Facebook Pride: Adorable!

The Advocate.

I bet all the angry queers who rioted at Stonewall didn't dare dream we'd see such an epoch-making - and ADORABLE - day!

Facebook - putting the PR back into Pride.

'How little pleasure most people need to make them find life good, how modest man is!' Nietzsche.

Number of search results for 'adorable' on The Advocate website - 502.

On Queerty - 579.

On Gay Star News - 114, but they ain't been going long.*

And yes, they're usually barftastic sentimental stories involving marriage or kids or both.

Any gay journalist who files a story about something 'adorable' deserves to have their hands drop off.

* Couldn't get Pink News' search engine to work, Towleroad had over 5000 (!) but that included readers' comments. I could have also done searches for things 'that will warm your heart!' but was worried about choking on my own vomit.

Ukip: Pigs

It is not just in the less affluent areas of the [Newark] constituency that Ukip's message is cutting through. In leafy Southwell, dominated by the minster, which dates back to the 13th century, Ukip has won over the owner of the Saracen's Head hotel, where Charles I spent his last free night in 1646. "Ukip are leading a peasants' revolt," David Donegan says. "They will ransack the village, but will probably be stopped at the city gates. Hopefully that will shake up the Westminster establishment which needs a kick up the backside."

He believes the consensus over gay marriage has alienated many voters. "Civil partnership is absolutely fine," he says. "But gay marriage is appalling nonsense. The next thing they will saying is we should be marrying pigs."

The Guardian hits the by-election trail in Newark.

Other equally nutty political parties are available.

PS Here's The Saracen's Head Hotel - why not get in touch with this 'historic wedding venue' and ask if you can hold your gay marriage there?

Oh, and Ukips newly-elected MEP for Edinburgh, David Coburn, who is a big ole gayer, has told their Evening News.

"Civil partnership should be enough. Gay marriage breeds homophobia and takes back gay liberation – people are happy enough to tolerate what gay people do and their relationships but I don’t think they are happy to have their noses rubbed in it over marriage.”

PPS Pink News continue their obsession with Ukip. Might be an idea of the PN team declared if they have affilations with other political parties.

And finally Roger Helmer blogs that the Mail On Sunday made up quotes that he advocated 'gay cures' on the NHS.

As this is Ukip versus the Mail it's hard to know who to believe.

1D Drugs Shame: George Michael To Blame!

For a true indication of how ‘hot’ a life of smoking dope turns out to be, you need look no further than George Michael, another pop star who also once had millions of impressionable children idolising him.

Last week, the 50-year-old was rushed to hospital after collapsing with a mystery illness.

And not for the first time. The past decade of his life has been racked with drug abuse — in 2009, he announced brazenly that he had cut down his cannabis intake from 25 joints a day to seven — and ill health.

He’s had convictions for driving under the influence of drink and drugs, and for lewd behaviour in public lavatories.

What a far cry he is now from the young man who had it all as part of Wham!, a singer adored all over the world, selling more than 25 million records.

George Michael today lives alone in his North London mansion.

True, he has a £105 million fortune, but in middle age he cuts forlorn figure — lost, lonely and unrecognisable from the beautiful young star he once was.

Compare him with his Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, who never took to cannabis and now leads a wholesome life with his long-term partner and stepson in a 15th-century castle in Cornwall.

Mail Online.

Wise words, Amanda, wise words...
Though you seem to be really arguing for the magical life-saving powers of being straight and married.

Update: And Tony Parsons - former George Michael court correspondent - joins in in The Sun.

Yes, that's the Tony Parsons who spent his days writing for the NME speeding off his nut.

Iran: A Life Ruined By Well-Meaning Westerners

I'm sitting in the living room with Darius, and the house is empty. I'm kissing him, as I do whenever we have the luxury of being alone together. We are in love, and in these moments, I feel absolute bliss and comfort.

I am thinking about the flavor of his mouth, when the ringing of the telephone pulls me out of the moment.

