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WATCH: Ted Cruz Calls Congressional Hearing to Shame 'Supreme Court Activism'
The Texas Senator and GOP presidential hopeful was all doom-and-gloom at his sparsely attended congressional hearing about the dangers of ‘judicial tyranny.’
Sunnivie Brydum
Jason Stuart Talks Being An Out Actor and LGBT Equality (AUDIO)
This week I talked with Jason Stuart one of the most prolific character actors and an outrageous openly gay stand-up comedian. Jason Stuart has been in over 175 films and TV shows and has performed in major LGBT events, the Montreal Comedy Festival, Broadway, Comedy Clubs and to 100,000 people at the Millennium March in Washington D.C. Currently Jason’s in TANGERINE the breakout hit from this year’s Sundance Film Festival which was shot entirely on an iPhone 5S from filmmaker Sean Baker. Jason also just completed a dramatic supporting role as the plantation owner in Nat Turner’s biopic BIRTH OF A NATION from filmmaker Nate Parker who stars in the film along with Armie Hammer. Recently as the National Co-Chair of the Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA LGBT Committee, Jason presented the first ever Transgender Actor Panel at OUTFEST with Alexandra Billings (TRANSPARENT) Mya Taylor (TANGERINE) and D’Lo (SENSE 8). I talked to Jason about his fabulous career and his spin on our LGBT issues.
LISTEN:
When asked what he would like to see happen for LGBT equality in the next few years Stuart stated:
The next issue we’re going to jump on is housing and job discrimination. I remember when I was working for HRC fifteen years ago I was doing a lot of comedy shows for their dinners and I remember people were being quite upset when gay marriage was brought up because they didn’t like the idea; marriage equality had not really been discussed. People thought that was such a big thing and that people would never go for it. Well it took over fifteen years for marriage equality to happen and they weren’t really focused on job discrimination and housing and now those are the next two issues that I’m part of. But what I’m really part of in my own life is trying to do things from where I stand. Eight or nine years ago I became the National Co-Chair of the Screen Actors Guild- AFTRA LGBT Committee and I created that committee with Duncan Crabtree-Ireland who’s the Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel at Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA and my idea is to create more opportunity for LGBT actors and it’s happening, slowly but surely. It’s not the idea of roles whether gay or straight parts for the person being an openly gay actor, comedian, singer journalist, stunt person, extra, it’s the idea of them being out and being accepted for who they are and being able to compete for jobs the same way out straight counterparts do and that’s something I’m very much part of.
Jason Stuart has appeared in TV shows including Sleepy Hollow, Real Rob, The Secret Life Of The American Teenager, House, Entourage, The Closer, Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Everybody Hates Chris, George Lopez, My Wife & Kids, Charmed and Will & Grace. In film he’s been featured in Gia (w/Angelina Jolie), A Day Without A Mexican, Coffee Date, Vegas Vacation and Kindergarten Cop. Recently he’s appearing in James Franco’s Holy Land and Ira Sach’s Love Is Strange opposite Marisa Tomei, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. On the comedy scene his new stand up comedy CD I’M THE DADDY AND I HAVE CANDY was just released on CD Baby & iTunes and he’ll be touring with his new show in the fall I’M ONLY GAY ON THE WEEKENDS. Jason will also be appearing in the comedic parody, HUSH UP SWEET CHARLOTTE? premiering in San Francisco at the historic CASTRO THEATRE on October 28th. Jason plays the role of British Journalist Mr Wills in this hilarious remake starring Varla Jean Merman, Matthew Martin, Mink Stole and David Millbern (Also the Producer). Written and Directed by filmmaker Billy Clift. View his award winning web-series, MENTOR which marked his directorial debut now available on his website.
For More Info: jasonstuart.com
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Isn’t Now The Perfect Time For A Wrestling Character To Come Out As Gay?
Darren Young was the first WWE superstar to really come out as being homosexual, but his character in the show is not. At least, we haven’t done anything with it either way — just yet… It could very well pop up in WWE because we are all about what’s relevant, and what’s pop culture, and what people want to see. So if there is an opportunity, we might just take it. I think the big worry that WWE has is that they think their audience is really stupid. So they worry that they’re going to have a character who comes out as gay, and it’s going to be like the Mexican soccer fans in Charlotte chanting [antigay slur] ‘culero’. I think they think that their fans would chant something homophobic at him, and that’s going to get press and make WWE look not progressive…You know, in WWE our storylines are a year long. They don’t go episodic, week to week — they really are the arc from WrestleMania to WrestleMania. So sometimes it takes a little longer than people would like for the seeds to grow. But we’re constantly planting them.”
— Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s Chief Brand Officer and sometimes-onscreen villainess, telling The Daily Beast why the character played by Darren Young, who is out in real life, might or might not come out in the wild world of wrestling
Jeremy Kinser
Gay Couple’s Home in New York Vandalized with ‘Jenner Fags’ Graffiti: VIDEO
A gay couple living in Wynantskill, New York had their home and car struck by vandals this week.
