a news compendium
with a gay bias
WEEKLY | Issue 112 | February 2012 | FREE | be.told.
WEEKLY | Issue 112 | February 2012 | FREE | be.told.
< Let's kick off with plastic boy toy Lucien Laviscount, naked, shall we?
> DTLA - a new "gay" drama series - is coming, with a multiracial cast of boys, girls, gays and straights. And it looks amazing. What's even more amazing is that this human confetti isn't British: it's American. Years after the racial segregation of Queer As Folk and Noah's Arc - and the failure of the similarly monocultural The DL Chronicles to secure funding - it seems like real change is coming to our 
screens. Now watch for the blogosphere meltdown as haters' minds implode at the thought of Darryl Stephens having a white boyfriend. DTLA on Facebook. DTLA at Kickstarter. Watch the trailer.||||| The myth of "race" was invented by racism, and racism keeps it growing. "Racism is incredibly successful, despite having no basis at all in fact. There is only one race – the human race."
US & CANADA NEWS
< This is 14-year-old Rafael Morelos, who hanged himself on 29th January after a sustained campaign of homophobic bullying.> Family and friends of the boy gathered for a vigil last week. Friends said, "He told me he got shoved and punched in the face in PE in the locker room at Cashmere. He was tired of people saying that his little brothers would follow in his footsteps and be gay too."
||||| Tyler Clementi's gay brother James speaks to AC360.
> Brandon White speaks out about being assaulted by a gang in Atlanta. A video of the beating went viral.
||||| Out gay news anchor Don Lemon questions head of the Family Research Council on gay bashing.
||||| Four black pastors at the forefront of GBLT equality.> California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, is unconstitutional, the courts declare. Right, Frank and Joe Capley-Alfano celebrate the news outside City Hall in San Francisco, 7th Febuary 2012.
> Gay couples take part in Empire State Building Valentine wedding tradition for the first time. In pictures.
||||| Lawmaker proposes bill: Life begins not at conception, but at ejaculation.
||||| Couple claim they were beaten, humiliated and called "faggots" by Cleveland police. It's heading to court.
< One town's war on gay teens. "In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back."
||||| Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District ain't happy about the article. Guess the truth hurts.
||||| Los Angeles teacher Mark Berndt charged with lewd acts on 23 children.
||||| God hates Starbucks! Christians urged to boycott the coffee chain for backing gay marriage.
> Any New Yorkers catch Behind the Bushes: The Secret Homo History of the High Line earlier this month?
< "Infinite Forest" was chosen as the winning design for the AIDS Memorial Park in New York......Except, er, the park's owner has decided to go with their own design, anyway.
||||| America's homeless resort to tent cities...
...And via Towleroad: "Read as a snickering Ivy-leaguer demonstrates his contempt for underpaid retail slaves."
> So, about American poverty.
 |
| (C) Pride London / One Sunny Day |
UK NEWS
< Britain prepares for LGBT History Month.
||||| The countdown to World Pride 2012. London will host "the largest un-ticketed event in Europe" in July...
...But Brighton Pride - which has soared in popularity over the last ten years - is in debt and set to go bust.
||||| Craig Roy convicted of murdering 16-year-old Jack Frew. The boys had been sexually involved, and "Roy's defence team said he was worried that Jack would tell his boyfriend, Christopher Hannah, about their previous sexual contact."
||||| Meanwhile, 20-year-old Sodiq Adeojo has been jailed for 30 years for the 2010 murder of 17-year-old athlete Sylvester Akapalara.
||||| Surprise surprise: The Conservative Government rejects pardon request for Alan Turing.
||||| British men forced into modern slavery abroad. "Criminal elements of the British and Irish travelling community have been transporting vulnerable British men abroad to work as virtual slaves."
> Model hangs himself after years of crippling toothache. Dorian Thomson suffered from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
EUROPE NEWS
< This is 30-year-old Irishman Kenneth John Gemmell, who went overboard on a gay cruise in Mexico, on 3rd February. The vessel was the Allure of the Seas, the world's biggest cruise ship. His family want answers.||||| Is the fact it was a gay cruise relevant?
||||| Blogger Joe. My. God. highlights other deaths on Allure of the Seas gay cruises.
||||| Europe's 13 least gay-friendly countries.
||||| European Parliament denounces Russia's anti-gay laws.> ITALY: Watch I'll Marry You, the country's first marriage equality video.
< Azerbaijan plans world's tallest building.
LATIN AMERICA NEWS
> COLOMBIA: Two gay priests (and lovers) hired hitmen to kill them after they learned one of them was HIV-positive. Rafael Reatiga and Richard Piffano were both 30-years-old.
