NYC's First Porn Film Festival Hits Brooklyn Feb. 27-March 1 (NSFW)
It’s finally time for the first annual New York porn festival, which kicks off Feb. 27 in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.

Last November we brought you the news that Bushwick would house the Big Apple’s first adult film festival, with organizer Simon Leahy (a.k.a. Babes Trust) putting out an open call for submissions. The festival is fittingly sponsored by Pornhub and aims to “give credit to adult film as a significant and socially/culturally relevant art form.”

The Porn Festival will be held at music venue and event space Secret Project Robot in Bushwick, also home to New York’s annual Bushwig Drag Festival. While the Feb. 27 festivities have already sold out, there is still space left to enjoy submissions from across the spectrum of adult entertainment on Feb. 28-March 1.

Among those who have submitted their work for showcase? Transgender icon and adult film producer Buck Angel will screen his project “Jesse,” while James Franco and Travis Matthews’ “Interior. Leather Bar.” will also make an apperance.

Festival organizers wanted to showcase work from well-known names, as well as community-based projects from up-and-coming creatives.

The NYC Porn Film Festival also involves informative lectures, including one from Cindy Gallop, co-­founder/CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, on monetizing the future of the porn industry.

But the main intention of the porn festival? To elevate the conversation surrounding adult entertainment to a higher plane, removed from the isolating nature of a computer screen.

“We need to get off our computers and engage with the real issues,” Leahy told The Huffington Post. “We need to visually see — collectively. There is no shame in this. Whatever you’re [sexually] into, it’s ok. Bud we need, as a society, to make things healthier — for a more equal ideal — to understand the reasons why we’re turned on by what we are.”

The NYC Porn Film Festival will run at Secret Project Robot from Feb. 27-March 1. Head here for more information.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/nyc-porn-film-festival_n_6770480.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Welcome to the Special Envoy for LGBT Rights

HRC was well represented at today’s reception for Randy Berry, the newly-announced Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/welcome-to-the-special-envoy-for-lgbt-rights?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Bromance In The Sun, Curb Global Warming By Pleasuring Yourself, First Look At Eddie Redmayne Playing Trans

It’s been confirmed Catwoman is a pussy who’s into pussy. Meow.

The Wankband promises to fill your batteries as you spill your sperm.

Ever wanted a behind-the-scenes look at Madonna’s 20 greatest music videos? Well now you have it.

Marry Poppins meets Slayer in this Disney dubbing pulled straight from the depths of hell.

Those incredibly agile Bromance guys are at it again, this time frolicking in the rare London sun.

New RPG game Masquerada features a gay main character. How now it that?

First photo released of Eddie Redmayne as trans pioneer Lili Elbe in the upcoming film The Danish Girl.

Writer-director Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys is earning raves as an “absorbing, erotically-charged drama.” It opens today in New York so don’t miss it if you’re in the city.

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/UIhhGJY9FG0/bromance-in-the-sun-curb-global-warming-by-pleasuring-yourself-first-look-at-eddie-redmayne-playing-trans-20150227

Jeb Bush Touts His Anti-gay Views at CPAC: 'I Believe in Traditional Marriage' – VIDEO

Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2015/02/jeb-bush-touts-his-anti-gay-views-at-cpac-i-believe-in-traditional-marriage-video.html

Mother of Trans Son Pens Heartwarming Letter for His 5th Birthday

Try not to ‘aww!’ at this Boston mom’s public declaration of love for her young transgender son.

read more

Mitch Kellaway

www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2015/02/27/mother-trans-son-pens-heartwarming-letter-his-5th-birthday

Still Here
Years ago, in the early 1990s, I bought a life insurance policy. As a person with HIV, I was told that It was the last possible life insurance policy I could purchase, with the lowest possible rate of return. We were still years away from the cocktail in 1996, which, for the first time since the crisis began, provided real hope.

Hope. Before 1996, just saying the word — just thinking it, imagining it — was thought of as naive. Foolish. A clutching at straws. While never letting go of hope, even in my darkest moments, I nonetheless knew that I would die from this disease. And that my time was limited.

