'Advocate' Editor and Author, Mark Thompson, Remembered for Grasp of Gay Spirit

He was the author of The Advocate‘s definitive history and a number of books about LGBT culture.

www.advocate.com/media/2016/8/13/advocate-editor-and-author-mark-thompson-remembered-grasp-gay-spirit

“Gay Bachelor” Back Online, Male Olympians Hugging & There Must Be Something In Team USA’s Water

It’s Olympic week— a perfect time to bury that nagging story about your mysterious epic bar fight last week, or confront those old photos from that magazine you never wanted people to see. Go ahead, everybody’s paying attention to the Olympics!

While NBC kept up its homophobic coverage of the Games, Instagram stepped up and filled the void with thirst posts. Here’s what you might have missed:

Alleged “gay Bachelor“ Robert Sepulveda Jr. started posting again after a seven-week hiatus.

Raul Castillo graced the cover of Bello magazine. The new porn ‘stache looks good on him!

Bronze medalists Daniel Goodfellow and Tom Daley sandwiched the original Olympic goddess, Johnny Weir. (Tom also met fellow gay icon Greg Louganis!)

Vanity Fair threw back to their 2004 photo shoot with now 27-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps.

And then he peed in the Olympic pool!

Nyle DiMarco set fire to Rockaway Beach.

Out Brazilian diver Ian Matos wore green to match the pool.

Team GB sprinter James Ellington finished training, and then probably did some laundry on his stomach.

Kim Kardashian wannabe Joey Prixx spent $60,000 on his ass.

(But it still doesn’t hold a candle to the giant peach on gay comic Matteo Lane.)

French high-heeled dancer Mehdi Mamine went to the beach.

Out Tongan swimmer Amini Fonua, our new favorite person, told Nico Hines and the Daily Beast to kiss his ass.

Joanne the Scammer got out of drag for Fader.

Lin-Manuel Miranda got The Rock to perform a Beauty and the Beast classic.

CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond was accosted by an angry Trump supporter in Florida. He’s also bae af.

Team USA gymnasts Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton didn’t fulfill their dream of competing shirtless, but they sure inspired a few new dreams for us.

God damn, boys!

Seriously, Team USA. Stop it.

Pietro Boselli biked around Venice.

Brooklyn Beckham posted his gains.

Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa got drunk and shirtless. Wonder how many drinks it takes to turn him?

Team USA gymnast Danell Leyva fell off the high bar and onto the pages of Elle.

The Daily Mail shaded Team GB divers Chris Mears and Jack Laugher for their “unmanly” hug after winning gold.

The Daily Mail did not shade Australian swimmers Cameron McEvoy and Kyle Chalmers for theirs.

Studly Brazilian gymnast Arthur Zanetti‘s solo sex tape leaked!

His teammate Sérgio Sasaki has one too!

And sorry, Eric Nicolino— Israeli model Barak Shamir gave us new hair goals.

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Is NBC Sports Homophobic?

NBC Sports seems to have a problem treating gay athletes, and the gay parents of athletes, with the same respect and visibility it shows to their heterosexual counterparts.

They failed to identify Tom Daley‘s financé Dustin Lance Black when showing he and Daley’s mother in the crowd, dressed in matching “Team Daley” shirts.

Black, an Academy Award winning screenwriter, is famous in his own right. Mentioning the family members and partners of athletes while showing them cheering in the stands is typically a reflex during Olympic coverage, which is always hungry for a good human interest story.

Related: Gay, Bi Men Prefer Olympic Aquatics, Team GB Shows Why 

“Could the network have resisted lingering over an Oscar-winner affianced to an Olympic medal-winner if the relationship didn’t involve two people of the same sex?” Slate asks, continuing, “…do you really think they wouldn’t point out a diver’s celebrity fiancée if it were Marion Cotillard, Brie Larson, or another Oscar-winner whose fame level was roughly commensurate with Black’s?…You don’t have to be the kind of person who sees homophobia everywhere to think the commentators were reluctant to bring up a star athlete’s homosexuality.”

Then there was commentator Chris Marlowe referring to Brazilian volleyball player Larissa França’s wife as her “husband.”

“I’m sorry for the mistake today. Clearly, Liliane is Larissa’s wife,” Marlowe said, which served as the only apology to come from the network.

Former NBA player Jason Collins, the first openly gay athlete to play in one of the four major U.S. sports leagues, and was one of the many people on Twitter to express their frustration with the mistake, tweeting a link to Outsports article on the incident.

I saw this live and was confused when the commentator said “husband”. C’mon @nbc @NBCOlympics @NBCSports #DoBetter ? t.co/UYJC0qfiOf

— Jason Collins (@jasoncollins98) August 9, 2016

This goes beyond the Olympics, as Outsports points out:

For the last few years NBC Sports has employed an avowed proud homophobe, Tony Dungy, as one of its lead NFL commentators. Dungy has raised money to oppose equality for gay people, has said he “disagrees” with Jason Collins being gay and, in a fit of hypocrisy, said he would not want openly gay NFL player Michael Sam on his team.

Dungy, meanwhile, has advocated for us all to forget the crimes of Michael Vick, whom he has mentored after his release from prison.

Related: Michael Sam Sees More Racism In Gay Community Than Homophobia In Black Community 

NBC Sports was previously forced to apologize for not mentioning Australian Diver Matthew Mitcham‘s partner in the stands, despite doing so for the partners of straight athletes. Mitcham, who won gold, was the only openly gay athlete at those Olympic Games. That too went unmentioned.

At the U.S. Olympic trials, diver Jordan Windle was accompanied by his fathers.

“They wouldn’t say ‘Jordan’s dads’ during the finals of Olympic Trials,” Jerry Windle said. “They just said ‘parents.’ Then they wouldn’t show both Andre and I together like they showed other parents.”

In 2014, the International Olympic Committee officially added sexual orientation protections to its policies, after the Games were held in Russia, which has a less than stellar record on LGBTQ rights, to say the least. They recently updated their policy on transgender athletes as well, allowing transgender men to compete without limitations and transgender women to compete after a year of hormone replacement therapy, provided their testosterone levels are equal to or lower than their cisgender female counterparts.

Related: Nike Drops Ad Championing Transgender Athlete During Olympics

This year’s Olympics has a record number of out LGBT athletes, meaning it is even more important than ever for them to get their coverage in order.

Some athletes have been subjected to antigay slurs from audiences, particularly the USA women’s soccer team.

A tennis broadcaster for the BBC got into trouble for a homophobic joke he made involving the kiss cam, which lead to an apology.

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LGBTQ, immigrant youth, allies show GLAAD their acceptance in Texas

www.glaad.org/blog/lgbtq-immigrant-youth-allies-show-glaad-their-acceptance-texas

In Her Own Words: The Big Moment When This Olympian Got Engaged (Video)

www.advocate.com/sports/2016/8/13/her-own-words-big-moment-when-olympian-got-engaged-video