John Mcenerney said his partner Lyle Houston woke up Thursday morning to discover the spray painted slur on the side of their home. The crude graffiti is difficult to read but “Jenner Fags” appears visible. A window pane in a side door and the window of Houston’s Jeep were also broken.
“You would think my initial gut reaction would be like, ‘oh my God, I fear for my life.,’” said Mcenerney in an interview with WNYT. “I kind of feel more sorry for the person that they felt it was necessary to try to destroy somebody’s house.”
WYNT adds:
Lyle said there was also an incident Monday night, but his pitbull scared away someone he now thinks was trying to break in. The couple says they aren’t scared, they’re just going to remain positive
The post Gay Couple’s Home in New York Vandalized with ‘Jenner Fags’ Graffiti: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Kyler Geoffroy
Gay Couple’s Home in New York Vandalized with ‘Jenner Fags’ Graffiti: VIDEO
WATCH: Black Preacher Denounces Antigay Church Leaders in Fiery Sermon
Pastor E. Dewey Smith says homophobic leaders are doing to LGBT people ‘what the slave master did to us.’
Daniel Reynolds
This Incredible Trans Woman Is Challenging The Way We Think About Gender
Alex Drummond is a 51-year-old transgender woman who works as a psychotherapist and photographer in Wales.
Drummoud recently began making waves on an international level due to her articulate, scholarly understanding of transgender identity, as well as one significant physical trait — a fully, bushy, beautiful beard.
While mainstream understandings of transgender identity still tend to often rely on binary notions of male/female, Drummond seeks to queer the idea of gender through both her physical appearance and her day to day life and existence.
The Huffington Post chatted with Drummond this week about her thoughts surrounding this important moment in time for transgender individuals, as well as her own journey to living as her authentic self.
The Huffington Post: What are your thoughts about this specific moment in history for queer and trans individuals?
Alex Drummond: We are at an exciting time — a new era that might finally offer equality of the sexes. A new generation of Trans* identities are emerging, broadening the bandwidth of gender and creating new ways of being. Historically, we saw everything as a binary of male or female and made assumptions about how male or female should look and behave. But the latest neuroscience is showing brains really do have a ‘gender’ orientation and that brains sit on a spectrum of traits/interests which, yes, society has labelled as male or female but in truth it’s more complex. Gentials do not determine gender, brain-orientation does. To clarify, the brain determines gender identity but society creates the rules that constrain people, and importantly, that gender isn’t an either/or binary but a spectrum.
With your own personal experiences in mind, what is it about human diversity that you most want people to understand ?
When our understanding of ourselves is limited to what parents and teachers tell us, how are we to know that gay identities are ok, that trans* identities exist? Growing up, I knew only that I was told I was a boy (but the other boys didn’t think so and bullied me for being too girly), and for my part I found more affinity with the girls — but it got me bullied. I tried my best to fit in but despite my best efforts somehow never quite pulled it off. As an adult I did my best to suppress the female side but lived with a constant inner struggle. Only in my forties did I discover “transgender” and finally something I’d wrestled with for 40 years suddenly made sense; that it really was possible to feel more identified as female than male, that not all transsexuals start as gay and not all transsexuals have surgery. For a long time equality law and medicine set a very fixed way to be a “proper transsexual” and, for me, surgery and hormones could be risky. However, since the 2010 Equality Act, non-medicalized transition is now a protected characteristic. This makes a big difference.
As the social and political climate changes for trans people in the West, what do you hope the future looks like for trans and gender nonconforming individuals?
Until recently, the only stories that got told about “being transsexual” were the sensationalized “Trucker Dave Becomes Diana” and the articles invariably took a mocking tone, with unflattering photos and a freak-show subtext. We never got the stories of people living happily and successfully post-transition, so it was hard to know it was possible. And we virtually never saw a story about a “woman transitioning to become a man.”
But with the Internet there has been a democratizing of knowledge — people can publish and share content and young people can connect with others who validate their experiences. And now (due in no small part to the work of Trans Media Watch) the mass media is finally getting its house in order, presenting more respectful pieces about trans* people. As people see what is possible, more will come out and we’ll become more familiar with the ordinariness of gender difference and diversity.
You’ve discussed how having a full beard as a trans woman “queers gender.” Can you elaborate on this?
The beard is an accident, as it happens. In working through my process of transition, I took a cautious stage by stage approach and the beard was a legacy of a period in my thirties when I tried to “butch up.” A lot of trans women can feel anxious about being read as “male historied” so, in a way, the beard deliberately deconstructs the anxiety — I present as female but people don’t have to work too hard to see the male history. At an activism level, it makes the idea that gender is more complex than merely man-or-woman very visual: hence the term “genderfuck.” Importantly, there is nothing in the equality act that says a woman can’t have a beard!
There is no universal trans experience. But, to you, what does it mean to be trans?
