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Protest In Front Of Manchester Grand Hyatt In San Diego Today (7/31/10) [View | Hide]
The LGBT group Sleep With The Right People! Support Hotel Workers! will demonstrate in front of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego this afternoon to protest GOProud, who is holding an event there today that features Fox News Channel's Tammy Bruce. GOProud is a conservative gay Republican group. The hotel's owner, Doug Manchester, was a big contributor to the "Yes on Prop 8" campaign, donating a hefty $125,000 in February 2008 .
The LGBT community and the UNITE HERE! labor union have been behind a boycott of the hotel since 2008 and this is the first LGBT group to break it since.
Says Cleve Jones, who is affiliated with UNITE HERE!:
“The solidarity between the labor movement and the LGBT movement is a powerful coalition. In San Diego, the owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt—the second largest Hyatt in North America—gave $125,000 to put Proposition 8 on the ballot. Our union and the LGBT community are boycotting the Manchester Grand Hyatt, because there is power in the union and there is power in coalition.”
Protests begin at 4:30pm at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, 1 Market Place in San Diego. The GOProud event runs from 5pm to 7pm.
News: Michael Jackson, WikiLeaks, Twitter, James Franco (7/31/10) [View | Hide]
"Study": “People who either identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual, or have had a same-sex encounter or relationship, tend to come from more disturbed backgrounds." Yeah, right.
WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning was closeted military man who leaked documents after a big argument where he was "lectured by ex-boyfriend." Would the leak have occurred if DADT didn't exist and Manning had more of a support system in the military?
VA AG Ken Cuccinelli on letter he sent our earlier this year calling for removal of anti-discrimination laws: "Could we have dragged our feet and made it take longer? Yes. Should we have? Yes. Should it have been written less like somebody who's a cold-blooded, objective engineer wrote it? Yes. The one thing we got right in there was: the law."
Andy Cohen and Steven Colbert re-enact a Housewives cat fight.
Politician sends out flyers with opponent's "face superimposed over a rainbow flag, with two male figures holding hands." She also lied claiming he wants to legalize public sex in restrooms.
NY Mag on James Franco: "Franco, you might say, is queering celebrity: erasing the border not just between gay and straight but between actor and artist, heartthrob and intellectual, junk TV and art museum. His obvious relish for gay roles challenges the default heterosexuality of Hollywood leading men like Clooney or Pitt."
Irish transgendered woman says she will apply for refugee status in Canada if that country tried to send her back to Europe.
Report: "The Vancouver School Board has significantly downsized its anti-homophobia and diversity consultant's hours, despite calls for greater anti-homophobia education in schools."
University of Illinois Reinstates Teacher's Job (7/31/10) [View | Hide]
University of Illinois Catholic studies professor Kenneth Howell, who was let go from his job earlier this summer due to his anti-gay beliefs (according to him gay sex is "injurious" to the body), has been given the chance to teach at the public institution once again. If you recall, one of student complained about his viewpoints, calling them hate speech.
According to the Chicago Tribune: "The university released a statement Thursday saying Howell's appointment as an adjunct instructor in the Religion Department - teaching Religion 127, Introduction to Catholicism - will be continued for the fall. Howell also taught a course on modern Catholic thought, and the statement did not make clear whether he will still do so. A review of whether Howell's firing by the Religion Department violated his academic freedom is continuing, the university said. 'The University of Illinois is committed to upholding principles of academic freedom and the requirements of the First Amendment,' the statement said."
The university also revealed that they would no longer pay adjunct professors, such as Howell, who teach Catholicism courses through the a local church group, St. John's Catholic Newman Center. They'll now be paid directly by U of I.
But, Howell, as an adjunct professor, could still be dismissed from his teaching position at any time.
Vampire Diaries Writer Wants Gay Character On Show (7/31/10) [View | Hide]
Openly gay writer Kevin Williamson reveals that he wants to see a gay character on his show, The Vampire Diaries. But it won't be somone currently on the show (sorry Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder fans), but a new character. Williamson says: "I don't want to do a coming-out story."
"It's one of those things that needs to feel organic and seamless," Williamson told a group of reporters on July 28 in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was at The CW's party for the Television Critics Association press tour. "I don't want it to be a character that comes in and is a one-off. I want someone to come in and have a reason and a purpose and really push that story forward the way I want to do it, and they're so important to the story that without them the show won't happen. That's what I want."
Gay teens are an important issue to Williamson outside of show business. He supports GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. "I'm sitting in the wings waiting," he said. "I'm waiting. Which character can be gay? Which character won't? Where will it fit in? How can I get the gay character in? I don't want to sound like I'm a militant about it, like THERE MUST BE A GAY CHARACTER, even though I am. It's not just that, it's also diversity. I always feel like I don't have enough diversity on my show, and that is one of the things I'm very conscientious of, and not just gay characters. Any diversity. In anything, I want everyone represented. I want everybody on the show."
And if it ends up being a male character, the actor who portrays him better get used to not wearing a shirt.
Neil Patrick Harris Plays With Silly Bands (7/31/10) [View | Hide]
He showed up on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson a couple of nights ago with a collection of Silly Bands he'd molded into shapes of things he really, really likes. Things such as rabbits, dolphins and pineapples.
Delayed Jerusalem Pride Parade Draws Thousands, Criticism (7/31/10) [View | Hide]
Israel's gay pride parade was pushed back about a month or so this year, so that it would fall on the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting last year that claimed two lives in Tel Aviv. The gunman of that attack is still at large.
The parade, which was held in Jerusalem on Thursday, drew more than 3,000 participants.
There was no sign of the donkey cut-outs the city's ultra-Orthodox deputy mayor, Rabbi Yitzhak Pindrus, was allowed to bring to the march after his initial plan to march 50 real life donkeys through the streets in protest of the parade was rejected by police. There were, natch, actual human anti-gay protesters, several of whom were arrested. Some held signs that read: "sick perverts - get out of Jerusalem."
Carrying rainbow banners, several thousand demonstrators walked along the 1.5 mile (2.5 kilometer) route. A few dozen black-suited ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters at the beginning and end of the route held signs denouncing homosexuals, with slogans like "Gay Play in Hell, Not Jerusalem." Many ultra-Orthodox Jews consider homosexuality an abomination. Marchers said such opposition has forced the gay community of Jerusalem underground in most parts of the city. "In a religious society, a lot of people still don't realize we actually exist," said Sarah Weil, 26, who helps run an organization for lesbians who are also Orthodox Jews.
Also, yesterday, even Catholic Patriarch Fouad Twal issued a statement criticizing the march: "Leave Jerusalem to her pilgrims and faithful", he began, "(the parade's) organizers and the authorities who allow it, care neither for the feelings of families nor the holiness of this city."
I've compiled several clips of the pride-full moments at the parade. Watch them AFTER THE JUMP.
X-Factor Winner Joe McElderry: I'm Gay (7/30/10) [View | Hide]
Joe McElderry, who won Britain's X-Factor last year, has come out of the closet.
"The 19-year-old X Factor winner made the brave decision to come out in an emotional interview with the Mirror, just a week after telling his mum. Joe has always denied rumours he was gay, but insisted the reason was he didn’t know himself until recently. He added: 'I’ve had time to think about things. I wasn’t attracted to anyone anyway, male or female. It never really entered my head I was gay. But I just know. It’s how I feel.' ... But the 19-year-old has now bravely decided to tell the world he is gay – and the denials were down to the fact he never knew himself, until three weeks ago. And he said he is comfortable with his decision to come out publicly, declaring: 'I’m happy. I now know who I am.'"
McElderry says he is not in a relationship:
"I’m single, I’ve not had a relationship with a boy, but I just know. It’s how I feel. The Twitter thing actually helped because I realised I wasn’t that bothered, and the penny dropped...I’m not worried about how fans will react. They have always said they’ll back me no matter what. Everyone’s been really kind so I would like to thank them and your readers for all the support."
Watch McElderry duet with George Michael on last year's final, AFTER THE JUMP...
Watch: Thomas Roberts Talks with Miss New York Claire Buffie, About Her Gay Rights Platform (7/30/10) [View | Hide]
On MSNBC this afternoon, Thomas Roberts spent a few minutes talking with Miss New York, who is the first Miss America contestant in the pageant's history to run on a gay rights platform.
The letter, which notes the two corporations consistent 100% ratings on HRC's Corporate Equality Index, urges the companies to "make it right" with equivalent donations "to groups that support candidates who will put all Minnesota families first and fulfill the promises of our highest ideals."
Reads the letter, in part:
Now, Americans are questioning their loyalty to your brands with word of significant contributions to the political action committee MN Forward that hopes to install one of the most strident opponents of equality in the Minnesota Governor’s mansion. With these contributions, you have severely damaged those carefully cultivated reputations and violated the spirit of the gold standards bestowed on you. In fact, the long-term effects on families that shop at Target and Best Buy throughout Minnesota and the U.S. will be devastating.
At this critical time in Minnesotans’ quest for equality, MN Forward and the candidates they are supporting would turn Minnesota backward, away from the promise of equal opportunity and fairness that we hold dear. No matter your motivations in making these donations, they didn’t occur in a vacuum. Same-sex couples in your home state are denied the equality given to other couples in marriage and many state leaders are poised to right that inequity very soon. $250,000 in contributions to those who would stand in the way is a punch in the gut to those of us who want to see all families treated fairly. What may have sounded like a “good business decision” in the board room turns out to be a horribly short-sighted business decision when millions of consumers lose respect for your companies.
HRC is publishing the letter in a full-page ad in the Minnesota Star-Tribune, and encouraged its members, via email this afternoon, to add their names to it.
Earlier this week, the group said that it currently had no plans to revise the corporations' ratings on the CEI due to the fact that political contributions are not a factor in calculating the ratings, but left the door open for future changes:
"In 2011, for example, there will be nearly a half-dozen new criteria that will be added for evaluation. Criteria will continue to evolve as we come into new information."
YOUR FEATURE PRESENTATION Felix Bush (Oscar winner Robert Duvall is an ornery recluse In the 30s period dramedyGET LOW. It's based on Tennessee folklore about a hermit who threw himself a funeral while he was still alive. To prepare for this odd event, Bush enlists the help of local funeral director Bill Murray (no character name necessary. This is Bill Murray doing Bill Murray) and his aptly named assistant "Buddy" (played by Lucas Black). On the journey to the funeral, skeletons from Bush's closet involving a former love (Oscar winner Sissy Spacek) and an old friend (Bill Cobbs) are uncovered.
Get Low starts out promisingly with a deadly housefire which sets up the mystery of the hermit's past. Unfortunately, from then on we're constantly hearing about the Felix Bush tall tales but not the tales themselves. The movie lacks the specificity it needs to make his legend vividly felt. He's reduced, then, to a standard grumpy old man who keeps to himself. Duvall's final monologue is impressive (Ding Ding: Oscar clip!) but the movie refuses to gather enough steam to really make it hurt. And, weirder still, the funeral party sequence isn't anything like what it's hyped up to be, much like the legend of the man... or the movie itself.
Some would argue that 2010 has been a weak movie year but we've already seen a small handful of future Oscar players (The Kids Are All Right, Inception, Toy Story 3, Winter's Bone) so it's not all bad. You can probably add Get Low to that list. The Academy may well love it as much as most critics do.
Also Opening: Zac Efron "discovers the transformative power of love" whilst chasing movie stardom(he's already got the other kind of stardom) in Charlie St Cloud . Paul Rudd and Steve Carell ad lib in Dinner For Schmucks. We've heard only terrible things about it but a lot of today's comedies seem to be flimsy premises to just hang improv on, trusting the actors to elevate it. When will someone think to write a great screenplay for our best comedic actors? A soldier returns to his Texas home in The Dry Land. Finally, don't make me mention the Cats & Dogs sequel please. Have you no mercy?
BONUS (OFFSCREEN) SCENE What is Robin Weigert (Deadwood) laughing about? Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) and Robin Bartlett (Shutter Island) are leaning in to get a better look.
Rehearsals are deep in progress for the New York revival of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasiaon National Themes. That looks like a rendering of the Angel herself (Weigert's role). People always forget that the play is very funny and the angel is as ridiculous as she is fierce. "I I I I I I I" . Both parts of the Pulitzer Prize winning epic, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, will play in repertory. Tickets go on sale on August 3rd for a very limited run. One assumes Quinto's schedule has to free up when the cameras roll on that Star Trek sequel in January 2011.
I interviewed the actress Robin Bartlett (who plays Mother Pitt, Ethel Rosenberg and four other roles) during their first week of rehearsals. We talked a bit about her vivid movie cameos like the ones in Postcards From the Edge and Shutter Island but we mostly discussed the play and how resonant and timeless it is despite its specificity in dealing with the AIDS crisis in 1985/1986 New York City. "We started off with a table read of both plays with Tony there. Spent two days just sort of bouncing things off of him and soaking whatever he had to tell us about both the play and the circumstances under which it was written," The actress says. "It's interesting because there are so many people under 30 in the play who were not -- well they were alive but they weren't engaged at the time that the play was written -- who were just really innocent of some of the horrors of it."
Among the younger actors, pictured from left to right are: Handsome rising stage star Bill Heck who'll play Joe Pitt, the closeted Mormon Republican; Zachary Quinto is Louis, Prior's guilt ridden Jewish ex-boyfriend; Billy Porter is Belize, the sharp tongued nurse to Roy Cohn and Prior's best friend; busy actress Zoe Kazan (yes, she's the granddaughter of Elia Kazan) will pop valium as Harper Pitt, Joe's abandoned wife; and Christian Borle, who is a familiar face in Broadway musicals, plays the central role of Prior, the dying "prophet" who sees the Angel but refuses her commands.
I'm guessing you've seen the terrific HBO film version. Give the DVD a spin again (it's still great), but see this thing on stage, as soon as you get the chance, wherever that may be. Even on tiny regional stages, it's epic.
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #706 (7/30/10) [View | Hide]
PETER LABARBERA: David Pakman interviews "Porno Pete" about his views on homosexuality, in two parts.
TARGET AND BEST BUY: Boycott gets a rap anthem form Sean Chapin.
Six teens who attacked gay pastor and his friend in Piedmont Park in Atlanta on July 2 to be charged as adults in bias crime: "Rev. Josh Noblitt of Saint Mark United Methodist Church and his partner were attacked and robbed by gunpoint in Piedmont Park on July 2. Before they were attacked, the couple was asked by the alleged assailants if they were gay.
'They walked up directly to us and asked, ‘Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that,’' Noblitt told the Georgia Voice."
Senator John Cornyn to attend Log Cabin fundraiser: "I don’t want people to misunderstand and think that I don’t respect the dignity of every human being regardless of sexual orientation."
Anti-hate vigil held outside Staten Island White Castle where gay men were beaten: "I ask that we stop the racism, we stop the violence that is so painful, which is simply beyond explanation — painful. I ask that we all live in peace. We are all the same color blood no matter your race, your nationality, or gender or sexual identity. What matters is that we live in peace, that’s all I ask."
Straight female impersonator suing Simon Cowell: "I'm a female impersonator, that's what I put on my application. It's my niche, I'm not gay or a transvestite. Even one of the producers said, 'Are you gay? You must be.' My relatives think I'm a cross-dresser now, some sort of tranny. I've been married since 1977 and I have a daughter. I'm as straight as you can get. They're portraying me as something I'm not which is defamation against my character. It's not who I am."
Vermont's gay community center has relocated: "RU12 moved from its offices in Burlington to the Champlain Mill in Winooski. The center said it wanted a more accessible space with room for meetings and events. It hopes the new location will encourage more people to visit and get involved.
'We really want to remind people that we are here and at our new location we are hoping to make some new connections and reach out to a broader community outside of the Burlington area, because we are statewide, so this is a good opportunity to let people know that,' said Kara Deleonardis, RU12 Community Center."
BP is Creepy: Kinsey Sicks Takes on the Oil Spill (7/30/10) [View | Hide]
America's favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet 'The Kinsey Sicks' presents a refined look at the crude Gulf disaster and the country's addiction to oil.
Hey, What is up with the Pictures? I have posted shirtless and fully clothed photos to my profile, and DLIST has told me that they are too Risque for the website. I don't understand, why some of my photos are too risque when they are not... ADMINS please help explain to me why this is happening. Thank You
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