M A N N E Q U I N
M A N I A
M A N I A
men, in pictures
Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening
M A N N E Q U I N
M A N I A
M A N I A
men, in pictures
I'm an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort
TIRED OLD QUEEN
at the movies
at the movies
Published after Forester's death and hidden for decades, it concerns the romance of a two young men at Cambridge at the turn of the century, what their love affair costs them and how they manage to find peace and happiness in a society which forbids, admonishes and punishes them for their inclinations. Gloriously photographed, meticulously directed and exceptionally cast, it is one of the greatest and most honest love stories ever filmed. Steve Hayes
(Syndication is with the kind permission of Steve Hayes.)
If your life at night is good, you think you have everything
M A N N E Q U I N
M A N I A
M A N I A
men, in pictures
Choklit Daddy's sketchbook
WHILST I WAS putting together Issue 149 of The Kaos Theory, I came across a story about Hollywood's Antebellum Gallery celebrating Black Pride with the work of artists like Tom of Finland, Belasco and JC Etheredge. In amongst those legends was a new name, whose vibrant work jumped off the screen at me: Choklit Daddy."I'm Black, gay, and in my 50s," Larry, the man behind Choklit Daddy, told me when I got in touch. "I'm married, legally in California since 2008, to the same man for 37 years. We live in Southern California with our Chartreux cat."
"I used to draw (pencil sketches, Beardsley-inspired pen-and-ink) as a boy - everything from Mickey Mouse to Diana Ross to (bodybuilder) Dave Draper."
Choklit Daddy's most recent works (which you can view on his excellent blog, Choklit Daddy's Sketchbook) were created entirely on his tablet computer. "I started drawing digital homoerotica in September 2011, after a friend mentioned that there were drawing apps for the iPad. For me, it was the right idea at the right time. I started out using the Inspire Pro app (briefly), then Sketchbook Pro, and currently ArtStudio.""I love homoerotic art; from ancient Greek kouros sculptures to Michelangelo to Paul Cadmus to Tom of Finland. I have collected it for years (mostly snatched off the Internet, though I do own a couple of original pieces, by Michael Kirwan and The Hun). I met my idol, Patrick Fillion, at Bent-Con in Los Angeles, in December 2011. I had brought some of my drawings with me; he looked at them and said, 'These are good. Keep drawing'. That was when it occurred to me that I might actually get good at this. So, I kept drawing."
I wondered how the Antebellum SEXYBLACK show came about. "The SEXYBLACK show came about when I spotted a tall, beautiful, coffee-colored young man at a party at my friend John Burdick's house. The moment I laid eyes on this boy, I knew I wanted to draw him. So I introduced myself and as we were talking, he indicated the man he was there with; who turned out to be [Antebellum owner] Rick Castro. I handed Rick one of my business cards, which had one of my drawings on it, naturally. And he said, 'This is cute'. He also said he was considering putting on an exhibition of Black homoerotic art at his art gallery, Antebellum, in Hollywood; and he asked me if I might be interested. I did five new drawings especially for SEXYBLACK. One of them, Dancer - Ballet and Hip-Hop, is of Frederick, the boy I met at the party."Enjoy a selection of Choklit Daddy's work after the jump - and don't forget to head over to his blog for more!
There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared: twins
M A N N E Q U I N
M A N I A
M A N I A
men, in pictures
Issue 150: Carlos Vigil, Eric Ohena Lembembe, Trayvon Martin, Detroit, bash mobs, bulls, MERS, Mister, queers in exile, Matthew Rush, Zebra Katz, Enders Game, and more
the destination for the
week's essential news
and pop culture stories,
with a gay bias.
||| Be killed or be caged? "For gay people of colour or those from low-income backgrounds, there are seemingly two choices when faced with a violent situation: take the harm lying down, or fight back and face time behind bars."
