KAOS: 2015

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

photo strip post a 16 Aug 2015_zpszx5bv5jp.png

left & found

What "white" LGBT organisations should do post-marriage equality.

Here's what LGBT university is and why we need it.

I was bullied: Seven survivor stories. Above, Karamo Brown.

Nearly 40% of homeless youths are LGBT, and I'm currently one of them. "It’s hard to tell I’m homeless, because I manage to find a couch to sleep on nightly. But I am, and I’m hiding in plain sight."

How the words "I dare you" changed my life forever. On being gay and Christian.

Watch | Would you turn straight if you could? And Michael Sam and former partner Vito Cammisano join forces to support bullied youth...

Same-sex parents invest more into their children, study finds.

I can't help it: I love being fetishised as a bisexual man.

Bisexual people are tired of your shit: A beginner’s course in non-normative queer life.

On being black and gay.

Finding my blackness and gender and relearning how to come out.

Outside the binary: Where gender, race and privilege collide.

"Liberal" isn't a dirty word anymore.

Christopher Columbus was a lost sadist. There shouldn't be a holiday in his name.

Here are the names of the twenty-four trans people killed this year in the US.

The importance of self preservation amidst casual savagery.

The world has twenty-one million slaves – and millions of them live in the west.

news - america

This is 32-year-old political aide Timothy Foster. He is accused of beating his boyfriend with a shovel.

Philadelphia gay bashers avoid jail time.

LGBT service members are turning to drugs and need help.

New York City to host WorldPride 2019.

Dallas LGBTs rally in response to hate crimes.

Pride in Atlanta, in pictures.

Government report recommends ban on "gay cure" therapy.

LGBT inmates are more likely to be sexually abused and placed in solitary, new study finds.

Saudi Prince "forced staff to watch him having gay sex", lawsuit claims.

DC trans woman murdered after attacker "embarrassed" in front of his "crew".

Jay Stone-Hoskins, the gay widower who forced Texas to provide accurate death and birth certificates to same-sex couples, is dead. He was 37.

Alabama man finds "Gun Oil" lube mistakenly stocked at the gun counter of his local Walmart.

Racial profiling in retail hasn't gone away. It's just gone digital. "New apps make it easier than ever for stores to target and share information about often-innocent African American shoppers, even as real thieves get away."

A look inside the Lowline, New York City’s first underground park.

The truth about New York’s legendary "mole people". "Two decades after NYC sought to relocate its infamous tunnel-dwelling denizens, a years-long investigation reveals a few hardy souls still toiling and thriving beneath the city streets. They insist they wouldn’t live anywhere else."

On dying alone in New York City.

One hundred years of New York nightlife: How the '70s was a decade of glitter (and powder) amidst decay.

Coal. Guns. Freedom. On the dwindling fortunes of Gillette, Wyoming.

Police killings since Ferguson, in one map.

Trudeau, Clinton, Bush: Dynasties are the blockbuster movies of politics.

A (very) rough guide to America from an Englishman in New York.

The future of LGBT America? Canada.

Canada | This student let a man with learning difficulties cuddle up to him on the bus.

news - uk

40-year-old London man Stephen Port charged with the murders of four men he met online, and drugged with lethal amounts of GHB. The victims (pictured left to right) are 25-year-old Jack Taylor, 21-year-old Daniel Whitworth, 23-year-old Anthony Walgate, and 22-year-old Gabriel Kovari (not pictured).

"Monk" sentenced on hate crime charges over vile leaflets comparing gays to paedophiles.

Army General says gay soldiers make military "more effective".

NHS accused of failing patients by not prescribing HIV-preventing PrEP drugs.

This black woman’s anti-Muslim rant shows how deep British racism goes. "The latest in a shameful line of Islamophobic tirades filmed on public transport suggests incessant racist messages are having an effect on all ethnic groups."

A fond farewell to Trade, london’s first after-hours gay club.

How the Tories have been killing off nightlife since 1986.

news - europe

Ireland's hidden gay history.

