Issue 245: Gay Gotham, Moonlight, Atlanta, Twin Peaks, Eric Underwood, Cakes Da Killa, Jason Vario, Chansey Paech, and more...

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

Left &
Found

Domestic violence isn't just a straight problem. Above, Stephen Sylvester, who was murdered by his boyfriend, Bryan Canchola.

Derrick Rose is rape culture personified.

I played up to masculine stereotypes as a way to fit in. That can be dangerous. "As a black man, my identity has been limited by tropes, fetishes and white fantasy. As a teenager, I didn’t understand I deserved complexity."

The cult of the expert – and how it collapsed. "Led by a class of omnipotent central bankers, experts have gained extraordinary political power. Will a populist backlash shatter their technocratic dream?"

We’ve seen Donald Trump before – his name was Silvio Berlusconi. "Be warned: Italy’s former prime minister promised the world and disdained the truth – and became his country’s third longest-serving leader."

On tributes to the dead homies.

WATCH The first episode of Speechless, a series of personal reflections on the lives of black gay men in the UK, from Black Out UK.

News
America

I'm not ready for the Obama era to end.

What if Donald Trump were gay? “If Donald Trump were a gay man who couldn’t look at prepubescent boys without imagining himself “dating” them in a few years time, if Donald Trump were a gay man who said inappropriate things about his own son in public, if Donald Trump were a gay man who plucked pretty little boys out of crowds to kiss them on their mouths… Republican pundits, elected officials, operatives, and voters wouldn’t be calling him presidential. They would use a different word entirely to describe him.”

Boohoo! Gay Trump supporters (THE KAOS THEORY #244) Dewey Lainhart and Cody Moore have been getting death threats. “It doesn’t concern me,” said Lainhart. “I look over my back, and I do carry a gun because I love the Second Amendment.”

Ivanka Trump has actually already seen the mulatto cock she desires to see.

Gay tech scumbag Peter Thiel donated big (a mere $1.25m) to Trump and has called date rape "belated regret". So why does the tech world still embrace him?

Arkansa judge Joseph Boeckmann charged after "trading" lower sentences for gay sex with young criminals.

How the right turned on fellow conservative, Fox news anchor, Shepard Smith after he came out.

Is Mike Pence a fake Christian?

Eight Alabama counties are still refusing to issue any marriage licenses.

Why gun control needs to be an LGBT priority.

One thousand more people were shot in Chicago compared with same time last year.

Domestic violence shelters are turning away LGBT victims.

The eight worst cities for LGBT people.

Take a virtual tour of the nation's historic LGBT landmarks, where Bayard Rustin, Truman Capote, the Furies Collective, and more made LGBT history.

STD rates hit record high as screening clinics close.

WATCH  New Yorker Cesar's coming out story.

How a son survived being injected with HIV by his father as a baby.

After sixteen months in a shelter, New York family finds a home. "Shakira Crawford and her children struggled to find full time housing despite the city’s offer of rental subsidies and promise to fine landlords refusing such vouchers – a program that so far has failed to deliver as advertised."

I spent twenty-eight years on death row.

Inside America's most violent prison. "A former guard and a pastor at Holman prison speak of stabbings, riots and abuse, aggravated by overcrowding and slim staff that live in fear."

Christine Chubbuck: 29, good-looking, educated, a television personality. Dead. Live and in color. On a newscaster’s suicide. (August 1974)

CANADA  Think Canada is a progressive paradise? That’s mooseshit. "We broker deals for an obscene number of weapons, and we frequently run roughshod over the rights of indigenous people. And don’t even get us started on your favorite wonderboy Justin Trudeau."

News
UK

Stefano Brizzi, a crystal meth user obsessed with the TV drama Breaking Bad, is on trial accused of strangling police officer Gordon Semple (above right), dismembering him, and dissolving his body in acid.

"Turing Bill" for gay pardons fails in Parliament thanks to Conservative Minister Sam Gyimah; the Bill would have wiped clean the criminal records of thousands of gay men convicted before homosexuality was decriminalised.

Former police superintendent Gordon Anglesea found guilty of sexually abusing boys in the 1980s at a young offenders centre and at a children’s home.

Shelter: British cities 1969-72, in pictures.

London's Latin Americans are bearing the brunt of gentrification.

On Britain becoming mean and narrow-minded. "The post-referendum political debate has been besmirched by racism, bigotry and hatred."

How has black people’s representation changed in the last 10 years? "A decade after the list of Britain’s most powerful black people was launched, there is still no representation at cabinet or high court level. But the private sector picture is more encouraging."

Bonnie Greer: "Black Lives Matter is a big fail for my generation."

Labour are 26 points ahead of the Tories (if you only count young people).

