Best Posts in Forum: LGBT News and Events

  1. alton

    Squad Leader The Great Debater The 1000 Daps Club

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    What are your thoughts on these events?
    I {personally} didn't sense any "gay pride" at these types of events when I used to go to them. While I did enjoy myself in those days, I started to notice that it wasn't so much about "pride" as it was a big Hook Up Free-for-All, and that's not to undermine or insult them in any way. If that one's thing then by all means, indulge, I did. As far as the pride piece of it, there was no sense of "pride" or gay camaraderie, just the same cliques that one sees on any given night at the club doing and saying the usual catty shit and being shady to everyone thats not part of their group.

    Do you attend them?
    Not anymore

    Which ones are the best ones?
    ...

    How old do you think is too old to be at one of these events?

    As long as you can walk, and you enjoy that type of environment, keep at it.
     
  2. mojoreece

    Bae Material The 1000 Daps Club Supporter

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    I saw the pics of the burn spots its just a horrible situation. That's why for those with kids and are dating you have to really watch out who you bring around your kids no matter how old your kids are. Maybe this can turn into a positive. After the dudes recovery hopefully someone will give him a scholarship to go to college or something.
     
  3. Lancer

    Best Thread Creator The 1000 Daps Club

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    lol @ the one black guy they could find. I think his name is David something...seen his nude thirst trappings on insta before.
     
  4. Nick Delmacy

    Nick Delmacy is a Verified MemberNick Delmacy Da Architect
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    [​IMG]

    I watch Star Trek: Discovery and something occurred to me as actor Wilson Cruz lovingly kissed the White gay man that (rightfully) destroyed Kevin Spacy’s career: He’s a Gay White Man of Color.

    Cruz is a prime example of what @OckyDub speaks about often: White Gay Culture overpowers almost everything Gay in its’ path, especially when it comes to men.

    When I look at Cruz, I don’t see a Latino gay man. I see a tan gay White man. He’s still a great representative to the community, but you could instantly change the name and photos on ALL his social media accounts with a random White man and said White man would never be accused of cultural appropriation.

    This made me wonder: Where are the notable Black gay men who I actually relate to and identify as BLACK MEN just like me?

    As much as I love the dude, Karamo Brown is clearly a gay White man.

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    As much as he’s done for himself and others, RuPaul is still a gay White man to me.

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    As intelligent and well written as he is, Jonathan Capehart is a gay White man to me.

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    Frank Ocean started off Black and crying in a used Nissan Maxima over the loss of a DL dude (a story that every Black gay man can relate to), but once he came Out, he slowly morphed into a White gay twink.

    [​IMG]

    No matter how much he defends Black culture on CNN, I still can’t help but view Don Lemon as a White gay man.

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    Even Jussie Smollett gives me entitled White gay man after his performance on Good Morning America.

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    By contrast, Lena Waithe gives me nothing but GAY BLACK WOMAN!

    [​IMG]

    It’s not because she rocks fitted caps and chains. It’s because everything about her work and aura gives off unadulterated Blackness. She feels like a genuine product of our culture, struggle and lineage.

    Wanda Sykes gives me gay Black woman. No matter how White her wife is, she looks and acts like she could be any of our cool Black aunts.

    [​IMG]

    The list goes on: Meshell Ndegeocello, Sheryl Swoopes, Dee Rees, Tracy Chapman, Young M.A….They all remained Black after coming Out.

    The men, not so much. Jason Collins, Michael Sam, Derrick Gordon, Brandon Davis…the list goes on.

    There are a couple exceptions for the men, though. Rapper iLoveMakonnen is still very much a Black man even while dating a overly tatted White man.



    Chance the Rapper’s younger brother, Taylor Bennett, came out as bisexual and still maintains his Blackness. But I would argue that he doesn’t live his life as a Black gay man. His most recent IG posts show him in loving heteronormal family photos with his new baby and the boy’s mother.



    The majority of men of color that come out as Gay and live as Out gay men seem to become bland, whitewashed and removed of all Black/Latino culture, replaced with Caucasian Stepford Househusbands.

    [​IMG]

    Am I wrong in this observation?

    They all seen to be in The Sunken Place. I guess if there were a White gay equivalent to The Sunken Place, it would likely be called The Glory Hole.

    That’s where they are. The Glory Hole.

    [​IMG]
     
    #1 Nick Delmacy, Feb 19, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2019
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  5. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    I said it plenty of times over the years...

    What and where ever the white gays (queers) go, the Black gays (now calling ourselves queers too) will follow.

    *************** ************** ***************
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    The meth overdose death of a young, black American, gay man – whilst in the company of a well known Democratic donor – has inspired a new documentary asking: Why won’t gay and bi men of color talk about drugs?

    Michael Rice’s new documentary, parTyboi, looks at how meth use in the black and queer latinx community is on the rise. And a lot of them are using meth for sex.

    Focusing on New York and Los Angeles, he explores the trend. It also known as ‘chemsex’, getting ‘high and horny’, or ‘party and play’.

    Those who take part in chemsex do so to change the sex they are having. And they use a so-called ‘holy trinity’ of drugs.

    These are made up of a mixture of GHB, mephedrone and crystal meth. In some cases, the mostly gay and bi men who use these ‘chems’, will ‘slam’ or inject these drugs.

    Most people will only know the drug crystal meth from the popular Netflix drama ‘Breaking Bad’. The series pictures the drug, as one used by a mostly white middle-class America.

    But parTyboi, follows a very different meth story.

    Who is Gemmel Moore?
    Michael Rice’s documentary follows the meth overdose of a young gay black man, Gemmel Moore. He was homeless and working as an escort when he died aged just 26, in July 2017.

    It was from an accidental methamphetamine overdose in the Laurel Avenue home of the well known democratic donor Ed Buck, according to the coroner’s report obtained by the LA Times.

    The report says paramedics found Moore naked on a mattress in the living room with gay porn playing on the TV. His death was ruled accidental.

    [​IMG]

    Why are black gay and bi men using drugs for sex?
    Rice’s documentary believes Gemmel’s story is something a whole community is currently going through:

    ‘I thought It would be important to have his story in parTyboi. To show others, the dangers of sex work, drug use and addiction, especially when it comes to crystal meth.’

    The documentary follows queer people of color. But it finds white pimps entrap them with drugs, taking them down a path that forces them into being sex workers.

    ‘A great deal of chemsex drug users in the US that are queer people of color had no prior knowledge of the drugs. They were introduced to them as a quick party drug, or as sexual enhancers for arousal.

    ‘Many whom I spoke with was introduced to meth with a non-threatening name like ice, Tina, and glass – for party and play.’

    Rice saw a range of different reasons for why they began. Notably, they often start using drugs as a self-coping mechanism for sex work and fighting depression.

    [​IMG]

    ‘He’d been eating my ass for five minutes – I found out later he’d spit two CC’s of crystal meth up my ass’
    One of the sex workers in the documentary, Michael, shares his horrific story.

    Whilst at a client’s house in Beverly Hills, a client inserted meth into his ass while rimming him. Obviously, by doing so, the client also drugged him:

    ‘I didn’t even think that this mother-fucker could poison me. All I was thinking about was how good it felt right now,’ Michael tells the documentary.

    He had a similar story to Gemmel’s:

    ‘I was 18, grabbed all my stuff in a garbage bag and moved to LA on a whim. And when I got there I was at a bus stop when a writer of a famous TV show told me his fetish was to “fuck his dealer.” And that was the beginning of it all.’

    Not only would Michael would go on to be the writer’s dealer but he would also deal to many of the man’s friends too.

    ‘He gave a whole bunch of clothes, do-rags, dressed me up, and three pounds of crystal. He gave me a list of his friends’ names in LA and told me to go fuck them.’

    Michael explains how easy it is to get wrapped up, and forget you are not the boss:

    ‘When you get there thinking you have them wrapped around your finger because you are the black guy with the big dick. No – he has you, wrapped around his fingers because you think that.’

    How meth started as a ‘white circuit party drug’ and made its way into queer black and latinx culture
    Methamphetamine was first synthesized by the Japanese Military. In fact, suicidal ‘Kamikaze’ pilots in World War Two would use it.

    The drug first traveled to America when soldiers brought it back with them after the Allies’ victory. And the pure drug, easily made in underground labs, quickly became popular in rural America.

    Rice says: ‘Historically, within the US, Black Americans have not brought narcotics into the country. Even though they were the demographic largely seen using them.

    ‘Any time you get oppressed, traumatized and low income/ poor communities of color in the US, you are able to also find those wanting to medicate via drug use from reality.

    Then in the 1980s, cocaine and meth began to be used by ‘mostly moderate well-to-do’ white gay and straight men on the party scene. But it didn’t stay there for long.

    Rice says: ‘A level of classism has now been associated with drugs like cocaine and meth. But, when a lot of white men begin to realize that crystal meth puts you at risk of losing your job, home, family – a great deal of them who used and sold it started pushing it into the urban communities instead.

    ‘I believe they began using sex workers as a way to move the drug use urban population.

    ‘The movers and pushers of the product are bigger than the ones who are selling the drugs to make a quick buck. It’s all really under the control of individuals who push it out to multiple cities, making it in labs. And in my opinion – this is mostly controlled by white men.’


    It took Rice seven months to put this documentary and since completing it, fortunately, no-one has passed away.

    But with the high use of drugs and bareback sex among some of those in the documentary, this comes as a surprise. Last year’s Gay Star News survey about the way people all over the world are having chemsex shows 1 in 4 who use drugs for sex, know someone who has died from using these party drugs.

    Moreover, many of the men have no plans to curb their addictions and few are able to hold down a job. So it is clear their drug use is taking a toll on them.

    The documentary also explains why black gay and bi men find talking about drugs as such a taboo.

    One of the young black gay men Rice spoke to puts it perfectly:

    ‘Crystal meth is impacting the black gay community but no-one wants to admit it. When you talk about crystal meth, you think of it impacting white men. We don’t think of it as ours. But we have to own the issue and talk about it, because it is impacting us.’

    This documentary is a vital piece of storytelling about a trend decimating queer people in cities all over the world.

    It is particularly important because no-one has told the story of the black communities relationship with drugs. Rice explains why they, above all others, struggle with them.

    He says he has become tired of seeing ‘my gay people of color riddled with this addiction. I’m taking a stand with this documentary’.

    Want to understand why black gay and bi men are taking drugs for sex? This is a must watch.

    parTyboi, the documentary, is out now. Follow their Facebook page for up-to-date screening information.

     
  6. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    [​IMG]

    Remember The Queens Court, that cyberbullying extravaganza popular YouTube show that vintage rapper Khia hosted with her homegirl Ts Madison? You know, the one where the “My Neck, My Back” rapper insulted everyone doing better than her which is the whole entire earth issued “hilarious” court rulings against your favorite urban celebs?

    Yeah, that’s dunzo.

    Things fell apart after a production dispute went full left, climaxing with a 25-minute video rant in which Khia basically dragged Madison—a transgender woman—by calling her a man in a wig.

    This after months sitting in Madison’s house and calling her sister.

    While the black vlog community has spent weeks dissecting Khia’s apparent treachery, I’ve been busy filing my nails.

    That’s because as a founding member of #TeamRainbow, I’ve been around long enough to recognize this same old pattern in which straight women befriend queer men and trans women, then show their entire ass when conflict arises.

    Excuse me while I aggressively wave this Mahalia Jackson fan in the air.

    If we ever want to mend rifts between the Rainbow Tribe and the Straights (and straight cisgender women and queer men especially), we need to start having an honest conversation about this dynamic. That involves holding all parties accountable, from the straight girls guilty of opportunistic friendships to the queer folk who enable their own exploitation.

    Of course, queer folk and straight folk can and do have real, healthy friendships every day.

    But today we’re talking about the vicious draggings so many queer men and trans women in particular have endured privately and in public at the hands of cis women they called friends.

    Ts Madison is just the latest casualty.

    The drama stemmed from a February Queens Court interview with comedian Mo’Nique. Problems with sound and recording led a frustrated Khia to roll out halfway through the live-cast show, leaving Madison literally crying in front of an online audience of thousands.

    A hot stankin’ mess.

    Soon both Khia and Madison posted videos explaining what led to the implosion. Except Khia’s videos got ugly fast: They started with her blaming Madison for hiring “sissies and punks” to handle production and hit peak ignorance when she called the trans woman “Mandie the Man Whore”—purposely overpronouncing “man.”

    She even tossed in a few “My Hotep friends told me not to mess with y’all gay asses” for good measure. As one gay vlogger recently put it, a queer man can be a straight woman’s best friend until he makes her mad. Then he’s just a faggot.

    This ain’t new.

    Just reference The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which has a long history of queer sidekicks, and an equally long history of homophobic comments when the shit hits the fan. Y’all may recall that this was blamed for the departure of Miss Lawrence, who complained about being a token gay person on a show where “the first time an inflammatory situation arises, the first thing that comes out of their mouth is ‘queen’.”

    Why hasn’t this gotten more attention? To start with, people don’t want to believe that cis women can be homophobic. Moreover, it’s easy to write off the occasional “Queen!” as isolated bad behavior, especially when these women so clearly love the Gays.

    After all, they adore their style and their makeup tips and their slang. I mean, that’s love, right?

    Yeah, screaming, “Yass, honey!” and keeping a few queer boys around to beat your face doesn’t mean that you love, appreciate or even respect the Gays, any more than a white supremacist wearing Jordans loves the Blacks. It just means you tolerate them as long as they have something to give you.

    A great lightskint man once called that fake love. Better known as bullshit. Better known as high-key phony with a dash of cultural appropriation that’s mind-boggling considering that this is one minority group accessorizing another.

    That speaks to the role that queer folk play in this. Khia has clapped back, saying that we only yell homophobia when it’s convenient. She’s right on one front: We need to start calling out homophobia the instant it starts, not just when it reaches a boiling point or when circumstances are no longer favorable to ignoring it.

    Ts Madison sat next to a woman who called queer people snapdragons and other slurs for months and did nothing. Was she blinded by the coins or the potential thereof?

    Maybe it’s time for Madison and all of us to consider the cost to our dignity.

    Where do we go from here? If you’re Khia and Madison, apparently it’s to your separate corners. After a failed attempt to revamp, they’ve called it quits and moved on. Well, kind of: In one of her latest videos, Khia shifts gears from anti-trans to anti-lez, accusing a reality-show star of “bulldaggin’.” Just in time for Women’s History Month. That’s beautiful!

    For the rest of us, I’m hopeful that this episode can spark a conversation that can lead people, gay and straight, to recognize and reverse their harmful patterns.

    And If you don’t like the Gays, that’s fine—just stay your not-liking-us ass out of our salons, makeup chairs, homes and everywhere else we beez around. Don’t worry, we’ll be OK!

    https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.co...ituational-homophobia-or-when-quee-1823740255
     
  7. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    Columbia PhD student, 29, is shot in the head and killed by his boyfriend after an argument at his Houston home
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    A Columbia PhD student has been killed by his boyfriend who shot him in the head after an argument.

    Devon Wade, a promising 28-year-old student whose mentors said he would 'change the world', died after being shot at his home in Houston, Texas, on Sunday night.

    His boyfriend Mario Jerrell Williams, 29, turned himself in to police shortly afterwards and admitted shooting him.

    Williams is being held on $100,000 bond and is charged with first degree murder.

    On Sunday night, he went to the home which Wade shared with twin brother but was asked to leave.

    He says he returned a short time afterwards and began fighting with Wade, who he said punched him in the face and chased him downstairs.

    Once downstairs, he shot him and then fled. When he turned himself in to police later, he said he was his boyfriend, Click 2 Houston reports.

    Wade's twin brother, who was asleep upstairs, then found his brother lying on the ground bleeding.

    He said he saw Williams fleeing the scene on security cameras installed around the home. It is not clear what the pair were arguing about or how long they had been together.

    Wade was known locally for his community efforts and had already been praised for overcoming a difficult start in life to pursue academia.

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    He was in the middle of a PhD in sociology at Columbia University in New York and had already graduated from Louisiana State University after being given a scholarship from a local law firm in Houston.

    He had not long returned to Houston to complete his dissertation on the poverty and incarceration among the black community.

    As news of his death spread on Tuesday, friends took to social media to eulogize him in disbelief.

    'Great inspiration and a bright light now dimmed with sadness.

    'To some he initially seemed destined for failure, however beat all odds and made outstanding accomplishments,' said one friend.

    [​IMG]

    'Statistically, Devon wasn’t expected to graduate high school. Devon’s parents were incarcerated [but] he overcame his unfortunate circumstances, graduated with Honors from LSU with a degree in Criminology, and was completing a PhD program at Columbia University. Devon dedicated his life to serving and encouraging others.

    'He was committed to making society and the justice system better,' said another friend.

    Devon and his brother were raised by his grandparents in Houston. Columbia University said it will award him his doctorate posthumously.

    Columbia PhD student is killed by his boyfriend in Houston | Daily Mail Online
     
  8. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    "The assailant then forced the victim to strip and female laughter can be heard saying “catch him” as the victim is allowed to run off."
    Police search for hate crime suspect who allegedly beat up a 17-year old boy ‘because he’s gay’

    So not only didn't the Black sistas help him out, they laughed at him as he was being beaten and stripped naked. Black queer dudes stay talking about "toxic masculinity" while ignoring the vitriol from toxic Black women.

    [​IMG]

    MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - An anonymous tip led police to a suspect in the savage videotaped beating of a gay teen.

    Trevon Lee Godbolt, 18, was arrested by the Michigan State Police just before 9 p.m. Tuesday on Blue Lake Road in Muskegon County, said Muskegon Heights Police Chief Joseph E. Thomas Jr. Godbolt, also known as Trevon Lee Taylor, is suspected in the Saturday night beating of a 17-year-old, who also was forced to strip naked.

    ***********

    MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI - Police are pulling out all stops to find the people who beat a teen and stripped him naked because he is gay and then posted a video of the assault on Facebook.

    The "hate crime" occurred the evening of Saturday, Nov. 4, in the city of Muskegon Heights, said Police Chief Joseph E. Thomas Jr.

    "They beat him up because he's gay," Thomas said.

    Through analysis of the video, Thomas has identified a suspect and is asking the public's help in locating him.

    The 18-year-old suspect is Trevon Lee Godbolt, who also is known as Trevon Lee Taylor, Thomas said. His last known address was in the city of Muskegon. There is a $500 reward for information leading to his arrest.

    The disturbing video shows the 17-year-old being beaten while at least one other person is using a phone to video record. The victim asks his attacker to "please stop," as the suspect identified as Godbolt repeatedly asks "Why you on this gay s---?" The victim is repeatedly called derogatory terms as he is beaten.

    At the end he is forced to strip naked and is allowed to run off. Women can be heard laughing and yelling "catch him."

    Thomas said he believes in addition to Godbolt, there was another man and two women involved.

    "We're going to be investigating this fully," Thomas said. "All participants are going to have a hard time."

    The victim was lured to the area of Edgewood School where he was assaulted, he said.

    The prosecutor's office has authorized two counts against Godbolt: unarmed robbery and unlawful imprisonment. They carry harsher penalties - up to 15 years -- than assault, Thomas said.

    The prosecutor's office also reviewed an ethnic intimidation charge or some other hate crime, but the state does not have a criminal statute covering assaults based on sexual orientation, according to a press release from Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson's office.

    Thomas said he had contacted the FBI, which has expressed an interest in pursuing the case federally.

    "We're not going to let this go. We're going to hunt him down," Thomas said of Godbolt.

    Thomas said he received a phone call at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 4 from a citizen saying a naked man was in front of a church at Summit Avenue and Howden Street. A responding officer found the teen walking into a home in the area, he said.

    "He was going into his aunt's house and he was in the nude," Thomas said. "He was naked."

    The victim was incoherent and taken to the hospital for treatment, the chief said.

    The following morning, Nov. 5, the chief was sent a copy of the video that was posted on Facebook.

    "We join the community of Muskegon County in expressing our outrage over this senseless act of violence," the press release from the prosecutor's office states. "We will work to protect this particular victim and any other victim that is targeted because of his or her sexual identity or orientation."

    Anyone with information about Godbolt's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or Silent Observer, (231) 72-CRIME. Tips also can be left on the website www.silentobservermuskegon.com.
     
  9. cuspofbeauty

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    [​IMG]

    News of the GAP’s new 90’s inspired capsule collection left me and many other 90’s aficionados gagging for a chance to relive perhaps the most iconic style generation.

    The campaign featured several celebs, including the legendary Naomi Campbell. But the shine of clothes has been dulled by social media’s reaction to Evan Ross.

    People are dragging actor Evan Ross for his pose, which some are calling out as too feminine for a black man.

    There’s nothing off about Ross’s photos. He’s rocking a badass sleeveless sweatshirt with black skinny jeans, far from the gender-bending antics of Young Thug. His facial expression and posture are just like any other stoic model, yet he’s the target for a slew of homophobic hate in the comment section.

