Stonewall opens doors to trans talks

UK’s leading gay campaign organization to discuss how better to include trans issues after 25 years of being LGB only

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scottn

www.gaystarnews.com/article/stonewall-opens-doors-trans-talks120614

On The Eve Of Gay Pride, Homophobic Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant Plans On Giving Speech In NYC

This is almost as ironic as Aaron Schock appearing on a box of Wheaties. On Saturday, the New York-Mississippi Society will hold its annual picnic in Central Park. 5,000 people are expected to attend, including Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, who plans on traveling Northward from the Bible belt to encourage liberal New Yorkers to vacation in (and even move to!) Mississippi.

So where’s the irony?

Well, Governor Phil Bryant is extremely conservative, especially when it comes to gay rights. And he’ll been giving his speech less than two weeks before the kickoff of New York’s Gay Pride festivities and the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

In April, Bryant signed the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which becomes law July 1. It’s basically Mississippi’s version of Arizona’s draconian SB1062 bill. The Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act permits state-sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians by allowing businesses to refuse to serve them on the basis of religion.

But some folks aren’t having it.

Gay rights activists from Get EQUAL Mississippi, PFLAG of Jackson, and two welcoming congregations are making a pilgrimage from Mississippi to New York, where they plan on staging a protest and passing out stickers that proclaim support for the LGBT community and for all the people in Mississippi who have been marginalized by Bryant and this hateful legislation. Their motto for the protest is “Ya’ll Means Ya’ll.”

Martin Todd Allen is one of the people spearheading the protest. 

“5000 people are expected to attend this Mississippi-New York picnic in Central Park,” he tells Queerty in an e-mail. “And the few of us cannot do this without the help New York friends and LGBTQ allies.”

Allen is asking any one in New York who may be free to help distribute stickers to join them at the picnicon on June 14th from noon to 6 p.m.

We can’t help but wonder what Cher, who will be performing in NYC at the end of the summer, thinks about Governor Phil Bryant bringing his hate show to the Big Apple…

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/32YMr0rzJ2s/on-the-eve-of-gay-pride-homophobic-mississippi-governor-phil-bryant-plans-on-giving-speech-in-nyc-20140612

Tourist Captures Video of Louisiana Man Feeding Marshmallows to Alligators with His Mouth: VIDEO

Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2014/06/gators.html

‘Card’ tricks

Beau Willimon on the set of ‘House of Cards’ with actress Robin Wright. (Photo courtesy Netflix)

‘An Evening With Beau Willimon’

Smithsonian Associates

A discussion with David Carr of the New York Times

National Museum of Natural History

10th and Constitution, N.W.

$30 ($25 for Associates members)

Thursday at 6:45 p.m.

smithsonianassociates.org

Beau Willimon, the creator/writer/executive producer behind the hit Netflix series “House of Cards” will be in Washington — the show’s setting — next week for an appearance with the New York Times’ David Carr at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

On location in Baltimore where he and the crew are gearing up to film the third season, Willimon took a few minutes to talk about his characters, how far ahead he plans the show and why issues like sexual orientation probably don’t cross the minds of his lead characters, President Francis “Frank” Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and First Lady Claire Underwood (Robin Wright). His comments have been slightly edited for length.

WASHINGTON BLADE: You’ve said before the show (entire seasons of which are delivered at one time) works equally as well if somebody wants to “binge watch” or watch an episode at a time. Watching old serials like “Dallas” or “Dynasty” now on DVD, it’s so obvious the producers got a lot of mileage out of making the audience squirm and wait. What impact does the removal of that factor have on the show?

BEAU WILLIMON: The times they are a changing, for sure. But this began quite some time ago. As soon as box sets, DVR and On Demand came out, people began experiencing shows in binge-like fashion even if that term hadn’t yet been coined. I remember watching several seasons of “The Sopranos” and “Deadwood” like that. Even shows that were released week to week, a lot of people like myself and others experienced them several seasons at a time or you might watch a whole season over the course of days instead of weeks. I think those shows absolutely work if you watch them on a binge and Netflix has given people an opportunity to choose for themselves. There’s no requirement to watch them in a binge and a lot of people don’t. It’s just putting the experience in the hand of the viewer from day one.

BLADE: But does the fact that that’s even a possibility affect your pacing?

