Megan Ellison Saves Iconic L.A. Video Store
A last-minute contribution from the bisexual producer saved Vidiots in Santa Monica from closing.
Daniel Reynolds
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/02/01/megan-ellison-saves-iconic-la-video-store
Category Archives: NEWS
17 Ways To Age-Proof Your Brain
17 Ways To Age-Proof Your Brain
By Amanda Gardner
What’s good for your body is good for your brain. That means eating a balanced diet with lots of fruits and veggies and not much sugar, saturated fat or alcohol, as well as getting enough exercise and sleeping about eight hours a night. But evidence is accumulating that a whole host of other activities can help keep our brains young even as we advance in chronological age. There is no one magic activity that you need to take on, but trying a handful of the following will help.
More from Health.com:
12 Unexpected Things that Mess With Your Memory
12 Bad Habits For Mental Health
17 Ways to Age-Proof Your Brain originally appeared on Health.com
HRC Marks Black History Month
HRC Marks Black History Month
February is Black History Month, a time that brings to mind the legendary members of the LGBT community who’ve helped push our movement forward.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-marks-black-history-month?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Debunking The Myth of Black Homophobia
Debunking The Myth of Black Homophobia
In a thoughtful essay penned for Complex, writer Michael Arceneaux takes to task the problematic (and increasingly disproven) idea of the black community as the “boogeyman of homophobia.”
“Most of the people who have given me grief about my sexuality have been black like me, though I’ve been around mostly black people my entire life,” he writes. “It’s more about geographic and socioeconomic status, not inherent biases.”
“To that end, my individual experiences do not speak for the collective. It’s dangerous to use anecdotes to diagnosis a community of its purported ills. Never forget that there is a world beyond yours.”
Fox’s new musical drama ‘Empire’ is doing work to showcase the complex relationships that exist between black parents and their queer children, Arceneaux writes. Certain aspects of the show’s plot, however, reinforce stereotypical notions of a homogenous anti-gay bias that have come to dominate many gay peoples’ conceptualization of black people.
Arceneaux points in particular to the gay community’s impulsive reflex to blame the black community for supporting anti-gay legislation while simultaneously ignoring instances where black voters supported legal pushes for equality.
That same flawed logic of ignoring truths borne out of statistical analysis can be connected to the sexual stigmatization of black and Latino men, who are often singled out in discussions of HIV transmission rates. Cultural intolerance is typically presented as the reason as to why populations of poor, queer men of color are at particular risk for HIV and.
The same is often attributed to trans people of color, who disproportionately experience violence and are at higher risk for murder. In reality these populations suffer not because of culture-wide oppression, but rather because of a fundamental lack of targeting by state-backed health and wellness initiatives.
“Blacks are not the X-Men of anti-gay bigotry. We don’t have some superior level of homophobia compared to other groups…I’m open to talking about homophobia within the black community, but the conversation will go no where if it is prefaced with the notion that black folks are more homophobic than everyone else.”
Check out the full Complex article here.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
www.towleroad.com/2015/02/debunking-the-myth-of-black-homophobia.html
These Sexy NFL Studs Make Us Wanna Go Deep
These Sexy NFL Studs Make Us Wanna Go Deep
Superbowl Sunday is officially upon us. Time to break out the beer and gourmet nachos and prepare get serious when Katy Perry belts it out during the halftime show. After Queen Madonna in 2012, Beyonce in 2013, and Bruno Mars in 2014, Ms. Perry has big shoes to fill. Is she up for the challenge? We’ll see.
Then, of course, there’s the football game. (Oh yeah, that.) This year’s main event will be a standoff between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. We don’t know nothin’ about either team but that’s what Instagram is for. To help get you get in spirit, we’ve done a roundup of some of the hottest NFL stars today. We included a lot of players who never made it to the Super Bowl because in our eyes, well, they appeal to our eyes. In fact, only one made it this year, QT Tom Brady (he plays for the patriots.)
Of course, with so much talent and so much sexiness, our list of faves is constantly changing. Please suggest your own in comments.
Scroll down to see NFL heartthrobs…
The San Francisco 49er’s quarterback captured our attention (and our hearts) when he posed completely naked for ESPN’s Body Issue in 2013 and we haven’t looked away since.
The Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, no stranger to gay rumors, reminds us of sexy love child of Jake Gyllenhaal Colin Farrell.
Victor Cruz
How can you not find the New York Giants’ wide receiver cute? He’s got those dreamy eyes, that adorable gap between his front teeth, and he’s always smiling. (And let’s not forget that he knows how to rock a sombrero.)
