Cary Grant’s most prized possession was either his father’s pocket watch, or a gold chain that he wore around his neck that held one of Jennifer’s baby teeth in Lucite, and three charms that represented the three religions of his four ex-wives: a St. Christopher medal from the Catholic Virginia Cherrill, a small cross representing the Protestant religions of Barbara Hutton and Betsy Drake, and a […]
LGBT
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Once The Haunting of Bly Manor’s narrator (Carla Gugino) has finished her long, spooky story, a listener approaches her with some edits. “I liked your story,” she says. “But I think you set it up wrong. You said it was a ghost story. It isn’t. It’s a love story.” It’s a moment that reads as a wink from creator Mike Flanagan to fans of his first […]
Arguably the most difficult facet of prosecuting a serial killer case concerns the issue of insanity, since anyone who commits unspeakable atrocities must, in some respect, be out of his or her mind—and thus potentially innocent of premeditation, or able to know right from wrong. That question was essential in the trial of Dennis Nilsen, a Scottish-born resident of London who, in early 1983, was arrested […]
The pioneering journalist Monica Roberts, whose influential blog TransGriot reports on the murders of trans women alongside other news of importance to the trans community, has died, according to multiple sources on social media and news outlets. The award winning Roberts was an inspiration to many LGBTQ activists, campaigners and journalists, who took to Twitter and Facebook to express their grief and shock Thursday night. In […]
If you think same-sex marriage isn’t in danger of being overturned, Justice Clarence Thomas would like you to think again. Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, today published a blistering attack on the Supreme Court’s landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state bans on same-sex marriage in 2015, arguing that it should be overturned. Thomas’s opinion is not a court decision, and has […]
This piece was originally published in Coda Story’s Disinformation channel. Justyna Szpanowska was cycling through Warsaw in mid-August, when she heard what, at first, sounded like a coronavirus public safety announcement. As she got closer to its source, she realized it was nothing of the sort. Following the sound, she came across a truck slowly making its way down a busy road in the city center. […]
This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here. This week: Me: Cast gay actors in gay roles!!! Also me: Unless it is Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth in this movie that will absolutely destroy me!!! I can’t explain why […]
In 2013, J.K. Rowling explained how she chose her now-controversial pseudonym, “Robert Galbraith.” The first name, she said, was a nod to her political hero, Robert Kennedy. And the last name? “When I was a child, I really wanted to be called Ella Galbraith, I’ve no idea why.” It’s a charming anecdote—but unfortunately, Rowling shares her pseudonym with real-life psychiatrist Robert Galbraith Heath, who in the […]
This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here. The Kardashians Have Been Caught Up With What happens when the TV show that, for more than a decade, was proclaimed the death of culture, art, and civilized society as we […]
The restoration of director Claire Denis’ 1999 film Beau Travail, overseen by cinematographer Agnès Godard and approved by Denis, as well as its entry into the prestigious Criterion Collection, comes at a time when non-dominant visions of the world are still largely excluded from validating institutions. We hear these words spoken again and again, but they don’t seem to sink in. As marginalized groups see their […]
On a nondescript April night in 1990, 21-year-old Dale Wayne Sigler walked into a Brazoria County, Texas, Subway shop and robbed it of $400. When the man behind the counter, John William Zeltner Jr., attempted to flee into the back room, he was shot six times. The “overkill” nature of the crime implied that the two weren’t mere strangers, and the ensuing revelation that Sigler knew […]
A pool boy allegedly fucked his wife as he sat, watched, and enjoyed every second. For such a virulently anti-gay, Christian conservative, props to Jerry Falwell Jr. for at least serving up a note of pure Jackie Collins camp in the scandal that has led to his reported resignation as president of Liberty University, although on Monday night he claimed to be on “indefinite leave.” “Becki […]
As the curtain rises on the Republican National Convention, LGBTQ organizations are pushing back on the Trump campaign’s newest attempt to woo queer voters. The president’s campaign is calling Trump “the strongest ally that gay Americans have ever had in the White House,” but a new ad produced by GLAAD says otherwise. The anti-Trump advertisement, which will target Fox News voters the week of the convention, […]
Any ‘Gay and Lesbian History’ college course will dive into closeted white suburban gay male representations. In fact, this group of men, sneaking around in mid-century America, have received a fair bit of Hollywood attention in recent years. There was fashion designer Tom Ford’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s haunting novel A Single Man, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Oscar vehicle The Imitation Game, and Luca Guadagnino’s take on André […]
The thing about being out as transgender is that everyone—and I do mean everyone—thinks they can freely express an opinion about your identity, how well you “pass” for the gender with which you identify, and even your existence. And they expect you to defend it. No, expect is the wrong word; they demand it. Case in point, Dr. Rachel Levine. She’s the pediatrician who is the […]
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Dozens of young people were singing lyrics by a local band on Palace Square: “We’ll be together, like Sid and Nancy, we’ll never live long enough to be pensioners.” The warm July night was young. In spite of the dark context of the song, people looked happy. The wind played with a young woman’s rainbow-dyed hair, while she was kissing her girlfriend. That scene was […]
Russia’s foreign ministry has sent notices of protest to the Moscow embassies of the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, after the three buildings flew rainbow flags in June, recognized in some countries as LGBT Pride Month. Embassy staff of the three nations violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, as well as Russian law, according to Vasily Piskarev, who heads Russia’s commission investigating foreign interference. […]
A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video. Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s […]
It was over 10 years ago that Nathaniel Nicco Annan, who goes by Nicco, first read early pages for the play Pussy Valley by Katori Hall, the 2015 debut of which he would go on to star in at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. But it was only two weeks ago that Annan’s character, Uncle Clifford, made her fabulous screen debut in the groundbreaking drama […]
When activist Bartosz Staszewski was invited to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda a few weeks ago, he tried to make Duda look at three portraits: one was of a young trans activist called Milo who’d jumped off a bridge in Warsaw last year; the other pictures were of two boys, Dominic and Kacper, who’d hanged themselves after becoming victims of homophobic bullying at school. Staszewski […]
Seven Russian senators have introduced a package of bills that would prohibit same-sex marriage, ban gay couples from adopting children, and prevent people from getting married after gender reassignment. Led by Senator Elena Mizulina, the head of the Senate’s committee on updating the country’s ‘Family Code’, the proposals follow in the footsteps of Russia’s constitutional amendments which officially defined marriage as a union between a man […]
It’s rare when you can actually witness the moment on screen when a talent steps into their star status, the spark that sets the marquee ablaze as they, in the exact right role with the exact right material, ascend to their talent’s full potential. You saw that moment with Naya Rivera. If you watched Glee you know exactly what we’re talking about, because you didn’t just […]
People might debate whether The Old Guard is a superhero movie, what with its blessed existence outside the Marvel-DC dick-measuring contest and not a swatch of spandex to be found. To me, the film is as if the Avengers and the Justice League met up with the Fantastic Four and teamed up with the X-Men. It did the thing the superheroes movies are supposed to do—present […]
The final round of Poland’s presidential election, which is being held Sunday, has been dominated by incumbent President Andrzej Duda’s efforts to mobilize voters against the country’s LGBTQ people. It has been a very ugly campaign, with the groundwork carefully laid. “Ordo Iuris takes the homophobic sentiments from the streets and translates them into law.” Hubert Sobecki, who has been an activist for LGBTQ rights in […]
A school in Russia’s second-largest city has turned to the police after a rainbow flag was hung from a school flagpole during exam period. The LGBT pride banner is highly controversial in modern-day Russia. The leadership of St. Petersburg school number 511 contacted law enforcement on July 9 after two students raised the flag outside the building. According to the online publication Paper, two girls hung […]
Of course Reverend Troy Perry is a preacher. He sounds like one. His voice booms smoothly. His Southern accent remains in place, despite years of Californian living. More than one sentence ends with a “And I will tell you…” On July 27th, Perry will celebrate his 80th birthday, and there’s a long, dramatic life to look back on which at its heart is about how one […]
Did we all learn nothing from Scarlett Johansson? Over the weekend Halle Berry discussed a new role she’s been eyeing—which happens to be a trans man. The entertainment industry and critics have discussed the issues with casting cisgender people to play transgender roles for years, so at this point it’s hard to imagine how anyone could have missed the memo. But beyond that, Berry also repeatedly […]
Joanne Rowling, the legendary author of the Harry Potter series, is currently facing a new backlash over her views on transgender issues which started in the beginning of June after she pointed out, in response to a Devex article, that “people who menstruate” can be simply called ‘women’. She was soon accused of transphobia for her views. JK Rowling was called a “threat to LGBT people” […]
If the sky is the limit, as the saying goes, a striking performance this weekend will harness those lofty ambitions quite literally. “In Plain Sight” is a complex and politically-charged nationwide choreography that involves skytyping powerful phrases, selected by 80 artists and activists, across the United States. With a sense of irony and provocation, the performance is timed with Independence Day weekend on July 3rd and […]
It is an unspeakably awkward time to be promoting a TV show. On the one hand, hundreds of people work hard on any given series. That work deserves to be recognized and publicized, so that audiences actually watch the damn thing and those people can stay employed. At the same time, how can an actor justifiably giggle through stories about backstage shenanigans and what it’s like […]
Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of lower Manhattan on Sunday for the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, a rallying cry against police violence that combined the spirit of Pride with the ongoing calls of the Black Lives Matter movement. Late afternoon reports on social media showed disturbing moments of confrontation after a largely peaceful march, with the police pushing through […]
by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio for VT Italy For the Court of Cassation there were not enough elements to put the Mayor of Bibbiano Alberto Carletti under house arrest, but for the Prosecutor of the Republic of Reggio Emilia there are enough to ask for his indictment for crimes of false and abuse of office. Andrea Carletti, Mayor of Bibbiano indicted for false and abuse of […]
On Thursday night’s episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, Sen. Kamala Harris shocked viewers and host Andy Cohen by revealing she already thought of a slogan: “I’ll give you my opinion, but my beliefs are not up for debate.” OK, the current frontrunner to be Joe Biden’s democratic running mate wasn’t exactly talking about a vice-presidential campaign. She was taking part in the Bravo talk […]