Wisconsin to Finally Recognize Same-Sex Marriages from June
Wisconsin will finally recognize the more than 500 same-sex marriages that occurred earlier this year.
HRC.org
What’s Worse, Walking In On Your Mom Having Sex Or Her Walking In On You?
What’s Worse, Walking In On Your Mom Having Sex Or Her Walking In On You?
Well if your mother is anything like Danny’s in Jimmy Fowlie’s hilarious Go-go Boy Interrupted web series, it doesn’t seem to make one bit of difference.
In this episode, Danny deals with an all-too-real consequence of a blackout — waking up to a complete stranger in your bed.
Luckily his mom (hey, isn’t that also Charlie’s mom on It’s Always Sunny?) stomps in and breaks the tension with even more awkwardness.
Here’s the episode. You can find more Go-go here.
Dan Tracer
Gay Murder-Mystery, 'Kiss Me, Kill Me,' Starring 'Queer As Folk' Hunk Gale Harold Seeks Crowd Funding: VIDEO
Gay Murder-Mystery, 'Kiss Me, Kill Me,' Starring 'Queer As Folk' Hunk Gale Harold Seeks Crowd Funding: VIDEO
Ever confronted your cheating boyfriend, blacked out, and realized he’s been murdered? No? Good, let’s leave that to the movies. Luckily, director Casper Andreas (below left) and writer David Michael Barrett (below right) are in the process of bringing “Kiss Me, Kill Me,” an Agatha Christie-Alfred Hitchcock-inspired thriller to the silver screen.
Starring “Queer as Folk” stud Gale Harold and “As the World Turns'” Van Hansis, the film, set in West Hollywood, will explore the investigation of a murder, with themes of infidelity in the mix for good fun. Who did it? Will the perpetrator be caught? We may never know, if the project doesn’t meet its funding goal.
From the “Kiss Me, Kill Me” Kickstarter page:
This movie is a passion project. Every single person both before and behind the camera is involved because we believe in it. We are a small group, with a small film, and we want to make this movie for a small amount of money.
Our risks and challenges will be enormous. Even though that is true of every film production, at every budget, the smaller the budget the greater the challenges. Actors can drop out, locations can become unavailable. Pretty much anything that can go wrong in life can go wrong while making a small movie. But our team has a lot of experience in film production and overcoming the various obstacles that will inevitably arise.
In the Kickstarter promo video, Andreas makes the good point that Hollywood studios are not interested in backing this sort of LGBTQ project, therefore the cast and crew are relying on gay cinephiles around the world for support. Check out the crowd-funding page and the rest of the sure-to-be-fun cast, including “Rupaul’s Drag Race” alum Willam!
And watch the promo video, AFTER THE JUMP…
Joseph Ehrman-Dupre
Gente eu também sou LGBT!
Gente eu também sou LGBT!
Gente eu também sou LGBT!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKJqxXtAJ7U&feature=youtube_gdata
heteronormativity is for the apathetic
Time Names Transgender Teen One of 25 Most Influential
Time Names Transgender Teen One of 25 Most Influential
Jazz Jennings, 14, is one of the young people in the running in a vote to determine the single most influential teen.
Dawn Ennis
www.advocate.com/politics/media/2014/10/13/time-names-transgender-teen-one-25-most-influential
Pennsylvania Needs a Hate Crimes Law
Pennsylvania Needs a Hate Crimes Law
If ever there was a case that argued for hate crimes laws, it is the horrific gay bashing that occurred in Philadelphia on September 11. The suspects in the case have no known criminal records so will likely get off rather easy for a crime that will likely be treated as simple assault. But at least in suspect Kathryn Knott’s case, it may not be hard to detect a motive. Her stream of hate on social media expresses contempt for foreigners, other races, and gay people.
Perhaps most appalling is her apparent disdain for the injured people who came into the emergency room where she worked; she has rightfully been fired from her job. Even taking away the animus she allegedly voiced about anyone not white and straight and privileged, her tweets could serve as the basis for a book, How to Be a Spoiled Brat. I hope the Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is investigating whether Knott’s father, Karl Knott, the police chief of the Philadelphia suburb of Chalfont, really did use his badge to settle scores for her as she bragged on Twitter. If nothing else, her father is guilty of terrible parenting to have raised a kid so callous.