Spain | How the public reacts to homophobia...

Sweden just opened the first male rape clinic in the world.

Germany's rising far-right.

Italy | No "gay lobby" at the Vatican, says fired priest Krzysztof Charamsa.

Russia | Six members of Occupy Pedophilia, the group that tortured gay teens, and posted videos of its victims online, have been sentenced to prison time.

news - latin america

Homophobia, Marlon James, and Jamaica’s brain drain.

Is LGBT equality coming to Trinidad and Tobago?

Puerto Rico | Education Minister Rafael Roman has announced changes to a school uniform code that lets boys wear skirts.

Venezuela’s currency is so worthless that even some thieves won’t steal it.

Old Providence | The island where men are disappearing.

news - africa

On the death of veteran African human rights activist Joël Gustave Nana Ngongang.

Kenya | President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned against “witch-hunts” targeting homosexuals.

Uganda | Anti-LGBT attacks surge.

A call for Botswana LGBT stories.

news - asia

Pakistan | Karachi vice: Inside the city torn apart by killings, extortion and terrorism.

Japan's hidden caste of untouchables.

What's it like to be black in Japan?

Japan | Inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, in pictures.

On the problem with being gay in South Korea.

On the dangers of being LGBT in the "tolerant" Philippines.

Indonesia | Caning re-introduced as a punishment for homosexuality in Aceh province - and the law applies to tourists, too.

Australia | A Melbourne bar has been forced to apologise for its homophobic "poofter" sign.

Australia | Elderly gay couple forced to remove rainbow flag from apartment balcony.

Being Australian gave me street cred at a neo-Nazi rally in Germany. "When it comes to immigration policy, Australian mainstream opinion is equivalent to Germany’s far right. Even the tabloids put us to shame."

There's no decency in how Australia has treated Abyan. No matter what the truth is. "Peter Dutton claims a Somali refugee was whisked out of Australia to foil a game of legal trickery. But the story doesn’t stack up."

Welcome to authoritarian Australia, where more anti-terror laws won't keep us safe. "Politicians claim to pass more and more anti-terror laws in order to keep us safe. They don’t, but they do erode our democracy."

news - middle east

"It can't get any worse than being gay in Syria today."

What it’s like to be an LGBT Syrian fleeing for your life. "LGBT refugees from across the Middle East flock to Turkey, escaping Islamist militias, sexual assault, and death threats. But what they find there leaves many in despair."

“Hello father, the boat is sinking, so I will die.” On the disappearance of the Ghost Boat and its 243 passengers off the Libyan coast.

Israel | Jerusalem's wave of stabbing attacks, explained.

art + design

Blood Mirror, Jordan Eagle's scuplture protesting the FDA's ban on gay male blood donors, is going to church.

On London visual artist Barka's new series Black Romanticism.

Looking back at the photography of James Van Der Zee.

Meryl Meisler's incredible pictures of Paradise & Purgatory: Sassy ’70s Suburbia & The City.

1980s Los Angeles at night, in pictures.

The photography of Imraan Christian, documenting Cape Town creatives, skaters, activists.

word!

Larry Kramer: Mainstream media continues to marginalise and discredit gay authors. "When we fall into the hands of book critics at The Times, we are amazed at their lack of understanding, empathy, of what we are trying to do and say. It is quite amazing how fervent and omnipresent is the homophobia that never-endingly remains the norm for gay writers in their book reviews."

Watch | Brontez Purnell: Alive, well and right where he wants to be...

Out gay author Marlon James has won the 2015 Man Booker Prize.

Watch | Marlon James on his life-saving move from Jamaica to America...

How a bullied "sissy" became a peacock among pigeons: Tyler Curry's new children's book, A Peacock Among Pigeons.

A Little Life is the best novel of the year. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Review | The Collected Black Gay Boy Fantasy #1, by Victor Hodge. "This book shares the voice of another cartoonist of color. I look forward to seeing more of his work..."

Review | QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology, edited by Raymond Luczak. "Effective... important... tough."

On San Diego’s Multicultural LGBT Literary Foundation's #ReadNaked campaign, promoted by a 2016 calendar featuring gay and bisexual men of colour reading literature from gay authors of colour.

The spoof Ladybird books targeting the adult market.

New magazine dedicated to drag artists launches.

Thor and Captain America indulge in "Earth's mightiest kiss".

Before Google, there was the patient, long-suffering staff of the New York Public Library.

RIP Harriet Klausner, the web's most prolific book reviewer.

On the rag, a weekly look at the free gay 'zines. Friday 16th here, Friday 23rd here.

shouting at night

10th Anniversary Ovahness Ball, in pictures.

An oral history of NYC's legendary Barracuda Lounge.

Interview | Talking to Steven Fales about latest solo show, Cult Model.

After a century of black British theatre, actors still struggle to take centre stage.

picture house

On niche casting and Hollywood's lingering reluctance to feature gay black actors.

Why Sandra Bullock is the greatest white saviour of all time.

Six films you need to see at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Porn star and actor Brent Corrigan on the chatter surrounding James Franco's King Cobra film.

"Challenging" Idris Elba vehicle Beasts of No Nation flops in theatres...

...And this: How Netflix’s patronage could save challenging films like Beasts of No Nation.

Why the Rock is Beyoncé for boys.

Pan flops in theatres, is critically savaged.

Is Tarzan in trouble?

Here's the official poster for the forthcoming Star Wars film - and here's a history of the franchise's posters.

Star Wars and 007 are coming – beware the fanboy clones. "I want to love a film on my own terms, but the way they are talked about makes it increasingly hard."

In defense of Return Of The Jedi.

Ten mistakes in the Star Wars movies that you might have missed.

Why the TIE fighter is the worst spacecraft in the Star Wars universe.

Fifty brilliant science fiction movies that everyone should see at least once.

Why Back to the Future is a damn perfect movie.

Why we're all a bit nostalgic for the days before CGI.

Kidulthood 3: Brotherhood has been written and could possibly happen.

The American Genre Film Archive on why exploitation movies are worth preserving.

Jaden Smith is the reincarnation of Galileo, it all makes sense now.

The hotel that inspired The Shining to become the world’s first horror museum.

Fifty darkly beautiful horror film posters.

The craziest classic monster movie posters, in pictures.

Thirteen movies that went disastrously over budget.

Hollywood hunks laid bare: 1940s-1950s, in pictures.

Eleven gay movie gems you shouldn’t miss.

ReelQ (formerly the Pittsburgh International LGBTQ Film Festival) celebrates thirty years.

Review | Jason & Shirley. "Fans of Portrait Of Jason will find it interesting, but also perhaps a bit frustrating, as Clarke’s film is genuinely fascinating – one of the only looks at the life of a gay, black man before Stonewall, which also does a great job on its own of questioning the nature of truth, both in terms of film and whether the image we present to others is what’s really happening inside ourselves. Jason & Shirley meanwhile is intriguing but to a certain extent it’s, well, pointless and too pretentious for its own good."

Review | Pasolini. "Those who appreciate the director’s movies will get something from it – and there’s no doubt that the cinematography is extremely good – but it’s more a brief sojourn into Pasolini’s life than something that will give you true insight."

Review | Match. "Despite its tendency towards going over the top, and the limitations of its setup, Match is worth a look, largely thanks to Patrick Stewart and a plot that measures its excesses with subtlety when it needs it most."

Maureen O'Hara, the Hollywood actress, is dead. She was 95. In pictures.

Watch | The Hard Stop, the new documentary about the shooting of Mark Duggan in London, which triggered riots that spread across the whole of the UK; what Jurassic World might have looked like if had been released in 1978; and Remy Mars, Antonio Biaggi and director Matthew Doyle talk about their film Chasing Pavement...

the box

How Nickelodeon educated a generation of kids about AIDS during the 1990s.

On The Muppets' gay jokes: Not offensive, just unfunny.

