THEGAYUK

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  • Proof that money can find you love and it’s damn expensive

    Proof that money can find you love and it’s damn expensive

    How much does it cost to find that someone special? Your gonna need a bigger cheque book.

    (C) BIGSTOCK

    We literally have no hope.

    According to a 2017 poll, it takes people over five years of dating before they decided to tie-the-knot. Over the course of those years, the average person spends $20,276 (£16,320) on dating.

    The new survey of 1,000 married people across the country conducted by art event planners Paint Nite also found that people spent, on average, nearly five and a half years out on the dating scene before getting hitched – shelling out an average of $43.50 per date.

    The most common dating activity is going to dinner (88 percent), followed by going to the movies (63 percent), lunch (39 percent), taking a walk (38 percent) and making a meal and spending time at home (38 percent).

    As for the ideal date, dinner and movies topped the list once again, followed by taking a walk, travelling and sightseeing. Three out of four people would rather enjoy a sedentary date such as dinner and movies over active/interactive or outdoor dates – with only 10 percent saying they like to play sports while out with their other half or a new love prospect.

    When it comes to landing dates, a quarter have picked up a prospect in a bar or a nightclub, one in five have used online dating sites, and 35 percent have been set up by friends and colleagues.

    Sixty-five percent of respondents think the best way to greet a date is with a simple hi or hello, while almost two in five advocates a hug and 30 percent recommend a handshake.

    “Making a great impression on a first date, whether that means covering the bill, a warm greeting or simply picking an interesting activity, can make all the difference in the early days of a relationship,’ explains Courtney Osgood of Paint Nite, a company that arranges art-themed nights at pubs and wine bars. ‘Mixing it up, and trying something new can also keep the spark alive between a seasoned couple.”

    As for who should shell out on the first date, more than half think that the man should cover the bill, while just one percent of respondents thought the woman should pay the tab. Twenty-three percent of respondents said it should actually be the person who asked for the date who should pay.

    More than 40 percent of respondents say that they decide who will pay before the date even happens, while 24 percent say they figure things out when the bill comes.

    One in five men admits to pulling the pretending-to-stretch trick on a date, while 22 percent of both men and women admit to touching an arm or a knee of their date to make a move.

    Top keys to the best first impression on a date
    1.    Good manners
    2.    An attractive appearance
    3.    A smile
    4.    Great personality
    5.    A sense of humour

    Top date turn-offs
    1.    Bad manners/Offensive/Rude
    2.    Bad breath
    3.    Too negative
    4.    Burping out loud/other bodily noises
    5.    Unattractive physical appearance
    6.    Inappropriate/tight clothing
    7.    Talks too much
    8.    Indecisiveness
    9.    Too much make-up
    10.   Lack of confidence

  • COMMENT | Is Pride still necessary?

    COMMENT | Is Pride still necessary?

    Amsterdam is warming-up for Pride 2018! But is Pride really still necessary?

    Participants at the famous Canal Parade of the Amsterdam Gay Pride 2014.

    At a very early age, I realised that, unlike my colleagues in school, I felt more attracted to boys than to girls. As a young boy growing up in a small village in Portugal 30 years ago, I had no clue about what to do with those feelings. Homosexuality was not mentioned at home or in school. It wasn’t discussed on TV either. The only few times that I heard about it, it was in a negative, mocking way, which made me feel like something was wrong with me, and that being gay was something that I had to hide.

    30 years later, a lot has admittedly changed. In Portugal, for instance, same-sex marriage has been legal since 2010. And The Netherlands, where I live now, was the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. But is this the case of every single country in the world?

    According to an annual report by ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), 72 countries and territories worldwide continue to criminalize same-sex relationships, including 45 in which sexual relationships between women are outlawed. There are 8 countries in which homosexuality can result in a death penalty and dozens more in which homosexual acts can result in a prison sentence.

    Despite these facts, many straight people insist on asking me: Does it really make sense to still celebrate Pride? Their main argument is that there is no such thing as a Straight Pride. Please let me ask you:

    Have straight people ever been attacked or fired for merely being straight? Do straight people have to worry about holding their partner’s hand in public? Do straight people’s vacation plans have to be made by taking into account which country not to travel to for fear of being imprisoned because of their sexuality? Have straight people ever had the unpleasant experience of having to come out to their family and friends?

    Are you still wondering why there is no Straight Pride? Or are you just happy that you don’t need one?

    This year, Amsterdam Gay Pride (the largest gay pride event in the Netherlands, and one of the largest in the world) will take place from July 28 to August 5, and it will pay particular attention to human rights. The annual boat parade, which sees the canals lined by over half a million spectators, will take place on Saturday, August 4. Boats of, among others, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the College of Human Rights were proclaimed this year by the organization as “Pearls of the Parade.”

    I will be there! May I invite you to join me?

  • Daily Mail columnist schooled over PrEP inaccuracies

    The National AIDS Trust just had to school one Mail Online columnist over a story published in which he peddled “misinformation, myths and stigma” over PrEP usage.

    PrEP pills
    (C) marcbruxel Depositphotos

    In the article, Mail Online columnist Ross Clark, reveals that after a recent visit to his GP for a suspected hernia, the doctor was unable to refer him to have an operation or to a specialist due the fact that he wasn’t in pain and didn’t have any heavy lifting in his job, the GP told him he “wasn’t bad enough to qualify for funding under new NHS guidelines”.

    However, later on in the article, which the Terrence Higgins Trust has blasted as fuelling misinformation, myths and stigma, he draws comparisons between what the NHS could pay for and what they couldn’t. PrEP and transgender surgery was, it seems, central to his argument.

    He wrote, “There is the £22 million a year being spent on transgender surgery, at a cost of £20,000 per patient. There is £730 million a year being spent pumping drug addicts full of Methadone — a heroin substitute which is supposed to help wean people off that drug, but which is itself addictive.

    “The NHS has started, too, to prescribe PrEP — a drug which cuts the risk of HIV transmission in gay men who have sex without a condom.

    “It is prescribing the drug —which costs £400 a month for a single patient — in spite of warnings that it will be encouraging risky behaviour, and it could increase other infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea [sic], against which PrEP offers no protection.”

    “Not One Thing accurate”

    Well, the Twitter team at National AIDS Trust had to put him right – and point out exactly why his article is so wrong.

    “Trying to create a Twitter storm”

    The columnist Ross Clark then accused the National AIDS Trust of trying to start a “Twitter Storm” saying, “You are trying to create a Twitter storm based on something I haven’t written, knowing that most who retweet won’t actually bother to read the piece”.

    Losing Advertisers

    Recently the MailOnline lost a number of high-profile advertisers when companies started to pull out of contracts with the publication after a successful awareness campaign by pressure group, Stop Funding Hate. Eventually, the newspaper removed advertising from many of its columnists including Richard Littlejohn.

     

     

  • Disgraced MP Jared O’Mara quits Labour following on from exposed homophobic comments

    Apparently, Jared O’Mara was made to feel like a criminal during the probe into his historic online comments.

    Labour MP Jared O’Mara has quit the party after being reinstated following a suspension while historic homophobic and misogynistic online comments were investigated.

    The MP was suspended but was to be reinstated. He has now quit the party, saying “I am of the opinion that the Labour Party no longer shares my commitment to the true definition of equality and compassion,” he said.

    “There is no doubt that I made mistakes as a young man using distasteful language as a clumsy attempt at satire and sarcasm online. But that does not mean that is who I am today.”

    However, he seemed to suggest that he won’t be stepping down as an MP.

    He said, “I might be leaving Labour but I am still at your side”,

    Identifying himself as “the first autistic MP in our history”, he wrote: “I didn’t commit any crimes, yet I have been made unfairly to feel like a criminal.

    “Nobody should be made to feel ashamed for mistakes they make when they are young.”

    He added: “I would be lying to those of you whom I represent, and those close to me like my parents and sister respectively, if I continued under the pretence that I feel there is a place of acceptance and empathy for me as a working-class, underprivileged disabled man within the Labour Party.

    “I have experienced little to make me feel welcome, understood and accepted during this last year.”

  • Terrence Higgins Trust slams the Daily Mail for misinformation, myths and stigma around PrEP

    “we’d love to have a cuppa to explain”

    PrEP pills
    (C) marcbruxel Depositphotos

    Ooo the sass coming from the Terrence Higgins Trust’s Twitter feed, the UK’s leading HIV charity, was palpable and we love it. In the tweet, they slam the Mail Online for fuelling misinformation, myths and stigma surrounding the use of PrEP.

    So far the journalist who worked on a story nor the publication itself has replied to have a cuppa with THT.

    In the article, Mail Online columnist Ross Clark, reveals that after a recent visit to his GP for a suspected hernia, she was unable to refer him to have an operation or to a specialist due the fact that he wasn’t in pain and didn’t have any heavy lifting in his job, the GP told him he “wasn’t bad enough to qualify for funding under new NHS guidelines”.

    However, later on in the article, he draws comparisons between what the NHS could pay for and what they couldn’t. PrEP and transgender surgery was, it seems, central to his argument.

    He wrote, “There is the £22 million a year being spent on transgender surgery, at a cost of £20,000 per patient. There is £730 million a year being spent pumping drug addicts full of Methadone — a heroin substitute which is supposed to help wean people off that drug, but which is itself addictive.

    “The NHS has started, too, to prescribe PrEP — a drug which cuts the risk of HIV transmission in gay men who have sex without a condom.

    “It is prescribing the drug —which costs £400 a month for a single patient — in spite of warnings that it will be encouraging risky behaviour, and it could increase other infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea [sic], against which PrEP offers no protection.”

    “Cost-effective”

    Speaking to THEGAYUK.com Liam Beattie, PrEP policy lead at Terrence Higgins Trust, said, “There’s no place in the media for articles filled with misinformation, myths and stigma-fuelling. Ross Clark’s piece on PrEP is highly inaccurate and we would love him to come in to Terrence Higgins Trust to find out more about the realities of PrEP. Because there’s nothing controversial about PrEP – it’s highly effective at preventing HIV, cost effective and will ultimately stop many, many people from becoming HIV positive.

    “Currently PrEP is available in England via a 10,000 place trial but we want to see a national PrEP programme in England to ensure it’s made available to all who need it”’

    There’s been no evidence to suggest that users on PrEP are being any more “risky” than those who currently aren’t on PrEP.

    Losing Advertisers

    Recently the MailOnline lost a number of high-profile advertisers when companies started to pull out of contracts with the publication after a successful awareness campaign by pressure group, Stop Funding Hate. Eventually, the newspaper removed advertising from many of its columnists including Richard Littlejohn.

     

  • Five best musicals to see in London this summer

    London town is home to great theatre, famous across the globe for its treasured West End – second only to (maybe) Broadway in New York. So what is worth watching in this city, this summer?

    Chicago

    If you’ve never seen Chicago on stage and only know it from the Hollywood film then you’re missing out. It has to be seen in the flesh (and there’s a lot of flesh on show). The men are beefy and scantily clad and the women are Vaudevillian and slinky. The set and costumes are pared back with an on-stage orchestra belting out all those classic Kander and Ebb hits. The choreography is note perfect with all the shoulder shrugs, finger clicks and pelvic thrusts that you expect from Bob Fosse. Yes, it’s the same old show that we got in the 90s but who cares? It’s a veritable classic. With murderesses this stylish and camp who needs anything new.  Tickets reduced to £30 (some with no booking fee)

    Bat Out Of Hell

    Raven is a lonely girl – she’s not allowed outside at all – but she really wants to experience the outside world, to ride the subway, to meet a boy. In the outside world Strat (Andrew Polec) leads a gang of nomads and hangers-on, and he’s always dreamt of catching the girl – particularly Raven, but she’s not available. So all sorts of musical mayhem takes place including Strat trying to kidnap Raven so that he and her can be together. Meanwhile, one of the gang members (a fabulous Danielle Steers – returning) is slowly falling in love with another gang member, while she’s actually a maid in the Falco household. She knows their secrets, and lies.

    This is the story, in a nutshell, but the way it’s told is spectacular. Motorcycles, explosions, video projection, skimpy costumes, a convertible on stage that was formerly a dining room table, and said convertible plunging off the stage into the orchestra pit – it’s all musical mayhem – from a rock classic album, and it is just as good on stage as it is on the album and when it played at the Coliseum. The cast dance and prance on stage, and with most of the songs dealing with love, Bat Out of Hell is a love story set to rock music. It’s loud, it’s crazy, it’s superb! No booking fee on tickets available. Tickets are available from £15.00

    Wicked

    55 million people can’t be wrong, which is why Wicked is one of the world’s most successful musicals. Wicked is going into its 12th year in London and it’s still fresh, timely and defying expectations. Wicked takes you behind The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz story to find out about the two witches featured in the original story, “Wicked Witch”, Elphaba (you know the one – green and gets the bucket of water) – played by Alice Fearn and the “Good Witch”, Glinda (you know, the one that arrives by bubble) played by Sophie Evans. Tickets from £25.30

     

    Tina

    Playing at the Aldwych Theatre, Tina charts the ups, and many downs, of Tina’s life. Born as Ann-Mae Bullock, in 1939, we are shown, first hand, how, as a little girl, she was brought up in a violent household where her father hit her mother, causing her mother to move away with her sister (leaving Ann-Mae behind). Tickets available from £23.21

     

    42nd Street

    Mark Bramble, who originally wrote the book (along with Michael Stewart) directs this new production, and it’s a non-stop bacchanalia of fun! And with an amazing and flawless cast of over 50, 42nd Street has gotten better with time, even though it tells the same old time-trodden story of a young girl from a small town – Peggy Sawyer – who goes to the big city and dreams of making it big. She gets a job as a backup dancer in a new show called Pretty Lady, and the Pretty Lady in the title is Dorothy Brock (fabulously played by singer Sheena Easton). Brock is in love with Pat (Norman Bowman), who disappears off to Philadelphia. So Brock wants to follow him there, forcing the show to move to there. But Brock breaks her ankle, so after getting fired for causing Brock to break her leg, Sawyer is roped back into the show, this time as it’s lead, and she’s only got 48 hours to learn the part, to learn the dance moves, and is wooed and coddled by director Julian Marsh (Tom Lister). But it’s Billy (Stuart Neal) who really takes a liking to her. Will she be ready and rehearsed in time to open the show? Will the nerves get the best of her? I’m sure we can all figure out how it plays out – and plays out it does, much to our delight!  No booking fee and tickets are available from £15.78

     

  • Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag

    Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag

    This is an update to this story, click here to read.

    Gross.

    A group called MAPS which stands for Minor Attracted Person, a term which aims to destigmatising paedophiles has apparently created their own pride flag in a bid to legitimise their sexual preference.

    Some news outlets are claiming that the group insists that paedophiles are misunderstood and that they do not act on their attraction to children.

    The flag opts for pastel blues, yellows and pinks.

    A Twitter user put out a warning in June telling all minors if they saw the flag being flown to be warned.

    It is not known who designed the flag or whether you can actually buy the flag anywhere.

    It goes without saying that any sexual relationships with a minor is illegal in most countries across the globe. In the UK the age of consent is equalised between same and opposite-sex couples at 16-year-old.

    The rise of identity flags.

    In recent years there has been an explosion of gender and sexual identities and along with that diversity within the LGBT+ community has been the proliferation of pride flags. Almost every identity has its own flag.

    One of the first subsets to create their own flag away from the traditional rainbow flag was the bear community, who created the brown/orange and paw print flag in 1995. The flag was designed by Craig Brynes.

    The rainbow flag was designed by renowned artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. The world’s largest version of the rainbow flag was unveiled in Key West in 2004.

  • Two gay men appear in BBC top paid talent, no other LGBT representation

    BBC has released its top earners and two gay men are featured in the top 10. The top-earning lesbian doesn’t feature.

