Trevor Donovan on The Backlot

When I wrote the character of Luis in very first Virgin Billionaire book, I wanted him to have a safe place to go for when everything in the world started to crumble around him…that one perfect place where nothing could ever hurt him. So I did what I thought was real at the time, for a young gay man. I gave him a favorite web site that I’d loosely modeled after the real web site of Elisa Rolle, only the focus in the book was more about the artistic photos of male models, not books or reviews. In this case, there was some erotica, but the photos on the web site in the book were not always meant to be sexual. The focus was on the art and the escapism.

So when I find photo shoots like this one that Trevor Donovan did on The Backlot, I like to share with readers. I think this would be something that Luis would have loved in The Virgin Billionaire.  And I wrote The Virgin Billionaire long before I ever saw any of Donovan’s photo shoots anywhere.

Trevor Donovan has been a favorite here on TheBacklot ever since he played adorable (and sexy) Teddy Montgomery on the 2008-2013 reboot of 90210. Since then he’s made appearances on various series like The Client List and Melissa & Joey, but this weekend he heads west along with Bill Paxton, Ray Liotta and Brendan Fraser for the History Channel’s much-anticipated Texas Rising. The mini-series is directed by two-time Oscar-nominated director Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields, The Mission) and Donovan plays “Kit Acklin” a “wise-ass and expert horseman whose chivalry and equestrian skills are matched only by his gun-fighting prowess.”

You can get there from here. There’s a whole collection of some of the most artistic male art I’ve seen in a while. My own personal thoughts about what makes photos like this art is that I don’t see an agenda there. I just see the male form. In other words, when Nick Jonas poses for any photo shoot, even though it’s great, I always feel as if there’s an agenda behind what he’s doing that’s geared toward nothing but pure clickbait…like cheap wine in an expensive bottle. I don’t get that feeling with this photo shoot Donovan did. …And…the comments are adorable.

Renee Richards on Bruce Jenner

I think Renee Richards was one of the first brave souls of the past who had the guts to come out as transgender in the 1970’s. And it wasn’t easy back then, not by any means.

Now Richards is 80 years old and she’s commenting on Bruce Jenner.

‘You have to realize that somebody who is an entertainer, or even like with Bruce Jenner – a person like that can have a sex change and be just as accepted as an entertainer or a TV star or something like that afterwards,’ Richards, now 80, tells GQ in a rare interview.

Richards won the right to compete in the 1977 US Open and although she lost in the first round in singles, she made it to the finals of the women’s doubles. She later went on to coach Martina Navratilova in the early 1980s.

Then she returned to ophthalmology and practiced in New York City and it is in that kind of situation where she says being transgender is more difficult.

‘When I came back to practice after being so notorious, I couldn’t ever be a frivolous, entertainment-type, public kind of character,’ she says. ‘I mean, I had to be the same confidence-engendering… I’m operating on people’s eyes; I’m operating on their kid’s eyes. I mean, you better be some kind of a transsexual to do that! Otherwise you’re not gonna have much of a practice. It’s a whole different thing than being an entertainer.’

Jenner has beneftted from not only public understanding but from better understanding within the medical community which initially turned Richards away.

You can check out the rest here. I think she makes several valid points.

Gay Pornsters Wearing Protective Goggles

In a highly questionable attempt to stop the spread of HIV, the state of California is trying to force porn stars…not just gay…to wear protective eye gear…goggles…during shoots. Also, producers would be forced to pay for medical exams and hepatitis B vaccines. Most are claiming that if this goes through it will drive the adult entertainment industry out of the state.

‘These are regulations designed for medical settings, and are unworkable on an adult film set – or even a Hollywood film set,’ said Diane Duke, the CEO of the Free Speech coalition.

While the limits would not just be on gay porn, Duke says her organization and other groups wants to see the proposed regulation be amended after consulting with performers, production houses and public health officials.

This way, she says, this will ‘protect adult film performers without stigmatizing and shutting down an entire industry’.

You can read more here. It’s hard to comment on this one because there are several gray areas, however, if California does this who is to stop other states from doing it as well. And how many other ways can something like this mushroom? Nothing with porn and free speech is ever a clear cut case.

Is Brad Pitt Bisexual?

I’m always careful with things like this because there’s no proof, and it’s all alleged. In the same respect, it’s interesting in a hard to explain way.

One of the lower end tabloids best known for sensationalized, questionable reporting claims Brad Pitt is bisexual.

Hollywood insider Hesham ‘Sham’ Ibrahim makes the unsubstantiated claims the actor has a history of bisexuality that goes back at least 10 years.

‘I don’t want to define Brad Pitt’s sexuality, but whatever it is, he’s into guys,’ he told Star magazine.

The rest is here. Frankly, I think unsubstantiated is the key word here. I love poker, and as it stands I would NOT bet on this hand.

However, even if Pitt is bisexual, what difference does it really make? He’s always been supportive of the LGBT community, he’s never done or said anything to exploit the LGBT community, and in this case I think he has a right to his privacy.