365 Groovy Books Worth Reading

From: Deep Dish

60

Moo 

by 

Jane Smiley

1995

This enjoyable satire follows many characters - including a hog named Earl Butz - over the course of an academic year at a large Midwestern university.

14 Young Artists Who Are Changing The Way We Think Of Gender

From: Queerty

• raespoonNew backup singer, Sushi

Rae Spoon

Rae Spoon is a Canadian singer-songwriter who grew up as transgender in Calbary, Alberta. Raised by a paranoid-schizophrenic father in a Pentecostal household, the genre-hopping artist — who has written country, folk, punk, and electro — has preferred the pronoun “they” since 2012, explaining to Now Magazine: 

“After years of fighting to be called ‘he,’ the idea of coming out again made me tired. But now I feel kind of rejuvenated, ready to fight on some more. I think the ‘they’ pronoun is a pretty cool thing. It’s letting a lot of people not have to identify as a man or a woman. Whatever it means to them.”

24 Obscure Kinks and Fetishes of Gay Men

From: The Advocate

 3

Arousal From Dipping Your Genitals In Liquid

Liquidohilia is arousal from getting your dick wet - in water or some other liquid, I suggest a trip to the beach.

13 Times Katharine Hepburn Was Queer Perfection

From: NewNowNext

 4

The Ladies

Hepburn was linked early on to socialite Laura Harding, though the American Express heiress was often referred to as her “friend” or “secretary.” It was the first of many intimate relationships with other women, including Nancy Hamilton, her understudy in The Warrior’s Husband; artist Frances Rich, who sculpted a bust of Hepburn, and Phyllis Wilbourn, her “companion,” of more than 30 years. (Hepburn even jokingly referred to Wilbourn as “My Alice B. Toklas.”

Whether these were lesbian relationships as we understand today is hard to pin down: “’Lesbian’ was, for Hepburn, a specific term to describe a very butch woman, not her type at all,” wrote Catherine Shroad in Telegraph.

Hepburn just wasn’t a huge fan of sex, with men or women. “The chasteness of almost all her relationships meant she didn’t have to lie too much about them,” adds Shroad.

She was only married once, at age 21 to businessman Ludlow Ogden Smith, but split when she went to Hollywood four years later. Hepburn never remarried—insisting “I liked the idea of being my own single self”—and never had any children. “I would have been a terrible mother,” she told biographer A. Scott Berg, “because I’m basically a very selfish human being.”

History's 125 Hottest Gay-Porn Stars

From:  Boy Culture

 Carrying on the Stefano name

68 

Kurt Stefano 

1972—

This guy always had such a sexy, rough-hewn look, and would've looked even better with some body hair. I recall when I worked at the adult mags, a colleague interviewed him and asked what his turn-ons were. After a pause, he blankly said, "I like to get beat." Okay, then! Now we know how our next Valentine's Day will play out. I think he falls into one of my favorite categories, which is "insatiable bottoms who don't look like insatiable bottoms." And yet he also was said to be gay-for-pay. I'm not sure if you can pay someone enough to fake it that often and that well, but he was pretty great in his late '90s movies.

So who’s the real threat to national security now?

From: Queerty

A week ago, a lot of folks thought that the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government was pretty crazy. But with President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, that idea seems a lot more likely. After all, Trump himself admitted in an interview that the Russian investigation was at the top of his mind when he decided Comey had to go. So now we’re faced with the real possibility that a hostile foreign power not only influenced the U.S. election by hacking it, but collaborated with the campaign of its candidate of choice to do so.

To say we’re in uncharted waters is an understatement. But if there’s any satisfaction at all in the current crisis, it’s in seeing the shoe on the other foot for a change (and this time, with good reason).

Remember when being gay was considered the worst type of security risk? While the arguments about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell dwelled upon the red herring of “unit cohesion,” the underlying theme was that gay service members were a security risk, an argument made by the GOP for decades to prevent LGBTQ people from serving their country. The closet supposedly made them vulnerable to blackmailing by foreign powers. Fearful of having their secret exposed, gay service members supposedly be willing to betray their country rather than have the truth come out. 

That argument dates back to the 1950s. It was explicitly used during the Lavender Scare witch hunts of the McCarthy era to dismiss thousands of gay and lesbian government employees. During that time, supporters of the purge insisted on the connection between homosexuality and communism (aka, Russia). Sen. McCarthy insisted that communists and gay men were dual “threats to the American way of life,” while another senator claimed that “you can’t hardly separate homosexuals from subversives.”  (Of course, McCarthy’s right hand man was Roy Cohn, a closeted gay man who went on to mentor Donald Trump in scuzziness.)

The military took this argument to heart with a vengeance. Over the decades, as many as 100,000 people were thrown out of the military only for being gay.

