Issue 198: Blatino Awards, Wilson Cruz, Cosby, Cavill, Haiti, Kele Okereke, Ken Ott, dan mei, Derrick Gordon, and more...

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

| ponder on this |

From the department of shameless self promotion: I'm delighted to have been nominated for the FlavaMen Blatino Awards, in the categories of Best News Blog and Best Entertainment Blog. Please do consider voting for us!

Six gay clichés that are totally true.

Do you follow the ten rules of being a good gay? Above, Vito Russo with straight ally Elizabeth Taylor: learn your gay history.

The world is becoming a better place to be gay, apparently.

Young, gay, British and Muslim.

Would it be better for society to let bigots openly say what they think? "There is evidence that equality legislation has forced racist and homophobic behaviour underground. If people were allowed to express their views, would it be easier to take them on?"

How Kodak's Shirley cards set photography's skin-tone standard.

Are millennials to blame for everything? An investigation (but yes).

Fandom isn’t friendship: How we cope with allegations against celebrities like Bill Cosby.

| news from america |

This is Stephen Patrick White (top right, with his partner Alex Teal), a U.S. Army veteran who was beaten then set alight by a man he met in a gay bar. He died of his injuries after having both arms amputated.

This is 26-year-old Dan Ha, whose body has been recovered floating near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Ha disappeared on Halloween, and police suspect murder.

The struggles of being an Asian man in the American gay community.

The army basketball captain raised by two gay dads.

This NOH8 photo of 11-year-old Jesus "Jesse" Franco, who was targeted by anti-gay bullies.

The gay kids who flee their countries — and their families — for the US. "Some of the thousands of Central American children trying to get to the United States are seeking a love and acceptance they can’t get at home."

Marriage equality generates $US2.5bn for the US economy annually, study suggests.

Black activists "outraged" next year's Phoenix Pride parade is scheduled for the weekend of Juneteenth — the annual holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the US. Above, Phoenix Pride 2012.

Don’t wear tight trousers, they’re designed by homosexuals, warns Jehovah’s Witnesses boss.

Andrew Caldwell, the "ex-gay" Christian behind the viral "I don’t like mens no more" video, claims God put him in the spotlight.

Kellogg's warned they "will pay" by the anti-gay hate group American Family Association for pro-gay Tony the Tiger ad.

Montana man claims he's starting a KKK chapter that doesn't discriminate based on race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Nine facts that explain why Obama is about to help millions of immigrants.

The New Black Panther Party, explained.

Why are there up to 120,000 innocent people in US prisons?

And this: What you should know about the surprisingly promising push to shrink federal prisons.

Letters from Death Row: Robert Ladd, Texas Inmate 999237.

Crash of the century. "Ninety-five years ago, a horrific train wreck wiped a Brooklyn street off the map, and changed the city’s subway system forever."

Is it down there? "A subterranean mystery lingering since the 1964 World’s Fair has baffled history buffs from Flushing to Florida."

How Detroit was reborn.

Can you gentrify America’s poorest, most dangerous city?

Hawaii: The slow progress of lava from the Kilauea Volcano, in pictures.

Journalist - and openly gay Iraq war veteran - Rob Smith breaks it down.

| news from europe |

United Kingdom: "That’s so gay" slur continues to cause distress in schools.

United Kingdom: Online retailers Amazon and The Hut criticised for pushing "gay accent" mouth spray.

England: Leaflets claiming AIDS is God’s punishment for gays "not a crime", police decide.

Northern Ireland: Activists mount legal challenge over the country’s failure to introduce marriage equality.

Ireland: Watch the new advert designed to inspire youth to say "Yes" to marriage equality.

France: Nicolas Sarkozy wants to reverse marriage equality.

Russia: Maxim Martsinkevich, who tortured gay teens and drove others to suicide, has had his prison sentence slashed.

Russia: CNN to stop broadcasting due to recent changes in media legislation.

Russia: Elton John has criticised the country's anti-gay laws during a St Petersburg concert.

| news from latin america |

Haiti's fight for gay equality. As the gay community "becomes more visible, anti-gay violence rises, too".

Haitians are hooked on the New York lotto.

Argentina: Buenos Aires refuses to police gay pride.

| news from africa |

Nigeria: Vigilante group "has arrested" twenty-five gay men in the last year.

Uganda: Gay equality activist Edwin Sesange on what's really in the new anti-gay bill.

Botswana: Court rules the government acted illegally when it banned a gay equality group The Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Botswana group (Legabibo).

Tanzania: How a Canadian tax-funded academic is boosting Tanzanian homophobia.

Gambia: Total of anti-gay arrests reaches eight.

Mali: Boys watch as health workers spray disinfectants at a mosque in Bamako, 14th November 2014, where a Guinean imam, suspected of dying from the Ebola virus, was washed at the mosque before his funeral.

South Africa: Tshepo & Thoba Sithole-Modisane's journey of love.

South Africa: In Johannesburg, "this young man sits on the side of Empire Road and instead of begging, he provides book reviews. He collects books, reads them, and provides reviews for people passing by. If you like the review, he will try to sell you the book. This is how he makes a living."

| news from asia |

India: Three hundred march in Pune's eighth gay pride.

South Korea: 70% of young gay men are not out to their parents.

Japan: Fuji Hokuryo High School held a "Sex Change Day" – with boys dressed in skirts, and girls wearing suits and ties.

Taiwan: Police shut down Gayway - "Asia’s largest gay lifestyle information network" - for "distributing obscene material".

Taiwan: Half of gay people have suffered partner abuse - but only 5% seek help from authorities.

Hong Kong: 60% back anti-gay hate laws.

Hong Kong Pride, in pictures.

Cook Islands: Marie Pa Ariki, chief of the Takitumu tribe, brands anti-gay laws "unfair".

Philippines: Quezon to host the first International Pink Film Festival, the largest gay film event in Asia.

Australia: Court rules gay men who shared house for seven years were "friends with benefits".

| news from the middle east |

Israel: Gay teens eight times more likely to attempt suicide.

Saudi Arabia: Gay man jailed for three years over naked selfies found on his phone.

| art & design |

Talking to John Gutierrez, the artist behind "deranged underground gay porn spoof" Ruff Haus.

Exploring TransCuba with photographer Mariette Pathy Allen.

Drugs, divas and dickheads: Twelve years of East London excess, in pictures.

The man who photographs plane wrecks.

Exploring the forbidden subterranean world of London's ghost Tube stations, Victorian sewers and disused shelters.

London's Tower Bridge has got a new glass walkway, in pictures.

The world's best tall buildings of 2014, in pictures.

These nanosculptures.

The typeface for readers with dyslexia.

| word! |

How male-to-male romance, or dan mei, is thriving in China, despite the threat of government crackdowns.

Talking to Douglas Blanchard about his art in the book The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision.

Is Amazon is doing the world a favour by crushing book publishers?

John R. Gordon's writer's diary: Put out the fire before discussing your relationship.

A statistical analysis that reveals why aspiring screenwriters fail.

Which word should be banned in 2015? (Please let it be "literally".)

| shouting in the night |

What's gay off-Broadway.

The contestants of The Drag Pageant, in pictures.

| at the movies |

New documentary Do I Sound Gay? provides plenty of empowerment but few answers.

How Foxcatcher promotes gay pathology.

Kickstart director Nick Corporon's new film Retake.

Talking to director Daniel Ribeiro about his film The Way He Looks.

Talking to I'm A Porn Star director Charlie David.

Talking to movie icon Tab Hunter.

Here's Henry Cavill shooting Batfleck vs Superman in Chicago.

Films you didn't know were ripped from the headlines.

Cinema review: The Imitation Game. "Remarkably lackluster telling of an extraordinary story, which deserves far better. The performances are stilted, the script wooden and the whole thing never comes to life. There is a great film to be made about Alan Turing – this is not it."

DVD review: Gerontophilia. "Undoubtedly a tough sell, simply because the subject matter will turn a lot of people off without them giving it a chance. But that’s their loss as it’s a surprisingly good film."

DVD review: Dick: The Documentary. "It’s an almost literally blank canvas for both the participants and the viewers to look at the penis in a way they may never have before."

DVD review: Portrait of Jason. "What starts off as an insight into one man becomes one of the most interesting documents on race and sexuality from a time before gay rights as we currently know it, and when civil rights for African Americans was only just making headway in the US."

Martin L. Washington Jr. talks about his role on Alaska Is A Drag (a full length feature of the short is in the works, but desperately needs our help to get off the ground: get on board!); and check out the trailer for Romeo & Romeo.

| the box |

Be sure to read this brilliant, incisive review of Doctor Who's season finale, by Anna Chen. Here's a taster: "There’s so much that could have worked beautifully in this series. How can you have those great production values and Peter Capaldi on board and still make such a hash of it? The problem, as always, is the script. The writers’ caprice runs through the Doctor Who reboot like Nick Clegg’s election promises. It’s all Patrick Duffy in the Dallas shower, a dream, a mish-mash of half-remembered images and tropes, mis-threaded backstory lurches."

Alternatively, the kaos review of that unfortunate spectacle can be found here.

Doctor Who's missing episodes. What really happened?

How TV took over the world.

Actress Amanda Bynes uses gay slur in violent rant.

Talking to Marc Evan Jackson about being Andre Braugher's husband on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Meet The Dudleys.

The Brady Bunch would feature gay plots if it had been made today, says "Mrs Brady" Florence Henderson.

Gay men react to How To Get Away With Murder's gay sex scenes. Writer Peter Nowalk talks about creating them.

How to Get Away with Murder has the hottest gay sex on television. That's progress.

Pedro Zamora, twenty years later.

Wilson Cruz is lensed for OUT100.

EastEnders' Lorna Fitzgerald has parted company with boyfriend Keo Reid, following lurid tabloid reports of his past in gay porn videos.

Eastenders' Sam Strike has confirmed he is leaving the show after just a year on screen.

EastEnders' sexy calendar shoot.

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

Read a 2006 New York Times piece about the problems faced by Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise. The original series was losing viewers, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent was in worse shape. In 2014, only Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (arguably the worst, yet most successful, Law & Order series) remains.

Ten shows about contemporary life in New York City, ranked.

Ten TV episodes that everybody pretends never happened.

Twelve cartoons from the 1980s no one will ever have nostalgia for.

Watch the pilot for new gay webseries Dog Park; the latest episodes of Triangle and Go-Go Boy Interrupted; and a teaser for the second season of Real Eyes Realize Real Lies...

| beats, rhymes & life |

Hip-hop, don’t stop - it’s good for your mental health. "Listening to a brilliant rhymer vent negative feelings you may recognise in yourself is far from depressing."

Eminem continues to use anti-gay slurs in his music. And throws in a little misogyny for good measure.

Rapper Azealia Banks continues to use "faggot" slur.

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson lashes out at Independent columnist Jenn Selby for suggesting his rainbow Apple t-shirt was a sign of support for Apple CEO Tim Cook. Read Selby's brilliant, dignified response.

The twenty worst made-for-TV biopics about musicians.

Lifetime’s disastrous Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B paints her teen marriage to R. Kelly as a Romeo and Juliet story.

Everything I liked about Lifetime's terrible Aaliyah movie.

Openly gay Kele Okereke talks about the inspiration behind his band's classic anthem, Banquet.

| sex |

Read the anonymous confessions of straight guys who watch gay porn.

FlavaWorks, the production company behind brands like CocoDorm and ThugBoy, takes hook-up site Adam4Adam to court.

Talking to Michael Lucas about "his duck face, fake cum shot[s], [and] being bullied by gay adults".

