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  • Sydney’s Mardi Gras turns a colourful 40

    Rainbow colours beamed from faces and floats parading through Sydney Saturday as hundreds of thousands of partygoers celebrated 40 years of the annual gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Organisers predicted close to half a million people would witness the glittery spectacle as some 200 floats and 12,500 participants — including police, politicians, indigenous groups and celebrities — made their way down Oxford Street, Sydney’s Gay… (more…)

  • FILM REVIEW | A Fantastic Woman

    ★★★★★ | A Fantastic Woman

    Daniela Vega gives an award-worthy performance in the Chilean film A Fantastic Woman. Vega’s performance as a woman who, after the death of her lover, is rejected and scorned by his family that is superb.

    You see, Vega is transgender, and her character Marina Vidal, who happens to be an aspiring singer, is also, of course, transgender. She and her lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes) had a regular relationship, but his ex-wife and son never truly accepted her nor her relationship with Francesco. But after a birthday celebration where they shared a romantic dinner, a sexy dance in a club, and a night of passion at home, Francisco starts having problems breathing, and after a tense drive to the hospital, Francesco dies, and in panic and a state of confusion, Marina walks away from the hospital. But after a police car picks her up and takes her back to the hospital, she realises that she’s being treated as a suspect in Francesco’s death and not as a grieving partner. To make matter much much worse, Francesco’s grown up son wants her out of Francesco’s apartment, and his ex-wife wants his car and explicitly tells Marina, to her face, that their relationship was perverted and not normal. It’s too much for anyone to take, but Marina is strong, and she will do anything to attend Francesco’s funeral, even when Francesco’s family tries to keep her way. Marina loved Francesco and wants to say a final goodbye.

    There’s no doubt about Vega’s performance. We feel her pain, and her anger, and her confusion over the series of events that have happened in her life in a short period of time. Vega is a revelation, and she should’ve been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, nevertheless she’s been nominated for a slew of other awards, and has won Best Actress at the Palm Spring International Film Festival, while the film, written and directed by Sebastiån Lelio, won the prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. ‘A Fantastic Woman’ is really fantastic, one of the best films of the year, and Vega’s performance will most definitely move you.

    A Fantastic Woman is now playing.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Jubilee, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith

    ★★☆☆☆ | Jubilee

    Ever seen Jubilee? The visionary, anarchic mash-up of gay sex, brutal anarchy and transcendent mysticism? If not, load up the fresh, newly-released blu-ray and gorge on Jarman’s genius now – the new theatre adaptation’s completely superfluous!

    Why? How could a show awash with copious, writhing nudity and irreverence possibly bore audiences stiff? Well, because of two words – total misinterpretation. Sure, back in the viciously closeted, mid-70s, Jubilee seemed fantastically liberationist, but now – in this version at least – reads as fatuous self-
    indulgence.

    Partly, that’s due to the ironic paradox of intolerance lurking at the heart of current identity politics. Rather than properly embrace the utopian dream of guilt-free self-expression – which the movie Jubilee pointed towards – this treatment merely showcases bullying exhibitionism – moral, spiritual and sexual- at any cost.

    Perhaps that’s not surprising – it is, after all, a poisonously accurate portrait of current society. Briefly – for those unfamiliar with the movie¬ Queen Elizabeth the First, played with appropriate fire, spunk and glory by Toyah Wilcox – is mystically translated into a future punk-rock, nihilistic dystopia by her court magician, Doctor John Dee, to witness the spiritual wreckage to come. And truthfully, the staging concept is simply marvellous in evoking the blurred boundaries between hard-edged naturalism and soaring, psychedelic fantasy that any worthwhile treatment of Jubilee demands.

    From moment one, Toyah’s in character, hands clasped pondering at a candle-lit desk, while all around her, performers shamble and sidle amongst the audience, creating a dislocating sense of timeless impermanence, the sense that this particularly potent fiction will persist before, after and during our attendance.

