GOP Senators Roger Marshall, Mike Lee, Mike Braun, Steve Daines and Kevin Cramer signed and sent the letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board board’s chairman Charles Rivkin demanding an update its rating system to warn parents if a show contains an LGBT+ character.
“In recent years, concerning topics of a sexual nature have become aggressively politicized and promoted in children’s programming, including irreversible and harmful experimental treatments for mental disorders like gender dysphoria,” the letter reads. To this end, we strongly urge you to update the TV Parental Guidelines and ensure they are up-to-date on best practices that help inform parents on this disturbing content.This radical and sexual sensation not only harms children but also destabilizes and damages parental rights,” the letter continued. “
The TV ratings system was adopted in conjunction with the so-called V-chip, which is required in all TV sets built since 2000 and allows parents to block programming
Since GLBT news is scarce over this time of year we thought it might be time to dig into the vaults and pull out some holiday nostalgia of yesteryear.
So lets get all gay and Christmasy with this blast from the past as Back2Stonewall presents the 1975 Cher Show: Christmas Episode with guests The Lennon Sisters, The Hudson Brothers, Redd Foxx, and Chastity Bono.
Morgan Fairchild is returning to television and is set to star in the upcoming gay drama series, Mélange.
The half-hour series will center on the fight over the ownership of an historic New York City gay bar, Mélange, after its proprietor has suddenly and mysteriously died.
Robert Newman (best known for his role as Joshua Lewis on The Guiding Light) plays Syd Winchester, the deceased owner of Mélange. Scott Evans stars as Ryann Parker, the young man who fights to keep Mélange out of the claws of Syd’s wife, Vivian who will be played by Fairchild.
Rounding out the l cast are, Anne Ramsay, Darnell Williams, Alex Newell, Diana DeGarmo, Mark Indelicato, Kristen Alderson, Laith Ashley, Ilene Kristen, Maya Days, Pamela Winslow Kashani, Omar Sharif Jr, and David A. Gregory.
Shooting for will take place in Manhattan. “Mélange” was created and is being executive produced by award winning theatrical producer and political activist Tom D’Angora and will be directed by Emmy Award winner Gary Donatelli and Tony Award winning producer Tim Kashani.
No network is currently attached but it is predicted if is picked up it will be on a basic or subscription cable network.
Gotham’s Cory Michael Smith who plays Edward Nygma, aka The Riddler on Gotham and is starring in the new movie ‘1985,’ which just premiered at SXSW, a young man with AIDS heads home to Texas for the holidays to spend one last Christmas with his family has come out as “queer” aka “gay” in an article in The Daily Beast.
Smith who plays the title role of Adrian in the film said that “There’s something special about telling a story that feels closer to home.”
“I’m from Middle America,” he says. “I’m from Ohio. I’ve been living here [in New York] for a while, and there are stretches when I don’t see my family often. Going home and that whole charade is very familiar. The first family dinner after a while. Coming out to a family, the fear of that.
He says his family handled his coming out with “a lot of love,” though it took “a lot of time.” It wasn’t hard for him to imagine the pain Adrian feels as he goes through his last holidays with his parents (played by Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis).
Writer-director Yen Tan was inspired to make and write 1985 by conversations he had with older gay men when he was in his early twenties, fresh out of college and working at a viatical settlement firm. It was 1998, and many of his clients were men living with HIV or AIDS and negotiating the sale of their life insurance policies to third parties.
Television, Broadway and comedy legend Rose Marie, best known for her role as Sally Rogers on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” died Thursday. She was 94 years old
During a career that spanned nine decades, Rose Marie — who went only by her first name professionally — was also famous for appearing for years on the game show “The Hollywood Squares,” and doing numerous shows in old Las Vegas.
Rose Marie rubbed shoulders with some of the most famous names in show business and beyond. She sang for Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and was hired by Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel to perform in Las Vegas along with Jimmy Durante.
Carl Reiner, who created “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” tweeted Thursday of his sadness at Rose Marie’s death, saying “there’s never been a more engaging & multi-talented performer.”
Rose Marie starred as Baby Rose Marie in several of the earliest talking films, according to The National Museum of American History. She donated several personal items to the museum, including her trademark black hair bow and shoes from her radio days.
Rose Marie was married to trumpeter Bobby Guy from 1946 until his death in 1964.
Rose Marie is survived by her daughter, Georgiana Marie Guy.
Lifetime TV has released the official first trailer for A Tale of Two Coreys which follows the lives of young Corey Feldman — who executive-produced the made for cable movie— and Corey Haim .
In his 2013 memoir, Coreyography, Feldman, 46, claimed that he and Haim, who died in 2010, had been sexually abused by people in the industry.
“There are people that did this to me and Corey that are still working, they’re still out there, and they’re some of the most rich and powerful people in this business. And they do not want what I’m saying right now. They want me dead,” he told The View while promoting the book.
Earlier this week the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department said they have uncovered audio tapes in which Feldman gave them the names of alleged sexual abusers in 1993.
Feldman so far has released on one name of a low level Hollywood personal assistant in his accusations.
The Disney Channel is introducing a gay storyline for the first time in its show Andi Mack a coming-of-age show that revolves around 13-year-old girl Andi and her friends Cyrus, Buffy and Jonah.
The season two premiere which airs on Friday will send “a powerful message about inclusion and respect for humanity” according to a Disney spokesperson.
The statement added that the show’s creator, Terri Minsky – who also made the hit Disney show Lizzie McGuire – and her team took “great care in ensuring that it’s appropriate for all audiences.”
n the season premiere, Andi is dealing with feelings for a boy she knows when her best friend Cyrus realises that he has feelings for the same boy.
Cyrus’s story develops in later episodes as he begins to understand himself better with the help of his friends and family.
Their executive director Dr Jaime Grant said: “Coming out requires honest self-reflection, no small amount of bravery and a safe place with at least one trusted person.
“Andi Mack’s creative team captures this moment of revelation with such thought, care, and authenticity, it will be a memory moment for some, and a teachable moment for many.”
Andi Mack’s average viewer age is 10 years old so expect boycotts, condemnations, and the gnashing of teeth from Christian Nationalist LGBT hate groups like the Family Research Council to begin shortly.
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Plans for a revival of the beloved ’90s series,Xena: Warrior Princess, which was slated to focus more on the lesbian relationship between the Amazonian heroine and her sidekick Gabrielle are officially dead.
The reboot plans hit a major bump in April, when writer and showrunner Javier Grillo-Marxuach (of Lost fame) left the project citing “creative differences” which many believe to be Grillo-Marxuach’s desire to put the romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle in the forefront of the story and network executives pushing back at the idea.
NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke has confirmed the revival won’t be going ahead at all.
“Nothing is happening on that right now,” Salke told the Hollywood Reporter. “We looked at some material; we decided at that point that it didn’t warrant the reboot.
The cancellation of the project comes at a time when new LGBT representation on television is at a low. The original show was beloved for its emphasis on female strength and friendship. While it did receive criticism for unwillingness to be open about the nature of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. The 2017’s reboot was expected to be out and proud.
Russia’s leading religious television channel is offering to send LGBT Russians abroad for good, so they can “submit to their sins” outside Russia.
The ultra-conservative Tsargrad network issued a video message on Thursday to Russians of “non-traditional sexual orientations,” calling them “perverts” and “sodomites” and inviting them to compete for a one-way ticket
In a video shared by the channel’s Facebook page, entitled “Good riddance, sodomites,” one of the channel’s anchors encourages those who “lay with men” or have “some other perversion” to be in touch with the network to have a chance of being selected for the trip. The only requirement is providing a medical record of the “form of perversion” that the contestant “suffers from,” according to the video.
“This is not a joke,” Andrey Afanasyev, the anchor in the video insists. “We really want you to return there, where you can openly submit to your sins.”
The brand new Boy Butter commercial, starring red hot ginger Seth Fornea (pictured above) currently airing on this season of Rupaul’s Drag Race on VH1 in NYC, LA, San Diego and nationwide on Canada’s OutTV was banned from airing on cable TV in Chicago by ComCast TV.
Despite having no problem airing 2015 Carl’s Jr. Super Bowl ad starring Charlotte McKinney, which is basically porn in comparison. A sexy busty woman being suggestive and showing a lot of skin is fine but if you just replace that woman with a hot gay man, it is a much different story.
“I think it’s Chicago’s loss and a clear representation of how shamed and stigmatized our sexuality is.” says Daniel Robinson, the director/producer of this banned Boy Butter commercial.
“It’s ‘a sexist and homophobic double standard’ said Eyal Feldman, who founded Boy Butter. He added: ‘My hope is that by continuing to push the boundaries of what is acceptable and palatable on TV, Boy Butter can create a space where gay men can watch images of themselves, not only in the shows that we watch but also the advertising that sponsors them.’