Category: Ian Reisner

Paris Is Buring Sparks Outrage; Ted Cruz, Again; Rob Lowe’s Hot Dadbod

Paris Is Burning Cultural Appropriation

First, if you don’t know, this is what Paris Is Burning is about:

Paris Is Burning is a 1990 American documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it. The film is considered to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City drag balls, and critics have praised it as a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America.

I’ve seen it and I thought it was interesting. But at the time I saw it I didn’t know that back story about appropriation.

The movie’s director, Jennie Livingston, and musician/artist JD Samson were invited to join in the screening as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! events, and many were upset that no queer and trans people of color or representatives from the thriving ballroom community that the film documents were asked to participate.

However, it’s much more complicated. The documentary recently sparked more outrage and this time it’s all about cultural appropriation. I’ve posted about that here on the blog many times.

Jennie Livingston argues that point and she looks at it this way:

Livingston defends her outsider status as such: “I’m white, yes, but I’m an openly queer, female director, and I can’t think of anything more out of the mainstream. I’m sorry, but I do not think I have the same relationship to the ruling class as a straight man,” and she certainly has a point.

To a certain extent, she does have a point. However, why isn’t she making documentaries about openly queer females that get this kind of attention? I think that’s a valid question. Could it be that there’s more to exploit and sensationalize with her subject matter in Paris Is Burning? I don’t know the answer to that particular question but I am tired of seeing certain kinds of appropriation.


Change.org has actually started a petition to stop the screening of Paris Is burning in Brooklyn:

While Jennie Livingston and Mirimax [sic] profited immensely off of this anthropological foray into the lives of low-income TQPOC ballroom members, through years of lies and dishonesty, Livingston was able to use people for the sake of her own fame and has been living off of their stories ever since. In the meantime, most of the original cast has been murdered or has died in poverty. This is exploitation of a vulnerable population who trusted Jennie to do right by them.

There’s more here, and the debate goes on with more replies from Livingston and BRIC.

I think one of my biggest issues with all this is that they didn’t invite any of the people that were associated with the whole subject of the documentary as representatives. And this is something I find all the time with any kind of cultural appropriation. Those who are appropriating seem to either overlook, or purposely silence, the minorities from the actual culture. It’s a quiet, passive aggressive brand of dismissal I’m starting to see happen more and more from those who come from a place of privilege.

We have a very long, long way to go. I just wish more people in the LGBT community knew more about cultural appropriation and how to deal with it when they see it. It’s not always out there in your face.

Ted Cruz, Again

Here’s a story about Ted Cruz and more of his anti-gay marriage opinions. And, they also mention Ian Reisner…the wealthy gay guy who had a special dinner event for Cruz…my previous posts.

Less than a month has passed since Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz blew his own horn for being the ‘big picture’ kind of guy who would sit down with some gays (in their own home! we’re sure he brought plenty of purell) to discuss the issues of the day.

“I know it’s been a long time since we’ve seen it, but this is what it means to truly be a ‘big tent Republican’ instead of a panderer,” he said of his fundraising event fireside chat at the NYC penthouse of gay real estate execs Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass.

You can check out the rest here, where they go into more detail about the gay men who had the dinner event for Cruz. I hate to comment on these political things, but I wouldn’t have invited Cruz to my home. You have to set some limits, even if you are gay and conservative.

Rob Lowe’s Hot Dadbod

I find this interesting, mainly because we’ve been slamming straight men for years for objectifying women this way. On Twitter, I see vicious women in publishing slam the objectification of women and in the next tweet they objectify men without thinking twice. 

Rob Lowe, however, doesn’t seem to mind being objectified.

 I’m obsessed with this fucking thing. Did you know that I tweeted about it two weeks ago? I put it out there to my millions of followers:  Be honest with me: Do I have a dadbod? I just need to know. Because I’m not really sure what it means yet and I need to find out. They said absolutely not, although some wonderful internet sleuths found a photo of me when I was not at my finest and said, yeah, you have a dadbod. I am a dad and I have a bod. So by definition, I have a dadbod.I’m not pro or con [dadbod], but it’s great that it is a real thing. My understanding of it is [that dadbod] guys are semi-jacked but have neglected this [points to decidedly anti-dadbod stomach], is that right? My new favorite term … are you ready for this? Skinny-fat. It’s a great one. Because it’s people who look skinny but aren’t, right?  I think it’s time to start objectifying men. I think it’s time.”

I think Rob Lowe has a wonderful sense of humor…and I wouldn’t throw him or his hot dadbod out for eating crackers in bed.

You can find that here.  



