Tag: life

Perhaps you’ve heard that if you (ahem) “enjoy” too many adult videos, it’ll make arousal difficult. Well, sex researcher Nicole Prause is here to tell you — that’s a gosh durn lie. Prause studies human sexual behavior, addiction and the physiology of sexual response, and in a recent article, she wrote, “Seven independent labs have been unable to find an association between time spent viewing sex films and experiencing more erectile difficulties with a partner.” Looking at previous sex studies, Prause...

During Pride month, companies are so hungry for pink dollars that they’ll slap rainbows on all sorts of products: sneakers, potato chips and even bottles of mouthwash. But what happens to unsold rainbow-colored merchandise when Pride month ends? Vox.com looked into this question and concluded, “Pride gear doesn’t behave quite like Halloween candy.” That is, it doesn’t all get heavily discounted the day after Pride ends.  Some retailers do discount these items, but others, like Nike, continue selling them online...

Remember those dark days when major brands refused to advertise in gay media, claiming the content was too sexual? Well, today those same brands are putting rainbows on just about everything, but they still largely shy away from getting too sexual in their campaigns, perhaps fearing a backlash. Yet Panasonic Corp. this month published an ad in OUT magazine that sounds more like a sassy Grindr profile: “Top. Bottom. Front. Even the behind” for its body trimmer shaver next to a shirtless...

Though we could (and should) be proud of our sexualities and gender identities year-round, another pride month has come and gone. And all over the Internet, companies and brands are replacing their rainbow-hued logos with their usual, less flamboyant emblems. Should we be irritated that companies only show off LGBTQ pride for 30 days of the year? On Reddit user doesn’t think so. “Please stop complaining about companies taking down their pride logos after June 30,” that user wrote. “It’s so...

Nick Starr-Street records a black woman he confronted for playing music loudly at an apartment complex poolA gay white man who became infamous last month when a video of him repeatedly harassing a black woman at a pool went viral has now claimed that his racism is caused by his autism. And here’s the thing — he might be telling the truth, at least according to one autism researcher. The man in question, Nick Starr-Street, confronted two black women, Felecia...

A Washington D.C. resident posted disturbing surveillance video of an unidentified man defacing the Pride Flag outside his home while screaming homophobic slurs. The resident, identified on Twitter as @MJasonRhodes, shared a 30-second video of a man yelling “f*ggot motherf*cker” and “drag queen motherf*ckers” among other antigay slurs while tearing down the flag on July 2. In the video, the man violently rips the flag pole off the exterior wall of the home, smashes it against a fence, and leaves it...

The fallout from the defense of four anti-LGBTQ hate crime suspects continues in South Florida, where the director of the queer rights group SAVE just lost his job. Tony Lima served as Executive Director of SAVE for six years. At a special Champions of Equality Gala on June 14, he publicly recognized Luis Alonso, Juan Lopez, Adonis Diaz, and Pablo Romo for their contribution to the organization, deeming them “wrongfully accused.” The four men had volunteered with SAVE after arrests for...

The pastor of a Baptist church in Alabama has been arrested after admitting to his entire congregation that he molested at least one young boy from the church on multiple occasions. 41-year-old John Martin is a married father of five and the lead pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church where he has regularly preached about the evils of homosexuality since 2010. On Monday, he confessed to four counts of child sexual abuse after church members reported him to authorities. According to local news...

Investigators of unmarked envelopes containing a powdery substance sent to organizers of Boston’s “Straight Pride” have announced the packages did not contain a dangerous substance after all. Instead, they held only Bible verses… and glitter. Super Fun Happy America, the organizers of the event, notified the FBI after receiving the envelopes earlier this week. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad, FBI and three area fire departments all converged on the scene to investigate the packages, suspecting they might contain a dangerous...

A married man has reached out for advice regarding his bisexual past. In a letter to Dear Abby, he wants to know: should he tell his wife he used to hook up with guys on a regular basis? “I have been married 36 years to a woman who has saved my life and soul,” the man, identified only as “Different Person Now” writes. “We are both faithful to God and to our marriage, sharing the love of our family.” “Prior to...

There’s a sad anecdote that circulates every Pride of an NYC subway passenger who sees fellow queers removing their rainbow gear on their ways home because they’re afraid of getting harassed away from the parade. The story is apocryphal, but it conveys a truth: It’s not always safe to express your queerness in public. Take this incident for example… In a video recorded in a McDonald’s during Pride weekend in Barcelona, Spain this last Friday, a man in a neon yellow...

Pride is followed by Wrath. And since June was Pride month that means July is Wrath month. At least, according to Washington Post columnist Anthony Oliveira. This “LGBTQ Wrath Month,” the gays seem to have set their sights on global skincare company Nivea after news broke that the company had been dropped by its ad agency amid allegations of homophobia. Just to recap: According to Ad Age, it all started when the brand rejected an image the agency pitched depicting two men’s hands...

Police in the UK were forced to remove a man for flying into a “violent rage” after he spotted a set of garden gnome statues painted with the Pride flag. A local shop in Estover called Asda began selling Pride-themed garden gnomes in a few years ago as a show of support to the LGBTQ community. On June 29, a man entered the store and saw the statues on display. That’s when things turned ugly. According to witnesses, he flew into a...

A chance meeting during World Pride last week became a life-changing moment for Army Specialist Brion Houston when he came out on live television. The Vermont resident stopped by to chat with ABC News during the historic celebration and gave the network an unexpected exclusive as he referred to the event as “My first WorldPride and first Pride ever.” The interviewer then asked if he was out in the military. Houtson’s response: “I’m not yet, but now I am, so congrats.” He...