Our Big Gay Gossip, Hottie Alert and Lounge (All Are Welcome)

[Volkonski]

Also too, does anyone one else remember an Avengers opening with a chessboard, or did I dream that?

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Yes!!!!!!!!!

[neonzx]

Hey, is this true?

Log Cabin Republicans claim gays “love” Melania Trump in painful video
Log Cabin presented Trump with its Spirit of Lincoln Award and claimed she was a "champion" for LGBTQ rights
By Rhuaridh Marr on November 9, 2021 @rhuaridh

Scott_JC2.JPG

I came upon this this thread after a delay.... can we just say no??

[notorial dissent]

Hey, is this true?

Log Cabin Republicans claim gays “love” Melania Trump in painful video
Log Cabin presented Trump with its Spirit of Lincoln Award and claimed she was a "champion" for LGBTQ rights
By Rhuaridh Marr on November 9, 2021 @rhuaridh

Scott_JC2.JPG

I came upon this this thread after a delay.... can we just say no??

The cognitive dissonance involved in this is just mind blowing, not to mention disturbing disturbing.

[Uninformed]

“Gay Santa ad highlights big shift in Norwegian society”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59738542

“Christmas ads have become an annual tradition, often appearing as mini-films with their own festive story. But one Norwegian commercial, featuring Father Christmas kissing a man waiting for him at home on Christmas Eve, has become a surprise hit.
In When Harry meets Santa, the four-minute ad by Norway's state-run Posten postal service, the man is seen writing Father Christmas a letter to the North Pole with the message: "All I want for Christmas is you." And he gets his wish.
"We wanted to celebrate the 50-year anniversary since the abolition of a law prohibiting same-sex relationships," says Monica Solberg, Posten's marketing director. The ad has been watched well over two million times online.”

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

One of the joys I've had these past couple of months has been seeing my Facebook memories from 8 years ago announcing to my friends the latest state to legalize same-sex marriage. While I am straight, I was dating a bi-sexual girl in college when DADT and DOMA were first enacted. I spent 20 years working to raise awareness as to how unfair those laws and policies were, and it was so exciting to finally see all the dominoes start falling. Just thought I'd drop this in here to add some holiday cheer.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Bravo!!!!!!!! Thank you for your service!

[Luke]

Thank you Kevin!

The full movie of Bridegroom is on YouTube now, it's from 2013 and really affected a lot of people. (Bridegroom is a 2013 American documentary film about the relationship between two young gay men, produced and directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.) Hearts and minds. Everybody deserves love and happiness. A few YT comments:

Chris Weaver
1 year ago
This documentary is both the most depressing thing I have ever seen and, with the ending coming into play, one of the most inspiring. I'm glad it has been heard as much as it has throughout the world and I'm glad that so many people supported this story enough to get it out there.

Ed 007
1 year ago
If only people understood what it's like for a gay person to be in the closet hiding who they are. We may look happy on the outside, but we're hurting on the inside. My "friend "( we were not allowed to say boyfriend), at 28 had a similar accident and spend the next 29 years in a coma.I couldn't tell anyone we were more than friends. Would go to visit him keeping the hurt inside, then go home and cry. I finally came out at 66 ( 3 years after he died ), and that's when I told everyone that we were more than just friends. I stayed with him all those years, and I know I will see him again in the next world.

Katie Williams
1 year ago
This movie is so good brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it.

Bimba Kasturiratne
10 months ago (edited)
What an incredibly sad story all round. Sad that Tom's family could not love him unconditionally; for everyone else, the loss of a wonderful, loving friend. Heartfelt sympathies to Shane and hope that he can take solace in knowing that, in Tom, he found the love that we all seek but many never achieve. May Tom have obtained Nirvana.

Casey Bentley
1 year ago
God this documentary really broke me. I just really want to hug Shane. Losing the person he loved and not being accepted by his partners family even after his death is heartbreaking.

[Luke]

Cross-posting from Randy Rainbow... I'd meant to mention my dear friend Billy Porter's book but forgot. Please check it out, the libraries have it and the audiobook is the way to go. Billy Porter's book is AMAZING. Billy really opens up and it's an impactful, tear-inducing and courageous story. Highly recommend. Unprotected: A Memoir

NY Times:

Billy Porter’s New Book Isn’t Just a Memoir; It’s a Testimony
By R. Eric Thomas Oct. 19, 2021
UNPROTECTED A Memoir By Billy Porter

At the end of his 2005 live album, “At the Corner of Broadway and Soul,” Billy Porter covers the song “Sunday” from the musical “Sunday in the Park With George.” But this is no ordinary rendition. Porter refashions the Sondheim standard into a rousing gospel anthem and at the end shouts, “God bless you all. Pay your checks and get out!”

An Emmy winner for playing Pray Tell on the vogue ballroom drama “Pose,” and a Tony and Grammy winner for his role in the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots,” Porter has built a career on blending theater excellence, gospel grandiosity and reading-for-filth realness, all through the astonishing instrument of his voice. This combination is vividly translated in Porter’s new memoir, “Unprotected,” which recounts his lifelong struggle to heal the deep wounds buried under the sheen of his charismatic presence.

Porter grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where he attended a homophobic Pentecostal Black church that nonetheless stoked in him a devotion to performance. As he writes about his early years, Porter relates the darkness and the light of his youth, detailing his upbringing with a chatty and arch flair, such as when he describes first seeing “The Wiz” on the same day that a lesbian teacher introduced him to the concept of a musical.

Porter’s talents propelled him to great heights — he made his Broadway debut in “Miss Saigon” when he was 21 years old — but the actor found that both in church and onstage, he was embraced for what he could do with his voice while simultaneously rejected for who he was: an out Black gay man.

In “Unprotected,” Porter’s voice on the page aptly matches his go-for-broke vocal instrument. He holds little back, never shying from raw emotionality, but avoiding histrionics. He writes bluntly about not being accepted by his church, as well as his quest to heal from years of sexual abuse by his stepfather in his preteen years. In a bracing chapter, he recalls confronting his mother about the abuse, weaving horror and rage with a guarded empathy for a woman who, he says, did not have the tools needed to protect him. Elsewhere, he reflects on his career highs and lows, like finding himself homeless and bankrupt after early successes, notably as Teen Angel in “Grease,” left him lost in the wilderness that he memorably dubs his “‘Millennium Coon Show’ era.”

This is not just a memoir, saints; this is a testimony. He is telling a story and he is spilling the tea and he is working through deep wounds in pursuit of a clearer path to a full experience of personhood. “Here I am all these decades later, at the height of my life and career — covered in alla my personal trauma,” he says early in the book.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/book ... orter.html

[Luke]

A 1986 ‘Golden Girls’ Episode Created Most Enduring Lesbian Joke On TV
By Queer News -January 27, 202277 0

“The Golden Girls” were decades ahead of their time when it came to acceptance and social issues. Thirty-Five years ago they pushed for LGBTQ+ acceptance with storylines that included Blanche’s brother coming out as gay, and one special episode that involved a friend of Dorothy’s (pun intended) named Jean.

So Jean was married to Pat, who recently passed away. The other women in the house have been assuming that Pat was a man and Dorothy’s been unsure about what to say. Jean begins to have quite the crush on Rose. When trying to gauge if the housemates would be accepting, Dorothy has a conversation with her mother Sophia, where Sophia says, “I’ll tell you the truth Dorothy, if one of my kids were gay, I wouldn’t love him one bit less. I would wish him all the happiness in the world.”

Dorothy then tells Sophia that Jean is in love with Rose. This gets Dorothy and Sophia laughing, and when Blanche asks what’s so funny, they explain that Jean is a lesbian. Blanche doesn’t get what’s so funny and when Sophia asks if she’s surprised, Blanche replies, “Of course not! I mean, I haven’t known any personally, but isn’t Danny Thomas one?” Dorothy’s response: “Not Lebanese, Blanche! LES-BIA-N.”

So yes, the Lebanese joke used by Ellen in 1996 and Santana on “Glee” started way back when with “The Golden Girls.” And of course Sophia said it best, “Jean is a nice person. She happens to like girls instead of guys. Some people like cats instead of dogs. Frankly, I’d rather live with a lesbian than a cat… unless the lesbian sheds, that I don’t know!”

https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2022/01/27 ... oke-on-tv/

Here's the full episode for a weekend laugh Golden Girls S02E05 Isn't It Romantic.





And the Lebanese bit:





Here's a gay supercut (remember, this is 35 years ago)

[Foggy]

So wait, Orlylicious ... are you saying you're Lebanese?

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

It's his birthday. He can be Lebanese if he wants to.

[Slim Cognito]

Speaking of Golden Girls, does anyone remember the pilot, the one where Dorothy and Rose answer Blanche's ad for a roomie? Blanche had either a close gay friend, or maybe a personal assistant. Either way, after the pilot he went poof. I was disappointed but maybe they were afraid the character would steal the spotlight. It was called the Golden Girls*, after all.

*Not long after, Sofia was introduced. Her character was very close to the gay friend's.

[neonzx]

Speaking of Golden Girls, does anyone remember the pilot, the one where Dorothy and Rose answer Blanche's ad for a roomie? Blanche had either a close gay friend, or maybe a personal assistant. Either way, after the pilot he went poof. I was disappointed but maybe they were afraid the character would steal the spotlight. It was called the Golden Girls*, after all.

It's sped up ( assume whoever uploaded it did that to try to get around YouTube copyright detection). If you click the gear ircon/settings ... and change the playback speed tp 0.75, it plays at near the correct speed.

[notorial dissent]

The gay character was supposed to have been Blanche's houseboy/housekeeper, but once they got ready to go into production they decided they had too many characters for the money they and so his character got re-loaded into Sophia. As I remember it, didn't Sophia's son turn out to be gay??

[neonzx]

The gay character was supposed to have been Blanche's houseboy/housekeeper, but once they got ready to go into production they decided they had too many characters for the money they and so his character got re-loaded into Sophia. As I remember it, didn't Sophia's son turn out to be gay??

I thought it was Blanche's son that turned out to be gay later in the series? But yeah, Sophia's character did on occasion defend gays with her no-nonsense way when the topic arose .

[notorial dissent]

I remember it as Sophia and having to do with the son's funeral and how they had been estranged for all those years and now she couldn't make the time up, because I remember her crying about it when the reality finally hit. Or my memory may be going.

[Frater I*I]

To side track slightly, my first crush....

Lesley Ann Warren...Ms. Scarlett from the movie Clue...

That is all...

[Slim Cognito]

To side track slightly, my first crush....

Lesley Ann Warren...Ms. Scarlett from the movie Clue...

That is all...

I always liked her. FYI, she sorta kinda reprised her role as the lady in red in a Clue spoof episode of Psych, season 7, ep 5. Lots o'fun.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I had a crush on Prince Charming!

img0093A.1818.0_kindlephoto-50754802.jpg (106.24 KiB) Viewed 2188 times

[Luke]

Harvey Fierstein's new book is out, haven't gotten to start it yet but it's going to be hilarious. He's doing media rounds so Google him and you'll see TV and other interviews. He's been a hero since I moved to NYC right out of high school, Torch Song Trilogy was the rage then, and used to go a few times a week to see him. Harvey put Billy Porter into Kinky Boots (our circles mesh and mesh.)

Harvey Fierstein @HarveyFierstein Mar 1

It’s here! My book is finally out! And the reviews… I’m “qvelling”! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did living it. Get your copy at the #linkinbio.

#IWasBetterLastNight #HarveyFierstein #bookrelease

In a New Memoir, Harvey Fierstein Shares Gossip and Regrets
“As much as it hurts, tell the truth,” says the Tony-winning performer and playwright, tracing his path from Brooklyn to Broadway.
By Bob Morris March 1, 2022

Harvey Fierstein contains multitudes. The playwright, screenwriter, actor and drag performer has inhabited at least as many personalities as Walt Whitman. With trademark wit and empathy, he has written about himself in “Torch Song Trilogy”; a father with a drag queen partner and a straight son in “La Cage Aux Folles”; the bootlegging song and dance man Legs Diamond; English factory workers and an unlikely firebrand in “Kinky Boots”; heterosexual cross dressers in “Casa Valentina”; striking newspaper boys in his Broadway adaptation of “Newsies”; and a sissy duckling for an HBO animated special.

And he has revised the script for the musical “Funny Girl,” a show about Fanny Brice, an unlikely star like himself, which opens on Broadway this spring.

Now, at 69, the multitalented Tony Award winner has added memoirist to his kaleidoscopic résumé. “I Was Better Last Night,” published by Knopf and described as “warm and enveloping” and full of “righteous rage” in a New York Times review, just released.

The title refers to what Fierstein would often say to friends after a performance. But it’s also about regret. “What’s the harm in looking back?” he writes. “If you’re willing to listen, I’m willing to dig.” This video interview has been edited and condensed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/thea ... emoir.html

[Slim Cognito]

I don't know where else to put this, but it works for me.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

He can fit my sheet anytime he wants!

[Slim Cognito]

He can fit my sheet anytime he wants!

Somebody mentioned he's folding a fitted sheet but damned if I noticed.

[AndyinPA]