I reluctantly break away and answer. I recognize my cousin's familiar voice, but I can tell immediately that something is very, very wrong.

"Farhad. I saw you on the TV," he declares. Coldly.

What? TV? My mind races, but I cannot imagine what he could be referring to. Before I can respond or even question him, he says, "I know what you are. I know what you are and I don't want to see you anymore."

The line clicks dead.

I'm frozen. I am unable to speak, and Darius grows worried as my face turns pale. I fumble for the remote control, and the TV comes to life. I flip through the channels until I find something unusual. They are showing a documentary about gay people in Iran and letting people around the world know how hard and dangerous it is for gays in this country. The film was made by a Canadian television channel, and it sure seems like they care a lot about the well-being of gays in Iran.

Darius and I are shocked that a documentary on such a subject is being aired. Now some people are talking about their problems in front of the camera, but their faces are blurred. It is interesting, I suppose, but what does it have to do with me? In less than a minute, I have my answer. I begin to feel dread when the camera pans across a restaurant I know well. It is the spot where gay people in Tehran gather every Tuesday. Where I go most Tuesdays. Now the camera is inside the restaurant, and they are showing us. They are showing our faces. They are showing my face. It is obviously shot with a concealed camera. A long lens, zoomed in—my face filling the screen for several seconds. Casually chatting, completely unaware. They are even sure to identify the restaurant by name. And we don't know we are being filmed. How nice of them: They want to let the world know how miserable gay people are in Iran and how the government kills them because of their orientation, and they come to our community and expose us to everyone? To the hateful government? To our neighbors, friends, and families?

Farhad, The Stranger.

Via Scott Long.

PS The video Inside Iran's Secret Gay World has been removed from YouTube for 'copyright infringement'.

Golf Alpha Yankee (Official Trailer) from Rick Flynn on Vimeo.

Update: Rick Flynn, who's directing Golf Alpha Yankee, a new documentary about Iranian gay refugees in Turkey got in touch.

GOLF ALPHA YANKEE provides an intensely intimate look into the lives many who have suffered human rights abuses as a consequence of being gay in Iran. To achieve this intimacy without endangering any of its subjects, the film never reveals faces or other identifiable features. This also allows for a unique visual and audio language, which becomes increasingly personal throughout the film.

By blending documentary footage with fictionalized scenes written by the subjects themselves, GOLF ALPHA YANKEE not only sheds light on their lives as gay refugees in Turkey, but also delves into their experiences as gay men in their native Iran.

Fagburn knows nothing more about Flynn or the film project apart from what's on the website, but hopes this one does justice to its subjects. 

John Waters: Fashionista

Guardian online apropos of nothing.

Pride: Everyone's Talking About The Gay Full Monty/Billy Elliot!

Warchus is no stranger to critical acclaim: his stage successes include the smash hit Matilda, Art and Ghost: The Musical. But with Pride, he seems likely to reach a far wider audience than ever before, with reviewers predicting Billy Elliot and The Full Monty levels of goodwill and word of mouth for the film.

The Times.

Fagburn will give £10 to any viewers who spot a review of this film that doesn't mention The Full Monty or Billy Elliot.

'A feel-good culture clash comedy drama about The Gays, the miners, industrial decline and class warfare!' Fagburn.

And you can put that on your posters.

Letters Of The Day: Lord Browne

Last week's Guardian Weekend.

Guardian Weekend.

See also the slightly more interesting Guardianwitness - readers write about coming out at work.

PS BBC Radio 5 Live interview with Richard Bacon.

And finally...

“I wish I had been brave enough to come out earlier in my tenure as CEO of BP,” he says. “I regret it to this day. I know that if I had done so I would have made more of an impact for other gay men and women.” He’s not kidding. In 2006, when The Independent on Sunday was compiling its annual Pink List – a celebration of Britain’s most influential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – a courtesy call was made to BP to make sure its CEO was willing to be mentioned. On the other end of the line, there was a sharp intake of breath, and a pause. “I don’t know what you are suggesting, but it is not in the least appropriate that his name is associated with that article,” said an unnamed spokesman. If we knew who it was, we’d send them a copy of Browne’s book.

