Tag: coming out

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News Round-Up: October 20, 2020

Matt Morton (screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • Edge Media: Thirst-trapping, self-described ‘typical alpha male footballer’ Matt Morton (above) comes out at 30-years-old. • NBC News: The Texas Board of Social Work Examiners voted unanimously to remove anti-LGBTQ discrimination protections from a section of its code of conduct last week following a recommendation from Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott’s office said the change was suggested because the board’s nondiscrimination clause went beyond the state’s policy on social work. • Boy Culture: Donald Trump and Mike Pence were set to be interviewed by 60 Minutes, with Trump and Pence appearing together for a walk-around at the White House. But Trump apparently bailed 45 minutes into his interview with Lesley Stahl, then took to Twitter to shame her for not wearing a mask. Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris are also set to appear in the episode, and their segments apparently went off without problems.

• US Elections Project: Of the states that provide party-registration information (which includes battleground states Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania), about 53% of early votes have been cast by registered Democrats compared with 25% by registered Republicans. • Politico: The Fox News crowd may be salivating over the recent stories about Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, but over 50 former senior Intelligence officials say the reports have “all the classic earmarks of Russian disinformation.” • CNN: A poll worker in Shelby County, Tennessee, was fired last week for asking voters to turn their Black Lives Matter t-shirts inside out before letting them vote, violating his training as a nonpartisan election worker. The state bans voters and poll workers from wearing clothing that endorses a political candidate, but Black Lives Matter is neither a candidate nor a political party. • Law and Crime: Miami police officer Daniel Ubeda was photographed Tuesday morning at a Florida polling location wearing a “Trump 2020: No More Bullshit” face mask, a move the department said is an “unacceptable” and a violation of MPD policy. Florida election law Chapter 102.101 states that “No sheriff, deputy sheriff, police officer, or other officer of the law shall be allowed within the polling place without permission from the clerk or a majority of the inspectors, except to cast his or her ballot.”

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High School Senior Says He Was Expelled For Coming Out As Gay & Proud

A high school senior was expelled right before the school year for coming out as gay and proud A high school senior in Texas says he was expelled from his school for coming out as gay. Devin Bryant has attended Covenant Christian Academy, located in Colleyville between Dallas and Fort Worth, since pre-K school. Seniors at Covenant are granted special parking spaces at the school and the students are allowed to create personalized signs for their spots. In advance of the beginning of the new school year, Bryant designed a sign which read, “Super Hot, Fun, Attractive, Fast-driving, Insane, Very Smart, Outgoing, Party Freak, Young, Gay (as in happy don’t worry lol), Pretty, Reckless, Humble, Pyromaniac, Fun, Gay (as in homosexual this time, sorry) Person Parking Only.” His design was rejected immediately upon submission. After meeting with the principal, though, Bryant agreed to change his design. “I then had a meeting with the principal in which we discussed the content of the artwork, which I agreed to change,” Devin told the Dallas Observer. “And I promised to not be as vocal about my sexuality for the rest of the year.” With his new parking space artwork, which was immediately approved by the school, Bryant looked forward to his senior year. But just four days before the beginning of school, his mother, Consolata Bryant, was informed Devin would not be allowed to return to Covenant. Devin told the Observer he thinks the issue wasn’t just that he came out as gay, but he was out and proud. “I know of people who have gotten in trouble for stuff way worse than what I did,” says the high school senior. “And they were disciplined more lightly than me, which definitely leads me to believe that it wasn’t the content of the artwork I sent in that got me kicked out.” “If I would’ve come out and said that I was ‘struggling’ with same-sex attraction instead of saying that I’m gay, I think they would’ve had a totally different reaction, and I may have been allowed to still attend there,” he added.

Devin Bryant (image via Devin Bryant)
In an email to the Observer, Dr. Tony Jeffrey, headmaster for Covenant Christian Academy, defended the expulsion pointing to an enrollment document students and parents are required to sign each year agreeing to live “in accordance with the community guidelines.” “This Covenant Christian Academy enrollment document, signed annually, specifically outlines practices and behaviors consistent with the CCA mission, based on our deeply held religious beliefs,” said Jeffrey. “That includes adhering to the biblical principal [sic] that the expression of human sexuality is appropriate only within the boundaries of a marital relationship between one man and one woman.” Jeffrey added, “Devin Bryant is an outstanding student, and we wish him every success in his studies, and in life.” Devin says he’s never met Jeffrey and Jeffrey wasn’t in attendance for the earlier meeting when the parking sign issue was decided. Consolata is, understandably, angry. “Despite the resolution we had reached, [Jeffrey] had taken it upon himself within the couple of days he had been at the school to seek votes from the board for Devin’s expulsion,” says Consolata. “He secured the votes needed and thus was calling to let us know that Devin was not to report to school that Monday, the 10th, with his classmates.” According to Consolata, Jeffrey’s exact words were that “Devin had chosen an evil path that was contrary to the Bible and therefore was evil and he was only doing what Jesus would do.” Since his expulsion, Devin has enrolled at Colleyville Heritage High School and has been placed in several honors classes. Upon graduation, he plans to attend college with an eye towards a degree in sociology. (source: Dallas Observer)

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Happy #NationalComingOutDay 2020

Since 1988, October 11 has been observed as National Coming Out Day (NCOD) in the United States with the idea that the most basic form of activism is coming out to family, friends, and colleagues, and living life as an openly LGBTQ person. Homophobia thrives in an environment of ignorance and silence, and studies show that when people know that they have loved ones who are gay or lesbian, they are far less likely to hold homophobic views. I’ve related my own coming out story (which was really more of a ‘journey’ than an ‘event’) here on The Randy Report, but I wanted to note the other side of this equation – when someone comes out to you. For years, as a gay man, coming out primarily held a place in my head as MY coming out. But some time ago, when I was still co-hosting an online radio show with Candi Fox (The Candi & Randy Show), a regular listener reached out to me and asked if they could call me. I said, “sure.”  What followed was someone coming out to ME, which hadn’t happened before. The listener shared that by listening to the show and reading TRR, my ‘out-ness’ had inspired them to come out – to me. I remember being touched and honored that I was the first person they decided to trust with the news. And this only occurred because they had come to see me as an out, proud gay man. The power of visibility. By the way…did you know that when music icon Diana Ross released her 1980 hit “I’m Coming Out” she initially had no idea the songwriters were writing about queer folks coming out? Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and some other folks tweeted their support about the day. (Don’t bother looking for a tweet from Donald Trump about NCOD, there isn’t one).

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Teen Suicides Moved Zachary Quinto To Come Out

Zachary Quinto in ‘The Boys in the Band’ (photo: Netflix)
Zachary Quinto, currently starring in the Netflix screen adaptation of The Boys in the Band, recently shared for the first time the reason why he felt moved to come out as gay in 2011. Quinto hit the national spotlight as a series regular in the NBC sci-fi series Heroes in 2006, which he starred in for all four seasons. In 2007, he was announced to play a young Spock in the reboot of the Star Trek film franchise. Quinto told Variety in a recent interview that when he began his career in 1999, he was aware of the “explicit stigma’ that was attached to being an openly gay actor. “I did feel like me coming out would have potentially had an impact on my career and it wouldn’t have been a good one,” Quinto shares. He also recalled being out with a gay friend and running into a studio executive. After the encounter, the actor worried there were “going to be some ramifications” if he even appeared to be gay.
Zachary Quinto in 2012 (photo: Gerald Biggerstaff)
But then, in 2011, after reading the news of a series of teen queer suicides, Quinto had an epiphany. “That was at a time when a lot of young gay kids were killing themselves around the country because of bullying,” says the 43-year-old actor. “There was a huge spate of teen suicides that were happening.” “I just felt like I had an obligation at this point,” he added. “Having enjoyed a certain level of success, I felt like the hypocrisy was too much to bear for me to be enjoying this life that I had created for myself and not acknowledging my identity as a gay man.” “I felt like it was actively harming a group of young people who the choice to come out could benefit.”

Charlie Carver, one of Quinto’s The Boys in the Band cast mates, also shared his own reason for coming out with Variety which involved a colleague slapping him across the face for appearing “gay” at an Emmy Awards party in 2015. The coworker apparently criticized Carver three times over the course of the evening telling him to “get it under control.” When the young actor asked for ‘clarification,’ the man slapped Carver. Said Carver, “That was the moment when I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot police myself in that way.’” The new TV adaptation of The Boys in the Band, starring the acclaimed all-gay/bi cast from the Tony Award-winning 2018 Broadway revival, is now streaming on Netflix. In addition to Quinto, the cast includes Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins. The new screen version is based on the groundbreaking work of Mart Crowley.

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Charlie Carver Came Out After A Slap In The Face For Appearing ‘Gay’ In Public

Charlie Carver in ‘The Boys in the Band’ (image via Instagram)
Charlie Carver, one of the actors starring in the new Netflix screen adaptation of The Boys in the Band, shares in an interview with Variety that he decided to publicly come out five years ago after being on the receiving end of a literal slap to the face for not appearing masculine in public. According to Carver, he was attending an Emmy Awards party in 2015 when a gay colleague criticized him three times throughout the evening for how he ‘presented’ himself. “I was told that I needed to ‘get it under control’ around people in the business,” Carver shared with Variety. At the end of soiree, Carver ran into his friend while waiting for his car at the valet. Asking his colleague for ‘clarification’ about the earlier comments, the man slapped Carver across the face. “It wasn’t playful but intentional, pointed and meant to be instructive. A slap,” says the actor. “I told him that if he ever touched me again, I would name him.” While the episode was certainly shocking for its physicality, Carver, who is 32-years-old today, says, “That was the moment when I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot police myself in that way.’” The actor, who was best known at the time for regular appearances on Desperate Housewives and Teen Wolf, came out a few months later in January 2016 via his Instagram account.

 

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Pt 1: “Be who you needed when you were younger”. About a year ago, I saw this photo while casually scrolling through my Instagram one morning. I’m not one for inspirational quotes, particularly ones attributed to “Mx Anonymous”- something mean in me rebukes the pithiness of proverbs, choosing to judge them as trite instead of possibly-generally-wise, resonant, or helpful. And in the case of the good ol’ Anonymous kind, I felt that there was something to be said for the missing context. Who wrote or said the damn words? Why? And to/for who in particular? Nonetheless, I screen-capped the picture and saved it. It struck me for some reason, finding itself likeable enough to join the ranks of the “favorites” album on my phone. I’d see it there almost daily, a small version of it next to my other “favorites”; I’d see it every time I checked into the gym, pulled up a picture of my insurance cards, my driver’s license…. Important Documents. And over the course of about-a-year, it became clear why the inspirational photo had called out to me. As a young boy, I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew I wanted to be a lot of things! I thought I wanted to be a painter, a soccer player, a stegosaurus… But the acting thing stuck. It was around that age that I also knew, however abstractly, that I was different from some of the other boys in my grade. Over time, this abstract “knowing” grew and articulated itself through a painful gestation marked by feelings of despair and alienation, ending in a climax of saying three words out loud: “I am gay”. I said them to myself at first, to see how they felt. They rang true, and I hated myself for them. I was twelve. It would take me a few years before I could repeat them to anyone else, in the meantime turning the phrase over and over in my mouth until I felt comfortable and sure enough to let the words pour out again, this time to my family…

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Two years later, Carver made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning revival of Mort Crowley’s iconic play about gay men at a birthday party in Greenwich Village, The Boys in the Band. All of the actors in the highly-acclaimed production were openly gay/bisexual. The entire cast was reunited, along with the production’s director Joe Mantello, by producer Ryan Murphy for the newly-released TV version of the play. Carver stars in Boys as the hunky “Cowboy,” a hustler hired as a gift for “Harold,” the birthday boy in the story played by Zachary Quinto.

Carver is also currently appearing as a series regular in Murphy’s new psychological thriller for Netflix, Ratched, in which the handsome actor plays “Huck Finnagan,” a disfigured hospital orderly. And he’s set to appear in the upcoming The Batman alongside Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz. Carver recently told The Advocate he’s “felt this sort of sense of relaxing” into himself since coming out. “To have kind of other champions in this business who gave me a chance, Ryan Murphy being one of them, they saw something in me and they let me be a part of it,” Carver shared. “Then opportunities led to other opportunities … I started kind of stepping into myself, and I believe when you do that, doors open.” You can catch Carver (and all the ‘boys’) in The Boys in the Band, currently streaming on Netflix.

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Eric Trump Says He Is Part Of The LGBT Community?

L-R Eric Trump, Charlie Kirk (cropped photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr – CC License)
During an appearance on Fox & Friends this morning, Eric Trump (the other son of the president) caused a bit of a stir when it seemed he came out of the closet as a member of the LGBT community. The panel of hosts had been discussing a recent opinion piece in the New York Times that explores the idea of possible ‘secret Trump voters’ who don’t tell friends or family about their personal preference for the Donald. One woman, who identifies as lesbian in the article but declined to share her name, told the Times “it would not go down well for her at the store where she works if her colleagues knew that she plans to vote for Donald Trump.” Responding to the story, Eric Trump told the panel, “The LGBT community, they are incredible. And you should see how they come out in full force for my father every single day.” “I’m part of that community, and we love the man,” he added.

Is that why they play “YMCA” at all the Trump rallies?

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Jake Bain, Out Former College Athlete, Says He’s ‘More At Peace’ Since Leaving Football

Out former college football player Jake Bain (image via Instagram)
Jake Bain, one of the first openly gay Division I college football players, tells Men’s Health Magazine he’s “more at peace” since leaving the sport a year ago. Shortly after announcing he was ending his college football career last year, Bain also shared with his 38K Instagram followers that he was coming out (again) but as pansexual. In an Instagram post, Bain admitted that when he came out to his classmates in 2017 as a high school junior in Missouri during National Coming Out Day, he wanted to send a message that “it was okay to be themselves and do whatever you put your mind to.” At the end of that speech in front of a school assembly, his fellow students gave him a standing ovation. “It was me finally letting so much weight off my shoulders that I had been carrying for so long,” he says today. But over time he’d come to realize that “gender does not effect” who he feels attracted to and that “love is something deeper than simply what gender we were given at birth.” And so, he shared with his followers, “I am pansexual.”

 

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In the spirit of Pride month, I would like to take this opportunity to take a little of my own advice and share a bit of my true self. I hope that others will do the same who may feel afraid to be themselves because of what others will say. For as long as I can remember, I have always struggled with my sexual orientation. For years, I hid who I truly was and tried to fit into a mold I knew I didn’t belong. Finally, after years of struggling with my sexual orientation, I came to the decision to come out as gay, because I knew I needed to use my voice to show others that it was okay to be themselves and do whatever you set your mind to. But the truth is, my struggles with my sexual orientation did not stop there. Throughout my 20 years of life, I have come to realize that my sexual orientation is truly a spectrum, and the truth is, I have never really known where I fell on that spectrum until just a few months ago. After being labeled the “gay football player,” it made it very challenging for me to decide if I should let everyone falsely label me, or take my own advice and be my true self. After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to share with you all that I am Pansexual. I’ve come to the realization that gender does not effect who I am attracted to. To me, love is something deeper than simply what gender we were given at birth. I decided to sort of “come out” again because I felt like I needed to take some of my own advice for a change and just be myself, and I can’t tell you how good it feels to get that off my chest😌 Happy Pride!🏳️‍🌈 #loveislove #pride

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But after the loss of a childhood friend, Bain realized he needed to “take a step,” recalibrate and “figure out what is was exactly I wanted to do.” Speaking to Men’s Health as part of The 2020 Project, which explores the lives of 20 different American 20-year-old men, Bain says he’s now studying to be a sports psychologist at North Carolina State University. He hopes to help other young athletes “find clarity” and perhaps some answers to other questions he has about his identity. Over the past year, the handsome college student has focused on his studies and dabbled in modeling, sharing several thirsty snaps on his Instagram.

 

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Son of a beach☀️

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Get outside and enjoy the sunshine today💛

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This past July, he penned an essay for Teen Vogue chronicling his journey from coming out in high school to ‘here,’ and many of the ups and downs along the way. “I began receiving calls and messages from people all over the country who said I was able to give them courage to be themselves,” he wrote of the period after he came out. “I never imagined I’d be able to reach and inspire so many people.” But admitting it “wasn’t all rainbows,” he reflected on the “ton of hate” he received on and off the gridiron including becoming a target of the anti-LGBTQ Westboro Baptist Church. But when word got out that the hate group was coming to protest him, his school and community rallied to show their support.

Today, after years of making sports the focus of his life, he tells Men’s Health, “I certainly miss football sometimes.” But, he quickly adds, “I feel more at peace and I definitely am happier than I was a year ago.” (source: Men’s Health, Teen Vogue)

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Andrew Gillum Comes Out As Bisexual

Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (screen capture)
Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee and the first Black nominee for Florida governor, came out as bisexual today on The Tamron Hall Show. “I don’t identify as gay,” Gillum said, “but I do identify as bisexual. And that is something I have never shared publicly before.” You may recall Gillum was found naked and drunk in a hotel in Miami Beach in March 2020. An associate, Travis Dyson, was treated for an apparent drug overdose at the time. Gillum denied he went to hotel room to take part in any kind of sexual situation. When it was reported the police had apparently confiscated what was believed to be crystal meth, Gillum said he’d never used the drug. He checked into a rehab facility shortly thereafter. Related: Andrew Gillum Involved In Crystal Meth Incident Gillum’s wife, R. Jai Gillum, took part in today’s interview and confirmed that she’s been aware of her husband’s sexual orientation. She shared that she feels her husband’s sexuality should not be part of the public discourse because of widespread misconceptions about bisexuality. “So many people just don’t understand bisexuality,” his wife said. “All I care about is what’s between us and what agreement we make.” Gillum came up short in the 2018 race for governor of Florida to Republican Ron DeSantis. A longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights and protections, Gillum is a former mayor of Tallahassee, the capital city of Florida.

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News Round-Up: September 7, 2020

Nicholas Budd lays by the pool in Mykonos

(image via Instagram/Nicholasc_Budd)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: In the wake of Jerry Falwell Jr’s fall from grace thanks to a certain ‘pool boy,’ the hashtag #poolboy has been trending on Instagram like the above pic from UK personal trainer Nicholas Budd. #dang • The Guardian: A new study shows that sports teams that hold Pride Nights and Pride games see a nearly 40% decrease in homophobic language by their players than those in teams that have not held official Pride Nights. • Men’s Health: This guy made a video of more than 120 guys who look better bald showing before and after pics proving you can go bald like a boss. According to Harry James, the host of the YouTube channel, each of these before and after pictures “marks incredible turning points in all of these people’s lives.”

• Instinct Magazine: Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has joined Joe Biden’s transition team. The transition team would help with government appointments and actions during the switchover between administrations were Biden to win the presidency. • Outsports: After literally coming out of a closet in his coming out video last fall, college football player Jaden Vazquez is now helping LGBTQ athletes by co-leading a new Fordham University student-athlete-support group. • Pink News: A man in Perth, Australia, has been jailed for five years after he failed to disclose that he was living with HIV to four sexual partners – all of whom later tested positive for the virus. The 30-year-old, who has not been named to protect the identities of his victims, told the four men that he did not have HIV before having condomless sex with them when he was actually diagnosed with HIV in 2012. • InstaHunks II: Just a couple more #poolboys from the Gram of Insta as we close out Labor Day…

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Short Films: Coming Of Age At The Intersection Of Soccer & Sexuality

(scene from ‘The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders’)
NQV Media brings together four short films that explore the intersectionality of masculinity, sexuality, and the most popular sport on the planet, soccer. The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders, the third in a series of curated gay-themed collections by NQV, features four drama-fueled shorts from the UK, Germany, and France that touch on coming-of-age topics like teacher/pupil relationships, brotherly compassion, and high school crushes amid the world of soccer. While it sounds all erotic and full of locker room shower scenes – yes, there is some of that – the films focus primarily on how early experiences shape us as gay men as we journey through the young chapters of coming to terms with our sexuality.

The compilation includes: • Play It Like A Man – Two 15-year-olds steal their teacher’s phone and discover photos of their naked teammates in the shower room, but sometimes everything isn’t what it seems. • Colours – A young soccer player, Adam, receives an ultimatum from his bullying team captain when it’s discovered Adam’s best friend is gay. • Islands – Young footballer Theo wants to share his true feelings for classmate Linus but it seems there’s nobody around for him to share his situation. That is, until Mr. Kruger, seen by most as merely an odd old teacher, appears to be the one who understands Theo. • Through the Fields – Lucas, 22, plays soccer with his local club, lives with his parents, and is in no hurry to assert his independence. His 17-year-old brother Théo is nearing the end of high school and attracted to boys, but has only confided with his brother. Living with his secret and spurred on by the need for affection, Théo’s decides to meet up with Harry, a man he has met on the internet despite his brother’s warnings. It’s not important to be a soccer fan to connect with these stories of young gays coming to terms with themselves. Just about everyone will find something to connect with in these thought-provoking film shorts. The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders is available to watch on Amazon, Vimeo (worldwide) and FilmDoo (worldwide). NQV Media has previously curated gay-themed short films based on the themes of late-night encounters (The Male Gaze: The Heat of the Night in 2019) and the myriad emotions that occur after our first kiss (The Male Gaze: First Kiss in 2018).