Here’s the First Trailer for the Gay, Coming Out Romance ‘Love, Simon’ — WATCH

Greg Berlanti (Dawson’s Creek, Brothers & Sisters, Green Lantern, Everwood, Political Animals, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow) is directing Love, Simon, the film adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s “coming-of-age coming-out” novel Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

The film is due for release on March 16, and the first full trailer has just debuted

The first poster art was revealed last month, along with a Halloween-themed teaser.

Love, Simon stars Jurassic World‘s Nick Robinson and also features Katherine Langford, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner, Miles Heizer, and Tony Hale.

The film’s synopsis:

Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing.

Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger , who co-exec produce the new NBC show This Is Us, wrote the script. The film is being produced by Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill and Pouya Shabazian.

Said Berlanti to EW about choosing to direct the film: “There’s this one section of the film where Simon imagines this one boy and imagines them kissing underneath the mistletoe at Christmas. In every other major studio film, it’s always the guy and the girl. And there was something so powerful about it being just a guy imagining himself with this other guy in a film again that was going to be marketed and sold as a mainstream romantic comedy.”

Watch:

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www.towleroad.com/2017/11/love-simon-trailer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+towleroad%2Ffeed+%28Towleroad+Gay+News+%29

Bath University Students Furious Over ‘Golden Handshake’ For Boss Amid Row Over £470,000 Salary
Bath University students are furious after the institution’s £470,000-a-year vice chancellor stepped down amid a pay row – only to be offered a “golden handshake” deal.

It was announced on Monday that Dame Professor Glynis Breakwell – the highest paid vice chancellor (VC) in the UK – would leave her role in August following criticism from staff and students over her salary and benefits package, which amounts to almost three times that of the Prime Minister.

The pay packets of university bosses has become a point of contention as student loans have crept past the £9,000 mark, with former education minister Lord Adonis taking the floor of the House of Lords in July to slam their “greed”, specifically criticising Breakwell in his scathing attack.

While more than 300 university workers have called for Breakwell’s resignation over the issue, hundreds of students were set to protest her salary in an “unprecedented” campus rally on Thursday.

A vote of no confidence in the VC was also reached by Bath’s student union earlier this week.

But while students say they are “happy to see her go”, they have slammed the university’s decision to allow Breakwell a six month sabbatical on full pay after she steps down, despite the institution’s insistence the 65-year-old will receive “no payments for loss of employment”.

The university confirmed that while Breakwell will cease to be VC at the end of the academic year in August, she will officially retire in February 2019 to give her time to “further her academic research for a semester” and allow an “orderly transition”.

The institution will also write off a £31,489 car loan for Breakwell, as agreed on her appointment in 2001.

Politics student Clementine Boucher described the situation as “unacceptable”, saying it has triggered “so much student anger”.

“Breakwell’s leaving is great in one sense, as it shows they [the university] are listening to our demands,” the 22-year-old told HuffPost UK.

“But the fact they are willing to let her go with a golden handshake shows they are trying to fool us.

“They wanted to undercut the momentum of the referendum and tomorrow’s demo,” she added. 

According to the group Bath Students Against Fees and Cuts, Thursday’s protest over the VC’s pay is still going ahead, despite news of Breakwell’s departure. Around 350 students are expected to attend the rally.

“We thought the announcement of the VC’s resignation was a victory for us, but it turns out that, as usual, management have fucked us over,” the group wrote on Facebook, referring to Breakwell’s “golden resignation handshake”.

Calling for the university’s governors to resign, the post continued: “Glynis has presided over massive staff pay freezes and the casualisation of their contracts, as well as over the rise in our fees and rents.

“She and her management team run this university like a business and for the interest of a small elite staff minority. It is extremely unlikely that this will change after her departure, unless management promises a structural overhaul or their operations.”

“They tried to shut down student voices by not letting the referendum and demo being carried out to show the true extent of student anger. Thursday’s demo is still on, we’ll show them who’s boss.”

Second year politics and international relations student Francesco Masala added: “The departure package is a kick in the face to the student and staff body.

“The move was supposed to put a stop to the student protest, but it actually just added fuel to the fire,” he said.

“Breakwell is the tip of the iceberg, the controller of the iceberg, and removing her doesn’t erase the whole problem.

“She will be gone, but the paramount goal is making sure that nobody else can fill her shoes in the future, and do the exact same thing.”

In a statement, Breakwell said she had served the university “to the best of my ability” during her time in office.

“Since 2001 the University has changed dramatically,” she said.

“It has almost tripled in size and is now among the top universities in the UK. It has had many great achievements in its first 51 years and it will go on to be even greater.” 

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bath-university-boss_uk_5a1e8a23e4b0cb0e917c96f8

#AM_Equality Tipsheet: November 29, 2017

ONE STEP CLOSER! AUSSIE SENATE APPROVES MARRIAGE EQUALITY BILL, NOW ON TO HOUSE: The bill passed 43-12 and now heads to the House, where it is also expected to pass. Before today’s vote, Australian Senator George Brandis gave a moving speech in support of the measure, saying, “These late spring and early summer days of 2017 will always be remembered as a time when the Parliament heeded the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Australians that ours should be a society defined by greater decency, truer equality, more perfect freedom.” This follows Australia’s Marriage Law Postal Survey, in which 61.6 percent of Australian voters who participated endorsed marriage equality. More from Voice of America and The Washington Blade.

• An attempt by conservatives to add a “license to discriminate” amendment to the marriage equality bill failed. More from News.com.au.

One step closer! Aussie Senate passes #MarriageEquality bill, now on to House. t.co/0k6jsJGY4x

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) November 29, 2017

ROY MOORE’S LATEST UNHINGED ATTACK ON TRANSGENDER PEOPLE: The Alabama U.S. Senate candidate has again launched an anti-transgender tirade, this time siding with the Trump-Pence Administration’s discriminatory directive barring brave transgender Americans from joining the U.S. military. Writes WaPo’s Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott): “If any group knows that the fight for equality is a long one, it’s the transgender community, a group that has at times even felt discriminated against within the larger LGBT community. For whatever progress has been made over the last few months — from bathroom to boot camps — transgender Americans know there is still much work to do.” More from The Washington Post.

MEET YOUNG TRANSGENDER AMERICANS FIGHTING FOR FULL LEGAL EQUALITY: NPR’s Martha Bebinger sat down with young transgender advocates who are pushing back against laws that fuel the harassment and abuse faced by transgender people. “The findings underscore the fact that our approach to achieving equality has to be a ‘both/and’ strategy,” HRC National Press Secretary Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) told Bebinger. “We have to open hearts and change minds while at the same time pushing for laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.” A new NPR poll found that 84 percent of Americans believe discrimination against transgender people exists, with younger Americans identifying bias in laws as a major factor driving discrimination. The survey was conducted in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health More from NPR.

• More findings from the NPR survey — LGBTQ people of color more likely to face discrimination than white LGBTQ people. The survey confirmed that LGBTQ people of color are twice as likely to experience anti-LGBTQ discrimination when applying for jobs and interacting with police. More from The Daily Beast.

WHAT WE’RE READING WEDNESDAY: New Delhi’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival had a markedly positive tone this year following the Supreme Court of India’s ruling that LGBTQ people have “real rights founded on sound constitutional doctrine,” and those rights “dwell in privacy and dignity.” The eloquent decision could signal the beginning of the end to India’s Colonial-era law that bans same-sex relationships. From NYT’s Kai Schultz’s (@Kai_Schultz) report on the festival: “In the crowd was Ashish Chopra, 22, who had traveled from the city of Pune, more than 700 miles away, to attend the parade. Wearing rainbow suspenders and holding the hand of his mother, Simmi Nanda, 50… He began to cry, casting a long look at his mother.” More from The New York Times.

In a landmark decision, India’s Supreme Court wrote that “sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy” t.co/eosQP3u2Tj

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 25, 2017

MORNING MUST READ: “Why This Open Enrollment is Critical for Transgender People,” by Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Obama and Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. More from The Advocate.

GRAMMY NOMINATES LGBTQ AND ALLIED ARTISTS: Nominations include Portugal the Man for Pop Duo/Group performance; Bette Midler for Musical Theater Album; Lady Gaga for Pop Solo Performance and Pop Vocal Album; Kesha for Pop Vocal Album and Pop Solo Performance; Beyonce and Jay Z for Rap/Sung Performance; Bruce Springsteen for Spoken Word Album; Sarah Silverman for Comedy Album; and Pink for Pop Solo Performance; and a host of other pro-LGBTQ artists and performers. More from The Los Angeles Times.

EQUALITY RULES IN THE BADGER STATE — MAJORITY OF WISCONSINITES OPPOSE ANTI-LGBTQ DISCRIMINATION: Sixty-two percent say they believe that discrimination against transgender individuals is wrong and should be illegal, and 63 percent say the state’s non-discrimination laws should be updated to include transgender people. Fifty-nine percent believe that businesses should not be given a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people. More from The Wisconsin Gazette.

MUST WATCH — ELLE MILLS COMES OUT AS BISEXUAL: In a powerful video, YouTuber Elle Mills (@millselle) shares her coming out process — including filming scenes of coming out to her closest friends and family by turning her home into a rainbow. Watch here.

HORRIFYING — EGYPT CONVICTS LGBTQ PEOPLE, ALLIES: A Cairo court found 14 Egyptians guilty under anti-debauchery and “sexual deviancy” laws, often used to target LGBTQ people and their allies. HRC has called on Egyptian authorities and the media to respect the human rights and freedom of expression of their LGBTQ citizens. More from BBC.

CHILEAN SENATE COMMISSION CONSIDERS MARRIAGE EQUALITY BILL: It was introduced by President Michelle Bachelet earlier this year. More from The Washington Blade.

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP — JUSTIN TRUDEAU OFFERS HISTORIC APOLOGY, COMPENSATION FOR ANTI-LGBTQ PERSECUTION: Yesterday, the Canadian prime minister offered a formal apology for LGBTQ people who were persecuted or discharged from the military in the past, committing $85 million to compensate those affected. More from The New York Times.

Canadian PM @justintrudeau: We have failed to LGBTQ2 communities, individuals time and time again. It is with shame and sorrow and deep regret that the things we have done that i stand here today and say we were wrong, we apologize. I am sorry. We are sorry. @WashBlade

— Michael K. Lavers (@mklavers81) November 28, 2017

TRANSGENDER WOMAN KILLED IN PAKISTAN: The woman, Spogmai, was shot this weekend in a market in Peshawar. A second transgender woman was murdered in Peshawar just weeks ago. More from Geo.tv and NewNowNext.

READING RAINBOW

NewNowNext highlights four wedding magazines for LGBTQ people; NPR speaks to Texans with HIV struggling to obtain medicine after Hurricane Harvey; AdWeek shares stories of brands taking a stand on LGBTQ equality

Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to #AM_Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!

www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tipsheet-november-29-2017?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

The Best Jewish Comedy on Christmas Is, Fittingly, in a Chinese Restaurant

Celebrating 25 years of queer Jewish comedy on Christmas (at a Chinese restaurant).

www.advocate.com/current-issue/2017/11/29/best-jewish-comedy-christmas-fittingly-chinese-restaurant

Marine Alleges He Was Forced to Watch Gay Porn As Part of Punishment for Failing Test

A British Marine has told a military court he was forced to watch gay porn and masturbate in front of others as punishment for failing a map reading test.

The alleged incidents happened between May and August 2014 at Faslane and Coulport naval bases in Argyll, Scotland.

The marine, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alleges he tried to tell his superior Corporal Danny Foster he would not do it. Foster is said to have replied “you f**king are.”

In another incident, Foster and Corporal Philip Beer are said to have forced a commando to shave off his body hair.

Metro reports:

The marine said: ‘You could be punished for anything starting from just leaving a pen lid on the floor up to operational things like not turning on your radio while on patrol. ‘A senior marine would stand at the front and would ask if there were any integrity shouts – which meant you would own up to a mistake you had made. ‘Then there would be stitch ups, and marines or corporals could stitch each other up and report something someone else had done. ‘On the first occasion, there had been a map reading test which was made too hard and so a number of people failed. ‘We got lined up at the front of the room during family time and the corporals, who were at the back, were talking about what they would make us do. ‘They all laughed when Corporal Foster said we should wank to gay porn.

The Marine continued:

‘The porn was military themed porn, the men had berets on and people were watching us – we were told the last person to ejaculate would get another punishment. ‘I felt disgusted and degraded having to do it, it was massively degrading, I had no power against it; I could not say no.’

RELATED: Posting Private Nude Photos Online Now a Criminal Act in the Navy and Marines

He added that punishments were often decided by rolling two dice, with the numbers relating to punishments on a sheet of paper. There would also be a game of quiz show Deal or No Deal played as part of punishments.

“There was a PowerPoint presentation and the forfeits would be projected onto the wall and others would be holding bits of paper with numbers on,” he said. “On one occasion, I had two [options] left and we would usually get a swap offered by whoever was the banker.

‘Foster knew I had [a punishment called] Django and would not let me swap because he knew I hated it.

‘I had to take the punishment – there was a metal pull-up bar in the gym which you would hang from and be whipped. ‘Corporal Foster was not there when I was whipped, I had to have another marine do it and be my witness. ‘There were different things used to whip you – on this occasion I was whipped with a rubber exercise band and then left hanging there afterwards.’

During cross examination by Foster’s lawyer, the marine added that his time with 43 Commando had led to him developing post traumatic stress disorder.

