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Daily Archives: July 10, 2016
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Black Lives Don't Just Matter At Pride
HIV Still Divides Gay Men. It Doesn’t Have To.
HIV Still Divides Gay Men. It Doesn’t Have To.
In a cramped meeting room in New York City, a dozen gay men, HIV positive and negative alike, came together to answer a vexing question: How do gay men bridge a divide that has been forged through decades of HIV stigma, distrust, and mutual blame? Or, at the very least, what might be done to start a conversation about the divide and begin to heal the wounds?
Convened by Avram Finkelstein, the HIV-negative artist who was part of the collective that created the SILENCE=DEATH designs in the 1980s, and Mark S. King, the HIV-positive blogger and advocate, the Viral Divide Flash Collective sought to begin a difficult conversation and find a graphic way to present it. The collective was sponsored by Visual AIDS and made possible through funding from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and GMHC.
A “flash collective” is an exercise in artistic advocacy involving group facilitation and the common pursuit of a graphic message to communicate a concept for the public sphere. In other words, the gathering of gay men had mere hours to discuss the HIV viral divide, vent their frustrations about their lives and each other, and then find common ground. It was, in a word, intense.
Before the group even finished their breakfast bagels, the walls of the room were covered in reams of butcher paper scrawled with concerns.
Important issues were raised about race, privilege, and the science driving the new HIV landscape. Again and again, the group talked through these concerns and then returned to their primary purpose of crafting a message about the viral divide among gay men.
“This message is the first sentence in a conversation,” Avram Finkelstein reminded the collective throughout the day. “It does not have to tell the entire story. It is meant as the starting point for important conversations.”
The result, HIV ÷, features the tagline, “The virus divides. It doesn’t have to. No walls between gay men.” The graphic image includes an animation that outlines the various ways in which the divide affects gay men: age, joy, relationships, sex, race, and love.
And the graphic image has an impressive coming out party on the way. It will be projected onto the façade of the Bronx Museum on July 13, 2016, as part of the opening of ART AIDS AMERICA, a retrospective of AIDS-related art through the years. The Illuminators, most widely known for their work projecting graphic messages on the New York City skyscape on behalf of Occupy Wall Street, will coordinate the projection. The work of the Viral Divide Flash Collective is viewed by the museum as the very latest in a history of AIDS artwork that dates back more than thirty years.
The Viral Divide Flash Collective has set up a Tumblr page featuring images of the artwork and from their day together. Images of the projection onto the Bronx Museum will be added after the event on July 13. Anyone is welcome to post their thoughts on the Tumblr page or to share the images on social media.
The HIV ÷ message comes just as gay men are grappling with a host of new scientific realities that are altering the social landscape.
The increased adoption of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has re-energized activists and provided a way for HIV negative gay men to participate fully in their own HIV prevention. Meanwhile, research has definitively shown that people living with HIV who are on treatment and maintain an undetectable viral load have no chance of infecting their sex partners. A new group, Prevention Access Campaign, is aggressively promoting the message that undetectable HIV positive people pose no risk to others.
It would appear that now more than ever, gay men can relieve themselves of the social walls that have divided them along the lines of their sero status. The HIV ÷ graphic message is only a small part of that effort.
After so many years of mortal fear, irrational and otherwise, bridging the viral divide will surely be easier said than done. The members of the Viral Divide Flash Collective believe they have started the conversation. It will be up to countless others to continue it.
Members of the collective, pictured at top, included Mark S. King, Bryson Rose, Damon L. Jacobs, Charles Sanchez, Frederick Weston, Bruce Ward, James Krellenstein, Alex Wilson, Durell Knights, Jordan Eagles, Leo Herrera, Avram Finkelstein, and Jawanza James Williams.
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/_w4C91IJiwo/hiv-often-divides-gay-men-doesnt-20160710
Gay Guys Are Reporting Baby Fever In Droves. Is That Progress?
Gay Guys Are Reporting Baby Fever In Droves. Is That Progress?
What’s the tingly sensation that comes on when you Facetime with your siblings and their adorable kids? Is it baby fever, or are you just hungry for a quesadilla?
Count us squarely in the quesadilla camp as of now, but who knows — things change.
For these guys on Whisper, baby fever is as real as can be:
Black Lives Matter Activist DeRay McKesson Livestreams His Arrest in Baton Rouge
Black Lives Matter Activist DeRay McKesson Livestreams His Arrest in Baton Rouge
Police arrested out prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson during a peaceful protest last night in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and McKesson livestreamed his arrest on the Periscope app.
Baltimore Native and Black Lives Matter activist, Deray McKesson, was arrested last night in Baton Rouge, LA. pic.twitter.com/wP4k3iHvXh
— DC Maryland Virginia (@DMVFollowers) July 10, 2016
The Baton Rouge protest was one of many that took place in cities across the nation, demonstrating over the police killing of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge.
RELATED: Obama Releases Statement on Shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile
The arrest took place after a police officer warned McKesson about walking over the line in the road. There was no sidewalk to march on, and it did not appear that McKesson stepped over the line into the road. McKesson was arrested a few minutes later and his Periscope stream was taken over by a fellow protester.
.@deray officially charged with “simple obstruction of a highway of commerce.” See affidavit of probable cause. pic.twitter.com/0zScUQ9cs2
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) July 10, 2016
As word of Mr. McKesson’s arrest spread on Twitter, where he has more than 460,000 followers, #FreeDeray began trending, with thousands tweeting out messages of support as well as phone numbers for the Baton Rouge police department to demand his release.
