Gay Radio Hosts Turn Hate Into Art

Craig Olsen and Robbie Laughlin, gay co-hosts of "The Craig and Robbie Hour" on Global Voice Broadcasting, don't have definitive proof that the second defacement of their billboard above LA's Beverly Boulevard was meant to be homophobic, but they're pretty sure it was. The sign had previously been covered with purple paint and replaced, and a search of the area saw no other examples of the second vandal's handiwork: white paintball smears.

Olsen's convinced this was an act of hate, especially after hearing that some people in the neighborhood had called the billboard, showing him and Laughlin fighting over a microphone, "too gay."

"Somebody had to take a gun, and I was a target. This felt more violent," Olsen told the Los Angeles Times. "I felt like somebody had smacked me across the face and said, 'Get out.' But I wasn't going to roll over.'

Rather than replacing the billboard again, Olsen and Laughlin would use the vandalism to spread "a message of hope."

[Olsen] hired artist Jaime Ochoa to incorporate the defacement into an artwork he calls a "message of hope."

The result is an unusual combination of advertisement and art rising over the westbound lanes of Los Angeles' Beverly Boulevard. Ochoa used the drips of white paint to create black-and-white religious symbols, a dove and a child holding a sign that reads, "PEACE."
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Olsen wanted Ochoa to find an artistic way to depict diversity without covering up the old image entirely. He wanted whoever vandalized the billboard to see some paint spots left behind as reminders.

As a Latino artist, Ochoa said he is part of two groups that are often discriminated against, so he was enthusiastic about the project. The Silver Lake resident said he used the paint drippings as a canvas and tried to layer them into his images. He chose mostly black and white paint for a design he called "bold and simple" and tried to include lots of religious symbols so as "not to leave anyone out."

Then he painted a globe on top of the photo of the two hosts and made it appear as though they were hugging the world instead of wrestling for the microphone.

Speaking with FishbowlLA last month, Ochoa said, "I wanted to turn this [gay] hate crime into a positive message for the community." Olsen, meanwhile, told the Times, "It's almost like my holiday card to my community."

9th Circuit Says San Diego Can Offer Low Rent To Anti-Gay Boy Scouts

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today said that San Diego can continue offering the Boy Scouts of America lower-than-normal rents even though the BSA maintains its discriminatory policies of forbidding LGBT people and atheists, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“There is no evidence that the city’s purpose in leasing the subject properties to the Boy Scouts was to advance religion, and there is abundant evidence that its purpose was to provide facilities and services for youth activities,” wrote Judge William C. Canby Jr. wrote in the panel's unanimous decision.

The lawsuit was brought by a lesbian couple and an atheist couple who claimed by giving the BSA such rents, San Diego was breaking state and national laws by renting the space for as low as zero. You'll recall that Philadelphia found itself in a similar position a few years ago.

Neil Patrick Harris Faces Fears, Enters Haunted Mansion: VIDEO

Neil Patrick Harris is co-producing an interactive theatre event in Los Angeles called Delusion: The Blood Rite. In this video, he's going with co-producer Jon Braver to check out the site they'll be using for the event. Unfortunately, NPH has a phobia about haunted mansions.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via vulture)

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Ira Levin Estate Blocks L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center Production of 'Deathtrap'

The L.A. Times reports on the apparently homophobic veto of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's production of Deathtrap, scheduled for September:

A Los Angeles revival of Ira Levin's “Deathtrap” has been canceled after the estate of the late author expressed objections to the use of nudity and some of the production's gay content. The engagement, which was supposed to have begun September at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, was to be a remounting of the staging that ran at the center in the spring.

Levin's estate revoked permission to stage the murder story, citing an instance of nudity that occurs near the end of first act in the center’s staging, according to Jon Imparato, a producer of the revival. In one scene of the production, the character of Clifford, a young, aspiring writer with shady motives, disrobes and reveals his backside to the audience. Imparato said the nudity lasts for approximately 30 seconds.

The Levin Estate is managed by the writer's three sons, Adam, Jared and Nicolas.

California Lowes Employee Threatens Gay Family: 'I'll Be at Your House' - VIDEO

Jeremy L. Smythe and Daniel Soto, a gay Riverside, California couple, have filed restraining orders against two employees at Lowes after they said they were threatened by employees Andy Olague and Frank Villa when they came in accompanied by their teen son to complain about a product.

ABC7 reports:

Smythe said he approached the customer service counter and said he wanted to return the product, saying it wasn't working well. When he told the clerk he didn't have a receipt, but that it was likely under his Lowe's account information, for some reason the clerk became angry and annoyed.

"He says, 'Just so you know, if you'd read the [expletive] directions, you would see that you have to charge it for 12 hours to make it work correctly,'" Smythe said.

Smythe says he responded with, "Don't talk to me like that, I'm definitely not the one to talk to like that."

But the Lowe's employee only grew more hostile, allegedly making anti-gay slurs. According to Smythe, the clerk then said, "I'll beat your [expletive]. I'll say what [expletive] I want."

Smythe admitted firing back at the cashier at that point, saying, "No wonder you haven't been promoted." And that was when he says the cashier tried to attack him and had to be restrained by the assistant manager while saying, "I got your address, I got your phone number, I'll be at your house."

Watch ABC7's report, AFTER THE JUMP...

A rally at Lowes has been organized:

Jeremy Smythe, of Riverside, said the protest against the Lowe’s at 9851 Magnolia Blvd. has now been scheduled for 1 p.m. next Saturday, June 30, to allow more people to participate. The protest had been originally scheduled for Sunday, five days after Smythe and his domestic partner, Daniel Soto, say employees called them anti-gay slurs and had to be physically restrained by store managers.