Next month after the United States Supreme Court rules it could be 100%. Watch this fascinating and heartwarming brief video from Vox on history in the making.
In an impassioned plea to the US Congress when he was recently giving testimony to a Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee on global health, Sir Elton John said, “This is the most powerful legislative body in the world. This Congress indeed has the power to end AIDS. I am asking you to use that power, to seize this window of opportunity, to change the course of history,” He added “There is a window of opportunity before us — a window through which we can very clearly see the end of AIDS — within my lifetime. We cannot afford to let that window close”.
Accompanied by his husband David Furnish, Sir Elton explained that his own Foundation that has to date raised over £231 million to help both people inflicted with the disease and research organisations committed to finding a cure. He gave credit to the Senate for their work to date. “Because the American people have the optimism, the ingenuity and the will to make a difference, the lives of millions of people halfway around the world have been saved,” he told the subcommittee: “But I’m here with a simple message: the AIDS epidemic is not over, and America’s continued leadership is critical.”
Faith 2 Action, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Judicial Action Group, American Family Association of Pennsylvania and Conservative Republicans of Texas are among groups behind a campaign making itself known on billboards that are now springing up around Michigan.
These anti-gay billboards claim that homosexuality is a behaviour and not a civil right and advertise a website called ‘Restrain the Judges’ which urges people to send a ‘Restraining Order’ to every member of the Senate and the House along with each of the United States Supreme Court Justices.
It is still the biggest reason why people are glued to the television in larger numbers than even the Eurovision Song Contest. It is also one of the last major bastions of homophobia in our society, so every single breakthrough we make is very significant. This week saw yet another heart-warming incident that indicates that maybe the tide is turning, albeit at a trickle at a time.
Last Saturday at the Dodgers game versus the Arizona Diamondbacks, the infamous Kiss Cam was making its usual way around the stadium, putting couples up on the big screen so people could see them awkwardly smooch. The camera then landed on two men, which used to be a stupid joke before most professional sports organizations banned it, but this was no joke. This was just another couple, and the Dodgers wanted to include them in the corny fun.
What happened next was extra special. When the couple kissed and smiled at the camera, the entire stadium cheered, because they knew they were witnessing something they would not have seen merely five years ago.
One of the crowd Steve Hartline told The Gaily Grind:
“I was at the Dodger/Diamondbacks game on Saturday evening at Dodger Stadium. Kiss Cam comes on, and after a few standard awkward couple moments, the camera focuses on two men. My natural instinct was this was for a gag/cheap laugh, but the two men turned to each other and kiss, indicating they are a real-life loving couple, not a punchline. I’m glad I was there, as it felt historic, and was proud of the loud, enthusiastic response from the crowd. Not one person around me groaned or made derogatory remarks, and seemed genuinely pleased with the moment.”
The couple in the video, married couple of 20 years Steven and Rick Simone-Friedland, spoke about the big moment and what the heartwarming reaction meant to them.
“All we did was kiss,” Steven said. “What made everyone’s day was the crowd reaction. I don’t think anybody was expecting that reaction. I kiss my husband every single day. That’s not the big deal. The big deal is what happened immediately after. That’s just the most amazing thing.”
It was a very big change from the summer of 2000, when two women were thrown out of a Los Angeles Dodgers game for kissing. They were surrounded by eight security guards and escorted out because they exposing children to disgusting acts of horror, like love and engaging in public displays of affection that every straight couple engaged in that same evening.
The stunned judges and the studio audience went wild and cheered for the couple in what the show’s producers claim was totally unrehearsed and unexpected.
Italy, of course, does not have marriage equality but has been making modest moves toward it in recent months.
In February, Italy’s highest appeals court ruled that same-sex marriage is not a constitutional right but that gay couples are entitled to certain rights and protections.
Rome’s Mayor married 16 gay couples last October in defiance of Italy’s laws. Rome has also created a register of civil unions for same-sex couples and Bologna came out in favour of recognising same-sex unions in September.
P.S. The newly affianced men had incidentally been performing to ‘the power of love’.
The Nebraska resident who identifies as an ambassador for God and Jesus Christ has filed a Federal Lawsuit in the US against ALL homosexual people on the planet for breaking “religious and moral laws.” (We are assuming she means Earth.)
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, 63-year-old Ms. Driskell argues in a seven-page, handwritten petition delivered to the US District Court of Omaha that:
“Homosexuality is a sin and that the homosexuals know it is a sin to live a life of homosexuality
“Why else would they have been hiding in the closet(?)”
Sadly spelling is not one of her better skills and so she challenges US District Judge John M. Gerrard to not “judge God to be a lier (sp),” and slams gay people as “liers (sp), deceivers and thieves” in the case, filed simply as Driskell v. Homosexuals.
“I never thought that I would see a day in which our Great Nation or our Great State of Nebraska would become so compliant to the complicity of some people(’s) lewd behavior,” she notes.
“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.”
Don’t rush to go pick out a little black number to wear as it is most unlikely her petition will not go any further.
It’s a pity as we think it could have been fun taking the Stand.
The campaign encourages LGBTQ individuals and allies to “share their hopes, fears and ideas in their own words.”
Masen Davis, Our Tomorrow’s outreach director announced:
“Our Tomorrow is dedicated to engaging the full diversity of the LGBTQ community — from all parts of the country and all walks of life — in helping to shape our future.”
Yesterday the group released a launch video containing seven inspirational stories.
When microbiologist John Golobic, of Quest Diagnostics swabbed a few beards even he was shocked at what he discovered. Several of them contained normal bacteria, but some contained so much poo they were comparable to toilets.
Mr. Golobic announced that if there were similar samples in the water system, then it would have to be shut down for disinfecting.
‘Those are the types of things you’d find in (fecal matter),’ he added.
Urgh. So think twice before you kiss your man with his hairy face, unless of course you actually are turned on by this news.
★★★★★ | Private Romeo
Over a weekend eight male high school cadets are left behind when the rest of the McKinley Military Academy go away on an exercise and they are ordered to carry on with their studies regardless.
In the English Literature Class, they are studying ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and the two young men reading the leads begin to take it all very seriously and live their roles as the star-crossed lovers for real.
Rather than the city of Verona, the setting is the hallway, gym and dorms of the School, and whilst the script is punctuated with occasional references to their daily routine, it sticks faithfully to Shakespeare’s glorious text. It transforms the piece into a modern-day gay tragedy.
This totally enchanting production by writer/director Alan Brown of shirtless teenagers falling in love with each other and spouting this magical prose is a real breath of fresh air. The energy and exuberance of the talented young cast oozes through, and what they may occasionally lack in technique certain more than compensates with such enthusiasm which makes all of their performances so very watchable, especially Hale Appleman as Mercutio.
This is not one for Shakespearian purists but if you ever had the same good fortune of ever catching Joe Calcaro’s play ‘Shakespeare’s R & J’ (which I was lucky enough to see Off Broadway in the late 1990s) which served as the inspiration, then you will love this one.
A refreshing wee gem of a movie.
With his razor-sharp wit and those deer-in-the-headlights attention-grabbing eyes, his latest hit show ‘Have You Heard’ reaffirms his position as one of the best drag performers trotting around the globe these days. A storyteller, monologist, actor, singer, comic, entertainer, mentor and passionate gay activist, Miss Coco is sharp, sassy and sophisticated and has this remarkable natural ability to make sure that we all see the funny side of life. Outspoken and outrageous her one-woman-show in 2012 summed her up beautifully: it was called ‘She’s Got Balls’. When I caught up with Clinton after a recent performance the first thing that struck me was his wonderful warmth and his loud infectious laugh. He is unique in the fact that unlike most cutting and somewhat sarcastic drag performers he exudes happiness on and off stage and was a sheer joy to spend time with. Over a martini (or two) he shared his views of life, love and laughter with me for THEGAYUK.
Let’s start at the very beginning and talk about your ‘Coming Out.’
It may seem ridiculous to people who come to my show and see me wearing a dress and being as flamboyant as I am now, to think that I ever had to ‘come out’ in the traditional sense, but I did have to go through the same process just like every other gay man. There was a time when I was in a theatre programme in college and closeted and was constantly told to ‘butch up’. And for years I did try to be someone who I wasn’t, especially as I wanted to be accepted as an actor and you had to pass for straight back then as there was not that many gay roles.
When I was 23-years-old I had a boyfriend and we went to the Gay Pride Parade in Manhattan and I was in seventh heaven as I had never ever seen such a large and diverse crowd of gay people in one place. However, on the train on my way back home to the Bronx afterwards my elation quickly subsided and all my old fears and worries came rushing back. It was at that very moment that I decided that from now on I wanted to only be myself and that I wasn’t prepared to go back even part way into the closet.
I was very lucky as when I came out to my parents they were actually relieved that I was both healthy and happy especially as we had just lost my sister to cancer. I had all the usual fears and dread of coming out just like anyone else but it was only when I addressed them that life got better for me. Being effeminate in a working class area of the Bronx had been torture and I had been picked on and bullied during my entire childhood and adolescence. Now that I was an openly gay man I started to embrace everything I had learned to hate about myself. I was determined not only to accept this side of me but as Miss Coco I was going to dress it up and glorify it, and become the gay man who I chose to be.
There is something wonderful about owning who you are. I learnt then if people did not respect me, that it was of no consequence as they didn’t control me anymore.
How did Clinton Luepp morph into Miss Coco Peru?
I didn’t know anything at all about Drag and then I went to see the great drag icon Charles Busch in his play ‘A Lady In Question’ and I was completely mesmerised. I could see that he and the entire cast were having THE best time EVER. And that included Julie Halston playing Countess Kitty in the same broad Bronx accent that the college had insisted I lose. I just thought, I want to do what Charles is doing and in my own voice and style.
I’m a great reader and all through my life books have a habit of arriving in my library at the exact moment I have needed them. It was at this time that I came across one about a Native American called ‘Two Spirits’ which was all about being a third gender. When I read that I thought ‘Oh My God’ this is it. In my life until then I had been searching for something that I could truly identify with, and now I had found it. I decided that I’m going to do Drag and I’m going to be this third gender. As soon as I said it, everything started falling into place. It felt like my calling and that I had found my vocation.
You once said ‘I’m not impersonating a woman: it’s just an extension of me.’
Well, I never intended Miss Coco to be a real woman per se because the stories I tell are all-autobiographical and so I’m often talking about when I was a little boy. So for me the goal when I started Coco was to confuse people a little telling his stories whilst wearing a dress. Then after a while I just wanted audiences to know the stories just by connecting to someone who was simply another human being.
You have a remarkable gift for observation, which comes through in the stories that you tell on stage, are they all true?
Yes, every one of them are based on my life. I have always been very resourceful at finding humour in everyday incidents right from the very beginning. My parents had me late in life so my childhood was spent amongst a group of old people who had grown up through WW2 and who had not had an easy life. They were all heavy drinkers and heavy smokers and as a little kid I became their bartender.
Really? (laughing)
Yes, I even went around with a tray emptying all the ashtrays, but I just adored them and I loved being there listening to this wealth of funny stories and jokes being surrounded by these wonderful larger than life characters.
Do you tell the stories straight as they happened?
Well, I do add a little spice to them naturally to bring out the funny element, and that seems to work. Sometimes so much that they appear so over the top that people will come up to me and say ‘You didn’t really physically chase that group of little old Indian ladies around Sydney Harbour because they were giving you the evil eye did you?’ And I have to say yes, it was all-true, which totally shocks them. (laughs)
Tell me the story behind your famous copper-toned hair, and the fact that you must be one of the few Drag Performers who never changes her wig.
When I first started performing I had a great big fussy Ann-Margaret wig but that was such hard work maintaining it and to be perfectly honest, it was a real drag. Then the moment I found my wig and had it styled with flip ups I instantly knew that this was perfect for Miss Coco.
I was always drawn to the silhouette that I adopted for Coco. I wanted it to be very long and sleek and not over the top as Coco never wears a lot of jewellery or glitzy dresses. It was to be sophisticated but understated and I wanted her to be different than what most people expect of drag. Coco and I are both very happy with how she looks and the one night I actually dared to wear a shorter version of the same wig people HATED it! (laughs)
Tell me about your breakthrough role in ‘Trick’ where in one small scene you ‘stole’ the movie and our hearts.
I was not originally meant to be in the movie at all but Jim Fall the Director is a good friend of mine, and asked me to help him out in the audition process. I ended up reading the Tori Spelling part whilst he tested potential male leads, and suddenly everyone told Jim ‘you’ve got to keep the Drag Queen in the movie’. So they wrote a part of me and were kind enough to allow me to rewrite my infamous bathroom monologue in my own voice. Some years previously somebody had actually tried to lure me into bed by saying ‘It’s Big It’s Beautiful …you’re gonna love it’ and I always knew that I would have to use that line in a performance one day.
How deliberately was it that you looked more like Tori Spelling than she did? (laughs)
When Tori flew to NY to audition, she had blonde hair. However when it came to filming she showed up on the set with red hair, and when Jim Fall tried to question it, her hairdresser said ‘honey, don’t touch her hair it will just fall out as she has dyed it way too often!’ We didn’t do a scene together so the penny never dropped until we saw the completed movie on the screen at Sundance, and I thought ‘Oh My God, we could have been sisters or something more tragic’. (laughs)
Did you ever imagine that this one small movie part would make such a major effect on your career and life?
Well, I remember the first time that I ever saw a gay movie and it impacted me so much I just hoped that one day I would get to be in one and help others feel the same way. And now 15 years later when young people come up and tell me that ‘Trick’ was the first movie that made them feel good about themselves and helped them come out, it makes me so very happy.
I never ever get tired of people shouting out “It Burns” * to me in the middle of the street. Anytime anyone wants to celebrate my work, I embrace and enjoy it, and I never ever take it for granted.
How much fun was it making the ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ movie with Jack Plotnick & Varla Jean Merman?
Actually, the first couple of days were not that much fun at all as in my own shows I am used to playing it for laughs but now I had to play a sad sack. The crew were laughing their pants off when Varla and Jack were acting, but looked so down and miserable when it was my turn as my role was a bit of a downer.
Confused, I phoned Jim Fall who just said ‘play it for real’ and that’s what I did, and I found the craziness in my character, and I was so happy with the result.
As were audiences as you all picked up Best Acting Awards for that. When is the sequel coming out?
Soon I hope. We have filmed it all and our director Richard Day is now doing the final edit.
Tell me about your experiences taking Miss Coco to London?
The thing I loved most about London were the audiences, and one of the best compliments I have ever had in my career was from one of the Soho Theatre staff who said ‘we love working your shows because people come in a good mood and leave feeling even happier.’
I got another different buzz when I was eating in Balans restaurant one night and the doorman recognised me and thought that he and I could do a version of the bathroom scene in Trick with me performing on him. I was very flattered but I am very married too. (laughs)
You love mentioning your husband Raphael often in your Show, and you always have such a wicked grin on your face when you do.
I was worried that being so happy would take away my edge, but it hasn’t and I can still be as cutting as the next person. Sometimes people want me to be miserable and bitter as they perceive that’s where real comedy is, but that just isn’t so. I am really fortunate that I have such a good husband who supports me and finds joy in my performance, and also I find some great comedy within our own lives. Like the time we first met his sister and he just happened to fail to mention that she was a naturist and we were all going to be naked (Laughs).
I’ve noticed that unlike most great comedians you don’t use Raphael as a comic foil as is the normal tradition.
I have never ever thought of that. I do play up the whole thing of him being from Spain where everyone is meant to be romantic, in the same way that I think British people are all so posh. But all you need to do is to take one trip to Southern Spain and see the Brits on holiday, and honey you soon realise they ain’t so posh at all. (Laughs) They can be just as trashy as the rest of us.
What’s next for you and Miss Coco?
