asleep in a separate room at the time, the outlet reported.

Hayden, who struggled with opioid and alcohol addiction, was described by the 911 dispatchers as suffering from a cardiac arrest and suspected overdose.

Narcan, a nasal spray used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, was discovered on the mattress of the apartment where she was staying, TMZ reported.

Authorities have not determined that an overdose caused Hayden’s death, and the coroner’s findings remain pending.

An autopsy was completed on Monday, and officials said that “no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.”

First responders initiated cardiac life support measures when they arrived at the scene, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, the statement added.

Hayden’s relationship with Brian was highly volatile, spanning from 2018 until her death, and involved multiple domestic violence arrests, jail time and a rumoured secret reconciliation recently.

The pair began dating in 2018, sparking controversy almost immediately.

Her family and friends were “deeply concerned,” a source told Radar Online in November 2018.

“They do not approve. They are hoping that this is something that she is going to evolve from,” the source said.

The two stayed together, and things went from bad to worse.

Brian was arrested twice – once in 2019 and then in 2020 – for domestic violence.

In May 2019, Brian was arrested for domestic violence after an incident at the actress’ Hollywood home.

Soon after the second incident, Hayden released a statement to her fans about his past arrests.

“I am coming forward with the truth about what happened to me with the hope that my story will empower others in abusive relationships to get the help they need and deserve,” she said.

“I am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again.

“I’m grateful for my support system, which helped me find the courage to regain my voice and my life.”

Hayden and Brian kept a low profile during the final years of her life. He was spotted attending her brother Jansen’s funeral by her side in 2023.

He was also seen helping her through a Los Angeles airport while she hobbled on crutches in March of this year.

When the actress released her memoir earlier this year, it was reported that they had split long ago.

But according to TMZ, the couple was fully together and hiding the romance.

“Hayden’s team felt Brian was bad for business,” a source told the outlet.

June 23 (UPI) — The June 2021 partial collapse of a Miami Beach oceanfront condominium tower that killed nearly 100 people began three weeks before the building completely failed, federal investigators announced Monday.

The four-decade-old Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Fla., collapsed June 24, 2021, prompting the deployment of first responders to scour the rubble for survivors. In total, 98 people were killed and many others were injured, making it one of the deadliest structural disasters in U.S. history.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which launched an investigation into the incident within days of the collapse, said Monday that it determined the collapse began in early June 2021, when two connections between garage columns and the building’s pool deck failed.

“These initial column failures caused cracks to grow and loads to redistribute in the pool deck over the next three weeks, resulting in the transfer of their loads to adjacent slab-column connections that were not strong enough to support them,” NIST said in a statement.

“This led to the larger catastrophic collapse on June 24.”

The 12-story Champlain Towers South building was constructed in 1981 under required codes and standards intended to ensure builders could support more load than they were expected to bear. But, Judith Mitrani-Reiser, who was a co-lead on the investigation, said the tower’s “margins against failure were not too narrow from the start.”

The investigators believe that the failure of the two connections then spread to other elements of the pool deck and street-level parking structure before unseating the southern edge of the pool deck slab from a supporting wall.

When the pool slab eventually broke away, it damaged two connections supporting that part of the tower, causing the failure to travel through the middle of the tower.

The investigators also found that loads added to the structure over the building’s lifetime, such as pool deck modifications, further narrowed the margins against failure on top of long-term degradation caused by corrosion.

The investigation team said it is now working on compiling a final report that will include recommendations for changes to standards, codes and practices, among other suggestions.

The announcement came after NIST in September released an update into its investigation stating that the condo had shown visible signs of structural strain weeks before the collapse, starting with the pool deck.