    But, there’s one huge problem – non-existent dramatic tension. Sure, Jubilee’s neo-punks prowl randomly during the interval, desperately hoping to own the space with the nuclear panache of street thugs, but quite laughably, they come across as less threatening than the fluffiest pack of neutered kittens! Frankly, this tired notion of provocative engagement with the audience -wrongly perceived as daringly new and radical- limps all the way back to the dark ages of the 1970s, when the Living Theatre troupe desperately tried to wank, molest and similarly bore uninterested audiences!

    And tragically, the evocation of laissez-faire decadence – so crucially important to Jarman’s aesthetic – is lazily rendered here as nothing more than indiscriminate coitus and casually –torched petrol-bombs in prams. Ah, couldn’t we have even a touch of imaginative and highly exclusive excess, a mere three hundred years after De Sade, such as mixed-donor, frozen spunk lollies gleefully scoffed by one and all?

    Okay, admittedly, Jubilee does boast a stunning range of high-voltage movement and shouty charisma, particularly with Sophie Stone’s Bod, but too often, a fine actorial balance collapses, and we feel as if we’re eavesdropping on some shock-jocks soiree. And arguably, the casual, often unwise nudity does make a possible argument for instant, erotic euthanasia, the new, theatrical crime of flaunting uncharismatic genitals!

    Still, there’s the fizzy counterbalance of Toyah Wilcox’s Elizabeth oozing genderqueer warmth and traction, alone, lyrical voice soaring from this interminable pit of soiled, post-modern divinity and lost opportunity.

    Lost opportunity? Of course- rather than giving current trans discourse sharp, incisive wings, Jubilee merely muddles variant gender expression. That’s hardly the fault of the shockingly vivid and explosive Travis Alabanza, who- playing alternative historian Amyl Nitrate- is obviously on gender-variant hyper-drive, but rather, the entitled assumptions behind the scripting. Why should any individual’s desire – right or wrong – automatically trump any other moral imperative or sense of compassion?

    And again, since when did ‘trans’ become such an elastic, unnuanced label that it simply denotes any bloke mincing onstage in bad drag? The self-evident absurdity of that line of thinking necessarily means accepting Les Dawson and other cismale comedians as ‘trans’, and doesn’t that completely devalue the struggles – political, medical and surgical – of trans figures who’ve either partially or fully transitioned?

    Still, despite its incoherent and often contradictory artistry, Jubilee – like all the best theatre –is thrillingly provocative if short on answers, and – like our current Queen Lizzie herself – snatches at elusive shreds of majestic glamour. Ultimately, Jubilee is ambition re-imagined as art, the bedrock of all theatrical brilliance!

  • Here’s why Victoria Beckham never smiles in photos

    You heard it here first.

    CREDIT: WIKIPEDIA / FLICKR

    In the latest episode of THEGAYUK podcast, Celebrity Big Brother star, Austin Armacost spills the beans on why Victoria Beckham apparently always looks so miserable in pap photos.

    Apparently, Victoria herself told Austin while he and Marc Jacobs (they were once boyfriends many many moons ago) were at dinner with the former Spice Girl turned fashion empire owner one evening when she revealed that she “never planned on becoming that famous” and the very savvy reason why she never smiles in photos anymore.

    She went on to admit, “I don’t want people to know my business, I don’t want my business out there, It’s not their place to know.

    “Everytime you photograph me, I’m not going to be laughing and I’m not going to be crying, I’m going to be nowhere in the middle, I’m not going to make a face”.

    When Austin met David and Victoria. (C) Austin Armacost / Marc Jacobs

    According to Austin, everytime Victoria showed any emotion before her decision to tone down her facial expression, magazines and the press would continuously speculate on her happiness, her marriage or any aspect of her life. The only way to stop the speculation was to “keep neutral”.

    Listen to the Podcast on Soundcloud or subscribe on iTunes to hear the full, incredible revealing interview with Austin.