< BRAZIL: In Sao Paulo, hundreds of families have been left homeless following forced evictions.AFRICA NEWS
||||| UGANDA: The Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been re-introduced into Parliament. Box Turtle Bulletin examines it, clause by clause.
||||| UGANDA: Government shuts down GBLT rights conference. Ethics and Integrity minister Simon Lokodo led the raid.
||||| SOUTH AFRICA: Four South African men get 18 years in jail for the stabbing, stoning murder of 19-year-old lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana.
> SOUTH AFRICA: The owner of popular gay nightclub Bronx in Cape Town has been found murdered.
||||| SOUTH AFRICA: Gay imam to wed pair by Islamic rites.
||||| KENYA: Chief Justice declares, "Gay rights are human rights."
||||| KENYA: "Until a new anti-homosexuality bill caused a wave of homophobia in Uganda, John and Paul could hold hands in the streets of the capital Kampala and kiss in night clubs.
Then the nightmare started - people began insulting and then assaulting them, and then they had to run away to Kenya. The couple have been in Nairobi since May of last year."
||||| GAMBIA: President Yahya Jammeh declares: "We know what human rights are. Human beings of the same sex cannot marry or date. If you think it is human rights to destroy our culture, you are making a great mistake because if you are in the Gambia, you are in the wrong place then."
||||| ANGOLA: Living in the world's most expensive city.
SOUTHERN ASIA NEWS
||||| INDIA: An unrequited love led a jilted lover to hang himself in full bridal finery. 23-year-old Narmada Prasad was left despondent when his lover Rajesh announced his engagement to a woman.
> PAKISTAN: Millions pushed into child labour amid economic woes. Right, 10-year-old Zakir cuts fish, 1sr February 2012, for $US2.20 a day.
ASIA-PACIFIC NEWS
< THAILAND: Gay couple break world record for longest kiss. Nontawat Jaroegenasornsin and Thanakorn Sittiamthong locked lips for over 50 hours.
||||| CHINA: 80% of China's youth "have no problem with homosexuality".
||||| CHINA: 16 million women in China are married to gay men.
||||| CHINA: Are the days of anonymous HIV testing numbered?
< SOUTH KOREA: Cops show off their skills (and, ahem, ass-ets) in Seoul, 15th February 2012.
MIDDLE EAST NEWS
||||| UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: How to "de-gay" an effeminate man, a video tutorial.
||||| ISRAEL: Scary... Will Israel Attack Iran?
BODY & MIND
||||| Black celebrities gather for new ad highlighting National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
||||| Cancer is just as deadly as it was 50 years ago. Here's why that's about to change.
||||| The top five regrets of the dying.
||||| Do the dead outnumber the living?
< Siamese twins literally joined at the hip separated.
||||| Study: Two glasses of wine a night triples risk of mouth cancer.
||||| Does ketamine offer "almost immediate" relief from depression?
||||| Bisexuals endure worst mental health problems, report claims.
||||| So, men are obsessed with their bodies. Is that so bad? "Male self-objectification has perhaps gone too far – but the compulsory self-loathing that came before was worse."
||||| How an ultrasonic zap to the testicles can sperm production.
||||| Everything you ever wanted to know about anal piercing but were afraid to ask.
THE PLANET
||||| America and Eurasia to meet at north pole.
||||| Boffins drill down into 20 million-year-old Antarctic lake.
> Meet the world's tiniest chameleon...
...And the supergiant crustacean.> Japanese macaque monkeys huddle together for warmth, 10th Febuary, as severe winter weather hits Japan.
< Dogs: underwater!
||||| Dogs: "Out for a walk with our 42 Saint Bernards..."
||||| ...And the bear cub and wolf pup that play together, stay together...
||||| Are your deleted photos still on Facebook?
> Knicker makers Andrew Christian write YouTube an open letter: Are you being homophobic or is it something else?
PRINT & VISUAL
||||| Is gay literature over? "In an era of same-sex marriage and Modern Family, the role of gay writers is changing. An expert explains how."||||| Edmund White on the battle to establish gay fiction.
||||| Celebrating London's oldest gay bookstore, Gay's The Word.
< Review: Why are Faggots so Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. "29 personal essays offer a refreshingly heterogeneous antidote to the pervasive subcultural norms, an attempt to subvert the idea that '…the intoxicating visions of gay liberation have given way to an obsession with beauty myth consumer norms, mandatory
masculinity, objectification without appreciation, and a relentless drive to police the borders.'"
< Review: Gay In America, by Scott Pasfield. "This book may be an inspiration. It's a paper version of the entire It Gets Better YouTube campaign."> Review: Lost Story, by Brane Mozetič. "Written in the form of a diary, Lost Story follows a young gay Slovenian, Bojan, who’s stuck in a loop of drugs, clubs, sex."
