Tag: news round-up

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News Round-Up: March 30, 2019

• Sometimes, you need to stick with what you know works - like this pose (above) by InstaHunk Fran Dullon. Stay tuned - we'll check back later to confirm how that works.
InstaHunk Fran Dullon

Some news items you might have missed:

• Sometimes, you need to stick with what you know works – like this pose (above) by InstaHunk Fran Dullon. Stay tuned – we’ll check back later to confirm.

• In a guest column for Deadline, George Clooney calls for boycotting Los Angeles hotels owned by Brunei-based companies over the imminent implementation of the death penalty in the country for homosexual acts between consenting adults.

• A new report shows bisexual youth are more likely than gay or lesbian youth to be bullied and/or consider suicide.

• Zuzana Caputova, a lawyer and LGBTQ ally, could be about to become the first ever female president of Slovakia. You know my last name is Slovacek, right?

• Yep, looks like this is still working for Mr. Dullon.

• Former NBA star Tim Hardaway is complaining the only reason he’s not in the Basketball Hall of Fame is because he went on a homophobic rant in 2007 where he said:

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”

Hardaway later changed his mind and became an LGBTQ ally. He’s on his fifth year as a Hall of Famer finalist. What do you think? Should he be forgiven and voted into the Hall of Fame?

• A 61-year-old woman in Nebraska just gave birth to her gay son’s child.

• A survey of gay & lesbian Realtors shows LGBTQ folks are less likely to purchase a home than heterosexuals, in part because they worry whether their neighbors will be welcoming.

• Yep, I think we’ve confirmed this is a winning pose for the Spanish InstaHunk.

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News Round-Up: March 26, 2019

Some news items you might have missed:

• My girl Olivia Newton-John can add “New York Times Best-Selling Author” to her long, long list of accomplishments. Her memoir, Don’t Stop Believing’ debuts at #12 on the famed NY Times list. Folks are going nuts over the audio book version where you can hear Liv tell her story to you one-on-one in her own voice. Check it on iTunes here.

• The Human Rights Campaign has announced that U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), one of the many pro-equality champions running for the White House in 2020, will speak at the 2019 HRC Los Angeles Dinner next Saturday, March 30, 2019.

• Removed from the prom ballot for being trans, 17-year-old Dex Frier was added back with the support of his peers and was crowned as part of the prom court.

• Out Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy was NOT having the homophobic social media posts during a Pride ski week at Breckenridge, Colorado.

• Fox News host Elisabeth Hasselbeck said that former The View colleague Rosie O’Donnell’s confession of a crush on her is “offensive” and that she is immediately began praying for O’Donnell.

• Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, has sold more than 10 million units since its release in November. The autobiography is nearing the top of all-time memoir sales.

• Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum singer/songwriter DAYA drops the music video for her latest hit “Insomnia.”

The video throws viewers into rave culture with an epic party; but while everyone is dancing in the club, Daya is alone in a darkly-lit room, unable to join the party as her thoughts stay focused singularly on missing the one she loves.

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News Round-Up: March 25, 2019

Gus Kenworthy

Some news items you might have missed:

• Out Olympic medalist Gus Kenworthy recently debuted his new hair style he jokingly dubs “petty in pink.” #PinkIsSassy

• Only 55 percent of Americans believe that gay and lesbian people face a lot of discrimination in the U.S., down from 68 percent in 2013.

• Lawyer Michael Avenatti has been arrested on charges related to an alleged $20 million extortion of the athletic apparel company Nike. His famous client, porn star Stormy Daniels, says said Monday that she is “saddened but not shocked” at the charges.

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked a move by Senate Democrats to call on Attorney General William Barr to release special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on the Russia investigation. It’s ‘too soon’ says McConnell.

• Police are looking for a man who opened fire at the gay bar, Toucan’s Tiki Lounge, in Palm Springs, California, this weekend. Two gun shot victims were taken to the hospital where they were reported to be in stable condition.

• Randy Report favorite Marina dropped her new music video last week, “Orange Trees.”

While we’ve only just passed the spring solstice, clearly Marina has her head in the summertime as she takes us to the beaches of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with the upbeat electro-pop track and video.

Her upcoming album, LOVE + FEAR, is available April 26.

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News Round-Up: March 23, 2019

Some news items you might have missed:

• DWTS and ANTM champ Nyle DiMarco (above) is living for the west coast sunshine – “Sun’s out, guns out!”

• The Alabama senate unanimously voted for a bill this week that would eliminate marriage licenses because some judges in the state don’t want to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

• The organizers of Houston’s Drag Queen Story Time project are calling it quits after harassment and death threats by so-called Christians.

• The House will vote next week on a measure rejecting President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.

• Thanks to a lawsuit by the ACLU, state-funded faith-based adoption agencies in Michigan can no longer discriminate against LGBTI people.

• Sofi Tukker invite you into their new music video, “Fantasy.”

The track has been a fan favorite at concerts thanks to its intimate, introspective lyrics and vocal delivery.

The video is a sneak peek into what’s to come from the duo ahead of their world tour which will take them across five continents.

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News Round-Up: March 15, 2019

Happy birthday, Russell Todd! (photo: James Franklin)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Belated birthday wishes to my longtime buddy, Russell Todd! I’ve known Russell since the 90s when I first moved to the west coast. Everywhere we’d go fans would remember him as ‘Dr. Jamie Frame’ from Another World, Friday the 13th Part 2, and other movie/TV projects. Totally the best guy, and yes – he is that handsome 🙂

• Traffic on the app Tumblr has dropped by 150 million page views since banning “photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples” on the site from December 17.

• Sadly, Netflix has announced the cancellation of its reboot of the Norman Lear sitcom, One Day at a Time. The new version, featuring a Cuban-American family, was about as good as a TV sitcom can get. The series tackled coming out, homophobia, depression, and many important topics with class and intelligence. If you have Netflix, I recommend you go catch up on the 3 seasons we did get.

• A once-a-month injection to treat HIV has now passed two important trials. #LookingGood

• A new documentary, Mack Wrestles, chronicles the story of Mack Beggs, the trans male Texas high school wrestler who won the state’s girls champion despite wanting to wrestle boys. The film just premiered at the 2019 SXSW Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas.

• Ray Mabus, the former Secretary of the Navy, blasted the Trump/Pence transgender military ban as a “stain on our country” saying the policy “tells our children that merit has no place, while prejudice does.”

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News Round-Up: March 12, 2019

'Fitness obsessed' InstaHunk Austin Wolf (above) knows how to find the dramatic gym lighting for maximum selfie impact.
Austin Wolf finds his light

Some news items you might have missed:

• ‘Fitness obsessed’ InstaHunk Austin Wolf (above) knows how to find the dramatic gym lighting for maximum selfie impact.

• A man wrote in to an advice column after he met his girlfriend’s parents and realized he’d once hooked up with the dad.

• Donald Trump threw a Twitter rant over so-called ‘presidential harassment’ after the New York attorney general’s office issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records relating to the financing of four major Trump Organization projects and a failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 2014.

• Hate group leader Bill Donohue pens an op-ed for the Catholic League whining passage of the Equality Act will result in “affirmative action for the sexually confused.”

• A new app will help #MAGA Trump supporters find restaurants that are safe spaces for their red hats and white nationalist views.

• Media Matters for America has released several recordings of Fox News host Tucker Carlson calling into a favorite radio show in the early 2000s using homophobic, misogynist and racist slurs. #WhoIsSurprised?

• Dido drops a beautiful acoustic version of “Mad Love” from her new album, Still On My Mind.

I find her voice to be so pure; and her music has a chill, relaxing effect on me. Hit play below.

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News Round-Up: March 11, 2019

Jonas Brothers score their very first #1 song

Some news items you might have missed:

• The Jonas Brothers have officially topped the Billboard Hot 100 with their come-back single “Sucker.” It’s the Jo Bros first number one (previous high was #5) and first boy band #1 in sixteen years.

• Democratic Presidential contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said this weekend that she never supported conversion therapy, despite working for an organization that promoted it.

• Milwaukee beat out Houston and Miami for the 2020 Democratic Convention scheduled for July 13-16, 2020. Since the Democratic ticket barely lost usually ‘true blue’ Wisconsin in 2016, this makes perfect sense.

• This idiot not only got a beat down for grabbing the employee at McDonalds, but he was sentenced to 60 days in jail. The customer was apparently irate he couldn’t find a straw. Watch him get more than he bargained for below.

• Jussie Smollett’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, says the former Empire star is getting ‘gang-banged‘ by the media.

• A Brazilian politician called same-sex kissing ‘obscene’ and suggested it could be punishable with prison time.

• Speaking of Brazil, Donald Trump has invited the country’s newly-installed, virulently anti-LGBTQ president, Jair Bolsonaro, to visit at the White House. #OfCourse

•Music icon Olivia Newton-John celebrates the release of her first memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’.

With her trademark positive outlook, the Grease star shares personal anecdotes including a new afterword (added after the Australian printing) of her stay in her own hospital, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research  Centre, last fall when she experienced a fractured sacrum.

The four-time Grammy Award winner went undercover for a few weeks for treatment and shares how proud she is of the world-class facility.

She also shares never-before-told stories from her 50+ year-old career in entertainment.

You can order the book on Amazon here.

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News Round-Up: March 7, 2019

Is it weird that I think InstaHunk Ignacio Pérez Rey (above) rocks these board shorts even better than a Speedo?

Some news items you might have missed:

• Is it weird that I think InstaHunk Ignacio Pérez Rey (above) rocks these board shorts even better than a Speedo?

• A federal judge in Maryland has lifted his order against President Trump’s transgender military ban, bringing the administration one step closer toward enforcing the hideous policy.

• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on passage of the Equality Act, which will be introduced in the House next week: “I’m very pleased because we have a great deal of outside support for it, which I hope will help us pass it in the Senate. We most certainly will pass it overwhelmingly in the House.”

• A recently-released biography of Fred Rogers, of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fame, says that the children’s television icon was bisexual?

• The U.S. Senate voted this week to confirm 36-year-old Allison Jones Rushing to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, handing the 36-year-old judge a lifetime seat on one of the nation’s top courts. Not only is she now the youngest and least experienced member of the judiciary, she spent a decade working with one of the most virulently anti-gay groups in America.

• Homocon and provocateur Milo Yiannopolous has been banned from entering Australia. #Good

• Bi actress/singer/model Paris Jackson says she doesn’t believe the claims in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland that her father, Michael Jackson, was a child sex abuser.

• And I close with this fabulously ‘groovy’ clip from the Carol Burnett Show in 1967 with the incomparable, 4-time Tony Award winner, Gwen Verdon.

And that awesome dancer who starts out with the silver horn is my dear friend, Lee Roy Reams 🙂

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News Round-Up: February 27, 2019

Bruno the wonder dog

Some news items you might have missed:

• It’s the one year mark since Bruno the wonder dog crossed over the rainbow bridge. I’m celebrating his life today. My remembrance of The Brun here. He was the best dog I’ve ever worked for.

• The United Methodist Church on Tuesday voted to strengthen its ban on gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages stating that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

• Results of a new survey indicates if you watch more porn on a regular basis, you’re more likely to be bisexual.

• Openly gay jujutsu fighter, William Seth-Wenzel, just became a world champ as his boyfriend cheered him on.

• Handsome gay college football player Cy Hicks shares with Outsports how coming out made him feel empowered.

• The House passed what many say is the most significant gun control measure in more than two decades on Wednesday when it approved the first of two bills aimed at strengthening the federal background check system for firearms purchases.

• “Call Me Maybe” singer Carly Rae Jepsen proves she’s soooo not a one-hit-wonder dropping two new tracks today: “Now That I Found You” and “No Drug Like Me.”

Check out the totally banging dance track “Now That I Found You” below, and click here for “No Drug Like Me.”

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News Round-Up: February 13, 2019

Donald Trump may think having a dog could make him look 'phony,' but InstaHunk Naor Yazdan says he's already found his Valentine's date, and this looks like true love to me.

Some news items you might have missed:

• Donald Trump may think having a dog could make him look ‘phony,’ but InstaHunk Naor Yazdan says he’s already found his Valentine’s date, and this looks like true love to me.

• Out actor/singer Jussie Smollett will give his first interview since he was attacked in Chicago last month to Robin Roberts on GMA Thursday morning.

• Netflix’s upcoming ‘Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City’ is set to debut at the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theater on April 10. The series will arrive on Netflix this summer.

• Donald Trump said today that his proposed border wall will be harder to climb than Mount Everest.

• After Ellen Page called out movie star Chris Pratt for promoting his church, virulently anti-LGBTQ Hillsong Church, Pratt finally took to social media to defend the church saying it “opens its doors to absolutely everyone.” Let’s just say it didn’t go over well with the Twitter people.

• Season 3 of Netflix’s Emmy Award winning ‘make better’ series, Queer Eye, is set for release on March 15, and the streaming giant shared the news with a Valentines-themed video clip accompanied by a new track from pop star Carly Rae Jespen, “Now That I Found You.”

After two seasons in Atlanta, the series is changing locations to help our folks in the Kansas City area. Hit play below for the upbeat vid.