Saturday, April 8, 2017

Cosmo Centrefolds 2010

From:  Cosmo UK
Danny Young
Actor and Dancing on Ice contestant Danny Young celebrates being a Centerfold in style

Daniel "Danny" Young (born 7 November 1986, Essex) is a British actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Warren Baldwin on the popular long-running soap Coronation Street, and for his participation in the celebrity ice skating show Dancing on Ice.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PrEP

From: Bear World
 Since its first appearance in the 1980’s, AIDS has been an indomitable force in sex and politics changing how we meet and the language we use. That history goes great lengths toward explaining differing and often negative reactions to Pre-exposure prophylaxis (more commonly known as PrEP).

When taken as prescribed, PrEP significantly reduces the risk of contracting HIV by more than 90%.

By and large, the most frequent criticisms of the regimen strike at the core of how the LGBTQ community changed during the AIDS crisis. While sex wasn’t stigmatized, categorized or associated with death before AIDS, it’s now intrinsically intertwined with discussions about health, safety and consequences.

Sex Positive

Introducing a drug that some view as a “magic pill” that could return the community to its pre-condom roots doesn’t sit well with many people.

Ryan Tappin, a nurse practitioner who works in HIV prevention research at Fenway Health in Boston, touched on this when I spoke to him about HIV and PrEP.


Ryan Tappin
 “Being prescribed PrEP is a piece of what should be an individualized, sex-positive approach to HIV and STI prevention,” he explained. “When a patient is interested in PrEP, I don’t start the conversation about number of partners they’ve had or what their condom use is like. I first ask what their health goals are and how do those fit into their overall well being.”

He added, “This not only opens the discussion to talk about what behaviors they may do that increases their risk of HIV but also helps frame the conversation for what will empower them to make the best HIV prevention choices for them.”

Doctors recommend PrEP plus condom use as the best method for HIV prevention but know that many will choose one or the other (or neither). Framing the conversation to remove shame from sex is important as PrEP is a vital weapon in the fight against AIDS. This is particularly important given recent studies showing that rates of condom use have declined.

PrEP Stigma

Just as women are categorized as ‘sluts’ and ‘whores’ for using birth control, many in the LGBTQ community label those on PrEP using similarly derogatory terms tinged with moral judgment. While many of the criticisms focus on the transmission of HIV, others unnecessarily conflate hetero-normative relationship standards with health and vitality.

Luis Loya of Cambridge, Massachusetts touched on this speaking about being on PrEP.

“I have witnessed negative attitudes when talking about PrEP in a more general way,” he said. “Everything from ‘but wouldn’t that just encourage someone to be reckless’ to slurs like ‘Truvada whore.’”


Luis Loya
 “Truvada whore” is among the most common derogatory labels PrEP users experience. It’s a label many taking the regimen have already begun reclaiming as a badge of honor to help combat slut-shaming and PrEP stigma.

Loya compared PrEP stigma to a larger conversation about classism arguing, “The conversation around PrEP is often a mirror of the conversation around reproductive health for women.  Everything from the slut-shaming, to the assumptions of promiscuity, and social/economic benefits around increasing access.” He added, “When Hobby Lobby is allowed to deny employees access to birth control in the name of religious freedom, they open the president to deny gay men access to PrEP.

“This hurts people in deep and irreparable ways, and it makes no financial sense to insurers. Pregnancy and HIV management are far more costly than prevention,” Loya concluded.

Whether in policy making or social conversations, offering moral judgments on sexual behavior has consequences.

The Consequences of Stigma

KC – a gay man in a red state who works in a public-facing leadership role – spoke about the stigma that accompanies being on PrEP and how moral judgments affect him.

“My partner and I have a playful, semi-open relationship, so when we first began to hear about PrEP, we knew we needed to be on it,” he explained.  “We have been taking PrEP for three years now.  We are not overly promiscuous – we don’t fit the image of what some people derogatorily call ‘Truvada whores’ – but to say our sex lives have been reinvigorated is a bit of an understatement.”

