KAOS: January 2016

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

photo strip post a 16 Aug 2015_zpszx5bv5jp.png

left & found

The "gaytrification" effect: Why gay neighbourhoods are being priced out.

Is the gentrification of cities inevitable – and inevitably bad?

The honeymoon is over. LGBT rights must continue after marriage equality.

Thirteen bible passages homophobes disregard.

LGBT people killed by gun violence in 2015.

Why "we all knew!" actually means nothing when someone comes out.

Why child homelessness is the LGBT problem we should be talking about.

Access denied. The media and the rich and famous have long had a mutually beneficial partnership. Not anymore.

news - america

The state of LGBT equality in America.

GLAAD’s second annual Accelerating Acceptance report finds acceptance, complacency on LGBT rights.

The American Psychological Association could be about to officially condemn HIV criminalisation.

University of California Santa Barbara student Carlos Flores claims the school’s LGBT resource center is using tuition and tax dollars “to talk about how to sodomize overweight men.” He's objecting to the center’s upcoming discussion of the book, Fat Gay Men: Mirth, Girth, and the Politics of Stigma.

Three gay Atlanta men killed in car crash. 33-year-old Adam Bailey, 24-year-old Cordel Fowler, and 36-year-old Esu Manzano were all killed instantly.

Texas man arrested in connection with hit-and-run death of 21-year-old gay man Michael Alexander Hill.

This is 38-year-old Andre Davids and 34-year-old Kurtland Ma. Davids stabbed Ma forty times, disemboweled him, and stuffed Ma's organs into his mouth, all because he thought Ma was going to leave him.

This is 26-year-old Mashawn Sonds. He has been convicted of first-degree assault as a hate crime for the 2014 assault on Native American trans woman Kimy Hartman. The attack left her with permanent brain damage.

Back in 2001, Richard Allen Masterson - now 42 - murdered 35-year-old Houston drag queen of Darrin Shane Honeycutt. His execution is scheduled for 20th January.

This is 25-year-old Ever Jose Medrano. He is accused of sexually assaulting a teen he met at an LGBT youth agency in Austin.

Meet 18-year-old Evan Stoner. After being bullied for being gay in school, he is now leading the fight for LGBT equality in Southern Indiana.

17-year-old Drake Wilson came out to his parents. His mother posted an ad in the newspaper to celebrate.

Anti-gay Christian group erects billboard in San Diego’s Hillcrest gaybourhood.

Dallas gay bar serves up self-defense training after string of attacks in the Oak Lawn gaybourhood.

San Francisco's Gangway opened in 1910, and has been a gay bar since at least 1961 (making it the city's oldest), has been bought by straight owners, looks certain to shutter.

JONAH, the largest Jewish gay conversion therapy organisation, takes its last breath. Inside “a surreal world of pseudo-scientific methods and jargon, traumatizing psychodramas and nude cuddling with counselors.”

Taurus Buchanan was 16-years-old when he threw a fatal punch in a street fight amongst kids. The US justice system locked him up for life. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Taurus has a shot at freedom.

Meet the refugees living in America: Single mothers, LGBT youths and victims of IS.

America is finally waking up to its inequality problem.

CANADA A gay Syrian refugee's story.

National Review comes out against Trump: “Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot on behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as The Donald himself.”

Donald Trump and Sarah Palin: a liberal nightmare come true – or a stage act? "The Republican alliance represents a kind of two-headed monster on the campaign trail, the likes of which world politics may have never seen."

Sarah Palin's bizarre Trump endorsement analysed. "I watched all 20 minutes of the mush-mouthed, grotesque oration in support of the Republican frontrunner. Here, the anatomy of a very disturbing scene."

His life matters. The story of Akai Gurley. "In November 2014, Akai Gurley was shot and killed by a rookie police officer in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project. As the officer’s trial begins, Gurley’s family and friends tell BuzzFeed News the definitive story of the man they lost."

My brother, the murderer. Who killed Jean Hope in 1970?

Failure factories. "On Dec. 18, 2007, the school board in Pinellas Country, Florida, voted to abandon integration. They justified the decision with bold promises: Schools in poor, black neighborhoods would get more money, more staff, more resources. They delivered none of that. A 5-part investigation."

Dispossessed in the land of dreams. "Suzan Russaw is 70 years old. She lived in affordable Palo Alto housing for decades. Then, in 2013, she was forced to move into her car. On the new homeless of Silicon Valley."

The lawyer who became DuPont's worst nightmare. Exposing a decades long history of chemical pollution.

The celebrity surgeon who used love, money, and the Pope to scam an NBC news producer.

Bill Del Monte, the last known survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, is dead. He was 109.

news - uk

Crimes involving dating apps Grindr or Tinder spiked over 700% between 2013 and 2015 in England and Wales, as users face "sextortion" and rape.

MI5 - the UK’s domestic intelligence agency - has been named by Stonewall as the leading employer for LGBT people.

Protesters surround Canterbury Cathedral to urge homophobic churches within the Anglican Communion to stop persecuting LGBT people.

Brixton then and now: How much has gentrification changed the area?

What makes estates "brutal"?

A tale of two brutalist housing estates: one thriving, one facing demolition. "Flats in London’s privately owned Barbican go for £4m, while four miles away a similarly iconic social housing estate is set for demolition."

On London's disappearing launderettes.

news - europe

ITALY One million rally for legal recognition of same-sex unions.

RUSSIA The State Duma Committee has rejected a bill that would make it illegal to come out as gay.

RUSSIA How homophobia has changed St. Petersburg.

news - middleeast

IRAQ IS executes another gay man by throwing him from the roof of a building.

ISRAEL Welcome to Tel Aviv, habibi. "He's unconscious as we pull him up from the floor, too much G apparently; his body is cold and limp. I'm not sure how long he was passed out on the balcony; I passed by a few times and figured that someone else would take care of him, but no one did. His boyfriend is downstairs getting fucked; apparently this sort of thing happens all the time, one of them was always overdosing."

news - latin america

Three quarters of LGBT Jamaicans want off the island.

JAMAICA The Gleaner calls for teachers to stop abusing LGBT youth.

JAMAICA LGBT activist Maurice Tomlinson responds to a homophobic letter published in the Gleaner.

BRAZIL City of fear (March 2007) "Operating by cell phone, a highly organized prison gang launched an attack that shut down Brazil’s largest city last May, with the authorities powerless to stop it. For many in São Paulo, this vast, amorphous criminal network is the only government they have."

CUBA Superman of Havanna. "I had come to trace the story of Superman, or whatever we could find of it. It had begun as a curiosity for us but eventually evolved into a strange obsession. Here was a man with a supposedly 18-inch unit who starred in live sex shows, celebrated in Cuba and beyond, and yet virtually nothing was known about him. We were intrigued. Cuba, with profound changes afoot a year after Washington reopened relations with Havana, is having to think about what kind of country it wants to be. It’s a question that naturally calls for a clear-eyed look at the kind of country it once was. What better place to start looking than with the legend of Superman?"

The billionaire battle in the Bahamas. "Peter Nygard is a hard-partying retail tycoon, whose estate is fit for a Mayan emperor. Louis Bacon is a buttoned-up hedge-fund king, whose passion is conservation. Both are locked in an eight-year legal war with each other that has turned each man’s paradise into hell."

news - africa

LGBT in Africa: From victims to victors.

MOROCCO Two men jailed for gay kiss video.

KENYA On the murder of Muhadh Ishmael.

TUNISIA Amnesty International seeks international support for its plea that six students be cleared of homosexuality charges.

news - asia

INDIA Mumbai to get India's first LGBT radio cab service next year.

VIETNAM Ban on same-sex marriage abolished - although LGBT couples will not be afforded similar rights and protections as straight couples.

How mutton flaps are killing Tonga.

AUSTRALIA Barry Humphries - Dame Edna - brands transgender women "mutilated men".

Australia's refugee policies: A global inspiration for all the wrong reasons.

art + design

Seven LGBT and feminist webcomics.

Imaginary Couples, French artist and photographer Olivier Ciappa's series of pictures of straight celebrities posing as gay couples.

Superqueeroes, an exhibition at the Schwules Museum in Berlin.

Hauntings, a selection of Visual AIDS Artist+ Member artworks, which explore the poignancy of memory and the "pastness" of photographs. At the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston.

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, a retrospective at the Seattle Art Museum.

Lego changes bulk buy policy after Ai Weiwei backlash.

On post-war public art.

word!

Gay Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes throws in the towel and admits that he can't save The New Republic.

The New Republic meltdown and why the media world cares so much, explained.

On The Marvels, Brian Selznick's new children’s book that is both a gay love story and a lament on AIDS.

Why I wrote a gay history book for kids.

Self-portrait of the artist as ungrateful black writer...

...And talking to Saeed Jones about his article.

Singular "they" named 2015 word of the year.

READ An excerpt from Beijing Comrades, the central work of queer Chinese literature, translated into English for the first time.

READ An excerpt from Porn Again: A Memoir, by former Hollywood executive Josh Sabarra, in which he discusses shopping for gay porn with his parents...

On The Tenth, the revolutionary magazine flipping the media's script on black gay men.