Yahoo bows out of original TV after Community and other shows lose $42 million.

Bill Cosby's "smoking gun": The chilling self-deception revealed in his book. Revisiting Cosby’s 1989 book Love and Marriage, a "dull book suddenly made fascinating". And Ebony's clever cover on the subject.

Nicollette Sheridan’s Desperate Housewives lawsuit returning for a sequel.

Lucien Laviscount's scandalous naked Skype chat.

Manhattan is the best TV show that hardly anybody is watching.

Manhattan could do for the '40s what Mad Men did for the '60s.

Survivor’s Remorse talks about money unlike any other show on TV.

Here's Charles Venn looking sizzlin' in Casualty.

Gays of our lives: The latest news from your favourite LGBT characters in soap.

Ste and Harry get caught in Hollyoaks.

Hollyoaks: Ste entices Harry away from his homework.

Hollyoaks: Watch the fast-paced video that recaps 20 years of storylines in just three minutes.

On the sad demise of the Radio Times.

An inquest into the death of former Grange Hill child actor Terry Sue-Patt has heard the cause of death was "unascertainable".

The most progressive Roseanne quotes about women, the working class, and more.

CBS to bring Nancy Drew to life as an NYPD detective in Drew.

ABC to reboot Fantasy Island.

Lifetime’s silly 90210 movie built an alternate ’90s TV universe.

Now Cruel Intentions is getting a TV follow-up.

Thirty-five unforgettable gay TV kisses then & now.

When is it time to let your main characters go?

It's the end of the catwalk: America’s Next Top Model has been cancelled.

Casual sex and freakouts: A producer's perspective on reality TV.

I pay for cable TV, and don't care who knows it.

Review | Please Like Me. "A great show that many will find is far closer to the truth of their own lives than 99% of other television series. Please Like Me manages to be funny, modern and honest, as well as extremely entertaining, and it’s great to see that as it goes into season 3, the quality isn’t slipping."

Watch | I Hate New York, episode 5 - A New York State of Mind; #NoHomo, episode 5 - The Real World; Where The Bears Are, season 4, episode 5 - Bathhouse Bears; and Kriegerisms, part 1, with Bianca Del Rio, Willam Belli, and Pablo Hernandez.

beats, rhymes & life

Frank Ocean has an "advantage" in the music industry - and won a Grammy - because he’s gay, according to Wale.

Whirr got dropped by their record label for tweeting transphobic bullshit.

Anti-Apartheid anthem is actually about gay rights, singer Labi Siffre reveals.

Tom Jones puts his foot in it with "abnormal homosexuals" gaffe.

Gay iconography: On adoring Adele.

Are these the ten best queer duets?

Interview | Talking to Mykki Blanco, who "made history when he came out as HIV-positive this year, becoming the only living rapper who acknowledges having the virus."

Interview | Talking to Troye Sivan.

Out artist Troye Sivan announces his first album, Blue Neighbourhood.

“I was killed when I was 27”: The curious afterlife of Terence Trent D’Arby. "Terence Trent D’Arby’s 1987 debut album sold a million copies in three days. The music press went mad for him. Where was there to go but down?"

Watch the uncomfortable Pharrell and Robin Thicke Blurred Lines depositions.

The top fifteen hip-hop supergroups of all time.

Why was multimillionaire Adele using a flip phone in the Hello video?

Justin Bieber thought that his dad’s comments about his dick were hilarious.

Justin Bieber "super violated" by naked holiday pics.

Justin Bieber: Why we should stop looking at his package.

Why The Game’s The Documentary 2 is the album I wish Kendrick Lamar would have released.

Dear The Game: We know you’re not gangbanging anymore, so stop pretending.

An interview with Meek Mill about Wale, Drake, and Nigerian leprechauns.

Yoko Ono reckons John Lennon had a "desire" to sleep with men.

When the breakdancing craze swept Britain.

Listen | The debut EP from British singer-songwriter Samm Henshaw, The Sound Experiment.

