Two Arrested for Beating Gay Man Singing 'Wicked' Tunes on Tram
Jean Claude Manseau and Jake Heaton were victims of a homophobic attack in England because someone didn’t like the idea of gay men singing show tunes.
Thom Senzee
www.advocate.com/world/2014/12/04/two-arrested-beating-gay-man-singing-wicked-tunes-tram
Colton Haynes Shows Off His Pipes And Madonna Has A Broken Heart
Colton Haynes can keep us warm this holiday season, even if it’s just listening to him croon “Baby, It’s Christmas.”
There are so many reasons to look forward to the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Into the Woods: Chris Pine as Prince Charming, Meryl Streep as the Witch…and oh yeah, Anna Kendricks as Cinderella selling the hell out of “Steps of the Palace.”
Uma foto publicada por Madonna (@madonna) em Dez 12, 2014 at 8:51 PST
Hey, you scoundrels who leaked a couple of songs from Madonna’s next album last week, we hope you’re happy now.
Actor Maulik Pancholy, best-known as lovelorn Jonathan on 30 Rock, will soon make his Broadway debut when he replaces Rupert Grint in the comedy It’s Only a Play.
Lily Tomlin is surely one of the most talented performers in the annals of show biz. In a new WashPo profile, she chats about rejecting the cover of Time in the mid-’70s because the editors wanted her to come out. “I wanted to be acknowledged for my work. I didn’t want to be that gay person who does comedy,” she says.
Sausage party alert! Here’s the first full trailer for season two of Looking, which will premiere January 11 on HBO.
Heard any good music lately? The fabulous DJ Earworm has unveiled the 2014 edition of his viral-friendly United State of Pop.
Jeremy Kinser
Supreme Court to Consider Michigan Gay Marriage Case January 9
On January 9, the Supreme Court is expected to consider accepting the appeal of Deboer v. Snyder, the case challenging Michigan’s gay marriage ban.
You’ll recall last month, the Sixth Circuit became the first appeals court to uphold state-level bans on same-sex marriage (with the court upholding the bans in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky). Plaintiffs in the cases promptly asked the Supreme Court to take up the anti-equality ruling and the Detroit Free Press reported at the time on why April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse’s Michigan case was uniquely significant:
* There was an actual trial on the same-sex marriage issue in Michigan, whereas in other states, judges issued decisions after reading written arguments, with no cross examination of any witnesses or experts.
* Two, the Michigan plaintiffs aren’t just seeking legal recognition for same-sex couples who were married in other states, but are actually fighting to make gay marriage legal in Michigan by challenging a voter-approved ban on it.
* Three, the Michigan plaintiffs also have children they are raising together — a key issue in the same-sex marriage debate. Those fighting to legalize gay marriage argue families are being harmed when same-sex parents aren’t legally recognized, while traditional marriage advocates argue that children thrive best when raised by moms and dads and that it’s too early to tell if same-sex parenting is a good idea or not.
* Four, the state of Michigan is actively seeking to keep same-sex marriage illegal, whereas in other states, officials have opted not to pursue appeals once a federal judge has spoken on the issue. That didn’t happen at the conclusion of Michigan’s same-sex marriage trial.
DOMA lawyer Mary Bonauto has also joined the Michigan legal team.
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2014/12/supreme-court-to-consider-michigan-gay-marriage-case-january-9.html
PHOTOS: LGBT Identities, 'Village Voices'
Based on interviews with Greenwich Village characters, a new play honors the lives and losses of New York’s LGBT community.
Brandon Voss
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/theater/2014/12/04/photos-lgbt-identities-village-voices
Chris Rock Says He Watches Movies And 'Doesn't See One Black Woman'
The tragic deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, have ignited a lot of important conversations about race. And Chris Rock is adding his own poignant and thoughtful voice to these important conversations.
In a new essay for The Hollywood Reporter the 49-year-old comedian and actor breaks down Hollywood’s race problem. “It’s a white industry,” Rock writes. “Just as the NBA is a black industry. I’m not even saying it’s a bad thing. It just is.”
Rock discusses the well-known, but under-addressed issue of diversity in Hollywood and how black people, women and especially black women rarely see themselves on screen. He talked about the racial double standard black women face when they go through casting:
[How] about “True Detective”? I never heard anyone go, “Is it going to be Amy Adams or Gabrielle Union?” for that show. I didn’t hear one black girl’s name on those lists. Not one. Literally everyone in town was up for that part, unless you were black. And I haven’t read the script, but something tells me if Gabrielle Union were Colin Farrell’s wife, it wouldn’t change a thing. And there are almost no black women in film. You can go to whole movies and not see one black woman. They’ll throw a black guy a bone. OK, here’s a black guy. But is there a single black woman in “Interstellar”? Or “Gone Girl”? “Birdman”? “The Purge”? “Neighbors”? I’m not sure there are. I don’t remember them. I go to the movies almost every week, and I can go a month and not see a black woman having an actual speaking part in a movie. That’s the truth.
This world needs more Chris Rocks in it ASAP.
Head over to The Hollywood Reporter to read the rest of Rock’s truly awesome essay.
Fifth Circuit Extends Stay of MS Marriage Ruling
Top Ten Overused Setups In Gay Adult Films
You could say we’re all experts on some level in the gay adult film industry — we can’t be the only ones who’ve been doing diligent research over the years.
But it’s safe to say that Randy Blue knows even more. They do produce the stuff, after all.