He added: “I have PTSD due to what happened. That does affect my memory and I try to put what went on out of my mind, but I do remember what happened.”

Foster has denied three counts of ill treatment of a subordinate. The trial continues today.

(Photo: Royal Marines by Defence Images/Will Haigh is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0)

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Marine Alleges He Was Forced to Watch Gay Porn As Part of Punishment for Failing Test

Brits Unveil All-Female Critics Choice Award Shortlist After Five Years Of Male Winners
The Brit Awards has unveiled its shortlist for next year’s Critics Choice prize with an all-female line-up.

Jorja Smith, Mabel and Stefflon Don been identified as ones to watch next year, and one of them will end a five-year run of men scooping the award. 

The trio have been picked out from a longlist of over 100 artists by a team of experts including music editors and heads of music at major radio and music TV stations.

The winner will follow in the footsteps of previous Critics Choice victors Adele (2008), Ellie Goulding (2010), Emeli Sandé (2012), Sam Smith (2014) and Rag’n’Bone Man (2017).

Of being nominated, Jorja Smith said: “It’s an honour to be recognised amongst such incredible emerging talent. 2017 was a very special year and there’s so much more to come from me in 2018!”

Mabel also said: “Being nominated for the Critics Choice award really is a dream come true for me.  So much hard work has gone into getting to this point, so to be acknowledged by something like the BRIT Awards means the world.”

Stefflon Don added: “I am so excited to be nominated for this amazing award. A big shout out to all my fans and dons for their support. 2017 has been lit and I can’t wait for 2018! Mad love to you all.”

Take a listen to some of their tracks below…

Jorja Smith – ‘Teenage Fantasy’

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/brit-awards-critics-choice-shortlist-jorja-smith-mabel-stefflon-don_uk_5a1e9edbe4b0dc52b02a7fa3

How California Is Breaking Down the Gender Binary

A new state law sets a blueprint for the rest of the nation.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/11/29/how-california-breaking-down-gender-binary

Predicted Food Trends For 2018

In my own humble opinion, it’s quite ridiculous that food goes in and out of style like velour tracksuits or the thickness of one’s eyebrows.

I never thought in my wildest food dreams that we would live in a world where one minute avocados are considered ‘on trend’ only to be replaced by pickled carrots the moment we turn a blind eye.

Who makes these decisions? Is there an annual boardroom meeting (if so, where’s my invite?) where culinary royalty sit down over a glass of something fashionably delicious to govern what the public will loathe and love in the coming year? It will never cease to amaze me how kale can go virtually unheard of one century and then out of nowhere it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread (debatable). Genuine question; where had kale been hiding before we plucked it from obscurity?

I’ve done my research and this is what I have discovered; 2017 was the year of Great British Food. From scrambled eggs to fancy fry-ups; we were loving the modernised take on British food made with British ingredients from British producers and farmers. It was all very patriotic. Brunch came back with a vengeance – I like to liken it to Gary Barlow’s revival after a 10-year hiatus – powerful, seductive and mysterious.

Another 2017 trend; vegetarian options featured heavily on menus with kimchi and sauerkraut taking centre stage. It won’t have gone unnoticed how restaurants began catering towards those with allergies; paving the way for gluten-free options and vegan-friendly dishes.

It’s so mainstream to be ‘suffering’ from a food allergy. I, myself suffer from them all. I’m very Spring/Summer 2017. I like to pair my intolerances with a side dish of self-pity.

Poke, the Hawaiian speciality, was Miss Popular this year. A safe option for the health-conscious. However, it’s popularity will cease to be as people have begun to realise that it’s nothing more than sushi in a bowl. And it’s overpriced. It’s also not filling and as pretty as it is, it’s only Instagrammable once.

Here are some food predictions for 2018; a stratospherical rise in gut-friendly dishes and anti-inflammatory ingredients – queue turmeric, edible clays and mushroom tea- all of which are on the brink of making a grand Liza Minelli showbiz style entrance.

Shakshuka – a middle eastern dish consisting of perfectly poached eggs, immersed in a comforting fiery fiesta of tomato, onion and pepper sauce is soon to be featuring on many a food menu. It’s a war on the taste buds and it’s about to enter our lives and our tummies in full force. In general, Syrian and Israeli influences are about to take over just like Royal Wedding Number 2.

Finally, Filipino ‘adobo’ and ‘bagoong’ is soon to be a thing. I haven’t Googled. No idea. I’m sure we’ll be Instagramming it by April.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/predicted-food-trends-for-2018_uk_5a1d7c3ce4b09413e786af2a