    The BBC’s gender pay gap has been released and shows that the top 12 earners are all still men, with Graham Norton (up to £609,000) and Nick Grimshaw (up to £409,000) featuring in the top 10. Further down the list of the top 22 earners include two other openly gay men, Scott Mills (up to £289,000) and Evan Davis (up to £259,000)

    There are no out women or trans people in the top 20. The highest paid LGB woman is Clare Balding who is now reported to be earing up to £189,000. Last year the BBC reported that she was earning up between £150,000 and £199,000.

    The list released by the BBC features talent and staff who are paid directly by the BBC and earn over £150,000.

    Norton’s wage was reduced from up to £899,000 in this new list, while Nick Grimshaw’s wage has actually increased from up to £399,000.

    Last year the BBC used multiples of £50,000 to denote its staff’s salary rather than give accurate figures, this year that has been deceased to multiples of £10,000.

  • 74 photos which show how epic Pride In London was

    74 photos which show how epic Pride In London was

    Were you there? Did you see it? It goes without saying, Pride In 2018 was EPIC on many many levels.

    Check out these photos from our photographer, Monty McKinnen

    *Please note that no assumption of gender or sexuality should be made by inclusion in this gallery.

    NEXT 10

  • This man is bringing a class action against Grindr for allowing racial discrimination

    “A breeding ground that perpetuates racism against gay Asian Men”

    A man is planning to sue the gay dating app, Grindr, for racial discrimination and is looking for co-plaintiffs across the US’s fifty states so that he can bring a class action.

    In a statement released on social media, Sinakhone Keodara, the CEO and founder of the Asian Entertainment Television company says that Grindr allows “white gay men to write in their profiles ‘no Asians’, ‘not interested in Asians’: or ‘I don’t find Asians attractive’,” which he says, leads to people feeling “offended, humiliated, degraded and dehumanised” by the app.

    Keodara says that anyone who is considering joining him must be a paying customer.

    In 2018, Grindr became fully owned by the Chinese gaming firm, Kunlun Tech Co.

    The dating app OKCupid recently analysed sexual racism among 1m of its male site users. The company found that compared to black, Asian or minority ethnic users, white users got more messages. White users were also found to be less likely to reply or match with users of a different race to themselves, and more likely to question interracial marriage.

    Recent research from Australia also found that 15% of gay men on the dating app Grindr included sexual racism on their profiles. This was more likely to be the case if the profile user was white, and if the user held broader racist views.

  • People are calling out Louis Walsh for grabbing Mel B’s bum

    People on Twitter are calling out Louis Walsh after patting her bum live on national TV.

    The clip, which has surfaced on Twitter was taken from an X Factor roundup show a few years ago and shows judge, Louis Walsh patting the former Spice Girl’s behind. The clip has been watched over 4.5 million times on the social platform.

    After Mel B calls out Walsh on why he is touching her inappropriately, Simon Cowell is seen joking to Mel,  “you’re safe” which some have found to be problematic. Louis says he was doing it to “look after” the star.

    “Why are you grabbing my butt”

    During the interview, Walsh can be seen tapping the singer’s butt while Mel B starts to look uncomfortable and looks off-screen before confronting Walsh. She then stops the interview, mid-flow and asks Walsh directly, “Why are you grabbing my butt?”.

    Walsh replies, “I’m looking after Mel.”

    Simon Cowell, whose company Syco owns the format for the show, jokes, “honestly you’re safe”.

    After Mel calls Walsh out, she physically moves herself away from Louis, before the interview continues.

    People are now calling on TV execs to remove him from TV shows and for Walsh to apologise for his actions. Unrelated, it was announced that Louis Walsh would not be returning to judge The X Factor for this year’s show.

    Many people have assumed that Walsh is gay, but in 2013 in an interview with the Sunday Times, when asked whether he was gay or straight he replied, “I can’t… Don’t go there. I can’t. I think your private life is your private life…I’m happy. Happy as Larry!”

    He’s never been married and has never publicly acknowledged anyone as a partner, however, he was spotted by one of our showbiz insiders at the Balans restaurant in South Beach, Florida, accompanied by a lovely looking tall dark and handsome type a few years back.

    THEGAYUK.com reached out ITV for comment.