You’ve probably seen some of these setups a few (hundred) times, which makes us wonder what the big untapped market is that’s yet to be discovered. Or is everyone just holding out until virtual reality is more of a thing?
Here’s Randy Blue’s “top 10 overused gay porn scenarios” with Diego Sans and Scotty Marx.
Enjoy:
Dan Tracer
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/QRVWizlyojk/top-ten-overused-setups-in-gay-adult-films-20141204
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1648
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY: Gay marriage is trampling the rights of Florida voters.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Looks back on his Celebrity Jeopardy appearance at age 16.
GABRIELLE UNION: Plays “What’s In My Package?” with Meredith Vieira
STAR WARS: The new teaser trailer gets the Wes Anderson treatment.
For more recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2014/12/towleroad-guide-to-the-tube-1648.html
House Committee Shuts Down ENDA for 2014
Another session of Congress will likely end before the House addresses legislation to protect LGBT workers.
Michelle Garcia
www.advocate.com/politics/2014/12/04/house-committee-shuts-down-enda-2014
Generations of HIV
Each generation of gay men has the distinct experience of being uniquely impacted by HIV. One of the best-understood and often explored generational experiences of HIV is the early years — a time when the disease violently and unexpectedly emerged in the community. For those of us who come of age after those events, HIV didn’t arrive to alter the world, as we knew it. It was the world, as we knew it. For our entire experience, HIV has been incidental to our lives.
The AIDS generation endured unimaginable horrors. I still marvel that they kept our culture and community alive through those war years. That really is the only way I can think to describe it- war years. Many, many lives were lost, incalculable pain was endured, and the injustices of the world were magnified. But the war wasn’t won it was simply transformed.
I am part of the gay post-war generations. Only this wasn’t the post war years of GI Bills, swimming pools, and shiny new cars. It was more like post war East Berlin — a world of guard towers, barbed wire, and machine guns. These were our cold war years living under the specter of a totalitarian regime and fearing death, not from secret police or nuclear annihilation, but from a raging epidemic. That was our daily life. It was less a life of resistance and more one of co-existence.
Growing up, I knew fear all too well. When I was 12 I saw one of the first TV movies about gay men and AIDS, As Is. I attentively watched the gay men in the film and while I didn’t call myself gay then, I knew that I liked other boys and that this story was about me. In a pivotal scene, one man discovers a KS lesion on the back of his lover and they realized the impending horror. Immediately, I went to the bathroom to frantically examine my back for KS. I hadn’t even has sex yet but I understood a very simple fact. I was like those men and AIDS is what happens to those men, to men like me.
Coming of age in the midst of the epidemic meant that HIV was a constant in our lives and continues to be for the generations that came after me. For many of us, then and now, HIV isn’t a mater of if but a matter of when. HIV seems more like modern gay male conscription.
The HIV generations never had the benefit of cultivating a sexuality or sexual identity in the absence of a killer disease. It’s a necessity of the human spirit to be free, to explore, and to express your sexuality. As young gay men, we never got that opportunity because death and disease was around every corner, as well as fear, shame and guilt.
We were bequeathed “safe sex” by a well-meaning older generation. It became our catechism and we had to make sense of the fact that our sex wasn’t just dirty and immoral but it could kill us. We inherited a world of AIDS activism while some of us also perceived that a strong case was never really made for the value of the lives of gay men, in particular gay men of color. It was easier to gain resources and funding by talking about the “innocent victims,” such as housewives and little boys. Saving gay men was a secondary, less talked about benefit, even though we were, and continue to be, the majority of all infections.
These dynamics and the conditions of the epidemic doomed us to intergenerational discord. When I tested positive as a young queer man in 1998 I was called, “irresponsible,” “stupid,” “disrespectful of those who came before,” and even a charge that’s ubiquitous today – “complacent.”
Young gay men are not complacent. Complacency is not driving the epidemic. For the post-AIDS generations, HIV is a constant in our lives and it’s never far when we are having sex, or looking for sex, or thinking about sex. We have different relationships to the epidemic compared to those who came before. And for young gay men today, their world may look different, their choices around sex, condoms and PrEP may look different, and their activism may look different. But it’s a profound misunderstanding of the experience of young gay men to call it complacency.
Misunderstandings are common between the generations. The problem is that over the past 30 years, we haven’t had great relationships between the generations. Perhaps one of the more poignant losses of the epidemic is the loss of a relationship between the generations.
When I was coming of age there was no one there to mentor me or my contemporaries. Potential mentors were either dead or were, understandably, too traumatized to offer mentorship. Gay men my age relied on our peers or ourselves. And as luck would have it, we were the perfect generation to take care of it on our own — we were latchkey kids. In our minds, we already had the skills to make our way in the world. So we did the best we could and many of those intergenerational relationships went uncultivated.
Sadly, my generation only repeated this cycle when the next generation came along. We didn’t have mentors, we’d done it ourselves, so why or how would we mentor those who came after us? The era of disconnection persisted.
But the cycle can be broken and the bridges can be repaired. We can’t bring back the dead or turn back time but together we can determine the course of our community. We can choose to invest in reciprocal intergenerational relationships. We can reconcile our different relationships to the epidemic and foster a community that prioritizes empowerment, self-determination, and resiliency over stigma, fear and condemnation.
So whether it’s gay pride month, or World AIDS Day, or just an average Thursday, we can decide that we are going to commit to building relationships, improving communication and strengthening communities between the generations. In the past thirty years we’ve accomplished so much. Investing in this endeavor could be one of our greatest and lasting achievements.
You must be 18 years old or older to chat