Drew Brees
Okay, okay. So he may not be conventionally attractive, but the New Orleans Saints’ quarterback is a great family man and a real class act and he boasts a huge fan following, so we’re including him on our list.
The 6’4, 225-pound All-American New England Patriots’ quarterback knows just how to get our man juices flowing as demonstrated by this shot from his GQ photo spread. Plus, people say he can throw.
Eli Manning
There’s something kind of adorkable about 34-year-old Eli Manning. And we’re not the only ones who feel this way. There’s an entire Tumblr page called Eli Manning is Sexy dedicated exclusively to celebrating the New York Giants’ quarterback.
The 6’0, 203-pound Detroit Lions’ running back is so darn cute we almost forgive him for dating Kim Kardashian.
Kenny Vacarro
Last, but certainly not least, is Kenny Vacarro. Between his hot, tatted up body, boyish face, and mad playing skills on the field, the 23-year-old New Orleans Saints’ safety is the perfect recipe for delicious.
Related stories:
This Fake Super Bowl Ad Quickly Evolves Into A Locker Room Fantasy
Trending In Underwear: Football Inspired Jocks
PHOTOS: Thirteen Football Studs To Look Out For On Super Bowl Sunday
Graham Gremore
Shape Up! Here’s How To Do The Perfect Pushup
Shape Up! Here’s How To Do The Perfect Pushup
Push and pull. In life, we are constantly going through these two motions. As far as fitness is concerned, the same rules apply. Today, we are deconstructing the pushup in order to achieve perfect form.
For perfect pushup form, there are three steps. We start with a basic plank. Hold yourself in plank position, on your forearms and toes. Your elbows are aligned directly underneath your shoulders, and your hips are held and maintained at the same height as your head. Engage your glutes, thighs and stomach. The trick is, work to hold these three parts “ON” as you breathe for three rounds of 60 seconds. Your muscles will want to flip “OFF” with each exhale. Maintain engagement throughout your inhales and exhales.
Step two to achieving perfect pushup form is mastering the “row.” Grab a resistance band and hook it around anything stable enough to withstand you pulling on it, finding equal tension in each side of the band. Facing toward your point of attachment, set your feet at shoulder width and begin with your elbows extended. Execute the “row”/pull motion by drawing your elbows back as far as you can (at belly button height) while simultaneously activating the muscles in your back and core. Make sure you’re not overcompensating with your biceps or deltoids here… so if it means slowing down the tempo of your rows in order to achieve true activation of the muscles in your back, then do it.
Step three to achieving perfect form is doing the pushup itself. We start with a perfect knee pushup – hands aligned directly underneath the shoulders, creating a “diamond” shape with your hands by very slightly turning out the fingers. Your hips are tucked forward and your core is engaged. Inhale as you lower your hips and chest to the floor while keeping your elbows close to the side of your body. Exhale and push all the way back to straight elbows. If this version is too easy, do the same thing on your feet instead of your knees.
The trick is to not forget the components of steps one and two. In step one we focused on core stability, in step two we focused on back strength. These two elements are vital for a proper pushup, so here’s your cue – as you inhale and lower down into your pushup, work to engage your core and back. Then as your exhale, you will push through your palms and back to the top. By engaging your back and core strength into your downward pushup, you will spare your deltoids from burning out prematurely, and will be able develop increased total body strength.
So the next time you drop and give 20, remember that the “pull” is just as important as the “push” in achieving the perfect pushup.
The Phoenix Effect, a metabolic bootcamp that gets you in shape fast, is offered exclusively at Mansion Fitness, 7914 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.
Jeremy Kinser
feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/TdTMUHe3mMA/shape-up-heres-how-to-do-the-perfect-pushup-20150201
A Beefcake Bedtime Story Reading to Help Soothe Your Saturday Night: VIDEO
A Beefcake Bedtime Story Reading to Help Soothe Your Saturday Night: VIDEO
Spending your Saturday night in? Have these gorgeous hunks read you an internet-inspired bedtime story, but be warned – you might be more horny than sleepy by the end of the video.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…
Kyler Geoffroy
Anti-Gay, Anti-Mormon Hate Group Sponsors Reince Priebus' RNC Israel Trip
Anti-Gay, Anti-Mormon Hate Group Sponsors Reince Priebus' RNC Israel Trip
If the National Republican Party had embraced the Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party, would mainstream media pick up the story? Probably.
The American Family Association, sponsor of the Republican National Committee’s upcoming Israel trip (organized and led by pastor David Lane), is no less extreme and has been venting its virulently hateful anti-LGBT, nativist, religious supremacist, and arguably racist rhetoric across America’s airwaves for years. Hate speech from the AFA’s nationally syndicated radio show targets a wide range of minorities: LGBT citizens, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Native-Americans, Muslim-Americans, Muslims (generally), Mormons, Jews, and more.
And this is not a new issue: Time magazine broke the news of the RNC Israel trip (and, more to the point, who was sponsoring it) over six weeks ago, on December 8, 2014. So mainstream media has had ample advance notice.
But so far the main American non-LGBT media venue covering the scandal [see 1, 2] has been MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show.
“They were making an overt argument that Mitt Romney should not be elected to public office in this country specifically because of his religion… the Republican Party is now explicitly embracing these guys. Not just people who are related to people who are related to these guys. I mean, the ‘I won’t vote for Mitt Romney because of his religion’ guy [pastor David Lane] is the same guy, the exact person who is taking Reince Priebus and the Republican Party leadership on this trip [to Israel] the day after tomorrow.” – MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, January 29, 2015, characterizing statements from Bryan Fischer, David Lane, and the American Family Association, made during the 2012 presidential election, concerning the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
The “serious” heavyweights – the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, not to mention broadcast media (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and so on) – have thus far opted to not cover the story, which has also been covered by two major Israeli media outlets (by Haaretz and the Times of Israel), by several American Jewish outlets including the Daily Jewish Forward, and extensively in LGBT media.
The scandal
On Saturday, 60-odd Republicans from the Republican National Committee (about 1/3 of the RNC), headed by Reince Priebus, will fly to Israel for a nine day all-expenses paid trip. Financially sponsoring the trip is the American Family Association and leading it is activist pastor David Lane, whose “Renewal Project” that seeks to bring pastors into politics is bankrolled by the AFA.
Among all U.S. media sectors, LGBT media has covered this story most heavily, and for good reason; it would not be a stretch to characterize the American Family Association as leading the vanguard of anti-gay hate speech in American today:
How anti-gay is the American Family Association ? Longtime AFA Director of Issue Analysis Bryan Fischer, star of the AFA’s national radio show, is notorious for his recycling of Scott Lively’s claims that Adolf Hitler and most of the top leadership of Hitler’s Nazi movement were gay and so, by implication, homosexuality caused World War Two and the Holocaust.
While the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified the AFA as a hate group, for years People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch has been documenting a wide range of hate speech from Bryan Fischer and the AFA. Not just anti-LGBT hate speech.
Fischer has claimed that believers of non-Christian faiths (e.g. Muslims and Jews) do not have a First Amendment right to freely practice their faiths, stated that young African-American women “rut like rabbits”, and cited the Bible as justification for the violent ethnic cleansing of Native Americans from their lands. Hispanics, claims Fischer, are “socialist by nature”.
This month, arguing that homosexuals should not be allowed to run for political office, Bryan Fischer declared, “It’s a form of sexual perversion and remember, we’re going to have to choose between the gay agenda and Christianity.” It’s not just LGBT citizens who should be excluded from office, per the AFA, but also Mormons, Mitt Romney included.
The AFA “fires” Bryan Fischer
Media attention on the RNC/AFA scandal turned first to the hate speech of Bryan Fischer; and after Rachel Maddow’s first MSNBC treatment of the scandal, on January 28 , 2015, the American Family Association released a statement that Bryan Fischer was no longer the AFA’s “Director of Issues Analysis.”
AFA president Tim Wildmon suggested Fischer had been fired because of “the soundbite quotes, you know, the Hitler and homosexuality one…” But meanwhile, Fischer himself observed that the alleged firing or demotion was meaningless because his show on AFA radio, Bryan Fischer’s main national media platform for spreading his hate speech, would go on regardless.
Underscoring Fischer’s point was the AFA’s showcasing, simultaneous with its alleged “firing” of Fischer, of a Bryan Fischer op-ed on the front page of the American Family Association website. If Bryan Fischer was indeed no longer the AFA’s official spokesperson, evidence for the demotion was scarce to nonexistent.
And another figure was even more central to the story than Fischer who, after all, was not himself personally organizing and leading the RNC’s Israel junket. That honor falls to pastor David Lane, who helped organize Rick Perry’s 2011 The Response prayer rally and it’s recent clone, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s The Response prayer rally in early 2015.
Pastor David Lane
On Thursday night, in the January 29, 2015 segment of the MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow pivoted to Lane. As exhaustively documented by Bryan Tashman, with People For The American Way’s Right Wing Watch project, pastor Lane’s hateful and religious supremacist rhetoric has been no less extreme than Bryan Fischer’s.
