Rosie O’Donnell: Having kids is ‘the best thing you can ever do for yourself’

The star and mom was offering advice to aspiring gay parents at Cyndi Lauper’s recent True Colors concert in New York

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davidh

www.gaystarnews.com/article/rosie-o%E2%80%99donnell-having-kids-%E2%80%98-best-thing-you-can-ever-do-yourself%E2%80%99161214

Catch Up With The Facts Of Life Cast 35 Years Later

Among the many valuable lessons taught by The Facts of Life, one of the most gay-loved TV series in history, is one in the lyrics to it’s irresistible theme song: “you take the good, you take the bad.” Here’s some good you can take:  The long-running sitcom about a motley group of girlfriends at a prestigious Peakskill, NY  boarding school as they navigate the curvy road to adulthood under the watchful eye of their housemother maintains its appeal 35 years after its premiere. Now you can relive all those moments with Blair, Tootie, Natalie and Jo with the release of The Facts of Life: The Complete Series on DVD. The 26-disc set also includes a 2014 cast reunion at The Paley Center, the two made-for-television films that had the gals visiting Australia and Paris, as well as numerous other bonus features. The lavish boxed set will be officially released January 13, 2015 but eager holiday shoppers can order it here and it will ship December 16. The popular series, which helped launch the careers of several future superstars, such as George Clooney, Helen Hunt, Juliette Lewis and Molly Ringwald, was also a pioneering one with its depiction of a teen lesbian and was the first to feature a recurring character with cerebral palsy (comic Geri Jewell, who came out as lesbian in 2011).

Scroll down for an update on the actresses who played these iconic TV characters.

Mindy Cohn (Natalie Green)

Cohn starred as the full-figured and forever upbeat Natalie for all eight seasons. The actress has appeared on numerous other television series, including 21 Jump Street and Suddenly Susan and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for voicing Velma in What’s New, Scooby Doo? She further endeared herself to gay audiences with her role as the ultimate “fag hag” in the 2010 feature comedy Violet Tendencies and recently appeared on Hot in Cleveland and Bones.

Kim Fields (“Tootie” Ramsey)

Before playing rollerskating Tootie, Fields was already a TV veteran, having appeared on numerous series including a turn as Janet Jackson’s pal on Good Times. The actress had another long-running, female-driven hit in Fox’s Living Single and briefly performed rap music with a group called Impromp2. Today, she occasionally directs TV sitcoms and is the married mother of two children.

Nancy McKeon as Jo Polniaczek

McKeon joined the series as tough-talking tomboyish Jo during the second season and was an immediate hit with fans. McKeon starred in several made-for-TV movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s and was nearly cast as Monica on Friends. She headlined Lifetime’s police drama The Division from 2001-2004 and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two daughters.

Lisa Whelchel as Blair Warner

The actress began her career as a Mouseketeer on The New Mickey Mouse Club before being perfectly cast as preppy, sometimes snooty rich girl Blair. Whelchel was nominated for a Grammy for her 1984 Christian pop album and made it to the finale of Survivor: Philippines in 2012. Today, she’s the divorced mother of three, still acts from time to time and is in demand as a motivational speaker.

Charlotte Rae (Edna Garrett)

The veteran actress began her career in the 1950s and had appeared on countless TV series and films such as Hair before playing the daffy housemother Edna Garrett. After she left the series in 1986 (Oscar-winner Cloris Leachman took over as Edna’s sister Beverly on the series) Rae continued to stay busy on TV and in film, including playing an older woman who has a fling with Adam Sandler’s character in the comedy You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. In 2013, Rae made headlines when she revealed that her 25 marriage had ended in divorce after her husband told her he was gay.

Jeremy Kinser

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Gay Hero of Sydney Hostage Crisis Died a Second Class Citizen
Often in times of crisis we find unlikely heroes; individuals who go well beyond the call of duty. Often these people are gay.

In ages past, this fact would be ignored, or not spoken about. It could even be a burden. Oliver Sipple was a Marine who saw combat duty in Vietnam. At home he was in the closet, but in San Francisco he had some chance to live his own life.

He was standing outside the St. Francis Hotel in 1975 where President Gerald Ford was appearing. As Ford left the building, a woman standing next to Sipple raised a pistol at the president. She fired, but not before Sipple saw what was happening and lunged at her, deflecting her arm and causing her to miss.

This act earned him the attention of the media–something he did not want. He didn’t want his name known. But the media was relentless. He asked them to not reveal he was gay, something he hid from his family, but, of course, the story got out–media feeding-frenzies rarely respect people and journalists feel themselves immune from consequences of their actions–after all, they sell a lot of papers and it’s not their lives that are screwed up.

Sipple’s mother did learn her son was gay and she disowned him, precisely what he feared. While he later reconciled with his parents, his mental health deteriorated. He drank heavily, became morbidly obese, and was found dead at the age of 47.

In Sydney, a mentally disturbed man, grabbing hold of religious extremism as his excuse, took customers of a coffee shop hostage. For hours, he threatened and used them as shields. Police negotiations were apparently going nowhere and the siege lingered past human endurance.

This lone man had more than a dozen people in his grip but was getting sleepy. He started nodding off, even though he would try to fight it.

The hostages were tired, but having a shotgun pointed at you has a way of keeping you alert. As the terrorist nodded off, the hostages ran for the door and safety–but not all of them.

One man charged the terrorist. Tori Johnson was 34. He managed the Lindt Chocolate Café for two years. Employees and customers all said he was a good man, a kind man. He was also a gay man.

Johnson tried to take the gun to protect the other hostages as they fled, but he was shot in the attempt. His attack distracted the terrorist. The others escaped and the sound of the gunshot brought in the police, who killed the armed man. Another hostage also died on the scene, but of a heart attack on the way to hospital after being shot.

Tori Johnson never went home that day, he died in hospital. He never again got to tell his partner of 14 years, Thomas Zinn, that he loved him, or that he wanted him to pick up his socks or any of the things one says to another who is the love of their life, with whom they share heart and home.

Tori’s partner Thomas, and his family, issued a statement: “We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori, gone from this earth but forever in our memories as the most amazing life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for.”

Mark Bingham was a gay man on United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. The plane was in the hands of hijackers. He was rushing home to San Francisco to be an usher at a friend’s wedding. Hijackers took the plane and Bingham and other passengers were herded to the back of the plane. He called his mother and left a message telling her what was happening. Other passengers also called home and learned of the attack on the Twin Towers. Bingham and other passengers decided to rush the cockpit and take the plane back.

The fought the hijackers who lost control of the plane, crashing into an empty field instead heavily populated Washington, DC.

Father Mychal Judge was a priest and the chaplain to the New York Fire Department. When he learned of the attacks in New York he rushed to the Twin Towers and began offering last rites to those who died. He entered the Towers and began helping those who needed it. As the South Tower collapsed debris flew through the windows and he was killed.

His was the first body recovered and taken to the medical examiner, earning him the dubious distinction of “Victim 0001.” Father Judge was also a gay man. He disagreed with Catholic teaching and said, “Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?”

Besides their sexual orientation, what Tori Johnson, Oliver Sipple, Mark Bingham and Mychal Judge had in common is that they were heroes, but not by design. Fundamentally they were good men thrust into horrific circumstances who acted in a way consistent with their own moral character. Heroes are good people facing unusual circumstances and remaining true to character.

Yesterday we learned that Tori Johnson was a good man.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called Tori Johnson, and the other victim “good people.” Yes, Tori was good people, but to Abbott he still wasn’t good enough, at least not when it came to marriage.

Tori and his partner of 14 years, Thomas, could never be married, not in Australia. Tori and Thomas deserved the same rights as other Australians. But that right was denied them, and now, for Tori, it’s too late.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott laid flowers and said nice words but he’s still fighting to deny marriage rights to “good people” such as Tori Johnson.

If Abbot wishes to honor the heroism of Tori Johnson he should push for marriage equality. At the very least, he should get of the way and allow his own party caucus freedom to vote their conscience. For all couples like Tori and Frank it’s time to pass Senator David Leyonhjelm’s marriage legislation.

(Photo by Linda Black, used with permission.)

www.huffingtonpost.com/james-peron/gay-hero-of-sydney-hostag_b_6332038.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Sam Smith dating extra from new music video

‘I haven’t even confirmed with him that we’re officially seeing each other’

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darrenw

www.gaystarnews.com/article/sam-smith-dating-extra-new-music-video161214

First Nighter: Samuel D. Hunter Puts <i>Pocatello</i> on the Theater Map
Throughout MacArthur Fellowship recipient Samuel D. Hunter’s outstanding play The Whale, at Playwrights Horizons in 2012, the main character is a gay man isolating himself by virtue of his obesity. Now back at PH with Pocatello, Hunter watches — in a series of highly animated scenes — another gay man who’s isolating himself and has been isolated. Which condition came first is, like the chicken or egg, unclear.

Whereas the protagonist in The Whale can barely move, Pocatello‘s Eddie (T. R. Knight) is constantly on the go, as if trying to run away from himself. His personal racetrack is a financially troubled Italian restaurant that’s part of a chain and might be an Olive Garden. Although it’s on the brink of shuttering, Eddie is hoping he can revive it. His strategy is establishing family week, which is ballyhooed in a banner declaring “Famiglia Week” that Lauren Helpern includes on her amusingly generic eatery set.

Not only do the bright letters say it’s Family Week inside, but they tell the audience that Pocatello is a play about families. Oh, yes, this is a play that gives a real workout to Leo Tolstoy’s comment about unhappy families being unalike.

While restaurant staffers Troy (Danny Wolohan), Max (Cameron Scoggins) and Isabelle (Elvy Yost) — all three of whom Eddie is keeping in the dark about business prospects — attend to their duties, two families regularly invade the premises. They’re Eddie’s estranged mother (Brenda Wehle); older brother Nick (Brian Hutchison) and Nick’s wife Kelly (Crystal Finn); and Troy’s father Cole (Jonathan Hogan), wife Tammy (Jessica Dickey) and daughter Beth (Leah Karpel).

To the exclusion of other customers ever darkening the restaurant’s doorstep, they air their woes ceaselessly. What’s eating at Eddy’s clan as they eat — or don’t — is that his father shot himself a few decades earlier, and his demise splintered the immediate survivors seemingly beyond repair. Indeed, as much as Eddie’s motivation is saving the Olive Garden branch (is there a pun somewhere about olive branches and peace?), he’s even more fixated on reuniting the family.

Troy and Tammy find their 19-year-old marriage ossifying while they figure out how to handle daughter Beth’s eccentricities. These involve her repeatedly throwing up not from bulimia, as she explains, but from disgust with pesticides and food insults of that sort. They’re also dealing with dad Cole’s senility. Though they make little headway with Beth, Cole or themselves, Eddie does get through to Beth by offering her a waitress stint she reluctantly takes.

Family reconciliation, then, is on Moscow, Idaho-born Hunter’s agenda, as it is in The Whale, where father-daughter rapprochement surfaces. Whether the nonstop nagging, insulting, bickering and alienation — in addition to waiter Max’s meth addiction flaring — remains consistently engaging is questionable.

Credulity is further strained by Hunter’s allowing all the confrontations to be aired in the midst of a public place. If this is an Olive Garden or something along those lines, why aren’t there ever any other diners? There are multitudes in commercials for Olive Garden et al.. I know there’s such a thing as dramatic license, but there’s also such a thing as taking too many liberties with it.

Hunter calls his play Pocatello because he’s also examining small-town mentality — or mentalities. (FYI, Moscow is separated from Pocatello by 348.15 miles.) Implying that Pocatello is a synecdoche for small towns everywhere, Hunter presents Eddie, who refuses to look anyplace else for a better life, in contrast to brother Nick, who left Pocatello for just that reason and is attending the family get-together against his wishes.

Obviously, Hunter is in Nick’s corner but also concerned about the Eddies of this world. He’s memorialized both in a good-but-not-surpassing work that does benefit greatly by a more-than-able cast — Knight, especially — and by regular Hunter collaborator, director Davis McCallum.

www.huffingtonpost.com/david-finkle/first-nighter-samuel-d-hu_b_6331068.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

India plans subsidies for parents of trans kids

Government also proposes scholarships and pensions for transgender people

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darrenw

www.gaystarnews.com/article/india-plans-subsidies-parents-trans-kids161214