On the rag, a weekly look at the free gay 'zines. Friday 15th here, and Friday 22nd here.

shouting at night

On becoming a drag queen.

WATCH Vogue, Detroit.

picture house

A brief history of diversity (or lack thereof) at the Oscars.

The Oscars whiteout is driven by racism – and greed.

Looking creator Andrew Haigh to direct biopic of the late UK designer Alexander McQueen.

Unearthing the sea witch. "Ursula was a singular Disney villain, and behind the animated tentacles was a real-life, big-haired, poo-eating Baltimore drag queen named Divine."

Twelve mainstream movies you forgot were transphobic.

Is Luke Skywalker gay?

Twelve queer films at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Tyler Perry doesn’t care what the critics think of his work. His audience always finds it.

REVIEW Naz & Maalik. "More than the usual slice of life: It's a healthy chunk of it, rich in incident and character."

WATCH Behind the scenes on Naz & Maalik.

The Revenant is meaningless pain porn. "This empty, violent movie will scoop up awards. What does that say about society and our attitude to violence?"

Is an unaltered, original cut of the first Star Wars trilogy finally coming?

WATCH Sara Jordenö on her film Kiki; Xenia (more on that film here); Uncle Howard (more about that film here); Mexican Men (a new collection of shorts from Julian Hernandez and Roberto Fiesco); the trailer for the latest Boys on Film collection; and the trailer for the Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival...

The duke in his domain. It's 1957. A 33-year-old Marlon Brando is holed up in a hotel suite in Kyoto, where he is filming Sayonara.

REVIEW Holiday. "[It] has plenty of ideas but fewer thoughts about exactly what to do with them. It’s a sweet gay romance where its numerous attempts to set it within a wider context don’t amount to all that far."

REVIEW Winning Dad. "[It] may have a few issues, but overall it’s a charming movie, which manages to mix drama, humour and pathos, and despite occasionally heading towards overwrought melodrama, it’s empathy more than pulls it through."

Alan Rickman, the actor, is dead. He was 69.

Alan Rickman’s glorious voice transformed every line he spoke into something more.

Alan Rickman, obituary.

the box

The thirty most eligible gay TV characters.

21-year-old Noah Galvin cast as Kenny, a teenager who comes out to his staunchly Irish Catholic family, in The Real O’Neals, the new sitcom based on LGBT activist Dan Savage’s early life.

Dustin Lance Black and Gus Van Sant are reuniting for When We Rise, eight-hour gay rights miniseries.

Coming soon from HBO. The Deuce, which takes place in Times Square during the rise of the porn industry in the '70s, and starring James Franco as mobster twins Vincent and Frankie Martino. From the creators of The Wire.

The Prancing Elites Project's Kareem Davis was diagnosed HIV-positive just before work started on the first season of the show. Here's his story.

Former Desperate Housewives actor Charlie Carver has come out as a "proud gay man".

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

Out actor (and writer/director of gay indie flick Soft Lad) Leon Lopez to guest star on EastEnders.

Joivan Wade (Youngers, Doctor Who) joins EastEnders as "killer preacher" Lucas Johnson's son Jordan.

Sian Blake, the former EastEnders actress, and her two children, 8-year-old Zachary, 4-year-old Amon, were murdered over Christmas. Police have now arrested Blake's partner Arthur Simpson-Kent in Ghana.

This is Cody Saintgnue, Teen Wolf's first bisexual, buddhist werewolf.

New CBS Chief Glenn Geller: "I’m just a gay guy from Indiana".

Al Jazeera America shutters all TV and digital operations.

Robert Banks Stewart, the writer who created iconic Doctor Who monsters the Zygons, and created the longrunning '80s drama Bergerac, is dead. He was 84.

WATCH Don't miss the brilliant London Spy, a five part series about Danny, a club kid who falls in love with a mysterious stranger, Alex; a teaser for the new web series About Him; and new web series Last Will & Testicle.

WATCH Tina Fey is Sarah Palin.

beats, rhymes & life

Rich banker's kid Sam Smith professes shock that racism still exists.

INTERVIEW Talking to Doug Locke.

The confessions of R. Kelly. "This is a story about an entertainer named R. Kelly. It is a story about the remarkable, but also very strange, pop talent he has. It is a story about the difficult places he came from and the ways they may, or may not, have shaped who he has become. It is also the story of a man who has been publicly accused of multiple sexual offenses with underage women, and who stood trial for making child pornography. He was eventually acquitted of that charge, and his career has continued uninterrupted, but for the most part he has evaded even the most basic questions that might help people understand what is true about him."

R. Kelly has come out in defense of Bill Cosby. Or as Dlisted puts it, "R. Kelly defending Bill Cosby is like Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump as president."

LISTEN Pet Shop Boys - Inner Sanctum, the first taster from the upcoming album Super.

Former X Factor contestant Marcus Collins flaunts it on the beach with Robin Windsor.

Did Sean Penn beat up Madonna? An archaeology of Hollywood’s most explosive rumour.

In the jungle (May 2000). "How American music legends made millions off the work of a Zulu tribesman who died a pauper."

Prayers for Richard. "Little Richard is 83, confined to a wheelchair, and living in the penthouse suite at the Hilton in downtown Nashville. He says he’s never performing again."

WATCH Out actor, director and singer Leon Lopez - (Let's Go) Around Again; and Indiana Queen - I Don't Know What To Do.

arena

The International Olympic Committee will no longer require transgender athletes to have undergone gender-confirmation surgery to compete.

Here's the US Men’s Gymnastics Team in Brazil. You're welcome.

Montana State rugby player Brandon Davis comes out as gay.

The surprisingly long history of gays in pro football.

The higher power of Russell Wilson, the quarterback everyone loves to hate.

Tiger's private struggles. “I peaked at 11, to be honest with you.”

Cristiano Ronaldo flaunts it for GQ.

Lawrence Phillips, the troubled ex-NFL star, is dead. He was 40.

Lawrence Phillips: How did his promising life unravel?

red light district

Debauched scenes from Hustlaball Vegas 2016. More pictures here.

Bravo Delta's fun flashcards to help Japanese fans of gay porn understand what various US porn brands are all about.

WATCH Vlogger Calum McSwiggan is sorry for doing gay bareback porn.

ghetto romance

The after-meth of sex. "Recovery gave Blair Fell his life back, but getting off was never the same."

Five dating don'ts for the newly HIV-positive.

Is consent sexy? Breaking the unspoken rules of sex.

WATCH Thoughts everyone has before a hook-up.

rag trade

Gay porn star Colby Keller struts for the new Vivienne Westwood campaign.

hell's kitchen

"Irreplaceable" photographs - rescued from a skip - of some of the UK's most striking public houses.

The coming banana crisis.

Is this the McDonalds of the future?

WATCH The Bear Naked Chef, with Adrian De Berardinis.

médecins sans frontières

The terrifying link between oral sex and cancer.

A bimonthly injectable HIV treatment is closer than ever.

Five reasons why black people are more affected by HIV.

Black, gay, HIV-positive and depressed.

Social anxiety ruined my life – until I found the one place I felt at home.

On the cold hard facts of freezing to death.

Why last night's chicken made you sick.

Are scented candles killing us?

betta work!

If the Supreme Court sides against unions, it's bad for LGBT workers.

We need to be able to sext at work - it’s the only way to have a personal life.

Dressing naked male underwear models. This is someone's job.

I own 51% of this company!

The last days of Target. "The untold tale of Target Canada’s difficult birth, tough life and brutal death."

The strange tale of fruitcake and the Collin Street Bakery. "Sandy Jenkins was a shy, daydreaming accountant at the Collin Street Bakery, the world’s most famous fruitcake company. He was tired of feeling invisible, So he started stealing—and got a little carried away."

Walmart shuts 269 stores worldwide.

planet earth

Everything gone but the water. "What was lost, and what wasn’t, when the Valley Fire tore through Harbin Hot Springs."

Death of a valley. "In 1953, California sacrificed a town to stave its own thirst. But the act was futile, and the state is thirstier than ever."

Miami underwater.

Rotten ice. "Traveling by dogsled in the melting Arctic."

The solution for the melting polar ice caps may be hiding in the rainforest.

planes, trains & automobiles

Inside the Costa Concordia, in pictures.

Maritime repo men: A last resort for stolen ships.

Is Hyperloop the future of high-speed travel?

The tube at a standstill: why TfL stopped people walking up the escalators.

The annual No Pants Subway Ride, in pictures.

The UK's iconic black cabs are not unique, high court judge rules.

The little car you can drive in France without a licence.

inside the spaceship

BRO, the new app for "heteroflexible bros" looking for other bros that are down for “Dates, Chat, JUST Friends, Long-Term Bromance, or Whatever, Bro.”

Grindr sells majority stake to Chinese video game company.

Fifteen WhatsApp hacks.

WhatsApp is now free, forever.

Friends Reunited is dead forever.

Nintendo to drop "gay conversion" scene from video game.

The 19th Century plug that's still being used.

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

White guys have discovered braids, again.

These, though.

And finally, is Atlanta where black, gay men come to die? Yes, Walter says. Andrew explains how to look good naked; the Baddie Twinz discuss homophobia in Jamaica; and Qaadir extols the virtues of being fired...