KAOS: Issue 191: Folsom, Doctor Who, Diego Lauzen, Looking, MNEK, Michael Sam, Sean Zevran, Tony Blair, Goli Otok, Exhibit B, and more...

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

| ponder this |

The long, powerful history between labor movements and gay activists.

Who gets to write gay rights into the history books? "Because our teachers couldn’t help us, we helped each other. Now that schools will teach our children the LGBT struggle, we must keep making history."

Why isn't it okay for guys to be bi?

When no gender fits: A quest to be seen as just a person.

The myth of the Angry Black Woman.

Is euthanasia a rational option for prisoners facing the torture of life in jail?

The internet has changed everything – and nothing. "In the real world people still torture and kill each other, all that’s changed is that they post it online."

| america |

California Governor Jerry Brown outlaws the "gay panic" defense in court.

San Francisco city councilman Scott Wiener has become the first politician to "come out of the PrEP closet".

This is 44-year-old teacher Roger Kessler. Police arrested him for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old boy. Despite being HIV-positive, Kessler didn't always use a condom, nor did he disclose his status to the boy.

Centre for Disease Control warns that half of gay and bisexual American men with HIV aren’t receiving treatment.

The Human Rights Council has passed a landmark resolution on gay equality, condemning violence and discrimination against LGBT people.

Is San Diego the new home of gay activism?

Black pastors form alliance against marriage equality.

Harlem church unveils new anti-gay sign.

Two Utah billboard companies have rejected "God Loves Gays" signs in order to "avoid controversy".

Former US President Jimmy Carter says Jesus did not discriminate against gays.

Meet accused Philadelphia gay basher Kathryn Knott.

Mitt Romney might run for president again in 2016.

Dallas Pride, in pictures.

Austin Pride, in pictures.

Wanna buy a legendary black, gay disco? Jewel's Catch One in Los Angeles is on the market.

Manhattan is less dense today than it was in 1910.

New York’s subway is so hellish, I’m homesick for London’s underground.

The secret world of the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise kings.

The meaning of the climate march's defining photo. "The architecture of corporate confidence has faded to green. Can the city that defined energy excess become a symbol of resistance to preserve the future?"

Canada: Two gay Syrian refugees find sanctuary in Vancouver.

| europe |

England: Hundreds turn out to protest against anti-gay laws at the Gambian embassy in London.

England: Why Tony Blair is a gay icon.

England: The far-right is using the Islamic State as a powerful propaganda tool, and it's working.

England: Gangs in are selling sham gay marriages to illegal immigrants.

England: Tesco - where did it all go wrong?

England: London overtakes Hong Kong as world’s most expensive city.

France: Three-quarters want to keep equal marriage laws, despite opposition calls for repeal.

France: Former president Nicolas Sarkozy claims the new same-sex marriage law in France "humiliates families".

France: The perplexing and significant crash of Air France Flight 447. "How a series of small errors turned a state-of-the-art cockpit into a death trap."

Greece: The armed forces are firing HIV-positive soldiers.

Russia: The Constitutional Court has upheld the so-called gay propaganda law.

Serbia: Hundreds march for equality in Belgrade Gay Pride.

Croatia: A former gulag on the uninhabited island of Goli Otok could become a gay resort.

Azerbaijan: Gay couple in fear for lives after engagement photo is shared by media.

| latin america |

Trinidad and Tobago: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says gay equality "not legally possible".

| africa |

Chad: New penal code proposes punishing homosexual activity with up to twenty years in prison.

Burundi: Vietnamese telecommunications worker arrested on charges of “homosexual practices.”

Cameroon: Parliament website hacked with pro-gay message.

South Africa: Gay man stoned to death in Port Elizabeth.

South Africa: Pro-gay mosque shut down for not having any parking spaces.

South Africa: Once an essential nation to advancing gay equality in international diplomacy, the rainbow nation has since become a potential roadblock.

| asia |

Japan: The dangerous fetish for packaging.

Indonesia: Aceh lawmakers approve caning for gay sex.

Australia: Gay asylum seekers resettled in Papua New Guinea, where it is illegal to be gay.

Australia: Come out to immigration officials or be deported? Gay asylum seekers will suffer under the new regime. "New ‘reforms’ pushed through parliament will fast-track asylum claims. For LGBTI asylum seekers, already suffering in detention, the outcomes will be particularly cruel."

Australia: Melbourne gay night club to ban patrons for life if they're found with meth, GHB.

| middle east |

ISIS is part of the "homosexual agenda", apparently.

Israel: Tel Aviv club Haoman 17 mocks up ISIS beheading for advertising campaign.

Iran: Man arrested for using Facebook to satisfy gay "sexual lust".

Egypt: Eight men who were arrested for appearing in a "gay marriage" video will face trial for inciting debauchery.

Egypt: Beer and loathing in post-Muslim Brotherhood Ciaro.

| inside the spaceship |

Hello, Ello. Can we trust you?

31,000 people an hour are joining the social network Ello. The anti-Facebook, explained.

Why you want your old iPod back. And that typewriter. And an Etch A Sketch. And... "The nostalgia for old tech is undeniable. Who doesn’t want to go back in time to an era when your things just... worked?"

| art & design |

The Tenth, a glossy zine for the black, gay and talented.

For Gays in the Military, Vincent Cianni photographed one hundred gay and lesbian U.S. military personnel.

Do not miss Polish cartoonist and illustrator Pawel Kuczynski's brilliant cartoons about our relationship with Facebook.

Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Emiliano Paolini redesign Ken and Barbie dolls to look like religious figures. But not the Prophet Muhammad, apparently...

Is art installation Exhibit B racist?

Exhibit B shut down.

Exhibit B: Yes, [it] is challenging – but I never sought to alienate or offend. "My work exists in territories filled with pain, anger and hatred, and is open to different interpretation – but suppressing my expression is a dangerous precedent."

Exhibit B: The show has value - but who was it aimed at? "Those who staged the ‘human zoo’ installation, cancelled after protests this week, failed to consider how black audiences would interpret it."

Exhibit B: The performers are angry they have been shut down.

Exhibit B: It's not just the censorship which proves that the stupid are winning. "We've reached a worrying moment in our history where anything awkward or ambiguous is deemed unworthy."

Exhibit B: What price artistic freedom when the bullies turn up? "The closure of a Barbican show, forced by self-appointed censors claiming it was racist, threatens free expression."

The final stretch of New York's High Line park has opened.

How they saved London's Southbank Undercroft.

The weird afterlife of the world's subterranean ghost stations...

...And London's abandoned Tube stations, in pictures.

| word! |

Newspapers weren't late to online news — they were way too early.

Science fiction fanzines before the future got broken.

Talking to Christos Tsiolkas.

In his new book Bronx Boys, Stephen Shames' pictures capture "the coming-of-age of a group of boys growing up in the Bronx, then one of the grittiest and poorest neighborhoods in the United States. It was a magazine assignment that became a life’s work, because Shames followed this group of young men from 1977 – 2000 through all corners of their lives, navigating poverty and drug addiction in beautifully personal, intimate photos about growing up in New York City."

Book review: A Gathering Storm, by Jameson Currier. "A grim [novel], but it is not purely a story of human cruelty."

| at the movies |

The fascinating one hundred year journey of black cinema through film posters.

These jaw-dropping new Star Wars models.

First Taiwan International Queer Film Festival launches with sixty films.

Cinema review: Jayson Bend: Queen & Country. "A beautifully-realised and gloriously silly love letter to the world’s greatest secret agent. I hope the franchise continues and we see a string of Bend movies, ensuring absolutely no entendre is left undoubled."

Cinema review: Pride. "Would be looking at major sleeper hit status in the States if this were still the 1990s when such things still happened to comedies from overseas."

| the box |

HBO has been busy shooting the second season of Looking. In pictures.

Is Black-ish the next Modern Family?

Viola Davis shines in ABC’s addictive, flawed How To Get Away With Murder...

...Which promises a lot of gay sex.

How Lost changed showrunning.

Mr Gay India Sushant Divgikar becomes a housemate in Bigg Boss, the country's version of Big Brother.

Always leave them laughing. "Diagnosed with terminal cancer two years ago, and given only months to live, Sam Simon is still alive and still racing to spend the fortune he made as co-creator of The Simpsons on causes he loves, whether he is rescuing grizzly bears or funding vegan food banks. As Simon's friends and fellow activists gather for his 59th birthday, another friend, Merrill Markoe, reveals how a force of comedy faces his own tragedy."

Why is True Detective obsessed with casting A-listers? "The arrival of Colin Farrell suggests either a lack of confidence... or signals a more worrying future that TV is headed for."

Gotham has a great look, a great cast — and awful dialogue.

1970s Doctor Who girl Katy Manning pays a visit to the show's current set.

Speaking of Doctor Who, here's a new publicity shot of dreamy Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson).

Who is Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer? And why does he rock Doctor Who?

Why are millions of Americans binge-watching Korean dramas?

In London, the BBC has handed over a gutted Television Centre to developers...

...For one last time, a nostalgic wander through the sets, studios and ghosts of programmes past.

Coronation Street to introduce gay vicar.

Gays of our lives: The latest from our favourite gays in soaps, with Anthony D. Langford. Above, Hollyoaks.

Watch the latest episode of BoyDrama...

| beats, rhymes & life |

2014's queer music icons.

Annie Lennox: The word "gay" is irrelevant.

On the music industry's yesterday's men, and women. "Those old-fashioned types who still haven’t heard of WhatsApp or Grindr are left with the Grammys, whose folksy-sounding title conveys an accurate impression of the age bracket at which the made-for-television event is pitched. Broadcast in early February, the Grammys are the music business’s half-assed version of the Oscars, an industry-sponsored shindig whose aim is to encourage an ever-shrinking fan base to keep buying CDs, downloads, or whatever music-related product people might spend their pennies on. My favorite thing about the Grammys is the odd time warp that the broadcasts still somehow manage to generate; they are like transmissions from a distant planet on which rock stars still dance and sing like Mick."

Why is Japan still in love with the compact disc?

The hip-hop rich list.

Lady Gaga gets manhandled on stage.

One Direction singer Liam Payne goes shooting with anti-gay Duck Dynasty stars.

New music: MNEK - In Your Clouds; and Jeremih - Nobody But U.

| sex |

Folsom Street Fair, in pictures.

Sean Zevran and Brent Corrigan were there...

...And Dato Foland and Jake Bass were there, too.

Bruno Bernal took his dad to a porn shoot to work as an extra in the scene Bruno shot with porn star Paddy O’Brian for Men.com.

About Brent Everett, Steve Pena and Jayson Smith's "throuple".

On set with prize bottom Armond Rizzo.

In case you missed it (pity you) here are pictures from Kris Evans' long-awaited bareback bottoming scene.

Bel Ami's boys don't come close to the sizzling chemistry exhibited in TimTales' jaw-dropping threeway starring kaos favourite Diego Lauzen, Wagner Vittoria and bodybuilder Flex.

Jacob Kohinoor talks to BreedItRaw model Lil Jody...

| arena |

The International Olympic Committee has added a non-discrimination clause to its contract with any future host city, after the Sochi controversy...

...But is it nothing more than lipstick on a pig?

The brokeback cowboys of Ohio's gay rodeo.

The NFL’s dark, intractable history of domestic violence.

Vulgar Michael Sam sign shows up on ESPN's College GameDay.

Here's Michael Sam with Helix Studios' model Liam Riley, pictured together at Dallas Pride.

Meet Apollos...

| the human body |

Guys with bigger bellies make better lovers.

Why are so many gay American men contracting meningitis, the so-called "kissing disease"?

Most gay and bisexual men aren't personally concerned about HIV. They should be.

Why the HPV vaccine should be offered to gay men in gyms.

Thirteen things you need to know about Ebola...

...And this: The worst case scenario.

Nine mind-blowing facts about the dysfunction of the American health-care system.

Nine questions about urine you were too embarrassed to ask.

| zoo |

Giant red monster leech eats worm!

Saving Syria's cats.

Watch a leopard dive bomb a luckless impala from a dizzying height.

Animal pictures of the week. Above, a leopard battles a honey badger.

A female Alpine Ibex and her young climb down a vertical dam (up to 80°) at the lake Cingino, near Antrona Piana, Italy, 22 September 2014.

The thirst is real: Frogs gawp at worm video.

| planet earth |

Zero percent water. "The drought is now killing off century-old California farms. People here don’t blame the weather gods for not bringing rain — they blame the rest of us for not giving a damn."

Why rich countries worry more about global warming than poor ones.

Flooding risk from climate change, country by country.