The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe

 This book, like Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey, and others, came out (no pun intended) at the local library during LGBTQ Appreciation Month. The books under this title celebrated and/or concerned people in this large community. The Knockout Queen is just one of those many books. I thought it was excellent. In a way, it sort of represents the massive homophobia that those who are gay face every day, especially in the days after that college student Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence and beaten nearly to death, only to die from his injuries because of one thing-he happened to be gay. People who are LGBTQ seem to often face hatred and discrimination based on who they love. I can say that anyone in the LGBTQ community is fine with me. I don't hate or judge; I can't. It's A.) not who I am and B.) hypocritical of me to think bad of anyone in the LGBTQ community when I listen to Elton John, who's gay, Judas Priest, whose front man Rob Halford is gay, David Bowie, who's bisexual, Queen, whose then front man Freddie Mercury is bisexual but current front man Adam Lambert is gay.

Summary

-North Shore. Modern day. North Shore is a small town just outside Los Angeles. It's one of those everyone-knows-everyone type towns. It's dominated by an oil factory and mostly industrial work. Bunny Lampert is the star player on her high school's volleyball team with Olympic dreams in mind. Her dad, Ray, is one the town's most successful real estate agents, though he has some skeletons in the closet and is a raging alcoholic. Her next door neighbor is Michael Hesketh, a teen struggling with his homosexuality who is caught smoking in her back yard one day. Rather than yell at him, they become fast friends. He even comes out to her and straight up tells her he's gay. They spend evenings watching RuPaul's Drag Race and become fast friends. Then one day, everything changes. A bullying classmate finds out something about Michael and spreads vicious gossip around the school. Bunny smashes the girl's head in and she's put into a medically-induced coma, only to later die. As Bunny is put in prison for manslaughter, Michael and Bunny drift apart until years later. They reconnect and discover that Bunny is a championship MMA fighter who's starting to suffer from memory problems after taking many hits to the head while Michael is working on a doctorate in evolution.

Cynic leader Paul Masvidal defends Sebastian Bach against homophobic joke made by comedian

 That's right. A comedian made a homophobic joke directed at Rob Halford. Cynic leader Paul Masvidal stands up and gives Sebastian Bach praise for defending close friend Rob Halford

During an interview on podcast Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll, Paul Masvidal gave high praise and applause to Sebastian Bach for his response to a homophobic joke directed at Judas Priest front man Rob Halford.

Early in the interview, Bach explained how he heard that Halford does not do pre-show warm ups, which a comedian named Big Jay Oakerson responded "His exercise is probably something gay he doesn't want to tell ya. You gotta gargle jizz, but I dunno how to tell you that, Sebastian."

Bach, immediately angry at the homophobic insult towards someone he calls a friend, responded "Dude, could you not wreck this interview?" He stated Halford is a close friend and that the comedian should "skip those kinds of comments". Not long after, he left the Zoom interview

Paul Masvidal came out as publicly gay in 2014. He felt Bach did something responsible and that he did "the right thing" by leaving the interview while saying that underscoring this incident is an example of how homophobia is "culturally perpetuated when a comic can use the word "gay" in a derogatory way disguised as humor."

Furthermore, Masvidal added in an Instagram post "This ain't about being uptight. It's about ending the normalization of homophobic bull----. And in the same way that Bach has grown up since the days he'd wear AIDS: kills f---s dead t-shirts, Big Jay Oakerson needs to as well."

Masvidal later noted that Halford commented on the situation, giving it his usual sense of humor by saying he swallows, not gargles, but that this shouldn't be a means for Oakerson to "feel justified" for his actions.

Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey

This book came out recently. I read it and it was amazing!!! It had come out at my local library as part of LGBTQ Awareness Month. For those who don't know, this stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. Lately, the letter Q has been added, which refers to Questioning, which means you don't really know where you fall, whether it be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Overall, great book. But not alot of people are interested in a book where it centers heavily around the LGBTQ communities. But, I can safely say that anyone who is part of the LGBTQ communities are awesome with me!

