metroweekly.com - 3 218 Showbiz News and Updates

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

The Ohio Department of Health rolled back several rules and regulations that would have restricted access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender adults.In January, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine directed the department and the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to file rules for public comment to ensure that individuals do not pursue a gender transition hastily.

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

Renaissance, but the pop singer isn’t giving her fans a chance to breathe. Instead, she’s announced a new album, it’s coming very soon, and fans can already hear the surprising new sonic direction she’s chosen for her latest era.On Sunday, February 11, Beyoncé dropped two new songs. The tracks, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” are assumed to be the first official singles from her forthcoming album, which was announced at the same time that the cuts arrived.Beyoncé took to social media on Sunday night to reveal the second installment of Renaissance is coming next month.

Military.com mid-January headline was blunt: “Army Sees Sharp Decline in White Recruits.” An appropriate, similarly blunt reaction might be, “Who cares?” Not surprisingly, the right wing cares. Histrionically. They’re all in a bunch about it.Of these bunched-up deplorables, Rep.

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

Couple to Throuple all bed down for their first night, the show could be any other in the proliferating genre of hookup TV, populated by bed-hopping singles shacked up in sex mansions.But look closely, once the screen shifts to spy-cam night vision of bodies writhing beneath the sheets, and you’ll not mistake a third eager, willing participant bumping and grinding with the main pair. Set to boldly explore the bounds of polyamory, the show’s couples and singles — thirds, if you will — might represent a lighthearted, next logical step in society’s surging discourse on ethical non-monogamy.Then again, to more traditionally-minded viewers, or those simply with different tastes in popular entertainment, these semi-exhibitionist throuples might just speak to the unrelenting decline of American culture.

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

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

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

The Telegraph, Thomas — the former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who won the 500-yard freestyle race in the 2022 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships — has petitioned the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland to overturn rules prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in world championship events, and at the Olympics, based on their gender identity.Thomas’s victory in the 500-yard freestyle sparked a backlash against transgender athletes in the United States, prompting FINA, the predecessor to World Aquatics, to adopt rules prohibiting transgender females from competing in women’s events if they have undergone “male puberty.”Only those athletes who have never developed secondary sex characteristics, or those who started puberty blockers prior to age 12, are exempt from the ban.World Aquatics has justified the restrictions on transgender participation, saying it based its recommendations on a scientific policy document that concluded that transgender women swimmers retain significant physical advantages over cisgender women, including increased muscle mass and lung size, even when they suppress their testosterone levels. Along with its adoption of the transgender athlete ban, World Aquatics sought to create an “open” category that would be open to individuals, regardless of gender, in which transgender athletes could compete.The category’s first races were scheduled to be held at the World Cup in Berlin last October.

diversion or treatment programs designed to decrease the risk of recidivism.According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the now-17-year-old’s father read his son’s diary in 2020, when the youth was 14, and discovered the boy was attracted to other males. The father then imposed various punishments on his son, forcing him to do military-style training runs at night, refrain from shaving, expose his genitals, and read pages from his diary out loud.He also accessed his son’s online social media accounts, monitoring sites he visited and restricting who he could communicate with.When those punishments didn’t work, the father sought help from a psychologist in the hope that the psychologist would affirm the parents’ conservative worldview.

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

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

the letter alleges that the laws significantly infringe on LGBTQ individuals’ rights.“Taken individually, the seven pieces of legislation (the ‘Bills’) discussed in this submission will disrupt the lives of LGBTQIA+ people of various ages and backgrounds,” the letter reads. “Put together, the Bills are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQIA+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.“Considering the danger this represents, we humbly ask for you to make inquiries into this backsliding of human rights of LGBTQIA+ persons in the state of Texas, United States of America.”The advocates also assert that the U.S.

Wichita Eagle. “[O]ur deeply held religious belief keeps us from celebrating anything but marriage between a man and woman.”“I just started crying hysterically,” Waggy told the Eagle.

