Tag: gay

GaySocialites.com celebrates 7 years online

Oct. 01 Editorial, Shameless Self Promotion 1 comment

7 years at GaySocialites

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday GaySocialites,
Happy Birthday to you!

Throughout the month of October, we celebrate the 7th Anniversary here at GaySocialites.com!   We’ve got a lot planned including the 7th Annual GaySocialites Awards, the 7 most significant moments in GaySocialites History and the launch of our newest product – the GaySocialites Broadcast Network.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing this for almost seven years!   It’s also hard to believe we’ve used all those logos pictured above.

On October 24, 2005 we launched a website to cover nightlife news and events as an alternative to New York City’s fag rags, which at the time were HX and Next Magazines.   Little did we know what we were doing would one day be referred to as blogging.  (Back then, blogging was when you recapped your day or vented via an online journal like Xanga, LiveJournal or MySpace).

Before we knew it, we were covering a lot more than New York nightlife as we branched out to other cities and started covering entertainment news.  It wasn’t until 2010 that we adopted our current format as an online magazine with more than just gay news for gay men compared to our former blogging format that was pretty much my opinion with some help from a few others. In 2011, Thomas Bistritz joined our team as Editor-in-Chief and over the past year has taken us places that I never would have imagined.  Last year, we also welcomed the Australian-based queerplanet.net to the GaySocialites family expanding our coverage world wide.

Today, we boast three nominations for Best Writer in the 2012 Glam Awards (Editor-in-Chief Thomas Bistritz, Editor-at-Large Kevin Novinski and myself which I share with the other 20-something contributors who are hard at work to ensure that we’re providing coverage you can count on)!  We have a staff roster larger than many print publications, and we are continually improving to make your online experience a  better one.

We hope you’ll spend the month of October celebrating with us!  After all, GaySocialites.com is as much yours as it is ours.  If it weren’t for you, we certainly wouldn’t have made it as far as we have today!  The sky is the limit, so lets keep on keeping on and growing larger and larger and larger.

Thank you for being a part of GaySocialites.com.  We couldn’t ask for better company!

Happy Anniversary,

Charles Winters
CEO, founder and Editorial Director
GaySocialites Media

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NYC health department warns gay men about potential meningitis outbreak

Sep. 28 Happening Now, News 1 comment

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is helping circulate an advisory issued by the New York City Health Department warning “gay men and men who have sex with other me” of an investigation into a cluster of meningitis (meningococcal disease) infections that has already killed one man.

Three other New York City gay have been diagnosed with the highly contagious disease.

Common symptoms of meningitis include high fever, headache, stiff neck and rash. They generally develop within just a couple of days. Anyone with those symptoms should seek medical attention immediately. Those who have been in close contact with someone who is infected also need to see their health care provider immediately to receive preventive antibiotics.

Not only does meningitis spread quickly, but it also has a high fatality rate especially among those who are HIV+.

The four men who were recently infected were between the ages of 31 and 42 years old and were all HIV+. In addition to the man who already died, another is in critical condition. Those living with HIV and AIDS should be especially cautious and react quickly if they think they have been exposed to the diease or especially if they start showing symptoms.

Tags: , , , , ,

Gay couple suing group for using their pic in anti-gay ads

Sep. 27 Gay Marriage, News 2 comments

A New Jersey gay couple is suing a homopbobic organization that used their photo in anti-gay political advertisements without their permission.

When Tom Privitere and Brian Edwards posed for the photo shown here, they never thought it would turn into the one just below it.

Gay men suing after their photo used in antigay ads

The original photo, as you see here, caught the two gay men kissing with the New York City skyline behind them after they tied the knot in Connecticut.

According to the lawsuit, a group called Public Advocate used the photo to help defeat two pro LGBT candidates with ads titled: “with ads titled “State Senator Jean White’s Idea of ‘Family Values?’” and “Jeffrey Hare’s Vision for Weld County?”

Tom and Brian say that Public Advocate yanked the photo from the web and altered it (as you can see above) to spread a

“We want to take back the beautiful moment in our lives that was reflected in our engagement photo before it was hijacked,” Edwards, a 32-year-old college administrator living in Montclair, N.J., told NBC News on Monday before traveling to Colorado to file the lawsuit. “We also … want to take a stand for others who might be similarly targeted in the future.”

The couple filed a lawsuit against Public Advocate on behalf of Kristina Hill, the photographer who took the original photos and holds all rights to its use.

