Elliot Morales, the 36-year-old Manhattan native who was convicted of murder as a hate crime in March for the 2013 shooting death of Mark Carson, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday.

The recent events in Orlando may have had a hand in Morales's sentencing, as noted by Justice A. Kirke Bartley, Jr., who called Morales "something worthy of a character in a Stephen King novel—in short a monster."

"I can’t help but perceive or observe the parallel tragedy in Orlando,” Justice Bartley said prior to imposing the sentence in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. “That parallel is revealed in hatred, self-loathing, fear and death.”

“Mr. Morales, yours is a legacy of death and fear, nothing more nothing less,” he added.

Morales had defended himself in the two week trial, denying that his violent act was a hate crime since he himself is bisexual, something he maintained in court on Tuesday, calling Carson's murder a "tragic accident."

Related | Mark Carson Murder Suspect: I'm Not a Bigot, Meet My Trans Ex-Lover

“It is beyond my comprehension how someone like myself who happens to be bisexual and part of the LGBT community can be falsely accused and then convicted of a hate crime,” Morales said.

But Morales's behavior before and after encountering Carson and his friend Danny Robinson the night of May 18, 2013 proved his ultimate undoing. Earlier in the evening, Morales had threatened a bartender with a gun, using anti-gay slurs, then, several witnesses attest to Morales shooting Carson in the face after an argument in which he called Carson and Robinson "faggots" and "gay wrestlers." 

“Any life lost to gun violence is a tragedy for our city,” Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement. “But homophobic, hate-fueled incidents like this one are particularly unconscionable. As we mourn the lives lost in Orlando, we remain committed to doing everything we can to combat and prevent crimes against LGBT New Yorkers.”

[h/t] NYT

Barbara Poma opened Pulse almost 13 years ago in honor of her late brother, who was gay and died from complications of AIDS, intending it to be a safe haven for Orlando's LGBT community. She chose the name "because it has to do with your heartbeat, it has to do with your life, and we just wanted to keep the heartbeat alive."

After the horrific events of this past weekend, Poma plans to rebuild the nightclub as a tribute to those who lost their lives, the survivors, and the loved ones affected by the tragedy.

"We just have to move forward and find a way to keep their hearts beating and keep their spirit alive and we're not going to let them take this away from us," Poma told Matt Lauer on Today. 

"I will not let hate win. We will heal together," Poma said in a statement she read to NBC. 

"It's not to just honor my brother anymore. It is to honor all the families affected. It is to honor the true spirit of Orlando. Pulse will always continue to be the heartbeat of Orlando."

"GENESIS P-ORRIDGE, Unconditional Love"

"Missy Elliott, Supa Dupa Fly"

"Sissy Spacek, Gentle Heroine"

"John and Carlos, Youth"

"Kembra, Femininity"

"The Girls, Beauty"

Missy and Sissy serve supermodel to the kids in the fall '16 campaign shot by David Sims.

Some of Broadway's brightest stars came together last week to record a cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's classic "What the World Needs Now Is Love" as a benefit single to honor the victims of Orlando massacre at Pulse nightclub.

Broadway for Orlando features a who's who of the Great White Way including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald, Whoopi Goldberg, Carole King, Gloria Estefan, Fran Drescher, Rosie O'Donnell, Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Kelli O'Hara, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Billy Porter, B.D. Wong and marriage equality champion Edie Windsor.

The single is available for purchase starting today at Broadway Records with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida. Check out the recording session below:

There are few guarantees in this world, but one of them is that The Golden Girls will be playing at any given time somewhere in the world. The beloved sitcom has grown even more popular nearly 25 years after Dorothy married Leslie Nielsen and rode happily off into the sunset, save for one obligatory visit to the Golden Palace.

Related | The New Golden Girls Oral History

Coloring books, Funko dolls, and countless drag parodies later and someone has finally gotten on the ball with a themed restaurant planned for Washington Heights in Manhattan.

That someone is Michael J. LaRue, best friend of Rue McClanahan (aka Blanche Elizabeth Hollingsworth Deveraux), who will open the Rue La Rue Café in early September on 4396 Broadway, at the appropriately named Sofia Storage Building. 

