Queer: People

Queer people of colour and trans actors have finally become visible - but hate crime is up, queer asylum seekers have been viewed with suspicion and sex education still fails to be queer-friendly 

Yawn!

Less of this right-on wank in 2016, pls, Indy Voices.

Anyone who still uses 'queer' in 2015 to suggest radicalism is a middle class twat.

And folk knows what that QAF photo is doing here.

The Sewers Of Paris: Last Night Gay Culture Saved My Life

Has a book, movie, TV show or song ever changed your life?

For me, it was a late-night showing of The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert on VH1, hosted at commercial breaks by RuPaul. I was 15, shy and growing up in a small Connecticut town; this was the first time I had ever seen queer men together, rather than popping up as villains or punch lines. "Is this what it's like to have gay friends?" I thought.

Priscilla gave me the confidence to come out, and to start wearing some insanely garish bright yellow and purple outfits. Hey, if it worked for Mitzi, Felicia and Bernadette, I figured I'd have to do the same. And it worked! Before I knew it, I was dating a boy with similarly gaudy taste, and getting up to no good on the bench seat of his pickup truck.

Years later, I mentioned that memory to a friend over drinks at The Eagle in Seattle. He responded by telling me how important he found Christopher Isherwood, the gay novelist who chronicled the sexual underworld of Berlin in the 1930s. Another friend stopped by and confessed that Looking had changed the way he dated; someone else mentioned longing for a protective figure like Lucille Ball in Mame; and, soon, we were all remembering where we were on December 3, 2000, when Queer as Folk showed the world what real gay sex looks like.

What's the entertainment that made you who you are today?

That Eagle conversation left me wanting to find more of the formative media that shaped gay men's lives. I've never read any Isherwood, and haven't seen Mame. What else have I been missing?

That curiosity led me to create The Sewers of Paris, a new podcast about the entertainment that changed the lives of gay men. Each week on the show, a different guest reveals personal stories of the books, movies, music and shows that made them who they are, opening up about their secret struggles, hidden passions, and surprising triumphs.

The results have been fascinating.

In one of the first episodes, I learned about the young love affair that exposed a young gay teen to the secret gay slang of the opera world. In another, my guest revealed that Wizard of Oz conventions once served as undercover meeting places for closeted gay men. I talked to a man who learned from gay comedians on the radio how to defend himself with his words and wit. And I found another guest who grew up closeted and scared in Latvia, where the only access to camp culture came once a year in the form of Eurovision.

Throughout the interviews, a few pieces of entertainment kept recurring. I've rounded them up here, but there's a lot more culture that belongs on this list! I'll keep adding more and more as the show goes on -- you can subscribe at SewersOfParis.com to hear what we discover about next.

And please do let me know what I should add to this list. I'm always eager to discover more. You can tweet at me @mattbaume.

Fagburn heartily endorses this podcast.

Coming Out: As Not Seen On TV

Hey, good news, everyone -- it's less than 365 days until the next National Coming Out Day! Let's allcome out of the closet! In fact, let's board up our closets entirely and just pile our clothes on that chair by the bed. Once you come out, life is just rainbows (literal and symbolic), and you'll kick yourself for having waited so long. Or you might instead end up penniless and alone with your whole life screwed beyond repair. That's what happened to "Ron." Here's his story... 

Even if there are some rough patches, coming out is a wonderful experience that always improves your life. At least, that's how it is on TV. Ron points to Justin from Queer As Folk.

"His dad didn't accept him, and his mom was odd about it too. Within a few episodes, though, she had divorced his father and was pro-gay."

   "I don't think it ever happens like that for a lot of people," said Ron, who sees no signs of reconciling with his parents after they disowned him 10 years ago. "I meet people all the time in this area at bars, or when I started a gay-straight alliance, that had horrible reactions from their parents. Sometimes it got better, but I know a lot of people who are just like me ... I have met older gay men who came out back in the '80s whose parents died without ever speaking to them again. I assume my parents will probably be the same way." ..

A good reality check - though based on a single testimony.

Now read on..

Cracked.

PS Sorry the spacing on this is fuct, I know not why.

The Independent: Why Indeed?