SCOTLAND  How gay politicians have been embraced in profound cultural shift.

NORTHERN IRELAND  Politician David Ford ejected from church for voting for marriage equality.

News
World

Across the world, more than a billion people are still living under British anti-gay laws.

NETHERLANDS  Anti-gay pamphlets circulating in Amsterdam encourage religions to exterminate gay people.

NORWAY  HIV-preventing PrEP drugs to be administered - free - to at-risk groups.

ICELAND  American tourists in Iceland will outnumber Iceland's population this year.

ROMANIA  The Prime Minister and the President clash over LGBT equality.

ROMANIA  On life in prison before the country joined the EU in 2007.

GERMANY  The European country with the highest number of LGBT people is Germany.

JAMAICA  Montego Bay Pride 2016 an amazing time of community building, entertainment, and education. More pictures here.

GRENADA referendum postponed over marriage equality furore.

On Congo and the failure of democracy in Africa. "The Democratic Republic of Congo is the latest country disintegrating because a leader wants to hang on to power."

SENEGAL  No country for young men. On the deserted villages of Senegal.

INDIA  Some 1,500 people were arrested last year under Section 377, India’s colonial-era anti-gay law.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA  This is Harry Peter, an openly gay man from Alotau, who allegedly was killed by a relative in October.

INDONESIA  President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo calls on police to defend LGBT citizens.

AUSTRALIA  Chansey Paech has become the first Aboriginal and openly gay member of parliament.

Arena

Gay rugby’s "world cup" - the Bingham Cup - to be held in Amsterdam.

Remembering Jerry Smith, a gay NFL star who never got his due.

Art
+
Design

New exhibition Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York, a show about queer life, culture and art in New York City from early-20th century through the 1990s, at the Museum of the City of New York, until 26th February 2017. In pictures.

Fifteen gay romances of the Renaissance era.

Still ticking: The improbable survival of the luxury watch business. "In an increasingly digital world, people are still willing to spend huge amounts on analogue timepieces. The question is, why?"

Steve Dillon, the British comic book artist, known for his work on 2000AD's Judge Dredd, is dead. He was 54.

Steve Dillon: Obituary.

Word!

S.E. Hinton has defended the heterosexuality of the characters in his novel The Outsiders, in series of "salty" tweets some have labelled homophobic.

Why I started a new literature festival for shy writers. "Knowing that novelists tend towards the shy and solitary end of the personality spectrum, I tailored the North Cornwall book festival to their needs."

REVIEW  Waycaller, by D.J. McPhee. "Fantasy novels don’t get much space in review pages, especially LGBT review pages. Waycaller deserves this space because it’s a fantasy novel (for both young adults and fully-fledged ones) that includes a rich diversity of characters. Something fantasy readers have been wanting for a very long time. A lot of fantasy is whiter and straighter than a church picnic in Maine (the whitest state in America, 96.9%). This is especially true of fantasy in the tradition of J.R.R Tolkien, commonly referred to as sword and sorcery or epic fantasy. Waycaller turns that on its head with strong female characters, a host of non-white characters and even an elvish bisexual."

INTERVIEW  Talking to Jason Tranchida and Matthew Lawrence, editors and founders of Headmaster, the magazine for men who love men and art.

On the rag, your weekly look at the free gay 'zines.

Shouting
At Night

When Hollywood meets Broadway: the big star's fatal attraction to theater. "As we enter another season of A-listers treading the boards, is attaching a movie star to a stage production a reason to cheer or boo?"

REVIEW  A Man of Good Hope. "Isango Ensemble’s musical about a Somali boy fleeing from terror has marvellous songs and breathtaking acting."

REVIEW  The Millionairess. Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn’s stage performance does not impress the critics. (October 1952)

INTERVIEW  Talking to Royal Ballet star Eric Underwood.

Kevin Meaney, the veteran comedian and actor, is dead. He was 60. The gay stand-up appeared in Uncle Buck with John Candy, and Big with Tom Hanks.

Film
Forever

On Moonlight, a "tour de force that captures the beauty and intimacy of one man's coming of age as a queer person of color."

INTERVIEW  Talking to Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. "It's an absolute fucking shame that I've never seen a film where one black man holds another black man's hand, or one black man cooks for another black man."

Atlanta's Donald Glover is to play the young Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo Star Wars movie.

The Nazis tried to destroy every copy of Different From the Others (1919), the earliest known surviving gay love story. But they missed one partial reel. The reel has been restored, and will screen at NewFest, the New York LGBT Film Festival. Here's the trailer.

INTERVIEW  Talking to King Cobra director Justin Kelly about "his film based on Brent Corrigan’s career and how far Franco, who plays a porn producer, was willing to go on screen."

The age of streaming is killing classic film. Can Turner Classic Movies be its salvation? "Fire up your streaming service of choice, be it Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu. Look for Casablanca. Look for The Godfather. Look for Citizen Kane, the grandfather of classic American film. You likely won’t find any of them, even though your garden variety Blockbuster probably would have had copies of all three back in the ’90s."

The thirty weirdest horror movies of the 1970s.

REVIEW  Where Are You Going, Habibi? "Sweet and entertaining... takes some serious subjects are wraps them in an enjoyable tale, with interesting characters and a very intriguing central relationship.

REVIEW  Bear City 3. "It may have the subtlety of a brick when it’s sorting out its characters’ emotional crises, but BearCity 3 is still a lot of fun and should keep fans of the series happy."

REVIEW  Bizarre. "Many will simply be confused by the mishmash properties of Bizarre, but others will be sucked in by its hinted ideas, sexual atmosphere and fascination with the possibilities of alternative culture(s)."

REVIEW  Downriver. "A film that will be too dark for some, but for those who don’t mind heading for some gloomy places, it’s a taut, absorbing thriller and a tremendous feature debut for Grant Scicluna."

REVIEW  Miles. "With some good actors and a lot of heart, there’s entertainment to be had from Miles, but a lack of synthesis between its more mainstream comic elements and its indie drama side mean it’s not all it might have been."

REVIEW  Hide & Seek. "Despite having the potential to be extremely interesting and challenging, it’s determination to defy expectations and an inability to get under the surface of its characters and their situation results in something surprisingly dull."

REVIEW  Iris Prize Festival LGBT International Short Films 2016, part 3.

REVIEW  Iris Prize Festival LGBT International Short Films 2016, part 2.

WATCH  Trailers for Front Cover; and Bear City 3.

The
Box

The BBC wants production companies to include a representative amount of ethnic minorities, the disabled and LGBT people in order to get commissioned.

Two white men in the media lost their jobs. Sound the alarm. "A guy from The Now Show and a guy from Autumnwatch have been sacked, sort of. The female job-eating zombies of colour are clearly on the rampage."

Vanessa Redgrave is to star in Man In An Orange Shirt, the upcoming BBC gay drama written by novelist Patrick Gale.

Out actor Colton Haynes has accused the press of stealing his privacy following a burglary at his home.

Fox’s Rocky Horror Picture Show is a bizarrely sanitized update of a proudly transgressive musical...

...So why, oh, why did Fox remake it? "Fox has taken this beautiful, tawdry rag of a film and ran it through the wash until it came out sparkling clean."

Can the new Twin Peaks keep up with today’s TV?

Atlanta: Donald Glover's show is the smartest – and funniest – on TV. "With a black Justin Bieber and a memorable satire on Rachel Dolezal, the show is another instance of young black writers flexing formidable creative muscles."

Why Ghanaians can't get enough of Jane the Virgin and Indian soap operas. "Veera and Kumkum Bhagya, dubbed in Twi dialect, are some of the most-watch TV shows in Ghana, where the popularity of telenovelas dates back to the 90s."

INTERVIEW  Talking to Paul Victor about new web series Mess, which explores being HIV-positive in the 21st century.

Simon Cowell has apologised to Rylan Clark-Neal for making a supposedly lewd gay joke on The X-Factor.

The worst TV pilots ever: A Waterworld prequel, drag-racing PIs and furry fetish. "We took a look at the unsold pilots and found the outliers, which take a terrible idea and run with it, creating genuinely unwatchable TV in the process."

Westworld: HBO made a secret map of the Westworld hub.

Doctor Who goes back to school with Buffy-style YA spin-off show Class – and even the most sceptical should watch.

REVIEW  Blake's 7. "A mix of olde-worlde space jargon, ray guns, Western-style goodies and baddies, and punch-ups straight out of The Sweeney." (January 1978)

Gays of our lives: All the latest news from gay soapland!

Here's footage from Coronation Street (and former X Factor contestant) Shayne Ward's leaked sex tape.

WATCH  The first episode of Mess, which stars Jaime Cepero (Smash, Daddy) and Eli Lewis.

WATCH  The latest episodes of Fallacies; and GayTerns.

Beats, Rhymes
& Life

Frank Ocean misses the deadline for the Grammys.

INTERVIEW  Talking to Tyler Glenn about his new album, which tackles his experience of leaving the Mormon Church as a gay man.

INTERVIEW  Talking to Cakes Da Killa.

Michel’le survived Compton, Dre, and Suge and got a chance to tell her story.

Red Light
District

Temptation Sundays party, in pictures.

