Blythe del Kuzio

Perhaps the biggest story to come out of what was by all accounts a disastrous Thanksgiving Weekend at the box office was the failure of Disney Animation’s Strange World . To recap: The family sci-fi adventure film premiered on what is traditionally a stellar weekend for Disney’s animated fare. But according to Variety , Strange World brought in just $18.6 million over the five-day holiday weekend. Given its reported $180 million production cost, plus marketing costs, the film is projected to lose around $100 million. Notably, Strange World is the first Disney animated film to feature a gay lead character . Out comedian and actor Jaboukie Young-White voices out teen Ethan, the youngest member of the film’s family of adventurers. Ahead of its release, right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro railed against Disney’s supposed “gay agenda” on Twitter, while anti-LGBTQ groups like One Million Moms demanded one of their typical boycotts . Right-wing outlets like The National Review have be...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could soon loosen restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. Until 2015, men who had sex with men were banned from donating blood at all, a policy that began during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. In 2015, the FDA lifted the total ban but said gay and bisexual men could only donate blood if they had not had sex for a full year. That time frame was shortened to three months amid blood shortages during the pandemic. Now, new FDA guidelines are reportedly in the works that would allow gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships to donate blood without abstaining from sex. The decision was made based on a study to determine the effectiveness of individualized risk assessments, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Gay and bisexual men who do seek to donate under the new policy will join all potential blood donors in being asked to complete a risk assessment form that assesses for certain sexual behavior. According to an FD...

Conservatives are having a bad day with the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) set to become law. The Senate voted in favor of the RFMA  in a 61-36 vote on Tuesday night. It now goes back to the House of Representatives for another vote because it was amended in the Senate. The House is expected to pass the bill as early as next Tuesday. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it. Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council, released a statement saying that the RFMA “invites ‘predatory lawsuits’ against people of faith, stigmatizes biblical values, and drives Christians from the public square.” Perkins also said that the 12 Republicans who voted for the bill “are literally putting a target on their base and driving them out of political engagement.” He added, “This bill is a club, with which the Left will attempt to beat people of orthodox faith — who believe in marriage as God designed it and history has defined — into submission.” Perkins ...

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) made a rare appearance in Congress to give his farewell address. The 27-year-old lost his primary election earlier this year to Chuck Edwards, who went on to win the general election against out candidate Jasmine Beach-Ferrera. Cawthorn’s message: Americans need to be manlier. “Our young men are taught that weakness is strength, that delicacy is desirable, and that being a soft metrosexual is more valuable than training the mind, body, and soul!” he said on the floor of the House of Representatives. “Social media has weakened us, siphoning our men of their will to fight.” “Will you reclaim your masculinity?” he barked at the mic. “Will you become a man to be feared, to be respected, to be looked up to, or will you let this nation’s next generation be its final generation?” Outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) rants on the House floor about men being taught to be a “soft metrosexual”: “Will you reclaim your masculinity? Will you become a man to be f...

Out Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) recently visited Colorado Springs, Colorado to pay tribute to the victims of the Club Q shooting that left five people dead as he’s questioning how the shooter was able to get a gun in spite of the state’s red flag law. Polis – the first out gay man ever elected governor – kneeled outside the LGBTQ+ club in front of a memorial for the victims made up of flowers, stuffed animals, candles, Pride flags, signs, and more. In chalk, Polis reportedly added a heart and the words “We remember” to the pavement before telling the press, “Five people are lost forever. We celebrate their lives. We mourn them.” Later that day, Polis visited Atrevida Beer, the brewery owned by Richard Fierro, one of the heroes credited with taking down the shooter and preventing the loss of more lives. Fierro – a straight, 15-year Iraq and Afghanistan military veteran – tackled and beat the shooter bloody. The AP reported that Polis hugged Fierro in the brewery, where other ...

As Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister claims that a prisoner swap between his country and the U.S. is still possible, details about the conditions Brittney Griner will likely face in a Russian labor camp have been emerging. On Tuesday, Sergei Ryabkov was asked by reporters whether a prisoner swap could free the WNBA star along with former Marine Paul Whelan from Russian prison. “There is always a chance,” Ryabkov said, according to The New York Post . “Regrettably, there have been a few occasions when it seemed that a decision in favor of it was about to be made, but it never happened.” Earlier this month, Ryabkov told Russian state news agency Interfax that Russia was pursuing a prisoner swap that would involve the return of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner’s freedom. But as MSNBC reported earlier this month, U.S. officials dismissed Russian claims of progress in Griner’s case as “just talk.” Meanwhile, details of the conditions Griner will likely face in ...

The Senate has voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) in a 61-36 vote. All Democrats who were present voted for the bill as well as Republican Senators Roy Blunt (MO), Richard Burr (NC), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Susan Collins (ME), Joni Ernst (IA), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rob Portman (OH), Dan Sullivan (AK), Mitt Romney (UT), Thom Tillis (NC), and Todd Young (IN). The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives for another vote because it was amended in the Senate. The House is expected to pass the bill and President Joe Biden is expected to sign it. “Today love won,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson in a statement. “This is a historic day, marking a much-needed victory for our community. The  LGBTQ+ community has faced ongoing deadly violence, legislative assaults and constant threats – including the deadly shooting in Colorado Springs barely one week ago. Today, with the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act in th...

According to AARP , nearly 44 million Americans, or one in five adults, are caregivers for a relative or friend over age 50. There are an estimated three million LGBTQ adults 50+. The population is twice as likely to be single and four times less likely to have children than their straight counterparts. Caring for a spouse, partner, close friend, or chosen family member can be a positive experience for many reasons: to “give back,” to mend a broken or distant relationship, to “pass it on,” or foster conversations between generations. Here are steps to help support you and your chosen family member… 1. Start a conversation Caregiving can be a great opportunity for your loved one or friend to share their story with you and in the process, build trust and reveal themselves authentically. If you see a loved one who’s struggling in some way, you can ask him or her if they would feel comfortable sharing their challenges with you. Maybe it’s a health issue they’re avoiding or a confusing...

Spoiler Alert , which opens December 2, is a rare gay dramedy; a tear-jerker in the vein of Steel Magnolias , Terms of Endearment , and Love Story . Based on TV journalist Michael Ausiello ’s 2017 memoir, Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies , the film depicts Ausiello’s (Jim Parsons) 13-year relationship with photographer Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge). The story takes viewers through all their ups and downs until Kit’s eventual diagnosis with a rare and aggressive form of cancer and his untimely death in 2015. During a recent press screening in New York, I can personally attest that the film brought more than one film critic to tears. So now that the tears have dried and the reviews have been published, let’s see what critics are saying about Spoiler Alert . More than one review compared Spoiler Alert unfavorably to Ausiello’s book. Variety ’s Peter Debruge called the film “a strangely, stubbornly conventional treatment” of the source material, writing that director Michael Showalter ( The ...

Singapore’s parliament decriminalized same-sex sexual intercourse on Tuesday, but it also amended the nation’s constitution to prevent court challenges to legalize same-sex marriage. The parliament repealed Section 377A of its criminal code. The 1938 law, introduced while Singapore was under British control, outlawed “unnatural… carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” including “penetration.” Singapore’s law punished the act with up to two years in jail, though similar laws remain active in 67 other former British colonies. The broadly worded law was historically used to prosecute same-sex couples. However, in 2007, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the law would no longer be enforced. It remained on the books however, The Straits Times reported . Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said on Tuesday that repealing the law was “the right thing to do because there are no public concerns that justify private consensual sex between men...

The essential thing to know about Spoiler Alert is that, unless you have a shriveled raisin-sized heart, you’re almost certainly going to cry. Directed by Michael Showalter and starring Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, and Sally Field, the film is based on TV journalist Michael Ausiello’s heartbreaking and hilarious 2017 memoir Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies . It depicts Ausiello’s (Parsons) 13-year relationship with photographer Kit Cowan (Aldridge), through all their ups and downs, to Kit’s eventual diagnosis with a rare and aggressive form of cancer and his untimely death in 2015. In a year when gay rom-coms have dominated the conversation, Spoiler Alert is a rare gay dramedy in the tradition of Steel Magnolias and Terms of Endearment . “I want people to be entertained. I want them to be moved,” Ausiello says of the film. The author, who was also an executive producer on the film, recently chatted with LGBTQ Nation about seeing the happiest and most difficult time in his life play ou...