La Rue, who was the executor of McClanahan's estate and administrator of her will, will decorate the restaurant in some of the belongings and showbiz memorabilia he inherited from McClanahan after her death in 2010.  

According to DNAInfo:

LaRue said Mark Bisch, McClanahan’s son, is a partner in the business venture, adding that because of his commitment to the project, the Walt Disney Company is allowing the café to manufacture its very own Golden Girls’ merchandise — “the only location in the world” — using images from the television show.

“I believe I can turn this place into a mini-tourist [hub] in Washington Heights," LaRue said. "I believe the neighborhood is going to support this. I believe the population exists here already.”

La Rue claims he's already lined up sole living Golden Girl Betty White for the ribbon cutting ceremony and plans to add an outdoor area (a lanai?!) next year. Hopefully he will also enforce a strict dress code of nightgowns, kimonos, and negligees while the tables will be (as in the show) only for decorative purposes, used instead for converging in the middle of the night to talk about life, love, and St. Olaf.

And of course, this should be playing on loop:

Picture it....

[h/t] NBC New York

Golden Girls-Themed Restaurant Coming to NYC

Elusive chanteur Frank Ocean, like many members of the queer community, is struggling to make sense of the tragedy in Orlando that left 49 people dead at Pulse nightclub, during the month that is supposed to be one of pride, celebration, and commemoration.

Ocean, who famously opened up about his own sexuality in a Tumblr post in 2012, took to the form again, where he recalled the hatred his pastor taught him he should feel for himself, the hatred with which his father treated a transgender waitress in his youth, and the hatred passed down from generation to generation in the name of some god.

Read it in full below: 

I read in the paper that my brothers are being thrown from rooftops blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs for violating sharia law. I heard the crowds stone these fallen men if they move after they hit the ground. I heard it’s in the name of God. I heard my pastor speak for God too, quoting scripture from his book. Words like abomination popped off my skin like hot grease as he went on to describe a lake of fire that God wanted me in. I heard on the news that the aftermath of a hate crime left piles of bodies on a dance floor this month. I heard the gunman feigned dead among all the people he killed. I heard the news say he was one of us. I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty. That was the last afternoon I saw my father and the first time I heard that word, I think, although it wouldn’t shock me if it wasn’t. Many hate us and wish we didn’t exist. Many are annoyed by our wanting to be married like everyone else or use the correct restroom like everyone else. Many don’t see anything wrong with passing down the same old values that send thousands of kids into suicidal depression each year. So we say pride and we express love for who and what we are. Because who else will in earnest? I daydream on the idea that maybe all this barbarism and all these transgressions against ourselves is an equal and opposite reaction to something better happening in this world, some great swelling wave of openness and wakefulness out here. Reality by comparison looks grey, as in neither black nor white but also bleak. We are all God’s children, I heard. I left my siblings out of it and spoke with my maker directly and I think he sounds a lot like myself. If I being myself were more awesome at being detached from my own story in a way I being myself never could be. I wanna know what others hear, I’m scared to know but I wanna know what everyone hears when they talk to God. Do the insane hear the voice distorted? Do the indoctrinated hear another voice entirely?

Looking never really burned hot and bright, it was more of a smolder than a flame—or a flamer. Debuting to a set of high expectations and ending with a set of low ratings, the show proved divisive among gay male audiences, revealing two very distinct camps and what they hold dear and queer to their hearts. Some loved it for its honest, unwavering, and deeply affecting depiction of gay life, while some openly hated it or simply couldn't care less about it for being boring, slow, unfunny, and more than a bit of a downer. I fall into the former category, very much so, though I understand why others don't share my point of view. And because this is America, I'm-a let them finish...before I tell you why Looking is the greatest gay television show of all time. 

Related | Looking: The Movie Trailer is Finally Here

First of all, nearly all of the characters—save for Doris, played by national treasure Lauren Weedman—are unlikable.

