CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Nick Jonas Flaunts His Stuff For Gay Fans

Nick Jonas is one of members of the boy band the Jonas Brothers who is using his celebrity to branch out into other areas. The 22-year-old is starring in a DirecTV series called Kingdom where he plays a boxer and apparently spends a lot of his screen time shirtless and surprisingly buff.

Wonder Man posts a bunch of pictures of Nick posing for Flaunt magazine in his underwear and asks the question of whether Jonas is "gay-baiting" (i.e. exploiting) the gay community by his use of homoerotic imagery to get attention.

Jonas actually has a response to this criticism, which is:

What do you make of naysayers who say you're just using your body to bait the gay community?Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I think it's unfortunate that some people have to find a negative in every situation. Clearly my heart is in the right place, and more than anything, if they just looked at my life and my gay friends and the authentic nature of where my heart is, they'd just see that they're kind of ignorant.
The nature of where we are today is, we're in a time where we need to make strides and step forward as a society and embrace all people from all different walks of life. When you're trying to make a bold statement like that, some people aren't gonna fall in line with that. And that's OK. You gotta stay on your own path.

Actually, to me, the more interesting part of that interview Jonas gave to Pride Source magazine is this excerpt where he discusses homosexuality and religion:

Definitely my opinion and my feelings on faith and religion, specifically, have evolved over time just having seen some of the judgments that other people show toward the lesbian and gay community. It really burdens my heart, and it saddens me in a huge way because I feel like it's not our place to judge at all. Some of the most loving, caring relationships that I've ever seen are between my gay friends, and some of my straight friends' relationships are the worst examples of what love is.

What do you think?

UNC System Passes Ban on Gender-INCLUSIVE Student Housing

North Carolina is quickly gaining a reputation as the most regressive state in the Union, giving Texas a run for its money! Another indication of bad public policy being established in the Tar Heel state is that the University of North Carolina system just passed a ban to prevent gender-inclusive housing being established at any of its 17 campuses. What the heck?

The text of the new policy is:

The constituent institutions shall not assign members of the opposite sex to any institutionally owned and operated dormitory room, dormitory suite, or campus apartment unless the students are siblings, parent and child, or they are legally married. This policy applies to housing assignments beginning with the fall 2013 semester.

The Daily Tar Heel reports:

UNC-Chapel Hill had planned on instituting a gender-neutral housing pilot program in the fall. The program, which would have included 32 spaces in Carmichael Residence Hall, Craige North and Ram Village, was approved by the UNC Board of Trustees in November.

BOG Chairman Peter Hans said he thinks there are other ways to ensure student safety in on-campus housing than gender-neutral accommodations.

“Our board wants every student to be safe and comfortable and included,” Hans said. “The board believes there are more practical ways to achieve that goal than assigning young men and women to the same campus suite.”

So it is clear that the motivation for this is to preserve traditional gender roles and enforce heteronormativity among students. There is an assumption that all the students must be heterosexual, which is just ludicrous, especially if you analyze the sexual orientation data for the college-age cohort. What is also somewhat amusing is the unintended consequences of adopting this policy. Insisting that only members of the same sex are able to be roomed together at UNC-controlled residential spaces will almost certainly increase same-sex sexual activity, even though the intention was most certainly to try and reduce opposite-sex sexual activity through  misguided belief that keeping sexes apart will do so.

Also, it is well-known that single-sex environments are more homophobic and heteronormative, as the imputed homosexuality of the participants leads to more rigorous policing of heterosexual-only behavior and strict controls on gender expression. This will lead to bad outcomes and bullying of gender non-conforming and students questioning or exploring their sexuality who live in these housing spaces.

One immediate consequence of the policy change is to negatively impact what housing choices UNC campuses will have to accommodate their transgender students

Campus Pride has been following this story and called the move "dangerous, reckless and unsafe":

Campus Pride was in attendance at the meeting where UNC students were not allowed on the agenda. Nor did the UNC Board of Governors hear any research related to how the ban negatively impacts campus safety.  Based on Campus Pride national research conducted by Dr. Sue Rankin, “trans-spectrum students are already an at-risk population.”  She also writes, “The Campus Pride 2010 State of Higher Education report was one of the first national studies to examine the climate on college campuses. The study involved more than 5,000 LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty and found that almost a quarter of the LGBTQ respondents and about one third of the trans-identified respondents had experienced harassment or violence on campus because of their sexual or gender identity.”