Trans*, as an identity, has allowed me to find a more congruent way of being, a way of finding myself and allowing the female self to be shown to others. Its been very liberating. I hope to be part of a movement that advances trans* rights and makes it easier and safer for young people, especially, to come out earlier to live their lives without the shame and stigma our generation have battled with.
Drummond wrote a book titled Grrl Alex: A Personal Journey to a Transgender Identity. Head here for more information.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
REVIEW: Campania Gastonomia – Bethnal Green, London
Campania Gastonomia is part of the fabric of the Columbia Road flower market precinct of Bethnal Green in inner-east London.
Having moved from its original location, it is now tucked away on Ezra Street, a location that seems to suit it better – the old Jones’ Dairy building creating a rustic home for modern Italian flair.
It’s a small space, but there is a communal table, some window seats, outdoor seating, and a backyard courtyard for those rare sunny days.
I like breakfast here – eggs and ham have never tasted so good.
Highly recommended.
The post REVIEW: Campania Gastonomia – Bethnal Green, London appeared first on Gay Star News.
Gareth Johnson
www.gaystarnews.com/article/review-campania-gastonomia-bethnal-green-london/
PHOTOS: Shower Off With These Filthy Parisian Go-Go Boys
Raidd is one of Paris’ most popular gay night clubs known for its world-class DJs and hot shirtless bartenders. But perhaps the club’s biggest draw are its perfectly chiseled go-go boys who take very public showers behind a wall of glass, showing off their “little Eiffels” and having all the clubgoers begging “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?”
Scroll down for a sneak peek at what goes on inside of Raidd, and see the full gallery over at GayCities…
Photo credit: Raidd
Graham Gremore
Veteran US journalist recalls covering his first gay rights protest in 1967
A veteran US journalist has recalled covering one of the earliest ever LGBTI rights protests in US history to remind people of how much the world has changed in half a century.
Len Lear is the Local Life editor of the Chestnut Hill Local newspaper, but in 1967 he had only just started as a rookie journalist for the Philadelphia Tribune.
Just two months into the job he recalls receiving a call from a Barbara Gittings, who identified herself as a member of pioneering US gay rights group the Mattachine Society.
‘We would like you to come and cover our demonstration July 4, 2 pm, in front of Independence Hall,’ Lear recalls her saying, in a recollection of the event published earlier this week.
‘I and a group of other homosexuals, both men and women, will be peacefully picketing on behalf of equal rights for homosexuals. We would very much like you to come and write a story about it and take pictures.’
Lear says people under 50 just wouldn’t understand what it was like to receive a call like that during the 1960’s.
‘I would have been less shocked if Gittings had said that a group of Martians would be picketing outside Independence Hall,’ Lear writes, ‘If a poll had been taken in 1967 on the issue of homosexual marriage, I doubt if one straight male or female in the entire country would have favored it.’
Lear says his first response was to ask if he was being prank called.
‘She assured me it was not,’ Lear recalls, ‘She said this would be the group’s third annual July 4 demonstration and that she had called the Tribune the previous two years, but no one had come out to cover it.’
‘After I took down the information and told the editor about it, he said, “Are there supposed to be any Negroes involved in the protest?” I told him I had no idea, that I was so shocked by the call, I did not think to ask.’
Despite the protest being on a public holiday Lear decided to cover the protest even though he was not getting paid for it.
‘I went to the demonstration and saw a group of men in suits and ties and women in dresses walking quietly and solemnly carrying signs with messages like “Support Homosexual Rights” and “Homosexuals Should be Judged as Individuals.” I was stunned, as were tourists and passersby who happened to be in the area,’ Lear recalls.
‘One pedestrian saw me taking pictures and asked me, “Is this a scene in a movie?”
I spoke to some of the marchers after the demonstration was over and was shocked to find that they seemed so normal. I was really skeptical as to whether they were really all homosexuals. I thought maybe the organizers had recruited straight people to pretend to be homosexuals.’
‘But that was the beginning of a long, slow, gradual transformation in my own thinking and, I’m sure, in the thinking of millions of other Americans right up to the present day. The non-famous marchers, who were thankfully not beaten by police or onlookers that July 4 (I didn’t even hear any insults hurled at them), were incredibly gutsy pioneers who deserve their place in American History books alongside Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Henry David Thoreau, William Lloyd Garrison, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King and so many other revolutionaries who jeopardized their very lives to persuade us to live up to the ideals in our Constitution.’
Two years later the Stonewall Riots would put the issue of LGBTI rights under a national spotlight and a year after that the Mattachine marchers would travel to New York to take part in the first march commemorating the riots – which today continues as New York City’s Pride Parade.
The city of Philadelphia is this month commemorating the first ever public call for equality by LGBTI Americans which took place 50 years ago outside the city’s Independence Hall in 1965.
The post Veteran US journalist recalls covering his first gay rights protest in 1967 appeared first on Gay Star News.
Andrew Potts
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