Despite that, public discussion about PrEP could affect his career and social contacts. “I cannot really discuss my experience with PrEP as openly as I would like for fear not just from the religious right but even from slut-shaming by other gay men right here in our state,” KC said.

The stigma surrounding PrEP mirrors the reaction many in the LGBTQ community had when the medical community announced in 2014 HIV transmission was diminished to nearly zero for HIV-positive individuals with undetectable viral loads.

A large international study of serodiscordant couples demonstrated that antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces the risk of infection by over 90%. The study explicitly looked at the effectiveness of ART by recruiting couples who engaged in condomless sex at least a portion of the time where the HIV-positive partner was on an ART regimen.

Two years after the release of that study, the data continued demonstrating the same conclusions.

A substantial portion of the LGBTQ community reacted negatively because of the slut-shaming stigma attached to sex (particularly condomless sex). This reaction occurred despite  statistics backing one of the most important announcements of the last decade: an effective way to curb new infections. That’s the thing about stigma though; it’s tied to emotion, not facts.

Just the Facts…

To combat stigma, organizations like Mr. Friendly and Positively Aware work ardently to erase HIV (and PrEP) stigma. Only by addressing fear and stigma directly can people begin to discuss best sex practices without moral judgment. 

JP in Boston experienced this first hand when he began PrEP two years ago.

“I was honestly shocked after talking to many friends about the prospect of starting PreP, both those who are HIV negative and positive,” he said. “It was the negative guys who immediately went into slut-shaming rhetoric.”


JP
“Positive guys were more inclined to say I was stupid to not be on it,” he continued. “Many advocated that both PrEP and condom-use should go hand-in-hand, but they too understood that in-the-moment circumstances do play a role. I thought HIV-positive guys would be similar if not more judgmental than negative guys when it came to the shaming or resistance to PrEP, clearly that wasn’t the case.”

Just as visibility and discussion brought LGBTQ civil rights into the mainstream, open dialogue appears to be the solution to PrEP stigma as well.

JP noted this commenting, “I still see and hear a lot of shaming in the gay community, but as more and more gay men start the regimen, there is more opposition to that shame mentality, kind of like ‘mind your own business’ … So the more that education continues to happen, perhaps less shaming will ensue.”

JP concluded, “But at the end of the day I love our culture because we also lean into confrontation with 100% sass and irreverence. And if it weren’t for those unique qualities I would never have seen the hilarious, unapologetic, fashion t-shirt emblazoned with ‘Truvada Whore’ in Provincetown this past summer.”

With the haphazard way the Trump administration is handling health care, tackling HIV and PrEP stigma is more important than ever. Several weeks into the new administration, HIV awareness information is still conspicuously missing from the White House website as is the Office of National AIDS Policy.  Reducing PrEP (and HIV) stigma through open dialogue paired with education is a key first step.

Moreover, removing moral judgment of relationships and sex habits is the only path forward in bringing everyone into the conversation. Slut shaming only serves to judgmentally silence others. We’re better than that.

Trump Launched Military Strike in Syria in Response to Chemical Attack

From: Towleroad
Donald Trump authorized missile strikes against Syria on Thursday night in response to the chemical attack by Bashar al-Assad that killed dozens of civilians this week.

Reuters reports:

Some 50 Tomahawk missiles were launched from U.S. Navy warships in the Mediterranean Sea, striking multiple targets – including the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations – on an airbase in Homs, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Further details and damage estimates from the strikes, which were conducted at 8:45 p.m. EDT (0045 GMT Friday), were not immediately known.

Russia was reportedly told about the military strike beforehand, according to media reports.

Said Trump in a statement from Mar-a-Lago :

My fellow Americans, on Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians using a deadly nerve agent Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children.
It was a slow and brutal death for so many even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.
Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.
It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.
There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council.
Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically.
As a result the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.
Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.
We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and the souls of those who have passed and we hope that as long as America stands for justice then peace and harmony will prevail.
Good night and God bless America and the entire world. Thank you.

Trump Axes Steve Bannon from National Security Council

From: Towleroad
White House strategist Steve Bannon has been removed from the National Security Council by Donald Trump, according to the Washington Post:
Two senior White House officials said Bannon’s departure was in no way a demotion and that he had rarely attended meetings since being placed on the council. They and others interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Bannon’s place on the committee had been a subject of intense controversy when the move was announced in January. National security experts, including a former Obama administration official, characterized it as an elevation of a White House official with no national security experience, even while other national security officials in the administration were included on the NSC only when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise” were involved. The White House later added the director of the CIA to the NSC.
The Hill adds:
The Joint Chiefs chairman and intelligence director are having their roles as “regular attendees” of the principals committee restored, according to a regulatory filing dated Tuesday. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency will also have a permanent role on the committee.
Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert also had his role on the council downgraded, but National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster can delegate his authority to call meetings and set the agenda to Bossert, according to the filing.
“Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration. I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized,” Bannon said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “General McMaster has returned the NSC to its proper function.”

The Groovy List says "Thank God It's Fridays"

The Groovy List is a weekly Top 10 of recommended videos featuring pop culture:
From: Deep Dish
1
Groovy TV Flashback
Fridays

ABC's late-night live comedy show debuted on Friday, April 11, 1980, and ran for three seasons. Below you can watch The Ronny Horror Show, a parody of The Rocky Horror Picture Show that aired on December 12, 1980, with President Ronald Reagan (John Roarke) in the Dr. Frank N. Furter role. The sketch also stars Michael Richards (as Brad), Melanie Chartoff (as Janet), Mark Blankfield (as Riff Raff), Maryedith Burrell (as Magenta), Brandis Kemp (as Columbia), Larry David (as Eddie), Bruce Mahler (as The Criminologist) and Darrow Igus (as Reagan's creation).




2
Groovy TV Flashback
Twin Peaks

On April 8, 1990, the ABC series aired its first episode, and below you can watch three of its stars promote the show - Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee on May 8, 1990; Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran) on Late Night with David Letterman on October 25, 1990; and Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson) on Into the Night With Rick Dees on January 3, 1991.





3
Groovy TV Preview
The Leftovers

The third and final season of this HBO drama premieres on April 16.



4
Groovy Gal
Christine Baranski

The actress is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden and his other guests, Claire Danes and Jack McBrayer.





5
Groovy Gal
Sigourney Weaver

The actress promotes her new film, The Assignment, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.




6

Groovy Guy
Louis C.K.

The comedian, whose new Netflix special, 2017, premiered on April 4, is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.




7
Groovy Guy
Andrew Rannells

The actor promotes the series finale of HBO's Girls (which airs on April 16) on Late Night with Seth Meyers.




8
Groovy Guy
Billy Eichner

The actor stars in a parody of his TV series, Billy on the Street, on Sesame Street.



9
Groovy Guy
Randy Rainbow

He interviews Ivanka Trump.



10
Groovy Guy
Nick Adams

The actor performs with The Skivvies (Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley) at The Green Room 42 at the YOTEL New York.

Sebastian Gorka Made Nazi-Linked Vitezi Rend ‘Proud’ by Wearing Its Medal

From: NBC News
Sebastian Gorka poses with his wife Katharine Gorka
at Trump's Inaugural Ball wearing the medal of Vitezi Rend.
Courtesy of LobeLog
 A group with alleged historical links to Nazi Germany has told NBC News it was "proud" when Donald Trump's deputy assistant wore its medal.

Controversy has swirled around Sebastian Gorka, one of Trump's top counter terrorism advisers, ever since he attended the January 20th Inaugural Ball wearing the honorary medal of Hungarian nationalist organization Vitezi Rend.

