Arch & Bruce Brown

Filmmaker, photographer, playwright, and philanthropist Arch Brown died of natural causes at his home in Palm Springs, California, on September 3, 2012. He was 76 years old. (Picture: @James Waller)

Born Arnold Krueger in Chicago on June 2, 1936, Brown attended Northwestern University before moving to New York City in the late 1950s. There, he met his life partner, Bruce Brown, whose last name he used professionally.

Following Bruce Brown’s death in 1993, Arch Brown established the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, which gives grants to LGBT playwrights and to theater groups mounting LGBT-themed plays and which has sponsored periodic literary competitions awarding prizes to playwrights and fiction writers whose works are “based on, or inspired by, a historic person, culture, event, or work of art.” Among the works the Foundation awarded recognition through its literary grants were plays by Carolyn Gage (The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman), David Brendan Hopes (St. Patrick’s Well), David Johnston (Candy & Dorothy), Quiara Alegria Hudes (Pennsylvania for Stargazers), and novels by Jameson Currier (Where the Rainbow Ends), Harlan Greene (The Lost Light), Raymond Luczak (Men With Their Hands), and Merlyn A. Hermes (The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet).

Brown gained famed during the 1970s and early 1980s as the director of a series of feature-length gay pornographic films, including, among others, The Night Before (1973), Five Hard Pieces (1977), Harley’s Angels (1977), Dynamite! (1978; starring Jack Wrangler), So Many Men, So Little Time (1979) and All Tied Up (1981). During this period, he also worked as photographer, taking erotic photographs that appeared in gay slicks such as Mandate and Honcho.


Arch Brown & Bruce Brown are interred together in Maple Hill Cemetery, Charlotte, Eaton County, Michigan, USA, Plot: E-64
Arch Brown (1936 - 2012) attended Northwestern University before moving to New York City in the late 1950s. There, he met his life partner, Bruce Brown, whose last name he used professionally. Following Bruce Brown’s death in 1993, Arch Brown established the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, which gives grants to LGBT playwrights and to theater groups mounting LGBT-themed plays and which has sponsored periodic literary competitions awarding prizes to playwrights and fiction writers.

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Source: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/rem/09/22/arch-brown-filmmaker-and-playwright-is-dead-at-76/#sthash.l2fuoVia.dpuf (Posted on 22. Sep, 2012 by Jameson Currier in Remembrances)

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Crawford Barton & Larry Lara

Crawford Barton (June 2, 1943 in Georgia – June 10, 1993 in San Francisco) was a gay American photographer. His work is known for documenting the blooming of the openly gay culture in San Francisco from the late 1960s into the 1980s. By the early 1970s he was established as a leading photographer of the “golden age of gay awakening” in San Francisco. He was as much a participant as a chronicler of this extraordinary time and place. (Picture: Gay photographer Crawford Barton proposed as a cover for After Dark magazines's idea of a typical San Francisco man, 1972)

“I tried to serve as a chronicler, as a watcher of beautiful people - to feed back an image of a positive, likable lifestyle― to offer pleasure as well as pride,” he explained.

By the early 1980s this period was over. San Francisco and the gay community were devastated by the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Barton’s lover of 22 years, Larry Lara, died of complications from AIDS before Barton himself succumbed at the age of 50 in 1993. (Picture: Larry Lara On The Rooftop In San Francisco By His Lover Crawford Barton)

Born and raised in a fundamentalist community in rural Georgia, Barton was a shy, introspective boy. His artistic interests and fear of sports alienated him from his father, a struggling farmer. He escaped family tensions by creating a world of his own imagination, which eventually led him to receive a small art scholarship at the University of Georgia.

It was there that Barton fell in love with a man for the first time. His feelings weren’t reciprocated, and after one semester, he dropped out and returned to the farm.

A couple of years later, at age 21, he enrolled in art school in Atlanta. He made new friends and found outlets for his pent-up sexual energy in that city’s gay bars and clubs. It was during this time in Atlanta that Barton received a used 35mm camera as a gift, and learned basic darkroom techniques. He found his true calling in life — photography.


Crawford Barton was an American photographer. His work is known for documenting the blooming of the openly gay culture in San Francisco from the late 1960s into the 1980s. Barton’s lover of 22 years, Larry Lara, died of complications from AIDS before Barton. Barton described Lara as the “perfect specimen, as crazy and wonderful and spontaneous and free as Kerouac, so I’m never bored and never tired of looking at him.”  Beautiful Men was published in 1976. Crawford Barton, Days of Hope was published posthumously in 1994.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Barton

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Ellen “Lennie” W. Gerber & Pearl Berlin

Lennie Gerber and Pearl Berlin, who campaigned unsuccessfully against the N.C. marriage amendment, which effectively barred legal marriages for gay people, sealed their 47-year relationship with the Jewish wedding they always wanted. It may not be recognized by the state of North Carolina, but it is legal according to Jewish law.

