An article from AfterElton

[Source]

Director of "Twelve Thirty" Says Jonathan Groff Couldn't Be More Believable Playing Straight
Posted by Michael Jensen, Editor on January 8, 2011

In an interview with Gay City News, Jeff Lipsky, the straight writer and director of the new drama Twelve Thirty, says out Broadway star Jonathan Groff is completely believable as a straight man. Says Lipsky:

"I'd not heard of Groff before casting," he said. "I saw 'Spring Awakening' after he left the cast. 'Taking Woodstock' was released after we cast 'Twelve Thirty.' Then 'Glee' came along. I didn't know of his fandom gathering critical mass. When I met and auditioned him, called him back, cast the film, and directed him, I had no idea he was gay. If he came out before the movie, I can't say if I would cast him or not. But I can't imagine another actor, straight or gay, who could be more believable or plausible."

The movie opens in New York next Friday and even though The Hollywood Reporter didn't particularly care for it, Groff is the only actor the reviewer did like.

Here is the movie's trailer.

I guess I don't like his quote, which I coloured in red. Jonathan was brilliant also in Glee.

An article from GLAAD, Take action now!

[Source]

Tell CNN to Make a New Year's Resolution:
Keep Away From the Anti-Gay Industry

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

TAKE ACTION NOW!

CNN has long been one of America's most respected journalistic organizations on many issues, but for several years, it has had a giant blind spot when it comes to issues that impact the LGBT community. On December 21, John King USA ran a segment featuring Peter Sprigg from Family Research Council, but there are countless other examples. Out of a desire for 'balance' on these issues, CNN turned - as they often do - to the anti-gay industry to provide the counterpoint. Except all too frequently, the network doesn't book these people because they provide any actual expertise or experience on issues that impact LGBT people; their only qualification is that they are anti-gay.

We're all familiar with New Year's Resolutions – things we pledge to do to improve ourselves in the coming year. The new year is a fresh start; achance to start anew, down a better, healthier path. Most of us have a vice or two we'd like to give up, a few pounds we'd love to shed, or an area of our lives that we need to organize.

Just like us – the media needs to do a little housecleaning. Namely, it's time for outlets to finally drop several hundred pounds of unhealthy weight, which they've been carrying around for years, in the form of anti-gay activists.

During that John King segment on the pending repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and its implementation, King featured openly gay former service member Alex Nicholson, alongside Sprigg, who is a "senior fellow for policy studies" at the Family Research Council.

Nicholson's qualifications were clear. As an openly gay, former Army intelligence officer, he gave firsthand accounts of how the policy played out in the day-to-day lives of gay and lesbian service members.Sprigg's qualifications, however, came exclusively from his job at the Family Research Council. There, Sprigg has worked to advance some of the most hurtful, dangerous, and demonstrably false notions about the lives of LGBT people that our country has seen in recent years. And yet, by pairing him with Nicholson in this segment, CNN told its millions of viewers that both of these men should be seen as equally valuable to this discussion.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Is it important for the media to take these groups on? Of course it is. But that's not what CNN and other media organizations are doing when it invites these groups to take part in otherwise reasonable discussions. The media is elevating their hurtful messages and attitudes to the level of rational discourse. The media is saying that people like Alexander Nicholson, who can speak to real-life experience and firsthand facts, need to be "balanced" by people like Peter Sprigg, whose claim to fame is arguing that being gay should be outlawed. If CNN wants to interview a gay person who believes being straight should be outlawed, THEN Peter Sprigg would be an acceptable "balance."

CNN and the rest of the media are doing nothing but exposing their viewers to dangerous anti-gay rhetoric when they invite members of these anti-gay groups onto their programming. Starting in 2011, this needs to stop.

Many of us who make New Year's Resolutions can run into trouble figuring out where to start. So the attached petition makes this a very, very easy resolution to keep. Tell the media that if they can't find someone who isn't part of the anti-gay industry to discuss an issue that involves the LGBT community, then the "other side" of that issue isn't one worth hearing.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Weir comes out in new book, says he loves his life

[Source]

365 Gay: News
Weir comes out in new book, says he loves his life
By The Associated Press
01.07.2011 10:00am EST

(New York) Never a fan of labels, Johnny Weir is giving himself one: He's gay.
The figure skater comes out in his new book, “Welcome to My World,” but said in an excerpt published in the Jan. 17 issue of People magazine that being gay “is the smallest part of what makes me me.”

