THEGAYUK

Search results for: “ ”

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Putting On The Ritz National Tour

    As someone who was raised on a diet of the films of the golden age of Hollywood and classic MGM Musicals; and as someone who finds a full on show-stopping musical dance break hard to beat, the lure of a musical revue of the songs of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter proved hard to resist.

    Putting together a collection of some of the most timeless and well-known songs, including “Puttin’ On The Ritz”, “Top Hat”, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”, “Anything Goes” and “I Got Rhythm”, the soundtrack was top notch and a real demonstration of the enduring appeal of these masterfully written slices of perfection. There was a pleasant spread of songs, taking into account the upbeat numbers, but also slowing the pace with some ballads, including “Someone To Watch Over Me”. There were a few odd choices – a rather over the top performance of “Summertime”, a couple of instrumental songs which really should have been sung (“Cheek to Cheek”) and a few absent favourites, but overall, with such a vast catalogue to choose from, there was a good spread of the well-known and seldom heard.

    Despite the staging being fairly bland; an unimaginative glittery set, a backdrop curtain with a cascade of fairy lights and a rickety staircase; the numerous costumes changes came thick and fast, with enough sequins, feathers and glitz to satisfy even the hardiest of ‘Strictly’ fans. Lighting and direction was fairly functional, but the choreography was fast paced, upbeat and a good mixture of ballroom, jazz, tap, swing and Charleston, performed in a rather polished fashion.

    The low quality production values aside, the cast performed competently albeit with an abundance of fixed grins. The six vocalists were able to give the songs enough joie de vivre to do them justice, with the three male vocalists eclipsing the female trio. Trent Whiddon and Gordana Grandosek (from ‘Strictly Come Dancing’) were rather impressive, although criminally underused, making the most of their handful of routines, floating lightly across the stage and making the whole thing look absolutely effortless. The remaining cast of dancers did give it their all and the numbers were well choreographed, building nicely and feeling very playful.

    The show is certainly more “cruise ship cabaret” as opposed to “West End spectacular”, but despite its low production values, slightly cheesy feel and constantly grinning cast, the show was foot tappingly entertaining where the stars of the show were the songs themselves. I’m sure that this was never intended to be life changing theatre, but it never pretends to be; and managed to completely sweep up the audience with its charm and its firm footing in the tradition of good, old fashioned entertainment. The running time of just over two hours went far too quickly, making this show a nice little guilty pleasure.

    Puttin’ on the Ritz is at Sheffield Theatres until 20th June 2015 before continuing on its national tour, calling at numerous venues around the country until the 14th November 2015. For details, visit the show’s official website.

     

     

  • Channing Tatum Calls His Penis…

    During a tell-all AMA on Reddit the 35-year-old Hunk and star of Magic Mike revealed what he calls his ding-a-ling…

    Nothing, it seemed, was off limits as Channing Tatum revealed some would say, not us, what he calls his pecker. During the candid interview of sorts, one excited fan asked, “Does your penis have a nickname?” To which the Magic Mike star replied, “Gilbert”.

    There you have it. Channing Tatum calls his Johnson Gilbert. Now we’re trying to image what Gilbert looks like.

    Just so he knows we have an Sullivan over here and we’re happy to get to together and make music.

    Last weekend, Channing joined his co-star Matt Bomer for Pride and showed his dance moves off.

    “Magic Mike XXL” is set for release worldwide beginning Wednesday, July 1, 2015.

  • Woman Told To “TONE DOWN” Her Gay Garden In “Christian” Area

    The Baltimore Sun has reported that Julie Baker a local resident has started a GoFundMe campaign so she can make her “relentlessly gay” yard even more relentless and more gay.