NBC News traveled to Hungary to dig deeper into Gorka's ties with the group, speaking with members of the organization as well as with locals who knew him when he lived there.

"When he appeared on U.S. television ... with the medal of the Vitez Order ... it made me really proud," Vitezi Rend spokesman Andras Horvath said in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Vitezi Rend is also known as the Order of Vitez.

Three people, including one of Gorka's former political allies, said he was a well-known member of Vitezi Rend back in Hungary, a charge he strongly denies.

Gorka's decision to wear the medal — which he said was awarded to his Hungarian-born father — has provoked outrage among Jewish groups.

While in Budapest, NBC News also spoke with Andras Heisler, the Hungarian vice-president of the New York-based World Jewish Congress, who said that wearing the medal "isn't a good message for a democratic society."

Under the Direction of Nazis
Vitezi Rend was founded in 1920 by Hungarian ruler Miklos Horthy to award medals to Hungarian veterans of World War I. But the group's history became murky after the country allied with Nazi Germany in 1938.

Heisler told NBC News that members of the organization were likely complicit in the murder of some of the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews toward the end of World War II.

During the war, the State Department listed Vitezi Rend among a group of "organizations under the direction of the Nazi government of Germany." And Horthy, its founder, once said that "I have always been an anti-Semite throughout my life," according to "The Jews of Hungary," a 1995 book by Hungarian-Jewish historian Raphael Patai.

The Soviet-allied communist government outlawed Vitezi Rend when they took control of the country after the war. But since then, several private organizations have emerged claiming to be the true successors of the group and its ideals.

Horvath, the spokesman interviewed by NBC News, represents the most prominent modern-day faction. He vehemently denied his organization of 5,000 members is anti-Semitic or extremist, although he conceded that his group has no Jewish members.


Vitezi Rend spokesman Andras Horvath
on the banks of Budapest's Danube river.
 According to its followers, Vitezi Rend is merely "a politically independent organization with Christian-conservative values that keeps its military traditions," said Vitez John Molar-Gazso, the captain of another modern-day faction of the group. "It has never been radical or a fascist group. Its members have always defended the nation's interests and fought for the Hungarian communities," he said.

Similarly, Gorka has denied he has ever been a sworn-in member of Vitezi Rend — whose name translates to "valiant order."

In several statements to the media, he has explained that he wore the medal to honor his late father, Paul Gorka, who was awarded it for his fight against communism during Hungary's period of communist rule. He has given a similar reasoning for occasionally using the initial "v." in his name — a mark used by Vitezi Rend members to show the order has been bestowed upon them. He said it was in remembrance of his dad.

Last month, three Vitezi Rend officials told American-Jewish newspaper The Forward that Sebastian Gorka was one of their order.

The reports about Gorka prompted the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, an American civil-rights group, to call for Sebastian Gorka's resignation, or at least an investigation into his alleged links with the far-right.

"How many ducks in the Trump White House must walk, talk and quack Anti-Semitically before our country wakes up and sees the greater problem?" it told NBC News in a statement. "Who among us wears a medal of a Nazi-sympathetic organization to remember loved ones?"

When asked about the allegations in NBC News' investigation, Sebastian Gorka dismissed them as "fake news" and pointed to a statement he gave to online Jewish magazine Tablet last month.

"I have never been a member of the Vitez Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend," he told the publication. "Since childhood, I have occasionally worn my father's medal and used the 'v.' initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism."

He told NBC News he "completely distanced myself" from any white-supremacist or Nazi ideology. He declined to answer specific questions about NBC News' reporting.


Sebastian Gorka, center, talks with
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, left,
before a meeting with President Donald Trump
on cyber security at the White House in January.
Martin H. Simon/Redux
 Horvath, the Vitezi Rend spokesman, said Paul Gorka was a senior Vitezi Rend lieutenant for the western Hungarian city of Sopron and its surroundings.

"This is, in the various ranks of the order, an advanced level," he said, his own Vitezi Rend medal on proud display.

The 69-year-old was speaking on the banks of the Danube river in Hungary's storied post-Soviet capital, where some buildings still bear bullet-holes from a failed anti-Soviet revolution in 1956.

Paul Gorka "was more than an average Vitezi member ... I had good experiences and conversations with [him]," the spokesman said, his grey hair and trimmed mustache matching his relaxed yet matter-of-fact demeanor.


Vitezi Rend members commemorate the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising
at the grave of former prime minister
and uprising leader Imre Nagy in Budapest in 2008.
Attila Kisbenedek / AFP-Getty Images
 Although Horvath was unable to confirm that Sebastian Gorka was a member himself, he said it was possible. There are many chapters all over the world, he said, any of which could have conducted the inauguration ceremony.

He explained that the first sons of Vitezi Rend members can either choose hereditary membership or to apply in their own names.

"The membership can be inherited by the children and this membership enters into force when they participate in an inauguration ceremony," said Molár-Gazsó, the captain of the other Vitezi Rend group.

The Road to Piliscsaba
Sebastian Gorka, 47, was born in London in 1970 to Hungarian parents and gained American citizenship in 2012. Before finding his seat in the president's inner-circle, he spent years in his parents' former homeland in the 1990s and 2000s.

After interviewing Horvath and Heisler in Budapest, NBC News drove 14 miles north to the small, sleepy town of Piliscsaba, where several prominent locals alleged that Sebastian Gorka was a member of Vitezi Rend.

Budapest is Hungary's capital city
 The future White House aide ran for mayor here in 2006, but was unable to persuade its population of 7,500 that he was the right man for the job. He came third out of three candidates but only lost by a margin of 39 votes.

"Everybody knew that he was member of the Order of Vitez," according to Csaba Gáspár, who came in second that day but later became mayor between 2010 and 2014.

This was corroborated by one of Sebastian Gorka's political allies during that campaign.

''I knew that Sebastian Gorka was a member of Vitezi Rend, even then," said Dr. Gabor Solti, a respected Hungarian geologist who ran for the town council on Sebastian Gorka's ticket in 2006. Solti, who served as mayor between 2009 and 2010, is not known to be a member of the group.

Although the three people NBC News interviewed in the town said emphatically that Sebastian Gorka made no effort to hide his membership while he campaigned in the town, they did not provide any evidence of their claims.

Picturesque Piliscsaba couldn't contrast more with Sebastian Gorka's current environs of Washington, D.C.

A regular line of cars run along the two-lane road that cuts the town in half, but most are just passing through, stopping for little more than a bathroom break.

A large Catholic church next to a cake shop marks the center of the town, which is surrounded by rolling green hills.

Erika Laszlo also knew Sebastian Gorka during his failed mayoral bid. Back then, she was the chairwoman of a local environmentalist group called For Piliscsaba, and as part of the group's activities she wrote leaflets about the campaign.


Erika Laszlo at her home in Piliscsaba, Hungary.
 "It was common knowledge he was a Vitezi," she said, petting her Labrador during a long afternoon at her woodland home. "And for many people this was a shine on the armor, if you like, because it was the old, golden days before the war."

The Gorkas' controversial past does not end with the father and son.

In the 1980s, Sebastian Gorka's mother, Susan Gorka, worked as a translator for David Irving, the discredited British historian who caused outrage by suggesting the Holocaust did not happen, or was at least greatly exaggerated.

A British judge ruled in 2000 that Irving was a "Holocaust denier … anti-Semitic and racist, and that he associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism." And in 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison in Austria on charges of denying the Holocaust.

Irving wrote an email to NBC News describing his warm working relationship with Susan Gorka.

"His mother was very helpful, checked translations in the 1980s and tapes of interviews," Irving said. "My impression of both Gorkas [Susan and Paul] was at all times good."

NBC News attempted to ask Sebastian Gorka about his mother's involvement with Irving but he declined to answer detailed questions.

V is for Vitezi
In addition to wearing the group's medal, Sebastian Gorka has occasionally used the initial "v." in his name — short for Vitezi. He claimed this was merely something to honor his father, but experts interviewed by NBC News were in no doubt that it signified his membership.

"I called him Vitez, firstly because he used to call himself Vitez while being in Hungary," according to Gabor Horvath, managing editor of Hungary's Nepszava newspaper. "And second to let the readers know that anyone claiming to belong to the order … it means that he is a right-wing conservative."

Gabor Horvath knew all too well that the "v." indicated someone was a Vitezi Rend member — his own grandfather belonged to the order. He too could have inherited the title had it not been for his father marrying a Jewish woman and breaking the family lineage.

"In theory I might have been Vitezi myself … not that I wanted to," he said, speaking in his newsroom back in Budapest. "The original charter of the order prescribed a Christian family life."


Gabor Horvath speaks at his newspaper's office in Budapest.
 Paul Gorka was born in Budapest in 1930. As a 15-year-old boy in 1944, he "fought with a submachine gun through the ruins of the Hungarian capital," according to Sebastian Gorka's 2016 book "Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War."

He didn't specify which side his father fought on — Soviet or Nazi — but a large part of Paul Gorka's life thereafter was dedicated to fighting against the former.

After the war, Paul Gorka joined Hungary's underground anti-Soviet resistance. He was caught, jailed and tortured, according to his son's account, but then broke free during the failed revolution of 1956.

It was these anti-Soviet acts that earned him the medal in 1979 that his son would wear to Trump's ball.

Ardent Nationalism
Miklos Horthy, Hungary's wartime leader and the founder of Vitezi Rend, remains a hugely divisive figure even today. Some say he attempted to protect Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, others point to a series of anti-Semitic laws he passed and claim his actions led to the deaths of tens of thousands.

Similarly, the actions of Vitezi Rend's original members are the source of some disagreement.

The spokesmen for the two modern-day factions said their predecessors were not complicit in the deportation of at least 400,000 Hungarian Jews to Nazi death camps in 1944.

But many experts disagree.

"Vitezi Rend had a lot of anti-Semitic, racist members," according to Heisler, the vice-president of the World Jewish Congress. "The organization had some members who were actors in the killing of the Jews," as well as taking Jewish property, he said.

Historian Eva S. Balogh fled Hungary to the U.S. in 1956 before gaining her Ph.D. and teaching at Yale. She said that "the likelihood that a good number of the [Vitezi] Order's members embraced the ideas of Hitler is fairly strong."

Almost "the entire Hungarian high command belonged to the [Vitezi] Order," according to Balogh, who also runs the news website Hungarian Spectrum and has written extensively about the Gorkas. She said that these Hungarian elites "were avid supporters of Germany and eager to join Germany's war efforts."


Miklos Horthy, the regent and head of state of Hungary,
wears the admiral's naval uniform in Budapest on Nov. 12, 1927.
AP
Today's Vitezi Rend members, according to Balogh, follow the same "ethical and moral code" as their predecessors in the 1920s — "ardent nationalism, a fostering of Hungarian military traditions [and] an attraction to right-wing ideologies."

Aside from the question of whether or not Sebastian Gorka was a member of Vitezi Rend, his credentials as a counterterrorism expert have also been called into question.

Before joining Trump's team, he served in the British Army Territorial Reserves, worked as an adviser at Hungary's Ministry of Defense, offered his expertise as a think-tank analyst, and worked as an editor at the right-wing news website Breitbart.

The New York Times has been among his outspoken critics in this regard. A headline in a Times opinion piece described Sebastian Gorka as "the Islamophobic huckster in the White House" and criticized his worldview of seeing "Islam as the problem, rather than the uses to which Islam has been put by violent extremists."

Gabor Horvath, the Hungarian newspaper editor, agreed.