“I'm not ashamed to be me,” Weir wrote. “More than anyone else I know, I love my life and accept myself. What's wrong with being unique? I am proud of everything that I am and will become.”

Weir's autobiography will be released Tuesday. He starts a book tour in New York the same day.

The three-time U.S. champion is one of skating's most colorful, oversized and popular personalities, and he enjoys challenging convention. He once posed for a photo shoot in a skirt and stilettos, and was targeted by animal-rights activists after adding white fox fur to one of costumes at last year's U.S. championships.
But he repeatedly avoided questions about his sexual orientation, saying he didn't want to be defined by labels. After broadcasters on French-language RDS made derogatory comments about Weir's masculinity during last year's Vancouver Olympics, the skater again refused to answer the question, saying he wanted people to see him “for who I am, not what I am.”

“All the gay websites couldn't figure out why I was such a jerk that I wouldn't talk about it,” Weir wrote. “But pressure is the last thing that would make me want to ‘join' a community. … The massive backlash against me in the gay media and community only made me dig my ‘closeted' heels in further.”

Asked why he decided to come out now, Weir told People he never felt he was in the closet. His parents have always supported him, and his sexual orientation is “not an issue” with his family. But Weir knows that isn't the case for everyone, particularly teenagers.

“With people killing themselves and being scared into the closet, I hope that even just one person can gain strength from my story,” Weir told People.

In his book, Weir said he realized “there was something different about me” as a 6-year-old when he watched “Pretty Woman” and was attracted to Richard Gere. He writes about being picked on by students in middle school after he started skating, and finding a haven at the ice rink.

“By puberty, I knew that I was gay,” he wrote. “But I didn't worry about it much. As a serious skater, I was way too busy.”

Weir, who is currently in Russia, is taking the year off from competition. But he hasn't ruled out returning in hopes of making a run at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

Does Hollywood shut out gay actors?

An article from guardian.co.uk

[Source]

Hollywood studios 'won't cast gay actors in gay roles'

Newsweek writer Ramin Setoodeh reignites row over sexuality in the film industry, saying gay actors are shut out

Ben Child
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 4 January 2011 12.11 GMT

Playing it gay ... Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris.
Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

A US commentator has reignited a row over gay actors in Hollywood after claiming that studios shut out stars who make their sexuality public.

Newsweek writer Ramin Setoodeh was widely vilified in April when he wrote a piece claiming that openly gay TV star Sean Hayes, best known for his role as the flamboyant Jack in Will and Grace, did not make a convincing straight character in the Broadway play Promises, Promises. In a new article, Setoodeh, who is himself gay, suggests that gay men are not even able to play gay roles because Hollywood prefers to hand them to straight actors.

"The lovable lesbian wives in The Kids Are All Right were played by the heterosexual actresses Annette Bening and Julianne Moore," writes Setoodeh. "The quirky couple in I Love You Phillip Morris were portrayed by straight men Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.

"You could say that's why it's called 'acting'. But that's little comfort to gay actors, who are routinely shut out of the studio system, even though Hollywood is supposedly one of the most 'gay-friendly' towns. Movies need to attract the broadest possible audience, and film-makers worry that if they cast a gay person as a romantic lead, audiences will be too grossed out. Instead, straight actors get the roles, and everybody talks about how brave they are."

Setoodeh's comments echo recent remarks made by the British actor Rupert Everett, who said that he had been completely shut out of Hollywood since coming out. Speaking on Radio 4, Everett praised Colin Firth's portrayal of a gay man in last year's A Single Man, but said such casting choices left actors such as himself with limited opportunities.

"A lot of straight actors are actively searching for gay roles because it is something different to do," he said. "I think that's fine, but that does mean the gay actor who used to just get to play the gay part – like me – has been reduced to drag, really."

Richard Chamberlain, star of the 1970s Three Musketeers films and The Man in the Iron Mask, as well as a teen idol as Dr Kildare in his younger days, recently warned gay actors against coming out. Chamberlain, who announced that he was gay in a 2003 autobiography, said: "I wouldn't advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out. There is still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. It's regrettable, stupid, heartless and immoral, but there it is."

Marriage Equality

Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson for Marriage Equality

It's too late though, I found this clip today, because I'm not a big fan of PH. Anyway Jesse talks about marriage equality.

Danny Miller on Paul O'grady's Christmas