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Books
Fri, May 25, 2007
Queer Couple Tell Tales

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Wordsmiths T Cooper and Felicia Luna Lemus certainly have their own storytelling styles, but these lovers' respective works follow similar trajectories. Nothing is every permanent in their stories.

The sand shifts at the precise moment their protagonists seem to have it all worked out. Their impermanence bleeds into everything, from family history to gender and sexuality to interpersonal relations. Lemus’ new novel Like Son follows Frank, a thirty-year old who has to unearth the meaning of a photograph his dying father hands him.

In Cooper’s Lipshitz 6, or Two Angry Blondes, recently released in paperback, the 100-year-old history of a family starts in the pogroms of Europe and ends with the last offspring impersonating Eminem.

This queer couple's unique manner of brandishing the written word make them a perfect addition to The Style Issue.

We sent their friend and Queerty contributor, James Withers on a mission to mine their minds for a look into their literary idiosyncrasies, the evolution of their relationship and the difference between German and American readers. And, as we find out - um - straight away, this trio has more in common than just writing. They all love gay porn. Who knew?

CONTINUED »

Mon, May 21, 2007
World Celebrates Student's Right To Write!

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A contentious queer novel has returned to the Rochester, New York's Webster School District's summer reading list.

Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Boys tells the story of teeny-bopper faglings coming into their out own. And, needless to say, the story caused a bit of a stir, but garnered even more praise.

The book's 2001 publication led School Library Journal to plead: "...Please, have the courage to make [Rainbow Boys] available to those who need it — it can open eyes and change lives." Regardless, Webster officials worried the text crossed a few too many lines, particularly lines of the sexual variety. Unsure of the explicit carnal content (not the homosexual overtones) they removed the book from its summer reading list, thus making it ineligible for the two essays due come September. The book would remain available in the library.

Sanchez, however, cried "censorship"...

CONTINUED »

Male Lovers Include John Curry

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Sir Alan Bates may have been married to Victoria Ward, but a new biography reveals the British actor had a thing for men.

Otherwise Engaged: The Life Of Alan Bates by Donald Spoto offers new details suggesting the strapping sex idol - known for his roles in Women In Love, The Fixer and The Entertainer, among others - got down with the boys. And one of his male mates came in the form of Olympic figure skater, John Curry (pictured after the jump). Daily Mail paraphrases the Olympic-sized details:

While he liked to appear publicly with women, and to cuddle with them privately, his deepest romances and his most passionate sexual life occurred with men.

CONTINUED »

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Thu, May 17, 2007
Teenage Drama Dominates Ax-Free Offering

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James St. James' last novel, Disco Bloodbath, chronicles Michael Alig's real life descent into madness, ending with the hacked up body of the really dead drug deal, Angel Melendez.

Capturing the glitz, glam and gore of 1990's New York, Disco Bloodbath killed the competition, becoming a classic and finding new life in the 2003 flick, Party Monster, starring Seth Green as the incarcerated and single Alig, whileMacaulay Culkin appeared as St. James. Now, St. James makes a triumphant return with a less blood-curdling tale, Freak Show.

CONTINUED »

Wed, May 16, 2007
The Intriguing, Repulsing Details Of Haggard's Kinks!

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It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the publication of activist hooker Mike Jonestell-all memoir, I Had to Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard's Fall.

The 240-page volume gets down and dirty on Jones’ first shameful encounters with the disgraced Evangelical leader, their three-year working relationship and Haggard’s inevitable, damned descent into sex, drugs and orgies...

CONTINUED »

Thu, May 10, 2007
Johnny Diaz Denies Real Inspiration

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Jim McGreevey and Dina Matos McGreevey aren't the only couple with a book war on their hands. Former Real Worlder (and Queerty editor), Dan Renzi alleges that his journo-ex, Johnny Diaz, used him as inspiration in Diaz's new book, Boston Boys Club.

The book - Diaz's first - follows the trials and tribulations of a gay Latino man named Tommy Perez. While Diaz admits Perez's life parallels his own, he adamantly denies that he based Perez's boyfriend, Kyle, on Renzi - who did not know of the so-called similarities until after The Advocate approached him about the article.

We have to admit, however, Kyle does sound a bit like Renzi: a "lean, preening model and former reality show star who makes a red-carpet entrance into the club every Thursday as if a swarm of cameras still follows his every move." Despite these characteristic coincidences, Diaz tells The Advocate:

Kyle is not Dan. There are a lot of former reality stars out there who want to be models. The characters in the book are all composites of people I've met and known over the years.
Renzi ain't buying it.

CONTINUED »

Fri, May 4, 2007
Gay Art Star Wrote, Drew, Acted and Danced...

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One of the lesser-known heroes of the Harlem Renaissance, Richard Bruce Nugent forever changed the face of black – and queer – art.

Though growing up in tumultuous, conservative times, Nugent made no secret of his gay ways. His writing, art and dance readily employed queer themes. In fact, one of his most famous short stories, "Smoke, Lilies and Jade," counts itself as the first gay-tinged story written by a black man.

His erotic sketches and paintings, meanwhile, left no doubt where Nugent's sexual loyalty lay. Learn a little more about Nugent's wild artistic style, after the jump...

