Madonna’s Biopic Plans

Madonna recently announced on Insta that she’s working on a biopic with Diablo Cody. And it sounds as if she’s not holding back in some cases. In the excerpt below they’re talking about the movie, Evita. 

When a fan asked her if Webber was “nice,” Madonna replied, “No, he wasn’t. He was not nice to me. I’m not sure he even wanted me in the movie. Thank God, Alan Parker did.” 

Here’s more.   I remember when Madonna was up for that role of Evita. It was big pop culture news at the time. I’m also glad Madonna is doing this biopic, and I hope she’s going to keep it real. Because if she doesn’t do this project now, they’re going to do it for her eventually, and it’s really her story to tell. 

Saunas, Sex Clubs, and Street Fights

Sunil Gupta has an interesting new photo series out with a strong emphasis on gay culture. And I think it looks fascinating. 

That didn’t happen, and his five-decade career – the subject of From Here to Eternity, a new retrospective at the Photographers’ Gallery in London – sheds light on where he’s from and who he became, while partially telling the story of gay liberation, from the bars of Christopher Street, Manhattan’s gay mecca, to the newly empowered young professionals in south-east Asia.

You can check it out, here. There are several photos at the link I found amazing. True 70s gay culture, and gay history.  Most of us know nothing about this. They also talk about his HIV and social issues. It’s really a very good read. 

 New Book 

Black Owned Gay Bars Are Slowly Disappearing

This seems to be a trend everywhere. Gay bars all over the world have been shuttering and I’m not sure there’s anything anyone can do about it. It’s not just in the US either. It’s global. You really can’t blame it totally on COVID either. There’s been such a strong societal shift in the last decade or so I don’t ever see us going back to the way things once were. I just didn’t know about these statistics.  

The closures have had a disproportionate impact on bars catering to women and people of color: Between 2007 and 2019, LGBTQ bar listings dropped by an estimated 37 percent, and those serving people of color plummeted by almost 60 percent, according to the study. 

There’s more to read, here.  It’s a very long and fascinating article that gets into much more detail. They even talk about the history of black owned gay bars. 

 New Book 

Ryan Murphy, Straight People and Gay Camp, Stephen King’s Tweet About Ratched

I just finished watching another Ryan Murphy series for Netflix and I loved it. This one is called Ratched and it’s based on an exaggerated, campy version of a character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The character, Nurse Ratched, has been a campy gay reference for years. I think you have to be gay to know that. In other words, it’s a character that’s larger than life and it’s consciously artificial. It’s very much like the gay romance novels I’ve been writing for over ten years now, with titles like Sleepless in San Francisco and When Harry Met Sal, and even An Officer and HIS Gentleman. All parody, all exaggerated, and all meant to be campy in the way all gay men can understand and appreciate. 

However, not all straights can appreciate good old fashioned camp. In fact, I don’t think most even know what camp is. Author Stephen King tweeted this out yesterday and some of the responses he got were adorable. The straights really don’t know. I’m not sure what King was thinking, but the responses he got were interesting. 

One straight person actually said this:

I feel like the show is creating a Ratched character that is different from the film. Ratched isn’t the villain of the film, McMurphy is.

Huzzah!! They happen to be absolutely correct, but sadly they don’t understand why. That happened to me with a book once. The book blogger/reviewer slammed me with all the right comments only she didn’t know what the hell she was talking about because she was a straight women who didn’t know the first thing about gay culture. You can’t review a gay book based on what you know from Will and His Grace. Here’s a link to that review. I think that reviewer is dead now and I’m still here to write about it and record it, so I truly have no hard feelings. May she rest in eternal peace. I can’t get mad at someone for not knowing something. And it really would have been a perfect review if she’d only understood gay camp and gay culture. It still makes me smile to this day. 

