Can This ‘Golden Girls’-Themed Cafe Lure Fans To Washington Heights?

Since it’s an inconsiderably long trek by most people’s standards, it’s not easy getting Manhattanites up to Washington Heights. But maybe that’s because they have no brick-and-mortar paean to Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, Sophia Petrillo, and Rose Nylund.

One local resident is hoping to totally reinvigorate the neighborhood with the lure of a “Golden Girls”-themed café, which he thinks will attract fans in crotchety, curmudgeonly droves.

Related: We’re This Close To An Official Lego “Golden Girls”

According to DNA Info, in early September Michael J. LaRue plans to open Rue La Rue Cafe on 4396 Broadway at the Sofia Storage Building. The space will honor the late Rue McClanahan, a close friend of La Rue’s, and the actress who portrayed Blanche Devereaux in the legendarily campy ’80s sitcom.

“She was my best friend,” LaRue said in a Community Board 12 licensing meeting.

Related: ‘The Golden Girls’ Turns 30, Logo Plans On-Air Drag Salute

Apparently, he’s already lined up the indomitable Betty White to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony.

He intends to decorate the eatery with several items he’s inherited from McClanahan’s estate after she died in 2010. Diners at La Rue Cafe can expect soups, wraps, salads, baked treats, wine, and desserts (cheesecake, we’re guessing).

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/ZNoSv-2WX4w/can-golden-girls-themed-cafe-lure-fans-washington-heights-20160621

PHOTOS: Randy Dudes Give Consent In Los Angeles

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/4PUmFoTaMbc/

Bronx Man Has Nose Broken In Vicious Anti-Gay Attack

An assailant in the Bronx used a gay slur before attacking a man and breaking his nose earlier this month.

According the the 48-year-old victim, the unidentified man jumped him when he was exiting the D train station at 183rd St. near the Grand Concourse at about 11:30 p.m. on June 4. The man said “You faggots make me sick” before shoving the victim down some steps and punching him in the face and body.

Although the victim has not been identified, neighbor Evelyn Reyes told the Daily News:

“Somebody pushed him down the stairs from behind and started beating on his face. He’s black and blue all around his eyes. He’s a nice person. Always says good morning. He’s nice.”

RELATED: NYC Woman Documents Disgusting Transphobic Attack on Busy Subway Train: WATCH

Pix11 adds:

Both men exited the train at the 183rd Street-Grand Concourse stop. A law enforcement source said the attacker waited for the victim upstairs then, when he spotted him, pushed the victim down the stairs and kicked and punched him as he lay on the ground.

During the beating, he allegedly told the victim, “You f—ing f—–s make me sick.”

The victim, a 48-year-old man, was treated for a broken nose, a cut above his eyes and numerous bruises, sources said.

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the attack. No arrests have been made.

(Image via Wikipedia)

The post Bronx Man Has Nose Broken In Vicious Anti-Gay Attack appeared first on Towleroad.

feeds.towleroad.com/~r/towleroad/feed/~3/tKGzgru_R48/

#BiPride: In Powerful Video, Evan Rachel Wood Highlights Issues Facing Bisexual Community

In a powerful video released today, actor Evan Rachel Wood opened up about the many issues, stereotypes and misconceptions facing the bisexual community, including her own struggles.

“There are so many gray areas in this world, especially when it comes to gender roles and especially when it comes to sexuality,” she said in the video, which was released today in conjunction with LGBTQ Pride Month. “I found women very beautiful. I also found men very beautiful. I’m fluid.”

Wood has spoken out frequently about the issues facing bisexual people, most recently tweeting about HRC’s Health Disparities Among Bisexual People.

“I was getting crushes a lot on girls in middle school. People that I was afraid to be honest with for fear of losing them,” she said. “As open-minded as my family was, I was still terrified to talk to them.”

Recent surveys have shown that bisexual people are the largest group within the LGBTQ community: half of people who identify as LGB identify as bisexual. However, bisexuals are far less likely than their gay and lesbian peers to be out, citing stereotypes, skepticism and pressure to “choose” one sexual orientation as reasons for staying in the closet.

“I really started contemplating suicide because I had no way to express myself. I was also very, very confused because I didn’t know bisexuality was a thing,” she admitted. “There was no where to go. I think I already realized being bisexual or saying I’m bisexual was not cute and was looked down upon.”

