Nick Jonas gives video 'tutorial' on how to achieve the perfect crotch grab
Singer-actor says one requirement is ‘a willingness to do anything’
gregh
www.gaystarnews.com/article/nick-jonas-gives-video-tutorial-how-achieve-perfect-crotch-grab051114
All posts by GayFriendschat.com
Olympic Rower Robbie Manson Shares His Inspiring Coming Out Story
Olympic Rower Robbie Manson Shares His Inspiring Coming Out Story
“I started rowing when I was 16,” Robbie Manson (pictured) writes in a new essay published on OutSports. “Who’s going to suspect that I’m gay if I’m a rower, right?”
For years, the Olympic rower for New Zealand struggled with accepting his sexual orientation.
“Deep down I was terrified of anyone finding out that I was gay, especially my teammates,” Manson continues. “I seriously thought that if anyone found out I wouldn’t be able to row anymore. The thought of coming out, in my mind, felt so limiting and terrifying.”
Manson says he feared seeming “inadequate” to others.
“In a strange way, I looked down on other people who were gay, and to a degree felt sorry for them, thinking to be gay was to be ‘less than,’” he writes. “I knew I was gay too, and I hated myself because of it. I would get quite depressed about.”
Until, he says, he realized: “It was all in my head.”
Throughout his teens, he grappled with conflicting feelings about who he was and who he was supposed to be.
“When I was 19,” he writes, “I knew I was attracted to guys, but I still didn’t want to admit it to myself. I thought that I could just deny those feelings and be straight.”
Then something surprising happened. Mason’s older brother, Karl, who is also a rower, came out to him.
Robbie Manson and his brother, Karl.
“I was initially shocked,” he says. “But then I sat back and realized that there had been little clues all along — I had just been blindly caught up in my own struggle. But I was in no way ready to admit that I was gay to myself let alone come out to anyone else.”
Two years later, Manson decided he was finally ready. He came out to his brother when he was 21, and 10 months after that, he came out to his mother, who was very supportive. Over time, he found the courage to come out to even more people, including his friends and teammates.
“It was the night after being named to the NZ rowing team for the London Olympics that I came out to more people,” he writes. “I was ecstatic to be selected in the quad. Going to the Olympics was a dream of mine ever since watching the Sydney Games when I was 10 years old. We were having a few drinks and near the end of the night I had a heart-to-heart with two of my friends. In a very emotional state I told them that I was different, and then finally that I was gay.”
“Much to my surprise,” he continues, “everyone was fine with it. I didn’t have a single bad reaction, and most people were demonstrably supportive.”
After years of struggling with his sexual orientation, Manson says, he was finally able to accept himself for who he was.
“I feel like my perspective has changed so much and now I’m not only proud to be gay, but I’m glad that I am,” he writes. “I wouldn’t want to be any other way.”
“I have learned so much about myself and what it means to be gay over the past couple of years, and also what it means to be gay in a competitive sporting environment,” he concludes. “It’s how hard you’re prepared to work for something and your talent that determines what you can achieve, not your sexuality.”
Related stories:
College Athletes Are Leading The Way For The First Pro Star To Come Out
Notre Dame Tennis Star Matt Dooley’s Remarkable Journey To Self-Acceptance
College Swimmer Parker Camp Told Everyone He’s Gay. The Reaction He Got Will Inspire You
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Graham Gremore
Prominent LGBT Attorney From D.C. Killed In Dominican Republic
Prominent LGBT Attorney From D.C. Killed In Dominican Republic
The Washington Blade is reporting the shocking story of the Halloween-eve murder of a well-known and highly respected D.C. defense lawyer. Van Teasley, 55, headed to the Dominican Republic last Thursday for a long weekend and was found dead in his own apartment on October 30th, bound and gagged with no sign of forced entry. There have been no arrests or suspects in the case but local police in Santo Domingo are still investigating.
Back at home, Teasley often represented low-income and LGBT clients and was a regular presence at Washigton’s Superior Court building. Local affiliate NBC 4 did a piece on Teasley’s murder, saying that he visited his second home in Santo Domingo regularly, sometimes as often as once a month. His cousin speculated that Teasley may have grown “too comfortable” in a country known for religious intolerance when it comes to gay issues.
