Redding officials ban gay pride group’s screening of ‘Milk’ Record-Searchlight

Redding officials won’t allow the Academy Award-winning movie “Milk” to be shown at a city-owned outdoor theater Friday as a part of a local celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

The showing was banned because “Milk” is an R-rated film.

“I think it’s common sense,” said Gerry Kersten, Redding’s director of support services. “If you’re going to show a movie anyone can see, obviously it needs to be appropriate for all ages.”

Mary St. John, director of community services for Planned Parenthood: Shasta Diablo, said she was disappointed in the decision made Wednesday, but she doesn’t think it was political pressure that led to the city’s order.

“It’s our mistake, really,” St. John said. “We were unaware of the city’s policy that says movies shown outdoors must be (rated) G.”

Kersten said the city was originally told by the organizers that the movie was to be a youth- or teen-friendly flick. It was only when city officials picked up the Wednesday’s Record Searchlight that they learned that the planned movie was the R-rated “Milk.”

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Redding officials ban gay pride group’s screening of ‘Milk’

Record-Searchlight

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Is ‘Wolverine’ the most homoerotic superhero movie ever?

True confession: I see the gay in everything. It’s a gift and a curse, much like Haley Joel Osment’s ability to chat with the dead in The Sixth Sense. After sitting through Wolverine this past weekend, I believe this flick to be the gayest comic book movie ever. It felt like an issue of Men’s Health come to life, albeit with more adamantium. First, the gorgeous Hugh Jackman is shirtless for a good portion of the film — he even has a naked fight scene! And he squares off against a shirtless (and similarly ripped) Ryan Reynolds at one point. Secondly, Wolverine’s job as a lumberjack allows him to wear some very 1970s gay-friendly tight jeans, leather jackets, and flannel shirts, unbuttoned to reveal more than a hint of chest hair. Thirdly, the big sparring between Wolverine and Sabretooth really comes down to two hot guys basically clawing each other with their fingernails. Catfight!

To me, this felt waaay gayer than Joel Schumacher’s codpiece- and nipple-enhanced Batman and Robin. What do you think PopWatchers? Anyone else catch a whiff of homoeroticism from all the male eye candy, or am I blowing things out of proportion?

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Entertainment Weekly

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Fanboys a Buddy Flick With Serious Geek Cred

Review in a Hurry: In 1998, four geeks (one with terminal cancer) road-trip to California hoping to break into Skywalker Ranch to see The Phantom Menace before it’s released. Ever thought that Kevin Smith movies didn’t have quite enough Star Wars references in them? Then Fanboys was made for you.

The Bigger Picture: Ten years after the Star Wars prequel trilogy began, it’s hard to believe the hype and the hopes that surrounded Episode I, a film that disappointed most nondevotees. Fanboys does make a few allusions to the eventual crowd reaction but thankfully also engineers the story so that it’s largely beside the point—this isn’t a tale of whether or not George Lucas abused anyone’s childhood, but rather of four friends on one last journey before real life intervenes.

Fanboys itself is somewhat long-anticipated. It’s been in the works for years and then was held up for two more while the Weinstein company tried to decide whether or not a character with terminal cancer should be completely excised from what is otherwise a high-concept comedy.

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Viral “He’s Just Not That Into You” Video Breaks Gay Comedy Ground

e’s Just Not That Into You may have just marked a small, but seismic shift in gay-related comedy.

No, not the movie itself, opening today, which is getting decidedly lackluster reviews (the critics seem to agree that it’s amiable at best, and too long).

The true comedy gold may lay in a short video, 10 Chick Flick Cliches That Are Not in “She’s Just Not That Into You,” produced for iTunes to virally promote the film and released on January 20th.

The video stars Bradley Cooper, Justin Long, and Kevin Connolly, actors from the movie, and it’s supposedly directed at male-moviegoers who might be brought to the movie by their girlfriends.

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200 Supporters of Gay & Lesbian Community March in2009 Los Angeles Chinatown New Year’s Parade

Contingent Organized by API Equality-LA Draws Record Participation

Los Angeles – On Saturday, January 31, 2009, a record 200 people joined the API Equality-LA contingent in the Golden Dragon Parade in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, one of the city’s most popular community event. Saturday marked only the fourth time in the parade’s 110-year history that a contingent representing and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community has participated in the parade.

“We expected a strong turnout after all of the energy in our community since the November 2008 election, but we were absolutely astounded to welcome 200 participants – nearly three times as many as last year!” said Ericson Herbas, API Equality-LA steering committee member and one of the organizers of the contingent. “Particularly meaningful for all of us, we were also joined this year by same-sex couples who had been able to legally marry before November 2008.”

Wearing bright red t-shirts, the large contingent marched proudly through the streets of Chinatown, carrying banners displaying the six colors of the rainbow. The rainbow is commonly used to represent the pride of the LGBT community and was chosen by the API Equality-LA contingent to also represent the diversity of the coalition’s membership and supporters.

“Our participation in the lunar new year parade each year sends a powerful message of pride, diversity and inclusion,” said Marshall Wong, API Equality-LA co-chair. “Saturday was a wonderful way to enter the Year of the Ox. It is said that the Ox is a sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Fortitude and hard work describe exactly what we need to win back the freedom to marry for the LGBT community. Today we took a short stroll around Chinatown but we’re committed to the long march to full equality.”

The contingent was led by a drum troupe playing traditional Korean drums, comprised of volunteers from the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA). And bringing up the rear of the API Equality-LA contingent was Danza Méxica Cuauhtemoc, a cultural troupe performing traditional Aztec dances, accompanied by Aztec drums and dressed in traditional Aztec clothes and tall feather headdresses.

“API Equality-LA was thrilled to be able to include both Korean and Aztec drums as well as Aztec dancers,” said Eileen Ma, another API Equality-LA steering committee member and organizer of the contingent. “For us, the drummers and dancers reinforced our message of pride in our diversity as a community.”

The diversity of the marchers was also evident in the organizations that officially joined the API Equality-LA contingent, many of whom proudly displayed their own organizational banners as part of the contingent. In addition to API Equality-LA, other organizations who participated in the contingent included: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC); Asian Pacific Health Care Venture (APHCV); Asian Pacific Islander Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (API PFLAG); ); California Faith for Equality; Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) of San Gabriel Valley; Equal Roots Coalition; Gays United Network (Gays U.N.); Japanese American Citizens League (JACL); Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA); Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC); Love Honor Cherish; OCA-Greater Los Angeles; South Asian Network (SAN); and Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council, which includes Asian American Queer Women Activists (AAQWA), Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT), Chinese Rainbow Association, Gay Asian Pacific Support Network (GAPSN), and Satrang.

(photo credit Ericson Herbas) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Sigourney Weaver hopes new flick will help gay teens tackle their parents

American actress Sigourney Weaver hopes that her first TV movie Prayers for Bobby will help gay teens when they come out about their sexual orientation to their parents.

Weaver plays the real-life mother of tragic gay youth Bobby Griffith, who committed suicide in the 1970s after his religious parents spent years trying to ‘cure’ him.

According to the actress, Leroy Aaron’s book of the same name, from which her new film was adapted, has become a tool some gay youngsters use to help their parents come to terms with their child”s sexuality.

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