The Daily Sheet - January to March 2025

[CellarDweller115]

Tuesday, January 7th, 2025

Heath's Family on Collecting His Oscar

Heath Ledger’s family spoke out about the 'bittersweet' moment they picked up his posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting actor in The Dark Knight. Ledger died in 2008 at the age of just 28 following an accidental overdose of prescription medications. He had already filmed The Dark Knight, which included a tribute to Ledger in the movie’s end credits. The cast of the film all wore black to the film’s London premiere in honour of the Joker actor, with Christian Bale saying of Ledger in 2008: “When you miss somebody, you want to speak about him. He was a good man, and I was glad to have spent time with him." “He was somebody who I’d been seeing on a daily basis for months." “It takes a long time to accept that someone’s gone, when all body and mind are telling you that this is somebody you will know for a great deal of time. He was something of a kindred spirit to myself.” Ledger’s family accepted the Oscar he won for his role as the Joker, with his sister, mother and father taking the stage. Heath's Family on Collecting His Oscar

After Partner's Death, a Skier Comes Out

An elite ski jumper who won a world championships bronze medal in 2021 has come out publicly as gay via an Instagram message posted on New Year’s Day. Andrzej Stekala, from Poland, wrote: “I want you to meet my true self. I am gay. I have kept this fact a secret for years — from you, from the media and sometimes even from myself.” He says he was hiding his sexuality while in a long-term relationship with “the person who changed my life — he was my pillar, my support, and my biggest fan”. The accompanying reel is a moving tribute to Damian, who Stekala says was sadly “lost… last November.” There are photos from their holidays together, plus tender moments showing the couple kissing, set to the song “Good News” by Shaboozey. The 29-year-old athlete writes: “I cannot find the words to describe the pain I have been feeling ever since that fatal day. The world we had been building together fell to pieces. Every day without him is a fight, but also a reminder of how unconditionally I loved and was loved.” Stekala says he met Damian in 2016, which was the year after he made his debut in the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, the highest level of competition in his sport. After Partner's Death, a Skier Comes Out

Losing Custody

I am more than just aware of the faint outlines of queer history – it is something I see in Technicolour. I immerse myself in lesbian books, films and art, and have written all sorts of articles about contemporary lesbianism. It is for this reason that I was shocked to learn only recently of the state having removed children from the custody of lesbian mums. In July, a radio producer contacted me to tell me about 74-year-old Judi Morris, whose son George had slid into heroin addiction and fallen in and out of the criminal justice system. The call started a journey that would end in a radio documentary, Missing Pieces: The Lesbian Mothers Scandal. The causes of addiction are complicated. However, a faultline emerged in George’s infancy, when a court granted his father full custody. Judi was a lesbian and George’s dad knew, and had acted “out of spite”, she says. He promptly put George into private foster care and left the country. Judi regained custody of George when he was five, but damage had been done. As Judi told our BBC Radio 4 documentary, “he wasn’t being fed properly, he wasn’t clothed very well. You know, he was witnessing things a child shouldn’t witness.” The path from the court’s decision to George’s death aged 51 in 2022 due to an infected needle site wasn’t fated. But my heart aches for Judi, as she must wonder how differently her son’s life could have turned out had she been allowed to raise him. George wasn’t the only child affected. During my research, I came across at least 30 cases from the 1970s to the 1990s where British judges took children from lesbian mums. Losing Custody 2024 - The Year in Bisexuality Carrie Bradshaw — that beautiful heterosexual ditz — once mused that bisexuality is “just a layover on the way to Gaytown.” It’s been over two decades since that infamous Sex and the City episode, and as it turns out, people like the views here. Some have booked a permanent stay. Others, after a long tenure in Gaytown, are now wading into our luxurious waters. Welcome: Drop your bags and come explore. In 2024, bisexuality became a cultural destination. Moviegoers turned up to theaters to watch Kinsey moderates wreak havoc on their relationships, a trend that started with last year’s steamy marriage drama Passages and French procedural Anatomy of a Fall and extended into this year’s sapphic neo-noir Love Lies Bleeding. The spring’s buzziest film, the tennis romp Challengers, is that meme fantasy about having two boyfriends who are also boyfriends with each other realized onscreen. Meanwhile, TV comedies created ludicrous plot points out of sexual fluidity: A cruise-ship medical staff had a drunken threesome on Dr. Odyssey; a clueless straight girl microaggressed her bi boyfriend with attempted pegging on The Sex Lives of College Girls; and a zoomer comedian narrowly avoided victimization by a gay Republican with a piss kink on Hacks. Novels about wanton queers who more or less “just ended up with people,” to quote the protagonist of Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!, swept group chats across the country. “All the bi bitches know the fuck is going down,” proclaims Tyler, the Creator, on one of the biggest tag-team rap smashes of the year. Have we finally arrived at a world of borderless sexuality? “All the kids are going bi,” Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones chirped to Carrie in the aforementioned “Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl” episode, before the latter fumbled a sexually progressive younger man. (For the au courant Samantha, women and even gay guys were on the table.) Newsweek famously announced the arrival of the peculiar in-between species bisexuals (“Not gay. Not straight. A new sexual identity emerges”) in 1995. When Sex and the City’s own investigation aired in 2000, the “kids” in question were younger Gen-Xers.   2024 - The Year in Bisexuality Sarah McBride Heads to Congress It was her last day in session as a Delaware state senator, and Sarah McBride sat in her tiny office at the state Capitol, preparing farewell remarks. She had made history here, as the first openly transgender state senator in the country. Now she was making history again, recently elected as the first openly transgender member of Congress. Her political promotion has come during a reckoning for transgender rights, when legislation in Republican-governed states around the country aims to curb their advance. During an election where a deluge of campaign ads and politicians demeaned trans people, McBride still easily won her blue state’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. But even before she is sworn in on Friday, her reception from congressional Republicans has been tumultuous. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina targeted her by proposing to ban transgender people from U.S. Capitol restrooms that correspond to their gender identity — a ban that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., enacted. For her part, McBride tried to defuse the situation, saying she would follow the rules. “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” the 34-year-old wrote in a statement. While some activists want her to fight harder, to those who know her, the move was classic Sarah — a pragmatist with a reputation of bipartisanship, a person who values diplomacy over pugilism. Sarah McBride Heads to Congress Maidens of the North Shelby Lyn Lowe was never really competitive. Then she started playing pinball about six years ago. The Saskatoon woman says people are surprised when she tells them about her love for the game, playing in tournaments and even competing in different leagues. "People don't know that is a thing," said Lowe. "I like surprising people with that." The Saskatoon woman and her teammates meet regularly to train and compete at the different flashy machines. They are all members of the Maidens of the North — pinball league for women and non-binary people in the city. A similar league with the same name runs in Calgary, while the Flippin' Queens Pinball League has its home in Regina. "It is predominantly a male-played activity," said Lowe. "There's definitely less women players who play it, especially competitively in tournaments in the province at least." Maidens of the North Remembering Jimmy Carter As An Ally Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president, will be remembered as a staunch LGBTQ+ ally, although it took him time to evolve on some issues. The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner died on Sunday after over a year in hospice care. He is the longest-lived U.S. president. He passed away at his home in Plains, Ga. — the same house he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died last year, spent the majority of their lives, according to the Carter Center. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, one of the former president’s sons. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” LGBTQ+ rights group the Human Rights Campaign remembered Carter’s queer rights legacy in a statement on Sunday. “All of us at the Human Rights Campaign feel an immense loss with the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “In recent years, he became a prominent voice in support of LGBTQ+ rights, speaking out for marriage equality at a time when most national leaders in the U.S. still opposed it. For decades after he left the White House, he continued to make public service his enduring priority through his work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Presidential Center, cementing his reputation as a champion for human rights and as one of the all time great former presidents. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and all who mourn him.” Remembering Jimmy Carter As An Ally Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

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Tuesday, January 14th, 2025

Larry's Legacy

Larry McMurtry's writing legacy will live on in his hometown of Archer City, Texas. His former bookstore, Booked Up, is set to become a literary center after Chip and Joanna Gaines recently sold it to the Archer City Writers Workshop. McMurtry, who died in 2021, is one of Texas' most famous novelists, perhaps best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, which was adapted into a film, and for adapting the screenplay of Brokeback Mountain with co-writer Diana Ossana, for which they won an Oscar. McMurtry was also a prolific collector of rare and antiquarian books, opening two locations of Booked Up—one in Washington D.C. and the other in North Texas' Archer City, where he was born, lived and died. Booked Up in Archer City eventually filled four storefronts. Chip Gaines of Fixer Upper fame purchased the store in 2023 and moved thousands of McMurtry's books to the Gainses' Waco hotel. But the couple have since sold the building—and its remaining books—to the Archer City Writers Workshop, who plan to turn one of the Booked Up storefronts into the Larry McMurtry Literary Center. George Getschow, who is leading the project with the Archer City Writers Workshop, said the Gainses offered ACWW the opportunity to start the literary center a few months ago, and the group eagerly grabbed it. "McMurtry often referred to Booked Up as his 'Temple of Books,'" Getschow wrote in an op-ed for the Dallas Morning News earlier this month. "Brimming with a half million books of every stripe during its heyday, the store was for him a sacred place. He got married there and directed in his will that his ashes be interred inside the store." Larry's Legacy

Openly Gay Men Can Be Priests

New guidelines released by the Italian Bishops’ Conference on Friday brings the ordination of openly gay men to the Catholic priesthood closer. The conference's new guidelines for the training of priests didn't recommend that openly gay men shouldn't be barred from the priesthood, but it did heavily hint at it. "When referring to homosexual tendencies, it’s also appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the global framework of the young person’s personality,” the report titled "Guidelines and norms for seminaries" stated. However, it also went on to say that any gay priests must never have sex, as has always been the case for heterosexual priests. Officially, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual activity is “intrinsically disordered.” It also says that men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture” cannot be ordained. All women remain barred from the Catholic priesthood, whatever their sexuality. In January 2023 Pope Francis told the Associated Press in an interview that “being homosexual isn’t a crime.” Openly Gay Men Can Be Priests

LGBTQ+ Fire Chief Kristin Crowley

The stereotype of lesbians always being prepared for an emergency — everyone knows a queer woman who doesn’t leave the house without a Leatherman multitool and carabiners — holds true for Los Angeles’ first openly LGBTQ+ Fire Chief Kristin Crowley who is overseeing the firefighters trying to stop the Palisades fire. As of Wednesday morning, more than 5,000 acres in the affluent celebrity-inhabited neighborhood of Pacific Palisades in southern California has been consumed by fire, with approximately 1,000 structures and coastal homes reduced to rubble. The fire is being called “one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory” by the LA Times and has already carved a path of destruction along the Pacific Coast Highway. As the Palisades fire ravages the wealthy area, three other fires are also devastating Los Angeles County and have led to the death of two people, and fire hydrants in the area have run dry, the LA Times reports. This has led to Crowley facing growing backlash on social media, where conservatives are taking cheap digs at her appearance and are claiming she’s a “DEI hire” and isn’t qualified for the position. LGBTQ+ Fire Chief Kristin Crowley 2024 - The Year in Bisexuality Carrie Bradshaw — that beautiful heterosexual ditz — once mused that bisexuality is “just a layover on the way to Gaytown.” It’s been over two decades since that infamous Sex and the City episode, and as it turns out, people like the views here. Some have booked a permanent stay. Others, after a long tenure in Gaytown, are now wading into our luxurious waters. Welcome: Drop your bags and come explore. In 2024, bisexuality became a cultural destination. Moviegoers turned up to theaters to watch Kinsey moderates wreak havoc on their relationships, a trend that started with last year’s steamy marriage drama Passages and French procedural Anatomy of a Fall and extended into this year’s sapphic neo-noir Love Lies Bleeding. The spring’s buzziest film, the tennis romp Challengers, is that meme fantasy about having two boyfriends who are also boyfriends with each other realized onscreen. Meanwhile, TV comedies created ludicrous plot points out of sexual fluidity: A cruise-ship medical staff had a drunken threesome on Dr. Odyssey; a clueless straight girl microaggressed her bi boyfriend with attempted pegging on The Sex Lives of College Girls; and a zoomer comedian narrowly avoided victimization by a gay Republican with a piss kink on Hacks. Novels about wanton queers who more or less “just ended up with people,” to quote the protagonist of Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!, swept group chats across the country. “All the bi bitches know the fuck is going down,” proclaims Tyler, the Creator, on one of the biggest tag-team rap smashes of the year. Have we finally arrived at a world of borderless sexuality? “All the kids are going bi,” Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones chirped to Carrie in the aforementioned “Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl” episode, before the latter fumbled a sexually progressive younger man. (For the au courant Samantha, women and even gay guys were on the table.) Newsweek famously announced the arrival of the peculiar in-between species bisexuals (“Not gay. Not straight. A new sexual identity emerges”) in 1995. When Sex and the City’s own investigation aired in 2000, the “kids” in question were younger Gen-Xers.   2024 - The Year in Bisexuality Transgender Privacy Act California Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 59, also known as the “Transgender Privacy Act,” on Thursday. SB 59 would protect the privacy of transgender and nonbinary people by automatically making all court records related to their gender transition sealed and confidential to reduce risks that they will be “outed,” the senator’s office said. The senator said his bill is partially in response to Donald Trump’s return to the White House. According to Wiener, the incoming president’s administration will be “openly hostile to the transgender community,” and “states like California must step up to defend them.” Some transgender and nonbinary people are surprised to discover that their records, including “deadnames” and other personal information, are discoverable online, Wiener said. “When I learned I was unable to change my name in California without being forcibly outed online and exposed to harassment I was appalled,” said Hazel Williams, San Francisco resident and community organizer. “There are 220,000 transgender and non-binary adults in California. All of us deserve privacy and safety.” Senator Wiener said, “Unfortunately, right-wing groups and individuals have used publicly available personal information to harass trans people in California and across the nation. The incoming Trump administration will only embolden abusive right-wing extremists.” Transgender Privacy Act Bob the Drag Queen RuPaul’s Drag Race legend Bob The Drag Queen is bringing drama, glamour and winning energy to The Traitors US season three. While UK-based The Traitors fans are crowning new queer icons and allies in players Leanne, Fozia and Linda as season three continues, The Traitors US is welcoming some well-established royalty into the castle for its third season. Bob The Drag Queen, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season eight, comedy extraordinaire, and friend of Madonna, will enter Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands as one of 21 players in the now-iconic game of deception and dirty tricks. The first episode of The Traitors US season three airs on the Peacock streaming platform at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on 9 January. Unlike its UK counterpart, the US edition is made up entirely of celebrity figures, and Bob The Drag Queen will be joined by likes of queer Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause, Britney Spears’ ex-husband Sam Asghari, and gay British aristocrat, Lord Ivar Mountbatten. Bob follows in the footsteps of her Drag Race sisters Peppermint, Miss Fiercalicious and Melinda Verga, all of whom have competed on different iterations of the gameshow. In case you’ve been living under a rock or without internet access for the past few years, here’s what The Traitors is all about: a set of players enter a castle, and a select few are secretly declared Traitors, while the rest are Faithfulls. Bob the Drag Queen Anita Bryant Dead Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma, Grammy-nominated singer and prominent booster of orange juice and other products who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84. Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, according to a statement posted by her family to news site The Oklahoman on Thursday. The family did not list a cause of death. Bryant was a Barnsdall native who began singing at an early age, and was just 12 when she hosted her own local television show. She was named Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and soon began a successful recording career. Her hit singles included “Till There Was You,” “Paper Roses” and “My Little Corner of the World.” A lifelong Christian, she received two Grammy nominations for best sacred performance and one for best spiritual performance, for the album “Anita Bryant … Naturally.” By the late 1960s, she was among the entertainers joining Bob Hope on his USO tours for troops overseas, had sung at the White House and performed at the national conventions for both the Democrats and Republicans in 1968. She also became a highly visible commercial spokesperson, her ads for Florida orange juice featuring the tag line, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.” But in the late 1970s, her life and career began a dramatically new path. Unhappy with the cultural changes of the time, Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Florida’s Miami-Dade County that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. Supported by the Rev. Jerry Falwell among others, Bryant and her “Save Our Children” coalition continued to oppose gay rights around the country, denouncing the “deviant lifestyle” of the gay community and calling gays “human garbage.” Anita Bryant Dead Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

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Tuesday, January 21st, 2025

Best of David Harbour

The best David Harbour movies and TV shows tell a story of patience paying off, as years of commitment to delivering strong performances eventually led to the fame the actor currently enjoys over three decades after his debut. Born in New York in 1975, David Harbour became a household name thanks to his performance as Hopper in Stranger Things, which debuted in 2016. However, this was far from Harbour’s first role, as he began his career as an actor in 1994, spending years on stage in theatrical productions before his TV debut. 1999 marked David Harbour’s first on-screen appearance, playing a one-off character on Law & Order. It was in 2004 that he landed his first role in a feature film, director Bill Condon’s biographical drama Kinsey. However, from there, Harbour’s career started to gain momentum, with each new appearance on the big and small screen drawing evermore attention to his name. The best David Harbour movies and TV shows highlight just how important patience is for many actors, as the majority come from later in his career - however, even his earliest appearances are strong, and many are just as noteworthy as the likes of Stranger Things and Black Widow. Best of David Harbour

Denied Communion

The mayor of a small town in Spain has blasted his local Catholic Church for denying him communion because he is gay and living with his partner. On January 12, Rubén García de Andrés, the Socialist mayor of Torrecaballeros and a practicing Catholic, took to social media to call out his local parish priest who he says banned him from receiving holy communion. García de Andrés wrote that he’s spoken to his priest, who told him he would consult with the bishop of Segovia, the Spanish province in which Torrecaballeros is located. García de Andrés said that he later received a written response from the bishop in which he was told that church doctrine is clear and he would continue to be denied communion. The mayor also wrote that he was pressured to step away from his role as a lay preacher in Torrecaballeros two years ago for similar reasons. García de Andrés said that the Church’s decision has caused him, his family, and his people pain, and that while he can forgive the pain it has caused him, he cannot forgive the pain it has caused his family. According to U.K. outlet The Telegraph, Segovia’s Socialist party leader José Luis Aceves has asked incoming bishop Jesús Vidal Chamorro to reverse the decision, as well as a similar one affecting another gay couple in the area. The Telegraph reports that García de Andrés was only denied communion after he tried to intercede on the other couple’s behalf. Denied Communion

