Posted by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette


Public Voting for Mr Gay Pride Australia Is Now Open
With seven finalists vying for the title of Mr. Gay Pride Australia 2018, members of the public are welcome to show their support for who they believe should represent Australia at Mr. Gay World 2018. The public online voting is now officially open and will be counted towards each finalist’s final score, helping Mr. Gay Pride Australia judges pick the 2018 winner in the highly contested competition. Public voting will remain open until Sunday, January 14, 2018 at Midday (AEDT). VOTE HERE


Once-A-Week HIV Medication Shows Promise In Early Testing
A new delivery system could make a once-a-week HIV medication a reality in the next few years. The research, published in Nature Communications, was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Patients would take a capsule that, once it reaches the stomach, would unfold into a star-shaped structure that would release medicine over the course of seven days. The star-structure would eventually dissolve and pass through the body. While at present some slow release drugs are available to be delivered via injection, most HIV meds are taken on a daily basis. MORE


80's Gay Film 'My Beautiful Laundrette' Being Made Into a TV Series


"The Big Sick" scribe Kumail Nanjiani is poised to take a walk on the wilder side, with plans to star in a TV series based on the 1985 gay Brit-flick "My Beautiful Laundrette." The original film was written by British playwright and novelist Hanif Kureishi and featured an interracial same-sex couple played by Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis. The film's general story - an interracial gay couple running a laundromat - will be preserved in the new show, IndieWire reports, noting that subjects like committed gay relationships and immigration make the project "timely." Nanjiani based last year's romantic comedy "The Big Sick," which he co-authored with wife Emily V. Gordon, on events from his own life. MORE


Fox News' Shep Smith: Trump's Attack On Libel Laws Is "A Word Salad Of Nothingness"
Fox News host Shep Smith was not having Donald Trump's not-even-thinly-veiled attack on author Michael Wolff when the Trumpster announced he wants his administration to explore a possible overhaul of "very unfair" libel laws. MORE


From Nashville to Nobodies: Gay Country Artists Open Up About Cost of Coming Out

Ottawa country singer Drake Jensen fondly remembers his Ottawa debut, a Christmas show at the National Arts Centre's Fourth Stage in 2011, and feeling alive in a way he never had before. It's a feeling he said he hasn't experienced much since publicly coming out the following year. "To be honest, it totally detoured my career," said Jensen. "It took me away from the mainstream and sent me down a road that I didn't know I would ever travel... I'm [no longer] part of the Canadian country music scene." MORE


Indiana Man Gets 8 Years for Not Telling Partners He Has HIV
Temujin K. Lapsley was sentenced Friday in Allen County after pleading guilty in December to malicious mischief involving infected bodily fluids. He also pleaded guilty to dealing methamphetamine and cocaine possession. Authorities were investigating Lapsley for drug activities when they learned he's HIV-positive and had signed a "Duty to Warn" form in California in December 2013 requiring him to inform sexual partners of his HIV status. Court document say Lapsley told police he estimated he had sex with about 60 people, both men and women, since his HIV diagnosis. MORE

Interview: Out Professional MMA Fighter, Shad Smith

Shad Smith

I asked Smith why he spent so much of his youth looking for trouble. I expected some sort of clichéd, though possibly true, explanation — a difficult childhood or a Napoleon complex. What I didn’t expect him to say was, “You know, bro, the sexual-preference thing.” MORE



Israel Lifts Ban on Gay and Bi Men Giving Blood, Ban In USA Still Stands
Israel announced Monday that it would be lifting a ban on gay and bisexual male blood donors, a change that has not been made in the United States. Israel's national emergency service Magen David Adom devised a "double testing" system that allows blood banks to screen donations twice, allowing gay and bisexual men to make immediate donations, MORE


Openly Gay Actor, Matt Palazzolo, Dead at 33

Matt Palazzolo, an actor and writer who was a longtime member of West Hollywood’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, a member of the Christopher Street West board and very well known in the city’s gay community, died Tuesday while hiking in Australia. Palazzolo, 33, apparently died of a heat stroke while climbing Mount Sonder, a 4,265-foot mountain in Central Australia. Palazzolo, an avid hiker and a friend were hiking in 108 degree heat. Palazzolo was born in Fremont and has a resume that includes roles in “Bloomers” (2011), “Stone Fruit” (2018) and “Switched at Birth” (2011). There was an outpouring of expressions of grief on Facebook from Palazzolo’s friends and family members. His father, Pat Palazzolo, expressed his pride in his son for his work as an advocate for gay rights. MORE