Between The Covers, Independent On Sunday.

Damian Barr: There's No Place Like Home

There's no place like home. No place safer. No place scarier. I spent my first 17 years wishing I was anywhere but home. We've all got our reasons for leaving. I wanted to be more than the swing of a fist from my mum's boyfriend. I wanted out of earshot of the word "poof", which followed me as surely and darkly as my shadow. So, I escaped into books, hid in the local library. I entered every school quiz in case we got to compete in another county or country. I captained the Knights of St Columba team to exotic Keele. Most memorably, our Young Consumer of the Year team got all the way to national finals in Brighton. I had to go back then but now I live in Brighton. I was at my desk in my shed in my garden, when I got the following email invitation.

"Motherwell library would love you to come and do a reading and Q&A," wrote my publisher. "Not sure how you feel about that."

Instantly, I felt very sure. No, I wouldn't go – couldn't go. As a boy I fantasised about walking to the M8, which skirted our village promising places like Carlisle, and hitching a lift from a handsome stranger. I envied Fallon when that flying saucer carried her away in The Colbys. Take me! I took all the exams I could and extra ones in the holidays because I knew "the uni" was my way out.

No, I would not come back now...

Gay Tory poster boy Damian Barr in The Guardian.

Someone should write a book about growing up as a gay socialist in the Thatcher Years.

PS If you ever think about leaving Brighton, Damian, don't let me stop you. 

Walt Whitman: 195!

Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore, 

Twenty-eight young men and all so friendly; 

Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so lonesome. 

She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank,
She hides handsome and richly drest aft the blinds of the window.

Which of the young men does she like the best? 

Ah the homeliest of them is beautiful to her. 

Where are you off to, lady? for I see you, 

You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room. 

Dancing and laughing along the beach came the twenty-ninth bather, 

The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved them. 

The beards of the young men glisten’d with wet, it ran from their long hair, 

Little streams pass’d over their bodies. 

An unseen hand also pass’d over their bodies, 

It descended trembling from their temples and ribs. 

The young men float on their backs, their white bellies bulge to the sun, 

They do not ask who seizes fast to them, 

They do not know who puffs and declines with the pendant and bending arch, 

They do not think whom they souse with spray.

From Song Of Myself, 1855. 

Happy birthday you salty old gay dog!

x

• The Walt Whitman Archive.

Daily Star: 1D Harry Fake X-Rated Sex Pic Shame

First edition; 'Harry Styles heaped fresh shame on drugs-scandal boyband One Direction last night. X-rated shots of the 20-yearold hunk in his pants have sparked outrage.'

Second edition; 'One Direction star Harry Styles was furious last night after a fake sex picture appeared on the internet...

'A source close to the band said: "The fans knew immediately this picture wasn't Harry. For a start, the tattoo is not in the right place. Harry and the other lads are sick of all the fake stories and fake pictures...'

Via The Media Blog.

And here's the photo...

Fagburn: Some Explicit Polaroids

Nude Male Model, two unique Polaroid prints, each: 4¼ x 3 3/8 in. (10.8 x 8.6 cm.), executed circa 1977, estimate: $3,000-$5,000.

Another one from the Andy Warhol's Eye Candy online auction.

If you've enjoyed reading Fagburn, feel free to buy me this.

Though $3,000 for two Polaroids seems a bit steep.

Have a nice weekend - I've given up.

Bums!
x

George Michael: At Last! George's Dog Walker Speaks Out!

Daily Star - quite a poop-a scoop, well done.
Jitterbug, jitterbug! etc.

Bullying: Our Stories

A new campaign has been launched to tackle homophobic and transphobic abuse in schools.