  • COMMENT | The problem with snowflakes they “reach for Twitter and moan incessantly about the outrage they feel”

    Quick my little snowflakes, reach for your twitter and moan incessantly about the outrage you feel. Or should that be “you think you feel” because as I seem to witness on a daily occurrence, there is a lot of young people moaning with outrage and I’m not sure why?

    geralt / Pixabay

    Wikipedia has the definition sorted for you. “Snowflake as a slang term involves the derogatory usage of the word snowflake to make reference to people. Its meaning has varied, but may include a person who has an inflated sense of their own uniqueness, has an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or is easily offended and unable to deal with opposing opinions”

    I’m not in total agreement with this however. I don’t really think it is derogatory. Obviously, this has been added by a snowflake who was outraged in the first place by what followed afterwards. Let’s look at the main reason for why l am writing this.

    via GIPHY

    I recently became incensed when I read about young people really not understanding the American sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004 and complaining that it was transphobic, homophobic, fattist, sexist, generally insensitive, no doubt full of animal cruelty because of the song ‘smelly cat’ and Ross once kept a monkey, nudistphobic (no such word but there was a neighbour across the buildings who would walk around naked) clothistphobic etc etc. Looking back and the list could go on forever. And if they think that’s bad then I’d hate to imagine what they would make of US hit comedy The Golden Girls!

    The Twitterati took to social media to vent their outrage. Outrage that quite frankly isn’t there. You see we golden oldies enjoyed it for what it was. Six friends joking about the past, the present and the future. And that is what we have. Friends are often cruel to me for choices made in the past. I am often cruel back. Those friends are there for me in times of need. I am there for them. We laugh, we enjoy we get along and work things out. It seems the snowflakes of today can’t do that.

    You see we never had this social media thing. If we were outraged then we would write to the BBC’s Points of View show. And if we couldn’t be bothered to do that we simply let it go because we simply were not outraged enough to be outraged by trivial stuff and couldn’t be arsed to keep picking at it like a scab.

    I’m not saying people who are at my grand age of the 4th decade are not snowflakes themselves, it’s just that my generation can tell them to sit down, shut up and breathe. Or to use the write acronym STFU! Indeed only recently I told that to a good friend who got caught up in someone else’s drama and made it their own for no reason.

    It is almost like we are now conditioned to be outraged at almost everything. Humans have become more and more angry for no other reason than the fact that we are told to be. Don’t believe me? Grab a coffee at your local cafe, sit outside and take a look at those going past you. I guarantee you that most of them are looking for the next thing to be outraged about. So outraged they vent it on social media and let their followers of varying numbers be aware that they are outraged hoping that it then escalates to others feeling the same. There isn’t much I see about people being happy on social media.

    It seems we are not allowed to be happy these days. And this is where the conditioning comes in. The press has made you angry and outraged. Soap operas that we watch or listen to (I am an avid fan of Radio 4’s The Archers are full of outrage.

    It’s rare to find a storyline that is a happy one.

    There is lots of talk about square eyes and all of us looking at screens. These screens are full of information. Information literally at your finger-tips. You can access this all at the same time as drinking your morning coffee and taking a poo at the same time. It’s always around us.

    I now make a point of leaving my phone outside the toilet. The risk of dropping it has come close several times. I don’t want information when I am dropping off last night’s dinner. For me, toilet time is a time to reflect. It’s a skill that has been forgotten. It’s my “me time”. It’s a time for to cut the crap from my body and let me think.

    Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to be outraged about like the recent shooting in an America school. That is a real problem. It’s just that the young generation, of which I do not envy one bit, don’t really have anything to moan about or at least shouldn’t be moaning but instead be living and enjoying the moment because before you know it, you’ll have real things to moan about.

    I am only scratching the surface of this current crisis the snowflake suffers on an hourly basis. I don’t actually think I have answered the question I was set by my editor. There is a whole book on the subject and I am sure someone is writing it now. So I’ll sign off with the words of Michael Palin from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life “Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Jury selection starts in trial of Pulse nightclub shooter’s widow

    Jury selection began Thursday in the trial of the widow of the Orlando Pulse shooter, nearly two years after the slaughter at the gay Florida nightclub that left 49 dead and scores wounded. Gunman Omar Mateen’s widow, 31 year-old Noor Salman, faces charges of aiding her husband and lying to investigators. (more…)

  • What’s the best way to apply lube for anal?

    What’s the best way to apply lube for anal?

    Unless you’re a new breed of human, if you’re gonna have anal, you’re gonna need lube. And lot’s of it.

    You’re about to do the deed and your partner is just about to stick it in – what’s the best way of making sure you’re lubed and, more importantly, there’s enough of it?

    So how do you apply lube?

    Well, there’s two schools of thought.

    The PreLuber: As a bottom or the receptive partner you can take control of the lube situation, by maybe putting some lube on or up your own butthole before you begin, perhaps as you’re getting ready – if you’re douching this might be the perfect time to do this after you’re done. Otherwise, the water inside you will flush away any lube.

    Use your fingers to get some lube right up inside you and you’re sex ready!

    Or you can buy, yes what a day and age we live in, a lube depositor, or lube launchers. Yep, there’s a device which can get the lube deep inside you. There are a number of different types from different makers. Check out the range here

    The Mid-flow: During the action, you can get your partner to start to apply lube to your ass during the foreplay. If you’re using flavoured lube, then he can also have fun whilst rimming you. Then when you’re ready to receive, you can cover your partner’s dick (condomed or without) with lube as you blow him or jerk him off. Make sure, though, if he is wearing a condom, not to use oil-based lube. Only water or silicon.

    Once he’s in, you’ll probably need to get him out of you after a few strokes and use a little more.

    Or if you’re the topper, you can maybe play with your partner’s ass during foreplay and use your fingers to fully lubricate his ass. Either way, you’re going to want to make sure that you use enough – and don’t worry about stopping the action if you feel like you need more.

    Remember more is more in these situations and it’s best to try a variety of lubes to see which works best for you.

  • YouTube Bans Neo-Nazi Channel For Violating Hate Speech Rules

    YouTube on Wednesday banned Atomwaffen Division, an American neo-Nazi group, and removed two channels operated by the group for violating the platform’s hate speech policies, according to a report from Motherboard. (more…)

  • Gay film, Call Me By Your Name has been banned in Tunisia

    Tunisia’s ministry of culture has banned the Oscar-nominated film “Call Me By Your Name”, a love story between two men, one of its main distributors said on Wednesday. The feature film was due to be screened on Wednesday night in the capital Tunis but the venue announced on Facebook that the event had been “cancelled”. (more…)

  • Sydney’s Mardi Gras: colourful pride born from a night of violence<

    Forty years ago a group of gay and lesbian activists took to the Sydney streets for a night of celebration following a day of political protest, but police intervened, brutally beating dozens of partygoers. (more…)

  • Katie Hopkins thinks the slaughter of whites is coming to Europe

    In a tweet, Katie Hopkins has declared that she believes there will be an uprising against white people in Western Europe.

    Katie Hopkins, who once described a wish to become a “gay icon” has declared that a white genocide is on its way to Western Europe and that white people will have to live in gated communties and behind walls. And she believes it will happen in “our lifetimes”.

    The controversial, former columnist for The Sun and the Daily Mail, failed TV talk show host, non-winning Apprentice contestant, former radio presenter for LBC has recently travelled to South Africa to record and document attacks and murders of white South African farmers for Rebel Media – a far-right media organisation.

    Using South Africa as an example, she wrote “The slaughter of minority whites in South Africa will be repeated in Western Europe. In OUR lifetime, whites will be forced behind walls, in gated communities in the countries we used to call home”

    She finished her tweet with the hashtags: #MinorityWhiteRights and #MAGA (which stands for Make America Great Again – despite Katie Hopkins living in the UK a country, which is not America, and where white people are not in the minority.

    Currently in South Africa the white demographic equals about eight percent of the population. In the UK the non-white population counts for around 14 percent of the population, in France it is estimated to be around 22 percent (2009) and in Germany, it is estimated that the Germany-Afro community stands at 2 percent of the population.

    The tweet was met with mixed reaction. Whilst some agreed with her premise, many responders were quick to slate Hopkins’ suggestion, giving Ms Hopkins a brief history lesson.

    Others decided to take her tweet a bit more seriously,

     

    In January Hopkins asked her followers the following question, “Why is there no heterosexual community? Or white community? Do you need to feel like a victim to belong? #transcommunity #lgbtcommunity #blackcommunity”.

     

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