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Race Issues At Alexander Wang:

July 31, 2009 in Fashion, Week in News, Week in Politics by Faggoting | 18 comments

Alexander Wang photo via ThreadTrend

Alexander Wang photo via ThreadTrend

Reposted from ashadedviewonfashion.com

Hot on the heels of Obama’s ‘teachable’ race moment- an Alexander Wang request – and a personal thank you

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Hot on the heels of Obama’s remark about the Gates affair racism still haunts America even after Obama’s election. Which ever side of the argument you are on, it is clear that we still have a lot to learn about racism.

A well respected stylist requested clothes yesterday from Alexander Wang for an honored and respected singer that happens to be a woman of color. She received the e mail listed below within 20 seconds of her e mail request.  The story so totally disgusted me that I decided  to publish  the 3 e mails. The first is  from the PR asst, then the stylist’s reponse and finally a thank you from the same PR assistant who was happy to regain her spine and with it her integrity. For obvious reasons the performer, stylist and PR assistant will go unnamed. Of course Alexander Wang is welcome to put forward his own explanation of this unfortunate situation and I would be more than happy to publish it  in this post.

Reply From the PR Asst to sylist’s request:

Unfortunately due to our limited number of samples none of these are available right now for your shoot dates!

Thank you for your request and  I look forward to working with you in the future.

PR Assistant

From the Stylist in response to PR Assistant’s e mail:

Thank you for your quick decision, I am a stylist, whom through out my career, living and working in the industry for 18 years in Europe, cannot imagine such an obviously personal response. As we are referring to the brand ALEXANDER WANG, it sems that he has no intention of ever supporting such singer/celebrities like ______________.and others like her, with whom give him the ground to achieve success outside of the US. How disappointing, that he has allowed this sort of personal decision to be made. As a publisher and editor of my own magazine, I could never underestimate the response or reputation of this matter and of course you are, as a PR asst. forced to send this response by the order of Alexander Wang himself. How shocking and embarrassing this is…wow, All the best, ______________

From the same PR Asst:

I want to thank you for your email yesterday. I had been struggling to keep my integrity intact as PR assistant at that company and your email gave me the confidence yesterday to walk out entirely. You are entirely right about Alexander Wang, and I am proud to no longer be associated with the company. I can now regain my spine and walk tall again.

Thank you again.

Stonewall Riots Recreated

June 26, 2009 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

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We’re Here, We’re Queer // 2009 marks the 40th Anniversary of the event that sparked the modern gay rights movement.

Remembering the continued need to fight for equal civil rights and marriage equality, performers re-staged the Stonewall Riots protest in Times Square in an effort to draw attention to this ongoing equality battle.

Participants included Mr. Broadway himself, Anthony Hollack, and Gavin Creel from HAIR, sexy chorus boys dressed as sailors, and dancers/voguers from the Federation of Ballroom Houses, who will be featured in this Saturday’s LOVE BALL – the official opening night party of NYC’s Gay Pride –  at the Nokia Theater, Times Square (www.saintatlarge.com).

Hippies, drag queens and white boys were all present at the Stonewall Bar the night of the police raid, which ignited the riots.

Chelsea kitten needs a home

June 11, 2009 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | 6 comments

CAT CALLS // A serendipitous thing happened to me this morning. As I was opening the door to my office a woman yelled out for help. I turned left to find that a blonde, 20-something woman was indeed trapped in a window well — a narrow opening in the sidewalk that allows light into the basement apartments of London Terrace.

chelseakitten1

Help HN find a home for this friendly stray

She’d jumped in when she heard the cries of a small, black kitten who’d been trapped in the basement window bars. But the kitten had scratched the woman and now wounded she couldn’t climb out.

A gentleman, never walks away from a distress call. So I put my computer down and tried pulling her out. Fail. We tried a different angle. Fail. Then, my boss suggested we use our office step ladder which worked perfectly. Success. But the kitten was still in the well, crying, wet, and dirty. His original rescuer had rushed off. The Security Gaurds, bless them, had no luck taunting the feline away–they yelled, they kicked, they clapped. Fail. 

[ASIDE: SPCA no longer picks up animals, but Animal Control will hold animals for 48 hours.]

Well, gentlemen also never turns his back on a creature in pain.

Kramer v. Yale and the brawl of semantics

April 29, 2009 in Week in News by smhayhurst | 1 comment

kramer
Best Frenemies: Yale University Provost Peter Salovey and Yale GALA Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Larry Kramer ’57. Photo by Steven Mattson Hayhurst.

“I don’t think they’re going to like what I have to say,” Larry Kramer, Yale College class of 1957, whispered to me on our way to Yale’s University Commons Saturday evening. Kramer was anticipating the response to the speech he would deliver later that night when accepting the Yale GALA Lifetime Achievement Award  during the University’s first LGBT alumni reunion held April 24-26.

After an introduction by Yale Provost Peter Salovey lauding Kramer for his contributions to LGBT activism and public healthy advocacy, for co-founding Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), and as an author and playwright, Kramer rose to the podium. With a portrait of George H.W. Bush hanging over the stage and more than 300 alumni and supporters in attendance, it was a dramatic backdrop for the night’s main event. Kramer took a few steps back from the podium, hung up his jacket, and rolled up his sleeves. The first blow was a quiet apology.

I have come here to apologize to you.

It took a long time for Yale to accept Kramer money. After a number of years of trying to get Yale to accept mine for gay professorships or to let me raise funds for a gay student center, (both offers declined), my extraordinary straight brother Arthur offered Yale $1 million to set up the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies and Yale accepted it. My good friend and a member of the Yale Corporation, Calvin Trillin, managed to convince President Levin that I was a pussycat. The year was 2001.

Five years later, in 2006, Yale closed down LKI, as it had come to be called. Yale removed its director, Jonathan David Katz. All references to LKI were expunged from Web sites and answering machines and directories and syllabuses. One day LKI was just no longer here.

When this happened I thought my heart would break.

From “Yale’s Conspiracy of Silence” on thedailybeast.com. Read the entire speech here.

Everybody Does It | Domestic Dreams

April 8, 2009 in Sex, Week in News, Week in Politics by B.B. Nichols | No comments

4281With the passage of Gay Marriage laws in Iowa and Vermont in the space of a week, bringing the grand total of states to four, it seems like the spirit of ‘Yes We Can,’ has been carried into a couple of the state courts and congresses. This recent burst of activity is certainly encouraging as we continue to wage the war of equal rights across the nation. With all the news of death (shooting after shooting, earthquakes, and wars), and the flaccid (at best) economy, this bit of politics is a welcome ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak forecast. Needless to say, we have a long way to go, 46 states to be exact, but for the sake of careless optimism feel free to take a moment to imagine just how your dream wedding may play out in the great cornfields of Iowa or the bear-friendly backwoods of Vermont.

Like any ‘normal’ boy growing up, I didn’t give much thought to my wedding, though I was interested in what came after. I spent a vast majority of my childhood playtime building forts in the basement or down by the creek, and playing house with my neighbors. Sometimes we’d be married to each other (me and a girl, naturally), sometimes we’d have kids, but more importantly we always had our roles, which were decidedly contrary to usual gender roles. When I wasn’t gathering leaves and sticks to prepare rustic meals at our creek abode, I was stocking up on plastic foods and kitchen accoutrements for our basement palace. I pretended these supplies were important for passing the cold winter cooped up while wolves circled outside. Betsy, our imaginary neighbor, had the misfortune of living alone and often fell prey to said wolves. I may have played a homemaker, but I was smart enough to at least make myself a resourceful one.

NATO Update: First Lady Wears Totally Important Designer

April 6, 2009 in Week in News by deadpix3l | 6 comments

michellealaia

Mrs O. is rocking Azzedine Alaïa! Cher Horowitz (aka Alicia Silverstone) would totally approve. 

Everybody Does It | Wrapped Up in the Recession

February 24, 2009 in Sex, Week in News by B.B. Nichols | No comments

In college I wrote a column about sex and money. Like every nascent sex columnist I was interested in exploring the relationship between the two and how both inversely seemed to affect our love lives. My theory at the time was that those gifted in either area stood to gain most easily in the other. Rich guys can afford the highest class of escorts or attract gold-diggers, and those deemed sexy and desirable have been proven to more successful on average in any industry. But in these trying economic times, do these standards still apply? Has income and appearance become more or less relevant?

According to this article in The Week last week, condom sales are up, suggesting that people are having more sex, or at least being more cautious about it, but that most people who earn $75,000 or less reported that they thought they’d be having less sex in 2009. It seems obvious that people will want to take extra precautions in uncertain times, especially against the prospect of a costly, unwanted pregnancy, but what does this mean for the homos?

Our Girl Don’t Wear No Paris

January 20, 2009 in Attire, Week in News, Week in Politics by Faggoting | No comments

Isabel Toledo has been an industry underdog for years. Her designs, full of technical wizardry and austere eleagance – hallmarks of american fashion, never quite made it into the mainstream. A few years ago she was nominated for the CFDA award yet it amounted to little more than obligatory praise for a designer the industry already knew was good. In 2006 she was tapped to head up Anne Klein and give their collection business a breath of fresh air.

Who needs Gaydar. We’ve got a Fruit Machine*

August 22, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments


OBVIOUSLY the dude on the right is gay. Right? Lately, our gaydar has been totally wack. But a study out of Tufts University — led by grad-student Nicholas Rule (as in “I rule!”) — claims that gaydar is as real as Britney Spears’ drug and alcohol abuse problem. And not only could respondents weed out the suspected fruitcakes just by looking at their faces — they got it right in record time.

For the study, 15 undergraduate students, both male and female, were shown photos of faces of 90 men, evenly divided between gay and straight. The photos were taken from Internet personal ads and from Facebook.

Estelle Getty’s legacy of laughter

July 24, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | 1 comment

SHADY PINES, MA! – Before Sex and the City’s Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda there was Rose,  Dorothy, Blanche and Sophia. Nudity and profanity aside, The Golden Girls covered similar ground dishing on sex (or lack there of), relationships (or lack there of), gays (!!!), and anxieties about getting older. Estelle Getty was an instant favorite as cantankerous, octogenarian Sophia Petrillo. She was bitchy, but smart, oldest, but often the most lively. Getty died earlier this week at the age of 84. An active supporter of gay rights and AIDS research, Estelle Getty will be sorely missed by men like me who grew up dreaming to one day move to Miami and grow old amidst a crew of unforgettable friends. Sophia Petrillo left us many memorable quotes, we’ve compiled our favorites here. It may be cliche, but it’s the most fitting send of:

Thanks Estelle, for being a friend.

Newsbot: Thomas Beatie gave birth.
And Slate is all weird about it.

July 10, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

It’s a girl! Well, it’s a girl for now. Thomas Beatie, the “pregnant man,” has given birth. Beatie used to be a girl, too. Then he decided to become a man. Which he is now. Sort of. [Slate]

Newsbot: How much is your willy worth?

July 9, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

A surgeon in Bucharest was ordered to pay $795,000 in damages to a patient after a 2004 operation in which the doctor “accidentally” severed the patient’s penis — and then, in a fit of rage, chopped it into little pieces before storming out. [Associated Press]

Gossip Bot:
Rove’s adopta-daddy owned a golden cock ring

July 8, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

THAT’S GROSS – “Louis Rove, the man identified as the adoptive father of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, apparently lived the latter part of his life as an out gay man who was deeply involved in body piercing culture.” [BoingBoing]

Newsbot:
Watermelon a day keeps Viagra away

July 8, 2008 in Week in News by smhayhurst | No comments

ERECTILE COCKTAIL - Scientists in Texas, where everything is bigger, suggest that eating watermelons can give you Viagra-style erections. PROS. You’ll be going strong all summer. CONS. Watermelon is a diuretic (though this may be a pro for water sports enthusiasts) and they’re high in sugar — a low carb no-no.

Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body’s blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra. [Yahoo]

Newsbot:
Get married in CA. Then get arrested in WI.

July 7, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

BAD DAY FOR WISCONSIN GAYS - There’s a badger and bear fight going on the sore subject of marriage equality. An obscure state law in Wisconsin (The Badger State) makes it a crime for WI residents to marry in another state (ie CA), if the marriage is prohibited in WI (which it is).

The law imposes a penalty for those who enter into a marriage that’s prohibited or declared void in Wisconsin of up to $10,000 and nine months in prison. [JS Online]

10 Reasons why soccer is sexier than football.
And why Ramos is hotter than Beckham.

July 1, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | 2 comments

REIGN IN SPAIN – Not only have Fernando Torres and Sergio Ramos proven that they’re one of the best soccer players in the world, they’re also sexy as hell. Here’s our countdown to the 10 reasons why we’d rather watch soccer than football. Enjoy.

REASON 10. — THE BLATANT LEG FONDLING:
Soccer players are all about the boy/boy touching. And there’s no shame. We love it. Here Iker Casillas gets a nice grope from his mates. While football players may enjoy a nice ass tap every so often, here we have a full on inner thigh fondling. Hot!

“Hetero-Homo Bhai-Bhai”
Queer Pride March” in New Delhi, India

June 30, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

On Sunday, while I sipped mimosas and watched the pride procession from the shelter of my friend’s apartment, hundreds of gay activists gathered on the other side of the world to march and raise awareness about gay rights in a country where homosexuality is illegal. (Photos from REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)

Just in case you needed another reason to hate
the American Family Association

June 30, 2008 in Week in News by smhayhurst | No comments

Our homophobic friends over at the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow made a little auto-replace boo boo when they changed all instances of “gay” into “homosexual.” So, professional basketball player Rudy Gay’s name becomes Rudy Homosexual and runner Tyson Gay becomes Tyson Homosexual.

Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: “A little fatigued.”

Funny or Dangerous? Words have powerful associations. The difference between the phrases homosexual marriage and marriage equality is stammering. [boingboing]

Just look at his face.
There’s no way he doesn’t fondle altar boys

June 30, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

SEE NO EVIL – The AP reports that one of the most outspoken conservative US archbishops, Raymond Burke, has been named as the first American to lead the Vatican supreme court, and it’s safe to say he’s being groomed for the job of top dawg. Here’s what we know. Ray is from Wisconsin. He’s over Sheryl Crow. He prefers weenies sans the Heinz/Kerry ketchup. And he has no idea what clergy sex abuse scandal you’re talking about. Yay!

“The Lord giveth, Virginia taketh away”

June 27, 2008 in Week in News by Antonio Cerna | No comments

Two men were married in Virginia. It’s not clear if one of them is trans (or in transition) and if the two men did this knowingly as a stunt. Either way, authorities are freaking out about it. [Towleroad]

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