Nick Capra steals Connor Maguire from his daughter in His Daughter's Boyfriend.

Behind the scenes with Ken Ott.

If you go down to the woods today...

| arena |

Outsports is celebrating its fifteenth year in play. Here's fifteen memorable Outsports stories from the first 15 years.

Derrick Gordon has become the first openly gay athlete to play in Division 1 men's basketball.

Derrick Gordon at peace after coming out as gay.

The two Michael Sams. "Michael Sam Jr. doesn’t talk to his father, who has been caricatured in the press as an anti-gay man who abandoned his family. But there’s a lot more to the story."

Guess what? 90% of the players with Michael Sam's NFL preseason stats are on a roster.

Talking to gay soccer player Robbie Rogers about his new memoir and new playing contract.

Why gays should avoid 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Undying homoeroticism in wrestling, by Baltimore-based artist Ben McNutt.

| betta work! |

Six myths about how the unions are ruining Britain.

The Knowledge, London’s legendary taxi-driver test, puts up a fight in the age of GPS. "The examination to become a London cabby is possibly the most difficult test in the world — demanding years of study to memorize the labyrinthine city’s 25,000 streets and any business or landmark on them. As GPS and Uber imperil this tradition, is there an argument for learning as an end in itself?"

Air rage: booze, drugs, stag-party obscenities – I’ve seen it all.

| body, mind & soul |

What kills us, in one chart.

Slut-shaming is a cause of HIV.

Doctors in Spain think they've found a cure for HIV.

The shockingly common, cruel genital birth defect thousands of men have.

Our testicles contain more diverse proteins than any other human organ. Nut, anyone?

This is bodybuilder Blake Beckford. He was told to quit due competing due to the bowel disease ulcerative colitis. Instead, he kept on, to win a national fitness competition - while wearing his colostomy bag.

Cluster headache, anyone?

Why waking up in a morgue isn’t quite as unusual as you’d think.

How to avoid dying alone with no one to claim your body.

When the world's tallest man met the world's smallest.

Here's what your brain is doing when you really, really hate someone.

The five dating don'ts for the single gay.

Thou shalt not meet a gym crush.

| hell's kitchen |

Fallen Arches: Can McDonald's get its mojo back? "The world’s largest restaurant company is losing market share, losing sales, and suffering one heck of a corporate identity crisis. Can McDonald’s embattled CEO get the company’s mojo back?"

Nutrition labels for alcohol, explained.

Why I hate pizza.

The arctic doomsday vault that might save our food future.

| zoo |

The spiders that disguise themselves as ants to hide and hunt their prey.

Inside the colourful world of animal vision.

Is there actually one rat for every person in New York?

Animal pictures of the week.

| planet earth |

Why tree diseases are good for the forest.

Sinkholes, in pictures.

| inside the spaceship |

The Netherlands built a bike path entirely out of solar panels.

Nine questions about network neutrality you were too embarrassed to ask.

YouTube to offer subscription streaming service.

Could this be what commercial aircraft will look like in 2050?

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

Adult Underoos are a real thing.

A mathematical model explains why all hipsters look the same.

Out of the woods, here he comes: the lumbersexual. "Though big of beard and clad in plaid, the latest male fashion hero has probably never been near a sawmill."

I walked around London, knocked on strangers' doors and asked if I could stay the night.

Lesbian bars are going extinct, so lesbians draw their own.

Twenty-nine excerpts from one-star reviews of lesbian bars.

And finally, Jacob talks to Timmy; Andrew discusses education; Walter tries to make sense of Andrew Caldwell's deliverance (Walter comes in at the 6:42 mark, after a replay of that tragicomic episode itself; and Rogue "Marbie" Scott brings some real funk from the web...

Issue 198
10-16 November 2014
On the cover: Gay Haiti.

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© 2014

Postcript

"You know, we might just as well not have

bothered to come. The whole thing's been ridiculous."