Lil Nas X Reveals What People Have Been Telling Him Since He Came Out as a Gay Man

Lil Nas X appears on the cover of British GQ Hype this month, and spoke to the magazine about what he’s doing after “Old Town Road” and what people have been saying to him since he came out as a gay man.

Said the rapper, who last week broke the record for the longest running #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100: “Live your life to its fullest potential and don’t really care too much about what other people think of you. I used to say that cliché, but I never really lived by it, until now. Since I came out, people have been coming up to me saying, ‘You’re making a way for us.’”

“I’m still in the first stage of figuring out who I am,” he added. “I don’t know what kind of music I’ll be making ten years from now. I want to do everything and I’m still learning how I work. But the one thing I’ll always know is that people don’t know what they want until they get it. They didn’t know they wanted a song about taking a horse to the old town road in 2019. But they did.”

The post Lil Nas X Reveals What People Have Been Telling Him Since He Came Out as a Gay Man appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Lil Nas X Reveals What People Have Been Telling Him Since He Came Out as a Gay Man

59 Photos of Naked Male Seduction by Wilson Carter

www.advocate.com/photography/2018/5/14/59-incidentally-nude-and-mostly-naked-photos-wilson-carter

Gay son of “Straight Pride” organizer speaks out against his homophobic mother

Matthew Mason, the gay son of Mylinda Mason, one of the co-organizers of a Straight Pride event planned for later this month in Modesto, California, is speaking out against his homophobic mother.

Last month, flyers for the event began circulating around town encouraging residents to “Join us to celebrate heterosexuality, masculinity, femininity, babies–born and unborn–western civilization, our wonderful country, Christianity–Celebrate Life!”

Now, Mason says he will speak before the City Council this Wednesday in hopes of getting the event shut down.

Mason worries the hate rally will incite violence after members from the local chapter of the Proud Boys, the domestic terrorist group responsible for the 2017 hate rally in Charlottesville that resulted in a car being driven into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing a woman and injuring several others, said they planned to attend.

The event’s other co-founder, Don Grundmann, has a long history of promoting hate, founding several antigay groups, including the National Straight Pride Coalition and Citizens Against Perversion.

Related: “Straight Pride” is officially coming to California

In an interview last month, Grundmann told reporters, “We’re going to change the cultural tide and make it, such things as gender fluidity and transgender, we’re going to associate them with what they are: sick and evil ideas.”

“We don’t want hate in Modesto,” 28-year-old Mason, who was adopted as a baby and came out when he was 19 but became estranged from his mother a few years ago, says. “I am making sure Modesto is not a place for hate speech.”

Mason is also helping to organize a candlelight vigil before the Wednesday’s council meeting to protest the straight pride event.

Meanwhile, his mom denies being in tolerant and simply says she has an “opposing view” from her estranged son.

The “intolerance does not come from our side,” Mylinda Mason insists. “We are not happy they are going to try to shut down our side and deny us peaceable assembly. It’s obvious we have two opposing views. It’s the other side that wants the opposing view shut down. It’s not our side.”

Matthew Mason says that if the event happens, he doubts it will attract many people, despite organizers saying they expect at least 500 attendees.

“I’m fully expecting they will have a small, pitiful turnout,” he says. “They are a fringe group.”

Meanwhile, his mom says she still loves her son despite their obvious differences.

“I would say it’s heartbreaking,” she says of their fractured relationship. “Any parent feels this way.”

www.queerty.com/gay-son-straight-pride-organizer-speaks-homophobic-mother-20190805?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Ignoring His Own Rhetoric, Trump Condemns White Supremacy, Blames Shooting on Video Games: WATCH

Donald Trump on Monday addressed the mass shootings that took 34 lives over the weekend, blaming video games and mental illness.

Trump, who has spent weeks fomenting racism and hatred with his rhetoric, said it must be extinguished: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.”

Trump attacked the internet and blamed video games for the shooting: “The perils of the internet and social media cannot be ignored, and they will not be ignored. … We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grizzly video games that are now commonplace.”

Added Trump: “We must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement. Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.”

Trump also said “may God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo” even though the shooting happened in Dayton.

The post Ignoring His Own Rhetoric, Trump Condemns White Supremacy, Blames Shooting on Video Games: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Ignoring His Own Rhetoric, Trump Condemns White Supremacy, Blames Shooting on Video Games: WATCH

Gay adult star ‘fired’ from studio for not wanting to work with HIV-positive performers

Numerous studies and the CDC have shown that HIV-positive men with undetectable viral loads are incapable of transmitting the virus. But gay adult video performer Dante Thick didn’t get the memo because he recently tweeted:

“Ya everyone SHOULD be tested. I don’t want to work with anyone who’s undetectable or detectable. Would be very nice to make this mandatory and also mandatory tests. Idk just sounds smart to me.”

The gay adult video industry blog, Str8UpGayP*rn (link NSFW), explained that Thick wrote his tweet in response to fellow performer Nick Fitt’s tweet mentioning a need to update the adult industry’s FSC PASS STI-testing system so that undetectable performers can “work equally alongside HIV-negative models.”

Related: HIV stigma summed up in one nasty 8-word Grindr message

In response to Thick’s post, several other gay adult performers questioned his opinion, worrying that viewpoints like his just further anti-HIV stigma while ignoring scientific facts. One clever commenter even called Dante “thick.”

It makes sense why Thick might not know that undetectable equals untransmittable: He’s 25-years-old, sex ed in this country is a non-existent joke and he was partially homeschooled in an ultra-religious conservative home. During his childhood, he moved 26 times in 6 different states and attended 10 different schools and over 80 different churches. That’s enough to keep anyone in the dark about sexual health, even if they are an adult performer.

Thick’s studio, Next Door Studios, responded to the backlash by saying that it decided not to renew Thick’s exclusive contract with the studio after working with him for two years.

However, Thick then posted his own Twitter video saying that he decided to no longer continue working with the studio two weeks before his anti-HIV tweet. He said he wanted to focus on expanding his opportunities in straight, bisexual and transgender adult video scenes.

pic.twitter.com/RcPTcWnjW2

— Donte Thick (@DonteThick) August 2, 2019

Regardless of whether Thick quit or was let go, it’s noteworthy that his old employer thought it important to stand up for HIV-positive performers when barely a decade ago gay adult studios made a regular habit of quietly removing poz performers from their active rosters.

Thick’s tweet also reminds us of August Ames, a 23-year-old female adult video performer who in December 2017 said she didn’t want to work with gay or bi male performers for fear of contracting HIV. After blowback against her tweet, she killed herself by hanging. Three weeks before her suicide, Ames discussed her struggles with bipolar depression and multiple personality disorder on a podcast.

www.queerty.com/gay-adult-star-fired-studio-not-wanting-work-hiv-positive-performers-20190805?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Coca-Cola Defends Ad Campaign Featuring Gay Couples After Lawmaker Calls for Boycott

A Coca-Cola campaign featuring gay couples has inspired calls for a boycott from conservative lawmakers in Hungary, but the brand is refusing to back down from its “Love is Love” message.

The Budapest Business Journal reports that Fidesz MP István Boldog, who earlier this year called for a ban of the Budapest Pride Parade, is spearheading a petition and boycott against the brand for the posters, calling for their removal.

The posters are part of a “Love Revolution” campaign centered around Budapest’s Sziget music festival, which takes place this week.

Said Coca-Cola in a statement: “The three different posters feature both hetero- and homosexual couples drinking Coca-Cola. With this we really want to convey a message: our belief that everyone has the right to affection and love; that the feeling of love is the same (#loveislove). Many advertisements – not just Coca-Colaʼs – divide peopleʼs opinions: some like them, some do not. Of course we respect the opinions of others that differ from our own. We believe that we are all equal, irrespective of our nationality, religion, gender, age, ethnic background, spoken language, hobbies and opinions. We believe that both hetero- and homosexuals have the right to love the person who is best for them.”

The post Coca-Cola Defends Ad Campaign Featuring Gay Couples After Lawmaker Calls for Boycott appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Coca-Cola Defends Ad Campaign Featuring Gay Couples After Lawmaker Calls for Boycott

Seven Ways to Welcome LGBTQ Families As Young People Head Back to School

Post submitted by Kimmie Fink, Welcoming Schools consultant 

As educators head back to school, it’s important to remember they will be serving not just a classroom full of new students, but also families. The Family Equality Council estimates that between 2 million and 3.7 million children under the age of 18 have an LGBTQ parent — a group that has typically been underserved, if not sometimes ignored, in school settings. 

The positive impact of making schools inclusive places for all families can’t be underestimated. When students have their unique family structures represented in school curriculum  — through books, images and lessons — it leads to a feeling of connectedness in school, improves academic performance and creates an environment of emotional safety.

To assist educators in making their classrooms and schools inclusive of LGBTQ families as they prepare for students who will soon be heading back to school, HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is suggesting these seven positive steps to implement this fall:

1. Use inclusive language on all forms. As educators prepare folders to go home the first day, they should ensure that handbooks, forms and other pieces of communication are inclusive of all family structures by using language such as “families and caring adults” instead of “moms and dads.”

2. Invite families to fill out a profile. Welcoming Schools recommends as teachers are gathering information at the beginning of the school year, they ask questions about which, if any, pronouns family members use, as well as the language they use to talk about their families (e.g. in a two-mom family, a child may call one parent “Mom” and the other “Mama”).

3. Add books that celebrate diverse families to your classroom library. Books such as Todd Parr’s “The Family Book” and Mary Hoffman’s “The Great Big Book of Families” highlight many different kinds of families. Check out this list from Welcoming Schools for picture books featuring two moms and two dads. 

4. Create a families bulletin board. Why not include families in your “Who’s In Our Room” display? Invite each child to bring in a photograph of their family and post all the pictures under the words “Love Makes a Family.”

5. Incorporate a family lesson plan. Welcoming Schools’ family lesson plans are ideal to kick off the school year.  Primary students will enjoy drawing their families in “What is a Family?” while intermediate students can channel their inner poets with “Where I’m From.”

6. Practice responding to questions and comments about families. It’s important that educators are prepared for conversations with their students about diverse family structures, including  answering questions that may arise such as, “Who is their real parent?” These sample questions and answers will help when that “teachable moment” arises. 

7.Host a family night. Early on in the school year, educators should plan to bring families together for an evening of learning and fun. Welcoming Schools has guides for six types of events to open dialogue and discussion with families. 

Families play a critical role in school success. A positive teacher-family relationship can make all the difference in ensuring that children can reach their full potential. The foundation of trust and mutual respect is built from the very beginning of the school year by welcoming all families, especially those who have traditionally been left out. 

HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is the nation’s premier professional development program providing training and resources to elementary school educators to: 

• Welcome diverse families;
• Create LGBTQ- and gender-inclusive schools;
• Prevent bias-based bullying;
• Support transgender and non-binary students.

www.hrc.org/blog/seven-ways-to-welcome-lgbtq-families-as-young-people-head-back-to-school?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed