Book Review: Man In The Middle - John Amaechi

I caught wind of ex NBA Brit John Amaechi coming out a few years back and thought I'd pick up his book Man In The Middle - John Amaechi to get insight into what his mindset growing up was like dealing with guys.

Check out my verdict after the jump

Parents on talk show discussing their son's like for girl clothes

Check this 'must watch' video of how a family have approached the youngest son's like for girls clothes on a Seattle based talkshow. In it the child mother discusses her fears about perceptions of her as a mother as well as how other parents view her child. Peep the video after the jump:

LOL of the day Bimbo Winehouse blasts black celebs

Youtuber Bimbo Winehouse spoofs Usher OMG, using the beat to call out a few black star who in his opinion are in the life. I'm not one to feed into this kind of stuff, because I feel like who you choose to lay down with is nobody's business but your own. This video is a hoot though true or not. Peep it after the jump.

Gay Muslim Prince Gets 20 yrs for Murder

Caption: Al Saud (left) Adulaziz (right)

An Arab prince was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years at the Old Bailey for the murder of his lover / servant. Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud beat and strangled his aide Bandar Abdulaziz to death in February this year. He attempted to claim diplomatic immunity but this was rejected as he did not have immunity as an entitlement.

Full story via Mail Online

Do you think the prince should be allowed to claim asylum after his release?

GMHC Campaign: I love my boo

Check out non-profit GMHC's 'I Love My Boo' print campaign to promote a free discussion forum with a panel of speakers being held at The Tisch Building, 119 West 24th Street, 12 Floor, NYC  from 6pm-9pm on Monday October 25th. Check out the rest of the pics after the jump

The A-List Episode 3: Love Bares All

Episode 3 of LogoTV show The A-List aired last night. Peep the episode after the jump.

Darryl Stephens on Bullying: It Gets Better

Check out this video from actor Darryl Stephen in response to the recent suicides of gay teens:



What did you think of the video?

Qaadir talks Bullying

Check out this youtube vid by Timaya, where he discusses being bullied at school and what he did to turn the situation around. Peep it after the jump:

LMFAO of the Day: Akon's Real Name

Akon’s REAL name is "Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam"

Don't believe me? How about you hear him say it?

LOL of the Day: Cocaine is one hell of a drug!

Check out the this footage of this guy tripping out! LMAO @ ''He smell like ass!"

Omarion Responds to Raz B's Allegations

Earlier in the week Raz B took to Worldhiphop to allege that he was abused by Marques Houston and Chris Stokes. Well Omarion is in London and was interviewed by our friends thatgrapejuice.net Check out Omarion's video response after the jump:

PRIORITY READ: Dr Malebranch addresses Oprah in an Open letter

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A-List Episode 2: Hanging With The Big Boys

Episode 2 of Logo reality show the A-List aired this week. Peep after the jump:

Xem Van Adams Talks 'The Dupont Circle'

 Youtuber / blogger Xem Van Adams, posted a video on youtube talking about his upcoming online book venture. The project 'The Dupont Circle' is a semi autobiographical novel following main character Isaiah, coming to terms with who he is in DC. Check the video after the jump:

Don't Tell ANYONE.... but

... for X Factor this year, I am secretly rooting for Diva Fever!  These guys give me the most joke and they can actually sing and the campness doesn't urk me. I will take this secret to the grave while I root for them. LOL.

Check out their performances so far below:

Video: Kazaky - In the middle

Check out this video from Ukranian male group Kazaky. Nice budget, but for me, the fagging out / heels took away from what are 4 four decent looking guys. As for the song, the style is very much on trend but the track as a whole misses the mark. I wonder if it will get any air time?



What do you think of the song / video?

Raz - B Goes in On Marques Houston and Eddie Long

Remember former B2K member Raz-B?  Back in December 2007 a youtube video surfaced alleging that he was molested by his manager Chris Stokes and Marques Houston as a pre-teen.



This video surfaced shortly after, quelling the media frenzy that 1st video had unleashed.



I guess the Eddie Long scandal must have hit close to home as today, he released two videos, the 1st attempting to get a filmed confession out of Houston via phone and the second in reponse to youtube footage of Eddie Long's statement to Churchgoers about the allegations. Check them out below:

 



My thoughts? Its clear that something went down, because as a man, you wouldn't put yourself out there like that because its the ultimate shame.When the 1st video was released he had the support of the public, as him putting himself out there could have potentially given hope to others, but when his words were retracted, a lot of folk suspected a payoff and were disappointed that his silence could be bought. Now these new videos have come out, they will be less impactful because the credibility issue will come into play. Will he change his mind again? It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out though. Maybe Wendy will give him a whole show?

Thoughts?

Can anyone tell me which campaign this originates from?

Tonex (TOH-nay) What happened?

Remember US Award-winning Gospel Artist Tonex? A few months back a track surfaced that put his sexuality under scrunity. Well it appears that he is done with gospel and is jumping into glamfunk disco (and disposed of the closet in the process perhaps?). Check out his take on 70s classic, You Make Me Feel:



Despite the camp sound, his voice is solid right? So why is the image and mannerisms to go with the new sound so flaming?



My main gripe with this is that there is next to no visibility of masculine gay men in the mainstream and this image will only re-inforce stereotypes. Its almost like a doctor dressing in just a nappy to work and trying to give you your diagnosis; you won't take said doctor seriously.

LOL OF THE DAY: Handling Racism 101

C-SPAN host Robb Harleston, was thrown a hot potato when an elderly white supremacist called his show to drop a couple of cents. Check out how he fared below:



Talk about professional! Disabled her with calm in one foul swoop.

Chingy Responds To Rumors He Dealt With A Transexual

Former DTP rapper Chingy went on record to talk about rumours surrounding him having relations with a Transgender hip-hop dancer. Peep what he had to say below:



Do you believe that Chingy is telling the truth?

Oprah re-interviews guy who made millions off his DL Lifestyle

Oprah's 2nd interview with JL King airs today. Have you heard of J.L King? This guy in my opinion is the face/spokesperson of the so called 'DL Phenominion'. His book 'On the Downlow' (Being married with kids but having raw sex with men on the side) was a bestseller. I've read it and wasn't feeling it at all.

I hate that the book has been hailed as fact almost by mainstream media that picked it up as newsworthy, and causing a lot of folks without a voice to have a label put on them.

My problem is that his story had a damaging effect on the image black men mainly in the US but also of parts in the UK, portray us as reckless sexual predators straight or not. Another of my main gripes is that this guy has profited off his unsafe cheating which has no gender, yet the issue has been blown up because his unsafe infidely was with men given that being black and gay is still a taboo subject.

What if he had been having unsafe sex with other women? What about discreet/openly bisexual men who have safe sex and get themselves checked out regularly? What about exclusively gay men who are discreet and responsible? Would they be categorised under the 'DL' label? Are they more of a sexual health risk than say a ho that has sex unprotected with many men?

There is a big difference between withholding information on your sexual prefence and having unsafe sex and I think that it is wrong for Oprah to give this guy a big platform of influence like her show without offering an educated guy like activist Keith Boykin or producer Deondre Gossett the opportunity to offer some alternative insight.

After Elton blogger Kenneth Winfrey said it best:

Is it because JL King, author of On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep with Men “incriminated” Black men by framing hidden sexuality within an ethnic context? Oprah's presentation of the book and him as an author certainly did.

Check out this clips from the show:





I swear, things that you wanna SWITCH!

A 'Must Watch' especially if you've been to or lived in NYC

Check out movie Just Another Girl on the IRT; a no holds barred snapshot of 90s teenage life in NYC and the result of bad decisions. Sex, Project Life, Rocky family struggles, peer pressure... this movie has got all of it! Part 1 is below, the remainder on Youtube. Trust me, set aside 2 hours, turn off your phone and enjoy it! I know I did. Ariyan A. Johnson makes this movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChqaFYwY5A

Man of the Week: Terry Kennedy

The title man of the week, goes to Mr Extremely Easy on the Eye, Terry Kennedy. A soon to be reality star and multitalented pro skateboarder who has been endorsed by the likes of SUPRA and BOOST Mobile, he is the type you'd be proud to call your 'other'. I guess Angela Simmons is a lucky lady!

Discipline or Abuse (Viewers Discretion Advised)?

Check this video out where a mother takes extreme measures to discipline her child.



I could even watch the whole thing. Why be a parent if you have to take to such extreme measures to keep your child in line?

What say you? Discipline or abuse?

LOL of the day: Caption This Pic

British Boyband JLS are the face of durex condoms, but it has to be seen to be believed. Presenting Exhibit A:

Other than the green pack, all the other ones would make my dick shrivel! If you had to pick a pack, which one would you buy?

A-List Episode 1: Codeword Delicious

Check out episode 1 of new flagship show A-List on LOGO TV. Think the male take of the Real Housewives franchise. (Readers outside the US I guess you need to get your proxy on!). Peep it below:










What did you think?

My 2 Pence: Eddie Long Scandal

I'm sure everyone and their mother has heard about the Eddie Long scandal involving boys allegedly being inappropriately abused.

My problem with the whole thing is the abuse of authority. Using your role to gain inappropriate access to these guys minds. If you respect an individual as a leader, in the back of your mind its almost as you can transfer control. If you went to the doctor and the doctor told you that you had to get your leg cut off because of internal complications, would you challenge his diagnosis? If a psychiatrist told you that you were bipolar and that you had to take meds daily would you protest? Most likely not because of the respect you have for their role.

As a leader and a figure to people, you draw the lines and you stay on your side of the boundaries.

Reports and court documents suggests these guys saw him as a father figure yet he supposedly was plying them with materialism which as a teen is as attractive as flies to shit. Buying them cars, giving them an allowance, going out to dinner in fancy restaurants; all with money from unassuming church goers. All this to get them open and coupled with them seeing him as 'daddy' given they were from single parent households, these teens probably have a fucked up lust complex when forming relationships with older guys in high positions. Love for 'family' should never be blurred with the love for a partner.

I believe all the victims are telling the truth given the available info and hope that justice is served.


What are your thoughts on the scandal?

Ever Wonder What Being In The Life Was Like 40 Years ago?

Ever wondered what life was like being in the life 40 years ago? Queue the video tape!:



Talk about camp affair (Chicago Pride apparently)! Hilarious all the same and the black guy on the float was a good look.

Appreciate the fact that you can live your life, whereas other can't live theirs

Check out this interesting short by a French photographer who reached out to gay folk via the web living in countries where being gay is illegal and asked them for a photo and insight into life on a daily:



Its sad that in 2010, there is still a lot of hate in the World towards things that people simply need to take the time to understand.

Kelsey must have really felt like shit that day...

Poor her.

Antoine Sits Down With...

Antoine Dodson recently sat down with news anchor Katie Couric to discuss his viral popularity. Peep the video below:

Gay Student Commits Suicide After Roomate's 'American Pie' Stunt

Tyler Clementi, above, is thought to have committed suicide, days after video of him was


secretly webcast on the Internet. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, center, and another

classmate, Molly Wei, have been charged in the case.



It’s a tragic technological story heard round the world — a college freshman’s Webcam spying leading to a suicidal jump from the George Washington Bridge. Dharun Ravi, a freshman at Rutgers University, used his Macbook to stream video of his gay roommate having “a sexual encounter” in their room on September 19. The roommate, Tyler Clementi, did not know that he was being watched or taped. Sadly, he apparently did not notice the green light on Ravi’s laptop camera turn on when Ravi activated it from another computer in friend Molly Wei’s room across the hall.

Ravi invited other friends to watch the stream on iChat, and planned a second viewing on September 21st when Clementi again indicated he’d like the room to himself for a few hours, tweeting that day, “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again.” It appears from a gay message forum that Clementi was already on to his roommate by that time.

The New Jersey police have charged Ravi (and Wei) with criminal invasion of privacy, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison according to the New York Times, and a possible $30,000 fine according to the New Jersey criminal code. As my colleague Andy Greenberg points out, some of the same technologies that facilitated Ravi’s invasion of Clementi’s privacy will now help prove his guilt in the case — Ravi’s Twitter feed. Ravi deleted it, but police can get it from Twitter, or Google cache, or one of the Twitter tracking sites like Topsy. As I’ve said before, deletion on the Internet is futile.

Clementi also has a digital trail on the Internet, and it appears that he knew his roommate had filmed him after the first September 19th incident.



A month-old tweet from Ravi indicates he discovered his roommate’s sexuality based on comments Clementi made on a gay message forum. Ravi tweeted on August 22, “Found out my roommate is gay,” and linked to a post he said was Clementi’s on JustUsBoys. It’s the same forum that Clementi appears to have turned to after discovering he’d been spied on. As Gawker noted, a user on the forum by the name of “cit2mo” posted a thread “college roommate spying…..” on September 21 at 7:22 a.m.

so the other night i had a guy over. I had talked to my roommate that afternoon and he had said it would be fine w/him. I checked his twitter today. he tweeted that I was using the room (which is obnoxious enough), AND that he went into somebody else’s room and remotely turned on his webcam and saw me making out with a guy. given the angle of the webcam I can be confident that that was all he could have seen.

so my question is what next?

I could just be more careful next time…make sure to turn the cam away…

buttt…

I’m kinda pissed at him (rightfully so I think, no?)

and idk…if I could…it would be nice to get him in trouble

but idk if I have enough to get him in trouble, i mean…he never saw anything pornographic…he never recorded anything…

I feel like the only thing the school might do is find me another roommate, probably with me moving out…and i’d probably just end up with somebody worse than him….I mean aside from being an asshole from time to time, he’s a pretty decent roommate…

the other thing is I that don’t wanna report him and then end up with nothing happening except him getting pissed at me….



Other users advised him to report it to the school and make sure his roommate’s computer was closed during future encounters. Cit2mo replied:

I feel like it was “look at what a fag my roommate is” –other people have commented on his profile with things like “how did you manage to go back in there?” “are you ok?”

and the fact that the people he was with saw my making out with a guy as the scandal whereas i mean come on…he was SPYING ON ME….do they see nothing wrong with this?

unsettling to say the least….

so I decided to fill out the room change request form….its not guaranteed that you get a change…and i don’t have to switch if I change my mind or work things out over the next week (they won’t start filling requests until next week)…but I figure I might as well as see what they can offer me….



More users advised him of the illegality of this video voyeurism. A famous case of this, of course, is that of Erin Andrews. The man who made peephole videos of her undressing was ultimately sentenced to 30 months in prison. Cit2mo responds:

oh yah, on the school website it says recording people where there is an expectation of privacy (bathroom bedroom etc) without the consent of everyone involved could….COULD…..result in being expelled

the only things is…there are too many ‘could’s ….the fact that he didn’t ACTUALLY record me (to my knowledge) and the fact that the school really prolly won’t do much of anything….

but anyway, i’ll be talking to my RA later today for sure…..

and yah, revenge never ends well for me, as much as I would love to pour pink paint all over his stuff…..that would just let him win…..



Cit2mo did end up going to the RA after Ravi’s tweet on September 21st:

so I wanted to have the guy over again.

I texted roomie around 7 asking for the room later tonight and he said it was fine.

when I got back to the room I instantly noticed he had turned the webcam toward my bed. And he had posted online again….saying….”anyone want a free show just video chat me tonight”…or something similar to that….

soooo after that…..

I ran to the nearest RA and set this thing in motion…..

we’ll see what happens……

I haven’t even seen my roommate since sunday when i was asking for the room the first time…and him doing it again just set me off….so talking to him just didn’t seem like an option….

meanwhile I turned off and unplugged his computer, went crazy looking for other hidden cams….and then had a great time.



Cit2mo’s last posting to the site on the morning of September 22nd indicates that he emailed an RA a paragraph about what had happened. Though he seemed calm and collected in his postings to JustUsBoys, that night, he posted “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” to his Facebook, and committed suicide.

These digital trails may answer questions that could not be answered otherwise. A big question now is why Clementi’s resident advisor did not get Clementi moved out of that room immediately.

In addition to the criminal charges arising from this, there will be civil lawsuits. Rutgers University may find itself the target of a civil lawsuit. And Clementi’s family and perhaps Clementi’s unnamed romantic partner of September 19 will surely sue Ravi, and perhaps Wei, for invasion of privacy. In a similar case in Kansas, a man was ordered to pay $55,000 after distributing naked photos of his ex-girlfriend via email. The claims were invasion of privacy and infliction of severe emotional distress.

Another case that comes to mind involving Webcam spying and schools is the famous case out of Philadelphia, where a high school handed out laptops and then activated cameras remotely without informing the students using them. In that case, prosecutors dropped the criminal charges, finding no criminal intent in the “spying.” Ravi will not likely be so lucky.
 
 
My 2 Pence: I think that no matter how deep the shame. suicide is not a option. This just puts into perspective how paranoia about how society will label you for subscribing to a lifestyle that is widely not accepted can eat at you. In any case RIP.