I continued to work, believing that work was my redemption: If I am able to work, I must feel okay. If I feel okay, I must look okay. If I feel and look okay, maybe I am not really sick. Even as I began to develop illnesses that I could see as the beginning of the end, I continued to seek answers and I continued to hope. The only alternative was to collapse and accept the inevitable, and I wasn’t ready to do that.

And when that day came — not the cure, but a treatment no one ever thought possible — I was suddenly faced with a future.

In 1996, just as the cocktail was introduced, I sold my meager insurance policy to a viatical company for 60 percent of its worth. A viatical company’s sole purpose is to collect death benefits when their client shuffles off this mortal coil, which, for them to benefit financially, is as soon as possible.

Every four months, I would receive an email from my viatical company, always accompanied by a nice, friendly little note.

“Happy St. Paddy’s Day!”

“It’s Your Birthday — Time To Celebrate!”

i.huffpost.com/gen/1690198/thumbs/s-BIRTHDAY-CAKE-small.jpg

I had no animosity toward the writers of these notes. They were just doing their jobs. They needed to find out if I was still alive. I had no ill will, either, toward the viatical company. We were business partners. We gambled: my money or my life. And I was beating the odds. Until 1996, the company thought it had a sure thing. Neither they, nor I, counted on my living more than a few more years.

This went on for well over a decade. The representative (I’ll call him Al) who contacted me every four months became a regular. He told me he had looked at my web page and he would ask me questions regarding my career. He became a fan. (Or a stalker. You choose.) For years, we had this odd quarterly online relationship — to see if I was still alive.

Those emails have stopped. Perhaps their time for collecting has expired. Or they’ve given up on me. I guess I won. And I wonder how Al is doing — whether he got a promotion. Or quit his job to pursue his unfulfilled life as a chef, or romance mystery writer or circus performer. I wonder if he thinks of me and wonders how I’m faring.

Each time I received one of the company’s happy emails, I usually resisted the urge to write a snappy note back, like: “Haven’t died yet. Have a nice day!” I’m was usually very pleasant and simply stated, “No changes. Happy [fill in the blank] to you, too.” Sometimes, however, in this life of highs and lows, I was not in such a good mood. And, in these times, I dispersed with the niceties and simply wrote, “Still here.” An apt assessment, I think. Not “Haven’t died yet,” and not “No changes, happy Valentine’s Day.” Just: “Still Here.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-ward/still-here_b_6770622.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

House of Peace

Recently, HRC Mississippi had the pleasure of hosting a group of 11th graders from Needham, Massachusetts.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/house-of-peace?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Sneak Peek: New Dramas From ‘Queer As Folk’ Creator Explore What It’s Like To Be Young And Gay Today

Mark your calendars and/or set your DVRs for March 2. That’s when Logo will offer a special preview of two new queer-themed interwoven British dramas that will “explore 21st-century gay life in all its powerful, witty, dark and uplifting guises through the lens of two disparate generations.” Cucumber and Banana, the latest offerings from Queer as Folk creator Russell T. Davies, will be previewed following the March 2 season premiere of RuPaul‘s Drag Race.

According to Logo’s press release, the hour-long Cucumber explores the lives and misadventures of Henry Best (Vincent Franklin) and his long-suffering boyfriend of nine years, Lance Sullivan (Cyril Nri). The half-hour Banana will follow the individual lives of younger characters orbiting around Henry’s world, telling stories of modern love – the romantic, the obsessed, the hopeful, the lonely, the lost, and the lucky – in an urban Manchester, England setting.

The two series will officially premiere stateside on April 13 but you can take a look at a special preview of all the upcoming drama below.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/v5gXcjIfb10/sneak-peek-new-dramas-from-queer-as-folk-creator-explore-what-its-like-to-be-young-and-gay-today-20150227

Aaron Schock Ponies Up $35,000 in Personal Funds for 'Downton Abbey' Office

Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2015/02/aaron-schock-ponies-up-35000-in-personal-funds-for-downton-abbey-office.html