Former Fox news anchor Jim Walker is now a gay porn star working for Titan Men.

Diego Sans responds to “tranny” uproar: “Fuck off and grow up — I have nothing to apologize for."

Jimmy Clay makes gay porn comeback (again) as a human fruit salad.

Behind-the-scenes with Jason Vario (formerly known as Kiern Duecan - and one of the Kaos Top 30 Porn Stars of 2015), in pictures.

Behind-the-scenes with Bel Ami, in pictures.

WATCH Here's the (softcore) trailer for NakedSword/Rock Candy Films' incestfest Secrets & Lies; the last episode of The BSB TV Show ("an uncensored look into the personal lives of the people who make porn"); and brothers: three of 'em!

Ghetto
Romance

How easy is it to tell tops from bottoms?

Uncle D's dilemmas. "I’m a Black, 28 yr old male recently out of the closet. I’m looking for an educated, career driven, down to earth black man in London. Where should I look?"

Médecins Sans
Frontières

This is why you shouldn’t believe that exciting new medical study.

How implicit bias affects the health of black gay men.

Why do uncut guys get blamed for spreading HIV?

Second case of HIV infection on PrEP confirmed. The infection was by a "top" on PrEP.

San Francisco - once ground zero for HIV - has seen new HIV infections fall 34 percent between 2012 and 2014, and an additional 17 percent between 2014 and ​2015. The city is now down to only 255 new transmissions a year.

WATCH Activist teens in Niagara Falls rap battle for safe sex.

We’ve long blamed carbs for making us fat. What if that's wrong?

Is flossing your teeth a waste of time?

Ssshhh! How the cult of quiet can change your life. "Silent retreats, silent ​restaurants and even silent dating events are​ on the rise."

The secret of power napping.

Hell's
Kitchen

Chipotle eats itself. "Chipotle Mexican Grill was a sizzling business with a red-hot stock until an E. coli outbreak derailed its future. Can a mission-based company make gobs of money and still save the world?"

Why your brain makes you hate certain foods. A neuroscientist explains.

America now has 1.2 billion pounds of excess cheese — and nowhere to put it.

Rag
Trade

Why is the Ivanka Trump clothing line boycott growing? You are what you wear.

How Ralph Lauren Polo became one of the most shoplifted labels in history. "For some New Yorkers in the 80s, one fashion label was coveted more than any other: the aspirational Polo."

Men’s fashion: Five key trends.

Who's a pretty boy: What real men use in the bathroom.

Betta
Work!

I hate Trump and Farage. But on free trade they have a point. "Globalisation, as can be seen from the TTIP and Ceta deals, is about protecting big business – against the public. No wonder voters in the US and Europe are turning to populists."

Self-employment used to be the dream. Now it’s a nightmare. "Governments have swallowed the ‘entrepreneurial society’ propaganda of neoliberal economists. But the reality of the gig economy is bleak."

Inside the impossible life of a New York street vendor.

People from the service industries on their worst ever customers.

I’m the reason your burger doesn’t look like the one in the ad.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

What do you do if your Uber has a Donald Trump bumper sticker?

What happens to American myth when you take the driver out of it?

East Germans abandon their Trabant cars in Prague. (October 1989)

What happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980? "On New Year's Day in 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was carrying 29 passengers and a hell of a lot of contraband when it crashed into the side of a 21,112-foot mountain in Bolivia. For decades conspiracy theories abounded as the wreckage remained inaccessible, the bodies unrecovered, the black box missing. Then two friends from Boston organized an expedition that would blow the case wide open."

The sublime obsession of plane spotting.

A kink in the hyperloop. "The dream of zipping from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes has run into a few speed bumps."

The Mattapan trolley bus, in pictures.

Tomorrow's
World

It turns out losing online friends feels as bad as the death of "real life" ones.

Planet
Earth

Greenland is melting. "The shrinking of the country’s ice sheet is triggering feedback loops that accelerate the global crisis. The floodgates may already be open."

The Great Barrier Reef is in real trouble. But it’s way too soon for obituaries.

Zoo

London museum posts "queen has died" notice to explain vanished ant colony.

Boffins found a two-headed shark fetus growing in their lab.

And Whilst
You're Thinking About That, Think About This...

And finally, Jack and Ben share their bed with Davey Wavey; sucking, spitting and swallowing with Willam Belli and Kingsley; Andrew talks politics; and Walter finds himself on memory lane.

See you kids next week - it's been emotional! Zee Jai

Issue 245: 17-23 October 2016

On the cover: Alvin Ailey, lensed by Carl Van Vechten in 1955, from the Gay Gotham exhibition at The Museum of the City of New York.

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Postcript

"You know, we might just as well not have

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

© 2016