The Crown Prosecution Service has created the resource pack for teachers, which includes lesson plans and a DVD.

School staff will be encouraged to download the pack but won't be forced to make use of it.

It has been welcomed by 19-year-old Joshua and 21-year-old Rhys, who were both bulled at school because of their sexuality.

They gave Newsbeat their reaction at an LGBT support group in central London.

BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat.

MIkhail Bakunin: 200!

The world's most well-regarded queer anarchist would be 200 today.

From his long goodbye letter to Sergey Nechayev, his lover, his nemesis, his De Profundis.

I am not angry with you and I do not reproach you, knowing that if you lie or hide the truth, you do it without self-interest and only because you consider it useful to the cause. I, and all of us, love you sincerely and have a great respect for you because we have never met a man more unselfish and devoted to the cause than you are...

Bruno Gmünder: Kaput!

Deutschlands größtes Verlagshaus für schwule Medien hat am Mittwoch beim Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg einen Insolvenzantrag gestellt.

Droht Deutschlands größtem schwulen Unternehmen das Aus? Am Mittwoch hat die Berliner Bruno Gm

ünder Group GmbH Insolvenzantrag beim Amtsgericht Charlottenburg gestellt. Darüber informierte das Unternehmen selbst auf seiner Homepage.

Der Verlag habe "seit Jahren damit zu kämpfen, dass der Verkauf einst umsatzstarker Produkte immer weiter zurück geht", heißt es in der von "Männer"-Chefredakteur David Berger verfassten Erklärung.

Queer.de

Boot crisis at Bel Ami!

Rough translation: Basically the publishers of the hopeless Spartacus International Gay Guide - it always used to be a treat to check if the new edition's entry on Brighton still mentioned the palm trees on the seafront - and over-priced coffee table gay art wank books has gone bust. 

Cause you can now get it all for free on the internet. 

Well... dur.

PS Apparently they may continue publishing Germany's leading gay magazine, Männer.

Queerty: On Right-Wing Mouthpieces

Queerty is deffo not a right-wing mouthpiece.

No sirree.

They just love the fetishisation of US state military power.

'We gotta bomb Russia for the gays, dudes. Then we'll go for a holiday in sexy Israel and party with all those hot kid-killing conscript soldiers from the IDF.'

'Cause we only care about what we're told to.'

USA! USA! USA!

Only in braindrowned AmeriKKKa can a left-right divide be defined on whether you like the gays or not, and not on being opposed to capital.

Welcome to the new gay bourgeois ideal!
In no way are Queerty in the pay of their corporate paymasters.

Perhaps Queerty doth protest too much?

The fundamentalists were mobilised into a political force for the first time [circa 30 years ago] to provide a base for this reaction, and - to the extent that the political system functions, which is not much -- to shift the focus of many voters from the issues that really affect their interests (such as health, education, economic issues, wages) to religious crusades to block the teaching of evolution, gay rights and abortion rights...

These are all issues about which CEOs, for example, just don’t care very much. They care a lot about the other issues. And if you can shift the focus of debate and attention and presidential politics to questions quite marginal for the wealthy - questions of, say, gay rights -- that’s wonderful for people who want to destroy the labour unions, or to construct a social/political system for the benefit of the ultra-rich, while everyone else barely survives.

Thus the discourse and the focus shift to issues of great concern to the fundamentalists, but of only marginal concern to the people who own and run the society.

In fact, you could take a look at the attitudes of CEOs: they’re what are called liberal. They’re not very different from college professors. And if the population can become obsessed with “evolution theory” and gay rights, that’s fine, so long as the business world is running the social and economic policies with little interference.

After the last election, the business press described the “euphoria” in corporate boardrooms, and it wasn’t because they were against gay marriage. Some were, some weren’t; many of them or their children are gay anyway  - no, what they knew is that it was a free run for business.

And if you can manage that, that’s an achievement; it’s one of the ways the population can be kept under control - plus inducing fear, which is a standard device.