WILLIMON: No, because it has to be able to work both ways. A good story is a good story. We always thought of the first season as a 13-hour movie more than anything else. We had specific episodes that had a beginning, middle and end, but it’s really more like chapters of a book. If you’re reading a book, nobody tells you how much you should read in any given sitting. So we took that approach and I think it works.

BLADE: How has D.C. been to work with when you need establishing shots and that sort of thing?

WILLIMON: Great. Everyone in the film and television commission in Washington goes out of their way to help us out. There are a lot of security restrictions and rightly so since 9-11. It’s not as easy to film in D.C. as it may have been 20 years ago, but that’s the world we live in.

BLADE: “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner told Rolling Stone recently that he had a 10-minute conversation with Jon Hamm before they started shooting and told him the whole story of Don Draper, how it ends and everything. I’m not asking for specifics, but do you have “House of Cards” that planned out? Do you know how it ends?

WILLIMON: I don’t know if the conversation between Jon and Matthew encapsulated the entire series. Maybe it did. If that’s the case, Matthew had a very grand vision in mind. I always knew where the second season would end and I knew a lot of the big things that would happen along the way. I had conversations with Kevin and Robin and a number of the cast about where their characters were heading and the general direction of the story and where they would end up by the end of season two. I think it’s a good idea to give the actors as much information as possible. And I often made changes to the story based on what I was seeing in front of the camera and due to the fact that sometimes better ideas bubble forth in your head midway through the season. I also rely a lot on the discussions I have with the actors who, at a certain point, start to know the characters as well as the writer does. That dialogue feeds into the scripts we’re working on. Makes them richer, deeper, more complex. So I encourage that sort of collaboration.

BLADE: What would be an ideal number of seasons for you?

WILLIMON: I’m just tackling one season at a time. We’re at a day and age in television where people have come to expect a satisfying conclusion to a series and we definitely will aim for that with “House of Cards.” But as to the exact number of seasons, I don’t know yet.

BLADE: If backed into a corner, do you think Frank or Claire might push each other under the bus? They have an interesting marriage but it seems like self-preservation might trump all.

WILLIMON: You’re very sneaky in trying to get me to talk about upcoming seasons (laughs). One of the first things I established was that I wanted the show to be about marriage as much as anything else. Their marriage is certainly very unconventional. It doesn’t abide by a lot of the rules that a more traditional marriage does, but it works for them and they make each other stronger in the process. They do have their conflicts and they rub each other the wrong way and sometimes they’re a liability to each other, but so far they’ve always found a way around that and come out stronger in the process. As to how it will evolve, there’s only one way to find out.

BLADE: Their three-way with Meechum has generated a lot of fan discussion. What kind of dramatic purpose did it serve that they had a three-way with a man as opposed to a woman?

WILLIMON: Well yeah, sure. I think we should go back to the episode in season one where Frank says it best — I’m paraphrasing — but he essentially says that when he’s attracted to someone or something, he goes for it. He has a large appetite and he isn’t one to traffic in labels. He finds them limiting. A lot of people have asked me if Francis is gay, is he bi, is he pansexual? Is he any number of terms? And I don’t think Francis himself would have much patience for that conversation. His appetite is vast and we see him in all sorts of relationships. Some are purely transactional, some are based on love and respect as his marriage proves, and others are somewhere in between. In terms of the threesome between Claire, Francis and Meechum, what we were going after there was seeing a side of Francis and Claire that we don’t often get to see. They are human begins after all. They have desires and whims just like anyone else and they aren’t just always pure political calculations. Sometimes they have a few drinks and the circumstances might align in a way that the impulses take over. … I don’t think they’d ever be sloppy about it, but because they feel safe with him, that opens up possibilities. And one of the things I’m most proud of is that they don’t make much of a big deal out of it. The next day it’s back to business as usual. … That night was different than other nights, but it doesn’t mean the world was turned upside down and that’s fine. If we had made a big deal out of it, I think it would have been untrue to their characters and trying to place an accent on a syllable that didn’t deserve it.

BLADE: Are you straight?

WILLIMON: Yes. I mean if you’re going to use labels, I guess I would identify as straight.

BLADE: I’m intrigued that with all the technology available, you block out seasons with grids on dry erase boards. That’s so wonderfully old school.

WILLIMON: Well, we use Google docs and stuff like that too, but there’s still something to be said for having a big board in front of everyone on a wall where we can all see it. Throw something up, erase it. I guess you could do that with some sort of massive touch screen, but we do just fine with a dry erase board, some markers and a cork board with index cards. It all ends up in our Google docs and digital formats at some point.

BLADE: Tell us a little about the documentary you’re planning on Westerly Windina, the transgender Australian woman formerly known as pro surfer Peter Drouyn.

WILLIMON: I have a small production company called Westwood Productions with my producing partner, Jordan Tappis. He was a former pro world surfer so he’s very looped into the surfing community. He’s tight with a journalist named Jamie Brisick who has been writing about surfing for years. And Jamie got wind of Westerly’s story. Peter Drouyn was a hero to so many in surfing in the ‘60s and ‘70s, a true iconoclast. … He sort of fell off the face of the earth and Jamie wondered whatever happened to Peter Drouyn. And what he discovered was that Peter had fully realized herself as Westerly Windina and, of course, his curiosity took over. He began to interview her, to write about her and they eventually wrote a book. He approached Jordan and said, “I think we should do a documentary.” … It’s been quite a journey. Since we began filming, she did her operation and is fully a woman now physically. And the journey continues.

BLADE: With President Obama — and no disrespect meant to his work ethic or what he’s accomplished — but it felt to me like there was an inevitability to his presidency. That the planets had aligned in such a way for that to happen exactly when it did. Frank and Claire on “House of Cards” operate with an m.o. that for them to rise, others must go down. Is that an ethos you think works in the real world?

WILLIMON: Yes and no. Frank and Claire are an extreme version of power in Washington. They have no discernible ideology. Maybe Claire does on some issues a bit more than Frank does, but at the end of the day, they’re pursuing power for powers’ sake. I think most people who get into politics get into it for the right reasons. They want to serve their country, they want to make the world a better place. And yet the higher up the ladder you get and the more power you yield, you’re faced with all sorts of ethical choices and you have to make compromises for the sake of political expediency that might contradict deeply held beliefs. These ethical choices and contradictions erode your beliefs. In Francis and Claire, we have people who believe they’ve liberated themselves from such beliefs. They see ideology as quicksand that gives you no opportunity to navigate, to be flexible, to adapt. To a certain degree, I think that makes political sense. When you see, whether it’s the far right or the far left, people who are completely intransigent, then all you get is gridlock. The nature of politics is compromise.

Beau Willimon is slated for an appearance next week at the Museum of Natural History. (Photo courtesy PMK-BNC)

Joey DiGuglielmo

‘Card’ tricks

Ellen DeGeneres Covers Katy Perry's 'Birthday' Without Singing A Single Note
Thanks to the clever editors over at Baracksdubs, we all have a pretty good idea of what President Obama would sound like if he were a pop singer.

Their latest work, however, passes the musical spotlight over to another notable personality: Ellen DeGeneres!

Watch above as Ellen performs a rendition of Katy Perry’s hit song “Birthday” without having to sing a single note.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/ellen-degeneres-katy-perry-birthday-baracksdubs_n_5484628.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

James Arthur dropped from Simon Cowell’s label after anti-gay rant

It is now confirmed that the X Factor winner will no longer release any music under the Syco label

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joem

www.gaystarnews.com/article/james-arthur-dropped-simon-cowells-label-after-anti-gay-rant120614

Hallmark Releases First-Ever Gay Father’s Day Card

Hallmark’s doing a lovely job of celebrating Pride Month: in addition to releasing some cute rainbowy animations, they just put out their first-ever two-dad Father’s Day card.

They’re the work of Kylie Wu, who writes, “I’m so proud to be the artist involved in making the first ever same-sex Hallmark eCard featuring two gay dads. And I’m proud of Hallmark for celebrating people’s differences! It doesn’t matter who’s in it, LOVE makes a family.”

It’s been a long time coming. Hallmark only started offering wedding cards for gay couples in 2008 (!) and was the target of a petition last year. Kristiana Johnson set up a Change.org petition, asking the company to provide Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards for folks who were raised by LGBT parents.

At the time, Hallmark said they didn’t have any plans to do so (!!) and that if you wanted to send a card to your gay parents, you’d just have to buy a blank card and write it yourself. (!!!)

That was the same year that President Obama invited two gay dads to the White House for a Father’s Day celebration.

But now, finally, Hallmark is getting with the times. They don’t have a physical card just yet; this is online-only. But maybe before the decade is out they’ll get around to updating their messages.