Warning: This article in The Independent includes the usual victim-loving nonsense about Alan Turing (he didn't crack The Enigma Code, and 'chemical castration' is a meaningless term) and the Nazis (Equating the imprisonment of thousands of gay men with the systematic extermination of millions of Jews is morally obscene).

Russell T Davies: Bananas

Davies continued with his first draft of Cucumber. The spark for it had been unexpected: Graham Norton.

“He shamed me into doing it,” Davies hoots. “Shamed me on Radio 2, live on air, while I was doing a promo for Doctor Who. ‘Why don’t you write something proper, about real gay men, again?’ he said. ‘Like Queer as Folk.’ I walked across Manchester’s MediaCity feeling chastised. But he was right. Graham Norton was right, thank God.”

Ten years before, Queer as Folk had been Davies’s calling card to the wider world. Having spent the previous decade writing Children’s Ward, Why Don’t You?, The Grand and Dark Season – which starred a young Kate Winslet – Queer as Folk was clearly in a different league: something so unmistakably from the heart, wildly inventive, joyous, angry, filthy and funny that it changed people’s ideas of “gay drama” overnight. It was genuinely revolutionary.

“Before it went out, everyone thought it was going to be Channel 4’s worthy gay drama,” Davies recalls. “All vegan protesters and Aids. The only gay characters we’d had [on British TV] before were ones dying on EastEnders. People weren’t expecting this.”

Caitlin Moran profiles the mighty RTD in The Sunday Times.

Cucumber: Homosexual Drama

Channel 4 are launching another homosexual-themed series that is likely to stir up controversy 15 years after gay drama Queer as Folk hit the airwaves.

Queer as Folk writer Russell T. Davies has created a new three-strand show that will be broadcast next year.

Cucumber marks a return to homosexual drama for Davies who apart from Queer as Folk and Bob & Rose was responsible for the revamp of Doctor Who although some fans and critics thought that the not always hidden gay themes in the sci-fi show were too much its audience of children.

Cucumber, described by Channel 4 boss Jay Hunt as 'channel-defining', tells the story of gay life across the generations and stars Vincent Franklin, who was PR Stewart Pearson in The Thick of It.

Franklin plays Henry Best, a 40-something gay man, who is splitting up from his boyfriend but is attracted to a younger man played by Freddie Fox, the son of Edward Fox, the actor.

Henry Best ends up sharing a house with a number of young men and in one episode shouts: 'We all live together in a great big gay house, being gay!'

After Cucumber has finished, viewers can switch to E4 for the second strand Banana while the third Tofu will be on the station's website and will tell the stories of 'ordinary people'.

Piers Wenger, Channel 4's head of drama, claimed that Cucumber was 'amazingly warm, incredibly funny and beautifully written.

'In a drama looking at the details of people's sex lives, whether gay or straight people, of course you are required to bust taboos or ask probing questions. There's no doubt people will find it challenging but it's asking intelligent questions in an original way.'Daily Mail.

Is English your first language?

PS Oddly the Mail forgot to include this line from Jay Hunt; 'We wouldn't be Channel 4 if we weren't planning to lightly outrage the Daily Mail.'

Here's the blurb from Channel 4 - it will be broadcast in 'winter', they add helpfully.

Cucumber: I Say Banana

Vincent Franklin, Cyril Nri, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Freddie Fox, Fisayo Akinade, Con O’Neill, James Murray and Ceallach Spellman confirmed to star in Cucumber and Banana on Channel 4 and E4.

Star of The Thick of It and Twenty Twelve, Vincent Franklin will join Coronation Street’s Julie Hesmondhalgh in the cast of new Channel 4 drama series Cucumber, from the multi BAFTA award-winning writer of Queer As Folk and Doctor Who, Russell T Davies.

Filming in Manchester has begun on Cucumber (8 x 60’) for broadcast on Channel 4 in 2015, with E4 series Banana (8 x 30’) to start production next month. The cast also includes; Cyril Nri (The Bill), Freddie Fox (Parade’s End), Fisayo Akinade (Fresh Meat), Con O’Neill (Uncle), James Murray (Primeval) and Ceallach Spellman (Waterloo Road).

