Men’s saunas may make a comeback in San Francisco Some news items you might have missed: • Gay Star News: San Francisco may finally see gay bathhouses return thanks to the city relaxing rules it brought in at the height of the AIDS crisis. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city’s governing council, voted unanimously on Tuesday to remove the restrictions on saunas in hopes that the businesses will now ‘reopen as part of the city’s COVID-19 economic recovery’. • Meidas Touch: A Democratic super PAC is launching an anti-President Trump ad that uses former President Reagan’s comments in a 1980 presidential debate when he was challenging then-President Carter. The ad is set to air exclusively on Fox News over the course of the next week and features Reagan’s famous debate moment when he asked the country if it was “better off” than it was four years ago.
• Queerty: Actresses Indya Moore and Angelica Ross, of FX’s Pose, have criticized the Emmy Nominations, just one day after their announcement. The two transgender actresses attacked the Television Academy for ignoring the trans performers on the show, and lashed out at the show’s network, FX, for a lack of promotion. • KIT212: Kenneth helps us all over Hump Day with his latest installment of ‘Wrestle Wednesday’ (below). • Boy Culture: When the man who wrote Encyclopedia Madonnica 20: Madonna from A to Z, literally THE BOOK on Madonna, calls the international superstar out over COID-19 batshittery, you know it’s serious. • The Gaily Grind: Four plainclothes NYC police officers were caught on video jumping out of an unmarked grey Kia minivan in broad daylight, snatching an 18-year-old transgender protester off the street, wrestling her to the ground, and throwing her into the vehicle before speeding away from the intersection.
NYC is taking after Portland – a trans femme protestor was pulled into an unmarked van at the Abolition Park protest – this was at 2nd Ave and 25th Street pic.twitter.com/1PDhSYuK9h
Some news items you might have missed: • Instinct Magazine: Actors Max Parker and Kris Mochrie, who play brothers Luke and Lee Posner on the hit British soap Emmerdale, are dating. Oh, the scandal of it all! The couple posted the photo above with the caption, “London lads lazily lounging.” Continue reading “News Round-Up: July 27, 2020”
(screen capture from Frame of Mind)Guest post by director/photographer Braden Summers When it comes to commercial media and the imagery we consume, representation matters so much more than most people realize. The more we see of one subject matter, the more normalized it becomes for us. In a dramatic example, imagine Barack Obama saying any of the obscene things that come out of our current President’s mouth – it would be shocking! But we have become used to Trump’s racist language, offensive comments, and self-serving ideology – it no longer shocks us. With regard to commercial media, advertisers have an immense amount of power to feed the public ideas that become normalized. It is possible to use this concept for good, as opposed to growing numb to hateful perspectives. The more we see images of gay romance reflected in the commercial landscape, the quicker the public’s acceptance of LGBTQ romance grows. As we see Laverne Cox grace our screens in “Orange Is The New Black” and on the cover of magazines, the more we as the public come to accept her – opening up the idea (for some people anyway) that transgender people deserve our love and respect.
It is important for people who belong to a majority to see the faces and humanity of those in a minority – representation begets empathy, which begets acceptance. Of course, this is likely an oversimplification, but the root of the idea holds true. As an artist, I have witnessed the power of this concept and am always working to harness that power for the greater good. It is my job, as an ally, to create work that not only benefits my own rights but the rights of those that I respect and love. I approach sensitive subject matter by viewing them through a beauty lens – ultimately creating political imagery that is meant to challenge my audience to expand their scope of acceptance. I inspire people to look, not look away, because it is beautiful. As adults, I find that we are less open to new ideas or concepts than we were in our youth. Discussions around trans acceptance were not as common five years ago, 10 years ago, 30 years ago, as they are today. If you are in your adulthood and have never met a transgender man or woman, it may be difficult to understand how or why they live such a different life than your own. Their existence could make you uncomfortable and it may be easiest for your emotional state to avoid confronting the question as to why it is they make you uncomfortable or how your discomfort, in turn, makes them feel.
My work, and in particular the film Frame of Mind, is meant to draw you in with its rich sound, fashion, gorgeous characters, and elegant setting and, as a result of the interactions, challenge you to face a potentially uncomfortable question: ‘Am I transphobic?’ I created Frame of Mind to be a film that showcases the humanity of our transgender brothers and sisters. This film is shot in a four-minute, single-take, single-perspective, as one trans actress navigates the emotional and physical responses to her existence from fellow passengers in an elevator. The goal is for the viewer of the film to associate with one or more of the characters and reflect for themselves how they might act in that same scenario. Do you identify with those strangers that act kindly to the protagonist? Do you identify with those that are indifferent? Or do you recognize yourself in the actions of the characters that are more negative towards the trans woman? How does associating with one of the characters make you feel? One of the reasons that I wanted to create the film Frame Of Mind was a direct result of witnessing my own transformation. In my late teens, early twenties I came out as a gay man. I participated in parades, I danced in bars, I was proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community; and yet, I don’t think I fully embraced gender non-conforming members of this community until my late twenties.
Seeing Laverne Cox was a big catalyst for eye-opening transformation for me, as well as photographing some incredible transgender men and women like Aydian Dowling and Geena Rocero. The more people from this demographic I met and saw on TV, the more I realized that perhaps I previously had not truly accepted them as part of the same group – despite being lumped together in the same acronym. I made a conscious effort to learn more about trans lives and empathize with the fact that they are who they are; I cannot change my sexuality in the same way that transgender men and women cannot accept that the physical gender they were born with does not match their identity. Who am I to pass judgment? I want to use my work to help others realize that acceptance is a learned trait, by addressing bigotry through color, fashion, and beauty. I hope that I am able to reach a wider audience and ultimately, affect greater change.
Braden Summers is a director and photographer, whose work alerts the viewer to the beauty in people and their environment. The undertones of his portraits are appreciative of diversity and acceptance, ideas that are fundamentally supportive of a more positive lifestyle. His work has been featured in Marie Claire UK, on the sites of French Elle, French Glamour, Advocate and The Huffington Post. Marriott International worked with Summers on their latest campaign #LoveTravels, depicting love and family in the LGBT community and beyond. For more information, visit: www.bradensummers.com
This was sent to me so I don’t know who to credit other than this guy’s awesome genes. If you own it and want me to remove it, just let me know. Until then, let’s just enjoy 🙂 Happy Monday, folks!
In this episode of ‘Gays Gone Wild,’ “Fire Island” was trending on Twitter today after several social media posts went viral featuring tons of shirtless gays at shoulder-to-shoulder parties at the gay summer mecca, Fire Island. No masks, no social distancing. Journalist Chris Weidner curated the following posts and reports via Twitter. Among the ‘Covidiots’ is an apparent 23-year-old Giancarlo Kristian Albanese, currency analyst at EverythingFx. It looksl like he was planning on returning to his parents house (where he lives) in White Plains, NY. Except – his mother reportedly if undergoing chemotherapy, and his brother commented on Giancarlo’s post saying he is now unwelcome at home.
I found her Facebook. It’s true that she has cancer. She also seems like a wonderful person. He must be seriously mentally disturbed to be this unhinged. I feel bad for his family.
Hannon later posted an ‘apology’ video which seemed to twist and turn itself in knots. On one hand, he said he never actually tested positive for COVID-19, but he believed he had experienced it. BUT – even though he took a test for the virus, he still headed out to Fire Island to frolic in the sun amid the gays. He ‘apologized’ for the ‘misrepresentation’ of his COVID story and that his video rant was never meant to be posted to his account as it was just ‘bad humor’ intended to be shared among friends. He also denounced so-called ‘cancel culture’ for how his own posts on social media came back to bite him in the ass. First of all, pal, stop posting every second of your life on social media if you don’t want to deal with the ramifications. You’re not that cool. Second, we can’t cancel what hasn’t happened. I’d never heard of Hannon before today. The idea of ‘cancel culture’ is to ‘cancel’ prominent individuals who have abused public trust in having a following. Dude, you ain’t that famous…
Twitter was NOT havin it:
we’re gonna be in quarantine forever because you expired milk ass f words can’t not wear your ~brand new speedo~ to fire island for one goddamn year pic.twitter.com/b5ktvC0LQq
— All Black Lives Matter. (@samkalidi) July 5, 2020
it’s sending me into a fucking rage seeing videos of all the gays at fire island who decided the pandemic is over because they couldn’t wait a year to wear their tacky speedos and do ghb. if any of you were there please block me, you’re an embarrassment
If you went to Fire Island this weekend do us all in NYC/Long Island a favor and extend your Fire Island stay for an extra two weeks. Stay where you are. Parties are fun, but this shit was fucking stupid. Quarantine your ass like our lives depend on it.