According to Campus Pride, the UNC Board of Governors clearly do not have the safety of all students in mind in passing this policy to ban Gender-Inclusive housing, “Banning gender-inclusive housing on the seventeen UNC system campuses does not serve the safety of any student. It is a dangerous, reckless and unsafe to take such a broad sweeping action,” said Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride. “Research shows that LGBT students experience heightened rates of harassment and discrimination at our colleges and universities, including in campus housing. Students should not have to feel unsafe or be fearful where they eat, sleep, and live on campus.”

Despite the ban passing, Campus Pride is continuing its work supporting students in the UNC system and creating necessary resources to support the expansion of Gender-Inclusive housing across the country.   This week Campus Pride launched its Trans Policy Clearinghouse which is the most up-to-date resource of its kind with trans campus policy and safety issues.  

Hat/tip to Campus Pride for publicizing this. I suspect it will not be the first such public policy change among public University systems, especially those in red states.

TIME Magazine: "Gay Marriage Already Won"

Time magazine is publishing two different covers for next week's issue which features two same-sex couples kissing. Just a few years ago this would have been considered unimaginable, and even now the decision is probably likely to spur protests from the heterosexual supremacist crowd.

Time editor Rick Stengel explains his decision:

"Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it seems clear that the majority of Americans feel marriage is a civil right and that denying that right to people because of their sexual orientation is a violation of equal protection under the law…. We had a long debate in our offices about this week’s cover images of two same-sex couples. Some thought they were sensationalist and too in-your-face. Others felt the images were beautiful and symbolized the love that is at the heart of the idea of marriage. I agree with the latter, and I hope you do too."

Here is some more information about the couples pictured above:

Award-winning photographer Peter Hapak shot the split-run cover portraits for TIME. Russell Hart and Eric LaBonte are the male couple featured on the cover; they are legal domestic partners living in LA and are engaged. Sarah Kate Ellis-Henderson and Kristen Ellis-Henderson are the female couple; they are legally married in New York state, and have two children.

Time is changing and times are changing! And that's a good thing.

Celebrity Friday: Michael Douglas and Matt Damon

The upcoming HBO bio-pic Behind The Candelabra about the life of Liberace directed by openly gay, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh is getting huge buzz. It stars Oscar-winning Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson who famously sued the flamboyant piano showman for palimony in the 1980s.

Soderbergh has said publicly that despite the participation of such famous, highly decorated film talent he could not find a single Hollywood studio to back his movie adapted from Thorson's revealing book Behind The Candelabra: My Life With Liberace because they said it was "too gay."

Celebrity Friday: Jon-Erik Hexum Hottest Star Ever?

Jon-Erik Hexum is a name that many gay men of a certain age will remember because our body's physical reaction to his beauty was one of the indicators that we were not like all the other boys in class.

Matthew Rettenmund has created a list of the Top 50 Hottest TV Stars of all time and Hexum heads the list. I do not disagree with his pick for #1 and although the list in general seems to lack diversity, it does include the usual suspects, such as Marcus Patrick, Blair Underwood, Mario Lopez, Adam Rodriguez, Idris Elba and Shemar Moore.

Sadly, it does not include Boris Kodjoe, one of my all-time crushes! Who do you think should be on the list?

Hat/tip to Wicked Gay Blog.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Skinny

I saw The Skinny at its world premiere at the 2012 Fusion LGBT Film festival in Los Angeles on Saturday March 24th and then I saw it again last weekend here in Washington, D.C. at the E Street Landmark Theaters.

The Skinny is the new feature film from the very talented Patrik-Ian Polk, the creative mind behind  Punks(2000), Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (2008) and the Black gay television series Noah's Arc (2004). Polk gets very involved in making his movies. In the credits of The Skinny he is listed as responsible for directing, producing, writing, editing and casting the film! He also has written and performed (sometimes with the star) many of the songs on the soundtrack. At the world premiere, Polk announced he is distributing the film on his own to theaters. This film is clearly a labor of love.


The Skinny is about a group of Black gay friends who all attended Brown University together and are gathering in New York City for that city's LGBT Pride celebrations one year after they all graduated from college. The five friends are Magnus, a medical student who is hosting the crew at his parents' condo; Kyle, a sexy, sex-crazed "trustafarian" who lives in Los Angeles working in showbiz; Joey, a very tall, somewhat queeny cut-up who is languishing in Atlanta unemployed and living in the 'hood with his mom; Sebastian, the baby of the group who reveals early on that he is a virgin (despite spending the past 9 months in Paris!) and that he is so naive he has a crush on the hypersexual Kyle; and Langston, a beautiful lesbian with a posh British accent who is pursuing her Ph.D. at Yale. The one confusing part of the film for me was that all the friends are supposed to be approximately the same age (roughly one year out of college) but they are wildly varied in maturity levels. Sebastian seems far younger than his age (a reference to whiz kid or prodigy would have explained why he looks and seems to be in his late teens) while Magnus seems far older (and more responsible) than his age. But this is a somewhat minor quibble.

All of the actors playing the roles are very attractive, with Anthony Burrell (Kyle) and Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (Joey) the standouts, to my taste; Joshua Cruz (Evan) plays an unfortunately too-small role as Joey's lust object later on but his pulchritude makes a lasting impression (great smile). Acting-wise, Jussie Smollett (Magnus) is the clear standout, demonstrating why he was cast as the lead, with Blake Young-Fountain (Sebastian) not far behind. Bowyer-Chapman (Joey) reveals (and revels in) his exquisite comic timing. Jennia Fredrique takes what is written as a relatively small role as Langston's lust object and kills every scene she is in.

Within minutes of when we first meet the entire gang of friends, Magnus and his boyfriend of 5 months named Ryan, who has tattoos all over his tight, muscled frame and a very butch (read: homo thug) demeanor, excuse themselves to engage in some "ridiculously heavy petting" while keeping their sexy underwear on (and the friends listen in from behind a locked door). Magnus' friends are clearly very curious to meet his very first serious boyfriend in a long time and Joey, for one, is most definitely not impressed with what he sees and unabashed about letting everyone know his opinion. The others are willing to give Ryan a chance but very soon some information discovered by Kyle about Ryan comes to light which throws the stability of Magnus' relationship and the weekend of frolicking planned by the group of friends  into grave doubt.

I don't want to reveal too much of the story because I want readers of this review to experience the clever plot for themselves. One of Polk's great strengths is putting his characters into believable situations and writing pitch-perfect dialogue. These strengths are ever-present in The Skinny. Happily, another of his strengths is his clear-eyed view of sexual situations. One of the people I spoke to who I encouraged to see the film called it "soft core porn" because "every 5 minutes someone's having sex" (as if there's something wrong with that!) I strongly disagree with this reductive characterization, because although I would be comfortable describing The Skinny as a Black gay sex comedy (with serious overtones), I think that as a director Polk does an excellent job of suggesting a lot more sex then actually appears on screen. Although there is (very brief) nudity in the film, there is surprisingly little in each of the many sex scenes. Mostly, we just get a lot of set up shots of a passionate embrace or glimpses of athletic coupling with a quick cutaway so the rest is left to the audience's over-stimulated imagination. That being said, I also think that as Black gay people we are so unaccustomed to seeing frank depictions of Black gay sexuality, that when it does actually occur, we are likely to be surprised and perhaps even a little overwhelmed.

However, I also think this aversion for depictions of Black gay sexuality on screen is different for different generations. In my mind, Polk clearly made this film for up-and-coming Black gay kids, people who have come out in a world where marriage equality is an actual reality and RuPaul is a prime time television star. There are some very important pieces of information that every young Black gay kid should know, and Polk depicts them in the film (standard safer sex information, the golden rule about never ever leaving a club without all your friends who you went to the club with) and even includes a side-splitting (and extremely graphic) description of how to "prepare" to engage in anal sex. This is a film which will educate as it titillates an entire generation of Black gays.

Polk has given this generation The Skinny, and we should all be thankful for it. I wish I had been able to see a movie with as much basic information about navigating a healthy Black gay identity when I was first coming out. I truly believe that because of The Skinny the Black LGBT community will be wiser and stronger in the future.

Now go out there and watch the movie (when it comes to a movie theater in a large urban area near you) and support meaningful and well-made Black gay cinema. Plus, I promise you, you will laugh your *** off!


Title: The Skinny.
Director: Patrik-Ian Polk.
Running Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Not Rated..
Release Date: April 6, 2012.
Viewing Date: April 7, 2012.


Plot: A-.
Acting: B+.
Visuals: B+.
Impact: A+.


Overall Grade: A- (3.67/4.0).

Homophobia Linked To Repressed Same-Sex Attraction

On Glee, the homophobic football player Dave Karofsky who taunted
and bullied openly gay Kurt Hummel eventually came out as gay himself.

In a recently published research study in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the authors make the claim that men who express homophobic attitudes are more likely to be trying to address an internal psychological conflict between their own innate same-sex desires and strong family disapproval of homosexuality.

Of course, this will not come as a surprise to most gay people who deal with homophobes on a regular basis. It is well-known that many homophobes spend a lot more time thinking about homosexual sex and homoeroticism than actual gay people!

In the Science Daily coverage of the article ("Is Some Homophobia Self-Phobia?") they summarize the study's results:

Across all the studies, participants with supportive and accepting parents were more in touch with their implicit sexual orientation, while participants from authoritarian homes revealed the most discrepancy between explicit and implicit attraction.

"In a predominately heterosexual society, 'know thyself' can be a challenge for many gay individuals. But in controlling and homophobic homes, embracing a minority sexual orientation can be terrifying," explains Weinstein. These individuals risk losing the love and approval of their parents if they admit to same sex attractions, so many people deny or repress that part of themselves, she said.

In addition, participants who reported themselves to be more heterosexual than their performance on the reaction time task indicated were most likely to react with hostility to gay others, the studies showed. That incongruence between implicit and explicit measures of sexual orientation predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors, including self-reported anti-gay attitudes, implicit hostility towards gays, endorsement of anti-gay policies, and discriminatory bias such as the assignment of harsher punishments for homosexuals, the authors conclude.

"This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, 'Why?'" says Ryan. "Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection."

The study had several limitations, the authors write. All participants were college students, so it may be helpful in future research to test these effects in younger adolescents still living at home and in older adults who have had more time to establish lives independent of their parents and to look at attitudes as they change over time.

We're looking at YOU, Brain Brown!

Welcome Home, Gay Marine!

The above pictures of U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Brandon Morgan kissing his partner Dalan Wells on his homecoming in Hawaii have gone viral in the last 24 hours.

According to Steve Rothaus of Gay South Florida, on learning of his new-found fame, Brandon is quoted as saying:

I'm glad I can be an inspiration to someone. Thank you so very much for sharing my story

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2012/02/marine-brandon-morgan-comments-on-his-kissing-photos-gone-viral-im-glad-i-can-be-an-inspiration.html#storylink=cp

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God and Gay South Florida

DVD REVIEW: Latter Days

Finally saw a movie which was in our Netflix queue for over a month (sigh!) when I was back home in Los Angeles recently. The movie is Latter Days, which is about the romance between a West Hollywood muscle twink named Christian and a blonde, innocent 19-year-old Mormon missionary named Aaron.

Latter Days had been on our list of movies to see for a long time, since the Other Half was a Mormon missionary and word-of-mouth described the film as being a heartwarming gay love story.

Even with that much information about the film, I was still pleasantly surprised by Latter Days in two ways: the script and the cast. The director, C. Jay Cox, also wrote the screenplay, and (according to IMDB) apparently based it on his own life as a Mormon missionary who went to Los Angeles and turned into a West Hollywood gay party boy. One would expect the script for what is essentially a low-budget gay film festival flick to be trite and predictable but it repeatedly surprised me with plot twists. I kept on saying "I didn't expect THAT to happen!"--this is the mark of a well-written film that captures your attention and never lets go.

The other even more pleasant surprise was the cast. The biggest star in the movie (currently) is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was a child actor in television's 3rd Rock from the Sun but more recently has become famous for his non-threatening boy-next-door good looks in (500) Days of Summer and my favorite film of 2010, Inception. Jacqueline Bisset is also in the film, as the older sage and "den mother" who owns a restaurant in West Hollywood where Christian works as a waiter alongside his roommate Julie, an aspiring singer. The actors playing Christian, Wes Ramsey, and Aaron, Steve Sandvoss, are both very attractive in theor own way. Ramsay has a very muscular, low-fat, smooth body and a handsome face while Sandvoss has a very fit and athletic body coupled with classic blonde hair and blue eyes and a permanently innocent expression. It's fun to watch movies when there "eye candy" on the screen!

The one detraction I would make about Latter Days, although I think this was intentional choice by the writer/director to broaden the movie's appeal is that it is trying to span multiple genres simultaneously, possibly too many at once. At different points it wants to be a musical about starving artists making it in the big city, an AIDS buddy film, a Romeo and Julio love story, a gritty drama about religion and homosexuality, a (gay) sex comedy and, finally, a heart-warming story about self-actualization. It's probably a good idea for a small film to be about just more than one thing, but trying to be too many things at once can lead to a bit of dissonance as the film switches rapidly between tones.

All in all Latter Days is a very enjoyable experience, very much worth renting.

Title: Latter Days.
Director: C. Jay Cox.
Running Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong sexual content and language.
Release Date: July 10, 2003.
Viewing Date: September 24, 2011.

Plot: A.
Acting: B+.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: (3.75/4.0).

Homophobia Lost? In UK, Straight Guys Kiss Each Other

Sociologist Eric Anderson is reporting that in Britain straight males are starting to engage in same-sex kisses with their peers.

Based on in-depth interviews of 145 British university and high-school students, Anderson and his colleagues discovered that 89 percent had kissed a male heterosexual friend on the lips at some point. A total of 37 percent had engaged in "sustained" kissing with another man, Anderson said. The men all identified as straight, and they didn't see the kisses as sexual.

