The Podcast That Will Get You Through the Holidays

Jeffrey Masters is chronicling the stories we don’t often hear on the hit podcast LGBTQ&A.

www.advocate.com/current-issue/2017/11/21/podcast-will-get-you-through-holidays

True Blood’s Rutina Wesley Comes Out in Heartfelt Instagram Engagement Post

Wesley, who currently stars on Queen Sugar, posted a gallery of pics that appear to confirm her engagement to a woman. 

www.advocate.com/television/2017/11/20/true-bloods-rutina-wesley-comes-out-heartfelt-instagram-engagement-post

‘I’m A Celebrity’: Richard Madeley Schools Amir Khan On Bushtucker Trials During ‘Extra Camp’
Amir Khan may have failed to win any stars during Monday (20 November) night’s ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ Bushtucker Trial, but Richard Madeley was on hand to show how it’s done during spin-off ‘Extra Camp’.

Amir and Georgia ‘Toff’ Toffolo returned to the camp empty-handed when the boxer struggled with his part of the task and opted out before finding any of the keys required to free the ‘Made In Chelsea’ cast member from an underground hole full of creepy-crawlies.

His decision to quit also meant viewers didn’t get to see a full trial take place, which is Richard and ‘Extra Camp’ presenter Joe came in.

Taking on Amir and Toff’s roles respectively, the pair did their best to complete the task, with Richard remaining totally unfazed by the bugs and snakes that joined him in the tunnel.

Admittedly, Joe wasn’t quite so calm as he remained locked in the underground vault, but it was nothing a few reassuring shouts from Richard couldn’t fix and they finished the trial with relative ease.

During the main episode, boxer Amir also claimed that he hasn’t actually seen ‘I’m A Celeb’ before, and after the trial, told Ant and Dec: “This was my first Trial, I thought you’d take it easy on me, I’m scared of snakes.”

Oh dear.

And yes, Amir seems to have no idea that the public will probably vote for him to take part in every trial to come. It’s going to be a long few weeks…

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/im-a-celebrity-amir-khan-richard-madeley_uk_5a13e77ee4b0bfa88c1cb487

Paul Hollywood Splits From Wife Alexandra After 20 Years Of Marriage

Paul Hollywood has announced he is separating from his wife, Alexandra, after 20 years of marriage.

The ‘Great British Bake Off’ judge and his wife issued a joint statement confirming the news on Monday evening.

It reads: “It is with sadness that we have decided to separate. Our focus continues to be the happiness of our son… we ask the press and public to allow us privacy during this very difficult time.”

The couple previously split in 2013 when he admitted having an affair with Marcela Valladolid, his co-presenter on the US version of ‘Bake Off’.

He later described it as “the biggest mistake of my life” during an interview with BBC Radio Five Live.

He said:  “I did have an affair in America with my co-judge and it was the biggest mistake of my life because actually I still love my wife.

“We are talking, we are working to get back together again but it’s going to take time.

“I was shocked about the whole thing kicking off the way it did… but I deserved it and I’ve taken it. It was my punishment.”

The couple, who met in Cyprus in 1996, got back together just months after the news of the affair made headlines.

Two years later Paul revealed they were in “a very good place”.

He said: “We went through a very difficult time but we’re on top right now … There was no let-up but now I feel we’re in a very good place. I think this is the happiest we’ve ever been. Our love of food is the key to it all.

“We love going out and have done that a lot this year. We’re away for Valentine’s Day. That was my idea. I can be a romantic. The way to every woman’s heart is through her stomach. Food is at the core of everything.”

Alex added: “You’ve just got to get on with life, haven’t you? I’m an eternal optimist, he’s an optimist.

“We’re having a good time. The most romantic thing he did was bake chocolate croissants on a Sunday morning. That was a lovely thing to do.”

Paul will return as a judge for the second series of ‘The Great British Bake Off’ on Channel 4 next year.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/paul-hollywood-splits-from-wife-alexandra-after-20-years-of-marriage_uk_5a13ce24e4b0c335e996ff72

In Drew Droege’s ‘Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,’ a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW

At various moments during Bright Colors And Bold Patterns, Drew Droege’s uproarious solo portrait of a gay man on the verge, my friend and I nudged each other in the dark. “That is you!” “Oh, this is so [name redacted].” “Now that… yeah okay, that’s me.”

Not that anyone could hear us over the laughs at SoHo Playhouse, where the show’s return off-Broadway engagement opened November 20, following an acclaimed run at Barrow Street Theatre last year.

Maybe you’ve never attended a gay wedding in Palm Springs — or shared a weekend house with your ex-roommate and lover turned best friend, his new boyfriend, and a sworn frenemy. But an evening with Gerry is like looking into a kitschy mosaic mirror in some corner of these desert digs, whose aesthetic he describes as if “Trina Turk and Betsey Johnson threw up Bacardi Razz and then sold it to Target.” (Scenic design is by Dara Wishingrad.) Chances are that during this 80-minute roller coaster of a poolside bender, you’ll recognize flashes of yourself and pretty much every homo you know.

Not that everyone lives as out loud as Gerry (“I’m a lot, he says, in dramatic understatement). From the moment he steps on stage, after a bitch of a drive up the 10 from L.A., Gerry runs his mouth as though if he slowed down the motor might give out. Nimbly directed by Michael Urie, Droege plays one-sided conversations disguised as a monologue opposite empty chairs. But the unseen characters would be hard pressed to get a word in, anyway — their presence hardly matters. Gerry’s own life is a one-man show, a manic, encyclopedic stream of campy references and repartee. He’s the life of the party with an appetite for escape (“Werrk!” he commands his first afternoon Corona). The question is from what.

