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Published by Chicago Tribune SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Saturday approved a measure that would allow firearm retailers or manufacturers to be sued for marketing guns to people under 18 and promoting other improper marketing ploys geared toward the sale of weapons. The bill was signed a day after Pritzker and his Democratic allies in the Illinois General Assembly scored a close victory when the state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, voted to uphold the state’s ban on certain high-powered guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Pritzker and other elected officials discussed the gun marketing liability l… Read More View the full article

[This post contains video, click to play] Amazon’s adaptation of “Red White and Royal Blue” has been released, sparking various reactions from critics and audiences alike. The film tells the story of a gay romance between the son of the U.S. President and the grandson of the King of England, with Taylor Zakhar Perez playing Alex Claremont-Diaz and Nicholas Galitzine portraying Prince Henry of England, as reported by Daily Mail. The film also introduces the character of Nora, replacing June Claremont-Diaz from the original novel, according to We Got This Covered. Mixed Reviews from Critics and Audiences The film’s reception has been mixed. The Guardian criticized the film for its blandness and formulaic approach, while Greg In Hollywood praised the lead actors, stating, “Their chemistry is palpable, and they make a stunning on-screen couple.” Mashable described the film as “a Hallmark movie but with a gay love story,” and DIVA Magazine expressed, “The sensual scenes are beautifully crafted, leaving viewers both in tears and in awe of the portrayal of LGBTQ relationships.” Matthew López’s Vision and Approach Director Matthew López emphasized humor, authenticity, and a fresh perspective on queer cinema, telling Advocate.com, “We wanted to create a film that speaks to the heart of the LGBTQ community, without losing the universal appeal of love and acceptance.” Creative Choices: Differences Between Book and Movie The adaptation includes key changes from the book, such as the introduction of the character Nora, as reported by We Got This Covered. Them.us highlighted seven differences between the book and the movie, including character and plot alterations. Varied Reactions to Sensual and Controversial Scenes The film’s sensual scenes have garnered varied reactions. Daily Mail readers were left in tears by a “perfect sensual sex scene” between the British prince and the President’s son. OMG.BLOG cheekily commented, “Taylor Zakhar Perez bares it all, and we’re here for it!” Just Jared quoted the lead actors discussing their chemistry: “We clicked instantly, and that connection translated on-screen.” More on Towleroad about Gay Film and Romance: Gay Film Archives – Towleroad Romance Film Archives – Towleroad Gay News Film/TV/Stream Archives – Towleroad Gay News View the full article

Published by Reuters UK KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia on Thursday banned Swatch Group's watches and accessories celebrating LGBTQ rights, saying the Swiss watchmaker's products may be harmful to morality and public interest. Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and rights groups have warned of growing intolerance against the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. Malaysia has jailed or caned people for homosexuality. In May, Malaysia confiscated rainbow-coloured watches from Swatch's ‘Pride collection' because of the presence of the acronym ‘LGBTQ' on the watch… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday denounced the World Bank's decision to suspend new funding in response to a harsh anti-LGBTQ law and vowed to find alternative sources of credit. The country would have to revise its budget to absorb the move's potential impact, a junior finance minister said. The World Bank said on Tuesday that the law, which imposes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, contradicted its values and that it would pause new funding until it could test measures to prevent discrimination in projects it finances. The Worl… Read More View the full article

Published by Al-Araby Blockbuster film Barbie has been banned by Kuwait in a bid to “protect” its “ethics and social traditions,” state media reported Wednesday. Official news agency KUNA quoted a spokesperson for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information as saying that the film “promulgates ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order.” Elsewhere in the Gulf, dozens of MPs in Bahrain have called for a ban on the film, which starts Australian actress Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie and Canadian actor Ryan Gosling as Ken. According to the Bahraini newspaper Al-Watan, 32 deputies issued a stat… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Many of the most far-right House Republicans truly believe the propaganda and extremism that they promote – in stark contact to other for whom it's just an act to get votes, a former RNC researched said Thursday. In an interview on the Aaron Rupar Show, Justin Higgans argued the true far-right believers — who have lately been causing fractures and divisions among GOP power caucuses — often end up tanking their own careers with their own inability to compromise. “A lot of Tea Party members, a lot of House Freedom Caucus members — that includes Ron DeSantis, he was one of those folks — don't bel… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -A conservative legal group on Wednesday urged a U.S. anti-discrimination agency to investigate Kellogg Co over workplace diversity policies that it says are unlawful, and accused the cereal maker of sexualizing its products. This is the second complaint filed this week against a company by America First Legal, a nonprofit run by Stephen Miller, who was an adviser to then-President Donald Trump. America First in a letter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said Kellogg's hiring, training and promotion practices are designed to achieve a balan… Read More View the full article

Published by Chicago Tribune Five minutes into “Passages,” a scene from a marriage takes a casually fateful turn, and one of the year's best films is off and running to destinations unknown. Late at night, a noisy Paris bistro is hosting a party for a film crew's recent completion of a feature. The director, a live-wire German emigre named Tomas, wants to dance. His reticent English husband Martin, sitting somewhat wearily at the bar, declines; the woman sitting next to Martin, French schoolteacher Agathe, volunteers. Eighty minutes later, director and co-writer Ira Sachs' sexual triangle comes to a perfectly judged concl… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story GREENSBORO, N.C. — An avowed white nationalist who openly supports Russia is a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, recently served in the North Carolina Army National Guard and worked for a local sheriff's office as a detention officer, according to a Raw Story investigation. Christopher Woodall, 34, of Winston-Salem, N.C., has a long history of activism in the white power movement that coincided with his service in the U.S. military and government work. In an interview this week with Raw Story, Woodall acknowledged that he is the author of texts that promote a “white nationalist training group,… Read More View the full article

Published by The Street By Tony Owusu It might be a busy latter part of the year for the Bud Light boycotters. The momentum from the group's successful campaign against the Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) – Get Free Report beer brand after it supposedly “went woke” — even though Bud Light has had multiple pro-LGBTQ advertisements and initiatives in the past — is to carry their political activism to a new target. Best Buy (BBY) – Get Free Report, the national electronics retail chain, now has a target on its back after O'Keefe Media Group published pictures of an application for a minority management program. DON'T MISS:… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Washington (AFP) – The American Red Cross on Monday announced it will now allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood without restrictions that specifically target them over their sexual orientation. “The Red Cross celebrates this historic move as significant progress and remains committed to achieving an inclusive blood donation process that treats all potential donors with equality and respect while maintaining the safety of the blood supply,” the humanitarian organization said in a statement. The policy change follows updated guidance announced by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story The wife of a Republican state lawmaker in Arkansas has made herself the unofficial monitor of her neighbors' Little Free Libraries. Arkansas Times reports that Jennifer Meeks, the wife of Arkansas State Rep. Stephen Meeks, posted on Facebook recently about her efforts to remove “terrible books” from local Little Free Libraries and replace them with Bibles. “I have been swapping out books in little free libraries for awhile,” she wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month. “I have seen good books, terrible books… Recently I have been picking up free Bibles at flea markets and thrift stores…. Read More View the full article

Published by Benzinga Bud Light received mixed reactions after partnering with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April. But renowned podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan still enjoys the brew. In a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, he cracked open a can of Bud Light with country music star Zach Bryan. “And we're drinking Bud Lights, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry. There's nothing wrong with it,” Rogan said. “People are so silly. We were just talking about silliness. One person made a really stupid decision, and now everybody's decided that Bud Light is the enemy. But that's like thi… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Noah Schnapp says his family already knew he was gay by the time he came out. The 18-year-old actor publicly revealed his sexuality in January, after his ‘Stranger Things' character Will Byers did the same thing on the Netflix show. He told Variety magazine in an interview done before the actors' and writers' strike that has brought Hollywood to a standstill: “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was, ‘We know.'” When asked if he's thought about dating, Noah said: “I'm just enjoying life, and if someone comes by, th… Read More View the full article

Published by uInterview.com Wayne Brady officially came out as pansexual on Monday. “I am pansexual,” Brady, who is currently the host of CBS's TV show Let's Make A Deal, told People magazine in an interview. He added, “Bisexual – with an open mind!” Brady first shared his news with his ex-wife Mandie Taketa, who was glad for him. She told the magazine that his coming out would allow him to be happier. In light of this news, Brady has said he is excited to see what he will do next in life and that he has done research about being pansexual, which means that he does not base his attraction to people on their sex or gend… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Joe Locke has called on fans to respect his “boundaries” after one called his grandma. The ‘Heartstopper' actor – who plays Charlie Spring in the Netflix young adult drama – admitted he feels a “weird guilt” that his position in the public eye has led to his family members receiving unwanted attention, with his mum having to set up new social media accounts due to strangers trying to message her or track her location, and he wants to put firm lines in place. Reflecting on his mother's online hassle and the call to his grandma, he told Teen Vogue magazine: “It's a weird guilt I sometimes feel t… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News PHILADELPHIA — At the Met on Tuesday morning, as Vanessa Bell Armstrong’s “Nobody But Jesus” echoed through the former opera house, Onederful Ancrum danced in memory of her friend O’Shae Sibley. As she fought back tears, Ancrum glided gracefully across the floor, then darted forward powerfully, as if carried by gusts of wind in front of the indigo coffin that held the body of her friend. One moment she drifted upward. The next, she tumbled to the ground. Then she clasped her hands together as she stood side by side with a banner emblazoned with the image of Sibley, both dancers in arabesque. I… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Joseph Ax (Reuters) -Ohio voters on Tuesday rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it harder to amend the state constitution, an initiative aimed at helping defeat a November referendum that would protect abortion access in the state. The results in the special election were a crucial victory for abortion rights advocates, who would have faced the daunting prospect of securing a super-majority of voters this fall if the measure had passed. The proposal, known as Issue 1, would have lifted the threshold for passing future changes to the state constitution to 60% of voters,… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Republican pundits' attempts to attack the “Barbie” movie have flopped, with the film not only smashing box office records, but data showing it's a particularly big hit in red states. Now, Fox News is changing course and, in a new article, is trying to cast “Barbie” as a conservative role model. The plot of the film shows Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, faced with a choice of whether to remain in Barbie Land, or set off into the real world and face the problems of being a real person. “Some conservative women defend the film, with one commenter calling it a ‘delightfully fresh critique of mod… Read More View the full article

Published by The Royal Observer The tomboy who climbed onto the roof of Queen’s Gate boarding school for girls in London’s tony South Kensington to smoke cigarettes with her friends in 1960 was never short of company. While her pals gossiped about boys and horses, young Camilla Rosemary Shand, known as Milla, had some much more scandalous stories to tell. Who else could boast that her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was the official mistress of Britain’s King Edward VII? And what irony it would prove to be that Alice met Edward VII at a dinner party in 1898, when he was still the Prince of Wales before being crowned King. S… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story A pair of Black bikers in Michigan say they were chased down and harassed by a woman who proclaimed she had “white privilege,” The Daily Beast reported on Friday. According to Muskegon residents Darius Bankhead Sr. and James Grisham, they were riding their motorcycles to Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Festival, when a woman in a Jeep started tailing them, honking aggressively and flipping them off. Then, when they pulled into a parking lot to try to get a picture of her license plate, she followed them, parked in a handicapped spot, then got in their faces and started yelling. Video footage o… Read More View the full article

Published by The Street By Daniel Kline Las Vegas welcomes everyone. Sin City offers pretty much every form of entertainment imaginable in an attempt to serve as many audiences as possible. On the Las Vegas Strip, for example, Caesars Entertainment (CZR) – Get Free Report hosts a topless revue set to country music at Harrah's while “Ru Paul's Drag Race” has a longstanding engagement next door at Flamingo. DON'T MISS: A Las Vegas Strip Tradition People Loved Moves Closer to Its End No matter what you like to do, whom you love, or how you choose to spend your time, Las Vegas has what you want. What the Strip has not ha… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters (Reuters) – A 17-year-old male has been charged with murder as a hate crime in the stabbing death in New York City of a man who was dancing at a gas station when confronted by a group hurling anti-gay and anti-Black slurs, a police official said on Saturday. The death on July 29 of O'Shae Sibley, a 28-year-old professional dancer who was dancing to a Beyonce song when confronted by the suspect, outraged the LGBT community and prompted Beyonce and film director Spike Lee to pay tribute to him. Sibley was dancing with friends while refueling their car when they were approached by a group of male… Read More View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) Country music fans are picking sides as two of the genre's biggest singers have released music videos that have radically different views on how the country music scene should be depicted. The controversy surrounding Jason Aldean's song ‘Try That in a Small Town' didn't make headlines until the release of the accompanying music video this past month. The video shows Aldean and his band in front of a brightly lit white courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. The square where the video was filmed was later revealed to be the site of race riots back in 1946 and a 1927 lynching. While Aldean sings warn… Read More View the full article

Published by uPolitics.com Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed two bills banning conversion therapy for minors in the state. These measures make Michigan the 22nd state to forbid the practice. Conversion therapy is any attempt to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to align with homosexual and cisgender norms. A ban on the use of federal and state funds for the practice was put in place by Whitmer in 2021. One of the bills passed prohibits mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. Any violation of this law will result in the professiona… Read More View the full article