Big lads, Mongolia, Bel Ami and heat

a news compendium

with a gay bias
issue 70 | July 2010 | FREE

||| Cover shot: Pablo Moraes in the July issue of Attitude, lensed by Vicente de Paulo. Made in Brazil has video from the shoot.

||| Does racism trump homophobia? Eusebius McKaiser writes at the Mail & Guardian Online, "There is no hierarchy of prejudices and we must tackle the homophobia that has taken hold in government."

||| Religious extremism driven by anxiety, boffins say. Oh, not just stupidity, then?

||| Dirty old men fiddling with little boys is bad for the bottom line: The Vatican posts financial loss for third year in a row.

||| Disco bunny, A-Gay, Old Hand and Grand Old Gay: Your guide to gay stereotyping.

||| Exploitation and tokenism: Gay best friends, and the straight female parasites who use them.

||| Gay Pride around the world, in pictures. Left, Madrid. Right, Venezuela. 29 more pictures.

||| The FIFA World Cup Final, between Spain and the Netherlands, was "the first ever between two countries that have marriage equality for same-sex couples", UK Gay News reports. None of those tolerant African countries, then? Ain't that a shame.

||| Massachusetts judge deals body blow to anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act.

||| But could the impending Proposition 8 decision doom same-sex marriage?

||| Downtown Soccer Toronto launches sexy calendar to raise money for the UK-based Justin Campaign and its first Football vs Homophobia Initiative.

||| Foul play in Cleveland Gay Games selection?

||| Gawker announce: LeBron James Is A Cocksucker. Sorry Gawker, I must have misheard? He's a what?

||| The best bad books you've never read. Bizarrely, none of James Earl Hardy's badly written thug/blaxploitation trash makes it onto the list.

||| Speaking of distasteful things: The Pentagon is asking troops how gross it would be to shower with a gay person. Nice.

||| Rob Smith (right) - Iraq war veteran - has something to say about the survey: "I sometimes wonder how on earth I managed to suppress this desire for the five years I served in the U.S. Army. How I possibly managed to work, live, and go to war with all of these heterosexual soldiers when being gay obviously meant that my mind was utterly consumed with sexual fantasies about them at all times... Imagine my shock that there were private showers! In Iraq! It was almost enough to make me want to give my two weeks' notice right then and there." More about Rob here.

||| Be afraid: Anita Bryant is back.

||| Beers and queers: what do Prohibition, the gay community and the religious right have in common?

||| This is Josh and Trent (left), a couple who were attacked by a gang of teenagers - the youngest of whom was 13 - in Atlanta.

||| Some justice for Terrance Aeriel (top right), Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey (bottom right), murdered the day before they were to attend New York City Black Gay Pride in 2007.

||| The Police Women of Memphis investigate a domestic violence call involving a gay male couple. Video.

||| Personal tales: A date with a blind guy.

||| Looking back at Broadway Bares... and looking ahead.

||| Home Office gay asylum policy in tatters following legal defeat, UN condemnation.

||| Why the Supreme Court ruled against the deportation of gay asylum-seekers: Lord Rodger said, "What is protected is the applicant's right to live freely and openly as a gay man. To illustrate the point with trivial stereotypical examples from British society: just as male heterosexuals are free to enjoy themselves playing rugby, drinking beer and talking about girls with their mates, so male homosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically coloured cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates."

||| But Cameroon has denied the GBLT community faces persecution. BBC report includes video.

||| Zac (right), a gay man from the United Arab Emirates, talks to PinkPaper.com about The ScumThe Sun newspaper's claims that he is using The X Factor reality show to stay in the UK.

||| Right-leaning tabloids like The Sun will use Zac's story as evidence that the government U-turn will be abused. Michael Cashman MEP writes about the damage the media does to legitimate claims for asylum by threatened members of the GBLT transgender community.

||| Sex, state and church: "'No room for gays' it trumpets, in a bizarre throw-back to the worst aspects of 1950s society."

||| Speaking of right-leaning, yob-lad-trapped-in-an-old-man's-body Jeremy Clarkson's been up to his old tricks on Top Gear. Journalist Alistair Campbell wrote on his blog about comments Clarkson made that were cut from the finished programme: "I cannot remember how the subject of homosexuality came up, but I said at one point that [Clarkson] wasn't very sound on gay rights. 'Oh yes I am', he said, adding, to more laughter from the largely adoring (of him) crowd, 'I demand the right not to be bummed'."

||| More disturbing was the complete apathy - and even endorsement - by so many members of the GBLT community on the Stonewall Facebook page. Your correspondent fought hard to point out that casual homophobia like Clarkson's provides a breeding ground for serious gay hate. Virtually no one agreed. Finally, Stonewall closed the subject with, "Well everyone we'll certainly take all your comments on board. Just to mention again we posted this as it was high profile and our Chief Exec had responded with a simple quote (in the article). We must also remember that casual homophobia (however it may be intended) can be v dangerous."

||| The edited highlights will appear next week as part of our occasional Forum Or Against 'Em series.

||| Why imposing tougher sentences for hate crimes is not about creating privileged parts of society – it's about protecting the vulnerable. Right, 15-year-old Jason Mattison Jr., who was brutally murdered last year.

||| The gay community should help south Asians,
Balaji Ravichandran writes in The Guardian. "In the south Asian diaspora, being gay is often deeply taboo. It's not just the Forced Marriage Unit that should offer support."

||| Don't accept drinks from flirty, tactile Eastern Europeans, police warn.

||| A Liverpool woman sexually assaulted 5-month-old baby while her boyfriend took photos... Yes, more tales from the world of "normal heterosexual family units".

||| London hospital used for "big budget" porn shoot.

|||Spain: More pictures from Madrid Pride, below.

||| Finland: Helsinki's attempts to become a leading gay tourism magnet have been thrown by recent homophobic attacks...

||| ...And attacks could soon escalate.

||| Hungary: Pride continues to sweep across the world; Budapest Pride was held in a closed off street on Saturday; in pictures, left.

||| Russia: Two art curators are facing jail for a 2007 exhibition entitled Forbidden Art.

||| Syria's attack on gay people must end, Dan Littauer writes. "The crackdown on homosexuality in Syria is not about public safety, as claimed. It is a serious breach of human rights."

||| Mongolia's GBLT community face hate crimes and discrimination.

||| China: In our last issue, we heard about a gay man in Beijing who planned to sue the Red Cross for refusing to take his blood. But a court has thrown out the lawsuit.

||| Taipei: The San Francisco of Asia? Left, last year's Pride parade in the city.

||| Tokyo: Elderly woman breaks student's nose for failing to give up bus seat.

||| This is scary: Boffins in South Korea have figured out how to "switch off" heterosexual urges in female mice. Where will that line of research lead, ultimately, I wonder?

||| Gay Pride in Medellín, Colombia, above, and right.

||| Jamaica: "Tricked" into receiving sex from a cross-dresser, and outed on YouTube. Thanks to Corve DaCosta for the local flavour!

||| Watch Africa's Last Taboo, a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation into the homophobia sweeping Africa by award-winning filmmaker Sorious Samura. There's interviews with many of the familiar faces we usually only read about, like an amazingly positive Tiwonge Chimbalanga (following his release from prison), and a heartbreaking glimpse of his former partner Steven Monjeza. One of the most important things you'll see on TV this year. Also available on YouTube.

||| Uganda: In the footsteps of a gay man... A journalist's journey into the Ugandan gay world.

||| Uganda: Visit Icebreakers Uganda. Formed in 2004, the organisation supports GBLT Ugandans.

||| Uganda terrorist attack: Well, it must be God's will, mustn't it? And with recent reports indicating that American missionaries were also caught up in the blasts, it couldn't be more just.

||| Uganda: Lou Engle makes a special appearance in the aforementioned Dispatches investigation. At OpEdNews, Daniel Vojir writes, "Lou Engle's goal of demonizing gays to extinction is working."

||| Uganda: Gay Ugandan activist decapitated, dismembered...

||| ...Or maybe not.

||| Fame, blame and shame: Jide Macaulay's story.

||| The constitutionality of anti-gay laws in Nigeria: "In a society where security of lives and property has become an issue, where corruption has completely destroyed public service, it is extremely hard to fathom the reasoning behind these anti gay laws," Gbenga Asiwaju writes for The Colorful Times, "How does murder (an act that affects the lives of other citizens and that is indeed dangerous to society) fit into the same category as an expression of love conducted between two consenting adults?"

||| Nigeria: Undercover with the GBLTs of Lagos.

||| Iran: where bill posters are raped; 27-year-old Farrokh tells his story.

||| Now Amazon is selling groceries - but something just doesn't add up.

||| The London Tube station... that isn't.

||| Postcard from Ireland: Oscar Sibanda's story.

||| So your photo doesn't fit the narrative? Never mind - our old friend Madam Airbrush is here to help! Journalism - The Economist way.

||| The Big Picture: Summer is here (38 more pictures). Above, Pakistan, where temperatures have reached 46 degrees Celsius (114.8 Fahrenheit). Below, men jump into the Han River in China.

||| China heatwave, in pictures, below left and right.

||| New York heatwave, in pictures.

||| The Big Picture: Poverty within white South Africa, above (26 more pictures).

||| Boffins in the US "have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered".

||| Could teen anti-social behaviour really be caused by brain defects?

||| Meet Kyle Kane (left), the world's strongest boy. He's 12.

||| Why can't I get to sleep?

||| Marriage doesn't make relationships stable, boffins have decided. Now tell me something I don't know.

||| Another reason why it's good to be gay: Having kids makes people unhappy.

||| The male virginity test (might not be entirely accurate...)

||| Animal pictures of the week (29 more pictures).

||| Tiger population in terminal decline.

||| Birds sing at higher pitch to compete with city noise.

||| Birds that devote less time to their offspring engage in more same-sex behaviour: Parental care linked to homosexuality.

||| A rogue baboon has been euthanised after he repeatedly broke into houses and terrorised residents - often with the aid of juvenile baboons - in Cape Peninsula.

||| MySpace not for sale, its owners News Corp protest - as yet another relaunch is planned for latter this year. ka-os|theory started on MySpace in September 2006.

||| The recently out Angelo Garcia (left) talks to Towleroad. Big lad, isn't he?

||| Massive Attack, 25 years on.

||| Pecs, abs and rock'n'roll: Spend some time getting to know JLS.

||| Usher, you ain't been swapping nut again have you? Oh, it's milk? I see...

||| Was gospel artist Tonex snubbed by BET for being gay?

||| Prince steps up his war on the net.

||| Kylie Minogue - ugh. I despise her cynical, parasitical attachment to gay men (I wonder, does she give anything back, or just take the pink bucks and run?) but I felt it was important to share this picture of the knackered old skank "performing" at Heaven in London. I'm sure you'll see why. The original (without my additions) is at Towleroad, where there's also plenty of video.

||| Joe Manganiello (left) in last week's Us.

||| Betty White calendar, anyone?

||| Stephen Perry, the writer behind 80s cartoon ThunderCats, is now believed to have been murdered by his roommate.

||| British writing team Christian Martin and Darren Flaxstone talk to This is Bristol about their third film - Buffering - and the lack of support from the BFI for their earlier project, the hugely successful Shank.

||| What isn't mentioned is that the BFI - and the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival - have an agenda dictated by women that puts gay men firmly in the background. Neither Shank nor Rikki Beadle-Blair's eagerly awaited KickOff (both young, relevant, sexy, male-centric films) were included in this year's programme. Check out the festival's front page and see how many carpet munchers you can spot!

||| The Outrate Online Short Film Festival has opened. Say the organisers: "The festival exists so that up and coming gay film makers can showcase their work to a global audience at no cost and with minimal fuss." Check out the films - and enter your own - here.

||| Shooting is about to start on the film version of Taylor Siluwé's Dancing With The Devil (ka-os|theory review here). says: "Despite the tough economy and even tougher funding raising, we're forging ahead - even if we have to live off Ramen noodles for months. Yes, it's that serious. As artists and writers and activists struggle to tell stories geared toward same gender love, our stories, any and all donations from the community are greatly appreciated. Whatever you can spare, know that you are helping to bring more and more of our stories to light." Support our arts: donate here.

||| Porn: An ideological weapon. Anthea Buys talks to Canadian filmmaker/pornographer Bruce LaBruce.

||| The future isn't now. Were you fooled by the Back To The Future hoax?

||| Towleroad has a fascinating interview with Bel Ami maestro George Duroy. On the subject of the fairly recent advent of barebacking in his films: "I don't encourage and I don't promote. If I did, I'd be much richer now. I promoted condoms and healthy sex for seventeen years in my films. In exchange for my goodwill, I lost about thirty percent of my customers at one point. I am unaware of a single case of somebody paying for my films simply because I was promoting safe sex... Not a single gay lifestyle magazine — all of them owned by our major business partners — would ever do an interview with me or promote my business in appreciation of our work. Most of them didn't even acknowledge in these magazines that we exists. Mainstream gay media treats porn like dirt, but keep using porn profits to finance their operations. If they want to promote safe sex, they should start promoting my safe-sex porn in their flagship glossy magazines. That is if they really believe we influence public sexual behavior that much. And if it is not so, then it would seem we simply create 'dirty' fantasies, and condoms don't come into play. The day The Advocate will publish its first ad for BelAmiOnline or some other porn company, I'll stop my occasional condom-free adventures. For the time being, I'll settle for compromise and try to stay afloat."

||| And another kind of interview entirely, this time with Michael Lucas firing questions, with "all the tact of a chain-smoker in a cancer ward" MOC Blog writes.

||| Everything You Wanted to Know about Gay Porn Stars but were Afraid to Ask...

||| Jesus in a field.

||| Lego and M.C. Escher - two of my favourite things - come together in this acrylonitrile butadiene styrene masterpiece.

||| Televisions through the years, in pictures.

||| Doctor Who tribute at Berlin Fashion Week, as Patrick Mohr makes his models (left) up as Sensorites (right). Well, what other explanation could there be for this horror?

||| Plastic boy slut risks melting on the roof of New York hotel...

||| ...Has a date with Lance Bass...

||| ...And prepares hisfor a tackle. Cristiano boo, hasn't anyone ever told you: "NO HANDS!"

||| Only orange boy could afford the Thunderbolt watch, at a mere $US158,000, designed by Maximilian Büsser of MB&F.

||| Tired Gay succumbs to Dix in 200 meters.

||| And finally, let's visit the Tired Old Queen At The Movies, who's looking at East of Eden this week.

||| READ THE LAST EDITION: ISSUE 69

||| ka-os|theory, ONE YEAR AGO: 12.07.09

||| Access any back issue of the ka-os|theory news compendium from the backissues menu in the sidebar.

||| Contact me with tips and suggestions for next week's copy!

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Issue 70 covers 05 July - 11 July 2010

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