Frameline: LGBTQ Films Streaming Free Online

Frameline, a San-Francisco based media arts non-profit and host to the longest-running, largest, and most widely recognized LGBTQ film exhibition event in the world, launches a monthly film initiative highlighting underserved members of the queer community.

Each month, an LGBTQ film featuring youth, elders, people of color, and/or transgender people will be highlighted on YouTube as part of a Frameline Voices relaunch for 2017. Frameline's online portal, Frameline Voices, originally launched in 2011 and has reached nearly four million views on over 125 short and feature-length films.Frameline Voices has been accessed from every state and every country in the world, a significant milestone considering the particularly homophobic and transphobic environments in many regions of the world.

Snowbound in Aspen on Tuesday

Stonewall Fitness: Getting Through the Quadrennial Lull

By David Smith

 

​With the Gay Games taking place every 4 years it is definitely a big event. With more time to anticipate, the event has a lot of build up from the organizers and athletes alike. There is a lot to do and a lot that has to get done in order to make the event a success.

Coming off a successful Gay Games or other quadrennial event is like climbing up a mountain to the top and then hopping on a sled and riding it back down. There’s a lot of work in anticipation and the event itself is the reward, after the event concludes people head home feeling excited and motivated to work hard and keep that passion going into the next one. 

One year after the event concludes, a lot of that momentum dies down as people have returned to their daily grind. The excitement of the event has passed and the next one, 3 years away feels like an eternity. Two years later and most people don’t even have it in their thoughts that the next quadrennial is still two years out. It won’t be another year that people start getting excited again. However there is still much work being done by the organizers behind the scenes to make the event as remarkable as the last.

This is known as the quadrennial lull and with the Paris 2018 Gay Games still 2 years away we are in that lull, for most people this just means a lot of waiting. Waiting until 2017 to start training again and making their plans to the event. Some people won’t even get that going until 2018.

So what can you do to overcome the quadrennial lull and stay motivated to succeed at your personal best, better than you have ever done before when it comes time for Paris 2018?

• Learn to Love the Grind.
  • Every day showing up to practice and staying consistent with your training and eating habits. Make it a habit and part of your day to get your training in regardless of your circumstances.
• Set Annual Goals
  • Every year take a sheet of paper and write down the things you want to accomplish. This is good to do for all aspects of your life. Personal, professional and athletic goals.
  • Don’t make to many goals, last thing you want to do is overwhelm yourself. Instead focusing on the quality of your goals. Be specific in what exactly you want to accomplish. Be it a personal best time, 1 Rep Max or even learning a new skill.
  • Break your goals down into realistic and timely chunks. Where do you want to be 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months from now?
• Find other events to participate in to hone your skills.
  • The Gay Games is an international, multi-sport competition that takes place every 4 years. However there are many events that take place annually, both LGBT and non-LGBT events. Depending on your specific sport you can find competitions from the local to the international level.
    • Choose 1 or 2 events per year for you to “Peak” at, where you focus your training and competition to lead up to and at the “peak event” is where you plan to compete and accomplish your absolute personal best.
    • Make the quadrennial into your peak event when the time comes. Accomplish your personal best at the event, it makes the whole experience that much more memorable.
  • Don’t give up! 4 years in between events can be a long time, but the time will pass anyway. Ride that momentum off of event and keep it going right into the next one. You’ll be setting yourself up for success on levels you’ve never experienced so keep it going!

​The most successful athletes you see at the Olympics or any other major-quadrennial event don’t let themselves fall into the lull, if they do they work hard to come out of it quickly. Champions are made in practice and that’s what will set you apart from the competition.

See you in Paris!

David Smith is an exercise professional, athlete, blogger and owner of Stonewall Fitness. He is a certified personal trainer and holds a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and Nutrition. He is an active athlete and Gay Games medalist training and competing in triathlon and swimming. He is passionate about bringing the LGBT community together through exercise and fitness. Help support David with his athletic endeavors! Visit www.gofundme.com/bttrflyr and Read more here...

OUT on DVD/VOD: Akron

A spark of attraction, a budding romance, a dark family secret: tender first love between a pair of college freshmen is put to the test when a tragic connection from their past is unexpectedly revealed.

Gay midwest teen love story Akron will be released February 7 on DVD and VOD via Wolfe Video.

Sessions A Huge Threat to Civil Rights, Freedom, and Equality

The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is joining LGBTQ advocates across the country in calling on the United States (U.S.) Senate to vote against the nomination of Republican Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.

“Senator Jeff Sessions is an opponent of civil rights with racist views that make him wholly unsuitable for Attorney General. He's also anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, and anti-choice. He thinks the KKK is 'OK,' while disparaging the NAACP and ACLU as ‘un-American.’ He believes that core pieces of civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act are ‘intrusive’ and has consistently voted against the civil rights legislation he will be charged with enforcing as Attorney General. We believe that ‘Sessions the Unjust’ is totally unsuitable to be the nation’s top justice official. The U.S. Senate has rejected him before for a federal judgeship because of his deeply troubling track record. We urge them to reject him again,” said Rea Carey, Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund.

Senator Sessions has an extensive voting record against protecting LGBTQ people from violence, hate and discrimination including voting against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the repeal of the anti-LGBTQ discriminatory military ban, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT). Sessions is also a sponsor of the so-called First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), legislation designed to allow unprecedented discrimination against LGBTQ people.

The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is lobbying U.S. Senators and mobilizing its 200,000 members to block the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #StopSessions.

Foxygen - On Lankershim

 

Foxygen will release their new album, Hang, next Friday, January 20th via Jagjaguwar. Written and produced entirely by Foxygen and recorded with a 40-plus-piece symphony orchestra, Hang is the band’s first proper studio record. After sharing debut singles “Follow The Leader” and “America,” the duo of Sam France and Jonathan Rado now present “On Lankershim,” and its accompanying video, recorded all over their hometown of Los Angeles. 

"We love all those old big budget videos about Hollywood, so we wanted to make our own version of that. We got out the old 66 Mustang and drove around LA and the Valley, getting shots of what LA life looks like to us. We filmed most of it and directed it ourselves, so it would be as close to how we see LA as possible."

Print all In new window Zombie battler Milla Jovovich Opens Up to The Advocate

Zombie battler Milla Jovovich is back again in the sixth and final installment of video-game-inspired film Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (January 27). The actress sat down with The Advocate to discuss her upcoming film, gusbands (gay husbands), her girl crush and more.

Highlights of her interview with The Advocate include:

On her support for the LGBT community: 
“We’re talking about my friends, my colleagues, my mentors, people I’ve known for years, and people I work with every day. So I’ve never thought twice about supporting LGBT rights. I’ve always been attracted to gay people wherever I go, and we’ve had a lot of fun together over the years. You can always count on a good time with your gusband.”

On having a “gusband”: “Gay husband! Chris and I met at a very pivotal point in my life. I’d just turned 15, I was making music, and he’s an incredible musician. Instantly, we both just clicked, and we were inseparable. My father was incarcerated at the time, so I was left without a father figure. Chris was 26, quite a bit older, and he protected me. He was my buddy but also my voice of reason. And he had a car. He’s always been a big brother to me, and now he’s a fairy godfather to my daughters. I feel really bad for women who don’t have a gusband. Every woman needs that camaraderie with a male without the pressure of physical attraction.”

Mildred Loving Celebrated With Presentation of Mildred Loving Community Activism Award at NAN Breakfast

The legacy of Mildred Loving, the real-life protagonist of the critically acclaimed film Loving, will be celebrated this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with the presentation of the inaugural Mildred Loving Community Activism Award during the National Action Network’s (NAN) MLK Jr. Day Breakfast on Monday, January 16.

The Award, named for Mrs. Loving, will honor a young, unsung hero who has made a difference in their community by championing civil rights and social justice.

Mildred Loving was part of an interracial couple who exemplified courage and commitment. In 1958, she and her husband, Richard, married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry - and their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.

The Honorable Terry McAuliffe, Governor of Virginia, last fall announced that, beginning in 2017, June 12 will be known as Loving Day in the State. The State’s permanent recognition of Loving Day commemorates the 50^th anniversary of the June 12, 1967, Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of Richard and Mildred Loving.

Governor McAuliffe will be one of this year’s Honorees at the NAN MLK Jr. Day Breakfast; other Honorees include Debbie Allen, the Honorable Cory Booker, Janice Bryant Howroyd, Cathy Hughes, and Dorothy James.

The Mildred Loving Community Activism Award recipient is decided upon by NAN after reviewing nominees submitted from around the country. The Award presentation, to be made by members of the Loving filmmaking team, will take place following the Honoree presentations and following the Breakfast Keynote addresses by NAN founder Reverend Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King, Jr. III, and Administration Members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. The Breakfast begins at 8:30 AM ET next Monday, January 16, at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel.

Mildred and Richard Loving’s story is told by writer/director Jeff Nichols in the motion picture Loving, recently released by Focus Features. For her portrayal of Mildred Loving, Ruth Negga was recently named Best Actress of the Year by the Black Film Critics Circle, the African American Film Critics Association, and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Loving is currently nominated for 5 NAACP Image Awards including Outstanding Motion Picture and was honored with the Victor Rabinowitz & Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Additionally, the film is this year’s winner of the Producers Guild of America’s Stanley Kramer Award, honoring a production, producer or other individuals whose achievement or contribution illuminated and raises public awareness of important social issues; and is the winner of the Best Picture prize from AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards.

The Advocate Presents 2017’s “Queerest Cities in America”

The Advocate today has announced the 8^th annual “Queerest Cities in America” list. San Francisco, West Hollywood and New York have become symbols of LGBT life and equality, but using its own, unique criteria, The Advocate has once again identified an unexpected list of metropolises that are this year’s “Queerest Cities in America.”

Using its own unique and irreverent criteria, The Advocate found a surprisingly diverse group of cities. While the criteria does include important elements such as offering LGBT Centers and Trans Pride Parades, it also includes more light-hearted factors like lesbian bars, gay bowling teams and theaters screening the film Moonlight. The full list of criteria can be found at Advocate.com.

Each of the cities on the list had a population of 250,000 people, and the results were weighted based on the total population of the city.

The 2016 “Queerest Cities in America” are:

25. Long Beach, CA

24. Seattle, WA

23. Anaheim, CA

22. Minneapolis, MN

21. Plano, TX

20. Anchorage, AK

19. Tampa, FL

18. Greensboro, NC

17. San Francisco, CA

16. Miami, FL

15. Durham, NC

14. Henderson, NV

13. Chula Vista, CA

12. Toledo, OH

11. St. Louis, MO

10. Irvine, CA

9. St. Paul, MN

8. Pittsburgh, PA

7. Cincinnati, OH

6. Atlanta, GA

5. New Orleans, LA

4. Buffalo, NY

3. St. Petersburg, FL

2. Orlando, FL

1. JERSEY CITY, NJ

RSVP to LGBT Lobby Day

2017 is here, and we're going to see a lot of legislation at the capitol that impacts lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Coloradans and their families.
 
For othe 2017 legislative agenda, One Colorado is committed to advancing legislation that creates a fair and just state for all Coloradans:

• The Birth Certificate Modernization Act will make it less burdensome for transgender Coloradans to update the gender on their birth certificate. Transgender people whose birth certificates reflect their sex at birth – and not their current gender – risk being denied housing, employment opportunities, and the right to vote because of this discrepancy.

• Banning conversion therapy for minors will protect LGBTQ young people from dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.

• Protecting Colorado’s young people from harassment and intimidation at the hands of their peers via text message, while also making sure Colorado’s young people and victims of crimes are not being criminalized for participating in consensual behavior.

• Improving and maintaining protections, accountability, and community trust between public safety agencies and immigrant communities to ensure everyone is treated equally under the law.

• Making sure voters in Colorado have options for how and when they can cast their ballot and stopping measures that would make it harder for LGBTQ Coloradans to register and vote.

Let your legislators know that these issues matter to you. Join us at LGBTQ Lobby Day on February 27th. Click here to register. When it comes to advancing pro-equality legislation, nothing is as powerful as an in-person visit to your legislators. That's why LGBTQ Coloradans and allies gather at the capitol for Lobby Day each year. Together, we will learn about current issues, get trained on how to discuss our concerns with elected officials, and make personal lobby visits to the people who represent us. It's a day you don't want to miss!

Sign the Petition: Tell President-Elect Trump that You Support Inclusive Federal Contractors

I'm pleased to share that Log Cabin Republicans has been given an exclusive invitation by the Trump Presidential Transition Team to present a briefing outlining the reasons why maintaining the standing executive order preventing federal contractors from discriminating against the LGBT community is important and right for America — and YOU can play an important role!

When we present our white paper and briefing to the incoming administration of our president-elect, Log Cabin Republicans will include a list of individuals who support the executive order and oppose LGBT discrimination.

Republican, Democrat, or politically unaffiliated — it doesn't matter; this is your chance to show your support for the LGBT community by signing the petition and getting your name in front of President Trump as an American who supports LGBT freedom.

But time is short — Log Cabin Republicans has guaranteed the Trump Transition Team that we will present our briefing prior to Inauguration Day.

Don't delay — add your name to the petition at this link right now!



Sincerely,



Gregory T. Angelo
President

AARP Colorado Launches LGBT Audio Tour on Geotourist App

AARP Colorado has announced the launch of a new audio tour on the Geotourist smartphone app for older lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. The audio tour, produced in collaboration with Denver Walking Tours and the GLBT Community Center of Colorado, willguide locals and visitors through Denver's LGBT landmarks right on their smartphones.

The tour celebrates the diversity and history of the LGBT community in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and visits points of interest along Colfax Avenue. The 10-point tour includes Cheesman Park, the site of Denver's first Pride celebration;
Charlie's, that hosted the Colorado Gay Rodeo Association; and Smiley's Laundromat, a community landmark which generated intense debate about historic preservation and community identity.

To access AARP Colorado's LGBT history tour users can download the Geotourist app for free on iTunes and Google Play app stores. The GPS-led app will guide users from site-to-site, while playing the audio of each site's history. Pictures will help users identify the sites. Users will be able to take the tour at their own pace and time.

Koelbel Urban Homes: The New Modern in Denver

Koelbel Urban Homes (KUH) has quickly emerged as a leader in creating urban neighborhoods that promote community and synergy by integrating life, work and play.

As the newest division of legendary developer Koelbel and Company, KUH is focused on in-fill properties, designing and building innovative homes tailored to each unique site.

Offered homes run the gamut of detached single-family homes to svelte modern attached designs featuring today's popular spaces, such as rooftop decks and open-plan concepts. All KUH homes, of course, are designed for optimum living and with respect for the surroundings.

Do You Want To Reach Denver's Gay Community? Advertise With Denver's Best Gay Blog!

Do you want to advertise to Denver’s gay community? Of course you do, it’s the 7th largest in the United States! And the best way to reach them is with MileHighGayGuy – Colorado’s Best Gay Blog.
 
Just click the Advertising page or email sales@milehighgayguy.com to get started today.

The Gay Vegans: Do You Need A Good Laugh Today?

By Dan Hanley

I am on the last day of a break from work and have had a wonderful day. I know there is so much going on in the world that is taking its toll on many of us, and after experiencing something so funny today I thought I would share it.

This has to do with a text interaction between me and Mike. I don’t think you need to personally know us to get the funniness of this, but I will let you know a few things first. The story is about me going to Costco by myself. Typically we go together, but I was off and decided to run errands. When we are together I always want to buy things in bulk that we don’t need (I blame watching The Walking Dead for this), and Mike lovingly steers me away from the bulk idea reminding me that it would take forever for us to use whatever item I am wanting to buy in bulk at the moment.

So today I’m in Costco on my own and gathering the items I went there for. I also always search the frozen aisles in hopes that they might have begun to carry a delish vegan product we use. As I make my way, I see bags of flour, both 25lb and 50lb bags. Thinking of the pot pie I make and the pancakes I make (two of my all-time favorite recipes that you can find on the Helpful Websites & Blogs page at the top of the blog site), which both use flour, I thought it might be a good idea to get the 25lb bag. Plus, it was only $4.99!

In all seriousness, I text Mike to see if he thinks I should get the 25lb bag. I then place it in my cart along with the tofu, hummus, frozen fruit, broccoli, coffee and rice milk. After moving on a few aisles I decide that perhaps 25lbs is too much and go put it back. I get a few other items and then head home.

While putting away everything at home, I get Mike’s response to my original question, which is a simple “NO!”. Smiling, I decide to play with him and respond back saying “Whew. I was thinking that too so I got the 50lb bag. It was so cheap!”

I was laughing pretty hard at this point. He responds with a “What?”. I write back “It was only $8” as I am practically busting a gut in the middle of our kitchen. “You bought it?” he asks, to which I respond “Not the 25. The 50” and I am laughing so hard that I have trouble catching a breath.

A few minutes later he calls and as soon as I hear his voice I lose it. He of course was pretty sure I was kidding all along but I have to say that the whole exchange was spectacularly funny to me. I’m not sure if it will come across as that funny to you who are reading this, but believe me, for me it was out of the park hilarious. I had a great laugh and was once again reminded about how much in love I am with my husband.

I hope this at least brought a smile to your face!