Op-ed: Falling For Your Closeted Best Friend
What do you do when the first person you fall for is your closeted best friend?
Jase Peeples
www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/10/10/op-ed-falling-your-closeted-best-friend
Category Archives: MISC
Artist Resolves To Insert Trans Women Into The Canon Of Art History
Artist Resolves To Insert Trans Women Into The Canon Of Art History
The history of representation in Western art is unfortunately a pretty narrow one, consisting almost exclusively of white, cis men and women.
Artists like Kehinde Wiley and Mickalene Thomas have retroactively inserted black bodies into the art historical lexicon, thereby widening the range of portraiture’s scope. Queens-based artist Janet Bruesselbach is broadening the scope further, through a series of full-length oil portraits depicting trans women. The project, titled “Daughters of Mercury,” aims to provide trans individuals with an artistic visibility they don’t yet possess, through a series of loving portraits.
Alice, oil on canvas, 37x29in, 2014
“This series was inspired by my love for the trans women I have met online and my sympathy with the struggles they have being seen as women and people,” Bruesselbach explained to The Huffington Post. “As an artist, if I’m close to someone I will inevitably try to paint a portrait of them. This started with Maddie, but I met more and more beautiful women that I felt were not often the subjects of classical oil portraits, and whom I wanted to earn, as models, some of the money they needed toward ongoing expenses, and to offset pay and hiring discrimination.
The venture’s title, “Daughters of Mercury,” stems from the idea of alchemical transformation. “I’m not much of a romantic or mystic,” Bruesselbach says on Kickstarter, “but arguably, the painting process is one of transmutation of pigment into life. Its negotiations of representation parallel the continual aesthetic and cultural decisions trans women are often forced to make.”
Maddie, in progress, oil on canvas, 48x24in
Although she cites Baroque painters and representational modernists as influences, Bruesselbach’s true artistic inspiration comes from interacting with her subjects and exploring the complex process of visual representation. “I hope to communicate that trans female bodies are female bodies, and that there is a huge diversity among trans women in gender presentation, sexuality, profession, class, ability, race, and body type. I want to bring attention to the lives and work of my subjects. But I also just want to make gorgeous paintings people want to look at.”
Bruesselbach is currently raising funds for her project on Kickstarter, hoping to collect $20,000 by October 26 to purchase supplies and pay her models. She hopes her vision will appeal to those outside the trans community who can help make this long overdue artistic intervention a reality. “While I’ve only gotten positive responses to the series so far, many of the people I talk to consider the audience to be niche, and expect only the trans community to support it… Trans women are everywhere, but until recently have been marginalized by the invisibility enforced by the intensification of misogynist violence toward them. It is up to cisnormative society to stop questioning their femininity, embrace their beauty, and counter the disadvantages they have just by being themselves.”
Visit the “Daughters of Mercury” page to learn more.
National Coming Out Day: What Does It Mean to Live Your Truth?
National Coming Out Day: What Does It Mean to Live Your Truth?
Ask a thousand LGBT people who have come out what “coming out” means and you’ll get a thousand different answers.
HRC.org
Ellen Gives “Magic Mike XXL” Dancer Stephen Boss A Full Body Wax
Ellen Gives “Magic Mike XXL” Dancer Stephen Boss A Full Body Wax
To follow four wonderful appearances from Ellen’s shirtless gardener “Nick” last month, Ellen’s guest DJ Stephen “tWitch” Boss stripped down to his underwear Wednesday to get a full body wax on camera, thus continuing the great new weekly tradition of objectifying Ellen’s male friends.
The 32-year-old dancer/actor and So You Think You Can Dance alum revealed he’s been cast in the upcoming Magic Mike XXL sequel. He says he enjoys showing off his body but isn’t excited to get “waxed from neck to toe,” a requirement for the job.
“I’m really nervous about that,” he said. “I didn’t know that’s what I was signing up for.”
Check it out below, and prepare yourself to see him in even tinier underwear when Magic Mike XXL comes out next August:
Matthew Tharrett
The Economist Looks At the Rapidly Changing American Attitudes Towards Gay Marriage: VIDEO
The Economist Looks At the Rapidly Changing American Attitudes Towards Gay Marriage: VIDEO
With the Supreme Court bringing gay marriage to a number of new states this week, The Economist looks back at how (and why) the U.S. public has warmed to the idea of two people of the same gender falling in love, marrying, and creating a family.
From Lawrence v. Texas to the growing tide of gay marriage support among Millennials, the video examines some of the many interlocking pieces that have come together to bring us where we are today in the fight for LGBT equality.
Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP…
Kyler Geoffroy
LGBT Ameaça Travesti de morte por defender a FAMILIA Tradicional
LGBT Ameaça Travesti de morte por defender a FAMILIA Tradicional
Quem são mesmos os fundamentalistas? Esse movimento bancado pelo Governo do PT quer implantar uma verdadeira ditadura gay aqui no Brasil.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzx3GXH6Zs0&feature=youtube_gdata
Soldiers Taking Part in the London Pride Parade
EXCLUSIVE: Laura Jane Grace Is 'True Trans'
EXCLUSIVE: Laura Jane Grace Is 'True Trans'
Punk rocker Laura Jane Grace gives fans a taste of her new documentary series True Trans in this exclusive clip and interview.
Mitch Kellaway
www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/10/10/exclusive-laura-jane-grace-true-trans
'Everyone Is Happier If They Have Sex': Tove Lo Is The Pop Star 2014 Needed
'Everyone Is Happier If They Have Sex': Tove Lo Is The Pop Star 2014 Needed
It’s safe to say artists try to write the catchiest lyrics possible. They want their hooks filled with pretty, metaphorical and, purposely or not, sometimes meaningless lines that could eventually become a future tattoo or Twitter bio. And then there are artists like Tove Ebba Elsa Nilsson, better known as Tove Lo, who shears away all varnishes, resulting in lyrics like this: “If you love me right, we fuck for life, on and on and on.”
“Even though I know there is some value to keeping it hidden — there’s an art to that too – I’m just really into the raw bluntness of telling it how it is,” Nilsson told HuffPost Entertainment. “I think that pop music in general sometimes like to keep things a bit more hidden, and, you know, you censor and you polish to make it fit more people or to not be too vulgar or make sure of ‘Can this really play on the radio?’ And I like not doing that.”
Nilsson’s major label debut, “Queen of the Clouds,” is the latest to prove that Sweden is a pop hot-bed. Just in the past few years, an astounding number of Swedish female artists have topped charts and blogs in the United States: Icona Pop, Lykke Li, Little Dragon, First Aid Kit, NoNoNo, Say Lou Lou and Elliphant, to name a few. “I’ve been trying to figure it out myself,” Nilsson responded with a laugh when asked about the country’s musical success. “I think it’s the combination of liking something that’s simple and clear, minimalistic, and our limit in the English language have helped.”
While there are plenty of theories and too many answers for that, “Queen of the Clouds” makes it abundantly clear that Tove Lo stands beside Banks as one of the two best new faces in pop. It’s dark, it’s multidimensional, it’s fun and it’s honest. Growing up, Nilsson immersed herself in the grunge movement, taking lessons from groups like Nirvana and Silverchair, channeling the rawness that helped set those acts apart into her own work. “Your weak sides, your flaws, your bad sides, I think they should be part of it too,” Nilsson said.
The album is structured into three parts: The Sex, The Love and The Pain. While Nilsson would prefer for listeners to digest it all in one sitting, she does have a weekend listening plan: The Sex should be played on Friday night during the pre-party. The Love should be played on Saturday morning (read: the time you wake up) when you and your friends are talking about the drama, intrigue or fun from the previous evening. The Pain takes Sunday afternoon, when you are ruined by the weekend and feeling down and existential.
Labeling herself as “dirty pop,” Nilsson’s songwriting is exceptional. On top of the continually addictive “Habits (Stay High)” and “Not On Drugs,” both reappearing from her “Truth Serum” EP, “Timebomb” is as explosive as its title suggests, “Thousand Miles” is utterly emptying and the phrasing in “Got Love” is mesmerizing. But the album’s golden thread is its unabashed sexuality.
“Everything that has to do with sex is somehow … it’s the best thing in the world and it’s still the one thing people don’t want you to talk about,” Nilsson said. “Someone said to me, ‘Why do you have to promote sex and drugs and violence?’ I don’t promote drugs, I don’t promote violence, I definitely will promote sex because everyone is happier if they have sex.”
Nilsson explains how songs like Lykke Li’s “Get Some” helped fuel her sex-positive attitude, wielding the line “I’m your prostitute, you gon’ get some.” It’s about women being sexual “without being the victim,” where it’s okay for them to be in charge. While some will accuse Nilsson on instilling “crude” ideas into the minds of young women, she knows that they are already there and that attempting to suffocate them isn’t an acceptable reaction.
“Whatever we feel like we want to say we should just be able to say it,” Nilsson said. “It shouldn’t be keeping this wholesome kind of … like, the terms she’s a ‘good girl’ or she’s a ‘bad girl,’ why does a good girl mean that you’re a prude? Why does that make you better than a girl who’s a sexual free spirit? I think that’s being a ‘good girl.’ Have sex with whoever you want.”
“Queen of the Clouds” is now available for purchase.
Before The Beat Drops is an artist introduction series dedicated to bringing you the rising acts before they make their break. Our unlimited access to music of all kinds is both amazing and overwhelming. Keeping your playlists fresh, we’ll be doing the leg work to help you discover your next favorite artist.
Chad Griffin’s L.A. Times Op-Ed: ‘The “Coming Out” Letter I Never Sent
Chad Griffin’s L.A. Times Op-Ed: ‘The “Coming Out” Letter I Never Sent
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Griffin talks about his struggle to come out to his father.
HRC.org
