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News Round-Up: January 3, 2019

Anyone got that 'post-holiday bloat?' I love this artist (above) on Instagram. Goes by the moniker Silverjow and his art has so much character and humor. I'm looking to interview him soon. Check out his stuff here.
Holiday weight gain I can get behind…

Some news items you might have missed:

• Anyone got that ‘post-holiday bloat?’ I love this artist (above) on Instagram. Goes by the moniker Silverjow and his art has so much character and humor. I’m looking to interview him soon. Check out his stuff here.

• Day one of the new Congress, Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia proudly displayed the transgender flag outside her office on Capitol Hill.

• Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was sworn in today as the first openly bisexual senator in US history. I’m totally not being sexist here, but can we get an ‘amen’ for her awesome swearing in outfit??? #smokin

• The CW has given the green light to a pilot for Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose as the out lesbian crimefighter.

• Comedian Kevin Hart is scheduled to appear on ELLEN this coming Monday, most probably as part of his apology tour for homophobic tweets that led to his stepping down as host for the upcoming Academy Awards.

• New York City now offers a non-binary option on birth certificates. Additionally, New Yorkers will no longer need a letter from a physician or an affidavit signed by a licensed health care provider to change their gender on their birth certificate.

• After folks questioned whether Madonna had gotten butt implants (thanks to photos from her New Year’s Eve appearance at the Stonewall Inn), Madge took to Instagram to take a swipe at the rumors riffing on her hit 1985 movie: “Desperately Seeking No Ones Approval.”

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Brazil’s New President Begins Attack On LGBTQ Rights Hours After Being Sworn Into Office

Jair Bolsonaro (image via Flickr/Agência Brasil Fotografias – CC License)

The LGBTQ community in Brazil began to see its fears realized on New Year’s Day when newly-elected President Jair Bolsonaro immediately issued executive orders targeting the South American country’s gay citizens.

Just hours after his inauguration, Bolsonaro removed all LGBTQ issues from the agenda of the Human Rights Ministry.

Damares Alves, a former evangelical pastor who is now Brazil’s new human rights minister, said in her first public statement, “The state is lay, but this minister is terribly Christian.”

“Girls will be princesses and boys will be princes,” said Alves. “There will be no more ideological indoctrination of children and teenagers in Brazil.”

In removing LGBTQ concerns from the Human Rights Ministry, Bolsonaro did not name another agency to take on the responsibilities.

Bolsonaro has been virulently anti-LGBTQ his entire career having worn the label of “proud homophobe” for years. In the past he’s said parents should beat their children if they suspect they might be gay, and that he’d rather have “a dead son rather than a gay son.”

In fact, his platform of anti-LGBTQ, anti-Black, anti-women, and anti-Indigenous positions won his the presidency with more than 55% of the vote in October.

As I’ve recently reported, numerous same-sex couples made a dash to the alter to get married before Bolsonaro took office, concerned he might attempt to reverse the country’s 2013 same-sex marriage law.

According to NBC News, Bolsonaro signed a document in partnership with the Catholic organization Voto Católico Brasil promising “to defend and promote the true meaning of matrimony: the union between a man and a woman.” LGBTQ activists and advocates saw that as a threat to repeal marriage equality.

Bolsonaro’s impending presidency led to a 66% spike in same-sex weddings in November according to The New York Times.

Considering the assault on LGBTQ rights by the Trump administration, it comes as no surprise that Donald Trump tweeted a message of support to Bolsonaro, who has been called the “Trump of the Tropics.”

President Trump also sent his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration.

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Michael Lucas Says NO Celebrity Clients Will Be Named In Upcoming Memoir

Michael Lucas (center) with Diego LauzenRodrigues & Wagner Vittoria
(image via Instagram)

Gay porn star and producer Michael Lucas found himself in a PR debacle this morning after Page Six ran a story that Lucas will retire next year and is planning a memoir.

The New York Post gossip site reports that Lucas will retire from appearing in adult films in 2020 but continue to produce and direct.

The 46-year-old’s rep reportedly said, “Porn stars come and go, but the best ones stay in our memories [and] on our hard drives for a long time until they fade away.”

“Successfully dominating the gay adult-film industry for 25 plus years and starring in over 300 films, Michael is planning to retire the devil between his legs in 2020 but still continue to direct and produce films,” he added.

Additionally, having penned essays for HuffPost and The Advocate in the past, Lucas has apparently set his sights on a larger literary endeavor – a tell-all book from his escorting days in the 1990s.

According to Page Six, Lucas plans “to publish a juicy autobiography that will include a steamy chapter about a few top Hollywood celebs who paid him to have sex with them when he was an escort in the late ’90s.”

The gossip page says that the A-list celebrity names will remain secret until the book’s release.

But wait – there’s more!

Shortly after the publication of the story at Page Six, Towleroad posted emails from Lucas to an editor at the New York Post adamantly denying he has any plans to ‘name names’ in an upcoming memoir.

Lucas states that he considers those relationships ’sacred’ and promised to ‘take those secrets to the grave.’

Here’s the email from Lucas to the New York Post via Towleroad:

Dear Carlos:

The story that ran today and attributed to me by my former publicist is absolutely false. I spent 45 minutes on the phone explaining why I would never do that and they still felt the need to give it to you. Needless to say I am perplexed by their motivation and they were fired immediately.

I am considering legal action against them.

What is true is that I’m planning to retire in 2020.

What is absolutely false is that I would ever write or consider writing a “ tell all” book and naming names of my clients.

I consider that relationship sacred and I would NEVER violate their confidence or my integrity. Period.

I have nothing but the greatest respect and gratitude for the people who trusted me with their most intimate secrets and I will take those secrets to the grave.

In follow-up correspondence, Lucas demands the online headline be corrected, sharing, “This is a major, major embarrassment for me.”

(h/t Towleroad, Page Six)

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Donald Trump: #TrumpShutdown ‘Is Only Because Of The 2020 Presidential Election”

Donald Trump

As the new Congress is sworn in today, Donald Trump is already railing at the Democrats for not budging on funds for his infamous ‘wall’ along the southern border.

Blaming the current government shutdown on ‘the 2020 Presidential Election,’ the Donald again speaks in the third person hailing ‘all of the achievements of “Trump:”‘

In truth, there was an agreement to continue funding the federal government among Democrats and Republicans in Congress. The legislation was approved 100-0 in the Senate on a voice vote.

But when far-right nuts like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter publicly took Trump to task for not standing his ground for ‘the wall,’ Trump reneged and reversed course. And in doing so, closed down 25% of the federal government.

As Jeff Zeleny of CNN reminds us, on December 12 Trump proudly said on camera in the Oval Office, “I am proud to shut down the government. I will take the mantle.”

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Olivia Newton-John: “The Rumors Of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”

Olivia Newton-John knocks down exaggerated rumors of declining health in new video

Because my husband, Michael, is Olivia Newton-John’s publicist, it’s been a strange couple of weeks watching as stories of Olivia’s health “rapidly declining” took flight.

It began with that bastion of journalism, The National Enquirer, and then other tabloids ran with it.

This week the story reached Australia where all the rags there also ran headlines of “Olivia near death’s door” or “Olivia on her death bed.”

In reality, Olivia has been feeling better and stronger as she continues treatment for her cancer, and enjoying her Christmas holiday.

Today, she sent this video to let the world know the rumors of her death “are greatly exaggerated.”

Please let me know if Olivia looks anywhere near ‘death’s door” to you 😉

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Daryl Dragon, Half Of 70s Recording Duo The Captain & Tennille, Passes Away At 76

Awwww... Daryl Dragon, half of the formidable, Grammy Award-winning 1970s recording duo The Captain & Tennille, has passed away at the age of 76.

Awwww… Daryl Dragon, half of the formidable, Grammy Award-winning 1970s recording duo The Captain & Tennille, has passed away at the age of 76.

From Variety:

Dragon’s ex-wife, Toni Tennille, “was with him as he took his last breath,” said Harlon Boll, a spokesperson for the singer. In a statement, Tennille said, “He was a brilliant musician with many friends who loved him greatly. I was at my most creative in my life when I was with him.”

Dragon died of renal failure, according to Boll.

“Love Will Keep Us Together,” the title track from the duo’s 1975 debut album, reached No. 1 in July of 1975 and won the top Record of the Year prize at the following year’s Grammy Awards. “Do That to Me One More Time,” the last of their big hits, also reached the top of the chart, in 1979. In the interval, the Captain & Tennille reached the top 10 with “Muskrat Love,” “The Way I Want to Touch You,” “Lonely Night (Angel Face)” and “Shop Around.”

All of this happened right in the middle of my teen years where I lived for television music specials and series.

I remember watching their TV series where it was clear even at my young age that Dragon wasn’t all that comfortable being on TV, thus his primarily silent role as co-star.

But he was a serious hottie for the times.

I was sad when the couple divorced in 2014 after 39 years of marriage. Glad to hear Tennille was there with him as he let go.

And one of the least likely titles you could imagine for a hit pop song, “Muskrat Love:”

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Video: When Jerks Get What’s Coming To Them

Whoa! This assh*le customer got more than he bargained for when he raised a ruckus at a McDonalds in St. Petersburg, Florida.

According to Heavy.com, Daniel Taylor got himself arrested on New Year’s Eve after he reached over the cash register and assaulted a black female employee.

You can see Taylor grab the employee and yank her across the counter.

And then, he gets the beatdown he deserves.

After the employees separate the two, Taylor condescendingly snaps his fingers at a man that seems to be the manager.

“I want her ass fired right now,” snaps Taylor.

But the female employee comes roaring back, “No, you’re fixing to go to jail!”

Which is apparently exactly what happened.

Taylor is currently cooling his heels in Pinellas County jail held on a $1,000 bond.

If found guilty of battery in the first degree, Taylor could get up a one year in jail or 12 months probation, and a $1,000 fine.

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News Round-Up: January 2, 2019

InstaHunk Austin Wolf

Some news items you might have missed:

• Ah, January. When everyone gets back to the gym. Now, I guess if I wanted to actually see Austin Wolf at the gym, I’d have to actually GO to the gym. There’s the snag…

• Out recording artist Hayley Kiyoko shares in a new interview that she was asked to “tone down” her sexuality early on in her career.

• A 19 year-old Indian man, who donated blood unaware he was HIV+, committed suicide after learning that his blood had transmitted the HIV virus to a pregnant woman.

• Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness broke with his boyfriend, Wilco Froners, in an Instagram post that attempted to be classy but he added a #cheatersneverprosper hashtag (he later deleted). In an Instagram Story, Jonathan later retreated a bit writing, “I should’ve sat with myself a bit longer before I posted my most recent post.”

• Vietnam has passed a law making it illegal to criticize the government online.

• A Massachusetts judge on Monday denied actor Kevin Spacey’s request to skip his upcoming arraignment on a felony charge he faces for allegedly sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man in 2016.

• High profile make-up artist and drag queen Alexis Stone revealed a months-long ‘social experiment’ wherein he pretended to have botched plastic surgery wearing an extensive prosthetic mask. Hundreds trolled him online saying he’d ruined his face.

Then, on New Year’s Eve, he posted the video below where he stands looking at the camera for a few moments before tearing the mask off to reveal the experiment. The second video explains his reasons for the deception.

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Andy Cohen Gets Sassy With Online Trolls After NYE Critiques

Bravo TV host Andy Cohen received some serious flack for his co-hosting appearance on CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper.
Andy Cohen slapped back at his Twitter trolls


Bravo TV host Andy Cohen received some serious flack for his co-hosting appearance on CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper.

Here’s just a sample:

Meow!

Now, I’ll admit Cohen isn’t my cup of tea, either. I find him to be a bit self-serving, self-satisfied and smug most of the time. Pretty much the opposite of BDE.

But, I will say I love a good come-back on social media. And it turns out Mr. Cohen isn’t shy about firing off some sassy slap backs.

So just to add a little balance here on Instinct, here’s a few of Andy Cohen’s more tasty retorts.

First up, actor and right-wing loon James Woods (who has his own rather troublesome dating issues) criticized Cohen and Cooper for the way they handled some celebratory on-air shots.

Wood tweeted video of the men drinking with a sarcastic “Men in 2019…” caption:

Cohen retweeted with his own caption, “Assholes in 2019…).

Boom!

A few more bon mots from Mr. Cohen:

Cohen is practically patting this Twitter user on the head:

And my favorite comeback by the toothy TV host: