Gay Victims of Holocaust; Michael Urie on Gay TV Sex; Mark Ruffalo Wins Sag Award for Normal Heart

Gay Victims of Holocaust

I remember the first time I ever heard about gays and the Holocaust. Because my generation didn't live through it I only know what most people know through media, films, and the most commercial books released. And I knew nothing about gays and the Holocaust until I read an article in the 1990's about how gay people were treated. It's something we don't hear about often enough...mainly because the media's history of covering up and downplaying anything gay related has always been so prevalent.

Human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, writes about it here:

'We must exterminate these [homosexuals] root and branch...We can't permit such danger to the country; the homosexual must be entirely eliminated.' 

With these chilling words, the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, set out the Nazi master plan for the sexual cleansing of the Aryan race. 

Heinz F was a care-free young German gay man in the early 1930s. He had no idea of what was about to happen. 'I didn't fully understand the situation,' he admitted with pained regret. One morning, out of the blue, the police knocked on his door. 'You are suspected of being a homosexual,' they told him. 'You are hereby under arrest.' 

It's a fascinating piece and the rest is here. I highly suggest reading it when you have a moment to spare.

In semiotic terms...signs and symbols representing something within a culture...the pink triangle is what the Nazis made homosexuals wear to distinguish them from heterosexuals. It's become a significant symbol still worn today to show protest. You can read more here.

Michael Urie on Gay TV Sex

Openly gay actor, Michael Urie, spoke up about gay sex on TV. He has some fairly strong words.

'I don’t think it’s overexposed. If gay sex on TV is too much for you, change the channel and don’t watch it, it’s not for you.' 

Urie was asked about the topic by NewNowNext in light of Billy Crystal's comments last week about gay scenes on TV today 'going too far.' 

Says Urie: 'I think there is far too much football on TV. But I’m not going around saying they should take football off the air; I’m changing the channel.'

Even though I "get" where Urie is coming from, I think his argument is weak and it makes the rest of us look a little dumb. I guess he didn't show up for debate practice in college on a regular basis. The problem with his argument is that you can't compare sex to football and expect to be taken seriously...apples to oranges. There are a lot of people out there who think there's already too much sex in general on TV...gay and straight. I'm not one of them, but in the same respect I don't think it was the wisest move to compare sports to screwing. 

You can read the rest here. I'm not even commenting in Billy Crystal or what he said. It was gayface the made Billy Crystal a star. If it hadn't been for Billy Crystal playing gayface early in his career in the TV show, Soap, he wouldn't even be on the fucking map. For the record, his character on Soap was the MOST insulting gay clown and court jester stereotype ever to hit television.And yet at the time it was significant because there were NO gays on TV.

Mark Ruffalo Wins Sag Award for Normal Heart

To show that not all straight actors who play gay roles are atrocious, this announcement is something I believe is well-deserved...and so long overdue I'm ecstatic. Mark Ruffalo, who I think owned his part and took the entire film for himself, recently won a SAG Award for playing AIDS activist, Ned Weeks, in The Normal Heart. It's one of the best portrayals I think I've ever seen.

Ruffalo played writer and AIDS activist Ned Weeks in the film based on the play by Larry Kramer. The character of Weeks is a fictionalized version of Kramer.

The award was accepted on Ruffalo's behalf by presenters Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o since the actor did not attend the ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Julia Roberts, Ruffalo's co-star and fellow producer on the film, later took the stage to present another award and dispensed with her prepared remarks to praise Ruffalo's acting abilities and to say 'I am so absolutely tickled to my toes that he won tonight.'

If anyone in Hollywood ever deserved to win an award, it was Mark Ruffalo. And, I think it's important to note that during promotion and marketing for The Normal Heart, Ruffalo didn't say or do one stupid insulting thing with regard to playing a gay character...unlike Matt Damon and a few others I could mention. He truly is the best. And I say that because we're still living in times when we get slapped in the face daily. At least Ruffalo didn't slap us, too.

Here's the rest.

Chase of a Lifetime

 Amazon

 

New York Sex Club; Big Brother 13 HIV; Mark Ruffalo Stand on Gay Marriage; But He's Not Gay He's Really a Straight Guy

New York Sex Club

From what I gather, there's a sex club in New York's financial district that isn't gay this time. It's being dubbed as a "swingers" club, where I'm assuming they party and swap and do all sorts of other things. But the neighbors aren't too thrilled with them. Unfortunately, the neighbors hear all kinds of noises that drive them to virtual distraction. So far, the police haven't been able to nail them on much because the swingers all hopping, swapping, and singing for free.

Here are some of the more entertaining comments from the article.

“This is an office building. We saw them move eight mattresses up there! That was horrendous.”

Well!

“If they can go that long, God bless them, but we shouldn’t have to hear it,” one tenant complained.

This one I didn't even know existed...sexy karaoke.

“They often will do sexy karaoke, so you can hear that quite clearly through the wall.”

You can read more here. There's a photo of the building and if you're even remotely familiar with Manhattan real estate you can see these are not poor swingers.

I just thought I'd post and sensationalize about straight people having hot, dirty, sleazy erroneous sex for a change.

Big Brother 13 HIV

In the past I've posted about racism, gay hate, homophobia, and even gay baiting on Big Brother. Now Dick Donato, a former houseguest on Big Brother, Season 8, recently disclosed that he was asked to leave the Big Brother house during season 13 early because he's HIV positive.

I remember season 13 on Big Brother very well. Yes, I watch each year. I'll admit that. Dick, better known as "Evel Dick," won the half million dollar grand prize during season 8, and he was asked back to the game during season 13, with his daughter, to play again. During that season, I remember being stunned that he disappeared completely from the show. And as I recall the only mention was that something family related had happened and he had to leave for personal reasons. We all knew there was more to THAT story.

Here's what Evel Dick has to say about it now in People Magazine:

Donato was competing on season 13 of Big Brother when producers called him into the house’s Diary Room. “They told me that something was wrong with my blood test,” he says. “They had done two HIV tests. One had come back positive and the other had come back negative.” The show’s doctor took more blood. Two hours later, Donato learned the life-changing news. “When they told me, I just went numb,” he says. With little explanation, Donato left the show.” They had a car take me from CBS to my mother’s house. She was the first person I told.”

Donato is now speaking up because he's trying to help break the stigma associated with HIV.

You can read the rest here. I have so many mixed emotions on this topic I'd rather not even get into them because I don't think we're getting the full story here.

Mark Ruffalo Stand on Gay Marriage

When I posted about The Normal Heart, I thought Mark Ruffalo took the film and ran with it. It's not always the case when an actor owns his character the way Ruffalo did. And now he's taking a public stand against Brazilian President, Marina Silva, because of her stand against gay marriage.

It all happened, once again, on Twitter. The interesting thing is the way Silva replied to him.

'I cannot, in good conscience, support a candidate who takes a hard right approach to issues such as gay marriage and reproductive rights, even if that candidate is willing to do the right thing on environmental issues,'  he said.

'I have fought for marriage equality in my country and see it as a reflection of the quality of a candidate.'

In response to Ruffalo, Silva posted on her Twitter account that she supports 'gay civil marriage and expresses this in her government program.'


You can read the rest here. It's unclear to me what "civil marriage" is considered in Brazil. It is more like domestic partnership? I have a feeling from the comment thread it's more like civil unions. Not good. It's also pointed out in the comments that some people are not fond of the term "gay marriage." I only use it because people recognize that, and so do search engines. Search engines are important to anyone blogging these days. I prefer marriage equality.

But He's Not Gay He's Really Straight

This is one of those articles that make bloggers blink when they first see them. A guy named Michael Hoffman claims he's humiliated. Why you ask? Because a few gay jack off videos of him recently surfaced and he's not sure he wanted that to happen.

'Hi guys, it's Michael Hoffman,' he says. 'Most of you know me by now. I just want to say I know there are videos going around of me. I wanted to say a few things. I'm not gay. Those videos I can understand making me look that way - and I respect gay people completely - but I'm not gay, I'm straight.'

Hoffman explained why he made the videos: 'I need the money, plain and simple. I made over $10,000 selling those videos.'

There's more here, and it only devolves from where I left off. Why you ask again? Because he's not only humiliated for doing jack off videos, he also humiliated and very defensive about being thought of as gay. (It's okay that you're gay, but make it clear that I'm not.) And that's the real insult to all gay people everywhere. The shame he feels is the same shame they've made us live with all our lives.

I wish these straight guys would just get a clue for once. He could have handled this so differently and no one would have cared. What he should really be humiliated about is coming off so homophobic.