> Black, gay, American. A search for sanctuaries, and needed conversations about race and identity.||| Is it time to update our flag?
||| How the internet paved the way for marriage equality.
||| Why bisexuals stay in the closet.
||| Next time you read of union "bosses", ask yourself what the media are up to. "Most journalists show little interest in understanding trade unions because so few of them are actually working class."
||| How about bonuses for shop assistants, not bankers?
||| McDonald's puts budgeting on the menu for its employees. "The fast-food chain offers staff advice on how to live on $7.70 an hour. Have some humbug with your hamburger, why not?"||| The six types of atheist.
US & CANADA NEWS
> This is 17-year-old Carlos Vigil, a gay teen from New Mexico who has taken his own life after enduring years of bullying. Please read his heartbreaking suicide note.
||| Dying gay man gets his wish to marry his partner.> The camp for boys who want to dress like girls.
||| That time my Dad made me go to Pride. "From a closeted teenager boy to a proud grown man, Wes Janisen has grown up with the community."
||| House Republican leaders drop opposition to marriage equality statute.
||| Why a plaque ceremony for Stonewall Inn was abruptly cancelled.
||| California City cancels gay Pride month, arrests protestors.||| Westboro Baptist Church spells "illiterate" wrong on flyer accusing voters of not being able to read. In related news, Westboro will picket the funeral of deceased Glee star Cory Monteith.
< Meanwhile, members of the Satanic Temple claim to have turned Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps' mother into a lesbian in the afterlife after performing a "pink mass" at her gravesite.
||| Trayvon Martin: The key moments in the case that led to Zimmerman's acquittal.
||| Trayvon Martin: Witness claims Trayvon thought Zimmerman was going to rape him.
||| Trayvon Martin: Juror B37, who hates the media, signs up prominent literary agent, called Trayvon "boy of colour" and described his slaying as "an unfortunate incident".
||| Trayvon Martin: The devastating message the verdict sends.
||| Trayvon Martin: Statement by President Obama.
||| Trayvon Martin: Protests, in pictures.
||| Trayvon Martin: It's open season on black boys after a verdict like this.
||| Trayvon Martin: The killing of Trayvon Martin is the continuation of business as usual. "In 'post-racial' America unquestioned habits of thinking led directly to George Zimmerman's exoneration."
||| Trayvon Martin: If racism is alive and well, homophobia has lots of good years left. "The Zimmerman trial feels like a relic of the inflamed race wars of the 1960s. If anything good is to come of it, it's the reminder that prejudice has a long shelf-life."
||| Trayvon Martin: Black panic lives on: Where Trayvon Martin and Matthew Shepard Collide.
||| Trayvon Martin: From Matthew Shepard to Trayvon Martin - bigotry knows no boundaries.
||| It's over. But it's not really done. Why the not-guilty verdict is unlikely to be the end of the Trayvon Martin saga in court.
||| Trayvon Martin: The Zimmerman verdict outrage should also be about concealed guns.||| Why Bradley Manning "aiding the enemy" charge is a threat to journalism.
> Is Rolling Stone's Dzhokhar Tsarnaev "rock star" cover an outrage?
||| Dzhokhar Tsarnaev capture pictures don't deromanticise this "monster". "These latest pictures of the Boston suspect actually look more heroic than the Rolling Stone cover. But anger at an image obscures the more difficult reality."
||| The problem with Rolling Stone's' Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover isn't the image — it's the reaction.
< A warning from Detroit. "Parts of the city seem as deserted as Chernobyl or as blasted as Stalingrad in the aftermath of battle."
||| Yet Detroit is still rich in other ways.
||| "Bash mobs" - organised crime rampages of roving groups attacking innocent people and businesses - sweep through Southern California.
||| Hostess Twinkies: hardly the "sweetest comeback ever". "Twinkies are back on shelves this week, but it's hard to erase the 18,000 lay-offs and management mistakes."
||| CANADA: Why are Canada's trains vulnerable? Good old capitalist cost-cutting. "Canadian trains used to be run by five engineers each, now it's just one. Competition trumped safety, now lives have been lost."
< The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill passes the final reading in the House of Lords, is signed into law.
||| The government wants to know why the passing of marriage equality was largely ignored by the country's major broadcasters. For example, "on the evening that same-sex marriage became law, the BBC’s flagship News at Ten featured a lengthy report about a child asking The Queen about the royal baby but it did not have time to mention the historic bill that The Queen signed into law."
||| There are still aspects of discrimination in the equal marriage bill, human rights activist Peter Tatchell warns......And the six ways marriage equality in England and Wales isn't quite equal.
||| New Barnardo's video raises awareness of how young gay people can be exploited.
> South London 15-year-old raped 13-year-old boy in stairwell of highrise for "having a poor phone".
||| Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing to be given posthumous pardon. But is it a pointless exercise?
||| How people of colour have been painted out of working-class history. "It's shocking how even voices on the left mythologise the history of Britain's labour movement as an all-white affair."
||| Northern Ireland could face legal action if our politicians don't support marriage equality soon.
< SPAIN: The sickening and barbaric Running of the Bulls, in pictures.
||| ICELAND: Reykjavik mayor to cut ties with Moscow over Russia's "gay propaganda" law.
||| BELARUS: Gay "propaganda" law mooted.
||| FRANCE: EuroPride marches through Marseille. In pictures.
> ITALY: "I love animals, but when I see her, I can't help but think of an orangutan." That's what Italian politician Roberto Calderoli said in reference to Cécile Kyenge, Italy's black minister of integration. Why do racists still flourish in multicultural Italy?< ITALY: Vatican bank accused of "gay lobby" cover-up.
||| ITALY: Five Costa Concordia staff convicted for manslaughter, negligence.
||| ITALY: There is just one chance to refloat the stricken Costa Concordia.
LATIN AMERICA NEWS
||| MEXICO: Benjamin Medrano, the country's first openly gay mayor, is "not in favour" of marriage equality.
||| JAMAICA: Leading theologian Rev. Dr. Clinton Chisholm calls for tolerance of gays as anti-buggery law is challenged.
||| HAITI: A thousand people protest against marriage equality in Port-au-Prince. Two men, accused of being gay, were beaten to death.
AFRICA NEWS
||| And police aren't even investigating. "Police took no photos, collected no evidence, and there has been no autopsy," a fellow activist says.
||| UN officials condemn the killing, and United States government has also voiced its disapproval.
||| How we can help pay for a proper funeral for Eric.
||| ZAMBIA: Philip Mubiana and James Mwape will spend four months in jail before they even face trial on charges of homosexual activity; the 21-year-olds were arrested in May "after a hostile mob found them sharing a drink at a local bar".
||| KENYA: Anti-gay violence continues, despite progress, as gay men are hacked with machetes and murdered in a wave of hate crimes.< SOUTH AFRICA: Why a white teenager risked traditional circumcision.
||| SOMALIA: Gay refugees face death threats.
ASIA-PACIFIC NEWS
||| INDIA: New Delhi man killed in cash-for-gay-sex row.> INDIA: Shunned by sponsors, Mr Gay India to go it alone in Belgium pageant.
||| INDIA: Deadly school meals a national crisis.
||| BURMA: Myanmar gays to sue police for assault and harassment.
||| AUSTRALIA: So, just what is this "gay agenda" which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's sister is so afraid of?
||| AUSTRALIA: Christian lawmaker says gays should get "homied" and "lesied" instead of married.
||| AUSTRALIA: Are South-East Asian holidays spreading HIV in Australia?
MIDDLE EAST NEWS
||| YEMEN: Al-Qaeda linked group kill man after accusing him of being gay.
PLANET EARTH
||| The sea is invisible to us – so it's become our trash heap.
||| Where are all the wasps?
||| Chimps, apparently, experiment with sex more than humans. Dirty beasts.
||| Inside the industry supplying millions of mutant mice.
