KAOS: #122

a news compendium

with a gay bias
WEEKLY | Issue 122 | June 2012 | FREE | be.told.

> One year on from the death of much-loved author and blogger Taylor Siluwé, his partner Trel has made this heart-rending statement: "Today [19th June] marks the one year anniversary of my love's death. People close to me know that I don't offer up information about myself but those who aren't close to me ask 'Are you okay? How are you?' 'Are you depressed?' Of course I'm not okay. The questions are appreciated but not necessary. No one ever gets over death, they just deal with it. And I like many others are dealing. The man I should be married to right now died, he's gone, the cancer won and ended our future. Taylor Siluwé fought as hard as he could but in the end we watched him take his last breath. I'm happy that he's no longer in the pain he was in, I'm happy that he's at peace, I'm happy that so many people loved the person that he was and that he was able to touch/reach so many people in so many places. I miss him... It hurts thinking about him. It's not fair that he's gone but for whatever reason he is, so... I'll continue cry, I'll not sleep, I'll be my usual emo self but eventually the tears, the hurt, the pain will fade and only my happy memories of him will be left with me... He wouldn't want anyone crying in his memory he'd expect a party, so celebrate the person he was and keep his legacy alive."

YOUR ENTRÉE

||||| LZ Granderson: The myth of the gay agenda.

< Does "Gay Inc." believe in free speech? "In the battle over gay rights, dissent during wartime isn't always tolerated."

||||| UNESCO joins global fight against anti-gay bullying. "Scale of homophobic bullying worldwide is 'significant', according to UN agency's first ever global consultation."

||||| Cure homophobia... with Straights Only.

US & CANADA NEWS

> This is 14-year-old Kardin Ulysse, who has been left blind in one eye after a homophobic attack in his school's cafeteria in Brooklyn.

< And this is Kameron Slade, a fifth grader from Queens, who won a class contest in speech making. The subject? Marriage equality.

||||| Dharun Ravi released from jail early, will not be deported from US. The 20-year-old served just 20 days for driving gay room-mate Tyler Clementi to suicide.

||||| In other bullying news: More than $US600,000 has been raised for 68-year-old Karen Klein, the New York bus monitor who was captured on video being subjected to a stream of obscenities by high school students.

||||| 7th grade students masturbate openly in class to streaming porn, whilst apparently being ignored by teacher.

> Luka Magnotta - the porn actor accused of killing, eating and mailing the dismembered body parts of his lover to schools and government offices - has pleaded not guilty.

< New York City's gay synagogue, Beth Simchat Torah, gets new look after 40 years.

> Doris Day addresses AIDS LifeCycle riders, pays tribute to Rock Hudson.

||||| Los Angeles loses its last gay piano bar. "Longtime patrons mourn the closing on Sunday of The Other Side in Silverlake after more than 40 years of operation."

< Model suing Abercrombie & Fitch for $US1 million. "Benjamine Bowers says he was asked by photographer to strip down and masturbate on camera to achieve 'relaxed' look."

||||| And the news just gets worse for the iconic retailer. Abercrombie is to close another 180 US stores.

||||| New York pride weekend celebrates "a historic year" for gay rights. "Gay pride parade kicks off celebrations around the world as Grindr releases a not-entirely-surprising map of users worldwide."

||||| Wilson Cruz on why white actors can come out, but "actors of color" can't.

> Converting the gays at LA Pride - will Wilson Cruz be convinced to have sex with a woman for Jesus? (Footnote - Wilson Cruz really does get hotter as he gets older.)

< Cooper Smith and Todd Koch, the "gay dads" from the JC Penney ad, are to march in NYC Pride Parade.

> Gay Georgia lawmaker Rashad Taylor calls on opponent to denounce homophobic flier.

||||| Obama's support for marriage equality does little to shift views.

||||| 5 reasons gay marriage losing streak may be over.

||||| Southern Baptists say gay rights aren't civil rights.

||||| "The GOP's house faggots grab their ankles, right on cue." Dan Savage uses gay slur to slam GOProud for its support of Mitt Romney.

||||| Timothy Kurek, a heterosexual author from Nashville, Tennessee, fictitiously came out to his religious friends and family as gay, and has written a book about his experiences.

< What are the gayest neighbourhoods in America?

||||| Rodney King, whose videotaped beating prompted LA race riots, is dead. He was 47.

||||| Rodney King: A tragic end to a tragic life.

UK NEWS

||||| UK border control slammed for "gay HIV paedo" outburst. "Officers at London's Gatwick Airport likened an HIV positive gay man to a paedophile and suggested using stronger hand gel after searching him."

> Gandhi letters from alleged "gay" friend to be sold in London. "Archive suggests relationship between Jewish bodybuilder Hermann Kallenbach and India's Mahatma Gandhi was 'intimate' but not sexual."

||||| 12 things that aren't "morally wrong" to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, including: "Inheriting a £300,000 fortune from your father's tax avoiding offshore fund."

< The Olympic high street makeover: Just in time for the Games round the corner, shops get a new look that's more Notting Hill than EastEnders.

EUROPE NEWS

||||| FRANCE: Auxerre Gay Pride cancelled by far right political party.

||||| FRANCE: Cohabiting gay men twice as likely to be unemployed as straight counterparts.

> DENMARK: Here's a sight you won't see in the US or UK - churches celebrating marriage equality.

< ITALY: Memorial for murdered gay Chilean Daniel Zamudio unveiled in Rome.

||||| LGBT associations Arcigay and Agedo remember Daniel Zamudio, tortured in Santiago de Chile in March for being gay.

||||| ITALY: The Costa Concordia is still obstructing the view.

> CROATIA: 2,000 people join gay pride parade in Zagreb. Riot police were in attendance, and Croatian ministers joined the march.

||||| RUSSIA: Joseph Stalin's deadly railway to nowhere.

||||| MALTA: Hate crime laws extended to include gays.

LATIN AMERICA NEWS

||||| BRAZIL: Hundreds protest Iranian president's visit to Rio de Janeiro for the UN Rio+20 summit.

||||| COSTA RICA: Thousands of gay Costa Ricans have marched against the new Human Rights Commission president who actively opposes gay equality.

AFRICA NEWS

||||| UGANDA: Government in stunning u-turn on gay hate witch-hunt; statement reads, "No government official is supposed to harass any section of the community and everybody in Uganda enjoys the freedom to lawfully assemble and associate freely with others..."

...Yet the Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Simon Lokodo (left), has banned 38 pro-gay groups which he claims promote homosexuality.

||||| ETHIOPIA: Popular newspaper alleges the United States and Europe are plotting to export, spread and promote homosexuality in Ethiopia.

> KENYA: Gay pride organised by US embassy leaves local gay activists divided.

ASIA NEWS

||||| THAILAND: Wednesday was World Refugee Day. Here, Burmese monks "play a game of Sepak Takraw (kick volleyball) at the Thirisaridar monastery inside the Mae La refugee camp on June 7 in Tak province, Thailand."

||||| AUSTRALIA: Gay equality further diminished in former colony, where even the leftwing is right.

< AUSTRALIA: Case closed. A dingo did cause baby Azaria Chamberlain's death, after all.

||||| Watch this beautiful new safe-sex campaign from the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention:

MIDDLE EAST NEWS

||||| ISRAEL: Politicians slammed for gay hate rants.

||||| ISRAEL: Here's a video of Tel Aviv Gay Pride 2012.

BODY & MIND

||||| Woman "becomes pregnant in the mouth" with baby squid after eating calamari.

||||| Breast milk seems to kill HIV.

||||| Heart problems more likely in HIV sufferers.

||||| SPAIN: Ministry of Health removes condoms and lube from an HIV campaign targeted at men who have sex with men.

||||| Male tea drinkers at greater risk of prostate cancer.

||||| Boffins develop a disease-detecting probiotic drink that colours your faeces to match your illness.

||||| Human beings covered in nearly 3kg of microbes.

||||| Bad memories can be erased in potential breakthrough for treating depression.

