LGBTQ news and entertainment
Exciting news for Los Angeles residents as the city’s public transportation railway system will the see first section of the D (Purple) Line extension open on Friday, May 8.
Earlier this year, LA Metro went viral for its sassy slogan (“Ride The D“) promoting the new subway line. T-shirts sporting the slogan sold out in just a day. Continue reading “LA Metro Encourages Folks To ‘Ride The D’”
The men of “Flip The Strip” (photo: HGTV)
Daniel Penny (center)
Gio Benitez (image via Instagram)
The 25-year-old suspect wanted by New York police in connection to the unprovoked shooting death of a gay subway rider over the weekend surrendered at a precinct in Chinatown this afternoon. Continue reading “Suspect In NYC Subway Shooting Of Gay Man Surrenders”
(screen capture via NBC New York)
New York City police have announced they have apprehended Frank R. James, the subway shooting suspect wanted for allegedly opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people, after a 24-hour manhunt. Continue reading “NYC Police: Subway Shooting Suspect In Custody”
(screen capture via Good Day New York)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunk: Paleontologist Dr. Francesc Gascó (above) is also a bit CrossFit fan. This totally says TGIF to me. • KIT212: Kenneth has the low-down on what’s what in gay rags across the country. • Agence France-Presse: Several government ministries in Indonesia are banning LGBT job hunters in favor of what one called “normal” applicants, the Ombudsman said Friday. Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of some 260 million, has seen a jump in discrimination against gay and transgender people in recent years. • ABC News: Florida officers encounter a strange scene – a car circling in reverse with the owner’s dog Max inside. The dog’s owner had made a wrong turn, pulled over and got out of the car leaving the dog inside, who somehow hit the gear shift putting the car in reverse.
DRIVING DOG: Florida officers encounter a strange scene: a car circling in reverse—with the owner’s dog Max inside.
Officers eventually manage to rescue Max by entering a code on the car door’s keypad to stop the vehicle. https://t.co/89Clt0UVoe pic.twitter.com/8YlsRKwgSB — ABC News (@ABC) November 22, 2019
After years and years of construction and delays, NYC’s 2nd Avenue subway will finally open on January 1. As with other subway stations throughout the city, the new stations will feature public art, with the 72nd line showcasing the work of Chuck Close, Vik Muniz, Jean Shin and Sarah Sze.
The 72nd street station will feature a mosaic mural by Vik Muniz called “Perfect Strangers” which depicts “the different people that riders are likely to encounter on their daily commutes” according to the AP, and among them is the above picture of a same-sex couple.
From the AP:
“It was like winning the lottery,” Thor Stockman, 60, said of finding out that he and his husband of 3 ½ years, Patrick Kellogg, were going to be part of artist Vik Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers,” a series of life-size mosaic portraits of everyday New Yorkers gracing the walls of the new subway station at 72nd Street. But “part of me wishes that it wasn’t a rarity, that it wasn’t remarkable.”
Muniz said it made sense to include the two men in a project intended to show the different people that riders are likely to encounter on their daily commutes.
“They are just people you would expect to see,” Muniz, who divides his time between New York and Brazil, said in phone interview from Rio de Janeiro. “You would expect to see men holding hands.”
Jonathan David Katz, an expert in queer art history, said he could find no other example of a permanent, non-political LGBTQ public artwork in New York City. He mentioned George Segal’s “Gay Liberation Monument” near Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that launched the gay rights movement. But that work, featuring two men standing and two women sitting, is expressly commemorative of a political moment.