Matt Baume: A Salute To Sissies

Dr. Smith, Uncle Arthur, Mr. Humphries, and more!

TRAILER: Do I Sound Gay?

TRAILER: Folsom Forever

Clip recap:

In 1984, a scrappy little neighborhood in San Francisco – home to many low-income tenants and the heart of the gay male leather scene – faced destruction from the bulldozers of redevelopment and the AIDS crisis. The Folsom Street Fair was started to call attention to gentrification and raise money for AIDS charities. Folsom Forever tells the story of how this small street fair grew into the biggest outdoor kink and fetish event in the world, and managed to do a lot of good along the way. Coming to DVD and VOD June 9, 2015.

Possibly not work-friendly.

Matt Baume Launches New Podcast

Subscribe here.

CHERRY GROVE: Fire Destroys Two Hotels, Gay Nightclub, And Several Residences

A massive fire swept through Cherry Grove's commercial district on Fire Island last night, destroying several private homes, the Holly House Hotel, and the Grove Hotel, the last of which was home to the famed Ice Palace nightclub. For decades the Ice Palace hosted the Miss Fire Island pageant and served as the kickoff location for the annual Fire Island Pines Drag Invasion. Local authorities say that the source of the blaze, which reportedly broke out on the nearby boardwalk, is unknown. About 80 firefighters were on the scene and two suffered injuries, but no residents were hurt, possibly because most of Fire Island is unoccupied at this time of year. Last night's fire was yet another in a recent string of disasters to strike Fire Island's two predominantly gay towns. The commercial district of neighboring Fire Island Pines was destroyed in a 2011 fire and both towns were flooded during 2012's Hurricane Sandy.

(Via Towleroad)

UPDATE: Contrary to the above-linked Newsday report that the Grove Hotel is a "complete loss," this news item says the Ice Palace nightclub portion of the complex suffered only minor damage.

BRITAIN: National Students Union Passes Motion That White Gay Men Need To Stop Acting Like Black Women

Via Gay Star News:

UK's National Union of Students has passed a policy to stop gay men appropriating black female culture. Delegates at the Women's Conference today, many of them self-identified feminists, have passed plenty of motions. Just one of them was ensuring everyone at the conference understood that some behaviors were damaging. On Twitter, they announced: "Some delegates are requesting that we move to jazz hands rather than clapping as it's triggering anxiety. Please be mindful!" A later motion passed was 503: "Dear White Gay Men: Stop Appropriating Black Women." Put forward by the NUS LGBT Committee, they believe the appropriation of black women by white gay men is prevalent within the LGBTI scene and community.

Also approved was a motion against drag because it's supposedly offensive to trans women.

"To issue a statement condemning the use of crossdressing as a mode of fancy dress. To encourage unions to ban clubs and societies from holding events which permit or encourage (cisgender) members to use cross-dressing as a mode of fancy dress." This [motion] was given an exclusion to queer students who want to use cross-dressing in their everyday lives as a mode of expression and to those who want to cross-play by flipping the gender of a fictional character in fancy dress.

There is lots of mocking on Twitter.

RELATED: The "Dear White Gays" meme, you surely recall, dominated US social media for a few days last summer.

HBO Cancels Looking

Via TV Line:

Looking Season 3 is out of HBO’s sight: The cabler has cancelled on the underdog gay dramedy, although we haven’t seen the last of Patrick & Co. TVLine has confirmed. “After two years of following Patrick and his tight-knit group of friends as they explored San Francisco in search of love and lasting relationships, HBO will present the final chapter of their journey as a special,” the network said in a statement Wednesday. “We look forward to sharing this adventure with the shows loyal fans.”

The air date of the finale has not been announced.

Headline Of The Day

Fascinating.

HIGHLIGHTS: Broadway Backwards 2015

HomoQuotable - Noah Michelson

"From Grindr profiles that demand 'masc only' to men like [Russell] Tovey who think their masculinity -- however manufactured, however antithetical to who they truly were when they landed on this planet -- is what makes them marketable or desirable, our obsession with what it means to be a man and what it means to fall short of that is keeping us from becoming truly liberated.

"If it weren't for my father, I wouldn't be who I am today. I could have been forced to play football in hopes that it would somehow unleash the man dozing inside of me. I could have been sent to therapy in hopes that I could be reprogrammed, repaired, made whole. I could have ended up with a belt around my neck and swinging from the light fixture in our formal dining room. But I wasn't. But I didn't. I am one of the lucky ones.

"My father died eight years ago. He never got to see the man that I've become and we never specifically talked about everything he did for me -- what he made me -- simply by loving me. Without a son of my own, it's a gift that I can only attempt to pay forward to the thousands of boys and men who come after me -- who brush past me in crowded subway cars or surround me on Facebook or might be reading this now -- by speaking up and saying I am a faggot and it didn't happen by mistake. And if you're a faggot too, I hope you know you don't need to toughen up. You never have to stop prancing. You are not a mistake." - Noah Michelson, writing for the Huffington Post.

Rachel Maddow Explains What Bears Are: America's Happiest Gay Subculture

At the 11:00 mark. If you can't get the MSNBC clip to play there's a low-rez version on YouTube.

(Tipped by JMG reader Robbie)

GLAAD Unveils Media Awards Nominees

Via press release:

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives. The GLAAD Media Awards also fund GLAAD's work to amplify stories from the LGBT community and issues that build support for equality.

Among the nominees: Amazon Instant Video's smash hit Transparent; ABC's How to Get Away with Murder; HBO's Game of Thrones, Looking, and The Normal Heart; Academy Award nominee The Imitation Game and Golden Globe nominee Pride; Love is Strange, starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina; Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word and True Trans with Laura Jane Grace, both documentaries about transgender people; Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel for Nick News with Linda Ellerbee and Good Luck Charlie respectively; To Russia with Love, Oprah Prime, and Outsports.com for interviews with out athletes; MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry; and Sam Smith for his critically acclaimed album In the Lonely Hour.

This year, GLAAD expanded the Outstanding Comedy Series and Drama Series categories from five nominees to a maximum of 10 nominees each. In 2005, GLAAD considered for nomination eight comedy series and 17 drama series with regular LGBT characters. This year, the pool of shows with regular LGBT characters considered for nomination included 52 comedy series and 83 drama series. With over 100 shows including LGBT characters as part of the cast, the number of shows worthy of nomination has also increased. Expanding the number of nominees in these two categories allows GLAAD to recognize more of these outstanding series.

The full list pf nominees is here.

Out Magazine Unveils 2014 Out 100 List

Out Magazine has unveiled this year's Out 100 list. The 2014 ranking features Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner (seated above) and New York Times writer Josh Barro (third from left.) Others on the list are Dan Savage, Larry Kramer, Andy Bell, Armistead Maupin, Jason Collins, Richard Chamberlain, Carmen Carrera, and the cast of Looking.  See the full list.

TEASER: Looking Season 2

The new season starts Sunday, January 11th.

TRAILER: CNN's Lisa Ling On Gay Rodeos

The show airs at 10PM on Sunday.

HomoQuotable - Michelangelo Signorile

"The Benham brothers have attributes and just a general vibe that, for years, have translated as 'gay.' But obviously there are a lot of straight men, even homophobes, who now exhibit these characteristics, seemingly free to act on their creative instincts, more comfortable about it -- precisely because of the queer movement's challenge to conventional ideas about masculinity. Some of these men might be bisexual, openly or not. But a few years ago straight men who were something like this were labeled with the (dreadful) term 'metrosexual,' except metrosexuals were straight guys who were secure in being fashionable in part because they completely accepted homosexuality and supported gay rights. The Benhams decidedly do not. So have gay men actually liberated many straight men to the point that they can appropriate 'gayness' even while still being virulently anti-gay? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?" - Michelangelo Signorile, who found the Benhams "a bit flirty" during a recent interview.

TOMORROW: Broadway Flea Market

The 28th Annual Broadway Cares / Equality Fights AIDS flea market returns to Shubert Alley tomorrow.

Among the priceless lots available through this year's Grand Auction are private meet-and-greets with stage-and-screen stars Hugh Jackman and Idina Menzel, opening night VIP tickets to 17 of this season's new Broadway shows, walk-on roles at 13 Broadway shows, tribute packages to Elaine Stritch and Joan Rivers, and much more. From posing for photos with your favorite Broadway stars, to buying that lost cast recording, rare costume sketches or special gift you can't find anywhere else – the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction promises something for everyone.

Among the many Broadway stars on hand tomorrow will be Tony winners Boyd Gaines, Lena Hall, James Monroe Iglehart, Nikki M. James, Bebe Neuwirth, David Hyde Pierce, Billy Porter, and Alice Ripley. 

At The 24th Annual GMHC Voguing Ball

The 24th Annual GMHC Latex Ball was held last month at Manhattan's Terminal 5. From filmmaker Nicholas Jenkins: "The Latex Ball attracts over 2,000 individuals from the LGBTQ community to dance, vogue, celebrate fashion and art, and compete for prizes and respect. GMHC first launched the Latex Ball in 1989 as an HIV prevention program in response to dire HIV rates in the House & Ball community, a subculture of LGBTQ youth."

Gallup: Gays Are Less Religious

A just released Gallup poll reveals the unshocking fact that LGBT Americans tend to be less religious than the rest of the nation.

Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender are significantly less likely than non-LGBT Americans to be highly religious, and significantly more likely to be classified as not religious. The same percentage of each group is moderately religious. These results are based on more than 104,000 Gallup Daily tracking interviews conducted between Jan. 2 and July 31, 2014, including 3,242 adults who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Gallup classifies Americans as "very religious" if they say religion is an important part of their daily lives and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week. That group constituted 41% of all U.S. adults between January and July 2014. "Nonreligious" Americans (30% of U.S. adults) are those who say religion is not an important part of their daily lives and that they seldom or never attend religious services. The remaining group, 29% of Americans, are classified as "moderately religious." These people say religion is important in their lives but that they do not attend services regularly, or that religion is not important but that they still attend services. LGBT and non-LGBT individuals differ on both dimensions that make up the religiosity classification. About a quarter of LGBT individuals attend religious services regularly, contrasted with 42% of non-LGBT individuals.

More graphs and analysis are at the link.

Where The Bears Are, Season 3, Episode 1

Probably not cubicle-safe.