> How to kiss!

||||| Why I hate sex! 32 fucktastic reasons!

OUR PLANET, AND BEYOND

< CHINA: Ducks cross the street. 5000 of 'em.

||||| Will water become more valuable than oil?

||||| NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft nears interstellar space.

> NASA unveils new image of our planet, with the Arctic front and centre.

WEB & GADGETS

||||| Alan Turing: New anti-homophobia award named in honour of Turing.

||||| Alan Turing: Why the tech world's gay hero should be a household name.

||||| The evolution of those annoying online security tests.

< Introducing Volkswagen's Hover Car.

||||| Excruciating: Microsoft's new tablet freezes during presentation.

||||| Manhattan to London by train, in under two hours.

PRINT & VISUAL

> Coming soon: Something About Sin, by Taylor Siluwé and Martrel A. Howard. It's the novel Taylor was working on before he died, and partner Martrel has been working hard to finish it.

< A HP Lovecraft figure, anyone?

||||| The books that make you totally undateable.

> 10 of the most terrifying children's books from around the world.

< 22 gay moments on the streets of San Francisco in the 1970s.

< Very, very old photo booth pictures.

||||| Check out Maxence Cardon's Comfort of Light in Darkness photos.

> Breathtaking photos of flying houses. And Dorothy thought she had problems...

||||| The beautiful desolation of Mexico's suburbia.

< Shades of Change, by artist Marin Dearie.

||||| As Martin Edeni's all-gay superhero team Spandex hits the shelves, spend some time getting acquainted with gay characters in comics.

> Marvel Comics editor says gay superheroes reflect real world.

||||| A collection of incredibly gorgeous comic book art.

STAGE

< A review - and pictures galore - of Broadway Bares XXII: Happy Endings.

||||| An all black cast Julius Caesar, anyone?

||||| Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to open in West End.

CINEMA

> The new art of coming out in Hollywood.

< Review: Bashment. "[Rikki] Beadle-Blair's approach has always been to overplay reality in order to really ram home the issues he's focusing on... In bringing engrossing and challenging issues to an audience, Beadle-Blair should rightfully be commended for a superior effort in pushing the boundaries of didactic cinema."

> Review: Romeos. "A fresh, frank, and entrancing look at gender and attraction."

||||| Review: Because Of A Boy. "Not groundbreaking or indiely out-there, but a charming little film that draws you in nonetheless."

||||| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' put on hold to fix script and budget; release date pushed back to 2014.

||||| The Jurassic Park 4 film that was never made.

||||| The E.T. sequel that was never made. "Spielberg's plot for the E.T. follow-up featured child torture and evil aliens."

||||| Blade Runner: Which predictions have come true?

||||| Attack the Block director Joe Cornish to adapt Neal Stephenson's best-selling opus, Snow Crash.

||||| 15 fictional spacecrafts we'd like to call home. Oddly, neither Blake's 7's Liberator, nor Doctor Who's TARDIS make this list.

<Witness DKNG's brilliant "100 Years of Paramount Pictures" poster.

||||| And here's a batch of rare, behind-the-scenes stills featuring Hollywood's icons.

||||| 10 retired film stars who deserve a comeback. The utterly brilliant Gene Wilder, below, was last seen on screen in 1991. (This is a fascinating article - I'd no idea Doris Day and Shirley Temple were still alive, for example...)

||||| Something mysterious, yet undefined: Gene Wilder on Willy Wonka's iconic costume.

> The top 10 evil corporations in movies. Left, Soylent Green's Soylent Corporation.

< 20 set photos that will change how you see these films.

TV

||||| Gays of our lives: All the latest gay soap developments from around the world, with Anthony D. Langford.

||||| Video from that Queer As Folk reunion, anyone?

||||| Make sure to check out new web series The Outs. Episode 3 is up now. Support the KickStarter campaign.

< Dallas hotties Jesse Metcalfe and Josh Henderson, anyone?

||||| LOGO cancels TV's first gay reality series, The A-List: New York.

||||| A fascinating oral history of The Wire, featuring input from everyone from creator David Simon to casting director Alexa Fogel, to the actors who played our favourite (or most hated) characters.

> Ranking '90s TV boyfriends from worst to best. Right, Mario Lopez in Saved By The Bell.

< Walking man meat Joe Manganiello flaunts it on the beach in Miami.

||||| 10 movie stars who bombed on TV.

||||| The 10 craziest TV deaths of the 2011-12 season. Beware spoilers!

> Gay storyline in Telemundo telenovela Relaciones Peligrosas (Dangerous Affairs) heats up.

< Caroline John, the actress best known for her role as Dr Elizabeth Shaw in Doctor Who, is dead. She was 71.

||||| Caroline John: Obituary.

MUSIC

||||| Baltimore gay rappers are loud and proud. "A small but growing number of city artists are helping challenge hip-hop's homophobia."

||||| Here's an article on ka-os|theory God D'Angelo's first US appearance in 12 years.

||||| D'Angelo's new album will be "a radical 180 turn", The Roots drummer Questlove promises.

> OMG! Are the Freaky Boiz a couple - or just freaky?

||||| 10 rappers to convert the indie purist in your life.

||||| Listen to Dizzee Rascal's new mixtape.

||||| Chris Brown and Drake had a little bitchfest at a club, but let their bodyguards do the fighting for them. Afterwards they each got to act hurt/righteous/blameless. How sad.

||||| As well as being a battered, er, artist, Chris Brown is also an Artist now. ANIMAL takes a look at an exhibition of his work.

> Craig David's still on the fitness bender.

< Madonna's been making a new "pop video", and took ~~grandson~~boyfriend Brahim Zaibat along for the ride.

THE SEX BIZ

||||| Erik Rhodes: An early death but perhaps not a surprise. "As the Web replaced video stores as the delivery mechanism for adult content, Mr. Rhodes found his salary shrinking, even while his celebrity rose. And there were other problems. 'People faulted him for

doing steroids, which was the thing that allowed him to be the ideal they wanted,' said Samuel Colt, an actor who appeared with Mr. Rhodes on-screen and was a friend for the last several years of his life. 'And people were always trying to push drugs onto him.' Things went from bad to worse. Mr. Rhodes got into fights with boyfriends, and the police would be called. Famous friends like [Marc] Jacobs... fell away. Mr. Rhodes went from using steroids to dealing them. And then, a few years ago, he tested positive for HIV. According to Mr. Colt, Mr. Rhodes found this out when he went to shoot a scene for Randy Blue, a company that requires testing. 'They said, 'Your test results came back, and you're HIV positive,' ' Mr. Colt said. Nevertheless, Randy Blue still managed to get Mr. Rhodes to film a solo scene that day."

||||| Erik Rhodes: Twitter reactions.

||||| Porn stars: Are we pushing them too far?

< The UK is to get its own gay porn awards show. HOTRODS takes place in Vauxhall on Sunday 8th July, and will feature two live porn shoots on stage.

||||| Why Peter Le is suing YouTube.

||||| Diesel Washington declares the death of gay porn.

||||| Anthony Romero on the straight issue.

||||| Marc Williams is one of the stars of upcoming movie The Real Escorts of America, released next month. A newly clean-shaven Race Cooper also appears.

> Talking to Corbin Fisher director Pete.

||||| Meanwhile, Cocky Boys' Project Go Go Boy features twinks yelling at each other. The trailer is hilarious.

||||| Gay Comic Geek Paul reviews Titan Men's Incubus. Video.

< OMG! Tyler Trenton and TygaX. (Yes, we can't get enough of Tyler Trenton here at ka-os|theory.)

SPORT

> The gay Olympics badge shops won't sell.

||||| Italian footballer Antonio Cassano "regrets" controversy after he said he hopes no "queers" are on his team.

||||| First gay sports bar for San Francisco.

< Check out Chris Arnade's photos of parkour in the Bronx.

PARTING SHOTS

||||| Beware this homophobic viral doing the rounds online...

||||| Shirtless Abercrombie & Fitch models, horsing around, anyone?