What Is "Call-Out Culture" and Call-In Culture; Gay Adult Film Star Macanao Torres Dies At 35; The Rainbow Detective Agency by Ryan Field

What Is "Call-Out Culture" and Call-In Culture

A lot of people don't know about this so I figured I'd post a few things just to give a few basic examples. Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of Call-Out Culture unless it's an absolute last resort. I've seen too much of this kind of thing online over the years with writers groups and it eventually becomes toxic. But I also believe that there are times when it works. Nothing is that definite anymore.

With the said, here's a basic definition from Wiki. I know you Wiki snobs will sneer, but I like truncated versions sometimes and Wiki always seems to be the best source for that.

Call-out culture (also known as outrage culture) is a form of public shaming that aims to hold individuals and groups accountable for their actions by calling attention to behavior that is perceived to be problematic, usually on social media

Here's the link to this one. 

Now, here's something about what "Call-In" means. It's different than Call-Out Culture because some people believe it's not as toxic.

A call-in, on the other hand, is when you talk with someone privately about their behavior (or, you wait to talk in person), and is considered a less reactionary route to work through conflict, according to The Consent Crew. 

Here's the link for this. 

Personally, I prefer the Call-In approach...for the most part. I think you can accomplish a lot more, and do it in a more civil manner. However, there are also times when the proverbial shit has to hit the proverbial fan, and that's when you need to them Call-Out, in public.

Gay Adult Film Star Macanao Torres Dies At 35

I always hate posting about things like this, partly because it's so sad and partly because it seems to happen so often in the adult entertainment industry. But there are extenuating circumstances with this story.

Macanao Torres, a Spanish gay adult performer who worked with numerous studios over the years, died by suicide at his home in Murcia, Spain on December 29. He was 35 years old.

Here's a link to read more. The article goes on to mention that he had a rare form of lymphoma.

May he RIP.

The Rainbow Detective Agency by Ryan Field  

I've had a few e-mails lately about my Rainbow Detective Agency series and I thought I'd post again about it here. The first book in the series, the one with the yellow cover and the cat (there's a cat in the book), was originally pubbed with a romance publisher and when the rights were reverted back to me I re-pubbed it with Ryan Field Press and created the entire series. Each book is a stand alone and can be read separately. They are all gay romances and all have very happy endings.

From an earlier post...

The Rainbow Detective Agency Series:

The Rainbow Detective Agency - Book 1

The Rainbow Detective Agency - L'uomo Magico - Book 2

The Rainbow Detective Agency - A Guy With Two Penises - Book 3

The Rainbow Detective Agency - On Fleek - Book 4

The Rainbow Detective Agency - The Scottish Duke - Book 6

The Rainbow Detective Agency - The Wedding - Book 7

Update: Rainbow Detective Agency - Saying Goodbye - Book 8

The book numbers in this series get confusing because there's a box set, which Amazon considers "Book 4" in the series. That also means you get 4 books for the price of 1. The list above is the accurate version, not what you see listed on Amazon. All these books are also on Smashwords. 

 

Naked Male Celebrities; Banana Blog Full Frontal Nudity; Chris Pratt's Perfect Private Parts

Naked Male Celebrities

Cyberspace and bloggers often encounter one another eventually, and I think I once did a review of this web site owned by Alan Ilagan about 10 or 12  years ago (maybe longer) when I was working on staff for bestgayblogs.com reviewing gay bloggers and writing short stories for Alyson Publications.

We lost touch, but it's nice to see he's continued, and his web site looks wonderful. Unfortunately, most personal bloggers I knew back then have shuttered, including the original bestgayblogs.com concept.

He is probably the ant-thesis of what I find hunky – too young, too blonde, too bland – but somewhere there’s a market for the Hunk of the Day Cody Simpson. Teenage girls strike me as the target audience, but as Mr. Simpson grows up, I’m guessing he’ll gain a few more admirers. In the meantime, here’s for that early crop of infatuated lasses and lads. (He gets bonus points for exposing his bare ass in an online moment that he didn’t quite snatch back soon enough. The indiscretions of youth.)


This part of the blog is called naked male celebrities and the photos are more artistic than pornographic. I would say it's SFW, but don't quote me on that. Most are done with very good taste, at least I think they are.

You can get there from here.

Banana Blog Full Frontal Nudity

Here's another web site I've talked about before...a while back...that posts a few things about male full frontal nudity in mainstream/indie films.

Ok, I bet you guys thought I forgot! ha. Here is another collection of male celeb full frontal scenes in mainstream movies. Unfortunately, much like the part 1 full frontal post, I don’t have the movie title for each scene. However, the comments section is always open so if anyone knows the actual title of any of the scenes, please post it :)

You'll also see a photos of this:

Rapper, “The Game” recently proved he has a big cock. But that’s already made headlines. We just also want to point out for no good reason, his cock is also THICKER than Chris Brown’s dick. Just sayin’. lol

Here's the link. I'm not sure whether or not this stuff is SFW, and that might depend on where you work.  I keep this blog rated G and I wouldn't post them here even with permission. So you've been warned and should probably proceed with caution.

The site is simple to navigate and I didn't see any of those offensive pop ups.

 Chris Pratt's Perfect Private Parts

This link is about Chris Pratt's perfect private parts, according to his wife.

Have you seen my husband’s balls? You would remember, because they are some sexy balls. They’re perfect. They’re incredible.”

Not every wife is willing to say something like that, in print. I bet most of your moms never said that about your dads. But then again, not every wife can say something like that. Perfect is a strong word for anything.

 You can check this out here. 

This one is SFW. She's only telling you about her husband's balls, not showing them.

But frankly, I'm glad she used the word balls. I see the word testicles used a lot in erotic romance or erotica and I find that unusual. Who says testicles in real life? Unless you're a doctor you say balls, or nuts, or gonads. Or any other common usage. You don't say testicles, and I find it really annoying in fiction when I see it. But that's a completely different post for the future.

The Rainbow Detective Agency

Four Book Box Set

Amazon

Ryan Field Print Book Covers; Gus Kenworthy's Penis; Kim Davis Time Magazine Person of the Year

Ryan Field Print Book Covers

I'm just showing this because it helps keep me organized. One of the benefits of maintaining a blog like this is to keep information in one place so that it's there whenever you need it. And I really do use this blog for that reason.

In any event, we're approving book covers for my books that are going into print and I thought I'd share it with blog readers. It's much more involved than this, but it's interesting as well. Here are two from The Rainbow Detective series. But they are the same covers I used for the e-books.

Gus Kenworthy's Penis

I didn't know how else to put this because the title of the original post is about Gus Kenworthy crying after he had sex with girls, and his revealing whether or not he's circumcised. So I figured I'd just go for the clickbait this time. I think we all know I love Kenworthy and I'd never do anything that I thought was harmful to him. In other words, I honestly couldn't care less about his penis. I just like him a lot because of what he's doing with his life and how he's helping a lot of gay people.

Here's part of what he says...

“I used to hook up with girls to be cool with the guys,” he told US Weekly, adding, “There were times I would cry afterward.”

Though he reconciled his feelings at age 16, he continued to maintain a straight persona out of professional concerns.

Sold on Amazon

“I was worried that I’d be known as ‘the gay skier’ … and everything else about me would be overlooked,” he explained. “I have a big fan base of young girls, and I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

I think almost every gay man can understand those feelings at one time or another. It's just never easy. In the article he also mentions he's "uncut," and a few other interesting projects he's doing.

You can check that out here. He really is one in a proverbial million.

Kim Davis Time Magazine Person of the Year

When I first saw this on social media I thought it was a joke...or a hoax. Evidently, it's real and Time Magazine is considering Kim Davis as their person of the year.

Much like music, antigay county clerk Kim Davis has helped bring people together, whether you’re a law-abiding pro-marriage equality citizen or you’re not. Now the charming and charismatic Notorious K.I.M. is being suggested as a nominee for “Time’s Person of the Year.” We get it. In 1938 Hitler received the dubious honor.

My feelings about Time Magazine are very simply put. Someone gave me a subscription as a gift a few years ago, I'm still getting the awful rag every week in the mail, and it never makes it into my home. On the way back from the mailbox, I drop it into the trash bin without even looking at the cover.

In Print Here

I understand what they're doing. I don't like Kim Davis much because she's an elected official who had a job to do according to the law...and the process...and she refused to do it. However, Time Magazine is no bargain either and I don't care who they put on the cover because I'm still throwing it out anyway.

You can read the rest here. 

There are almost 200 comments.  

Male Full Frontal Nudity ll: Michael Pitt and Zack McGowen; The Rainbow Detective Agency by Ryan Field

Here's another post, revisited, from 2012 that I wrote about male full frontal nudity in films. Again, it's one that receives a lot of hits to this day...through searches...and it seems to be a topic of interest to more than a few people out there. However, the main reason I'm posting it is because we're up in Vermont for the weekend, the wifi is questionable at best and I'm posting from an iPad.

The most notable thing about male full frontal nudity in films is that not much has changed in three years. But there are many things in Hollywood that don't seem the change. Last night Tony and I were watching a movie on Netflix and the straight main male character was middle aged, overweight, and not very attractive at all. He was butthurt ugly. And yet they gave him a young, gorgeous female wife. I turned to Tony and said, "Just once I'd like to see Kathy Bates get a hot young husband in a film for a change."

I also think it's interesting how TV watching has changed in only three years. Back then we were still watching cable with all the premium channels. Since then we've dropped them and watch mostly Netflix now...or streaming.

Regular posts will resume tomorrow.




