Josh O’Connor & Alec Secareanu in God’s Own Country (promo photo) Some news items you might have missed: • OMG Blog: Whether you’re alone or with company this Valentine’s Day, lockdown means that you might be looking for some queer cinema love stories. So the eye-candy site has rounded up a list of V-day-appropriate gay movies for your pleasure including one of my favorites, God’s Own Country (above). Warning – NSFW/nudity. • Kenneth-in-the-212: Check out Kenneth’s round-up of the what’s what in LGBTQ publications this week including QSaltLake’s cover story on the public shaming over maskless circuit parties. • Stonewall Gazette: The veteran LGBTQ blog has returned to the interwebs! Make sure you click over to check out all the content over at Stonewall Gazette. • NBC News: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced 16 nominees for its 2021 class of inductees. The ultimate inductees for the 36th annual class will be announced in May, with honors set for the fall. The 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees • Jerusalem Post: A UN report released this week on widespread human rights violations in Iran contains “reports that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children were subjected to electric shocks and the administration of hormones and strong psychoactive medications.” In other words, the dangerous practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy.’ • The Advocate: Friends Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a silly, fun love story about friendship out this weekend.
• Instinct Magazine: Dolly Parton has announced she will (finally) guest-star on the upcoming season of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie with former 9 to 5 co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. • BosGuy: It’s Furry Friday over at the Boston-based LGBTQ blog and this week features the oh-so-woofy and talented Craig Ramsay. More at the link.
Craig Ramsay (via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: New American citizen Craig Ramsay (above) has a message for his fellow citizens – “Wear a f**king mask, America🇺🇸” • Washington Post: A long-acting drug injected every two months is more effective at preventing HIV than the pills most commonly used by people at risk of acquiring the infection. The injectable drug cabotegravir (tested on more than 4,500 men and transgender women who have sex with men) proved to be even better than oral drug Truvada in blocking the virus. • Pink News: It only took around 240 mixed-sex couples across more than 16 years, but executives for the UK reality series Strictly Come Dancing are now allegedly considering not one, but two same-sex couples for the show’s upcoming season. • Boy Culture: Daniel Ryan Maples, a white insurance agent wearing a red ‘Running the World Since 1776′ shirt, lost his ever-lovin’ shit when asked by a fellow customer to wear a mask inside Costco. He approached the other customer aggressively, shouting the words that will follow him for the rest of his miserable life: ‘I Feel Threatened.’
Nobody who charges you with their whole body tensed up and barking at you with “I FEEL THREATENED” is actually threatened.
This asshole MUST be a cop. Those are the last words many unarmed Black people hear before being murdered by police. pic.twitter.com/aqAee1Ic2I — BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) July 7, 2020
• Indiana Lawyer: The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday former Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock and his campaign committee, Schock for Congress, are off the hook regarding the law firm’s unpaid legal bills totaling $159,946.37, plus interest. • Provincetown Reimagined: The gay mecca’s acclaimed international film celebration will present a modified festival with drive-in and virtual screenings running July 16-19, 2020. The Festival will kick off with two nights of screenings at the Wellfleet Drive-In including Mischa Richter’s documentary, I AM A TOWN, shot entirely in Provincetown; the 2020 Sundance hit, SAVE YOURSELVES!; and a special night hosted by John Waters with film titles announced soon. The Festival will also feature virtual screenings with selections curated to speak to this moment in time. • Twitter: Still no official word as to why RuPaul deleted his Twitter account and wiped his Instagram clean last week, but Twitter user @cheritaisrandom posits it might have something to do with several old photos of RuPaul dressed in Confederate flag attire, including a 2013 Instagram post that appears to be captioned, “The South will rise again!”.
Craig Ramsay (photo: Nathan Cox) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Craig Ramsay (above) celebrates Canada Day in his own inimitable style as shot by Palm Springs photographer Nathan Cox. • Pink News: A gay club in Atlanta has finally decided to close its doors until further notice, after a club night last weekend led to several partygoers contracting coronavirus. A video of the party at popular gay club Heretic in Atlanta, Georgia, was circulated on social media, showing hundreds of men dancing close together without masks. The number of new cases of COVID-19 has skyrocketed in Georgia in recent weeks. • NYC Pride: ICYMI, check out the soulful performance by trans artist/producer D. Smith for NYC Pride Month. The continually creative Smith, who among other recent achievements includes writing and producing Billy Porter’s #1 Billboard Club track, “Love Yourself,” picked up the mic to soothe virtual viewers with her richly-layered take on “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” If you like, click here to check out her latest music video, “That’s Why I Love You.”
• Broadway: Want to watch a Broadway legend dazzle on stage for an incredible cause? On July 10, theater fans will be able to watch Bernadette Peters in a never-before-seen-online concert to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The 2009 performance, Bernadette Peters: A Special Concert. will be free to stream here at 8pm ET. Donations are encouraged but not required for viewing. • CBS News: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that indoor dining won’t be allowed to resume when New York City reaches Phase 3 of reopening next week. It will be delayed “until the facts change and it is prudent to open,” he said. • The Independent: After more than 48K new cases of coronavirus in the US were announced on Tuesday (the highest number since the pandemic began), Donald Trump repeated his belief that the coronavirus is going to “just disappear.” “I think we’re gonna be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that’s going to, sort of, just disappear — I hope,” Mr. Trump told Fox Business on Wednesday.
Unbelievable. He’s still doing it. Trump is still – TODAY – claiming that the virus is going to magically disappear. I cannot believe that a human being could be this obtuse.pic.twitter.com/39lMlr6zGX
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) July 1, 2020
Celebrity fitness trainer Craig Ramsay With so many people doing the stay at home thing, we’ve seen a lot of YouTube and Instagram guys offering home workouts to keep us fit both mentally and physically. But one of the things we’ve noticed is they can get to be a little boring after a while, and we need a new twist on things. Woofy fitness guru and Bravo star Craig Ramsay is pairing his passion for exercise and online social gaming together to break up the monotony and bring some fun to home fitness. Well-known as the co-host of Bravo’s “Thintervention” with Jackie Warner, Ramsay was also half of the fan-favorite gay couple on Bravo’s “Newlyweds The First Year.” SciPlay, one of the world’s leading social gaming companies, reached out to Ramsay to help launch the Fitness & Slots YouTube channel. A fan of SciPlay games for years, Ramsay has developed exercise programs that match-up with the games. For example, if you get a bonus on the game, you get a bonus exercise as well.
“Exercising is always important, but recent events and restrictions have made our society even more stressed than before, and people all around the world have difficulty maintaining a normal daily routine that includes movement,” says Ramsay. “That stress has a negative effect on us, and physical movement has the power to make us feel de-stressed and calm.” Ramsay says the combination of exercises and gaming has helped motivate clients to move their bodies, feel physically and mentally great, and positively impact their health and wellness while walking, stretching, performing bodyweight exercises, and more. The YouTube channel features workouts based on SciPlay’s gaming hits. Viewers will learn all about Ramsay’s fitness philosophy, participate in weekly challenges, and get inspired to ‘gamify’ their workouts.
Ramsay also mixes it up by doing Instagram Live sessions focusing on stretching with a nice pour of wine called “Stretch – A Reason to Wine.” Check out some of his recent Instagram posts from Palm Springs where he’s currently sheltering in place.
Fitness guru Craig Ramsay (via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunk: Fitness guru and Bravo star Craig Ramsay (above) is giving you serious legs in Palm Springs. He’s been promoting his fitness routines “Stretch – a reason to wine.” • OutRight Action International: The German Bundestag (Parliament) passed a bill today banning the harmful practice of “conversion therapy” on minors. With its passage, Germany joins Malta, Ecuador, Brazil, and Taiwan to become only the 5th country in the world to ban “conversion therapy.” • Military Times: The Defense Department has issued new guidance that says a past COVID-19 diagnosis is “permanently disqualifying” for those trying to join the U.S. military. • Pink News: Oscar winner Kevin Spacey has broken his silence for the first time since a rash of sexual assault allegations brought a halt to his acting career. Speaking via video as part of a three-day business conference he reportedly compared his “emotional struggles” after being accused are comparable to those of people affected by coronavirus. • New Music: Trans pop-star Kim Petras has released her brand new single “Malibu,” a glittering, summery pop-bop. “‘Malibu’ is a return to color, the feeling of being in love, and the escapism pop that I love the most,” says Kim.
• Towleroad: A gay couple in Tulsa is speaking out after a “Christian” neighbor put up horrific anti-LGBT signs, including a rainbow flag with a black “X” in his yard, directly across the street from their house. • Media Matters: Fox News has devoted seven and a half times as much coverage to Shelley Luther, a Dallas, Texas, salon owner, jailed for reopening her business in violation of the state’s stay-at-home order than the network has given to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man in Georgia who was out for a jog and was killed by two white men with ties to local law enforcement. • Vox: For folks who might be conflicted about Tara Reade’s allegations aimed at former Vice President Joe Biden, I encourage you to read this detailed account from a journalist who interviewed Reade several times. Reporter Laura McGann notes that as a supporter of the Me Too movement, she writes, “I wanted to believe Reade when she first came to me, and I worked hard to find the evidence to make certain others would believe her, too. I couldn’t find it.” • HuffPost: Donald Trump has regularly cast blame on those in the White House before him, saying falsely that he was left with “empty cupboards” when he replaced then-President Barack Obama. When asked by ABC News what HE had done to restock those cupboards over the past three years, Trump replied, “Well, uh, I have a lot of things going on.”
ABC: You’re three years into your term. What did you do when you became president to restock those cupboards that you say are bare?
• Stonewall Gazette: The veteran LGBTQ blog has returned to the interwebs! Make sure you click over to check out all the content over at Stonewall Gazette. • NBC News: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced 16 nominees for its 2021 class of inductees. The ultimate inductees for the 36th annual class will be announced in May, with honors set for the fall. 