What begins as an anxious and colorful kind of frenzy descends with the sunset into something more dour. Like the margaritas he swills, there’s a salty bitterness mixed in with Gerry’s sanguine self-assurance. Beyond the indecency of flying solo to a gay wedding (Gerry claims he’s in a fight with his boyfriend), he rails against what he calls the “race toward normal” that his soon-to-be-wed friend — and the queer movement writ large — seem to have embraced.

With Bright Colors, Droege, best known for his viral YouTube sendups of Chloë Sevigny, mines the psyche of a culture that’s gone from celebrating life on the margins to scrambling toward the middle. Having the door open to a conventional life — one hardly any queer person would agree should’ve remained closed — comes with a new kind of pressure to step through it. And, worst of all for Gerry, to leave behind some of the hard-won vibrancy and freedom born of reacting against the system to begin with.

The wedding invite that brought the crew to Palm Springs tells them to avoid wearing “bright colors and bold patterns” — a request that strikes Gerry as an affront to everything he’s worked so hard to love about being himself. They may not be your style, but Gerry’s impassioned defense of living in a full range of hues will likely stir something in you, too.

Recent theatre features…
In New Musical ‘The Band’s Visit,’ an Exquisite Meditation on Hopes Won and Lost: REVIEW
Julie Taymor Directs Clive Owen in Stylish but Earthbound ‘M. Butterfly’ on Broadway: REVIEW
In Off-Broadway’s ‘Lonely Planet,’ Coping with AIDS Trauma on a Human Scale: REVIEW
Transcendent ‘Torch Song’ Starring Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl Is Required Gay Viewing: REVIEW
‘Downton Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern Opens in Puzzling ‘Time and the Conways’: REVIEW
‘A Clockwork Orange’ Shows Plenty of Skin, Skimps on Danger Off-Broadway: REVIEW

Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar
(photos: russ rowland)

The post In Drew Droege’s ‘Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,’ a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW appeared first on Towleroad.

In Drew Droege’s ‘Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,’ a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW

17 Antigay Leaders Exposed as Gay or Bi

www.advocate.com/politics/2016/4/18/17-antigay-leaders-exposed-gay-or-bi

Tory Bid To Woo Youth Vote With New 26-30 Railcard Dismissed As ‘Too Little Too Late’
Chancellor Philip Hammond will try to woo Jeremy Corbyn’s “youth vote” by pledging a new railcard for under-31s and more help for students who overpay loans.

On the eve of the Budget, the Treasury confirmed it would extend the current train travel discounts to include 26-30 year-olds and restructure university payments to avoid excess charges.

But Labour dismissed both moves as “too little too late” and called for more radical policies such as the renationalisation of the railways.

Hammond had urged fellow MPs to come to him with policies to win back the millions of young voters who flocked to Labour in the snap general election in June.

HuffPost UK revealed this month that new Mansfield MP Ben Bradley has formed a special group of Tory MPs aged 35 and under to advise the Government on how to reconnect with parts of the electorate who deserted the Conservatives in big numbers.

One Labour source said the Budget moves were “too little, too late” for many young people.

The Treasury said that it would “work with industry” to extend the current youth railcard to include 4.5 million more young people.

It is expected that the card will work on a similar basis to the one for 16-25 year olds, which has existed in one form or another since 1974.

The Treasury said it expected the new card to be available for passengers from next spring, but Labour pointed out that the policy had yet to be finalised with private rail firms.

Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald said the plan “will do nothing for commuters who have seen the cost of travel rise by 27% since 2010, twice the rate of wages”.

“The Tories are tinkering around the edges of a broken system. Our railway should be run by and for passengers, not private shareholders and foreign governments. Labour will take rail back into public ownership, bringing fares down for all passengers and preventing fares rising above inflation, saving the average commuter around £500 over the course of Parliament.”

In another move, the Treasury said that the Budget would also signal an end to the problem of graduates overpaying on their student loans.

A common complaint from graduates repaying their student loan through the tax system is that they often find money continues to come off their wages, even when the full loan has been repaid.

In 2015-16, 86,000 people with a student loan overpaid, and the average overpayment per graduate was £592 – equivalent to many people’s weekly wage.

Now, HM Revenue and Customs and the Student Loans Company are developing a data-sharing system for April 2019, which will automatically stop all repayments once a borrower has repaid in full.

This new announcement follows the Prime Minister’s commitment in October to raise the income level that triggers student loan repayments from £21,000 to £25,000 a year in 2018-19, and increasing this with average earnings thereafter.

Around 600,000 borrowers (with post-2012 loans) are expected to benefit from the threshold changes, helping to secure a better future for the next generation.

Labour said it was pleased ministers had finally listened to its complaints about “the scandal of graduates overpaying” overpayments, but said that paled compared to the wider problems with the system.

“Students are already facing a lifetime of debt thanks to the Tories tripling fees and scrapping grants, so it’s outrageous that some have had as much as £10,000 wrongly taken from them on top of what they owed,” Shadow Education Minister Gordon Marsden said.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/philip-hammond-bids-to-woo-youth-vote-with-26-30-railcard-and-end-to-graduate-loan-overpayment_uk_5a1366fae4b0bfa88c1c9dce

69 Photos of the Agony and Ecstasy of Gay Dodgeball

www.advocate.com/sports/2017/11/20/69-photos-agony-and-ecstasy-gay-dodgeball