An objective look at LGBT issues, fiction, book publishing, pop culture, and romance novels that may or may not be erotic romance, by a real gay author using his real name, proudly.
There's a Republican clerk in Texas who is issuing same sex marriage licenses, without a problem.
Get this:
And brace yourselves...he's "hot" and he's a gay Republican. Meet Russ Towers. He’s the only openly gay county clerk in the entire state of Texas and the first out official in Lamar County. He’s also, wait for it, a Republican.
Gasp!
“I’m pretty sure there have been whispers behind my back,” he recently told the Texas Observer, “but one thing life has given me is very thick skin, and I’m not offended or my feelings don’t get hurt very easily.”
As I've always predicted on this blog, I think we'll be hearing a lot more from gay Republicans now that SCOTUS has ruled on gay marriage.
When I post links to things like this I like to make it clear this isn't my opinion and it's not something I would personally take seriously. In fact, even I find it insulting and I'm not all that religious.
With that said, there's a "theologian" who thinks that Jesus was gay.
At the very least, Jesus was queer. He broke the rules of his culture,
of heteronormativity. He subverted masculinities and gender codes in his
culture. Queer doesn’t necessarily mean sexual orientation, but it can
include that. St. Paul, I would say, would probably be described as a
closeted homosexual today, but they didn’t have those words at the time.
I realize the article was meant to be humorous, but that doesn't make it any better. I wouldn't have done it.
Here are five reasons why it's still difficult in the US for gay married couples even with the SCOTUS ruling last week. Five reasons that could be questioned in some cases.
4. Marriage is much more public than you imagine.
Thought that you’d just have a quiet little ceremony? Your marriage
certificate is a matter of public record. Small town papers still often
publish the names of everyone who has taken out a marriage license. It
takes some looking to find the information, but it’s out there. And at
least in the early days, you can count on some self-appointed defenders
of the faith to be looking really hard for the first signs that their
community is going to hell in a pink handbasket.
You can read this in Queerty, the gay "news" web site that will do anything to get a click. I actually think it's fairly harmless...if you know you're not supposed to be paying attention to it and taking it too seriously.
I sometimes mention how I'm not the biggest fan of musical comedy, torch songs, and most of those performers considered "gay icons."
I like more contemporary forms of art, especially with music and dance, and this particular youtube video titled Full Frontal Freedom is about as good as it gets. I found it on twitter thanks to m/m author, Carter Seagrove.
Published on Sep 9, 2013
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' hit music video "Same Love" has become an anthem for LGBT equality. We were so grateful that Mackelmore and Lewis took a stand and loudly cheered for marriage equality. But, our work as a community is far from done, as we seek equality in Oregon and Hawaii and New Jersey and Illinois. This song - which honors our movement's struggle - is so compelling that we thought it a fitting
Here's an interesting article that talks about the fears of some in the LGBT community, where they worry that gay identity (which I guess means gay culture) will disappear now that same sex marriage has become legal on a federal level thanks to the SCOTUS ruling last week.
They cover a lot in this article, and I highly suggest you read it. But I thought this was one strong point.
What we’re also witnessing is that the culture is much more diverse than
we’ve been ready to admit. It’s easy to put aside your differences when
you’re united around a single cause, like fighting the AIDS crisis. But
now that we don’t have that focus, we’re discovering that there are a
lot of people in our community who are quite content to live quiet lives
that look like everyone else’s–raising kids, caring for elderly
parents, living in the (gasp) ‘burbs, working in office cubicles. And
that’s not a bad thing.
There's more here. The comments are mixed. I honestly don't know how I feel about this. Wait. Yes I do. Of course it's going to change things. How could they not?
Is It Hard to Make Gay Friends?
Here's an article about how some gay men find it hard to make other gay friends. This I can relate to well. I remember the first few times I started going to gay bars in the 90's. I felt so isolated. I was alone and didn't think I'd ever make a gay friend. I kept wondering where do they all meet each other to form these friendships?!?
And while that means there are plenty of fish in the sea for
awkward dates or late-night texts, making gay friends is often an
entirely different story.
Lines can get blurry when two guys who are into guys embark
on a plutonic relationship, but the value of having like-minded friends
in your corner ready to go to bat for you is substantial.
Over the weekend I noticed several comments online about the "quality" of self-published books. Most of those comments came from those associated with small indie presses that are struggling to survive in the post e-book boom days.