    [​IMG]

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    Both black men and women are denied their full humanity because of racist systems of oppression that still require a greater sense of resiliency for people of color. Essentially, if you are to survive in a society that inherently holds you back then you must be strong. For black queer people, the stakes are even higher, we must contend with racism and homophobia.

    The gag is Ross isn’t gay. In fact, he’s a father of one and married to Ashlee Simpson, but even if he was gay, why would that matter? Unfortunately, black men are rarely allowed to just be without the burden of all of black manhood place on their shoulders. This is yet another case of Internet trolls throwing shade to any black man who could be perceived as queer—the worst part is that is coming from within the black community.

    Black manhood has been terrorized in this country for centuries, going as far back as slavery to more recent killings of black men (and women) by police and vigilantes. The narrative of the “strong black man,” combined with a patriarchal culture of toxic masculinity creates a performative manliness that does little to actually empower black men.

    The idea that black men cannot exhibit in form of weakness is informed by cultural attitudes on race, gender and religion. All three of these factors meet within the black church, where homophobic rhetoric preached from the pulpit reinforced gender binary and heteronormativity. From the Civil Rights Movement to pre-Civil War abolitionists, the black church has played an important role in advocating for the lives of black men and women.

    In terms of representation in pop-culture, there are very few examples of black men who have been able to transgress the boundaries of performative masculinity. Prince and Jaden Smith are just a handful of black men who have rejected one-dimensional roles that society ascribes to black men. Also, out celebrities such as Frank Ocean and, more recently, ILoveMakonnen and Taylor Bennett, have shown the diversity of masculinity of queer black men.

    Which brings me back to the photo of Ross. Rather than promote discrimination within our community, we need to affirm that all black lives matter regardless of gender expression, sexuality or any intersectional identity.
     
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  10. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    [​IMG]

    The party was like many others in Delmas, a neighborhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, with a vibrant gay community — an evening of men in colorful dresses and revealing attire, laughing and catching up.

    They sipped Prestige beer and 7-Up, as Beyoncé and Rihanna played in the background. The party stretched into the early morning hours with no end in sight.

    Then someone knocked on the door.

    On that March night in 2012, a group of men dressed in black and wearing ski masks forced their way into the apartment. Wilkenson Joseph, then 35, was the closest to the front door. Wearing a red sequin dress, a dark wig, red lipstick and high heels, he was a prime target for the group looking to attack gay men.

    One of the men stabbed Mr. Joseph in the gut with a knife. His friends picked him up off the floor, blood pouring from his mouth and his side, and rushed him to a hospital.

    But a doctor demanded $2,000 before he would provide any care, Mr. Joseph said. For an hour and a half, his friends negotiated a lower rate as he continued to bleed, eventually persuading the doctor to accept $1,000. Mr. Joseph survived, but he lost his appendix.

    In a Manhattan office last month, Mr. Joseph recalled his stories of anti-gay violence slowly, softly and in French.

    “After the party,” Mr. Joseph said before trailing off, his eyes closing. There was silence as he summoned the months after that party more than four years ago.

    He stopped attending parties and dressing up. “It was too traumatic,” he said. “I recoiled from the party scene. I was no longer me.”

    Mr. Joseph said it was not the first time he had been attacked because of his sexuality in Haiti, where homosexuality is not a crime, but gay men often hide their orientation to avoid being targeted.

    A makeup artist for eight years, he had worked at “Journal de Loisirs,” a celebrity talk show, and often carried a purse and makeup bag to the office. Seven months before the stabbing, Mr. Joseph said, he was kidnapped from his workplace, hooded and taken to an abandoned home, where he was chained to a pole and beaten. Three men threatened to kill him, he said, and called him an embarrassment to his country. They later let him go.

    “I always felt threatened,” he said. “And I never said anything back to these people. I was afraid of a violent response. There was always a fear.”

    After the 2012 attack, Mr. Joseph applied for a tourist visa to the United States, hoping the country would be as welcoming as it was portrayed on the television shows he had watched as a child, he said.

    “It was always my dream country,” Mr. Joseph said. “America is where you can make happen the dreams you envision for yourself.”

    He arrived in April 2013 on a tourist visa and settled in New York City. A few weeks later, he attended his first party since the attack, at the Monster, a piano bar in the West Village. Feeling safe, he took the stage to sing “Lumane Casimir,” a well-known Haitian song.

    He applied for asylum shortly after moving to the United States, describing in his application the anti-gay abuse he endured in Haiti and his fear of returning there.

    “I feel a lot more comfortable expressing myself here,” he said. “I’ve never feared for my safety here.”

    Since his visa expired, he has been working on his immigration status for the past two years with lawyers at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, a law firm in Manhattan. He has applied for asylum and has not received an update. They are awaiting an interview date with immigration services.

    Mr. Joseph lives on $376 monthly in public assistance, including cash assistance and Medicaid. Through a designation known as PRUCOL, he is able to receive benefits despite not having legal status. Without a job, he has struggled to afford a home, flitting between Florida, New Jersey and New York. Shortly after coming to New York, he found himself on the streets, spending nights riding the subway and shuffling between shelters, always worrying that his visa and passport would be stolen.

    He found temporary housing in Jamaica, Queens, through Unique People Services, an HIV/AIDS supportive housing program. He stayed there for more than a year, but the conditions were dangerous, Mr. Joseph said. Drug activity brought the police often. Once, he said, a neighbor robbed him of $150.

    Mr. Joseph has found support in Voix Fortes, a French-speaking group focused on self-empowerment. There he met Houda Chergui, a coordinator at the nonprofit ASCNYC, which assists New Yorkers living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS. She recommended he seek help through the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times’s Neediest Cases Fund.

    With the help of ASCNYC and the African Services Committee, he was able to move into permanent housing, an apartment in the Bronx, in March; the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration covers his monthly rent of $1,100. But the apartment was bare. He slept on the floor and had nowhere to sit or eat. In April the federation provided Mr. Joseph with a $1,000 grant from the Neediest Cases Fund to buy furniture. He decorated his apartment with a sofa bed, a chair and a coffee table.

    “The furniture made it into a home,” he said.

    Mr. Joseph, who had dropped out of school in Haiti to support his family after his father’s death, longs to continue his education and get a job as a masseur or as a counselor to help others, while sending some money to his relatives in Haiti.

    “I want to continue my studies,” he said. “I want to be able to motivate other people in my situation — others in the L.G.B.T.Q. community — to pursue their education. Before respect comes from others, it comes from within.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/nyregion/neediest-cases-fund-haiti.html
     
  11. Nick Delmacy

    Nick Delmacy is a Verified MemberNick Delmacy Da Architect
    Site Founder The 10000 Daps Club

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    To all my Bisexual brothers in the squad, today we exclusively celebrate and embrace you. There is still a lot of room to grow for understanding, but we def recognize and relate to your struggles and feelings of alienation.

    14457249_10154598026793281_7105774232322474849_n.png

    HRC Celebrates #BiWeek | Human Rights Campaign

    Today, HRC marks the start of Bisexual Awareness Week, also known as #BiWeek. The week will culminate on Friday with Bisexuality Day.

    A bisexual person is someone who can be attracted to more than one gender, and studies show that as much as half of the lesbian, gay and bisexual population identify as bisexual. In other words, bisexual–– or bi –– people comprise the largest single group in the LGBTQ community.

    As bisexual people continue to gain visibility and awareness through advocates and leaders such as Anna Paquin, Shane Dawson, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Alan Cumming, Stephanie Beatriz and Evan Rachel Wood, it is vital to remain cognizant about the issues facing the bisexual community.

    For example, compared to other groups in the LGBTQ community, bisexuals face striking rates of poor health outcomes ranging from cancer and obesity to sexually transmitted infections to mental health problems. Additionally, bisexual youth face a unique set of challenges that affect their ability to flourish in their families, schools and communities.

    Stay tuned to HRC’s blog to learn more about Bisexual Awareness Week and check out hrc.org/bisexual for more information about the community and the issues it currently faces.

    What does it mean to be bisexual? How many people are bisexual? What concerns do bisexual people have? Check out these answers to some basic questions about bisexuality.
     
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  12. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    [​IMG]
    It’s a watershed year fraught with turmoil for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Across the American South, queer, trans and gender-nonconforming people are facing wave after wave of legislation that threatens our safety, well-being and very existence.

    From “bathroom bills“ to ordinances that permit discrimination, this battle is in many ways a backlash to all of the victories our community has seen recently —including last year’s nation-wide legalization of same-sex marriage — and it serves a multitude of political and social purposes for the religious and political right.

    In this new series, HuffPost Queer Voices Deputy Editor JamesMichael Nichols, who hails from North Carolina himself, talks to some of the leaders, movers and shakers of the fight for queer and trans liberation in the South about their own personal experiences as activists, the current political and social climate for the LGBT community in these states and the action that we, as a community, can take to help. Check out the previous interviews Pamela Raintree, Councilwoman LaWana Mayfield and Joce Pritchett.

    As legislative war continues to rage in North Carolina over House Bill 2, activists in its sister state of South Carolina are continuing the fight for queer liberation on their own turf.

    One of those championing the fight for LGBT rights in South Carolina is writer and activist Alvin McEwen, who runs the influential blog Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, which just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Living in Columbia, South Carolina, McEwen is an openly gay man of color whose blog tells the important stories of the LGBT community on a national level, but with a focus on the often overlooked struggles of queer Southerners.

    Much of McEwen’s crucial work centers on the ways in which, in his own words, “religious-right groups distort legitimate research and rely on junk studies to stigmatize the LGBT community.” McEwen is a also two-time GLAAD Award nominee.

    In this interview with The Huffington Post, McEwen reflects on the past decade running Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, the history of anti-LGBT bigotry in the South and what, in his mind, queer Southern liberation looks like.

    The Huffington Post: To start, tell us a bit about your story. Do you consider yourself an activist? How did you find yourself at the forefront of South Carolina’s fight for LGBT rights?

    Alvin McEwen: The incidents that led me to this point of what I’m doing now can be best described as moments which stood out and had an affect on how I view things as a gay man. One of the most crucial [moments] was when I slowly came out during college in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. This was a time before Ellen [DeGeneres], before “Will and Grace” ― stuff like that. Even being hinted as gay could cause you to get an automatic beat down. It wasn’t a good time because there weren’t that many social settings where you could be comfortable with being yourself. I remember the first time I was in a room with nothing but other gay men ― it was us meeting in a professional setting ― I actually kept my glasses off for a few minutes because I felt so damn uncomfortable. Other than being the editor of a college publication which mentioned gay issues and being a silent member of a campus gay group, I didn’t do anything of note.

    In terms of my dealing with my sexual orientation, college was not a good experience for me. Even when I came out, I had a serious problem embracing my sexual orientation and dealing with the isolation and the stoppage of life which came with it. By the “stoppage of life,” I mean that I wasn’t able to mentally grow like other folks. I didn’t go out on dates, I couldn’t pursue a public relationship. I had clandestine encounters but that’s not healthy. It makes you feel like a ghoul sneaking around a graveyard at night. The knowledge that no matter if I was in the closet or not, life would be different from what I wanted before I realized I was gay was devastating at that time, but slowly I learned to deal with it. I guess I got involved in activism to create an environment in which these things that crippled my development couldn’t affect others.

    I think I really got into LGBT activism in 2004 when I became a board member of the South Carolina Pride Movement. From there, I did a few other things ― helped found a statewide LGBT of color organization and tried to write a book on the religious right. I self-published the book and it was a disaster, but it led me to create the blog “Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters” in 2006. The blog is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month. It’s given the issues I’m working and myself a lot of positive attention, as well as opened many doors for me.

    If I call myself an “activist,” it’s only because I can’t of a better word to define what I do. I don’t like the word because it brings up bad connotations to me. When I hear “activist,” I think of someone who stages a loud public protest over one issue, gets all emotional over it, then moves to another issue without really getting anything solved. I’ve seen some people use “activism” as public action designed to attract attention but then they abandon the issue. I think that if you are concerned about an issue, you do more than participate in a street protest. You work not only to bring attention to an issue, but also to push some type of resolution. That means you devote more time to it, build some type of structure which can be self-sustaining for a long time. Also, when I hear the word “activist,” I can’t help but thinking of a group of intellectual people arguing over esoteric terms and language while not even attempting to figure out how to communicate those things to the folks they are trying to convince or help. I like details, the slow planning and the attention to detail it takes to sustain things. I don’t mind being behind the scenes and doing the grunt work. And I believe in keeping things simple, communicating ideas in a way to get people to understand what you are attempting to do.



    What unique set of struggles do LGBT people face in South Carolina?

    In South Carolina, LGBT people have to deal with living in a so-called red state in the Bible belt. That means we get a lot of flack from folks who like to clutch their Bibles ― and that bleeds into our legislature. We’ve had a few problems over the years with legislators remembering Bible verses with better precision than they remember their secular duties to serve all South Carolinians. And it gets downright sad when they go off on some issue tangent. The majority of recent conflicts with the LGBT community and the legislature in SC stems from state congressional leaders taking it upon themselves to assertively attack us. I know the religious right narrative is that LGBT people encroach things and some so-called moral people take it upon themselves to fight back. You can forget that mindset here. A year ago, one legislator interrupted the debate on the Confederate flag after that awful shooting in Charleston to rail against President Obama and marriage equality. That shows you the caliber of nonsense the community in SC have to deal with. The good news is that he was defeated in a primary this year because of incidents like the one I just talked about. Slowly but surely we are winning the battle to win hearts and change minds. The momentum is definitely on our side.

    What have your experiences been like as a blogger fighting for queer liberation in South Carolina? What have you focused on? What have been your biggest challenges?

    Being an LGBT person of color in the South itself can sometimes be a “drag,” if I am allowed to use out-of-date vernacular. I think we have the same problems that LGBT people of color have in all areas of the country ― but down here, things tend to get intensified. We are in the middle of the so-called Bible belt, as well as in the areas where the 1950s and ‘60s Civil Rights Movement took place. That means the problem of dual invisibility from both the black and gay communities we face is starker. On one hand is the black community and in the center of that is the black church. No matter what some folks in the media say about the black community, the LGBT community is a bit more accepted than people think, but that’s as long as we silently agree to the role we are psychologically assigned to play. That means we are supposed to fit the stereotype that some in the black community have about us. Gay men are “weak nellies.” Lesbians are uber butch predators, transgender men and women are trying to trick heterosexuals into sexual activity, and bisexuals are confused and promiscuous.

    We are looked at as “special” in a way that we are not supposed to, feel insulted when heterosexual black people tell us that they love us even if they “don’t agree with our lifestyle.” It means we are supposed to accept a place of anonymity in the black community when it comes to family, history, and the church. And that last part is extremely ironic because there would be no present black Southern church culture if it weren’t for black LGBT individuals. It’s a sad irony when you think about how the black Southern churches sing many of the songs that we wrote and arranged, admire us as gospel singers, wear the hairstyles that many of us gave them, or wear the fancy clothes that many of us make for them to wear while they sit in the pews, but won’t acknowledge that we are people with lives and not “lifestyles.” In the gay community, it’s matter of unconscious ignorance, i.e. the idea that all LGBT people are the same. There has been a failure to understand that being LGBT is different in every culture and that the popular things and people in the white LGBT community aren’t necessarily popular in the LGBT community of color.

    Now, that may be changing. There are some folks who will acknowledge and respect the uniqueness that LGBT people of color bring to the community. And that number is growing. But that presents new problems. It’s been my experience that sometimes I get taken for granted as a black gay man. I certainly want to be respected as an LGBT person of color. I want my culture to be respected and acknowledged also. But I don’t want to be pigeonholed. Take what I do on my blog, for example. It exposes and refutes anti-LGBT propaganda that the religious right uses to denigrate us and deny us our equality. How many LGBT people of color do you know do this type of work? Sometimes I wonder if my blog would have more success and attention if either I were a gay white male from a metropolitan city tackling these issues or if my blog focused solely on African-American issues. And, unfortunately, racism from some in the gay community does show up. I’ve been in situation where I have been called several ugly names, including “tar baby,” by some in the white gay community. That sort of thing tends to attack your spirit and makes you wonder what’s the point.

    [​IMG]
    COURTESY OF ALVIN MCEWEN
    What challenges for LGBT people in the South are unique or different from the rest of the country?

    South Carolina has changed tremendously over the years. In spite of the problems we still have to overcome, our community continues to grow. At our recent Pride, we had over 55,000 participants. And this was the first year which I saw no protestors and I think that’s very important. At several past Prides, the protestors would be at the State House with their “Sodomy Is a Sin” or “You Will Judge You. Repent” signs. This year was strangely different but very nice. And I think that sort of thing sends a message that slowly things are changing for the better. That doesn’t mean we are without problems, especially that of lowered expectations. Not from us but what LGBT people in other parts of the country think about us. We aren’t just fighting religious ignorance down here, we are fighting ignorance thrown at us from other parts of the country.

    The LGBT community in this state was able to pass nondiscrimination ordinances in several cities and counties, we have a plethora of wonderful city and statewide LGBT organizations including some dealing solely with the transgender community, LGBT youth, and LGBT people of color, our Pride celebration is respected for making money for the state year after year and bringing in noted celebrities, we have a few affirming churches, and a wonderful LGBT community center, The Harriet Hancock Community LGBT Center. We have an amazing community with diverse leaders. But all it take is one ignorant legislator to say something stupid or one ridiculous incident and all of that disappears in the eyes of so many and we are called backwards rednecks. We have to deal with stereotypes from other parts of the country and the fact that people expect to hear bad news about lgbts down here but will ignore the good news, even if the good news outweighs the bad. I think that’s our unique challenge. Somehow articulating to the rest of the country not to believe the ridiculous stereotypes and to know that down here we are thriving and succeeding as a community in spite of the challenges we face.

    Obviously the South has a long history of anti-LGBT bigotry but things seem to be intensifying ― especially from a legislative standpoint ― but why do you feel like legislators have chosen this particular moment — and these particular issues — in order to attack and discriminate against LGBT people in the South?

    I don’t think there is anything special or shocking about this that’s not indicative of what’s happening around the country. What we are seeing is a backlash and sometimes backlashes aren’t all negative in terms of what they mean and what you can do when they happen. There are times when backlashes mean that you are pissing off or scaring the right people. The big question is what do you do when it takes place because you have two options. You can either cower in a corner or rise up to the challenge of facing it head on. What happened in the SC legislature this year is an example of that. That former legislator I mentioned was pushing one of those awful “bathroom bills” through. Granted, the bill was not popular because folks, including Governor Haley, was reluctant to get into the same type of controversy and boycott that grips North Carolina. Still, the LGBT community didn’t take anything lightly. Organizations got together and fought the bill. And in fighting the bill, they put on a campaign which I think was awesome. They worked with members of the transgender community to articulate a message which didn’t try to avoid talking about how this bill would affect that community. I think that was a problem in other areas where bills like this were being pushed; those fighting them were trying to avoid taking on the “bathroom bill” narrative head on. Instead, the transgender community told their stories to a legislative committee and the public. It was amazing. We had transgender students and their allies protesting on the State House grounds outside while inside, several transgender men, women, and children spoke to the committee and broke it down in terms of how this bill would harm them. The bill didn’t pass but I think the major point was that in South Carolina, the LGBT community took on the “bathroom bill” narrative and beat it.

    Looking towards the future, what does an American South where LGBT people are liberated and free look like to you?

    An American South where LGBT people are liberated and free is one where they can make choices with regards to their lives based upon what they want to do and not by how others define them. But even in that future, we must always be vigilant. There is no such thing as freedom which can’t be taken away if folks get complacent and lazy.

    Want to hear more from McEwen? Head here to check out his blog Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.

    This Gay Man Is Fighting For LGBT Rights In The South And Beyond | Huffington Post
     
  13. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    It's unfortunate that along the way same gender loving (homosexuality in men) became equivalent or synonymous with being weak and un-male like. Examples through out history prove otherwise.

    *********
    The Sacred Band of Thebes
    By Louis Crompton

    [​IMG]

    In classical Greece, not only Athens but cities with every kind of constitution took notice of the fact of male love. Aristocracies where the privileged few held sway recognized its power to forge bonds between promising youths and conservative mentors. Democracies saw it as insurance against tyranny. Tyrants sometimes forbade it or, more often, tasted its pleasures, suffered the revenge of rivals or alienated lovers, and lamented that their very omnipotence made it impossible ever to be sure they enjoyed disinterested affection. But the major source of its prestige remained (despite Plato) its contribution to military morale. In the fourth century this heroic tradition found its most famous embodiment in the so-called hieros lochos, the Sacred Band of Thebes. This force, created by the Theban general Gorgidas, was made up of pairs of lovers who at first fought interspersed throughout other regiments. Then, under his successor, Pelopidas, it fought as a separate contingent of shock troops. Its success was to make Thebes for a generation the most powerful state in Greece, and its fate was in the end the fate of Greece itself.

    Theban tradition easily sanctioned such an institution. Thebes and Elis are repeatedly cited as the two states of the Greek mainland which most unqualifiedly encouraged male relations. Xenophon, in his Constitution of Sparta, observed that such relations were transitory at Elis but that at Thebes men and boys lived together “like married people”; perhaps this reflected Cretan patterns. The cult of Heracles was especially strong in Boeotia. Aristotle, in a lost work, described a “tomb of Iolaus” dedicated to the hero’s lover and companion-in-arms, where Theban lovers in his day still plighted mutual devotion. Plutarch thought the “Sacred” Band derived its name from this rite.

    In 404 the Peloponnesian War had come to an end with Sparta’s total defeat of Athens. But the victors misused their power. Sparta wielded its new hegemony harshly, imposing oligarchic rulers favorable to their interests on states that formerly had democratic regimes. Among these was Thebes, where in 382 a Spartan commander treacherously seized its citadel and installed new pro-Spartan leaders. Three years later democratic Theban exiles returned and recaptured the fortress, the Cadmeia, in a daring coup that drove the Spartans out. Conflict with the most formidable military regime in Greece now seemed inevitable. At this crucial juncture Gorgidas, in 378, organized the Sacred Band, which realized—within a few years of the writing of the Symposium—Phaedrus’ fantasy of an “army of lovers.”

    Plutarch was born (c. 46 ce) in the tiny village of Chaeronea some twenty miles west of Thebes and lived there all his life. Particularly interested in Boeotian traditions, he gives us, in his life of Pelopidas, the only substantial account we have of the Sacred Band. In tracing its origins, Plutarch shows himself unhappy with the legend that Oedipus’ father, Laius, had been the first to introduce pederasty to Thebes. Instead, he ascribes its institution to judicious civic authorities “who first made this form of love customary among the Thebans.” Finding Theban youth unruly, they sought to “relax and mollify their strong and impetuous natures in earliest boyhood.” To this harmonious end, Plutarch tells us, they trained them in the music of the flute and “gave love a conspicuous place in the life of the palaestra, thus tempering the dispositions of the young men.”

    Apparently Gorgidas was killed in some skirmish shortly after he founded the band, for the next year its leadership passed to Pelopidas, the young Theban who had led the exiles in their rebellion. Under siege by the Spartans, the Thebans at first hesitated to challenge their redoubtable enemies in a formal battle. But having unexpectedly come upon a Spartan force while reconnoitering at Tegyrae, Pelopidas daringly attacked. Though the Spartans outnumbered them two or three to one, his spirited leadership won the day. Plutarch thought the occasion remarkable: “For in all their wars with the Greeks and Barbarians, as it would seem, never before had Lacedaemonians in superior numbers been overpowered by an inferior force, nor indeed in a pitched battle where the forces were evenly matched. Hence they were of an irresistible courage, and when they came to close quarters their reputation sufficed to terrify their opponents, who also, on their part, thought themselves no match for Spartans with an equal force.”

    Plutarch called the undefeated Pelopidas “valiant, laborious, passionate, and magnanimous.” But his fame was eventually overshadowed by his friend Epaminondas, whose life in several points contrasted with his own. Pelopidas was rich but modest in his style of living; Epaminondas, despite his renown, remained poor until the day of his death. Pelopidas married and had children; Epaminondas died unwed. At the time the Cadmeia was seized, Epaminondas was looked upon as a scholarly recluse. A devoted disciple of the Pythagorean sage Lysis of Tarentum, who had settled in Thebes, he divided his time between exercises in the gymnasium, lectures, and philosophy. Though he declined to participate in the assassination of the Spartanizing Thebans, once the revolt began he joined Pelopidas in re-establishing democracy. Early in their careers he bravely risked his life to save his wounded friend. Though they competed for glory on the same narrow stage, they were never rivals—an unusual circumstance among jealous Greeks. Epaminondas now developed into an orator and statesman as well as a soldier. Indeed, it was he who, at a peace conference in 371, challenged Sparta’s overlordship of the Peloponnesus. In retaliation the Spartan king Agesilaus angrily excluded Thebes from the peace treaty. Thebes hastily prepared for full-scale war.

    The battle that tried the issue between Sparta and Thebes was, according to Pausanias, “the most famous [victory] ever won by Greeks over Greeks.” At Leuctra in 371, Epaminondas devised a new maneuver. He strengthened his left wing and, holding his right wing back, attacked the Spartans obliquely, throwing them into confusion. Then Pelopidas led the Sacred Band to the charge and smashed the squadron commanded by the Spartan co-king, Cleombrotus, who was killed on the field. Epaminondas’ lover Asopichus also won fame in the battle. He put up so formidable a fight that his shield, decorated with a representation of the trophy that the Thebans had erected at Leuctra, hung as a conspicuous offering at Delphi.

    Their defeat at Leuctra destroyed at a blow the military supremacy the Spartans had enjoyed for centuries. In the wake of his victory, Epaminondas invaded the Peloponnesus, freed the provinces of Messenia and Arcadia from the Spartan yoke, and carried the war into the suburbs of the city; this was the first siege the Spartans had suffered during the six hundred years that the Dorians had occupied the Peloponnesus. Thebes was now the leading power in Greece.

    The victorious Epaminondas acted with a magnanimity that contrasted with Spartan tyranny. He reestablished Messene as Messenia’s provincial capital and built a new city, Megalopolis, as a center of defense for the long-subjugated Arcadians. Though the hegemony of Greece now fell to Thebes, he declined to subject other cities to Theban domination and pillage, as the Spartans and Athenians had done earlier when they wielded power. No doubt he had the intelligence to realize that the economic and military resources of Thebes would not have sustained this enterprise. As a result he won a unique fame as a liberator rather than an exploiter.

    Classical and modern historians alike have joined to salute Epaminondas as Greece’s greatest warrior-statesman. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in the age of Julius Caesar, thought he “excelled . . . all Greeks in valor and shrewdness in the art of war.”84 Diodorus ranked him above Solon, Themistocles, Miltiades, Cimon, Pericles, and Agesilaus in generalship and reputation. “For in each of the others you would discover but one particular superiority as a claim to fame; in him, however, all qualities combined. For in strength of body and eloquence of speech, furthermore in elevation of mind, contempt of lucre, fairness, and, most of all, in courage and shrewdness in the art of war, he far surpassed them all.” Diodorus was a Sicilian Greek and perhaps partial, but his Latin contemporary, Cornelius Nepos, a man of a markedly different tradition, was if anything even more eulogistic. In his Book of the Great Commanders Nepos expresses concern that his readers will look askance at Epaminondas’ reputation as a musician and dancer but begs them to remember the Greeks esteemed such frivolities. He praises without reservation Epaminondas’ intellectual and athletic prowess and finds he meets Roman standards of temperance, prudence, and seriousness: he was “practised in war, of great personal courage and high spirit” and “such a lover of truth that he never lied even in jest.” One part of his character was quite unclassical (if we except Caesar): “He was self-controlled, kindly and forbearing to a surprising degree.” Nepos acclaims him as one of the few successful Greek military leaders whose integrity was equal to his talent. His contemporary Cicero agreed. Discussing the influence of culture and philosophy on such leaders as Peisistratus, Pericles, Timotheus, and Agesilaus in his De Oratore, Cicero hailed Epaminondas as “perhaps the most outstanding figure in Greek history.”

    Theban pre-eminence lasted only as long as Epaminondas lived. Pelopidas, leading a force north to free the people of Thessaly from the vicious Alexander of Pheras, was killed in 364 in a rash attempt to engage the tyrant in single combat. The Thessalians mourned and granted their would-be liberator heroic honors. Alexander was subsequently dispatched by his wife: one of her grievances was that the tyrant had made her younger brother his bedmate. In the meantime, the weakening of Sparta left the Peloponnesus in turmoil. Rival factions in Arcadia summoned Thebes and Sparta to their aid, and Epaminondas once more found himself face to face with his old foes at Mantinea in 362. His brilliant strategy again routed the Spartans but at a fatal cost. Diodorus records the story of his death. Pierced by a spear, he was told he would die when the point was withdrawn from his chest. After conversing with his friends, he said, “It is time to die,” and ordered them to withdraw the spear.

    Another lover of Epaminondas, Caphisodorus, also died at Mantinea; Plutarch tells us they were buried together on the battlefield. Pausanias, visiting Thebes in the second century after Christ, found these verses inscribed on a statue raised in Epaminondas’ honor:

    "By my counsel was Sparta shorn of her glory,
    And holy Messene received at last her children:
    By the arms of Thebes was Megalopolis encircled with walls,
    And all Greece won independence and freedom."

    A few years before Pausanias’ visit, the Emperor Hadrian had inscribed his own tribute on another monument to the Theban which stood on the site of his death.

    The Theban Sacred Band met its nemesis in Philip of Macedonia. In 367 when Philip was about fifteen, he had been sent as a hostage to Thebes and remained there for three years while Thebes was at the height of its prestige. Philip must have been stirred by the victories of Epaminondas and Pelopidas and fascinated by their new fighting methods, since we later find him revolutionizing military practice by adapting them to his own purposes. Dio Chrysostom credits Philip’s later diplomatic sagacity to the education he received from Epaminondas and makes him the eromenos of Pelopidas. Perhaps he was, or perhaps this is an honorific assumption in accordance with the Hellenic motto, “Cherchez l’amant,” for Plutarch says Philip lived not with Pelopidas but in the house of Pammenes, the general who was to assume leadership after the death of Epaminondas. As a military leader, Pammenes was an enthusiastic advocate of the discipline that formed the Sacred Band. Plutarch quotes (several times) Pammenes’ criticism of Homer’s Nestor for organizing regiments on tribal lines. “For tribesmen and clansmen make little account of tribesmen and clansmen in times of danger; whereas, a band that is held together by the friendship between lovers is indissoluble and not to be broken, since the lovers are ashamed to play the coward before their beloved, and the beloved before their lovers, and both stand firm to protect each other.”