Father’s Day is this Sunday, the 16th, by the way. Don’t let it slip by without at least a call home to dad!

matt baume

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/ZDqiG0dhfmk/hallmark-releases-first-ever-gay-fathers-day-card-20140612

Lambda Legal Files Discrimination Complaint Against Restaurant for 'Gay Bitches' Receipt

Julian Ward

www.towleroad.com/2014/06/lambda-legal-launches-complaint-against-restaurant-for-anti-gay-slur.html

‘Dog Day’ docs

A still from ‘The Dog,’ a documentary that explores the life of John Wojtowicz, portrayed by Al Painco in the 1975 film ‘Dog Day Afternoon.’ (Photo courtesy AFI Docs)

The inspiring true story behind “Dog Day Afternoon,” a look at Greg Louganis’ life now, a con man who marries his partner in Washington — all are explored in documentaries slated for AFI Docs in the coming days.

This annual documentary film festival starts Wednesday and runs through June 22 at various venues in the D.C. area with screenings of several LGBT-themed films. Individual ticket prices range from $11-14. Tickets for the opening night screening and reception are $75.

The documentary film festival will screen 50 feature films and 21 short films. Four films are world premieres, two U.S. premieres and several East Coast premieres. The five-day festival is a popular event in the D.C. area with approximately 19,000 attendees last year. Full details on tickets, screen times and more are at afi.com/afidocs.

One of these 50 feature films screening is “The Dog,” directed by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren. The piece delves into the true events of the classic 1975 film “Dog Day Afternoon,” which tells the story of John Wojtowicz, a man who robs a bank to pay for his partner’s sexual reassignment surgery.

The documentary interviews the real-life John Wojtowicz, played by Al Pacino in the 1975 film, and uses archival footage to capture New York City’s LGBT liberation movement of the 1970s. It screens Thursday at 3:45 p.m. and June 22 at 9 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre (8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, Md.).

“We call this film a fucked up Forrest Gump story,” Berg says. “Wojtowicz is even more outrageous than the character Al Pacino played.”

Berg and Keraundren believe the documentary both examines Wojtowicz as a person and looks at America’s culture in the 1960s and 1970s in a different way.

“We truly unearthed footage that no one had seen,” Keraundren says. “We wanted to put this story in context. What we found was extraordinary.”

Berg and Keraundren say they didn’t begin making the documentary with a particular topic in mind. However, after meeting Wojtowicz in person they realized they had found something special.

“He was larger than life the second we met him,” Keraundren says. “The human aspect drew us in. It spoke to us and we thought it would speak to other people.”

Andrea Passafiume, festival programmer, thinks documentaries speak to people because of the human aspect.

“Truth is stranger than fiction,” Passafiume says. “It’s simple, compelling storytelling. Documentaries aren’t filled with special effects and CGI storytelling. It’s a simple human moment.”

“Back on Board,” another film on the schedule, tells the story of Olympic athlete Greg Louganis, the first male athlete to win diving events in consecutive Olympic games. Along with his Olympic career, Louganis is also gay and the film chronicles his private life, including his marriage to his partner. The film screens June 20 at 4:45 p.m. in the Portrait Gallery (8th and F streets, N.W.) and June 21 at 1:45 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre.

“An Honest Liar” documents illusionist James “The Amazin” Randi and how he mastered the art of illusion to entertain audiences and now uses his knowledge to expose con artists and psychics. The film also follows Randi as he marries his longtime partner in Washington. It screens June 20 at 4:30 p.m. in Goethe-Institut (812 7th St., N.W.) and June 21 at 9:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre.

Having a group of LGBT-themed documentaries to screen is something Passafiume says she likes to include.

“It makes me happy to have some LGBT films. I look at the program and say, ’Is this balanced?’ But there are a couple films where it’s not the primary theme.”

“112 Weddings” is one such film. It follows a filmmaker as he checks in with various married couples whose weddings he filmed over the years. One couple is lesbian.

Passafiume says films aren’t chosen specifically because they need to have a certain number of types or subjects in one category. She says thought-provoking and entertaining are the key elements she looks for.

“We select anything that has a way of telling a story in a different way that we haven’t heard before,” Passafiume says. “Marriage equality is a very topical thing. Greg (Louganis) has done incredible things as an athlete. But what happens after that?”

Berg says documentaries offer something that narrative film doesn’t — storytelling that’s real and hasn’t been dramatized.

“There are some things you just can’t make up.”

Mariah Cooper

‘Dog Day’ docs