Patrick (Jonathan Groff) is whiny, basic, self-absorbed, entitled, and generally everything white gay men hate to see about themselves. Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), perhaps the most interesting character, is a hot mess, who literally wakes up in a gutter, cheats on his boyfriend Frank, and is generally the worst. Dom (Murray Bartlett) is a man-child who's been resting on his good looks and mustache for most of his adult life till he wakes up one day only to realize he's kind of a loser. And don't even get me started on that d-bag Kevin (Russell Tovey), who is actually the worst. 

Even if his ass does deserve its own spinoff series. 

Related | 7 Reasons We'll Miss Looking

It's a real motley crew of people you probably wouldn't want to be friends with if you weren't already friends with them. 

And that's the thing: there are parts of all of us in these characters, and they reflect a lot of the problems gay men have with themselves and with each other. The constant quest for love, which is conflated and confused with, then ultimately sidetracked by, the quest for sex; the fragile relationship we have with our bodies and with society's expectations of us; the deep-seeded fear and pain that inform our decisions, our attractions, and our distractions; and most importantly, the friendships that act as surrogate families insulating, and sometimes preventing us from exploring, the outside world. 

It was an ambitious show if only for daring to show gay men as complicated, unlikable, sad, broken, and messy: in short, as human. Humans who sometimes have sex in the woods with strangers.

Maybe it was too ambitious. Conveying the complexities of gay life is an unenviable task, but Looking was never meant to speak for, or even to, all gay men. And just because something is gay doesn't mean as a gay man you have to like it—I'm still not on board with Neil Patrick Harris or Pier One. Or, for that matter, Queer as Folk. Looking was a specific slice of life, but just like not all gay men are fabulous and wealthy Adonises endlessly partying their lives away, not all gay men are sad sacks who can't handle a mature relationship, or I don't know, not waking up in a gutter.  

While Looking wasn't perfect, it was at least getting there. The first season limped along until episode five when Patrick and Richie (Raul Castillo) spend the day together, evoking creator Andrew Haigh's other great addition to the queer canon, Weekend.

That's when the show started to feel like it had a soul, something Girls still has not accomplished despite god knows how many seasons at this point.

Speaking of Girls, as its gay equivalent—at least in terms of running time—Looking fell short of Lena Dunham's once groundbreaking turned mind-numbing meditation on twenty-something womanhood. But that's not Looking's fault because Looking wasn't the gay Girls, or the gay Sex and the City, to which it was also compared. Those looking for Looking to fit into those very specific parameters were inevitably turned off by its dramatic and often dark tone because god forbid gays be anything other than comic relief.  

Where Looking did succeed was in showing not so much the complexities of gay life, but the complexities of being a gay man. As my colleague and sisterfriend Nigel Smith at The Guardiannotes:

By the time the second season concluded, which included the introduction of an HIV-positive character, Looking had begun to find its voice as a sexy, graceful and deftly moving series depicting a group of imperfect gay men slowly coming into their own.

It was an imperfect show that perfectly depicted imperfect gay men and so it only makes sense that it was divisive. As gay men, we're very sensitive about how we're represented in the media because for ages upon ages we've gotten the worst raps: from Cruising to The Crying Game, gay men have been either sick, suicidal, perverts, or predators, or all of the above. So we're wanting for positive depictions, but I'd like to posit that Looking was one of the most positive depictions we've ever gotten—on TV or otherwise.

Take for instance the way the series seemed to luxuriate in the tedium of its subjects' lives, showing a patience, love, and tenderness for the characters, even when they didn't show it for themselves. Patrick Agustín, and Dom's friendship was real and relatable, and as gloriously imperfect as they were. Meanwhile, Eddie (Daniel Franzese) was not only one of the few HIV-positive characters on TV, but also a highlight of the second season, as well as the catalyst for Agustín to finally start getting his shit together.

Ah, bear love—so healing.

It's a shame that Looking never got the chance that other, lesser, straighter shows have gotten, but the gays simply didn't respond in the way a show like Looking requires, which is rapturously. For a gay show to succeed it has to be a phenomenon. Imagine Ryan Murphy's Looking. Then imagine Andrew Haigh burning HBO to the ground.

