Category Archives: MISC

Tiffany, Deviled Eggs, Abe Lincoln, Netflix, Mick Mulvaney, The Subpoenas, Between The Shades, Cristiano Ronaldo: HOT LINKS

Tiffany, Deviled Eggs, Abe Lincoln, Netflix, Mick Mulvaney, The Subpoenas, Between The Shades, Cristiano Ronaldo: HOT LINKS

CROOK. Trump says “we’re fighting all the subpoenas.”

“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Pres. Trump says, saying Democrats are trying to “luck out” in 2020 by “constantly going after me on nonsense.” t.co/WFGygHVmLA pic.twitter.com/IbOTtySbaz

— ABC News (@ABC) April 24, 2019

LOBBYISTS. Pete Buttigieg is the only top 2020 Democrat taking money from them: ‘Of the top tier of active candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination ― usually identified by pundits to include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) ― only Buttigieg is actively accepting donations from Washington lobbyists. Several lower-profile candidates, including former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, are also taking lobbyist cash.’

DNC. How Buttigieg’s first losing campaign set up his 2020 bid. “I saw Mayor Pete’s ability to go viral before. To be honest, it was even a little frustrating for me, given that I was running against him.”

NOT IN MY HOUSE. The Trumps will not be staying at Buckingham Palace for their state visit with the Queen.

DON’T BRING IT UP. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was told not to bring up Russian interference in front of Trump: ‘Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, made it clear that Mr. Trump still equated any public discussion of malign Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his victory. According to one senior administration official, Mr. Mulvaney said it “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level.”’

MADBOD. Jared Leto is very proud of his abs.

SUPER HUMBLE. Rami Malek is a model solo diner.

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO. Netflix Amazon and streaming services! “…the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted not to change its rules for winning an Oscar, Hollywood’s top prize.”

DEFIANCE. California, Nevada, Washington State, Oregon, and New Mexico will continue to let transgender troops serve in the National Guard: ‘All 50 states—and four U.S. territories—have their own National Guard units that are primarily under gubernatorial control. That chain of command could allow individual governors to challenge—or at least test the limits of—the Trump administration’s newly-implemented policy, which disqualifies recruits with gender dysphoria while threatening most currently-serving transgender people with the risk of discharge.’

CALL THEM BY THEIR NAME. The Duggar family renamed Deviled Eggs “Yellow Pocket Angel Eggs” because Jeebus.

PHILADELPHIA. City can exclude Catholic foster care agency from program for foster children because it excludes gay couples: “In a 3-0 decision, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Catholic Social Services failed to show that the placement freeze amounted to religious persecution or bias, violating its First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom.”

COURTING MR. LINCOLN. New book explores whether Lincoln was gay: ‘I learned as much as I can about these guys, and the book is a promiscuous mixture of fact and invention. The book that was helpful was “The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln” by C.A. Tripp. He was a Kinsey Institute sex researcher and the first to declare that Lincoln was homosexual. The book is a bit over-the-top and was savaged at the time, but it was the first to bring up that possibility. Although [Lincoln biographer] Carl Sandburg brought up in his 1926 biography that the friendship had a “streak of lavender,” which was code.’

ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME. SONY pictures to develop Broadway-bound Britney Spears musical into a film: “In Once Upon a One More Time, Cinderella, Snow White and the other fairy tale princesses gather for their book club when a rogue fairy godmother drops The Feminine Mystique into their corseted laps, spurring a royal revelation. The musical features such Spears hits as Oops I Did It Again, Lucky, Circus and Toxic. The musical features an original book by Jon Hartmere and is directed by Rock Of Ages‘ Kristin Hanggi with choreography by Keone and Mari Madrid (Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself).”

TRAILER OF THE DAY. Between The Shades. “Jill Salvino, the film’s director, created the documentary from more than 50 interviews with people representing a variety of sexual orientations, ages and races. The film includes parents and their adult children, singles and couples, and people who identify as gay, straight, lesbian, trans, intersex, queer and gender nonbinary.”

NEW OLD TUNE OF THE DAY. Tiffany’s re-do of “I Think We’re Alone Now”.

HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Cristiano Ronaldo’s new underwear campaign.

The post Tiffany, Deviled Eggs, Abe Lincoln, Netflix, Mick Mulvaney, The Subpoenas, Between The Shades, Cristiano Ronaldo: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


Tiffany, Deviled Eggs, Abe Lincoln, Netflix, Mick Mulvaney, The Subpoenas, Between The Shades, Cristiano Ronaldo: HOT LINKS

13 Fun Things You Can Do Solo this Spring to Spark Joy in Your Life!

13 Fun Things You Can Do Solo this Spring to Spark Joy in Your Life!

Remember that episode of Friends where Rachel struggles with the idea of taking herself out for dinner? Why was she so uncomfortable being alone? The idea of taking yourself on a date is not such an eccentric concept afterall. Think of it as “treating yourself” instead. You get to explore what is around you, based […]

The post 13 Fun Things You Can Do Solo this Spring to Spark Joy in Your Life! appeared first on PlentyOfFish Blog.

13 Fun Things You Can Do Solo this Spring to Spark Joy in Your Life!

HRC Sits Down with Parents for Trans Equality Council’s Chris Williams

HRC Sits Down with Parents for Trans Equality Council’s Chris Williams

Post submitted by Sula Malina, HRC Children, Youth and Families Program Coordinator

HRC recently sat down with Chris Williams, a member of HRC Foundation’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council, to learn more about his family’s story.

Williams and his partner Joel Sekuta live in Seattle, and they are the proud parents of two great kids, both of whom are transgender. Williams is a longtime strategic communications professional and is actively involved with HRC at both the local and national levels. He has worked with LGBTQ employee resource groups at his places of employment to build greater visibility for LGBTQ individuals in the workplace.

What inspired you to join HRC’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council?

I became involved with the council, in part, because I am a gay parent, but also so that I could act as a bit of a bridge within the community and enlist my friends into being the fierce advocates for trans youth that our kids need. When my younger child came out as trans in 2015-16, I realized how disconnected I was from trans issues, even though I was a part of the same community. I wanted to do more than just support my kid; I wanted to work to be an advocate for trans youth within the LGBT community, as well as in the broader community. Those of us who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual may not understand what it’s like to be trans or non-binary, but we absolutely understand what it’s like to be different, to come out, to navigate a world that isn’t always supportive and understanding.

What’s been one highlight of your experience as a council member?

Getting to know the other parents and drawing from them the inspiration to be an advocate for trans youth. It’s easy to fight for your own kids, but the camaraderie that I feel with the other parents on the council makes it easy to fight for other people’s kids as well. They all inspire me — and so do their children.

What part of HRC’s work do you connect with the most?

I was an active member of HRC before I joined the council. What drew me to the organization then draws me to it now: smart strategic advocacy that places the needs of real people front and center. Harvey Milk told us that the most important thing we can do as gay people is come out. HRC has harnessed the power of the individual act of coming out and turned it into an awesome force for change, in part through powerful storytelling, and this council of parents helps HRC do it even better by bravely telling the stories of their children and their families.

What’s one message you have for other parents of transgender children?

Love your child, just as they are. Acceptance of my two trans children didn’t come easily, even though I had walked the walk of coming out and then advocating for equality. I have struggled at times to reconcile the hopes and dreams I had for my children as I thought them to be with the reality of who they are. But this, I think, is one of the most natural struggles of parenting, whether your child is straight or gay, cis or trans. We can’t help but tell ourselves stories of who we think our children are and who they will become. But they are who they are, and we should celebrate each of them for being just themselves and having the bravery to walk through the world as as they choose to be.

HRC Foundation’s Parents for Transgender Equality Council is a coalition of some of the nation’s leading parent-advocates working for equality and fairness for transgender people. To learn more about HRC Foundation’s work with transgender youth and their families, visit our Children, Youth and Families Program.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-sits-down-with-parents-for-trans-equality-councils-chris-williams?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Drag Is the Gag in Laugh-Out-Loud ‘Tootsie’ on Broadway: REVIEW

Drag Is the Gag in Laugh-Out-Loud ‘Tootsie’ on Broadway: REVIEW

From Shakespeare to Mrs Doubtfire, when straight characters do drag it’s generally to get what they want. Bonus points if they land a sweetheart and learn something along the way. That age-old wig trick arrives at the Marquis Theatre tonight with the opening of Tootsie, Broadway’s latest and by no means least film-to-stage musical. A spit-take-funny script from Robert Horn and winning lead performance by Santino Fontana elevate a production scant on memorable tunes and less than convincing in its update to 2019.

Based on the 1982 film by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart, this Tootsie also stars a leading man (originally played by Dustin Hoffman) in search of a role. Instead of a soap opera gig, Fontana’s out-of-work actor nabs a plum part on Broadway once he decides, out of desperation, to audition disguised as a woman. As Michael, he has delusions of grandeur that make him difficult to work with. He’s much the same as Dorothy, only less arrogant and sweeter of voice. His artistic input leads the show’s producer (Julie Halston) to rename this musical version of Romeo and Juliet for his character, Juliet’s Nurse. Meanwhile he quickly falls for the woman playing his ward (Lilli Cooper).

A scene when Michael tells his roommate (Andy Grotelueschen) that he got the part is characteristic of Tootsie’s two-steps-forward, one-step-back attempts to wrest the story into the present. “At a time when women are literally clutching their power back from between the legs of men, you have the audacity to take a job away from one by perpetrating one?” his friend asks. The next question is how Michael’s ex-girlfriend (a scene-stealing Sarah Stiles) will react since he beat her out for the role. “You think she’ll get emotional?” Michael asks. “Emotional? Sandy? The girl once choked on her food just so someone would hold her?” The dialogue goes from expressing lip-service sympathy for women to delivering a punch line based on stereotype within seconds. (No, there are none on the creative team.)

Fortunately Stiles turns those neuroses into art and delivers a knockout performance, including the only memorable number, one composer David Yazbek might well have pocketed from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. His score for Tootsie, while otherwise adept at carving out individual characters, lacks the innovation and range so exquisitely demonstrated in his Tony-winning work on The Band’s Visit.

Director Scott Ellis, whose boffo production of Kiss Me, Kate opened just last month, again demonstrates his expert hand at calibrating big-canvas musical comedy. Action moves swiftly between locales on designer David Rockwell’s elaborate and meticulously detailed set, and cheeky choreography from Denis Jones sends up Broadway conventions with a few nods to pop culture.

But it’s Fontana whose tireless performance galvanizes the production, in and out of that famous fiery wig (designed here by Paul Huntley). Fontana wears his charm like a vintage T-shirt, softening the grating faults of a character who might be hard to root for on the page. If all Michael gleans from cross-dressing is that he’s not the center of the universe and being a woman is tougher than he thought, there are worse lessons for a straight white guy.

Recent theatre features…
All the Questions I Had Watching Glenda Jackson in ‘King Lear’ on Broadway: REVIEW
‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ is the First Must-See Show of the Year: REVIEW
Temptations Musical ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ Makes a Play for Soul on Broadway: REVIEW
Kelli O’Hara Dazzles in ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ on Broadway: REVIEW
‘Be More Chill’ Is Like an Incel’s Answer to ‘Mean Girls’: REVIEW
The Most Interesting Part of Broadway’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Already Happened Off Stage: REVIEW
Broadway’s ‘The Cher Show’ Is a Feast for Fans and an Assertion of Legacy: REVIEW

Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar

photos by matthew murphy

The post Drag Is the Gag in Laugh-Out-Loud ‘Tootsie’ on Broadway: REVIEW appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


Drag Is the Gag in Laugh-Out-Loud ‘Tootsie’ on Broadway: REVIEW