There’s currently a huge circuit party taking place in Mykonos, Greece, this week – the XLSIOR Festival.
You know the scene: shirtless, sweaty, gym-bodies dancing, prancing, drinking and all that good stuff.
Oh, and I hear there might be some sex taking place. Maybe.
Last night a fight broke out on the dance floor between two of the built bodies (thank god they had different shorts on or we’d have never been able to tell them apart) and cell phone video footage immediately went viral.
The video appears to start with a swing, then a slap, a hair pull (no, this wasn’t the sex part of the week) and then more of the queens jumped in.
All the while, “Never Enough” from the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman is playing in the background.
#GoodTimes
You can almost hear the dialogue in your head:
“Janet is NOT the ‘Queen of Pop’ – Madonna is!”
“No – Beyoncé is better!”
“You Bitch!!!”
SLAP!
Or who knows – maybe someone inadvertently touched someone else’s weekend boyfriend…?
Fortunately, none of the queens knew how to throw a punch and no one appears to have been seriously injured.
And, in truth, this kind of thing hardly ever happens at gay events.
In any case, the brief mini-brawl has gone viral – much to the delight of some, the embarrassment of others.
Donald Trump finally issued a statement honoring recently deceased Sen. John McCain.
From the White House press office:
Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment. I have asked Vice President Mike Pence to offer an address at the ceremony honoring Senator McCain at the United States Capitol this Friday.
At the request of the McCain family, I have also authorized military transportation of Senator McCain’s remains from Arizona to Washington, D.C., military pallbearers and band support, and a horse and caisson transport during the service at the United States Naval Academy. Finally, I have asked General John Kelly, Secretary James Mattis, and Ambassador John Bolton to represent my Administration at his services.
Trump was famously not invited to attend McCain’s funeral.
Both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who defeated McCain in runs for the White House, have been invited to speak at McCain’s funeral.
Much was made of the fact that the American flag at the White House, after flying at half-mast for only a day, returned to full staff today.
Flag back at full staff atop WH. Pres Trump did not issue proclamation on the death of @SenJohnMcCain, which usually calls for flags to remain at half-staff through the day of interment, which is Sunday at the @NavalAcademy. pic.twitter.com/NGasNPT0VB
Trump issued a proclamation late today ordering the flag to be “flown at half‑staff for the same period at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.”
Some believe the change of heart came after the American Legion issued a statement asking Trump to return to a decades-long tradition of flying the flag at half-staff upon the passing of a sitting U.S. senator.
Some news items you might have missed: • California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law AB 2439 which designates the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City as the official state LGBTQ veterans memorial. California is the first state to have a designated memorial honoring LGBT veterans. • Streaming service Netflix is catching flak for under-representing lesbians, bisexuals and trans folks in it’s LGBT content.
Someone let netflix know that 678 gay men films and 2 lesbian films doesnt make a lgbtq section
• Homocon and self-described provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos recently took to Facebook to cry about his ‘ruined life.’ The far-right lunatic says his cancelled speaking events have cost him “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. And when I get dumped from conferences, BARELY ANYONE makes a sound about it – not my fellow conservative media figures and not even, in many cases, you guys.” • Human Rights Campaign Foundation president Mary Beth Maxwell resigned her position after multiple instances of using the N-word in the workplace. • The Hollywood Reporter calls the upcoming film, 1985, “Sensitively observed, a model of eloguent restraint;” and Variety calls the film an “Excellent drama… nothing here rings false.” Starring Gotham‘s Cory Michael Smith as “Adrian,” eldest son to Texas residents Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis, the film follows Adrian as he returns home following the death of his partner to AIDS. Home for the holidays to say goodbye to his family, he reconnects with his old friend Carly (Jamie Chung) and his younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford). Watch the trailer below. The film is set for limited release October 26.
Director Camille Vidal-Naquet’s feature film debut, Sauvage, which chronicles the journey of a 22-year-old gay street hustler, garnered praise and accolades when the film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Strand Releasing has now acquired the North American rights to the provocative film which Vulture called “the most sexually frank film at Cannes.”
The film’s star, Felix Maritaud, was honored with the best actor prize during the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. You may recall Maritaud’s previous star turn in Robin Campillo’s (BPM) Beats Per Minute which won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes in 2017.
Vidal-Naquet describes the lead character as a “solitary young man who hits the road and wanders from one encounter to the next, longing for love, driven by an unquenchable capacity for love that keeps him going, regardless of the violent world around him.”
Although the movie received acclaim at the famed film festival, the debut did not go without some controversy.
One scene, in particular, was graphic to the point that some audience members got up and left the screening.
At one point, Léo goes home with a city-dwelling couple who treat him like an unthinking animal, making cruel cracks about his appearance and inspecting his teeth as though they were checking the quality of a product. It’s hard to watch this happen to someone as open-hearted as Léo, and that’s even before one of the men orders Léo to get on all fours, then begins to lube up a gigantic, intimidating butt plug which he will wield almost like a weapon.
But the director defended the graphic approach to the material, saying, “It wouldn’t be honest to make a movie about prostitution without talking about these kinds of things.”
In addition to the gritty, coarse world of male prostitution, Sauvage also finds vulnerability and balance by touching on Maritaud’s unrequited love for a fellow hustler.
The film is set for a late 2018 release and recently dropped the first trailer. Watch below.
Footage of Donald Trump talking to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto showed the Trumpster appearing to have trouble with the speakerphone.
A brilliant Twitter user added the theme to HBO’s VEEP and post-show credit layout to the footage with hysterically spot-on results.
Watch below.
so just as an experiment I put the president’s ~supremely~ awkward oval office moment to the @VeepHBO closing credits theme song just now. uhh it works v well. pic.twitter.com/uWO5d7EVTF
Entertainment reporter Karl Schmid (image via Instagram)
Karl Schmid, the handsome host of “On The Red Carpet” and reporter for ABC7 in Los Angeles who came out as HIV+ in a candid social media post this past March, spoke with The Today Show’s Megyn Kelly what it was like to share his status with the world.
With an upbeat tone and message, Schmid told the TV audience his goal in coming out was to hopefully breakdown the still-painful stigma surrounding HIV today.
The entertainment reporter hit several important points along the way, beginning with the fact that in some states you can be arrested, convicted and put in prison for 8 years as a felon for having consensual, protected sex without disclosing one’s HIV+ status.
After Kelly noted that some consider the idea of having sex with someone who is HIV+ a ‘death sentence,’ Schmid clearly (and correctly) states, “Undetectable equals untransmittable – I’m here to bang it into everyone’s heads.”
Dr. Antonio Urbina of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City was on hand to help underscore that message.
“Right, so that’s that ‘U=U,’” said the physician. “A person living with HIV takes their medications, drives their viral load down to undetectable, their chances of transmitting is zero.”
A post shared by Karl Schmid (@karljschmid) on Mar 23, 2018 at 8:52pm PDT
Asked what his first thoughts were upon being told he was HIV+ almost ten years ago, Schmid candidly shared his mind went into ‘survivor mode’ telling himself, “Ok, this is what I have to do.”
But noting how difficult it is just to come out to our families as gay, the 37-year-old Australian said his first clear thought was, “Oh my gosh – I’ve let my parents down.”
“I think that most parents, when they find out their son is gay, one of the immediate fears is ‘Now he’s going to get AIDS.’”
Addressing the fears that come with HIV/AIDS, Schmid feels in the early years of the pandemic those concerns were necessary to help stop or slow the spread of the disease.
“People were dropping like flies, we had to stop this – it was very important,” said Schmid. “We had to scare the poo-poo out of people.”
Conjuring up the decades-old images of sickly, high-contagious HIV patients from the 1980s and early 1990s, Schmid admits many people still hold those ideas in their heads.
Turning to the camera, Schmid boldly stopped, gestured to himself, and declared, “This. This. This – hello, camera two – this is HIV+ in 2018. Take a look.”
He also told Kelly that the news of his status was met with great support in the workplace.
But in sharing some of the heartbreaking messages he’s received since coming out publicly, Schmid emphatically announced, “This stigma is real – and it’s unnecessary.”
It’s a tremendously powerful segment, both in the message and the facts.
Schmid prefaced his appearance with a Facebook post which read, “When I was 15 I first came to NYC and remember seeing Rockefeller Center and the NBC peacock and NBC News sign and saying to myself, “one day I’m going to be on The Today Show.”
“Little did I know 23 years later I would be on The Today Show with Megyn Kelly TODAY…talking about something much bigger than myself (for once)!” the 37-year-old Australian added. “The fight against HIV stigma. Hopefully I can help start a new conversation about what it means to be HIV+ in 2018. Oh yeah, and I hope I make my mum and dad proud.”
Not only is Schmid extremely well-spoken, but we can talk about how hot he is???
Out New York gubernatorial candidate and award winning actress Cynthia Nixon is finding no love from prominent LGBTQ advocacy organizations when it comes to endorsements for her nascent campaign.
Both the Stonewall Democrats and the Human Rights Campaign have issued announcements throwing their support for incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo instead of the openly lesbian actress.