Mike Pence has called on former President Donald Trump to apologize for a dinner he had last week with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist, antisemite, and Holocaust denier. This is one of the few times that Pence has publicly distanced himself from Trump. In an interview on NewsNation Monday night, the former vice president said that Trump “was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and Holocaust denier, a seat at the table. I think he should apologize for it, and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification.” On November 22, Trump hosted a dinner with West, Fuentes, and political operative Karen Giorno at his Mar-a-Lago resort. According to The New York Times , West, who has received widespread condemnation for his own recent antisemitic remarks, brought Fuentes with him to Trump’s Palm Springs club. Trump has also released several statements insisting that Fuentes was West’s guest and that the former president had n...

After the Senate voted to end debate on the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) last night, passage of the bill became all but assured. And now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says that the full Senate will vote on the bill as early as this afternoon. The Senate voted 61-35 yesterday night to end debate on the bill that would overturn the Defense of Marriage Act and require the federal government and state governments to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages performed in other states, overcoming some Republican senators’ filibuster of the bill and allowing it to come to a final vote. The bill passed a procedural vote before Thanksgiving that set it up to eventually pass the Senate, the chamber where many major Democratic initiatives have died over the first half of President Joe Biden’s term in office. The Senate will reconvene at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time and vote on three amendments to the bill proposed by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and James Lankford ...

Donald Trump’s announcement that he was running for president again in 2024 was a low-energy flop. In a desperate attempt to grab the spotlight and hide from the special prosecutor, about all Trump could muster was the predictable litany of all the wrongs done to him. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s lackluster performance didn’t generate much of a bump in enthusiasm for his candidacy. A Politico poll conducted after the announcement showed Trump at about the same level of support among Republicans as he had before. Sixty percent of party members think he should run, while more than two-thirds think he should not. Some 45 percent say that they would vote for him if the primary were held today. While a lot of political coverage dwells on how Trump’s grip on the party is slipping, those numbers are still strong. If the field is divided among multiple candidates, Trump is in a great position to repeat his 2016 success. But he still needs a little excitement to juice his campaign. The obviou...

The White Lotus delivered another jaw-dropping gay sex scene in last night’s fifth episode of Season 2. Spoilers ahead! In addition being a surprise hit with both audiences and critics when it premiered last summer, the HBO anthology comedy made headlines in Season 1 for a notorious scene in which hotel manager Armand ( Murray Bartlett ) was caught performing anilingus on another hotel employee (Lukas Gage). Season 2 of the show, which features an almost entirely new cast and moves the action from Hawaii to Sicily, has been even more sexually charged than the first. Gay Twitter has been thirsting over Theo James, Will Sharpe, and Adam DiMarco, all of whom have shown quite a bit of skin in recent episodes. So it seemed like only a matter of time before the show’s creator, writer, and director Mike White attempted to break the internet. At the end of last night’s episode, Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya stumbles upon her new gay bestie Quentin (Tom Hollander) in a very compromising positi...

Former NFL player Herschel Walker, who is now running for Senate as the Republican candidate in Georgia, called his 23-year-old son Christian Walker “ugly” when he was a baby and “streetwise, dumb as a brick” now. “When I delivered him, he had this long old head,” Walker said in a video of comments he made in 2019 that have resurfaced online. “No, seriously. He looked like an alien. I told my wife, ‘Have your parents got some awful genes and stuff?'” “You said, no matter how ugly your child is, you think he’s pretty,” he went on. “So they clean Christian up and stuff, and they clean him up, and I put the cap on top of his crown and stuff and stuff, and I think, he’s not that bad and stuff.” He said that Christian Walker was next to a newborn girl who Herschel Walker said was “beautiful.” “I’m looking at Christian, and I’m looking at her, and I go, wow, I’m gonna slide her over a little and stuff because everybody’s gonna come to that window and go ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful litt...