If you don't really get that, try thinking about it this way. A gay guy has photos of himself published and makes long, detailed explanations that he's NOT straight. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard a gay person do that. ..."Yeah, those nude photos are me, but I'm not straight. Get that. Don't give me weird looks. There's nothing wrong with straight people. But I'm not one of them."

I hope you get the point, because, you know, I'm not straight either. There's nothing wrong with those straights. But I'm not one of them.

Glendora Hill: Too Hard to Handle

 

by Ryan Field

 



Publisher Purchase Link $4.99 (always cheaper at the publisher)Purchase Link to Allromanceebooks.com 

Anti-Gay Chants Dismissed; Obama Equal Benefits; Mark Ruffalo Deserved to Win; Mr. Gay Europe

Anti Gay Chants Dismissed

Miguel Herrera is the soccer coach of the Mexican World Cup team. When Mexican fans start shouting anti-gay chants he doesn't think it is important and he recently brushed it off as just fans participating in the game. They've been chanting things like "Puto" and it is angering other fans and people who care about rights.

Herrera said this:

‘About the chants, we don't have anything to say, we are going to concentrate in working hard, that is what corresponds to us,’ said Herrera. ‘We support our fan base. They just do it to put pressure on the other goalkeeper.’

‘That chant was invented in the Mexican league by one team and all the Mexican fan base has adopted it, therefore I don't think it is something that serious.’

‘I think for us there is more important stuff to solve than a chant that is just an expression to put pressure on the other goalkeeper that has been taking place in Mexico since a long time ago.’

I "get" what he's saying. I don't agree with it, but I get it. The problem is that I doubt Herrera would like it much of the fans started chanting in his direction with comments like, "Hey you ugly pencil dick fuck with the bad haircut and cheap suit. Get your big nose out of your ass." (There's a photo of him at the link below.)

Of course I would never advocate that, and I would never do it myself. I'm just showing an example that it works both ways. And I doubt he'd be too thrilled with that. That's why we have limits.

You can read more here.

Obama Equal Benefits

I have to admit that even though the Obama administration seems to be dealing with one crisis after the other these days, the President is aware of civil rights and he continues to support the LGBTI community.

On Friday 20 June, the White House made a statement regarding government benefits for gay people in the US. These include social security, veterans benefits and work leave to care for a sick partner.

In case anyone doesn't realize it, this is huge for LGBTI people. We've gone from getting nothing at all to almost being equal in a matter of a few short years. There's still a long way to go for many of us. But at least moves like this push us in the right direction...and I hope encourage more closeted gays to come out.

Whether the President realizes it or not, he's not just pushing equal rights forward, he is also helping to rid us all of so many years of self-loathing.  

You can read more here.

Mark Ruffalo Deserved to Win

This is one of THE main reasons why I don't participate in, or even care much about, awards of any kind. Matt Bomer recently won the Critics' Choice Award for his performance in The Normal Heart and I was a little surprised. Don't get me wrong, I think he was excellent in the film. And as part of the entire collaboration he helped make the film what it is. However, I clearly think Mark Ruffalo gave the award winning performance in The Normal Heart, hands down.

Among those Bomer beat out for the award was his co-star Joe Mantello. Bomer's on-screen partner, Mark Ruffalo, lost the Lead Actor prize to Billy Bob Thorton who won for Fargo.

I realize Bomer won for best supporting actor and Ruffalo was up for best lead actor, but if anyone really deserved to win anything for that film is was Ruffalo. I think someone should start an Internet campaign and give Ruffalo his own award. In fact, I recently saw Ruffalo in Now You See Me, and he was even better in that film. Matt Bomer, whom I love, plays Matt Bomer very well in everything he does. Ruffalo BECOMES his characters and never repeats himself in any film...and he doesn't have to take his shirt or pants off to do it.

There's also a list of other winners. The Normal Heart won best movie. In some cases it seems more like a popularity contest, as usual. But then that's what most awards are all about. I hear you can even buy yourself an award nowadays on the Internet if you want that kind of credit and very few people will even know you did that.

You can read more here.

Mr. Gay Europe

Speaking of awards and winners, a new piece of blond boy ass (I remember that line..."blond boy ass"...from Queer as Folk) recently became Mr. Europe.

Meet Mr Gay Europe, a 20-year-old Swede named Jack Johansson.

A ballet student and performer, he was the youngest competitor of the 15 delegates vying for the crown of (young, male, hairless from the neck down) gay Europe.

Stuart Hatton Jr. whom I posted about here earlier this month was in the TOP four...no pun intended.

There's more here.  And there's nice photo of Johansson.

 

 

Jonah Sweet of Delancey Street by Ryan Field

 

 

Amazon Link

 

 

 

  

Gay Marriage Commentary; Mark Ruffalo's Gay Friend; Chase of a Lifetime Series by Ryan Field

Gay Marriage Commentary

In a piece titled, Did Christians Get Gay Marriage Right, Jay Michaelson gets into a few interesting/unusual comments about gay marriage, all marriage in general, and how marriage may or may not change now that gay marriage is becoming more accepted. 

And there are a few points that could be argued, if not completely disabused.

At the same time, there is some truth to the conservative claim that gay marriage is changing, not just expanding, marriage.  According to a 2013 study, about half of gay marriages surveyed (admittedly, the study was conducted in San Francisco) were not strictly monogamous.

I find that hard to believe, and the San Francisco comment was insulting. No one has ever asked me to participate in one of these studies, mainly because I couldn't be bothered doing one. That's right. I think studies like this are bullshit. And I'm in a monogamous marriage. Most of the gay men I know are in monogamous gay marriages and have been even before they could legally get married. I do know a few gay couples who have "open" relationships, but they tend to be so discreet about it I doubt they would ever admit anything in a survey. So I find that survey hard to believe, and I think the generalization is insulting. I also believe that if all the straight couples in the US were polled there would be just as many, if not more, non-monogamous marriages on record. If anything, I have never seen such a huge shift toward heteronormativity with gay couples since gay marriage has become legal in so many states...which is perfectly natural.

What would happen if gay non-monogamy—and I’ll include writer Dan Savage’s “monogamish” model, which involves extramarital sex once a year or so—actually starts to spread to straight people? Would open marriages, ’70s swinger parties, and perhaps even another era’s “arrangements” and “understandings” become more prevalent? Is non-monogamy one of the things same-sex marriage can teach straight ones, along with egalitarian chores and matching towel sets?

This comment made me smile. He makes it sound like cheating is contagious. Once again, this guy is only going by what he's read in a few hooded studies and he doesn't really know what he's talking about. This WTF concept that gay marriage is any less monogamous than straight marriage simply is not a fact...at least not for the most part; just like straight marriage.

The mainstream LGBT movement, meanwhile, still insists that neither of these futures will come to pass. Don’t worry, they say, we’re not out to smash anything. 

Who’s right?  Only time will tell.

If this guy knew anything about gay marriage from personal experience he would know that the fight for legalized same sex marriage has nothing to do with smashing or changing the concept of marriage. Straight married couples have been doing that for many years and gays had nothing to do with it. But even more important is the fact (and it is a fact because I'm living proof) that gay couples like Tony and me, and the hundreds of others I know, have been living "like" straight married people for many years without getting a hint of recognition. As far as I know, there were no studies done. In other words, we didn't need marriage to keep us together or to keep us monogamous. I don't know how to make that clearer. We've been doing THAT forever. We needed legal marriage to make us equal (and legal) in a variety of ways...and because it's just the right thing to do.

The thing I find most interesting is that so many people who don't understand gay marriage just don't get that for most of us the marriage certificate didn't change much for us because we've been "married" all this time without the legal rights and no one was paying attention to us.

You can read more here. Sorry if I ranted a little too much. But when I read this kind of academic-ish WTF-ery I just can't help saying something. And my comments come from experience, not books, surveys or studies.

Marriage is changing, and has been changing for the last 100 years in many ways. Gay marriage is part of that evolution, but not the most significant part by any means.

Mark Ruffalo's Gay Friend

When I posted my review of the film adaptation of The Normal Heart recently, I mentioned that I thought Mark Ruffalo basically commanded that cast with his portrayal of a passionate gay man fighting for equality. I haven't always felt that way about straight actors playing gayface. I've been disappointed with actors like Matt Damon who made ridiculous comments after they played gayface, and I'm getting a little sick of Seth Rogen camping it up in drag. But Mark Ruffalo, once again, has made a few excellent comments about his first gay friend in high school, and how difficult is was for that gay friend to come out to Ruffalo.

The Normal Heart's Mark Ruffalo remembers his best friend in high school being so agitated and upset for weeks because he had something difficult to tell him.

Ruffalo wondered if he had killed somebody.

He hadn't. It turns out he was gay.

 'I was 17 years old and my best friend came out to me with basically a declaration of love attached to it,' Ruffalo tells Queerty. 'I had to look into myself and ask myself “How do you feel about that and how does that sit with your values of equality?"'

It's a great piece, and it's short. It turns out that Mark Ruffalo is just as eloquent off screen as he is on. Matt Damon could take a few tips from him. And so far I haven't seen or heard one dumb interview about what it was like for a straight man to kiss a gay man.

More here.

Chase of a Lifetime Series by Ryan Field

I just released another book in the Chase series titled, Chase of a Holy Ghost, which is now the fourth book in the series. I like to post about these things for future reference, and also for anyone who might be interesting in checking out the books in the order they were published.

Even though each book is a stand alone and can be read separately (I don't like cliffhangers) many readers tell me they prefer to start from book number one and work their way through a series in order of publication dates. (I actually like to read books in a series at random, not in order of publication, because I enjoy reading the back story later sometimes.) I'm adding the Amazon links because I usually assume that's where most readers shop, but the books are being sold in many other places like allromanceebooks.com and Smashwords.com.

Chase of a Lifetime Book One

 

Amazon Link

 Chase of a Dream

 

Amazon Link

 

 

Chase of an Adventure

 

 

Amazon Link

 

 



Chase of a Holy Ghost

 

 

Amazon Link

 

 



Review: The Normal Heart

Review: The Normal Heart

There has been a lot written and said about Larry Kramer's play, The Normal Heart, since it was introduced in the 1980's. And the recent HBO film adaptation directed by Ryan Murphy, starring many well known names which include Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer, will have people talking about it once again for a long time.

The theme of the film revolves around the early days of AIDS...before it was recognized as an actual crisis, back when no one knew anything about it...or wanted to know anything about it. I was still very young and what I remember most was the lack of information we were getting. After, watching TNH for the first time as a film I understand more now about why we didn't get that information. I understand the obstacles. In this respect, the film held nothing back, and it even openly exposed the closeted gay mayor of NY at the time, Ed Koch. That I already knew through gay circles. But it was never disclosed in public. When Koch died a year or so ago, they did not even mention it once. There are still people who will argue the point for the sake of Koch's image.

And that's because anything gay related came with the stigma of shame, which in turn created men who were often filled with such self-loathing and doubt that hiding who they really were ruled their lives. We've all been there at one point...all gay men. A lot has changed since the early days of AIDS, but remnants of that shame still linger on as always. Films like TNH designed to educate and disabuse the myths help reduce the stigma for future generations of gay men, many of whom don't even realize what's happened.

In full disclosure I came to the film with mixed feelings about how Ryan Murphy would pull something like this off, so to speak. I couldn't help imagining Glee scenes where Matt Bomer was wearing a white suit tap dancing to Singing in the Rain. But what I found in Murphy's adaptation instead was the fastest two hours I've spent in years, and a film that handled one of the most serious issues of the twentieth century that held nothing back.

Matt Bomer has had a great deal of press with this film, and rightly so. He was excellent and after seeing him act in TNH I'm glad he won't be part of Fifty Shades of Grey. He's too good for it. Every performance in the film was excellent. But the one that stood out for me the most was Mark Ruffalo. He didn't even look like Mark Ruffalo. He became the character. He created the ultimate illusion every good actor strives for at least once in his/her career. And he did it so effortlessly.

Part of the storyline discussed the beginnings of ActUp and Gay Men's Health Crisis. I remember them as well, but didn't know the details. I did some work for an activist publication in Philadelphia called We The People, where I wrote for a newsletter in the early 1990's. I'm going to post the fiction I wrote about AIDS at the time very soon, never thinking that one day there would be HIV drugs and that HIV would become a chronic illness instead of a death sentence. Back then there didn't seem to be much hope, which is also something this film showed well. Though Murphy can be self-indulgent at times, he managed to break that mold with TNH.

The way gay marriage was handled will make you cry at times, especially knowing how far we've come and how little those in the past had in terms of basic equality. I just hope younger people watch this movie and see how it was back then. It may not be easy to fully grasp it all, but it's important to get the overall impression of how things were. Even the politics in TNH film was different. It isn't partisan. This time each and every political statement really happened right down to the way the President of the United States handled AIDS.

I think one of the things I found most interesting about TNH film is that the subject and the characters back then were on the fringes of society fighting for recognition in a very unfair environment. And here we are, almost forty years later, and it's a mainstream film millions watched on national television.

Mark Ruffalo The Normal Heart; Colin Firth On Rupert Everett; Matt Bomer Too Beautiful for Normal Heart

Mark Ruffalo The Normal Heart

Mark Ruffalo who is straight playing gay, talks about why he did The Normal Heart, and how he feels about it.

"I was growing up during the AIDS epidemic, and I saw how cruel and how insensitive people were to these people suffering. It sort of has been forgotten in our culture what happened during those times."

Many of the pioneering HIV/AIDS activists depicted in the film, he added, "brought us to the point today...gay marriage is as common almost as marriage right now."

"That was an important story that needed to be told, and I was honored to tell it with the folks that I got to tell it with, and having Larry Kramer's words to convey it," he noted.

I'm looking forward to The Normal Heart. I grew up gay during that time, too. But I think this is what happens sometimes when straight actors play gay roles. It's not that they can't play the parts. It's just that when it comes time for publicity they say things that often make me wonder. Matt Damon did the same thing after the Liberace HBO movie and I commented in a post about that in March 2013. (And I thought Damon was wonderful in the film.) I think if Ruffalo were gay he would have said a few different things. First, the comment about marriage. Tony and I are legally married in only a few states, not in PA where we live and pay taxes. One mile away in New Jersey we are legally married. Gay marriage outside New York and other metropolitan areas is far from being as common as "marriage" right now. But more than that, marriage is marriage. Period. 

And please don't tell me I'm scrutinizing this too much. No one dares to say that to Whoopi Goldberg or Oprah Winfrey if they know what's good for them. I want the same respect.

You can read more here.

Colin Firth On Rupert Everett

This bit of news won't change the world. But what the hell. Sometimes it takes a while for actors to open up, and when they do it can be interesting. This time it's Colin Firth talking about working with Rupert Everett years ago when most of us were still kids.

'We started off as friends, then it went horribly wrong about two weeks in,' Firth recalled. 'He was incredibly unpleasant.
 
He described me as a "ghastly guitar-playing socialist." I did not have a guitar.'
 
But the two managed to patch things up and work together again - most notably in Shakespeare in Love. Says Firth: 'We're great friends now.'

There's more here. Best buds forever.

Matt Bomer Too Beautiful for Normal Heart

No one can promote anything better than Larry Kramer, so there will be more than a few posts and links until The Normal Heart airs on HBO this May. When it comes to self-promotion Kramer makes one pushy gay male m/m romance author I know look tame in comparison. (Sorry, no names.) This time the link is to an article where Larry Kramer thought Matt Bomer was too beautiful to play this part in the film but Ryan Murphy didn't agree.

To convince Kramer, Murphy arranged for the two men to meet and the 36-year-old Bomer admits that going in, he was 'starstruck' because he had first read The Normal Heart as a 14 year old.

'It was like meeting one of the Beatles,' Bomer tells the magazine.

'He was so central to my understanding and development. We talked for a really long time.' Kramer, who has waited nearly 30 years for his acclaimed play about the early days of the AIDS crisis to be turned into a movie, sent Murphy an email immediately after his meeting with Bomer which simply stated: 'He’s the one.'

Frankly, I'm still not over the fact that Matt Bomer isn't going to be Christian Grey.  But I'm glad he snagged The Normal Heart role.

You can read more here.

Matt Bomer Normal Heart; AIDS Today; Zimmerman Trial

Matt Bomer Normal Heart

When I posted about Matt Bomer earlier this year doing the film version of the stage play, The Normal Heart, I made a point of following the story.

From January 5th

Matt Bomer is scheduled to star in Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart" on HBO. It's going to be directed by Ryan Murphy (Glee), and will also star Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo.

In this case, I have a feeling it's going to be authentic with Murphy as the director. He tends to get a bit too political sometimes, but in this case, with this film, I don't think it's possible to get too political...or rant and scream too much about. If that is what he intends to do.

Although I was only a kid at the time, I can still remember how AIDS was ignored back then. The President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, never used the term once while he was in office...as I recall personally. There was panic, protests, and emotional events that helped define the next generation of gay men. Things were never the same again.

I went on to write another post about this topic, here.

Since I wrote those posts, filming for The Normal Heart began on July 3, in New York. And it is set to air on TV in 2014. I think the film is going to be significant for several reasons, one of which is I've seen a trend where we are finally starting to talk about AIDS openly, and what it was like during the height of the AIDS crisis. Just this year, I posted a rave review of John Irving's novel, In One Person, because I thought it went into the most detailed account I've ever read in fiction about what it was really like back then...including the actual medical issues people with AIDS had. And recently, something I didn't expect happened, Irving won a Lambda Award for In One Person.

You can read more here about Bomer and The Normal Heart. The cast also includes Taylor Kitsch, Mark Ruffalo, and Julia Roberts. And, it's being directed by Ryan Murphy of Glee.

From Wiki:

The Normal Heart is a largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer. It focuses on the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the gay Jewish-American founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. Ned prefers loud public confrontations to the calmer, more private strategies favored by his associates, friends, and closeted lover Felix Turner, none of whom is prepared to throw himself into the media spotlight. Their differences of opinion lead to frequent arguments that threaten to undermine their mutual goal.

As a side note, during the time The Normal Heart was written we viewed the world and the AIDS virus very differently than we do today. I'm always glad to see historical things like this being approached by producers and publishers because we should never forget. But I'd also like to see how people are living with HIV/AIDS today. It's not the horror story that we've seen in the past. And I find that so many people who are unfamiliar with HIV/AIDS don't get all the information they should be getting. So while I am looking forward to this film version of The Normal Heart, I'm not so sure about what it's going to do to help break the stigma for people who are living "normal heart" lives today with HIV/AIDS. It's actually a topic I plan to tackle eventually, because I think we need to know more about it. And also because I have been in those proverbial trenches personally.

AIDS Today

In a totally unrelated article, new ground is being broken daily for people with HIV. And many are working hard to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS all around the world.

Doctors could save three million more lives worldwide by 2025 if they offer AIDS drugs to people with HIV much sooner after they test positive for the virus, the World Health Organisation said on Sunday.

While better access to cheap generic AIDS drugs means many more people are now getting treatment, health workers, particularly in poor countries with limited health budgets, currently tend to wait until the infection has progressed.

What this basically means is that people who are HIV positive can get drugs and the virus can actually remain virtually undetected if they take the drugs regularly. I'm familiar with this personally because of a friend who has HIV and I've listened in on his medical consultations at the University of Pennsylvania. I've also learned that getting these drugs out there to people is highly important, and getting them to take the drugs regularly is even more important. Another issue is that the drugs are not always affordable, but there are programs, too.

I think this is a fascinating article, and simple to understand for those like me who are not medical experts. Just this alone made me stop and think twice:

"With nearly 10 million people now on antiretroviral therapy, we see that such prospects - unthinkable just a few years ago - can now fuel the momentum needed to push the HIV epidemic into irreversible decline," she said in a statement.

You can read more here.

Zimmerman Trial

I've been following the Zimmerman trial on Anderson Cooper 360 partly because attorney Danny Cevallos is local to Philadelphia and he's on the AC 360 panel, and partly because I have found it so hard to get real information about the entire case...anywhere. Almost everything seems to be biased in one direction or the other.

This is a highly charged issue for many, and in following AC 360 this past week I've learned many facts about the case (on both ends) I didn't know from what I'd read in articles and blog posts that can't seem to remain objective. In fact, the very first time I learned of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, I read about it on a publishing blog by literary Agent Janet Reid, here.

But there seem to be so many facts about this case that have been coming out in the trial since I read Ms. Reid's highly emotional post, I'm in shock each time I hear something different. How this will turn out or what the verdict will be is not something I can predict. But I do think that it's going to set new standards for other cases. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure it's going to change the violence we are all experiencing in the US. And I don't think violence is a racial issue. Violence in the US is something we are all dealing with nowadays.

You can read more here at AC 360. And I did search this link out with care. I found other links that were geared toward the defense, with highly biased statements...just as the post written by Janet Reid last year was highly biased in the opposite direction without much merit or substance. As a small blogger, I take the written word very seriously. My goal is to learn the unbiased facts with cases like this, and to base my decisions about the content of a blog post on facts. If I don't know them I don't post about them, which is why I haven't posted about the Zimmerman trial before. And even though I'm just a small blogger with a few thousand hits a day, I think I would be doing readers a huge disservice if I didn't do this.