You’d think we gay men would have learned from the last pandemic that brought our community to its knees (HIV) and that we’re still reeling from. We criticize Trumpists for denying science and then turn around and do this. Embarrassing.
In this week’s headlines: • A new lawsuit challenges Virginia’s new law banning LGBTQ discrimination • Atlanta’s gay nightclub Heretic shut down over COVID-19 diagnoses after a sweaty dance party • A pro football player’s homophobic Twitter rant backfires bigtime • A small town council refused to recognize Pride Month, so activists staged a ‘Pride Ambush’ • Billy Porter breaks down another barrier as he becomes the first out Black man to cover ESSENCE Magazine Plus, new music from out UK singer Paul Middleton “When Love Takes Over” All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
L-R Cody Boykin proposes to Brandon Moss (via Twitter) You know what never fails to make me smile? Marriage proposals. And since we can use some smiles these days, check out the viral video below of Cody Boykin dropping to one knee and proposing to his boo, Brandon Moss. The couple met online in December of 2017, but not the way you think that sounds like. The two became friends from a random comment on an Instagram post. According to their page on The Knot, they can’t remember who sent the first message, but Brandon and Cody soon became Insta-Friends chatting on the social media platform. But, they didn’t actually meet face to face until March 2019. Brandon phoned at 4 am one Sunday morning and asked Cody if he would come to visit him in Lynchburg, Virginia. Cody wasn’t totally sure, but jumped in his car and off he went. According to the couple, Cody arrived at 7:30 am and it was love at first sight. Since then, they made the long-distance thing work, but five months later, standing at the edge of a lake, Cody realized what his future needed to look like. On bended knee, he asked Brandon to marry him. Amid the tears, a stunned Brandon said ‘yes.’ The nuptials will take place this fall in late October. After the wedding, the newlyweds will live in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Cody currently practices law. Tweeting a quick video clip of ‘the moment,’ Cody wrote, “The day I asked my best friend to marry me.” Congratulations to the happy couple!
Kenneth Felts just before his 90th birthday (image via Facebook) As the saying goes, “It’s never too late.” Just ask 90-year-old Kenneth Felts who just recently came out as gay to his friends and family. Felts, who lives in Arvada, Colorado, told The Denver Post he never planned on coming out. But after deciding to write his autobiography during the COVID-19 health threat, his trip down memory lane led him to a time when he fell in love with a man named Phillip in the 1950s. Today, Felts says he realized Phillip was his one true love in life. But he made the choice to live as a heterosexual man because “coming out in the ‘50s, /60s and ‘70s was horrendous.” “There was no gay community, there really weren’t gay organizations or anything,” recalls Felts. “People who came out came out on their own, without support. And I guess I didn’t have the courage to face society at that time, so I just went ahead and buried it.” Even though he realized he was gay at the age of 12, Felts says he was always naturally introverted. That, coupled with always being a new kid at school due to his father’s career working for railroads, resulted in being targeted by school bullies. So he spent his life denying who he truly was. “I’ve been in the closet all my life — deep in the closet, behind rows and rows of clothing. I’m way back there,” he told the Post. “Opening that door at the front, I had great trepidation as to what people would say. I was very concerned because I needed people and I couldn’t stand the thought of losing them just because I decided to finally be who I really was.” Along the way, he married a woman and had a daughter named Rebecca. But, ultimately, his marriage ended in divorce. In a recent conversation with his daughter, who’s openly lesbian, he shared the memory of Phillip and the regret he felt for nearly 60 years. Even though Rebecca came out to him 20 years ago, it wasn’t until recently that he was able to overcome his own struggles with being gay. But once he experienced acceptance and support from his daughter and her wife, he went all in and sent messages and emails to friends sharing the news. Just days before his 90th birthday, Felts changed his Facebook profile photo to a new pic wearing a rainbow hoodie and received overwhelming support. “Don’t underestimate your friends and family,” he said. “You might be surprised at how they react if you were to decide to come out. Enjoy what you’ve got while you’ve got it, because you’ve only got it once.” Enthusiastically embracing his true identity, he recently announced he was taking part in a virtual 5K this past weekend to raise funds for Denver Pride. And he now participates in a virtual LGBTQ senior coffee group complete with a rainbow flag hanging on his wall in the background. “He just really seemed to take it and run with it,” says his daughter-in-law Tracie Mayes. “He seems to be making up for lost time and really is owning it, which is fantastic.” “He’s just so brave and he doesn’t even realize that he is, but it’s extraordinary,” adds Rebecca. Looking back, Felts says he has no regrets about being married to a woman because the union brought him his daughter. He has tried to track down long-lost love Phillip, but to no avail. Today, he spends his time with Rebecca, Tracie and his two grandchildren as well as gardening and continuing his writing. Hoping his story might inspire others to embrace their own authentic selves, he told the Post, “It’s never, ever too late to be yourself.”
Beginning tonight – Playbill is proud to present Pride Plays 2020 in celebration of Pride month. The festival, taking place throughout the month of June will feature four primetime live streams of key LGBTQIA+ plays and culminate in a musical celebration with Playbill’s Pride Spectacular June 28. The event, presented by Playbill, will serve as a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The Pride Plays season will include: • one in two by Donja R. Love at 7PM ET tonight, June 12 • Masculinity Max by MJ Kaufman at 7PM ET June 19 • The Five Lesbian Brothers reuniting for a one-night-only live reading of their 1992 play Brave Smiles…Another Lesbian Tragedy at 7PM ET June 22 • Mart Crowley’s The Men From the Boys, directed by Zachary Quinto, at 7PM ET June 26. All live streams will air on the Playbill website at Playbill.com/PridePlays. Honoring iconic LGBTQIA+ musicals, creators, and musical performers, the Spectacular will feature performances by Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), Tony Award winner John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Tony nominee Jenn Colella, Tony nominee Caitlin Kinnunen, Pose star Mj Rodriguez, Tony nominee Brandon Victor Dixon, Cheyenne Jackson, and more.
L-R Donald Trump, Roy Cohn (screen capture) Check out the first trailer for the new documentary Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, scheduled to debut June 19 on HBO. The film takes an unflinching look at the life and death of infamous, closeted anti-gay attorney, Roy Cohn. From Deadline:
The documentary draws on unearthed archival material and audiotapes to paint a portrait of Cohn’s life from the late 1950s as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy, through to the 1980s when he embedded himself in the Reagan White House as a “rabid anti-homosexuality activist and political mentor” to current U.S. President Donald Trump before dying of AIDS in 1986.
Interviewees include John Waters, Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Nathan Lane, and Tony Kushner, whose 2018 Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning revival of Angels In America featured Lane as Cohn.
“Roy Cohn made his name prosecuting and pushing for the execution of my grandparents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg,” said director Ivy Meeropol. “Many years later he became Donald Trump’s lawyer, mentor, and close friend. If there was ever a time to reflect on how we got here it is now. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the film with HBO audiences.”
“One thing I didn’t know until 1988 was that Cohn was gay and had succumbed to AIDS. Learning this about him made me want to know more about this man and the secret life he led. This clash of feelings, hating a man and believing he was evil while simultaneously feeling empathy for that same man who no doubt suffered in the closet, drove my approach in making this film.”
• Boy Culture: When the man who wrote Encyclopedia Madonnica 20: Madonna from A to Z, literally THE BOOK on Madonna, calls the international superstar out over COID-19 batshittery, you know it’s serious. • The Gaily Grind: Four plainclothes NYC police officers were caught on video jumping out of an unmarked grey Kia minivan in broad daylight, snatching an 18-year-old transgender protester off the street, wrestling her to the ground, and throwing her into the vehicle before speeding away from the intersection. 
