Woman Who Allegedly Killed Wife With Wine Chiller Apprehended

Rebecca Gavilanez-Alectus was found dead in the New Jersey home she shared with her wife. 

www.advocate.com/crime/2020/5/23/woman-who-allegedly-killed-wife-wine-chiller-apprehended

Daily Dose: Rural farmers, uncut

Welcome to Queerty’s latest entry in our series, Queerantined: Daily Dose. Every weekday as long as the COVID-19 pandemic has us under quarantine, we’ll release a suggested bit of gloriously queer entertainment designed to keep you from getting stir crazy in the house. Each weekend, we will also suggest a binge-able title to keep you extra engaged.

The Timely: God’s Own Country

God’s Own Country first made headlines in 2017 when the film won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Critics and audiences praised its direction and treatment of a gay relationship, comparing the story of a UK farmer who falls for a Romanian migrant worker to that of Brokeback Mountain.

The film, of course, made headlines again this week as Amazon users noticed that several key sex scenes had mysteriously disappeared from the film. The director Francis Lee weighed in, expressing his outrage over the censorship. Fortunately, that debacle has seemingly resolved, and as such, we think now might be a good time to visit God’s Own Country. The uncensored version of the film streams on several platforms, though not Amazon Prime (Amazon users can access the uncut version of the film via rental or purchase). It makes for perfect entertainment via webcam date, and no doubt both of you will want to leave the cam on after to discuss the film…among other things.

Streams on Amazon, YouTube, VUDU, iTunes & Kanopy.

www.queerty.com/daily-dose-rural-farmers-uncut-20200523?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Brian Jordan Alvarez’s home gym, Michael Turchin’s chest, & Keiynan Lonsdale’s Calvins

This week Amazon got caught censoring God’s Own Country, Nancy Pelosi called Trump “morbidly obese” on national television, and San Francisco’s oldest gay bar was forced to shut its doors. Here’s what happened on Instagram:

Michael Turchin went for a run.

Trainer Seth G assembled his bike.

Keegan Whicker stayed in bed.

Joshua M. Cruz unbuttoned his shirt.

Bruno Duarte opened up.

Staz Nair smelled the flowers.

Bruno Alcantara wore a mask.

Ben Melzer took a break.

Tyson Beckford held some shirts.

Keiynan Lonsdale wore his Calvins.

Skylar Astin was thirsty.

Kelechi dropped his pants.

Derrick Gordon stayed hydrated.

Daniel Matsunaga took a shower outside.

Antonin the 2nd held himself.

Karl Schmid rowed at home.

Terry Miller went green.

Brian Jordan Alvarez got sweaty.

Big Dipper announced a new project.

Matthew Holehouse went to the river.

Ryan Cleary spent the day outside.

Dan Tai got his toes wet.

And Ricky Whittle worked out at home.

www.queerty.com/brian-jordan-alvarezs-home-gym-michael-turchins-chest-keiynan-lonsdales-calvins-20200523?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

“Seek joy at every opportunity.” Dan Levy on his career, legacy and surviving life as a sex symbol

Dan Levy doesn’t stop.

The queer writer/actor just wrapped press for the final season of his groundbreaking comedy Schitt’s Creek, created with his dad, actor Eugene Levy. The popularity of the show took the world by surprise. Schitt’s Creek became the first-ever series from the network PopTV to score Emmy nominations. Levy also won the inaugural Queerty award for Best Television Performance in 2020.

In addition to the collection of awards trophies, Schitt’s Creek won wide acclaim for its depiction of queer relationships. Levy’s character, David, dated both men and women, and much of the show focused on his romance with his business partner, Patrick (Noah Reid). The praise from the LGBTQ community and their families often moved Levy to tears.

The popularity of Schitt’s Creek nabbed Levy a new development deal for series at ABC; a major feat for any television writer. We caught up with Levy in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown to chat about his life, the legacy of Schitt’s Creek, and his latest creative endeavors.

What’s the state of your life at the moment?

I’m spending a lot of time with my dog, which is great. When I was shooting my show, he went to live with my parents for a while. So there were big chunks out of the year where I didn’t get to see him. That’s a blessing: just getting to have him close by. Then I’m trying to just work, to get something written so when this is all done we can make some films and television shows, keep people employed and keep our industry going.

That’s a great attitude.

So it’s about keeping the brain moving as much as possible.

Well, tell me about that. What do you do to get inspired? What kind of environment do you like to be in?

I don’t know. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it is really hard in these times. I think when there’s something impactful and tragic in the world, it’s hard to find the kind of clarity and headspace to write comedy. I find I’ve taken for granted just the clear skies, if you will. Having this dark cloud over us has really affected, not just myself, but a lot of my friends who are writers and creators. You have to overcome the news headlines and compartmentalize your thoughts so you don’t bring the day-to-day baggage into what you’re writing.

Sure.

For me, I’ve never considered myself a comic. So some of the projects I’m developing right now are not funny. They’re dramas. So it’s been nice to sort of pivot and write things that are on my mind. There’s a handful of things I’m working on, but to be able to sit down with the more dramatic ideas I’ve been fleshing out an focus on those when I’m not feeling the best, then turn to comedy when I need a little bit more humor in my life, it’s been a nice source of therapy.

Now, am I allowed to ask about your new projects?

You can, but I can’t say anything yet.

Damn. I’m intrigued by the idea of you doing a drama.

Yeah? I feel like I always tend to lean towards drama. I think that’s why the show has had some nice dramatic moments scattered through it. Even in comedy, at the funniest times of our lives, we’re often met with dark times soon thereafter.

Absolutely.

So that was really important for me to lay into Schitt’s Creek. That’s just life, and it makes the humor so much more enjoyable when you can show depth of character and more poignant moments. For me, I love writing drama, and I had really been compiling a list of ideas, things that inspired me, that I wanted to tackle. Now that I have the time I keep going back to that list and looking at these ideas and weighing which are worth exploring. I’ve selected a handful at the moment, and they’ve been moving around really well.

That’s great.

Hopefully sometime soon we can have another chat and I can be a little less cryptic about them.

I’d love that.

But the comedy silo is not something I’ve ever wanted to be kept inside. My ideas run the gamut from drama to thrillers to comedy and everything in between. So it’s been fun to explore different genres. I’ll be taking everything I’ve learned from Schitt’s and obviously instilling it in whatever I do next.

That’s wonderful. I think you’re right on when you talk about the characters in Schitt’s Creek. Initially they seemed like the most selfish, cynical, self-involved characters ever. But you do give them flashes of drama and it humanizes them in such a way that they become more real.

Well, all my favorite TV shows, be they comedies or dramas, are character-driven shows where the characters and the exploration of those characters are at the forefront. Whatever the genre is comes second. You’re really building a connection between the viewer and what you’re doing. If you live in a surface enthronement where you never get to the root of a problem or explore what makes people tick, the audience can only invest so much. The more you show the audience character growth, the more they can get involved in a more emotional way.

Absolutely. You know, one thing that impresses me about Schitt’s Creek is that you work with your family. I was loath to think of another show where an actor and both his kids appear in regular roles. And his kid created the show. Is it hard growing up with a famous dad? When you work together, do you feel competitive somehow?

No. I don’t think so. I think, for my dad and I, any kind of disagreement was really rooted in an idea that both of us thought would benefit the show. So at the end of the day, whatever idea won was an idea we both decided would be the best idea for the show. When you know that you’ve made the best idea for the show, it’s not personal. There was never a lot of time exploring personal issues at work. Obviously, we come from different backgrounds. We’re different ages. We have different ideas of how things should be. The humor, in the first season of the show, it took a little bit for us to find that balance between what he wanted to say and what I wanted to say.

Sure.