The gays that loved Looking, loved it a lot because it gave us validation in our own struggles of being a gay man and relating to other gay men. The gays that didn't love it, maybe they didn't like the reflection they saw in the mirror it held up to the gay male community, which, in truth, is a very specific mirror. Had it been more fun, more fabulous, more like a traditional sitcom it might have lasted longer, but then it wouldn't have been Looking. It might've been seen, but it wouldn't have been Looking. Still, as far as gay shows go, there are few that match Looking for its poignancy, grace, and complexity.

There Are Two Kinds of Gays: Those Who Love Looking& Those Who Don't 

There Are Two Kinds of Gays in the World: Those Who Love Looking and Those Who Don't 

Before Lady Gaga was even a sequined twinkle in Cynthia Germanotta's eye, two queens recorded the out and proud gay anthem, "I Was Born This Way."

The song was written in 1971 by the wonderfully named Bunny Jones, a straight, black, Christian wife and mother. Jones started the record label Gaiee to give "gay people a label they can call home," as she explained to The Advocate in 1975, the year the first recorded version, by Valentino, became a minor hit.  

Before getting into the music business, Jones owned several salons, and because stereotypes are true for a reason, most of her employees were gay. Through her friendship with these gays, Jones learned of the struggles they faced on a daily basis. 

"I began to feel that gays are more suppressed than blacks, Chicanos, or other minorities," Jones said. "You hear of great designers or famous hairdressers, and that's about as far as society will let gays go."

So she wrote the lyrics to "I Was Born This Way," but it took a few years for her to find someone to put it to music, namely, heterosexual musician Chris Sprier. And then she had to find someone brave enough to record it.

Fresh off a revival of the musical Hair in Long Island, Charles "Valentino" Harris was just the gay for the gig. Jones sold Valentino's version of the song out of the back of her car, to the tune of 15,000 copies. This caught the attention of Motown head Berry Gordy, whose other great contribution to gay culture is, of course, Diana Ross.

With Motown's (albeit minimal) backing, Valentino's "I Was Born This Way" became a number one disco hit in the UK. Three years later, as was Motown tradition, the label recycled the song, this time with openly gay gospel singer Carl Bean.

Feeling limited by the gospel genre, Bean had left his previous label, ABC Records. However, good old Bunny Jones had fallen in love with Bean's voice on a gospel record and approached him to re-record "I Was Born This Way." 

"I was hesitant to sign with another record label, but after I found out what the song was I knew I had to do it," Bean told The Advocate in 1978. "It was like providence. They came to me with a song I have been looking for my whole life."

Featuring a new, more heavily "disco" arrangement by Motown's own Norman Harris and Ron Cursey, "I Was Born This Way" became a club hit, featuring numerous requisite remixes through the years from the likes of dancefloor gods Larry Levan, Tom Moulton, and Shep Pettibone.  

Bean, having once studied for the ministry, saw "I Was Born This Way" as a "sort of ministry for gay people." In 1982, he practiced what he preached, and began preaching what he practiced, when he founded the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, specifically for openly gay and lesbian African Americans.

Today, the UFCM continues to teach its "message of God's unconditional love and the principles of liberation theology to often ostracized communities." And "I Was Born This Way" continues to teach its message that disco-tinged gay liberation was the best thing to come out of the '70s. 

[h/t] Queer Music Heritage

Hold onto your wigs, kids, because Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar will snatch you bald with their performance of "Freedom" from last night's BET Awards.

With all the Pride festivities I forgot that the annual trophyfest was even happening but thankfully BET will replay the show everyday for the next month and a half for those who missed it or just want to relive all the gagging. All the goddamn gagging.

Speaking of which, check out Bey and King Kunta owning everything below:

During a press conference aboard the papal plane en route from Armenia, Pope Francis called for an apology to gay people and other groups marginalized or offended by the church. Which, if we're being honest, is a lot of people. 

Related | Is the Pope Good For Gays?

After the Pulse massacre in Orlando on June 12—which killed 49 people many from the LGBT community—German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a closer adviser to His Holiness, said gay people deserved an apology from the Catholic Church. Pope Francis was asked if he agreed.

"I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended,"Francis said, "but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons."

Marx had previously said at a conference in Dublin that the church must apologize for consistently marginalizing gay people for...well, ever. 

"The church must say it is sorry for not having behaved as it should many times, many times—when I say 'the church,' I mean we Christians, because the church is holy; we are the sinners," the pope said. "We Christians must say we are sorry."

Nothing like a "sorryboutit" to really make amends for all those centuries of persecution, but at least we can consider this a step in the right direction.  Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large fo the Catholic mag America, called the Pope's comments "a groundbreaking moment."

"While St. John Paul II apologized to several groups in 2000—the Jewish people, indigenous peoples, immigrants and women, among them—no pope has ever come close to apologizing to the LGBT community," Martin told CNN. "And the Pope is correct of course. First, because forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian life. And second, because no group feels more marginalized in the church today than LGBT people."

While Francis has certainly been more tolerant towards gay people than his predecessors, he still maintains negative views on marriage equality and transgender issues. But considering it took the Catholic Church 2,000 years to come around to the whole "gay" thing, progress is probably going to be slow. 

Human thirst-trap Kellan Lutz tweeted about meeting with the filmmakers behind a reboot of Masters of the Universe, prompting the internet to subsequently geek the fuck out. 

Those of you who grew up in the '80s, or on reruns, will remember He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as one of the gayest and cheapest cartoons of all time. Basically an excuse for Mattel to sell action figures, Masters of the Universe followed the adventures of Prince Adam and his scantily-clad, hypermuscular alter ego He-Man, the "Most Powerful Man in the Universe."

In 1987, Dolph Lundgren oiled up and stripped down to star in a live-action movie co-starring a young Courtney Cox. It's one of the most gorgeously bad movies ever made and was responsible for turning an entire generation of boys at least a little gay.

Hollywood has been trying to churn out a He-Man reboot for a while, with several directors and writers attached to the project, but it now seems like it's finally got some momentum. McG, of Charlie's Angels and early-00s music video fame, has been working on getting He-Man to the big screen and recently Lutz met with him and producer Mary Viola:

Hey @HeManTheMovie and all MOTU fans,

Had an amazing meeting with @McGsWonderland and @ItsMaryViola talking MOTU!

ITS IN GREAT HANDS!

— Kellan Lutz (@kellanlutz) June 24, 2016

Prompting some fans to respond in the best way possible—Photoshop:

@kellanlutz@HeManTheMovie@McGsWonderland@ItsMaryViola okay people
Announce it already!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/s7bTewLsfO

— lisa davis (@nan5zac) June 24, 2016

With the possible exception of Chris Hemsworth, Kellan Lutz is the perfect choice to play He-Man, having cut his teeth and chiseled his abs in other subpar action films such as 2014's The Legend of Hercules.

Good times. McG has been trying to get the tone down for the movie and one can only hope that it pays some homage to the '87 film—if only for Skeltetor's high drag in the finale.

Category is butch queen first time in drags in Eternia.

[h/t] ScreenRant 

Kellan Lutz in Talks to Play He-Man

Kellan Lutz in Talks to Play He-Man in Masters of the Universe Reboot

Ah, summer in New York. Is there a better time and place on earth? For many a gay man, not really. For me, however, it's torture. A blissful torture, like what I assume deeply religious people must feel: I am in anguish but this is the price I have to pay for eternal salvation and/or dudes freeballing in basketball shorts.

Once the cherry blossoms bloom, so does every queen in town. By the time June rolls around, the entire city is in heat, eyes meet easier (when not glued to the apps), smiles are easier, flirting is first, second and third nature. Into this sexual hotbed pour thousands of gay men to celebrate Pride and the next thing you know Grindr’s giving you a pop-up about being overloaded. Because we all are. Overloaded.

Summer in New York is nothing but a series of distractions and frustrations. All these bare (and bear) thighs and calves and arms and chests and abs on display. How does anyone get anything done? I can barely collect my thoughts when every sliver of skin is a temptation, every waft of a male passerby an invitation.

I am enthralled, I am entranced, I am enchanted—and I am enslaved—by the beauty of men in a New York summer. My concentration is held hostage by my desires, mitigated by my own accidental abstinence. I regularly go months without having sex, for no other reason than it just doesn’t happen. Not for lack of trying, though how much I try is up for debate, but a gal's got work to do. In 80-plus degree weather, however, my tolerance breaks down completely and I find myself endlessly window-shopping on the apps, a flurry of woofs, “hey theres” and “how's it goings” met with a cacophony of silence.

While refraining from sending follow-up questions and/or responses, I remind myself not to take any snub personally, no matter how easy it is to consider every neglected message an egregious affront. I assure myself that things will get easier once I get my summer abs back, which is only partially true, but also yet another reason for guys not to see me as a real person but as a physical manifestation of their sexual desire. But is that so bad? Isn’t that what I want? To be desired?

Related | The Impossibility of Love

Well, yes, of course. I want to be desired. Who doesn’t? But I also want to be respected. Who doesn’t? And the two shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. I want to be respected as a fellow human being with feelings. I want to be respected as a fellow gay man with the same desires. Respect is not starting a conversation with a close-up of your dick or a rear-facing shot of you on all fours. Just as respect isn’t making references to my “black dick”—as if I'm completely unaware of what it is or looks like, or as if it’s a separate entity unto itself. Each time this happens I die a little on the inside.

When you’re a gay man, sex is a political act. Your very existence is politicized, so to give life and definition to that existence through the very thing that politicizes you is unwaveringlypolitical. When you’re a gay black man, sex is an outright rebellion. Sex is me being able to embrace my body and the history of my body, and to then give it up wholly to someone else, to abandon the inhibitions that dictate my life and the way I live it and the way others see me, and to truly feel alive. Every kiss, every touch, every warm body is a victory.

Related | 30 for 30: Thoughts on Turning a Gay Milestone

But to succeed in anything in this country as a black man, you have to be “better” and that’s true even for hooking up. I have to be sexier, more masculine, more muscular, more aggressive yet more pliable, just to feel noticed, to be acknowledged, to be validated—yes, I am good enough—and in my best interest I should know my place and shut the fuck up. If I was content to be just another headless torso with a blank profile, save for my stats, I’d be having a much easier time right now. I mean, I’d probably be having sex right now instead of writing about not having sex right now.

However, I’m also acutely aware that no matter how hard I work on myself—to be better, to be more attractive, to feel more validated—I’m still playing a game that is stacked against me. So why play the game by everyone else’s rules when I can’t win to begin with? It's a waste to work on my own perceived inadequacies when the system through which I perceive them is broken.

From past experiences, I’ve instinctively taught myself to avoid eye contact with other men, to avoid overtly flirting, to in effect build this wall between me and the rest of the gay community: my race. It’s not a wall solely of my creation, but one that’s been built on a rich history of American values. My adult life is the constant reprogramming of my youth, in which I was taught through the media that to be gay was to be white and to be white was to be attractive.

Related | Steve Grand Is Right—We Do Love to Hate Young, Good-Looking, White Gay Men

I’ve always wondered what it must be like to date as an attractive gay white man. To not have the fear in the back of your head that you’ll automatically be disqualified on the basis of your skin color, or your hair, or facial features. To be at ease and not constantly at war within one’s own skin. To be able to say “it’s just sex.”

Were it only so easy to approach violating someone’s asshole with the same insouciance as a walk to the corner store. But with sex, I am at my most vulnerable. Literally naked asking—who, a stranger?—to love me (an approximation of love) for 45 minutes to two hours depending when the Cialis kicks in. And then once my approximation of love has dried on their back, we’re strangers again and I’m left wondering if it was even worth it. The answer is often a resounding no as they would rather seemingly disappear from the face of the earth than answer a text message from me.

