Brad Pitt Channels Robert Redford for V Magazine

Brad Pitt is channeling the look and vibe of iconic Hollywood heartthrob Robert Redford on the cover of V Magazine.

The photo shoot with Inez and Vinoodh focuses on Redford’s 70s sex appeal. And the end result is pretty on point.

Pitt and Redford worked together on 2001’s Spy Game, a Cold War thriller about CIA operatives.

Check out a few more shots of Pitt going full Redford in V, below.

[h/t Paper Mag]

The post Brad Pitt Channels Robert Redford for V Magazine appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2015/10/brad-pitt-channels-robert-redford-for-v-magazine/

Paul Ryan Elected House Speaker

Wisconsin Republican and former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan has just been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, winning 236 votes on the House floor this morning, according to The New York Times. 

“Let’s be frank, the House is broken,” Ryan said in his speech accepting the position this morning. “We are not solving problems We are adding to them,” Ryan said adding that a new way of doing things is in order. “We are not settling scores. We are wiping the slate clean.”

At 45 years old, Ryan is the youngest person to hold the Speaker’s gavel since 1898, according to The New Civil Rights Movement. But he appeared ready to get to work shortly after his election, sending out this tweet from his newly updated Twitter account, which now reads @SpeakerRyan. 

Let’s do this. #SpeakerRyan pic.twitter.com/DRFtRFnpt0

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) October 29, 2015

 

Ryan succeeds Ohio Rep. John Boehner, who is retiring, and is likely to be just as much an impediment to LGBT-supportive legislation as Boehner has been. 

Boehner has refused to bring antidiscrimination legislation to the House floor, despite the passage of such bills in the Senate. Ryan voted in favor of such legislation once — in 2007, when the version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act under consideration covered only sexual orientation, not gender identity. But Ryan’s vote came only after he tried to kill the bill by sending it back to committee.

He has since said he would probably vote for future antidiscrimination legislation, although he said he would need more information on the inclusion of gender identity. Also, although he voted against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” he subsequently called the matter a settled issue and won’t try to reinstate the discriminatory policy.

Ryan’s vote on ENDA in 2007 led one right-wing activist to call him a “Trojan horse” for the “homosexual lobby,” but in reality Ryan’s record is solidly anti-LGBT. As speaker, he would not generally vote on or cosponsor legislation, but he would set the agenda for the House, and he most likely would not prioritize LGBT-supportive bills.

Ryan was initially reluctant to consider the speakership but last week decided he would run if Republicans would unify behind him in a race that was shaken up by California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s unexpected withdrawal.

This story is developing. Check back for updates. 

Sunnivie Brydum

www.advocate.com/election/2015/10/29/paul-ryan-elected-house-speaker

Ballet Memphis Aims To Broaden The Conversation Around Dance In NYC

New York City’s Joyce Theater is playing host to a troupe of dancers whose work has already been hailed as “unorthodox, peculiar, fresh and large-spirited.”

Through Nov. 1, Ballet Memphis is presenting six original works that celebrate the diverse culture of Memphis, Tennessee and the surrounding Mississippi Delta for its first appearance in Manhattan since 2007. While this region is not typically associated with classical ballet, the individual works are aimed at “broadening the conversation about our art form,” Ballet Memphis founder and artistic director Dorothy Gunther Pugh said in a statement. 

“We think it’s essential to demonstrate how dance and movement furthers inclusion, curiosity and delight,” she said. 

Central to the troupe are out dancers Kendall Britt and Travis Bradley, who said that Ballet Memphis honors the heritage of its members by producing work that’s uniquely American and “primarily about the city and the culture of the city.”

Check out some stunning images of these performers, and more, in action below. Don’t miss Ballet Memphis at New York’s Joyce Theater through Nov. 1. 

Also on HuffPost: 

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Houstonian and Actor Matt Bomer Supports Houston Equal Rights Ordinance

With less than a week until Election Day, actor, HRC supporter and native Houstonian Matt Bomer has announced his support for the Houston Equality Rights Ordinance (HERO).
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/houstonian-and-actor-matt-bomer-supports-houston-equal-rights-ordinance?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Rentboy CEO Breaks Silence, Begs For Help On Facebook

Nearly three months after Homeland Security raided his company’s offices in Manhattan, arresting him and six others, the CEO of rentboy.com is finally breaking his silence.

Jeffrey Hurant and six of his employees were arrested and charged in late August with operating what attorney Kelly Currie called an “internet brothel.” If convicted, they each face a maximum of five years behind bars and fines up to $250,000.

Related: RentBoy CEO And Six Others Arrested In Prostitution Ring Bust

Since the raid, Hurant has been laying low. Until now. He just posted a desperate message on both Rentboy.com’s official Facebook page and his own his personal page, as well.

The message reads:

I realize that I have been very quiet on Facebook since my arrest on August 25th. I have been advised by legal counsel not to make any public statements about the case. As any of you who know me can guess, this hasn’t been easy for me.