Throughout the video, Wood shares a variety of statistics around health disparities in the bisexual community. For example, compared to other groups in the LGBTQ community, bisexuals face striking rates of poor health outcomes ranging from cancer and obesity to sexually transmitted infections to mental health problems. Bisexual adults are more likely to engage in self-harming behaviors, attempt suicide or think about suicide than heterosexuals, lesbians or gay men. Additionally, bisexual adults were three times as likely to report thoughts of suicide than heterosexual adults.

“I can only speak for my experience…there are many, many factors that come into play when dealing with statistics like this, but I can say it certainly heightens them and certainly makes them heavier and more frightening and more lonely and harder to bear and I hope that by sharing one bisexual story we’ll start to become real people with real stories and real struggles.”

Wood is bravely living openly and authentically, helping to shine a light on the dangerous but largely hidden crisis–the striking physical, mental and sexual health disparities bisexual people face. She hopes that by sharing these shocking statistics and her own person experience, more people will begin to recognize, respect and acknowledge the bisexual community.

“I want to wish everybody a happy pride month, no matter who you are,” she concluded. “I liked to call on you to stand by us and to acknowledge us and to open your arms.”

HRC Foundation, in partnership with BiNet USA, the Bisexual Organizing Project, and the Bisexual Resource Center, released A Resource Guide to Coming Out As Bisexual earlier this year to help bisexual people of all ages who are contemplating the important step of coming out.

For more resources for bisexual people, including HRC Foundation’s Supporting and Caring for Our Bisexual Youth report and Health Disparities Among Bisexual People, click here.

www.hrc.org/blog/bipride-in-powerful-video-evan-rachel-wood-highlights-issues-facing-bisexua?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

The 50 Biggest Homophobes of the Last 50 Years

www.advocate.com/people/2016/6/21/50-biggest-homophobes-last-50-years

The Curious Case of the Anti-Trans New Yorker Article

Writing in The New Yorker, a Harvard professor suggested North Carolina officials have good reason to object to federal guidelines banning anti-trans discrimination. Another Harvard professor and a trans activist take umbrage.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/6/21/curious-case-anti-trans-new-yorker-article

Donald Trump To Announce Advisory Board Of Anti-LGBT Religious Bigots: VIDEO

Shameless opportunist Donald Trump is today expected to unveil an advisory board chock full of anti-LGBT religious bigots.

Last week, Trump used the massacre of 49 people in Orlando to promote his bigoted immigration policies and claim to be a better friend to women and the LGBT community than Hillary Clinton. Just days before the massacre the reality TV star told a group of religious right leaders that he would defend “Christian values” including “marriage and family.”

RELATED: Bill Maher: Trump’s Reaction to Orlando Exposed Him as a Narcissist – WATCH

Right Wing Watch reports that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate’s advisory group is expected to include thrice-married televangelist Paula White, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress, Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, current and past Southern Baptist Convention presidents Ronnie Floyd and Jack Graham.

The choice of these activists as campaign advisers would further undermine Trump’s attempts – bolstered by some in the media – to portray himself as either supportive of gay rights or at least distanced from the GOP’s anti-LGBT politics.

Jeffress, as we’ve noted, “believes that gays and lesbians are ‘perverse’ people who are either pedophiles or likely to abuse children in the future; compared homosexuality to bestiality and called it ‘a miserable lifestyle’; accused gay people of using ‘brainwashing techniques’ to have homosexuality ‘crammed down our throats’; said that gay people ‘are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine’; predicted that the gay rights movement ‘will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist’; and labeled homosexuality a ‘filthy practice’ that will lead to the ‘implosion of our country.’”

Floyd, the SBC president, once said that Satan is using the “gay lifestyle” to destroy cultural values and labeled the adoption of children by same-sex couples a “tragedy.”

Honored to pray for my friend, @realDonaldTrump, at tonight’s Dallas rally. #TrumpDallas c: @DanScavino pic.twitter.com/BcgWuszPnu

— Dr. Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) June 17, 2016

Last Thursday, Trump made the frankly ridiculous claim that the “LGBT community is starting to like Donald Trump very, very much lately.”

Watch Bill Maher on Trump’s reaction to the Orlando massacre below.

The post Donald Trump To Announce Advisory Board Of Anti-LGBT Religious Bigots: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

feeds.towleroad.com/~r/towleroad/feed/~3/a5wtE_War5Y/