Attacking Lesbian Firefighters

[ Conservative media pundit Megyn Kelly has mocked the hierarchy of the Los Angeles Fire Department, taking swipes at lesbians in the department, as firefighters continue to battle the blazes that have devastated the area. Kelly, a former Fox News host well-known for her controversial comments about LGBTQ+ people, criticised the department on her podcast, taking aim at the three women in charge and repeating claims that equality programmes were the reason firefighters have not been able to extinguish the 37.1 square miles of flames. “I believe I speak for all females in Los Angeles when I say, we want a strong man to rescue us. That’s what we want,” Kelly said. She berated fire chief Kristin Crowley, equity and human resources bureau head Kristine Larson and training and support bureau commander Jamie Brown. Crowley, in particular, has faced criticism from right-wingers, who claim she is nothing more than a “DEI hire” despite her 22 years of service. Before becoming fire chief, she was a firefighter, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief, deputy chief and chief deputy. Kelly went on to say: “I’m not trying to be mean but they’re obese. These are overweight, out-of-shape women, and the last thing I want to see, if I’m in a burning building is a) a woman and b) an obese woman. Attacking Lesbian Firefighters Bisexuality in "XO, Kitty" "I’ve moved on to explosive love triangles with girls!” exclaims Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) halfway through the second season of Netflix’s teen romantic dramedy XO, Kitty. Fresh off a group ski trip that blew up in smoke after a rogue love letter slipped into the wrong hands, the high school junior is understandably overwhelmed; multiple people are now upset with her—and the fact that two of them are girls she has crushes on certainly doesn’t help. So when her best friend Q (Anthony Keyvan) calls her out for not disclosing that his roommate, Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee), admitted to being in love with her at the tail-end of season 1, Kitty quickly brushes him off. After all, Kitty and Min Ho have both gotten over it. And besides, who could possibly care about boys at a time like this? Kitty is now caught between several girls. The only problem is that, before long, Kitty will realize that she isn’t really over Min Ho after all. Sure, she spends a large chunk of XO, Kitty season 2 navigating the lingering feelings she has for Yuri (Gia Kim), the wealthy lesbian who helped her realize she was queer in season 1, while simultaneously exploring a separate romantic connection with the new cool girl Praveena (Sasha Bhasin). But Kitty is still bisexual—and to the show’s credit, XO, Kitty understands that a newfound interest in girls doesn’t equate to an automatic disinterest in boys. Kitty likes both genders, and this delightful Netflix series finds increasingly entertaining ways to explore that dynamic. It’s not hard to tell that XO, Kitty is a spinoff of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Much like that beloved trilogy of Netflix films, XO, Kitty operates in a cheerful rom-com register, focusing on a precocious high school teen as she tries to find her one true pairing. In the first season of the Jenny Han-created series, Kitty left her Portland hometown to attend the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS), where she hoped to be closer to her long-distance boyfriend, Dae (Minyeong Choi).   Bisexuality in "XO, Kitty" Gang Detained in Attack A gang of youths has been detained after they lured a student to a north-west London car park where she was beaten up and stabbed because of her transgender identity. The Old Bailey heard the victim, who was aged 18 at the time, had been under the impression she was attending a roller disco with friends at Harrow Leisure Centre on 10 February last year. Prosecutors said she was attacked during a 45-second pre-planned assault as revenge for performing a sex act on one of the teenagers who had not realised she was transgender. Sentencing the group on Thursday Judge Philip Katz KC said the ambush was "vicious" and had "elements of transphobia and revenge". Summer Betts-Ramsey, 20, of Barnet; Bradley Harris, 18, of Harrow; Shiloh Hindes, 18, of Peckham; Camron Osei, 18, of Tadworth and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named due to legal reasons, each pleaded guilty causing GBH with intent. Judge Katz sentenced Betts-Ramsey - who boasted on Snapchat about stabbing the victim - to eight-and-a-half years at a young offender institution. Gang Detained in Attack Nonconsensual Surgeries Condemned The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report this week backing intersex rights and bodily autonomy, in what community advocates say is the first report of its kind by the U.S. government. HHS officials published the 31-page report, Advancing Health Equity for Intersex Individuals, on January 17 along with a memo providing guidance on the report’s findings to other government agencies. Citing interviews with intersex people and previous research studies, the report’s authors highlighted the trauma and inequity that intersex people currently face within the U.S. healthcare system and identified necessary policy changes. Most notably, the report calls for an end to nonconsensual surgeries on intersex youth — a practice that is still legal in most countries including the U.S., even though such surgeries are often not medically necessary and instead performed to “normalize” bodies with divergent traits. “Historic and current medical protocols often focused on immediate surgical interventions to conform a child’s sex characteristics to a single sex, not because such surgical interventions were medically necessary, but because of social and cultural expectations about how bodies should appear,” the report’s authors wrote. Because those procedures have been found to lead to “lasting and complex harms” to intersex people throughout their lives, doctors and parents of should “delay any non-emergent medical interventions until an intersex child is old enough to be involved in decision making about their sexual and reproductive health,” the report recommends. Other areas of concern highlighted in the report include rampant discrimination from medical providers targeted at intersex adults; lack of access to necessary care, especially cancer treatments; and poor sexual health and fertility resources, due in part to research that miscategorizes intersex people “to simplify study design,” the authors noted. The report goes on to propose numerous reforms and lay out a list of principles to better support intersex populations, like protecting bodily autonomy under the law and defending intersex civil rights. Nonconsensual Surgeries Condemned Anita Bryant Dead Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma, Grammy-nominated singer and prominent booster of orange juice and other products who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84. Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, according to a statement posted by her family to news site The Oklahoman on Thursday. The family did not list a cause of death. Bryant was a Barnsdall native who began singing at an early age, and was just 12 when she hosted her own local television show. She was named Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and soon began a successful recording career. Her hit singles included “Till There Was You,” “Paper Roses” and “My Little Corner of the World.” A lifelong Christian, she received two Grammy nominations for best sacred performance and one for best spiritual performance, for the album “Anita Bryant … Naturally.” By the late 1960s, she was among the entertainers joining Bob Hope on his USO tours for troops overseas, had sung at the White House and performed at the national conventions for both the Democrats and Republicans in 1968. She also became a highly visible commercial spokesperson, her ads for Florida orange juice featuring the tag line, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.” But in the late 1970s, her life and career began a dramatically new path. Unhappy with the cultural changes of the time, Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Florida’s Miami-Dade County that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. Supported by the Rev. Jerry Falwell among others, Bryant and her “Save Our Children” coalition continued to oppose gay rights around the country, denouncing the “deviant lifestyle” of the gay community and calling gays “human garbage.” Anita Bryant Dead Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

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Tuesday, January 28th, 2025

Rodrigo's Keen Eye

The two films could scarcely look more different. One, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” mixes a muted autochrome look with naturalistic lighting to conjure a mood of impending doom. The other, “Barbie,” is a color-blasted feast of pastels that celebrates artifice in creating a world inhabited by toy people. You would never think they were shot by the same person. Except that person, Rodrigo Prieto, is one of the most versatile and prolific cinematographers around. And while the film academy singled out only his work on Martin Scorsese’s “Flower Moon” on nominations morning, The Envelope wants to give both sides of his creative vision applause. The Mexico City native, 58, is now a four-time Oscar nominee, previously for “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “Silence” (2016) and “The Irishman” (2019) — the latter two also directed by Scorsese. Here Prieto talks a little about his approach to each film. Rodrigo's Keen Eye

Paul Reubens Comes Out

The late Paul Reubens made sure he got the final word when it came to his much-debated but never openly acknowledged sexuality. The beloved actor came out as a gay man in the posthumous documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday. While sitting down with director Matt Wolf for the film, Reubens discussed why he decided to hide his sexuality after becoming famous with his whimsically childlike character, Pee-wee Herman. “I hid behind an alter ego,” he said in the movie, which was detailed in a story by the New York Post. “I spent my entire adult life hiding I was a huge weed head. I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation. I was conflicted about sexuality. But fame was way more complicated.” Reuben’s Pee-wee persona first took off after debuting the character with the Groundlings comedy troupe in 1981. After being unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight, the star chose to put his professional ambitions ahead of his personal life. “I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet,” Reubens said, who recalled being in a relationship with a man who helped inspire Pee-wee before concealing his sexuality and becoming a pop culture icon. Paul Reubens Comes Out

t.A.T.u Now

[ It's been a minute since the BBC was accused of banning their raunchy music video from Top Of The Pops. But while the long-running show is no more, the band in question are still performing and remain as provocative as ever - as footage of recent reunion shows in Minsk and St. Petersburg confirm. The Russian girl-group gained notoriety in the late nineties and early 2000s with their first English language single and, more pertinently, an accompanying video in which they alluded to lesbianism and underage sex. At the time, the pair played into a lesbian gimmick where they pretended to be in love with each other and in a relationship. However, they later admitted that their lesbian persona was a fake marketing gimmick cooked up for shock value. Dressed as schoolgirls, the controversial duo were filmed kissing passionately in the pouring rain while an assembly of adults watch impassively from the sidelines. The video sparked inevitable outrage, and the BBC were soon forced to deny banning it from their pre-watershed schedule, instead insisting they had better content available at the time. t.A.T.u Now Bisexuality in "XO, Kitty" "I’ve moved on to explosive love triangles with girls!” exclaims Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) halfway through the second season of Netflix’s teen romantic dramedy XO, Kitty. Fresh off a group ski trip that blew up in smoke after a rogue love letter slipped into the wrong hands, the high school junior is understandably overwhelmed; multiple people are now upset with her—and the fact that two of them are girls she has crushes on certainly doesn’t help. So when her best friend Q (Anthony Keyvan) calls her out for not disclosing that his roommate, Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee), admitted to being in love with her at the tail-end of season 1, Kitty quickly brushes him off. After all, Kitty and Min Ho have both gotten over it. And besides, who could possibly care about boys at a time like this? Kitty is now caught between several girls. The only problem is that, before long, Kitty will realize that she isn’t really over Min Ho after all. Sure, she spends a large chunk of XO, Kitty season 2 navigating the lingering feelings she has for Yuri (Gia Kim), the wealthy lesbian who helped her realize she was queer in season 1, while simultaneously exploring a separate romantic connection with the new cool girl Praveena (Sasha Bhasin). But Kitty is still bisexual—and to the show’s credit, XO, Kitty understands that a newfound interest in girls doesn’t equate to an automatic disinterest in boys. Kitty likes both genders, and this delightful Netflix series finds increasingly entertaining ways to explore that dynamic. It’s not hard to tell that XO, Kitty is a spinoff of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Much like that beloved trilogy of Netflix films, XO, Kitty operates in a cheerful rom-com register, focusing on a precocious high school teen as she tries to find her one true pairing. In the first season of the Jenny Han-created series, Kitty left her Portland hometown to attend the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS), where she hoped to be closer to her long-distance boyfriend, Dae (Minyeong Choi).   Bisexuality in "XO, Kitty" Charges Dropped Against Doctor U.S. prosecutors on Friday dropped charges against a Texas doctor and self-described whistleblower on transgender care for minors, who was accused of illegally gaining access to records about patients not under his care at Texas Children's Hospital. Just days after Republican President Donald Trump returned to office on Monday, federal prosecutors in Houston moved to dismiss, opens new tab the case they brought in June against Dr. Eithan Haim, whose prosecution had been sharply criticized by conservatives. Haim, who made several appearances on Fox News following his indictment, had been slated to face trial on Feb. 10 on charges that he violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal patient privacy law. Ryan Patrick, Haim's attorney, called the prosecution's legal theory "novel." He said prosecutors agreed to dismiss the case following the Sunday resignation of U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden. "They made what we believe is the right decision," Patrick said. Charges Dropped Against Doctor My Genderqueer Partner My partner Denise is the bravest, most grounded person I know. Denise, who uses they/them pronouns, has pulled me back from the brink more times than I care to count. I’ve never had to do that for Denise. I’ve never seen Denise afraid. Until now. Denise is terrified of what the next four years might bring, under a president who refers to their nonbinary identity as “left-wing gender insanity” and has vowed to revoke gender-affirming care. The gender-affirming care Denise receives with their Kaiser Permanente coverage — hormone replacement therapy, monitoring, testing and access to supportive, well-trained medical professionals — helps them be the person they know themselves to be. Some cultures call it the “third gender,” Native Americans call it “two-spirit,” neither male nor female, embodying traits of both. The 10-year-old Kaiser gender-affirming care department cannot protect Denise from being called “sir” at the grocery store or from being yelled at to leave women’s bathrooms. But it has kept the promise stated on its website, to offer “supportive, inclusive care for all that is you,” treating patients “with compassion and respect, using your true name and pronouns.” My Genderqueer Partner Ally Rev. Robert Cromey Dies The Reverend Robert Warren Cromey, who helped create the early pro-LGBTQ group the Council on Religion and the Homosexual and performed early same-sex marriages, died January 14. He was 93. Reverend Cromey's wife, Ann, told the Bay Area Reporter that he'd died in his sleep in an assisted living facility after having suffered a fall in early December. "He was an Episcopal clergyman who tried to follow Jesus by welcoming all people," Ann Cromey told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. "He did go to Selma, Alabama when Martin Luther King Jr. asked clergy to come to march. In San Francisco, he became convinced Christ was accepting of all people and he started speaking out in 1963 about the humanity of gay people, and he did it his whole career. Robert was highly publicized." Reverend Cromey was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. A disciple of the heterodox Bishop of California James Pike, Reverend Cromey served as his secretary, and though he was straight, he was an early advocate for LGBTQ equality both inside and outside the Episcopal Church. In that endeavor, Reverend Cromey co-founded the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, an early homophile group that on New Year's Day 1965 threw a fundraising gala in the Tenderloin that was raided by police due to its pro-gay message. The Reverend Jim Mitulski, a gay man who's now pastor of Congregational Church of the Peninsula in Belmont, told the B.A.R. that Reverend Cromey demonstrated allyship by being arrested. "They," Mitulski said, referring to a number of straight pro-gay clergy in those days, "stood out and stood with us." Ally Rev. Robert Cromey Dies Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

[CellarDweller115]

Tuesday, February 4th, 2025

20 in 2025

As we look ahead to 2025 and all the highly anticipated titles released this year, it's the perfect time to look back at some of the most beloved films of the past that are reaching big milestones. Movies of the early 2000s are no exception, and it's particularly difficult to believe that some of them will turn 20 years old in 2025, mostly because of how timeless they feel. To celebrate some of the best cinematic gems from the past, we look back at a few of the best and most memorable movies from 2005 that stand the test of time and continue to resonate with audiences. From horror flicks like The Descent to tear-jerking romance films such as Brokeback Mountain, these are the best movies turning 20 this year. Through their influence on audiences and their ever-popular stories, they remain influential in modern cinema. So, where did Collider.com place Brokeback Mountain on their list??  Click the link to find out! 20 in 2025

Interview with Luke Evans

Luke Evans has been open about the homophobic bullying he suffered at school, which he previously said left him feeling “dirty” and “like [he] had a disease”. Speaking to PinkNews, the Beauty and the Beast star also shared that being an out gay star in Hollywood action films left him feeling alone. During a chat with reality TV star Jamie Laing on his podcast Great Company, the 45-year-old opened up further about his past. He recalled bullies calling him a “shirt lifter” among other cruel insults, but he added that he “knew there was more” beyond school, which kept him going. When asked by Laing if he would forgive his bullies, he replied, “Yes, I guess  I forgive them,” but added, “I’d love for them to ask for it though. On their knees, ‘Please, please forgive me.’” “The ultimate revenge: success,” Laing added. On his first gay crush, he revealed that he fancied his rugby teacher when he was around nine or ten. “I remember thinking, ‘Holy – what is this?‘” Interview with Luke Evans

Answering Questions

Despite society having made a lot of progress when it comes to same-sex relationships and alternative families, it’s not so commonplace that many queer parents are still presented with questions about their lifestyle from straight people. And while queer parents probably (rightfully) grow tired of answering certain questions day in and day out, having open conversation helps break through the lack of understanding which causes stigma and misconceptions in the first place. In a now-viral video shared to their Instagram, lesbian moms Allie and Sam Conway answer commonly asked questions they get as a queer married couple with twins. Of course, they started with the age-old question:  “Who’s the real mom?” Though people by and large are able to differentiate biological connection from emotional connection (like with adoptive parents or step-parents to take on an active role in their step children’s lives), this is still a question that same-sex parents face regularly. And it’s a fairly harmful one at that, as it implicitly undermines the non-biological parent’s role in the family. So, to Sam’s point: “We’re both the mom.” Allie also told Upworthy that the usual response to this answer is "oh my gosh! That’s amazing!" Which makes her—and us—"smile so much." Answering Questions Jeremy Allen White in Bisexual Role The Bear breakout star and Calvin Klein heartthrob Jeremy Allen White has been cast to play a bisexual man — the main character — in a new Netflix series based on Enigma Variations, a novel from Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman. The news was first reported exclusively by Variety. Aciman released Enigma Variations around the same time that Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name film came out — 10 years after the original novel was published. Following the critical acclaim for the Academy Award-nominated movie, Timothée Chalamet became a household name around the world and one of Hollywood's A-list actors. The official synopsis of Enigma Variations describes that the novel centers on Paul, a man "whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents' cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he'll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men." "Whether he's on a tennis court in Central Park, or on a New York sidewalk in early spring, his attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire — not for just one person's body but, inevitably, for someone else's as well," the synopsis concludes.   Jeremy Allen White in Bisexual Role Trump's Transgender Policies President Donald Trump has targeted transgender and nonbinary people with a series of executive orders since he returned to office. He has done it with strong language. In one executive order, he asserted “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex.” That’s a dramatic reversal of the policies of former President Joe Biden’s administration — and of major medical organizations — that supported gender-affirming care. American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Sruti Swaminathan said that to be put into effect, provisions of the orders should first go through federal rulemaking procedures, which can be years long and include the chance for public comment. “When you have the nation’s commander-in-chief demonizing transgender people, it certainly sends a signal to all Americans,” said Sarah Warbelow, the legal director at Human Rights Campaign. Things to know about Trump’s actions: Trump's Transgender Policies Two-Spirit Powwow This is a big week for Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits. The nonprofit organization is holding a delayed 25th anniversary dinner Thursday, followed by its 14th annual powwow Saturday, February 1. BAAITS officials said both events are a testament to the organization's success in fostering community among First Nation peoples. "It's always been a group effort," said Dr. Angel Fabian, a Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer who serves as BAAITS' executive director. Fabian was born into the Ben'Zaa or Zapotec Indigenous group of Mexico and grew up in the Central Valley's migrant labor camps, as the Bay Area Reporter previously noted in a December article about a report detailing the needs of Two-Spirits and Indigiqueers. They first came to the Bay Area in 1991 as an undergraduate at Stanford University. Fabian, 52, who has a master's degree in nonprofit management, said in a phone interview that given the current political climate — with recent executive orders by President Donald Trump and anti-trans legislation in red states, and in California last year — it's critical for BAAITS to exist and thrive. "It's an often marginalized community that we work and advocate for," Fabian said. "And many folks forget the language and words that describe Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer people in this country. We have always existed on this land." They added that colonization took First Nation and First People of the Americas "out of the sacred circle." Two-Spirit Powwow Ally Rev. Robert Cromey Dies The Reverend Robert Warren Cromey, who helped create the early pro-LGBTQ group the Council on Religion and the Homosexual and performed early same-sex marriages, died January 14. He was 93. Reverend Cromey's wife, Ann, told the Bay Area Reporter that he'd died in his sleep in an assisted living facility after having suffered a fall in early December. "He was an Episcopal clergyman who tried to follow Jesus by welcoming all people," Ann Cromey told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. "He did go to Selma, Alabama when Martin Luther King Jr. asked clergy to come to march. In San Francisco, he became convinced Christ was accepting of all people and he started speaking out in 1963 about the humanity of gay people, and he did it his whole career. Robert was highly publicized." Reverend Cromey was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. A disciple of the heterodox Bishop of California James Pike, Reverend Cromey served as his secretary, and though he was straight, he was an early advocate for LGBTQ equality both inside and outside the Episcopal Church. In that endeavor, Reverend Cromey co-founded the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, an early homophile group that on New Year's Day 1965 threw a fundraising gala in the Tenderloin that was raided by police due to its pro-gay message. The Reverend Jim Mitulski, a gay man who's now pastor of Congregational Church of the Peninsula in Belmont, told the B.A.R. that Reverend Cromey demonstrated allyship by being arrested. "They," Mitulski said, referring to a number of straight pro-gay clergy in those days, "stood out and stood with us." Ally Rev. Robert Cromey Dies Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

[CellarDweller115]

Tuesday, February 11th, 2025

Brokeback is a Masterpiece

Some films accumulate an emotional residue over time; rather than diminishing, their impact deepens and intensifies with each screening. When I first saw Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain in 2005 – a movie I’d been anticipating since a “gay cowboy” project was announced – my response was subdued. I remember telling a friend who’d asked what I thought that it was beautiful in the way a landscape painting is beautiful: lush and precisely detailed but emotionally spare. These days I can’t hear the opening strains of Gustavo Santaolalla’s poignant score without weeping. Beautiful landscape is, of course, a central feature of the film, tantalising and talismanic. The quietly stunning Wyoming countryside is not only where our cowboys fall in love – mercurial and passionate Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and taciturn and self-loathing Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) – it represents the kind of emotional freedom and acceptance they can’t find in the prosaic interiors of their upbringing. Brokeback Mountain (a fictional location invented by the author Annie Proulx in the award-winning short story on which the film is based) releases something in the men, then mocks them for not living up to its Edenic promise. It’s highly significant that the film opens in 1963 and spans a 20-year period of marriages, kids and divorce before ending in secrecy and heartbreak. This was a time of enormous progress for gay men in the US who’d fought for and won legal protections across the country. But for Jack and Ennis – who can’t even conceive of a world that tolerates, let alone actively celebrates, their love – this progress might as well be happening on the moon. It’s a salient reminder that what we think of as an LGBTQI+ community is largely a metropolitan, middle-class construct. Brokeback is a Masterpiece

A Letter, and a Voicemail

Brandon Puszkiewicz, of Indiana, was 23 years old when came out to his father Matt in Nov. 2016. To share the big news, Brandon, now 31, wrote a letter that he mailed to his dad, who later left an emotional voicemail vowing to love his son. Eight years later, in November 2024, Brandon shared his dad’s voicemail in a video that has since gone viral on TikTok. It has even inspired some people to follow in his footsteps. Brandon, a programs manager for the Indiana chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, exclusively tells PEOPLE he was not expecting his video to gain so much traction, but is thrilled to see the positive impact it has made on others' lives. “At the end of the day, you have to do what you have to do to live your truth and most authentic life,” Brandon says. Brandon had just graduated college and moved to Indianapolis for grad school when he decided to write a letter to his father about being gay. “I didn't care what his reaction was going to be, it's just I needed to get something off my chest,” Brandon tells PEOPLE. “It wasn't even his validation that I was looking for," he adds, sharing that it was just his way of saying, "I'm telling you and inviting you into this part of my life." A Letter, and a Voicemail

