Solipsist: VIDEO

A visually arresting short by Andrew Thomas Huang.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

And here, Designboom looks at how it was made.

SOLIPSIST from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.

 

New Doc Sheds Light on Gay Life of W. Somerset Maugham: VIDEO

Revealing Mr. Maugham, a new documentary about "influential and misunderstood" writer W. Somerset Maugham, is set for release later this month, via download. It features Armistead Maupin, Alexander McCall Smith, Pico Iyer, Alan Furst, Ronald Harwood, Selina Hastings and Nicky Haslam commenting on the life of Maugham.

Check out the trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...

Revealing Mr. Maugham HD Trailer from SWiM Cinema on Vimeo.

 

Harry Reid Seeks to End GOP Obstruction of 17 Judicial Nominees Including Gay Candidate Michael Fitzgerald

People for the American Way reports that Senator Harry Reid is seeking votes on judicial nominees stalled by Republican obstruction:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he will file petitions to end Republican filibusters of 17 federal district court nominees. The extraordinary move highlights Senate Republicans’ unprecedented obstruction of judicial nominees. During the entire 16 years that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were in office, there were only two filibusters of district court nominations. If Senate Republicans don’t relent on these 17 nominees, the cloture process could tie up the Senate through early April, with each nominee taking 30 hours of floor time under Senate rules.

Among them is gay nominee Michael W. Fitzgerald (pictured).

Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly writes:

Fitzgerald, who was nominated by President Obama in July 2011 for a judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, had a hearing in October 2011 and was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee to the full Senate without opposition on Nov. 3, 2011...According to the list posted by Democrats today, Fitzgerald would be the third of the 17 nominees to be considered."

Said Reid:  "I hope that we can move through these. I hope that people aren't going to be doing more dilatory tactics. If cloture is invoked, people have a right, under our rules, to hold up the next judge in line for 30 hours. That will show what this is all about: It will show it's an effort to embarrass the president and not take into consideration 116 million people [living in districts with declared] who don't have the ability to have their cases tried in an orderly manner."

Suspension Lifted: Roland Martin Back as a CNN 'Truth Teller'

Fishbowl DC reports that CNN commentator, suspended for homophobic tweets he made during the Super Bowl, has been okayed to return to the air:

"CNN staff was alerted today on the 10 am conference call that Roland Martin‘s suspension has been lifted."

At the time of his suspension, CNN noted that "Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”

It's not clear what caused CNN to lift its suspension aside from Martin's offense being gone from the headlines.

Martin met with GLAAD in late February and after the questionably productive meeting issued a non-apology apology, touted his support for lifting the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy,gay adoption, and including gays in hate crimes laws, and then gave what might be perceived as a warning that he'd possibly be speaking out in ways that gays might not like in the future:

"I have no plan to abandon my goal as a truth teller on a variety of issues; and, yes, that includes those that may be on the LGBT agenda."

What if Mad Men's Don Draper and Roger Sterling Were Gay Lovers and Got Outed? - VIDEO

A Mad Men remix.

Editor Pop Culture Pirate writes:

We love watching powerful men run into the walls created by their traditional masculinity. I wanted to tell a story where Don subverts rather than sells traditional maleness to finally give our hero some relief.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Iowa High School Students Subjected to Hateful Anti-Gay Lecture from 'Christian' Ministry: VIDEO

Over the weekend, Brandon posted about the visit paid to Iowa's Dunkerton High School by Junkyard Prophet, the rock band/missionary tentacle of 'You Can Run But You Can't Hide Ministries', a Christianist group founded by Bachmann-ally Bradlee Dean.

Dean once called Barack Obama a heathen while delivering an opening prayer at the Minnesota State House, and sued Rachel Maddow for pointing out that Junkyard Prophet supports Muslim ideology calling for executions of homosexuals.

School officials had no idea about Junkyard Prophet's background, so they were allowed to give an assembly to junior and senior high school students in which a band member condemned homosexuality and told students gays are sexual deviants who die at the age of 42. They were also shown images of aborted fetuses.

Now there's video of that portion of the assembly, provided by the You Can Run But You Can't Hide Ministries itself.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(clip via good as you)