Yes, any assault of this severity is terrible, but when it is motivated solely because of someone’s status it becomes especially abhorrent. According to the court documents, as she hit one of the victims in the head, Knott allegedly called the men “faggots.” A hate crimes enhancement would change this crime from a felony of the second degree to a felony of the first degree, which could add years to a sentence that in all probability will be too light.
Crimes like this do not happen in a vacuum. The Catholic Church in Philadelphia pretended to be shocked that some of its former students would participate in such an attack. Given the lesson they teach that gays are sub-human, can they really be surprised that this is the result? Can Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput not realize that when he devalues the lives of gay people by opposing the addition of LGBT protections to hate crimes laws that his students take this as a lesson? The omission spoke volumes when Chaput issued a comment on the crime, he not only deflected all responsibility, but didn’t acknowledge why them men were attacked or even express any concern for or wish a speedy recovery to the victims. I doubt there is much value in a prayer from a man so lacking in “Christian” love, but he could have at least pledged to do so. This past week, ministers like Mike Huckabee spewed hate and intolerance at the ironically named “Value Voters Summit,” put on by the also ironically named “Family Research Council.” Is it really so surprising to religious leaders when gullible young people take the words of hate and translate them into hate crimes?
Further evidence of the dangers of spewing hate from the pulpit came in Minneapolis last weekend when a man shouting Bible verses opened fire in a gay bar. Luckily, the weapon involved was only a BB gun and no one was seriously injured.
Hate crimes laws are needed as long as there are people actively encouraging hate against minorities. No one is preaching, “Hey, go out and mug someone at random!” so as to encourage other assaults. Tragically, those attacks still happen, but no one is egging them on.
But there is hope. This week’s avalanche of states joining those with marriage equality has even the Mormon Church sounded conciliatory in its acceptance gay marriage in Utah. The church issued a statement that read in part:
“…respectful coexistence is possible with those with differing values. As far as the civil law is concerned, the courts have spoken. Church leaders will continue to encourage our people to be persons of good will toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or non-belief, and differences in sexual orientation.”
And there is yet more hope with the Catholic Church making a huge leap forward in acceptance of LGBT people and gay couples.
Brian Sims, the first openly gay person to serve in the Pennsylvania House, said that even though some in Harrisburg may oppose all hate crimes laws, they know how unpopular it would be to try to repeal the existing statutes that protect people on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. They just don’t want to protect the one group that may need it the most.
Almost exactly a year ago, just before I spoke at my old high school at the opposite end of Pennsylvania, a fellow alum of that school had been beaten along with his boyfriend after they left a gay bar in Pittsburgh. Their injuries add more weight to the argument for a law that when so many other persecuted groups are protected, people who are gay, lesbian, and transgender should be as well.
Brian Sims speaking.
Sims is co-sponsoring legislation to add LGBT protections to the Pennsylvania hate crimes law. This Philadelphia crime prompted State Senator Jim Ferlo, (D-Highland Park) to not only back the law, but to acknowledge that he is gay. And the bill may pass. The Pennsylvania House Judiciary committee overwhelming voted to send a more inclusive hate-crimes bill to the full House for a vote.
Until those who are different are targeted in equal numbers with those who are not, it is necessary to give them unequal protection. Fixing the law in Pennsylvania (and other states) would be a good start.
Walter G. Meyer, is the author of the novel Rounding Third, which deals with gay teens being bullied; he speaks around the country about bullying and LGBT inclusion.
Every Vote Counts in Louisiana
Every Vote Counts in Louisiana
With the 2014 elections just three weeks away, every vote counts in helping send a supporter of equality from Louisiana to the U.S. Senate.
HRC.org
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/every-vote-counts-in-louisiana?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Russia’s “Clean Air” Cured Gerard Depardieu’s Gayness, But It’ll Still Cause Bronchitis
Russia’s “Clean Air” Cured Gerard Depardieu’s Gayness, But It’ll Still Cause Bronchitis
Russia may not have the apocalyptic smog clouds of its Chinese neighbors to the south, but they’re not exactly breathing easy in Moscow.
The air in Russia is some of the most polluted in the world, accounting for 17 percent of childhood and 10 percent of adult diseases, as well as 41 percent of respiratory and 16 percent of endocrine diseases in the country.
But according to one audacious propagandist, Russia’s air is also uniquely able to dissolve the sins of homosexuality.