I'm sure mine is a unique and extreme case as I know a lot of people who have a lot of sex without all the baggage. They don't understand, however, what a difficult time I have and how disproportionately hard I have to work just to get and maintain a guy’s attention, or the nature of that attention, or the machinations at work that make casual sex anything but casual. Between the fakes, flakes, catfishers, guys in relationships, guys lying about being in relationships, douchebags, racists, basics, and lames, I don't know if I'll ever have sex again, or even why I should. 

Some guys are in it just for the hunt and immediately lose interest once they’ve snared their prey. For others, the hunt is their endgame, their sole interest. But whatever the motivation, the hunt remains. And it is heightened by the summer—it's more thrilling, more compelling, more important, and thus more disappointing when it yields nothing. It's also tiring as fuck. Grappling with all these issues in what I can only hope could be a simple quest for pleasure is beyond exhausting. And I'm already dehydrated as it is. At the rate summer is going, I might just die of this thirst.

And so I look forward to the day I walk into the ocean during my annual gaycation in Provincetown this August, wearing my best Beyoncé "Love Drought" whites, a planter's punch in one hand, a blunt in the other, belting out Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"—after which I will have my ashes scattered under the Dick Dock. 

Pro wrestler, actor, and noted human tank John Cena gave America a good talking-to this Independence Day in a PSA from the Ad Council.

In a time when the country is increasingly divided by who is and isn't considered a real American, Cena reminded us all that the face of America doesn't belong to any one race, gender, or religion.

As Cena notes, of 319 million U.S. citizens, 51% are female, 54 million are Latino, 27 million are disabled, 9 million are LGBT, and 3.5 million are Muslim. While explaining that the amount of LGBTs in America is greater than the population of Virginia, Cena is joined in the background by a couple of gay dads and their daughter. 

The ad is part of the Love Has No Labels campaign, in partnership with the WWE, Facebook and Google, as well as a number of other huge corporations including Coke, Pepsi and State Farm. According to the Ad Council:

While the vast majority of Americans consider themselves unprejudiced, many of us unintentionally make snap judgments about people based on what we see - whether it’s race, age, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability. The Love Has No Labels campaign challenges us to open our eyes to our implicit, or unconscious, bias and work to stop it in ourselves, our families, our friends, and our colleagues. Rethink your bias at www.lovehasnolabels.com.

Check out the ad below, and visit Love Has No Labels to make your own #WeAreAmerica GIF:

[h/t] Mashable

The NYPD and the LGBT community are at odds once again following the seemingly needless arrest of a man at Jacob Riis Beach in Queens July 4. 

Photographer Krys Fox claims he was taking pictures at Jacob Riis Park, which includes a historically gay-friendly section of beach. Because his shorts had gotten sandy and he was drying them in the sun, Fox wore a towel wrapped around his waist. When the towel accidentally came undone, Fox was quickly tackled and surrounded by some overzealous cops. Fox was then dragged off the beach, naked, while screaming, "Help me!"

"I just didn’t wrap my towel around my waist tight enough and it suddenly slipped down and I literally got sent to jail for it," Fox told The Daily Dot. "I’d always heard that it was a clothing-optional beach. I keep running it over and over in my head, and I can’t even begin to answer why they chose me. I wasn’t causing a scene, I was just shooting a photo of someone like I always do."

The incident was captured by several eyewitnesses on social media:

Fox spent three hours in jail wearing a paper robe resembling a hospital gown. Five tickets later—including public nudity and disorderly conduct—Fox was released in nothing but the towel he was arrested in. 

The NYPD has been criticized for its increased presence at the beach over the last few years—drawing comparisons to the raids performed on gay bars pre-Stonewall—and for its aggressive policing of a beach that has traditionally drawn many LGBT people of color. 

As for Fox, he has a court date approaching, but at least one attorney connected to the LGBT community has stepped up to help him.

Tony Stark is stepping down as Iron Man and will be replaced by a young black girl named Riri Williams at the end of the comic book event series Civil War II.

According to Time, "Riri is a science genius who enrolls in MIT at the age of 15. She comes to the attention of Tony when she builds her own Iron Man suit in her dorm."

The character was inspired by the story about a woman in Chicago from years ago when creator and Iron Man writer Brian Michael Bendis was working on a failed TV show. 