I find it interesting that actor Michael Pitt...who happens to be one of the best actors in Hollywood with or without his clothes...did a full frontal nude scene in a film called "Dreamers" (2003) and he also starred in "Boardwalk Empire" when it first launched. In fact, he was the only reason I bothered to watch BE in the beginning, and then they killed off his character and I'm only hanging on now by a thin thread (which has nothing to do with male full frontal...the storyline's just not keeping my interest).
As far as I know, Michael Pitt did not do any full frontal nudity in BE. Which is slightly disappointing because he did such a great scene in "Dreamers."  You can watch the entire scene here. I often wonder if some actors do certain scenes at the beginning of their careers in order to get recognized, and then never do them again once they are established. Tom Cruise did more than a few scenes without his clothes, so did Brad Pitt. I don't think either one ever did full frontal, but they showed plenty in the beginning and haven't showed anything since then. This tells me that there's no limit to what some people will do for a buck in the beginning, and art has nothing to do with it...and I'm not one to judge nudity in films or TV shows. I actually think nudity, when done well, adds to the artistic reality of certain scenes and there's nothing dirty or obscene about it. Kind of like nude models in drawing 101 freshman year of college. At first it's a little awkward, but after fifteen minutes the nudity isn't an issue anymore. I've been to plenty of nude beaches in my time, and I felt awkward at first about stripping down to nothing. But it didn't take long before it felt perfectly natural.
In any event, another more recent male full frontal nude scene was done in "Shameless," by actor Zack McGowen. In this case, the full frontal nudity did add to the artistic quality of the the scene in which he did it, and that show is so reality oriented I think it's like cheating if there aren't a few nudes scenes. It also added to the popularity of Zack McGowen, which stands to reason because male full frontal is considered so taboo. What he had between his legs was nothing to be ashamed about. You don't see a nice one THAT nice every day of the week, in real life or on TV. Here's a link to photos I can't post here where you can see it in all its glory yourselves. 

The Rainbow Detective Agency

The Wedding

 on Amazon

Boardwalk Empire Male Full Frontal Nudity Revisted; The Rainbow Detective Agency by Ryan Field

Boardwalk Empire Male Full Frontal Nudity

Sometimes I like to revisit a few of the posts I've done over the years. This one dates back to October 2012 and it still receives hits...to my surprise. I'm not even that fond it of. At the time, I never took it all that seriously. Evidently it's a topic that must resonate with a lot of people. 

From my archives:


We don't often see full frontal male nudity on TV, or even in feature films. And as an erotic romance author with over one hundred published works of fiction, I've always found that interesting. I do think there's a reason for this. I know some might disagree, and some would think this topic isn't important. But it's not something I see discussed often and when I see male full frontal in films and on TV I get curious.
We see breasts, a lot of ass, occasionally vagina, and pelvis shots, but never full frontal penis shots. So is there a double standard? Some might say we objectify women more than men. I think that's true to a certain extent, but I also think there might be another reason. More and more men are being objectified these days, but they still aren't showing everything.
I actually remember a web site a long time ago that was devoted to this very theme. They would follow films and TV shows where there was male full frontal nudity and post about it. It was always sketchy at best, with very little to see. And as I recall, there was a huge "thing" about Colin Farrell's male full frontal scene being removed from A Home at the End of the World because everyone thought it would be too distracting.
But last night on Boardwalk Empire Bobby Cannavale, who plays Gyp Rosetti, bared it all in a kinky sex scene that rivals anything I've seen on TV before with regard to male full frontal nudity. He not only showed penis, he showed it in a scene that lasted more than a split second. As one of my pithier writer friends on facebook would say, "Jebus Crisp, that thing was swinging back and forth."
It even bounced a few times, too.
And that's because it couldn't help itself. Anything that big is NOT going to remain stationary while a man walks naked down a hallway. And Bobby Cannavale was walking slowly. If he'd been running he would have had to hold it down with both hands.
The scene in which he showed all his full frontal began with Bobby having sex with a woman, both naked in a sleazy hotel room, with one end of a belt tied around Bobby's neck and the other tied to the bed post. Actually, that would have been enough for one book reviewer I know to shudder and cross her legs. But that scene led into one of those glorious fake gruesome massacres, with fake guns, plenty of fake blood, and everyone in the scene dying except Bobby Cannavale. When everyone was dead, Cannavale got up and started walking around in a daze, with the belt still tied around his neck and his penis swinging back and forth.
Of course you had to watch closely. I DRV Boardwalk Empire, so I rewound the scene a few times just to be sure I wasn't imagining it. Even though it was a longer full frontal shot than most, you could have missed it if you turned for a moment to get a snack. A few times Cannavale's head blocked the view. But it was there, in a rare moment of male full frontal we never see anywhere in the mainstream.
My theory as to why we rarely ever see male full frontal in films or TV shows is that most male actors are not willing to show what they have because they might be afraid is doesn't measure up to what viewers might expect of them. Would Tom Cruise have become the star he is if we'd seen a full frontal shot of him early in his career and it didn't measure up to what we expected? What about Ben Affleck?
I doubt anyone would throw Bobby Cannavale out of bed if he hadn't been blessed with something that impressive between his legs. He's a seriously good looking guy, in his forties, with a great body, and he's an excellent actor, too. But Cannavale is lucky in this respect. In this department there's a lot of pressure on men with regard to penis size and I'm sure a lot of actors don't want to take that risk. There was a great parody of this subject in a recent film I saw with Owen Wilson where Wilson is intimidated by a guy with a large penis in a locker room scene. And I wouldn't throw Owen Wilson out of bed for anything.
Women in films can get away with more in this regard because there seems to be varied opinions about breast sizes. Some like them big, others like them little and perky. But you rarely hear anyone say, "Wow, I like the smallest penis I can find, especially when it's little and perky." And, at a glance, vagina is vagina. I'm sure some would disagree with me here, but I'm talking about at a glance.
So I doubt we'll be seeing more male frontal nudity in the near future, unless they use stand-ins or some kind of prosthetic. It's just too intimidating for some actors and there's an unspoken bias that seems to linger beneath the surface all the time. We hear all the time that size doesn't matter. I've seen articles and blog posts written about how cliched it is to write male characters in erotic romances with extra large ones. But would people read an erotic novel if the main character had a small penis?
They say size doesn't matter, but I disagree...at least with respect to male full frontal nudity in films and on TV. I doubt Bobby Cannavale would have opted to do THAT scene if he'd been born with a pinkie finger between his legs. 