Life for 46-year-old Henry (Vincent Franklin) and his boyfriend Lance (Cyril Nri) is comfortable and settled. But after the most disastrous date night in history - involving a threesome, two police cars, and Boney M - Henry's old life shatters, and his new life begins...

With the same ferocious wit, startling honesty and heartfelt warmth that made Queer As Folk a landmark Channel 4 series, Cucumber will explore the passions and pitfalls of 21st century gay life for Henry, Lance and co, while on E4, Banana will follow the individual lives of characters orbiting around Henry’s world. On 4oD, Tofu will be an anarchic and entertaining factual series about sex - from gay to straight, and anything in between - inspired by the dramas each week...

Channel 4 press office.

Can't wait.

The Guardian: Let's Have An Unheated Debate!

From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, primetime American television audiences grew to embrace two male characters who would come to define two distinct types of gay male characters. The sensitive Will Truman and the flamboyant Jack McFarland, portrayed by actors Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes, became the backbone of the hugely popular sitcom Will & Grace. It was the first time two such characters regularly took the stage in primetime television.

In the years since, the advent of reality television (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) and the diversity of cable programming (Queer as Folk) provided more diverse representations of LGBT lifestyles. But now gay characters and personalities have moved from niche to mainstream in shows like Modern Family or HBO’s Looking. Gayness* is now less of a reason for having a character, and has instead become just another plot twist or character nuance.

But it doesn’t mean all the work is over. We’ve invited three critics to discuss the evolution of LGBT characters in pop culture – and to identify cultural blind spots where producers, writers and actors still need to put in work. Answers have been edited for length...

The Guardian.

By golly, this is dull - and that's even if you ignore the inane witterings of the spectacularly thick Nancy Goldstein.

PS The premise for this is shamelessly nicked off this rather good article by Nico Lang. Though they seem to have totally misunderstood his points.

* 'Gayness'???!! What is this 'gayness' of which you speak?

TV: Whatever Happened To The Likely Queens?

A couple of years ago I sat in the audience for a panel discussion on queer representation in entertainment; the presentation included a breezy tour through the gay history of the media, complete with Powerpoint slides of Rosie, Ellen and old People magazines from when you needed to be on the cover of something to come out. The overview was greeted warmly, until we got to Will and Grace, where one of the show's characters, Jack McFarland, proved a sticking point. Jack, a sassy sidekick whose flamboyance towed the line between camp and parody, has long been a lightning rod of discussion in the community. You could feel that discomfort in the room.

Our tour guide diffused the tension by reminding the mostly-male audience that Jack might be a stereotype, but many of us know a Jack in real life. The audience laughed with delight and recognition. They nodded to friends as if to say, "Oh, yes. That's true." What he didn't say is that many of us are Jacks, but I wondered how many people would laugh at that statement...

Whatever Happened To TV's Flamboyant Gay Men? - an excellent article by Nico Lang for PolicyMic.

Arguing; "The recent television movement has been a push toward post-gay representation, creating male characters who just happen to be gay."

And that's called sad.

I'm wondering how true this is of British TV.

Seems to be a split between the real queens (eg anyone with their own chat show), and the straight-acting acted gay men (eg the distinct lack of gay nelliness in EastEnders).

Can I get back to you on this?

Russell T Davies: Cucumber!

"I once read about a scientific institute which had studied the male erection. It divided the hard-on into four categories, from soft to hard. One, tofu. Two, peeled banana. Three, banana. And four, cucumber. Right there and then, I knew I had my drama. And it's a joy to be back with Channel 4 and RED, to tell these stories."

Russell T Davies, from an exciting Channel 4 press release.

Great.

We've been promised these by RTD for Hung-Like-A-Donkey's Years.

He's been talking about doing something on older gay men ever since the end of Queer As Folk, and firmed things up way back in 2007.

First it was with the BBC, then Hollywood, blah blah, stuck in development hell. 

Anyway should be with us late next year.

So you can keep your ruddy Dr Who 50th anniversary specials and your Amercian "dramedy", Looking!

This image is from the Mirror. >>>

And seeing as they've just ripped off the press release, as did everyone else in medialand, I will too.

"Fifteen years after Queer As Folk exploded on to the screen, award-winning writer Russell T Davies is back with Cucumber and Banana – two new drama series for Channel 4 and E4 exploring the passions and pitfalls of 21st century gay life. Tofu, a factual web series, is an anarchic online guide to sex inspired by the dramas each week."

Cucumber - an 8 X 60’ series for Channel 4 - follows 46 year old Henry and his long-suffering boyfriend Lance. Life for Henry and Lance is comfortable and settled. But after the most disastrous date night in history - involving a death, a threesome, two police cars and the Glee Christmas Album - Henry's old life shatters, and his new life begins.

On E4, Banana (8 X 30’) follows the lives of characters orbiting around Henry in Cucumber. From young lesbian Scotty's first love, to 19 year old Dean's mysterious family secrets, Banana covers 50 shades of gay, and beyond.

With the same ferocious wit, startling honesty and heartfelt warmth that made Queer As Folka landmark series, Cucumber and Banana will explore the heartbreak and joy of modern sex lives - from gay to straight, and anything in between.* 

Tofu, meanwhile, extends the experience online with eight factual episodes navigating the landscape of 21st Century sex in its own inimitable way. Offering real people the chance to share their unique stories of sexual experiences, Tofu is an anarchic and entertaining look at sex.

* The Mirror put this in quotes and began; "An insider revealed..." 

Journalism!

Charlie Hunnam: 50 Shades Of Gay (GEDDIT???)

"My first job was on a Channel 4 miniseries called Queer as Folk. It was incredibly explicit sexual scenes with a man. I mean I'm 16 and 17 years wiser now. So if I could do it when I was 18 with a guy, I can certainly do it at 33 with a lady."

Charlie Hunnam quoted in Hollywood Reporter.

Hunnam is arguably still best-known for getting his bumhole licked in QAF - at least in Fagburn Mansions - but here's a - tellingly short - list of lip-locking on American primetime TV.
Apparently two fellas were at it again last night.
Pass the smelling salts, Mabel.

Russell T Davies: Nowt So Queer As Facts

You couldn't write a feature called Happy 50th Birthday Russell T Davies: 50 Reasons Why Whovians And Telly Fans Love The Dr Who Producer without mentioning the seminal Queer as Folk, could you?
Well the Mirror tried their best today.
Here's the bit from their 50 facts about RTD where they mention QAF...

6. Murray Gold  
Everybody knows the stunningly distinctive theme, but Dr Who’s incidental music has on occasion been as infamous as it’s wobbling sets. Fortunately, Russell T has some talented friends. Having already worked with the writer on Queer as Folk, Casanova and the Second Coming, Murray Gold may have been a natural choice – but what an inspired one. Still with the show, he has produced a varied array of music for each episode perfectly matching Davies and other writers’ diverse stories.

Err, and that's it!
Quite a feat.
Whatever, happy fiftieth birthday Gay/Time Lord Russell, a true tellybox legend and one of the nicest people in showbiz.

PS I wonder what happened to Russell's TV series about a middle-aged gay couple, Cucumbers?

Channel 4: For Nothing

"Their [C4's] ethos had become, 'ratings are the most important thing'. Then we found the pressure was on Brookside. Although we had the Jordache [family] saga and domestic violence, what got us most attention was the lesbian kiss... we fell into the ratings trap."
"In 1982, it was very clear: Channel 4 catered for minorities and it facilitated people's ideas – they were the two key things... 30 years later: what minorities are they catering for and how are they facilitating people's ideas? That's not to say they're not doing good stuff, but they're not actually contributing anything to the social fabric. What are they doing, except just keeping themselves in a job?"

Phil Redmond - Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks creator - talking to The Independent On Sunday.
What's happened to Channel 4 is a tragedy and a travesty of what it was meant to be.
Remember Out On Tuesday, Red Triangle, Queer As Folk...
Its remit states:

The service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular:

• demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;
• appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;
• makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and
• exhibits a distinctive character.

Today's highlights include Beach Volleyball (Live), endless repeats of ancient US sitcoms, five repeats of Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, a magic show, Deal Or No Deal, American Football Live...

Graham Norton: TV Times

"There are things we can't say and do on TV or radio that 10 years ago we absolutely could have said or shown.
"I think that's the BBC reading the mood of the audience - the audience don't particularly like cruel jokes, and I think they did."
[Asked whether it was an accurate or paranoid reflection of the audience]: "Probably a bit of both. We'd show a picture that might have had a penis in it, and we can't show that now. The audience really laughed at it, and that's sort of stopped."
"If you think back to some of the shows we watched growing up like I Claudius - that would never be shown now. I wonder would Queer As Folk happen now?... And the big drama hits now are so goody goody. Like you would never see a nipple on Downton Abbey.
"When we were growing up, you'd have thought that by now in EastEnders there could be nudity, but that's not the case."

Radio Times.
As regards the BBC, much of the problem is they keep caving into silly Daily Mail witch hunts and manufactured moral panics, lest the Tories slash their budget further, or privatise them.

US TV: Seven Ways To Come Out

Blogger CorinaWrites writes about 'TV Examples of How Parents Can Respond When Their Gay Kid Comes Out' from QAF to Glee.
Awww.

Russell T Davies: Old News

"It's going to be about fortysomething gay men and how jealous they are of gay teenagers. I've been longing to write something for adults...
"What got me started was a friend, a former Mr Gay UK, who split up from his boyfriend. He asked me: 'Why are so many gay men so glad we split up?' That remark's stayed with me for six years. I think there's a self-punishing streak in that gladness and I want to explore it."

This was Russell T Davies - Fagburn loves her to BITS! etc - being interviewed by The Guardian in 2007.
RTD said the series was codenamed MGM (More Gay Men).
The BBC confirmed it was in development - TV/Film code for "under contract, currently being thought about".
This week the BBC told Hollywood Reporter it's back on - though apparently it's still only "in development".
But at least it now appears to have a name; Cucumber.
Though - knowing Russell - this may all be a big camp joke.
I wouldn't hold your cockbreath - RTD has been promising just such a "Queer As Older Folk" project ever since the end of Queer As Folk.
Over ten fucking years ago.

Russell T Davies: Touch Wood

"It’s like — you know, I could get on my soapbox and say how important it is to be, but it’s not a soapbox. It’s just simply who I am is a gay man in the world, given opportunities to write on all sorts of networks, which I’m immensely grateful for, and so it’s not like — it’s not like I include gay characters because it’s my duty or anything. It’s just my nature.
"It’s simply second-nature for me to do that. It would be rather odd if I didn’t do that. And I’ve been very lucky. I think you are very lucky when you are the man who created Queer as Folk because not many people ever dare stop you, having done that. I think, if you were a new writer, people could say “Let’s with a gayness.” But, actually, seriously, the world has moved on. That doesn’t happen anymore.
"I mean, this programming Captain Jack as great, big, swaggering bisexual lead character, people don’t blink about that anymore. Certainly, no one at Starz ever even raised an eyebrow. That’s last year, you know. It’s like — it’s just been healthy and progressive. And I think the bigger an audience you can get, you know — we want a brand-new audience on Starz. We want to increase the audience on BBC One. We must sell this to 57 countries, and they can all see that on the screen, and that’s got to be good."

The mighty Russell T Davies during a panel debate at the US Television Critics Association

Lip Service: Ladies In Waiting

"BBC3's Lip Service isn't the world's first drama about lesbians," Rebecca Nicholson begins a feature in Guardian Guide.
"That accolade belongs to The L Word, which finished after six series in 2009 – but it is the first that Britain can claim as its own."
Really?
Doesn't Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit count?
Tipping The Velvet? Too costume drama?
How about the wonderful Sugar Rush then?
Okay, the wonderful first series of Sugar Rush - sigh...
Anyway, I'm being overly pernickety - Lip Service is the tale of five everyday lesbians in Glasgow; a photographer, an architect, a struggling actress, a police sergeant and a daytime TV presenter.
Because British TV needs more series about thrusting bourgeois young professionals.
Writer Harriet Braun tells The Guide; "I wanted to show characters who happen to be gay, but their sexuality is completely part of their lives."
Let's hope she decides which before she finished the script.
Will Lip Service be the lesbian Queer As Folk; all modern and sexy and punchy and must-see?
Sadly it's on BBC3, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

• By the way, it is now ten years since Channel 4's Queer As Folk finished. How many UK TV drama series about gay men have you seen since then?