Issue 252: Arinzé Kene, John Rechy, Elizabeth Taylor, Kiki, Feud, Girls, Mickey Taylor, Trayvon Dickerson, Jeremy Meeks, and more...

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

Left &
Found

Welcome to the age of anger. "The seismic events of 2016 have revealed a world in chaos – and one that old ideas of liberal rationalism can no longer explain." (December 2016)

How the lunatic fringe conquered world politics. "The left and the right ignored the extremists and we ended up with Brexit and Trump."

On colorism.

WATCH  Sisonke Msimang on storytelling - and what happens next.

Whatever happened to "All Lives Matter"?

Can gay dating apps replace gay bars? Opinions vary.

Authentic? Try being polite instead. "Our inauthentic self stops us from being rude and selfish. And that’s essential for a civilised society."

News
America

The majority of Americans don’t want "religious freedoms" over LGBT rights...

...But Americans aren't as attached to democracy as you might think.

"So, somebody hit me in the face because I’m gay, and I have never, ever in my entire life have experienced this. And I blame this on Trump and all of you that supported him cause I have never in my entire life ever experienced this."

Gay couple assaulted in Missoula, Montana, after they were spotted holding hands.

How Trayvon Dickerson destroyed trolls after they used his picture in a homophobic meme.

Some Pulse Orlando customers are upset there’s no compensation fund those for standing outside.

North Carolina teacher suspended for playing LGBT anti-bullying video.

Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe plans to keep blocking anti-LGBT bills. "They’ve [GOP lawmakers] slipped a few bills through, but they’re not going to slip through the Governor’s office. I’m going to veto them... We’re stopping people from doing things that discriminate against people’s basic rights.”

Seventeen gay sex scandals that rocked American politics.

California introduces bill aiming to reform HIV criminalisation laws.

Los Angeles LGBT Center spray-painted with anti-trans hate speech.

Over one hundred celebrities denounce Texas's anti-trans "bathroom bill".

Randy Berry - the Obama-appointed top official for LGBT issues abroad - is to stay in his post under the Trump administration.

“President Bannon,” explained.

Mike Flynn might be done – but Trump's nightmare has just begun.

Trump's first significant bill — killing a transparency rule for oil companies.

Chadwick Moore, author of the much-maligned OUT magazine profile of alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, claims the backlash he received over the article drove him to become a Trump supporter...

...And finds time to whine to fellow Fox bigot Tucker Carlson.

How long before the Muslim ban becomes a brown ban?

Trump’s refugee crackdown is getting less popular over time.

The Advocate reads the news according to far-right websites, so we don't have to.

"Twinks4Trump" Lucian Wintrich agitator granted White House press accreditation. Sad!

Ivanka is not going to save you. "It's time to stop with the fantasies that the fairy princess will whisper gentle words of toleration into the mad king’s ear."

Invisibility and opportunism make Melania Trump a first lady like no other. "Shunning the White House for Trump Tower, the former model has a unique take on the role of presidential spouse."

Inside the debate therapists like me are having over Donald Trump’s mental health.

Trump headed to Mar-a-Lago for third straight weekend, obliterating campaign promise. "Trump to spend yet another weekend hobnobbing with rich folks who pay for access."

How Trump seduced the white working class by preying on their physical pain.

Edel Rodriguez, the artist who drew Trump beheading Lady Liberty for Der Spiegel magazine, is a Cuban refugee.

Our media is hopeless. "Hey, Time — FUCK YOU."

Americans’ respect for police officers surged last year. "A backlash to the backlash."

Trayvon Martin’s parents, five years on. "Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin’s 17-year-old son was killed by a neighbourhood watchman who was acquitted of his murder. They talk about becoming activists – and how they lost ‘hope and faith’ in justice."

The sanctuary movement: How religious groups are sheltering the undocumented. "The modern-day sanctuary movement is rooted in deeply held religious values of welcoming the outsider. With Trump in power, it’s taking on new relevance."

The preacher and the sheriff. "A young shackled black man is shot to death - and the police say he killed himself. The resulting investigation has pitted the victim's father against the most powerful man in New Iberia."

Neo-Nazis came for this small town. Can you keep them coming for yours? "When neo-Nazis started trolling Whitefish, Montana, the town had to make a definitive stand against hate. But the deepest-rooted intolerance in places like Whitefish isn't the kind that makes headlines."

Serial killers should fear this algorithm. "Thomas Hargrove is building software to identify trends in unsolved murders using data nobody’s bothered with before."

Wrestling with demons: The story of Chyna's final days. "Since the WWE icon died of a drug and alcohol overdose on the same day as Prince, a battle has emerged over whether America will remember her as a groundbreaking feminist athlete or a reality TV tragedy. According to her friends and mother, the answer lies in the last year of her life."

How Anna Nicole Smith became America's punchline. "From her first Playboy appearance in 1992 to her death in 2007, Anna Nicole Smith’s story was about a beautiful girl lifted up from the dust, and then about a beautiful woman destroyed."

CANADA  Gay man from Ghana denied asylum.

News
UK

23-year-old chef Lee Michael stabbed in the face in homophobic assault.

Vile rightwing tabloid The Sun outs newly qualified nurse as a former gay porn star for no reason...

...but bows to pressure to take the story down.

Wikipedia has banned rightwing tabloid the Daily Mail as "unreliable" source. The online encyclopaedia editors cited "reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication"...

...Why they did it.

British Government rejects petition signed by nearly two million to ban Trump.

I fought racism and misogyny to become an MP. The fight is getting harder.

University is still a white middle-class affair – it’s not just Cambridge.

Five ways Britain wrecks young people’s mental health – and how to stop it.

After all those closures, there's going to be a new gay club opening up in London.

London's hidden passageways.

SCOTLAND  On St Peter's Seminary: Resurrecting a modern ruin.

NORTHERN IRELAND  Sinn Fein vows to continue fighting for marriage equality.

News
World

FRANCE  Police claim they sodomised a black man with a baton "by accident."

FRANCE  Far-right Presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen quietly pledges to end same-sex marriage.

FRANCE  Alleged rapist Julian Assange, who has been on the run from Swedish prosecutors since 2010, claims he has dirt on French Presidential candidate accused of "secret gay life".

CROATIA  Tear gas cannister tossed into gay club night in the capital Zagreb causes stampede.

BOSNIA  Bringing up the bodies. "In Bosnia, an international organisation is digging up mass graves and using cutting edge scientific research to give victims’ families some sense of closure and justice."

RUSSIA  Putin's horror moves west, thanks to his protégé. "If you want to see America's possible future, read up on modern Russian history."

RUSSIA  On growing up gay in the USSR.

RUSSIA  Plans for Pride marches at nine locations blocked.

EGYPT  Nubians fight for ancestral land earmarked for mega-project. "A dispute over Nubian lands that are to be sold off to investors exposes tension between government development plans and rights of the ethnic group."

TANZANIA  Deputy health minister Hamisi Kigwangalla orders three purportedly gay men to turn themselves in or face arrest for “promoting homosexuality” through social media.

SOUTH AFRICA  This is 20-year-old Bheka Khanyile. He was subjected to homophobic abuse by a teacher at his college, and eventually forced to leave.

INDIA  Family arrested over "magic genie" transgender penis scam.

HONG KONG  Hepatitis A outbreak hitting gay men prompts authorities to offer free vaccinations.

PERU  Hundreds hold "Kissathon" in Lima for LGBT equality.

VENEZUELA  Meet Carlos Javier Holder Wendell and Patrick Holder Wendell. They're suing Venezuela for $10 million in order to have their marriage recognised by the state.

AUSTRALIA  Rightwing politician claims Norwegian homosexuals are using Nazi mind control to rally support for marriage equality.

Art +
Design

Paul Richmond's colouring book - for adults!

David Gray's RePose series of men in bed.

James Popsys' surreal photography.

Winged bull and giant dollop of cream to top Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth.

Shouting
At Night

Arinzé Kene on tackling the UK riots in Good Dog. "He’s played Sam Cooke, an EastEnders bad boy and a closeted footballer in The Pass. Now, Arinzé Kene has returned to writing plays – and to the violent summer of 2011 – with a searing account of escalating tension in London."

Privilege is playing too great a role in the arts. "The working-class actor is dying out, as the socially advantaged turn the clock back and leave our culture much the poorer."

On The Homosexuals, or Faggots, the new play satirising white privileged gay life.

The Unauthorized Musical Production of Mean Gurlz, taps into and amplifies the film's queer spirit.

Here's King Cobra star Garrett Clayton (alongside Al Pacino and Judith Light) in God Looked Away, at the Pasedena Playhouse in California.

REVIEW  La Ronder. "Exaggerating the element of chance in Arthur Schnitzler’s play slows it down, removes vital sexual tension and makes it feel old-fashioned."

REVIEW  La Ronder. "Bonkers in more ways than one, this repeatedly engaging show may not tell its unassuming audiences anything new. It is, however, unfailingly fascinating throughout."

Newsies: A powerful and surprising call to arms in the age of Trump. "The filmed staging of the hit Broadway musical comes thrillingly close to replicating the live show – and its message is more relevant than ever."

Word!

READ  Future Tops of America, a poem by Christopher Gudgeon from his first poetry anthology, Assdeep in Wonder.

Inside the bizarre 1960s cult, The Family: LSD, yoga and UFOs. "A new book and film reveal secrets of the mysterious cult once known as the Great White Brotherhood."

Roots of the problem: The controversial history of Alex Haley's book. "Haley’s influential family saga about 18th century slavery is back on TV, but its literary reputation is still tarnished by questions of authenticity."

Trashy, sexist, downright dangerous? In defence of romantic fiction.

REVIEW  After the Blue Hour, by John Rechy. "Now eighty-five years old, John Rechy began pushing boundaries with his first novel, City of Night, published when he was thirty-two. It’s deeply inspiring – at least to this reader and writer – that John Rechy is as bold as ever. There’s no other writer like him, and with the publication of After the Blue Hour, he shows no signs of letting up."

REVIEW  Murder in the Closet: Essays in Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall, edited by Curtis Evans. "Murder in the Closet ends with smart essays on Patricia Highsmith, George Baxt, Joseph Hansen. A new and vibrant world was being born, and none of the distancing and dismissal of queer sex practices need darken the mystery novel again — though where would we be without our 'queer' monsters like 'Buffalo Bill' in The Silence of the Lambs. Even in our perfect world some hangovers of a darker age still throw twilight shadows over our paradise."

REVIEW  Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me, by Bill Hayes. "A book to be savored."

A brief history of Polari: The curious after-life of the dead language for gay men.

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

Film,
Forever

Luis Guadagnino, the director of Call Me By Your Name, on why he didn't cast gay actors in the film, an adaptation of Andre Aciman’s novel of the same name.

Amandla Stenberg hits back at critics of her not yet released film Where Hands Touch, after it's branded a "Nazi romance".

Seven reasons Hollywood doesn’t make romantic comedies anymore.

You can buy the Grey Gardens house (if you've got a spare $20million).

REVIEW  Suddenly, Last Summer. "Joseph L. Mankiewicz' direction is strained and sluggish, as is, indeed, the whole conceit of the drama. It should have been left to the off-Broadway stage." (December 1959)

Suddenly Last Summer is "not 'about' homosexuality; there just happens to be a dead homosexual at the center of the story." (December 2008)

Everything you ever wanted to know about Suddenly, Last Summer. (June 2011)

WATCH  Lunch, a short film written and directed by Matt Vance, starring Orion Griffiths and Ryan Obermeier.

WATCH  Kiki (trailer); and Wild Awakening (trailer).

The

Box

Black-ish addresses LGBT discrimination dressed up as “religious freedom”.

New BBC drama Against The Law to look at the 1950s Lord Montagu gay sex case, which led to calls to decriminalise homosexuality.

Feud: Bette and Joan, in pictures.

On the end of Girls: HBO’s comedy hasn’t grown up yet, but at least it knows what it wants. "The final season opens with the show’s signature paradoxical cocktail of narcissism and self-reflection."

Archie and the gang get schooled on slut-shaming and white male privilege on "Twin Peaks meets Pretty Little Liars mystery series" Riverdale.

How teen angst took over TV.

Netflix's Dear White People trailer is pissing off some white people.

How a Fox executive nearly stopped The Simpsons from airing its 1997 gay episode, Homer's Phobia.

Former X Factor contestants Bratavio have opened up about the horrific abuse they've been subjected to - from other gay men.

Do we still need Doctor Who? Time travel in the internet age. "From HG Wells to the Doctor and beyond … how technology caught up with science fiction."

Gays of our lives: Your latest from gay soapland. Here's a clip from The Haves and the Have Not.

REVIEW  Love is Blind. "Essentially a late 90s reality show made for the 2010s, Love Is Blind will be ok viewing for many, but it’s not particularly gripping and some may also find the participants a little too bland for their reality TV tastes."

Beats, Rhymes
& Life

Atlanta-based hip-hop trio Migos thinks it’s "fucked up" and "wack" that hip-hop fans support out gay rapper iLoveMakonnen.

I’m actually ashamed that I bought Lord Jamar’s first solo album the day it came out.

On Baduizm and the birth of Erykah Badu the Philosopher. "Reflecting on the album's deeper meanings on the eve of its 20th anniversary."

A Jodeci biopic is coming - ten reasons to be excited.

Eighteen queer composers who made music history.

WATCH  Brendan Maclean's (extremely sexually explicit) House of Air.

WATCH  Tom Goss - More Than Temporary, which celebrates long-term love instead of short-term lust.

New album coming from The Cranberries featuring orchestral re-workings of hits like Linger and Zombie, as well as three new songs.

Conchita Wurst to be "killed off".

LISTEN  Louder Than Quiet cover Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody.

WATCH  Milo Tain - The Look; and serpentwithfeet - Four Ethers.

Red Light

District

Lucas Entertainment model Ibrahim Moreno strip-searched and "humiliated" at Israeli airport because of "Muslim-sounding name".

Gay-for-pay, white supremacist model Cameron Diggs arrested in meth swat raid in Dallas.

Litigious twink Brad Chase announces his retirement following pro-Trump Tweets: “I’ve never been so happy.”

Kyle Dean offers to suck dick in exchange for Amazon wish list gifts, then asks for money on Periscope with his “manager.”

INTERVIEW  Talking to Mickey Taylor.

The top twenty gay porn power couples, ranked.

HustlaBall Las Vegas VIP party, in pictures. Above, Liam Cyber kisses Mickey Taylor.

Meet Corbin Fisher’s Xavier, their first African-American model in over a year.

Bel Ami have released a new book with pictures by photographer Rick Day.

The Seattle Eagle hosted a mass make-out party. Here are the pictures.

WATCH  The Helix boys go bowling.

Ghetto

Romance

I had an epiphany during a visit to a gay sex party, and it complicated my understanding of sexual development for the better.

One in four gay men have contracted an STI while in a relationship.

Polyamorous people: “I tried to live without men, and I tried to live without women. I couldn’t do either.”

What swearing off sex does to your brain. "Some people claim abstaining from orgasm can enhance productivity, creativity, and peace of mind. Do any doctors agree?"

Your awful eating habits are giving away your sex game.

Médecins Sans
Frontières

The poppers training videos taking the drug to terrifying new heights.

Is vaping the best way to stop LGBT smoking?

People hospitalised with HIV are more likely to be recreational drug users.

On aging with HIV.

Needle exchange programs reduce HIV risk, so why aren't states implementing them?

The doctor’s dilemma: Is it ever good to do harm?

Doctors finally admit drugs can’t fix most cases of back pain.

Is paying $80,000 to freeze your head worth seeing what the future will be? "Floating in a tank of liquid nitrogen, unable to control our destiny, is very unappealing. But it's much more appealing than being nibbled on by worms and bacteria."

Total recall: The people who never forget.

Hell's
Kitchen

Remembrance of tastes past: Syria’s disappearing food culture. "For Syrians in exile, food is more than a means of sustenance. It is a reminder of the rich and diverse culture being destroyed by civil war." (December 2016)

Should I worry about arsenic in my rice?

Ketchup debate: To chill or not to chill...

WATCH Meet the Chicken Connoisseur.

Rag
Trade

"Hot convict" Jeremy Meeks makes New York Fashion Week debut.

Betta
Work!

Escorting Stacy. "When a gay male escort receives his first client request from a woman, things are only just starting to get bizarre."

Why gay men should talk about their partners at work.

How to treat sex workers, according to sex workers.

Actors, teachers, therapists – think your job is safe from artificial intelligence? Think again.

I Own 51% Of
This Company!

This is how men’s grooming brand Bevel celebrated Valentine's Day.

Something in the Airbnb: Hosts anxious as New York begins crackdown.

Instagram beauty boys are the new face of makeup. "With millions of followers on Instagram and YouTube, the stars of a new movement that celebrates makeup for men are being signed up by the big brands."

Definitive proof that the advertising industry is the worst. "Cocaine, dickheadery, more cocaine, then a bit more cocaine."

The Body Shop: What went wrong?

How one fast food superfan brought a beloved cult chain back from the dead.

WATCH  The Bank of Australia and New Zealand (which is supporting this year’s Auckland Pride) has created an advert encouraging gay couples to hold hands.

Planes, Trains
& Automobiles

On Night Trains: The Rise and Fall of the Sleeper, by Andrew Martin, the new book on Blue Train reveries.

Tomorrow's
World

Homojis!

Why the clock is ticking for Spotify.

Planet
Earth

Could a £400bn plan to refreeze the Arctic before the ice melts really work?

From sea to plate: How plastic got into our fish. "Eight million tonnes of waste plastic ends up in the sea each year. Fish eat it - and then we do. How bad is it for us?"

Silent spring. What else are pesticides doing? (June 1962)

Zoo

Dogs will like you better if you're nice to people.

The world's most unloved, underappreciated wildlife.

The week in wildlife, in pictures.

And
this:

A 145,000-piece Lego Jurassic Park roller coaster.

Finally, Andrew's gay kitchen; storytime with Rogue "Marbie" Scott; Walter takes a position on taking a position; and Jack and Ben tackle a very thorny subject...

Issue 252: 08-14 February 2017

On the cover: Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer.

Contact KAOS.

Follow KAOS Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.

Read the last edition

The Small Print

KAOS is not responsible for the content of external websites.

KAOS is an independent website and is not linked to any of the organisations which are listed within the website or the THE KAOS THEORY ezine.

The mention or appearance or likeness of any person or organisation on KAOS, or THE KAOS THEORY ezine, is not to be taken as any indication of the sexual, social or political orientation of such persons or organisations.

All rights reserved.

Postcript

"You know, we might just as well not have

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

© 2017