The Rainbow Detective Agency

The Wedding

 on Amazon

Rand Paul Workplace Controversy; Tab Hunter Documentary

Rand Paul Controversy

I think by now everyone knows I don't get political here because I know (and understand) the political diversity within the LGBT+ community. A diversity that's not always recognized. I'm also not all that political myself.

However, this has been making the news all week and I thought it was worthy of mention.

But before he goes, Paul is reminding us that his so-called new ideas are really just the usual homophobia. In a rant that Mike Huckabee would be proud of, Paul endorsed the closet in the workplace, supported the right of employers to fire us and basically said if you don’t like it, get another job. “The things you do in your house — if you leave them in your house — they wouldn’t have to be part of the workplace,” Paul insisted.

You can read the rest here.  

Tab Hunter Documentary

Here's more regarding the Tab Hunter documentary I've posted about before. He was one of Hollywood's leading men at one time, and also gay and totally in the closet.

In the new documentary Tab Hunter Confidential (adapted from the actor’s 2005 memoir), the still-charismatic 84-year-old candidly shares his fear of being outed during his hey day, his love affair with Anthony Perkins and the incredible story of how he endured to become a happy, healthy survivor of Hollywood’s roller coaster. Produced by Allan Glaser, Hunter’s partner of three decades, the film (in select theaters today) includes a trove of vintage footage of the heartthrob, as well as new interviews with John Waters (his Polyester director), Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, George Takei and former gossip queen Rona Barrett.  

The rest is here. I think the unfortunate thing is that the fear of being outed is still happening today and not just in Hollywood. 

The Rainbow Detective Agency

The Wedding

 on Amazon

Why Gay "Looking" Was Canceled; Comes Out to Wife While Drunk; Calvin Klein and Same Sex Couples

Why Gay "Looking" Was Canceled

Here's a piece that talks about why "Looking" may have been canceled. The director is still a little curious about this, and I think rightly so. I'm curious.

Haigh, who served as co-producer and wrote and directed several episodes of the prematurely nixed series, told Attitude magazine’s Ben Kelly that he believes gay audiences pre-judged the show -- which starred Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez and Murray Bartlett as three out pals navigating love and life in present-day San Francisco -- before allowing it to establish its footing. 

“A lot of people seemed to talk about it without actually watching it,” he said in the interview. “So many people said, ‘I didn’t watch your show, I didn’t like it,’ but they’d admit they barely watched the pilot.”

I think that could be true, too. I also think the target audience for a show like Looking wasn't all gay men. It targeted a specific segment of the gay male community, because gay men are very diverse. And yet I'm not even sure about that. I liked it and I watched. It wasn't Modern Family. Nothing against Modern Family, but it's nice to feel represented once in a while even if it didn't last for long.

There's more here.  

The comments are worth reading, too. You might see a few names you'll recognize from the gay romance community.

Comes Out to Wife While Drunk

Here's a story about a guy who gets drunk, comes out to his wife, and then denies it the next morning. If this doesn't make you wonder, nothing will.

“The next day, we were having breakfast and he was extremely hungover. I start telling him how drunk he was last night and he just laughs. Then I told him about what he did/said and he looks straight up at me really worried. I must have looked really upset because right after he said ‘everyone says stupid things when they’re drunk, forget about it.’ Then he walked off saying he needs a shower. He’s been a little distant ever since.”

Here's the link for more. Don't say I didn't warn you first :)

Calvin Klein and Same Sex Couples

Here's a link to a piece about Calvin Klein models, with couples touching each other in underwear photo shoots. Klein's always been excellent about exploiting things like this, but he does it with such an artistic flair it's never bothered me much. And I like his products. When I do wear underwear, I usually wear his. So there's that.

Well it appears that pushing the sexual fluidity envelope is a company-wide mandate — CK’s latest underwear campaign is chock full of guy-on-guy, girl-on-guy and guy-on-is-that-a-girl-or-a-guy-we-can’t-tell action.

You can see for yourselves here.  

The Rainbow Detective Agency Book 6

The Scottish Duke

Amazon Link for Kindle Readers 

FREE Gay Excerpt; Joaquín Ferreira Full Frontal Nudity; Ian Riesner, Yet Again

FREE Gay Excerpt

Here's another free excerpt from the most recent book in The Rainbow Detective Agency Series, The Scottish Duke. The main objective I'd like to get through with this post is that if the sex scenes were taken out of this book...or any other book in the series...the storyline would still hold up on its own. And if you notice, there isn't a shirtless man on the cover. I do that on purpose sometimes because I get really tired of those "other" authors who think they're so grand because they don't write about sex. If you ask me they're probably the biggest pervs out there. At least I'm always honest about what I do. But I digress, with a big smile.

Here's a Link. It's also at most other online web sites where e-books are sold.

Amazon Link for Kindle Readers 

And here's the blurb:

In this installment of The Rainbow Detective Agency, Blair and Proctor's passionate relationship has moved forward to the point where they begin a small family and don't even realize it. And that's because they're busy trying to solve the case of a well-known gay romance author, E. Q. Montana, who was so obsessed with Proctor he lined the walls of his unkempt West Hollywood apartment with Proctor's photos. 

But E. Q. Montana wasn't just any best-selling gay romance author. E. Q. had a few deep dark secrets and enemies of his own that Proctor and Blair have to figure out, one of which has to do with The Scottish Duke of Huntley. It's a peculiar case of dangerous literary subterfuge, with sudden twists and vicious, ambitious authors, that has them both stumped emotionally and intellectually, and in the end Proctor's worst nightmare comes true.

Joaquín Ferreira Full Frontal Nudity

In my ongoing quest to find more films with full frontal male nudity, this sounds more interesting than most of the things I've seen.

Even if you are not a fan of telenovelas and don’t understand Spanish, you are missing out on a riDICKulously good reason to watch Club de Cuervos. The 13-episode Netflix series, which centers on a family feud among heirs of a soccer club after the patriarch’s death, features Joaquín Ferreira in all of his jaw-dropping “desnudo” glory.

The Argentinean actor portrays “El Porto” and appears completely naked in a few of his scenes. “It was very clear that his character had to be the sex symbol that would have all the girls and gay boys attached to the TV screen,” Luis Gerardo Méndez, the series’ star and producer, explained about Ferreira’s audition, “and when he walked into the room, he got it.”

We actually just started Netflix binges, so I'll have to check this one out. Anything subtitled is up in the air with me. I love foreign films, but I read, write, and edit all day and the last thing I want to do is read TV during the two hours a day I actually watch TV.  So I'm not going to run there too fast.

You can read more here.

Ian Reisner,  Yet Again


This article talks about Ian Reisner allegedly holding another event for someone who is allegedly anti-gay. In case you forgot, Reisner is the gay guy who had an event for Ted Cruz, he was practically kicked off Fire Island one weekend from the backlash, and he hasn't handled any of this with the best strategy. (I'm really not judging him. I just think it could have been handled better.) With a simple search you can find out all the details. But you get the main point and why this is newsworthy.

It was just discovered that the ex-lovers-turned-business-partners also hosted a private fundraiser at their Central Park South penthouse for Tea Partier Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, raising more than $10,500, back in April.

Johnson, who describes himself as “a pretty traditional guy,” holds a zero ranking out of a possible 100 with the HRC for his stances on gay rights. He’s gone on record to say he believes marriage is between “one man and one woman,” and in 2013 he voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which protects people from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

But that didn’t stop Reisner and Weiderpass from posing for selfies with the gay-hating politician, or giving him $2,700, the maximum allowed under federal election law.

In case anyone wasn't paying attention, Hillary Clinton allegedly went to Donald Trump's last wedding because Trump allegedly gave her a huge donation. That's politics.

I personally wouldn't support any anti-gay politicians, but I don't have all the facts here so I really can't comment in detail on this one.

You can read the rest here. 



 The Scottish Duke...

Here's the excerpt, from Chapter 8. I don't think there are any big spoilers here, but you've been warned ahead of time. 

When the news about E. Q. Montana's connection to Proctor went public, Proctor was setting up Chinese take-out on the kitchen table and Blair was sitting at the table tweeting on his new phone. Constance was next to the table waiting to see if someone would accidentally drop something good to eat. The new puppy had been fed and walked out back and he was resting in the corner on Constance's cushion.

As Proctor set a container of pork fried rice next to Blair's dinner plate, he smiled at Snowden and said, "I don't think I've ever seen such a calm, easy puppy. I've known dogs and cats all my life, but this is unusual even for me. He's so simple to train, too." According to Jane, Snowden had only made one mess in the house all day.

Blair sat up and his eyes bugged out. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Proctor sat down at the table and opened the container of rice. "What?"

"You're trending."

"I'm what?"

Blair continued to gape at his phone. "You're trending on twitter. Someone leaked the news that the famous male model, Proctor Gamble, was the muse for most of E. Q. Montana's gay fiction and that E. Q. was so obsessed with Proctor Gamble his entire apartment was covered with Gamble's photos. There's even a fuzzy photo of the apartment."

Proctor felt a pull in his stomach. He grabbed the phone from Blair and looked at the photo on Twitter. It was the photo of the one long wall in E. Q.'s apartment that had been covered with Proctor's famous swimsuit poster. "How? Why? This wasn't supposed to get this kind of attention."

Blair shrugged and said, "I was hoping it wouldn't happen."

Proctor started reading the tweets about how much E. Q. had adored him. There were even links to gossip blogs that went into detail about E. Q. being a female to male transgender person. "I don't believe this is happening. Who could have leaked this information?"

"I'm not sure," Blair said. "It was probably someone connected to the police department, because of the photos. But I'm also sure that E. Q's publisher had something to do with all this going viral. We're talking about big money now. On his own, E. Q. was a bestselling genre author. With your name attached to his work now that's going to make his books even more important."

Proctor didn't understand. He tilted his head and looked at Blair with a nonplussed expression.

"This is like hitting the jackpot in publishing," Blair said. "If I'm right about this, and you know I usually am, E. Q's romance book sales will triple from all the free publicity. It's not going to hurt you either, especially since E. Q. left you in charge of his estate and all the rights to his books. There’s really nothing negative about it."

Proctor wasn't freaked out about being mentioned this way because he'd known what it was like to deal with this kind of media attention in the past. It wasn't negative publicity either. In this case, he just wasn't sure how to deal with being so closely connected to an author who had worshipped him from afar. It still made him feel creepy whenever he thought about E. Q. sitting alone in that dark, depressing apartment, staring at his images and writing love stories.

Proctor stood up and went to the other side of the kitchen to get his own phone.

"What are you doing?" Blair asked.

"I'm going to call my mom and dad," Proctor said. "If this is trending on twitter there's no doubt it will be in the mainstream news, too, at some point. I want them to know what's going on beforehand so they don't freak out just in case." His mother was going through enough issues dealing with terminal cancer and palliative cancer treatments that would extend her life a little longer. He wanted to reassure them everything was fine and there was nothing about which to worry.

A few minutes later, he hung up with his dad and went back to the table where he found Blair eating fried won-tons with chop sticks. "I can't believe you can eat." He sat down and pushed his plate to the middle of the table. "I can't even look at food now."

Blair swallowed and said, "I'll admit all this is unusual to say the least, however, it could be good for business. We were talking about getting publicity for the agency and this might be just what we were looking for. I know how you feel about self-exploitation, but life does go on and we didn’t bring this on ourselves."

Although he knew Blair was right, he still didn't feel comfortable yet with all this unplanned publicity. He thought he had left this kind of attention behind and that he would remain in the public eye on a much smaller scale for the rest of his life. "I hope it doesn't hurt the agency," he said. "I want The Rainbow Detective Agency to be a professional place of business. I don't want it to be a media circus connected to a peculiar author who hung my old photos all over his apartment."

"I thought you were flattered by the way E. Q. adored you so much," Blair said.

"Don't be cheeky," Proctor said. "To be truthful, I am flattered. I'm more than flattered. I'm honored that an author who was as talented as E. Q. would choose me as his focus. And I know that this kind of thing won't last long. The next new trend will come along and some idiotic reality TV show star will try to break the Internet with her ass again. However, I also know how the world can be. I'm an openly gay man and I still get a slap in the face every single day in one way or another. You can't tell me you don't get that yourself, Blair. And when the vicious and the sarcastic start making comments about this I don't want the agency to suffer as a result."

Blair didn't make a silly comment this time. He seemed to understand Proctor's feelings and he reached across the table and took his hand. "Hey, we'll get through this. We'll be okay."

Before Proctor had a chance to reply, the doorbell rang and he looked at the clock on the wall above the table. "It's almost nine o'clock. Who could that be?"

"I'll get it," Blair said. "You stay in here."

A moment later, while Proctor was clearing the table, Blair walked into the kitchen with Howard Stumpf.  Proctor exchanged a quick glance with Blair and said, "Howard, I didn't expect to see you again this soon."

"I had to come by," Howard said. Instead of the conservative business suit he'd worn the first time Proctor had met him, he was wearing jeans, a white polo shirt, and a pair of navy blue leather oxfords without socks. The white shirt accentuated the reddish brown tones in his thick hair and beard. He looked even more like a quasi hipster with good taste than a school teacher.

Proctor wanted to finish cleaning up the kitchen so he turned to Blair and said, "Why don't you guys go into the living room and I'll be there in a minute." He also wanted to take Snowden outside one more time. Snowden had jumped off the cushion to check Howard out and Proctor wanted to continue the puppy training that Jane had started that day. Constance seemed oblivious to Howard. She took one look at him, yawned, and went back to the cushion.

By the time Proctor joined Blair and Howard in the living room, Blair had started a fire and he and Howard were sitting on the sofa drinking martinis. The moment Proctor walked into the room Howard stood up and said, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I had to stop by and talk about everything that's happened."

"There's nothing to talk about," Proctor said. When he said this, he smiled. He didn't want Howard to think he was being abrupt or glib.

"I think you should listen to him," Blair said. Evidently, Howard had already talked over a few things with Blair. "The guy might make you feel a lot better."

Proctor saw a third martini on the coffee table he assumed was for him. He picked it up and sat in a club chair next to the fireplace and smiled again. "I'm sure you heard about the big news," he said. 

"The entire world now knows that E. Q. Montana based most of his main characters on me."

 

Texas Gay Man Dies In Custody; Young Gay Men Come Out on Youtube; Gay Man Beaten by NY Cops

Texas Gay Man Dies In Custody

A 32 year old gay man in Texas allegedly died after he was denied medication that he'd been on for a long time. It's interesting because the medication was Xanax and he was taking it as a treatment for severe anxiety. I hear so much about gay people with severe anxiety...and Xanax.

I'm not all that familiar with Xanax as a regimen medication, however, I have heard that people can have seizures if they stop taking it suddenly. Which is allegedly what happened in this case.


There is no disagreement that Jacobs was denied Xanax, which he'd been taking for over a decade to treat a severe anxiety disorder, but Galveston police officials claim the young man died of "natural causes."

After checking himself in to Galveston County Jail to serve a 30-day sentence for driving while intoxicated, Jacobs began suffering seizures after his fourth day in custody. On his seventh day in jail, he was found unresponsive and taken to the University of Texas-Medical Branch in Galveston, where he later died. How he was initially discovered as unresponsive is unclear as police officials have different versions, including reports that medical personnel found him in his cell and that he collapsed when he was being administered medication.

The family is looking for answers. You can read more here. 

Young Gay Men Coming Out on Youtube

Here's something that I've been seeing a lot of lately. Young gay men are coming out, in public, on Youtube.

YouTubing—the act of vlogging (video-blogging) about one’s life on YouTube in a way that appears natural, unscripted, and entirely relatable—has become an important creative outlet for young gay men. More than that, in videos that last a few minutes uploaded weekly over the course of many months or years, many of these YouTubers—including Troye Sivan, Connor Franta, and Joey Graceffa, who today constitute a core community of vloggers with millions of followers and numerous lucrative side projects from books to music to coffee—come out in the process of vlogging and choose to invite viewers into that process.

I never thought vlogging would take off the way it has. I recall a few vloggers from ten years ago that I used to interview for bestgayblogs.com, but they never stuck to it for longer and a few months. The hits just weren't there back then. Evidently, it's become something of an outlet, mainly on youtube.

Here's the rest of the article.

Gay Man Beaten by NY Cops

This story is kind of questionable, but the point is that NY cops allegedly beat this gay guy brutally and yelled homophobic slurs at him. Which makes most normal people wonder if that's the best way the situation could have been handled...even if the guy was out of control. In other words, if this guy was a troublemaker would there have been a more professional way to deal with this?

The guy's mother called the police because he was in a fight with his brother. When the police arrived they pulled him out of the house, handcuffed, and beat him. There's a video with the link below of the incident.

The video does not capture what the officers said. Falcone alleges that they were yelling homophobic slurs, calling him a “fag” and a “faggot.” He says he had blood in his mouth after being thrown to the ground and one officer said, “Don’t let it get on you, he probably has AIDS, the faggot.”

Falcone also says the police threatened to kill his dog. He’s planning to sue, alleging his civil rights were violated. 

This isn't the first time I've heard about things like this happening to gay people. In a general sense, I know for a fact that many police departments set gay men up at cruising spots and do all kinds of unthinkable things to them...from shaming to beating. The police know the gay men will never fight the abuse because they can't afford to come out of the closet and let anyone know they were at cruising spots. In many cases the gay men are in the closet and that kind of publicity would ruin them.

I'm starting to think that in order to become a police officer in the US there should be mandatory requirements. One being they should have at least a bachelors degree in criminal justice...or a major in police science.  In this case, I think that four years of college would make a huge difference in the kind of police officers we have, especially in small towns. In other words, if you can't pass the SAT test to get into college you can't be a cop. Plain and simple.Or, at the very least, require an associates degree.

You can read more of this here, and see the video.  We complain about privacy a lot these days, but the one of the best things about all the technology we have now is that incidents like this can be caught on video for everyone to see.

Again, could this have been handled differently by the police?

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Same Sex Marriage In Scotland; James Franco On Playing Ex-Gay Activist; David Baker Removed From School For Questioning His Sexuality

Same Sex Marriage In Scotland

These statistics allegedly come from the Scottish government, not a study or research. And please keep in mind that not everyone in Scotland is out of the closet, so I would expect this to go even higher in the next ten years.

Of the 3,889 unions recorded since same-sex marriage came into effect in December 2014, 462 of them were between people of the same sex. 

Meanwhile, the total number of marriages - gay or straight - was 340 more than in the same period of last year - that's a rise of 9.6%.

You can read the rest here. There's an interesting comment about the opponents of same sex marriage.

James Franco On Playing Ex-Gay Activist

Our almost gay bud, James Franco, hasn't been making much news lately so when I spotted this I figured I'd link to it. I'm not totally sure why he's so interested in gay subject matter and I don't think anyone can speculate on that. But when I post about cultural appropriation like this I'm usually more focused on the straight privilege with respect to gay content. In other words, I know many gay artists out there who would love a chance to get recognized with gay content like Franco's, but the straight white man coming from a place of privilege still trumps the gay artist...even when the subject matter is gay.

If you don't get that, you can read more about black people and cultural appropriation here. 

James Franco has said he was not out to vilify the 'ex-gay' activist he plays in his new film I Am Michael.

He plays Michael Glatze, the man who went from gay, proud and founder of a gay twink magazine to become a pastor and the poster boy for the ‘ex-gay’ movement.

Now I think I'll write a script about someone white and straight who was an activist. But first I'll have to use a pen name and go back into the closet with that pen name. That's called privilege.

You can check the rest out here. 

David Baker Removed From School For Questioning His Sexuality

This is important because it breaks the stereotypes, and it shows more courage than the likes of James Franco will ever know.  My ultimate hope is that voices of young men like Baker will overpower the voices of appropriation that have given men like Franco so much attention. David Baker is a bright, attractive young gay man who also happens to be a Republican active in politics. He's written a short but fascinating piece about what inspires him to remain out in his world.

The three taboo topics in America are sex, religion, and politics. As a gay Mormon working in Republican politics, I have spent my career pushing against these taboos, sometimes by merely continuing to breathe.

However, I am only able to continue pushing for equality because I stand on the shoulders of LGBT giants who came out in an era where it was even more difficult to be gay.

I grew up in religiously conservative Utah and attended Brigham Young University, a private university owned by the Mormon Church. When, as a student, I started to question my sexuality I was removed from school.

The rest is here, where he goes into more detail about his experience, and he talks about the John Browne book he's promoting that seems to be about coming out. As a gay man who was raised in a strict Catholic setting I can both understand and sympathize with him on every count. The only difference is that I do think it's easier now than twenty years ago.

The comments are unusual with this one, mainly because some LGBT people don't understand being gay, Mormon, and conservative. I get that they don't understand. It's not always easy for me either. It is a new concept. However, I do think we'll be seeing more young men and women like Baker getting voices, and they are voices that deserve to be heard, too.

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Bob Costas, Caitlyn Jenner, Arthur Ashe Award; Hairdresser Bans Homophobes; Gay Happily-Ever-After

Bob Costas, Caitlyn Jenner, Arthur Ashe Award

The elderly sportscaster, Bob Costas, recently commented about Caitlyn Jenner, transgender woman formerly known as Bruce Jenner who won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1978, getting the Arthur Ashe Award. Costas seems to think that someone other than Jenner is probably more deserving of the award...and, he thinks this is all about exploitation. I'm going to post a few quotes and comment. This is an excellent example of a straight person coming from a place of privilege not getting the point.  And this has nothing to do with being politically correct. This is about understanding what Jenner experienced.

This is what the Arthur Ashe award is about:

The award is part of the annual ESPN sports awards show and is given to someone who shows ‘strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost.’

Costas said this:

I’m pretty sure they could have found someone who was much closer to actively involved in sports, who would have been deserving of what that award represents,' said Costas.

Think about that for a moment, and then read what the award is all about again. And then think about the fact that Jenner spent 65 years living as a man when he secretly identified as a woman. During this time, he won an Olympic gold medal, one of the highest sports achievements on the planet.

Then Costas said this:

Costas thinks Jenner was chosen for one simple reason: 'I think this is a play to pump up audience the way lots of things are put on television, to attract eyeballs, not because of the validity, but because of whatever the kind of gawker factor is.'

This is where the straight man of privilege just doesn't get it. He will never know what it takes to come out as L, G, B, or T. He will never know what it's like to live with the secret, the shame, the self-loathing, and the ridicule. Will Jenner attract "eyeballs?" Of course he will, and that's partly because he had the courage to come out in such a public way. Sometimes there's a huge difference between exploitation and something that is so attention-worthy it's hard to ignore. Unfortunately, I'm sure Costas is not the only one who feels this way, and I'm certain he'll just never get it.

You can read the rest here. The comments tend to vary, but most support Jenner and one even mentions Arthur Ashe and HIV.  

Hairdresser Bans Homophobes

Aside from the fact that I rarely hear anyone refer to a stylist as a hairdresser anymore, this is an interesting article about turning the tables around.

The sign in the window of Russell Hughes’ hair salon in Prestatyn, North Wales, reads: “If you are racist, sexist, homophobic or an a**hole… don’t come in.”

Hughes posted it there earlier this week after a father, who has evidently never stepped foot in a hair salon, was shocked to learn that the well-dressed man about to cut his son’s hair… was gay!

Yesterday I posted about the homophobia I see on Twitter all the time, which usually comes in the form of using the word "gay" as a pejorative. There's now a hashtag that says, #thatssostraight, to show how gay people can turn things around, too, with straight people.


You can read the rest here. I'm not normally a fan of an eye for an eye, however, I can't fault someone for being hurt and fed up with discrimination.

Gay Happily-Ever-After 

I don't think I've ever written a novel that didn't have a happy ending...or happy for now. So I'm thrilled to see that we now have a fairytale that's gay with a happily-ever-after trope.

How often in fairy tales does the brave knight rescue the princess and they live happily ever after? Well, Daniel Errico’s added a bit of a twist to that old story with The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived, which just premiered on Hulu.

“LGBT relationships are typically avoided in children’s media or labeled age-inappropriate, putting kids at a disadvantage towards understanding later on in life,” Errico told The Huffington Post about putting the fairy back in fairy tale. “It’s important for kids’ movies and TV to introduce the world in a nurturing and positive way, which means creating multi-dimensional LGBT main characters.”

The rest can be read here, you'll love it. If you don't like happily-ever-after, think about the significance of this...and the fact that it took Hulu to do it. What is even more interesting is that there's strong chance that Mary Poppins was written as a lesbian, by PL Travers, and you'll rarely ever see that come up anywhere in heteronormative circles. I'm sure Bob Costas wouldn't get this one either. 

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