Lambda Literary Awards: June 1st In NYC

John Waters and Rita Mae Brown will be honored at the 2015 Lambda Literary Awards in Manhattan on June 1st. On the list of attendees: Gloria Steinem, Liz Smith, Michelangelo Signorile, Janet Mock, Alan Cumming, Justin Bond, Susie Bright, and many others. Get tickets here.

GLAAD & GMHC Enlist Alan Cumming As Spokesman For FDA "Celibacy Challenge"

From the Celibacy Challenge site:

The FDA recently announced that gay and bisexual men may finally be allowed to donate blood after being banned for life since the ’80s—but only if they remain celibate for one year. So straight guys can have safe sex with woman after woman and still donate blood. But gay and bi men who have had safe sex for an entire year—even with a monogamous partner—would still be banned. Sounds like discrimination to us. Sign this petition to pressure the FDA to screen all prospective blood donors based on risk, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

You'll enjoy the clip.

Alan Cumming For Yes Scotland

Ali Forney Center Announces Shred Of Hope Celebrity Online T-Shirt Auction

A galaxy of stars have come together to support the Ali Forney Center's Shred Of Hope, an online auction in which you can bid on original t-shirts created by gay celebrities and straight allies. Each of the participants worked with designers at the Manhattan-based fetish wear company Nasty Pig to create one-of-a-kind "shredders," which are sort of not-tank-tops.

Among the participants are activist and author Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller, Tony winner Alan Cumming, Tony winner Jeff Whitty, Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black, talk show host Andy Cohen, rock star Bob Mould, MSNBC commentator Keith Boykin, Animal Planet host Scott Lope, rocker JD Samson, actress Ally Sheedy, pop superstars Michael Stipe, Adam Lambert and Jake Shears, and many more.

Via press release:

This June 20th trailblazing menswear label Nasty Pig will launch Shred of Hope, a fundraiser for the Ali Forney Center (AFC), the nation’s largest services and advocacy organization working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) runaway and homeless youth.

Shred of Hope is an auction of one-of-a-kind “Shredder” t-shirts created by celebrities. The auction will take place entirely online from June 20th through June 27th at ShredofHope.com. 100% of the proceeds of Shred of Hope will support AFC’s work to protect and empower homeless LGBT youth, and to help them in becoming safe and independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood.

On June 20th Nasty Pig and the Ali Forney Center will host a launch party for Shred of Hope at the iconic Rootstein Gallery in New York City. Nasty Pig models will walk the floor selling opportunities to win one-of-a-kind Shred of Hope items and experiences to benefit the AFC.

VIDEO: Watch this clip featuring Ali Forney Center founder Carl Siciliano to learn more about Shred Of Hope.

NOTE: Somehow yours truly was also invited to participate. While I'm not a rock star or an Oscar winner, I'm going to depend on my faithful flying monkeys to make sure that MY shirt auctions well. The JMG logo is on the back and everybody signed their shirts. The auction starts online on June 20th.

Alan Cumming Got Married

Love the hashtag.

Alan Cumming & Friends For Ali Forney

Alan Cumming, Justin Bond, Dan Choi and others (including me) speak in support of the Ali Forney Center, which has seen its funding dramatically cut by New York City. You can help. Hundreds of gay kids will spend tonight sleeping on the subway or worse.

Stars Speak Out On LGBT Homelessness

This month's celebrity-filled edition of Cyndi Lauper's We Give A Damn project includes Susan Sarandon, Alan Cumming, Pete Wentz, Rebecca Romijn, and Eden Riegel speaking out on LGBT youth homelessness.

SLIDESHOW: Blowoff NYC

Another fantastic Blowoff party last night, where I hung out for a bit with Alan Cumming and singer/songwriter Aiden James, and met lots of handsome JMG readers. And Rich Morel even played his smoking remix of Cumming's Next To Me, one of my favorite tracks of the year. Full-screen photos are here. Enjoy the hotties.

Alan Cumming For Fight Back New York

Get tickets here!

HomoQuotable - Alan Cumming

"It is my contention that Ramin Seetodeh is not happy with himself. He has particular shame about being gay. He sees gayness, particularly open and unabashed gayness, or effeminacy, as a reminder of what he does not like about himself. And so he attacks it. His own shame translates into his paralysis when thinking of others who might have his own curse and yet be able to function fully and happily within the rest of the world: a child chasing his friends around a playground in high heels; an actor who he knows is publicly gay but feels he needs to re-out to make himself feel better about his own self-loathing and lack of acceptance of his most basic needs and happiness. As someone who is a only a decade or so immigrant to these shores, I have noticed that shame is one of America's biggest exports, imbibed more domestically than overseas, and Mr Seetodeh could easily manage its Gay division." - Alan Cumming, responding to the continuing controversy over Newsweek's "gays can't play straight" article.

Hot Gay Singles

Two hot new singles from gay artists are out this week. First, Blowoff DJ and remix king Rich Morel has just released his take on Alan Cumming's Next To Me, which is from Cumming's new album, I Bought A Blue Car Today. Now available on iTunes. Another typically fantastic Pink Noise Mix from Rich. And B-52s frontman Fred Schneider has a new side project called The Superions, whose first single Who Threw That Ham At Me is also now available on iTunes. Snippet here. Fun, fun, fun and Paula Deen too. Below is Clip #1 in a YouTube series of fan questions fielded by the Superions.

Politicos, Activists, Stars Come Out For Pride Agenda's Annual Dinner

Last night I attended the Empire State Pride Agenda's annual dinner, a massive and swank affair held in sprawling ballroom where activists mingled with Gov. Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg, Sen. Chuck Schumer, emcee Margaret Cho, Alan Cumming, Cheyenne Jackson, and Anne Hathaway (who brought her openly gay brother and smokin' hot father - who is an LGBT activist/ally in his own right.) Gay City News' Paul Schindler reports:

During an evening when Governor David A. Paterson employed both his trademark humor and a sobering lesson in the state’s fiscal crisis to reiterate his pledge that “marriage equality is coming to New York State” –– “just in the next few weeks,” no less –– the head of the Empire State Pride Agenda issued a stern warning to members of the State Senate, allies included, who might fail to help make that a reality.

Addressing Senate supporters who have nonetheless “run to the sidelines as fast as they can,” Alan Van Capelle, the executive director of New York State’s LGBT lobby, said, “We have campaigned for you, we have raised money for you, we have supported you in every way imaginable, and we should have no patience for these sorry summer soldiers.” Coming less than a year after ESPA orchestrated the raising of more than $1 million to support the Democratic takeover of the Senate, Van Capelle’s remarks, delivered at the group’s annual Manhattan fall dinner on October 22, reflected his rising frustration with the allies the LGBT community helped install.

“We can find other friends who will do that job for us and do it faster,” he said of the potential that Senate Democrats might fail to heed his call. “We know such friends exist.” The threat to find “other friends” was, in fact, an echo of challenges Van Capelle once issued to the Republican leadership that held sway over the Senate for decades until last November’s election. Then, he warned that if the GOP leadership was unwilling to allow votes on marriage equality, transgender rights, and a school anti-bullying measure, the Pride Agenda would work to put a new team in charge. The group held true to that pledge.

The 1200 attendees of the event raised over $1M for the Pride Agenda. Near the end, I got to shake the governor's hand - he's even tinier than Bloomberg. Here's a slideshow of my photos.

HomoQuotable - Alan Cumming

"Sometimes people do think, 'Fuck the threat; I want to do the other thing'. It is a mental thing. There’s a psychologist here who said that it’s because the gay community has not properly grieved for the AIDS epidemic. In a way that’s why barebacking has become a sort of fetish. It’s up to all of us, especially people who have lived through a time when it was a real threat. It is still a real threat. But I remember that advert with that big iceberg, and I was just becoming sexually active when AIDS started. So I suppose it has been drummed into me. We all have to make sure, especially with young people, that you have to wear a condom. Not just because of HIV, just generally. There are lots of ugly things there. And if someone has not worn a condom with you, then they probably haven’t with many people. Think about it that way." - Actor Alan Cumming, speaking to Attitude Magazine.

HomoQuotable - Alan Cumming

"I’d like to see Obama naked. I think great leaders, charismatic leaders and men who are so confident and who have achieved so much, usually have big penises. I think there’s a correlation between the level of confidence, the level of the way a man can hold a room and the way he conducts himself in life, with his penis size — with his comfort with his penis size. So much of male psyche is taken up with how big your cock is; it’s a huge deal in our lives, and so when you’re confident about your penis size, it shows. Well, just look at him. Just the way he’s so kind of elegant and very confident in his body and himself. Also, someone told me that they worked out with him in a gym in Chicago, and it was big." - Actor Alan Cumming, talking to New York Magazine.

HomoQuotable - Alan Cumming

"Over the last few weeks I have watched with mounting bemusement as John McCain and Sarah Palin have constantly referred to the American work force as the best in the world, how America is a force for good in the world, how America is the best at (fill in the blank here depending on who you're talkin' to, wait for applause, wink, smile, and on).

"You know what? I'm sorry to be blunt, and I wish it were not true, but America isn't any of the above. Its poor downtrodden, unhealthy, under-educated and depressed workforce cannot surely believe it towers above all others in some sort of World Worker Idol type way? If so, why are its bosses firing so many of them and giving the jobs to people in other countries?

"And although the notion of America being a force for good is noble and beautiful, the reality of how the world sees America is very different: America is an imperialist power that invades oil and mineral rich countries on little or flimsy evidence, and at the same time turns a blind eye to blatant genocide taking place in other parts of the globe. Perhaps if Ms Palin had a passport before 2007 and had a little less xenophobic viewpoint, she would have experienced, as I have, the terrible sight of American friends of mine being afraid to open their mouths when abroad for fear of reprisal for their nation's 'force of good.' (And I'm not talkin' about scary, rearin' their head places like Russia or Iran. I'm talkin' about in like cool places like London.)" - Actor Alan Cumming writing for the Huffington Post. Cumming had hoped to become an Amercian citizen in time for the election but reports that he will not be sworn in in time.

BiQuotable - Alan Cumming

"I’ve got the questions and the answers. Now all I’ve got to do is memorize them. It’s just like learning a lot of lines, so I kind of think that as an actor, I’ll be better prepared than most."- Scottish actor Alan Cumming, who is taking his American citizenship test in October in order to vote for Barack Obama.