Nasty Pig Turns 25: A Timeline of the Fashion Brand’s Queer Evolution

www.advocate.com/photography/2019/10/04/nasty-pig-turns-25-timeline-fashion-brands-queer-evolution

Swath of Damning Text Messages Released in Impeachment Inquiry

A swath of damning text messages between State Department officials have been released related to the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.

Read the text messages here.

The Daily Beast reports: ‘By September, that effort so alarmed the recently appointed chargé d’affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Bill Taylor, that he called it “crazy” and spiraling toward a “nightmare scenario.” Another Trump appointee, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, insisted Taylor was “incorrect” about Trump dangling a “quid pro quo” before Zelensky—the same quid pro quo that Sondland and his colleagues, from Trump on down, had spent months orchestrating.’

CNN adds: “On the morning of the call, in an exchange with a key adviser to the Ukrainian President, then-US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker made clear that it was important to the White House that Zelensky convince Trump that an investigation into the 2016 election would happen. … Volker provided Congress with the text messages ahead of his closed-door congressional testimony on Thursday before three committees leading the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump and Ukraine. … That Trump wanted an investigation was a message that seemed to register with the Ukrainian administration. Volker and the Ukrainian adviser, Andrey Yermak, continued to text after the call about Zelensky making a public statement ahead of a meeting between the two leaders.”

The post Swath of Damning Text Messages Released in Impeachment Inquiry appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Swath of Damning Text Messages Released in Impeachment Inquiry

How the AIDS Crisis Led to the Launch of Nasty Pig 25 Years Ago

CEO David Lauterstein recounts how stigma inspired him to co-found a clothing brand that signaled queer pride.

www.advocate.com/commentary/2019/10/04/how-aids-crisis-led-launch-nasty-pig-25-years-ago

Olly Alexander, Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Fry to start filming AIDS drama

The casting has been announced for a major new British TV drama that looks at the arrival of HIV and AIDS in London in the 1980s. The five-episode show, entitled Boys, has been penned by acclaimed screenwriter Russell T Davies.

Davies penned the original British production of Queer As Folk and last year’s acclaimed A Very British Scandal, starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw.

Casting for the show was announced yesterday. It will star singer Olly Alexander of the band Years and Years. He will play 18-year-old Ritchie Tozer, one of three young men who move to London at the start of the 1980s.

The other two leads, Roscoe and Colin, are played relative newcomers, Omari Douglas and Callum Scott Howells.

Also in the cast at Neil Patrick Harris, Keeley Hawes, Stephen Fry, and Tracy Ann Oberman. The show will premiere on the UK’s Channel 4 in late 2020.

Related: Neil Patrick Harris reveals which celebrity promised him sex when he was 15 years old

This is not Alexander’s first acting job. He has previously appeared in the movies The Riot Club and God Help The Girl but put his acting on hold when his pop career began to take off.

He has been out as gay since the start of his music career. In 2017, he fronted a BBC documentary called Growing Up Gay, in which he revealed something of the mental health challenges he and other gay people face.

Alexander said he’s thrilled to be involved with the show.

“I feel like the luckiest boy in the world to be a part of this project. I’ve been a fan of Russell T Davies ever since I watched Queer As Folk in secret at 14 years old.

“His work helped shape my identity as a gay person so I’m absolutely over the moon we’ll be working together.

Related: Olly Alexander feels sorry for straight guys, says they need marijuana lube in their butts

“The script was amazing to read, I laughed and I cried a lot, it’s a privilege to be helping to tell this story and I’m so excited.”

Neil Patrick Harris described the show as, “an irresistible, funny, jubilant story of young people discovering their true identities and the unalloyed joy of living life to the fullest, it is also a deeply resonant exploration of a decade when so many of these lives were cut short by the devastating effects of the nascent AIDS pandemic.

“Russell’s scripts chart the highs and lows of this time so beautifully and deftly, it’s an honor to help tell this story.”

Stephen Fry took to Twitter to reveal that he play the part of a right-wing Conservative politician.

He called Boys a, “vital, beautiful story of friendship & joy set against one of the most devastating decades for the gay community”

Shooting is due to commence next week.

www.queerty.com/olly-alexander-neil-patrick-harris-stephen-fry-start-filming-aids-drama-20191004?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29