Of course, some of the hetero responses with regard to gay camp can also be snarky and mean. I know that feeling well with my own books and reviews. Whenever I parody something from the mainstream straight world there are always a few straight readers who do not understand gay culture or camp, and they will go after me with ruthless reviews. But it is what it is, and I’ve learned to overlook it. It’s going to take a long, long time to work this one out. Most straight people think being gay is only about sex.  

But I do recommend watching Ratched. I loved it for many reasons, but mostly for the camp. 

You can check out Ratched, here

And this is the link to King’s Tweet, if you’re interested. 

 New Book 

 PEN15 Authentic Gay Teen Story On TV

This new show on TV looks interesting. PEN15 is an American cringe comedy on Hulu. It’s supposed to be an authentic depiction of all the ups and downs of middle school in the early 2000s. There’s a gay teen story line that looks really good. 

Watching Gabe struggle with his sexuality in the new season of PEN15, I felt like I was watching my younger self onscreen — and I’m not alone.

Here’s the link to read more.  Coming to terms with being gay for any kid is never easy. I remember a lot of denial that seemed to last forever. Once you finally accept who you are there’s really no turning back. And that turns out to be a good thing, but no one ever believes that at the time. And, unlike other gay content out there, this was written by someone named Josh Levine who is telling this story through many of his own personal experiences growing up in Florida. 

I’m going to check it out. 

 New Book 

Don’t Be Afraid of Virginia’s Woolf

Once Upon a Castle by Ryan Field

A Different Kind of Southern Love Story

What readers are saying about “Uncertainty”

Amazon

“A wonderful story that I loved. The characters were well developed, and strong. Gus: A sweet young man. Doing something for all the wrong reasons. Craig: his boyfriend, he’ll go along with anything Gus say. Henry: Gus father a no nonsense man, who’s husband died last year. I enjoyed this story.”

What readers said about “Altered Parts”

“Best Gay Novel In Years. This story will stay with you and you will feel you know every character and the beauty of their home in the mountains of North Carolina.”

In paperback or e-book. #gayromance #Wednesday

Altered Parts

The Homophobic Lindsey Graham Video All Over Twitter the Straights Are Loving

I’m always amazed when I see gay people supporting toxic, homophobic straights just because these toxic homophobic straights claim to be allies. While they claim to be allies, they are slamming us with either passive aggressive homophobia or blatant homophobia. Some do it because they don’t know any better. They think they know everything there is to know about gay people from watching Will and his Grace, and some do it because they were born with such a strong sense of straight privilege they believe they can do whatever they want and we’ll let them get away with it. And some of us do let them get away with it. But not all of us. Not me. 

With that said, there’s nasty video going around about Lindsey Graham. I’m not a Lindsey Graham supporter and I really don’t care if he wins the next election or not. I don’t even know that much about Graham, because that’s how far off he is from my personal radar. But I did see the nasty video, and I saw the snide homophobic insinuations. I’ve seen other homophobic references to Graham and it amazes me how this is not getting more attention. I even took screen shots this time, which I don’t usually do. 

Here’s a link to the video. I’m not posting it here. If you’re on Twitter you can check it out, here. 

In short, the video jokes about how Graham is losing funding, which is fine. I don’t care if he goes broke. But then they go on to mention Graham eating a hot dog, and he’s licking his lips and making a strange face with this tongue, and it’s a clear homophobic reference to gay men in general. 

And the straights are having a blast laughing at the gay jokes. It’s amazing to watch. If this were any other marginalized group being treated this way, they would never get away with it. They would burn on Twitter. 

Here are the screen shots. It’s just a few, and I just chose these at random, but there are many, many more from other people just like this…or worse. And what really bothers me is that as a liberal Democrat I didn’t know I was supposed to be homophobic, too.  

 New Book 

Iran Is THE MOST Dangerous Country For Gay Travelers

I love how so many straight people who consider themselves supporters talk about how wonderful places like Iran are. These are the straight white people who claim to be for equality but fail to realize their own sense of privilege…and how that privilege does not extend to marginalized groups with regard to travel.

With that said, gay people do not always have the same privileges straight people have when they are traveling. And we are always highly aware and cautious about our surroundings when we travel. Even when traveling here in the US.

Here’s why I don’t think Iran is such a wonderful country or culture.

The finance website Insider Monkey listed the Islamic Republic of Iran as the most dangerous country for gay travelers following the regime’s execution of a man last year based on an anti-gay law.

…Iran’s clerical regime has executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the country’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

 The Best Male Full Frontal Nudity In Movies For 2019 Award

Once again, I haven’t posted about male full frontal nudity in films lately because it’s not there. I see a lot of female full frontal, but not so much male. And that’s a shame because people want to see this double standard go away. 

With that said, this article is about an award that’s given to the best male full frontal nudity. I didn’t even know an award like this existed. But there are multiple categories that range from Best Full Frontal to Best Uncut Cock. (Yes, straight women, we love uncut penis and we don’t like when you mutilate our bodies.)

“For years, nude scenes were primarily the domain of female actresses,” Phil Henricks of Mr. Man said in a release.  “That has been changing as each year there are more scenes and actors to choose from. We are celebrating the fine actors who have the balls (pun intended) to go naked.” 

Here’s more. They give a whole run down with each category, and Ryan O’Connell’s sex scene in Special…A TV show that I LOVE…won best gay scene. 

 New Book 

The Dumb, Ridiculous Questions that Bisexual People Have to Endure

I’m a firm believer in the fact that I don’t HAVE to do anything. So that’s why I worded the headline of this post the way I did. Bisexual people don’t HAVE to answer any questions, but they do have to endure a good deal of idiocy. In other words, if you’re bisexual you don’t have to answer stupid questions but you can’t stop an idiot from asking them.

Sexuality isn’t and shouldn’t be a performance, yet bisexuals often feel they have to reaffirm their identities constantly to themselves and others to be seen as valid.

Here’s the rest. It’s actually a video, and it’s adorable. 

And remember, you don’t HAVE to do anything. 

 New Book 

 45% Gay Men Supporting Trump, and He Applauds Them

I never get into anything political here for two reasons. One, I’m not that interested in politics. I care more about individual issues…like gay marriage. And two, I don’t want to be accused of bias. I like to keep this web site and my books objective at all times. In short, I’m not supposed to be commenting about politics. It’s just not my thing. 

With that said, I do find this interesting. I will admit that I’m a registered Democrat and I have been all my life, and I know a lot of gay men in real life who are also registered Democrats. So I find this 45% number hard to believe. I’m not knocking any gay Republicans or Trump supporters. I’m not slamming them. I’m not that kind of Democrat. I just don’t think there are that many gay people supporting Trump. Of course I could be wrong, though. 

The global results found Trump trailing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, 34 percent to 66 percent, but when breaking out the 1,200 respondents who reported being U.S. citizens, the difference went from 32 points to 6, Trump at 45 percent and Biden 51 percent.

Here’s the rest. Frankly, I think it’s more like 25%. I do come into contact with gay people who support Trump, but just not that many. And these lines are very clearly drawn.

 New Book 

Should People Be Allowed to be Gay

Here’s a link to a story where a BBC journalist named Christian Fraser asked the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, if people should be allowed to be gay. Here’s part of her her reply:

Mottley continued: “I think that is a most inappropriate question as to whether a person should be ‘allowed’ to be gay.

“I think the question is, should we discriminate against people because they’re gay? And we will not.”

There’s more here. I think she replied well, but there are a few other things I’m not thrilled about. For example, they’ve decided to put gay marriage to a vote by the people. And that bothers me. Why should my life as a gay person be decided by the opinions and feelings of straight people who know nothing about gay people? That’s just wrong. It was wrong when they did it in Australia and it’s wrong now. How would the straights like it if gay people started making fundamental decisions about their lives?

I’m not a big fan of civil unions. I believe in total equality, which includes legal gay marriage. And don’t put that to a vote. Just do it.