Thursday, July 21, 2016

Armed, Masked Men Attack Group Standing Outside Atlanta Gay Bar

"The only thing I could do was...pray that we made it out with our lives."
From: NewNowNext
 A group of gay men who were robbed at gunpoint outside an Atlanta bar July 10th, are still shaken by the ordeal, and police are nowhere close to apprehending the suspects.

Victim Tripp Barrett told CBS 46 that he and a group of friends were standing outside Burkhart’s Pub, a gay bar on Piedmont Avenue in the Midtown gayborhood, on Sunday when a vehicle full of armed men pulled up and unloaded in front of them.

According to police, the masked suspects forced the group of friends to the ground at gunpoint, and stole their car and cash.


“Nobody wanted to believe that it happened,” said Barrett. “I don’t want to believe that it happened. The only thing I could do was pray at that point. Pray that we made it out with our lives.”

Officer Lukas Sajak of the Atlanta Police Department acknowledged the victims were all gay but refused to call the robbery a bias crime.

“At this point, there’s nothing in the investigation that would lead us to believe that they were targeted,” he said. “A robbery, it could’ve happened anywhere. It’s a crime of opportunity. Officers diligently patrol the area.”

However Barrett believes it was a bias crime because the bar is unmistakably a gay bar.

“Pretty much everyone who frequents the club is a member of the LGBTQ community,” he said. “I do believe that had something to do with it. I also believe they may have been waiting for the bartenders to get off work because they know they’d have a pocket full of cash.”

Police have failed to identify any suspects but continue asserting how “safe” the area is.


Ariana Grande Performs “Into You” Using Only Snapchat Filters

This queen gives great toast face!
From: NewNowNext
 Ariana Grande took her love of Snapchat filters to a whole new level on The Tonight Show last week, dropping a brand new music video cover of her song “Into You” made entirely with the app’s most ridiculous facial masks.


Check out the video duet with Jimmy Fallon below, and see how the song’s meaning changes as Ariana literally steps Into a piece of toast, dons some aviation goggles, regurgitates a rainbow and — you guessed it — swaps faces with Fallon.

We’re so into it we can barely breathe:

Adam Goldberg Goes Full-Frontal In ‘Rebirth’

From: OMG
 Adam Goldberg is most-known for his supporting roles in film and television, and has appeared in films such as Dazed and Confused, Saving Private Ryan, A Beautiful Mind and Zodiac. Check him out in NetFlix’s Rebirth below! Wish there was a way to remove the suds :-(











Gay And Bi High School Students Aren’t Having More Sex, So Why Are They Contracting HIV More Often?

The CDC has released the first comprehensive study of HIV-related risk behaviors among male high school students.
From: NewNowNext
 A new report from the CDC indicates gay and bisexual young men are only having slightly more sex than their straight peers, but are putting themselves at much higher risk for HIV.


 The first comprehensive study on HIV-related risk behaviors among straight, gay and bisexual male high school students was presented at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

Percentage of male students who:

* Ever had sexual intercourse (51% of gay/bisexuals, 41% of heterosexuals).

* Were currently sexually active (35% of gay/bisexuals, 30% of heterosexuals).

* Had sexual intercourse with four or more partners (15% of gay/bisexuals, 11% of heterosexuals).

* Used a condom the last time they had sex (48% of sexually active gay/bisexuals, 58% of sexually active heterosexuals).

Lower condom usage rate, coupled with HIV rates that are 57 times higher among men who have sex with men, means gay/bi teens are much more likely to contract HIV, researchers say.

Gay teens are also less likely to receive relevant information about safer sex practices: Only 20 states require comprehensive sex ed that goes beyond vaginal intercourse.


 And the ease of transmitting the virus via anal sex is also a culprit: “The transmission risk for receptive anal sex is 17 times higher than [for] vaginal sex,” says Dr. Laura Kann of the CDC’s School-Based Surveillance Branch.

In 2014, young men who have sex with men accounted for 80% of new HIV infection rates among those ages 13 to 19. (That’s more than 1,800 new diagnoses.)

“Although most HIV infections occur after high school, it is critical to help teens establish behaviors today that will protect their health now and in the future,” said Jonathan Mermin of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD & TB Prevention.

The report also indicated higher use of intravenous drugs among gay teens—about 10% versus less than 2% of heterosexual males in the same age group. Their use of other drugs was significantly higher as well.

* Heroin: eight times more likely
* Methamphetamines: six times more likely
* Cocaine: three times more likely
* Abuse of prescription drugs: two times as likely

Use of narcotics, says the CDC, can lead to poor decisions about sexual health and may be fueled by depression, isolation and anxiety.


It’s worth noting that while statistics for the report were taken from the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), some states, like Georgia, don’t allow students to answer questions about their sexual behavior and HIV.

Georgia, which mandates that sex education emphasize abstinence until marriage, has the fifth highest HIV rate in the nation.

“Still A Rose” Gives Us Romeo And Romeo—And Juliet And Juliet

"The most famous love story ever told, reimagined through the lens of equal love."
From: NewNowNext
A trailer for the short film Still A Rose is presenting the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet through an LGBT lens.

Pretty Little Liars’ Troian Bellisario stars as one of two Juliets in the film, which also features two Romeos, as they are mixed and matched in different pairings to illustrate “equal love in unequaled prose.”

The film’s YouTube page describes the project by writing, “Refocusing literature’s most iconic young lovers, Still A Rose weaves through couplings of mixed-race and same-gender within the arc of the famous balcony scene (Act II, Scene II) from Romeo and Juliet.”

The balcony scene interweaves with both same-sex and straight pairings for a new look at an old classic.

Watch the trailer for Still A Rose below.

Clebrating today July 21st

Happy Birthday Today To:
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
 Ukrainian footballer Andriy Voronin turns 37 today.









 American Idol's Blake Lewis turns 35 today.






 David Carr turns 37 today.












 R.I.P Edward Herrmann
 Rugby's Mike James turns 43 today.



 





 


 R.I.P Robin Williams