I’m travelling all over with this new show, which I am dying to bring to London. I am collaborating with a composer on a new musical. Busy, busy, busy… but you know Roger, the reality is that I have a pretty great life regardless of whatever happens next.
One question I almost forgot to ask, did you really perform in a Nudist Colony?
Yes, but I was fully clothed (laughing). I have to tell you for a bunch of people who are meant to be free-spirited and relaxed, they really were not a fun audience. They were kind of limp!
But where did you look as you performed? (laughing).
Well, straight into their eyes naturally!
* ‘It Burns!’ is a warning about getting sperm in your eyes.
Karim Ainouz’s mesmerising melancholic drama starts and ends in a very similar fashion.
In the opening scenes we see two motor bikers racing across the sand dunes and when they reach the end of the beach discard their bikes and clothes and run off into the high rolling waves. They soon get caught in riptides and despite the efforts of the lifeguards, one of them drowns.
Donato one of the lifeguards is so shaken by his first ever death whilst on patrol, he takes it upon himself to break the sad news to Konrad the swimmer who they had managed to rescue. He is repaid for his kindness by Konrad working out his grief on him sexually. The two men spend the next few days together whilst the authorities search for the missing body. When it’s time to give up on that, neither of them are prepared to let go of each other, so Donato makes the decision to leave his sun-kissed beach in Brazil to try life with Konrad in his native Germany.
In the second chapter of the story that Ainouz has called ‘A Hero Cut in Half’ (the first was ‘The Drowner’s Embrace’) we see the two lovers trying to make a go of urban living in the middle of a dreary winter in a country that is alien to Donato. They almost seem to succeed but Donato obviously misses not only Aryton his younger brother that he was extremely close too and his mother, but he feels he cannot live without a beach. The fact that he doesn’t catch his return flight to Brazil when his visit is over is covered in the third chapter called ‘A German Speaking Ghost’.
It’s 8 years later and Donato has a new life, still swimming, but now as a maintenance diver in a city aquarium. He and Konrad are no longer an item but still important to each other as is apparent when an angry Aryton turns up on his doorstep unannounced. It appears that Donato had abandoned his family when he decided not to return back to Brazil and they have had to fend for themselves ever since. Now all grown up, and with their mother dead, Aryton wants to confront the brother he so idolised and who ruthlessly deserted him without a single word.
Together the three men try and establish some form of forgiveness and reconciliation to be able to move forward. The final scenes are of them in the middle of winter roaring down the fog-drenched Autobahn to a stark desolate beach. It has another kind of beauty totally different from their precious Futuro Beach back home but just as stunning, and it’s where they realise that this is where home is now.
Ainouz’s movie, co-written with Felipe Braganca, is light on plot as it focuses much more of the sensuality of each moment. There are certain pivotal scenes, which are sparse of dialogue where he allows the camera to remain much longer than the norm with such riveting effect. Whether it be Donato letting off steam dancing rather manically in a club, or when he and Konrad are making rough and passionate sex together, or in the closing scene of the final motorbike ride. It’s also clever that the script is guarded in revealing too much detail or any real insight into the three men and we are simply left to observe and imagine what emotional state they are in at any time.
It is unquestionably a real visual treat from the wild untamed uninviting ocean in Brazil to seeing young Aryton acting out his ‘Speed Racer’ fantasy racing through the deserted streets of Berlin. The acting is astoundingly good with award-winning Brazilian actor Wagner Moura as the over sensitive Donato, handsome German Clemens Schick who’s prior claim to fame was that he played a baddie in ‘Casino Royale’, and young Jesuíta Barbosa, who stole our hearts last year in ‘Tatuagem’ was the bewildered Ayrton.
Futuro Beach is one of those movies that linger with you for days as you run it through your mind time and time again. It’s Karim Ainouz’s fifth feature film. And it’s been 12 years since he gave us ‘Madame Sata’, and this new one is every bit as good, if not better as that. Winner of the Sebastiane Award for Best LGBT film at the San Sebastian Film Festival, it was nominated for a Golden Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival too.
P.S. Interestingly enough Mr. Ainouz is a Brazilian who has now settled in Germany, so maybe there is part of his life in this story too.