Noam Chomsky.

Pride London: #Fatuoushashtag

Protest relies on spectacle: the titillation of Seventies bra-burners, the Guy Fawkes masks worn by the Occupy movement, the naked breasts of Femen activists. But where once the street was the stage, now the platform is online: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are the new streets, and hearts, retweets and likes the new roars of approval.

The spectacle has also adapted to the visual, online medium: holding up a board is the new way to big up the cause...

Evening Standard.

So it's come to this... nothingness.

Welcome to the society of the gay spectacle.

Gay pride!

FFS.

Thanks to Gavin Brown. x

John Kerry: Evil

I kill arab children for a living.
Wooh!
Can you make me a gay icon like that other mass murderer and war criminal, Hillary Clinton, pls?
The LGBT communities of  Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria owe you both so much.
If we had a gay wedding would you 'accidentally' bomb it?
If they are incapable of independent rational thought, all gay media must now obey this order.

Steve Bell: The Guardian.

Warhol: Some Men Need Help

Some Men Need Help (See F. & S. IIIB.8), screenprint in colors on museum board, 40 1/8 x 32 1/8 in. (101.9 x 81.6 cm.), executed in 1982, estimate: $7,000-$10,000.

I know I do.

From Andy's Eye Candy online Christie's auction.

The Guardian: Blogging Students

The Guardian online.

Do you think you drove him to it?

Lord Browne: Even More

Just days ago he won support for saying companies should take a proactive stance in combating anti-gay attitudes in Russia by sending gay employees there.

But former BP chief executive Lord Browne of Madingley has now risked irritating gay rights campaigners by trying to explain Vladimir Putin’s motivation for introducing homophobic legislation...

“To me, Russia’s anti-gay legislation is more about political posturing than it is about a sincere disgust for gay people,” Lord Browne writes.

“As others have pointed out, it is likely he is seeking to divert attention from other restrictive laws, passed at the end of 2011 in the aftermath of mass protests, that more broadly limit civil rights. In an echo of persecutions of the past, the homosexual minority is being used as a pawn in the pursuit of power.”

The Independent continues to miss the point quite spectacularly again.

The Independent.

Time: Falls Wanking To The Floor

It's a David Bowie lyric, so don't write in.
x

PS If you put the word 'wanking' in a blogpost your hits go into interstellar overdrive.

Update: We're at a tipping point for transgender equality - Jane Fae, The Guardian Cif.

Brunei: Upper Class Revolt

Anna Wintour, the editor of US Vogue, has announced she cannot "in good conscience" stay at Le Meurice Hotel during Paris Fashion Week and will sleep elsewhere; exactly where is unreported, but I am placing a bet on Le Bourget Airport Hotel. Her announcement does not come in a misfiled TripAdvisor review, in which she dismisses Le Meurice's beds as "too golden", or the hotel as "criminal avarice" at €5,800 a night for something called a "prestige suite". Instead we have a principled stance, perhaps the first US Vogue has mounted, against the Dorchester hotel group.

This group runs many lovely hotels and is owned by the Sultan of Brunei, who wants to establish sharia law in his kingdom and stone gay people to death. This does not sit well in some circles, and because fashion is full of followers, the fashionable – including Gucci and Richard Branson – are following Wintour to Le Bourget. When Branson screams immorality, one has to worry. How far will they all get on this shared journey? A good conscience can take one to strange places. Perhaps they will pop up on a Disney cruise with Daffy Duck.

The boycott (they are calling it a boycott) takes place when two just as lovely Paris hotels – Hôtel de Crillon and the Ritz – are shut for modification of their golden beds, etcetera, so the damp pillows of Le Bourget Airport Hotel therefore loom for fashionable heads. This is something of an earthquake. Fashion, it seems, has finally embraced progressive politics in the only way it can conceive of. Do not judge: they are busy. (Chanel, alone, presents six collections a year, including cruise wear.) Will it change the sultan's mind, or will this have the same impact as not riding your bicycle past your teenage lover's house any more?

