Left &
Found
Body image
Shame
LGBT murders trebled over Stonewall’s 50th anniversary.
Sexuality
It's complicated, new study on genes and sexual orientation concludes.
Genetics: diversity is destiny. "Same sex attraction isn’t genetic. It’s human."
"Gay gene" theories belong in the past – now we know sexuality is far more fluid. "Gender norms imprison us all, dictating our behaviour for fear of abuse – and that extends to who we sleep or fall in love with."
Queer teens now: how this 16-year-old navigated coming out to unsupportive parents. "Tristan Bowen's story counters the idea that all queer teens have it easier today — yet despite his mom and stepfather's intolerant views, he's got a bright future ahead."
The current state of coming out. "Four recent stories show the continuing tribulations of living your truth."
Rubbish
Men don’t recycle to avoid looking gay.
So, how can a man be too straight to recycle?
Slavery
Five things people still get wrong about slavery.
Slavery in America reminds us: Trump is far from an aberration. "The president’s white supremacist ideas have been part of America since the beginning."
How we think about the term "enslaved" matters. "400 years ago, the first Africans who came to America were not ‘enslaved’, they were indentured – and this makes a crucial difference when we think about the meanings of our past."
Bodies
Are we doing enough to prevent human extinction? "Journalist Bryan Walsh explains why the threat of extinction is bigger than you think — and why we need to prepare now."
Friends
Hurt locker
Snowflake or tough cookie, you’re just hiding from pain. "A life in which nothing could hurt would be one in which nothing could matter."
There's a reason the future is more troubling than the past. "Bear this in mind as you follow the news in the coming months: no matter how terrible reality is, it can’t be as infinitely bad as you feared."
The Box
Can too much bad TV lead to populism? "Every hour you’re sitting in front of a rubbish cartoon is an hour you’re not reading or exploring the physical world."
White looks. "Should white critics cover black culture? Only if they’re able to own their whiteness."
Whiteness
Whiteness on the couch. "Clinical psychologist Natasha Stovall looks at the vast spectrum of white people problems, and why we never talk about them in therapy."
Innocence lost
Hobbies
When did we lose interest in hobbies? "Remember hobbies? It’s what people had before we became personal brands, primed to earn above all else."
$$$
How to be more frugal (without seeming like a cheapskate). "Frugal people still enjoy spending money. They just want to maximize that money to reduce stress."
Human behaviour
From lizarding to lingering: how we really behave in public spaces.
Desire
How desire can warp our view of the world. "Can we trust our own eyes? The science of 'motivated seeing' says not always."
Won’t you be my neighbour
An anti-hate pop culture syllabus. "Media and entertainment grounded in empathy are a critical part of a saner culture — and we can all help by actively producing, seeking, and supporting it."
The wind
US
News
Las Vegas
Arizona
Republican politician claims "harmful" homosexuality kills gay men by age 42.
Texas
Gay club owner facing boycott after announcing Republican run for Congress.
Florida
Pulse survivors headline "ex-gay Freedom March" ten minutes from nightclub.
Georgia
Missouri
Black children are being killed in St. Louis. Their deaths are going unsolved. "At least a dozen black children have been shot and killed in the city since April. Their deaths are part of a larger problem."
Kentucky
Indiana
Teen attacked in locker room for being gay.
Iowa
Bigot fined for burning LGBT library books.
Minnesota
Pennsylvania
She claims the 20-year-old threatened to kill both of them before overdosing.
How his death unveils the tragic dangers of toxic masculinity. "After being bullied for his loving relationship with a trans woman, celebrities and activists are speaking out."
Catholic priest arrested for stealing $100k from church to pay his Grindr hookups.
New York
Catholic priest arrested for funneling parish money to men on Grindr. "The monsignor also is accused of using the money to pay for a beach house at the Jersey Shore."
Anti-New York white supremacist hate is rising, NYPD says.
Washington D.C.
Gay men arrested for cruising "reminiscent of Stonewall".
California
Gay son of "straight pride" event organiser speaks out against it.
Christian megachurch accused of glamourising conversion therapy in shock ads.
West Hollywood
Virginia
Restaurant pays $40k in pact over gay server's harassment.
Alaska
Don Lemon
CNN anchor sued for alleged sexual assault following unsuccessful extortion attempt.
Gamal Palmer
Bang
Stop blaming mental illness for mass shootings.
Brian Sims
End corporate support for anti-LGBT politicians. "The Zero for Zeros campaign calls on companies to cease donating to the "worst of the worst" members of Congress."
Stephen Ross
Equinox was already evil. "Any protest of Trump is good, including a boycott of the luxury gym. But don’t forget that it was built as a monument to classism and corrupt body politics."
tRump
Gay Republican group endorses Trump for re-election.
It’s legal to fire employees for being gay, Trump decrees.
Trump cancels visit to Denmark after PM says "Greenland is not for sale".
Trump to bulldoze "Endangered Species Act with devastating regulatory rollback.
Why do so many working class Americans feel politics is pointless?
The Family: inside the sinister sect that has infected western democracy. "A disturbing new Netflix documentary shows how a rightwing Christian organisation has for decades secretly swayed US politics ... all the way to the top."
Ads
America’s DIY phone farmers. "Ordinary Americans are using armies of phones to generate cash to buy food, diapers, and beer through ad fraud."
Watch
Police killings: the families left behind. "Tamir Rice, Terence Crutcher and Ramarley Graham were all killed by police officers. The Guardian meets the women, men and children who lived with them, raised them, called them brother or father or son, and hears how they now live with the grief of their loss."
Manson Family murders
Their complicated legacy, explained. "The Manson Family murders weren’t a countercultural revolt. They were about power, entitlement, and Hollywood."
How the Manson family became a pop culture trope. "It’s an American horror story."
How the Manson murders changed Hollywood.
UK
News
London
Police hunt five suspects in "abhorrent" homophobic pepper spray attack in London.
Backstreet, the capital’s longest-running gay leather bar, saved from developers by letter-writing campaign.
UK’s first-ever permanent rainbow crossing unveiled.
Jonathan Cutbill, the co-founder of pioneering LGBT bookshop Gay’s the Word, is dead. He was 82.
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton commemorative coin blocked because author had racist, sexist and homophobic views.
Manchester
Three queer people of colour share their damning accounts of racial profiling and bias at Manchester Pride.
Sheffield
LGBT-only halls were called a ghetto – but a year on, they're thriving. "It was a controversial decision for the university to open the flats, but it’s helped residents gain the confidence to mingle."
Norwich
Brighton
London
Lost in time
World
News
Argentina
Australia
Angus & Robertson removes "gay cure" books and apologises to LGBT community.
Watch
Is Christianity at odds with sexuality?
Police association wrongly implies HIV can be spread by saliva.
Lights dim, but Australia's LGBT media fights on. "Radio and print outlets say some companies splash the rainbow flag during pride month, but don’t splash cash afterwards."
Brazil
Bolsonaro slashes funding for LGBT films and screenplays.
Canada
China
Looking back at the horrifying one child policy. "Director Nanfu Wang discusses her shocking, award-winning new documentary and the dangers she faced while making it."
Germany
Israel
Three men arrested for attempt to murder gay younger brother in family "honour killing".
Italy
Kenya
Policing Africa's largest slum. "As Kenya waits to hear if a police officer will be charged over the death of 23-year-old Carilton Maina, alleged unlawful killings in Kenya continue, leaving poor communities wondering if those charged with protecting them are simply killing with impunity."
Watch
Are Kenya's police getting away with murder?
Netherlands
Poland
Russia
Zambia
Police storm a man’s house because he was having gay sex.
Ghetto
Romance
Poppers
This drug gave me mind-blowing sex but then ruined my life.
Emojis
People who use emojis have more sex.
Medicine
Ball
Priapism
Gay man speaks out after late night hookup left him with life-threatening, ten day erection.
PrEP
Silicosis
The next asbestos? What you need to know about silica. "Silicosis, caused by dust particles from making stone benchtops, can kill. What’s being done?"
Head games
Navigating borderline personality disorder as a gay man.
Back it up
How to prevent back pain. "Forget so-called ‘good’ posture, generally keeping active is much more important, advises a chiropractor."
Body parts
Will this be the last generation to have bodies that are familiar to us? "Jawbone shaving, gene therapy cosmetics, robotics ... What will our bodies be like in the future."
Alcoholism
For years, alcohol was my only comfort. Then it nearly killed me.
Chasing drinks with lies, and lies with drinks. "When there were no clues, I had no story — none of my own anyhow. My life belonged to witnesses, unwilling participants who might know the things that I did not. This is the scariest part of being a blackout drinker: not the inability to remember, the fear that someone else does. The worst thing you can do to a blackout drinker is tell them the truth." (April 2018)
Planet
Earth
Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest’s worst-case scenario is uncomfortably near. "Wildfires and deforestation are pushing the Amazon rainforest toward a dieback scenario: an irreversible cycle of collapse."
Life on thin ice
Greenland’s melting has been adopted by the world as its own problem. But for the islanders grieving their dissolving world, the crisis is personal, and dangerous.
Plastic fantastic
Do plastic bag taxes or bans curb waste? 400 cities and states tried it out.
Suburbia
Cities
The air conditioning trap: how cold air is heating the world. "The warmer it gets, the more we use air conditioning. The more we use air conditioning, the warmer it gets. Is there any way out of this trap?"
From autobahn anomaly to motorway marvel: Berlin's roadside grandstands. "An ambitious and unusual renovation project plans to transform former racetrack grandstands overlooking a motorway by 2021."
Where Manhattan’s grid came from. "It’s iconic. But you might not realise why it’s there."
Cooling goo sidewalks and other strange new weapons in the war on urban heat. "Los Angeles faces a doubling of its extreme heat days but has fresh ideas to keep residents cool - and tackle the inequality of who suffers."
Below
Space
The greatest threat to life on Earth may come from space.
The White
Heat of This Revolution
Cyberattack
How a cyberattack could wreak destruction comparable to a nuclear weapon.
Obsolete
We're stockpiling millions of old gadgets in our drawers.
Duped
Been duped on Facebook and Amazon’s platforms? Well, you’re not alone. "Allowing third parties access to the online giants is as risky as it is profitable."
Tumblr
WordPress could give Tumblr the thing it needs most: stability. "WordPress’s bargain-basement buyout just might save Tumblr — even though it’s keeping the adult content ban."
Risk
Grindr, Romeo, and Recon put users at risk by exposing precise location data.
IMDb
IMDb changes names policy after transgender protest. "The film website now allows users to remove birth names, revising earlier policy after feedback from LGBT groups."
SonicFox
Explainer
Here’s how Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and 8chan handle white supremacist content.
Betta Work
Doctor who?
I'm a medical student, and I'm gay. Work would be simpler if I were heterosexual. "Does the pledge for doctors to be honest include our sexuality? If I tell the truth, I risk losing patient trust to homophobia."
The Tube
Unite
I was skeptical of unions. Then I joined one.
I Own
51% Of This Company!
No Logo at 20
Have we lost the battle against the total branding of our lives? "It was the bestseller that brilliantly critiqued the political power of the ‘superbrands’ and shot Naomi Klein to fame. Two decades on, we ask her, how does it stand up in our world of tech giants and personal brands?"
Retail
Visitors to Manhattan are finding that several retail landmarks are fading fast.
Cheap hoodies in shabby stores: UK department store House of Fraser after a year of Ashley. "Mike Ashley claimed great ambitions for the store chain, but its image has slipped from smart to decidedly dowdy in the 12 months since he bought it."
Coca-Cola
Funko Pop
How aggressively cute toys for adults became a $686 million business. "8,000-plus characters, 29 Conan O’Brien dolls alone: inside the Funko Pop Vinyl phenomenon."
Wayfair
The internet’s massive online furniture store, explained. "As the e-commerce home decor giant Wayfair deals with issues raised by its recent employee walkout and opens its first-ever store, one question remains: How does it even work?"
Arena
Drugs in sport
Why 2012 London Olympics drug cheats are still being caught. "Retrospective testing means athletes cannot breathe easily for a decade, but the system is flawed."
Conrad Avondale Mainwaring
Ryan Russell
Odell Beckham Jr.
Israel Folau
Israel Folau sues Rugby Australia for $10 million over firing for homophobic remarks.
Onside
Interview
Art
Skool
Mapplethorpe
The aftermath of Robert Mapplethorpe's censorship war. "Thirty years ago, the acclaimed photographer challenged the nation's censorship laws. Now a new podcast is examining how far we've come."
Alvin Baltrop
Blake
Nothing like the rain
Architecture
Left To Rot
Gallery
Word!
Proust
Marcel Proust’s secret gay stories, dating from the 1890s, will finally be published.
Val McDermid
Britain's ten most outstanding LGBT writers. "The bestselling crime writer has nominated her favourite queer and trans authors and poets as part of a showcase celebrating the best in British writing."
Reviews
How to...
...review a novel.
Interview
Talking to Ibram X Kendi: the most extreme racists say, "I’m the least racist person anywhere in the world". "Bestselling author of new book, How to be an Antiracist, says being an antiracist is not as simple as describing yourself as ‘not racist’."
Watch
Owen Jones talks to Ibram X Kendi.
Dorothy West
Whatever happened to author Dorothy West? "Writing alongside Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, West was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance. Diana Evans asks: why were her books overlooked for so long?"
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison, the author, is dead. She was 88.
Toni Morrison: a life, in quotes.
Toni Morrison: farewell to America's greatest writer – we all owe her so much. "Booker nominated author Chigozie Obioma reflects on losing a ‘literary mother’ and her encouragement for generations of black and African writers to come."
Watch
Toni Morrison talks to Mavis Nicholson in 1988.
James Baldwin: his voice remembered, by Toni Morrison. (December 1987)
On the rag
Shouting
At Night
"Jewface" row
Film
Skool
Kids
Quads
This Is Not Berlin
End of the Century
Midnight Cowboy
Joel Schumacher
Veteran director says he’s had sex with 10,000 or 20,000 men: "It’s not [amazing] for a gay male, because it’s available."
Bollywood
Filmmaker Karan Johar shuts down homophobic troll.
Judy
Keanu Reeves
The horror... the horror
Why Francis Ford Coppola couldn’t resist recutting Apocalypse Now — again. "The Oscar winner on the definitive, 182-minute version of his magnum opus—a Vietnam fantasia four decades in the making."
The strained making of Apocalypse Now. "Dead bodies, heart attacks, wild parties, cocaine binges, Marlon Brando's belly and breakdowns. Thirty years on, Robert Sellers revisits the making of Apocalypse Now." (July 2009)
Retro active
Why film-makers are getting stuck in the past. "New movie Bait’s rejection of digital technology could open up new paths to creative expression."
So extra
How the director's cut became Hollywood's best ruse to milk fans dry. "They used to come out years after the original – and be quite different. Now films such as Avengers: Endgame are released in ‘new’ versions weeks after the original – and fans are lapping them up."
Killers Anonymous
Has the Hollywood hitman had its day? "The besuited assassin seems to only exist in films. Perhaps it’s time to put them out of their misery."
sex, lies and videotape at 30
Natural Born Killers at 25
The problem with Oliver Stone's hit film. "The controversy-courting 1994 road movie about a couple of bloodthirsty killers took the media to task but failed to investigate further."
...the horror
In 1999, two movies changed horror forever. "The Blair Witch Project was an innovator. But The Sixth Sense became one of the biggest horror hits ever."
Reviews
Watch
Here's the trailers for The Blue Hour; Mr. Leather; Mario; and I Am Patrick Swayze.
Still a thing
Tons of people still rent Netflix dvds, apparently. "The company has mailed its 5 billionth DVD, and we have one question: who is actually ordering DVDs from Netflix?"
The
Box
EastEnders
Top Boy
Ronan Bennett: "Top Boy was special to me... I poured it all into the scripts."
Skins
Jonathan Creek
How Jonathan Creek went from geek in a duffel coat to boring besuited businessman. "Alan Davies solved improbable crimes with wit and flair. Before, erm, getting a job in advertising."
David Makes Man
Teen TV needs more stories about boys of colour. David Makes Man is a good start. "The series, about an underprivileged boy growing up in Florida, is from the writer of Moonlight."
Watch
Matt Baume: "In the last Culture Cruise video, I talked about how the show All in the Family introduced Beverly LaSalle, presenting a female impersonator as being worthy of love and respect at a time when TV tended to depict queer people as mere punch lines. But Beverly was also one of the first queer characters on television to come back for more than one episode, growing closer to the Bunkers over the course of years... until her storyline took a dark turn.
Twatted
Karamo Brown deletes his Twitter account after backlash for defending Sean Spicer on Dancing With The Stars.
Colton Haynes
Pose
Billy Porter reveals why he has a hard time watching his Pose love scene.
Dear White People
"Drabness incarnate!"
Are we finally suffering from Marvel fatigue? "Just as Netflix axed the last of them, the head of Marvel has revealed they have more series on the way. As if we hadn’t suffered enough slogging through their tired, listless shows."
Styling Hollywood
Jason Bolden and husband Adair Curtis dress celebrities and their homes in new Netflix series.
Styling Hollywood
Netflix's Styling Hollywood is a new kind of gay love story. "Celebrity stylist Jason Bolden and interior designer Adair Curtis talk self-made success and black gay joy."
Queer Eye
Joshua Rush
Seinfeld
Big Brother
Jade Goody: a scorned celebrity who held a mirror up to bitter Britain. "She was mocked, shamed and then lionised after a very public death. Ten years on, the Big Brother star exists as a lesson in public prejudice – and the prison of the class system."
Watch
The Mystery of Terry Nation's Special Daleks; Josh Snares explores the making of 1967 Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones; a new episode of Steam Room Stories; and the trailer for Elite season two is here.
Beats,
Rhymes
& Life
Troye Sivan
Troye Sivan rips journalist for asking "wildly invasive, strange, and inappropriate" sexual question.
Lil Nas X
...and he reveals what people have been telling him since he came out as a gay man.
Rammstein
Neil Young
His lonely quest to save music. “Neil Young is crankier than a hermit being stung by bees. He hates Spotify. He hates Facebook. He hates Apple. He hates Steve Jobs. He hates what digital technology is doing to music.”
Billie Eilish
The neo-goth, chart-topping teenage pop star, explained.
Henri Belolo
Henri Belolo: obituary.
Meat
Market
Kurt Wild
Helix Studios
Paul Wagner
Donte Thick
Donte Thick faces backlash for saying he won’t work with HIV-positive models who are undetectable.
ChaosMen
Beaux Banks
Jacen Zhu
Cameron Dalile
NextDoorStudios seeks new director as Cameron Dalile enters drug rehab after relapsing.
Sean Cody
Interview
Talking to Sean Cody’s Jack about his favourite (and least favourite) Sean Cody scenes, being recognised in public, whether he’s straight or gay, and more.
King size
Dixon of cock green
Andre Donovan, Andrey Vic, Drew Dixon and Riley Mitchel do it.
The King and I
Max Arion, Allen King, Rico Marlon and Max Avila do it.
The price is right
Winwin all round
Arad Winwin and Dylan James do it.
Hart to hart
Lover's lane
Go West
Franco sense
Bouna vista
Jack in the box
Nils by mouth
Wood in Harrelson
The Simpsons
Reese's pieces
Jeffrey stars
Tough as Steel
To the max
Dante's peak
Jason Vario and Dante Colle do it.
White Calvins
Calvin Banks and Alam Wernik do it.
Papi!
Hell's
Kitchen
Beef
Cheesy
American cheese: does it deserve its bad reputation?
Zoo
Watch
Dog statues.
Gallery
And
This:
Chill out!
The ten rules for a perfect fridge – from egg storage to deep cleaning. "How cold should your fridge be? How often does it need to be emptied? And is it safe to keep open tins of food in it? Here is a guide to keeping it cool."
Vloglife
YouTube
Teen threatens YouTube HQ with gun photo after she gets axed for anti-gay videos.
Watch
Andrew is rough, raw - and uncut! Plus: Walter discusses the Morehouse sex scandal; D'Angelo exposes a Twitter sham; and butch and femme lesbians answer awkward sex questions.
Life's A
Goddamn
Laugh Riot
Watch
Randy Rainbow skewers Trump's God complex in Cheeto-Christ Stupid-Czar; meet Christine; Michael, Jimmy and Peter discuss kinks; and the best of Jaboukie Young-White.