    The campaign is in response to a note left by one of her neighbours that read:

    “Dear resident of ___ Kenwood Avenue
    Your yard is becoming Relentlessly Gay! Myself and Others in the neighbourhood ask that you Tone it Down. This is a Christian area and there are Children.
    Keep it up and I will be forced to call the police on You!
    Your kind need to have Respect for GOD.”
    Signed A Concerned Home Owner

    Ms. Baker immediately posted this on her Facebook page and then when she launched the Fund wrote,

    “I am a widow and the mother of four children, my youngest in high school and I WILL NOT Relent to Hatred. Instead, I will battle it with whimsy and beauty and laughter and love, wrapped around my home, yard and family!!!”

    By 10:15 Wednesday night Baker had more than doubled her $5,000 fundraising goal to make her home relentlessly gayer.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance: FAR – CAST Theatre, Doncaster

    ★★★ | FAR – CAST Theatre, Doncaster

    Based on an 18th-century text, Flesh in the Age of Reason, (hence the acronym, FAR), choreographer Wayne McGregor’s piece ventures into the relationship between the flesh and the mind. Utilising a backdrop of a pin board of thousands of LED’s, glistening and twinkling like the firing of neurological pathways, a troupe of ten incredibly agile and flexible dancers intertwined and knotted together their bodies as they conveyed how ideas are formed and spread into the physicality of creativity.

    Minimalist lighting enhanced the piece, showcasing the dancers and their incredible suppleness. The fluidity of their movement was visually intriguing as they contorted their bodies in a heady mix of extended limbs, ripples and head rolls, working throughout the performance with a professional determination and intensity. The piece left me in no doubt as to the talent of the cast, with their precision movements and the sheer power of their toned and muscular physicality contrasting with the flaccidity of some of their more exaggerated double-jointed dance steps.

    The accompanying soundtrack started promisingly, with subtlety and a classic feel to it, as a duet of barefooted dancers performed a tender routine flanked by four torch bearers, but soon descended into a more industrial auditory landscape, with its constant clatters, pulses, bangs and harsh rasps which assaulted the audience with little discernible melody. The brief respites of a more traditional score were occasional and welcome, but not frequent enough and one could only think about how different the piece could have been with the addition of a more forgiving acoustic accompaniment.

    The piece is challenging, with an absence of an easily identifiable narrative and a feeling of a number of short pieces knitted together, but it ultimately left me feeling somewhat confused, with the theme of the interplay between art and science being conveyed less precisely than the movements displayed on stage. However, where McGregor does succeed is the demonstration of what can be achieved by the body when pushed to its physical limits in tandem with allowing the mind to be creative; and whether you appreciate the abstract nature of the piece or not, there is much to be admired in the physicality of the performance created.

    More information on the company can be found at http://www.randomdance.org/home . FAR was viewed at Doncaster Cast Theatre; who has a varied selection of mainstream and niche productions in their current season.

  • Two Bar Staff And Customer At Gay Pub Attacked By “Berserk” Man

    A man has been charged and sentenced to 150 hours of community service after going berserk in the New York, New York bar in Manchester.

    Manchester Evening News is reporting that Stuart Jolley, 37, of Nettlebarn Road, Benchill assaulted two members of staff and a customer at the New York, New York drag bar in Manchester after being asked to take his beer glass inside.

    The pub in the city centre had to lock its doors after the man then attacked two bar staff. He also damaged a £1000 window.

    Jolley, pleaded guilty to charges of common assault and criminal damage. The court sentenced him to 150 hours of community service and ordered him to pay £1250 in compensation to the three men he attacked. He was also ordered to pay a £180 criminal court charge and £85 prosecution costs.

    According to his defence, Lindsey Brown said that Jolley had no recollection of his actions and had damaged his hand when he punched the window. She added, “It was totally inappropriate behaviour which he deeply regrets”.

  • Unsung Gay Heroes In History

    We look back into history and highlight other unsung gay men who have made an incredible different to our lives.