And since this story already has all the makings of a farce, it’s natural that famed French actor and director Gerard Depardieu has everything to do with it.
Depardieu was granted Russian citizenship in 2013 and has cultivated a little bromance with Vladdy Putin. We can only assume they get together to wrestle bears on the weekends.
Well you can imagine that Russian officials weren’t thrilled when Depardieu released his autobiography recently, in which he revels he was a gay child prostitute. Doesn’t quite fit with Putin’s alpha male bullshit.
But no bother, here’s what Vitaly Milonov, the homophobic politician who sponsored Russia’s ‘gay propaganda’ legislation, had to say about the Frenchman:
“It wasn’t easy for him in France. There, society is corrupted and doesn’t have any moral principles. I view Gérard’s book as sort of repentance, confession of old sins…Now that he breathed in the purifying air of Mordovia, all that filth left him.”
Gerard also claims he can drink 14 bottles of wine a day, so the smog may be the least of his problems.
via Pink News
Dan Tracer
Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing Open in ‘It’s Only a Play’ on Broadway: REVIEW
Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing Open in ‘It’s Only a Play’ on Broadway: REVIEW
BY NAVEEN KUMAR
Anyone who thinks theatre people are a bunch of eccentric, egotistical, navel-gazing kooks will find little to prove them wrong in the starry Broadway premiere of Terrence McNally’s 1982 comedy It’s Only a Play, which opened last week at the Schoenfeld Theatre. Directed by Jack O’Brien, the backstage farce meets drawing-room play takes up with a team of show folk anxiously awaiting reviews on opening night.
If you’re determined enough to snag tickets to the nearly-sold-out run, you’ll find its crowded marquee of big names, including Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally and F. Murray Abraham, preening around the opulent interior of an upper east side townhouse, wringing their hands over the trials of mounting a play and goosing the audience with an exhaustive litany of de rigueur insider jokes and name drops.
The bedroom of this lux abode (lavishly designed by Scott Pask) belongs to theatre producer Julia Budder (Ms. Mullally), and tonight it’s doubling as a coat room for the opening party of her first big Broadway venture. Peter (Mr. Broderick) wrote the play’s lead role for his friend James (Mr. Lane), who turned it down to continue his stint on a mediocre sitcom and has flown in to make sure he didn’t pass on a hit.
The play’s leading lady Virginia (Ms. Channing) is a pill-popping star out on parole (complete with security anklet) and its British director Frank (Rupert Grint) is prickly, bizarre and apparently brilliant. A predatory critic is also on hand to generally antagonize all (Mr. Abraham), and the coat check boy (an aspiring actor, of course, played by Micah Stock) is charged with the running gag of schlepping outerwear for increasingly outlandish guests (Shia LaBeouf! The cast of The Lion King! Lady Gaga!).
Lane and Channing are both a delight, incidentally as caricatures of their own profession. Mr. Lane’s animated ease and precise comic timing make light work of his many rapid-fire one-liners. Ms. Channing is spot on as the industry-weary grand dame, all sharp-tongue and taut-face.
With a mild southern drawl and coiffed wig, Ms. Mullally doesn’t cut quite as extreme a figure as some of Broadway’s more eccentric producers. And while charming, Mr. Broderick seems a bit dazed—even as a playwright facing reviews on opening night. He’s also saddled with thanklessly delivering McNally’s sentimental odes to the art form, the sincerity of which seem stodgy and out of place.
In updating the original script for this production, McNally has packed it to the gills with jabs and winks aimed at celebrities big and small—with audiences invited to listen in on the fun (show people sh*t talking behind the scenes!). But like most opening night parties this one is relatively uneventful, aside from people waiting around for reviews to come in and reacting when they do. The rest of the play is taken up with the artists’ neuroses (at their most stereotypical) and these often backhanded zingers.
Much of McNally’s humor is low-hanging fruit (spoiler alert: the cast takes a group selfie), and much of the story (such as it is) gets buried in it. Though often funny, the players in McNally’s satire are gleefully narcissistic—and no more sympathetic than the critics they delight in vilifying. The play (like the play within the play) is obsessed with its own critical reception, though it’s hardly clear why when the names above its title are enough to ensure box office gold.
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James Earl Jones and Rose Byrne Open in ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ on Broadway: REVIEW
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar (photos: joan marcus)
Naveen Kumar