Ian Reisner: Gays Are Entitled, and Cheap; Carly Fiorina Runs for President; Guy Benson Comes Out

Ian Reisner: Gays Are Entitled, and Cheap

Ian Reisner is the gay dude in NY who had a dinner event for Ted Cruz and the gay community went berserk about it…because left wing liberal gays hate Ted Cruz and his stand against equality and gay marriage. I’m not too fond of Cruz either, but for many reasons. I’ve posted twice about this. Once when the Ted Cruz dinner was disclosed, and again when Ian Reisner offered an apology. Both here.

According to this next link, Ian Reisner is now calling gays cheap and entitled. Here’s the quote in full:

“You know, it’s so ironic — I wanted to build kind of a community center in the gateway to Hell’s Kitchen, which in 2008–2009 was already a gay place and now it’s even gayer. Very close to Broadway. We decided there’d be so many different ways to give back to the community. We show gay artists there. For gay performers, we have let this cabaret club go on for three and a half years. And you don’t make money when you let drag queens in on Tuesday night and 30 people drink at $10 a drink and you have to pay five people to watch over the place. You don’t make money … My only point is, this has not been a profitable venture. Gays are cheap. They’re frugal; gays are frugal. Let me retract that … gays are entitled … Do you know how challenging it is to make a penny off a gay person? I’m gay, I don’t pay cover. I’m gay, where’s my comp drink? No, I’m being serious! The Out NYC has not shown a profit yet …”

Ugh. Do I need to state the obvious?

You can read about it here. 

Carly Fiorina Runs for President

Now that Carly Fiorina says she’s running for President it looks as if the race for President might finally get a little interesting. So far, there’s Marco Rubio on one boring side, and it’s been looking as if Hillary Clinton will take over for Barack Obama, much the same way a king will hand over the reigns of power to a queen. And that’s just not how it’s supposed to work in the US. No one is that entitled in the US. No one “deserves” to be President. I’m not taking any sides at this point. However, I was curious about where Carly Fiorina stood on gay marriage.

“It has been tough for some in the media to understand my position because I refuse to join the game of name calling and vitriol. Politics shouldn’t be a game, however. We must find a way to respect one another, to celebrate a culture that protects religious freedom while condemning discrimination,” Fiornia said.

Unlike many of her potential GOP rivals, Fiorina is unequivocal in her support of government benefits to gay couples bound by civil unions, even while stopping short of supporting gay marriage.

So far, that’s the best objective link I could come up with. There really aren’t many…objective links anymore. In short, it sounds as if she’s a centrist.

You can read the rest here. 

And this is big. Carly Fiorina is tech savvy. This means that for the first time in modern history someone is running for President who actually understands social media, e-mail, and all things tech related. If she actually does become President, maybe we won’t have to see her doing photo ops at old time brick and mortar book shops in Washington, D.C. during Christmastime. 

Guy Benson Comes Out

Most people probably don’t even realize that I changed the heading on this blog from “The Big Gay Story” to “The New Gay Story.” I did that for a reason. I’m finding more and more that a huge segment of the loudest within the gay community isn’t as open or as inclusive as I would like them to be. I think the new gay story should include all people within the LGBTI community, not just the loudest and the most political…or the biggest. We should all be thankful for the voices that have helped us get where we are, but like everything else we have to evolve and move forward, too.  

With that said, Guy Benson is a Fox news contributor, he recently came out of the closet, and the most vituperative gay presses are going for his throat as if he were guilty of throwing rotten tomatoes at Hillary Clinton and her ugly pantsuits. And even though I’m a registered Democrat, I find their tone both insulting and annoying. I also think this is a form of bullying…from the very same people who will claim they’ve been bullied all their lives. Worst of all, the whole thought process is going to backfire hugely within the next decade as “gay” becomes less political and more mainstream in every single respect.

In an interview with Buzzfeed ahead of the book’s release, he said, “Gay rights is not something that dominates my attentions or my passions,” maintaining that his gayness is less of a cultural identifier as it is purely biological.

 “That may seem incongruous, that may seem counterintuitive to a lot of people,” he said. “But the issues that I care about most undergird the reasons why I’m a conservative and have been forever and will be a conservative moving forward.”

There’s a lot more here, with commentary.

The odds are I probably wouldn’t agree with Benson on most issues, however, I’m glad he came out, I’m glad he’s vocal about his politics, and I hope more gay men like him decide it’s time for them to come out as well.

  

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Fun Story! April 30, 2015

By Jenny Chandelier

Verified Purchase

The Rainbow Detective Agency is owned by two gay men – Proctor Gamble and Blair Huntingdon. Proctor is 36 years old and was once a male swimsuit model. The case they are working on now involves a C List celebrity/model named Isaac Luke. He’s a closet gay and also has a very rare physical affliction. He has worked in the past for a designer named Lion Hewitt and has also been personally involved with him.

Isaac is kidnapped and Lion Hewitt hires The Rainbow Detective Agency to find Isaac and to keep the physical affliction from becoming public knowledge. It all turns out to be fun and games until poor Isaac finds his luck has ran completely dry!

The playful banter between Proctor and Blair was a lot of fun and they remind me of Oscar and Felix on the Odd Couple. They are passionate men so you can expect to read quite a bit of steamy scenes with these two. Both, Proctor and Blair were very excited to get acquainted with Isaac and see his special package ( so to speak).

A very fun story! It reads like a smooth dream and the characters have a lot of energy, heart, and charm.

Andrea James On Bruce Jenner’s Transition; Gay Hotelier Apologizes for Ted Cruz Dinner; The Guy With Two Penises by Ryan Field

Andrea James On Bruce Jenner’s Transition

This is one of those times I’m going to seriously practice what I preach here on the blog. I’m linking to a commentary by LGBT rights activist and transgender, Andrea James, and I’m not commenting at all on transgender issues. This is one of those times when as a gay man I can’t know, feel, or understand what transgender people go through. I can only listen, support, and try as hard as I can not to preach to other people what I don’t know, and never will know, from first hand experience.

But more than that, I’m not going to examine transgender people because I know them personally or because my best transgender friend knows them, as if they are science experiments. If I were to try to examine transgender people this way, coming from the POV of a gay man, I would be that disingenuous douchey guy who did that.

So, here’s a little background about Andrea James. 

She doesn’t come without controversy, which you can see from this article. 

And here’s the piece I’m linking to where James talks about Bruce Jenner’s transition.

This needs to be said first: Anyone who discussed Jenner’s possible transition in the media for any reason before April 24, 2015 is part of the problem. That includes trans people. The “teaching moment” could wait, the scolding of the press could wait. The mocking or slamming of Jenner for how this transition is unfolding on TV could wait. That was all just feeding the trolls, and the trans people doing it were essentially engaging in self-promotion. But now that we have an announcement, let the games begin!

This needs to be said second: Coming out as gay, lesbian, or bi can certainly be stressful and challenging, but transgender people face an extra layer of challenges because we often change our appearance, name and other fundamental ways we interact with others. If a trans person enjoyed any amount of pre-transition notability, the process is even more difficult. Arguably, no one as famous as Jenner has ever announced a gender transition, so there’s intense scrutiny not only from the press, but from the trans community concerned about what effects the announcement and upcoming reality show might have. Any trans people who think they can second-guess what Jenner should or shouldn’t do based on their own transitions under far less famous circumstances don’t know what they’re talking about.
It’s a thoughtful piece and I highly suggest reading it in full. Again, no comment from me because I just don’t feel as if I have a right to comment this time because I’m not transgender. And also because I know all too well what it’s like to have people of privilege commenting on my life as a gay man. It’s not fun, trust me.
Gay Hotelier Apologizes for Ted Cruz Dinner
I just posted about this yesterday, so all you have to do is scroll down a little on the blog. This is a follow up, which I didn’t expect so soon. 
For those who don’t feel like scrolling, Gay hotelier, Ian Reisner, issued an apology on his Facebook page after receiving backlash when it was discovered he hosted an event for anti-gay marriage advocate, Ted Cruz. As a result of the Ted Cruz event, Broadway Bares cancelled a fundraising event at a club Reisner owns, 42 West.
Here’s the apology:
  
I am shaken to my bones by the e-mails, texts, postings and phone calls of the past few days. I made a terrible mistake. I was ignorant, naive and much too quick in accepting a request to co-host a dinner with Cruz at my home without taking the time to completely understand all of his positions on gay rights. I’ve spent the past 24 hours reviewing videos of Cruz’ statements on gay marriage and I am shocked and angry. I sincerely apologize for hurting the gay community and so many of our friends, family, allies, customers and employees. I will try my best to make up for my poor judgement. Again, I am deeply sorry.”

I’m not even sure what to say about that apology. But if you have to spend 24 hours reviewing Ted Cruz’s record on gay marriage to fully understand where Ted Cruz stands, there’s probably something wrong with you. For most people it would take five minutes.

You can check out the rest here. You’ll want to read the comments, too.


In this third book in The Rainbow Detective series, Proctor and Blair take on a case that involves blackmail, kidnapping, and a handsome young guy with two perfect penises. The guy with two penises is a public personality, and the wealthy client who hires Blair and Proctor is willing to pay a huge sum of money to keep the guy’s two penises a secret.

As fascinated as Blair and Proctor are with the guy who has two penises, there are dangerous, unexpected twists in this case that put them in grave danger. And the fact that they are in love with each other doesn’t make working together any easier. It’s the kind of peculiar double penis case that will not only test their love, but also test whether or not they can continue working together.

Will Blair be able to grow up and meet Proctor’s professional expectations? And will Proctor ever be able to get the guy with two perfect penises out of his head?