Fans of the Netflix sci-fi series Sense8 will get our long-awaited finale movie on June 8!
Squee!!!!!
In making the announcement for the two-hour wrap-up movie, Netflix also unveiled the above graphic for the event.
According to press materials, in the series finale “personal lives are pushed aside as the cluster, their sidekicks and some unexpected allies band together for a rescue mission and BPO take-down in order to protect the future of all Sensates.”
The LGBT-inclusive series (two gay couples plus a transgender principal character) got its closing notice last year after only two seasons. Netflix blamed high costs – apparently $9 million per episode – for the cancellation.
But a fan-driven letter writing campaign swayed the streaming network to give fans a conclusion to the story which saw 8 individuals across the planet suddenly psychically bound to each other.
Check out the newly-released teaser below. See you all on June 8!
• Miss America 2005, Deidre Downs Gunn, married her girlfriend, attorney Abbott Jones, in a ceremony Saturday at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Congrats to the happy couple!
Former Miss America Winner Deidre Downs Gunn Marries Girlfriend in Romantic Southern Wedding https://t.co/GB4v9i2go6
• White House adviser Kellyanne Conway was asked why she thought First Lady Melania Trump hasn’t been featured on magazine covers like Michelle Obama was during her time in the White House. Conway’s response? “Melania Trump is such a superior and excellent First Lady.” The word “superior” when comparing a white woman to a black woman is an interesting choice.
• This will be sure to piss off the haters – Disney now has rainbow Pride “Mickey Mouse” ears:
• Back in 2015, Indiana pizzeria Memories Pizza made headlines when the owners told local press that they would never cater a same-sex wedding in response to the state’s “religious freedom and restoration act.” Glenn Beck helped spearhead a campaign to raise almost $850K for the homophobic owners. Fast forward to today – the pizza joint has now posted an out-of-business sign.
• Parkland shooting survivors Cameron Kasky and David Hogg got the attention of the Twitterverse when openly gay Kasky posted the pic below with the caption “Prom 2018.”
Not sure if they are attending together, but gay + straight sure looks great 🙂
American Idol contestant Ada Vox heads to the Top 10
There was quite the dramatic moment last night on American Idol as Ada Vox, the drag persona of Adam Sanders, found herself without enough viewer votes to be automatically advanced to the Top 10.
So, the San Antonio native had to sing for her life. The judges were given the power to “save” four contestants from elimination and head into the top 10.
Choosing the apropos “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls, Ada wowed the judges yet again.
As an emotional Vox waited to learn her fate, Katy Perry quieted the crowd and said:
“I don’t know everything. I’ve got a lot to learn. But I have worked my butt off for over 10 years in the spotlight and these gentlemen on my side (pointing to Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan) – all of us collectively together – how many years would that be, maybe 60? Collectively? I think we do know talent when we see it. I would say that we would like to make an executive decision right now that Ada – you get that seat, baby.”
And with that Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan joined Perry in pointing to the area where the Top 10 contestants were sitting.
Later, Vox commented on the video page below expressing her thanks:
Hey, y’all!!! Firsrly, I wanted to start by saying that I love you all!!! Secondly, I wanted to make note that I am aware of my much less than perfect vocal. Haha not only did my emotions run wild on me, but before the show, I had an allergic reaction to our lunch which made my tongue and throat swell up almost immediately. So that was fun… Lol. Thank you to everyone who did vote!!! If you want to see me continue on, make sure to vote next week! I promise it will be so much better!
America, we have our first American Idol drag contestant – Ms. Ada Vox.
High school students in Massachusetts will soon have access to LGBTQ-themed history, English and health this fall in an effort to help all students see themselves in the courses they study.
The curriculum, developed by a team of teachers with Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, will be released this summer. It will feature lessons on the 1969 Stonewall Riots and writings by gay and lesbian authors such as Langston Hughes and Willa Cather. It will also feature lessons like how Nick Carraway’s love for Jay Gatsby may have influenced themes in “The Great Gatsby.”
“We talk about mirrors and windows,” said Jeff Perrotti, director of the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students. “Students need to see themselves reflected and see others who are different from themselves. It is important that all students feel safe, valued and respected in school so they can be ready to learn.”
“If students don’t see themselves in the curriculum, they are not as likely to pay attention,” said commission director Corey Prachniak-Rincon. “It is a huge demand we hear from teachers. They recognize part of the reason why LGBTQ students feel excluded is they’re not reflected and that part of their identity is ignored.”
The Herald goes on to quote teachers who say students have come back after graduating to say how much it helped them to discuss literature and history that included facts such as poet Walt Whitman being gay.
I am, of course, waiting to hear from the haters who will label this “gay indoctrination.”
But the fact is the new gay-themed curriculum will not be required for all schools to teach. The choice to offer the courses will be left to local school districts.
According to a 2015 study, 11% of high school students in Massachusetts identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning their sexual orientation. Almost 3% identify as transgender.
Whether Donald Trump and the Trumpers like it or not, former FBI Director James Comey’s new memoir, A Higher Loyalty, is an instant blockbuster having sold over 600,000 units in it’s first week.
The early sales figures for Mr. Comey’s book dwarfed other recent political best sellers. Hillary Clinton’s memoir, “What Happened,” sold more than 300,000 copies in all formats in its first week on sale.
And “Fire and Fury,” Michael Wolff’s explosive look inside the Trump White House, sold around 200,000 hardcover copies in its first full week on sale, according to NPD BookScan, which tracks about 85 percent of print sales. Mr. Wolff’s book, which came out in January, has sold more than 2 million copies to date.
Mr. Comey has no doubt benefited from wall-to-wall television coverage. He has given revealing interviews on every major news network, drawing angry tweets from President Trump, which in turn prompted more news coverage of the book.
That cycle will likely drag on as Mr. Comey continues his book promotion tour this week with an appearance at a CNN Town Hall and an interview on Fox News Channel.
According to the publisher, multiple reprints have been ordered.
In this highly polarized political landscape, Amazon has limited reviews of the book to people who actually purchased the memoir from the website to avoid skewing the ratings.
Of the nearly 800 reviews of the tome on Amazon, 90% are 5-stars raves.
As The Times points out, the Trump followers/Comey haters were basically too cheap to actually buy the book before they got ready to hate on it.
The shooting happened around 3:25 a.m. at a Waffle House in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville. A patron wrestled away the gunman’s rifle, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said on Twitter.
Three people died at the scene and one person was declared dead at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the police said.
Jennifer Wetzel, a spokeswoman for the medical center, said one wounded victim was in critical condition and the other was in critical but stable condition.
Two other victims were treated for minor injuries and discharged from TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville, said Katie Radel, a spokeswoman there.
The police said they had identified a vehicle registered to a 29-year-old Illinois man they described as a person of interest and said he was later seen wearing black pants and no shirt.
Twenty-nine year-old Travis Reinking of Illinois is being sought as a person of interest in the shooting.
BREAKING: Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, IL, is person of interest in Waffle House shooting. Vehicle the gunman arrived in is registered to him. Gunman last seen walking south on Murfreesboro Pike. He shed is coat and is nude. See Reinking? Pls call 615-862-8600 immediately. pic.twitter.com/duoWCo5fC0
PA State Representative Daryl Metcalfe got his undies bunched up in Facebook tantrum recently, where he called out and proud PA state Rep. Brian Sims a “lying homosexual” over a redistricting dispute.
Along the way, Metcalfe through in a few homophobic jabs including his belief that being gay is “immoral behavior.”
Another lying Philadelphia Liberal Democrat Legislator attacking me this week with the help of the media! Another Democrat playing the victim while he is actually the perpetrator! After a committee meeting last… https://t.co/WE3a93aJVb
The woofy Brian, however, wasn’t going to stand idly by as the homophobe ranted on his virtual anti-LGBT soapbox.
Referencing the movie Mean Girls, Sims called out Metcalfe for pulling out his “burn book.”
Brian made it clear: if you come at him, come right or don’t come at all.
My most infamously bigoted colleague, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe took to his “burn book” to attack my colleagues of color and myself call me a “lying homosexual.” I could use your help as I go up against this type of blatant homophobia and bigotry in the Capital. https://t.co/Oc7iLDN2qtpic.twitter.com/FVC4dBgbuY
For the record, he’s a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, bigot. All of those words have definitions. His behavior, his public statements, and his legislation over the years all clearly rise to the level of those definitions.
You’re a gaslighter who threatens people and then backs down and claims victimhood when you’re called out. It’s the ultimate sign of intellectual dishonesty. Grow up and at least have the courage of your broken convictions.
He also made sure the world met Metcalfe’s openly LGBTQ challenger, Dan Smith:
HAVE YOU MET DAN SMITH?!? With all the talk (again) about @RepMetcalfe’s bigotry and the power he wields in the State Capitol, I couldn’t me more excited to introduce you to his openly LGBTQ Democratic Challenger!#Smith4Pa#DumpDarylpic.twitter.com/OTmKIzfMxP
Benjamin Gibbard made an appearance on CONAN recently to promote the new “regendered” love songs album from MGM Resorts, Universal Love.
For the all-star EP (Bob Dylan, Kesha and more) which reimagined pop classics with new gender pronouns suitable for same-sex weddings, Gibbard covered the Beatles’ “And I Love Him.”
Gibbard, who has a lesbian sister, is a long-time LGBT ally.
It is not the only way in which she expresses her conservatism. If she had been able to vote in the US election, she would have plumped for Donald Trump, she says. “I would have voted for him because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest. Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn’t be able to have both. If I were voting, I just don’t want bullshit. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent. And politics has a reputation of not being that, right?”
And she backtracked tout suite:
I would like to apologise to anybody I have offended in a recent interview with the Guardian relating to the American President. The question caught me off guard. As a Canadian, I regret answering this unexpected question without giving my response more context (1/4)
I am passionately against discrimination of any kind and hope it’s clear from the choices I have made, and the people I stand with, that I do not hold any common moral beliefs with the current President (2/4)
I was trying to explain, in response to a question about the election, that my limited understanding was that the President talked to a portion of America like an accessible person they could relate to, as he was NOT a politician (3/4)
My answer was awkward, but certainly should not be taken as representative of my values nor does it mean I endorse him. I make music to bring people together. My path will always be one of inclusivity, as my history shows. (4/4)
I am disappointed in Shania Twain’s feeling on Trump and when I get the time I am going to go into my attic and look for one of her cassettes to throw out in protest.
Shania Twain says if she wasn’t Canadian she would’ve voted for Trump because he seems “honest.” Says the singer who’s been auto-tuned for years about a man who’s “honestly” racist
