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Denis Villeneuve’s stunningly realized film adaptations of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi saga Dune take an epic leap forward in Dune: Part Two, the sequel to the Oscar-winning first film starring Timothée Chalamet as possible Chosen One, Paul Atreides.Last seen at the end of Dune trekking into the desert like a twink Lawrence of Arabia, Paul is still a refugee on the desert planet Arrakis. Following the massacre of his father and the House of Atreides by savage Harkonnen forces, he’s hiding among the native Fremen, plotting to avenge his House, while also evading death or capture by his clan’s universe of enemies, including ruler of all, Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken).The first film felt mostly like a long-winded setup for a protagonist who took little action.

My Little Pony franchise, deeming it a hotbed of “LGBT propaganda.”The impetus for the raid appears to be objections to furries — a minority sub-culture of primarily adults, some of whom may identify as LGBTQ, with an interest in roleplaying and dressing up as anthropomorphic non-human animal characters — who may have been present at the conference, known as “Mi Amore Fest.”Furries have commonly been associated with “deviant” expressions of sexuality. They are often accused of trying to entice or indoctrinate children into embracing “non-traditional lifestyles,” as Russian politicians often refer to LGBTQ identity.Other objections seem to be related to the character Rainbow Dash, a pony with a rainbow-colored mane who is one of the chief protagonists of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, as well as the presence of characters — both male and female — with gender-nonconforming character traits in various iterations of the My Little Pony cartoon series, which first aired in 1986.Organizers of “Mi Amore Fest” had changed depictions of Rainbow Dash to include the colors of the Russian national flag.Still, Russian authorities appear to believe that the series is sending subtle messages to viewers about support for LGBTQ causes.“Eric Myval,” who appears to be a furry, anime, and cartoon enthusiast based on their social media channels, wrote a series of posts on Telegram informing followers about the raid in real-time.“Apparently, you won’t be able to get to the fest anymore,” Myval wrote.

Hail, Caesar!, the Coens’ last proper comedy. After that, they made the Western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, then went their separate ways.Joel went full Shakespeare in 2021 with The Tragedy of Macbeth, an expressionistic exercise that was never quite more than the sum of its parts, while his brother took a hiatus from narrative filmmaking.

Private Jones poses a thrilling musical adventure in story and in form.The company’s first world-premiere musical since the pandemic, produced in association with Goodspeed Musicals, shrewdly deploys sign language, practical sound effects, and silence, along with Pailet’s compelling score, to shape the world of Private Gomer Jones, a deaf Welsh sniper in World War I.Inspired by a real-life WWI marksman who was deaf since infancy, Private Jones comes firing to life in Johnny Link’s feisty take on the role.Gomer, who loses his hearing as a child, is gutsy enough at 16 to fake his way past British Army recruitment officers so he can join up and fight alongside his fellow Borderers from Breconshire.Backed by the production’s robust ensemble, he sings, bursting with hope, in “The South Wales Borderers” of answering the nation’s call. Moments later, innocence still guides him, as Gomer and company march through “Part of the Sound,” his vow to not simply soldier in step, but truly prove his value in combat.Link ably captures Gomer’s boyish voice and outlook, and evolves the character in his dark, humbling descent into the trenches of war, though it’s not the performer’s singing that carries the characterization.Distinctly pleasing voices do surround him — notably, David Aron Damane, lending his deep baritone to Gomer’s father and other roles, and Leanne Antonio as Army nurse Gwenolyn, leading the transporting ballad “Every Soul’s a Soul.”Later reprised as “Every Soldier,” the intoxicating melody ripples like water, floating Gwenolyn’s simple wisdom, that every soul is a soul.

David Carlin King and the Gold Diamond Band perform a Tribute to Neil Diamond on Sunday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave. in Alexandria, Va. Tickets are $45. Visit www.birchmere.com.For more information about Kingsbay Mansion, visit www.kingsbaymansion.com.

Love means different things to different people — there is no one simple definition. But we all generally agree that along with love comes romance, and along with romance come specific tropes: wine, roses, chocolates, and sex.Those tropes are out in full force every February 14, on Valentine’s Day, a holiday that some view as a celebration and affirmation of romance.

Fellow Travelers, in which Bomer and Jonathan Bailey star as secret lovers who meet in McCarthy-era Washington.While a rapt audience inside the screening room enjoyed the series’ racy, ’70s-era Fire Island episode, Bomer, prompted by our discussion of whether actors are destined for certain roles, mused on his uncertain path to his SAG Award-nominated role as closeted WWII vet turned State Department official Hawkins Fuller.“It’s so interesting, because this came to me early on and I was so pessimistic about it,” he says. “I started out in this industry — I’ve been doing this almost 30 years — at a time when something like this just wouldn’t get made, period.”Still, throughout his career, the erstwhile White Collar lead has represented the LGBTQ community admirably offscreen, and in stage and screen revivals of The Boys in the Band, and his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of a writer with AIDS in HBO’s The Normal Heart.“We have seen this slow ebb of progress happening in Hollywood in our storytelling,” he says, citing Fellow Travelers creator Ron Nyswaner’s “beautiful scripts,” and the support of Showtime and Paramount for the show as prime examples of that progress.

Gen X has gotten. No world wars, thankfully, though we did grow up imagining thermonuclear Armageddon as a genuine possibility, if merely accidental.But the Cold War ended. We were evolving!Some credit Ronald Reagan for ending that chapter.

Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, the artist known as Lil Nas X lays down his ambitions to achieve something “great, super grand, BIG.”He might be referring to his trailblazing career as a Grammy-winning rapper-singer-songwriter, whose unabashedly queer persona and presentation garner admiration and controversy in equal measure.He could mean his first concert tour as a headliner, the Long Live Montero Tour, the American leg of which is chronicled in this film by directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel.There’s little doubt he envisions greatness for himself, Montero Hill, the self-described brat from Lithia Springs, Georgia, who uploaded his modest country-rap banger “Old Town Road” to his socials and became a global sensation.The film, a verité-style tour diary in three acts, doesn’t achieve greatness of its own, but offers glimpses at those aforementioned aspects of Montero’s super grand life.Whether rehearsing for opening night at Detroit’s legendary Fox Theatre, getting a surprise pre-show visit from Madonna, or donning his drag persona to meet his uncannily accurate Madame Tussaud’s wax figure, he rides the dizzying whirlwind of music stardom with aplomb, clearly living out a dream.Among the most compelling footage presented here is the video he shot himself in 2018, as a striving but confident 19-year-old, a month after releasing “Old Town Road” to the internet. Looking into the camera, he tallies his current follower count, promising that in a year the count will look different.

Metro Weekly, describing the embrace he has felt from the leather community. “There’s nothing left in the closet, and that has rounded me out as a person. The leather community made me who I am.”DanBear was on hand to enjoy the weekend festivities, represent his title, and serve as a judge at the 2024 Mr.

commercial that also featured people doing various leisure-time activities such as hiking, chess, and yoga, as well as a heterosexual couple kissing.The newest ad from TurboTax features Doug and André, a mixed-race couple who say they “navigated a turbulent housing market” by buying a houseboat, which they call a “boater home.”André has his arm around Doug’s shoulder throughout the commercial, including a scene where the couple sits on a couch inside their houseboat. “We didn’t know the first thing about filing taxes as first-time homebuyers,” says André.Monica, a tax expert, appears on the couple’s tablet screen and informs them of the benefits of TurboTax, adding that new homeowners can file taxes with complete accuracy “on land and sea.”Merely showing Andre and Doug is an unforgivable offense to One Million Moms, which has chastised TurboTax for approving a commercial with a same-sex couple.“TurboTax should be ashamed of attempting to normalize sin in their 2024 commercial ‘Boater Home,’ which features a gay couple buying a houseboat.

Philadelphia and Memphis top the list of metropolitan areas with the highest incidence of STDs in the United States, according to an annual analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The seventh annual study, by Innerbody Research, the largest online medical and wellness testing guide, drew its data from the CDC’s latest STD Surveillance data, ranking the top 100 metropolitan areas based on the number of cases, per 100,000 population, of HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis. The latter three diseases are among the most commonly reported new sexually transmitted infections.According to the analysis, the top 10 cities with the highest STD rates were:The data — marking the first from the post-COVID-lockdown period — shows that Philadelphia jumped from having the fifth-highest STD infection rate in last year’s study to the highest rate in this year’s study.

Fireworks. The boys spark a bond from the moment their mopeds collide on a forked road winding through the rocky countryside.Mop-haired 16-year-old Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro) is out joyriding on the scooter his parents just bought him, while slightly older Gianni (Samuele Segreto) is racing to escape two of the tormentors who refuse to let him be.Set during the summer of 1982, with the entire country entranced by the Italian national football team’s progress through the World Cup, the film marvelously conveys a sense of time and place.Picture it: small-town Sicily before Italy’s gay rights movement had truly crystallized.

GLAAD, the world’s most prominent LGBTQ media advocacy organization, announced nominees for its 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards earlier today.Presented since 1990, the awards honor broadcast, digital and print media for “fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues.”On Monday night, at the 75th Annual Emmy Awards, the organization accepted the Governor’s Award Emmy for its tireless work on behalf of the LGBTQ community.“For all of us at GLAAD, this work is personal,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the organization’s president and CEO since 2014, in a nationally televised acceptance speech. “For me, it’s about my wife and our kids, because what the world sees on TV directly influences how we treat each other and the decisions we make in our living rooms, schools, at work, and at the ballot box.”Ellis addressed the cultural and political hostility currently assailing the LGBTQ community, especially those who are transgender.“The world urgently needs culture-changing stories about transgender people,” she said.

bill asserts that claiming someone has discriminated against another person or group because of their identity will be considered “defamation per se” — meaning the accuser could find themselves facing costly legal bills for simply expressing their opinion.The bill does not appear to address what happens if the alleged discrimination is a matter of fact or public record — rather, just making an accusation of discriminatory behavior appears to be enough to land them in trouble legally.Under the bill:Under current defamation and libel laws, a subject must prove that a speaker or journalist acted with “actual malice.”This typically makes it harder for public figures, such as celebrities, to sue for defamation or libel, as they must prove the person they are suing either knew the information wasn’t true or demonstrated “reckless disregard” for its falsity.But now those in the public eye who find themselves accused of discrimination have nothing to fear — because the bill redefines what constitutes a “public figure.”The bill also eliminates the requirement that a person accused of discrimination prove their accuser acted with “actual malice” in cases where “the allegation does not relate to the reason for his or her public status.”Essentially, it means that it’s more likely that anyone making an accusation alleging discrimination will be found guilty and fined when the case goes to court.As reported by The New Republic, a person may not be considered a “public figure,” even in a limited context, if their fame or notoriety stems from:For example, if the bill becomes law, a podcaster who rants about gay marriage and calls LGBTQ people “diseased,” “perverse,” or makes other disparaging remarks could sue any person or entity

Despite some positive electoral victories as 2023 ended, last year was largely a rough one for members of the LGBTQ community, who found themselves targeted by various pieces of legislation, executive orders, and a resurgent right-wing political movement opposed to what it sees as “woke” ideas or values.It was also the year that the nation’s top LGBTQ advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, declared a national state of emergency, citing efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights or restrict LGBTQ visibility and various freedoms, with Republican-led state legislatures serving as the primary aggressors.The segment of the LGBTQ spectrum most under fire in 2023 was the transgender community, whose members saw legislation targeting them pushed into law, despite the intense lobbying of lawmakers and often over the advice of medical professionals and parents of transgender children. Even past battles once thought to have been won were reignited, as conservatives on Capitol Hill pledged to revive the now-defunct Trump-era ban prohibiting trans individuals from serving in the Armed Forces.

Florida Trident, the woman arranged to have another sexual encounter with the Zieglers on Oct. 2, but backed out after learning Bridget Ziegler had another engagement.The woman alleges that Christian Ziegler showed up at her residence, uninvited, bent her over a piece of furniture, and raped her.Ziegler, who has not been charged with a crime, has denied the rape allegations, insisting that the encounter was consensual. He reportedly told police he had recorded video of the encounter that proves his side of the story.Police obtained that video, as well as a second video, the latter of which allegedly depicted Bridget Ziegler engaged in sex with another woman, as part of their investigation.

Karsten Sollors all but grew up in the air.“My mother was a flight attendant, so I’ve been traveling since I was in her stomach,” as he puts it. Because of that, he didn’t think twice about effectively giving up his weekends to become a professional DJ, traveling to a different city, if not two, every weekend.“A lot of people, when I tell them my schedule, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, how do you do that? That’s got to be so difficult,’” he says.

$100,000 in damages after a jury decided that the men were entitled to $50,000 each for being denied a marriage license by Davis after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state-level bans on same-sex nuptials across the nation in mid-2015.Ermold and Moore sued Davis after she declined to issue the couple a marriage license three separate times, and refused to permit her deputies to issue a license bearing her official name or title.She argued that allowing the license to be issued would violate “God’s definition of marriage” and her personal beliefs opposing homosexuality as an Apostolic Christian.During the fall of 2015, Bunning sentenced Davis to five days in jail for contempt of court for refusing to allow marriage licenses to be issued — not only to Ermold and Moore, but to several other couples, gay and straight — lest she be accused of discriminating against same-sex couples.Following her release, she agreed not to block her deputy clerks from issuing licenses that had been edited to remove her name and title — although both she and her deputy raised concerns about the validity of such licenses.In a tacit show of support for Davis, Kentucky lawmakers later passed a law to change rules that removed county clerks’ names from marriage licenses.

Making the “top five” list of “horniest countries” are the United Kingdom, followed by Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Mexico.The platform’s “Rookie of the Year,” based on growth compared to 2022, was London, which experienced a 475% surge in users over the past year.The “most discreet city,” measured by the highest number of discreet sessions, where users employ the platform’s “discreet mode,” was Vancouver, Canada. The “chattiest city,” where users sent the most messages, was Philadelphia, while users in Chicago were the least loquacious.Users in Seattle, Washington, sent the most photos of themselves, earning the distinction of “most photogenic city.” At the same time, Washington, D.C., lived up to its decades-old reputation of being closeted, with users sharing the fewest photos of themselves.According to the data, the Sniffies platform typically sees the most action on Mondays.

After a steady, decade-long decline in the number of LGBTQ bars and clubs in Washington, D.C., the trend has finally reversed: 2023 saw the opening of several new venues, adding to a similar number that emerged in 2022.As a result, the D.C. area now counts at least 20 LGBTQ watering holes and safe spaces to call its own.

Desperately Seeking Susan.“I’ll never forget that first scene we did down in Battery Park,” he recalls. “We have that long kiss at the beginning.

1984, a gift from elder sister Megan. That also informed my thoughts about truth. Protagonist Winston was plagued by truth and untruth, spending his days erasing unpeople’s paper trails at the Ministry of Truth.

Saltburn alongside Barry Keoghan. The movie might not have been a box office smash, but critics had a lot to say about director and writer Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman.It’s slightly gay, all the way crazy, and both stars are able to demonstrate what they can do on screen.Around the same time, Elordi can also be seen in Priscilla, the biopic that focuses on Elvis Presley’s wife.

declaration on Monday, Dec.

Daily Caller, which first broke the story — naked on all fours while being penetrated by an unseen partner on the table in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Building. According to the Daily Caller, the video was first shared in “a private group for gay men in politics.” One of the group members then provided it to the Caller.The footage reportedly appeared on a since-deleted “alt” account on X, whose owner identifies himself as a “twink” who engaged in sex acts with an older “bear” partner, according to the UK-based newspaper the Daily Mail.Other outlets soon reported on the story and re-shared the video online.Social media users, including the far-right activist Laura Loomer, zealously set themselves on a quest to identify the staffer, eventually claiming that the individual in the video — and behind the “alt” account — was Aidan Maese-Czeropski, an aide to U.S.

Harmony.It took several years of workshops and regional stagings to get the show to its current form, but to paraphrase one of Manilow’s own songs, “Looks Like They Made It.” After a highly praised 2022 run at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, the production finally transferred to Broadway at the Barrymore Theater. It was well worth the wait.Stage stalwart Chip Zien (best known for originating the role of the Baker in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods) leads a modest but marvelous cast as the older Josef Roman Cyckowski, aka “Rabbi.” Reminiscing, he narrates the tale of his fellow singers, all of whom he meets in 1927.“These are my friends, my buddies,” he tells us.

Billboard charts in the past decade is familiar with at least some of the massive hit songs they’ve written for stars like Selena Gomez, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Halsey, and many others.Now, after nearly 10 years of working behind the scenes and crafting countless smashes, Tranter is finally earning some well-deserved and long-overdue recognition.Tranter is one of five people currently nominated for the “Songwriter of the Year” Grammy. The category was only introduced a year ago, so very few talents have been up for the honor.

Monty Python’s Spamalot. The spoof, based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is back on the Broadway boards after a critically acclaimed run earlier this year at the Kennedy Center.Whether you’ll look on the bright side with approval or wish that this quest had more grit may depend upon your expectations of production values and your threshold for unabashed silliness.Tony-winner James Monroe Iglehart leads a top-notch cast as the medieval King Arthur, whose aim is to recruit other men to his Round Table and guide them to the utopia of Camelot.Camelot, as it turns out, is a glitzy casino — an ideal setting for a song and dance routine.

ousted from Congress by his peers following a damning report that alleged he engaged in ethical and financial wrongdoing.He initially started charging $75 per video, with his fee rising to $500 per video.Kimmel, eager to exploit Santos’s story for laughs, announced a new segment during Friday’s show called, “Will George Santos Say It?”In it, he pranks Santos by sending in requests, using anonymous names, for the gay Republican to respond to questions, offer well-wishes, or read various messages aloud.The first video in the series, “Jimmy Kimmel Pranks George Santos on Cameo,” brought in 1.4 million views on YouTube.