Issue 263: Justin Fashanu, Bermuda, Chechnya, 1992, Will & Grace, Arad WinWin, Sean Ford, Sean Xavier, and more...

the week's

news

& pop

culture,

with a

gay

bias.

Left &
Found

We're not that far from Chechnya. "The antigay atrocities in Chechnya remind us how fragile our safety truly is."

Unchecked homophobia leads to scenarios like Chechnya. "There are consequences for passive acceptance of prejudice."

Be careful out there: sexual assault trend "stealthing" is "rampant" in the gay community.

Being a bottom is biological. "Bottoms are more likely to be feminine or gender non-conforming at a young age, and they are often left-handed. And if you have older brothers, you are also more likely than not to be a bottom."

Straight men proven to be more physically attracted to other men after a few drinks.

The alt-right hates women as much as it hates people of colour.

Whiteness matters more than Jesus to white evangelicals.

A letter to white queerdom. Antiblackness anywhere is antiblackness everywhere.

The racist and transphobic rhetoric of Gays for Trump was fostered by LGBT movements centering white gay men's rights.

In solidarity, we rise. How International Workers' Day underlines the importance of LGBT people allying with other social justice movements.

On queer life in the '70s and '80s: art, activism, and AIDS. "These decades were filled with joy and horror, and a disease that would test our existence."

All monsters are human. "It's now considered impolite to call transgender people names in public, but we're still treated like subhuman beasts."

News
America

Staggering amounts of US LGBT discrimination revealed.

An underground sex club is raided, and Minneapolis is forced to face the times. "There is a nondescript building in north Minneapolis, hidden amid a forgotten cove of ramshackle bungalows, where three nights a week gay men of all ages gather to have anonymous sex."

Vile bigot Kim Davis is going back to court after a federal appeals court gave a gay couple the green light to sue her.

This is Jauan Durbin, a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He has vowed to "live in my truth" after being cruelly rejected by his mother for wearing makeup.

High school students catfish gay teacher for nude photos on Grindr - then pass them around.

Seattle police search for man who yelled anti-gay slurs and pulled a gun on two pedestrians.

Pulse nightclub owner Barbara Poma announces memorial, museum plans.

A funeral home rejected a dead man’s body because he was gay. That’s legal in most states.

Tennessee, Alabama write discrimination into law.

HIV activists seek expanded sanctuary for immigrants.

LGBT historians release interactive map of significant places in NYC.

Trump poses in Oval Office with pastor who said gay men want to molest children.

Trump's administration is a horrifying success... at terrorising immigrants.

Lots of Trump's executive orders don't do anything.

Long read

How Trump could get fired. "The Constitution offers two main paths for removing a President from office. How feasible are they?"

Obama's embrace of hyper-capitalism is not above criticism just because he's black...

...On the other hand, racism is expecting Obama to work for free while letting trump's family siphon tax payers dollars through their business

Police change their story in the killing of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.

There's no such thing as "good police".

On Jahvaris Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s brother and a rising community organiser.

Fifty years after summer of love, yuppies have replaced San Francisco's hippies. "Nostalgia runs high as the city approached 50th anniversary, but residents say free love has given way to wealth and individualism."

History

The unseen side of the 1992 LA riots: apocalyptic photos of firemen wielding shotguns and humvees cruising neighborhoods.

Canada

Life inside Vancouver’s most notorious housing block.

News
UK

Millionaire marketing director Guy Hedger shot dead in front of his husband at their home.

Catching up with Chris Birch, the man who had a stroke that made him gay.

Which MPs have the worst records on LGBT equality? (Spoiler: they're mostly Tories. I know, surprising, right?)

Music, politics and cricket: the rise of black British identity, in pictures.

News
World

Ireland

One in three young LGBT people have attempted suicide.

Spain

Eugénio Reicha disembowelled his lover Simon Carley-Pocock with an African spear in his villa in Alcoutim. Now he's going to jail for fourteen years.

France

Queer lessons from Marine Le Pen’s rise. "What the rise in populism means for LGBT people."

Le Pen claims to want to protect France’s LGBTQ community — but she opposes marriage equality.

Italy

Same-sex traffic lights installed in Turin.

What does LGBT activism look like in Italy?

Chechnya

"They tell the parents to kill their [gay] child. They say: 'Either you do it or we will.' They call it 'cleaning your honor with blood.'"

Chechnya

Gay teen killed by uncle who pushed him from a ninth floor balcony.

Russia

LGBT activists arrested at May Day protest.

Ukraine

Soviet-era Russian "friendship" monument repainted as a rainbow to celebrate diversity.

Colombia

Being gay in the country ain't easy.

Venezuela

A night of violence reveals the depths of Venezuela's crisis. "In the working-class neighbourhood of EL Valle, Venezuelans are angry and afraid, and hostility towards Nicolas Maduro’s government runs high."

Bermuda

Marriage equality comes to the island nation following case brought by Toronto-based Bermudian and Canadian couple, Winston Godwin and Greg DeRoche.

Trinidad

LGBT community in launches safety campaign.

Uganda

Fortune magazine includes LGBT human rights defender Frank Mugisha in its 2017 list of the world’s greatest leaders.

United Arab Emirates

Two trans men in unprecedented bid for gender recognition.

Syria

Amid the rubble, Aleppo tries to return to normal life.

Israel

The invisible Filipino work force. "To support their families back home, women from the Philippines have found work and a new way of life in Israel. But at what price?"

Bangladesh

Police arrest the alleged head of information technology for al Qaeda-inspired militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which is thought to be behind the brutal murders of LGBT activists, including Xulhaz Mannan, editor of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine Roopbaan.

China

Endless cities: will China's new urbanisation just mean more sprawl? "The announcement that new megacity Xiongan will be built near Beijing is the latest attempt to take pressure off China’s biggest metropolises. Can it work?"

Indonesia

Eight men arrested for holding a “gay party”.

Philippines

The elderly gay Filipinos who perform in drag to survive.

The drug war is flooding this funeral home with bodies.

Australia

Troye Sivan, Guy Pearce and Missy Higgins push for Safe Schools replacement. "LGBT youth need anti-bullying program with sexuality and gender at its core, prominent Australians say in letter to PM."

Reliving the shocking story of Indigenous slave-performers. "In 1892, Jack Sheppard’s family were abducted, chained and forced to dance for settlers. At Yirramboi First Nations festival, he’ll revisit the dark past."

Médecins Sans Frontières

Boffins confirm what we already know: booze makes the pain go away.

HIV genetically eliminated in mice.

Mixing alcohol with your HIV meds: what you need to know.

Dry mouth is a common side effect for HIV-positive people on multiple kinds of medications. What can we do to reverse it?

A second chance at death. A "long term survivor makes peace with inevitability of death."

Long read

The itch. What the sensation of uncontrollable itch and the phantom limbs of amputees can tell us about how the brain works. (June 2008)

Arena

Being pro-LGBT is not responsible for ESPN’s layoffs. "It’s economics, not politics, that is hurting the network."

Why coming out is sports’ most effective change agent.

Tennis saved this gay college athlete’s life as his teammates rallied around him.

Former rugby player Sam Stanley couldn’t care less about your criticism of his older fiancé.

Mexico soccer again fined by FIFA for homophobic "puto" chant.

Justin Fashanu praised as a "legend" by his brother John - who once paid him £100,000 to not come out.

Living sex doll Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first male to top one hundred million Instagram followers.

Long read

The future of football. "Football as we know it is done, because the lawyers are here."

Long read

The US gymnastics system wanted more medals, and created a culture of abuse to get them.

Art +
Design

On Tseng Kwong Chi, the little-known gay artist who helped make Keith Haring famous.

The photography of Robbie Sweeney, in pictures.

Central London's ugliest buildings.

Word!

On How To Be A Faggot, an erotic memoir inspired by Jamison Karon's 2016 artist residency at Tom of Finland Foundation .

Has Tim Federle written the best gay young adult novel ever?

Review

Primer, by Aaron Smith. "Revelatory. The book opens up a dialogue on trust, joy, rejection, celebration, fear, and anger. But the book’s essential power and beauty is its sense of emotional knowledge; knowledge of the gay community’s long history of “learning to take it” and surviving."

Read

An excerpt from gay manga legend Gengoroh Tagame's gorgeous graphic novel My Brother's Husband.

On the diversity in Elska magazine.

On FTM magazine.

The New York Times is doing great! Here’s the problem with that.

On the rag - the week's gay weeklies.

Shouting
At Night

On Dorian's Closet, the musical that sheds light on Paris Is Burning legend Dorian Corey - and the mummified man found in her closet.

Rent is 21.

Interview

Talking to Sarah Schulman, the lesbian writer Rent ripped off.

Review

Angels in America. "Twenty-five years after its first production, this eight-hour fantasia is revealed as both a document of the Aids crisis and an enduringly relevant commentary on US politics."

Strike a pose! Europe's voguing competitions, in pictures.

Interview

Talking to London drag performer Raven Mandella about rhinestones, race and redemption.

Meet London's drag kings.

Film
Forever

On Party Boi: Black Diamonds in Ice Castles, the new film Micheal Rice spotlighting meth addiction in the black gay community.

Netflix acquires Sudhanshu Saria’s superb Indian romance Loev.

Review

Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story. "The tragic story of the late footballer Jusin Fashanu and his sibling John recalls a homophobic, racist Britain of the 1980s."

Review

Counting For Thunder. "A lot of the movie is charming, and some of the story is handled extremely well, but it’s difficult to escape the feeling that it’s a case of waiting for thunder that we never quite hear."

Review

Utopians. "Sexy and with plenty of full frontal male nudity, Utopians takes on interesting ideas about philosophy, religion and the possibility of an epicurean paradise, but slightly undermines itself by lacking the coherence that something so ambitious desperately needs."

Review

The Tired Old Queen At The Movies takes on Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

The case for more death in kids' movies.

Black Star Wars characters, ranked.

Why Alien is the only film franchise that doesn't suck.

Does Austin Powers actually suck?

On director and photojournalist Kate Brooks new documentary The Last Animals.

Watch

Trailers for Nobody's Watching; and B and B.

The
Box

Film and TV writers have reached a deal with producers to avert a Writers Guild of America strike.

Interview

Talking to Joseph Baken about his new web series, Ding Dongs.

Dear White People on Netflix is everything that the movie could have been plus more. You might should watch it.

Dear White People's biggest success? Getting to grips with colorism. "The original film was criticized for the way it dealt with skin-color prejudice within the black community, but the new series shows why skin tone matters."

Casting JonBenét isn't a true crime story. It's something better.

Interview

Talking to American Gods showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green about adapting a show that was stuck in development hell for years.

The seven sauciest TV shows from around the world, from Versailles to Heartless.

Delicious Hollyoaks' twinks Prince and Hunter get a hot daddy (the fanfic writes itself...)

Gays of our lives: Your latest from gay soapland.

Will & Grace: Here we go again, honey.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine finally tackled racist cops.

Superstore: in praise of the vastly improved second season.

RuPaul's Drag Race: This week's rankings.

Watch
The Pit Crew play...

Watch
Here are the latest episodes of Skin Deep the Series, Shadows, Kuntergrau, Steam Room Stories; and the trailer for the return of BoyDrama...

Beats, Rhymes
& Life

When black music isn't accessible to blacks: on Kendrick Lamar ticket prices.

Will Young shrugs off dick pic leak: “I’m amazed that, given the amount of people I’ve sent pictures of my cock to, that it’s not become famous, too."

Jaden Smith's shaved his head. Eternity weeps.

If you paid Ja Rule $10,000 for anything in 2017, you deserve whatever the fuck happens to you.

Sugarhill Gang: how we made Rapper's Delight.

Watch

Here's the video for Aubergine Machine's U People.

Watch

Here's the video for THEY's Back It Up.

Watch

Here's the video for Emo Steve's Alone.

Watch

Here's the video for Sonder's Too Fast.

Listen

Listen to Michl - Waste?

Listen

Listen to Zaia - Slow It Down.

Red Light
District

Rentboy CEO Jeffrey Hurant to be sentenced in July.

Porn star James Deen's crisis of conscience. "The most famous male adult film actor — and porn website proprietor — of his generation frets that his industry doesn’t protect children from exposure to hardcore content on the internet."

David Enrique Meza, the Sean Cody model who used the alias “Mario Romo”, has been found guilty of the “personal, brutal and vicious” murder of his wealthy older boyfriend Jake Clyde Merendino.

James Richard Huffman IV, the Sean Cody model who used the alias "Chase", is on trial for the murder of college student Michael Hogg in 2014.

Interview

Talking to Arad Winwin about Trump’s immigration policy, oppressed regimes, personal choice and life changing careers.

Lucas Entertainment, Kristen Bjorn announce content collaboration.

Gay porn stars at RuPaul’s DragCon, in pictures.

Of course Men.com did a Twin Peaks parody called Twink Peaks.

Colt Rivers says his new scene is a “fucking nightmare” that makes him want to commit suicide.

Sean Xavier and Andy Star do it. Here's some behind-the-scenes pictures from the shoot.

Trelino and Andrew Stark do it.

Arad, Skyy Knox and Boomer Banks do it.

Hell's
Kitchen

What happened when I went behind the scenes at KFC.

Are frozen fruit and vegetables as good for you as fresh? "Fresh is best – right? In fact, studies on the relative benefits of fresh and frozen show no consistent differences."

I Own 51% Of
This Company!

British supermarket bans all foreign meat as Brexit proceeds.

Get ready for the regional shopping mall apocalypse.

Planes, Trains
& Automobiles

What happens to retired Tube trains?

Cybercrime on the high seas: the new threat facing billionaire superyacht owners.

Long read

Where oil rigs go to die. "When a drilling platform is scheduled for destruction, it must go on a thousand-mile final journey to the breaker’s yard. As one rig proved when it crashed on to the rocks of a remote Scottish island, this is always a risky business."

Zoo

Boffins successfully develop eight fetal lambs to term in artificial wombs.

The week in wildlife, in pictures.

And
This:

Finally, Walter wonders why so many black gay men are still flocking to Atlanta, despite his warnings about the tsunami of bareback sex sweeping the city; Jontavian and Brandon prank; Davey Wavey recruits help to help find your anal prostate; and interrogating Kingsley.

Issue 263: 01-06 May 2017

On the cover: Winston Godwin and Greg DeRoche.

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Postcript

"You know, we might just as well not have

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

© 2017