BODY, MIND & SOUL
||| Why is the rich US in such poor health?
||| Sweet snacks linked to bowel cancer.
||| The average penis is smaller than you thought.
||| Young gay men are 15 times more likely to get genital cancers.
||| In Iran, HIV transmission via sex has nearly tripled.
||| Could a bad gut turn your HIV into AIDS?
||| Is HIV eradication in our future?
||| Boffins use HIV to cure rare genetic disorders.
||| HIV dating 3.0: New rules of engagement.
||| In the US, a Bill to lift a ban on HIV-positive organ donation has passed the House committee.
||| Let gay men donate blood.
||| MERS - the Middle Eastern coronavirus - is worrying, but not an emergency for now
||| Our bodies are super-gross. Here's why. Plus, weird ways to burn 200 calories.
||| How to look good online.
> Is Mister the grown-up version of Grindr?
||| How Scientology changed the internet.
||| Google Play store search links Mickey Mouse game to gay erotic fiction.
||| Tumblr: Porn blogs can stay, but they'll be mostly hidden.
||| Why it's time to change your Tumblr password — immediately.
||| We want privacy from the government, but we're an open book on social media.
||| What your email sign-off really means.||| Why the hard drive is here to stay.
||| Why I still use a dumb phone (and have no plan to change).
ART & DESIGN
< Queers In Exile, the Unforgotten Legacies of LGBTQ Homeless Youth, a new exhibit showing the long-hidden crisis of queer youth homelessness, at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.
||| Young, gay and hoping for something better. Don't miss Photographer Preston Gannaway's pictures documenting the life of Tavaris 'Teddy Ebony' Edwards.
< Why do so many public murals seem to have a homoerotic tone?||| The queer guide to Comic-Con.
||| We talk to the multi-talented artist known as Choklit Daddy.
||| Check out the chucklesome Gaysome comic.
||| Read Trayvon's Scream, a poem by The Long Blue Moan author L.M. Ross.||| Why John Horne Burns never became a gay icon.
> A library is not just about books: it's also a place for the vulnerable. "If another 400 UK libraries close by 2016, as predicted, the true loss to society will be even greater than we realise."< Book review: Red-Inked Retablos, by Rigoberto González. "González brings the concept of retablos, handcrafted works of devotional art, into literature."
||| 50 places every literary fan should visit.PERFORMANCE
> Homo The Musical!, the story of a gay alien from Planet Homo who invades a conservative American town and sparks a sexual revolution.
||| A Magic Mike musical is in the works.
< Fuerza Bruta "is a breathtaking, high-energy acrobatic spectacle" and the show is bringing back its classic gay-friendly Boys Night Out for three summer performances.||| Theatre review: Mirrorball. "An emotional and engaging portrait of the 1980s and one man’s struggle to keep himself together as his world falls apart."
AT THE MOVIES
||| Why is Netflix secretly cropping movies?||| Ender's Game is making a big push at Comic-Con, but I'm not buying it. "As a gay 'nerd', I don't want my money going to benefit homophobic Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card in any way."
> But a boycott of Enders Game movie is "a waste of energy", claims Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
||| Why Johnny Depp must be stopped.
||| Behind The Candelabra scores 15 Emmy nominations.< Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is coming soon.
||| The Star Wars home of Anakin Skywalker is about to be buried by sand dunes.
||| That Certain Summer, a different kind of California gay movie.
> 12 gay movies straight out of LA. Left, Leave It on The Floor.< Naturally, Frankenstein's monster is now sexy.
> Wilson Cruz is on Fire Island, in very little.
||| Remembering the inimitable Barbara Stanwyck.||| 17 amazing stories of lost and found films.
< Film review: Fruitvale Station. "The feature debut of 27-year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler tells the true story of the death of a 22-year-old African American man named Oscar Grant, who was shot by police on New Year's Day in 2009 at the Fruitvale BART Station in San Francisco. Watching it last Friday it felt like a modest success, a solid specific slice-of-life drama if not a great or ambitious one. But context is a funny thing. The very next day it was feeling much bigger.
.."||| DVD review: Speechless. "An intriguing and well-made movie that certainly keeps you watching, even if a slightly uneven tone and tendency towards melodrama in the later stages stop it from being as great as it might have been."
||| Watch the sweet trailer for the 25th Vancouver Queer Film Festival; and Born This Way, a new film about the oppression of gay Cameroonians; Fruitvale Station; and Bashment, which is finally out on DVD in October.
> Cory Monteith: the Glee star's death is an all-too familiar teen idol plot-line.
||| Why HBO's The Newsroom is a homage to everything that's wrong with TV news.
||| HBO renews True Blood for a seventh season.
||| Let's stop having a summer TV hiatus.
||| Why you should know about The Borgias.
||| Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien plays with co-star Tyler Posey's nipple during an interview.
< Teen Wolf paper dolls!> Meet the new men of America's Next Top Model.
||| Marc Anthony Samuel is confident his gay character on General Hospital will get a love interest.
||| Why these female Apprentice finalists give me nothing to cheer about. "Both Luisa Zissman and Leah Totton's ideas for profit, like their grooming regimes, are profoundly dispiriting."
||| 25 great (American) sitcoms you can watch right now on YouTube.
> If it's between Bieber and a bombing suspect, who can blame Rolling Stone? "Now that lateness is thought bad behaviour, and even Downey Jr's a bore, it's no wonder the US mag went with that cover."
||| Oh dear. A tape of Kanye West ranting about Taylor Swift, racism and more has leaked.
||| Pet Shop Boys' 12 greatest collaborations.< Talking to Zebra Katz, and stray Katz: lost in London.
||| Watch Zebra Katz - Lst Ctrl.
||| Music videos: Mister Chase - F*ck U Betta; and Colton Ford - All My Love.
SEX
> Talking to porn legend Matthew Rush about retiring from the industry, his relationship, and working with men of colour.||| Marcus Mojo snapped out and about in West Hollywood...
...Or maybe Marcus Patrick (left) is more to your liking?
||| Talking to Colton Ford.
SPORT< Talking to straight ally Brendon Ayanbadejo...
...Who gets hit on by men and women all the time: but guys are easier to deal with.
||| Should professional athletes speak out about gay equality?||| Pamphlet issued by the German Football Association advises gay football players to come out "quietly".
< Tom Daley practises ahead of the FINA World Championships in Barcelona, bouyed, perhaps, by being crowned the sexiest man in the world by readers of Attitude magazine.> Nude photos of Australian rugby player George Burgess wind up on Twitter. Incidentally, that's Burgess and his twin brother. Uh huh. More pictures, including the naked ones, here.
||| Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell: Olympic sprinters fail drug tests.||| What is oxilofrine?
> Jamaica is dealt a blow by positive tests of Asafa Powell and four others. "How the devastating news of multiple positive drug tests is being received by media and officials on the Caribbean island."
< Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell: A tragedy for athletics.
||| Sprint legends Ato Boldon and Donovan Bailey clash over Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.
||| Adidas drops Tyson Gay.
||| Have years of scandal and drug cheats taken the joy out of winning?
> Even at its lowest point the 100m remains an unquenchable fascination. "While tempting to conclude that the sport has arrived at its lowest ebb since 1988, it is still impossible not to love such a gloriously ruined, gloriously human spectacle."
||| Reeling from recent failed tests, athletics fights on.
||| Now Jamaican discus thrower Traves Smikle reveals positive drug test.
AND WHILST YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT THAT, THINK ABOUT THIS
||| Did Urban Outfitters mean to put a gang sign on a shirt?||| Why restaurants are louder than ever.
< The 10 greatest white elephants. "Benidorm's In Tempo is the latest huge construction project to end up unused. Here are nine more examples from history."> Brutalist buildings that should be dystopian movie sets.
||| What is it like to live in an airport?
||| And finally, we check in with Rogue "Marbie" Scott, Davey Wavey explains frot sex, Martin invites us to spend the day with him, and Walter stirs up some controversy...