Living in the Overlap is the improbably true story of two girls growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, falling in love in the Midwest, and making a life together in North Carolina.

Filmmakers Mary M. Dalton, Cindy Hill, Ellen Hendrix, Cara Pilson, Peter Gilbert and Sandra Dickson learned about Lennie Gerber and Pearl Berlin’s 46-year love story from a newspaper article and wanted to share their philosophy of relationships and their vibrant personalities with a larger audience. Lennie is an attorney focusing on LGBT issues, and Pearl is a retired professor working on various political issues. They are surprised to have reached icon status for simply living their lives together. The film, Living in the Overlap, includes public and private moments in Lennie and Pearl’s lives using interviews, archival material, and sequences shot during their efforts to defeat North Carolina’s anti-gay marriage amendment.


Living in the Overlap is the improbably true story of two girls growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, falling in love in the Midwest, and making a life together in North Carolina. Lennie Gerber and Pearl Berlin, who campaigned unsuccessfully against the N.C. marriage amendment, which effectively barred legal marriages for gay people, sealed their 47-year relationship with the Jewish wedding they always wanted. It may not be recognized by the state of N.C., but it is legal according to Jewish law.


Pearl Berlin and Lennie Gerber, left to right, leave the bimah greeted by family and friends after their wedding vows at Beth David Synagogue on Sunday, June 2, 2013 in Greensboro, N.C.

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Source: www.lennieandpearl.com/

( Further Readings )

More Real Life Romances at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Albert Innaurato (born June 2, 1947)

Albert Innaurato (born June 2, 1947) is an American playwright, theatre director, and writer.

Innaurato was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1947. After graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Innaurato attended the Yale School of Drama. He was awarded the Guggenheim Grant, the Rockefeller Grant and two National Endowment for the Arts grants.

Innaurato collaborated with Christopher Durang on The Idiots Karamazov, I Don't Normally Like Poetry but Have You Read Trees, and Gyp, the Real-Life Story of Mitzi Gaynor while both were students at Yale University's School of Drama. They performed in all three plays but especially in the last two named. Dressed as priests they played women in summer stock, they opened the Manhattan Theatre Club, almost costing the founder Lynn Meadow her new board. At Yale they frequently appeared in plays with their Drama School classmates Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver and their friend, the late Wendy Wasserstein.

In 1976, he drew critical attention for the Playwrights Horizons staging of his play Gemini. A year later, after some cast changes, the play was produced at PAF Playhouse on Long Island. That production subsequently was presented off-Broadway at the Circle Repertory Company, opening March 8, 1977, where it was acclaimed by the major New York critics. The Circle Rep production transferred to Broadway, where it ran for 1819 performances and earned him an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding New American Play. The screen adaptation, which Innaurato did not write, was released in 1980 under the title Happy Birthday, Gemini. Showtime filmed the play as written with members of the original cast,

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Innaurato

( Albert Innaurato, 1988, by Robert Giard )

More Particular Voices at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Particular Voices

Zachary Quinto, Jonathan Groff & Miles McMillan

Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. At the age of 22, Groff received a Tony Award nomination for his performance as Melchior Gabor in the Broadway rock musical Spring Awakening. He also portrayed the role of Claude in the critically acclaimed revival of Hair. Regularly seen on the off-Broadway stage, Groff has won an Obie Award for starring in two of Craig Lucas's plays, Prayer for My Enemy and The Singing Forest. He made his West End debut in the revival of the play Deathtrap opposite Simon Russell Beale. He also starred in the two-man play Red alongside Alfred Molina.

In 2013, Groff starred in the first-ever screen adaptation of author David Sedaris's work, C.O.G., in which he portrayed a character based on Sedaris himself, and as the voice of Kristoff in Frozen. On television, Groff portrayed the recurring role of Jesse St. James in the Fox series Glee, and as of 2014, he stars as Patrick Murray in the HBO series Looking.

Groff was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of Julie, a physical education teacher, and Jim Groff, a harness horse trainer and driver. He has one older brother, David, and is a first cousin of singer James Wolpert, a semifinalist on the fifth season of The Voice.