The Guardian.

Go stay at the Ritz, you clearly have no problem with that being owned by a beheading billionaire Saudi prince.

Oh, les bourgeois!

Fuck them and their fatuous fashionable cherry-picked posturing.

PS Some pesky facts about Brunei and western hypocrisy.

George Michael: 999 Drama!

The Sun - still praying for this faggot's death.

To order one ambulance may be regarded as a misfortune, to order two...

PS GHB?

Update: The Mirror gives a handy guide to 'his past troubles'.

Und! They give lucky readers a rundown of Boybands behaving badly.

And finally...

"In response to newspaper reports today we can confirm George was admitted to hospital on 22nd May. He was discharged last weekend and is well and resting.

"He is very much looking forward to the release of his new single in July. Given the personal nature of this matter there will be no further comment."

Statement  from George's people to the Mirror, May 29th.

Mommy: Dearest

Gay French bloke, Xavier Dolan, has won the Jury Prize at Cannes for his film Mommy.
As he's only 2, they made him share it with some old dude called Jean Luc Godard, who's like a billion or something.
He's quite a honey, isn't he?
Xavier, that is.
Waouh!, as French dogs say.

Fagburn: My Part In The Stonewall Riots

Good evening, Mr Fagburn.
'Good evening to you.'
Now, you are here today to tell us about how you started the Stonewall riots.
'Yes, I did.'
Was anyone else involved?
'Only Saint Peter of Tatchell as far as I can recall.'
Well done to you both - I have but one further question, everyone now says they were at the Stonewall riots.
'Your point being?'
You are making this up.
'Oops. Rumbled.'

Neil Patrick Harris: Bothered?

Daily Telegraph.

Good to learn America has 'national treasures' now, too.
And fags, with it.

Lord Browne: Not Again!

Financial Times.

Zayn Malik: Welcome To Broken Britain!

Daily Mail.

Fagburn is literally too upset to type.
A line has now been drawn in the sand!
Have we lost our moral compass?
What has become of our troubled youth???
I am literally shaking with rage about this.
But at last we have finally seen the dark side to this so-called 'squeaky clean boy band'.
Well, if this is your country, you are welcome to it.
What next? Free heroin on the NHS?
Daily Mail writers on coke???
I'm going to Spain.
Goodbye!

Your irony cuts no butter here, young lady - Twitter account now suspended!

Zayn, you've let the entire world down...

Today: All Is Stupid

And you, the world, can fuck off.
Like dolphins can fuck off...

Mail Online: The Idiots Have Won - Surrender Dorothy!

FFS!

The media's stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

As David Spiegelhalter, professor for the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, puts it: “I have a heuristic: the very fact that a piece of health research appears in the papers indicates that it is nonsense.” His reasoning is that as a rule it is only the most bizarre findings that find their way into the popular media and such bizarreness almost invariably indicates a statistically insignificant experimental anomaly...

Mail Online May 21st.

PS Help! Another one!!!

Heterosexuals exhibit subconscious homophobia, wanting to physically cleanse after imagining touching a gay man! http://t.co/tusBSgCJZM
— Goldsmiths (@GoldsmithsUoL) May 30, 2014

Thanks to Steve Taylor. x

The Soccerball: Who Actually Gives A Fuck?

I'm dying here...

PS The condensed read...

Fnar fnar etc.

Subcomandante Marcos: Vale

Vale. Salud y hasta nunca… o hasta siempre, quien entendió sabrá que eso ya no importa, que nunca ha importado.

Desde la realidad zapatista.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
México, 24 de mayo del 2014.

EZLN.

Don Marcos has issued a statement saying he is standing down - saying he has become a 'hologram'.

“Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains. 

"Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying `Enough'. He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable -- this is Marcos.”

Communique, May 28 1994.