KAOS: Issue 196: Shamir, PrEP, David DeCoteau, chemsex, bottom shaming, Shrien Dewani, Denny Fouts, Finding Me, Zebra Katz, and more...

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

| ponder on this |

Is PrEP the end of HIV in the U.S.?

Why we're still waiting for gay Hollywood to talk about PrEP.

It's time to end bottom shaming.

Why Halloween is a gay tradition.

The first time I dressed in drag, I found both myself and the ugliness in others, writes Zach Stafford.

Where are the west’s female leaders? "Women are gaining more political power in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America than in Europe. What’s slowing us down?"

Why are some men so angry? "From Gamergate to mass shootings to domestic violence and the NFL, the common denominator is male rage."

The woman who made a video about catcalling is already getting rape threats.

Black writers can write about far more than race.

This insanely detailed map proves race is a social construct.

I’m a Muslim with a beard. What’s so scary about that?

We cannot just focus on challenging the violent extremists in society when the issue is within Islamism as a whole.

From Michael Brown to Assata Shakur, the racist state of America persists. "Those who resist are treated like terrorists – as in Ferguson this year, and as I and other black activists were in the 60s and 70s."

International adoption made me a commodity, not a daughter. "I was taken from my home in Ethiopia by a corrupt adoption agency. When I returned, I felt Ethiopian, but they saw me as an American."

Richard Branson’s space tourism shows what today’s obscene inequality looks like. "When rich people burn huge sums of money on fun, it wakes us up to the excesses of the free market."

How rich governments use compassion as an excuse to let thousands of migrants die.

Lad luxe: The fetishisation of the working class in fashion is the height of snobbery, reducing disadvantage to a trend.

You are probably wrong about almost everything.

Five products you probably buy that are quietly driving human rights abuses.

| america |

This is 28-year-old Chad Marshall Wilcox. He is alleged to have robbed and murdered 36-year-old Manuel Hakimian in his own home, after he answered Wilcox's ad on Craigslist.

Dante Martin has been convicted of manslaughter in 2011 hazing death of gay drum major Robert Champion, who was twenty-six when he died after being beaten inside a bus after a football game. Martin was the ringleader in the traditional hazing; accomplices Brian Jones and Ryan Dean have already been sentenced after pleading no-contest to third-degree felony hazing last year.

Daniel Pierce, the 20-year-old disowned after his parents' "pray the gay away" intervention, has joined the board of homeless gay youth charity Lost-n-Found Youth.

Meet gay 17-year-old Dylan Beard, who was lured to a skate park and beaten up by "friends", who called him "faggot" and "booty lover". Intriguingly, Nation Of Islam activist Quanell X is assisting Beard's mother in filing a hate crime complaint with the FBI, after she became frustrated with the police response.

Pearl Fernandez and her former boyfriend Isauro Aguirre offered plea deal that will see them incarcerated for life, but escape the death penalty. They tortured 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez for months before finally murdering him for "acting gay".

"Worst ex-boyfriend ever" emails nudes of his former boyfriend to his school colleagues, flees state to escape police.

A drunk who attacked a bystander he believed to be gay at Dallas airport won't face jail time.

Chicago man detained without warrant in HIV disclosure case.

Veteran activist David Mixner has admitted to assisting in the suicide of eight men with AIDS during the 1980’s. There is no statute of limitations for murder in the United States.

Gay inmates sue California jail over alleged discrimination.

Halloween New Orleans - the biggest gay costume bash in the US - in pictures. Money raised goes to Project Lazarus, a home for people living with AIDS.

New York's Ebola response should be informed by lessons learned fighting HIV. It isn't.

This is a picture of all of the openly gay CEOs in top 1000 US companies.

Tom Menino, the former Mayor of Boston, and a prominent advocate for gay equality, is dead. He was 71.

Why the decline of interest in baseball is a harbinger of waning American power. "An America that worships football and ignores baseball is one choosing its worse angels over its better ones."

The Republicans: over-reaching and underscoring. "When Kansas starts rejecting the Republican agenda, you know it’s a party in long-term decline."

Resist the Jeb Bush the media wants to sell you for 2016. It's a Jeb of lies.

Charlie Manson’s home on the range. "George Spahn and his California ranch, before and after the Manson family showed up."

Nine real-life horror stories of people who disappeared and were never found.

Is New York’s latest graffiti crackdown backfiring?

NYPD harassment stories: Living in a state of fear.

Everything you need to know about the Detroit bankruptcy.

Lava flowing from Kilauea volcano threatens communities in Hawaii, in pictures.

| europe |

United Kingdom: We're now turning our backs on migrants dying at sea – have we learned nothing from Australia? "The end of British support for search and rescue operations in the southern Mediterranean is appalling. Yet again, the British Conservatives have filched policy from their former colony..."

...And it is an act of inhumanity.

United Kingdom: Occupy Democracy is not considered newsworthy. It should be. "Sleeping outside for an iPhone is OK, but do it in furtherance of democratic expression and you’re in trouble."

United Kingdom: Chemsex linked to rising levels of HIV among gay men.

England: Why did the Department for Education Tweet, "Nonsense to say schools must teach gay rights."

England: Red Cross drops volunteer who held one-man protest against marriage equality.

England: Sinister anti-gay monk strikes again.

England: Manchester library unveils public gay history archive.

England: Marriage equality is "false bollocks" by "equality Nazis" for "queens who want to dance up the aisle to the Village People", says gay UKIP MEP David Coburn.

England: Is the Home Office on the verge of banning poppers?

Finland: Christian party cancels pledge to quit government over marriage equality.

Russia: Ivan Okhlobystin, the actor who called for gays to be put in ovens, has been banned from entering Latvia over his anti-gay comments.

Ukraine: Kiev's oldest cinema burned down during gay film.

| latin america |

Puerto Rico: Marriage equality and the court: What happened in San Juan?

Haiti: A voodoo believer visits the National Cemetery of Port au Prince to honour Baron Samdi and Gede, during the celebration of the Day of Dead.

Brazil: In Goiânia, a city of 1.3 million in Brazil’s agricultural heartland, one in twenty homeless residents have been murdered in the last two years. In pictures.

| africa |

The British colonial origins of anti-gay laws.

Uganda: Lawmakers return after recess to fast-track new anti-gay bill.

Uganda: Court dismisses case against high-profile gay equality activist Samuel K. Ganafa.

Cameroon: Marc's story: Gay and battered, with no legal recourse.

Kenya has topped Google’s rankings for searching for pictures of gay sex.

South Africa: Gay prostitute barred from giving evidence in Shrien Dewani murder trial. Dewani described himself on his Gaydar profile as "submissive, filthy and perverted".

A beginner's guide to the Burkina Faso crisis. In pictures.

A brief guide to one of the world's least-understood crises: the Central African Republic.

| asia |

Singapore: Meet the couple who challenged the sodomy ban.

Taiwan: Tens of thousands turn out for Pride. In pictures. More here.

Taiwan: Taipei mayoral hopeful Sean Lien has deleted a pro-gay post, "enraging" gay activists.

North Korea's gulags are a horror "without any parallel in the contemporary world".

North Korea: Can you spot something surprising in this picture of Kim Jong Un?

Mongolia: The gay community still faces social stigma and violence, despite living in the first Asian country to teach LGBTI issues in schools.

India: Man arrested for gay sex after his wife catches him on spycam.

Philippines: In Manila, a boy lights a candle at the grave site of a departed in observance of All Saints' Day.

Australia: Not in our culture? Open hearts helped me grow up Indigenous and gay. "We were lucky to have LGBT elders guide us through our childhood. The prejudice of the uncles and brothers should end with them."

| middle east |

Egypt: Eight men convicted for "gay wedding" video.

Iraq: A tycoon is building a scale replica of the White House in Dream City, a "ritzy community" in the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

| art & design |

This is artist Daniel Tobin's AIDS monument, which will be built inside West Hollywood Park.

Eighteen intimate portraits of gay couples in the 1980s. Above, Reno & Lee, Fire Island, NY, 1988.

Photographer Paul Freeman's gorgeous photos of hunks in the Australian Outback fill new book Dusk.

| word! |

Excerpt: Best-Kept Boy in the World, by Arthur Vanderbilt. "Denny Fouts, the most famous male prostitute of the 20th century, had Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, and many others."

Love reading but don’t have the time? Stop making excuses.

Batman finally asked if he's gay.

Book review: A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation, by Nguyen Tan Hoang. "Although not many gay men will stumble upon Nguyen’s excellent book as easily as they will the terms and conditions associated with their Grindr accounts, perhaps the select few who do manage to make their way through its excellent prose will stop and think again before they easily dismiss those that mention the race of the user aside from the desired white, fit, masculine norm sought after on daily profile searches."

| at the movies |

Meet David DeCoteau, the king of homoerotic on demand schlock.

The secret, sexy history of Hollywood movie scandals.

A gay sex scene was cut from Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game. Professional toff Benedict Cumberbatch - who played Turing - has defended covering up Turing's sexuality.

When will we get a gay superhero movie?

This motherlode of deliciously disturbing and disgusting VHS horror art.

Film review: Nightcrawler. "Though tensely edited and short enough to work well as a thriller, it doesn't quite linger like it should. It spends too long on a subplot about Lou's clueless 'intern' which doesn't have as strong a payoff as it seems to think. The ending makes thematic sense but feels abrupt. But so what if it doesn't quite reach greatness? At least it's reaching!"

Trailer: Snails In The Rain.

| the box |

The cast of Queer As Folk, then and now.

What's with all the bottom shaming on How To Get Away With Murder?

Iconic Doctor Who villain the Master has made a shock return to the series - as a woman.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan receives notice from court for "promoting" homosexuality on his TV show.

Meet Australia's gay cowboys.

Former Will & Grace star Sean Hayes gets engaged.

The thirty-three best American TV comedy shows, in pictures.

What's wrong with The McCarthys. "Chock-full of clichés, the pilot for this new sitcom about a gay Boston man-child is too much of a family affair."

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

Why Wentworth Miller squirmed a bit while watching Melrose Place in college.

On 1st November 1972, That Certain Summer became the first television-movie to offer a sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality.

Cartoon Network feature first gay characters in new show - but they were banned from kissing on the mouth.

Why the Bill Cosby rape allegations won’t go away this time.

The fifty best "ripped from the headlines" Law & Order episodes.

Of course, teenage girls need role models – but not like beauty vlogger Zoella. "Her particular brand of sickly sweet girl power brings me out in hives..."

...And what happened when Chloe Hamilton dared to write critically of the YouTube star.

Watch the latest episodes of Finding Me the Series, BoyDrama, and Go-Go Boy Interrupted; and relish a tantalising taste of Netflix's forthcoming epic Marco Polo.

| beats, rhymes & life |

Why Mykki Blanco doesn't want to be known as a "gay rapper".

Don't miss this lush remix of Doug Locke's hit #ThisCouldBeUs.

Dolly Parton brands anti-gay Christians "sinners".

Shamir, the boy from Vegas, is sizzling.

Annie Lennox is singing about lynching while ignoring its horrifying history.

Talking to Annie Lennox about her sixth solo studio album, Nostalgia.

Video: Shamir - On The Regular; and Zebra Katz - Alone Now.

| sex |

Porn legend Matthew Rush at Gay Halloween New Orleans.

When your slutty roommate meets your friend for the first time.

Behind the scenes at the 2(X)IST meat market.

| arena |

Why the Michael Sam Saga Matters. "Michael Sam could have been the first openly gay man on an NFL football roster. He’s not, and that sucks."

Teams that sign Michael Sam win. Teams that cut Michael Sam lose.

Derrick Gordon will become - on 14th November - the NCAA's first openly gay male athlete in one of the big four sports to compete in a game.

Baseball star Torii Hunter wants to keep marriage "between a man and a woman".

Russia 2018 World Cup logo announced despite calls for boycott over anti-gay law.

How gay college baseball player Ben Larison fell in love and came out to his team.

| body, mind & soul |

Sluts rejoice: A high number of sex partners has been linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Taking PrEP just before sex is enough to protect you from contracting HIV, new study finds.

Truvada isn't the only PrEP.

What AIDS should have taught us about how to deal with diseases like Ebola.

Is immunosuppressant drug rapamycin the fountain of youth?

Now boffins have grown human stomachs in the lab.

Sure, giving up alcohol will help you lose weight, but it also makes you desperately dull.

Hiccups: Why we get them and how to stop them.

Why it may not pay to steal someone else's partner.

The rare psychological disorder that only affects death row inmates.

| hell's kitchen |

Food hacks are for assholes.

Did you ever suspect that food snobs who roll their eyes at McDonalds were full of sh*t? Guess what? They are.

| zoo |

These pictures of puppies in motion.

Animal pictures of the week.

| planet earth |

Fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100, warns UN-backed expert panel.

How to stop global warming, in seven steps...

...But could global warming actually be reversed?

We're damming up every last big river on Earth. Is that really a good idea?

| inside the spaceship |

Apple boss Tim Cook is gay. But he needs to do more for LGBT rights than be out.

Is wasting time on the internet actually good for you?

Disney patents the idea of a piracy-free search engine.

Planes in the future might not have windows. Here's why.

| and whilst you're thinking about that, think about this... |

What are the odds these new media brands will survive?

And finally, Rogue "Marbie" Scott takes on an inflatable boyfriend; Andrew discussions perfection (and he should know); Martin discusses his forthcoming film Alaska Is A Drag; and Jacob talks to black, gay married couple Juan and Gee.