Here’s the thing about children’s TV programming: It’s made by people who really care about kids and what they learn. OK, most of it; a lot of it is also to sell us toys and cereal. But anyone who grew up watching Sesame Street shouldn’t be surprised when another great kids show spreads the word on tolerance and love. That’s what Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues & You has done with its new alphabet song, which has a sweet LGBTQIA pride message tucked into its lyrics and video.
“And P is full of Pride!” sings Blue (voiced by Traci Paige Johnson) in “Alphabet w/ Blue,” a song exclusively streaming on the Blue’s CluesYouTube channel. The picture-book visuals accompanying this line are what really seal the message: P is rainbow-colored and surrounded by the flags for trans, asexual, intersex, nonbinary, pansexual, bisexual and other communities.
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Of course, most of Blue’s target audience does not really grasp the meaning of most of these various identities, and parents do not need to explain them all in detail to their kids. Instead, this is a chance to give them an age-appropriate lesson: These flags are how people express pride in who they are, and the fact that love is love.
Actually, Nickelodeon even provided one more tool for parents to explain the flags way back in June, for Pride Month. In addition to the alphabet, colors are a great way to connect concepts for children, so saying that these colors represent inclusivity, spirit, nature, serenity, sunlight, healing, and life introduces the concept of loving everyone without even having to talk about sex. But just to be clear, you are going to have to do that eventually, too.
We should expect nothing less from Blue’s Clues — after all, the puppy already subverted gender norms by being blue and a girl. Last year, when SheKnows spoke to star Josh Dela Cruz, he also pointed out the impact he felt he could have on kids as a Filipino-American.
“One of my friends told me that their kid pointed to the screen and said, ‘He looks like me!’ That took me out,” he told us. “I didn’t really get a chance to experience anything in that capacity growing up.”
This is the first Valentine’s Day in the age of COVID-19, and many of us are sitting at home instead of dating in-person to stay safe this year. Thankfully, there’s plenty of flirty content over on TikTok to keep us a little less lonely.
The art of the thirst trap has been perfected over the last year as TikTok became the most downloaded app of 2020. Millions of bored, quarantined people flocked to the app filled with videos about everything from comedy to politics to fashion. During this romantic time of year the isolation is hitting a little harder, which is why we’ve rounded up the 14 thirstiest queer TikTok accounts for your locked-down Valentine’s Day.
Not every one of these accounts is full of only thirst traps, but all of these LGBTQ+ TikTokers do show off their self-expression and self-confidence and have at least a few videos where they dance and wink to make you swoon.
Shelby Parks knows exactly what to do with pottery to make everyone simp for her. The videos where she plunges two fingers into wet clay regularly rack up likes in the millions. And yes, Shelby does ~listen to girl in red~.
TikTok’s predecessor Vine had its own stars, and one was Rickey Thompson. Even though Vine is extinct, nowadays Thompson has millions of followers across Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. He might be better known for his comedy, but he posts plenty of seductive videos, too.
Kat Wilderness posts the dancing-alone-in-your-room classic thirst traps but also uploads clips of her dancing on stage as a drag queen with a crowd. Needless to say her outfits are worth thirsting over, too.
Hannah has built an empire off of making bread — not selling it or teaching people how to make it, but just letting people watch as she kneads the dough in a way only she can. Her TikToks are full of comments by women who thought they were straight and then watched Hannah make eye contact with the camera while stroking, caressing, and smacking balls of dough.
Melissa Dilkes Pateras was inspired by Hannah Breadtok to start a Laundrytok series of videos where she makes the same seductive eye contact while folding laundry, but in recent weeks she’s upgraded to a Caulktok series that is somehow even more amazing. A natural comedian who also knows just how to make the ladies go wild, this Canadian mom with over half a million followers definitely needs to be on your For You Page more often.
Hezekiah Lyon Karter is publicly documenting his transition while sharing plenty of dancing thirst traps along the way. In his own words, he’s “enjoying every bit of me becoming the man I’m [supposed] to be.”
As Jazzmyne Robbins told NewNowNext last year, “I don’t believe we are doing anything wrong when we post celebrations of ourselves. I think we are actually doing something very right. And while I will always stress safety and comfort first… I will also always, always, always support everyone’s right to post thirst traps on the internet. It’s 2020, and joy is scarce — if we can’t post hot photos of our butts online and celebrate each other, what the fuck are we here for?”
Silas Zelny is here for all things genderless, from pronouns explainers to “tips and tricks for dealing with the weird and uncool parent in your life.” They post fewer thirst traps than other accounts on this list, but when they do, you’ll be struck by Cupid’s arrow.
Frank Tiu’s most popular TikToks involve him cooking wearing only an apron, and he’s often shirtless in his other videos. If you like six-packs with (as he calls it) a boyfriend aesthetic, follow this account.
“Trans guys can be sexy too!” Alex Guerra is building a community around positivity, confidence, and love. His TikTok account is full of videos proclaiming trans sexiness and self-acceptance.
Jinx oozes confidence when they post looks playing with different gender expressions. Between lots of singing-with-eye-contact TikToks, Jinx also posts educational content about being a nonbinary lesbian and defending trans rights.
Welcome to StudTok, where your host is Jah and shirt-wearing is discouraged. While this account is mostly Jah’s dancing, there are also moments of “Deep Talks with Jah.”
Ilia Leya posts about being a proud bi trans woman and shutting down the haters. She’s taken advantage of trending sounds and cute outfits to earn over 700,000 followers.
So, while there might not be the same date nights or singles’ parties as past Valentine’s Days, at least TikTok is brimming with queer thirst traps that make you feel like someone is hitting on you. Tap the plus button on these LGBTQ+ TikTok teases for a spicier For You Page.
Sarah Prager is the author of three books on LGBTQ+ history and her writing has also appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, NBC News, and many other outlets.
Eudy Simelane’s parents sit on the bridge bearing her image that was built in her memory
Warning: This article includes references to sexual assault and violent crime.
An international footballer, coach and aspiring referee, Eudy Simelane dedicated her life to the sport.
She was one of the first openly gay women to live in her township of Kwa-Thema in South Africa and was a well-known LGBT+ activist.
But because of her sexuality, Simelane was brutally raped and murdered in 2008, aged just 31.
This is the story of her life and how the legacy of her death is still impacting South African society.
‘She was a diamond’
Simelane was born on 11 March 1977, in Kwa-Thema, a township in the Gauteng province, south east of Johannesburg.
Her interest in football started when she was only four years old, demanding her brother Bafana always took her to practice with him despite it not being a sport commonly played by women at the time.
Passion soon became dedication as she honed her skills daily.
“Five o’clock in the morning, she [would be] at the gym – football was her favourite and her priority”, her late mother Mally recalled at a memorial lecture in 2016.
Nicknamed ‘Styles’ because she was left-footed, midfielder Simelane joined her local team, Kwa-Thema Ladies, now known as the Springs Home Sweepers.
Speaking to the BBC World Service in 2018 about Simelane’s popularity on the pitch, her father Khotso said: “Everyone came to the ground when she played, number six”.
Springs Home Sweepers has produced a number of stars including Janine van Wyk, South Africa’s most capped footballer and captain of the national team, known as ‘Banyana Banyana’, meaning ‘the girls’.
Simelane played several times for the national side, coached four local youth teams and wanted to qualify to become her country’s first female referee.
In the 2020 Eudy Simelane Memorial Lecture, her brother, Bafana said: “In sport she was a diamond, scoring beautiful goals. She was a marvellous person, intelligent, everything. It was a package. Everything you would find in Eudy. Jokingly she was playing, teasing others. That is what I miss about her.”
On 27 April 2008, Simelane’s body was found in a stream just a few hundred metres from her home in Kwa-Thema.
Reports stated she was approached after leaving a pub, raped and then stabbed repeatedly.
Despite her death shocking many, activists claimed many lesbians in South Africa were targeted for ‘corrective rape’, a crime where the perpetrator aims to ‘cure’ the victim of their sexuality, converting them to heterosexuality.
Thato Mphuthi pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of Simelane in February 2009 and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. The following September, Themba Mvubu was also found guilty of the crimes and was sentenced to life in prison. When questioned by reporters in court, he responded: “I’m not sorry.”
‘It opened the eyes of many’
Eudy Simelane’s mother Mally fought to change perceptions of LGBT+ people before her death in 2019
Simelane’s sexuality put her in a vulnerable position, something her mother recognised, telling the BBC, “the whole of South Africa knew Eudy was a lesbian”.
The unfortunate reality is Simelane’s story isn’t unique – she is one of many victims of similar, horrific crimes in South Africa.
A year prior to her death, Sizakele Sigasa, a women’s and gay rights activist, and her friend Salone Massooa, were heckled outside a bar and called ‘tomboys’. The women were then gang raped, tortured, and shot dead.
Just a few years after Simelane’s murder, Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian, was found beaten and stoned to death in the same township Simelane lived.
The country also legalised same-sex marriage in 2006, seven years before the act was passed in the UK, and two years prior to Simelane’s tragic death.
Despite this, the country still has the highest number of recorded rape cases per capita. Within this, it’s young, black, lesbian women that often fall victim to violent ‘corrective rape’ crimes in South African townships.
According to data released in 2017, 49% of black members of LGBT+ communities in the country are likely to know someone who has been murdered for being LGBT+, compared to 26% of white community members.
Human rights activists and supporters of Eudy Simelane in August 2009 outside the Delmas court in Mpumalanga, before the trial
Simelane’s case has been an exception though. Her profile and story captivated the nation and brought the issue of ‘corrective rape’ to attention.
Following Simelane’s death, her mother Mally was instrumental in the fight to change her communities’ views on homosexuality, using her Methodist faith as a platform. She united with her local Pastor, Smadz Matsepe, in a fight to change attitudes towards LGBT+ individuals in society. Mally was fully committed to fighting prejudice until her passing in 2019.
“It opened the eyes of many and it challenged us to deal with the LGBT+ issue,” Matsepe told the BBC.
A bridge was built over the stream in Kwa-Thema, next to the football field where Simelane’s body was found. The bridge features her face imprinted on it and was built “as a reminder of the freedom, dignity and equality for all”, according to the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project in The Times.
Another initiative set up with the aim of changing social attitudes, was The Eudy Simelane Memorial Lecture. This annual lecture, in partnership between the Ujamaa Centre at The University of KwaZulu-Natal, The Other Foundation, Pietermaritzburg Gay & Lesbian Network, the KwaZulu Natal Christian Council, and Simelane’s family, aims to change attitudes towards LGBT+ people, particularly within some religious communities.
These bodies recognised that for there to be a significant social change, religious communities needed to adopt a new outlook on same-sex relationships and marriage, so that individuals could not try to use religious grounds to justify violence against LGBT+ people.
Professor Charlene van der Walt from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Deputy Director of Ujamaa Centre told the BBC this year: “Eudy’s story is an example of what happens to a lot of families and a lot of faith communities, yet the issue of LGBT+ people in faith is often denied or invisible.”
The lecture is also an opportunity to stimulate conversations around LGBT+ communities.
Van der Walt added it was especially important to continue these conversation during the Covid-19 pandemic where LGBT+ people are “vulnerable” because they often are “in a family setting that doesn’t accept” their sexuality.
“We have made a massive leap in the right direction,” she said.
In the 2020 lecture, Simelane’s brother Bafana, said: “History repeats itself, so now, this lecture is eye opening to the community and other families that they must not take it as a curse if someone is gay, lesbian or transgender”.
Despite the tragic death of Simelane, it sent an important message across South Africa and was a catalyst for these projects and conversations to take place.
If you’ve been affected by issues raised in this article, there is information and support available on BBC Action Line.
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) — A loophole created by California health officials allowed some fitness trainers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to state officials.
In January, the California Department of Public Health released updated guidelines on vaccination allocation that classified outdoor recreation as health care, the first tier eligible to get the vaccine along with people over 75. Some fitness clubs jumped at the chance of getting their employees vaccinated, KGO-TV reported Thursday.
“Outdoor recreation was included in Health Care (Health Care/Public Health sector index 1, line item 22). As such, we shared that information with our employees so they could begin the process of receiving vaccinations,” Annie Appel, Senior Executive Vice President at the Bay Club Company, said in a statement.
But last Friday, state health officials updated the rules and they no longer include outdoor recreation as Health Care, Appel said.
“We have also shared this information with our employees and are awaiting further direction from the state for which tier we will be included in,” she added.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he wants to ensure the vaccine gets into the arms of those most vulnerable.
“I’m frustrated when people that are wealthier, more connected, more technically savvy get ahead of the line.” Newsom said during a Tuesday news conference.
Still, it took state officials a month to update the rules.
California Department of Public Health officials did not immediately respond Friday to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Kimi Hori, a fitness instructor in Santa Clara County, said she received an email on Jan. 7 telling her she was eligible to receive the vaccine and to make an appointment through their health care provider. But she said she decided not to take it.
“Most people go into fitness because they want to help others but when you’re then taking a vaccine away from other people, you’re not helping others you’re helping yourself. For me, that’s a huge contradiction,” Hori said.
She said she knows of about two dozen fitness trainers who have received the vaccine, including five under the age of 40 who were vaccinated this week despite the rule change last week. Yet, her 73-year-old mom has still not gotten a vaccine, she said.
“These are people who are strong and healthy and I’m sure they have people in their lives, like their mom, or dad or grandma who can’t get it, but still, there is no remorse,” she said.
Anyone who is not eligible to get the vaccine and lies to get one is doing so under penalty of perjury, according to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office. Perjury is a felony offense in California and punishable by up to four years in prison with a maximum fine of $10,000.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests moving your arm to help mitigate soreness after you receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, one doctor we spoke to suggests avoiding exercise out of an abundance of caution for at least a day post-shot. Purvi Parikh, MD, an immunologist and allergist with Allergy & Asthma Network, told POPSUGAR that working out before getting a COVID-19 vaccine would generally be fine, but exercise after the fact might exacerbate any sort of adverse reaction.
Can I Work Out After the COVID-19 Vaccine?
First, it’s important to state that severe allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine are rare — between Dec. 14 and Dec. 23, 2020, out of a reported 1,893,360 first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, the CDC documented 4,393 (0.2 percent) adverse events, of which 21 were concluded as anaphylaxis. Dr. Parikh, who also is a co-investigator on COVID-19 vaccine trials at NYU, noted that researchers think such allergic reactions may be caused by polyethylene glycol, or PEG (this one reason why the CDC advises people with an allergy to PEG or the closely-related polysorbate not get the current mRNA COVID-19 vaccines).
Dr. Parikh suggests not working out for at least a day, or until any side effects subside, because exercise increases your blood flow and heart rate and, thus, can increase inflammation in the body. This is the same reason why she said to avoid alcohol at least a day after getting the vaccine.
“Exercise should be avoided after the vaccine and can resume when feeling back to normal the next day or day after,” Dr. Parikh stated, adding that this is more so the case for the second dose of the mRNA vaccines since that dose is supposed to result in an increased occurrence of short-term side effects. Additionally, if you do experience side effects from the vaccine, she said it might be best to avoid exercise simply due to the fact that you could be putting more stress on your body (so, listen to how you’re feeling).
“The next day, if you’re feeling well, you can go back to your exercise routine,” she said. If you do wish to exercise once you’ve gotten your vaccine, Dr. Parikh suggested sticking to low-impact and low-intensity workouts.
As always, contact your doctor regarding any side effects you may be concerned about, but Dr. Parikh explained that indications of a more severe response to the vaccine would include such symptoms as lightheadedness, difficulty breathing, and vomiting. Those are the symptoms that she would say warrants a call to your doctor, but if more mild side effects to the COVID-19 shot persist and do not show signs of relenting, she suggests also contacting your healthcare provider then.
POPSUGAR aims to give you the most accurate and up-to-date information about the coronavirus, but details and recommendations about this pandemic may have changed since publication. For the latest information on COVID-19, please check out resources from the WHO, CDC, and local public health departments.
Controversial conspiracy congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene cheated on her husband with a polyamorous tantric sex guru, DailyMail.com has learned.
Then after ending her affair with him, the mom-of-three moved on to a gym manager behind her husband’s back.
But despite the tawdry flings, Taylor Greene stuck with her husband Perry as she made her unlikely rise that has turned her into the most talked-about Republican in Washington, D.C.
Neither man denied the affairs when approached by DailyMail.com.
Craig Ivey, the tantric sex practitioner, said: ‘I will not respond to anything about this,’ while the other man, Justin Tway, said: ‘I have no interest in talking about anything to do with that woman. Everything with her comes to no good.’
But others say the new representative from Georgia’s 14th Congressional District was brazen about her affairs which she carried on a decade ago while working in gyms in Alpharetta, Georgia, some 35 miles north of Atlanta.
Embattled congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green openly cheated on her husband Perry Greene (pictured) with men at her fitness gym, DailyMail.com has learned
Marjorie’s men: The 46-year-old mother of three had an affair with polyamorous tantric sex guru Craig Ivey (left) before moving on to gym manager Justin Tway (right) while working at a gym in Alpharetta in 2012
‘It wasn’t a secret. Everyone who moved in her circles knew about both the affairs,’ one man who worked closely with Taylor Greene told DailyMail.com.
And her boss, billionaire’s grandson Jim Chambers, added: ‘She socialized a lot with us. I remember one particular pool party where she was lying draped over Craig’s lap drinking a beer.
‘She was quite open about it,’ he added. ‘We all thought her marriage was falling apart.
‘But then I took my son to her son’s birthday party and things seemed totally normal between her and her husband – even if they were a little lukewarm.’
In response to DailyMail.com’s request for comment, Taylor Greene called the story ‘ridiculous tabloid garbage spread by an avowed Communist,’ and ‘another attempt to smear my name because I’m the biggest threat to the Democrats’ Socialist agenda.’
Her attorney L. Lin Wood, has previously said that an article about the allegations published by the New Yorker magazine was ‘intended to smear her with false accusations, half-truths, misrepresentations, out-of-context statements, and agenda driven lies.’
Taylor Greene, 46, has become notorious since being elected to Congress. She calls herself a ‘strong conservative Christian,’ who planned to take her ‘family values’ to Washington.
On Instagram, Ivey calls himself The Tantric Warrior, describing himself as ‘Living a warrior lifestyle while finding tantric love’. He also participates in reenactments of medieval battles and teaches sword fighting. Above, he is seen dressed as Zangief’ a character from video game Street Fighter II
Since his affair with Taylor Greene, Ivey, 42, has moved to Washington State. His social media photos show his political views are polar opposite to that of the Georgia Republican
Ivey’s profile picture on his Facebook page shows him standing stark naked by a waterfall. He has now set up a gladiator bootcamp called The Ludus
Ivey, pictured wearing South Park pajama pants while pumping gas near his Seattle-area home, refused to address his affair with Greene when approached by DailyMail.com
But she has been slammed for her belief in conspiracies linked to the group QAnon which claims former president Donald Trump was sent by God to oust Democrats who are involved in a nationwide ring that traffics, abuses, kills and even eats children.
She has also said that the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings were ‘false flag’ operations aimed at tightening gun control, harassed Parkland survivor David Hogg on the streets and questioned whether the September 11 terrorist attacks were real.
Congress voted last week to remove her from her committee assignments due to her outrageous beliefs and actions.
Rumors of Taylor Greene’s affairs have been around since she hit the headlines in the summer by winning the Republican primary for her seat, which covers a wide swath of rural north west Georgia.
Chambers even tweeted out at the time: ‘@mtgreenee so when you worked for me at CrossFit Alpharetta in 2012, the extramarital affairs you had with Justin and Craig, those were Jesus-approved, right?’
Rumors of Taylor Greene’s affairs began to resurface in the summer when she won the Republican primary for her seat. Her former boss at the gym, Jim Chambers, referenced her relationships with Justin and Craig in a tweet in June
He then added: ‘I would never choose to doc someone’s infidelities…unless they’re this person,’ and linked to a Marjorie Taylor Greene for Congress page
He then added: ‘I would never choose to doc someone’s infidelities…unless they’re this person,’ and linked to a Marjorie Taylor Greene for Congress page.
A New Yorker profile of her said a reporter had seen texts in which Taylor Greene admitted sleeping with one man outside her marriage.
Chambers, whose grandmother Anne Cox Chambers was the richest person in Georgia until she died last year, bought two gyms in the early 2010s.
He really only wanted one in downtown Atlanta, but the previous owner insisted on selling the Alpharetta gym as part of a package. That is where Taylor Greene was already working.
‘She was part of the staff I inherited,’ Chambers, 36, told DailyMail.com. ‘She wasn’t someone who needed a paycheck. She was working as a trade – she got free membership and access and the opportunity to learn the business.’
Soon it became apparent that she and Craig Ivey had started an affair.
‘I know about it because I was a member of the gym,’ said one man who asked not to be identified. ‘Certainly she was screwing around.’
Taylor Greene shares three children, Lauren, Taylor and Derek, with husband Perry. Insiders said they believed Greene’s marriage was falling apart in the 2010s due to her brazen infidelity, but the pair has remained together
The fitness fanatic had previously worked for Jim Chambers, the grandson of billionaire Anne Cox Chambers, at CrossFit Alpharetta in 2012
‘Guys talk and I know there was definitely sex involved. People don’t make up stuff like that. They were spending a lot of time together, turning up at the gym in the same car.
‘When I would suggest going out, Craig would say he had things to do with Marjorie.’
Soon after, Chambers brought in a new manager for his Alpharetta gym. Justin Tway moved to Georgia from Colorado, to take over with the understanding that he might end up buying it and taking it off Chambers’s hands.
Taylor Greene soon set her sights on him, said both Chambers and the second source.
‘This seemed much more serious than the affair with Craig,’ said Chambers. ‘That was more of a flirty thing. But with Justin she seemed to have designs on a more long-term relationship.
‘My impression is that she knew he might take over the gym and she wanted to be there right alongside him.’
Former lover Justin Tway told DailyMail.com he had ‘no interest in talking about anything to do’ with Taylor Greene, adding: ‘Everything with her comes to no good’
Insiders said Taylor Greene’s affair with Tway seemed to have designs on a more long-term relationship
Tway, 42, still lives in Alpharetta with his wife Sherrie, whom he met long after his affair with Taylor Greene had ended
Tway was pictured at his gym outside Atlanta with his dogs Briggs and Salo on Monday
Eventually Taylor Greene did buy another gym in Alpharetta.
The second source said: ‘With Marjorie it always seemed to be a power thing. If anyone was a leader or in a position of power, she would gravitate to them, and that is what it was like with Justin.’
Chambers – whose far-left politics are as opposed to Taylor Greene’s views as they could possibly be – said he thought she even might have had designs on him as he was going through a divorce at the time. But he insists nothing happened between them.
Congress voted last week to remove her from her committee assignments due to her outrageous beliefs and actions
Taylor Greene, 46, has become notorious since being elected to Congress due to her controversial views and posts touting QAnon conspiracy theories
She has been slammed for her belief in conspiracies linked to the group QAnon which claims former president Donald Trump was sent by God to oust Democrats
The second source added: ‘I don’t know whether she was after Jim, you’d have to ask him that one.’
‘What I do know is that she was a lot different then to what she is now. I worked out with her a lot and she certainly wasn’t saying the insane things she is now. If she had been, I would have had nothing to do with her.’
Since his affair with Taylor Greene, Ivey, 42, has moved to Washington State. He worked in at least two CrossFit gyms in Seattle and has now set up a gladiator bootcamp called The Ludus.
He participates in reenactments of medieval battles and teaches sword fighting.
Ivey’s profile picture on his Facebook page shows him standing stark naked by a waterfall.
On Instagram he calls himself The Tantric Warrior, describing himself as ‘Living a warrior lifestyle while finding tantric love.’
She calls herself a ‘strong conservative Christian,’ who planned to take her ‘family values’ to Washington
In an undated video, Taylor Greene was seen dragging a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump on stage and then rubbing its crotch as she says how great he is
Taylor Greene had shared videos on social media of her doing some deadlifting and captioned: ‘Congress is broken … not working for the American people!It’s time to lift the dead weight and kick Pelosi’s Congress to the curb in November!’
Medical News Today defines tantric sex as a ‘slow, meditative form of sex where the end goal is not orgasm but enjoying the sexual journey and sensations of the body.’
Rocker Sting is its most famous practitioner, claiming he and wife Trudie Styler have seven-hour lovemaking sessions.
Ivey is currently living in a trailer in Renton, Washington, but along with a girlfriend and another couple, he has bought a house in Buckley, an hour south of Seattle, which he says he wants to turn into a polyamorous commune.
When approached by DailyMail.com, Ivey said: ‘I have made myself very clear, I will not respond to anything about this again.
He also threatened to call the police on a reporter. ‘Please stay away from me and anyone connected with my life,’ he said in a text message.
Tway, also 42, still lives in Alpharetta with his wife Sherrie, whom he met long after his affair with Taylor Greene had ended.
The couple run a gym in the city, often taking their ‘gym pups’, Briggs and Salo, along with them.
Taylor Greene and her husband along with their three children, Lauren, Taylor and Derek, moved from Alpharetta last year when they bought a $610,000 home in Rome, Georgia, so she could live inside her congressional district.
They still own their previous house in Alpharetta, where Perry runs a construction and renovation company that was founded by Marjorie’s father.
Men who’ve had COVID-19 and have sex with other men must wait three months before donating potentially life-saving plasma. Many argue the federal policy is driven by stigma rather than science.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Throughout the pandemic, thousands of blood drives across the country have been canceled, leaving blood supplies critically low. Yet a portion of the population is restricted from donating. Many argue that a federal policy preventing many gay men from donating blood is driven by stigma rather than science. Lesley McClurg from member station KQED explains.
LESLEY MCCLURG, BYLINE: Blood banks are flooding the airwaves.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FRANK MCGEORGE: If you are not ill and you qualify to donate blood, please do it.
MCCLURG: Hearing call-outs like that is painful for Samuel Garrett-Pate.
SAMUEL GARRETT-PATE: So I tested positive for COVID couple days after Thanksgiving, actually. I just was very tired, a bit of body aches.
MCCLURG: The 28-year-old was back on his feet after a few weeks. The first thing he wanted to do was go to a blood bank as a deadly COVID-19 surge hit Los Angeles.
GARRETT-PATE: I potentially have something that could at least help someone recover, prevent someone from dying, in me. And yet simply because I am gay, I can’t do anything with it.
MCCLURG: His body is coursing with antibodies, little tiny proteins designed to ward off future infections. They’re carried in a yellowish fluid called blood plasma.
SUCHI PANDEY: It’s liquid gold. That’s what it’s (laughter) often called, liquid gold.
MCCLURG: Dr. Suchi Pandey is the chief medical officer for Stanford Blood Center. She says early results from clinical trials show that donated plasma from people who have battled COVID-19 is beneficial for other sick patients.
PANDEY: So far, I think the data is promising.
MCCLURG: Pandey says the best time to donate plasma is soon after someone recovers from COVID-19 because that’s when their antibody levels are the highest. But that’s not possible for gay men. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the Food and Drug Administration determined it was too dangerous for men who were having sex with other men to donate blood. The lifetime ban was shortened to a year of celibacy in 2015 and then reduced to three months last April, which is still a problem according to California State Senator Scott Wiener.
SCOTT WIENER: The FDA’s blood donation ban is 100% driven by fear, ignorance and outdated stereotypes about gay and bisexual men.
MCCLURG: The FDA argues that their position is based on the best available evidence. An agency spokesperson wrote in a statement that while blood supply screening is highly sensitive, a small risk of HIV transmission still exists.
MONICA HAHN: There is absolutely nothing scientifically that justifies this ban.
MCCLURG: Dr. Monica Hahn is an HIV specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She says back in the ’80s, it took several months to know if you’d contracted HIV after a sexual encounter. That’s no longer the case.
HAHN: We can very accurately detect the presence of HIV in patients about 10 days after HIV transmission occurs.
MCCLURG: She says requiring anything longer than 10 days without sex isn’t necessary. So back in Los Angeles, potential blood donor Samuel Garrett-Pate says it’s unfair that he and his boyfriend would have to wait.
GARRETT-PATE: Someone who’s just as sexually active but not a man having sex with men can walk into any blood bank in America and give blood.
MCCLURG: The FDA is considering swapping out the three-month celibacy requirement for a risk questionnaire. Donors would answer questions about their sexual activity. Anybody who is not monogamous, gay or straight, would have to wait. Garrett-Pate would gladly fill this out.
GARRETT-PATE: All any of us want to do in life is help other people, whether it’s donating blood, donating plasma. We’re holding them back from making an impact on the world.
MCCLURG: He says science should drive health policy, not homophobia. For NPR News, I’m Lesley McClurg in San Francisco.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — The LGBTQ community is hurting in so many ways in North Carolina. The pandemic has disproportionately impacted the community’s mental, physical and financial health. “We value you and you are of the human connectedness,” said Dr. Betsey Tilson, North Carolina’s state medical director. “All of our services are meant for all Carolinians. And we want to make sure people are getting the services they need.”
Dr. Tilson urging the community to get the vaccine when it’s their turn.
Assistant health secretary, Mark Benton, who is gay, echoed those same sentiments, “These are the moments we need you to step forward.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the LGBTQ community is likely to have preexisting conditions that complicate COVID-19:
1.55x more likely to have asthma
1.26x more likely to have cancer
1.5x more likely to have COPD
1.5x more likely to smoke
1.5x more likely to have kidney disease
Experts say the root cause of this problem comes from discrimination, stigma, isolation and homophobia, and the community’s medical distrust. All issues that Dr. Deanna Adkins, an associate professor of pediatrics at Duke Health and the director of Duke’s transgender health clinic, works to combat with her patients.
“We just don’t know where the disparities are going to pop up for this community,” Adkins said.
Advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign estimates compared to the general population, the LGBTQ community is 20% more likely to be underemployed due to the pandemic and 30% more likely to have lost their job because of COVID-19 than the general population.
The problem is even worse for queer people of color compared to others: HRC saw a 54% increase in LGBT people of color taking a pay cut this year, and 70 percent lost their job.
“The data showing that we’re impacted is only step one. Understanding why we’re impacted is step two: poverty, lack of access to health care, lack of access to housing, and then creating solutions that will directly address the health disparities,” said Alphonso David, president of HRC.
Here in North Carolina, Tilson says DHHS uses focus groups for marginalized people but says a deeper dive into the LGBTQ community is needed.
To reach this group Tilson says DHHS relies on their existing community partnerships.
And utilizing federally funded health centers that provide free access to health coverage.
Housing right now is the biggest challenge.
“One of the biggest things is trying to get people into safe places, especially now during the winter,” said Kori Hennessey, director of education and programs with LGBT Center of Raleigh. “Housing in general is really tough. There’s very particular spaces available to particular communities, but not necessarily to the LGBTQ community.”
Hennessey said the LGBT Center is working hard to connect people with grants and resources for housing, but they need support from the state and data collection to better help the community.
“Just in general, without data and research, you don’t really get the amount of resources that projects or populations that do have a lot of data and research get,” Hennessey said.
DHHS is collecting some COVID-19 data for the LGBTQ community. Tilson said that while the public facing dashboard only breaks down gender in terms of male or female COVID-19 cases, the state’s case investigation system does include transgender and gender non-conforming identities.
“Our numbers are pretty small right now so it really precludes us from doing meaningful analysis but we are collecting that,” Dr. Tilson said.
For information on how to get access to LGBTQ resources call 211.
For emotional support, everyone can call the Hopeline at 1-855-587-3463.
Change is in the air and how. While many countries have legalized the LGBTQ community and are being considered as a part of mainstream society, the food industry is not untouched. Popular YouTuber/comedian/activist Elijah Daniel recently announced the opening of a special burger chain, which has gone viral. On his official Twitter handle, he announced the launch of hamburgers of LGBTQA+ variety and is winning the hearts of millions. According to his post, all the sale proceeds of Gay Burgers restaurant will be donated to the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Daniel duly mentioned in the post that the burgers will be available in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Fransisco via DoorDash, Postmates, and GrubHub. Have a look at the post:
If you notice in the images, it’s a colorful and delectable Burger and that is what makes it different from others. All these burgers are enclosed in multi-colored rainbow wrappers which are symbolic of the LGTBQ community. What also made them popular on Twitter are the humorous titles given to each one of them. To name a few are, Love Me Daddy (a “studly beef daddy patty” topped with American cheese, pickles, white onion, lettuce, and special house sauce “gayoli”). I Like Chicks (fried chicken “daddy patty,” gayoli, mustard, lettuce, pickles), Gay Fries (“Fries but they’re gay, y’know?”), Extremely Gay Fries (your average gay fries plus caramelized onions, cheese, and bacon), and No More Milk Daddy (“vegan daddy patty,” sliced tomato, onion, pickles, lettuce).
Netizens took it in a good spirit and here how they responded to the viral tweet.
“I really wanna order some, but I’m all the way over in the East and at least a 12-hour drive from NYC. The food looks so good. Could beat Wendy’s alone on looks because I’ve found every other burger I’ve had from a well-known chain looks kinda small. These are packed.”
“Can you do a gay pizza next? The names for the burgers are epic and I’m now trying to picture the amazing names you would make for pizzas.”
Do you think it’s the time India should also introduce something on the same lines in the commercial market? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
Valentine’s Day this year will be unlike any in recent memory as coronavirus-related restrictions continue to limit what Americans can do to celebrate. But many Americans may still find special ways to mark the holiday with their loved ones or hop on a dating website or app to meet someone new. Here are five facts about relationships and dating in the United States, based mostly on Pew Research Center surveys and analyses conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pew Research Center conducted these studies as part of its continuing research on marriage and families, personal experiences with and attitudes toward dating and relationships, and the coronavirus outbreak. Most of the findings are based on a survey conducted Oct. 16-28, 2019, among 4,860 U.S. adults. This includes those who took part as members of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses, as well as respondents from the Ipsos KnowledgePanel who indicated that they identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB).
The finding on relationship satisfaction in 2020 compared with 2019 is based on two surveys: one conducted Oct. 13-19, 2020, among 10,332 U.S. adults and another conducted June 25-July 8, 2019, among 9,834 U.S. adults. All participants were members of the American Trends Panel.
Recruiting ATP panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole U.S. adult population (see our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling). To further ensure that each ATP survey reflects a balanced cross-section of the nation, the data are weighted to match the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.
Married and cohabiting adults are just as satisfied with their relationships as they were before the coronavirus outbreak.
The pandemic has reshaped many aspects of American life, and the relationship and dating landscape is no exception. Still, as of October 2020, adults who were married or living with a partner were just as likely to say they are satisfied with their relationship as they had been before the outbreak.
Despite stay-at-home orders and other pandemic-related restrictions that might have put a strain on many relationships, 53% of married or cohabiting adults said things in their marriage or relationship were going very well in 2020 – virtually unchanged from 54% in 2019.
Three-in-ten Americans had used a dating site or app as of 2019, and most said their experiences were positive. Some 30% of Americans said in October 2019 that they had ever used a dating site or app, though it remains to be seen if and how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted these figures.
There are some demographic differences in who uses online dating websites or apps, especially along age, sexual orientation and educational lines, according to the 2019 survey. About half (48%) of adults ages 18 to 29 said they had ever used a dating site or app, followed by 38% of adults ages 30 to 49. The shares were substantially smaller for older adults: 19% of adults 50 to 64 and 13% of those 65 and older said they had ever used a dating site or app. When it comes to sexual orientation, lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adults were about twice as likely as straight adults to say they had used a dating site or app (55% vs. 28%).
About six-in-ten online daters said their experience using these sites or apps had been very or somewhat positive, while 42% described their experiences as very or somewhat negative. Majorities of online dating users said it was at least somewhat easy to find people who they were physically attracted to (71%); shared their hobbies and interests (64%); seemed like someone they wanted to meet in person (64%); and were looking for the same kind of relationship (61%).
Single Americans said in 2019 that they were generally open to dating people from a variety of backgrounds, but some characteristics would give them pause.
In the 2019 survey, about half of single adults who were looking for a relationship said they would definitely or probably not consider seriously dating someone who lived far away (51%), had a significant amount of debt (49%) or had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 (47%).
Other items on the list of potential relationship deal-breakers included dating someone who was 10 years older (38%) or someone who was raising children from another relationship (36%). But majorities of single adults looking for a relationship were still open to dating someone with these characteristics.
Meanwhile, a significant majority of single adults who were looking for a relationship said they would definitely or probably date someone who was a different race or ethnicity (85%) or a different religion (77%) from them.
Most Americans said in 2019 that premarital and casual sex were at least sometimes acceptable, but sex on a first date and open relationships were seen as more taboo.
Around two-thirds of adults (65%) said sex between unmarried adults in a committed relationship is sometimes or always acceptable, while a slightly smaller share (62%) said the same about casual sex between consenting adults.
Open relationships – that is, committed relationships where both people agree that it is acceptable to date or have sex with other people – were viewed as the least acceptable behavior of those asked about in the survey, with 68% of adults saying this type of arrangement is rarely or never acceptable. Views on the exchange of explicit images between consenting adults were more evenly divided.
There were differences by sexual orientation in views of these relationship arrangements and behaviors. LGB adults, for example, were significantly more likely than straight adults (61% vs. 29%) to say that having an open relationship is always or sometimes acceptable. They were also more likely than their straight counterparts (74% vs. 47%) to say it is at least sometimes acceptable for two consenting adults to exchange explicit images of themselves. And while majorities of both LGB and straight adults said premarital and casual sex are acceptable, LGB adults were significantly more likely to say this. When it comes to premarital sex, 77% of LGB adults said it was acceptable, compared with 64% of straight adults, and the differences between these groups only increase for casual sex: 86% of LGB adults said it was acceptable, compared with 60% of straight adults.
As of 2019, single Americans ages 65 and older were less likely to be looking to date, but around a quarter had still tried online dating.Three-quarters of singles 65 and older said in 2019 that they were not looking for a date or a committed relationship. These older singles – the vast majority of whom were widowed or divorced – also were less likely than their younger counterparts to say they felt pressure to find a partner. Roughly two-in-ten said they felt pressure from society to be in a relationship (vs. 53% of 18- to 29-year-olds) or pressure from family members (vs. 47% of 18- to 29-year-olds).
Around a quarter (27%) of single Americans ages 65 and up said they had tried online dating at some point. Yet among all partnered adults, only 5% of those 65 and older said they found their spouse or partner online, compared with 21% of partnered adults 18 to 29. It was more common for partnered adults 65 and older to have met their spouse or partner in an offline setting, such as through family or friends (30%), work (20%) or school (15%).
Overall, 36% of Americans ages 65 and older were single in 2019, and among this group, women were much more likely than men to be single (49% vs. 21%).
In 2013, Sheri Holman had just turned 47 and her life was falling apart.
Raised in Virginia by a struggling single mom, Holman had bootstrapped herself through college to earn a theater degree, then moved to New York City to pursue acting. When that plan proved unworkable, Holman took a series of temp jobs in publishing, eventually becoming an assistant to an influential literary agent.
Throughout the early 1990s, when book advances were soaring, Holman wrote her first novel, “A Stolen Tongue.”Published to raves in 1997, the book built an audience for her 2000 bestseller, “The Dress Lodger.” In 2003, Holman’s “The Mammoth Cheese”wasa finalist for the Orange Prize. Secure in her work, she married a good guy with a real job. They bought a Victorian house in Brooklyn, had a daughter and then twin sons. Holman quit her job to write novels and mother full-time.
Slow-forward five years. One of Holman’s sons was battling cancer. Her marriage was over. Her third book was taking forever to complete. “Witches on the Road Tonight”was finally published in 2011, to disappointing sales, with the book advance money long gone.
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“My editor broke the news to me that publishers’ profits, and therefore advances, were down, so most novelists were going to need two jobs,” Holman recalled. “I’d earned $9,000 on my writing the year before …. I needed one job that paid enough to live on.” Then she heard from a novelist friend who’d moved to L.A. and was making “big bucks” in an HBO writers room. “I decided to teach myself to write for TV.”
Lacking a trust fund, savings or income, Holman sold the Victorian and squeezed her brood into a small, rented flat in a less gentrified neighborhood. There her vocational retraining began. “I spent 2013 watching and rewatching the pilot for ‘Six Feet Under,’ with my iPhone stopwatch marking every beat change,” Holman said. Using that template, she wrote a pilot based on her previous novel. It took 15 months to get it right.
In February 2014, NBCUniversal bought Holman’s pilot. With three days notice, the network flew her to Los Angeles for her apprenticeship: an entry-level spot in the writers room of a series called “Emerald City.” And just like that, Holman the novelist became Holman the TV writer.
Novelist and screenwriter Sheri Holman in Brookyn, NY., Holman was struggling as a novelist before she decided to learn how to write for Hollywood.
(Michael Nagle / For The Times)
As the financial rewards of writing books shrink and the need for streaming content continues to grow, more and more novelists are doing what Holman did, expanding their skill sets and their incomes by moving from page to screen (or writing for page and screen). In recent years, novelists have been warmly welcomed — in some cases, energetically recruited — into TV writers rooms. And as much as publishing has changed in the past two decades, television has changed even more.
“When I came into network TV in the 1990s, the execution of every show was baked in,” said veteran TV producer, director and writer Tom Spezialy, best known for his work on “Desperate Housewives”and“The Leftovers.” “The writer’s job was to make the script 90% familiar and 10% something new. Back then, all TV was network TV, and all network TV was formulaic. TV shows were plot-driven, not character-driven like novels. So the networks bought novels, not novelists; then they hired TV writers like me to translate those novels for the screen.”
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In the tradition of Hemingway’s advice on dealing with Hollywood — drive to the California border, throw your book over the fence and take the money Hollywood throws back — novelists were thrilled to cash the checks that TV producers were happy to write.
What changed? In a word: cable. The emergence of HBO original programming — beginning with “The Sopranos” in 1999 — set down a gauntlet for high art on the small screen, for prioritizing character over plot, for genre storytelling with literary flair. Eventually, along came “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men,” harbingers of the current era of glossy abundance, when even campy fare like “You” — itself based on a series of novels by Caroline Kepnes — comes dressed in bookish garb.
And who better to write novelistic television than novelists? Suddenly showrunners needed authors like Holman, skilled at creating complex contemporary characters. In exchange for a steady income, L.A. winters and health insurance, novelists were willing and able to learn the tricks required to do the TV writer’s job: how to share authorship in a writers room instead of dreaming up stories in solitude and how to spin a tight 42-minute arc instead of a meandering 400-page narrative.
“Screenwriters rely on behavior and image to communicate inner life,” said Dave Andron, showrunner of “Snowfall,” FX’s blistering depiction of the L.A. crack epidemic. “Novelists can tell you exactly what’s going on in a character’s mind.” TV, as we now know it, needs both.
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Charles Yu worked 18-hour days in a law firm while writing novels — before Hollywood called.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
In 2014, Charles Yu was working 18-hour days as in-house counsel for a Los Angeles tech firm, supporting his wife and two kids while writing on the side — successfully. At 38, he’d published two short story collections and a novel. When he was midway through drafting his second novel, “Interior Chinatown,”he learned he had important fans; the showrunners of HBO’s “Westworld” liked his fiction and wanted to interview him for a staff writer position. When Yu explained that he already had two full-time jobs, the showrunner said, “You should be writing full-time.” That was Yu’s last day as a lawyer.
“It still feels like a dream,” Yu said. “One day I’m an attorney. The next day I’m in a writers room in Burbank, eating free snacks and talking about robots and consciousness.”
To say the move worked out is an understatement. Yu has continued to work on TV series, from “Sorry for Your Loss” to “Here and Now.” As for “Interior Chinatown,” that novel he was working on, narrated by a Hollywood extra? It won the 2020 National Book Award for fiction.
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For Yu, this isn’t just creative success on parallel tracks but a single career in which one medium feeds the other. “I find myself trying to import skills and tools from scripts to novels and back again,” he said. “From TV I’ve learned about structure and outlining and how to thread multiple storylines through a longer work. Going in the other direction, I try to find ways to incorporate my voice, my tone and a sense of being experimental from my books into my TV projects.”
While Yu considers himself lucky, he also acknowledges the pressure of representing his ethnicity in both worlds. “Although I haven’t experienced overt discrimination in TV, in the six writers rooms I’ve been in, I’ve been the only Asian American writer.”
In his fiction, and in essays like a Time piece headlined “What It’s Like to Never See Yourself on TV,” Yu tackles the pitfalls of tokenism. “Interior Chinatown” cuts right to the heart of that question. Soon he will adapt the novel for Hulu, bringing his point of view before the masses. “Since I don’t write huge bestsellers,” he said, “television gives me a much bigger audience for my message.”
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The size of that audience is what moved Walter Mosley into TV writing. If there was a typical TV writer, which there isn’t, Mosley wouldn’t fit the profile. For starters, he’s 68 — as he puts it, “the oldest guy in every writers room.” Twenty-five years before Andron and John Singleton recruited him to write on “Snowfall” in 2014, Mosley was selling his novels to studios for screenwriters to adapt. “People ask how I feel about what Hollywood has done to my novels,” Mosley said. “I say, Hollywood hasn’t done anything to my novels. My novels are right here on the shelf.”
Another atypical thing about Mosley: he’s African American. A 2017 study of writers rooms found that 91% of showrunners and 86% of TV writers are white, while only 31% of white showrunners employ Black writers.
Unlike Holman and Yu, Mosley doesn’t work in television to underwrite his publishing career. “I’m not John Grisham,” he said, although he kind of is. He’s published more than 60 works of fiction and nonfiction, including 15 bestsellers, since he started writing one or two books per year at 34. “But I was doing fine just writing novels. Every once in a while, a producer has ideas I don’t find wonderful and I stop working with them.”
So why does Mosley bother with television writing at all? “TV is a far better delivery method for a social justice message than a book. For every 10 people who read one of my novels, a thousand people will watch one of my shows. My hope is, maybe a show will get them interested in my books. People watch TV and forget it. They don’t forget books.”
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Mosely said he learned to love TV writing from Singleton, his friend and mentor, who died in April 2019 while shooting “Snowfall’s” third season. “He wanted to talk about his community, his neighborhood, his people — to tell those stories as truthfully as he could.”
But Singleton was also realistic. “John understood the limitations of TV. You write the novel you want to read. But you have to write a show that a whole lot of people want to see. You have to try to get deeply into an idea in a room full of people with different points of view. John put a lot of people of color in the ‘Snowfall’ room — people who understand the issues of the show.”
Every morning now, Mosley sets his alarm for 5 a.m. and goes to work on his latest novel-in-progress. At 10 a.m., he logs into his writers room. “No matter how I spend my time, I’m still a novelist,” he concludes. “That’s what makes me happiest.”
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Walter Mosley, bestselling novelist and a writer on FX’s “Snowfall,” in Westwood in 2013.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Yu, Mosley and Holman all relied on luck or recognition to infiltrate TV writers rooms and on-the-job training to succeed in them. For the next round of transplants, the transition might be easier. As the novelist-TV-writer path becomes more traveled, it’s also becoming more professionalized. Since 2018, a select few of these crossover authors have been trained in a television writing program associated with the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
“We’ve had graduates living in Los Angeles, working successfully in TV, for decades,” said Lan Samantha Chang, the workshop’s director since 2005. “Now the university is making a more conscious effort to put students interested in television writing in touch with these alumni. For example, our alum Sarah Heyward wrote the episode of ‘Girls’ in which Hannah attends the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.”
Does Chang, a fiction writer herself, see the course as benefiting the writers’ books as well? “I see it happening more often the other way around,” she said. “A lot of our graduate students who’ve studied screenwriting or worked as screenwriters are yearning to become novelists. They’d rather work on their own than in a writers room. They’re interested in creating a sense of human consciousness as it’s developed in literature, more deeply than it can be represented on TV. So they take our TV course to help them develop the novelist’s skills.”
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Tom Perrotta could teach a master class in bouncing between media. Author of the novels “Little Children”and “Election,”both made into Oscar-nominated films, Perrotta saw his TV prospects soar when “The Leftovers”was adapted into an HBO series. One of that series’ lead producers was Spezialy. Recently, the two Toms collaborated on adapting Perrotta’s latest novel, “Mrs. Fletcher,” also for HBO.
“Most of my screenwriting work has been collaborative, which is nothing like the solitary labor of novel writing,” Perrotta said. “It’s the difference between being a singer/songwriter with an acoustic guitar and playing in the band. The band makes a bigger sound. But there’s a lot more interpersonal drama.”
Roxane Gay, the novelist, essayist and TV writer, notes another distinction. “Working in prose has taught me about telling a complete story, and pacing, and holding the reader’s interest,” she said. “Writing for the screen has taught me about how to think visually and how to sustain a viewer’s interest across time. But even though the rules of storytelling change across genres, the essence of storytelling remains the same.”
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Bestselling essayist and novelist Sloane Crosley, who has written several pilots and screenplays, sees the two modes as complementary. “It’s healthy to return to the novel from the screenwriting world, where every line is a workhorse,” she said. “It’s not a bad mentality for the novelist to have, should you ever be tempted to write an especially rambling description of summer light.”
If TV writing is becoming second nature to a subset of novelists, their presence in the room is also becoming something of a given for a younger generation of showrunners.
“I’ve had the most positive experience working with novelists in television,” said 34-year-old Kit Steinkellner, who sold her first pilot to Showtime in 2016. In 2018 the pilot became “Sorry for Your Loss,” the Facebook Watch series on which Charles Yu was a staff writer. “A novelist spends years diving deep into a character’s soul. That’s a superpower in a writers room. I’ve also been struck by novelists’ superhuman patience. With the length of time it takes to write a book, an author needs that skill to stay sane.”
Which is not to say that Steinkellner would want an entire room full of authors. “Novelists aren’t accustomed to the conversation-centric, hypersocial nature of a writers room,” she said. “But when I’m staffing a writers room, I’m looking for writing that sets my heart ablaze. If the choice is between taking a chance on a novelist whose work I love versus an established TV writer whose work and presence in the room leave me cold, I go with the novelist every time.”
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Mimi Leder, Tom Perrotta, center, and Damon Lindelof, producers of the HBO series “The Leftovers” in 2017.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
Seven years and as many writers rooms later, Holman reflects on the pros and cons of her midlife reinvention. “I love the collaborative storytelling in the writers room. I love the money. The pace. The people. And this cannot be overstated: For the first time in my life, I have health insurance.”
That benefit became a lifesaver in March, when a severe case of COVID-19 left Holman fevered and gasping for breath, too weak to leave her bed. Her coverage with the Writers Guild of America paid her medical bills, which totaled thousands of dollars.
Holman’s three kids — all now hale and hearty — rallied around her, spoon-feeding her soup, changing sweat-soaked sheets and making pharmacy runs. After she recovered, Holman found that one of the hardships of the switch-hitting author’s/screenwriter’s life — the constant travel, the broken-up school years, the time apart from family — had been swept away. “All the writers rooms are on Zoom, now,” she said, “so I can go from show to show without leaving home.”
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What about the pilot she sold her house to write all those years ago? Holman sighs. The show was never made. Which is one reason she still spends nights and weekends trying to finish a new novel.
“If publishing houses offered health insurance,” Holman said, “ I’d stay a novelist the rest of my life.”
After a year defined by a pandemic and professional struggles, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi say their relationship is stronger than ever.
The two women grace one of three different covers of People magazine’s first-ever Love Issue, honoring famous couples who’ve stayed together despite the odds, this week. In the accompanying interview, de Rossi explained how the pair met backstage at a 2001 concert and, though she thought DeGeneres was “the coolest, most fascinating, beautiful, funniest person I’ve ever met,” she opted against pursuing a romance as she had yet to come to terms with her true self.
“I just knew that being with her would be a bit of a thing for me, so we didn’t get together after that for about three years,” the actor, whose credits include “Arrested Development” and “Nip/Tuck,” explained.
Things changed, however, when they reconnected at an event in 2004. The women began dating shortly thereafter and made their first public appearance together at a Golden Globes after-party that same year. Four years later, they tied the knot in Los Angeles.
“I just got to a point where I chose love over anything else. This was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling,” de Rossi said. “And Ellen really did help me through it just by being there and making me feel more comfortable about who I am — like there was nothing wrong with being gay. I think that’s the first time in my life I felt that was true.”
As is the case for many couples, however, 2020 brought its share of unexpected challenges. DeGeneres has been making visible efforts to rebuild her image since launching Season 18 of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in September of last year.
Months earlier, the daytime talk show was at the epicenter of controversy after BuzzFeed published two lengthy articles in current and former “Ellen” staffers alleged they’d been subjected to behind-the-scenes intimidation, racism and sexual misconduct.
And in December, DeGeneres tested positive for COVID-19 a little more than two months after resuming in-studio tapings of the show. Speaking to People this week, she credited De Rossi with having been a source of strength amid a turbulent year.
“I couldn’t have gone through everything I went through without her,” DeGeneres said. “It was a horrible time in my life, and she was a rock. She kept me going and tried to help me put things in perspective.”
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LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Poland’s “LGBT-free zones” – nearly 100 regions, towns and cities that have passed anti-gay resolutions – could encourage hate crime and spur violence, according to a European human rights body.
The European Union has also criticised the zones, which began appearing in 2019 when Poland’s nationalist government started campaigning against the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“These resolutions are part of a broader attack against the LGBT community in Poland, which include growing hate speech by public and elected officials and public media,” the report said.
The 94 local authorities have all passed resolutions opposing “LGBT ideology” – something Poland says has no legal ramifications – or have signed a “family charter”, which activists says only supports heterosexual, married couples.
Advocates say the “LGBT-free zones” have bred violence, including attacks on two Pride marches in 2019, and contributed to poor mental health among young, LGBT+ Poles.
On Wednesday, a local-government body representing 820 million Europeans in 47 countries added its critique in a report for the Council of Europe, the continent’s main human rights body.
“By naming people as an ideology, they dehumanise them,” said Andrew Boff, who co-wrote the report for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
“This then gives rise to violence and discrimination against that community … What other reason is there for these resolutions?” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Polish officials did not respond to requests for comment.
International pressure is growing on Poland’s nationalist government, with regions that oppose “LGBT ideology” labelled “humanity-free zones” by EU president Ursula von der Leyen.
Reported hate crimes against LGBT+ people more than doubled to 150 in 2019, according to official data cited in the report. Only 16% of Polish LGBT+ people reported the latest homophobic attack they had suffered to police, a 2020 EU survey found.
Poland says the local resolutions have no legal standing.
“(They) are only opinions and do not affect rights and obligations of the residents,” Poland’s minister of funds and regional policy, Malgorzata Jarosinska-Jedynak, said in an October letter to Norwegian officials.
Some countries and international organisations have suspended funding for the conservative southern and eastern Polish regions that passed the resolutions.
Norway has suspended 3.5 million euros ($4.2 million) of funding for two cultural projects. In July, the EU rejected six applications for town-twinning grants of up to 25,000 euros from such authorities.
($1 = 0.8246 euros)
Reporting by Rachel Savage @rachelmsavage; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org
Los Cabos Wins Gay Travel Award in Beach Category | JW Marriott Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa Wins “Family” | Hilton Los Cabos Beach and Golf Resort Wins “Golf”
It’s very gratifying to win, especially now during these uncertain times…Cabo San Lucas has always represented resilience, beauty, and strength.”
— Cynthia Ontiveros, Special Segment Manager at Visit Los Cabos
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA, USA, February 9, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — Los Cabos sweeps 3 out of 23 categories in the 2020 Gay Travel Awards℠. Now in its fifth year, the global competition presented by gaytravel.com announced winners from among hundreds of LGBTQ-friendly and inclusive finalists. Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a record year for voter participation, indicating that travel is still top-of-mind for LGBTQ travelers.
GayTravel’s Chief Visionary Officer, Steve Rohrlick, said: “The goal of the GayTravel Awards is to recognize achievement among inclusive travel-related companies and destinations. The awards serve to inspire other companies and brands to embrace a spirit of diversity and LGBTQ inclusiveness. Each of Los Cabos’ three winners epitomizes these values, and on behalf of GayTravel.com, we congratulate them!”
Cynthia Ontiveros, Special Segment Manager at Visit Los Cabos, commented: “It’s very gratifying to win, especially now during these uncertain times. Cabo San Lucas has always represented resilience, beauty, and strength — manifested by Los Cabos’ iconic ‘El Arco’ (the arch-shaped rock formation carved out by the force of where the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico meet). Winning the 2020 Gay Travel Award for “Beach Destination” reminds us that we’ll get through this.”
JW Marriott Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa was crowned victorious among seven finalists as the “Family” category winner. “Family is an integral part of the Mexican culture, and welcoming LGBT families is a special honor. JW Los Cabos Beach Resort is one of those magical places where families create vacation memories that last generations,” said Miguel Mestas, General Manager.
The third win for Los Cabos went to Hilton Los Cabos Beach and Golf Resort, prevailing among seven finalists in the “Golf” category. “We are extremely honored to be recognized by our LGBTQ guests,” said Hilton Los Cabos General Manager Sergio Bocci. “It’s a true testament to our amazing staff and elevated resort offerings, combined with our awe-inspiring desert golf course overlooking the dazzling Sea of Cortez. We look forward to serving LGBTQ travelers for years to come!”
About Los Cabos: Los Cabos, located at the tip of the 1,000-mile-long Baja Peninsula, is one of the world’s most diverse tourism destinations. Boasting a dramatic desert backdrop nestled by coastlines of the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez and the iconic Arch at Land’s End, Los Cabos is home to award-winning resorts and culinary offerings considered some of the finest available anywhere. A growing list of championship golf courses, rejuvenating spas, world-renowned sport fishing tournaments and state of the art convention facilities add to the destination’s unmatched appeal. For more information, images, and videos from Los Cabos, please visit visitloscabos.travel, follow on Twitter @LOSCABOSTOURISM and visit Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
Media Contact: Andrea Romero, Andrea.romero@ogilvy.com, Tel: + (917) 679-5826
About JW Marriott Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa: Situated in the upscale Puerto Los Cabos community, JW Marriott Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa is located within the dunes of the pristine coast of the Baja peninsula, where the desert meets the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. Inspired by the desert’s local traditions and spirit, Olson’s design seamlessly blends architecture, art, and nature. JW Marriott is part of Marriott International’s luxury portfolio and consists of beautiful properties in gateway cities and distinctive resort locations worldwide. These elegant hotels cater to today’s sophisticated, self-assured travelers, offering them the quiet luxury they seek in a warmly authentic, relaxed atmosphere lacking in pretense. JW Marriott properties artfully provide highly crafted, anticipatory experiences that are reflective of their locale so that their guests have the time to focus on what is most important to them. Visit online at https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sjdjw-jw-marriott-los-cabos-beach-resort-and-spa/ on @JWLosCabos on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
About Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort: Overlooking the sparkling Sea of Cortez, the iconic yet refined Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort is located between San Jose del Cabo and downtown Cabo San Lucas. It boasts one of the only swimmable beaches in Los Cabos. Learn more by visiting newsroom.hilton.com/hhr and following Hilton Hotels & Resorts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
About GayTravel.com: GayTravel connects the LGBTQ community with gay-friendly destinations, hotels, cruises, tours, events, entertainment, attractions, clubs, and restaurants worldwide. Their mission is to provide the community with safe, welcoming, and curated recommendations to ensure that every vacation is pleasurable and memorable. Wherever the journey ends, it begins with GayTravel.com. For additional information, visit GayTravel.com or call (800) GAY-TRAVEL or follow @GayTravel on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Over the past decade, Latin America has been celebrated globally as a standout in the recognition of LGBTQ+ rights. As early as 2008, the 34 member countries of the Organization of American States unanimously adopted a resolution condemning human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and in 2010, Argentina became the tenth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Some of the region’s most populous countries followed suit by enacting similarly progressive laws and collectively advocating for LGBTQ+ protections in international forums.
However, the quest to secure greater protections for LGBTQ+ people in Latin America has lost momentum, raising questions about the likelihood of additional advancements and even the sustainability of the progress made. Backlash from social and religious conservatives and the COVID-19 pandemic have given way to unique challenges facing this vulnerable population. What’s more, some Latin American governments have pursued hostile legal frameworks concerning LGBTQ+ citizens—jeopardizing lives and stonewalling ongoing efforts to expand protections for this community.
Despite these setbacks, activists and rights groups have continued to organize and educate on behalf of LGBTQ+ rights. And now, with new leadership in Washington, many across the region hope that U.S. partnership can help revitalize their efforts to put an end to violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics throughout Western Hemisphere.
Latin America’s Moment
Latin America’s Moment analyzes economic, political, and social issues and trends throughout the Western Hemisphere. Monthly.
One Leap Forward, Two Steps Back
Legal recognition of same-sex marriage has stalled in Latin America. After Argentina passed marriage equality, same-sex marriage became legal in Brazil and Uruguay (in 2013) and Colombia (in 2016). This regional progress culminated in a January 2018 landmark ruling, in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled that parties to the American Convention on Human Rights—more than twenty countries in the hemisphere—are obligated to ensure same-sex marriage rights. Yet since this ruling, only two additional nations in the Americas—Costa Rica and Ecuador—have complied. In Bolivia, the La Paz departmental court granted a single same-sex civil union in December 2020 after a lengthy legal battle, but higher courts have yet to rule on the matter nationwide.
Meanwhile, other governments in the region have placed obstacles in the way of progress, driven by a desire to shore up electoral support and popular approval by courting conservative and religious movements opposed to the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights. Elected officials in Central America are especially beholden to these voting blocs and have failed to put an end to anti-LGBTQ+ persecution. In Guatemala, a congressional commission recently sought to remove the country’s ombudsman for human rights for his statements supporting LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access.
In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele, despite an earlier pledge to be “on the right side of history” on LGBTQ+ rights, has come out in opposition to marriage equality and discontinued the government’s sexual diversity work. And just last month in Honduras, the legislature approved a constitutional amendment that requires a three-fourths majority to overturn the country’s existing constitutional ban on marriage equality and abortion, making the reforms encouraged by the IACHR ruling increasingly unlikely. Even in Brazil, where the country’s courts have elevated LGBTQ+ issues, President Jair Bolsonaro has fueled social divisions with homophobic rhetoric, prompting rights groups to worry that he will use judicial appointments to chip away at existing laws.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, which represents nearly a third of all deaths attributable to the disease worldwide, has also intensified the stigmatization of LGBTQ+ individuals. LGBTQ+ people already report a higher prevalence of underlying health conditions, but some government policies have heightened the community’s vulnerability, particularly for those who do not identify with their gender assigned at birth. In Peru, Panama, and Colombia, governments have imposed gender-based curfews to combat the spread of the virus, allowing men and women to leave their dwellings on alternate days of the week. For transgender individuals, local laws often make changing their gender on legal documents difficult or impossible.
Consequently, many transgender citizens have been turned away from buying essential goods, received heavy fines, or been arrested for complying with the curfew according to their identified gender. The gender-based restrictions have reportedly contributed to an uptick in violence toward the transgender community, prompting the IACHR to issue a statement urging the Panamanian government to halt such discrimination.
U.S. Leadership: Corralling Regional Consensus
No matter these hurdles, activists across Latin America have continued to fight anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination through legal challenges. But regional cooperation—and even pressure—will be key to advancing their cause. President Biden—who recently announced his administration’s efforts to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals worldwide—can do much to help reinvigorate consensus.
First, the upcoming Summit of the Americas provides an unparalleled opportunity for the new administration to reiterate Biden’s policy to end violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics. This includes leveraging aid to encourage the implementation of the 2018 IACHR ruling on same-sex marriage.
Second, the U.S. government could use the framework announced in its latest executive order on migration to provide financial and technical assistance to regional civil society organizations that work on behalf of LGBTQ+ individuals who face employment discrimination and legal barriers to accessing services, including unemployment benefits and public health relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Third, supporting local judicial officials in the investigation and prosecution of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes would raise the profile of the community’s heightened susceptibility to violence. Likewise, U.S. refugee and asylum policy should reflect this reality. The Donald Trump administration gutted refugee quotas and sought to raise barriers for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. The restoration of previous standards can serve as a lifeline not only to threatened individuals in Latin America but also to others facing danger elsewhere on the globe.