Summary

Big Burr, Kansas. Modern day. Labeled as "The Most Homophobic Town in America", a nonprofit organization called Acceptance Across America, whose sole goal is trying to gain acceptance between those in the LGBTQ communities and straight communities, sends in a queer task force to live and work among the locals for two years. As time goes by, the townsfolk and the task force members come to accept one another as they are. Told from the point of view of both townsfolk and task force members, they come to eventually accept the newcomers and see things in a new light. Some of the townsfolk include Avery, a teenager from Los Angeles whose mother Karen, an open lesbian, is the head of the task force. Or Gabe, a big game hunter who is macho on the outside, but is secretly fighting his closeted homosexuality. Some of the task force members include Harley, a black transgender fighting with identity, whether she is actually a he or he is actually a she. Or David, an openly gay man whose Hispanic partner Miguel uprooted them from New Mexico to Big Burr, Kansas to help care for his elderly father Arturro.

Things You May or May Not Know About...Freddie Mercury

Everyone knows this high vocal, flamboyant front man for Queen. Some think they know all about him. Others have a casual knowledge of who he is. Here are some facts you may or may not know about Freddie Mercury.

1. He worked as a life model in art school

-Freddie had attended Ealing Art School in the 1960s. He was also hard up for cash. To earn some money to put towards a pair of Levi's, he worked as a life model for an evening drawing class. He recalls, during one interview "We were given a towel to protect our modesty. But I often think of all those old ladies who drew pictures of a half-naked Freddie Mercury."

2. He was a roadie for David Bowie
-April 1969 seen young Freddie Bulsara, as he was known in the days before Queen, working as a roadie for then unknown singer-songwriter David Bowie. When young David Bowie had played a lunchtime gig at the Ealing Art School, Freddie helped carry one of the amps and even helped design a makeshift stage out of tables.

3. He had more teeth than most people

-For one thing, people often make fun of him for his famous overbite. His trademark overbite was the result of having four extra teeth in the back of his mouth pushing the teeth in front forward. He refused in every sense of the word to have dental surgery to correct it. He feared it would destroy his incredible vocal abilities

4. He was responsible for the Sex Pistols
-Queen were scheduled to play a live gig on Tonight with Bill Grundy on 12/1/1976, in honor of their album A Day at the Races. Freddie had an appointment with the dentist, his first in 15 years and the band had to cancel. The replacement band was a then unknown punk band called The Sex Pistols

5. Bohemian Rhapsody was written by him while still a college student

-Using the school piano, Freddie had written and composed one of Queen's best known songs. It took him five years to finish this song. One classmate remarked "He called it ‘The Cowboy Song’. But he could never get beyond ‘Mama, just killed a man…'"

6. Brian May's guitar solos bored him

-With Brian's guitar solos lasting 10+ minutes, Freddie once went into the wings of the stage and declared "For God’s sake, let’s go shopping, get me out of here!"

7. He had female nicknames for friends and bandmates-except one
-John Deacon was too masculine, so he was exempt. Other than him, he called himself "Melina", Brian May was "Maggie", Roger Taylor was "Liz", Elton John was "Sharon", Rod Stewart was "Phyllis". Mary Austin, Freddie's former girlfriend was "Steve", after The Six Million Dollar Man actor Steve Austin

8. He once put Status Quo's Francis Rossi in a headlock

-There has seemed to always be a rivalry between Queen and Status Quo. Could it be because their music was considered too similar to each other? Who knows. The stand-off occurred backstage at Live Aid. Mercury and Rossi were joking around when Rossi made a joke about Freddie's sexuality. Mercury put him a headlock. "If he’d wanted to have me, he’d have had me. I couldn’t move." admitted Rossie

9. He sent a posthumous Christmas gift to Elton John
-In 1991, after he had passed, Freddie Mercury had sent a Christmas gift to his good friend Elton John. It was wrapped in a pillowcase and it was a painting Henry Scott Tuke, one of Elton John's favorite artists. Included was a handwritten note that read "Dear Sharon, thought you’d like this. Love Melina."

10. He never thought he would get old
-Everyone thinks that. Everyone who ends up being a musician dreads the old age bus hitting them head on. But it happens. In 1987, Freddie said in an interview "It would be so boring to be seventy. I’ve lived a full life and if I’m dead tomorrow, I don’t give a damn."

Rob Halford on LGBT rights

"I always thought things would be better". This is what Rob Halford, front man for legendary British speed metal band Judas Priest had to say about the current state of affairs in the LGBT communities.

He always thought things would improve over time, like the old adage "Time heals all wounds". Apparently some wounds still refuse to heal. He thought things about gay rights would improve, but sadly no. He said he is happy with the warmth and kindness he has received from the hard rock community after coming out of the closet in 1998. He was actually worried at first about coming out as gay, thinking he would suffer from some sort of fallout effect

"I just get so frustrated and angry that here we are in 2017. Because of that society I grew up in, and to a still great extent today, we have this tremendous push back in equality. I always kind of felt, as I was going through my teen years, my twenties and my thirties, things would be better – but they’re not. There’s still a long way to go in America and in my home country. And in some parts of the world, people like me get thrown off buildings. People like me get hung, just because of who we are." He told Blabbermouth.

Rob compared struggles of LGBT people to the types of struggles faced by "people of color" and "people having tremendous difficulties with accepting religions". He added "It’s a crazy world. You’d think that by now we’d have just figured things out – live and let live, love each other and just accept each other for who we are. Life is short."

He recalled the moment he came out as gay during an MTV interview. "The thing about gay people is that, until we come out of the closet, we’re always protecting other people – ‘I can’t do this, because it’s gonna hurt so-and-so.’ We’re trying to live the lives of other people, and that’s the worst thing you can do. You’ve gotta learn to love yourself, then you can go out in the world and try and figure everything else out. So I said that thing, and I went back to the hotel and I thought, ‘What have I done? There’s going to be a fallout."

After coming out, he experienced not a fallout, but an outpouring of respect and kindness. His bandmates in Judas Priest had no issue with him being gay. Even bassist Ian Hill was quoted as saying "we always knew he was gay but we treated him like a normal human being because that's the way gay people should be treated."

He mentioned "I’d never seen such an outpouring of love in all my life from everybody in the metal community. Rob, we don’t care. We want you to be who you are.’ That was a tremendously uplifting moment for me. This just goes to show you that we in the metal community – probably because of the push back we felt because of the music we love – we are the most tolerant, the most open-minded, the most loving, the most accepting of all the kinds of music in rock’n’roll. So it was a great moment."

Rule of the Day: Don't tick off the Metal God!

Recently, there have been a lot of news stories involving a court clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky. This court clerk is named Kim Davis and she is the one that officially signs off on marriages. She has recently made a lot of trouble for herself for refusing to marry same-sex couples. She has stated her religious beliefs as her reason for refusing to marry same-sex couples. But she has managed to raise the temper of one of metal's many iconic figures, Rob Halford, known as the Metal God.

Rob Halford was asked to give his opinions on the issue of this woman. When he visited C103 in Halifax, Canada, he was asked to give his opinion to the local DJ there, Scotty Mars. He states "freedom and democracy and freedom of speech and everybody being able to say what they feel"

"When you are employed in a situation that comes with basic, accepted ground rules and you try to kind of manipulate them to your perception so that it interferes with your job and interferes with other people’s lives, I take exception,” argued Halford. “It’s simple, man: Just give each other the respect and equality that everybody deserves on this planet, no matter where you’re from. So all this business about gay, straight, bi, black, white, Jew, Catholic — it’s all these ridiculous labels. We’re all people. We all need to just try and find a way to love each other and accept each other and try and make the world a better place. Amen"

Since coming out of the closet in 1998, he has seen a change in attitudes towards open homosexuality. He isn't, however, the only musician to air their opinions on the issue of Kim Davis. She managed to tick off former Survivor bandmates Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. They were furious that their song "Eye of the Tiger" was used to support her.

This is so wrong!

Fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana made some VERY controversial comments in a magazine, calling children born through in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, "synthetic children". Elton John is now boycotting them, as he has every right to! Besides, I've seen pictures of their kids!! They are soooooo cute!!!!! I love babies sometimes!!!! :D :D

The Telegraph has stated that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana told an Italian magazine, Panorama, that they don't believe in using in-vitro fertilization, that they don't support this for creating families for gay couples. "We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one. No chemical offsprings and rented uterus. Life has a natural flow; there are things that should not be changed. You are born to a mother and father; or at least that's how it should be." This was the quote that Dolce said. "I call children of chemistry synthetic children."

Elton John and longtime partner David Furnish have two children conceived using IVF. He took to Instagram to vent his opinions. "How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic.’ And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF — a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children". He also added "Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again". Rock on, Elton John!

They both fired back with separate statements. Dolce said "I’m Sicilian and I grew up in a traditional family, made up of a mother, a father and children. I am very well aware of the fact that there are other types of families and they are as legitimate as the one I’ve known. But in my personal experience, family had a different configuration. That is the place where I learnt the values of love and family. This is the reality in which I grew up, but it does not imply that I don’t understand different ones. I was talking about my personal view, without judging other people’s choices and decisions." While his partner expressed this: "We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it. We talked about our way of seeing reality, but it was never our intention to judge other people’s choices. We do believe in freedom and love."

Sometimes people who are unable to conceive and who wants kids use this process. And besides, how many times do you hear about in the news or read in the paper about gay/lesbian parents beating their children to death, shaking their babies to death because they wouldn't stop crying, pushing their kids down stairs, stabbing their children to death because they wouldn't stop crying, getting their kids hooked on drugs or leaving their kids in hot cars to die while they run errands? I'll tell you-0.00% of the time! Most of the time, it's young, inexperienced, STRAIGHT parents who thought having sex was cool until a surprise came along nine months later. And the teens that become parents who end up as horrible parents give a bad name to the teen parents that become good parents. There are a lot of good teen parents out there who raise their kid(s) right.

NoH8 Campaign

This is a new thing to California, which recently lifted the ban on gay marriage. This campaign is getting a lot of attention in good ways, because celebs are doing pictures with their mouths taped shut, which is strange, but somehow means they support this new campaign. Here's some cool information about the NoH8 Campaign

Here are some of the many faces who make up this series of ads

Page 1

Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy)

Jane Lynch (Glee)



Lt. Dan Choi (Just an Army soldier)



Steve-O (idiot from the show Jackass)

Lisa Edelstein (actress, 'Cuddy' from House)

Jenna Ushkowitz & Kevin McHale (Glee)

Lance Bass (Formerly of boy band N*Sync)

Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs, "Augie")

Michael Emerson (Person of Interest, Mr. Finch)

Lisa Ling (actress)

Page 2

Christian Siriano (fashion designer)

Slash (lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver)



Drew Carrey (comedian, actor)

Verne Troyer ("Mini Me" in Austin Powers)

Pauley Perrette (Actress, "Abby Sciuto on NCIS)

Paul Stanley (Rhythm guitarist for KISS)

Page 3

Isaiah Washington (Actor)

Kevin McHale (Actor)

Gene Simmons (Bass player for KISS)

Sophie Simmons

Nick Simmons

Page 4

Page 5

Alan Cumming (Actor)

LeVar Burton (Actor)



Ricky Martin (Latin musician)

Simmons Family (Gene Simmons of KISS fame)

Shannon Tweed (Former Playboy model)

Page 6

Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue)

Nikki Sixx and Courtney Bingham (Motley Crue)

Gunner Sixx (Has to be Nikki's kid)

Vinny Guadagnino (Jersey Shore)

Liza Minnelli (Actress)

Nikki Sixx joins the NOH8 campaign

History

If you're not familiar with this, the NOH8 campaign is an organization promoting same sex marriage. California had recently passed Proposition 8, legalizing gay marriage. Many celebs have come together to do ads for this, including Slash, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons

Sixx had this to say: “Courtney and I believe in freedom of choice, no matter your sex,” Sixx explained in a message accompanying the photo. “We believe you should be able to be yourself, love who you want and not be criticized for it. We believe in LOVE!”


Nick Simmons

Gene Simmons



Paul Stanley

Dave Navarro

Slash