PHOTOS: John Simone Saw It All

www.advocate.com/photography/2016/7/02/photos-john-simone-saw-it-all

ChristianMingle Forced to Admit There Are Gay Christians Looking for Love

The religious matchmaking site has been court-ordered to allow members to seek a same-sex partner.

www.advocate.com/religion/2016/7/02/christianmingle-forced-admit-there-are-gay-christians-looking-love

North Carolina Amends HB 2 — So It Doesn’t Impact Straight People

The state has also requested a half-million dollars from its disaster relief fund to cover the legal costs of defending the anti-LGBT law. 

www.advocate.com/politics/2016/7/02/north-carolina-amends-hb-2-so-it-doesnt-impact-straight-people

14 Reasons Same-Sex Engagements Are Better Than Straight Ones

We asked comedian Yuri Kagan, (top, right) former Castro bartender, to come up a list of the benefits of marriage freedom after getting engaged to his beau, Rich Sherman.

Yuri’s 10 reasons being gay and engaged rocks…

1. The Gifts

The second you announce you are engaged, everyone gives you their opinion along with free stuff. We have been engaged for a minute now. We got both an espresso machine and a milk frother. Everyone is even more generous because we have been denied for so long–even if the gifts are maybe not always be keepers.

2. There is no pressure to get pregnant

Need I say more?

3. There are no rules

Stay as traditional as you want or think out of the box. Our role models for what same-sex marriage looks like are few and far between. For this reason we can do whatever we want at our weddings. If we want to have chiseled men in shorty-shorts serving body shots it’s totally okay. Have troupe of your favorite drag queens entertain with Liza’s finest or Judy’s best is completely acceptable.

4. You, too, can be a gold-digger

It’s not just for straights anymore! If you can’t find love at least get your bills paid.

5. Great excuse to turn down unwanted dates

When straight girls at gay bars come up to tell you that their lonely, frumpy gay buddy with no social skills thinks you’re cute (as they for some reason love to do), watch their puzzled faces as you say you’re engaged. They will either get way more excited than you about the prospect of a stranger getting married, or they will completely ignore what you just said and keep trying to fix you up.

6. Change the world

The more of us that marry and do “normal” people things, like raise kids and pay taxes, the more bigots get confronted with the fact that they actually have no choice but to love us.

7. Pay less tax

8. We own weddings anyway

Whenever someone trots out the stupid argument that same-sex marriage is redefining marriage you can easily point out the holes in this theory. First off, marriage has been getting redefined since its conception and now women have rights. Second, let this idiot know that Keystone Light is not really beer and that gay people have been planning everyone else’s wedding for millennia. We invented weddings really when it comes down to it–but now we get to plan our own in addition to everyone else’s.

9. Now that you’re engaged you can stop using the awkward word “partner” unless you are actually in business with your spouse.

10. You get to find out what your friends actually think of your spouse.

11. You will be entitled to spousal privilege, which means that if your spouse kills someone, you can’t be put on the stand.

12. Show the world that gay, straight, trans are all just people who want to be treated equally. Except in outfits because we want to look better–that’s just how we roll.

13. You can now lecture and judge your single friends about how you envy them or how they don’t understand because they have never been married.

14. You can now refer to your spouse as the old battle-axe, just like old male-straight comics of yesteryear.

Catch Yuri weekly at San Francisco’s Oasis for #Shittalk and his book, Vodka & Limelight, on Amazon

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/fTtbWh-3w54/14-reasons-sex-engagements-better-straight-ones-20160702

This Amazing Gay Food Art Will Leave You Hungry For More

“I first find a picture of what I want to create, whether it’s a celebrity, a landscape, an animal,” queer artist Harley Langberg (pictured) tells Queerty. “Then I analyze the picture, match up colors to food, then go shopping for the ingredients.”

Related: Gay Couple Writes To Sex Expert Asking How To Incorporate Food Into The Bedroom

28-year-old Langberg is a self-described “food artist” who lives and works in New York City. Some of his creations include portraits of icons like Madonna, Lady Gaga and Karl Lagerfeld, among others.

He first got into creating food art back about three years ago.

“It was in the fall of 2013 when I lived down in the west village and I was in Chelsea market and saw photographs of a food artist,” he recalls. “I was so amazed, inspired and excited by the works that I went home to try to create something that night. From then on I fell in love with it.”

Related: PHOTOS: Tasty Maneaters Stuffing Their Faces Make Us Wanna Put It In Our Mouths

Langberg says he hopes his work both entertains and inspires audiences to think in new and creative ways.

“I hope they take away an appreciation for art and creativity and for pushing the boundaries and thinking outside the box,” he says. “I also hope to inspire people to pursue their own creative path because creativity exists in everyone.”

Scroll down to see some of Harley’s work and see more at his website and on his Instagram page…

Madonna

Materials: Eggplant, spaghetti, turnip, Swiss cheese, red pepper and blueberries.

Karl Lagerfeld

Materials: Eggplant, Swiss Cheese, Oreo, rice noodles, gum and turnip.

Prince

Materials: Purple cabbage.

Audrey Hepburn

Materials: Bacon, onion, ham, yogurt, tomato, egg whites and zucchini.

Lady Gaga

Materials: Candy.

RuPaul

Materials: Oreo.

Iris Apfel

Materials: Turkey breast, red cabbage, pesto, black rice, yogurt, strawberry, eggplant and Fruity Pebbles.

Mrs. Doubtfire

Materials: Candy.

Sam Smith

Materials: Salt and pepper.

Richard Simmons

Materials: Peanut butter, Nutella and apple.

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/GgsS6xSGRJQ/amazing-gay-food-art-will-leave-hungry-20160702

Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak and Former MTV VJ Dave Holmes Talk About His New Memoir: WATCH

Earlier this week we featured former MTV VJ Dave Holmes’ new memoir as one of our TowleREAD selections. The book, called Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs which takes the music of the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s as its soundtrack as Holmes chronicles his journey through those decades as a gay man, from high school to Catholic college, to the bars of New York City and the advertising industry, and to his accidental career as a VJ.

Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak sat down with Holmes to talk about the book in a thorough, 47-minute conversation which touches on the book’s ‘gayness’, Holmes’ interest in music and how it flows through out the book, concepts of masculinity and what they meant for a kid coming of age in St. Louis in the ’80s. Also, sexual identity.

Watch:

 

And you can check out our TowleREAD selection from the book again, below.

The post Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak and Former MTV VJ Dave Holmes Talk About His New Memoir: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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