    Alan Turing (1912–1954)
    Alan Turing was a British pioneering computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and mathematical biologist. During the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s code-breaking centre. For a time he led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis and created the Turing Machine which decrypted the “unbreakable” German Enigma code. Turing’s pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic. It is said by some historians that Turing’s work at Bletchley Park shortened the war by two to four years and saved approximately fourteen million to twelve million lives. Nevertheless, Turing led a sheltered and castigated life due to his homosexuality. Whilst he was briefly engaged to fellow Bletchley Park worker Joan Clarke, it was a purely plutonic relationship and they soon divorced. Turing was prosecuted by the police in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison and became incredibly depressed. He committed suicide in 1954. Turing’s wartime heroics were not celebrated until he received an official pardon from Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009 following an internet campaign, and then a further royal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. From 9th March, 2015, the biopic of Alan Turing’s life and heroics, THE IMITATION GAME, will become available on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of StudioCanal.

    Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
    Bayard Rustin was the brain behind Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in 1960s America. Rustin was one of the driving forces behind the Congress for Racial Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Most significantly, Rustin organized the 1963 March on Washington — where King gave his legendary “I have a dream” speech. However, due to his homosexuality and his membership in the Communist Party, he has often received short shrift from historians and his integral role in the civil rights movement is often overlooked. At the time, Rustin selflessly avoided the limelight because he knew that elected officials and politicians would attempt to discredit the civil rights movement by pointing out his sexual and political leanings. Rustin was also heavily involved in the anti­–Vietnam War and gay rights movements before his death in 1987.

    Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)
    Sergei “Serge” Diaghilev was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, but also one of the first outspoken and unapologetically gay men of the early 20th century. Sergei Diaghilev reshaped that epoch’s ideas about art and performance, and was a pioneer in adapting new musical styles to modern ballet. He created the Ballets Russes mainly as a showcase for his lover and protégé Vaslav Nijinsky, who is still considered one of the greatest dancers who ever lived. Diaghilev had exquisite tastes, bringing the work of such artists as Balanchine, Picasso, Pavlova and Cocteau onto the stage in his cutting-edge productions, which were often unabashedly erotic. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Diaghilev was condemned as an especially insidious example of bourgeois decadence and his contribution to Russian art was written out of history by the Soviets for more than sixty years.

    Larry Kramer (1935-present)
    Every movement needs a voice of anger and righteousness, and when the AIDS pandemic hit, the gay community was lucky to have Larry Kramer, whose editorials and plays (particularly The Normal Heart) demanded that the government take action and that gay men take responsibility for their health. A fascinating author and a rabble-rouser in the best sense, Kramer continues to be a vital and often infuriating presence. Kramer co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which has become the world’s largest private organization to raise funds for and provide services to people stricken with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

    Harvey Milk (1930–1978)
    Harvey Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisor.
    Milk moved from New York City to settle in San Francisco in 1972 amid a migration of gay men to the Castro District. He ran unsuccessfully for political office three times. Nevertheless, his theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and Milk won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977. Milk served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2008 a Hollywood biopic Milk, starring Sean Penn, honoured Harvey Milk’s transformation of San Fransisco into a mecca for LGBT Americans and in 2009 Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    The Imitation Game is out on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download platforms now , courtesy of StudioCanal

  • Museum Tries To Turn Moths Gay To Stop Them Ruining The Exhibits

    The National History Museum is trying to confuse male moths into believing that other male moths are female in an attempt to stop them reproducing.

    The Telegraph is reporting that the museum located in Kensington, London, is trying to trick male moths into mating with other each other so they stop reproducing and damaging the ancient art exhibits. The museum has had a moth infestation for four years and cannot use ordinary chemicals to get rid of the moths.

    Speaking to the Telegraph Armando Mendex, quarantine facility manager at the museum, who is heading the project said,

    “It’s called the Pheromone Destruction System and in simplistic terms, it makes male moths attracted to other male moths

    “They only live for a couple of weeks and during that time there is only a small window in which they can reproduce. If they spend this unknowingly attempting to attract and fertilise male moths, then it reduces the offspring we are up against.”

    Using the Pheromone Destruction System, male moths are attracted to traps set about the museum and are covered with female pheromone. When they fly out of the trap the pheromone disruption causes other male moths to think they are chasing females rather than another male.

    A spokesperson from the museum confirmed to THEGAYUK,

    “We do not modify the moths’ behaviour in any way. Part of our programme includes spraying male clothes moths with female pheromones. Other males are attracted to the female pheromone but find a male when they get there – they are not attracted to the males themselves. This makes it harder for the moths to breed, helping to protect our collection of 80 million specimens.”

    Convinced? Is sexuality about pheromones?

  • INTERVIEW | Eric Schaeffer

    Once in a while we come across a new small movie that is unafraid to tackle important issues with a very big heart, and Boy Meets Girl is certainly one such film. It is a tender, human, sex-positive romantic comedy that explores what it means to be “real”: to live and love authentically to the truth of one’s heart, regardless of the sex or small town you’re born into. We were so moved by the refreshing and sensitive way that writer/director Eric Schaeffer told this story that stars a transgender girl but is so much more about all the other people in her life who learn to embrace their own identities. It also challenges us to suspend our preconceived views on gender labels and be as open to what happens as these lovelorn kids are.

    We were not the first to give this movie a 5 Star review, but THEGAYUK is the first UK gay publication to sit down with ERIC SHAEFFER to find out more about his remarkable new film, Boy Meets Girl.

    RWD: Where did the story come from?
    ES: It’s dramatically very similar to all my other eight movies. Everyone I know has a very colourful myriad of sexual and emotional feelings and interests that really don’t fit into the narrow boxes that society puts us in, and what I like to write about is breaking out of the confines of these boxes. I came up with this idea of writing about a transgender girl in a small town in the South and challenging the boy meets girl cliché, and so this is, in fact, a broad simplistic kind of romance but with a twist that middle America and the rest of the world can relate.

    I am a straight man and I date women and I have dated transgender women as well in the past. Getting to intimately know some transgender women and also meeting transgendered men gave me the idea of wanting to write about them. The idea that a cisgender straight man who had always dated cisgender women started to be interested in dating transgendered women at a certain point of his life was very interesting to me. Opening up his heart and his eyes to dating these women I thought was a fascinating story especially as it had some real life correlation with me. However, quite honestly, the real driving force was much more abut making a story about people who at the core want to be loved for who they are, as that essentially is what all my films are about.

    Without giving too much away, what surprises so many people who have seen the movie is that Ricky the transgender girl had the smallest arc and the smallest transition emotionally of any of the characters.

    Everyone around her was having much more dramatic profound emotional realisations and that was very exactly what I planned. I wanted the character of Ricky the transgender girl to be ‘normal’ as possible in terms of her life goals, her challenges, her joys, her family and her friends. In a lot of movies, transgender characters are too often being portrayed as people who have all kinds of challenges that are different from cisgender people and that is not really the case in a lot of my own experience and from the research that I did. Most of my trans friends have very wonderful lives that are replete with all the same challenges and joys of cisgender people.

    The other young leads Robbie, Francesca and David are characters who slowly realise that they are being challenged by having the courage to lead lives that they want to live, and with convictions that they feel are right regardless of what society tells them, they should feel and how they should live. This is really what this movie is all about.

    BUY ERIC’S BOOK: I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single – Sane, Slightly Neurotic (But in a Sane Way) Filmmaker into Good Yoga, Bad Reality TV, Too Much Chocolate, and a Little Kinky Sex Seeks Smart, Emotionally Evolved … Oh Hell, At This Point Anyone Who’ll Let Me Watch Football.

    RWD: How did you find the wonderful Michelle Hendley, and how important was it to you that you cast a transgender actress in this part?
    ES: Besides Laverne Cox, there is a very very small list of transgender actors and actresses who are successful enough to be represented by agents, and so they are hard to find. I Googled both ‘transgendered women’ and ‘transgendered actress’, and by a stroke of luck, I found Michelle’s YouTube channel. On all her Vlogs she was talking about her life and her boyfriends and the fashions she liked and she clearly had a performance bone in her body because she was not afraid to be on the net and do these very impressive videos. She looked the part and is young and very pretty and had the right personality. When I got in touch with her she was understandably dubious because she didn’t know my work so she wasn’t sure if my offer of an audition was legit or not. I also had my concerns as she had never acted before and it is a far cry from having the charisma to make a Vlog to being in a feature film. Not only that, she was going to be the star in my movie, which was going to live or die on the performance of her alone. So I rehearsed and auditioned her over Skype and then flew her to NY and had her workshop with other actors. It was a six-month process before I gave her the part and over that time she worked harder and harder and got better and better.

    I had a lot of latitudes because this was an indie movie with a small budget so I could cast anyone I wanted in that part. Had it been a bigger film with a lot more money behind it I would have been answerable to both investors and a studio and I would probably have been under a great deal of pressure to cast a famous cisgender actress in that role. While every actor can portray all sort of characters who they aren’t in real life, no one can argue with the fact that a transgender woman would have the absolute organic profound experience of being transgender. I also thought it an important element of this whole project that I give this unique opportunity to a transgender girl.

    RWD: Was the YouTube plot line in the movie then taken from the Vlogs in her own life?
    ES: No, not at all. I thought it would be unrealistic to have a movie where everything was just so completely fantastic in her life, so I wanted to ground her and show her exposing her more troubled and challenging part of her youth with her making these online videos. I got the idea when I was actually looking around on the Internet trying to find an actress to play the part. I don’t know how I ended up on this video of this young 13-year-old edgy Goth tough-looking girl who was doing this cue card video about being bullied. At the end of this video, she broke into a smile, which was so disarming and completely charming as it made her look so childlike and sweet and adorable. It literally broke my heart when I later found out that this particular girl’s life ended tragically as she either killed herself or was killed.

    Although Ricky’s story has a much happier and positive outcome with such a supportive community, I still wanted people to understand that she didn’t always have a perfect life. So the cue card video sequence is to show that she had struggled with things that we all struggle with in her youth.

    I always wanted it to be very realistic and in fact, it is on the edge of being a fable, but it was also a very crucial element to me to ensure that there is a lot of positivity in the story.

    RWD: You very surprisingly gave her a completely supportive father and a loving kid brother. Why was that important to you?
    ES: Again in the world of wanting to paint this transgender character as being realistic, I thought it important that she have a supportive family life. Like most people, I had suffered from the delusion that is born out of what the media tells us, which portrays transgender women as being victims of a system that denies them the same experiences as cisgender women and not having loving support in their world. In my research, I found that was simply not accurate and many of the transgender women I spoke with came from small communities in the South and were not bullied and had fully supportive families.

    RWD: I read recently that someone wrote about your movies/TV shows: “They all tend to centre around love, or lovin’ and losin’. Usually involving sexual taboos at some point “which are a huge fascination of his”. How true is that, and where does Boy Meets Girl fit into that spectrum as a cursory glance at your resume, this seems quite a leap.
    ES: I don’t think that this is a large leap at all. If one looks at my body of work you would see tremendous similarities with the themes that are running through this film with those in all my other films. However, I don’t mind people thinking it is a change because there are three big departures from my norm. Firstly I chose not to star in this film like I usually do, and secondly, I abandoned my usual setting of New York and placed the action in the deep South, and thirdly I was writing for the first time about people in their early 20s. However quite honestly to me, it dramatically talks about things that I have always talked about.

    RWD: You swept the board at the San Diego Film Festival winning 11 awards, and amongst the many others you have been awarded is the prestigious Iris Prize in Cardiff. Do you think that will help you get the movie beyond gay film festival audiences?
    ES: We opened in New York movie theatres two weeks ago and did extremely well and Wolfe Video who have the world rights are now rolling it out theatrically right across the US before releasing it on VOD/DVD later on.

    RWD: Has it been marketed as a romantic comedy or specifically as an LGBT film?
    ES: Marketing people hate it when I insist that it is simply a movie for people who like good movies. I love the fact that my audiences cut right across a radical age range and sexual orientation and gender race. All my films, especially this one, are heart films, and hearts speak to hearts, and everyone has one. We marketed the film not as straight or LGBT but as a smart edgy sexy romantic comedy.

    RWD: You have a reputation for putting a great deal of your own story in your movies, is that a fair observation?
    ES: People often say that, and I will admit that some of my stuff is autobiographical but quite a lot is not. Wirey Spindell which I wrote, directed and starred in, is totally from my life, and he is a character who I am very closely connected too. However, unlike him, I never made a death pact to kill myself at 30 (laughs).

    The characters that I play in my own movies are very similar to me so in that respect they have the same personality traits, albeit thinly veiled. After Fall Winter, a movie I set in Paris, has a BDSM backdrop and the leading character that I play is interested in a lot of physical and emotional abuse. So much so that some of my friends who know I write about my life expressed their concerned and said, “Eric should we be worried about you?” I told them not to panic; I do have an imagination too (laughs).

    RWD: Let’s talk a little about Eric Schaeffer. You have one of the longest and funniest titles for a blog ever which you parlayed into a book and then a TV reality series I Can’t Believe You Are Single. How do you like living your life out loud and so publicly?
    ES: Whilst I would agree that it would appear that I lead my life very publicly in terms of some of my work, what may come as a total surprise is that I am also fiercely private too. In my book, I am certainly very open about aspects of my life and in my series, you can see me in some very compromising situations. Having said that I am a performer and I am a director and I do understand that there is a bit of me in every character that I play. I did that TV series 7/8 years ago and I really enjoyed it as it was fun to do, but that chapter of my life is definitely closed. I think going forward creatively that less personal projects may be more interesting to me now.

    Our world is very fractured and there is still a tremendous amount of bigotry and suffering borne out of the delusion of separateness and I really want my work to unite people. I think that I’m just a regular old dude but the big difference between me and other old dudes is that I accept who I am and I talk about it.

    RWD: What gives you the most satisfaction?
    ES: I really enjoy creating TV shows and movies and being part of a community of people experiencing a TV show or movie that I have made. I was at a screening of Boy Meets Girl in New York last week and I saw two men who had their heads on each other’s shoulders as they watched the movie. When it ended they looked at each other and had a really sweet love heart kiss, and that brought tears to my eyes. Seeing the bond these two lovers had that in some way my film had helped them create, was just priceless to me. That’s why I do what I do.

    RWD: What’s next for you Eric?
    ES: I’m spending the next 6 months making sure that Boy Meets Girl gets in front of as many people as possible as it can. Unlike bigger budget films where the filmmaker’s job is done once the movie is in the can, the life of an independent filmmaker like me is completely different. It’s just like having a child but whereas well-funded filmmakers have nannies to raise them, as an independent director you are more like a single parent dad. Once I have given my child the best upbringing I can then I will start writing my next project that I have already had ideas for.

  • FILM REVIEW | Boy Meets Girl

    ★★★★★ | Boy Meets Girl

    Eric Schaeffer’s refreshing and enchanting drama about three 20 year-olds looking for love in a small backwater town in Kentucky gently challenges us to suspend our preconceived views on gender labels and be as open to what happens as these lovelorn kids are. Ricky is a confident and determined transgendered young woman who is marking her time working in the local coffee until she is accepted at Fashion School in NY and can get on with the life she dreams of. She’s been best friends with Robby since they were 6 years and he now works as a mechanic at her father’s garage and the two of them are totally inseparable.

    Then one day their world gets shaken up more than a little when Francesca breezes into the coffee shop and within minutes it’s clear that there is a mutual attraction between her and Ricky. Francesca is the spoiled rich kid of a local Politician and is engaged to be married to a Marine presently serving in Afghanistan. When she and Ricky hang out with each other and start to really bond, Ricky breaks the news about her identity to her new friend by text even though they are sitting next to each other at the moment. It sets a tone on how all the intimate moments are so superbly handled in this touching tale of romance.

    Francesca has been ‘saving herself’ for marriage … well, that’s the line she has feeding David her fiance… but soon finds herself in bed with Ricky. She asks after making love if this now makes her gay, to which Ricky simply replies ‘it makes you human.’ The situation soon intensifies when David comes home on leave unexpected and is horrified to discover that his fiance’s new best friend is the transgendered Ricky. It turns out that his homophobia is, however, to do with his own secret past which he shared with Ricky.

    The one person who is even more upset with the two girl’s relationship, which ends before it even gets a chance to really take off, is Robby. Turns out that he now realises that he must come to terms with his own feelings for his best friend, and once he can let go of his preconceived ideas of her gender, he can love her for who she really is.

    Schaeffer’s script handles this all with such refreshing candour which empowers these young people to find it within themselves to accept and value who they are without being hung up on the labels that society insists on doling out. Ricky’s own journey of discovery up to that point was certainly not easy as she had to deal not only with bullying and taunting during her school days but also with the demons of misremembering her late mother’s opinions. She is, however, fortunate to have the unconditional support of her blue-collared father and her younger brother.

    Superb casting also contributed a great deal to the undisputed success of the movie, and the presence of the incredibly talented transgendered actress Michelle Hendley making her film debut as Ricky lifted the whole piece to a different plane. She gave a riveting performance of Ricky as a sassy strong-willed young woman, not immune to the world’s negativity and ignorance about her sexuality, but one who was determined that it wouldn’t stop her being her own true self.

    It’s warm and often very funny and an entertaining, intelligent, sensitive treatment of an oft-misunderstood subject and probably the most enlightening and best movie that I have seen on it so far. It truly deserves the widest audience possible way.

  • HOTEL REVIEW | Hilton Garden Inn Glasgow City Centre

    HOTEL REVIEW | Hilton Garden Inn Glasgow City Centre

    ★★★★ | Hilton Garden Inn Glasgow City Centre

    A contemporary gateway into modern connected Glasgow

    Hilton Glasgow

    Set along Glasgow’s famous Clyde River, the Hilton Garden Inn is the perfect place to stay, when visiting the bustling city of Glasgow.

    Situated in the redeveloped and developing area around the historic Finnieston Quay, the hotel is a stone’s throw from the burgeoning media city and the sports facilities that were in full use during the Commonwealth Games 2014.

    The newly built hotel has 164 guest rooms, which all feature an iMac entertainment system and free WIFI along with, what I would call room essentials, an ironing board, hairdryer, tea and coffee making facilities. There’s also a well equipped, free Precor gym, should you want to burn off calories from the exquisite food available from the AA Rosette restaurant, City Café.

    The rooms are well appointed, with an inventive, airy, modern sensitivity, and best of all they offer stunning views across the river, and spectacular visions of The Clyde Arc, or as some around these parts call it, the ‘Squinty Bridge.’ It’s especially beautiful at night as the coloured light from the bridge reflects off the inky blackness of the Clyde.

    If you’re in Glasgow to do a spot of business, the rooms also have an ergonomically designed office chair – as well as that iMac mentioned previously, for you to use, but if you prefer to be amongst the people, you’ll also find a fully functional 24-hour business centre.

    A brisk walk along the river bank will take you into the heart of Glasgow to enjoy the many delights that Scotland’s second largest city has to offer, including a well developed gay scene, with bars and clubs.

    With a late check out of 12:00PM and the trademark ‘nothing-is-too-much-hassle’ attitude from staff, the Hilton Garden Inn, Glasgow City Centre, is the first choice for accommodation in Glasgow.

    Parking is just £5 and all rooms are non-smoking.

    Visit the Hilton Garden Inn Glasgow online

  • Channing Tatum And Matt Bomer Join Gay Parade

    Warner Bros Studios released these pictures today of actors Channing Tatum and openly gay actor Matt Bomer, riding a float in the LA Pride Parade.

More posts