#98

a news compendium
with a gay bias
issue 98 | June 2011 | FREE

<<< Sebastian Sauve, Leebo Freeman and Nil Hoppenot, by Dimitris Theocharis. More mannequins later...

...But first, this week's good, bad and indifferent bits.


NORTH AMERICA & CANADA

>>> San Francisco's circumcision ban: Nipping freedom in the bud. (Towleroad)

||| Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Pentagon confirms Air Force discharge on April 29 – the first and only discharge since Obama signed a bill to repeal the law... (Metro Weekly)

...But there's more to this than meets the eye. Turns out our man in the air wanted it that way.

||| Memorial Day marks 70 years of discrimination against gay service members. (The New Civil Rights Movement)

<<< Fox News: Sesame Street pushing liberal gay agenda. "Sean Hannity hosts a bonkers segment on how Elmo and Big Bird are turning your children into homosexual Democrats." (Salon.com)

||| Obama administration debuts GBLT webpage... (The Advocate)

...And seeks to address the GBLT homeless teen crisis...

...Before topping it off with a Pride Proclamation for 2011.

||| Meet George and Farid. They've been together for 10 years, are expecting their first child, and they want to get married:


>>> Pastor slams Harlem Pride as an "abomination", and warns community to stay inside. (NY Daily News)

||| Trouble in paradise: Gay hate preacher Bernice King has resigned from Eddie Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, "only days after Long's settlement of four sexual misconduct lawsuits filed against him and his church by young men". Oh, shame...

||| Home Depot tells the American Family Association to take a hike over boycott threat.

<<< Saggers banned on Texas buses.

>>> Jake Boyer, an out student in Virginia, has been named prom queen.

||| No Republican attack on DC gay marriage law; repeal could be attached to must-pass legislation.

||| Same-Sex Marriage: The complete guide to refudiating the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) anti-gay lies. (The New Civil Rights Movement)

||| What has the so-called "Pro-Family" movement done for real families? (Falls Church News-Press)

>>> Gay exhibit installed at Dallas Holocaust Museum. (Dallas Voice)

<<< Mother pleads for help over unsolved 2010 murder of gay Buffalo man Christopher Rudow.

>>> CANADA: Gay artist Alvaro Orozco granted reprieve from deportation...

...And is later granted asylum after four years of trying to prove he's gay.

LATIN AMERICA

<<< CHILE: President Sebastian Pinera advises Congress to pass legislation to "protect and safeguard" the rights of all unmarried couples, regardless of sexuality.

||| JAMAICA: Swedish film crew documents homophobic mobs and corrupt cops.

||| BERMUDA: Homosexuality debate needs to evolve, says Government Senator Cromwell Shakir...

...But gay visitors - from cruise ship Norwegian Gem - are happy to be in Bermuda.

||| HAITI: The death toll from last year's earthquake was dramatically exaggerated, and was actually between 46,000 and 85,000, "far below the official figure of 316,000". (The Telegraph)

UNITED KINGDOM

>>> East-end "gay-free zone" stickers: choosing the right targets.

||| Renewed concern about the Government's Atos medical assessments. "At an Atos medical assessment, a friend of mine was submitted to a homophobic rant from a doctor." (The Guardian)

||| Chav: the vile word at the heart of fractured Britain. "Fostering the loathing of a feral underclass allows public resentment to be diverted from those above to those below." (The Guardian)

||| Immigration officials have turned HIV patients into prisoners. "NHS consultants say that the UK Border Agency's security measures have turned Hillingdon hospital into a prison." (The Guardian)

||| Fifty years on, Amnesty International sees more to be done for GBLT rights. (So So Gay)

EUROPE

||| IRELAND: Minister to launch new GBLT policies for schools. (Newstalk)

<<< Moscow Gay Pride: Meet Moscow's controversial gay rights leader Nikolai Alexeyev, who "has sparked controversy and made enemies in Russia's human rights community". (GlobalPost)

||| Moscow Gay Pride: UKGayNews live blog, minute-by-minute, packed with links, pictures and video.

||| Moscow Gay Pride: In pictures. (Gallery by Charles Meacham of the Walk with Pride Project.)

||| Moscow Gay Pride: Police collude with neo-Nazis; Mayor favoured neo-Nazis with protest permit – 18 gay campaigners arrested at Kremlin and City Hall (UKGayNews)

||| Moscow Gay Pride: Video of brutal attack on activists by rightwing thugs.

||| Moscow Gay Pride: Police break up Russian pride parade, in pictures. (canada.com)

||| Moscow Gay Pride: Two days later, France urges Moscow to respect human rights.

||| Moscow Gay Pride: US State Department voices concern over arrests.

||| Moscow Gay Pride: My personal account.

||| GERMANY: Catholic doctors' association offers homeopathic gay cure in the form of sugar pills.

||| GERMANY: Munich plans new memorial to the GBLT victims of the holocaust.

ASIA

>>> CHINA: Customs officials examine thousands of bottles of smuggled wine seized in Shenzhen.

||| INDIA: Gay sex became legal two years ago, but attitudes change slowly. "For most gay men in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, the law change has made little obvious difference, but they do seem to be louder and prouder." (The Guardian)

<<< AUSTRALIA: HIV prevention ads pulled after Christians complain...

...And are reinstated after uproar.

||| AUSTRALIA: Condemnation over plan to send unaccompanied children to Malaysia under refugee deal. (The Telegraph)

AFRICA

||| GBLT community cast as sacrificial lambs in Arab Spring?

||| SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's High Commissioner to Uganda Jon Qwelane fined for homophobic hate speech.

||| KENYA: The nomination of a pro-gay rights chief and deputy chief justice is extraordinary in a country where homosexuality is stigmatised. (The Guardian)

||| GHANA: Muslims petition government over "growing rate of homosexuals".

>>> 10-year-old boy scout Abdil-Salam Al-Birnawe directs traffic on a street in Benghazi, Libya. "Boy scouts are volunteering for the job as there has been a lack of traffic police officers since the political conflict in the country began." (PhotoBlog)

BODY & MIND

<<< 2(x)ist men's shapewear sees big bulge in sales. (NYPost.com)

||| New condom brand targets gay men with "with pull-down strips the company argues makes them easier and more accurate to put on".

||| AIDS at 30: Less safe sex in serious gay relationships. (UPI.com)

||| AIDS at 30: 30 years in, we are still learning from AIDS. (New York Times)

||| AIDS at 30: A tale of tragedy and hope. "Unless there is a game-changer like a vaccine, there probably will still be one million new infections a year in 2031." (FRANCE 24)

||| AIDS at 30: Hard pounding is gradually bringing AIDS under control. (The Economist)

||| AIDS at 30: How a red ribbon conquered the world.

>>> AIDS at 30: The Black AIDS Institute has released 30 Years Is Enuf: the History of the AIDS Epidemic in Black America, a report chronicling the history of HIV/AIDS in black America, "the response, medical breakthroughs and a roadmap for the future".


<<< AIDS at 30: Justin B. Terry-Smith: Only 1 year older than AIDS discovery; video news report featuring ka-os|theory friend Justin B. Terry-Smith.

||| AIDS at 30: AIDS claimed celebrity victims, but stars lead fight. (FRANCE 24)

||| AIDS at 30: Graying of AIDS: Older Americans at risk for HIV infection. (PhotoBlog)

||| AIDS at 30: In London, HIV services are being cut as infections rise.

||| It's the truth everyone really knows, but talks themselves out of belieiving so they can keep blabbing brainlessly on the go: Radiation from cell phones can cause cancer.

THE NATURAL WORLD


||| Above: This is Poyang Lake in China, and yes, that is grass you're seeing.

<<< SLOVENIA: Family adopts bear cub.

>>> INDONESIA: Meet the Suwardi family, who slaughter up to 30 dogs a day for their meat. Indonesians believe dog meat can "cure skin diseases and boost vitality".

<<< PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: Rare electric blue lobster caught.

||| Real life Jurassic Park? Boffins claim to restore extinct the quagga, a South African zebra.

>>> Animal pictures of the week (30 pictures). Left, ants carrying huge chilli peppers in Indonesia.

WEB & GADGETS

||| Last week, we heard how Google was giving up on its effort to digitise every newspaper and magazine ever printed. But in Britain, the British Library is pushing ahead with plans to digitise 40m news pages.

||| Google to abandon support for older browsers.

||| Microsoft unveils "radically different" Windows 8.

DESIGN

<<< French architects Stephane Maupin and Nicolas Hugon have designed this cute depot for rail staff, in Paris.

>>> In Prague, Czech architects EDIT! created this sexy staircase.

PRINT & VISUAL

||| Calling all writers! Keith Boykin is accepting submissions for For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide, an anthology publishing in early 2012.

||| Review: Carte Blanche, by Jeffery Deaver. "To write a new James Bond novel: dream job or poisoned chalice?" (The Guardian)

<<< Review: Island of Demons, by Nigel Barley, "a fictional account of the life of Walter Spies, a gay Russian-born German artist, choreographer, musician and natural historian, who moved to Yogyakarta and later Bali where he had left a profound influence on local painters and the evolution of the modern ketjak dance before he was arrested as part of a crackdown on homosexuals in 1938." (Fridae)

||| Review: City of Night, by John Rechy. (The Closet Professor)

>>> Interview: Simon Wheatley talks about his book Don't Call Me Urban! The Time of Grime.

||| New online survey to encourage diverse media representation. "If future archaeologists had only a copy of the Guardian, a recording of Desert Island Discs and a video of a BBC breakfast show, what would they think our society was like? Probably white, affluent and passively left-wing. Yet for better or for worse, the mythical society presented in media-land is a far cry from the daily lives of most people." (So So Gay)

<<< Sci-fi classics in 3D.

||| Our friend, blogger and author Taylor Siluwé, has been undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer. Like the trooper he is, he's been writing about it at SGL Café: Part Four, Part Five, Part Six.

<<< Is this a good organ donation logo? (copyranter)

>>> And the strangest paper shredder ads you'll ever see. (copyranter)

CINEMA

||| A website has been set up to commemorate actor and model Maurice Murrell, who passed away last week.

||| A Tribute to Maurice Murrell, with "memorable clips from Finding Me, bloopers and candid photos of the cast and crew with Maurice".

||| His friends - including Keyontyli Goffney - have also posted this hugely moving farewell video:


||| Noah's Arc creator Patrik-Ian Polk fails to secure funding for new black gay film The Skinny at Kickstarter. ka-os|theory wonders if Polk's notorious reputation as one of the biggest headaches in showbiz is putting off backers...?

<<< Here's a more interesting Kickstarter campaign: "I Am the Water, You Are the Sea tells the true story of two lovers: Alex, an American Peace Corps volunteer; and Ali, an Iranian Muslim. The two have been separated for more than 33 years."

||| Daniel Radcliffe awarded the Trevor Project's Hero Award for his work with the gay youth suicide prevention group.

>>> "I remember saying, 'What if we wear tube socks, and I'll go up on the wall, and you'll come from behind me.' And I said in the scene, 'Say my name,' and Michael says, 'Ben!' And I say, 'No! Say my Christian name,' and he whispers, 'Benjamin,' and that's when I came." Bradley Cooper recalls his gay sex scene in Hot Wet American Summer.

<<< What the world needs is more pictures of Wilson Cruz on a bridge, with his shirt off. Happily, everyone's favourite papi is happy to oblige.

||| The 2011 Seoul Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender/sexual Film Festival (SeLFF) opened its 10th celebration on Thursday, in Jongno, central Seoul, and continues until Wednesday 8th June.

||| X-Men: First Class a gay parable of tolerance. (The Vancouver Sun)

>>> The Yellow Brick Road is real, and just a tiny piece is left. One man is trying to save it.

||| Classic films that flopped on release...

...And stars who hated each other on set.

<<< Inside Elizabeth Taylor's Bel Air estate.

||| Previously unseen Marilyn Monroe photos found at garage sale are still a mystery.

||| Doric Wilson, the gay theatre pioneer, is dead. He was 72.

TELEVISION

>>> Introducing Fade In, a new web series focusing on New York City's homeless GBLT youth. The trailer, and the first episode, below:


<<< The Hard Times of R.J. Berger: It's like The Wonder Years with a large penis. (AfterElton)

||| Homophobia killed Ugly Betty, former Betty actor Eric Mabius says: "I'm pretty sure that the first teenage romantic kiss between two boys on network television was on our show, but did you hear anything about it? Was it promoted? The punishment was apparent every week. When they would run teasers for the next week's episode of other shows, they didn't even do those for us. That's how little support we had. It's short-sighted and silly. There was an undeniable feeling that the show was over at least a season early."

>>> True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard covers Interview magazine...

...Plus three new True Blood posters for the new season.

>>> Do you think this picture is "private, obscene, lewd and pornographic"? MTV seems to think so...

...And more on MTV's most recent attempt to airbrush the gay past of a new TV star.

||| Most 18-29-year-olds won't pay for television: study.

||| The BBC quietly puts the Daleks back in the toy box. The iconic monster won't be seen on Doctor Who "for a while". Seems like last year's catastrophic redesign fail has put seen off the Doctor's ultimate foe.

<<< Review: Doctor Who - The Almost People. "[It] asks viewers to contemplate some very adult moral questions... Overall, a satisfying conclusion to last week's opener as well as a startling springboard to the mid-season finale." (Cathode Ray Tube)

||| The Smurfs: Anti-Semitic and racist, new book claims.

>>> Dallas is back! Kinda...

MUSIC

||| Tupac lives!

||| Why teen pop-stars matter. "You and I may not care what Miley Cyrus thinks. The voters in your state may not care what Miley Cyrus thinks. But retailers of clothing very much care what Miley Cyrus thinks, especially when she's tweeting to a million kids that could be their customers." (Box Turtle Bulletin)

||| Sexualised music videos to get film-style age ratings. (The Telegraph)

||| Pop has eaten itself for the very last time. "People will look back on Simon Cowell and his hideous creations and wonder how we fell for it..." (The Telegraph)

...And pop culture's addiction to its own past. "Does it matter that pop music is stuck in the same old groove?" (The Guardian)

THE SEX BIZ

<<< An interview with porn star, and social media whore, Sonny. (More pictures of Sonny with ka-os|theory favourite Tyler Johnson here.)

||| 2011 Grabby Awards: The Winners. Congratulations to our friends at Gay Porn Times for winning Best Porn Blog.

||| Some deliciously raunchy pictures here...

...here...

...And a fantastic set of all the big names we know and love here (with bonus bitchy comments from readers).

||| Twin brother of male fashion/nude webcam model also a male fashion/nude webcam model. (The Sword)

||| Storyline porn: Yay or nay?

<<< The first Blu-Ray 3D gay porn - 3D BelAmi - has been released. Bel Ami reported a surge in DVD sales last year.

>>> Introducing the Chinese decapitated head Fleshlight. (copyranter)

<<< Evan Cobb, the Bel Ami model, is dead. Bel Ami founder George Duroy states that he committed suicide on 28th April.

MANIKINS

||| Naomi Campbell "shocked" and "upset" to be described as chocolate. I can think of another C word that more aptly describes her.

||| Below: Marlon Teixeira, by Terry Richardson; Anthony Gallo, by Samuel Zakuto; and Alex Ciappara, by Felipe Barbosa:


||| Below: Steve Boyd, by Michael Reh; Leebo Freeman and Sebastian Sauveby, by Dimitris Theocharis, and styled by ka-os|theory friend Niyi Crown; and Philip Fusco, by Modelsnyc.


||| Below: Rob Evans, by Forte and Zachary; Steve Boyd (again), this time by Rick Day; and Marlon Teixeira covers EY! Magateen:


||| Below: Positively Aware magazine, with cover shot by John Gress; Jed Hill, by Michael A. Downs; and Dez Braxton, by Tarrice Love.


||| Below: The 2011 ES Swimwear Collection - make sure to check out the rest of these stunning shots!


SPORT

<<< Photographer Maya Guez has lensed the 2012 calendar for Devin Thomas.

||| Judge refuses to toss out lawsuit over gay softball. "A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three men who claim they were disqualified from the 2008 Gay Softball World Series in Seattle for not being gay enough." (Seattle Times)

||| Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon says he played with gay teammates. (Outsports)

>>> Jo-Wilfried Tsonga strips of for Cosmopolitan magazine.

||| 12-year-old boy petitions Boston Red Sox for It Gets Better video.

||| Rugby star Ben Cohen wants closeted athletes to come out at the height of their careers.

...AND FINALLY

<<< 13 beautiful pictures of Manhattanhenge.

>>> Meanwhile, the kids are unzipping all over.

...And our favourite GuysWithiPhones from the last week, after the jump - enjoy!



Issue 98: 28 May - 3 June 2011


||| Remember what was going on this time last year? No? How about a reminder? Read Issue 66.

Cover photo: Dan Choi is arrested in Moscow.

ka-os|theory is not responsible for the content of external websites.

© 2011


4 comments:

Corve said...

love this

Unknown said...

Hats off to you for doing this.

Prince Todd said...

1.) I think the circumcision debate is fucking MORONIC. First of all SF posits itself as this liberal Bastian of tolerance and freedom, yet here they are seriously about to legislate circumcision? Seriously? Second of all male circumcision is NOT genital mutilation. There is NO shortage of men with CUT dicks who are not having healthy and active sex lives. True genital mutilation is when a woman's vagina is sewn shut to keep her virginity intact (to the point where she is unable to properly use the bathroom). That is mutilation...Not the removal of an unnecessary layer of skin that serves zero purpose.
Sorry, I just find it to be really stupid.
2.) Okay, they listed Elmo and Big Bird. This proves they are not paying attention. It's Burt and Ernie, DUH?
3.) I love how religious people throw around words like "abomination" and "discernment" knowing full well that they have no CLUE what they mean.
4.) The new gay men's condoms are cute.
5.) AIDS is 30. That is older than me. So I've never known reality without AIDS. You would think my generation, because of this, would have the lowest AIDS rates...but it is quite the opposite.
6.) I love Zebras! I am glad the Quagga is making a comeback. Honestly, I don't have a favorite animals. I love them all. FUCK!
7.) I thought that tribute to Maurice was so sweet. I think Jared Paul Shuler is so CUTE!
8.) Alexander Skarsgard is a GOD. He is PERFECT! That's all.
9.) The Smurfs anti-semitic and racist? I just thought it was gay?
10.) I have to come back and judge my favorite Phone guys!

KAOS said...

Is Jared the one with the big Bambi eyes?

That tribute really had me welling up. Maurice was clearly a really sweet guy who was loved not just for how he looked, but for being a beautiful person too.

 
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