PHOTOS: GETTY
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins suited up on Friday for a very "impressive" first day at the Houston Texans' rookie training camp. The 21-year-old phenom played for Clemson University and drafted earlier this week by the Texans in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
One more AFTER THE JUMP ...
Continue reading "SPORNO: WR DeAndre Hopkins at Houston Texans' Rookie Camp" »
Catching up with the brilliance otherwise known as Viola Davis ...
The Academy Award-nominated actress discusses the Barbara Jordan biopic project in an extensive new interview with EBONY. The late and iconic politician rose from poverty to become the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South. Jordan was also lesbian.
Is your [production] company going to be behind the Barbra Jordan biopic? Yes it is! We’re perfecting the script right now and working with some fabulous producers, Shelly Glasser, Diane Nabatoff, and a great director, Paris Barclay, to perfect the story, because 80 percent of work is the narrative. ... And then you you just enhance it. So we’re just trying to perfect that now, but it’s coming.
It seems like a common thread of characters you’ve been playing the last four years —the ones that have been earning your Oscar nominations—is they’re heroines. Is that something you look for? I think that those are the projects that just find me. I think that that’s maybe a quality people feel like I emanate. That they feel that I am larger than life. I’m the reluctant hero.
The award-winning director Paris Barclay is also Black and gay.
Davis offers more insight on the biopic in a new interview with the Houston Chronicle while promoting "Won't Back Down," which opens on Friday.
Davis' influence now extends to producing: Her nascent company has a number of projects in gestation, including a biopic on Houston's Barbara Jordan - civil rights leader, congresswoman, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and flag-planter of many significant firsts in American politics.
"It's a chance for me to transform, to create someone who was such a public, heroic figure, who at the end of the day, had a lot of secrets and was very human. To present a character on a really large scale, to use my craft. We're just in the process of making all that happen. But it will happen, as well as other stories I've always wanted to see," she says.
Barbara Jordan represented her hometown of Houston in the Texas Senate from 1967-1973. Jordan became the first Black state senator since 1883 and the first Black woman to serve in that body. She was elected to Congress in 1972 and later became the first Black woman to keynote the Democratic National Convention.
The biopic is partially based on Mary Beth Rogers' biography Barbara Jordan: American Hero ... which never addressed Jordan's sexuality. Viola Davis is a terrific LGBT ally. Can't wait for this project to hit the big screen. I looove Viola Davis and am confident that she and Paris Barclay treat Jordan's legacy with respect and honesty.
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PHOTO: AP
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will become the first Latino to keynote the Democratic National Convention, reports the Washington Post. The 37-year-old rising star in Democratic politics is also among the youngest mayors of a major American city.
Castro will speak on the convention’s opening night, Sept. 4. First Lady Michelle Obama will also speak on opening night, Democrats announced.
Democrats’ selection of Castro suggests the party is going to be making a full-court press to turn out Latino voters in November. Western swing states with substantial Hispanic populations like Nevada and Colorado could be crucial for the president in the fall. In 2008, Obama took 67 percent of the Hispanic vote to just 31 percent for Arizona Sen. John McCain.
As keynote speaker, Castro will step into the same spotlight that launched Obama into national prominence in 2004.
Watch Castro's announcement video AFTER THE JUMP ...
Continue reading "San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to Keynote Dem National Convention" »
There is an update to the brutal assault of two young Black men in Dallas on March 13. The two men were ambushed on the street by at least five men who beat them with a baseball bat and shouted gay slurs.
So far, there have been no arrests. The investigation has "stalled" because the victims are not cooperating with detectives and refuse to be interviewed, reports the Dallas Voice. This is happening at the same time the Dallas Police Department is addressing "violence targeted at the black LGBT community."
Lt. Don Ham with DPD’s Northeast Patrol Division said officers have visited the apartment complex of the two men, left business cards and requested to be contacted. Police have not been able to reach them for further comments about the assault.
"Until they work with us, the investigation is stalled," he said. "We need tips and we need the guys involved, the complainants, to work with us." ...
Ham reiterated the need for the black LGBT community to unite together to report and stop crime that targets their community. He stressed building relationships with neighbors and more forums to address issues in the future. "Get to know your neighborhood," he said. "That’s how we fight crime."
The suspects shouted "fag" and "sissy” before exiting their vehicle and assaulting the two pedestrians. One of the victims said he was struck "at least four times in the head" with the bat before losing consci consciousness. Also: The clothing of the second victim became caught in the passenger door of the suspect vehicle. The victim was dragged or a short distance before he could free himself.
Just awful.
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2 Dallas Men Beaten with Baseball Bats
The view from the back row at the 2012 LGBT Editor/Blogger Conference in Houston (#HAAS12). The convening is underwritten by the San Francisco-based Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund. The conference gathers 40+ of the nation's leading LGBT editors, bloggers and writers for an update on research and political/policy developments around immigration, LGBT youth and various federal lawsuits regarding marriage and family recognition.
The mobile offices of Joe Jervis and JoeMyGod.
EDGE Editor and R20 buddy Michael Lavers.
Atlanta-based blogger and activist Darian Aaron makes his first appearance at Haas.
Daily Kos' Scott Wooledge and MetroWeekly's Daniel Villareal are having too much fun.
This morning's first presentation: Nina Perales, Vice President of Litigation at the MALDEF, crunches the numbers and presents the latest info on minority voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression tactics.
The Dallas Police Department is searching for at least five men who beat two men with baseball bats, reports WFAA. The attack happened Tuesday morning in northeast Dallas. The suspects shouted gay slurs from their vehicle before ambushing the pedestrians.
Both of the victims were Black men, according to police reports published by the Dallas Voice.
According to a police report, the suspects called the victims, both black males, “fags and sissy” before exiting the vehicle and assaulting them. One of the victims said he was struck at least four times in the head with a bat and lost consciousness until after the suspects left. The other victim attempted to fight back and got caught in the passenger side of the suspects’ vehicle. The suspects dragged the victim an unknown distance before he could free himself.
The victims then transported themselves to Medical City Hospital, according to reports. Officers who responded to the hospital described the victims’ injuries as cuts to the head and nose, bruising and swelling to the cheek and eye socket, chipped upper teeth, and abrasions to the toe, finger, shoulder and stomach.
The FBI has joined the investigation. If police determine it was a hate crime this could become a federal offense.
FOX Dallas produced a good report on the incident. Note the inclusion of the Black woman who says that she has a gay son and is concerned. Watch it AFTER THE JUMP ...
Continue reading "VIDEO: 2 Dallas Men Beaten with Baseball Bats in Anti-Gay Attack" »
This should be interesting. Academy Award-nominated actress Viola Davis is reportedly in talks to star in a biopicture on the late and iconic Barbara Jordan, who rose from poverty to become the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South. Jordan was also lesbian.
The film would be based on Mary Beth Rogers' 2000 biography Barbara Jordan: American Hero. Davis would star in the film and act as a producing partner with her husband, reports IndieWire. Paris Barclay will direct from a script adapted by Emmy-nominated writer Paris Qualles
Jordan was the first African American to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction, the first black woman elected to Congress from the South, and the first to deliver the keynote address at a national party convention.
But, given how private a life she led, Jordan was considered something of a mystery, even to her close friends–friends who didn’t know about the illness that would eventually kill her at just 59 years old…. And while she never publicly discussed her sexual orientation (not that she had to), Jordan’s obituary mentioned her long-term (30-year) relationship with Nancy Earl, an educational psychologist.
The award-winning director Paris Barclay is also Black and gay. Barclay tells Variety the project has been in development for "a few years." "We’re hoping this becomes a movie that shows the world everything that Viola can do," says Barclay. "People haven’t seen everything that she’s capable of and this role is so powerful."
Lyndon B. Johnson was an early supporter of Jordan and later became a mentor. In 1974, Jordan delivered an influential and live televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee that supported the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
Jordan died in 1996. Ten years later, the Jordan/Rustin Coalition was founded in California in her namesake and that of Bayard Rustin. JRC organizes and mobilizes the Black LGBT community around Los Angeles.
PHOTOS: Flickr RhythmicImages_CarolynGrady
In last week's Rod 2.0 interview with Lalah Hathaway, the ridiculously talented singer-songwriter discussed her new album Where It All Begins—from covering songs created by her late and iconic father to her 15-year friendship and collaboration with Rahsaan Patterson. Listen HERE.
The openly gay Patterson has written material for Hathaway and they have toured together for almost a decade. Hathaway and Patterson performed at a Dallas benefit last week. Watch an interview with both singers and the performance video—including clips of Lalah covering "Lover's Holiday" and "Forever, for Always, for Love"—AFTER THE JUMP ...
Continue reading "VIDEO: Lalah Hathaway, Rahsaan Patterson Perform in Dallas" »
Texas Gov. Rick Perry continues his free-fall skydiving contest from the Republican presidential primaries. The Washington Post reports on the racially-charged nickname of the Perry hunting ranch
In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance. "Niggerhead," it read. ...
[T]he name of this particular parcel did not change for years after it became associated with Rick Perry, first as a private citizen, then as a state official and finally as Texas governor. Some locals still call it that. As recently as this summer, the slablike rock — lying flat, the name still faintly visible beneath a coat of white paint — remained by the gated entrance to the camp.
When asked last week, Perry said the word on the rock is an "offensive name that has no place in the modern world." [...]
"My mother and father went to the lease and painted the rock in either 1983 or 1984," Perry wrote. "This occurred after I paid a visit to the property with a friend and saw the rock with the offensive word. After my visit I called my folks and mentioned it to them, and they painted it over during their next visit. Ever since, any time I ever saw the rock it was painted over."
Perry’s version of events differs in many respects from the recollections of seven people, interviewed by The Washington Post, who spoke in detail of their memories of seeing the rock with the name at various points during the years that Perry was associated with the property through his father, partners or his signature on a lease.
The Perry campaign denies the charge and claims the sign has been whitewashed—literally and figuratively.
Herman Cain became the first GOP presidential contender to respond, claiming the name was "vile" and "just plain insensitive to a lot of black people."
And if Herman Cain has to say that good ole' boy racism is "vile" and "insensitive" ...
Legendary former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin is one of two alternative covers of OUT's new sports "straight ally" issue. Rugby phenom, gay pin-up fave and anti-bullying advocate Ben Cohen is the second cover.
Irvin offers his support of gay rights and same-sex marriage, which he has previously spoken out on before. The Pro Football Hall of Fame star also shares the previously untold story of discovering that his older brother Vaughn was gay. Irvin saw him walking down the street in women's clothes one day while driving with his father.
The discovery made Irvin insecure about his own sexuality:
Irvin couldn’t believe his eyes. He turned to his father. "My dad looked back at me and said, ‘Yes, that’s your brother. And you love your brother.'" That was it. Irvin, who went on to become one of football’s greatest players, as well as the epitome of the troublemaking macho NFL stereotype, would never again discuss the issue with his father. [..]
Walter Irvin’s message was simple: Michael was supposed to love his brother unconditionally, no matter what he looked like or who he was. But, still, the discovery was a shock that haunted Irvin as he grew into one of college football’s most feted stars. He worried that people would find out about Vaughn and bring shame upon the family. Most of all, he worried that he was gay.
On a side note: Irvin says mega-church Pastor T.D. Jakes has helped him deal with his "personal demons" and discuss his brother publicly. You may recall that Jakes' son was outed and arrested two years ago in a public park. Jakes has generally avoided publicly criticizing gays since then ...
The article was written by Outsports editor Cyd Ziegler, who offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on the interview, as well as Irvin's sporno-rific cover and fashion editorial by Roger Erickson.
When Michael walked into the stylist’s realm at the shoot he quickly ripped off his shirt, dropped his pants and went right for an old vintage leather football helmet and shoulder pads. Once the camera was turned on him he tightened his abs and pulled his pants down to show the top of his boxer-briefs. Feeling protective of Michael I pulled him aside and assured him he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to do. "This is what I want," Michael said. "Let’s get people talking about this issue.”
The other profiles include fellow cover star Ben Cohen; rugby hotness Nick Youngquest, who engaged in a Twitter bromance with Gareth Thomas; and straight ally and wrestler Hudson Taylor.
Irvin strikes a pose AFTER THE JUMP ...
Continue reading "NFL Legend Michael Irvin Covers "OUT", Talks Gay Brother, Equality" »