Ironically, one of the first cracks in the argument came from then Republican Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in 1991. Cheney described the ban on gays in the military as a policy he inherited and said that the security risk argument behind it was “a bit of an old chestnut.”  That didn’t stop the military from purging gay and lesbian service members, even after they were ostensibly protected by Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In fact, the Pentagon was happy to put homophobia above the nation’s security interests. In one notorious example, the military discharged 26 linguists fluent in Arabic and Farsi even though people with that knowledge were in precious short supply.

So imagine the thudding irony of a military general who, by every appearance, actually was a security risk. Michael Flynn lied about talking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions against Russia for its interference in the 2016 election. In her testimony before Congress last week, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said she warned the Trump White House that its National Security Adviser was way too cozy with Russian leaders. “To state the obvious: You don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians,” she deadpanned. 

Funny how the same people who tried to prevent us from serving our country now look a lot like the potential traitors we were accused of being. With the Comey firing, the question now is whether anyone else in the Trump circle, including the president himself, represents a security risk as well. The inquiry into the matter promises to be messy and prolonged. But if nothing else it is a lesson in what being a real security risk looks like.

And it doesn’t look at all like being gay.

Pride Night at Fenway is Friday, June 9th

From: BosGuy

The fifth annual Pride Night at Fenway Park will take place on Friday, June 9th when the Boston Red Sox host the Detroit Tigers. This year Pride Night at Fenway Park game tickets include a pre-game Pride Party on the Right Field Roof Deck celebrating Boston Pride Week theme “Stronger Together.” Ticket proceeds from this event will go towards Boston Pride events and programming.

Pride Night tickets are currently on sale for $45 / ticket. Purchase your ticket today before they sell out.

Buy Your Tickets Here

Nuclear Scientist and Newly-Crowned Miss USA Says Healthcare is a Privilege, Not a Right

From: Towleroad

The newly-crowned Miss USA has caused a social media hullabaloo by claiming that affordable healthcare is a privilege, not a right.

Kára McCullough, who is also a scientist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, linked health care access to job creation, suggesting that people without a job are not entitled to coverage, reports the NY Daily News.

“I’m definitely going to say it’s a privilege,” McCullough said during the Sunday night pageant at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. “As a government employee, I’m granted health care. And I see firsthand that for one, to have health care, you need to have jobs, so therefore we need to continue to cultivate this environment so that we’re given the opportunities to have health care as well as jobs for all Americans worldwide.”

While many conservative and right wing commentators supported McCullough, the reaction elsewhere was cooler.

Twitter user Kyle Morris wrote: “The hypocritical left is outraged because #MissUSA 2017, Kára McCullough, has different views on feminism and health care in America.”

The hypocritical left is outraged because #MissUSA 2017, Kára McCullough, has different views on feminism and health care in America. pic.twitter.com/JsibWIIl0J

— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) May 15, 2017

@AmericanKeith wrote: “HOORAY FOR #MissUsa Healthcare is an absolute privilege Liberals, get off your fat asses, get a job and pay for it”

HOORAY FOR #MissUsa

Healthcare is an absolute privilege

Liberals, get off your fat asses, get a job and pay for it https://t.co/vz8j7IiocW

— keith (@americankeith) May 15, 2017

However, others were not so taken with McCullough’s comments.

Kara McCullough.is very naive in calling health care a privilege. Before Obamacare, people worked in places that did not provide healthcare.

— Alexis (@eemc2) May 16, 2017

New post: Kara McCullough ‘s healthcare response is asinine at least https://t.co/DTdVQa1mU9

— Bazaar Daily News (@bazaardailyUS) May 16, 2017

Miss USA: Health care privilege not a right you so wrong bad answer so smart no brains#Kara McCullough#missusa2017 https://t.co/652l8ZeRrJ

— Tanisha Alicea (@TanishaAlicea) May 16, 2017

Watch McCullough’s comments below.

It should be noted that McCullough has made statements to clarify her answer. She clams that "she is privilaged" to have health care, and the affordable health care should be a right.

One wonders if this is truly what she meant to say, or is it the PR people with Miss USA trying to fix an problem. Either way if Donald Trump still owned the pageant, no clarification would have been made!

Nat’l Security Adviser H.R. McMaster Makes Statement Amid Trump Classified Chaos

From: Towleroad

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who said Monday night that the Washington Post report that Trump shared highly classified intel with the Russian foreign minister was false, held a press conference yesterday.

McMaster’s statement was proven false this morning by Trump himself, who admitted he shared classified info and had the right to do so.

