LGBTQ Breaking News Service

A gay Brazilian teen has been rescued after he sent his neighbor a handwritten letter begging for help. The heartbreaking note said his homophobic father was abusing him.

When the concerned neighbor investigated, he heard the man screaming at the boy and threatening to kill him. The neighbor recorded the man and turned the video recording over to the police.

Related: Caitlyn Jenner explains why she wants Kylie and Kendall to call her “dad”

“Have you ever felt like you’re not good for anyone? I’m feeling it. It hurts a lot here,” the 14-year-old boy wrote according to our sister site, Queerty. “Please, help me.”

“We hear him screaming, asking for help,” one of the teen’s neighbors told local media. “It is difficult for people who are mothers to see a situation like this.”

The man can be heard screaming at his son in the recording, yelling, “I’m tired of telling you. Didn’t I already tell you to change? You have to change! Do you know why? Because if you don’t change, I will kill you! I will blow you up!”

The man told police that he accepts his son’s sexuality, but was upset that he found the teen looking at pornography on his phone.

“He said that he does not care, that he accepts and that he had already spoken with the adolescent, but he caught him accessing pornographic videos on his cell phone and did not control his anger,” a police spokesperson said.

The bruised teen’s mother, however, said dad’s story wasn’t true. She told police that the father had become irate after finding out his son is gay.

The teen was removed from the home as the investigation continues.

DEAR DEIDRE: MY lover won’t admit she is gay but when she’s drunk, she is all over me.

I’m a woman of 37 and she is 38. We met while working in a school where she is a teacher and I’m a teaching assistant.

We became friends and then lovers. I’ve been openly gay since my teens, but I’ve always been her guilty secret.

1

After six months she ended our relationship, saying she had no time to be with anyone.

But she contacted me a week later and invited me to her home. As soon as I walked in, we kissed and ended up having sex.

The next night she called me, although this time she was drunk. We got together again and ended up having sex.

She told me she loved me but said I deserved better and should be with someone else.

But the next day she switched, insisting she had no feelings for me whatsoever and she only wanted friendship.

She’s very manipulative. I know she plays games with my feelings and it’s getting me down.

DEAR DEIDRE

My lover told me he had a girlfriend – but not two young kids

CARE AND NO ATTENTION

I’m so desperate for intimacy I’m considering cheating on my wife

MONEY GRABBER

I’m beginning to resent my girlfriend because she’s so ungrateful

DRUNK AND DISORDERLY

My husband’s drink problem has got too much – I’m ready to leave

DEIDRE’S PHOTO CASEBOOK

Marc finds the perks of being a plumber as he helps out a stunner

DEIDRE SAYS:  You can’t make her come out but if you want to develop this relationship, explain that you won’t wait around for ever.

Give yourself a time limit for her to commit to you.

If she can’t be open, explain that casual relationships aren’t your style and you’re going to find somebody who takes a relationship with you seriously.

You can both find emotional support through the LGBT Foundation (lgbt.foundation, 0345 3 30 30 30).

NEXT IN TODAY’S DEAR DEIDRE I’m so desperate for intimacy I’m considering cheating on my wife

READ DEIDRE’S NEW PHOTO CASEBOOK Marc finds the perks of being a plumber as he helps out a stunner

This week read about Del Martin’s and Phyllis Lyon’s home in California becoming a landmark, and Ohio accepting a ruling to allow transgender individuals to update their birth certificates to match their gender identity.

LGBT Activists’ Home to be Made Landmark

The home of a lesbian couple that pioneered LGBT rights in California will soon become a local landmark, following a unanimous vote from the San Francisco Board of Directors.

In 1955, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon moved into the one-bedroom house, where they founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. For years, the couple used the home to hold meetings, conduct organizational business, and publish The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the U.S.

Executive director of the GLBT Historical Society Terry Beswick told the Associated Press, “The Daughters of Bilitis didn’t have an office space, so 651 [Duncan St.] was really ground zero for the lesbian rights movement at the time. It was a place where people could be safe and reveal their sexuality.”

Lyon and Martin, both deceased, were among the first couples to legally marry in California, and lived in the house together for over 50 years. The board will hold a second, ceremonial vote before it reaches Mayor London Breed’s desk for approval.

Ohio to Allow Birth Certificate Changes

Photo via Adobe.

The Ohio Department of Health has officially accepted a December 2020 court ruling that the state must accept requests from transgender individuals who want to update their birth certificate to reflect their gender identity.

Four transgender plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU of Ohio, faced discrimination in trying to update their birth certificates, even though the state allows changes to be made to driver’s licenses and other government documents. The state allowed transgender residents to make changes to the document until 2016, when health officials changed the policy.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson wrote in his ruling that “this policy resembles the sort of discrimination-based legislation struck down under the equal protection clause in Romer v. Evans as nothing more than a policy ‘born of animosity toward the class of person affected’ that has ‘no rational relation to a legitimate government purpose.’”

The Ohio Department of Health expects to have a clear process for changing the sex marker on the certificate by June 1, leaving Tennessee as the last state in the union to not offer the document change.

It is the age old question…Is he gay or European?  In the case of beloved fictional character Sherlock Holmes the answer right now might just be – wait for it – both! Rumors are swirling that in two upcoming high-profile Sherlock Holmes adaptations the much discussed, often questioned sexuality of the British detective will be addressed. 

The rumors surrounding one project keep getting louder and louder as the release date approaches. The producers of the upcoming “Sherlock Holmes 3” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law will reportedly confirm that Holmes and Watson are gay. Downey Jr., in fact, has fed the rumor mill for years, with sound bites like this one about the relationship between Holmes and Watson, 

“{they are} two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed…Guy {Ritchie} wanted to make this about the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They’re both mean and complicated.”

in 2009, Downey Jr. and David Letterman had a very frank conversation where Letterman alluded to the fact stating, “Now, from what I recall, there was always the suggestion that there was a different level of relationship between Sherlock and Dr. Watson.” Downey Jr., then responded that Watson’s wife could be a beard! 

A quick internet search of Holmes’ sexuality nets words like “asexual” and “married to his work” and “not interested in romantic relationships.” The adaptation fueling the most discussion of Holmes’ sexuality, much to the dismay of the creators and producers, is BBC’s Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat had this to say on the topic,

 “It’s a funny thing when a character for over 100 years has been saying, ‘I don’t do that at all,’” “[Sherlock]’s not interested in [sex]. He’s willfully staying away from that to keep his brain pure — a Victorian belief, that. But everyone wants to believe he’s gay. He’s not gay. He’s not straight.”

Cumberbatch, who won an Emmy in 2014 for his performance, has said this about the character,

He’s asexual. He doesn’t want any, and it’s very purposeful on his part. I think he’s been burnt in the past. I think he also realizes he can’t beat female intuition; he can’t. So to embroil himself where he might be enslaved through adoration or sexual desire or any kind of power or chemistry to do with love is too big a risk for him.”

Finally, seems Netflix executives are thinking of taking some major liberties and planning on a bisexual Sherlock Holmes in the sequel to their blockbuster prequel movie, “Enola Holmes.” 

“Enola Holmes,” stars Millie Bobby Brown as the title character, Sherlock Holmes’ little sister. The movie focuses on Enola as she starts an investigation into their mother, with Henry Cavill playing Sherlock as he too begins his detective career. 

The first “Enola Holmes” was able to sidestep any talk of Holmes’ sexuality as Sherlock was a supporting character AND the prequel is set years before he meets Watson. The bromance between Holmes and Watson fuels much of the “are they or aren’t they” talk. The relationship between Holmes and Watson is a central storyline on the BBC series, generating fan fiction and endless debates about the sexuality of the two characters. 

The only road block for Netflix might be a woman named Andrea Plunket, who claims to have the publishing rights to the character. Those publishing rights are much disputed though.

While she has been told in court that she does not, she still persists in her claims and has sold the rights to publishing houses before. While Netflix may not be too concerned about this as they are a major company, the possibility of Plunket suing them for establishing Sherlock’s sexuality is there. She threatened to make problems for the Guy Ritchie series for the similiar reasons.  

Got all that? Three different adaptations, three different takes on the character and three different actors! Your turn, Instincters…what do you think? Is Sherlock gay? bisexual? asexual? Sound off in the comment section below, and while you are doing that check out the trailer for “Sherlock Holmes 3.” The movie is scheduled to open December 20, 2021, after the original release date was pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Sources: Entertainment Weekly, We Got This Covered, Vulture, Wired, Giant Freaking Robot