R.I. Firefighters Lose Suit Over Pride Parade Assignment

The firefighters objected to the parade assignment on religious grounds, but the state Supreme Court said they were required simply to perform a duty, not endorse the parade.

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Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/2014/12/29/ri-firefighters-lose-suit-over-pride-parade-assignment

Pam Bondi Named Tampa Bay Times Loser of The Year

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has been dubbed Loser of 2014, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/pam-bondi-named-tampa-bay-times-loser-of-the-year?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Conchita Wurst Would Relish An Opportunity To Get Inside Putin’s Head

Move over, Madonna and Gaga. There’s a new politically-minded musical diva hoping to make things right in the world.

Bearded drag beauty Conchita Wurst, whose Eurovision victory earlier this year signaled “the end of Europe,” according to one Russian MP, says she’d like a sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

PinkNews reports that Wurst told the Austrian Kurier she would not only love to perform in Russia but that she’d welcome the opportunity to get inside the brain of its notoriously antigay leader:

“I absolutely [want a gig] there. I have many fans in Russia. This is incredibly beautiful because it shows me that many Russians do not agree with the decisions of their government. … I would like to spend a week with Putin, so I can better understand him. … What does it mean to be Vladimir Putin? What pressure is he under?”

While Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has reportedly “laughed off” the notion of a meeting between the president and the princess, the singer is no stranger to world leaders, having previously met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and performed for both the United Nations and the Europan Parliament.

And while it does seem a bit ridiculous, we certainly can’t fault her for putting it out there. Because let’s face it: A tête–à–tête seems a far more logical way to improve relations than, say, making a short film in which people run around in various states of undress shooting each other for no reason. After all, it’s never too late for Russia to rise like a phoenix.

Winston Gieseke

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/2IAWvSMEiDg/conchita-wurst-would-relish-an-opportunity-to-get-inside-putins-head-20141229

What To Watch This Week on TV: Kennedy Center Honors, New Year's Eve TV Picks

Bobby Hankinson

www.towleroad.com/2014/12/what-to-watch-this-week-on-tv-kennedy-center-honors-new-years-eve-tv-picks.html

Creating Yourself with Words

Diriye Osman (photo by Darren Bonello)

There’s a brilliant quote from Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man without a Country that always makes me feel hopeful about the future. “Practicing an art,” he said, “no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

There’s a renegade thrill to Vonnegut’s wisdom. Going into the arts as a career can render you into fiscal dreck, but the act of producing art, particularly writing, will endow your interiority with a sense of plenitude, of satisfaction that is hard to replicate.

I started writing my short story collection, Fairytales For Lost Children, as a way to humanize myself. I had been told over the years by my family and community that my experiences as a gay Somali were invalid, insidious even, and I had digested this malevolent narrative like manna. I became a walking cavity filled with self-loathing. Fairytales For Lost Children, which focuses primarily on the lives of LGBT Somalis, is a corrective to that poisonous conversation that is still happening across the world with regards to the queer experience. The endpoint of that conversation is a question that always rebounds back on the queer individual whose personhood is under investigation. “Does your life matter?” To which the only reasonable response is a resounding yes.

Toni Morrison said it best: “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” This is exactly what I did. No-one was writing the stories that I wanted to read so I went and created these stories myself. The result is a collection of short fiction that takes an intimate look into the lives of Somali children, teenagers and adults who are either gay, lesbian or transgender, and how their futures are shaped by their faith, families and pursuit of personal freedom.

By writing this book, I was engaging in an act of self-invention. I had always been timid as a child but when I sat down to write I gathered a sense of strength, courage and clarity that I didn’t know I was capable of. I’m still testing my creative parameters as a writer but the goalposts have shifted since I published Fairytales For Lost Children. I’m now no longer using the act of writing as a lifeboat to anchor my dreams. I now write simply because I love telling stories. I love playing with language. I get a buzz from the beauty of discovering new ways to toy with syntax. This is writing as pleasure, as joyful expression, but I’m aware that I began this process as a way to externalize my greatest fears, hopes and ambitions. I began writing in order to eke out a defined outline of who I was and where I was coming from.

Zadie Smith once said, “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” This is no longer how I feel about my work, but I understand fully what she means.

____________
Diriye Osman is the Polari Prize-winning author of Fairytales for Lost Children (Team Angelica), a collection of acclaimed short stories about the LGBT Somali experience. You can purchase Fairytales for Lost Children here. You can connect with Diriye Osman via Tumblr. He will be performing at The Huddersfield Literature Festival, The Polari Salon and The London Short Story Festival.

www.huffingtonpost.com/diriye-osman/creating-yourself-with-wo_b_6390202.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Straight Guys Dish On Their Favorite DILFs

Gay men and women aren’t the only ones who have a special place in their hearts for DILFs, according to the latest Buzzfeed video examining the same-sex attractions of male hettys.

Consider the pursuit of human knowledge one step furthered.

Here’s some highlights:

“Have you seen the guy without a shirt? Cut. From Marble.”

“Wicked hot.”

“That man has a jaw line that is regal like the fucking Rockies.”

“He’s cool. He’s talented. He’s just not hot.”

“If he’s your hot dad and Jazzy Jeff’s your crazy fun uncle…what a fucking life you live.”

“Not hot.”

“Brad Pitt’s been consistently hot for decades.”

“No one looks hotter eating than Brad Pitt.”

“Ten out of ten.”

“Not the guy I’d spend my life with. He’s the bouncer I’d take home from the bar.”

“This is the guy you hook up with when you’re out of town somewhere and you’re like “oh, I’ll never see this person again…and then they’re at your front door.”

“Hot dad.”

“He’s not that hot.”

“He has a tremendous level of swag.”

Watch the full video here:

Related Stories:

Watch What Happens When Straight Male Friends See Each Other Naked For The First Time

Straight Guys Reveal Who They’d Go Gay For

Here’s What Straight Guys Really Think About When They See Hot Guys

Dan Tracer

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