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EDGE is the largest network of local Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) news and entertainment publications in the world, serving 8+ million dedicated readers from a variety of metropolitan areas around the United States and beyond on the web, mobile web and native apps.
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Anthony Ramos shared a sweet vid of himself doing sit-ups with a little help from his dog Prince as his film "In the Heights" begins to make its way to theaters in June. Ramos is already having quite a good year. In February he was named to the TIME 100, the magazine's list of influencers to watch over the year. Earlier this month, the "Hamilton" actor was part of a group of entertainment influencers included in a new Calvin Klein underwear campaign. Now this weekend Warner Brothers is teasing a series of posters for Ramos's upcoming film "In The Heights," in which he plays the lead in John M. Chu's adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical. The film will be released in June in theaters and on HBO Max. "Six posters surfaced on the film's official Twitter account on Saturday morning, each with a different design, though featuring the same tagline, 'The Time Has Come.'" reported The Hollywood Reporter. The playful actor recently shared a thirst-trapping video of himself doing sit-ups with a little help from his dog Prince. In the musical, Ramos plays a bodega owner struggling to make a better life for himself in Washington Heights and dreams of moving to the Dominican Republic. The role was played on Broadway in 2008 by Miranda where the musical ran for three years. Previously Ramos was featured in the 2012 national tour of the musical prior to originating two roles in Miranda's megahit "Hamilton" as part of the original cast. He also had a featured role in Bradley Cooper's 2018 adaptation of "A Star is Born" where he played Lady Gaga's BFF Ramon. In 2019 Ramos released his first CD for Republic Records "The Good & The Bad." Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ??? (?: Anthony Ramos / Instagram / @anthonyramosofficial)
A male nurse in Canada committed "professional misconduct" in having "solicited unneeded intimate sexual history details" from gay patients, the British Columbia newspaper TriCity News reports. The conduct of Paul Perry at two clinics in Vancouver, Canada, came under scrutiny by the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives. A panel determined that Perry had asked for "detailed and personal sexual histories from clients when not needed," as well as "information about past sexual, physical or psychological trauma." In probing patients' histories of abuse and trauma, the panel said Perry "may have further traumatized a client" and he "had not referred clients to appropriate supportive services in those cases" and was "found incompetent in providing psychological counseling to patients when not qualified to do so." The panel's ruling noted that Perry had been"employed in the health authorities' prevention program with the specific mandate to work with the vulnerable and high risk population of men-who-have-sex-with-men ('MSM') and said that the "level of detail": Perry sought from the patients "was not clinically indicated and was contrary to the goals and/or mandate of the MSM program". The panel specified that Perry had "recorded sexual histories in patient records using non-clinical descriptions" such as "fisting" and "bottoming," the article said, with the terms being described as "inappropriate nonclinical descriptors". Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️?? (?: Getty, ?️: Kilian Melloy / @dragelruairi )
This is how you do it! It's rare that a filmmaker has an opportunity to revisit a multi-million dollar blockbuster that failed to inspire imaginations when originally released. With the much anticipated "Zack Snyder's Justice League," premiering on HBO Max March 18, fans see the movie reimagined; they can now forget about the original box-office dud that nearly sank the DC movie franchise. The runtime doesn't diminish the film, despite being four hours, which is entirely re-cut and enhanced to properly incorporate many of the elements that were lacking in the initial release. The superheroes are more "super," and the villains are more formidable. Everything feels much more fleshed out and courses with blood. Affleck's "Batman" is determined and filled with a purpose to protect the planet, Gadot's "Wonder Woman" is a pillar of hope to aspire to. The enemies our heroes face have an entirely new dimension that Whedon eradicated from his release. If you read the comic book series "Origin," by Geoff Johns with art by Jim Lee, you'll see that Snyder's film is largely adapted from it. The adversary preparing to dominate Earth is revealed from the get go. The mercenary Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciarán Hinds) is relevant, and his backstory more interestingly evolved, given the villain a deadly gravitas and a mac-daddy new appearance that makes him far more formidable, not to mention much more on the level to match against the warrior goddesses of Paradise. While the running time is daunting, the original was promised as two separate, full-length movies. For his reboot, Snyder has separated each act into easily digestible narratives that feel like issues of a comic book, with a final "double sized" battle to end all battles. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" is the event film that had been promised. It's not perfect, but it's a blockbuster, it's adventurous, and it has the heart and soul that was absent the first time around. This is a "Justice League" we can rally around. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ??️?(?️: JC Alvarez, ?: WarnerMedia)
And then there were eight. This week, Ru tasked the queens with meta makeovers, pairing them under the advisement of psychic Char Margolis. All eggs were in the maxi challenge basket as contestants learned to sissy their competitors' walks, both in style and substance. Some had an out-of-body experience, while others were merely ghostly interpretations. While our usual "frayed" or "fab" assessment doesn't apply this week, we've decided to rate the looks as "RU-velation" for our favorite doppelgänger queens and "Regret" for those who might want to reconsider stepping into another queen's well-worn heels. Thankfully, Carol Burnett was not in the house this week as Utica crawled into Symone's stylish skin. Initially worried about "appropriating" her teammate, Utica, instead shed some of her own inhibitions, embracing Symone's powerful runway walk and, in turn, discovering another facet of her own style. Verdict: Ru-velation! Wearing a champagne-colored Martha Graham amoeba shawl, flower headdress and painted unitard, Symone fearlessly embraced Utica's quirky drag style. "I feel powerful but in a different way," said Symone of her contorted Utica-inspired runway walk. Verdict: Ru-velation! Let's take a deeper look! Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️???(?: Utica / Instagram / @queenutica / ?: @liamjamesphoto, @philolmstead, @a_kaun, ?️: Matthew Wexler / @wexlerwrites)
After a teacher in Austin, Texas shared a children's book about transgender identity in class, the Eanes Independent School District has clapped back, calling the book out of place and offering counseling to students who heard the reading. The book in question, "Call Me Max" by Stonewall-Award winner Kyle Lukoff, centers on a transgender boy outlining his identity and is meant to help explain this idea to younger children. According to Today, the controversy climbed when local parents wrote to Forest Trail Elementary calling for the teacher in question to be fired. Eanes district's chief learning officer Susan Famborough responded, stating that while the book was listed as diverse reading, it was "not appropriate to be read aloud to an entire elementary-age class." Famborough's response quickly added that "counselors were made available to support students, and the school administration worked with families to provide an explanation and reassurances." The backlash to these responses was swift, with both the book's author and a variety of resident around the district expressing their dismay with the negative precedent these events could set for young transgender children. Jo Iveseter, whose transgender son Jeremy attended school in Eanes from kindgeraten to his senior of high school, had some choice words for the districts decision to ban the book. "It tells them that they must be invisible, that they can't talk about who they are, that they are unworthy," Ivester said of the district's decision. Lukoff reacted similarly, taking to Twitter to express his grievances with the elementary school's interpretation of his book. "Do you believe that a read-aloud about a transgender child is an equivalent trauma?" asked in the Tweet. "How do you think transgender people in your community felt having their identities treated like a disaster?" Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️??(?: Cover / Call Me Max / Reycraft Books / ?️: Brendan Walker / @brendan.m.walker)
A chance meeting at a dinner party by two people reluctant to be at that dinner party has resulted in a cookbook perfect for your next dinner party. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, star of "Modern Family," and food writer Julie Tanous have teamed up for "Food Between Friends," which blends dishes inspired by her native South and his New Mexico influences. "We just started collecting recipes and ideas based on our history and the people that we care about," said Ferguson. "I think the flavor profiles naturally go beautifully together." It's a breezy celebration of both cuisines in sections on brunch, fish, chicken, beef, desserts, starters, drinks and vegetarian dishes. Both regions come through beautifully in their green chili chicken enchilada pot pie, which takes the spirit of the South and brings it into the Southwest. Tanous, who has written food stories, developed recipes for magazines and worked in catering, said most of the recipes are riffs off what both authors grew up eating, the restaurant dishes they adore and the foods their husbands love. She traveled to New Mexico with Ferguson and would bring an extra suitcase to take home things like blue cornmeal and chilies. There's a lightness and a winking humor throughout, as when Ferguson writes about how his family would likely razz him if he called patties by the more upscale name croquette. The authors also peel back the formula to writing introductions to recipes, and argue that crispy-skin salmon — approachable, adaptable, easy to work with and liked by all — is the "Tom Hanks of protein." "We looked for funny, humorous ways to sort of not take ourselves too seriously," said Ferguson. "We're first-time cookbook authors and we didn't want to enter the room being like, 'Well, we know a lot about all of this.' We really were trying to be very respectful of where we sat as first-time authors." While both writers were well versed on items common to the South and Southwest — like beans, corn and chilies — each introduced different ingredients to the other. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ??️? (?: Jesse Tyler Ferguson @jessetyler and Julie Tanous @juliebethtanous / Clarkson Potter via AP)
A Bangladeshi satellite television station has hired the country's first transgender news anchor, saying it hopes the appointment will help change society. Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who previously worked as a rights activist and actress, debuted on Dhaka-based Boishakhi TV on Monday, International Women's Day. She read a three-minute news bulletin, and after finishing cried as her colleagues applauded and cheered. "I was very nervous, I was feeling so much emotional, but I had in my mind that I must overcome this ordeal, this final test," Shishir, 29, said in an interview Tuesday. Born Kamal Hossain Shishir, she said she found in her early teens that she was stuck in a man's body and behaved like a woman. She said family members, relatives and neighbors started teasing her and she was bullied and sexually exploited. She started feeling that it was impossible to continue living and attempted suicide, she said. The worst thing that happened was that her father stopped talking to her, saying she was the reason that her family was losing face, Shishir said. "I left home," she said. She moved from her family's house in a southern coastal district to live a solitary life in the capital, where she underwent hormone therapy, worked for charities and acted with a local theater group. In January, she began studying public health at a Dhaka university, which she is continuing alongside her job at the TV station. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ????️? (?: Tashnuva Anan Shishir / AP / Al-emrun Garjon)
The European Parliament has overwhelming adopted a resolution declaring the entire 27-member European Union a "freedom zone" for LGBT people, an effort to push back on rising homophobia in Poland and elsewhere. The parliament announced Thursday that there were 492 ballots in favor of the resolution and 141 against in a vote that came after a debate in a session of parliament in Brussels on Wednesday. The resolution came largely in reaction to developments over the past two years in Poland, where many local communities have adopted largely symbolic resolutions declaring themselves free of what conservative authorities have been calling "LGBT ideology." These towns say they are seeking to protect traditional families based on unions of men and women, but LGBT rights activists say the designations are discriminatory and make gays and lesbians feel unwelcome. The areas have come to be colloquially known as "LGBT-free zones." The resolution is the work of a cross-party group in the European Parliament, the LGBTI Intergroup. The Polish government has denounced the resolution. It argues that Poland, as a sovereign nation and a society more conservative than many Western European countries, has the right to defend its traditional family values based on a long attachment to Roman Catholicism. It accuses the EU lawmakers of overstepping their jurisdiction. The government also has argued that the rates of hate crimes are lower in Poland than in many countries in Western Europe. However, LGBT rights activists say this is impossible to measure. Kuba Gawon, who has been documenting local anti-LGBT resolutions with the group Atlas of Hate, said that there is no mention in the Polish penal code specifically about homophobic crimes, so police do not keep statistics of such crimes. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️?? (?: Bart Staszewski, an LGBT activist, holds up a sign he uses to protest anti-LGBT resolutions, in Warsaw, Poland / AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Single Americans have taken sex into their own hands since the pandemic began. The average single person is masturbating three times per day, according to new research. A poll of 2,005 single Americans found three in 10 are masturbating more than once a day — and just 14% are doing it once a day. Masturbation has seen an uptick since March 2020 as nearly half (48%) are pleasuring themselves more frequently than ever before due to being indoors so much more. These solo sessions have led to some jaw-dropping orgasms — over a third (34%) experienced their best orgasm ever during the pandemic. What's led to this boom of mind-blowing pleasure? Three in 10 say trying a new position or technique has boosted their sex life amid the pandemic — like masturbating. Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of #LubeLife, the survey aimed to see how the pandemic has affected singles' sex lives and discovered over a quarter (26%) say they are watching more porn during the pandemic. Nearly half (47%) of those who are single surveyed say that they used to be embarrassed about masturbating, but since the pandemic began, they have become a lot more open to it. This new embrace of masturbation stems from the fact that 39% of respondents have experienced a dry spell in their sex lives since March 2020. And 59% of those don't plan on breaking their dry spell any time soon, even if the pandemic went away — with one in five saying they want to experiment with masturbation even more. One in 10 of those looking to extend their dry spell in a post-COVID world intend to do so because they PREFER masturbating now. Even so, 57% of those who've experienced a dry spell are worried about having sex for the first time after not recently experiencing it with a partner. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ??? (?: Getty)
In the opening sequence in "West Side Story," there is an iconic image of George Chakiris. In a close-up, he stands with one hand pressed against a red brick wall brooding with anger after being harassed by members of a rival teen gang, the Jets. Stepping away, he begins to snap his fingers joined by two other Sharks. Then to surging Leonard Bernstein music, the three break into dance, first on a street than framed against the tenements of New York's West Side that were razed after the filming was completed. In this moment, the smoldering Chakiris establishes a formidable presence in this musical retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" set amongst infighting between juvenile gangs in New York. Hollywood agreed, awarding him (along with co-star Rita Moreno) a supporting performance Oscar. Up to that point, Chakiris had been in numerous films, but largely in small roles, usually as a dancer or chorus member in such films as "The Great Caruso," "Stars and Stripes Forever," "Call Me Madam," and "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." He is famously seen in 1951's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" as one of the men with Marilyn Monroe in the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" number. And in 1953 opposite Rosemary Clooney in "White Christmas" performing "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me." A publicity photo from that scene generated so much fan mail to Paramount that the studio offered him a contract; but unhappy with his career, he moved to New York City in the late 1950s to pursue a stage career. After being cast as Riff in the London production of "West Side Story," he was flown to Hollywood to audition for either that role or his rival Bernardo for the film version, and worked with the show's creator Jerome Robbins for his audition. This led to him being cast in the film, overnight stardom and an Oscar. Then in November of 2012, he had the honor of placing his hand and footprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in honor of the film's 50th anniversary. EDGE spoke to Chakiris about "My West Side Story: A Memoir." Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?? (?️: Steve Duffy, ?: George Chakiris / West Side Story / MGM)
In Ohio, GOP Rep. Jena Powell has re-introduced the "Save Women's Sports Act" bill in the state legislature, saying that when it was introduced last year, it wasn't afforded a proper hearing, WKYC reports. Powell repeated standard anti-trans tropes — which were reiterated in former President Trump's factually deficient speech at CPAC last month — about unfounded assumptions that genitalia, for all practical purposes, provides an unfair advantage: "What we're seeing nationwide is when we're having biological males compete against females, it robs females of their athletic opportunity." If passed, the bill would take precedence over Ohio High School Athletic Association guidelines that allow transgender athletes to compete. According to Detroit Free Press, Michigan State Senate introduced a bill that would ban transgender athletes from playing with teams that align with their gender identity — transgender boys would not be able to play on boys' teams, and transgender girls could not play with girls' teams. The bill, sponsored by GOP Senator Lana Theis (of Brighton) and