    On his return to Macedon, Philip put to use what he had learned at Thebes. When he came to the throne, he organized a strong professional army and, having secured his position in the north, managed by a series of adroit diplomatic maneuvers to extend his power into southern Greece with the intention of unifying the entire country under his command. When Thebes and Athens belatedly formed an alliance to oppose him, the crucial battle took place in 338 at Plutarch’s Chaeronea. The Sacred Band, still intact and undefeated, remained the prime troops of the Greek army, but this was their Götterdämmerung. True to their traditions, they stood their ground and were killed to the last man, so that the bodies of the three hundred lay strewn on the field. In the triumph of victory Philip came upon the remains of the regiment he had known in Thebes as an adolescent thirty years before. Plutarch describes his response: “And when, after the battle, Philip was surveying the dead, and stopped at the place where the three hundred were lying, all where they had faced the long spears of his phalanx, with their armour, and mingled one with another, he was amazed, and on learning that this was the band of lovers and beloved, burst into tears and said: ‘Perish miserably they who think that these men did or suffered aught disgraceful.’”

    When the geographer Pausanias visited the site four hundred years later, he saw their memorial. In the empty fields, overlooking the common grave of the Thebans, before a row of cypress, stood a gigantic marble lion. It stands there still. Its present restoration was undertaken in 1902 by an organization called the Order of Chaeronea. (This was in fact a secret, quasi-Masonic society of English homosexuals, founded and led by the reformer George Cecil Ives.) Modern excavations of the battleground have recovered the remains of 254 men, almost the whole complement of the Sacred Band, laid out in seven rows.

    Louis Crompton
    Homosexuality and Civilization
     
  14. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    I remember the Tiger Mandingo case being EVERYWHERE but the media has been relatively quiet on this…I wonder why?
    [​IMG]
    Gay adult film star Mike Dozer (aka Christopher Steele) has been sentenced to at least an additional 8 years in prison for having illicit sex with a 14-year-old boy and failing to disclose to the boy that he is HIV positive.

    Dozer was previously sentenced to 17.5 years in prison by federal authorities for raping that boy, who reportedly had inappropriate contact with 6 other adult males. Dozer met the boy using gay geosocial app Jack’d.

    Dozer’s second sentencing was the result of a state investigation into Dozer’s contact with the underage boy. His state sentence will run consecutively to his federal sentence. He could face up to an additional 16 years in state prison following his stint in the federal penitentiary system.

    [​IMG]“I would suggest the display of unusual cruelty in this case is very significant and is outrageous, frankly,” Montgomery County Judge Thomas P. Rogers said Thursday as he considered the punishment for Christopher Steele, also known as adult entertainment performer Mike Dozer. “It was so reckless, so outrageous … that it goes beyond all bounds of human decency.”

    Rogers sentenced Steele, 35, formerly of the 700 block of Kilgor Court, Newark, Del., to eight to 16 years in state prison on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child less than 16 and a misdemeanor charge of recklessly endangering another person in connection with his contact with a 14-year-old Limerick boy he met on the social networking cell phone app Jack’d between May and October 2013. […]

    “Reckless, selfish, lacking empathy, and dangerous, these are the words that describe this defendant. This defendant took advantage of this child, took advantage of his age and took advantage of his vulnerability,” argued Assistant District Attorney Sophia Polites, who sought a lengthy prison term against Steele. “He engaged in some of the most egregious and heinous behaviors. He is deceitful. Simply put, he is a dangerous individual.”

    Dozer’s defense attorney argued against Dozer’s sentencing running consecutively to his federal sentencing. But the judge was unswayed.

    “This was a set of poor decisions by Mr. Steele. As egregious as this conduct is I would not want to see Mr. Steele warehoused,” argued [defense lawyer George Griffith Jr.], adding Steele had no prior criminal record. […]

    “My intent was not to put the family and victim through the stress,” said Steele, adding he was under medical treatment at the time and believed his risk of transmitting the disease was “zero.” “I did get a false sense of security with that. It was a poor decision on my behalf and a false sense of security I felt because I was on the medication. I’m not saying what I did was right. It was wrong.”

    Steele added when he learned he was HIV positive, “it hit me like a ton of bricks.”

    Steele implied one of his poor choices was getting involved in the adult entertainment industry.

    “Once I took that turn, my life went downhill. That led to my demise,” Steele told the judge.

    The judge said Steele’s comments were all about himself and supported presentence evaluations that characterized Steele as being narcissistic, having a sense of entitlement and a grandiose attitude.

    The judge also deemed Dozer a “sexually violent predator” based on testimony from Dr. Jennifer Hahn, a member of the Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board. Hahn classified Dozer as exhibiting anti-social and narcissistic personality disorders. She testified, “He seems to require that admiration and comes across as grandiose. He certainly shows the need to be the center of attention.” She added, “He uses his physical appearance to draw attention to himself.”

    Being classified as a sexually violent predator will have significant ramifications for Dozer:

    Those classified as predators face more stringent restrictions under state law, including mandatory counseling, community notification about their living arrangements once they are released from prison and a lifetime requirement to report their addresses to state police.

    The boy in the case was ultimately found to be HIV negative despite his contact with Dozer. The boy’s parents were in court for the sentencing and appeared tearful at times, according to The Mercury News. The DA argued that Dozer caused the boy and his family “extreme stress” while they waited for his test results.
     
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  15. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    We have talked about this for years on Cypher Ave. Because we are not a mainstream Black Queer/Fem leaning publication we've always gotten crickets. Now a Black Fem Rapper/Musician comes out with the hashtag and wouldn't you know it...it's blowing up.



    Doubt anything will change. As evident in the response from a white gay person.
     
    #1 OckyDub, Apr 1, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2016
  16. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    YO...even though I'm not a fan of the show, nor follower of Ru Paul; this interview is on point and telling. Even though I will never watch the show...I support this Black Man.

    [​IMG]
    RuPaul was born November 17, which makes him a Scorpio — a detail he has said accounts for his observant and analytical nature during interviews. I could feel his gaze settle on me as he sat down on a gold couch at the London Hotel in New York, wearing rectangular black glasses and a suit made of thick brocade in a resplendent print of pink roses. This was not the light and effervescent RuPaul-in-drag the American public has come to know since the release of his single, “Supermodel (You Better Work),” in 1992, but rather workroom Ru: serious, sober, and slightly intimidating. During our conversation, RuPaul, 55, clapped back at critics who said RuPaul's Drag Race used transphobic language, dismissed Spike TV’s Lip Sync Battle as a ripoff of his show, and explained why educating younger generations is a waste of everyone’s time. Grab your reading glasses, because the library is open.

    Congratulations on the 100th episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. With the eighth season, how do you keep things fresh?
    We're always inspired by the queens. And because it's like a school, we get a new crop of kids every single year — that's how it stays fresh. This year especially, it's the children's Drag Race. These are the kids who grew up watching it, and their whole drag aesthetic comes from the show. So it's an interesting shift. And we knew this would come if we stayed on the air long enough — we'd see what we produced in the public. And they're beautiful! They're smart. We have to actually work harder to stay one step ahead of them.

    Has that given you a chance to take a step back and reflect on what you've created on the show?
    You know, I normally don't. I only even entertain those ideas when I'm talking to someone like you, from the press, and they ask me. I'm always looking forward. I do understand we've launched the careers of 100 queens, which is really the most important part of our job.

    What are some of your favorite moments?
    Because the kids are so courageous and their stories are so rich, they bring such a unique story every single time. I always think about Roxxxy's story when she revealed she was abandoned at a bus stop as a 4-year-old. It's usually their stories that surprise me of how resilient and strong they are.

    One of the things I love about drag is that it’s an art form about survival.
    It is, because each of those kids were little boys, sometimes in small towns, who were alienated and ostracized. And even in the face of such adversity, they prevailed and shine today. So it's a story of strength. That's what the appeal is for the audience. Here are these people who have prevailed and succeeded against insurmountable odds. It's a great story for anyone who watches.

    [​IMG]

    Photo: Jenny Anderson/WireImages
    They often say that drag saved their lives.
    Right. And I'll tell you why. Because you get to a point where if you're smart and you're sensitive, you see how this all works on this planet. It's like when Dorothy looks behind the curtain. Like, "Wait a minute. You're the wizard?" And you figure out the hoax. That this is all an illusion. There's only a few areas you can go. First, you get angry that you've been hoaxed and you get bitter. But then, take more steps beyond the bitterness and you realize, "Oh, I get it. Let's have fun with it. It's all a joke. You mean I don't have to stick with one look or one whatever? I can shape-shift? Great." That's when you can save lives because otherwise the mediocrity and the hypocrisy is so mundane, it's better to just not do it. I'm not going to say "end it all." But that's why it saves lives. Because for people who are highly sensitive and super-intelligent, it tickles the brain. It gives them something to live for. It's the irreverence. I was the same way when I was 15. I said, "Okay, I'm gonna do this life. But I'm gonna do it on my terms, and I'm never gonna join the Matrix." That's why it saves lives.

    Would you say that drag saved your life?
    It actually didn't save my life, it gave me a life. I don't think there is a life in the mundane 9-to-5 hypocrisy. That's not living. That's just part of the Matrix. And drag is punk rock, because it is not part of the Matrix. It is not following any rules of societal standards. Boy, girl, black, white, Catholic, Jew, Muslim. It's none of that. We shape-shift. We can do whatever we want.

    Do you feel that drag can never be mainstream?
    It will never be mainstream. It's the antithesis of mainstream. And listen, what you're witnessing with drag is the most mainstream it will get. But it will never be mainstream, because it is completely opposed to fitting in.

    Throughout your career, have you ever felt like you are part of the mainstream?
    No. You know, I've never been on Ellen or David Letterman or The Tonight Show, and there's a reason for that, which I don't want to go into, but there's a reason that I've never been thought of as someone who can go on there. Because it makes those hosts feel very, very uncomfortable, especially if we really talked. It would be the opposite of what they're used to. So am I part of the mainstream? No. People know my name, people know what I look like, but am I invited to the party? No, and there's a reason for it.

    Would you want to be?
    No. In fact, I made a pact with myself when I was 15 that if I was going to live this life, I'm only going to do it on my terms, and I'm only going to do it if I'm putting my middle finger up at society the whole time. So any time I've had yearnings to go, "Aw, gee, I wish I could be invited to the Emmys," I say, Ru, Ru, remember the pact you made. You never wanted to be a part of that bullshit. In fact, I'd rather have an enema than have an Emmy.

    The show is clearly one of the best reality shows, so it's insane to me that you haven't been nominated.
    It's not insane when you take the car apart and you really look at what the car is. You understand that it can't recognize it, because in doing so it would recognize all of the flaws in their doctrine, in their whole ideology. Drag doesn't conform. It's actually making fun of [conformity]. Now, the talk-show hosts … get it if I'm making fun of myself and if I'm a punch line for them, but not as a human being. They would have a transsexual on because a transsexual is saying, "This is who I really am. I'm real." I'm saying, "No, I'm not real. I'm actually everything and nothing at all."

    That's very Buddhist.
    I didn't come up with this shit. I studied. It is very Buddhist, and all roads lead to Zen and Buddhism. If you are a seeker and you want to know the answers, you're not the first person to go there. And you don't have to look that far for the answers. They're not encoded in this ancient scripture. It's actually right there in front of you. It's in that flower that I'm looking at right now or that tree over there or that mountain. It's all there.

    What do you think of Lip Sync Battle and Jimmy Fallon?
    Oh, I don't think of it. It's a poor ripoff of our show. Regular, straight pop culture has liberally lifted things from gay culture as long as I can remember. And that's fine, because guess what? We have so much more where that comes from. Take it! That's why [my new show] Gay for Play is such a fun thing, because we've taken the best of the gay sensibility and put it all in one place. And we're showing these bitches how it's really done. But it's funny how that works, even in gay culture. There's a certain "gay shame." Gay people will accept a straight pop star over a gay pop star, or they will accept a straight version of a gay thing, because there's still so much self-loathing, you know?

    They talk so much about acceptance now today and it's like, yes, but trust me — I'm old and I know this shit — it's superficial. Because as soon as the lights go out, you'll see how advanced people's thinking is. This so-called "Will & Grace acceptance" era is just people fucking posing. Things haven't changed that much. You see it in politics right now — that's the fucking truth of people. And you know, people will have you think, "Oh, we're fashion. We're gay. That's my gay over there!" It's like, no. We're still a very, very, very primitive culture.

    Gayness is still treated as an accessory.
    Exactly. But if we can just cut out the self-loathing, we could get really far.

    There’s a sense on Drag Race that there's a way to win. With certain judges, there's a value of "fishiness" (a.k.a. looking like a real woman). Do you feel like that is counter to what drag is?
    The criteria really isn't "fishiest." It's charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. And if you got it, if you look at our iconic photo from the premiere, we have a wide variety of girls and, I don't know, are any of them fishy? Being fishy isn't like a home run to win. Because we've had every type of winner, and the iconic girls who didn't win who are still super-duper-stars, they're not necessarily fishy, I would say. They're a character.

    Fishiness can be a part of it.
    For some, it is. It was never for me. I always did what I thought was interesting. I always just did what caught my fantasy. Looking like a woman, that was never the criteria for me. It was always to do drag. And drag is not gender-specific. Drag is just drag. It's exaggeration.

    It's about playing with gender.
    Oh, it's poking fun at gender. It's mocking gender is what it's doing. But taking it seriously? No. Because that's what fishy alludes to. Fishiness alludes to the look and feel of "real." For most drag queens, that's not the criteria. Because the look and feel of real is boring.

    Last week on Drag Race, you eliminated both queens, Laila McQueen and Dax Exclamationpoint. This has only happened one other time in Drag Race history. What was disappointing about their Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive,” lip-sync battle?

    Because Drag 101, the first song you learn to lip sync to is Gloria Gaynor's “I Will Survive.” And every human alive knows the words to that song, just by default, because they play it so motherfucking much. And it was like, “What the fuck? You don't know the words to ‘I Will Survive’? Then both you bitches need to go. I've heard these theories of, "Oh, they planned that." Bitch, we didn't plan that. Did you see the performance? It was absolutely awful.

    You eliminated Naysha Lopez earlier this season. Why did you decide to bring her back this week?
    Because she's fabulous. She had just left, and I was like, "You know what, you deserve another chance." I've seen all of the kids’ audition tapes for many years. Thorgy had auditioned every single year. And finally, this time, her audition was like, "Okay, she's ready." But why did I bring [Naysha] back? Because I wanted to. Because the show's called RuPaul's Motherfucking Drag Race. (Laughs.)

    Drag has always been about playing with language and taking it apart and blurring boundaries, whereas currently the discourse on the internet is about creating demarcations within language and saying you can, or cannot, say something. What do you think about that?
    It's stupid. They're dumb, and it's stupid. If I said, "Boy, I really love corn dogs!" it doesn't mean I actually love a corn dog. Because love has nothing to do with corn dogs. But it's just language. It's a state of mind. You take for granted that my intention is really to express that I enjoy them a lot and I want to eat one right now. That's what it's meant to do. But if you have an agenda and you want to take my sentence apart, you could certainly say, "Oh, my God! You love a corn dog? What do you mean by that? Do you want to marry it? Do you want to put it inside of you?" It's like, "That's not what I meant and you actually know that's not what I meant and you're only using it because you have an agenda so that you could get attention for whatever reason you have."

    How then would you interpret taking out "She-Mail" from the show due to allegations of transphobia?
    I don't know. You know, I didn't do that. The network did that, and you'd have to ask them why they did it, but I had nothing to do with that.

    Did you feel like that was not a battle to have?
    Well, the intention behind that word is a portmanteau that was meant as a way to be fun and to enjoy language. I talked earlier about the sweet, sensitive souls who find this world, when they uncover life's cruel hoax. The first stage is anger. Then bitterness. The third stage is laughter and irreverence and understanding that, "Oh! I can have fun. Don't take it too seriously. Have fun with it." So twist a phrase, curl a word, paint on a mustache. We do not stand on ceremony, and we do not take words seriously. We do take feelings seriously and intention seriously, and the intention is not to be hateful at all. But if you are trigger-happy and you're looking for a reason to reinforce your own victimhood, your own perception of yourself as a victim, you'll look for anything that will reinforce that.

    How do you view drag's relationship to the trans community?
    I think it's a boring topic. I don't really want to talk about that because everybody wants to ask about that. It's so topical, but they're complete opposites. We mock identity. They take identity very seriously. So it's the complete opposite ends of the scale. To a layperson, it seems very similar, but it's really not.

    Right. But I mean, it is complicated, too, because …
    I don't think it's complicated. Some people take identity very seriously. I don't. I choose to laugh at identity and play with it. I'll wear a suit or I'll wear a sailor's outfit. I'll dress femme. I'll dress butch queen, which is the name of my new album, by the way. I'll do whatever. All of the experiences I've learned and every ascended master you've studied will say the exact same thing: Life is not to be taken seriously. Most people are dumb as fuck. If you look at their voting habits and their eating habits, you realize people are stupid. So we could talk about stupid people or we could just stay with smart people who know how to have fun and not even focus on what dumb people do. It's not worth it. I tell you this as someone who's a smart motherfucker: Don't waste your time fooling with dumb people or trying to figure them out or trying to educate them. It doesn't work. It's a lose-lose situation.

    How do you feel drag's function has changed?
    The function hasn't changed. It's been the same since the beginning of time when shamans, witch doctors, or court jesters were the drags. Which is to remind culture to not take itself seriously. To remind you that you are not your shirt or your religious affiliation. You are an extension of the power that created the whole universe. You are God in drag. You are dressed up in this outfit of a body, which is temporary. You are eternal. You are forever. You are unchanged. And this is a dream you're having. So don't get to attached to it. Make love. Love people. Be sweet. Have corn dogs. Dance. Live. Love. Fuck shit up. But it's all good. You can't fuck it up because you're eternal.

    There’s a discussion right now about how TV has become diversified because there are different channels, there are web shows, there are podcasts. Do you feel like there's more opportunity now than there was in the early '80s when you were coming up?
    There are more opportunities because there are more avenues where you have a voice. But in saying that, everyone else has a voice too, and everyone else's voice is treated with the same levity as the next person's voice is. So there's a lot more opportunities, but the playing field is so, so crowded. You have to be very, very distinct to really get out there. And when you realize who the audience is and what their intellectual DNA is, it's almost like, Gee, do I want to be the most popular? Do I want to be someone who Betty and Joe Beer Can are not threatened by? Because they're threatened by everything.

    Do you think it's true that audiences have become more niche?
    Yes, definitely, which is not necessarily a great thing. When I was in clubs in New York, I'd go out every night. I'd go to four to five, maybe six clubs a night, and at all of those clubs, there would be uptown, downtown, black, white, gay, straight, everybody was there. And it was so exciting. And there was no shame. It wasn't like this hostile tension because we were all mixed together. But as the '90s rolled in, people started branching off into their little niches, and I thought it was very indicative of what was going on in the rest of the world. And we're witnessing that in television right now. I think it's a cycle that humans go through.

    What do you think changed?
    This is my twisted little theory: that because more and more people became narcissistic and became self-analyzed or in therapy, their own personal issues became omnipotent, and they wanted the whole world to know, “My personal issues are important, dammit, and so I need to be around people who understand me.” Rather than the other way around, and fixing yourself from the inside out, they wanted the outside to reflect who they are. I'm working on this theory as I'm saying it, but I think the answer is in there somewhere. It has to do with the Me Generation, the narcissistic generation needing to make their environment reflect who they think they are.

    How important is history for drag in general? Do you feel like there's a generational gap with these young kids coming up who don't know the original references but they know what has been based on them?
    Yes, drag traditionally has been a sampling machine. We have always taken little bits to piece together a bigger story. It's almost like an encrypted message. For young gay people before the 1990s, and forever, we had to speak in code. We had to speak so that we couldn't be found out. And a lot of that came in the form of references, pictures, one-liners, a twist of phrase. And that's the tradition of the young outsider — your tribe finds you once you send out these messages. In the “Supermodel” video we've got the Diana Ross urban legend of the Brewster-Douglass Projects with the Supremes, how they met. We've got Sunset Boulevard. Mahogany was in there where she's looking in the mirror and she puts the lipstick on the mirror. It's all in there.

    It's a tradition, and will young people get it? They don't have to get it as much today because it's not like this gay underground railroad where if you're found out, you'll be run out of town. They don't need to have that secret language anymore. But on Drag Race, we still put it in there because it's our duty and our tradition to behave that way. To have little wink wink, nudge nudge references that people who do know will get it.

    Do you think it's important for the younger generation to learn it?
    I don't know. I don't really care about them. The truth is, they're on their own. They'll figure it out. There's nothing we can do to force them to say, "Look, this is important." Humans don't learn that way. I think about New York, and I had such a fucking great time there. Do I wish young people could experience that? Yes! Yes, I do. Am I going to work it out for them? No, bitch, you're fucking on your own. Work it out for yourself.

    There have been lot of LGBT narratives recently: Carol, The Danish Girl. What did you think of them?
    I loved Carol. I thought it was a beautiful film. I loved the story. The Danish Girl, I couldn't see past the wigs, which were terrible. I did love that one time where he gets dressed up and looks like David Bowie. He's in a suit that has these huge wide legs, cinched waist, and he's not in women's clothes, he's in a man's suit. It is gorgeous. It's worth watching the movie for just that one shot. Anybody in that David Bowie suit, oh my God, gorgeous.

    I don’t really care about [the younger generation]. The truth is, they’re on their own. They’ll figure it out.
    David Bowie was a big influence on you. Did you ever get to meet him?
    I did, yeah. I was at a dinner party and when I saw he was there, I had to excuse myself into the library of this swanky house. Actually, it's a house that David Geffen owns now, but it wasn't his then. I excused myself to breathe a little bit, you know? Thinking back, I guess he came in there specifically because he knew that I went in there. And he said "Hi" and shook my hand. I said, "Hi, great to see you." And we spoke for a little bit. Then I actually escaped the party and didn't sit down for dinner because I had to go downstairs and let out the screaming and crying that followed.

    What does he mean for you?
    I talk about the sweet, sensitive souls, the people who are my tribe, you know? And how hard it is to navigate your heart in this plane, in this linear, basic, mediocre, hypocritical world. To find those beacons of light in that darkness is such a gift. And he is that. He still is that. Through his music and his art, how he projected this image out there. And it was never cocky. Part of the rock creed is to wear black and cover up and smoke a cigarette and be exclusive. His wasn't that way. His was always open. That's why my generation of kids flocked to that. Because it was a continuation of the exploration of the '60s and '70s.

    Is there anyone who interests you in pop culture right now?
    The only person who interests me in pop culture right now is Judge Judy. That's it. Because of the realness — she has kept the story of mankind. There's a certain decorum and civility that keeps our society together, and it has crumbled so much in the past, really, 20 years. But when you watch her during that hour in the afternoon, she has remembered it and is saying, "No! We do it like this." And I love it! She remembers the rules of civility. Because if you've gotten to the point where you need to go to court to figure out what to do, then you've lost your right to be cocky. You need someone. You need a mediator. And she's that person.

    You mentioned your upcoming game show, Gay for Play. Can you talk a little more about it?
    It's a pop-culture trivia show, where contestants win over $5,000 in cash and prizes with a panel of celebrities who are there to help them answer the questions if they choose to listen to them. And it is hilarious, sexy, cheeky, irreverent. It's the gay aesthetic done by gay people. Through our show and social media, the gay vernacular has been adopted by mainstream pop culture. Every blog is now in the voice of gay culture. Sex and the City was a show that was a gay aesthetic done by straight women. That's what made it successful. And it starred New York City. So we decided to take our gay aesthetic and put it on a game show and do it the way it should be done. These other shows that rip off little bits of our show? Have at it. We've got plenty. You could try to come for us and try to do it. You could never do it the way we do it.
     
  17. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    Orientation:
    Homosexual
    Dating:
    Married
    [​IMG]

    Singer Danny Boy, who sung hooks on such famous songs as 2Pac’s “I Ain’t Mad at Cha” and “Picture Me Rollin,” spoke to VladTV about deciding to come out as a gay man at the beginning of 2016. The former Death Row singer told us that he made the decision after a man he was dating, who was the first man Danny Boy said he felt comfortable with, committed suicide because he was gay. He explained that initially he disguised his boyfriend, Anthony, as a woman while announcing his death on Facebook, but Danny Boy told us that he decided to tell the truth after going to the funeral.

    The backlash Danny Boy received after making his announcement was tough to deal with, as the singer told us that he lost longtime friends and members of his church started to speak out against his new lifestyle. One of the hardest conversations Danny Boy had to have about the news was with the mothers of his children, including his ex-wife, and he admitted that his oldest child’s mother took the news the best. However, Danny Boy told us that his ex-wife took the news hard, and he added that he hasn’t spoken to his third child’s mother due to their already strained relationship.

    Check out more of what Danny Boy had to say about his coming out in the above interview, including if he hooked up with anyone from Death Row.






    Read the whole post here.
     
  18. Infinite_loop

    Infinite_loop Is this thing on?
    Bae Material The 1000 Daps Club

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    NAIROBI, Kenya — WHEN the Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina published his acclaimed memoir three years ago, he concealed an important part of his life from the public eye. Last Saturday, he unveiled “a lost chapter” of the book on the Internet titled, “I am a homosexual, mum.”

    The chapter, about missing the opportunity to tell his mother before she died, is intensely personal. The response has been extremely public, a “gay bombshell” in the words of the newspaper The Daily Nation.

    That is because, as a successful author, publisher, journalist and commentator, Mr. Wainaina, 43, has become one of the most prominent Africans ever to come out publicly. He did so at a moment when the issue is being fiercely debated here in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Even as gay rights have gained ground in the United States and other Western nations, Africa has in some cases moved backward, with several countries increasing penalties against gays. Nigeria’s president this month signed into law a tough ban on same-sex relationships that threatens violators with 14-year prison terms, amid reports that gay men have been rounded up, arrested and even tortured.


    [​IMG]
    The Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina is one of the most prominent Africans to come out as gay.

    SVEN TORFINN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

    “The law is extremely cynical,” Mr. Wainaina said. “Any kind of bill like that has such extreme consequences that an immediacy of reaction of every kind is necessary.”

    Mr. Wainaina, voluble and expressive, with his hair shaved on the sides, dyed red on one side, blue on the other, and yellow sunglasses perched atop his head, labeled homophobia a Victorian export brought to Africa by British colonialists. He placed the debate over gay rights in the context of a young, rapidly growing continent.

    “I’m extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general,” Mr. Wainaina said. “It’s set off. It cannot stop. It’s going to be turbulent. There’ll be dark bits and there’ll be bright bits, but it’s a speed train.”

    While Mr. Wainaina has spoken out against the new law in Nigeria, his decision to come out was equally about his own experiences in his native Kenya, in particular, the death of a young gay friend called Kalota whose parents were forced to leave their church afterward. Another friend died of AIDS last year, and the aftermath also left Mr. Wainaina pensive.

    He was uncomfortable with “that whole feeling of a certain kind of surreptitiousness, why didn’t so-and-so come to the funeral, but they loved him and they’re very close.” It was hard for him to pin down why he went public, he said, because “it’s not so much the event as a singularity but how that singularity compounds on things that happen all the time,” he said.

    [​IMG]
    Mr. Wainaina at an interview in Nairobi. He called his coming out a “lost chapter” of his acclaimed memoir, “One Day I Will Write About This Place,” published in 2011.
    SVEN TORFINN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
    SINCE his chapter went online, Mr. Wainaina (pronounced wye-NYE-na) said he had been getting messages of support, both public and private, from friends, relatives and even a retired Roman Catholic priest who was close to the family.

    “Someone who was in high school with me who I haven’t seen or talked to in years, you know, sent me a private message saying, ‘I’m a cop now, so if you need any help, give me a call,' ” Mr. Wainaina said.

    It was generous, and in a way comforting, but also a sign of the severity of discrimination and public insults, blackmail and beatings gay people in Kenya still face, said Peter Njane, a member of the task force for the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya. “The kind of oppression we go through, it forces us to come out and say who we are.”

    It is not just Kenya. On his visit to Africa last year, President Obama found himselftrading barbs with President Macky Sall of Senegal. After Mr. Obama praised the United States Supreme Court decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, Mr. Sall retorted, “We are not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.” The news media and public in Senegal, where gay sex is illegal and gays are often persecuted, celebrated his defiance.

    Mr. Njane said that while the coalition applauded Mr. Wainaina’s decision to come out, there had been “a lot of negativity on social media.” Some compared gays to pedophiles, while others made crass jokes or uncomfortable statements about gay sex, calling it “weird” and “unimaginable.”

    “I blame the parents!” one Kenyan Twitter user said, for giving him an uncommon name like Binyavanga.

    He was born Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina, and his family still calls him Ken. But “the exotic” of the name Binyavanga “gave me a thrill,” he said, and he began going by his middle name.

    His mother ran a hair salon in the city of Nakuru, while his father was a successful executive. In the lost chapter, Mr. Wainaina said that he had known he was gay since he was 5 years old.

    He described shaking a man’s hand at 7: “This feeling has made me suddenly ripped apart and lonely. The feeling is not sexual. It is certain. It is overwhelming.”

    He studied in South Africa during the final years of apartheid, and had friends there who were gay.

    His mother died in 2000, and he still had not faced up to the thoughts he had been having since he was a child. He did not act on it until five years later with “a man who will give me a massage and some brief, paid-for love” in London, as he described it in the chapter. “I cannot say the word gay until I am 39, four years after that brief massage encounter.”

    IN the meantime he had become an important voice in African literature. He won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002 and was a founder of the literary journal “Kwani?” His critical essay, “How to Write About Africa,” in the British literary journal Granta in 2005, took foreign journalists and authors to task for their clichéd approach to covering the continent.

    For photos, he advised, “an AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these.”

    “If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress,” he wrote. Acceptable characters include “The Starving African,” but “she must look utterly helpless.” The biting piece became a minor sensation.

    In 2011 he published a memoir, “One Day I Will Write About This Place,” which was a critical success at home and abroad. Women, especially, Mr. Wainaina said, noticed the absence of a love life. “I’m not ready to go there,” he recalled thinking at the time.

    He had come out to confidants but had not taken the step publicly. He said that he and a few friends had been “brainstorming what to do for a while,” in half a dozen conversations in bars over the last eight months.

    When he finally made the decision, it became a multimedia coming out, the initial online chapter followed by a cyclone of Twitter messages and a six-part video where he talks about education, creativity and his own experience, posted online as“We Must Free Our Imaginations.”

    On Twitter Mr. Wainaina declared that he would travel to Nigeria, but when asked about it in an interview he said, “Such ideas really have to generate from Nigerians.”

    “I’m not even sure I want to use the term ‘coming out,' ” he said, offering “being gay in public” instead. Mr. Wainaina seemed like a man at ease with the momentous decision he had made, but also still getting used to how the way he related to the world around him had changed.

    “What is my urinal policy? Do you chat casually with the person next to you as would be the case before?” he asked, with his deep, knowing chuckle. “These are all the sorts of questions in my head.”

    But he said he had no doubt that he had made the right decision. “There’s no point for me in being a writer and having all these blocked places where I feel I can’t think freely and imagine freely,” Mr. Wainaina said. “There just really is no point.”

    original article: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/2...tes-gay-rights-writer-comes-out.html?referer=
     
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  19. Nick Delmacy

    Nick Delmacy is a Verified MemberNick Delmacy Da Architect
    Site Founder The 10000 Daps Club

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    BBC follows two UK-based transgender men, as they reveal their new gender identity to their families in the land of their birth, Jamaica.

     
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