gays

Uganda's Anti-Gay Law Has Been Struck Down

Rich Juzwiak · 08/01/14 08:15AM

Uganda's so-called "jail the gays" bill, which President Yoweri Museveni signed in February and imposed seven years in jail for "the offense of homosexuality" (gay sex) and lifetime in jail for "aggravated homosexuality," is no more. This does not mark shifting attitudes in the country that has become notorious for its harsh treatment of its LGBT citizens. Rather, on Friday, a court invalidated it on a technicality: it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum.

Truvada: It's Time To Take the Fucking Pill

Rich Juzwiak · 07/30/14 12:53PM

This month, Tim Murphy wrote in New York magazine, "This summer—on social media, on Fire Island, at the Christopher Street pier, and in certain cohorts around the ­country—what many gay men are talking about among themselves is Truvada." That's been my experience too, that the debate over using the drug as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV has only intensified during the first half of this year.

Fired Editor Sues for His Religious Freedom to Write About "Gaystapo"

Adam Weinstein · 07/24/14 09:58AM

Back in May, the Newton Daily News of Iowa fired its editor-in-chief for comments he'd made on his personal blog. This week, the editor filed a discrimination lawsuit claiming he was fired for his sincere religious beliefs, which compel him to fight "the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo" to the last.

John Travolta's Alleged Ex-Boyfriend Sues for Right To Kiss and Tell

Rich Juzwiak · 07/23/14 11:38AM

When pilot Doug Gotterba spilled the tea on his alleged six-year affair with alleged man who sleeps with men John Travolta to the National Enquirer in 2012, Travolta's camp slapped him with a cease and desist. That's about as revealing as Travolta himself walking right up to Gotterba, slapping him on the face with a lavender glove, and hissing, "Now hush, D'Artagnan."

Here Is the Most Insane Anti-Immigration Campaign TV Ad of 2014

Adam Weinstein · 07/17/14 03:00PM

No one will beat Andrew Thomas. I mean, yes, he will likely lose the race for Arizona governor, and lose very badly. But when it comes to xenophobic pearl-clutching blabber about booting "illegals" and cowing gay liberals, Thomas is a master race unto himself.

Rich Juzwiak · 07/15/14 02:56PM

A new CDC survey suggests the U.S.'s LGB population is smaller than suspected: "96.6% of adults identified as straight, 1.6% identified as gay or lesbian, and 0.7% identified as bisexual. The remaining 1.1% of adults identified as 'something else,' stated 'I don't know the answer,' or refused to provide an answer."

Women Gets Double Mastectomy, Birth Certificate Changed To Wed Woman

Rich Juzwiak · 07/14/14 11:20AM

When Jacki decided she wanted to marry her girlfriend Christine, marriage wasn't yet legal in California, where they live. And so she hatched a plan: "I started looking into transgender," she says, as if it's a new diet or LASIK. "In the eyes of the courts, if I were to have my gender changed to male, just like that she gets my social security, she gets my pension." Jacki had a double mastectomy and her gender on her birth certificate changed to "male." She still goes by "Jacki," and Christine still refers to her as "she."

Judge Judy Finally Hears Case Involving Grindr

Rich Juzwiak · 07/01/14 09:07AM

Judge Judith Sheindlin on her worst day is smarter than you on your best, but even so she apparently had never heard of Grindr before a Judge Judy case involving two men who had met on the app that aired yesterday. And even though Sheindlin wears her luddite status as proudly as that doily around her neck, she cut right through the bullshit and sussed out what men actually use it for.

John Oliver Talked About Gays in Uganda for Almost 20 Minutes

Rich Juzwiak · 06/30/14 01:40PM

Outrage in the U.S. over Uganda's virulently anti-gay policy has died down since it flared up earlier this year, but that doesn't mean the situation has improved for Uganda's LGBT population. On last night's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver cited a May report by the activist group Sexual Minorities Uganda (or SMUG), which states that in the time since Uganda's anti-gay bill was passed by Parliament, there has been a huge increase in the persecution of gays. During the four-month period of this study, there were 162 cases of gay persecution reported, versus 19 in 2012 and eight in 2013 during the same four-month period.

Here's a Brief History of Queer Children's Cartoon Characters

Rich Juzwiak · 06/13/14 12:05PM

Today, DreamWorks' terrific How To Train Your Dragon 2 glides into theaters. Of the film's several rare creatures is a particularly important one: a matter-of-fact gay character. In a blink-and-miss aside, viking character Gobber comments on a husband and wife's reunion after several years of estrangement by saying, "This is why I never married...that, and one other reason."

An AIDS Movie About Living: Test

Rich Juzwiak · 06/12/14 03:00PM

In 2014, a story about AIDS in San Francisco in 1985 is as relevant as ever. Though it shares subject matter, Chris Mason Johnson's Test is the virtual antithesis of Ryan Murphy and Larry Kramer's survey of the early plague years, The Normal Heart, which aired last month on HBO. Test is smaller in scale, more intimate, virtually free of melodrama, and features characters whose relationship to AIDS is not that they are dying from it, but that they are living in fear of it.

Adam Weinstein · 06/11/14 02:30PM

A tea party House candidate in Oklahoma has endorsed stoning gays to death. It "goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and I'm largely libertarian," he says, "but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss."

Adam Weinstein · 06/04/14 02:02PM

There's a megachurch in Texas, 90 percent of whose 4,500 members are LGBT. And it's been officiating gay marriages for like 40 years. Give us that old-time religion!

Jonah Hill to Paparazzi: "Suck My Dick, Faggot"

Rich Juzwiak · 06/03/14 08:47AM

Here we go again. TMZ reports that while Jonah Hill was in Los Angeles this weekend, he was trailed by a couple of paps. He became so fed up that he unleashed the dreaded F-bomb on one. Come on, man. Think about Alec Baldwin—at this point, saying "faggot" hurts your celebrity career just as much as (if not more than) it hurts...whomever it still hurts at this point.

Some Rappers Got Famous By Infecting Babies With AIDS, Says Rapper

Rich Juzwiak · 06/02/14 04:45PM

An insane half-hour interview transpired recently when rapper Charles Hamilton walked by a spot on Harlem's 125th Street where someone was filming for the YouTube channel SaNeter.TV. Hamilton was apparently flagged down and had a lot to say about Sonic the Hedgehog, Interscope president Jimmy Iovine, Kanye West, Drake, and homosexuality.