Lawrence v. Texas invalidated state-level sodomy laws as unconstitutional.However, unless a state proactively removes prohibitions on same-sex intimacy, local law enforcement authorities could choose to selectively enforce the law with the intent of targeting LGBTQ people — forcing them to expend money and energy defending themselves in court, even if the charges would ultimately be dismissed.Additionally, if the Supreme Court were to reverse its finding in the Lawrence case, those 12 states where anti-sodomy statutes have not been repealed would immediately be revived and could be used to prosecute LGBTQ people.Under Massachusetts’ anti-sodomy statute, which equates same-sex activity with bestiality, a person could be imprisoned for 20 years in prison for violating the law.A similar law punishes those convicted of an “unnatural and lascivious act” with a five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $1,000.The anti-sodomy and “unnatural acts” laws are being targeted for repeal by some more liberal members of the state legislature, who are seeking to repeal or erase other outdated laws governing personal conduct, typically known as “morality” laws.One such law is a prohibition on “night walking,” which critics say can be used to harass individuals, especially transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, for simply being out in public, allowing law enforcement to claim that such people intend to engage in prostitution.However, despite arguments from opponents, repealing the “night walking” law would not change other commonwealth laws declaring prostitution illegal.The Senate also added an amendment repealing a ban on “blasphemy,” a rarely-enforced statute in which Massachusetts residents are supposed to be punished

January 18, 2024All federal workers, including employees of Congress, are eligible for up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. That’s the benefit Buttigieg took advantage of when his children developed medical complications.But the decision to do so, in 2021, just months after being confirmed as Secretary of Transportation, has drawn jeers and derision from conservatives, many of whom believe that fathers shouldn’t qualify for parental leave since they do not directly give birth — or, apparently, have any significant role in child-rearing, except when it’s politically convenient to champion “parental rights.”Luna, 34, who gave birth to a son in August, had initially planned to return to Congress soon after giving birth.

The Associated Press, the Mercer County Board of Elections chose not to disqualify Arienne Childrey, a Democrat from St. Mary’s, Ohio, whose candidacy for the 84th District seat in the Ohio House of Representatives was challenged after Mercer County Republican Party Chairman Robert Hibner filed a protest with the elections board.Hibner argued that Childrey had violated a little-publicized state law requiring public office candidates to list any name changes they have had over the previous five years on their election paperwork.The law contains some exceptions, including for those who change names after marrying or those running for re-election, having previously been elected by voters under their new name.While the law was not intended to address transgender existence, it has since been weaponized against transgender candidates.

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

Origin, starring as a celebrated writer diligently solving the puzzle that is her latest book, while also facing unfathomable personal adversity.The book she’s writing happens to be the nonfiction best-seller that inspired this film: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, by Isabel Wilkerson. In Caste, published in 2020, Wilkerson examines the racial hierarchy in America as a caste system, not unlike systems of oppression in India and in Nazi Germany that have enforced dynamics of superiority and inferiority based on characteristics other than race.“We call everything racism.

tracker developed by the American Civil Liberties Union.According to the ACLU, Oklahoma currently has the most proposed anti-LGBTQ bills with 36 — though many of them are redundant, with lawmakers introducing their own versions of nearly identical bills.The state with the next highest number of bills is Missouri, which has introduced 28, and South Carolina, which has introduced 26.Most of the bills target the transgender community, taking the form of efforts to either redefine transgender existence out of law or place restrictions on transgender people’s ability to self-identify, access spaces, or receive services that affirm their gender identity.More than 200 bills focus on educational matters, including proposed athlete bans, curriculum censorship bills, and at least 38 requiring LGBTQ-identifying students to be outed to their parents in the name of “parental rights.”Another 120 seek to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for trans-identifying minors, with some even seeking to require transgender adults to overcome a number of bureaucratic or regulatory obstacles to receive transition-related treatments, which critics say is an attempt to frighten medical providers into refusing to see transgender patients altogether.Already, 24 states have passed some form of restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, resulting in a flood of legal challenges from families with transgender children and from doctors who are penalized for prescribing gender-affirming care under the laws.While most lower-level federal courts temporarily blocked such bans last year, only one statewide ban, in Arkansas, has been declared unconstitutional.Other bans in Indiana, Montana, and Florida remain blocked, although bans in states

A proposed bill in Iowa seeks to prosecute people accused of providing “obscene material” to minors could potentially be weaponized against book lenders throughout the state.Depending on one’s own biases, and how broadly the law is interpreted by prosecutors, the proposed law might be used to force librarians and bookstore owners to serve prison time and register as sex offenders if they allow minors to access LGBTQ-themed books that have been deemed “obscene.”The bill amends an existing obscenity law with harsher penalties.Under the proposed revision, “any person, other than the parent or guardian of the minor, who knowingly disseminates or exhibits obscene material to minor, including the exhibition of scene material so that it can be observed by a minor on or off the premises where it is displayed” will be considered guilty of an “aggravated misdemeanor.”Previously, the dissemination of so-called “obscene material” was considered a “serious misdemeanor,” punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of at least $430 but not more than $2,560. But an aggravated misdemeanor is punishable by up to two years in prison, and much larger fine, ranging from $855 to $8,540.

petition demanding eHarmony pull the ad from the airwaves. “This eHarmony ad is an attempt to brainwash children and adults by desensitizing them and convincing them that homosexuality is natural,” the petition reads.

The New York Post that he had always wanted to donate sperm to help infertile couples conceive and joined a Facebook group helping couples find sperm donors.Through that group, he became aware of a lesbian couple in Queensland and was touched by their personal story. So he offered to help.The 37-year-old underwent months of genetic testing, medical tests, and in-person counseling sessions with his partner.

mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, will plead guilty to 74 counts of federal hate crime and gun crime charges as part of a plea deal arranged with the U.S. Department of Justice.Aldrich is expected to receive “multiple concurrent life sentences plus additional consecutive sentences totaling 190 years imprisonment,” if a judge accepts the plea deal.According to a news release from the Department of Justice, both Aldrich’s lawyers and the department jointly filed a motion to schedule a change of plea hearing for Aldrich and the sentencing hearing on the same date.

Daily Mail.The sexual offense charge carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison.Zmarzły is currently being held in prison ahead of his next court appearance.According to local media, Zmarzły, the pastor of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels, in Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland, allegedly hosted a small group “party and play” sex session in his apartment with two other men back in September. But one of the men collapsed after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills.The third man reportedly called emergency services, but when paramedics arrived, they were denied entry to the apartment, according to witnesses.

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

previous ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the student, who is identified in court documents as A.C., will be allowed to remain in place while the case works its way through the courts.The 7th Circuit’s decision, issued in August, upheld a preliminary injunction issued by U.S.

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

Boo, polling. Though it was a disastrous night for common sense, too.Then Covid caught us with our pants down — despite 2011’s Contagion conveniently giving us a very good idea of what a global pandemic out of China might look like.There have been predictions aplenty that we should be in a recession right now. We’re not.So, while it’s understandable for one to wonder what the year may have in store, any prediction comes with a grain of salt.

American Idol. While he didn’t win the reality series, it turned him into a household name and gave him a career. Soon, in an upcoming book, the singer will tell his full story for the first time in an upcoming book.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Archuleta has signed a deal to write his memoir.

As he frolicked in the snow, Mendes was wearing nothing more than black underwear. His bare chest and toned abs were on full display. Initially, the cold didn’t seem to bother him.you can take the boy outta Canada pic.twitter.com/oxZLr8rzad— Shawn Mendes (@ShawnMendes) January 7, 2024In a second video, Mendes appears to take his time outside in the freezing temperatures.

The News Tribune, a Tacoma-based newspaper.During their visit to New Orleans, Carter and Blagovich met with fellow entrepreneurs Jeff Hinson and Breanne Kostyk, owners of New Orleans-based Flour Moon Bagels.“Just after they landed, they sent us a message about how charming our city is,” Hinson told Nola.com. “You could hear the excitement they had about discovering this town, which makes it even more saddening.

more than 2800 books from school, including the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, and placed them into storage, reports Popular Information.The justification for the dictionary removals is that certain definitions or entries contained in the texts may violate “Don’t Say Gay,” the state’s “parental rights” law that prohibits students in grades K-12 from being exposed to LGBTQ-related content and “age-inappropriate” material. Under the law, residents of any county are empowered to demand the removal of any library book that “depicts or describes sexual conduct,” as defined under Florida law, regardless of whether or not the book is pornographic.Rather than consider individual complaints, the Escambia County School Board adopted an emergency rule last June that required the district’s librarians to review all library books and remove any works believed to contain such content.Because most dictionaries contain in-depth definitions of sex and sexual anatomy and define LGBTQ terms like “gay” and “lesbian,” they were flagged for removal.To purge the flagged books, school libraries in Escambia County were closed at the start of the school year.

Politico.Like Macron, Attal was aligned with the center-left Socialist Party before joining the more centrist Renaissance Party. Similarly, his politics often shift on various issues, as he’ll take the more conservative approach on some while staking out a more liberal position on others, reports CNN.