Among Lane’s rhetorical firebombs showcased by Maddow was Lane’s endorsement of a 2012 statement from Texas Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress identifying Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion as a “cult.” In an email from pastor Lane obtained by the Daily Beast, Lane emphasized, “Getting out Dr. Jeffress [sic] message, juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false god of Mormonism, is very important in the larger scheme of things.” Lane continued, “Let me go on the record, I won’t vote for Mitt Romney as Republican nominee in 2012.” Asked Maddow,
Why is the National Republican Party sending its chairman, and all its national leadership, on a trip, led by that guy [Maddow gestured at a photo of pastor David Lane] who said he wanted to be on the record about the fact that he wouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney on religious grounds, because of Mitt Romney’s religion?
Citing another quote from pastor Lane, claiming that the United States was founded explicitly as a “Christian nation” and “for the advancement of the Christian faith”, Rachel Maddow posed the question,
What will it mean to the Republican Party, going forward, if they go on a trip, to Israel, with a group that advocates that America is by Christians and for Christians only, Christians exclusively?
The ramifications of such an embrace, between the RNC, the AFA, and pastor David Lane, are many.
What it means
The trip will likely strengthen already strong ties between Republicans, Israel’s Likud Party and, specifically, current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That could, in turn, strengthen Netanyahu’s hand in his perennial drive for heavier sanctions and/or military action against Iran. Coming shortly before a planned Netanyahu speech before the U.S. Congress, it is easy to see how the RNC’s Israel trip could further Netanyahu’s chances in the upcoming election in Israel.
On the domestic U.S. front, the implications are profound. Some in the Republican Party seek to rebrand and reshape the GOP, as more multi-racial and multi-ethnic, and tamp down the party’s historic anti-gay stance.
But Priebus’ trip stands to present to the party a grotesque fait accompli, by placing his authority as head of the RNC behind Lane and the AFA. In 2012, Reince Priebus himself was blessed and anointed, with the laying on of hands, by fellow “believers” in the radical stream of dominionist Christianity David Lane, Bryan Fischer, and the AFA represent. Since 2008 the ranks of national Republican figures “anointed” in similar ceremonies have included Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and others.
By embracing the American Family Association, and by extension its de facto spokesperson Bryan Fischer, Reince Priebus gives the GOP a veritable Father Coughlin reincarnate for our age, as well as a new de facto Republican prayer leader, a pastor whose naked assertions of Christian supremacy have included calls for believers to “Wage War To Restore a Christian America” through acts of Christian martyrdom that would force all Americans to either bow to Jesus or else “begin drinking holy blood”.
The Party of God
In a 2013 World Net Daily op-ed “Wage War To Restore a Christian America”, Lane, who has described himself as a “political operative and a mechanic” working “under the radar” to pull pastors into politics, called upon believers to sacrifice their lives in order to force Americans to either acknowledge Jesus as their supreme ruler or else “begin drinking holy blood.” Wrote pastor Lane,
“American Christianity has not done a good job of producing martyrs… Christians must risk martyrdom and force Babel to the crux where it has to decide either to acknowledge Jesus an imperator and the church as God’s imperium or to begin drinking holy blood.”
The same year, in 2013, Lane also predicted car bombings in major U.S. cities because of “homosexuals praying at the Inauguration [of Barack Obama]”.
Lane’s pastors rallies have regularly featured figures such as Wallbuilders head David Barton, who appears to endorse “biblical slavery” and has claimed the U.S. Constitution is based on the Bible.
In 2013 at an Iowa pastors rally, Lane and Barton helped lead public blessings of U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Also publicly blessed at that event, according to a special report from Christian Broadcasting Network reporter David Brody, was RNC head Reince Priebus: a photo posted by Brody shows Reince Priebus amidst a tight knot of men laying hands on Priebus, to bless and anoint the RNC head as one of God’s elect.
Other indications that RNC head Priebus holds a similar form of Christian supremacy as pastor David Lane include an October 2013 interview with CBN’s David Brody in which Priebus lashed out at a USA Today story which claimed the RNC head had urged “tolerance for views of gay marriage.” “[T]here’s only one sovereign God”, Priebus assured Brody.
Lane’s close ties to Reince Priebus and the Republican National Committee were also on display in a January 19, 2014 story from CBN reporter Brody. According to Brody, Renewal Project head David Lane had sent out an email, to 10,000 pastors, which featured a ringing endorsement of Priebus as a GOP leader who “the masses will follow” and who could lead the American evangelical right to political triumph :
“Reince Priebus is making a stand this coming Wednesday in Washington, DC…but let’s see this for what it is — Reince Preibus is moving the ball down the field.