You can watch the full NBC 4 video AFTER THE JUMP…
(photo via Instagram)
Brian Sloan
ABC's of LGBT
ABC's of LGBT
Despite Conservative Opposition, Marriage Equality Headed to Missouri
10 Things I Learned From Having Brunch With Billie Jean King at the 2014 Out & Equal Workplace Summit
10 Things I Learned From Having Brunch With Billie Jean King at the 2014 Out & Equal Workplace Summit
I attended the 16th annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit at Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, California. There were more than 3,000 attendees from 30 different countries. Billie Jean King spoke at the brunch plenary on election day, Nov. 4. Here are 10 things I learned about Billie Jean King:
1. Billie Jean’s brother, Randy Moffitt, played for the San Francisco Giants.
2. She was brought up in Long Beach, California.
3. Elton John wrote the song “Philadelphia Freedom” about her.
4. She described herself as a “public park rat” who didn’t start playing tennis until she was 11 years old and in the fifth grade.
5. At age 12, after playing tennis for one year, she had an epiphany and realized that everything in tennis was literally white. She wanted to know, “Where is everybody else?”
6. She knew that tennis would be her platform and cultivated three values that people who have inner and outer success need: “One, relationships are everything; two, never stop learning, and learning how to learn; and three, be a problem solver.”
7. After being outed in 1981, she was involved in the first trial requesting “galimony.”
8. She says that she didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin until just 20 years ago, when she was 51.
9. She doesn’t think life is a marathon but “a series of sprints and breaks.”
10. She encouraged all to be active listeners, telling us we are influencers and should “be alert” and adding that we need more inclusion, not just diversity.
Peace, love, compassion, and blessings.
Dallas voters approve protections for LGBT city employees
Dallas voters approve protections for LGBT city employees
The vote is the first time a Texas city approved nondiscrimination language by the ballot
Jamesw
www.gaystarnews.com/article/dallas-voters-approve-protections-lgbt-city-employees051114
Radical Anti-LGBT Leader Elected to Colorado Legislature
Radical Anti-LGBT Leader Elected to Colorado Legislature
A radical anti-LGBT activist was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives yesterday.
HRC.org
Steve Grand Drops Something Other Than His Pants: Two New Tunes
Steve Grand Drops Something Other Than His Pants: Two New Tunes
Out country singer Steve Grand, who seems to have become just as famous for jumping naked into bodies of water as he has for making music — not that we’re complaining — has just dropped something other than his pants: two new songs.
Actually, one is new, the other is a remake. Again, no complaints.
Grand, who became an overnight sensation when his “All-American Boy” video (which featured him skinny dipping with former Fratmen model Nick Alan) went viral in July of 2013, has just blessed us with “Time,” a yearning romantic-sounding tune produced by Aaron Johnson, and a cover of Elton John’s 1974 hit “Bennie and the Jets.”
The Huffington Post reports that “Time” will appear on the 24-year-old musician and former underwear model’s upcoming album, for which he raised more than $114,000 in less than 24 hours on Kickstarter.
Listen to the tunes below. Watch Grand jump naked into Lake Superior as part of a fund-raising effort for the ALS foundation here.
Winston Gieseke
The Cast Of 'Looking' Leathers It Up For The Out100 – PHOTO
The Cast Of 'Looking' Leathers It Up For The Out100 – PHOTO
As part of Out Magazine‘s annual Out100 honors, out gay actors Jonathan Groff, Murray Bartlett and Russell Tovey of Looking channeled the first Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco circa 1984. The boys seemed to have formed quite a bond working on what Out named the TV show of the year:
Groff and his rowdy band of brothers — […] Raúl Castillo, Murray Bartlett, Frankie J. Alvarez, and Russell Tovey — taunt and tease and riff off each other like they’ve been playing dress-up together their entire lives. Without missing a beat, Alvarez dubs Groff’s impish attitude “hashtag chapswag,” and the nickname sticks. The show’s creators and many of the crew are queer, but you’d need a cheat sheet to remember who’s not actually gay (Castillo and Alvarez, if you must keep score).
Sean Mandell
www.towleroad.com/2014/11/the-cast-of-looking-leathers-it-up-for-the-out100-photo.html