The Louisiana National Lawyers Guild, which is providing legal support to protesters, set up an online fund-raiser aimed at raising money to bail out Mr. McKesson and several other protesters arrested in Baton Rouge.
State Police officials defended the arrests of Mr. McKesson and others as a matter of public safety.
McKesson had been posting to Twitter all evening. A few of his tweets:
If anything happens tonight, it was caused by the police. Everybody has been peaceful tonight but them. #BatonRouge
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 10, 2016
And now the police are pacing the protestors, provoking us for no reason. #BatonRouge t.co/bCGmh46x7T
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 10, 2016
And now the state police arrive. #BatonRouge t.co/j48Ma4xF03
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 10, 2016
Again, the police provoke protestors for no reason. #BatonRouge t.co/wCLQZKeRUI
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 10, 2016
The post Black Lives Matter Activist DeRay McKesson Livestreams His Arrest in Baton Rouge appeared first on Towleroad.
John Barrowman Explains Threat That Caused Cancellation, Says He Loves Montreal: WATCH
John Barrowman Explains Threat That Caused Cancellation, Says He Loves Montreal: WATCH
Yesterday we reported on a threat to actor John Barrowman that cause him to cancel a panel he was to appear on at Montreal Comic Con. Barrowman posted a video to Facebook on Saturday afternoon to explain the source of the threat and clear up a few misconceptions.
“It has nothing to do with Montreal. It has nothing to do with the convention. It was due to an email that came through and was deemed to be threatening toward me with some of the content – and I was the only person named in the email.”
Watch:
The post John Barrowman Explains Threat That Caused Cancellation, Says He Loves Montreal: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Adam Devine and Zac Efron Buddy Up for ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ – REVIEW
Adam Devine and Zac Efron Buddy Up for ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ – REVIEW
Efron, Kendrick, Plaza, and Devine have a ton of fun with “Mike and Dave”. Do we?
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates starts out giddy with a bouncy firecracker of a credits sequence. Please take that literally as the credits involve a trampoline, fireworks, and two gleeful bros Mike Stangle (Adam Devine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron) in mid air. Their joyful abandon is short-lived. A scene or two later we’re at an intervention with their parents (Stephen Root & Stephanie Faracy) in which we see these same high-flying images again from a less zhushed-up perspective in home wedding videos. The inseparable brothers, always stag at weddings, egg each other on until disaster strikes. Every time. Property destruction and ambulance calls follow.
The first few scenes are funny economonical storytelling to set up the movie’s easily marketable ultimatum: No more screw ups — Mike and Dave must bring nice girls to their sister Jeanie’s (Sugar Lyn Beard) destination wedding in Hawaii so that they won’t get each other into trouble!
They do as they’re told. The end (No? Oh, right there’s a movie here.) But trouble still finds them…
Trouble goes by the names of “Alice” (Anna Kendrick) and “Tatiana” (Aubrey Plaza), two boozy unhinged girls who masquerade as nice ones to land that free trip to Hawaii. This fun house mirror, Mike and Dave’s girls even more irresponsible nightmares, is fun for a while as Kendrick and Plaza run wild over the movie. The actresses temporarily reduce the boys to the boring responsible ones for the first time in their lives. Kendrick is particularly funny in her inability to spin simple lies, always swinging towards nonsensical whoppers.
Predatory Lesbian Alert! (“Cousin Terry”)
You can predict that chaos will hit in Hawaii it not any of the truly outlandish ways in which it does. No spoilers but for what you surely know: Naturally Alice and Tatiana’s true personalities emerge, Mike and Dave revert to their frat boy recklessness, and a few new players complicate the festivities. That includes Cousin Terry (Alice Wetterlund), a rival to Mike who will stop at nothing to land Tatiana for herself. (Predatory queers are suddenly in again at the movies — see also The Neon Demon — who signed off on this?!?)
At its best Mike and Dave… is the kind of movie where you can laugh along with its stars (who are obviously having fun) as they mug for the camera. At its worst its a genuine mess with overkill in both plotting and acting. Adam Devine is the worst offender in the over-acting department. He goes straight from mildly funny to flop-sweat manic desperation in a terrible scene in which he imagines his parents “pushing the pop” -a sexual euphemism for… eh, never mind.
Mike and Dave… has a lot of trouble with the dismount, too, as so many sociopathic comedies do when they try to conjur genuine romance or personal evolution from thin air for the finale. Sugar Lyn Beard’s squeaky little girl voice and sweetness as the sister and Anna Kendrick’s lost girl vibe help the movie more than you’d expect, though, when it suddenly aims for FEELINGS.
Every once in a while there’s a really good laugh but, like its title characters, it perpetually pushes too far, never quitting while it’s ahead. You know you’re in trouble when you’re watching an outrageous comedy and the most relatable characters are the ones wearing permanent stank face off to the side. That would be Mr and Mrs Stangle, who are footing the bill. They look nervous and horrified throughout the movie and, finally, utterly relieved when the comedy wraps up sweetly. Such comedies always do, no matter how inevitable broken bones and irreparable psychological damage once felt.
The post Adam Devine and Zac Efron Buddy Up for ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ – REVIEW appeared first on Towleroad.
Layla's – Site of April & July StLGF Luncheons
Layla's – Site of April & July StLGF Luncheons
s_a_essay posted a photo:
Layla’s Restaurant on Manchester Avenue in The Grove District of St. Louis was the site for the April and July 2016 luncheons of the St. Louis Gender Foundation (StLGF).