Listen | The new EP from Atlanta performer Rahbi - GoldenChild: Trimester 3... "Hello World".

Watch | Troye Sivan - Talk Me Down; NEVR - Secret Places; and porn star/singer Mickey Taylor - Dirty...

arena

U.S. Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy comes out as gay.

British Olympic track hopeful Tom Bosworth comes out as gay.

Michael Sam's NFL career ended a year ago but his impact lives on.

High school suspends quarterback Garrett Moore for touching his center.

Mets star Daniel Murphy disagrees with the gay "lifestyle," I disagree with his Christian "lifestyle".

Gay Bowl XV, the national LGBT flag football tournament, in pictures.

Two top Premier League footballers are "ready to come out as gay". But will any Premier League bottoms follow suit?

Cristiano Ronaldo "marries" boxer Badr Hari.

Former Australian pro rugby player Casey Conway talks for first time about being gay and Aborginal.

How they do in Oxford. "Race and Ole Miss football.*

The man who never was. "Todd Marinovich was engineered from birth to be the greatest quarterback of all time. He ended up doing heroin in the locker room."

Watch | Meet the Manchester Spartans, one of the UK's gay rugby teams...

sex

Former porn star King B - Mehran Chestnut - died homeless, addicted to poppers, according to The Star Report.

The tragic story of adult model Lamaster.

Why most black male personal trainers are actually full of shit.

Hillary Clinton meets with gay porn star Gavin Waters for $1,000.

Brent Corrigan "declined" to be involved in the new film King Cobra, about the murder of Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis.

Ryan Rose threatens Sean Duran over Rentboy parody video.

Michael Lucas labels Syrian refugees “barbarians”.

Gay-for-pay model Sebastian Young arrested after beating wife unconscious.

Troy Ryan: Helix Studios doesn’t hire black models due to “supply and demand”.

Now you can fuck Darius Ferdynand and his hot boyfriend at the same time.

Interview | Talking to Kyle Kash.

Hustlaball 2015, in pictures.

Hustlaball 2015, in pictures. Plenty more pictures and videos from the event here.

The latest episode of Bel Ami's Scandal At The Vatican 2: The Swiss Guard, with Joel Birkin, Gino Mosca and Claude Sorel

Liam Riley makes shocking announcement: “it’s a whole new me!”

Behind-the-scenes on CockyBoys' One Erection.

Behind-the-scenes on the set of Randy Blue.

Porn star - including KAOS crush Micah Brandt - give themselves a helping hand on Twitter.

All the Ashton Summers you can eat!

Meet the latest Lucas Entertainment model, Derek Allan. (He's Mexican, not that you'd know from his srceen name.)

Max Toro, Angel Garcia, Troy Moreno, Ehrik Ortega, and Lucas Fox at Fuckermate, in pictures.

Rabid barebackers try to break down door during crazy gay gangbang!

Blue Blake, the legendary actor, director, producer, author, and GayVN hall of fame inductee, is dead. He was 52.

Gino Colbert, the director, is dead. He was 58. Colbert had a hand in discovering the likes of Joey Stefano and the Rockland brothers.

There is an unconfirmed report that the porn star Colin Black has died.

Watch | Andrew Christian model Pablo Hernandez appears with porn star boyfriend Drae Axtell in Madonna parody Bitch, I’m A Bottom.

ghetto romance

On premature bae posting syndrome.

Do you even remember what it feels like to like someone?

Gay ghosting is an epidemic. "Ever met a guy online just to have him disappear without a trace?"

Thanks a lot, Drake: now I'm attracted to awkward, dorky men.

Meet Adam Grant, Shayne Curran and Sebastian Tran, the throuple who want to settle down and have kids together.

In defense of monogamy.

Three takeaways after forty days without Grindr.

Can't buy my love - but you can rent it.

rag trade

Perry Ellis International sued over claims the company’s president demanded that there are “no blacks in my ads” or “anyone who looked too gay”.

On the unfortunate fashion choices of decades past.

The history of the clothes hanger.

hell's kitchen

Why teenagers aren’t drinking alcopops anymore.

Brooklyn gay bar Excelsior reopens (at a new location).

The death and life of the great British pub. "Across the country, pubs are being shuttered at an alarming rate – scooped up by developers and ransacked for profit – changing the face of neighbourhoods and turning our beloved locals into estate agents, betting shops, and luxury flats. This is the story of how one pub fought back."

Britain should be ashamed of its taste in biscuits. "Rich Tea, malted milk, Belvita: we love boring biscuits because we don’t love ourselves enough."

What it’s like to hold a food festival in a Rio de Janeiro slum.

How to make Mcdonald's at least nine times better.

Hood and bodega snacks, ranked.

Food porn is making you fat.

Psychopathic people really like bitter food, according to boffins.

médecins sans frontières

Eating disorders are rampant in gay men.

PrEP: How the tiny blue pill changed my life.

The dos and don'ts of discussing HIV.

The deadly legacy of HIV truthers.

Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company that raised the price of an AIDS drug by 5500% is being investigated by the New York Attorney General...

...Meanwhile, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals has released a $1 version of the tablet.

Douche-based rectal microbicide prevents HIV in gay men.

Bananas! Guess what's next in the fight against HIV?

Is Lyme disease the new AIDS? What you need to know.

On coffee's health benefits...

...And alcohol's. It's not just wine, either.

The truth about red wine's health benefits.

Six myths about sleep.

Coffee naps: How to supercharge caffeine by going to sleep.

Stop the madness. On America’s devastating treatment of schizophrenia.

Do stammerers like me a favour - don’t finish my sentences.

Turns out sitting all day won't kill you.

betta work!

Phone in sick: it's a small act of rebellion against wage slavery. "I didn’t want to write this column, I’ve got a hangover. It’s an excuse that wouldn’t wash in America, and now we’re being told to compete with China."

I own 51% of this company!

On the demise of Kmart. "A trip to Kmart in 2015 is a trip to an American purgatory. If your town still has one, it probably seems cramped, ragged, poorly lit, and maybe a little bit dirty. Best case scenario, you're walking into what feels, more than anything else, like a counterfeit Walmart."

Twentyone sad photos of dead and dying Kmart stores.

planet earth

El Niño and global warming are making 2015 the hottest year on record.

We dump eight million tons of plastic into the ocean each year. Where does it all go?

1491. "Before it became the New World, the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been thought—an altogether more salubrious place to live at the time than, say, Europe. New evidence of both the extent of the population and its agricultural advancement leads to a remarkable conjecture: the Amazon rain forest may be largely a human artifact."

Animal pictures of the week.

planes, trains & automobiles

A sea story. "One of the worst maritime disasters in European history took place a decade ago. It remains very much in the public eye. On a stormy night on the Baltic Sea, more than 850 people lost their lives when a luxurious ferry sank below the waves. An account of the Estonia's last moments [and] anarchy on the high seas."

Every time a train station is revamped, we lose a place to end a grim relationship. "Yes, yes, the Birmingham New Street refit is all very good, but its bleakness made it perfect for a break-up. Am I supposed to go to Euston next time? Or Crewe?"

Inside the world of people who track flights for no reason.

tomorrow's world

Raiders of the lost web. "If a Pulitzer-finalist 34-part series of investigative journalism can vanish from the web, anything can."

Facebook wants to let you know if a government hacks into your account.

YouTube to launch subscription service; wants you to pay to avoid ads.

How to behave on the internet: Eleven social media faux pas to avoid, from over-liking to Farmville invites.

Thin underwater cables hold the internet. See a map of them all.

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

This is a story about loss. "On losing things, losing people, and finding God at Unclaimed Baggage Center."

Ten consumer things we can't be bothered to do.

The untold story of the Ermahgerd Girl.

Watch | And finally, Walter on his favourite topic; Andrew has sex; Todrick Hall talks to GLAAD about being a role model for LGBT youth; and Baddie Twinz bloopers...