His father's family is Mennonite; of his upbringing, he has said: "My mother’s side of the family is Methodist, which is how I was raised. It was conservative in that I had strong values—sitting down and eating with the family every day, listening to authority and going to church every week and having perfect attendance at Sunday school. But at the same time, my parents always encouraged my brother and me to be happy with what we were doing. My parents were athletes in high school; my mom and my dad were the stars of the basketball team, but they never pushed my brother and me to be anything we didn’t want to be."

Zachary Quinto & Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. Zachary John Quinto (born June 2, 1977) is an American actor and film producer.  Groff came out as gay in October 2009 during the National Equality March in Washington. Since 2010, Groff was rumored to be dating actor Zachary Quinto. In September 2012, Quinto confirmed that he and Groff were in a relationship. In July 2013, it was reported that the two had broken up.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Groff

Zachary John Quinto (born June 2, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. Since 2010, Quinto was rumored to be dating actor Jonathan Groff. In September 2012, Quinto confirmed that he and Groff were in a relationship. In July 2013, it was reported that the two had broken up. On August 27, 2014, he confirmed he's dating model Miles McMillan (on Instagram). In early 2015, Quinto said that he and his partner were moving into an apartment they purchased together. Quinto also confirmed they had been together just under two years.

Quinto grew up in Pennsylvania and was active in high school musical theater. In the early 2000s, he guest starred in television series and appeared in a recurring role in the serial drama 24 from 2003 to 2004. In 2006, Quinto acted in the sitcom So NoTORIous and portrayed series antagonist Sylar in the science fiction drama Heroes from 2006 to 2010. He played Spock in the 2009 reboot Star Trek, and its 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness.

Quinto publicly came out as gay in October 2011. He explained that, after the suicide of bisexual teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, he realized "that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality." Prior to his coming out, Quinto had long been an active supporter of gay rights and organizations, for instance the Trevor Project. In 2009, he appeared in the one-night production Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, a benefit stage reading in response to the passing of Proposition 8, as well as in the play The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. In 2010, Quinto contributed a video to the It Gets Better Project, an Internet-based campaign that aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth. In 2012 Quinto campaigned on behalf of Barack Obama, including appearing in the video Obama Pride: LGBT Americans For Obama. (Picture: Jonathan Groff)


Zachary Quinto


Zachary Quinto is an American actor and film producer. Since 2010, Quinto was rumored to be dating actor Jonathan Groff. In September 2012, Quinto confirmed that he and Groff were in a relationship. In July 2013, it was reported that the two had broken up. On August 27, 2014, he confirmed he's dating model Miles McMillan (on Instagram). In early 2015, Quinto said that he and his partner were moving into an apartment they purchased together. Quinto also confirmed they had been together just under two years.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Quinto

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Euro Pride Con & UK Meet: Aleksandr Voinov

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the Euro Pride in Munich, July 11-12, 2015, today author is Aleksandr Voinov (Aleksandr Voinov will also attend the UK Meet in Bristol): EPIC Award winner and Lambda Award finalist Aleksandr Voinov is an emigrant German author living near London, where he works as a financial editor. His genres range from science fiction and fantasy to thriller, historical, contemporary, thriller, and erotica. His books were/are published by Random House Germany, Samhain Publishing, Riptide Publishing and others.

If he isn't writing, he studies sports massage, explores historical sites, and meets other writers. He single-handedly sustains three London bookstores with his ever-changing research projects. His current interests include special forces operations during World War II, the history of chess, european magical traditions, and how to destroy the world and plunge it into a nuclear winter without having the benefit of nuclear weapons.

Further Readings:

Dark Soul by Aleksandr Voinov
Paperback: 292 pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing; 2 edition (December 12, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1937551318
ISBN-13: 978-1937551315
Amazon: Dark Soul Collection

Love lights even the darkest soul.

A killer's moral compass rarely points true, and among made men, being gay is a capital crime. But Silvio Spadaro, deadly prodigy and heir to a Family fortune, is determined to find his own way—at the feet of the man he loves or by the barrel of a gun—no matter the dangers or costs.

Stefano Marino lives a comfortable—some might even say enviable—life. As a mob boss at the top of the food chain, he has it all: money, respect, a beautiful wife he loves as much now as the day they wed. But he also has a turf war on his hands, and far too soft a heart for this dark business.

When Silvio is sent to help Stefano with his turf war, sparks fly. Stefano loves his wife, but he wants Silvio. It's a desire he hardly knows how to process, but Silvio, ever the patient predator, maneuvers Stefano closer and closer to his bed each day. Stefano resists; giving in to these dark desires means giving up on his marriage, and exposure would surely mean death. Yet there's no denying Silvio's magnetic pull, or the long-repressed urges inside himself. Yielding is inevitable, but he may yet find a way to hold on to everything—and everyone—he loves.

&

UK Meet: Agnes & Kat (K. A. Merikan)

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the UK Meet in Bristol, September 11-13, 2015, today author is K. A. Merikan (K. A. Merikan will also attend Euro Pride Con in Munich): K. A. Merikan is the pen name for Kat and Agnes Merikan, a team of writers, who are taken for sisters with surprising regularity. Kat’s the mean sergeant and survival specialist of the duo, never hesitating to kick Agnes’s ass when she’s slacking off. Her memory works like an easy-access catalogue, which allows her to keep up with both book details and social media. Also works as the emergency GPS. Agnes is the Merikan nitpicker, usually found busy with formatting and research. Her attention tends to be scattered, and despite pushing thirty, she needs to apply makeup to buy alcohol. Self-proclaimed queen of the roads.

They love the weird and wonderful, stepping out of the box, and bending stereotypes both in life and books. When you pick up a Merikan book, there’s one thing you can be sure of - it will be full of surprises.

Inspiration never failed them so far, but they are ready to hunt down the exotic and unique. Kat and Agnes are pursuing their dream of becoming full fledged virtual nomads. Having gotten rid of their apartment and with most of their belongings put in storage, they are choosing their own path in life, ready to experience all the world has to offer while working on their books.

Further Readings:

No Matter What (Sex & Mayhem #4) by K.A. Merikan
Publisher: Acerbi & Villani ltd. (April 25, 2015)
Amazon Kindle: No Matter What (Sex & Mayhem #4)

--- A gentle heart has no place in an outlaw’s chest ---

Ghost. Not a member of the Coffin Nails MC. Not a doctor anymore. Not gay.
Luca. Bent, not broken. Will not let go of Ghost. No matter what.

Ghost finds out the hard way that people you meet online aren’t always who they seem to be. When he met ‘Zara’ five years ago, they became inseparable. She’s been with him through the rough and the smooth. He’s been there for her when her abusive boyfriend had her in tears.

She is The One, and despite all his friends considering him crazy, Ghost is about to propose.

But ‘Zara’ turns out to be Luca, and Luca is most definitely a guy. Yet Luca is the same person with big dark eyes, so desperate to be saved that Ghost can’t help but fall head first.

Luca’s so-called boyfriend is not just abusive. He is a Sicilian drug lord, a man dangerous and ruthless. If Ghost is to ever save the person who wreaked havoc on his heart, he has to make a deal with the Coffin Nails MC. But being a member is a destiny he’s always tried to avoid. And when a life of violence becomes too much to bear, he might be the one needing Luca to catch him when he falls.

&

GRL: Jeff Adams

Starting from June 1, 2015, I will daily feature authors attending the three conventions I will join, Euro Pride in Munich (July), UK Meet in Bristol (September) and GRL in San Diego (October).

For the GRL in San Diego, October 15-18, 2015, today author is Jeff Adams: Jeff's written stories since he was in middle school and became a gay romance writer in 2009 when his first short stories were published. Since then he's written several more shorts and novels, including some in the young adult genre, and he plans to keep writing as long as wonderful readers keeping picking up his books.

Jeff lives in rural Northern California with his husband of twenty years, Will. Some of his favorite things include the musicals Rent and [title of show], the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey teams, and the reality TV competition So You Think You Can Dance. If forced to pick his favorite book it would be a tie between Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and David Levithan's Every Day.

Further Readings:

Flipping for Him by Jeff Adams
Paperback: 94 pages
Publisher: J&W Books (March 10, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0986136018
ISBN-13: 978-0986136016
Amazon: Flipping for Him
Amazon Kindle: Flipping for Him

Kevin McCollum is a high school junior with the usual things on his mind: getting good grades, having fun, and finding a boyfriend. On a warm afternoon, while studying in Central Park, Kevin notices a guy practicing parkour—jumping on rocks, running up trees, doing flips. Kevin’s a fan of the sport, and many of the hot guys he’s seen do it on TV. After watching “parkour guy” for several days, Kevin is surprised when Shin comes over to introduce himself. As the two begin dating, cultures clash when Shin’s parents reveal their expectations that he date only Japanese boys. Pressures mount and Kevin isn’t sure how he can fight to keep Shin when the opposition are his parents and traditions. Is their twenty-first century love doomed before it even truly begins?