MOVIE REVIEW: SNATCHED

From: Bear World

Summer is a time for vacations, frolicking in the sun, enjoying sandy beaches — and running for your life after being kidnapped. According to the new movie Snatched, one in four tourists will apparently be kidnapped while on vacation. As it turns out, the film’s main characters end up being two of those tourists. The film is noteworthy for signaling the return of actress Goldie Hawn to multiplexes.

Emily (Amy Schumer) has no direction in life. She’s focused on trying to project how amazing her life is, that she doesn’t realize she doesn’t have any friends and her relationship with her family is also strained. After suffering a devastating breakup on the eve of a vacation, Emily retreats home to her mother’s house.

Wanting to put the “fun” in non-refundable, Emily talks her mother (Hawn) into taking the trip to Ecuador with her. Like many mothers, Linda is a homebody who dedicated her life to raising her children and is weary of leaving the safe confines of her regular routine. Yet, she agrees to go, armed with copious amounts of suntan lotions, floppy hats, and trashy romance novels to keep her entertained at the resort. Meanwhile, Emily meets a sexy stranger and ends up dragging her mother on an excursion with him. It’s not long before Linda’s worst fears are realized and the women are being held for ransom, and, ultimately, having to fight for their lives.

With director Jonathan Levine (“Warm Bodies” and “50/50”) at the helm, the film stays grounded by the relationship of its two leads. The strained mother-daughter dynamic can be a tedious one to watch onscreen, but Levine handles it gently. Also helpful is the chemistry between the two leads. Both actresses seem to be having a ball together while making the film, which comes through in the moments touching on their onscreen relationship.

What is most disappointing about “Snatched” is that, for all of the girl power occurring on the screen, screenwriter Katie Dippold (who’s responsible for female-centric comedies like last year’s “Ghostbusters” reboot and “The Heat”) keeps having the women turn to men as their saviors. Throughout the movie both Linda and Emily demonstrate how capable they are at fending off the bad guys, especially after the men they turned to end up failing. Even with Ruth and her platonic best friend — though we think Wanda Sykes’ character doth protest too much about how friendly the pair actually is — who is a former special ops, they seem capable but then can’t figure out how to get off a moving truck. It’s a troubling portrayal in a movie that otherwise celebrates women, while providing some of the best comedic female roles in a while.

As entertaining as Schumer might be — and you can decide that for yourself, as she tends to be an acquired taste — she continues to the same type of role that she has portrayed in her stand-up routines and in “Trainwreck.” The film really belongs to Hawn, who has comes out of retirement for the role. Longtime fans of the icon will notice her digging into her bag of tricks that have been on display in other roles, but she hasn’t gotten rusty during the sabbatical. She is a joy to watch and absence has only made the heart grow fonder for the actress. Hopefully, she won’t wait as long before her next role.

Sykes, meanwhile, leads a supporting cast of scene stealers. Joan Cusack is as entertaining as ever in her (literally) muted role, while actor Bashir Salahuddin takes on the straight man role of the government agent who tries to bring the women back to safety and ends up with some of the best moments in the film. Making his performance even more impressive is that much of Salahuddin’s sceen time is spent alone in his office, playing off of Ike Barinholtz during phone conversations.

“Snatched” is an entertaining comedy that marries two generations of comediennes. The character driven comedy that Goldie Hawn became known for in the ’80s melds well with the more raunchy antics that Schumer is has become famous for performing. The joy of seeing Hawn in her onscreen return overshadows many of the flaws that the film suffers. There are some good laughs, but unlike many vacations, this won’t leave you wanting more when it’s time to go home.

Kellyanne and Homophobic Twins Headlining Hate Summit

From: The Out Front

 Last week it was announce that the Wicked Witch of the West Wing, Kelly Anne Conway and Evangelical ring wing “flying monkeys” of hate, the Benham Brothers will be joining forces to address the Family Leader Foundation at its sixth annual self-righteous hate summit, in Des Moines, Iowa on June 15.

You might recall the Benham Brothers as the Christian nut jobs who boycotted Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show opting instead to pray for a revival in America.  Never mind that the Super Bowl is played on the Sabbath, as are most NFL games; the cheerleaders are scantily clad; and a camel has better chance of passing through the eye of needle than everyone involved in pro football getting into the kingdom of God.  

But all that’s OK.  Lady Gaga is “really” an a front to good Christians everywhere.  Bitch Please!

According to Queerty:

The hate group, er, organization claims to be dedicated to “strengthening families, by inspiring Christ-like leadership in the home, the church, and the government” and works closely with other hate groups like Focus on the Family and the FRC to push for stricter anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Naturally, the Benham Brothers were one of the first “celebrities” to sign on as keynote speakers at the summit. Now, it has been announced that national treasure Kellyanne Conway will spew her own nonsensical word salad at the event.

Anderson Cooper summed it up best…

Jaxton Wheeler Fucks A Tower Of Boys at Bromo.com

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