Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 491 i GAY TIMES

A whole year already? As we walk (or sashay) into 2019, reflecting on the last 12 months for our community seems an almost impossible task. It has, for the most part, been a year of great progress and heightened visibility, one that has seen stories, not too dissimilar to the lived experience of you or I, crafted for a new and wider audience. Movies like Love, Simon and Call Me By Your Name brought the coming-of-age and coming out experience to the mainstream, while The Miseducation of Cameron Post and soon-to-be blockbuster sensation Boy Erased explored the unfortunate reality of gay ‘conversion’ therapy. Newly-out pop sensation Janelle Monáe snatched herself a Grammy nomination, while LGBTQ stars like Kim Petras and Troye Sivan continued to dominate our playlists. India and Trinidad…

How would you describe who Rachilde is? I play Rachilde who was a real life writer, a journalist and critic, as well as being a writer in her own stead. She wrote a number of pieces, essays, critiques, and certainly a famous novel called Monsieur Vénus which was kind of a surreal piece about domination. It also has a tender underside in that it’s a love story. It’s not necessarily an easy read but certainly one that I read with great interest as I was preparing for the part. When the first discussions began around the film, what caught your eye first? I had my first casting for it back in 2016 as it was originally scheduled for the summer of 2016 and it was put on hold because of…

It’s a chilly winter morning in London when we meet up with rising singer-songwriter Call Me Loop, who rocks up wearing a new Ellesse shell suit – the kind only someone with a great look could pull off and do so with effortless style. Loop – whose real name is Georgia – has just released her latest single Business; a bouncy pop bop detailing her habit of stalking an ex online following a break up. We’ve all done it at some point. It came after a run of great singles, which saw her grow from strength to strength as a British talent to keep an eye on. We sat down with Loop (over a mango and tumeric smoothie no less) to discuss her online stalking tactics, why playing to a…

Three years ago, Brian Justin Crum stunned US audiences when he made his debut on the 11th season of America’s Got Talent, landing in fourth place. During his time on the series, Brian received acclaim for performances of songs such as Somebody to Love, Creep and In the Air Tonight, which is why they’ve invited him back for the show’s all-star series, The Champions. “I look at Champions as an opportunity to share another piece of myself with the world, to utilize an incredible opportunity to be heard,” he tells us. “I think its incredibly important that we show LGBTQ people from all walks of life, from different experiences. I want to show the world my most authentic self.” Ahead of the show’s premiere (7 January on NBC), we spoke…

For Layton Williams, his casting in leading British musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is more than just a job. His leading man status will see a role that’s traditionally played by a white actor undertaken by a person of colour for the first time. But more than an audience just seeing a different face on stage, Layton is hopeful that his time as Jamie New – the lead role in the show – will inspire a new generation of young queer teens of colour to know that the world really is theirs for the taking. “For it to be somebody that looks like them to be represented is special. It really is a big deal,” Layton tells us when we caught up as he begins rehearsals mid-December. However, what perhaps…

Vincent Cassidy was a man of the world. By his early twenties he’d already lived in Dublin, London, and New York. In September 1917, as the First World War raged, he was back in his native Ulster – and looking for fun. Moving through the bustling crowds of Belfast, he came across a group of youths lounging about on a main thoroughfare. With a brazenness he would go on to show throughout his life, he asked quite simply: would anyone like to stop with him in his hotel? One lad, a 22-year-old student of medicine at Queen’s University Belfast, said yes – and didn’t leave for over two months. Vincent, and his new friend Hugh Sheehan, held court in the grand Imperial Hotel on Donegall Place. A variety of men…

It all starts now. Dollar Shave Club originally provided us all with affordable, quality razors to men across Britain, and they’ve now launched another 20 shower essentials for beard, hair and skin, all of which have completely transformed our daily routine. The one standout, however, is their Wanderer range, which consists of Daily Face Cleanser, Awakening Body Cleanser, Calming Body Bars, all of which are formulated with vitamins and premium extracts. Need your mind, body and soul cleansed? Well here you go… Wanderer is now available at dollarshaveclub.com, prices start at £3.50. Anyone for a game of drag queen card race? We thought you might be. Created by Greg Bailey and illustrated by Daniela Henríquez, find out who is the most outrageous between Trixie Mattel or RuPaul, and even who…

“Period dramas for a long time have been seen as a very safe genre,” says Wash Westmoreland, perched on a sofa in a plush west London hotel. “It’s sort of like, ‘Oh the demographic possibly skews older, and it’s going to be based on a nice novel from the 19th Century.’ A lot of which are incredibly brilliant works – I’m not putting them down – but there’s a certain sense of it being a safe genre.” We’ve caught up with the British director to talk about his latest film Colette, based on the life of the French novelist and performer the movie is named after. Portrayed by Keira Knightley for this big-screen outing, Colette made her name working against everything that was expected of her as a female of…

When did you first come on board as a transgender consultant for Colette? Wash and his late partner Richard are longtime friends of mine. I knew they’d been working on this project for many years and I got involved from 2014 when Still Alice was at the Oscars and Wash got the film greenlit. He came over to talk to actors and he asked me if I’d come aboard as he wanted to visualise diversity not just in casting but in the script. I said ‘yes’ and, at that time, was working as a consultant on The Danish Girl. How did your role operate on a day-to-day level with this film? We first of all started talking loosely about ideas and he was talking about his ideas for the script…

With the rise of LGBTQ storytelling in mainstream, the question of how we move the conversation on is one almost without an answer. And, more importantly, which of the many wonderful and colourful parts our our queer lives do we focus on first? Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and writer Matt Jones are aiming to try and present an answer with their new musical. Playing at the Lyric Hammersmith, Leave to Remain examines the power of love and brings topics including gay marriage and the relationship between families to the stage in what’s certainly seen as a first. We meet the pair to find out why this piece of work is sure to create a much-needed new conversation around our ever-developing queer lives. How would you explain what your new show…

Self-taught designer August Getty has seen his custom August Getty Atelier creations drape the likes of Mariah Carey, Cher, Jennifer Lopez and Miley Cyrus as part of his mission to empower women through clothing and their sexuality. Here, he shares the five things that have inspired him most on his journey to become the designer he is today, from a fictional muse that exists in his mind to the fashion icons who came before him. The Getty Girl. As an artistic child, I spent a lot of time – much like others – alone. This is where the idea of The Getty Girl was born. I’ve curated in my mind the story and mannerisms of a mysterious yet bold woman who has glamour sewn into her DNA. Her face is…

She started as a baby, now she’s all grown up. When we say that 2018 was a great year for one of Drag Race’s most infamous queens, Miss Shangela Laquifa Wadley, we are serving enough T for a lavish garden party at Buckingham Palace hunty. Following a memorable return to RuPaul’s workroom for All Stars 3, and then again more recently for the Holi-Slay Spectacular, Shangela spent most of the year touring the world. But it was her standout role in Golden Globe nominated blockbuster A Star Is Born that took this Texas queen to the next level. Starring opposite Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, Shangela proved that her charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent was always destined for the Hollywood bigtime – and long may that continue. Here, in conversation…

“I wanted to speak up because I’m an openly gay man in America,” Billy Eichner tells us of the recent controversy surrounding historic homophobic tweets from comedian Kevin Hart, which resurfaced shortly after he was announced as host for the 91st Academy Awards. “I’ve always felt a real kinship from a young age with my fellow gay people and my community, the LGBTQ community at large. I always feel the need to speak up and demand respect when we’re not getting the respect that I think we deserve.” The tweets in question saw Hart use several homophobic slurs - including the F word - and ‘joke’ that he would break his daughter’s dollhouse ‘over his son’s head’ if he exhibited gay behaviour. “I didn’t see that as a joke because…

Are you into the origin of words? If so, you’ll be creaming your nick-nacks over Fitzroy, the name given by kings – particularly that Charles II, the randy bastard – to their, well, bastard progeny. Gave them the status, see, but none of the workload. And somehow it’s appropriate for this, the UK’s first glittering Kimpton hotel, all gorgeous-on-gorgeous and deliciously louche. The erstwhile Principal (don’t ask, don’t tell) and, before that, one of those places you’d walk past and go, ‘Ooh, such a shame they don’t do something with that beautiful building,’ it is Kimpton’s second European property (after the lovely De Witt in Amsterdam) and marks a handsome entrée into the UK in a smarty pants part of town (Bloomsbury) where grand dollies of literature exchanged bons mots,…

FILM. Boy Erased Words William J Connolly Based on the memoir of Garrard Conley, Boy Erased follows Jared (Lucas Hedges) as he meets the reality of being outed to his heavily religious parents (played impeccably by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe) and is sent to a ‘conversion’ therapy camp to rid him of his homosexual urges or face a life without his family, friends or faith. There, he meets a host of other young people, including Gary – played by queer pop star Troye Sivan. It’s uncomfortably difficult to watch a movie like Boy Erased and not be as moved as you are disturbed by the events that occur – a reminder that these are real memoirs from one young man and a hard reality thousands of young queer people…

Why was Colette a film you wanted to be part of? I’m half French and I used to study Colette when I was at school. I grew up reading her books and when I got a message about maybe two years ago now from a casting agent about the new Wash Westmoreland film and if I wanted to come in for a audition. I read the scene a couple of times and knew that Keira and Dominic (West) was attached. I read the scene a couple of times, director Wash said, ‘That was a perfect take.’ Afterwards, I sat there and I asked, ‘Would I have seen anything you’ve done?’ He said, ‘Well I directed a little film called Still Alice.’ Oh my God, I’d actually watched it a couple…

For many of us, our childhood is a wonderfully happy and somewhat simpler time. For others, it’s a period that still, to this day, presents all manner of problems. Be it emotional or mental, it’s not how we fight against these issues, but how we learn to cope with them, that makes us the person we are today – and that’s just what Simon Amstell is doing. A regular and favourite face of the comedy world, the former Popworld and Buzzcocks presenter is used to having audiences and fans adoring him – but is that really ever enough? With the release of his book HELP, Simon looks to delve back into his younger life and the many experiences from then through now to find out how they carved the man…

An American professional midfield soccer player for Minnesota United in American Major League Soccer, Collin Martin is a man at the top of his game and is no stranger to attention from press and fans alike. However, in June 2018, his face and his story made global headlines when Collin took the brave and monumental step of discussing his sexuality in public for the first time, becoming a posterboy for LGBTQ visibility within soccer. “Tonight my team, Minnesota United, is having their Pride night. It’s an important night for me,” he wrote on social media, making him the second-ever player to come out as gay during their Major League Soccer career. “I’ll be announcing for the first time publicly that I am an openly gay player in Major League Soccer.…

Richie Shazam Khan describes themselves as a “multi-hyphenated individual” and it’s no exaggeration – whether they’re walking the runway, standing in front of the lens or working the camera themselves, they always command the fashion world’s attention. “I thought it would be so great to do something very elegant and beautiful, disrupting and playing with the binaries and having this hyper-glam meets downtown New York theme,” they explain of their photoshoot with Richard Kern. “We wanted time to not be a big thing, so it could be an old image or a new image, it can just live very glamorously.” To accompany the shoot, we spoke to Richie about life as a gender-defying model in Tr*mp’s America, the importance of self-care, and why – despite their prominence as a queer…

The day before we meet Patti LuPone, an interview with her about making a return to London’s West End in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company went live. In it, Ms LuPone went in on everything and everyone in the way only she can – brutally. So when it came to arriving at Patti’s rather flashy London home, we knew this would be an afternoon with honesty served by the bucket – and we weren’t wrong. “Hello darling, it’s great to see you,” she booms with her instantly recognisable tones - projecting across her living room so loudly as if she were stood centre stage. Not one to tone down her voice because she has company, at one rather humorous part during our interview, Patti even managed to activate Siri on a…

You might not have noticed, but there’s been a pretty huge cultural shift in theatreland over the past decade. When I first became Artistic Director of the King’s Head Theatre way back in 2010, it was considered a big deal to programme plays with gay themes or gay characters. There would have been talk of ‘gay agendas’ by certain members of the press… conveniently overlooking the fact that by their own logic, most theatre makers had a ‘straight agenda.’ Today, things look a bit rosier; whether you’re looking for a night out in the West End or prefer a tiny room above a pub on the fringe, the chances are you’ll be able to see a show with gay characters or exploring gay themes. We’ve got a long way to…

Fabulous nightlife, cosy countryside retreats, road trips down a historic highway. Whatever makes for an amazing holiday, you’ll find it in Illinois. Home to a diverse LGBTQ community and a variety of cultural gems, quiet river towns and colourful festivals, Illinois is a destination that’s thrilling for everyone. Start your trip in Chicago, the large, shimmering city on the shores of Lake Michigan. In the summer, city life meets beach life thanks to Chicago’s 26 miles of publicly owned beaches. Part of the original plan of the city was to make sure the lakefront would always be open and unobstructed for the public to make the most of. And there’s no shortage of things to enjoy, especially in the summer, when locals lounge on the sand, swim in the lake…

“Don’t come to stay just to sleep,” says Marcel, as he sits us down at his kitchen table and lavishes us with homemade food straight from the oven – oysters, seafood, earthy risottos – as his dogs look on, salivating. “If you just want to sleep, you can get a hotel.” He has a point. It would be quite a waste to check into The Old Box Factory – that’s Lådfabriken to you – and just, you know, turn in. Not that the rooms aren’t lovely. Like the rest of this magicked-out-of-nowhere hotel/guesthouse/B&B/home from home, the rooms (all five of them) are quirky and cool, as befits someone – that would be, Johan, the other half of the gay couple at the bottom of all this – who was Head…