Election Live Blog
Looking for race results for HRC-endorsed candidates? Follow Team HRC all night for results in real time, scenes from celebrations across the country and election analysis.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/election-live-blog?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Eddie Redmayne and Elle Fanning Set For Trans Roles: When Will Hollywood Learn?
The casting of cisgender actors in transgender roles in two upcoming films have us scratching our heads and wondering if Hollywood will ever learn its lesson about letting trans actors portray themselves on the big screen.
E! Online reports that Les Misérables heartthrob Eddie Redmayne is set to play Danish painter Lili Elbe (who, in 1931, was the first trans woman to have sex reassignment surgery) in The Danish Girl. Redmayne says he has been busy researching the part, meeting with many trans women and hearing their stories. “I have put on dresses and wigs and makeup. I’m beginning to embark on that and trying to find out who she is.”
In addition, Elle Fanning is scheduled to play a trans boy in the indie drama Three Generations, which will also star Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film tells the story of Ray, a New York City teen who transitions from female to male, and his single mother, who struggles to come to terms with raising her only daughter as a son.
The casting of Fanning, 16, has already received criticism from transgender rights advocates who believe performers from their community should be getting a fair shot at these parts. But despite the success of Orange Is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox, it seems Hollywood still has a lot of work to do regarding trans visibility. With more and more films and television shows depicting characters who are transgender, one would expect there to be an equal rise in opportunities for trans performers. But for the most part, this does not seem to be the case. With the notable exception of Orange‘s Sophia, most trans roles still go to cis actors.
Scroll down for a look at some noteworthy portrayals of transgender people onscreen, some lauded, some blasted.
John Lithgow, The World According to Garp (1982)
The actor told The Huffington Post that to play the part of former football player Roberta Muldoon, he “just decided to underplay everything [and] make her a perfectly normal person — in fact, a person who is utterly unaffected.” Lithgow, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his work, called the character’s self-actualization “revolutionary.”
Rebecca Romijn, Ugly Betty (2007-2008)
Having based her character in part on some of her transgender friends, Romijn took a delicate approach when creating the role of conniving Alexis Meade. “I would never, ever, ever want to insult or offend,” the actress told Marie Claire. “The role is going to open itself up to people’s jokes — I mean, that’s just the way it is. But I want to make everybody aware that I am not the unofficial spokesperson for the transgender community.”
Ted Levine, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Much criticism was hurled at the Oscar-winning film for its perceived demonizing of trans people. Not only was the character of Buffalo Bill a serial killer, which was perceived as a direct response to mainstream society’s transphobia, many felt it portrayed trans people as perverts, which then embedded the notion into the minds of moviegoers worldwide. The film’s director, Jonathan Demme, later acknowledged his “directorial failing” in the handling of the character.
Hilary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
While Swank’s portrayal of trans man Brandon Teena earned the actress an Academy Award, she angered Teena’s real-life family by referring to her character as “he” during her acceptance speech. Trans activists, however, applauded the actress’s use of the pronoun.
Cathy Moriarty, Soapdish (1991)
Scheming opportunist Montana Morehead, a buxom blonde who plays on her considerable assets to advance her career as a soap star, is revealed to be a transgender woman during a live broadcast. However, the scene’s punchline (Garry Marshall gasping “She’s a boy!”) elicited plenty of groans from transgender moviegoers.
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Despite critical praise for his performance as Rayon, a trans woman battling drug addiction and AIDS, Leto was heckled at a film festival by a trans woman who called out his accolades as “trans-misogyny.” Leto countered that by insisting only trans performers play trans characters, “you’ve made sure people that are gay, people that aren’t straight, people like the Rayons of the world would never have the opportunity to turn the tables and explore parts of that art.”
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica (2005)
Huffman received acclaim for her portrayal of Bree, a transgender woman who embarks on a journey with a son she didn’t know she had. But many viewers balked, calling the film cissexist and decrying its reinforcement of stereotypes.
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs (2011)
While not transgender in the traditional sense, Glenn Close’s portrayal of a woman who lives as a man in order to find work in 19th century Dublin opened a dialogue about gender identity and a person’s right to self-identification, which led all the way to the red carpet. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and a GLAAD Media Award, among many others.
Winston Gieseke
Homeless LGBT youth: Shunned by religious families
The world is a kinder place to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders than it was years ago. Despite all these gains, many in the LGBT community are still shunned by their own families….
WATCH: Wendy Williams on Bruce Jenner — Transphobic or Not?
Commenters are differing on whether it was appropriate for Williams to speculate on a possible gender transition by the former Olympian, and a misquote has added fuel to the fire.
Dawn Ennis
Dear Morehouse Football
Dear Morehouse Football,
When I see you, I see my brothers, myself. When society sees me, they see a threat, a Black man. When the Black community sees me, they see their inferior, a Queer man. When I saw Lionel in Dear White People, I saw it all. Lionel played by Tyler James Williams speaks to my truth. I’m an outsider among outsiders — oppressed by the oppressed. Even at Morehouse College, there are times that I feel like an oppressed minority. As a result, I wasn’t surprised by the news of you all’s recent fiasco at a showing of Dear White People in Columbia. Though I’m not surprised, I am disconcerted. I’m upset because you all’s bombastic reactions say that my brothers support my demise. The idea that like Lionel my humanity could be erased if my sexual preference is discovered is daunting. However, what is even scarier than that is homophobia itself and the hyper-masculine culture here that fosters it. Morehouse cannot afford to foster the former nor the latter.
While at Morehouse, I’ve learned a great deal about others and myself. One thing I’ve come to learn is that my classmates and I are more similar than different. Frankly, football players are no different than me. At face value, we’re both unofficial college ambassadors. I am too a member of organizations supported by the school. Though I’m not on a team, I understand camaraderie, teamwork and dedication — all fundamental principles to a team’s success. As members of historic organizations, we stand on the shoulders of others, and we seldom are lauded for who we are individually. Ergo, I’ve internalized an African proverb Ubuntu, meaning, “I am who I am because of what we all are.” It suggests interdependence, and the notion: We are stronger as a collective than as individuals. In short, it is not our individuality by which we are distinguished, but rather by our collectivity.
Before Dear White People premiered, I previewed the film and engaged in dialogue with the director Justin Simien at a special screening. The screening was hosted by Morehouse’s Cinema & Emerging Media Studies (CTEMS) program; both students and faculty members from the Atlanta University Center filled the audience. During the film, audience members expressed various reactions to Lionel, because of his sexuality. The audience groaned with disappointment at Lionel’s advances toward a same-sex love interest; however, conversely, they cheered with thunderous applause as Lionel kissed the antagonist as a sort of lethal attack — which I thought to be a fallacy in character delineation.
The film’s pivotal moments, such as those mentioned above, sparked great dialogue amongst the audience and the director following the film’s showing. As CTEMS director Dr. Stephanie Dunn mediated, we engaged in intellectual discourse on race, gender identity and sexuality. Morehouse must do the same. In order for Morehouse to thrive, we must increase the active, progressive intellectual discourse on campus even that about race, gender identity and sexuality. As assumed, it starts in the classroom; then into Chivers Hall, the cafeteria; into the residence halls; and finally, internalized into the minds of men of Morehouse. As college students, we should eagerly invite and foster intellectual discourse. For Dear White People, discourse could have centered around Lionel’s lack of character motivation to kiss the antagonist, be it that he begins as an aloof and feeble character that would not be assumed to have enough gall to kiss his oppressor on the lips. Another could be how Simien uses homosexuality as a weapon of emasculation — Lionel kissing the antagonist makes the antagonist weak, less manly. Why is homosexuality still a weapon of mass destruction? Why are men of Morehouse entertaining such a contention?
If we cannot have intellectual discourse, can we have humanity? Four years ago Vibe Magazine published the infamous “Mean Girls of Morehouse” article. Today it seems that we’re at the other end of the spectrum. This polarizing change is concerning. We need to address and deal with the prevalent culture centered on performed, hyper masculinity at Morehouse. It’s neither healthy nor prolific. Instead of fostering competitiveness and distinction, the community should encourage its students to consider the humanity of others.
Did One Direction's Harry Styles just come out as bisexual?
Singer says gender ‘not that important’ when it comes to a potential love interest
gregh
www.gaystarnews.com/article/did-one-directions-harry-styles-just-come-out-bisexual041114
Federal Judge Blocks Kansas’s Ban on Marriage Equality
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree issues preliminary injunction ordering Kansas to stop enforcing discriminatory marriage ban
HRC.org
This Filmmaker Will Send You A Nude Selfie If You Donate To His Kickstarter Campaign
Lithuanian filmmaker Romas Zabarauskas certainly knows the way to a gay man’s heart: he’s offering naked photos to anyone who donates to his Kickstarter. Well, okay, if you insist!
He apparently also knows that gay men are cheapskates when it comes to porn, because for only $1 you can get his “racy photo shoot.”
The project is called You Can’t Escape Lithuania, and it appears to be a semi-autobiographical mostly-fictional artsy-craftsy hipster story about two young people on a dangerous road trip. Lithuania isn’t exactly a safe place for queers: like Russia, lawmakers have been instituting increasingly homophobic laws to punish and imprison gays. It’s not a fun place.
Those elements will probably pop up in Romas’ new film.
His previous works, Porno Melodrama and We Will Riot, combined sex and politics too, and played at various international film festivals. He used Kickstarter for his earlier work as well, but this might be the raciest of his projects. “The more money you will send me, the more of my body you will see,” he says in his pitch video. Donors over $50 will get a signed naked photo if they hit their $20,000 target.
Other rewards: temporary tattoos, digital downloads, a t-shirt — you know, the usual Kickstarter stuff. That’s all well and good, but we came for flesh.
matt baume
NEWS: Election Day, Teotihuacan, Ice Bike, Ben Stein
Another friendly reminder to VOTE!
Will Michael Fassbender step in to play Steve Jobs in the Aaron Sorkin-penned bio-pic now that Christian Bale is out?
Archaeologists unearth treasure horde at ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan: “A large offering found near the entrance to the chambers [inside a tunnel], some 59 feet (18 meters) below the Temple of the Plumed Serpent, suggests they could be the tombs of the city’s elite. “Because this is one of the most sacred places in all Teotihuacan, we believe that it could have been used for the rulers to … acquire divine endowment allowing them to rule on the surface,” Gomez said.”
Meet the world’s first ice bike.
In case you weren’t quite over Halloween: Beyonce also dressed as Frida Kahlo for All Hallow’s Eve.
Speaking of Beyonce, more Bey is coming your way.
LISTEN: Chvrches release their song “Dead Air” from new Hunger Games soundtrack.
Iceland’s ban on gay men donating blood to be challenged: “Our blood is not infected. This is a completely clear example of discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
VIDEO: Davey Wavey has straight guys try to explain gay slang (Warning: possibly work unfriendly).
Sun’s out, guns out: the boys of Magic Mike XXL are in the final days of filming.
Are Miley Cyrus and Patrick Schwarzenegger an item?
Conservative pundit and TV personality Ben Stein says President Obama is the most racist president ever: “He is purposely trying to use race to divide Americans.”
Steven Tyler opens up about alcohol and drug abuse: “I am also a drug addict and alcoholic and fighting it every day…I had it all. I didn’t care. And I hurt my family and my children and my friends. If it wasn’t for the program of AA, I would have nothing. I’m a better drug addict and alcoholic than I am a musician. I got to keep it in check.”
Angelina Jolie is open to running for political office someday.
Sean Mandell
Mike Michaud Is Your LGBT Candidate | Quickies
Mike Michaud, from Maine, is United States’ first openly gay candidate for Governor. Find out more at news.logotv.com! SUBSCRIBE: logo.to/ZirLXq LogoTV’s Official Site: logo.to/ZiqD…