twelve other Republicans, states, "If the school designates a team in an interscholastic athletic activity offered to pupils enrolled at the school as a girls', women's, or female team, a requirement that each pupil who competes for a position on that team or who is selected to compete on that team must be female based on biological sex." Enforcement and penalties for violations of the proposed law are not clear. Describing the proposed bill as unconstitutional, Erin Knott, president of Equality Michigan, said "Kids learn a lot of important life lessons in sports: leadership, confidence, self-respect, and what it means to be part of a team. "School officials shouldn't treat a transgender female student as a girl between 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. and then treat her like she's a boy when sports practice starts. It's deeply hurtful to the student and disrupts the school's policy of treating all kids fairly." Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️?? (?: University of Montana cross country runner Juniper Eastwood / AP)
![Italian actor Michele Morrone became an overnight sensation last year for his starring role in Netflix's "365 Days." In the Polish erotic drama the 30-year-old plays Massimo Torricelli, a Mafia don who kidnaps a Warsaw woman he had seen on a beach five years before and intends on keeping her prisoner for 365 days until she falls in love with him. Morrone is also a talented musician, having learned to play the guitar at the age of 25 by watching YouTube videos. This week he released "Beautiful," a single with a new video. Regarding the single, Morrone said in a press release: "Whether it's the right time or not, love always feels right and it will hunt you until you submit to it." With "Beautiful," "acoustic chords underline his larger-than-life vocals. With a syncopated bounce, his dynamic delivery culminates on the immediately chantable refrain, 'Wish I could turn it off, let it go, but she's too fucking beautiful,'" reads a press release. Morrone not only starred in "365 Days," he also sang four songs on its soundtrack: "Feel It", "Watch Me Burn", "Dark Room" and "Hard for Me," all of which can be heard on his debut album "Dark Room." Co-written by Morrone, the songs cumulatively tallied north of 200 million streams with the music video for "Hard For Me" amassing over 32 million views and counting. Following the success of his debut album, Morrone became the worldwide face of Guess Men's Fall/Winter 2020 collection. EDGE reported last month that Morrone was overwhelmed with the immediate success of "365 Days." "You have to understand," he told Esquire in an interview, "the night the film premiered on Netflix, I went to sleep and I had 48k followers [on Instagram]. When I woke up I had 2.1 million." His eyes go wide and wild when he recounts the story, every now and then he shakes his head. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ???️??? (?: Michele Morrone / Instagram / @iammichelemorroneofficial)](https://api.linkudu.superfps.xyz/Media/GetMedia/8481)
Italian actor Michele Morrone became an overnight sensation last year for his starring role in Netflix's "365 Days." In the Polish erotic drama the 30-year-old plays Massimo Torricelli, a Mafia don who kidnaps a Warsaw woman he had seen on a beach five years before and intends on keeping her prisoner for 365 days until she falls in love with him. Morrone is also a talented musician, having learned to play the guitar at the age of 25 by watching YouTube videos. This week he released "Beautiful," a single with a new video. Regarding the single, Morrone said in a press release: "Whether it's the right time or not, love always feels right and it will hunt you until you submit to it." With "Beautiful," "acoustic chords underline his larger-than-life vocals. With a syncopated bounce, his dynamic delivery culminates on the immediately chantable refrain, 'Wish I could turn it off, let it go, but she's too fucking beautiful,'" reads a press release. Morrone not only starred in "365 Days," he also sang four songs on its soundtrack: "Feel It", "Watch Me Burn", "Dark Room" and "Hard for Me," all of which can be heard on his debut album "Dark Room." Co-written by Morrone, the songs cumulatively tallied north of 200 million streams with the music video for "Hard For Me" amassing over 32 million views and counting. Following the success of his debut album, Morrone became the worldwide face of Guess Men's Fall/Winter 2020 collection. EDGE reported last month that Morrone was overwhelmed with the immediate success of "365 Days." "You have to understand," he told Esquire in an interview, "the night the film premiered on Netflix, I went to sleep and I had 48k followers [on Instagram]. When I woke up I had 2.1 million." His eyes go wide and wild when he recounts the story, every now and then he shakes his head. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ???️??? (?: Michele Morrone / Instagram / @iammichelemorroneofficial)
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