I recently received a note on my “Ask the Doc” blog from a gay man who wrote: “I became fascinated with fat people at a very young age, and after I discovered masturbation at 13 years old, I realized those feelings were sexual.” He was angry because his friends think his sexual attraction is crazy. Society has a prejudice against fat people. The idealized male body is one with 10% body fat, V-shaped, and muscular. Our culture sees fat people as lazy, unmotivated, and undisciplined. Because we are all exposed to that culture, everyone incorporates these stereotypes. Because society adopts […]
Strategies for Tax Season
Upcoming community session dives into the details By Aaron Cahall Chase Brexton Health Care Tax preparation can be a challenging, confusing, and even dreaded obstacle for many, but help is available! Individuals seeking some simple strategies for tax season, or looking for resources to get help, can find the answers they need at the next LGBTQ Community Connection session. The workshop is scheduled for Thursday, March 9th from 1 to 2:30 pm and will be hosted by the CASH (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope) Campaign of Maryland. Learn more about the session and how to join at Chasebrexton.org/LGBTQCommunityMar2023. We asked […]
Guess Who’s Back
The perils of trusting TikTok I would love to say that the extended hiatus from the echo chamber that is my own voice being published semi-monthly has left me tamer. Or, that since exiting the whale of an industry that is hospitality back in the fall, I have found myself speaking with more optimism. A little over a month ago, I was promoted into a more behind-the-scenes role at the elementary school I work at. Fancy new title in hand, I spent my winter break decorating my new office and silently panicking that this was all a horrible joke at […]
Insectivorous
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is visually stunning but emotionally empty by Chuck Duncan It’s been five years since we last saw Scott Lang, Hope Van Dyne, and their various family members together in their own film (although most of them did appear in Avengers: Endgame), but now they are back for a third time without the assistance of any of the roster of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) heroes to take on a “new” baddie in the Marvel realm, one that could have even larger implications moving forward than Thanos (of course, this “Big Bad” has already been introduced, unnamed, […]
Time’s Up for Tik Tok Diet Trends
By Dr. Terri Griffith Picture this: You’re scrolling Tik Tok when you find a “What I eat in a day” video. A 20-something-year-old influencer, clad in fluffy white Skims and perfectly coiffed hair to match the never-lived-in aesthetic of her home, shows you everything she eats in a day to maintain her “healthy” lifestyle. She also shares a workout routine that she swears by to maintain her physique. She is thin, gorgeous, and seems to have it all – and she promises that if you follow her diet and fitness routine, you too will be thin, gorgeous, and have it […]
There’s ‘Something Rotten’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Shakespearean send-up scintillates as consummately clever comedy by Chuck Duncan The Broadway musical Something Rotten opened on April 22nd, 2015, garnered ten Tony Awards nominations (winning one for Christian Borle as Best Supporting Actor) and for some reason closed after just 742 performances on January 1st, 2017. I first became aware of the show while watching the Tony Awards performance of its signature number, “A Musical,” and finally got to see the show when it went on tour in 2017. I was instantly smitten with Rotten’s simultaneous parody and embrace of Broadway musical conventions. Possessing everything anyone would want in […]
Baltimore Fire One of Many anti-LGBTQ Attacks in 2022
Four-fold increase from 2020 to 2021, with 2022 worst year yet The June 15th fire on 31st Street in Baltimore that was started when Pride flags were burned, is one of many throughout the country this year. Greg Owen writes for LGBTQ Nation that in the wake of a record number of reported incidents of violence and harassment at Pride celebrations this year, a new study verifies the sense on the street: anti-LGBTQ mobilization increased by over four times from 2020 to 2021, with 2022 on track to be the worst year yet. The study by the Armed Conflict […]
Oslo Pride canceled after two murdered in homophobic attack
Oslo, Norway – Two people were killed and eight others hospitalized with injuries in a shooting near the London Pub in Oslo, Norway’s gay district early Saturday, June 25th, prompting organizers to cancel the city’s annual Pride parade that had been scheduled for later today. Another 14 people reportedly received minor injuries. According to CNN, police received multiple calls about the shooting at 1:44 a.m. and arrived on scene within minutes. Three minutes after officers arrived, they had located and arrested the suspect. The man arrested is a Norwegian citizen originally from Iran who was “known to police” but […]
GOP zeros in on books about race, LGBTQ people, US history
Philadelphia, PA – There are stories nearly every day now from somewhere in the U.S. Schools and libraries are banning books. School boards are debating what books can be allowed in classrooms. This past week it was Mississippi, Arizona, and Tennessee. The template is Texas, where parents and others can report books that should be pulled from the shelves for content — notably LGBT+ and racial content. Some of these book banning stories are local, others are statewide, but the trend is very much national. And while much of the book banning has been in traditionally red states, suburban school […]
Bidgood, pioneer Gay erotic filmmaker, dies from COVID-19
New York City – Lily Wakefield writes in Pink News that filmmaker and gay erotic photography pioneer James Bidgood has died aged 88 from complications related to COVID-19. According to the New York Times, Bidgood passed away on Monday, 31 January, in Manhattan, New York. Bidgood was the creator of the cult queer film Pink Narcissus, which visualizes the sexual fantasies of a gay sex worker, and he released it anonymously in 1971. He filmed the entire movie in his tiny New York City apartment over seven years, and it was only publicly revealed that he was the film’s director, […]