CONTINUED »

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Wed, May 2, 2007
Former NJ First Lady Dispels Rumors, Plugs Book


Oprah welcomed Dina Matos McGreevey yesterday, giving the former Mrs. Gay American a chance to plug her book set the record straight about her marriage to Jim McGreevey. In addition to coming off like a real Jersey girl - despite her Portuguese background - Mrs. McG contradicts McGreevey's assertion that they prayed about his landmark speech (that didn't happen), Dina claims McGreevey never said, "I am gay". Rather, he gave her the news in "cowardly installments".

No matter how he explained it, however, poor, clueless Dina simply "wasn't absorbing it". What a shocker. Speaking of shock, Dina claims to have been in shock while McGreevey delivered his resignation, thus giving her that plasticine, Stepford Wife smile. Shock and the distinct possibility that she's had her brain surgically removed.

CONTINUED »

Tue, Apr 3, 2007
Gore Vidal Contests Platonic Love As "Idiotic"

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A new book blows the lid off of John F Kennedy's dick blowing best-friend, Kirk LeMoyne Billings. Billings - affectionately known as "Lem" - first met the future President at Choate and the boys became fast-friends. Their relationship may have been entirely platonic, but according to Page Six, Billings loved Jack more than anyone else. One of his former lovers tells Jack & Lem author David Pitts:

There was a sexual element to his attraction to Kennedy.

Billings loved Kennedy all his life beginning in the 1930s... Billings was the only person who loved Kennedy unconditionally, who didn't want anything from him except to be with him, and he recognised that.

Kennedy cousin and gay writer Gore Vidal, however, has a different perspective. According to Pink News UK, the Kennedy cousin told Pitts that Billings was "...The guy who carries the coat... He's the guy who runs errands... To Jack, Lem was a kind of idiot friend." Billings couldn't have been that idiotic. Kennedy apparently offered Billings a job in the White House, but, fearing a national outing, Billings backed out.

Tagged: Books, Gay, Gossip, Media

Tue, Mar 27, 2007
Premiere Queer Defender Steps Up To The Plate

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Things in Poland are getting nastier, if you can believe it. You may recall Lurch-like Education Minister Roman Giertych proposed banning gay teachers and, in fact, any gay discussion from the nation's schools - a move that's irked the European Parliament. Well, now, a representative from the "children's rights" ministry has suggested compiling an entire list of gay-verboten professions.

Writing in Poland's Dziennik, Ewa Sowińska insists, We must prepare a list of jobs, where homosexual people will be banned". This move, of course, would stop the sissie scourge, thus giving Poland a step up in the contest for worst human rights violator in history.

Meanwhile, another group of politicians are suggesting a ban on porn, even the straight kind. Under the proposed prohibition, persons found with skin rags will be sentenced to a minimum of one year in jail, where they'll have nothing to do but wank. Really clever.

The plight of Polish gays may seem futile, but there's at least one man determined to stop the evil twins - Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński and President Lech Kaczyński - and their repressive reign of terror: Szymon Niemiec.

CONTINUED »

Thu, Mar 8, 2007
Meeting of the Minds To Be Televised...

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Rumor has it that former basketball players John Amaechi and Tim Hardaway will be coming face to face one of these days. That is, if Hardaway agrees. For his part, Amaechi's all about it:

I'd agree to it, so it won't be on me. It's certainly something I'd be interested in doing. And I think everybody deserves a chance at redemption.
Amaechi went on to suggest that a little televised reconciliation may be just what Hardaway needs. Or, rather, Hardaway's reputation:
I feel a bit sad for him in that I never thought a legacy of being a great basketball player is a really good one, anyway. He's a thousand times the player I could ever hope to be. That's a fact. But at the same time, my legacy will be more than just putting a ball in a hole - and his legacy will now be even less than that.
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Ouch. We never knew our main squeeze Amaechi could get so bitchy. Or so pompous. Discussing the success of his new book - Man in The Middle, which ranked 19th on the NY Times best-seller list - Amaechi admitted, "I wouldn't write a book and imagine that it shouldn't be a New York Times bestseller." Shooting for the stars, indeed.

As for Hardaway sitting down with Amaechi - we're not holding our breath. This is the man, after all, who said he crosses the street when he sees gay people headed his way. Although, perhaps his publicist can persuade him.

Or maybe someone will pay him. He does need the money...

Wed, Mar 7, 2007
And We Mean Many...

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The Christian right better stock up on paint, because they'll definitely want to protest lesbian author Kittredge Cherry's new title: Jesus in Love, the self-proclaimed first novel about a queer Christ.

Unlike Biblical scholars who examine scripture to find titillating texts of "His" homo love, Cherry's account fictionalizes the alleged savior's intimate relationships with disciple John, that old whore Mary Magdalene and the multi-gendered Holy Spirit.

Now, before you start thinking Cherry's some sort of heretical iconoclast (a charge, no doubt, she's bound to hear), let it be known that Cherry's a practicing Christian whose website (also called Jesus in Love) indexes the increasingly crowded literary and artistic survey of Jesus' queerness. Of her undoubtedly controversial text, Cherry says: "Christ's story is for everyone. It's okay to imagine yourself in the story of Jesus. He is all of us." Apparently he's into all of us, as well. And quite a slut, too...

(Image: Crucifixion of the Christ by Becki Jayne Harrelson)

Tagged: Books, Jesus, Religion

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