This ordeal has been devastating for me, my family, my ex-employees and all the people my company has helped through the years. I am very grateful for all the support I have gotten from friends far and wide throughout the crisis. I count my blessings every day.

The brilliant team at Sher Tremonte, LLP has been working tirelessly preparing my defense. Even though I have not been proven guilty of committing any crime, the government has seized all the assets that I can use to defend myself, so I am here asking for your financial help to insure that this case has the best legal minds working on it.

Please consider donating to the www.rentboyfund.org/ Legal Defense Fund.

Hurant’s statement comes just days after Rentboy.com published a post on Craigslist advertising an office liquidation sale, in which the company is selling everything from furniture to office equipment to Rentboy.com memorabilia in an effort to raise money to pay for its mounting legal fees.

So far the company appears to have raised a little over $5,000 of a needed $250,000.

Related: Here’s Your Chance To Own A Piece Of Rentboy.com

h/t: Gay Star News

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/AKzcTLnK0UQ/rentboy-ceo-breaks-silence-begs-for-help-on-facebook-20151029

This Gay Former High School Football Player Has a Powerful Message for LGBT Youth

Gay former high school football player Harrison Wilkerson wants LGBT youth struggling with depression and anxiety to know they are not alone.

In a post published on OutSports, Wilkerson opens up about his own battle with depression and social anxiety in hopes that his story can help others. Though Wilkerson seemingly had it all in high school–student body president, varsity football player, loving family and friends–he was in turmoil, “coping with suicidal thoughts –something no one would have known just by looking at him from the outside.

Wilkerson grew up in a small town in North Carolina where “Every fall is consumed by football, every spring by baseball and every Sunday by church.” When he was younger, his passions were chiefly in the arts. But as he grew up, he took to sports, ultimately landing a spot as kicker on his high school’s football team. Though he excelled on the field, off the field he says something wasn’t “clicking”:

While all my teammates were talking about girls in the locker room I couldn’t have been more uncomfortable. I had no interest in the topic whatsoever. As a high school boy, this was not the norm, and a few guys began to notice. Not knowing the answer myself, I denied many times having any interest in guys, but the denials weren’t enough to quiet the questions. […]

Through that season I slipped into the darkest time of my life: Deep down I knew I was gay, and there was nothing I could do about it. I wanted so badly to be straight, but I knew there was no more denying who I was.

Unknown to anyone at the time, I struggled daily with anxiety and severe depression. I wrestled privately with suicidal thoughts for months. Bullying and harassment increased at school. People in passing cars screamed homophobic slurs at me. At one point another vehicle literally ran me off the road. All of it was because I was coming out of my cocoon, finding the need to be my truth. Yet simply because I was different, life was becoming a living hell. Loneliness took hold.

Wilkerson says that, “[O]ne of the darkest memories I have is sitting in my bedroom floor in the pitch black night crying out for God to please end my life.” Yet despite the immensity of his struggle, “No one at school knew I was having these thoughts.” Adding to the burden of his depression was Wilkerson’s feeling that it wasn’t “ok to be depressed.” This led him to become convinced he was alone.

Finally, Wilkerson reached a breaking point and could no longer deny who he was:

Eventually I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The day came when I was able to finally look myself in the mirror and say “I am gay.” I soon confided in one friend that I was in fact gay, like so many had suspected. From there my confidence grew. I began to tell my closest friends, then a few more. Eventually it became the worst-kept secret in town. […]

The more people I told, the better I felt. The truth did set me free.

Wilkerson stresses that the struggle for acceptance is still one being faced by LGBT today. His story happened only last year. He writes, “In 2014, loneliness nearly took my life.” It is the immediacy of that struggle which motivated Wilkerson to share his story,

“For a long time I have debated writing my story publicly. I don’t want to seem self-indulgent, or that I am sharing this for attention. However, I can’t live in fear any longer. I am willing to deal with people’s false assumptions if it means somewhere out there some kid knows it’s perfectly OK to not feel 100% all of the time. I am doing this piece because I can’t get another text, see another Facebook post, or read about another person in the news who ended their life because they had no one there for them.

We have to talk about mental health issues, the stigma that is associated with being depressed, or having anxiety, has to be eliminated. It is OK to be gay. This is literally a life or death issue. No you aren’t alone, and no you aren’t any different than the varsity football player who looks like he has it all together. We need to know that we are here for each other.”

Bravo, Harrison!

The post This Gay Former High School Football Player Has a Powerful Message for LGBT Youth appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

This Gay Former High School Football Player Has a Powerful Message for LGBT Youth

WATCH: Transgender Girl Kicked Out of Home, Makes Cheerleading Squad

After her second year of tryouts, a small-town California girl was accepted by her high school’s cheerleading squad as its first transgender member, Sacramento TV station KTXL reported Wednesday. 