They are two different sensibilities, but I think that’s what made the show so special. It’s become this kind of amalgamation of young and old—not that my dad is old per se—but two different philosophies and sensibilities and two different senses of humor rooted in the same idea. I think that’s what makes the show so accessible to so many different age groups. It’s been amazing to see how wide that age gap is. We struck a chord in the family department, that’s for sure.

Related: Dan Levy’s mom posts heartwarming tweet about her son

Well, I know my parents are hooked. Now, you’ve become a major celebrity out of this. This speaks to the family dynamic also. I’ve heard people like Carrie Fisher or Liza Minnelli talk about growing up with a famous parent, how hard it is to have your own career and exist outside of that realm. You, on the other hand, have become a sex symbol and international celebrity in a way that I’m not sure your dad ever was. As someone naturally introverted, how do you cope with that pressure?

I think there’s only pressure if you care. I really only feel like there’s pressure if you care about the fame side of the business, and I really try my best not to care about it.

[Laughter]

At the end of the day, I got into this because I loved acting and writing. I think the minute you get distracted by notoriety and what that brings and what it does to your ego, your priorities get eschewed. The quality of your work gets affected. So even as we were making the show and started to hear people were actually watching it, it was really important to me not to read too much or indulge too much in what was written. I knew what we were making was really special and I didn’t want the pressure of expectation.

That’s sensible.

I didn’t want to adjust the writing of the show to accommodate a certain level of awareness we were getting. So I don’t know: I don’t really pay a lot of attention to what’s going on outside of work. I’m not going to lie and say it isn’t kind of flattering to have all these wonderful things written about you.

Sure.

It’s nice to put on nice clothes and go out with your friends and family. It’s been such an incredible experience that we all got to live through. To think that our cast was on the red carpet at the Emmys this year was so surreal, and nothing that we ever thought would happen. The show is so small. So to be there with everybody, that was the joy. It was the joy of seeing my cast members being interviewed. It was nuts. But when you go home at night, you can’t let that seep into your pores. You have to just leave it outside. If you don’t, you start to become defined by other people’s expectations.

On the subject of expectations, you’re now one of the highest-profile queer celebrities in the world. How do you cope with that? Is it an unfair expectation to have to share aspects of your life on social media?

I really don’t care what other people think, particularly when it’s negative. You can’t win them all. Obviously, it’s always the one person that says something bad that’s going to be the one thing you remember for your entire day. But statistically speaking, even if you just canvas your own friends saying “What’s your favorite show?” they’re all going to have a different answer. That’s the beauty of the human brain.

Right.

So I try not to take it personally—not that we’ve gotten a ton of negative feedback. I think it’s remarkable how loving and supportive the fanbase has been. But it’s personal taste. When it comes to a social media presence, I feel like having been a talk show host up in Canada, I had a very small social media following. But of everyone involved with Schitt’s Creek, it was the biggest.

Interesting.

So it was used to promote the show because there was some reach involved in that. Ever since then, it’s become a way to communicate with our fans. Over the years, I’ve received such incredibly moving notes, letters, tweets and DM’s that have really experienced a shift in their lives for the better because of watching the show. Be it that their family has come to accept them, or that they’ve been able to come out to their parents or their friends—there’s been this love shared over social media when it comes to the show. We’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and done so much good for people while supporting one another. The Schitt’s Creek fanbase is so unique in its quest to do good. I try to block out the bad when I go online, but there’s so much good coming from our fans that I’ve really enjoyed my experience on social media. I’ve enjoyed building a social media presence because for me, the more I can build, the more money I can raise. The more people we can gather to fundraise. There’s a lovely opportunity there.

Totally.

So I’ve enjoyed it a lot. And anyone that I feel is problematic I tend to block or delete.

That’s wise.

It’s a choose your own adventure. Even five years ago, I would find myself getting so annoyed by the way certain people are, or this culture where everyone has an opinion punctuated by an exclamation mark, not a period. Everyone needs to have their voice heard, and I get it. But it can be a lot to take in. So I just realized, you choose your own adventure, know what I mean?

I think so.