30 years ago Ronald Reagan branded the Republican Party as the leader of limited government, lower taxes, deregulation of business, the attitude of ‘the-one-thing-government-can-do-for-me-is-leave-me-alone’ — which brought in the Reagan Democrats and Independents; Reagan then won reelection in 1984 with 49 States.
He then handed the ball to Bush 41′, who quickly lost, and then Bush 43′ needed the Supreme Court in 2000, and OH in 2004 to win the presidency.”
The Evangelical/Pro-Life Catholic constituency didn’t show in 2008 or 2012.
We need someone with principle, the masses will follow.
Will you — right now — stop and whisper a prayer for Reince Priebus please. He’s making a stand, which is what we are all commanded to do…
Reince Priebus — Salute. “
This strong mutual endorsement, of Lane by Priebus and Priebus by Lane, is striking. As I have documented, Lane works closely with the most radical faction of the religious right, the New Apostolic Reformation which, per the testimony of leaders who have helped create the contemporary American religious right, represents the American answer to Al Qaeda or the Taliban (or, some might suppose, ISIS).
Rachel Maddow’s rhetorical question can be answered, in short: while some are working to build a bigger, more inclusive GOP tent with room for LGBT people and other minorities, both ethnic and religious, Reince Priebus, David Lane, and the AFA are hard at work pulling the Republican Party in a radically different direction, towards a future as the party of Christian religious supremacy, and religious war: the Party of God.
What would it mean for such people to gain top-level control of a political party that controls the U.S. Congress and Senate, and over 2/3 of governorships and state legislatures in America today?
We may soon find out.
Gay Man Shares the Story of His 46-Year-Long Polyamorous Relationship: VIDEO
Gay Man Shares the Story of His 46-Year-Long Polyamorous Relationship: VIDEO
Meet Bob, a gay man who spent most of his adult life in a polyamorous relationship. In the video below, Don recounts the story of how he met his long-term partners Don and Keith.
In San Francisco, October 1966, Bob met his lover Don at a bar, using a timelessly classy pick-up line. Bob remembers approaching Don, who was from Long Island, saying: “Oh my god, it’s a real live New Yorker…How would you like to take a real live actress home and f–k huh?” The rest is history.
In 1971, Bob and Don met Keith, who was in the navy. The three decided to try a threesome, and 43 years later, the men were still together. Says Bob: “it sounds strange to other people, but we didn’t do it for other people, we did it for ourselves.” They all cooked, Bob cleaned, Keith did dishes. For hobbies, the men danced, went to clubs, bowled, and traveled.
2 years ago, Don died from cancer. Bob and Keith remain together; they’re now married. Bob adds he would not have made it through Don’s death without Keith.
Check out the video, and hear the story in Bob’s own words AFTER THE JUMP…
Jake Folsom
www.towleroad.com/2015/01/gay-man-talks-46-year-long-polyamorous-relationship-video.html
James Franco Opens Up About His 'Uncomfortable' Sex Scene With Michael Shannon
James Franco Opens Up About His 'Uncomfortable' Sex Scene With Michael Shannon
James Franco has a much-buzzed about sex scene with actors Charlie Carver and Zachary Quinto in the upcoming film “I Am Michael,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week. But not all the love scenes in the actor’s career have gone quite so smoothly. In a recent interview with Vulture, Franco opened up about his very different experience shooting the sex scene with Michael Shannon in 2011 film “The Broken Tower.”
It was very different. Michael Shannon is an awesome actor, one of the best actors of our generation, and a good friend of mine who prides himself on being the guy who will do anything, but he was uncomfortable in that scene. I had to take him to dinner before we shot it because he was so uncomfortable … he was like, ‘We’ve gotta talk about this.’ So I went in to New York, and as soon as we sat down, he was like, ‘Aw, now I feel stupid that I’m such a wimp. All right, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.’ Once we got to set, we set up the lights and everybody else cleared the room. It was my DP and focus-puller, and that was it. We did one take, and if you look closely at the scene, you’ll see that I am pulling his face close to me because he [refused to get close], and we’re supposed to be passionately making out. And he’s a strong dude! But in the end, it worked … half-assed love scenes are the worst. Straight or gay! So I was just doing my job on [‘I Am Michael’].
Speaking to HuffPost Live in a recent interview, Franco’s “I Am Michael” co-star Carver opened up about shooting the aforementioned scene with Franco and Quinto.
“I think a scene like that you have to have a sense of humor, you just go for it,” he said. “There are plenty of things that are more awkward to shoot than a love scene or a sex scene.”
“I Am Michael” follows the story of Michael Glatze, a gay rights activist who turned to Christianity and later renounced his homosexuality. As Variety notes, Glatze was profiled in 2011 by The New York Times.
For Franco’s full interview, head over to Vulture.
