Gay Soup - Gay Blog

So how many of you are going to run right out to see Sarah Palin: Undefeated? The official trailer has now been released and while I'll admit it's piqued my interest, there's no way in hell I'm going to give her money by paying for a theater ticket.

Personally, I love the tagline they've given the flick; it's about as smart as she is. They're calling it, "the year's most controversial film that chronicles the rise of Sarah Palin from obscurity to national prominence." But how many films will there be this year about Sarah Palin, let alone her rise to celebrity status? No wonder this is the "most controversial" one; it's the only one.

*sighs* The stupid. It burns.

While production was originally canceled for Lee Hall's new opera because the community objected to some gay content, the show will go on. Hall, the writer behind Billy Elliot, refused to remove gay references after Opera North objected to the lyrics. Hall made a minor tweak to the lines - substituting "gay" for "queer" - and everyone seems to be happy.

Originally the line read: "Of course I'm queer/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And I'm working class/I'd have to concur."

It has been changed to: "Of course I'm gay/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And I'm working class/I'd have to concur."

The show must go on.

In a story in Monday's USA Today, Harry Potter and How to Succeed in Business star Daniel Radcliffe comes out about his addiction to alcohol.

In an interview with British GQ, the 21-year old actor reveals that alcohol became his enemy.

“I became so reliant on (alcohol) to enjoy stuff,” he admits. “There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person’s lifestyle that really isn’t suited to me.”

Now he doesn't drink.

“As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn’t work for me. I do that very unsuccessfully. I’d just rather sit at home and read, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh. There’s no shame in enjoying the quiet life. And that’s been the realization of the past few years for me.”

I want to extend a personal note to Daniel Radcliffe. First, thank you for coming out about your problem with alcohol. It took me a very, very long time - and a number of suicide attempts - to realize that alcohol and drugs significantly contributed to my constant depression; they did not make me more "creative" as I mythologized. I got sober in 1980 because my boss gave me a choice: get sober or lose my job - and my job was my identity. I "white-knuckled" it for the first six months, repeating the mantra: "I will not drink, use, or kill myself one minute at a time." Luckily, I also had to attend 12 Step meetings where I was required to "fess up" about my feelings - and that wound up saving my life. I heard "you're only as sick as your secrets" and discovered I wasn't alone or so special in having some pretty deep and dark secrets.

Continue reading "Daniel Radcliffe Comes Out About His Sobriety"...

As Pride celebrations around the world struggle financially, it's fun to see one promote itself shamelessly, and be quite literal about it.

Shameless is of course a British soap about the Gallaghers and the Maguires trying to get by with a little larceny and a lot of love. It's spawned an American spinoff, and has always had a gay character or three.

Here the whole cast gets together with rugby hunk Ben Cohen for a musical homage to the opening of Queer As Folk set to the sound of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now." Catch the cheeky little piece after the jump.

Continue reading "Manchester Pride Shameless About Turning 21"...

PBS-Independent Lens announced yesterday that Two Sprits has received the Audience Award as the highest-rated film of the 2010-11 season by online voting and other measures of audience support. As a member of the advisory board that help the film become a reality, I could not be more proud of the support and positive feedback we have gotten and how the story of Fred Martinez and the Native American tradition of celebrating gender diversity was accessible to millions.

We could not have done it without the support of the many diverse communities touched by this film and an amazing social media presence.

After the break: statement from the director and some interesting next steps for the film.

Continue reading "'Two Spirits' Wins PBS Audience Award"...

When news of Judas Kiss started making the rounds, one could have been forgiven for expecting a lot of flesh and very little story. Starring Sean Paul Lockhart (porn star Brent Corrigan), Charlie David (Dante's Cove), Timo Descamps (Belgian TV and popstar), and Richard Harmon (Tower Prep, The Killing), you had a list of names who were perhaps best known for their physical attributes.

Which is partly what makes this ambitious movie about second chances and missed opportunities so charming. While the stars are undeniably good looking, they stay largely clothed throughout the movie, and while Harmon, the only heterosexual actor in the bunch, gets to bed both David and Lockhart, it's directly related to the story and not at all salacious.

Continue reading "A Porn Star, Pop Star & TV Star Walk Into a Film Fest"...

I'll be in Ptown for "Bear Week," July 9-16, and I hope to greet the two winning Projectors.

Rock and electronic music powerhouses Richard Morel and Bob Mould host and DJ BLOWOFF, a musical smackdown featuring their meaty signature mix of indie rock, electro and house. July 12, The Boatslip, 161 Commercial St., Provincetown, MA. Doors/party starts at 9:00pm. $10.00, 18+

I've attended Blowoffs in Washington, D.C. and in New York City, and I am always gratified by the ingenious mix produced by Mould and Morel. Into the weave go '60s classics and disco standards from the '70s to get men my age moving in sync with younger guys who subscribe to M&M's contemporary vibe and weren't born when some of what they are hearing was first issued. Nobody weaves it all together so successfully, and their accompanying videos are an equally intelligent distraction.

You don't have to be a bear to enjoy these tickets, but expect to see a lot of fur on the dance floor. Leaving a comment is the first step to winning the tickets. Details after the break.

Continue reading "Win 2 Free Tickets For Ptown Blowoff!"...

The man behind Billy Elliot, Lee Hall, has canceled production on his latest creative project after a community uproar over some of the project's gay references. The show, Beached, an opera commissioned by Opera North, was set to debut on July 15 in Bridlington, England.

The opera involved nearly 400 members of the Bridlington community, 300 of whom were children ages four to 11. Because of the children, the opera company, after hearing complaints from the school that the children attend, asked Hall to excise several references to homosexuality that the company deemed "explicit."

It appears that the main cause for concern was a scene that actually didn't involve any children. The protagonist sings to a group of men, "Of course I'm queer/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/ And I'm working class/ I'd have to concur."

Continue reading "Anti-Gay Censorship Kills New Opera"...

In the popular HBO comedy-drama Hung, which stars Thomas Jane as Ray Drecker, a struggling suburban Detroit high school basketball coach who resorts to male prostitution, there is a new plot element.

According to TV Guide, Drecker will "bed down with a pre-op transgender receptionist named Kyla before contemplating a full same-sex encounter." Kyla is played by transgender actress Jamie Clayton, who previously cohosted VH1's TRANSform Me.

The TV Guide description suggests that transgender identity remains completely misunderstood by the general public:

"Hung's Thomas Jane has long maintained a "no gay sex" mandate for his male prostitute character, Ray Drecker, and "that maxim still stands," he says. But when a rival anything-goes gigolo (The Vampire Diaries' Stephen Amell) hones in on Ray's territory in Hung's third season (premiering on HBO in October), Ray inches closer to the forbidden LGBT zone."

"Gay sex" and "transgender" don't belong together in the same sentence. It might be argued that since the character is "pre-op transgender," the sex will be "gay," but that presumes that genitalia are all that count. And "the LGBT zone" suggests that it's still all one and the same to the great unwashed out there. And it also suggests that there's something way wrong with gay sex.

Still, it's a step up that TV Guide, serving the lowest common denominator of the American public, presumes that people will know what "pre-op transgender" means. And getting to know us is the key to obtaining civil rights legislation that will help protect our community. Perhaps the old maxim is true; any publicity is good publicity.

Continue reading "'Hung': Is The New Trans Role A Good Thing? "...