Anry Fuentes told the station that her mother kicked her out of the house because of her gender identity but she found support in her central California community. Denair is a town of about 4,400 people less than two miles wide. Students and teachers at her high school took up a collection to help pay for her $600 uniform, according to the station.

Aaron Rosander, the school district superintendent told the station Denair values its students. “We’ve dealt with Anry like we’ve dealt with all students: we welcome them all, we support all the kids on their journey through life,” he said.

Many schools have become increasingly accepting of transgender students. Recently in Missouri, one transgender teen was crowned homecoming queen. However, in other schools fights have erupted over which restroom transgender students may use. Another Missouri school staged a walkout when a transgender girl used the bathroom of her choice. 

While coming out to her classmates was difficult, Fuentes said it was easier than the alternative. “It’s so much harder to hide than to come out and be yourself,” she told a reporter. “Like, I found it really hard to, like, say the words you know … them actually coming out of my mouth, but once they’re out, they’re out. That’s it.”

Watch the report from KTXL below.

 

Elizabeth Daley

www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/10/29/watch-transgender-girl-kicked-out-home-makes-cheerleading-squad

Ben Carson Says He’s Not A Homophobe. Ben Carson Disagrees.

Ben Carson says it’s a “myth” that his opposition to same-sex marriage makes him homophobic. Oh really?

The post Ben Carson Says He’s Not A Homophobe. Ben Carson Disagrees. appeared first on ThinkProgress.

Zack Ford

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/10/29/3717304/ben-carson-homophobia/

Is Zola's Epic Twitter Story Empowering Or Disturbing Or Both?

On Tuesday morning, Twitter user _zolarmoon, who also goes by Aziah King, used her account to write an epic story in 150 tweets.

Her first tweet, posted along with a photo of herself and an unnamed white woman, reads, “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” 

What followed was a story with countless twists and turns, in which King relayed the time that she and the woman (named Jess) met at a Hooters, discovered a shared enthusiasm for stripping, and decided to go on an impromptu weekend trip to Florida to make money dancing.

To record the entire sordid tale here would be pretty much impossible, but during the course of the very NSFW story King crosses paths with a whole host of characters, including pimps and gangstas. What should have been a harmless trip results in Jess being kidnapped and beaten by a rival pimp until Zola is forced to intervene. 

Black Twitter ate up the wild story (which King has insisted via Twitter is completely true), and its humorous, irreverent tone. The story, which has since been deleted from King’s account but is preserved via Storify and screencaps, went viral, with thousands of retweets and reblogs on Tumblr. 

King has been described as Twitter’s answer to the urban erotica writer Zane, and social media users are demanding that she gets a book or movie deal to tell more stories. Choice lines from her tweet essay are being quoted, retweeted, and turned into memes. 

When I first encountered the story via a Tumblr meme, I enthusiastically reblogged it. “This is WILD, this is HILARIOUS.” I wrote. “I’M SCREAMING.”

And then I got called out.  

Some social media users have questioned why people were finding Zola’s story entertaining, when in fact so many of its key details are pretty disturbing. “I get that the Zola story is ‘wild’ but it isn’t funny,” one Tumblr user wrote me anonymously. “Jess gets beaten and almost killed. Z is a child sex trafficker. How is any of that funny?” 

It seems reactions to the meme have been split into two camps of “this is totally juicy and hilarious,” and “this is totally horrifying.”

The reaction to Zola’s story is vaguely reminiscent of the reaction to Rihanna’s video for “BBHM.” Like Rihanna, who directed the controversial video, Zola has taken full ownership of her identity as a sex worker and her story, telling it unapologetically and on her own terms. And like the Rihanna video, much of the supposed “humor” in her story is derived from the brutalization of another woman, specifically that of a white woman. 

What King describes happening to Jess (forced prostitution, kidnapping, physical abuse) isn’t funny, and a woman who is allegedly Jess from the story posted on Facebook that to be reminded of the ordeal “honestly freaking hurts.” The idea that her real name has been used and that people are entertained by a story that involves a dark period in her life is disturbing. 

The fact that King, a sex worker herself, is being hailed as a new kind of literary voice for adapting a medium often viewed as the antithesis of literary, is exciting. The reaction to King’s story proves the power of social media to give an elevated platform to people who otherwise wouldn’t have one. It’s great that King is getting attention, but it’s unfortunate that her popularity is at someone else’s expense. 

So how do we reconcile these two things? How do we praise one woman for empowering herself through telling her own story, when that story also trivializes the abuse of another woman? Is that even possible?

We may not have an easy answer to those questions, but that’s exactly why we should be asking them. Being captivated by the story is a normal response, but feeling no level of discomfort about who we’re laughing at and why should give us pause. And while, at the end of the day, this meme is being treated as nothing more than another funny Internet sensation, it’s important that we think about why exactly we are so entertained.

Also on HuffPost: 

 

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Open Question: LGBT, what would argue is the root to hatred towards homosexuals?

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151029062442AAvro4m