LGBTQ news and entertainment
In writer/director Harry Lighton’s sexy drama Pillion, a shy young man finds his place in the world as the submissive to a handsome biker.
Based on Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 novel Box Hill, the film stars Alexander Skarsgård alongside Harry Potter alum Harry Melling.
The tagline for the film reads: “A timid man is swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker takes him on as his submissive.” Continue reading “Trailer: Alexander Skarsgård Stars In Gay Biker Romance ‘Pillion’”
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| Shadia (L), Joe King (R) |
According to King, Shadia has lived “a very brutal and difficult life in Africa because of her sexuality.”
Rejected by her family for being lesbian, she traveled to Kenya with her two-year-old son. But life was no better there as she fell victim to rape and was forced to live in the streets, often eating bath soap to survive.
Shadia came to King’s attention through a friend at the Refugee Coalition of East Africa. The Coalition works to help LGBTQ people who find themselves the object of persecution.
The organization has arranged for Shadia, her son and her step-sister to relocate to Manchester.
King, who was honored as Mr. Leather Europe in 2016, told Gay Star News recently, “My heart went out for her. The poor girl has been through hell.”
Calling Shadia ‘inspirational’ and ‘thoughtful’ in the face of horrific adversity, King launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds for Shadia’s new chapter in Manchester.
The young mother will be starting her life in a totally new country, with no friends, family or network to rely on.
Citing Pride season, King says he saw “an opportunity for the community to do something for someone and show what Pride is really about.”
King aims to show Shadia that she has a new family in the local LGBTQ community to help get her onto her feet as she begins a job search and takes her first steps in building a new life.
Perhaps an unlikely hero to an African refugee, the UK leatherman closes his appeal on GoFundMe writing, “Please help me support this amazing and inspirational woman and give what you can, no matter how small.”
Gay Star News reports he will meet Shadia at the airport in Manchester on Tuesday with a rainbow Pride flag.
As the current president of Manchester Leathermen, he plans to ask her to march with them in the Manchester Pride Parade this August.
“It makes you think,” he told GSN. “When we’re having parties and being ridiculous in the street, there’s another side to the community.”
“We’ve lost touch with what’s important sometimes,” he added.”We want to show her that she’s got a LGBTI family.”
Bravo, Joe!
Click over to the GoFundMe page for more information.
We tend to think of California as being pretty liberal when it comes to perceptions of social culture.
Which is why San Francisco resident Robert Haynes was shocked when his request for a vanity license plate for his motorcycle that would read “LTHR DDY” (shorthand for ‘leather daddy’) was rejected by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
According to The Bay Area Reporter, the rejection letter Haynes received from the DMV referred to the phrase’s “sexual connotation” and that some might read it as “a term of lust or depravity.”
Depravity???
“I understood when I submitted this the term could be controversial, but for it to be a lustful or depraved reference is missing the scope of leather culture,” Haynes told the Bay Area Reporter. “And it is kind of endemic of how people take leather culture from the outside and immediately relate it to sexual as being exclusive to the entire lifestyle.”
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| Robert Haynes (photo credit: Charles Moniz) |
Haynes tells the Bay Area Reporter he’s not super-involved with the leather community, although he did participate in the International Mr. Leather contest in 2011. The 38-year-old does think of himself as a leather daddy, and wears leather apparel when he takes his motorcycle out for rides.
Haynes went to the state senator who represents San Francisco, Scott Wiener, with his plight.
Wiener reportedly fired off a letter to the DMV denouncing the language used in the rejection and demanded Haynes’ vanity plate be approved.
“I was really floored that a California agency would boil the whole concept of leather daddy down to depravity or lust,” said Wiener. “Being part of the leather community is about so much more than sexuality. It is about diversity, freedom, and people being who they are.”
Mind you, just last week the city of San Francisco approved a new park that will commemorate the leather community.
And each year thousands flock to the city for the annual Folsom Street Fair, which celebrates the leather and BDSM communities.
In a letter to former acting DMV Director Bill Davidson, Wiener highlighted the many facets of the LGBTQ community which has always been a voice for “individual self-expression and diversity.”
The DMV has informed the state senator they have received his letter and are “in the process of drafting a reply at this time.”
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| Robert Haynes (courtesy of Robert Haynes) |
For his part, Haynes has refused to cash the $50 refund check he received from the DMV, and hopes the plate arrives in time for this year’s AIDS/LifeCycle ride in June.
Haynes has taken part in the annual San Francisco AIDS Foundation/Los Angeles LGBT Center charity event six times, and will participate for the second time as part of the Moto Safety crew that protects and assists the bicyclists.