"And this story of this brilliant, young woman whose life was marred by tragedy that could have easily ended her life—just random street violence—and went off to college was very inspiring to me," Bendis told Time. "I thought that was the most modern version of a superhero or superheroine story I had ever heard. And I sat with it for awhile until I had the right character and the right place."

Bendis claims that some of the most die-hard fans have been willing to at least give the casting shake-up a shot, thanks to his involvement with other diverse heroes such as Miles Morales (aka black Spider-Man) and Jessica Jones. He admits, though, that while there are still some bizarrely racist comments out there over Marvel's increasingly diverse roster of characters, that's changing.

"There was a part of an audience crawling through the desert looking for an oasis when it came to representation," he said, "and now that it’s here, you’ll go online and be greeted with this wave of love."

And from what it sounds like, Iron Man is in good hands with Riri. "Her brain is maybe a little better than his [Tony's]," Bendis adds. "She looks at things from a different perspective that makes the armor unique. He can’t help but go maybe I should buy her out."

Sounds about right. 

Ever thought to yourself, "Gee, I wish I had an excuse to watch a male model change in and out of underwear for three uninterrupted, ball-dangling minutes"? Who hasn't, right? Well, the kids at Mode found that excuse with another one of their 100 years of fashion videos.

Related | 100 Years of Men's Swimwear in 3 Minutes

And in the spirit of body positivity, they even throw in some non-model dudes into the mix.

Below, a history lesson in droppin trou, from longjohns to boxer briefs, with (sadly) nary a mention of a man-thong.  

World's hottest math teacher and noted professional perfect physical specimen Pietro Boselli models Team Italia's Olympic uniforms, designed once again by Armani. In the following campaign clip, shot by Serge Guerand, Boselli is seen working on his fitness and serving Olympian realness. 

Check out the campaign below:

Remember when Beyoncé became the voice of reason in America? Well, maybe that's not completely true, but this year Queen Bey has taken on the role of pop culture revolutionary and it fits her rather well.

Related | Lemonade: The Miseducation of Beyoncé Knowles

As one of, if not the most famous woman in the world, she's recently used her considerable platform to speak out against North Carolina's anti-LGBT laws and advocate for women's rights and the Black Lives Matters movement.

Now in the wake of two more senesless killings of black men by the police, the superstar has released an open letter urging us all to "channel our anger and frustration into action."

Related | Op-Ed: Police Shootings Affect Us All

The letter, entitled "Freedom"—a reference to her anthem on liberation featuring Kendrick Lamar—sees Bey joining fellow pop royal Drake in condemning the deaths of Sterling and Castile, and calling for an end to "the war on people of color and all minorities."  

Related | Beyoncé Slays the Hell Out of 'Freedom' at the BET Awards

Read it below:

Though she's been dropping new music left and right since her critically-acclaimed debut album Aquarius in 2014, Tinashe fans have been waiting patiently for her oft-delayed follow-up Joyride. Well, it looks like the wait may almost be over with "Superlove,"Joyride's first official single. 

Related | All Gays on Deck: An Interview with Tinashe

While two years doesn't seem like a long time to wait for an artist's second album, it's hard out there for an up-and-coming R&B diva, but if "Superlove" is any indication, Joyride is looking more like a slay ride. Watch out, ladies, Tinashe's coming for those wigs. 

Produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, "Superlove" evokes equal parts summer of '94 (which, as you know, is the greatest musical summer in history) and mid-00s Ciara. Upbeat to the point of bubbly, "Superlove" is perfect for twerking at a BBQ, blazing up at the beach, or riding around town with the top down. 

"I have felt a strong urge recently to release a song that promotes positivity, love, and light," Tinashe said of the single. "'Superlove' is a celebration of happiness. More specifically, it celebrates the kind of happiness that is so immense and infectious, that you can't help but to rejoice in it. I hope to eulogize this wonderful energy and make people feel good, love harder, and dance together." 

Joyride is expected to drop this fall, but till then, just play "Superlove" on repeat—check it out below: