News: Newshttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/page/327/?d=1News: NewsenNew Dune Movie; Will Smith is Venus and Serena’s father;Respect Aretha Franklin; Ted Bundy; ‘Jackass’, Gaga’s ‘Gucci’; ‘Even Hansen’; and Not his Fathers’ Ghostbusters:New TRAILERShttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/new-dune-movie-will-smith-is-venus-and-serena%E2%80%99s-fatherrespect-aretha-franklin-ted-bundy-%E2%80%98jackass%E2%80%99-gaga%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98gucci%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98even-hansen%E2%80%99-and-not-his-fathers%E2%80%99-ghostbustersnew-trailers-r119/

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New Dune movie is just one of the batch of trailers for upcoming stories that shed a light on today. remakes, extensions, nostalgia, reconsideration, and new angles. (October)

Every generation also has its own tennis heroes. And not totally clear why this film centers on Will Smith at the father of Venus and Serena. King Richard in the trailer doesn’t give Joe Jackson or Britney’s dad vibes. Maybe more like Beyonce’s. And with both daughters in the credits, it doesn’t seem like a ‘Daddy Dearest’ either. Eagerly awaiting more info. (September)

Jennifer Hudson is Aretha Franklin in Respect

The crew, led by Johnny Knoxville,is back together for Jackass Forever other than the one who was ordered by the court to say away a few months ago. The final episode seems a good time to consider what is Jackass? With this last episode, looking back, Jackass is really sadistic, except when it’s all about reaching insane depths of masochism. Jackass is the absolute opposite of “self love”…until you realize that it was always about the hot friends you meet along the way, homosexual undertones and really problematic long term pain killer use. (October)

Is Jackass culture the absolute opposite of “self love”? Or is it just another hot friends you meet along the way, have some same-sex sexual tension with, and share a problematic work-related long-term pain killer addiction?

Elijah Wood, is neither a hobbit nor serial murderer Ted Bundy in No Man of God, but he might be a version of Clarisse in ‘Silence of the Lambs’. I won’t compare Bundy as metaphorical punishment delivered to women of loosening morals to AIDS and queers. It might not be in the movie. (August 27)

I don’t think i can do any better for Dear Even Hansen trailer than: A crying shame. (September)

I’m throwing a cautionary yellow card at Gaga’s accent in House of Gucci. It may not melt into the sumptuous decor. (November)

Jason Reitman takes over for Ghostbusters Afterlife, taking a handoff from his deceased father. It’s a different era and the director of Juno and Up in The Air is a very different director. (Nov)

CODA is the first film to ever win Audience, Directing, Special Jury and Grand Jury Awards at Sundance and was sold for a record breaking $25 milllion. It’s the story of the only hearing member in a deaf family who get caught in one of those choices between helping to protect the family business and, of course, a brilliant singing career. (Aug 12)

New Dune Movie previously on Towleroad

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]]>119Sat, 31 Jul 2021 19:12:52 +0000More Come Out at Olympics. Record Number of Out Athletes Pushed Higher. Queer Nation’s LGBTQ Medals Rank 11th, Ahead of Canadahttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/more-come-out-at-olympics-record-number-of-out-athletes-pushed-higher-queer-nation%E2%80%99s-lgbtq-medals-rank-11th-ahead-of-canada-r118/
come out olympics gay medal
U.S. swimmers Erica Sullivan (left) and Katie Ledecky (right)

Come out and compete.

Come out and play is one of the messages coming out of this years Olympics. With the first full week of the 2020 Summer Olympics in the books, a record number of out LGBTQ athletes taking to fields, courts and tracks in Tokyo. And the number keeps growing.

We are there in Tokyo. We’re out. And we’re medaling.

3 gold. 4 silver. 4 bronze.

The Queer nation Ranks 11th in medal count

… just ahead of Canada.

Rankings by Outsports

With many of us following other grim numbers around the world in another surge of the pandemic, we are also watching the number of out athletes in the Olympics go up as more come out during the games. 178 with room for more to join this week. With all those out athletes, we are also not counting the queer medals with a chance of that number increasing as well.

Come out and win

Our friends at Outsports are tracking “Team LGBTQ” and clearly we are in Tokyo, we’re queer, and we’re medaling. Out athletes have already won 3 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze, placing the queer nation places 11th in the medal count just ahead of Canada.

First-Ever Gold

In an Olympic first, the U.S. Women’s 3×3 Basketball team brought home the first-ever gold medal. The more pickup-style version of the sport made its debut as an Olympic event this year, and Team USA became its first champion with an 18-15 win over Russia. Out center Stefanie Dolson, who plays for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, led scorers in the gold medal game and reveled in the moment. “It’s special to be the first of anything but basketball runs deep in USA blood, so this is very special,” Dolson said.

Come Out Fighting

Other out LGBTQ medalists used their moment of sports glory to come out and add to calls for international LGBTQ equality. Polish rower Katarzyna Zillman grabbed the mic and came out publicly by thanking her girlfriend after capturing a silver medal in the quadruple sculls. She said afterward that she “felt the need” to come out to lend her voice against growing homophobic attitudes in her home country.

Italian archer Lucilla Boari came out publicly shortly after capturing Italy’s first individual archery medal when her girlfriend, Dutch archer Sanne de Laat, congratulated her via videoconference during a live Italian media broadcast. Boari acknowledged their relationship after de Laat fawned over the bronze medalist’s accomplishment. “I’m super proud of you. I can’t wait until you’re here so I can give you the biggest hug there is. I love you,” de Laat said.

Come Out All American

American swimmer Erica Sullivan also used the post-medal glow to speak to queer identities and their cultural intersections. “I’m multicultural. I’m queer. I’m a lot of minorities. That’s what America is,” said the 1,500-meter freestyle silver medalist. “That’s what America is. To me, America is not about being a majority. It’s about having your own start. The American Dream is coming to a country to establish what you want to do with your life.”

Other notable LGBTQ medalists were New Zealand rower Emma Twigg, who finally captured her first Olympic gold in single sculls at her fourth Olympic games, and Dutch judoka Sanne van Dijke, bronze medalist in the 70kg category of Judo.

Coming Up

Looking to the next week, memorable and historic moments lie on the horizon. Most notable among them is the Olympic debut of New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the first trans woman to compete on the Olympic stage. Hubbard has remained incredibly private in the leadup to her debut on Monday as her participation remains a hot topic among supporters and detractors alike.

Hubbard broke her silence for the first time in a written statement to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “The Olympic Games are a global celebration of our hopes, our ideals and our values. I commend the IOC for its commitment to making sport inclusive and accessible,” read Hubbard’s statement. New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) officials offered further support to Hubbard, helping to stave off the wave of transphobic online comments from reaching her as she prepares to compete.

“Our view is that we’ve got a culture of manaaki (inclusion) and it’s our role to support all eligible athletes on our team,” NZOC spokesperson Ashley Abbott told AFP. “In terms of social media, we won’t be engaging in any kind of negative debate.”

Other notable events on the docket include Monday’s Women’s Soccer semifinals, where all four teams (USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden) feature LGBTQ athletes, including Canada’s Quinn, the first trans nonbinary athlete ever to compete at the Olympics.

Saturday will see Team USA’s Hannah Roberts and Perris Benegas attempt to bring home medals in Women’s BMX Freestyle. Out boxer Nesthy Petecio will attempt to capture the Philippines’ first Olympic boxing gold medal when she steps into the ring on Tuesday. U.S. freestyle wrestler Kayla Miracle will make history on Tuesday when she becomes the first out LGBTQ athlete to compete in Olympic wrestling. Team USA Women’s Basketball also continues its gold medal push.

Come Out, Olympics, Gay Athletes: Previously on Towleroad

Photo courtesy of Team USA

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]]>118Sat, 31 Jul 2021 15:04:32 +0000DaBaby Homophobia Week Spirals : Madonna, Questlove, Lovato Call Out Rapper. U.K. Festival Removes Him From Lineuphttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/dababy-homophobia-week-spirals-madonna-questlove-lovato-call-out-rapper-uk-festival-removes-him-from-lineup-r117/
DaBaby Homphobia
DaBaby Homophobia doubles down

More repercussions and criticism arose for rapper DaBaby following his homophobic and HIV/AIDS-derogatory comments at Rolling Loud last weekend and his constant defenses and non-apologies throughout the week.

After being dropped by clothing brand BooHoo and fielding backlash from notable peers of the music industry, including Elton John and Dua Lipa, it seems that his comments have cost him his spot at Manchester, England’s Parklife 2021 music festival. DaBaby was scheduled to perform at the event in September, but an updated lineup card appeared this week that didn’t include his name. DaBaby was advertised with top-billing on previous lineup cards, including one promoted by the event’s Instagram account earlier this month.

While Parklife 2021 organizers haven’t commented publicly on why DaBaby was removed from the lineup, many believe that his near-daily defenses of his homophobic comments on Sunday were what led to the decision. Those representing DaBaby pushed back on any connection between his removal and his comments on Thursday, telling TMZ that “he pulled out of the festival months ago … in response to events being affected by COVID-19.” They attributed the Parklife 2021 advertisement from earlier this month with DaBaby’s name intact on it as “a mistake by the festival.”

Whether or not DaBaby’s appearance at the festival was a product of the controversy swirling around the artist, he has continued to draw criticism from figures within the music industry. Famed favorite of LGBTQ audiences Madonna weighed in. “A message to DaBaby – if you’re going to make hateful remarks to the LGBTQ+ community about HIV/AIDS then know your facts,” she said on Instagram alongside a video of DaBaby’s initial comments. “After decades of hard won scientific research— there are now life-saving medicines available to children born with HIV, to people who contract HIV through blood transfusions, dirty needles or exchange of bodily fluids.”

“I want to put my cellphone lighter up and pray for your ignorance, No one dies of AIDS in 2 or 3 weeks anymore,” she added. “People like you are the reason we are still living in a world divided by fear. All Human beings should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, sexual preference or religious beliefs.”

Prominent musician, producer and filmmaker Questlove also spoke out against DaBaby, crossing him off what he called his “dream list” for an updated version of the Summer of Soul festival. “I’m updating my list – because it’s 2021 and fuck the bullshit. I’m especially not here for any savagery (if you’re lost: Google the idiocy of the crossed out),” he said via Instagram. “I’m not trine be all performative smurf and create a social flogging or start some clickbait headlines. That’s missing the point. But right is right & his actions are wrong.

“Somebody Gotta say it: Homophobia/Transphobia/Xenophobia/Misogyny/Racism – this should go [without] saying is morally wrong. And not that fake hiding behind religion holier than thou morally wrong. But ‘that was fucked up’ & wrong,” he continued. “Huey Newton wisely stated in the early 70s that we as a people should never go so low in life (with what we been through) that we start oppressing/terrorizing the next man in the way we been terrorized for centuries.”

Pop artist Demi Lovato, who came out as nonbinary earlier this year, also criticized DaBaby’s statements on social media, posting a series of images deriding his interlude for perpetuating “the trope that queer men are promiscuous, dirty and disease-ridden.”

“HIV is not a ‘gay disease.’ For decades, people have used the association between gay men and HIV/AIDS as an excuse to perpetuate harmful, painful and false narratives about queer people,” Lovato’s post continued. “Spreading fear and stigma around a (completely manageable) virus creates shame and prevents people from getting tested, which puts people even more at risk.”

“We need to crush the stigma around what HIV/AIDS is and what it isn’t. But we aren’t going to be able to as long as straight people think it has nothing to do with them,” they added.

Once again, rapper T.I. came to DaBaby’s defense via Instagram Live Wednesday, saying that the gay community is “bullying” rappers. “We all stood up on behalf of gays and lesbians and people in the gay community because we thought it was some bullshit for y’all to have to be bullied,” he said. “But I don’t think any of us did that to feel like you would now have the authority to come and bully us.”

Rapper Boosie Badazz, who has a long homophobic and transphobic history of his own, also stood behind DaBaby while making physical threats against openly gay rapper Lil Nas X. “Lil Nas X said he wanna perform naked on stage for charity. You don’t fuck with him like you fuck with DaBaby,” he said. “Be even-sided. You don’t feel that’s disrespect? … You don’t think that’s disrespect in front of boys who tryna be straight? It’s totally disrespect. If I’m at an awards and he go up there naked, I’m gonna drag his ass off stage and beat his ass.”

Tory Lanez, better known for allegedly shooting rapper Megan Thee Stallion than anything in his music career, offered a defense of the rapper who brought him onstage at Rolling Loud as a surprise, likely violating a protection order that prohibits him from coming within 100 yards of Thee Stallion.

“When did rap get so politically correct that u can’t speak your mind and have an opinion,” Lanez said via Twitter. “Rappers will not always be right, and u don’t have to agree. But they have a right to speak their mind.”

Black queer musical artist AdrianXpression offered the best retort to Lanez’ comment, saying “Rap (which you don’t do lol) was made to give a voice to oppressed black ppl in a white supremacist society that was fucking them up. Why would you want to then use that art form to oppress other groups of (black) people by being homophobic? It makes no sense.”

DaBaby Homophobia: Previously on Towleroad

Photo courtesy of A-Side Entertainment/Creative Commons

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]]>117Sat, 31 Jul 2021 01:35:05 +0000The Upcoming ‘Jungle Cruise’ Includes A ‘Coming Out’–Another LGBTQ Flirt That Young Viewers Won’t Notice. Disney’s ‘Interests Lay Elsewhere’https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/the-upcoming-%E2%80%98jungle-cruise%E2%80%99-includes-a-%E2%80%98coming-out%E2%80%99%E2%80%93another-lgbtq-flirt-that-young-viewers-won%E2%80%99t-notice-disney%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98interests-lay-elsewhere%E2%80%99-r116/

Jungle Cruise
Jack Whitehall (right) as McGregor Houghton

It has only been a few months since Disney heralded its “first LGBTQ character” for the umpteenth time, but it’s upcoming film “Jungle Cruise” is drawing the familiar mix of praise and ire that accompanies any Disney announcement related to the portrayal of LGBTQ identities.

“Jungle Cruise” is the latest in Disney’s attempts to convert long-running attractions of its theme parks to the silver screen. But the Disneyland-turned-Hollywood spectacle also packs in a “coming-out” scene for character McGregor Houghton, played by actor Jack Whitehall.

In an interview with Variety, actor Jack Whitehall spoke about the scene’s inclusion, calling it a “really well-written scene” that was “certainly thought about and talked about” during the film’s production. He also indicated that he didn’t know McGregor was written as a gay character during the auditioning process. Much like Whitehall’s early knowledge of his character, the coming-out scene drew criticism because, as Disney tends to do, doesn’t explicitly express itself as LGBTQ.

In the scene, McGregor shares a moment with boat captain Frank Wolff, played by The Rock, where he divulges that he broke off three engagements with women because his “interests happily lay elsewhere.” McGregor also praises his sister, Lily, played by Emily Blunt, for standing by him as others turned away from him over who he “loved.” The scene ends with Frank toasting to “elsewhere,” offering support to McGregor.

“The scene’s innuendo makes it easy to overlook by anyone not paying close attention, or by youth who are too young to understand the reference,”

Jeremy Blacklow, GLAAd director of entertainment media

The word “gay” or any other term that may have been used to refer to gay men in the 1920s, when the film is set, is not present throughout the whole exchange. Similar to scenes in “Toy Story 4,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Cruella,” McGregor’s LGBTQ identity is left vague and fleeting. His queerness never comes up again in the film beyond this scene, and the openness of the scene leaves it open to multiple interpretations without direct language.

“The scene’s innuendo makes it easy to overlook by anyone not paying close attention, or by youth who are too young to understand the reference,” said Jeremy Blacklow, GLAAD director of entertainment media. Critics have also pointed out that keeping the scene vague also provides Disney with an out when the film screens in nations that discriminate and/or criminalize LGBTQ communities.

“When they’re not brokering in stereotypes, this feels like Disney once again trying to win points and push back against criticism of its failures where LGBTQ+ characters are concerned – while doing the least amount possible,” wrote The Mary Sue’s Kaila Hale-Stern.

News of the scene’s existence has also drew praise, including from Blacklow, who called the scene a “heartwarming exchange” and “a powerful addition to a big-budget film that will reach audiences around the world.” Whitehall himself celebrated the scene. “I hope that it’s a scene that audiences enjoy and I certainly felt at the time that I was proud of the work that we’d done,” said Whitehall.

Jungle Cruise: Previously on Towleroad

Photo courtesy of Disney

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]]>116Fri, 30 Jul 2021 15:39:45 +0000‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Season 6 Queens Give Girl Powerhttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/%E2%80%98rupaul%E2%80%99s-drag-race-all-stars%E2%80%99-season-6-queens-give-girl-power-r115/
Drag Race All Stars

It was beginning to feel like this week’s RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars was a second straight week of weak challenges, unremarkable performances and the ongoing torment of Jan. However, the final act dropped a delicious little twist for just the right amount of drama.

In a bit of Chekhov’s lipstick, the editors expertly included a brief scene a few weeks back when the queens wondered aloud what would happen if there was a tie vote?

This week gave us the (sort of disappointing) answer, but it was still a much-needed jolt of excitement on an episode that was otherwise sorely lacking.

Let’s go back to the start. A quick count of the lipsticks reveals a unanimous decision to eliminate A’Keriah, and it gives Ra’Jah a bit of reassurances the other girls still think she belongs. She feels even better when Jan (of course, it’s Jan) points out that everyone but Pandora and Eureka have won a challenge.

Pandora’s journey is front and center this episode. After a solid start to the Race, the time has passed for Pandie to make an impression. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be an easy week for her.

Ru’s task this week is to split into two groups to perform original choreography and a rap verse to “Show Up Queen,” the sonic equivalent of a crumpled up napkin Beyoncé left at an actual Sonic drive-thru.

It’s an almost comically unlistenable … song? … but what’s worse is that it comes with the directive to infuse the song with “inspirational” lyrics.

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The writing, recording and rehearsal process is snooze-worthy. Pandora predictably struggles with choreo, but Jan struggles with the content of her lyrics — a much bigger sin in Mama Ru’s eyes.

I guess it bears a bit more elucidation on The Jan Problem, since her ongoing storyline keeps circling around this inability to be authentic. The common retort is she is just “authentically” like that, so everyone should stop expecting her to suddenly change her personality to fit Ru’s moral code.

I get that. Maybe authentic is the wrong word. However, there’s an ease the best performers have that usually only comes from someone at their realest, purest, more “authentic” self. Audiences want to relinquish control, and the best performers can — with a joke or just a confident look — tell the audience, “I got you.” Jan has the immense talent to do absolutely anything she sets her mind to. The problem is you can always see her focus on the achievement, on the talent. It’s difficult for the audience to relax into her performance.

That’s certainly the problem in this number. Again, the song is … well, it’s no “Read U Wrote U,” let’s say that. Jan starts the show with a verse about how she’s happy and she knows it (*clap*clap*), and she does some vocal acrobatics that is more impressive than it is nice sounding. I’m sure it is very physically impressive to hit that note, and I am, without a doubt, certain she is performing it flawlessly, but you cannot, in good faith, tell me it sounds good. It doesn’t! Could there be a better representation of Jan’s Janness?

Pandora’s troubles follow her onto the mainstage as well. The content of her verse is thin. She attempts to recapture the spastic magic of her week one performance, but it feels out of place and wastes large swaths of Pandora’s small slice of time in the spotlight.

Looking to bounce back from last week’s bottom placement, Ra’Jah comes fully correct with a well-worded, adequately inspirational verse delivered with magnetic attitude. When Ra’Jah shines, she really sparkles, and it’s a blast watching her.

show-up-queen-rupauls-drag-race-all-star

And then there’s Trinity. Girl. Like the strange (but ultimately charming) Super Bowl challenge, Trinity performs on an entirely different level. Maybe it’s the track’s budget Beyoncé vibes, but this is all TKB. Even when she’s not being featured, it’s hard to look away. Her lyrics have outstanding energy, a strong message and she delivers them while executing the same Samurai sword sharp choreo we’ve come to expect.

Eureka, whose “no wins yet” story really went nowhere, turns in a solid lip sync with strong lyrics about body confidence. Ginger talks about her size and bullying as a kid, but does it with a bit more performance and wittier lyrics. It’s a shame she looks like she’s in Halloween drag.

After a few early sleepy weeks, Kylie continues to rise. Out of all the dolls, she’s the most likely to be the Ginger Spice here. By that I mean she would unquestionably be the coolest, most popular and most adored by the gays. Her outfit is three times better than the next best-dressed queen during the performance. The hair, the boots, the skirt, everything. Her lyrics are fine, but like Geri, who gives a zigazig-ah what she’s saying when she looks that good!

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Everyone turns it out for a Hot Tropics themed runway, and the judges along with RuPaul gown designer Zaldy, give mostly positive critiques across the board. Of course, Trinity gets the win. I don’t think it even matters, but her runway is also easily the best of the bunch, by far.

As telegraphed, Pandora’s dancing and Jan’s intensity place them both in the bottom. Ru says Jan’s performance lacked “soul,” which is up there with Scarlet’s “uncomfortable” savagery a couple weeks ago.

Deliberations backstage are more of the same. “It’s not my time!” etc., etc. It all starts to feel very rote.

Our lip sync assassin this week is Alexis Mateo, and it’s to none other than Jennifer freakin’ Lopez. Trinity and Alexis look ready to turn it up, but when they both go into a little Salsa dancing, it’s clear Alexis has the edge.

Ru agrees. Alexis pulls out Pandora’s lip stick, and it appears Jan lives to pep another day.

Not so fast! Alexis has a SECOND LIPSTICK. That’s right. A quick flashback reveals the vote is split, it’s a tie. That’s three votes Jan, three votes Pan.

Ru announces that All Stars rules dictate the decision now reverts to the challenge winner, TKB. She picks Jan’s lipstick, ending the Jantasy once and for all.

(Or not. Who knows what this game within a game entails?)

We’re close to the midpoint now, so I imagine we’ll see what Ru’s grand twist will be after next week’s Snatch Game. It’s a challenge that could really rearrange the board. Based on previous Snatches, Ginger and Pandora come in with a lot of pressure on their shoulders, while Kylie should be afraid, very afraid.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s where we’re at for now:

  1. Any doubt has been erased, now that Trinity is the first queen to snag two wins. She’s our clear frontrunner, and with good reason. She stole the show in two big group numbers, won a comedic acting challenge, and slays every runway. Her Carnival look was outstanding, but never outshined the wearer. I’ll even forgive that wig slip during the lip sync, but you only get this one, TKB.
  2. Ginger has got to be joining Trinity in the final four. The judges are really nitpicking now, because Ginger is on point whenever she’s onstage. She did look a fright during the challenge, but everyone looked kind of ridiculous. It wasn’t a fashion challenge. How many pictures of the Pussycat Dolls are in those listicles about terrible early-aughts fashion anyway?
  3. Eureka is almost so good, you forget. She’s so professional, so polished, she always understands the assignment. You want inspiration? Bam. Big, broad comedy? You got it. Rhinestone the house down boots eleganza? Mama, you know she got it. She even packed a reveal and stunts into like 15 seconds of spotlight. Of everyone here, Eureka needs this win the least. She’s got a great gig with We’re Here, and she’s got the goods to book ballrooms for years to come. All Stars is ultimately a show about redemption, not supremacy. It’s an opportunity for viewers to see a wrong righted. Karmic justice and success seem to have found Eureka already, and maybe that’s what makes her harder to root for. Still, take nothing away from the Elephant Queen. Barring a major mishap, I still think she’s a lock for the finals.
  4. This is where things get interesting. While the top three feel fairly certain at this point, the fourth position is a neck-and-neck race between Ra’Jah and Kylie. Ra’jah came out of the gate more strongly and has maintained a much more steady presence with commentary. On looks, both queens turn it out on every runway, but Ra’jah’s personality pops a bit more (at least in the edit we get to see). Snatch Game is going to be very important for Ra’Jah and Kylie. This week, I thought Ra’jah could’ve been worthy of the win. She was an absolute vision on the runway.
  5. I did not expect Kylie to blossom the way she has these last few weeks. Last week’s win felt a little odd, considering how heavy a hand the directors had, but some acknowledgement for Kylie was feeling overdue. I thought her Steven Tyler was woefully overlooked, and, while I’m not typically a fan of so much body-ody-ody all the time, she always brings a little high-fashion point of view to even her skimpiest of attires. I’m not sold on the idea of Kylie taking the crown, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see her secure a spot in the finals.
  6. It’s very possible for Pandora to bounce back in a big way with Snatch Game. The question is whether she can shake the hit to her confidence this week. Pandora reacted in the worst way possible when confronting a task you truly dread: She leaned all the way in and suffered through the whole thing. And it showed. If you watch Pandora’s face during the actual number, she looks like a kidnap victim. It was all over her face. Even when she walked the runway in that (admittedly gorge) vintage jetset getup, it felt like she was fighting back tears. Luckily, Snatch is in her wheelhouse. I just hope she doesn’t go back to the Carol Channing well again.
  7. I really think tonight’s runway is my favorite Jan has ever, EVER looked on Drag Race. I usually find her outfits to feel very “trying to be editorial,” but there was something lovingly cheap and trashy about the Jersey Shore drag she wore. It was fun! There was an ease to it! From the minute Jan started rapping, I knew it was curtains for her. The lyrics were the opposite of inspirational. They made me want to never leave the house again. It was just so clearly far from not only what the judges were looking for this week, but also what they have been asking specifically from her this whole time. It’s a blindspot, for sure. Still, there is no denying Jan’s ability, her dedication and her pep-pep-pep. She may not be right to win a popular TV competition with a very vocal fanbase, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the chops that even an anti-pep curmudgeon like me can appreciate.

How would you rank the queens?

Catch up with all our RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars coverage.

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]]>115Fri, 30 Jul 2021 12:46:01 +0000Elton, Dua, Usher, GLAAD Try to Set Da Baby Straight; Rapper Claims Hateful Comments are Living his ‘Truth’ Just as Queers Come Out to Live Theirs.https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/elton-dua-usher-glaad-try-to-set-da-baby-straight-rapper-claims-hateful-comments-are-living-his-%E2%80%98truth%E2%80%99-just-as-queers-come-out-to-live-theirs-r114/
DaBaby
Da Baby

Rapper Da Baby dug even deeper in the depths of the homophobic/AIDS phobic hole on Wednesday when he released the video for his new single “Giving What It’s Supposed To Give.”

In the video, which Da Baby appears to directly address the derogatory comments he made during his Rolling Loud performance on Sunday about LGBTQ people and People with AIDS. At one point he holds up a sign that simply reads “AIDS” while delivering the line “Bitch, we like AIDS, I’m on your ass, we on your ass, bitch, we won’t go ‘way.” Strangely Da Baby claimed the video was filmed one day before appearing at Rolling Loud and offered no explanation or reason for wanting to clarify that.

In the video he explains that his right to say hateful things about LGBTQ people is the same protections and right that queer people claim to be themselves in public. “Don’t fight hate with hate” appears written in rainbow letters followed by “My apologies for being me the same way you want freedom to be you.”

DaBaby-Rainbow-1024x528.png

The self-directed video had significantly less than the intended impact, and further stoked the controversy, as had his other attempt to defuse the situation on Monday via Instagram. Da Baby’s initial comments Sunday at the show laid a lot down:

“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two or three weeks, put your cellphone light in the air,” Da Baby said onstage during his Rolling Loud performance Sunday. “Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put your cellphone light in the air. Fellas, if you ain’t suck a n**** dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lights in the air. Keep it fucking real.”

Da Baby at Rolling Loud appearance, Sunday

That Instagram post Monday was a doubling down on those comments, and upping it to define LGBTQ people as deviants.

“Regardless of what you motherfuckers are talking about and how the internet twisted up my motherfucking words, me and all my fans at the show, the gay ones and the straight ones, we turned the fuck up…All the lights went up, gay or straight. You wanna know why? Because even my gay fans don’t got fucking AIDS… They don’t got AIDS. My gay fans, they take care of theyself, they ain’t going for that. They ain’t no nasty gay n***. They ain’t no junkies on the street,” Da Baby continued.

Da Baby on Instagram, Monday

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Twitter. For the second attempt at an act of contrition, Da Baby offered the word “apologies” and not much more.

“Anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV. y’all got the right to be upset. What I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies.”

Da Baby on Twitter, Tuesday

That apology, he clarified was only for those “effected” by AIDS. No such empathy for LGBTQ people. Instead he went on about what would seem to sound like a perception of LGBTQ people as vindictive, well organized and nto supportive of those fighting the abuse and racism in policing.

“But the LGBT community … I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. Y’all business is y’all business,” his statement continued. “I tell fans to put a cellphone light in the air y’all start a million man march. I told you y’all digested that wrong but I ain’t gone lie I’m impressed. Now show this same amount of support when a racist cop kill one of our black ass … ya not,” he said in a separate tweet.

Da Baby, Still Tuesday and Still on Twitter.

After three days of this stuff, other artists and sponsors began to try to distance distance, publicly rebuke, withdraw support. Clothing brand Boohoo dropped him Wednesday while Elton John’s Tweetstorm used the attention to try to make it a teaching moment to reach others who might have few chances to be exposed to it, explaining why all of the above contributes to “stigma and discrimination.”

“We’ve been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent Da Baby show. This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic,” John said via Twitter.

“Homophobic and HIV mistruths have no place in our society and industry and as musicians, we must spread compassion and love for the most marginalised people in our communities. A musician’s job is to bring people together,” he added.

Pop star Dua Lipa, who previously worked with Da Baby, offered “100%” support for the LGBTQ community, stating she was “surprised and horrified” at Da Baby’s comments. “We nee to come together to fight the stigma and intolerance around HIV and AIDS,” she added.

Other figures from the music world, most notably rapper T.I., have seconded Da Baby’s message that his right to spew hate speech toward the LGBTQ community represents “#equality.”

“Ain’t no way to tangle or twist that. Ain’t no hate in that … If you’re gonna have the Lil Nas X video and living his truth, you’re gonna damn sure have people like Da Baby who’s gonna speak they truth. And it ain’t nothing wrong with any of it. It ain’t got to be no hate. It’s all honesty,” T.I. said.

The continued defense of Da Baby’s comments drew GLAAD into the fray Wednesday. “The rhetoric that Da Baby used is inaccurate, hurtful and harmful to the LGBTQ community and the estimated 1.2 million Americans living with HIV,” said GLAAD associate director of communities of color DaShawn Usher said. “It is critical that Da Baby and his fans learn that people living with HIV today, when on effective treatment, lead long and healthy lives and cannot transmit HIV.”

Usher called Da Baby’s apologies “haphazard attempts” and noted that “actions need to be taken for full accountability and changes to do better in the future.”

Da Baby: Previously on Towleroad

Screengrab via Youtube

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]]>114Thu, 29 Jul 2021 22:14:25 +0000Delta Variant Wasn’t Expected to Be So Bad. Biologists Now Worry. Its Mutations Make it the Most Transmissible Covid Virus Yethttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/delta-variant-wasn%E2%80%99t-expected-to-be-so-bad-biologists-now-worry-its-mutations-make-it-the-most-transmissible-covid-virus-yet-r113/
delta variant
Delta variant Rises

Upon first inspection, the mutations in the highly contagious delta covid variant don’t look that worrisome.

For starters, delta has fewer genetic changes than earlier versions of the coronavirus.

“When people saw that the epidemic in India was driven by delta, they did not suspect it would be so bad or overtake other variants,” said Trevor Bedford, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

But those expectations were wrong.

Delta has kept some of the most successful mutations found in earlier variants, but also contains new genetic changes that enable it to spread twice as fast.

“Delta…has an incubation period of four days, rather than six, making people contagious sooner.”

What’s Your Favorite Delta (Dawn) Variation?

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Delta is more dangerous in many ways. It has an incubation period of four days, rather than six, making people contagious sooner. When the pandemic began, people spread the original coronavirus to an average of two or three people. Today, people infected with delta infect six people, on average.

As of this week, the delta variant had caused at least 92% of the new infections in the United States, according to covariants.org, a research firm in Bern, Switzerland.

Although delta isn’t necessarily any more lethal than other variants, it can kill huge numbers of people simply because it infects so many more, said Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.

“…people spread the original coronavirus to an average of two or three people. Today, people infected with delta infect six people”

Scientists have sequenced delta’s mutations but are still trying to understand their significance, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. “When we see the same mutations appearing repeatedly and independently, that suggests they’re important,” Rasmussen said.

Scientists have the best understanding of mutations on the so-called spike protein — which sticks out from the surface of the virus like a club — and which have been studied the most intensely because of its serious ramifications, Rasmussen said. The coronavirus uses the spike protein to enter human cells, and changes in the spike can help the virus evade antibodies.

Scientists believe one of the most important areas of the spike is the receptor-binding domain, the specific part of the protein that allows the virus to latch onto a receptor on the surface of our cells, said Vaughn Cooper, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. Receptors are like sockets or docking stations that allow proteins to interact with the cell. Once the virus gains entry to the cell, it can cause havoc, hijacking the cell’s genetic machinery and turning it into a virus-making factory.

“….delta variant isn’t necessarily any more lethal than other variants, it can kill huge numbers of people simply because it infects so many more”

Dr. Eric Topol

Delta’s Worrisome Mix

Delta’s rapid spread is particularly surprising given it lacks two mutations that made earlier variants so scary.

Delta doesn’t have the N501Y spike mutation found in the alpha, beta and gamma variants, which enabled them to invade cells more successfully than the original virus. That mutation changed one amino acid — a building block of proteins — in the receptor-binding domain.

Delta also lacks the E484K mutation, which has made the gamma variant so worrisome. This genetic change, sometimes called “Eek,” allows the virus to spread even among vaccinated people.

(Scientists use the Greek alphabet to name variants of concern.)

“The ‘D’ in delta stands for ‘different’ and a ‘detour’ to a different genomic mutation path,” Topol said. “But it doesn’t mean ‘doom,’” he said, noting that existing covid vaccines remain mostly effective against the delta variant.

Vaccines protect people from covid by providing them with antibodies that attach themselves to the spike protein, preventing the virus from entering cells. By dramatically reducing the number of viruses that enter cells, vaccines can prevent people from developing severe disease and make them less infectious to others.

Delta does share mutations with other successful variants. Like all the identified variants in circulation, delta contains a spike mutation called D614G, sometimes known as “Doug,” which became ubiquitous last year.

Scientists think Doug increases the density of spike protein on the surface of viral particles and makes it easier for the virus to enter cells.

Delta also has a spike mutation called P681R, which closely resembles a mutation in the alpha variant that appears to produce higher viral loads in patients, Cooper said. People infected with delta have 1,000 times more virus in their respiratory tract, making them more likely to spread the virus when they sneeze, cough or talk.

The P681R mutation, also found in the kappa variant, is located at the beginning of a part of the genome called the furin cleavage site, Cooper said.

Furin is a naturally occurring human enzyme that gets hijacked by the coronavirus, which uses it to slice the spike protein into the optimal shape for entering the cell, Rasmussen said. The new mutation makes that sculpting more efficient, Rasmussen said.

Another delta mutation — also found in kappa and epsilon — is called L452R. Experiments suggest this mutation, which also affects the receptor-binding domain, acts to prevent antibodies from neutralizing the virus, Cooper said.

These mutations appear to be more formidable as a team than alone.

The genetic changes “are certainly doing something, but why that combination makes the delta variant more fit is not entirely obvious,” Bedford said. “Putting them together seems to matter.”

Delta also has developed genetic changes not seen in other variants.

One such spike mutation is called D950N. “This might be unique,” Cooper said. “We don’t see that anywhere else.”

The D950N mutation is different than other mutations because it’s located outside the receptor-binding domain in an area of the coronavirus genome that helps the virus fuse with human cells, Cooper said. Fusing with human cells allows the coronavirus to dump its genetic material into those cells.

This mutation could affect which types of cells the virus infects, potentially allowing it to harm different organs and tissues. Mutations in this region are also associated with higher viral loads, Cooper said.

Delta also contains mutations in a part of the spike protein called the N-terminal domain, which provides a “supersite” for antibodies to latch onto the virus and prevent it from entering cells, said Dr. Hana Akselrod, an infectious diseases specialist at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Mutations in this region make monoclonal antibodies less effective in treating covid and increases the delta variant’s ability to escape vaccine-generated antibodies, Akselrod said. That may explain why vaccinated people are slightly more likely to become infected with delta, causing mostly mild illness but allowing them to transmit the virus.

Delta’s Future Course

Scientists say it’s impossible to predict exactly how delta will behave in the future, although Topol said, “It’s going to get worse.”

Topol noted that delta outbreaks tend to last 10 to 12 weeks, as the virus “burns through” susceptible populations.

If the United States continues to follow a pattern seen in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, infections could rise from the current seven-day moving average of 42,000 cases to 250,000 a day. Yet Topol said the United States is unlikely to suffer the high death rates seen in India, Tunisia and Indonesia because nearly half the population here is fully vaccinated.

While some studies have concluded that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine stimulates strong and persistent antibodies against delta, a new report found that antibodies elicited by one shot may not be enough to neutralize delta. Authors of that study, from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, suggested a second dose may be needed.

Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine protect 94% of people from any symptomatic infection by the alpha variant, compared with 88% against the delta variant, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine protect 75% of people from alpha and 67% from delta.

Cooper said covid vaccines offer remarkably good protection. “I will always celebrate these vaccines as the scientific achievements of my lifetime,” he said.

The best way to slow down the evolution of variants is to share vaccines with the world, vaccinating as many people as possible, Bedford said. Because viruses undergo genetic changes only when they spread from one host to another, stopping transmission denies them a chance to mutate.

Whether the coronavirus evolves more deadly variants “is totally in our hands,” Cooper said. “If the number of infections remains high, it’s going to continue to evolve.”

By failing to contain the virus through vaccination, wearing masks and avoiding crowds, people are allowing the coronavirus to morph into increasingly dangerous forms, said Dr. William Haseltine, a former Harvard Medical School professor who helped design treatments for HIV/AIDS.

“It’s getting better, and we’re making it better,” he said. “Having half the population vaccinated and half unvaccinated and unprotected — that is the exact experiment I would design if I were a devil and trying to design a vaccine-busting virus.”

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Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News

Delta Variant Previously on Towleroad

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Images of Covid by CDC and Photo of City by Josh Couch on Unsplash

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]]>113Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:54:50 +0000Employees Walkout as California Sues Game Giant Activision Blizzard for ‘frat boy’ Culture Hostile To Women, LGBTQ, BIPOChttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/employees-walkout-as-california-sues-game-giant-activision-blizzard-for-%E2%80%98frat-boy%E2%80%99-culture-hostile-to-women-lgbtq-bipoc-r112/
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard’s presence at a recent trade show.

Video Game Maker Activision Blizzard initially put out a belligerent response to a suit by the state of California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging pervasive harassment and discrimination of employees, a “frat boy” culture so outrageous that one longtime developer’s suite at a regular company event was referred to as “The Cosby Suite.”

Employees walked out today in protest of the culture and the company’s response.

While the Company tried to walk back its initial statement in favor of a more standard PR crisis templated one, the employees won support of peers at competitive major studios and World of Warcraft players organized an in-game protest in solidarity.

For those who would rather avoid reading the details of sexual harassment or suicide, this post does include some of both.

A Catalog of Offensive, Illegal incidents

The lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard last week came after a two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The suit lays out an extensive list of violations made by the company, ranging from vast discrepancies in pay, promotions and termination rates along gender and racial lines.

“Female employees… fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers and supervisors and being groped at the ‘cube crawls'”

California Filing against Activision Blizzard

The California DFEH filing also described Activision Blizzard as a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” The suit highlights a practice called “cube crawls” where male employees drank “copious [amounts] of alcohol” while moving among office cubicles and engaging in “inappropriate behavior toward female employees.”

“Female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, including having to continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers and supervisors and being groped at the “cube crawls” and other company events,” reads the filing. “High-ranking executives and creators engaged in blatant sexual harassment without repercussions.”

(Above: employees walk out)

According to the suit, one female employee committed suicide during a business trip with a male supervisor who “brought butt plugs and lubricant with him on the trip.”

Further reporting from Kotaku highlighted that male employees weren’t exempt from the pervasive sexual harassment either. Speaking with Kotaku, a male former Blizzard employee revealed that he experienced unwanted advances from other male employees, including “unwanted should rubbing, sex proposals, and conversations about sex acts in front of colleagues who stayed silent.”

Senior managers at “Call of Duty” played a “game” called “gay chicken” where “the first man to grab the others’ junk won.

Former Blizzard personnel manager Kevin Meier, who allegedly engaged in the “Overwatch” developer’s toxic culture, corroborated the employee’s statement. In a TikTok video, Meier said, “In [Activision Blizzard’s] response, they said ‘this doesn’t represent who Blizzard is’ … Yes it does, and it had for a long time. Since my first day back in 2012, I was sexually harassed, and women have it way worse.”

Former Blizzard personnel manager Kevin Meier

Former Blizzard employee Cher Scarlett affirmed this as well, telling Kotaku that senior managers at the “Call of Duty” developer and publisher played a “game” called “gay chicken” where “the first man to grab the others’ junk won. According to Scarlett, at least three men reported Blizzard to the California DFEH.

The filing also claims that former “World of Warcraft” developer Alex Afrasiabi and other Blizzard employees referred to his BlizzCon 2013 suite, an informal networking location during Blizzard’s annual fan conference, as the “Cosby Suite.”

Afrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the “Cosby Suite” after alleged rapist Bill Cosby. Afrasiabi would also call females derogatory names at company events. Afrasiabi’s conduct was known to Blizzard Entertainment’s executives, who took no effective remedial measures.

State of California Lawsuit against Activision Blizzard

A Kotaku investigation unearthed photos of the “Cosby Suite,” including an image where “One of the women appears to have a hand on another’s breast, which is cheered on by the men in the comments”

Activision Blizzard Responds. Then Responds To Their Response

Wednesday’s walkout, in which both in-person and virtual workers participated, came after Activision Blizzard responded to the suit’s filing by describing it as “irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats.”

“The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past,” read the company’s statement. “We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation.”

Activision Blizzard’s full statement can be read here.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick called the company’s initial response “tone deaf” in a statement Tuesday. “We will do everything possible to make sure that together, we improve and build the kind of inclusive workplace that is essential to foster creativity and inspiration.”

According to UppercutCrit, Activision executive Joshua Taub led an “all-hands meeting” on Monday where he pushed Activision Blizzard employees to keep all harassment claims internal. “We don’t publicize all of these claims, we work with the employee and the person who is accused and try to work on a resolution,” Taub said according to an anonymous Activision Blizzard employee.

(Above: World of Warcraft players organized an in-game protest in solidarity)

Taub also reportedly stated in the meeting that he and Kotick “have never seen this” but that “does not mean this behavior does not happen.” Activision Blizzard deemed attempts to diversify its workplace “unworkable” in January 2020.

Employees Walkout. Demand Contract Changes.

In response to the company’s statement and an internal memo from Frances Townsend, Activison Blizzard executive vice president and former homeland security advisor under President George W. Bush, that described the lawsuit as “truly meritless and irresponsible,” over 2000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees signed an open letter decrying the statements as creating “a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims.”

“These statements make it clear that our leadership is not putting our values first. Immediate corrections are needed from the highest level of our organization,” reads the letter. “Our company executives have claimed that actions will be taken to protect us, but in the face of legal action — and the troubling official responses that followed — we no longer trust that our leaders will place employee safety above their own interests.”

“To claim this is a ‘truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit,’ while seeing so many current and former employees speak out about their own experiences regarding harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptable,” the letter continues.

In the walkout’s announcement, current and former Activision Blizzard employees issued four demands of the company “to improve conditions for employees at the company, especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people and other marginalized groups.”

  • An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future
  • The adoption of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and promotion policies designed to improve representation among employees at all levels, agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization.
  • Publication of data on relative compensation (including equity grants and profit sharing), promotion rates, and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company.
  • Empower a company-wide Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion task force to hire a third party to audit ABK’s reporting structure, HR department, and executive staff.

“To claim this is a ‘truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit’ … is simply unacceptable.”

Open Letter from Activision Blizzard Employees

Activision Blizzard responded to the walkout by offering employees that do walkout paid time off, though it is unknown if the offer is separate from employees’ regularly allotted PTO. #ActiBlizzWalkout trended on Twitter Wednesday, and fellow game developers and Twitch streamers have offered support by making charitable donations to organizations tied to the walkout, including Black Girls Code and RAINN, and boycotting the purchase and streaming of Activision Blizzard games.

Industry Context: Similar Allegations

The Activision Blizzard allegations are the latest in a trend of similar allegations emerging from other major game studios, including “League of Legends” developer Riot Games and “Assassin’s Creed” developer Ubisoft. An open letter from nearly 500 Ubisoft employees expressed solidarity with Activision Blizzard employees that walked out Wednesday, casting an eye on similar allegations against their own employer. 

“It is clear, from the frequency of these reports, that there is a widespread and deeply ingrained culture of abusive behaviour within the industry. It should no longer be a surprise to anyone: employees, executives, journalists, or fans that these heinous acts are going on,” read the Ubisoft employees’ letter. “It is time to stop being shocked. We must demand real steps be taken to prevent them. Those responsible must be held accountable for their actions.”

Some games news sites have also paused their coverage and streaming of Activision Blizzard titles as well.

“It is clear, from the frequency of these reports, that there is a widespread and deeply ingrained culture of abusive behaviour within the industry.”

Open letter from 500 Ubisoft Employees in solidarity with the Activision Blizzard employee walkout

Activision Blizzard: Previously on Towleroad

Photo courtesy of Dinosaur918/Creative Commons

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]]>112Wed, 28 Jul 2021 23:23:48 +0000West Hollywood Fixture Ed Buck Convicted in Drug Overdose Deaths of Black Gay Men; Faces Minimum 40 Years in Prisonhttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/west-hollywood-fixture-ed-buck-convicted-in-drug-overdose-deaths-of-black-gay-men-faces-minimum-40-years-in-prison-r111/
Ed Buck
Ed Buck

Ed Buck, once known as a prominent Democractic donor, will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars after a federal grand jury convicted him Tuesday on multiple counts of supplying methamphetamine to two Black men, Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, that killed them.

The verdict came after just four hours of deliberations. Buck was found guilty on nine charges in total, including two counts of supplying meth that resulted in death, maintaining a drug den at his former West Hollyood residence and enticement to cross state lines to engage in prostitution.

Tuesday’s result ends a years-long legal saga for Buck’s accusers. The former Democratic activist was initially arrested in September 2019 after a man whom Buck injected with meth overdosed but was able to escape Buck’s apartment went to authorities. The subsequent search of Buck’s home revealed horrific details of Buck’s sexual predation, including hundreds of photos of men in compromising positions.

The family of Gemmel Moore, Buck’s first victim who died in 2017, had been pushing the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate Buck for years prior to his arrest. In an interview with The Guardian, LaTisha Nixon, Moore’s mother, said “I’m a grieving mother, but they treated us like criminals. I haven’t been able to recover. … I didn’t ask for nothing special. I just wanted [Lacey] to do her job. We had our proof. We gave her all of the evidence. I don’t know if she ignored it because it was black gay men, or because it was gay men, period. I got the runaround.”

Timothy Dean, Buck’s second victim, died just eight months prior to Buck’s arrest. “I wanted everybody to know what this man did to my child, so he couldn’t hurt anyone else’s kid or family member. I had to say something. Timothy Dean’s death could’ve been prevented if they had listened to us. But they didn’t,” Nixon added.

Prosecutors used video taken by Buck during his “party and play” arrangements and the testimony of multiple Black male victims to fully display Buck’s predatory and deadly practices.

According to the Los Angeles Blade, Buck solicited men on Grindr and Adam4Adam and would pressure or incentivize them into letting him personally inject them with meth, sometimes multiple times. Buck would also administer injections without consent, sometimes injecting men with drugs and touching them sexually while they were unconscious.

I wanted everybody to know what this man did to my child so he couldn’t hurt anyone else’s kid or family member

LaTisha Nixon, Gemmel Moore’s Mother

Buck also would call his Black victims racial slurs while committing his predatory acts. Many of the men Buck preyed on were drug addicts and/or homeless and working as escorts to earn a living.

According to the Los Angeles Times, The families of Moore and Dean applauded the verdict. Cory McLean, a close friend of Moore’s, celebrated while holding an urn containing Moore’s ashes. “Thank you, God,” McLean exclaimed as she exited the federal courthouse.

Buck’s defense attorneys, Christopher Darden and Ludlow Creary, were criticized by prosecutors for focusing their defense strategies solely on discrediting Buck’s victims in what Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Norell described as “despicable victim shaming.” Darden claimed the victims manipulated and used Buck for financial gain, attempting to villainize them simply for being sex workers and/or drug abusers.

In one exchange, Darden even asked one victim “did you inject or smoke any meth prior to coming to testify” while he was on the witness stand.

Buck faces a minimum of 20 years in prison for each charge of supplying meth that resulted in death.

Ed Buck: Previously on Towleroad

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]]>111Wed, 28 Jul 2021 17:03:46 +0000Rapper Dababy Delivers Homophobic, Anti-AIDS Interlude at Rolling Loud, Doubles Down on Comments; T.I. Comes to His Defensehttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/rapper-dababy-delivers-homophobic-anti-aids-interlude-at-rolling-loud-doubles-down-on-comments-ti-comes-to-his-defense-r110/
Dababy
Dababy

Rapper Dababy has come under fire in recent days for homophobic and HIV/AIDS-negative comments he made onstage at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami over the weekend and doesn’t appear to be backing down. During his performance at the famed hip hop festival, Dababy said the offending comments between songs in what he called a “call to action.”

“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two or three weeks, put your cellphone light in the air,” he said. “Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put your cellphone light in the air. Fellas, if you ain’t suck a n**** dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lights in the air. Keep it fucking real.”

The comments immediately drew backlash online, but at least one hip hop heavyweight, T.I., backed up Dababy’s comments by invoking the name of proudly out gay rapper Lil Nas X. “If Lil Nas X can kick his shit in peace… so should dababy #equality,” replied T.I. to The Shade Room’s coverage of the incident. He further defended Dababy’s homophobia in an Instagram Live video.

“To be honest, if homosexuals have more rights than heterosexuals, then just say that. If homosexuals have more rights than heterosexuals, then just say that. Let that be the law. Is that the law,” T.I. said. “I respect gays, especially the ones that have the bravery and the courage to step out and live their truth. I respect that … but I respect it the same way if you a heterosexual. So I don’t see what all the hoopla is about. Y’all motherfuckers just up in arms and fake caring about shit because you ain’t got shit else going on in your life.”

“You can’t make me homophobic because I’m proud to be a heterosexual … just because I am proud of what I am don’t make me hate what you are, period,” he added. “Ain’t no way to tangle or twist that. Ain’t no hate in that … If you’re gonna have the Lil Nas X video and living his truth, you’re gonna damn sure have people like Dababy who’s gonna speak they truth. And it ain’t nothing wrong with any of it. It ain’t got to be no hate. It’s all honesty.”

Dababy’s comments and T.I.’s subsequent defenses of the artist came just days after Lil Nas X’s latest single and video, “Industry Baby,” debuted, complete with his trademark references to queer sexuality, a choice reference to Waka Flocka Flame and a fundraiser for The Bail Project. Jack Harlow, who features on the track alongside Lil Nas X, performed the song at Rolling Loud without Lil Nas X.

According to Newsweek, Dababy also took to Instagram to expound on his onstage comments and tell his critics to “shut the fuck up”, doubling down on his homophobic language and conflation between HIV/AIDS, sexual deviancy and social classification of gay men. “Regardless of what you motherfuckers are talking about and how the internet twisted up my motherfucking words, me and all my fans at the show, the gay ones and the straight ones, we turned the fuck up,” he said.

“All the lights went up, gay or straight. You wanna know why? Because even my gay fans don’t got fucking AIDS… They don’t got AIDS. My gay fans, they take care of theyself, they ain’t going for that. They ain’t no nasty gay n*****. They ain’t no junkies on the street,” Dababy continued.

“I said, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up. You know what my gay fans did? Put that motherfucking light up. My gay fans, they ain’t going for that. They got class. They ain’t sucking no dick in no parking lot. You gotta get a room, a good one—five-star hotel … Even my gay fans got standards.”

While Dababy clearly isn’t backing away from his homophobic comments, he is also in hot water regarding another moment during his Rolling Loud performance. Dababy took the stage immediately after Megan Thee Stallion, and brought a disguised Tory Lanez, the man who allegedly shot her, onstage.

Dababy: Previously on Towleroad

Photo courtesy of Azhem123/Creative Commons

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]]>110Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:32:35 +0000More LGBTQ Athletes Than Ever At Olympics (166+); Tom Daley Gold Medals; France Gets Judo Silver; Japan Takes Softball Gold, Team USA Gets Silverhttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/more-lgbtq-athletes-than-ever-at-olympics-166-tom-daley-gold-medals-france-gets-judo-silver-japan-takes-softball-gold-team-usa-gets-silver-r109/
lgbtq olympics tom daley
Tom Daley (front) with diving partner Matty Lee

We’re a few days into the 2020 Summer Olympics, and they earned the designation as the most LGBTQ Olympics yet before a single sport was sported. A record 166 (and still growing) number of out LGBTQ athletes are set to compete in Tokyo, and some have already staked their claim at Olympic glory early into the event’s first week.

The headliner thus far is British diver Tom Daley. The two-time Olympic bronze medalist pulled off a stunning victory Monday, capturing his first gold medal alongisde diving partner Matty Lee in the 10-meter synchronized diving event. The duo narrowly edged out event favorites Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen of China, snagging the top of the podium by a 1.23 point margin.

But the true importance of Daley’s win came in the post-event press conference. Daley took time to address the large LGBTQ presence at the Tokyo games and his own journey as an out gay man in sports.

After the Tom Daley gold medal round, he had some smart things to say to reporters about gay athletes.

When I was younger I was always the one who felt alone, alone and different, there was something about me that was never going to be as good as society wanted to be,

Tom Daley

“There are more out LGBT athletes at this Olympic Games than any Olympic Games previously. I came out in 2013, December 2013. When I was younger I was always the one who felt alone, alone and different, there was something about me that was never going to be as good as society wanted to be,” Daley said.

“I hope that any young LGBT person out there see that no matter how alone you feel right now, that you are not alone and you can achieve anything. There is a whole lot of your chosen family out here ready to support you,” he added. “I feel incredibly proud to say I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion. I feel very empowered by that.”

Sticking with the pool, Canadian swimmer Markus Thormeyer helped his 4×100 freestyle relay team set a Canadian record for the event. The squad barely missed a bronze medal thanks solely to Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers’ ungodly freestyle swimming speed, but a national record is a great accomplishment nonetheless.

Out French judoka Amandine Buchard captured the silver medal in Judo’s half lightweight division Sunday, succumbing to Japan’s Ute Aba. Buchard looked dominant throughout the tournament, including a 16-second victory over Swiss judoka Fabienne Kocher in the semifinals.

Skateboarding made its Olympic debut on Sunday with multiple LGBTQ competitors in the women’s events, including non-binary athlete Alana Smith. Their Team USA teammate Alexis Sablone was the only LGBTQ skater to advance to the women’s skateboarding street final and missed a bronze medal by less than a point. Coming so close is bittersweet, but knowing she performed so well against skaters ranging from a decade younger than her to nearly half her age gives her plenty of bragging rights.

And finally, LGBTQ athletes are all over the medal round in softball scheduled for Tuesday. Canada (Larissa Franklin, Joey Lye) and Mexico (Anissa Urtez) will square off in the bronze medal game. Team USA (Ally Carda, Amanda Chidester, Haylie McCleney, Taylor Edwards) took on Japan in the gold-medal game, but the host-country team took the gold, Team USA got silver.

Tom Daley: Previously on Towleroad

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]]>109Tue, 27 Jul 2021 15:02:51 +0000‘Hot Summer’ and Podcast Drop to Promote 1st Album from the Prince Vault,’Welcome 2 America,’ ‘a laser-focused assault on the condition of America;’https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/%E2%80%98hot-summer%E2%80%99-and-podcast-drop-to-promote-1st-album-from-the-prince-vault%E2%80%99welcome-2-america%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98a-laser-focused-assault-on-the-condition-of-america%E2%80%99-r108/

Since the singer died his estate has re-released expanded versions of some early Prince albums, but this is the first from the Prince Vault with all new material. Originally announced in 2010 (see Prince at the announcement in video player below, along with a few of the tracks off the album.)

 
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prince vault
A new album from the late Prince, shown here performing during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2007, is set for release July 30

New York (AFP) – Prince’s estate will soon issue a completed record from the mercurial artist’s storied music vault, the first never-before-heard album released since the musician’s shock death five years ago.

“Welcome 2 America” — a 12-track album finished in 2010, but shelved for reasons unknown in the famous vault at Prince’s Paisley Park compound near Minneapolis — offers a prophetic window into social struggles at today’s forefront, delving into racism, political division, technology and disinformation.

Melding urgent lyricism with languorous funk, the pop shapeshifter Prince sings of America as the “land of the free / home of the slave.”

The artist, who died at 57 on April 21, 2016 following an accidental fentanyl overdose, could not have known that in the years following his death his beloved home city would explode in furor and protest after the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man.

But Prince was a career activist, advocating for the empowerment of Black people in the recording industry and beyond.

“You go to school just to learn / about what never existed,” Prince sings on the closing track “One Day We Will All B Free.”

“But if your history only burns / it’s better to resist it.”

The album, out July 30, sees Prince level “a laser-focused assault on the condition of America,” said Morris Hayes, Prince’s longtime keyboardist and musical director.

“What’s going on with social media, social justice, and social consciousness… this is a concerted effort to really speak about these things,” said Hayes, who co-produced the album.

“I really dug how raw it was, and as far as my production, I just wanted to keep it to where its raw and I don’t get in the way of what he’s trying to say.”

‘Liberty and justice’

For Hayes, the singular artist “was way ahead,” like a “sage sitting in the Himalayas somewhere,” in foreshadowing the current moment.

“He wanted, I believe, a country that actually stood for what it said it stood for: liberty and justice for all,” Hayes told AFP in an interview. “And we painfully know that that’s not the case.”

For Prince a key component of freedom was ownership, according to Hayes: “if you don’t own your own things, you don’t have any freedom.”

The artist was well known for taking labels to task, famously scrawling “slave” on his cheek and changing his name to an unpronounceable “love symbol” in the 1990s to protest Warner’s bid to rein in his prolific musical output.

Hayes said Prince — who didn’t carry a cell phone and memorized necessary phone numbers — also discussed freedom in terms of technology and devices, which he saw “as something that handcuffed people.”

But while the album tackles decidedly weighty topics — “Running Game (Son of a Slave Master)” centers on racism, while “Same Page, Different Book” touches on religious strife — the album also includes vintage danceable and carnal slow jam Prince in the mix.

“Hot Summer” is a major-key, guitar-heavy, feel-good track, while the sparsely arranged “When She Comes” featuring the artist’s falsetto recalls the hypersexual “Dirty Mind” Prince of yore.

Excavating the vault

An untold number of songs — upwards of 8,000, per Princian lore — were stored in the vault under Paisley Park, though some of its contents have been moved to the Los Angeles climate-controlled storage facility Iron Mountain.

“It was crazy,” Hayes says of the vault. “All of this music, like all over the floor, all stacked up to the ceiling.”

“You have to think about how prolific a cat has to be to have his own vault full of stuff. And I mean FULL of stuff.”

Hayes recalled that in the mid-1990s Prince told him he had taken time off for the first time.

“He said, ‘never in my career have I taken a week where I didn’t write a song and pick up my guitar.'”

The release of Prince’s vast trove of music remains a sensitive subject; the superstar was controlling of his work, image, and carefully constructed enigmatic persona. Doing right by him is no small challenge.

Previously the estate has re-released expanded versions of Prince’s milestone albums, like “1999” and “Sign O’ The Times,” along with demos of songs he wrote that eventually became other artists’ hits.

Prince was never clear about his intentions for his unheard work, but he had taken steps to preserve his tapes, films, scripts and music along with his Paisley Park compound, leading his estate — run by his sister and five half-siblings — to believe he wanted it shared.

Asked by Rolling Stone in 2014 what he wanted to come of his oeuvre after he was gone, Prince himself was characteristically nebulous.

“I don’t think about ‘gone.'” 

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Podcast of Making of Welcome 2 America

EPISODE 1: Thank U for Helping Me Get This Out

The Prince Estate has launched a new season of its Webby awarded official podcast! “The Story of Welcome 2 America” takes listeners on a journey into the studios of Paisley Park and out onto the road with Prince in 2010-2011, when he recorded his political and poignant album Welcome 2 America and then archived it, choosing to focus instead on creating unparalleled live concert residencies in cities around the U.S.

On the first episode of “The Story of Welcome 2 America,” the Minneapolis music journalist Andrea Swensson and Prince’s long-time vocalist and collaborator Shelby J. share the backstory of how the Welcome 2 America sessions began, when Prince enlisted the young bass phenom Tal Wilkenfeld to help him form a live trio and record a series of improvisational compositions with the drummer Chris Coleman. Once the instrumental tracks were recorded, Shelby and her fellow NPG vocalists Liv Warfield and Elisa Fiorillo were brought into Studio A to record their harmonies, melody lines, improvised jokes, and even a rap with Prince.

Welcome 2 America | Available 7.30.21 – Pre-Order Now! –
Shop exclusive Prince music and merchandise at the Official Prince Store –

☔Listen to more Prince here

📺Watch all the official Prince videos here

Prince Vault previously on Towleroad

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]]>108Tue, 27 Jul 2021 13:32:59 +0000Record Crowd For Budapest Pride; Attendees Protest Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Anti-LGBTQ Lawshttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/record-crowd-for-budapest-pride-attendees-protest-hungary-prime-minister-viktor-orban%E2%80%99s-anti-lgbtq-laws-r107/
Budapest Pride

Protesting voices to the Hungarian government’s continuing discrimination against the LGBTQ community at Budapest Pride took to the streets of the nation’s capital in record numbers Saturday.

Thousands of LGBTQ Hungarians and allies donned their rainbow best as they marched through downtown Budapest in one of the largest demonstrations against Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his administration’s moves to criminalize the nation’s LGBTQ community.

The most recent example of Orban’s anti-LGBTQ legislation is a law that outlaws the display of content depicting homosexuality or gender transition to minors. Critics of the law say it conflates homosexuality with pedophila and prevents LGBTQ youth from accessing affirming information regarding sexual orientation and gender. The law has also been derided as a partisan rallying point meant to conjure conservative voters ahead of elections in 2022.

“A lot of LGBTQ people are afraid and don’t feel like they have a place or a future in this country anymore,” Jojo Majercsik, Budapest Pride spokesperson, told the Associated Press. “It was really difficult for me to come out, and the only thing that made it easier was that I found a book of stories on LGBT topics … that’s how I learned that what I’m feeling is something real, that I’m not different.” said Pride attendee Anasztazia Orosz added.

“A lot of LGBTQ people are afraid and don’t feel like they have a place or a future in this country anymore,”

The Budapest Pride demonstration came as the fight against Orban and the Hungarian government grew more contentious beyond Hungarian borders. The European Union’s Executive Commission filed two legal proceedings against the Hungarian government ahead of the march last week focused on its actions against the LGBTQ community.

The EU also proposed delaying a ruling on the approval of Hungary’s $8.4 billion funding request for coronavirus recovery. According to German news outlet Deutsche Welle, Orban threatened to turn down coronavirus aid from the EU if it requires him to alter his anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Orban announced a national referendum meant to show public support for the new law on Wednesday, just days before Budapest Pride attendees took to the streets. The referendum asks citizens if topics relating to sexual orientation should be introduced to students in schools and if gender reassignment should be “promoted or depicted” to children. Both questions were deemed “openly transphobic and homophobic” by Majercsik.

This environment is why the record number of marchers joining the Budapest Pride celebration this year holds special significance. “Now there are real stakes … our situation is pretty bad,” said Pride marcher Mira Nagy.

Nagy, like many other LGBTQ Hungarians, are contemplating leaving their home nation if the situation worsens. With Orban’s potential reelection looming in 2022, that potential reality is becoming more concrete. “I’ve heard from a lot of LGBT people that are planning to leave the country, and won’t even wait for next year’s elections,” said Majercsik. “There will be many others for whom the results of the elections will determine whether they stay or leave.”

One of Orban’s key challengers, Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony, was in attendance for the Budapest Pride march.

Budapest Pride: Previously on Towleroad

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]]>107Mon, 26 Jul 2021 19:58:47 +0000New Old Melissa Etheridge; Lil Nas X by Kanye, Ariana Grande Live; Spice Girls Junior Remix; Billy Porter Mixed With Jessie J; Wannabe 25. Need We say more?https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/new-old-melissa-etheridge-lil-nas-x-by-kanye-ariana-grande-live-spice-girls-junior-remix-billy-porter-mixed-with-jessie-j-wannabe-25-need-we-say-more-r106/

Melissa Etheridge releases some older unreleased tunes from the vault. So do the Spice Girls, along with their Wannabe 25th anniversary video and the Junior Vasquez mix of the same.

Lil Nas X rises even higher with a Kanye produced video that references every thing in the world from black male incarceration, prison rape, Gaga’s Telephone, and a whole lot more. But he’s also raising bail funds and has raised 40K + when we last checked.

Also included Ariana doing ‘Positions’ live in the most compelling built set we’ve ever seen.

The latest from the BTS boys harkens back to a more ‘Footloose’ era albeit one in their own constructed world.

And the Jessie J hit ‘I Want Love’ that is a Big Gay Songs of the Summer candidate, got gayer with a remix that includes Billy Porter.

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T

Melissa Etheridge and More previously on Towleroad

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]]>106Mon, 26 Jul 2021 17:13:52 +0000Marc Jacobs Photo Of His Post-Lift Bandaged Head Is Almost Super Chic; Designer Tells of Extensive Work Remaking Body Inside and Out.https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/marc-jacobs-photo-of-his-post-lift-bandaged-head-is-almost-super-chic-designer-tells-of-extensive-work-remaking-body-inside-and-out-r105/
 
Published by
BANG Showbiz English
 
marc jacobs photo
Marc Jacobs photo shows him just out of a facelift, only the latest in steps he’s taken to completely change his body and life.

Marc Jacobs has had a facelift.

The 58-year-old fashion designer took to Instagram to share a picture of his face wrapped in bandages, with drains to remove excess blood, and captioned it: “@drjacono #f*ckgravity #livelovelift.”

The doctor he tagged – Dr. Andrew Jacono – is a top New York facial plastic surgeon, who is renowned for his mini-face lifts.

Marc’s friends were impressed with his transparency, with costume designer June Ambrose commenting: “The transparency is everything! Snatch it darlinggggg! Happy healing,” actress Demi Mazer writing: “Congrats,” and TV star Michelle Visage saying: “Good for YOU.”

Meanwhile, Marc has previously discussed how changing his diet and starting to exercise transformed his body and his confidence.

He said: “I had 21 percent body fat. I was in and out of the hospital because I had flare-ups of ulcerative colitis. I’d be in the office for 16 hours a day, six of which were in the bathroom because I was so ill. I ate nothing but junk food. Basically, the doctor said, ‘We’re going to have to remove your colon’. And I said, ‘I’m not doing that!’

“So I went to a nutritionist named Lindsey Duncan, and he said, ‘If you are 100 percent compliant with what I tell you to do, you will be in better shape than you’ve ever been in, and you will not have to have your colon removed.’ I said, ‘Okay, sign me up.’

“When I started to feel better, and when my stomach wasn’t hurting, and when I wasn’t on the toilet all day, and when I could look at myself in the mirror, and when I went from 21 percent body fat to five percent body fat and I had muscle, I was like, This is great!

“When guys started looking at me and asking me out on dates, I felt way better about myself. So it was hard to keep my clothes on, actually. And whenever I was asked to take my clothes off, I was like, ‘Sure! I haven’t worked out for three years to keep this all under wraps.’ Everything changed. I cut my hair, I got contact lenses, I started to groom and get manicures and pedicures. I started to get my hair cut every two weeks.

“Before, I never took care of my appearance. I was like, ‘Who cares? I’m in the studio 16 hours a day, and nobody sees me.’ Everything, it all sort of changed. My home life changed. I wanted to have people over for dinner. I cared about interiors because I wanted to have guests over all the time.”

Marc Jacobs Photo previously on Towleroad

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]]>105Mon, 26 Jul 2021 16:34:49 +0000Senior Pentagon LGBTQ Noms Get Clear Voice Vote. No Objections. Out Trans, Out Lesbian Confirmed. ‘Outght to look like America.’ Defense Secy.https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/senior-pentagon-lgbtq-noms-get-clear-voice-vote-no-objections-out-trans-out-lesbian-confirmed-%E2%80%98outght-to-look-like-america%E2%80%99-defense-secy-r104/
pentagon lgbtq
Pentagon LGBTQ nominees confirmed, Shawn Graham Skelly to Asst. Secy. Defense; Gina Ortiz to Undersecretary of the Air Force

Despite behind-the-scenes objections, the U.S. Senate on July 22 confirmed the nominations of two openly LGBT appointees to top Pentagon posts. The vote, by voice vote without objection, confirmed transgender Shawn Graham Skelly of Virginia to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense and lesbian Gina Ortiz Jones of Texas to be Under Secretary of the Air Force.

Skelly, 55, a retired U.S. Navy pilot and former deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Pacific Command, served as a special assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics during the last three years of the Obama administration. She was also part of the Biden transition team and co-founder of an LGBT national security group called Out in National Security. 

Jones, 40, a former intelligence officer and captain in the U.S. Air Force, served in Afghanistan and as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. She has recently run two campaigns for a U.S. House seat representing San Antonio, losing by close margins.

Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, said the confirmation of Skelly and Jones to “key leadership positions” will “transform perceptions of LGBTQ people within the ranks of the U.S. military, but also among the leaders of militaries we work with around the world.”

“While they were confirmed because of their unquestionable qualifications and experience,” said Parker, “they symbolize our continued progress and will further disrupt any lingering notion that LGBTQ people are somehow unfit to serve.”

Jennifer Dane, executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, a pro-LGBT group, praised Skelly’s “exceptional military career” and work for the Obama administration and said Jones “represents diverse intersections of minority groups and her visibility at the top echelons of leadership is exactly what our communities need.”

transform perceptions of LGBTQ people within the ranks of the U.S. military, but also among the leaders of militaries we work with around the world.

Annise Parker, President LGBTQ Victory Institute

“We look forward to working with them both to ensure honor, dignity and respect are extended to all military members,” said Dane.

Disrespect in the background

There were no voiced objections to either Skelly or Jones during their June 16 confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. But ahead of the hearing, at least one Republican senator derided President Biden’s more pro-LGBT military as “emasculated” and “pansies.” And several of his Republican colleagues said they were concerned about “far left” agendas.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stirred controversy in May when he took issue with a U.S. Army recruiting video that featured a female soldier who has two moms. The two-minute video features Corporal Emma Malonelord, who operates Patriot Missile Defense weapons. In the mostly animated video, Malonelord explains what inspired her to join the Army. She describes having “fairly typical” childhood, notes that she had two moms who served as “powerful role models,” and says she finished at the top of her class in high school. She shares the experience she had when one of her parents was paralyzed in an accident and had to struggle with rehab before she could walk again and have a wedding ceremony with Malonelord’s other mother.

The Malonelord video was one of five the U.S. Army began posting on YouTube to encourage enlistment from a wide range of people. It focuses on five servicemembers—three women and two men, animated in a kind of superhero action figure presentation. An Army press release says the video was intended to make clear the Army is comprised of “real people with hopes and dreams, fears, aspirations, families, friends, and obstacles to overcome.” But the Army Times reported that the video was heavily “disliked” on YouTube, prompting the Army to shut down the comment section on all five.

Holy crap. Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn’t suggest that the Russian military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?

Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Sen Ted Cruz comments about American Military

Cruz, who has not served in the military, posted a message on Twitter May 20, showing the U.S. Army recruiting ad along with one from Russia. The Russian ad depicted its military as an all-white, all-male group of buff soldiers doing push-ups, parachuting, and looking somber and ominous. Cruz’s Twitter post commented, “Holy crap. Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea,” implying, apparently, that he sees the Russian image as superior.

Cruz’s post got 33,500 “Likes” but also many stinging criticisms. Some included photos of Cruz kowtowing to President Trump and suggesting Cruz is an expert on emasculation. Most criticized the senator for expressing a preference for the Russian Army.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to have a sitting Senator degrading the service of a woman who raised her hand, volunteered, and is currently serving honorably,” said one Twitter response. Another called Cruz’s post “disgusting,” saying he was “Actively cheering for an adversary to make a domestic political opponent look worse.”

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) posted a Twitter message in response to Cruz, saying, “Holy crap. Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn’t suggest that the *Russian* military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?” She was referring to the January 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol which forced the evacuation of Congress as it was about to certify the election of President Biden. Cruz was a big promoter of then President Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election had been “stolen” from him.

Cruz quickly attempted to answer his critics, saying they were “lefty blue checkmarks” and that he wasn’t attacking the U.S. military.

“We have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies.”

“Ted Cruz is a bigot and a joke and has no business questioning the strength of LGBTQ servicemembers or veterans when he hasn’t served himself,” said Elliot Imse, a spokesman for the LGBTQ Victory Institute.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CNN that servicemembers “represent the United States of America” and “ought to look like America….” He criticized Cruz’s remarks as enabling Russia and China to “capitalize on talking points like that.”

A group of 30 Republican members of Congress also targeted the Malonelord video. In a May 25 letter to Austin, the group said the Defense Department’s post-insurrection efforts to eradicate “extremism” within its ranks is, instead, rooting out servicemembers “who will not affirm far-left doctrines.” They specifically criticized the Malonelord video because it “features a lesbian wedding” and “depicts ‘two moms’ raising a child.”

© 2021 Keen News Service. All rights reserved.

Keen News Service

The ConversationPentagon LGBTQ previously on Towleroad

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]]>104Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:50:10 +0000Kennedy Center Honors for Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Lorne Michaels, Barry Gordy, Justino Diaz in 2021. First POTUS Since Obama Likely to Attend.https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/kennedy-center-honors-for-joni-mitchell-bette-midler-lorne-michaels-barry-gordy-justino-diaz-in-2021-first-potus-since-obama-likely-to-attend-r103/
 
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kennedy center honors
The annual arts Honors are normally a major fundraiser for The Kennedy Center, Washington’s performing arts complex that serves as a living monument to slain president John F. Kennedy.

Washington (AFP) – Folk legend Joni Mitchell and beloved actor Bette Midler are among this year’s class of Kennedy Center honorees, one of America’s most prestigious arts awards.

Along with Motown icon Berry Gordy, opera singer Justino Diaz and Lorne Michaels, creator of the acclaimed comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live, they will be celebrated at the center’s annual gala.

The night of red-carpet glitz in Washington in December will end up being the center’s second set of honors this year. 

Having been forced by the pandemic to cancel the gala last winter, the center held a more subdued series of smaller socially-distanced events and tributes in spring for the 43rd class of honorees.

“After the challenges and heartbreak of the last many months, and as we celebrate 50 years of the Kennedy Center, I dare add that we are prepared to throw ‘the party to end all parties’ in DC on December 5th, feting these extraordinary people and welcoming audiences back to our campus,” the center’s president Deborah Rutter said in a statement.

The honors are normally a major fundraiser for the Kennedy Center, Washington’s performing arts complex that serves as a living monument to president John F. Kennedy.

The center had said it expected to lose an estimated $45.7 million in potential revenue during the 2020-2021 season, after the pandemic forced the cancelation of much of its programming. 

December’s bash will likely be the first attended by a sitting US president since Barack Obama’s tenure, should Joe and Jill Biden renew what was once a traditional outing before the presidency of Donald Trump.

Trump is unpopular in the culture and entertainment communities and several of the honored artists threatened to boycott if he attended during his first year in office.

Kennedy Center Honors Previously on Towleroad

Some all time great performances honoring favorites at Kennedy Center Honors

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]]>103Sat, 24 Jul 2021 16:11:38 +0000U.S. Life Expectancy Fell to Lowest in Almost 20 Years; Dropped Year and a Half in 2020 Due to COVID-19 -CDChttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/us-life-expectancy-fell-to-lowest-in-almost-20-years-dropped-year-and-a-half-in-2020-due-to-covid-19-cdc-r102/
 
Published by
Reuters
 
life expectancy

By Dania Nadeem

(Reuters) – Life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and a half in 2020 to 77.3 years, the lowest level since 2003, primarily due to the deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a U.S. health agency said on Wednesday.

It is the biggest one-year decline since World War Two, when life expectancy fell 2.9 years between 1942 and 1943, and is six months shorter than its February 2021 estimate, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

“Life expectancy has been increasing gradually every year for the past several decades,” Elizabeth Arias, a CDC researcher who worked on the report, told Reuters. “The decline between 2019 and 2020 was so large that it took us back to the levels we were in 2003. Sort of like we lost a decade.”

Deaths from COVID-19 contributed to nearly three-fourths, or 74%, of the decline and drug overdoses were also a major contributor, the CDC said.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) last week released interim data showing that U.S. drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30% in 2020.

The latest CDC report is based on provisional mortality data for January through December of 2020.

Racial, gender and ethnic disparities worsened during the period, the report said. Life expectancy for Black people fell by 2.9 years to 71.8 in 2020, the lowest level since 2000. Life expectancy for Hispanic males dropped 3.7 years to 75.3, the largest decline of any group.

Disparity in life expectancy between men and women also widened in 2020, with women now expected to live 80.2 years, or 5.7 years longer than men – six months more than foreseen in 2019.

The data represents early estimates based on death certificates received, processed, and coded but not finalized by the NCHS.

(Reporting by Dania Nadeem; Additional reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru; editing by Caroline Humer and Steve Orlofsky)

Life Expectancy previously on Towleroad

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]]>102Fri, 23 Jul 2021 20:23:06 +0000Tommy Dorfman: ‘Some Moved Houses During the Pandemic; Some People Changed Genders;’ ’13 Reasons Why’ Star Comes Out a Trans Womanhttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/tommy-dorfman-%E2%80%98some-moved-houses-during-the-pandemic-some-people-changed-genders%E2%80%99-%E2%80%9913-reasons-why%E2%80%99-star-comes-out-a-trans-woman-r101/
tommy dorfman
Tommy Dorfman

“13 Reasons Why” star Tommy Dorfman isn’t calling her official entrance into the public world as a trans woman a coming out. To her, its more of a “reintroduction.”

“It’s funny to think about coming out, because I haven’t gone anywhere. I view today as a reintroduction to me as a woman, having made a transition medically,” Dorfman said in an interview with Time Wednesday. “Coming out is always viewed as this grand reveal, but I was never not out. Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy.”

Regardless of how the moment is defined, Dorfman’s decision to publicly state her identity is an enriching one, both personally and professionally. “I feel like I haven’t scratched the surface of my career or work because everything I’ve done up until the end of last year has been in the wrong body,” Dorfman said in an accompanying video. “So much of my work as an actor was hiding this part of myself and then bringing life to character … I loved acting but I would hate going to work. It always felt really uncomfortable for me, and now I know why.”

Those details put Tommy Dorfman’s acting career to date in new focus. Knowing her performances in “13 Reasons Why,” “Love, Victor” and “Love in the Time of Corona” came while feeling as if she couldn’t fully embrace all of herself reveals a new level of personal challenge those roles brought for her. Now, her challenge is to carve out a new path for herself playing femme-presenting roles, leaving all male-presenting roles behind with her past.

‘Some People.Moved Houses During the Pandemic; Some People Changed Genders’ — !3 Reasons Why Star Tommy Dorfman

“It’s impossible for me to separate my personal and professional transition, because my body and face are linked to my career,” Dorfman said. “I’m most recognized for playing a bitchy gay poet on a soap opera, and I feared that by actively transitioning in my personal life, I would lose whatever career I’ve been told I’m supposed to have.”

Her first step on that path will come in Lena Dunham’s latest film, “Sharp Stick,” where Dorfman will portray a female character for the first time. “It was so exciting and validating,” Dorfman said. “I’m thinking about how I can infuse my trans body into film and television.”

Beyond her professional goals, Dorfman’s “reintroduction” represents her desire to control her own narrative. She has been doing that throughout the pandemic, creating what she describes as a “diaristic time capsule” on Instagram documenting her journey through the fluidity of gender.

“I’ve been living in this other version of coming out where I don’t feel safe enough to talk about it, so I just do it. But I recognize that transitioning is beautiful. Why not let the world see what that looks like,” Dorfman told Time. “However, I’ve learned as a public-facing person that my refusal to clarify can strip me of the freedom to control my own narrative. With this medical transition, there has been discourse about my body, and it began to feel overwhelming.”

She also commented on how the common framing of transitioning pressured her to feel like “everything was terrible before” despite holding love for past relationships. “The sad part is you don’t get to acknowledge some of what you’re leaving. One doesn’t have to medically transition to be trans, but for me, it was an active choice. I’m aligning my body with my soul. Yet as a result of that, I am losing some things,” Dorfman said.

“I was in a nine-year relationship in which I was thought of as a more male-bodied person, with a gay man. I love him so much, but we’ve been learning that as a trans woman, what I’m interested in is not necessarily reflected in a gay man,” Dorfman continued. “We’ve had incredible conversations to redefine our relationship as friends. Transitioning has been liberating and clarifying.”

“I have to reckon with the fact that I brought along a lot of people and things who might not end up being there for this part of my journey. All I can do now is look to a future where I am, hopefully, just radically honest,” she added. “This is an evolution of Tommy. I’m becoming more Tommy.”

Tommy Dorfman: Previously on Towleroad

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]]>101Fri, 23 Jul 2021 20:00:49 +0000‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Season 6 Tells a Horror Story with Coven Girlshttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/%E2%80%98rupaul%E2%80%99s-drag-race-all-stars%E2%80%99-season-6-tells-a-horror-story-with-coven-girls-r100/
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
The horror! The horror! on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

After a few weeks of exemplary challenges on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, we really got a stinker this week. When Ryan Murphy is involved, you know results may vary, and that was surely on display as the remaining queens threw themselves into an American Horror Story-themed acting challenge.

These acting challenges rarely reach levels above “cringe,” but this was a doozy. The writers just named all the characters after the actresses who played them, and the jokes are similarly on-the-nose references. Even though the challenge felt excruciatingly overlong, it still managed to make even less narrative sense than usual.

The costumes were cute though!

The scares actually come a bit earlier in the episode, when the lipstick box reveals the last vote split evenly between Jan and the departed Scarlet. Jan doesn’t understand the judges’ critique and still feels she wasn’t being over the top. Step right up, step right up, see the queen with zero self-awareness! The other girls are quick to assert that, baby, Jan was at 110 percent, at least.

That energy will serve her well this week. In the script, there’s a character inspired by another deeply dark Ryan Murphy project — Glee. It’s a part everyone knows is perfect for Jan, the self-confessed “Rachel Berry of drag.” Not all the characters are so cut and dry. Pandora and Trinity briefly clash over a part that’s a little Myrtle Snow and then a little Joan Crawford, but Trinity acquiesces with little drama. Ginger and Kylie both want the juicy Jessica Lange character, but Kylie takes it in a high-stakes game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Angela Bassett drops by via video to remind all of us that she is just one of the most g*ddamn beautiful people on the planet. She also give notes on acting that are honestly too good for this dreck. Like, what sort of real, lived-in emotion is Ginger supposed to channel when she suddenly sprouts a unibrow having a magic fight with a bearded lady? This is not the time for, like, the Abramovic Method, you know?

RPDRAS_606_C-1050x600-1.jpg
Two heads were not enough to help Ra’Jah on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

If anything, everyone is already too in their heads. Filming with Ross and Michelle drags on. A’keria, playing a part reminiscent of Gabby Sidibe’s Queenie from season three of AHS, is trying so hard, it never really gels. Ra’jah tries to make a strong character choice playing one of the twins Sarah Paulson portrayed in American Horror Story Freak Show, but it’s not quite what Ross and Michelle really have in mind. These two are in danger, for sure.

(Huge missed opportunity to use the Pit Crew in an ode to Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott, by the way.)

Pandora delivers on the assignment as Myrtle Snow/Joan Crawford, but there’s not a lot of great jokes to land. Trinity gives us Angela Bassett Lite, and it’s fine. Both will end up safe. Michelle tells Jan she was born to play “Lea,” which is truly worse shade than when Ru said Scarlet talking about how much she loves her moms made her “uncomfortable.” Savage.

Eureka is a surprise, but not in a good way. Usually a top performer, especially in an over-the-top comedy challenge, she gets stuck on her delivery and can’t take the directors’ notes. It was like watching a less painful “I was rooting for US!”

the-bearded-lady-rupauls-drag-race-all-s
The judges were not Eureka’s BIGGEST FANS!!!! on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

That leaves Ginger and Kylie, the two queens who clashed over the Jessica [Lange] role. Ginger plays the young, fashionable diva (a nod to Emma Roberts in Coven), and she’s great. She nails every bit of physical comedy, every facial expression, every punchline. (Well, whatever one might consider a punchline.)

Kylie struggles at first to meet Lange’s KNOTTY PINE?!!! levels of scenery bingeing, but with some coaching from Michelle and Ross, she gets there. It certainly helps that she looks the part. The wig and makeup are on point.

On the runway, the gals give spooky-dookie with Oh My Goth eleganza. Honestly, everyone looks incredible, no exceptions. Much has been said already about the high-cost of competing on Drag Race, and this season has got to be featuring some of the most costly couture. We’ve got dramatic trains, enormous headpieces, sequins, stones, feathers, tulle, Voodoo dolls. It’s a macabre feast for the eyes, and it’s giving me all the #HotGothSummer energy.

On a night where so many queens were dinged for not taking the directors’ notes, it makes sense the win is awarded to Kylie. (That and Ginger already got her redemption win last week.) It’s good to see Kylie get her first ever Drag Race win.

She’s lip syncing this week against Manila Luzón, but it feels like Manila was told to give this one to Kylie. They’re facing off to Xtina’s classic “Dirty,” which already feels tailor-made for Kylie, who is, as usual, serving body-ody-ody. She dances actual circles around Manila, breaking out a few backbends into the splits that wow the crowd. On top of her challenge win, she pockets the $10,000 tip.
She pulls out A’Keria’s lipstick, and, really, there’s no arguing with that.

Where does that leave this season’s crop of All Stars? Let’s break it down in the rankings.

  1. On the heels of a few strong performances, Ginger has clawed her way to the top of the pile, for now. I thought her performance was the strongest, given the circumstances, and she looked amazing throughout. Her performances, stellar runways and share of screentime have her in the position to beat.
  2. Trinity has been delivering strong performances in every challenge (I’m still shook over her Beyoncé), and she consistently has some of the best runways. I would be surprised to see her not make it to the end, and I’m rooting for her to win it all.
  3. They harped on Eureka for that one line reading, but that’s really splitting hairs. Eureka is a pro-fess-ion-al. She looks great, she’s prepared, she’s giving 100. I think she’ll easily bounce back from this week, especially if the lewks keep serving like her boudoir Bride of Frankenstein this week.
  4. Ra’Jah is slipping. Granted, acting challenges are her Achilles heel, so she may still come back from this. I appreciated how she tried to show up on set with a full character, but she got tripped up with the directors’ feedback. I’m really digging Ra’Jah’s runways. They may not be as showy as A’Keria or Eureka, but they’re chic.
  5. What is it going to take for Pandora to push through? She’s consistent, but I never feel like she surprises me. She does exactly what I expect her to do, and she does it well. It’s just not enough when the other queens are showing such growth and evolution.
  6. Had we not seen Kylie struggle in filming, her performance would have been more impressive. It’s just hard to accept as a winner when we had to watch Michelle get up out her seat to physically demonstrate how to do it. Meanwhile, Ginger brought so much to set on her own, even if it was a less flashy role. Still, I don’t begrudge Kylie, and I’m happy to see her get a win. The sync wasn’t a favorite (just one backbend into a split would have had more impact, in my humble opinion). Kylie is always serving body on the runway, but I appreciate the variety in silhouettes in style.
  7. Oh, Jan. You lucked out this week with that part, but I’m worried about the future. She really can’t see that thing everyone else — fans, the judges, the other queens — sees. (I mean, we’ve all been there.) The first step to recovery is acceptance, though, and I’m not sure the high-stakes setting of the competition is the place to find that sort of clarity. It seems like we’re in for another couple weeks watching her fight off a Janyeurism trying to balance authenticity and “funk.”
  8. As much as I didn’t want it to be true, it was A’Keria‘s week to go. Too many weeks in the bottom, too many struggles in the challenges. The runways are all so good, but it still bears stating that A’Keria regularly manages to still stand out. She just doesn’t have the theatricality of folks like Ginger, Pandora, Eureka, Jan, etc.

How would you rank the queens?

Catch up with all our RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars coverage.

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]]>100Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:42:13 +0000Hollywood Skin Doc–and Home Flipper–Alex Khadavi Threatens to Kill Gay Couple In Homophobic Screed Caught on A Lobby Cam; Acquired by TMZ: WATCHhttps://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/hollywood-skin-doc%E2%80%93and-home-flipper%E2%80%93alex-khadavi-threatens-to-kill-gay-couple-in-homophobic-screed-caught-on-a-lobby-cam-acquired-by-tmz-watch-r99/
alex khadavi
Dr. Alex Khadavi

Dr. Alex Khadavi, dermatologist to the stars, gave his history of homophobia a glow up threatening to kill a gay couple living in his condo complex during a homophobic rant caught on video.

According to TMZ, Khadavi unleashed a stream of homophobic slurs directed at his gay married neighbors while verbally assaulting the front desk concierge of his West Hollywood condo complex on July 7. His comments turned violent when he threatened to shoot and kill the couple, who were not present during the incident, saying he would “blow their fucking heads off.” The verbal bashing continued after he returned from taking his dog outside.

An incident two months earlier made Khadavi’s threats much more serious. The concierge reported Khadavi brandished a handgun while taking his dog for a walk in May, showing it off to the concierge.

The whole ordeal was captured on the lobby’s security system and the video is now public after being acquired by TMZ.

The couple filed for a restraining order against Khadavi after being made aware of his threats by the concierge, saying they were in fear for their lives. Khadavi hasn’t commented publicly on the incident.

This isn’t the first time Khadavi has used homophobic and xenophobic language while making death threats against members of underrepresented communities. “Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles” stars Matt and Josh Altman were granted a restraining order against Khadavi in 2016 after reportedly harassing the brothers with racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic tirades.

No stranger to the media, It was just a few months ago, May of this year, that Dr. Khadavi was featured in a huge Wall Street Journal story that started out,

“It could only happen in Los Angeles: Celebrity cosmetic doctors are getting into the megamansion-building business.

The latest entrant to the market is Alex Khadavi, a 48-year-old dermatologist known for everything from Botox to buttock-enhancement procedures as well as for a clientele that has included singer Lance Bass and actor David Hasselhoff. Dr. Khadavi is listing his recently completed Bel-Air megamansion for $87.777 million, making it one of the highest-priced properties to have gone on the market in recent months.”

Cosmetic Surgeons Are Building L.A. Megamansions, and the Results Are Over-the-Top
Celebrity dermatologist Dr. Alex Khadavi is listing his 21,000-square-foot Bel-Air property, which includes space to show off your NFT artwork, as well as a DJ booth, an outdoor tequila bar and a car museum,
By Katherine Clarke, Wall Street Journal

The Altman brothers, who are Jewish, also claimed that Khadavi told Matt Altman that he wanted to kill him and that he “hated all Jews” to his face at a party.

Along with having a number of celebrity clients, including out singer Lance Bass, Khadavi himself has become a celebrity of sorts in the way that only Los Angeles-based cosmetic dermatologists can. He has made multiple TV appearances endorsing various products and cosmetic procedures and has a YouTube Channel called “Keeping. Up With Khadavi”

Alex Khadavi Homophobia: Previously on Towleroad

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]]>99Thu, 22 Jul 2021 20:56:19 +0000Trans Model Leyna Bloom Makes History With Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover; ‘I’m Proudly Choosing To Live Forever’https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/trans-model-leyna-bloom-makes-history-with-sports-illustrated-swimsuit-cover-%E2%80%98i%E2%80%99m-proudly-choosing-to-live-forever%E2%80%99-r98/
trans model
Leyna Bloom

History makes it way to the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue this year as model and actress Leyna Bloom will become the first out trans model to appear on the popular annual’s cover. Bloom was already set to be included in the issue, becoming the first trans woman of color and second trans woman ever to do so, but news came Monday that she will be one of three solo cover models for 2021’s installment. She joins rapper Meg Thee Stallion and tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Bloom commented on the accomplishment on Instagram, saying, “This moment heals a lot of pain in the world. We deserve this moment; we have waited millions of years to show up as survivors and be seen as full humans filled with wonder.”

“I’m am so happy, honored, and humbled to share that I’m the 1st trans woman to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Bloom added. “I have dreamt a million beautiful dreams, but for girls like me, most dreams are just fanciful hopes in a world that often erases and omits our history and even existence. This moment is so powerful because it allows me to live forever even after my physical form is gone. Not a lot of people get to live in the future, so at this moment, I’m proudly choosing to live forever.”

Bloom joins fellow non-cis models Valentina Sampaio, the first trans model to appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, and Lewis Freese, the first assigned male at birth nonbinary model to reach the finals of Sports Illustrated’s Swim Search.

Gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated’s most popular issue is just the latest in a long line of accomplishments for Bloom. She translated her prowess walking ‘Face’ in the historically trans BIPOC world of ballroom into a successful modeling career, working with companies like Dior, Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger and H&M. Bloom also entered the acting world with the film “Port Authority,” the first film to debut at the Cannes Film Festival to feature a trans woman of color in a leading role.

“Many girls like us don’t have the chance to live our dreams, or to live long at all. I hope my cover empowers those, who are struggling to be seen, feel valued,” she added.

“Let me be a messenger guiding us to a future of respect and appreciation for all women in all forms and from all walks of life.”

Leyna Bloom on her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover

Bloom also got the chance to honor her roots by appearing in a recurring role during the third and final season of Ryan Murphy’s powerful depiction of ballroom culture “Pose” as Pretentia Khan. Bloom invoked her time in ballroom again when announcing the cover. “I dedicate this cover to all ballroom femme queens past, present and future. This historical moment is important to #girlslikeus because it allows us to live and be seen,” Bloom said.

“Many girls like us don’t have the chance to live our dreams, or to live long at all. I hope my cover empowers those, who are struggling to be seen, feel valued,” she added. “Let me be a messenger guiding us to a future of respect and appreciation for all women in all forms and from all walks of life.”

Trans Model: Previously on Towleroad

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]]>98Thu, 22 Jul 2021 19:04:21 +0000Arkansas Trans Law Blocked. Federal Judge Stops Ban on Transgender Youth Treatment From Taking Effect Until Lawsuit Resolved.https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/arkansas-trans-law-blocked-federal-judge-stops-ban-on-transgender-youth-treatment-from-taking-effect-until-lawsuit-resolved-r97/
 
Published by
AFP
 
Arkansas Trans Law Blocked
Dylan Brandt (L) and Brooke Dennis are two of the Arkansas minors in the lawsuit that temporarily blocked a law denying transgender minors access to hormonal treatments or surgical operations

Washington (AFP) – A US federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a law in the state of Arkansas that denies transgender minors access to hormonal treatments or surgical operations.

Judge James Moody in federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas granted the plaintiffs — four transgender youths, their parents and two doctors — a preliminary injunction stopping the law from coming into effect until a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the measure has been resolved.

“We are going to fight this law, as far and as long as we need to, to make sure that no young person in Arkansas has to worry about losing their medical care,” said attorney Chase Strangio of the powerful American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The law, which had been set to go into effect on July 28, forbids any medical professional from providing treatment to minors who do not recognize themselves by their biological sex, or from referring them to other specialists.

To approve the measure, lawmakers in this southern US state — known as a stronghold of Christian conservatives — had to overcome the veto of Governor Asa Hutchinson, who said the measure was an overreach by authorities.

The law’s authors claimed the measure was aimed at protecting young people from a choice they might regret later, even if hormonal treatments — including puberty blockers — are often reversible.

Critics said the law is part of an offensive by conservatives against transgender people, and would have deprived young people of the care that allows them to thrive.

“We have seen the benefits of this health care first hand. Our children are suffering. And with this care, they have a level of hope and happiness, we’ve ever seen,” said Joanna Brandt, speaking after the hearing with her son Dylan standing at her side.

“We are no different than any other parent in Arkansas. We love our kids, we want them to grow up healthy loved and safe.”

Arkansas Trans Law Blocked previously on Towleroad

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]]>97Thu, 22 Jul 2021 14:57:36 +0000Want More Thirst Traps On Your Instagram Feed? The New ‘Sensitive’ Content Tool Lets You ‘Loosen’ Restrictions. (Or ‘Tighten’)https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/want-more-thirst-traps-on-your-instagram-feed-the-new-%E2%80%98sensitive%E2%80%99-content-tool-lets-you-%E2%80%98loosen%E2%80%99-restrictions-or-%E2%80%98tighten%E2%80%99-r96/
 
Published by
AFP
 
instagram
Facebook-owned Instagram is adding user tools for filtering inappropriate content on the social network

San Francisco (AFP) – Instagram on Tuesday added a way for users to adjust how tightly they want to filter out violent or sexually suggestive posts while they explore the image-centric social network.

A new “Sensitive Content Control” option at Facebook-owned Instagram lets people adjust whether they want to see more or fewer posts that some may find unpleasant or untasteful, according to a post.

“You can think of sensitive content as posts that don’t necessarily break our rules, but could potentially be upsetting to some people – such as posts that may be sexually suggestive or violent,” the Instagram team said.

The new tool applies to an exploration tool that recommends content users might find interesting at the image-centric social network.

People can stick with the default limit on sensitive posts, or opt to tighten or loosen the restriction.

“One exception to this: the Allow option will not be available to people under 18,” Instagram noted.

The filtering option comes as social networks remain under pressure to thwart abusive or misleading posts while allowing people to freely express themselves.

You can think of sensitive content as posts that don’t necessarily break our rules, but could potentially be upsetting to some people – such as posts that may be sexually suggestive or violent.

Instagram

Instagram previously on Towleroad

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]]>96Thu, 22 Jul 2021 14:26:13 +0000U.S. Extends Severe Travel Restrictions On Land Border Crossings to Canada, Mexico Through Aug. 21https://www.companyofmen.org/news/gay-news/us-extends-severe-travel-restrictions-on-land-border-crossings-to-canada-mexico-through-aug-21-r95/
Published by
Reuters
 
travel restrictions

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21, the U.S. Homeland Security Department said on Wednesday.

The 30-day extension came after Canada announced Monday it will start allowing fully-vaccinated U.S. visitors into the country on Aug. 9 for non-essential travel after the COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented 16-month ban that many businesses complained was crippling them.

One difficult question for the Biden administration is whether it would follow Canada’s lead and require all visitors to be vaccinated for COVID-19 before entering the United States, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The White House plans a new round of high-level meetings to discuss the travel restrictions and the potential of mandating COVID-19 vaccines, but no decisions have been made, the sources said.

In early June, the White House launched interagency working groups with the European Union, Britain, Canada, and Mexico to look at how to eventually to lift restrictions.

Businesses in Canada and the United States, particularly the travel and airline industries, pushed for an end to restrictions on non-essential travel between the two countries, which were imposed in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.

Since then, the land border has been closed to all non-essential travel. However, the United States has allowed Canadians to fly in, while Canada has not allowed Americans to do the same.

The United States has continued to extend the restrictions on Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis since March 2020.

Airlines and others have urged the administration to lift restrictions covering most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in Britain, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

CDC Travel Page

CDC Travel Advisory Page

Travel Restrictions previously on Towleroad

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]]>95Thu, 22 Jul 2021 13:34:05 +0000