Study on Testosterone

A new study from Brazil has uncovered differences in adult hormone levels between subgroups of lesbian women and heterosexual women. The research, published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, found that lesbian women who described themselves as having a more masculine style had higher levels of free testosterone in their saliva compared to both feminine lesbian women and heterosexual women. At the same time, the study did not find differences in the ratio of the lengths of the index finger to the ring finger—a measurement thought to reflect early hormone exposure—across these groups. Previous studies have suggested that the amount of certain hormones, such as testosterone, during early development may help shape the brain in ways that could influence sexual attraction later in life. Other work has noted that testosterone in adulthood can vary among women and might be associated with differences in behavior or self-expression. However, earlier research has often treated lesbian women as a single, undifferentiated group, even though some identify with a more masculine style while others lean toward a feminine presentation. The new study was designed to explore whether there are biological differences in adult hormone levels and in a marker that is believed to indicate exposure to hormones before birth between these groups. To investigate these questions, the research team conducted their study in the metropolitan area of Belém, the capital of the state of Pará in Brazil, between 2013 and 2015. The participants were women between 18 and 39 years old who were in their reproductive years. The study carefully selected women who either identified as exclusively heterosexual or predominantly or exclusively homosexual. Study on Testosterone Jeremy Allen White in Bisexual Role The Bear breakout star and Calvin Klein heartthrob Jeremy Allen White has been cast to play a bisexual man — the main character — in a new Netflix series based on Enigma Variations, a novel from Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman. The news was first reported exclusively by Variety. Aciman released Enigma Variations around the same time that Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name film came out — 10 years after the original novel was published. Following the critical acclaim for the Academy Award-nominated movie, Timothée Chalamet became a household name around the world and one of Hollywood's A-list actors. The official synopsis of Enigma Variations describes that the novel centers on Paul, a man "whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents' cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he'll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men." "Whether he's on a tennis court in Central Park, or on a New York sidewalk in early spring, his attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire — not for just one person's body but, inevitably, for someone else's as well," the synopsis concludes.   Jeremy Allen White in Bisexual Role Stopping Support The U.S. Department of Education told employees late Friday that it will end all programs, contracts and policies that “fail to affirm the reality of biological sex,” carrying out President Donald Trump’s vow to restrict transgender rights. The broad language in the email did not specify which programs or policies would be impacted, or how many schools or students might be affected. But the order appears designed to target programs that in recent years supported transgender students — school-based mental health services and support for homeless students, for example. “These corrective measures will include thorough review and subsequent termination of Departmental programs, contracts, policies, outward-facing media, regulations, and internal practices,” according to the email sent to department employees and obtained by ProPublica. A spokesperson for the Education Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The email, which was unsigned and sent from “ED Internal Communications,” also takes aim at employee programs at the Education Department. Employees across the federal government already have been instructed to remove preferred pronouns from their email signatures. Stopping Support The Pansexual Label Have you heard of the term "pansexual" before? Pansexuality refers to someone attracted to all people no matter their gender identity. It's not to be confused with bisexuality, which means being attracted to more than one gender. The term has become an increasingly large part of our culture lexicon in recent years, and with prominence comes the propensity for misconceptions. "There's this strange belief that because pansexual people are attracted to others regardless of gender, their eyes are always roaming," Nicole Mello, who is pansexual, previously told USA TODAY. "Pansexuals are simply people who experience attraction like anyone else. A person's sexuality is very different from their personality, choices, and lifestyle, as everyone in the queer community knows." Bisexuality and pansexuality are not interchangeable words, GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis previously told USA TODAY, though pansexuality does fall under the "bisexuality umbrella." “Pan is more about all-inclusive, and bi tends to be more than one,” she said, adding, “The golden rule, honestly, is to call someone by how they identify.” The Pansexual Label Ally Rev. Robert Cromey Dies The Reverend Robert Warren Cromey, who helped create the early pro-LGBTQ group the Council on Religion and the Homosexual and performed early same-sex marriages, died January 14. He was 93. Reverend Cromey's wife, Ann, told the Bay Area Reporter that he'd died in his sleep in an assisted living facility after having suffered a fall in early December. "He was an Episcopal clergyman who tried to follow Jesus by welcoming all people," Ann Cromey told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. "He did go to Selma, Alabama when Martin Luther King Jr. asked clergy to come to march. In San Francisco, he became convinced Christ was accepting of all people and he started speaking out in 1963 about the humanity of gay people, and he did it his whole career. Robert was highly publicized." Reverend Cromey was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. A disciple of the heterodox Bishop of California James Pike, Reverend Cromey served as his secretary, and though he was straight, he was an early advocate for LGBTQ equality both inside and outside the Episcopal Church. In that endeavor, Reverend Cromey co-founded the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, an early homophile group that on New Year's Day 1965 threw a fundraising gala in the Tenderloin that was raided by police due to its pro-gay message. The Reverend Jim Mitulski, a gay man who's now pastor of Congregational Church of the Peninsula in Belmont, told the B.A.R. that Reverend Cromey demonstrated allyship by being arrested. "They," Mitulski said, referring to a number of straight pro-gay clergy in those days, "stood out and stood with us." Ally Rev. Robert Cromey Dies Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

[CellarDweller115]

Tuesday, February 18th, 2025

A Reflection on Queerness in ‘Brokeback Mountain’

For someone who watches a lot of movies, there are also a lot of iconic ones I haven’t seen. Chief among them, until last weekend, was “Brokeback Mountain.” The movie follows two men — Jack, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ennis, played by Heath Ledger — throughout the years of their lives following their meeting at a summer job in 1960s Wyoming. The pair forms an intense romantic, emotional and sexual relationship that complicates their lives as they attempt to start their own separate families. The film isn’t perfect, but it absolutely bowled me over. I knew a good amount about “Brokeback Mountain” before going into it, but nothing could have prepared me for the actual magnitude and intensity of the film itself. Watching this film, especially in our current political climate, elicited an additional kind of heartache. Much of the core of “Brokeback Mountain” is about the double-edged sword that is the pain that repression causes and the harsh realities of societal perceptions and oppression. As a note, there are spoilers from here onward. Ennis and Jack’s relationship is one of intense passion and longing. They are unable to live in their relationship free and out in the open, and this results in intense ramifications for not only them but also their families. Ennis and Jack continue their relationship into adulthood, but they do so in secret, frequently leaving to go on trips together and attempting to find hidden moments in which they can be together. However, in their day-to-day lives, they both at some point end up married to women and creating families. The relationship between Jack and Ennis then reflects harm back to their family, a reminder that repression harms more than just the self. A Reflection on Queerness in ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Confessions of a Gay Priest

Love is simple, says Reverend Paul Anthony Daniels, because “in its most visceral form,” it boils down to three things: spit, semen, and sweat. Ok, maybe four. Sometimes there is blood. “To share love in that way is so visceral.” I have a confession, I tell Daniels. I have never been in love—not in the Hallmark movie kind of way, at least—but find myself craving it the older I get, so I’m a little stunned to hear him describe it with such candor. You know, being a priest and all. God is in people, he says. Which means, God is also in sex. Daniels loves love. He seeks it in everything he does, he tells me, but especially in people. It’s part of his job as an Episcopal priest and a “mediator of Christ’s love in the world.” Ceremonially, he is “a steward of the sacraments—the Eucharist, baptism, marriage, confirmation. I invite people into a relationship with God through those sacred ritual acts. But it’s also more than that.” It’s the more part that’s got me in Los Angeles’ Koreatown sitting across from him in his apartment as he sips from a whiskey glass, going on about desire, salvation, and all the irresistible ways people come together. A graduate of Morehouse College and Yale Divinity School, Daniels, 34, is not your average Episcopal priest. He’s something of a trailblazer. A rogue in a clerical collar. Although faith has been central to Daniels’ identity since his boyhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, he also grew up with an abiding appreciation for music—Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, John Mayer. In 2007, he auditioned for season 7 of American Idol and made it all the way to Hollywood Week. “As soon as I walked to the hotel in Pasadena I knew that I was not slated to be one of the young people that they were going to pay attention to,” he says. “All the producers had their eyes on David Archuleta.” Confessions of a Gay Priest

Marcela and Elisa

Marcela Gracia was described as a colourful person, Elisa Sánchez was considered a passionate and courageous woman. Tired of hidden love, the women dared to defy social conventions. They are remembered in Spanish history for attempting to formalise their forbidden relationship by marriage in the church. This story took place in Galicia 140 years ago. In 1885, Marcela Gracia and Elisa Sánchez, born into a conservative society in rural Spain, met in the city of A Coruña. Both girls were studying at a teacher training college, where their close friendship developed into love. When Marcela's father, an army captain, noticed a particularly intimate relationship between the girls, he was afraid of a possible scandal. To avoid unpleasant consequences for him, he sent Marcela to Madrid to continue her studies. However, the distance did not help the lovers to put out the fire of love. Four months later, Marcela graduated and the girls met again in Galicia. The small village of Calo (Vimianzo) is located near Cape Finisterre, considered the most remote and therefore called ‘the edge of the world’.  It was to be the shelter of forbidden love. In Calo, Elisa worked as a senior teacher, while Marcela taught classes in the neighbouring village and visited Elisa. In order not to attract unnecessary attention, the girls kept their relationship secret. Marcela and Elisa Bisexuality, Dating Aps, and Confidence For most of my life, I assumed that I was heterosexual, despite the tingle of attraction I often felt in response to people who don’t identify as men. I, quite simply, ignored the feeling. But, recently, at age 28, I finally came to understand, accept, and celebrate my identity as a bisexual woman. And with the intention of exploring and embracing my sexuality, I started using dating apps as a bisexual woman to see what my new dating normal would look like. Apprehensively, I logged onto three apps: Bumble, HER (a woman-centered dating app), and Lex (a queer-focused dating and connection app for LGBTQ+ folks). On each of the apps, I turned my settings to “everyone:” women, men, and nonbinary folks, who were all of different orientations themselves. I was excited to interact with folks who shared a queer identity. Within the first few months I used the apps, I matched with about 30 people, including cis-gender men, who were mostly heterosexual; cis-gender women, who were bisexual, lesbian, and pansexual; and nonbinary people, some of whom told me they were pansexual. I found value in learning about myself and others who share my sexuality or simply have experience dating other queer people. Ultimately, as a result of using dating apps as a bisexual woman so soon after coming out, I was able to feel more confident in my identity. In fact, I wondered what took me so long. While I’d had sexual encounters with women before coming out and going on dating apps as a bisexual woman, I can’t actually say that I “dated” them. To me, dating someone means considering what you envision for the future, or what you like about each other, among other things. That wasn’t happening when I had sex with women before I came out as bi, because I wasn’t even comfortable stepping into that label for myself.   Bisexuality, Dating Aps, and Confidence Army Bars Trans People The U.S. Army will no longer allow transgender people to enlist, and will stop providing gender-affirming care for service members, it announced on social media Friday. "The #USArmy will no longer allow transgender individuals to join the military and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members. Stay tuned for more details," the post said. The Army later commended troops with "gender dysphoria" in a follow-up post, stating they "volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect." The announcement follows an executive order signed by President Trump on Jan. 27 that directed the Pentagon to determine a policy for transgender service members within 30 days. The president's order stated that expressing "a gender identity inconsistent with an individual's sex conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life" and that those doing so "cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had paused bringing in recruits who have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and paused all gender-affirming care, according to a memo issued Feb. 7. Army Bars Trans People I Thought I Was Male The day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, I opened my phone to a news update saying the president had signed an executive order mandating that the government acknowledge only two sexes: male and female. It felt like someone had walked up behind me and walloped me over the head with a phone book. I was angered by the basic misinformation and willful ignorance that this declaration promotes about an individual’s sex. As I involuntarily learned at 32 years old, sex and gender are continuums with many variations. Saying otherwise jeopardizes not only intersex and transgender people, but all Americans, by increasing government overreach and a loss of privacy, reinforcing rigid gender roles, and complicating legal and medical processes. In 2017, a few weeks after I mailed a tube of my saliva to a company that offers genetic testing to provide ancestry breakdowns and insight into health conditions, an email arrived in my inbox. The message read, ”We would like to follow up with you via phone to verify additional information about your DNA analysis.” I replied within minutes, puzzled as to why in the world this ancestry company wanted to talk to me about my obvious northwestern European heritage. I’m as white as it gets. I answered my phone on the first ring. “Hi, this is Avery with the customer care team,” she said. “Would you mind confirming a few personal details for me, please?” I Thought I Was Male Jade Thirlwall - Trans Ally Former Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall has said she’s “happy to pay the consequences” of speaking up for trans people. The 32-year-old singer, whose debut solo single “Angel of My Dreams” was a hit among the queer community, shared her support for the trans community in an interview with Stylist Magazine. Asked “when it comes to speaking about about things that matter, have you ever kept quiet out of fear?” Jade responded: “Cancel culture is thriving now. When you’re in the public eye, it’s quite scary. I’ve always been quite vocal, and I’m not always going to get it right. But you can’t be a pop artist right now without speaking out about certain things.” The longtime LGBTQ+ ally went on: “I have been warned there could be consequences for speaking out about things like Palestine, but these are basic human rights." “We’re seeing an attack on the trans community, and I have a very big LGBTQ+ fanbase, I can’t sit back and not be vocal about defending that community. I’m happy to pay the consequences if it means doing the right thing.” Jade Thirlwall - Trans Ally Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

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Tuesday, February 25th, 2025

‘Brokeback Mountain’ on Peacock

Next month, the story of Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar can be revisited by Peacock subscribers. On March 1, the 20-year-old movie Brokeback Mountain will start streaming on Peacock. Directed by Hulk helmer Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain was a neo-Western drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. Written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, the film is based on the original story by Annie Proulx. Because of the same-sex intimacy involving the main characters, the movie was met with controversy at the time of its release, but it nevertheless drew widespread praise, resulting in major Academy Award nominations. Brokeback Mountain particularly focused on the complex relationship between Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) over the period of two decades, from the early 1960s to the 1980s. They meet when they are hired to herd sheep through the summer on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. The relationship becomes intimate, though the two go their separate ways at the end of the summer. Though each gets married, with their wives played by Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams, Jack and Ennis continue to see each other with visits to Brokeback Mountain. In 2005, the film had come under some criticism for its storyline, but it was heavily praised. It was up for Best Picture at the Oscars, with Gyllenhaal and Ledger also up for acting awards. The movie lost Best Picture to Crash, and some argued that homophobia played a role in Brokeback Mountain failing to get the win. Original Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx wrote a scathing opinion piece referring to the winning film as "Trash," suggesting that the loss was for political reasons, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ on Peacock

Historical Gay Couple

The lives of a gay couple who lived in a Dorset village for nearly six decades have been turned into an exhibition. Norman Notley and David Brynley moved to Corfe Castle in 1923 and lived openly as a couple, despite homosexuality being illegal at the time. The two men were successful musicians who sang together in Britain and the United States and they had many friends in the art world. Photographs and diaries on display at Dorset Museum reveal they lived peacefully with the local community for 57 years until their deaths. In 1973, local people organised an event for the couple to celebrate their 50 years in the village. Museum director Claire Dixon said: "They were known as 'the boys' quite affectionately by the community. "They didn't throw the party, the community threw it for them." Historical Gay Couple

Idina Menzel in ‘Redwood’

Idina Menzel has been capturing sapphic attention on Broadway for decades. As bisexual performance artist Maureen in Rent she exasperated girlfriend Joanne and became a root for a generation of queer theatre kids. And as the original Elphaba in Wicked she gave Galinda the Good gay panic and inspired outsiders to defy gravity. It’s only fitting then that Redwood, her return to Broadway after more than a decade, would cast her as a dyke. But is the show itself worthy of Menzel’s lesbian legacy? Conceived by Menzel, along with writer/director Tina Landau, Redwood is about a woman named Jesse (Menzel) who leaves behind her wife (De’Adre Aziza) and art gallery in NYC to drive across the country and be with the redwood trees. There she meets two scientists, the open-hearted hippie Finn (Michael Park) and the serious-minded Becca (Khaila Wilcoxon). Jesse arrives in northern California mere weeks before the one year anniversary of the death of her son (Zachary Noah Piser) and she processes her grief through her newfound connection to the trees. The appeal of this material is understandable for Menzel who is given the opportunity to show big emotions and sing a plethora of big songs. It’s also understandable for Landau who leans into the stagecraft of a giant redwood at center stage and a series of illusion-creating screens that add to its magnificence. But the dramatic potential of a woman in a tree is limited and rather than leaning into this challenge by committing to the musical’s unconventional nature, Landau’s script pads the show with haphazard flashbacks, subplots, and equal parts baffling and boring dramatic turns. The third time Jesse wants to impose on Becca and Finn’s work, Becca says she feels like she’s trapped in her own personal Groundhog Day. Jesse wants to do something, Finn says yes, Becca says no, they argue, and eventually Finn and Jesse get their way. Commenting on this pattern doesn’t make it any less tedious for Becca nor for the audience. The only dramatic questions of the show are whether Jesse will return to her wife and whether Finn and Becca will continue humoring Jesse’s tree-climbing pursuits. There is no development of these questions throughout the show — at least until the end — but rather the same conversations happening again and again. Idina Menzel in ‘Redwood’ Increases in the Community The number of American adults who identify as LGBTQ+ has skyrocketed in recent years, but there's one group that's been driving the uptick. Younger bisexual women were largely behind the increase, with 9.3 percent of today's U.S. adults now identifying as LGBTQ+. Gen Z has had an increasingly different relationship with sexuality than their elders. According to a recent PRRI report, nearly 30 percent of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ+. That's a high figure when you take into account Baby Boomers only identified as LGBTQ+ 4 percent of the time. Even compared to millennials, Gen Z is a notably more sexually fluid generation, as millennials only identified as LGBTQ+ 16 percent of the time. The Gallup survey has tracked LGBTQ+ identification for 12 years, and the rates of adults identifying with the community has nearly tripled in that time. While today's young adults are more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, the most notable increase driving the shift is due to more primarily young women identifying as bisexual. In 2024, 9.3 percent of U.S. adults identified as LGBTQ+, making an increase of more than a percentage point from 2023. Since 2020, the figure has nearly doubled and is up from 3.5 percent in 2012. Increases in the Community 5 Arrested For Murder The mother of a Minnesota transgender man who was tortured and killed in upstate New York suggested that his death was preventable if local authorities had "done their jobs." Five people were arrested last week and charged with second-degree murder with depraved indifference in connection with death of the man, Sam Nordquist. Police said in a statement that they found evidence suggesting Nordquist “was subjected to ongoing physical abuse” between December and February. Months before his remains were discovered last week, his family requested two wellness checks with police in Canandaigua, New York, his mother, Linda Nordquist, told NBC News in a phone call. She added that her son expressed that he was in danger to local social services and she questioned if more could have been done to intervene before his killing. "Sam may be alive today if they would have done their jobs," she said through tears. The Canandaigua Police Department's chief of police, Mathew Nielsen, said in a phone call that none of his roughly 30 officers spoke with the family prior to Sam's death. He suggested that the family is confused about which law enforcement agency they called to perform the wellness checks. 5 Arrested For Murder Holiday For Black Asexuals Asexuality—an orientation that involves little to no sexual attraction—is often misunderstood. For some of us, part of the process of coming out as ace involves dealing with rude comments like: “You’re just being celibate or abstinent” or “No one is going to be with you if you don’t put out!” And when you’re Black and asexual like me, you also get racist statements from non-Black folks like: “You don’t like sex,…but you’re Black!” Given that Black asexuals get twice (or even thrice) the amount of grief, I was happy to learn about SoulAce Day, a new upcoming holiday on February 16th dedicated to celebrating African American asexuality and our contributions to art and activism. The holiday was founded by Black asexuals Marshall Blount, Kimberly Butler, and Alyshia Rodgers. I first learned about SoulAce Day via the Tumblr blog @black-ace-culture-is, a culture blog specifically for Black asexuals that celebrates us in history and culture. Both this blog and SoulAce Day are vital for other Black asexuals like myself who have felt overlooked or out of place. I want to also add that my experiences of asexuality as a mixed, light-skinned Black-Asian genderqueer person are different from monoracial dark-skinned Black asexuals who deal with colorism. However, this doesn’t negate the fact that it has still taken me years to reconcile my Blackness and my asexuality. I first realized that I was asexual back in 2018, after reading the young adult book Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann. It tells the story of Alice, a Black biromantic asexual young woman coming of age and experiencing romance in college. Reading it on release opened my eyes to things I had brushed aside, such as the expectation of sexual attraction that I went along with as a closeted queer person in high school. The book also helped me start figuring out what type of attraction I did experience, such as aesthetic attraction. Holiday For Black Asexuals Connor McDavid is an Ally NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made a stupid and tone-deaf decision when he banned teams from wearing Pride-themed warm-up jerseys on nights next season to recognize LGBTQ fans. One of the league’s superstars criticized the decision this week. “It’s not my call, but obviously it’s disappointing,” Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers said at the league’s awards ceremony in Nashville on Monday. “I certainly can’t speak for every organization,” said McDavid. “I know in Edmonton, we were one of the first teams to use the Pride tape. We strongly feel hockey is for everybody, and that includes the Pride Nights.” In announcing the ban, Bettman used the “distraction” fallback, a cheap way to justify many decision. “It’s become a distraction,” Bettman said. “And taking away from the fact that all of our clubs host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we’d rather they continue to get the appropriate attention they deserve and not be a distraction.” All 32 NHL teams held Pride Nights this season, and there were a small handful of players who refused to wear rainbow warm-ups and a couple of teams who mismanaged the situation. But the vast majority of players had no problem wearing the warm-ups, so Bettman caved to the ultra-minority that bitched. That’s not leadership. Connor McDavid is an Ally Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

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Tuesday, March 4th, 2025

On Annie's ‘Brokeback Mountain’

When I first read “Brokeback Mountain,” Annie Proulx’s seminal short story about gay cowboys in love, I wondered how I might carry it with me forever, literally, in the form of a tattoo. I’d loved countless stories before then but had never before felt the urge to actually wear one. I did not tattoo even a single phrase anywhere on my body, although I can still feel the urge as powerfully, and mysteriously, as I did in 1997, the year that “Brokeback Mountain” was published. The urge is all the more mysterious for the fact that although I’m a gay man, I am now in my early seventies and have never ridden a horse, and am unlikely to become a cowboy. I don’t expect ever to fully understand my desire to hold on to those two doomed cowboys in the most literal way possible. The boys, Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, not yet twenty years old, have taken summer jobs guarding sheep from coyotes in the Wyoming wilderness. Ennis and Jack come from practically nothing—little money, little education, little luck—and are doing whatever they need to do to survive until the nothing from which they emerged sucks them back in again. It’s only the two of them up there on the mountain, with the sheep and the constant, watchful hunger of coyotes, waiting for Jack and Ennis to drop their guard for the several minutes it’d take to snatch a lamb and slice it open, as quick as unzipping a sleeping bag. As far as we can tell, any attraction Ennis or Jack may have felt to another man has been repressed right out of existence. What they’ve both known of love is punishment for imaginary crimes, and a local religion that offers Jesus’ tears of forgiveness in place of affection. And yet, alone together with only the sheep and the mountain, they soon fall almost violently in love. On Annie's ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Gay WW2 Lovers

"I'm a gay filmmaker and I felt a need to tell that story." Soldiers Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher sent each other hundreds of love letters during World War Two, a time when those in the armed forces could be shot for having gay sex. Their story emerged in 2017 and the letters, displayed at Oswestry Museum in Shropshire, caught the eye of American director and producer, Andy Vallentine. After acquiring the rights and turning the men's story into an award-winning short film in 2022 he is now pitching the tale as a feature-length film. "I had a strong connection with my grandfather who was a glider pilot in WW2," he said. "Taking my love of history and of WW2 and the respect that I have for my grandfather, and then also being a gay filmmaker who wants to tell gay stories, I was like: 'This is a perfect combination." In 1939, Gilbert Bradley was stationed at Park Hall Camp in Oswestry. Gay WW2 Lovers

New Details In Rebecca Marodi's Murder

Authorities have released new details in the murder of Cal Fire Captain Rebecca Marodi, whose wife, Yolanda Marodi, is accused of fatally stabbing her before fleeing to Mexico. As the manhunt for Yolanda intensifies, law enforcement and experts weigh in on the challenges of bringing her to justice. Marodi, 49, was discovered in her Ramona, California, home on February 17 with multiple stab wounds to her neck, chest, and abdomen. According to an arrest warrant filed in San Diego County Superior Court, surveillance footage captured the terrifying moments leading up to her death. In the video, authorities say Marodi can be seen running across the patio, pleading for her life. After Marodi said, “I don’t want to die,” Yolanda is said to have replied, “You should have thought about that before.” According to the arrest warrant, the footage also shows Yolanda, whose legal name is also listed as Yolanda Olejniczak, holding a knife with apparent blood on her arms. Marodi is said to have pleaded with her to call 911 before the two disappeared from the camera’s view. Minutes later, Yolanda was seen loading pets, luggage, and belongings into a silver SUV before driving away. Homeland Security records confirm that she crossed into Mexico less than an hour later. Text messages obtained by authorities shed light on a possible motive. In a message to an acquaintance the day after the killing, Yolanda reportedly wrote, “Becky came home and told me she was leaving me, she met someone else, all the messages were lies. We had a big fight and I hurt her… I’m sorry.” New Details In Rebecca Marodi's Murder Majority of People Are Bisexual An anthropologist and evolutionary geneticist in England believes the vast majority of people fall on the bisexual spectrum. He believes few people are 100% straight or 100% gay. Talking to the Daily Mail, Dr Jason Hodgson, of at Cambridge’s Anglia Ruskin University, said, “I predict that most people should actually be bisexual. “The genes that influence same-sex sexual behavior are probably just genes that influence general sociality, and people in the middle of the range of variation are probably better at all social relationships." “Therefore people who would engage in same-sex sexual behavior in some situations are probably also better at forming heterosexual relationships.” Hodgson said if someone had 99 heterosexual experiences and just one same-sex experience, that places them on the bisexual scale of sexuality. And his definition of an ‘experience” may not necessarily include a physical encounter. It can just be physical arousal when looking at someone or images. “I suspect most people would be slightly in the bisexual range if given the right social circumstances,” he says. Majority of People Are Bisexual Reacting to Pentagon Memo Transgender service members are fighting back against the Pentagon's recent announcement requiring the separation of transgender people from the military. Lt. Cmdr. Geirid Morgan has served in the Navy for 14 years as part of the medical service corps. She told ABC News that as an openly transgender woman, seeing the ban in "black and white" was "jarring." "I just want everyone to know that [transgender military members] have been serving honorably and effectively for a decade now," Morgan said. "We serve in almost every job role you can imagine in the military. We have doctors, lawyers, fighter pilots, special operations personnel. "This is a calling, this is a this is a life of sacrifice, a life of service. This isn't just a job, this isn't just a career," Morgan added. "We're all over the place. We're doing the jobs. We're doing it effectively, and that's it." Morgan is part of a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal against President Donald Trump following his executive order banning transgender service members from the military. Reacting to Pentagon Memo Passport Policy Louie figured he was taking a gamble when he submitted his passport application after President Trump's inauguration. He had a passport, which was valid for another two years. But at the end of December, a New York state court approved Louie's request to change his name and gender marker. As a result, he needed a new passport — regardless of who was in office. Louie asked NPR to identify him by his first name because he fears harassment and retaliation at work. Louie, 24, identifies as transmasculine. At the end of 2024 and early January, he changed his driver's license and Social Security card to reflect the female-to-male gender marker update. It went smoothly, he told NPR. The trouble started in January, when he submitted his application for a new passport — just hours after Trump took office on Jan. 20. The same day, Trump issued an executive order stating that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female. That led the State Department to eliminate the X gender as an option and to suspend its policy allowing transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to update the sex field of their passports. Passport Policy Dolly Parton Going Viral Dolly Parton has been a looong-time LGBTQ ally. She famously said, "If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight. And you should be allowed to be how you are and who you are." In 2016, she spoke out on the North Carolina bathroom bill — a law declaring that people had to use the bathroom associated with the sex on their birth certificate — saying, "I think everybody should be treated with respect. I don’t judge people, and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are. I just know if I have to pee, I’m going to pee. I don’t care where it’s going to be." I mean, she's basically a drag queen. Now, considering all of the anti-LGBTQ actions the US government is taking, a resurfaced 2023 quote from the Hollywood Reporter is going viral. Dolly Parton Going Viral Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

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Tuesday, March 11th, 2025

More Than the Stigma

“Brokeback Mountain” has gotten a bit of a stigma in the past 20 years. Most people are unaware that it originally started as a short story by Annie Proulx. It follows two “cowboys,” for lack of a better term, named Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist and their “love story,” for lack of a better term, that spans 20 years. It is raw, powerful and, more than anything else, contentious. It was released in 1997 and followed by the infamous film of the same name in 2005, and, as the world has become more accepting of LGBTQ+ stories, it has also aged like wine. I have never seen the film, but I almost definitely will after reading the short story. Proulx, in the same manner as the rough ‘n’ tough ‘60s Western men she created just for “Brokeback Mountain,” describes everything in a manner that is short and straightforward. This is liable to give the reader whiplash. It feels very real, especially considering how Ennis and Jack behave toward each other – their “love story” consists of very little actual romance. They behave as and speak to each other as though they were just fishing buddies, but the casual nature of their relationship is interspersed with kisses and (as unfortunate as the word is in describing such a serious story) spice. More Than the Stigma

Enola Gay Removed

A Defense Department purge of content promoting diversity, equity and inclusion has caused tens of thousands of records to be flagged for deletion — many of which have nothing to do with DEI, like a photo of the famous WWII aircraft named "Enola Gay." In compliance with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to remove apparent DEI content by Wednesday, March 5, U.S. military branches are working overtime to flag and erase any Pentagon media that might seem to promote diversity, regardless of their historical significance. The Associated Press has compiled an archive of the images flagged for removal, and several of the links already lead to dead pages. Some of the historic content flagged for removal could have been predicted, fitting into the Trump administration's increasingly broad definition of DEI. Those included images of the legendary Tuskegee airmen, female Marines and events honoring Asian and Pacific Islander contributions to the military. But some targeted records came as a surprise, raising questions about the federal government's new DEI standards and quality control. One of the unexpected images flagged for removal is of a prominent WWII bomber aircraft called the Enola Gay, presumably because the name "Gay" was visible in the photos. Enola Gay Removed

Police Attempt to Remove Woman From Women's Room

A cisgender woman in Arizona is speaking out after she says she was harassed by cops in the women’s restroom of a Tucson Walmart late last month. Kalaya Morton, 19, of Phoenix, says she and her ex-girlfriend were using adjacent stalls in the store’s women’s restroom when two male sheriff’s deputies entered. “They were flashing lights on our feet and saying, ‘You have to get out of here. You have to come out. We need to talk to you,’” Morton told Advocate. Morton, who identifies as a stud — queer slang for a masculine-presenting lesbian — says she believes a store employee who had been eyeing her earlier reported her to the cops believing she was a man. As the Advocate notes, Arizona law does not dictate that people use public restrooms that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth. In social media videos and in her interview with the outlet, Morton said that when she exited the bathroom stall, she lifted her shirt to prove to the deputies that she was a woman. But, she said, one of the deputies continued to insist she “looked like a man.” On February 19, Morton posted a brief video of the encounter, showing the two deputies in the women’s bathroom. “They came in here in the girls’ restroom because I’m a girl and they didn’t think I was a girl, so they tried to come take me away,” Morton can be heard saying off camera. Police Attempt to Remove Woman From Women's Room Bisexuality Doubles in Stockholm Bisexuality has long been the subject of distinct forms of stigma compared to other sexual identities. People who identify as bisexual can be dismissed as “confused”, “indecisive” or as passing through a “transitional stage”. These stigmas circulate both among heterosexual and LGBTQ+ people. But as social acceptance of diverse sexual identities continues to grow in many countries, more people are identifying as bisexual. My research in Stockholm reflects this trend. With colleagues, I analysed data from over 75,000 participants in Stockholm, aged 16 and above between 2010 and 2021. Over this 12-year period, bisexual identity increased from 1.6% in 2010 to 2.5% in 2014, and by 2021 had doubled to 3.1%. In comparison, homosexual identity rose slightly from 1.7% to 2%. This means that bisexual people have been the largest self-identifying sexual minority group in Stockholm since 2014. Younger generations were more likely to identify as bisexual. Among those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, known as generation Z, 9.4% identified as bisexual in 2021, up from 6.2% in 2014. Among millennials, born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s, 4.6% identified as bisexual in 2021, a slight decrease from 5.1% in 2014. Meanwhile, the proportion of generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, who identified as bisexual fell from 2.1% in 2014 to 1.8% in 2021. Bisexuality Doubles in Stockholm Invisible and Unsafe "I don’t really know the people around me." That's the feeling Caitlin Cunningham, a Missouri coffeehouse owner, has had after the 2024 election. Cunningham, who is nonbinary, has moments of alienation and worry even as they go about their routines in daily life. "Standing in line at the bank and thinking the person behind me doesn’t think I’m a human being or would love to see me in some kind of camp, or shipped off to a different state so they didn’t have to deal with me,” Cunningham said. For Cunningham and others, the message from the U.S. government is hitting harder and harder. This past week in Florida, Jane Haskell watched as President Donald Trump continued to needle at gender identity, one of his major campaign issues, in his State of the Union address. In that speech, Trump railed against transgender rights while touting executive orders he signed targeting such rights on his first day in office, saying: "Our country will be woke no longer." "The president's celebration of these policy proposals ― and the villainizing language used to describe these proposals ― further solidified that we are a target population under this administration," said Haskell, a trans woman who serves as director of collaborations for SAGE, a national organization serving LGBTQ older adults. Invisible and Unsafe Rock Climbing Between the sounds of crunching dirt and the clinking of carabiners, words of encouragement and laughter filled the air at McDowell Mountain last month. “Everyone is so supportive and wonderful, and like, ‘you can do it, Bri,’ and ‘put your foot there,’” said climber Brienna Gass at an Arizona Women’s Climbing Coalition (AZWCC) day climb. “The whole point of it is to support each other and give you a group to hang out with.” The coalition works in partnership with Granite Mountain Guides (GMG) to empower women and the genderqueer community to participate in outdoor rock climbing, all while removing some of the financial barriers for new climbers by subsidizing day-use equipment and independent guides. GMG guide Ann Revill explained that these inclusive trips prove “the outdoors is for everybody,” as she took pride in watching climbers grow their confidence and skill on the rock. Revill spoke about one individual who was climbing outdoors for the first time, noting it “was super cool to watch her kick butt,” she said. Revill enjoys leading the group day trips and “having these opportunities to be out … and just kind of building that confidence and building the understanding that, ‘yeah, it is possible to do this.’” Rock Climbing Dolly Parton Going Viral Dolly Parton has been a looong-time LGBTQ ally. She famously said, "If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight. And you should be allowed to be how you are and who you are." In 2016, she spoke out on the North Carolina bathroom bill — a law declaring that people had to use the bathroom associated with the sex on their birth certificate — saying, "I think everybody should be treated with respect. I don’t judge people, and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are. I just know if I have to pee, I’m going to pee. I don’t care where it’s going to be." I mean, she's basically a drag queen. Now, considering all of the anti-LGBTQ actions the US government is taking, a resurfaced 2023 quote from the Hollywood Reporter is going viral. Dolly Parton Going Viral Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet

[CellarDweller115]

Tuesday, March 18th, 2025

Ang Lee to Begin Filming

Even though it has been many years since Bruce Lee's far-too-young tragic death, he continues to intrigue and mystify fans of his legendary work. As a martial artist, actor, and philosopher, Lee used his skill, intellect, and charisma to craft a career that, while relatively short, left its mark. This is why it should come as no surprise that one of our great filmmakers, Ang Lee, has been working on a Bruce Lee biopic for years, and now the director has provided an update on the status of the project. While speaking with a Chinese outlet, via World of Reel, Lee spoke about his Bruce Lee biopic, following reports that the screenplay was finally done, and the director expressed that it was something that he wanted to get right. The Ice Storm filmmaker said, "It took me several years to figure out how to crack this film and come up with a way to connect with it." The project will also possibly have a family connection, with Lee wanting his son Mason to take on the task of portraying the martial artist legend. The director said, "Neither of us can go back in time, so we hope to start making this film as soon as possible." Ang Lee has been involved with the Bruce Lee biopic since 2022, and he still plans to direct the film. Dan Futterman, the man behind the critically acclaimed efforts Capote and Foxcather, was originally assigned the screenwriting duties, and it looks like he's still attached. However, the project has seen various delays, the biggest being the WGA strike, along with rewrites that are typical for a project such as this. The film is reportedly set up at Sony's 3000 Pictures and appears to be moving ahead promisingly, according to Lee. Ang Lee to Begin Filming

Building Rural Communities

Princess —as he goes by these days— seemed to have it all. He had a stimulating job, a boyfriend, and a strong network of queer friends in Brussels. And yet, something was missing. “In the city, I became frustrated by how hard it was to build a deeper sense of community,” says the 35-year-old. His search for belonging had intensified after breaking up with his previous partner. He made new queer friends and got involved in activism, but the culture of political meetings didn’t feel particularly nourishing. “At the end of the meeting, everyone goes home and still has to manage life on their own.” Princess found the city challenging in other ways as well. With rent rising, it was becoming increasingly difficult to live in a nice neighborhood or have friends nearby who could still afford the area. Coordinating his busy schedule with others to find time for socializing was a constant struggle. Outside of political meetings, most socializing within his queer community revolved around partying, often accompanied by substance use and the reality of addiction. Having grown up in a small village on the French border, he longed for a slower-paced life and a deeper connection to nature. But moving back to the countryside alone was out of the question. Building Rural Communities

Chappell Roan's New 'Lesbian Country' Song

Chappell Roan is opening up about her brand-new track "The Giver" — and about how her first foray into country music is allowing her to explore in ways that pop music hasn't. On Thursday, March 13's episode of Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast, the "Hot to Go!" singer, 27, spoke with hosts Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson about "The Giver" and her decision to write a lesbian country song, following all of her pop hits from her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. "Well, I can't call myself the Midwest princess and not acknowledge country music, straight up," the singer — born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz in Missouri — tells Sutton and Anderson. "That is what is around me in the grocery stores. That's what is playing on the bus…I know that my heart really wanted to write a country song, and I'm trying to really articulate that it's not me trying to cross genres and be like, hey, you know, 'Look at me,'" the singer continues. "I'm not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song. That's not what I feel like I'm doing. I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that." For Roan, "The Giver" wasn't about "invading" country music with a song about her identity, but it was a chance to capture the essence of the genre. "I wrote a country song not to invade country music, but to really capture what I think, the essence of country music is, for me, which is nostalgia, and fun in the summertime, and the fiddle, and the banjo feeling like country queen," she says. "It makes me feel a certain type of freedom that pop music doesn't let me feel." Chappell Roan's New 'Lesbian Country' Song Interview With Taylor Napier The third season of the Prime Video fantasy series The Wheel of Time premieres on March 13 and things are about to change for fan favorite Maksim, played by actor Taylor Napier. The Rafe Judkins series, based on the books by Robert Jordan, follows the growing divisiveness in the Westlands. Season three is based primarily on the fourth book, The Shadow Rising. Napier stars along a global cast that includes Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden, Josha Stradowski, Hammed Animashaun, Donal Finn, and Kate Fleetwood. In season 3, Maksim becomes a Warder and a lover to both Ihvon (Emmanuel Imani) and Alanna Mosvani (Priyanka Bose). Napier talked to GLAAD about the inclusion of non-traditional queer relationships in a fantasy series, the need for more bisexual narratives, and the impact of TV on his life and acting career. Interview With Taylor Napier Leave Voluntarily The United States Navy has issued a directive requiring transgender sailors and Marines to either voluntarily separate by March 28 or face involuntary discharge. This policy follows a broader campaign by the Trump administration to exclude transgender individuals from military service and countless other actions against the transgender community. The guidance, released on March 13, stipulates that service members who do not identify with their birth-assigned gender must opt for voluntary honourable separation or be subject to forced removal later this month. Those who choose voluntary separation may receive separation pay based on their years of service and will not be required to repay bonuses or incentive pay. A memo signed by Navy Secretary Terence Emmert stated the Navy’s position: “The Department of the Navy recognises two sexes: male and female. An individual’s sex is immutable, unchanging during a person’s life.” This directive is part of a series of actions following President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at banning transgender individuals from all branches of the U.S. military. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth endorsed this stance in early February, stating that the navy “must ensure it is building ‘one force’ without sub-groups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence.” Leave Voluntarily ‘The Secret of Me’ A winding and at-times enraging medical exposé, Grace Hughes-Hallett’s feature debut “The Secret of Me” is stylistically straightforward, but emotionally self-assured. Although it has a litany of subjects, it unravels its secondary stories by connecting them to a central character: a girl named Kristi from Baton Rouge, who would go on to discover shocking secrets about her upbringing as a teenager in the 1990s. In the present, various interviewees recall Kristi wistfully, including a bearded, middle-aged man named Jim. Minutes into the movie, Jim reveals that he is, or rather once was, Kristi — and the obvious conclusion one might draw does not apply. “This is not a transgender story,” he says. On its surface, the movies shares some structural and thematic similarities with Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers,” which Hughes-Hallet produced. Both are nature vs. nurture docs about adults discovering shocking medical histories and malpractice dating back to before their births. However, the way that “The Secret of Me” disseminates information deviates from Wardle’s approach, in order to avoid turning people’s bodies into objects of shock or excess speculation. It isn’t really a twist to mention that Jim is intersex, meaning he was born with genitals that didn’t conform to a traditional male-female binary, since this information comes to light in an early scene. The film has enough of its own swerves that it needn’t sensationalize its subject. Rather, how they were treated and raised (in Jim’s case, as a girl) is where the real surprises lie. The doc is otherwise gentle and unwaveringly frank about the intersex community, which allows subjects like Jim to be incredibly vulnerable on camera. Jim is technically correct in his introduction, in that “The Secret of Me” isn’t about any transgender people (though he frequently affirms his respect for the trans community). However, the movie’s framing has widespread contemporary resonance, and an enormous overlap with how trans issues are discussed, particularly in how individuals who deviate from strict gender norms are so readily demonized by others. In that vein, conversations on trans identity are likely to be many viewers’ reference point for the movie’s subject matter, but Hughes-Hallet’s approach is remarkably detailed and informative, going beyond that lens. ‘The Secret of Me’ Dolly Parton Going Viral Dolly Parton has been a looong-time LGBTQ ally. She famously said, "If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight. And you should be allowed to be how you are and who you are." In 2016, she spoke out on the North Carolina bathroom bill — a law declaring that people had to use the bathroom associated with the sex on their birth certificate — saying, "I think everybody should be treated with respect. I don’t judge people, and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are. I just know if I have to pee, I’m going to pee. I don’t care where it’s going to be." I mean, she's basically a drag queen. Now, considering all of the anti-LGBTQ actions the US government is taking, a resurfaced 2023 quote from the Hollywood Reporter is going viral. Dolly Parton Going Viral Your Laugh For The Day! Contributors: CellarDweller115 The Daily Sheet is a production of The Ultimate Brokeback Forum at http://www.ultimatebrokebackforum.com. Today's edition by CellarDweller115 Editors emeritae: CactusGal, Marge_Innavera, tellyouwhat, Stilllearning, MissYouSoMuch, gnash We count on you to send us your news items, questions, and nominations for posts of the day. If you have items you’d like to see published, send them to CellarDweller115. To subscribe to The Daily Sheet, click the “Notify” button at the top or bottom of the page. When a new issue of TDS is posted, you will be notified by e-mail. The Daily Sheet Archives Respond to The Daily Sheet