If there’s a person that bothers you just block them. Fill your feed with things that make you feel good. If you don’t protect yourself on social media with what you expose yourself to, it can be really damaging. It’s amazing. Seek joy at every opportunity.

www.queerty.com/seek-joy-every-opportunity-dan-levy-career-legacy-surviving-life-sex-symbol-20200523?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

How an underage revenge scandal killed homophobic pageant queen Kathy Zhu’s political dreams

Pageant queen Kathy Zhu made national headlines last summer when she was stripped of her Miss Michigan title after racist tweets she wrote resurfaced online. Soon, she was appearing on Fox News and working for Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign. That is until an underage revenge porn scandal proved to be her political undoing. So what happened exactly? Let’s find out…

First, a little backstory: In July 2019, after it was learned the 20-year-old reigning Miss Michigan had posted racist and homophobic musings on her social media accounts in 2017 and 2018, officials from Miss World America decided she was simply too bigoted for their organization. The tweets included praising Hitler, mocking queer people, attacking women who wear hijabs, and saying Black people have lower IQs than people of other races.

In response, Zhu, a heterosexual, put out a statement saying she stood by her tweets then claimed “coming out as a conservative is way harder than coming out as gay in today’s society.” Not that she has any idea what it’s like to come out as gay.

Then she hit the media circuit, appearing everywhere from Fox News to CNN to Dr. Phil, where she boasted her support for Donald Trump and insisted her racism was just a “difference of opinions.” Then, borrowing a page from the president’s playbook, she tried flipping the script by saying people who called her racist were the real racists.

“The left has a hard time understanding that minorities can be conservatives, too. And I feel like that was a big trigger for them,” Zhu told Fox News, adding that many liberals “have used racial slurs against me.” (She failed, however, to offer an examples of these alleged verbal assaults.)

Towards the end of the interview, Zhu seemed to be angling for a spot at the network, saying, “I’ve always wanted to be a full-time political commentator or a news host, so this really brought conservative voices and attention to what I believe in.”

Not soon after that Fox News appearance, Zhu was praised by Donald Trump on Twitter and scooped up by his reelection team, invited to join the Women for Trump Coalition Advisory Board, alongside homophobic husband beater Stacey Dash, fired Fox News commentators Diamond and Silk, and former Arizona governor/birther Jan Brewer.

“I am so excited to be able to join Women for Trump,” Zhu said in a statement. “This is an organization that truly empowers women’s voices and lets us be heard. This is such a once in a lifetime opportunity and I couldn’t be more blessed. I can’t wait to help our president get elected a 2nd term!”

So what happened after that?

Well, Zhu’s time on the board ended up lasting approximately one week and included only one speaking engagement at a random luncheon in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan before she threw in the towel.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking & I’ve personally decided going fwd to not be part of the Trump women’s coalition,” she tweeted on July 30, adding that she was about to start her final year at the University of Michigan again and her top priorities were “1) Education 2) Graduate 3) Secure the bag.”

Cut to February 2020.

Zhu was permanently suspended from Twitter and had her Instagram page deactivated after allegedly circulating revenge porn of conservative journalist/fellow Trump supporter Cassandra Fairbanks, with whom she had had a disagreement.

The images showed Fairbanks strapped to a chair with a gag in her mouth and her breasts exposed. Fairbanks claimed the photos were taken years earlier, when she was only 17, by an abusive ex-boyfriend.

Even after learning the pictures were taken when Fairbanks was underage, Zhu said she didn’t regret sharing them.

“I sleep really well at night knowing I did absolutely nothing wrong,” she tweeted, adding that she planned to file a lawsuit against anyone who attempted “slander” her.

Twitter and Instagram, however, felt differently. They deactivated her accounts. And, just like that, Zhu saw her entire social media platform, which included over 150,000 Twitter followers and nearly 80,000 Instagram followers, wiped clean.

After losing all of her followers, Zhu abandoned her political ambitions and attempted to rebrand herself, going from a racist right-wing pageant queen who circulated underage revenge porn to… a champion for female empowerment?

Yes, you read that correctly, folks.

In late February, she traded in her red MAGA hat and hate slogans for a pastel pink sweatshirt and blonde dye job with the launch of Kappa Zeta, which bills itself as the world’s “first-ever, online-based sorority.”

The organization’s goal is to “foster genuine friendships from all over the country.”

“Our core values are to empower others, demonstrate strength, and show kindness,” its About Page reads.

In addition to empowering other women, Zhu also appears to be trying her hand a music career, posting videos of herself to YouTube singing pop songs in her bedroom.

As Kathy wraps up her time at the University of Michigan, finishing a degree in political science, more than 36 million Americans and counting have filed for unemployment, the highest number in recorded history.

The young woman who spent all of last summer praising Donald Trump and crowing about making America great again is about the enter the worst workforce the country has seen in decades, overseen by the very man for whom she fell on the sword, and got absolutely nothing in return.

Related: 6 homophobic pageant queens who prove beauty is only skin deep

www.queerty.com/underage-revenge-scandal-killed-homophobic-pageant-queen-kathy-zhus-political-dreams-20200523?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum and Boyfriend Joey Holman Debut New Single ‘Daddy’, a Celebration of Gay Love in Isolation — WATCH

Earlier this week, we reported that Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum and his partner Joey Holman announced a new music project produced in isolation. Their musical duo, dubbed MAN ON MAN (“They’re gay lovers making gay music.”), has now released the first single, “Daddy”.

Bottum told Rolling Stone: “We’re setting out ultimately to document this odd time in the history of the world and to address the importance of creativity and togetherness. The statement of the song and video for ‘Daddy’ maybe is a celebration of love in isolation and is a love letter to the not-so-distant past of a place and time where we communed physically together with our queer community.”

Bottum and Holman are quarantining in Oxnard, California, an hour north of L.A. They told Rolling Stone that they recorded everything in the house they’re staying in, and wore tights-whities in the clip to “represent a faction of our culture that isn’t squeaky and manicured.”

Bottum said the video came from a place of “positivity, productivity and optimism” in the face of the virus.

Bottum made headlines back in 1993 when he came out in an interview with the late Lance Loud in The Advocate, becoming one of the first out rock musicians.

Holman was in an alt-Christian band called Cool Hand Luke more than five years ago but quit it because “ultimately I was hiding a very important part of who I was, and that was painful … there was no room to be honest about who I was, because I knew speaking up for myself would mean the end of my career.”

Faith No More announced in November 2019 that they would be reuniting in 2020 for a European tour but that has been obviously postponed due to the pandemic.

Bottum gave an interview to Kerrang earlier this year in which he talked about the band reuniting: “I think the world needs a little provocation right now. It’s a kind of dark, dark place out there, and I think that bringing our craft and our musical exploration to the planet can only be a good thing. … It’s kind of been a long time in the making, honestly. I think all of us were at the point collectively where we felt like what we had done five years ago in reforming, and the subsequent recording and touring of that recording [the Sol Invictus album], was an unfinished task. There were places that we didn’t go, things we didn’t do, and ways that we would have liked to perform but hadn’t. The option to do it again was still there, but it kind of took us a while to get our head around how we wanted to do it, and what the impetus for going forward was.”

He also talked about coming out in ’93: “I certainly did feel that the rock community was a tolerant place when I came out. But the rock community was not why I made that gesture – in fact, it was the least of my worries. It was more important for me to make that statement and make that gesture for the gay community and for the unrecognised people of that time. Back then, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford wasn’t even out of the closet. My statement was a provocative statement for the straight world in general, but more important to me was the fact that it needed to be said for the gay community, for my community. It needed to be said, and to be heard as a way of signifying gratitude and compassion for my people.”

The post Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum and Boyfriend Joey Holman Debut New Single ‘Daddy’, a Celebration of Gay Love in Isolation — WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum and Boyfriend Joey Holman Debut New Single ‘Daddy’, a Celebration of Gay Love in Isolation — WATCH