"Obviously he's not the expert he claims to be — obviously," he said. "He got his masters degree and his Ph.D. from the Corvinus University in Hungary. The Corvinus University is not a center for national security studies, certainly not internationally recognized studies of this kind."

Richard Rothstein: Beyond Heteronormative

From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
 'Working with Tyler, who is very open with his sexuality, was a bit of breakthrough for me and my art.'




Tumescence
Model: Tyler
Location: East Village, NYC
Words and Images: Richard Rothstein

 'As a queer photographer and artist, I still have a long way to go before I can shed myself of heteronormative boundaries. And while I will likely never fully succeed at that, I will always keep trying. Certainly, the greatest challenge is expressing and celebrating queer male sexuality and sensuality pushing beyond the heteronormative. And certainly the most controversial and challenging aspect of this exploration is tumescence.'




 'Heteronormative art easily and traditionally celebrates female nudity from the whore to the virgin. The vagina and it’s various representations represents life, birth, motherhood and creation. The penis, of course, commonly represents aggression, threat, rape and even war. But all of that is primarily from a heteronormative perspective. And tumescence is one of our society’s most rigid (pun intended) artistic taboos.'


  'I would argue that if one discards the heteronormative perspective in approaching male sexuality and sensuality; there is a wide universe of brilliant artistic expression of the male nude waiting to give us the range of masterpieces and soaring inspiration and sensual beauty primarily associated with female nudes. From a homonormative artistic perspective, the penis, both flaccid and in various stages of tumescence can and should be an easy and normal part of the expression of who we are.'





 'My newest model, Tyler, is an extraordinary gift, a smart, sweet, gentle man completely uninhibited when talking about and expressing his own sexuality. You could say he’s always horny; in fact, I think he says that about himself.' 


 'But whether it was his intention or not, Tyler helped me to accept that arousal and tumescence are a significant and substantial part of our artistic story as men. And as men, I believe, we cannot achieve full self-realization until we free ourselves from so-called heternormality and the perspective that confuses insecurity and psychosis with male sexuality. Rape is violence, not sex and the male penis in a healthy homonormative adult is pleasure, bonding and community.'


 'I am well aware that I’m taking a very controversial and easily contradicted view here. One could shoot it full of holes, but one must also admit that handled in a certain way, tumescence can AND SHOULD play an honest role in queer art.'














Popular gay novel “call me by your name” coming to theaters this fall

From: BosGuy
Last week I asked for some book suggestions and as always happens when I put out such a request Call Me By Your Name  was suggested. This is one of my favorite gay-themed novels so imagine my surprise when one of the people who left a comment said that the book is being made into a movie.

Elio the young man that the book centers on is played by Timothée Chalamet and the American graduate student who moves in with Elio’s family for the summer, Oliver, is played by Armie Hammer. If you are unfamiliar with the book, I would highly recommend reading it and then keep an eye out for the movie which according to IMDB will open in late November 2017.

NYLE DIMARCO STRIPS DOWN AND SHOWERS FOR BUZZFEED

From: Socialite Life
 As one does. Nyle is not afraid to show off the goods.

Nyle DiMarco, the 27-year-old former Dancing With the Stars champion and America’s Next Top Model winner is featured in a very steamy and wet photo shoot for Buzzfeed.

How steamy, well, he took it all off for the viral website. He new was being naughty.


Here are a few our favorite pics from the shoot.









Elder Kensington: His Evaluation

From: Straights Go Gay

























































During Elder Kensington’s evaluation, Mormon Boyz Bishop Angus grew concerned about the amount of hair covering the young Elder’s balls, wondering if it might have the same effect on the lad’s testicles that a pouch on a pair of briefs would! With this, the Bishop felt that it was in the lad’s best interest … as well as in the best interest of the priesthood body as a whole … to shave the missionary’s ball sack and shaft. But there wasn’t any concern with the hair on the lad’s asshole, and Bishop Angus wasted no time in lapping his tongue all over and inside Elder Kensington’s hairy hole!