"These men have lost their homophobia," Anderson said. "They're no longer afraid to be thought gay by their behaviors, and they enjoy intimacy with their friends, just the same as women."

[...]

The United Kingdom is less homophobic as a whole than the United States, Anderson said, but Americans should expect acceptance of men kissing on our shores soon enough. Research on American college soccer players suggests that 20 percent of those men have kissed another man, which is a harbinger of the trend, Anderson said.

It's not yet known how the trend of men kissing extends to non-University segments of the British population. Anderson plans to extend the research to minority men and low-income men who aren't in college.

Growing acceptance of same-sex kissing doesn't mean that homophobia is gone, just that masculine ideals are changing, Anderson said. His theory, put forth in his book, "Inclusive Masculinity: The Changing Nature of Masculinities" (Routledge, 2009), is that in times of homophobia, men police their behavior to avoid being seen as gay. When homophobia fades, men can relax and explore behaviors that don't jive with the traditional masculine ideal.

"Decrease in homophobia has positive effects for heterosexual men as well," Anderson said.

Thoughts? Does anyone think that such "enlightened" views about how heterosexual masculinity can be constructed will ever cross the pond and reach the United States?

Cross-posted from #CSP19: LGBT Rights in the Era of Obama and Google

WATCH: Calvin Klein X Ad (Do You Wanna See My ****?)

Finally the full version of the ad for Calvin Klein's new X underwear featuring celebrities  Mehcad Brooks, Kellan Lutz, Hidetoshi Nakata and Fernando Verdasco that I have been talking about for the last several weeks has been released. In it, all four hotties say some version of "Do you wanna see my (bleep)?" I think the answer is "Yes, please!" (Especially Mehcad and Fernando.)

MOVIE REVIEW: A Single Man

Fashion designer Tom Ford's first film is A Single Man and stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

A Single Man is about a gay (closeted) professor of English in Los Angeles named George Falconer played by Firth who has lost his handsome, younger partner of 16 years, Jim (Matthew Goode) in the last year, and follows him during the course of one day, depicting his attempt to come to terms with grief, loss and hope. Julianne Moore plays George's best friend and neighbor, Charly, who also knew him years before in London and is now (again) single and clearly hopeful that now that George is single also the two could be more than friends.

Nicolas Hoult plays a youthful and attractive student with impossibly large, bright blue eyes who is curiously, inappropriately interested in George's personal life.

The most memorable features of the film is the incredibly detailed art direction which depicts southern California of 1962 with elegant accuracy. Another high point is Colin Firth's lead performance which does an excellent job of really communicating the depth of feeling of a man who is grieving the love of his life but is constrained by social conventions (this is almost a full decade before Stonewall, after all) from doing so. Unfortunately, it is clear that this is Tom Ford's feature film debut, because it is directed with a heavy, obtrusive hand.

Running Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some disturbing images and nudity/sexual content.
Director: Tom Ford.

OVERALL GRADE: B+ (3.42/4.0).

ACTING: A.
IMAGERY: B+.
PLOT: B.
IMPACT: B+.

Celebrity Saturday: David Beckham

David Beckham unveiled a new Armani Underwear ad in London this week. (Hat/Tip TowleRoad)

"No Homo" video parody

Hat/tip to Rod 2.0

Eye Candy: Alex Valdez

Sports, anyone? Queerty has been upping it a notch with their latest Morning Goods who are people of color. First, they had two black models--Synjin and Chris Sledge--on December 31 (more than they had the entire last half of the year) and so far in 2009 they have had multiple Latino models.

Enjoy these shots of Alex Valdez and then head over to Queerty for even more delectable images of him.

Eye Candy: Santiago Peralta

¡Buenas Dias! Queerty continues their exploration of non-white models with Santiago Peralta. Check out their site which has over a dozen images of Señor Peralta.

Eye Candy: Chris Sledge

Chris Sledge was (one of two African American models) featured at the Queerty blog on December 31, 2008. Look out for more pictures of this stunning guy in 2009!

Eye Candy: Sinjyn

Sinjyn was a bonus model of color that the boys at Queerty snuck in on the last day of 2008.

Eye Candy: Dark Chocolate!

I just discovered this very cool blog called Another Guy Blog which features smoking hot pictures of Black guys every day. They deserve much more traffic, and will most likely be a frequent source of MadProfessah's Eye Candy in the future. Enjoy!

Eye Candy: Jason Holmes

The editors of Queerty.com have finally selected a model with dark skin as one of their Morning Goods models and his name is Jason Holmes. Happy holidays!