HRC proudly endorsed NY Gov Cuomo for re-election because he has been a champion for LGBTQ equality during his 7 years in office.He banned “conversion therapy” for kids, enacted protections for trans people & led the fight to win marriage equality in 2012. https://t.co/OBoMcSz7MI
In terms of the LGBTQ community, Cuomo believes his record on gay issues shows results not ‘rhetoric.’
“The governor is focused on results. We’ll leave the baseless election-year rhetoric to others,” said Cuomo spokesperson Abbey Collins. “With LGBTQ rights under attack from Trump, New Yorkers know they can count on Governor Cuomo to stand up and fight back.”
The Grammy/Tony/Emmy Award winning actress, however, points to what she says are lapses in the governor’s record including no ban on so-called ‘conversion therapy’ in the state. She also believes she did more heavy-lifting in the fight to bring marriage equality to New York state.
“Gov. Cuomo may have signed the bill, but Cynthia was fighting alongside other activists for the right to marry her now wife, Christine,” Nixon spokesperson Sarah Ford told Buzzfeed. “She understands the needs of the LGBTQ community as a wife and mother of a transgender son on a deeply personal level.”
Aside from the political posturing, though, the endorsements by HRC and Stonewall Dems raises an important question: should LGBTQ advocacy groups focus their support on candidates from the community? Or should experience carry the day?
Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club in New York, criticized the HRC’s endorsement of Cuomo saying, “The Human Rights Campaign has been more interested in their real estate, high salaries, and hobnobbing with middle-of-the-road Democrats — while, in many cases, thumbing their nose at labor and other civil rights groups.”
“Their endorsement is not based on what’s best for the community – it’s about what’s best for their brand,” he added.
But Marty Rouse, HRC’s national field director, told BuzzFeed his organization backed Cuomo because “we stand with elected leaders who stand with us.”
The most recent polling, from Siena University, shows the Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winner trailing 31 points behind Cuomo 29% to his 60%. That same poll showed Cuomo’s favorability at 67% and Nixon’s at 29%.
The primary is scheduled for September 13.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time the HRC has been accused of ignoring LGBTQ candidates over straight, cisgender nominees.
Even with years in the state legislature, having a BA in political science, a Doctor of Business Administration degree, a Masters in Divinity and being a 29 year veteran of the U.S. Army where she achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel, she says the Human Rights Campaign never called her to even inquire about how they could help her campaign.
Instead, the HRC backed former congressman Steven Horsford, a straight, cisgender male, who won the Democratic nomination.
Some political folks have chimed in on the subject saying the Trump administration is an example of what can happen when ‘celebrities’ with no prior experience in public service take office.
What do you think, readers?
Should our advocacy groups focus on backing candidates from the community who step up?
Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy was crushing hard on pop star Shawn Mendes as he attended last night’s iHearRadio MMVAs this weekend.
The event, which celebrates the year’s best in music videos, brought the hunky Olympic silver medalist face to face with his celeb crush, Mendes, on the red carpet.
Before the fun, though, Kenworthy shared a totally swoon-worthy pre-game pic in a white fluffy robe complete with chest fur:
While traveling to the awards, Gus shared the amped-up anticipation of seeing his fave pop star at the event:
A short time later – there he was, Shawn Mendes, on the red carpet. Kenworthy couldn’t help himself as he took a profile creeper shot of the singer, who was nominated for 8 awards at the event, by the way. #NotTooShabby
It wasn’t long before Kenworthy shared a selfie that broke gay Instagram as he posed with Mendes and what appeared to be a photobombing Colton Haynes.
Gushing Gus snapped that shot and sent it out onto the Twitterverse with the logo for porn company Sean Cody in the corner and the caption, “New video coming soon!”
On Instagram, Kenworthy shared the same pic but with a different message, shooing Haynes away from the scene, writing, “COLTON GET OUT OF OUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTO!!!”
A post shared by gus kenworthy (@guskenworthy) on Aug 26, 2018 at 4:58pm PDT
Now, in case you’re wondering where Kenworthy’s hunky boyfriend Matt Wilkas was in all this tongue-wagging, Kenworthy assured us there’s room in his life for both Wilkas and Mendes as she shared a pic of all three together with arrows labeling Wilkas “boyfriend” and Mendes “husband.”
HBO served up this rapid-fire sizzle reel of the upcoming season with teases from all the network’s top shows including Game of Thrones, Veep, Big Little Lies, Flight of the Conchords, True Detective, and Pod Save America as well as new shows Jane Fonda in Five Acts and Camping.
If you pay close attention you get a quick peek at Meryl Streep in the new season of Big Little Lies.
You know it’s going to be a good Monday when political satirist Randy Rainbow delivers a brand-new parody song!
In this video, upon the cue from Donald Trump, “If I ever got impeached…” Randy launches into his version of the Wizard of Oz tune, “If I Only Had A Brain.”