I'm sure there are self-published books that lack quality. But then think about Fifty Shades of Grey, which was published by a huge publisher, made millions of dollars, and many think of it as the worst novel ever published. The question of quality is often subjective, not objective.
Then consider the fact that most indie authors are working hard to get good books out to readers at less than half the cost the readers would normally pay for books released by small presses. What's the best way to target the competition? Bad mouth "quality." Some small presses have this creepy cult-like stable of authors who ban together and say things like this to readers.
If that's not enough, think about all the self-published books out there that were once published by publishers and have been re-released. That's right. With so many small presses going out of business these days, authors are getting the rights back and re-publishing books that have already been edited and proofed by publishers. They are still considered self-published books.
And there are those books that went out of print with big publishers. Authors and literary agents are now self-publishing those books and re-releasing them all over again and many books are finding new lives and new audiences. Readers are paying far less in this case, too.
I'm not slamming any publishers. For the last few years I've indie pubbed my own books and I've continued to work with publishers. But the next time you see someone make a general statement about the "quality" of self-pubbed e-books take a closer look at the source. This "quality" myth has been an ongoing issue in the publishing community since the beginning of e-books and I've seen books slammed for "quality" that had one or two words spelled wrong. In other words, you can't depend on anything you see anymore, anywhere.
The fact is that most of the time when I see someone complaining about "quality" it's either someone who can never be pleased with anything, someone with an agenda, or someone who is just repeating something they overheard because it sounds good and it makes them appear knowledgeable.
There's also this. Many, many self-published e-books out there right now are being produced and distributed by people with a lot more experience than most of the smaller newer indie presses. Of course readers don't always know this, which is unfortunate. I have over twenty years experience in publishing, as a writer and an editor, plus a degree in English, and I have sometimes found it difficult when working with small presses because they don't have half the experience I have. Anyone can start a small press in their basement and call themselves a publisher. And they do. Remember Silver Publishing? There's nothing wrong with that, but they're no different from anyone else out there self-publishing their own books.
These are just a few basic points about the "quality myth" and self-published books. I will post more on this topic in the future.
Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. This book below, Loving Daylight, was written and published specifically for The Home Shopping Network a few yeas ago, through a publisher I was contracted with at the time. I never promoted it because it was just for a romance collection. When the rights reverted to me a few months ago I decided to indie publish it, with a new cover, and release it at more than half the price for which it originally sold.
This is encouraging. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints donated $2,500 to an LGBT homeless and youth center.
This represents a first step in building relations between the Mormon church and the gay community: the Church supported Proposition 8, the 2008 legislation to ban gay marriage in California. It was ruled unconstitutional.
The Utah Pride Centre provides food and counseling to around 40 homeless LGBTI people a week, as well as sex-safe kits and mental health support services.
‘We are grateful for their generosity and the emerging relationship’ Kent Frogley said, the chairman of the centre’s board of directors.
You know, sometimes, for some reason, some people get a voice and I have no idea why they get that voice. I'm not saying I don't like George Tekei. I just don't "get" why whatever he says is so important. He's not someone who has much influence over my life.
This week Takei made a highly questionable comment about Justice Thomas that made me look twice.
And now Takei is claiming he's not a racist.
The gay Star Trek actor and activist angered some when he delivered a stern rebuke to the African American judge after he voted against same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court ruling.
Thomas denied that same-sex couples who were unable to get married were ‘deprived of their liberty and dignity’.
‘Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved,’ he said in his dissent. ‘Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them…The government cannot bestow dignity and it cannot take it away.’
Takei, who was a survivor of a Japanese internment camp, reacted angrily to Thomas’ dissent.
‘He is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court. He gets me that angry,’ Takei told KSAZ-TV.
The rest is here. This kind of thing makes me so uncomfortable I hate to even comment with one more word. I just hope I never say anything as stupid as what Takei said.
One of the things I enjoy about LGBT news lately are the names I see of people I never heard of and know absolutely nothing about. Blake Skjellerup is one of those names, and his husband, Saul Carrasco, is another.
Evidently, BS is an Olympic skater and SC is a designer. From what it sounds like here they made all of their wedding plans in public, on instagram, and they finally settled on Hawaii.
There's a question and answer and this is an excerpt:
Was the timing influenced by the Supreme Court’s decision about marriage equality?
No, I can’t say it was. We live in New York where Marriage
Equality has existed for some time now, and I am from New Zealand where
marriage equality passed into law back in 2013. Getting married
is important to us, and we are very grateful to those that have fought
so hard for us to have the freedom.
You can read the rest here. Not sure if they'll be posting honeymoon updates on social media. But I would assume that's next. It's seems to be the trend with some people.
Gay Pride Meme Outrage
I posted about this on social media and I received more than a few interesting comments...many from gay men. Some were on the fence about it, others supported it, and some were not so thrilled about it.
With this photo, I think it's important to understand that it's not a new image. It was done about ten years ago.
This is from the photographer:
When I took this picture almost ten years ago, it never, never occurred
to me that it would someday come to symbolize the victory we are
celebrating today. Congratulations to all of us! Love to you all. You can read the rest here. For me it's a part of gay culture that symbolizes many things, among them equality for the men and women who served in the military that were gay.
Magic Mike Shocker from Sam Kalidi
Sam Kalidi is a comedian I've posted about here before. I follow him on Twitter and I never know what to expect. In some cases I can't even retweet, even though I think the tweet is hysterical. He can get away with some things that I could never think about getting away with.
Kalidi put together a meme which is a parody of the new Magic Mike sequel.
Editor’s note: We’ve asked online comedian, voice actor and chest hair
model Sam Kalidi to create a new meme each week for Queerty readers.
This week he looks forward to the continuation of a certain stripper
movie franchise. Sam looks forward to all your hate mail.
You can check that out here. The comments, as you would imagine, are mixed and range from people complaining about fat-shaming to praise. Once again, a PERFECT example of how some people don't understand parody.
Mark Zuckerberg is defending the "real names" policy on facebook and claiming that it doesn't have an impact on trans people. At least I think that's what he saying. You never really do know in this case. There's nothing clear at all about this entire topic.
The trans community has reacted with disbelief, with many accusing Zuckerberg of lying.
In a public Q&A on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg suggested Facebook’s policy had been misinterpreted in some cases. Claiming that the aim was to increase security for marginalized communities and make it easier for individuals to connect with friends, he said: ‘There is some confusion about what our policy actually is.
‘Real name does not mean your legal name. Your real name is whatever you go by and what your friends call you. If your friends all call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you should be able to do that.
I think Zuckerberg basically comes from the same world I do. A world where people don't hide who they are...unless they have something to hide. When my mom was dying of pancreatic cancer last year I joined a private facebook group that was inclusive to people who either have had Whipple surgery, were going to have Whipple surgery, or to the caregivers with friends and relatives dealing with Whipple surgery. It was an extremely helpful group for me as a caregiver, and refreshing to know everyone in the group used their real names.
There is a great deal of abuse on Facebook regarding names. There's this one guy who is known for abusive political hate speech and I've blocked him several times, only to have him show up again with another fake name, only to block him again. And while that does make it unfortunate for the people who don't use real names for valid reasons, I'm not sure there's a simple way to deal with this issue of online anonymity and how online anonymity is often abused. I'm not against anyone using a fake name with good intentions. And I'm not talking about authors using pen names right now. It's just hard to figure out a person's intentions.
And don't forget about THAT blogger who duped her entire readership, and private group members, for years by using a fake identity all over social media.
And please don't read between the lines here. I'm not singling anyone out for using a fake name or a pen name. I'm just saying that it's an issue on all social media and like everything else it depends on how it's done.
Side note: If you are dealing with anything Whipple surgery or pancreatic cancer related I highly suggest you check out Facebook's "Whipple Warriors" private group.
Neil Patrick Harris Empowered
Neil Patrick Harris has definitely broken the proverbial glass ceiling for gay male actors and he knows it. He claims that most of his parts have been straight in spite of his being openly gay, and that the way society has shifted has empowered him professionally. I think this is huge for gay authors, too.
With the exception of his role as a transgender punk rocker in Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Harris continues to play heterosexual roles while being in a high-profile marriage to actor David Burtka and raising their twins Gideon and Harper.
‘That’s been empowering to others, and certainly to me, that I can tweet pictures of my husband and my kids,’ he says. ‘I can make out with David at the Tonys. And I can still play opposite Rosamund Pike in a movie, and have sex with her, and people aren’t conflicted.
‘I think it speaks to society’s shift in what they deem important.’
Again, this is huge for all gay people. I hope it continues, especially for authors. I've noticed several gay male authors moving into mainstream romance genres and completely backing away from m/m romance. There's no law that states just because you're gay means you can only write gay fiction.
Michael Sam and Fiance
This article questions whether or not Michael Sam is still with his fiance. It's pure clickbait, and it's trashy journalism at best. But I'm curious about all things in the world and I can't imagine anyone breaking up with Michael Sam.
The pair, who began dating in 2011 while the pair were studying at the University of Missouri, has reportedly deleted all of his Instagram photos of the pair.
This includes the one of them getting engaged atop St Petersburg Basilica in the Vatican City back in January, according to TMZ.
Cammisano also posted a vlog last week on YouTube, where he was seen not wearing his engagement ring.
The rest is here. Not much to go on, and neither Sam nor the fiance were available to comment.You get it. Speculation for clickbait.
For those of you who do follow politics, which I normally don't deal with here on the blog, there's an interesting piece in Salon that talks about Ann Coulter's "fall from grace" and it mentions a Time Magazine article that focused on Coulter, by John Cloud. Coulter is a conservative right wing pundit. I'm not sure exactly what Cloud is.
While the Time story gave Coulter cover for her noxious commentary, it caused John Cloud a world of hurt from critics who weren’t as impressed with his light treatment of his subject. Media critic Brendan Nyhan wrote:
After working on Spinsanity for more than three years, I’ve seen a lot of bad political journalism. But John Cloud’s article about Ann Coulter in Time still shocked me (note: it’s not online yet for non-subscribers, unfortunately). It manages to bring together everything that’s wrong with contemporary political coverage: the obsession with being counter-intuitive; the pervasive unwillingness to check facts; and the focus on “fairness” and “balance” rather than critical reporting. A non-journalist might ask an obvious question: Why write a cover article about Ann Coulter in the first place? It’s widely understood that she’s a shrill, destructive demagogue. But to Cloud the distaste that both liberals and conservatives show for her is “suspicious”:
I never took Ann Coulter seriously. Who does? And I actually stopped reading Time Magazine altogether because of John Cloud.
Here's a link to a piece where a Christian extremist recorded herself ranting about legalized same sex marriage. I can't imagine putting anything like this up, in public, for the world to see. But there you are.
“This is a really sad day for me,” Rommel begins.
“Everything that God created his church to be — as man as woman — Adam
and Eve — Five justices decided that God was wrong!”
What then follows are four and a half hilarious tear-filled
minutes of regurgitated Fox News propaganda and a nonsense prayer about
America’s decidedly secular founding fathers.
“God did not change! His word is truth!” Rommel sobs. “And
God says that marriage is between a man and a woman! … I don’t care what
you think. I don’t care what you think about my opinion because, you
know what? I could really care less!”
Well.
You can read more here. My only comment is that I'd like to clarify that it's not just Fox news putting a spin on things. They are all doing it, especially CNN. Unfortunately, in order to be well informed nowadays you have to read beyond what's in the mainstream media, including the article to which I just linked.
Miss USA Pageant Loses Openly Gay Host
Miss USA host, openly gay Thomas Roberts, is backing out of hosting the show for reasons that seem to be related to Donald Trump.
The host of MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts was to have returned for the second year and be teamed with Cheryl Burke of NBC’s I Can Do That for the 12 July event.
Both are now out following NBC’s decision to sever business ties with pageant owner Donald Trump. Trump has been under fire since making highly controversial comments about Mexican immigration when announcing his presidential bid.
To be honest, I have no idea who Thomas Roberts is because I don't watch MSNBC at all anymore, and I never followed "Miss" pageants of any kind.
But it is interesting to note this...how Roberts got the job hosting Miss USA.
The newsman had lobbied for the job back in 2013 when Miss Universe was held in Moscow. Original hosts Andy Cohen and Giuliana Rancic had dropped out because of an anti-gay propaganda law passed in Russia earlier that year.
I just find it interesting the way some people choose their convictions the way most of us choose our socks.
Of course things in Russia have only grown worse for LGBT people since 2013 so I guess that excuse for showing Russia gay people from the US didn't work out after all. I'm with Andy Cohen and Giuliana Rancic on this one. They did the right thing.
This is fascinating to me because I often refrain from comment whenever I see a new crowdfunding campaign that I think might be questionable. I don't say anything but I see it happen time and again everywhere. This year I even saw an attorney who owns a book review blog get sued for a blog post she wrote, people started a crowdfunding campaign for her legal defense, and it turned out she had been horribly deceiving her readership with a pen name and fake identity all along. I think that shady, shifty campaign made over sixty thousand dollars so far, AND, the attorney who is being sued is still blogging and there are actually people who are taking her seriously. It's mind blowing when you think about it.
There doesn't seem to be a limit as to where nice people will donate money. And that's what bothers me the most. People donate with the best of intentions.
In any event, it looks as if the Rainbow Garden story about the woman in Baltimore might be a hoax, too. I posted about her here. It was being dubbed "The Relentlessly Gay Garden" at the time I posted about it.
And now this:
Suspicions were raised when people noticed that both Baker and
the letter she allegedly received displayed the same improper use
of capitalization. The letter incorrectly capitalizes words such as
“others,” “children,” “police” and “forced.” Meanwhile, Baker’s GoFundMe
page incorrectly capitalizes words such as “home” and “relent.” A
closer look at Baker’s Facebook page found that this seems to be a habit
of hers, and that there are similar capitalization and grammatical
problems in her rants criticizing right-wing Christians for their
stances on marriage and abortion.
There's more here. She allegedly told police that she can't find the letter anymore. Check out her photo, too.
I'm going to refrain from commenting on this one, too, until I know more about it.
Small Towns Celebrate Gay Marriage
I saw a lot of this on my local news the night SCOTUS ruled on same sex marriage. There was even a rally in downtown New Hope, PA, where I live. Of course New Hope is a known tourist destination on the east coast and also known for a large LGBT population. However, I really never did think I'd live to see a rally on Main Street celebrating legalized same sex marriage.
It's happening in other towns, too:
There’s nothing truly remarkable about DJ Payne and Lance
Harrison’s decision to get married. The Petersburg, VA couple has been
together for 16 loving years, so when same-sex marriage became legal in
Virginia, the choice was simple.
But what they never could have expected was the outpouring of support they felt from their town of 32,400 people.
Loving Daylight by Ryan Field
About five years ago I was asked to write a novel for a romance collection that would be featured on The Home Shopping Network. The one catch was that I had to write the novel in three weeks. I almost turned it down, however, the publisher convinced me to do it and I agreed. I have never worked so intensely on anything in my life, but I'm glad I did it.
I recently had the rights reverted back to me and I'm releasing it now through Ryan Field Press. This is one of those reasons why I wanted to go indie for some things in the first place. I knew that one day there would come a time when I had to re-release my own fiction.
Loving Daylight is a mainstream contemporary hetero romance, a paranormal, with a small gay subplot. I wanted to start writing books like this, where I incorporate gay characters into mainstream novels. And this book gave me a chance to prove that I could do it. At the time, I used a female pen name for The Home Shopping Network for reasons I'd rather not get into in this post. But if you notice I only posted about it a few times here on the blog. I never spent much time at all promoting it anywhere.
It's also a PG rated romance, without any explicit sex scenes, and runs 60,000 words.
In any event, here's the blurb and a few links, and it will bein iTunes and Kobo, too:
Avenir LaFramboise, a powerful one hundred and one year old vampire who
looks like he’s in his early twenties, travels back to the place where
he was born, Glendale Harbor, Maine, on Mt. Desert Island. He’s curious
about a beautiful young woman named Sienna, the great-granddaughter of
his first love. But he soon discovers that even though they look
identical, their personalities are very different. Sienna is strong and
independent and brave, and it doesn’t take long for him to fall deeply
in love with her.
At first, Sienna isn’t interested in Avenir’s rugged good looks or
his endless supply of money. She’s too busy holding down two full time
jobs, saving money for law school, and supporting her ailing,
former-hippie grandmother in a nursing home. Even though Sienna came
from one of the wealthiest families in town, she was left with nothing
when her mother died without a legal last will and testament.
Avenir eventually wins Sienna’s trust and they embark on a quest to
uncover a valuable hidden painting, her mother’s last will and
testament, and the truth behind her mother’s violent, untimely death.
They do this with the help of an aggressive ghost, a remarkable little
white kitten named Latte, and Avenir’s extraordinary vampire skills. The
ending is as shocking as the events leading up to it. And though none
of their lives will ever be the same again, dignity, honor and true
everlasting love prove to be much stronger than the evil forces they’ve
been fighting.