< Review: 98 Wounds, by Justin Chin. "Visceral, 
unsettling, overwhelming, disturbing, poetic, beautiful, loving, and real. Be prepared to be emotionally and psychologically jarred; to be wounded and healed."> Review: Half Empty, by David Rakoff. "Despite the comedic collection's many rousing show-stopping numbers, Half Empty lacks... cohesiveness."
< Review: A Waste of Time, by Rick Worley. "It's odd seeing realistic-looking guys conversing with 
cartoon animals, even more unnerving seeing them inter-porking. It's not sexy, but it's hella funny."> Abraham Lincoln's tower of books.
||||| World Press Photo winner 2011, in pictures. Below, Jenny E. Ross's breathtaking picture of a male polar bear climbing on the face of a cliff in northern Novaya Zemlya in Russia.
STAGE < Misfits' star Nathan Stewart-Jarrett talks about his role in play revival The Pitchfork Disney.
> Folk in a Box, by Cristina Monteiro: just enough space for a single musician to play to an audience of one.
< Daniel Radcliffe talks about anti-gay bullying and why straight kids should show their support. Now that's a role model for kids.
||||| "The biggest misconception people have about my mother is that she was so unhappy. I think people enjoy thinking that - some of them, anyway. They see the tragedy as opposed to the fact that she understood how to play tragedy." Liza Minnelli talks about her mother, Judy Garland.||||| Jackie Brown prequel The Switch to feature Mos Def, Jennifer Aniston. Quentin Tarantino is not involved.
> Ben Hur actor Stephen Boyd posthumously outed by Raquel Welch.
< Behind the scenes shots of a shirtless Taylor Lautner, in Abduction, anyone?
||||| Nazi sci-fi film Iron Sky blitzes Berlin Film Festival.> Review: Le Clan. "A film about men and their complex, often difficult, relationships with each other."
> Review: Sasha. "A beautifully shot, beautifully acted, beautifully told story that stays with you long after the credits roll."
< Review: August. "A beautiful film to look at that proves the less-than-beautiful axiom that us human beings have an endless capacity to not only hurt other people but also ourselves."||||| Trailers: The Amazing Spider Man, and Kidnapped For Christ, in which troubled teen's are kidnapped - and rescued - from ex-gay evangelical Christian reform schools...
||||| Australian actress Magda Szubanski - of Kath & Kim fame - comes out.
< Actor Ben Watson talks about his character's gay storyline on The LA Complex.
||||| Here's the latest from gays in soaps around the world. Left, Tariq and Kal in The LA Complex.
||||| Fran Drescher abducted by aliens!
||||| Roseanne to run for President!
> Former Prisoner: Cell Block H star Colette Mann (best known to Prisoner fans as "Bloody Doreen!") has been cast in Australian soap Neighbours.. as a grandmother.
< EastEnders' fans rejoice: Sharon's about to make a comeback.
||||| Ryan Phillippe to star in new CBS cop series.||||| Do cop shows tell the truth about policing?
> Colin Tarrant, the actor, is dead. He was 59. Tarrant is best known for his role as Inspector Andrew Monroe in the police drama The Bill.
MUSIC
> Whitney Houston, the singer, is dead. She was 48.
||||| Whitney Houston: Squandered talent of a record-breaking singer who had it all. "Born into something approaching soul music royalty, Whitney Houston had a dazzling voice and a troubled personal life."||||| Whitney Houston: The art of melisma.
||||| Whitney Houston: Her voice was a show of strength, but also marked her downfall.
||||| Whitney Houston: In death, her years of struggle resonate with the public. "The public outpouring of emotion over Whitney Houston's passing is filled with mourning for her loss, but also sympathy for her inability to overcome her personal problems."||||| Whitney Houston: A life in pictures; more at the Los Angeles Times.
||||| Whitney Houston: Obituary.
||||| Whitney Houston: "The sad truth is that her memory will forever be tarnished by her addictions. The images that we carry of her are hard to reconcile with the voice. But that's where I Will Always Love You comes in. Put it on. Turn it up. Close your eyes. Whitney's voice, mere hours after her death, has already proved it can outlive her body. Even if her humanity couldn't handle that tone, posterity certainly can."
||||| Whitney Houston: Sony Music hikes album price by 60% following Houston's death.
