Walking Dead's new gay couple
US: The Fosters Makes History With a Teenage Kiss
A kiss between two 13-year-old male characters on the ABC Family show The Fosters is making waves for reportedly being the youngest same-sex kiss in American television history. “This storyline is important in so many ways,” said actor MacIntosh. “It’s been eye-opening about how many kids struggle with feeling ‘OK’ about questioning their sexuality.”
There was conversation nationally on social media in reaction to Jude and Connor’s exchange, with hashtags like #Jonner and #JonnerKiss trending on Twitter shortly after the kiss was aired Monday night. Read More
South Korea's First Lesbian Kiss On-Screen Has Taken The Country By Surprise
South Korean TV dramas are renowned for featuring complex, tragic love stories, but viewers of the series Seonam Girls High School Investigators were in for an unprecedented act of romance when South Korea’s first-ever on-screen TV lesbian kiss sparked debate about portrayals of sexuality in a country that, in spite of its growing modernization, still holds dear to deep-seated values of propriety and traditionalism. Read More
Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel make history
Eric Radford came out in December 2014, the first figure skater to do so while still at the top of his game. Since then, Radford and his pairs partner, Meagan Duhamel, won the Grand Prix event in Barcelona, and their record-breaking score on Jan 24 won them their fourth Canadian championship. In the above video, Radford and Duhamel talk about his decision to come out. The team is a favourite to win the world championships in Shanghai in March. Read More
The Importance of Having Gay Video Game Characters
In a video for PBS Digital’s Game/Show, Jamin Warren discusses the power of having explicitly gay characters in video games. Gaming franchises like Fable and the Sims have long-offered players the ability to create unique characters with customizable sexualities. But, as Warren explains, there's something to be said for queer characters whose sexualities are set in stone.
In particular Warren singles out BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dorian, its resident gay magic user, for crafting a story in which Dorian’s sexuality is integral to the character’s personality, but not burdensome to the game’s plot. Read More
'McTucky Fried High,' LGBT Web Series, Explores Queer Teen Issues
An animated web series launched this week that explores issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens in an unconventional way.
"McTucky Fried High" is the brainchild of filmmaker, illustrator and activist Robert-Carnilius and tackles a range of issues relevant to queer youth. Slated for a five-episode run, the web series will hit topics such as coming out, extreme diets, being genderqueer, bullying and sexting -- all through the use of animated food as characters. Read More
Cartoon Aims To Show Dangers Of Syphilis
With syphilis on the increase amongst gay men, the Victorian AIDS Council (VAC) has joined up with a local Australian animator, Michael Cusack, to release Wayne & Kevin an hilarious animated short that encourages men who have sex with men (MSM) to be informed about STIs and get tested regularly.
With syphilis being an STI that can often be asymptomatic or mistaken for other things, the importance of spreading the message surrounding treatment and testing is imperative.
ANZ New Zealand Bank Unveils 'GAYTMs' Benefiting The LGBT Community In Honor Of Pride Events
In an effort to promote "respect, inclusion, equality and acceptance," a local bank chain has unveiled four "GAYTMs" in connection with local Pride events in New Zealand.
The four festively-dressed ATM machines, which were actually introduced last year by ANZ Australia as part of Sydney Mardi Gras, made their debut in Auckland and Wellington via ANZ New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald first reported. The installations will appear throughout the Auckland Pride Festival, which runs through February, and Wellington's Out in the Park, which is slated for Feb. 14. Read More
Gay wrestler Darren Young slams WWE tour of United Arab Emirates
Darren Young has criticized the WWE for its three-day tour of the United Arab Emirates, where gay sex is illegal. WWE decided not to take the openly gay wrestler to Abu Dhabi for his own safety.
‘Why do we bring the best entertainment into a country [sic] like Abu Dhabi and they look down upon women and gays? I get it! #MillionsofDollars,’ he tweeted on Tuesday (10 February) night.
Within minutes, Young deleted the tweets, seemingly at the behest of WWE, and replaced them with the following posts: ‘My freedom of speech is gone. Gone but not forgotten.
The New Documentary That Shows How Our Obsession With Masculinity Is Destroying Young Men
“We’ve put young boys and men in a straightjacket, forcing them to conform to a construct and disconnect from who they really are,” says The Mask You Live In writer-director Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Early on in the documentary The Mask You Live In, which premiered Jan. 23 at the Sundance Film Festival, the idiom “be a man” is identified as one of the most destructive phrases in the English language. That might be shocking to those who believe in adhering to traditional gender roles and the need for boys to learn about masculinity at a young age, but the documentary uses psychologists, coaches, and men of all ages to demonstrate the damage American culture’s rigid definition of masculinity has had on society.
It’s a subject close to writer-director Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s heart. After making her 2011 documentary Miss Representation, which focused on the negative portrayal of women in the media, Siebel Newsom founded an organization called The Representation Project. In the course of the organization’s research, Siebel Newsom and her team found startling statistics that indicated that the problems young women face start — and could perhaps end — with young men. It’s that notion that prompted The Mask You Live In. Read More
Russia: Gay American Actor Makes Waves in Russia
American actor Odin Lund Biron, who plays a starring role in one of Russia's most popular sitcoms, has come out of the closet. Biron stars alongside Ivan Okhlobystin, arguably one of Russia's most outspoken entertainment personalities, who is well-known for his homophobic diatribes.
"There are some things that are not worth knowing," Okhlobystin Tweeted in reference to Biron's sexual orientation Wednesday morning, pleading: "God protect us from this wickedness!"
The show's fan base flooded Russian social media with the news of Biron's coming out. Though social networks were replete with messages of disbelief and disgust, some fans of "Interny" expressed support for Biron, congratulating him on the bold move. Coming out of the closet is a high-risk endeavor in the world of Russian show business. Television host Anton Krasovsky was promptly fired from his job at Kontr TV in 2013 after announcing he was gay on air. Read More
Sam Smith vetoes Russia gigs in protest over country's stance on gay rights
Superstar Sam Smith is set to add Sunday night’s Grammys to his global conquests – but there is one place the singer will never venture and that’s Russia. Despite a huge fan base in the country, the singer has said he detests president Vladimir Putin’s stance on homosexuality.
"I don't hate Russia, but I just will never go to Russia," he said. "What they do to gay people there is just disgusting and it makes me very angry." Read More