Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

ka-os|theory
a news compendium
with a gay bias

Model Ambrose Olsen, who hung himself last week.

||| Columbia University track star Cory Benton (right) on coming out.

||| "Divided We Dance: Black Gays Get Their Own Party Started" is the cover story for the annual Philadelphia Weekly Pride Issue. Written by Gerry Christopher Johnson, it chronicles the city's black gay social scene from World War Two to the present.

||| When is black not black, and who gets to decide? Left, Nick Denbeigh.

||| And how gay do you have to be to play softball?

||| Here at ka-os|theory, we prefer GBLT over the lesbian-mafia pleasing, commonplace, LGBT. That's because, quite frankly, boys are most important, and I could care less about lesbians. So what's in a name? And just what does LGBTQIQA stand for? And where does it all end?

||| Be part of the Great Global Kiss-in for International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, 14-17 May.

||| Ambrose Olsen, the model, is dead. He was 24.

||| Although cause of death has yet to be officially announced, several sites are reporting Olsen hanged himself.

||| A memorial from Hedi Slimane; Olsen shooting VMAN Issue 1 in Los Angeles July 2003:

||| Ricky Martin gets standing ovation; slams Arizona's controversial new immigration law.

||| Did our beloved Ricky date anti-gay Proposition 8 supporter (and former soap star/boybander) Eduardo Verástegui?

||| Puff Daddy - or whatever she calls herself these days - doesn't come out.

||| And on that note... Can Hollywood legally keep gay stars in the closet?

||| Why Mark Wahlberg is an ass.

||| "With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it's not easy to stay celibate or to respect children." Porn: why priests just can't help themselves.

||| Poor little straight boy: Not gay enough to work in a sex store. Apparently.

||| Can the former Boom Boom Room, Rock Hudson's hangout for decades, be saved?

||| What's to become of Harvey Milk's bullhorn?

||| Has Obama given up on the gays?

||| Truth and Consequences: Lt. Dan Choi speaks at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Towleroad has his speech, in four parts.

||| A small but growing number of gay couples are renouncing their US citizenship.

||| The couple who plan on getting married in every state that has legalised gay marriage.

||| Nearly 80% of straight women admit to bareback sex in a survey carried out by the New York City Department of Health. In comparison, 61% of gay/bisexual men did use protection.

||| No hope in Chicago: Teachers bully GBLT youth - but the kids (left) ain't standing for it.

||| Sexual abuse scandal rocks Boy Scouts of America after $US18.5m payout: Organisation accused of cover-up as it seeks to keep thousands of "perversion files" secret.

||| I'm not one to judge, but this is just plain YUK! (And I bet they'll still try and somehow blame this mess on the gays.)

||| 30,000 revelers throng Miami Beach Pride (below).

||| Colombia: A strong gay scene and a progressive set of gay rights laws are luring American GBLT tourists to this "warm, gorgeous and culturally rich land in ever-growing numbers".

||| Brazil: André Arteche and Gustavo Leão to play gay couple in remake of the soap Ti Ti Ti.

||| Remembering Harry Wieder: Gay, Jewish, nearly deaf and an otherwise disabled dwarf from Queens. He campaigned tirelessly for gay rights.

||| Dr. Dorothy Height (right), civil rights champion and vocal supporter of gay equality, is dead. She was 94.

||| Faisal Alam, a gay Muslim activist, talks about reconciling his faith with his sexuality.

||| Wow... "I used to think that the only thing worse than having insomnia is having insomnia next to someone who falls fast asleep and stays soundlessly so till morning. That was my life for 16 years. I lived with a man who slept, yes, like a baby. There were nights, many nights, when I literally wanted to steal his sleep — slip beneath his eyelids and yank it out of him; a kind of middle-of-the-night “Chien Andalou” moment, minus the surrealism. Instead, I spent the equivalent of at least a tenth of our relationship lying awake or reading in bed. In the end, that I happened to be deep asleep when he first went into cardiac arrest next to me now seems beyond irony. If I had not taken half a sleeping pill that night four years ago, might I have been awake and saved him?"

||| Atlanta gets a new gay mag, Fenuxe. (Presumably so even more dizzy queens can pictures of themselves posing and pouting in the clubs.)

||| Everyone's favourite love letter to the boys from Brazil, Made In Brazil, has launched in print.

||| And here's another one: Out There, "an international queer Culture, Voices, Arts and Travel bi-annual targeted at professional, discerning gay men in major cities across the globe." Who said print was dead?

||| Georges Kanuma (left), Burundi's leading gay activist, is dead.

||| Uganda: Sexual Minorities Uganda slams a "prayer crusade" planned by Ugandan religious leaders for today, against "vices eating away [our] society". Homosexuality is targeted alongside witchcraft and human sacrifice.

||| Uganda: Ministers split over proposals to soften anti-gay Bill.

||| Why is no one talking about Uganda?

||| Malawi: Police interrogate organisers of pro-GBLT conference.

||| Malawi: Bingu wa Mutharika, that country's president, and chairman of the African Union, has for the first time spoken out against homosexuality.

||| Kenya: Bisexual male sex workers run big risks.

||| South Africa: Pride Shelter Trust opens refuge for gays in crisis.

||| Trinidad and Tobago: What it's like to be gay in the Caribbean state; a 24-year-old speaks out.

||| Jamaica: Taboo Yardies, a film by Selena Blake (left), is set to be released in November. The film looks at the violent homophobia in Jamaica.

||| Living a lie on the DL: being gay in Jamaica.

||| Pakistan: Being gay in Karachi.

||| Dunno Y … Na Jaane Kyun, a film featuring India's first cinematic gay kiss, is scheduled to go on general release within weeks.

||| India's gay film festival highlights gay rights.

||| Korea: Gay's increasingly visible on stage, cinema and the small screen.

||| China to drop ban on HIV-positive tourists.

||| In Beijing, a club singer has been arrested for killing six men in "elaborate, sado-masochistic sex games that involved hanging his victims".

||| Amnesty International slams Iraqi authorities for failing to protect "at risk" civilians: Men perceived to be gay, religious and ethnic minorities, journalists, and women living in a climate of fear.

||| Iranian gays carve out a refuge in Turkey.

||| The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan: "It's an ancient practice, secretly revived - young boys sold by families to 'entertain' wealthy merchants and warlords. An undercover investigation into this illicit sex trade..." Picture via The Jawa Report.

||| Al Thaqafiya, a Yemen magazine, has been shut down following a furore in the Muslim nation over a review of an Egyptian movie (Heena Maysara, or Till things get better) featuring a gay love scene.

||| Turkish court refuses to ban GBLT rights groups.

||| Moldova: A demonstration in support of anti-discrimination laws for the GBLT community, planned for Chişinău, the Moldovan capital, was cancelled following protests by religious groups.

||| Revealed: Eating chicken the real cause of homosexuality.

||| Fiji: Gay people welcome, says tourist chief.

||| Indonesia: Police barred from penis enlargement.

||| Australia: Waiter refuses entry to blind man - because his seeing-eye dog was thought to be gay.

||| Right: This is Luc Amblard, 56, and boyfriend Guy Bordenave, 39, who were buried alive after going missing in March. Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris, refers to the couple on his blog, in an article about anti-gay violence.

||| The trial of Joel Alexander, 19, Rachel Burke, 18, and Ruby Thomas, 18, (left) is continuing in London. The group stands accused of beating Ian Baynham, 62, to death in Trafalgar Square last year. He was punched and stamped on "like a scene from Clockwork Orange" after challenging homophobic abuse.

||| Cemetery Junction's gay-baiting is not funny: "When they broach homosexuality as a subject, it's presented from an outsider's perspective with the working assumption that gay sex and gay identity are peculiar and other and a bit ridiculous."

||| The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association questions Westminster City Council's plans to unleash religious street pastors; Soho, London's main gay quarter, is part of the borough.

||| Is the "pink pound" losing its glow, as more gay couples become parents?

||| "The precepts of any one religion cannot sound any louder in the general law than any other." A senior judge sweeps aside a plea from the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, for Christians to be given their own courts.

||| But in Canada, religious rights and freedoms can trump human rights: The 1984 precedent allowing Catholic schools to lock out gays.

||| Gareth Thomas: Sports Illustrated looks at the only openly gay male athlete.

||| Er.. Ya did what, Archie? (Via World of Wonder.)

||| London boy Louis Smith takes silver at European Championships.

||| Former Angel Delight child model convicted of battering doctor to death; Thomas Connor (far left) was "bullied, beaten up and branded gay" after his appearance on the Angel Delight packet.

||| Frightening: Dozens walk past a dying homeless man stabbed by a mugger. Compare and contrast with the footage of a squirrel protecting its dead mate from crows, further down the page.

||| "This is Alabama — we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it." Wow - almost makes me grateful for our politicians here in Blighty.

||| Australia is too reopen a controversial concentration camp - described as remote and primitive - for vulnerable asylum seekers. It was closed in 2002 following an epidemic of riots, hunger strikes and self-harm.

||| Clearing up Mount Everest: Sherpa mountaineers to remove the accumulation of bodies from Everest's "death zone".

||| Here's a story you won't see every day: Man dies after eel is inserted in his rectum. (Just thought I'd share that with you, boys.)

||| The Big Picture: Shanghai's Expo nearly ready, below (36 more pictures).

||| The Big Picture: Yushu Earthquake, 12 days later, below (32 more pictures).

||| Ukraine: Something stinks in parliament...

||| Hayfever sufferers, know your enemy: Scanning Electron Microscope pictures of grains of pollen (16 more pictures).

||| Make-up tutorials: for boys...

||| Dead 37-foot whale found with gallons of human rubbish in its gut.

||| Do Chimpanzees understand death? Yes.

||| The Supreme Court in the US lifts its ban on the sale of animal torture videos.

||| Warthog vs. leopard.

||| Squirrel vs. crows...

||| World's smallest horse.

||| I don't really do space porn, but even I can't help but be awed by this.

||| How about some planet porn instead? Yes, I'm a patriotic human - they can keep their wretched Mars. It's a spectacular duet featuring every air travellor's least favourite volcano, and the Northern lights. Beautiful.

||| The Big Picture: Earth Day 2010, below (38 more pictures).

||| This is very, very clever. Doesn't it just suck when your train stops at all those stations where you don't wanna get off? Japanese engineers have solved the problem:

||| Microsoft extends "auto-repair" system to XP, Vista users.

||| Eurocreme - the gay porn studio - have launched a boy band. They're called Boy Banned. Guess which one's my favourite...?

||| Marvin demonstrates his skills on a banana.

||| Leave Whitney alone!

||| Hip-hop album or gay porn? You decide!

||| Ricky Martin's porn double...

||| ...And the $US20million he's been offered for his coming out story, film rights.

||| Like your music edgy? How about a Devendra Banhart's Foolin', the video for which centres on an S&M drenched interracial love affair. Not to my taste, but I know a few readers whose juices this will have flowing...

||| How about some Spanish bears instead? Barb@zul have a jock love story for us, with some added heat around 3:25...

||| Still fighting for right, from beyond the grave: Bea Arthur fronts PETA ad protesting McDonalds chicken abuse.

||| Remember Nathan, the irritating twink in the original Queer As Folk? He's all grown up now.

||| What the hell happened to Wentworth Miller?

||| Review: Welcome To Lagos... One of the best things on TV in a very long time.

||| The most over-rated shows on TV.

||| The day the lion failed to roar: The sad demise of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

||| MGM: This is the merely the end of a decades-long decline.

||| MGM: The last picture show?

||| 7 questions on MGM films.

||| Richard Chamberlain - The Towering Inferno star - splits from partner of 33 years, Martin Rabbett.

||| Because it's legal now: Taylor Lautner's bulge.

||| I Want Your Love: Scripted reality porn or hardcore Indie film?

||| Another black model at Sean Cody? WTF?

||| Can Brent Everett get any more perfect?

||| Play Falcon Studios’ vintage gay porn flash game. I'm no gamer, but this could work for me...

||| Tattoo fail.

||| And finally, Qaadir has a bee in his bonnet...

||| READ THE LAST EDITION

||| ka-os|theory, ONE YEAR AGO: 02.5.09

_____________________________________________________

Issue 62 of ka-os|theory covers the period

18 April-01 May 2010 - plus some stuff I missed!

ka-os|theory is not responsible for the content

of external websites.

POSTSCRIPT

"You know, we might just as well not have bothered to come.

The whole thing's been ridiculous."

© 2010