> D'Angelo: back from the brink? "The past decade has not been kind to neo-soul hero D'Angelo, but does his new European tour mean he has finally beaten his demons?"||||| D'Angelo and his mojo make a comeback.
||||| D'Angelo, Frank Ocean and The Weeknd hint at 90s R&B revival.
||||| Review: D'Angelo, live at Brixton Academy. "For his encore, D’Angelo made the crowd wait 10 minutes before reappearing for a supercharged Brown Sugar. Many fans afforded themselves a wry smile – after a 12-year wait, 10 minutes was nothing. How great it is to have him back."
||||| Review: D'Angelo, live at Brixton Academy. "Heaven sent: the wonderful live return of D'Angelo."
||||| Let's hope D'Angelo has learned a lesson from Houston's tragic narrative, and sticks to the road of recovery. Watch the great man make his return to the stage in Paris.
||||| The response to Madonna's half-time show was ageist, Liz W. Garcia claims. I say: Had it been Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin or Annie Lennox, there'd have been no ageist banter. People like saying nasty things about Madonna because, frankly, she's a c**t.
||||| Miley Cyrus mocked by Christians for being pro same-sex marriage.
||||| Drag queens Sherry Vine and Pandora Boxx serve up a much more entertaining of Madonna's Give Me All Your Luvin'.
||||| Book yourself a room at Gloria Estefan's Hotel Nacional, where Will Young is Losing Himself...
||||| Here's 16-year-old Marcella Fruehan's video for her song Truth Is. "I wrote this song to express my feelings in support of anti-bullying. As a 16 year old I see a lot going on around me; especially with bullying and the effects that it has on those who are bullied and what lengths teens will go to to "get away" from it all. I want you to know suicide is never the answer. Truth is...you are loved, you are not alone...you are never alone."
||||| Psychology Today reveals what your favourite porn says about who you are. Fascinating.
||||| What in hell were Treasure Island thinking when they dreamed up this creepy ad for Return To Meat Rack? Just weird.
< MATTHEW RUSH IS BACK! MATTHEW RUSH IS BACK! MATTHEW RUSH IS BACK! Am I happy? Let's just say I can stop praying.
||||| MOC Blog has a batch of shots from his PapiThugz return.> Speaking of porn stars missing in action, I've been wondering where my beloved Roman Heart's been lately. He's been at it with an older daddy for Raging Stallion, it seems.
< Here's a nice interview with the gorgeous Draven Torres...
||||| Porn star Colby Keller blogs about Marxism, Foucault and the delightful world of unexpected phallic imagery.
||||| Mason Wyler on his first time.||||| Bareback wars! Corbin Fisher vs. Sean Cody.
||||| So what happens if a Sean Cody model turns up HIV-positive?
||||| Is Roger really Dolph Lambert's cousin?
> Dolph Lambert, Kris Evans and Lukas Ridgeston get lensed by Ross Watson for "Collectable Limited Edition Photographs" that will set you back a grand. Really.
||||| Micah Brandt sure gets around. Now Zeb Atlas is on him.
< More Micah? Here he is with Valentin Petrov for Falcon. Sigh.> Are Marcio and Marcos Patriota the new Peters twins? (Sadly, no.)
||||| Who is the best gay male hooker in the world? YOU DECIDE!
||||| Eight gay porn couples who found true love off-screen. And a few who didn't.
< Cute artwork of porn star Jay Roberts by artist Kai.||||| Weird blog possibly written by teenagers calls for Diesel Washington to be shot dead.
> Former Sean Cody model Addison guilty of murder, sentenced to life in prison.
||||| Sergio Real, the porn star, is dead.
SPORT ||||| Staging of the gay EuroGames in Budapest is "the end of the world".
||||| The gay high school football player who's found acceptance amid homophobia in rural America.
> Racist abuse forces Micah Richards to close Twitter page.
...Yet Queens Park Rangers have signed a player banned for homophobic chanting.
< Australia's National Rugby League referee Matt Cecchin comes out.
< Tom Daley. Tom Daley. Tom Daley. Sigh...PARTING SHOTS
> Meet Thomas Egli, Mr. Gay Canada 2012.
||||| Republican Congressman sources an Onion article about an $US8billion "abortionplex" as fact on Facebook. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
||||| Inside Lego HQ.
< Toyota's sexy Super Bowl ad. Take a seat, why don't ya...
||||| Go back in time to Fire Island, 1976...
Issue 112: 29 January - 17 February 2012
Read the last edition.
Remember what was going on this time a year ago? No? How about a reminder? Read Issue 86.
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© 2012
Very nice, as always!
ReplyDeleteI SECOND THAT!
DeleteOne of the best installments YET! I loved the extensive Whitney Houston retrospective!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I have to comeback with my long winded responses. haha.
I'm gonna hold you to that Toddy - I miss 'em!!
Delete