The men found out that their faces were being used to spread a “message of hate”" when a friend just happened to see them on an anti-gay political mailer.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Cabaret Review: Ann Hampton Callaway

Sep. 26 Editorial, Entertainment, Most Fabulous, Music, Music Review, Theatre, Theatre, Top Diva 1 comment

Ann Hampton Callaway is a multiplatinum-selling pop and jazz singer/songwriter best known for writing and singing the theme from the TV hit The Nanny. She also has the distinction of writing three songs for Barbra Streisand, and that is the inspiration for her latest cabaret act “The Streisand Songbook” (Ann is also an out lesbian, who gave me the honor of being the journalist to do her “coming out interview” – you can read that here).

La Streisand influenced La Callaway long before Barbra sang Ann’s songs – Funny Girl exerted a strong influence on the young singer (long before she was a songwriter). Some of the most powerful – and powerfully sung – moments in Callaway’s show are from Funny Girl, including a rafter-shaking “Don’t Rain On My Parade”, and “People” artfully mixed with one of Sondheim’s greatest (I won’t give it away, the surprising combination is one of this show’s greatest pleasures).

Ann remarks that Barbra was one of two great influences on her – the other was Ella Fitzgerald. So it’s completely natural that the feel of this show should be Barbra’s beltiness mixed with Ella’s sumptuous jazziness. Indeed, Ann’s interpretation of the song that Barbra co-wrote with Paul Williams, “Evergreen”, is the jazziest take I’ve ever heard of that particular song.

Other high points include Ann’s renditions of the songs she wrote for Barbra “At the Same Time” and “I’ve Dreamed of You” – dare I say it, Ann’s heartfelt interpretation of “I’ve Dreamed of You”, dedicated to her fiancee Kari Strand, was even stronger than Barbra’s recording (though who knows what Barbra might do with it if she sings it on October 11).

Callaway successfully covers all five decades of Streisand’s multi-faceted career, crafting a loving musical portrait of a brilliant, conflicted artist driven to seek pop music perfection. Callaway herself achieves a kind of jazz-pop perfection, a kissing cousin of Streisand’s, and every bit as shimmery and rich.

For tickets, click here.

For more reviews and interviews by Jonathan Warman, see dramaqueennyc.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jonathan Warman to direct "Hard Sparkle: The Short Plays of J. Stephen Brantley"

Sep. 25 Editorial, Entertainment, Most Fabulous, Shameless Self Promotion, Theatre, Theatre 1 comment

Jonathan Warman (director, New York premiere of Tennessee Williams’s Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws) will direct Hard Sparkle: The Short Plays of J. Stephen Brantley. Performances are for two nights only October 29 & 30 at The Duplex.

About this production, Jonathan says, “I have collaborated with J. Stephen more frequently than any other playwright. He is the most singular American playwrighting talent I’ve come across in any context, one of the most distinctive voices in the country. I am honored – astonished almost – to have worked with him as often as I have. He has rich reserves of humanity and compassion, and wry humor. His writing – which vibrates with rock and roll energy and yet possesses sweetness and aching psychological subtlety – is highly stimulating and challenging. He is very inspired by the voice of individual actors, and rehearsal (which he loves) especially fires his deeply theatrical imagination. I am thrilled to be pulling together some of his best work for this special, two-night-only showcase.”

The plays are:

Nevertheless – After nearly stabbing her husband at the breakfast table, Iris walked out of her Park Avenue apartment bound for Nashville, Tennessee. Returning to the dingy barroom where she misspent her twenties, she hopes to recapture some of the excitement of a bygone era. What Iris finds is Trevor, a washed-up-before-he-started country crooner, the hard truth, and a new start.

Hard Sparkle – Actress Anne Eaton-Hart has taken to her bed. Swindled of millions and having lost an Emmy to Susan Lucci, Anne is convinced she’s dying. While her devoted accountant Eddie does his level best to lift her spirits, nothing less than divine intervention will resurrect the self-obsessed star.

Break – During the late hours of a summer night on the coast of Eastern Long Island, a displaced Englishman and the drug addict who breaks into his home confront their differences and, more importantly, discover their secret similarities.

Hard Sparkle runs October 29 & 30 at 7pm. The Duplex is located at 61 Christopher Street at Seventh Avenue. Tickets are $12 plus a 2 drink minimum. To purchase tickets, call (212) 255-5438 or visit www.theduplex.com.

For more about Jonathan Warman’s directing work, see jonathanwarman.com.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
%d bloggers like this: