SAN BRUNO, Calif. – In a statement released Tuesday by YouTube on the company’s blog, Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health at YouTube, Dr. Garth Graham, joined by the company’s Vice President, Global Head of Trust & Safety Matt Halprin, announced that the platform was taking action to update its medical misinformation policies.

In the blog post the authors noted that; “moving forward, YouTube will streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories – Prevention, Treatment, and Denial.”

YouTube will also take action against videos that discourage people from seeking professional medical treatment as it sets out its health policies going forward. These policies will apply to specific health conditions, treatments, and substances where content contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Graham and Halprin noted.

Here’s what the framework of the new policies and guidelines will look like:

• Prevention misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on the prevention and transmission of specific health conditions, and on the safety and efficacy of approved vaccines. For example, this encompasses content that promotes a harmful substance for disease prevention.
• Treatment misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on treatments for specific health conditions, including promoting specific harmful substances or practices. Examples include content that encourages unproven remedies in place of seeking medical attention for specific conditions, like promoting caesium chloride as a treatment for cancer.
• Denial misinformation: We will remove content that disputes the existence of specific health conditions. This covers content that denies people have died from COVID-19.

Regarding cancer treatment misinformation and its removal Graham and Halprin wrote:

When cancer patients and their loved ones are faced with a diagnosis, they often turn to online spaces to research symptoms, learn about treatment journeys, and find community. Our mission is to make sure that when they turn to YouTube, they can easily find high-quality content from credible health sources.

In applying our updated approach, cancer treatment misinformation fits the framework – the public health risk is high as cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, there is stable consensus about safe cancer treatments from local and global health authorities, and it’s a topic that’s prone to misinformation.

Starting today and ramping up in the coming weeks, we will begin removing content that promotes cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective, or content that discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment.

This includes content that promotes unproven treatments in place of approved care or as a guaranteed cure, and treatments that have been specifically deemed harmful by health authorities. For instance, a video that claims “garlic cures cancer,” or “take vitamin C instead of radiation therapy” would be removed.

The two executives also made a point to acknowledge that there were potential concessions:

Debate and discussion are critical to the advancement of science and medicine. We always carefully take into account context when enforcing our policies, and allow content that provides educational, documentary, scientific and artistic (EDSA) context.

One element we consider is public interest. This means that we may allow content that is sufficiently in the public interest to remain on YouTube, even if it otherwise violates our policies – for example, a video of a public hearing or comments made by national political candidates on the campaign trail that disputes health authority guidance, or graphic footage from active warzones or humanitarian crises.

We may also make exceptions for personal testimonies or content that discusses the results of a specific medical study. Adding context to a video doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be allowed to remain, and we may also age-gate some content or surface an information panel underneath these videos to provide additional context for viewers.

Today’s move by the streaming platform on cancer and other medical misinformation is a continuation of practices put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

YouTube addressed similar issues when in September of 2021 when the video streaming platform announced that expanded its ban on vaccine misinformation. The company said that all false information about approved vaccines will be removed from its platform.

That action came three months after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called out tech companies for their role in hosting misinformation and urged companies to take a number of actions, including sharing data with researchers.

A related COVID-19 misinformation study by the Institute for Media and Communications Management, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland demonstrated a positive link between political polarization and the resistance to COVID-19 prevention measures. At the same time, political polarization has also been associated with the spread of misinformation.

Researchers found that the level of misinformation in YouTube comment sections increased during the pandemic, that fake comments attract statistically more likes, and that the ratio of fake comments increased by 0.4% per month.

These findings suggest that once introduced into an online discussion, misinformation potentially leads to an escalating spiral of misinformation comments, which undermines public policy.

LONDON – Nick and Charlie navigate their new relationship; Tara and Darcy face unforeseen challenges and Tao and Elle work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to plan, the gang has a lot to juggle as they journey through the next stages of life, love and friendship.

Heartstopper: Season 2 | Official Trailer | Netflix:

See-Saw Films & Netflix present Heartstopper Season Two

Written and Created by: Alice Oseman

Director: Euros Lyn

Executive Producers: Patrick Walters, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Alice Oseman, Euros Lyn

Cast: Kit Connor, Joe Locke, Yasmin Finney, William Gao, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Sebastian Croft, Tobie Donovan, Rhea Norwood, Jenny Walser, Cormac Hyde-Corrin and Olivia Colman

SEATTLE, WA. – Amazon Prime Video on Thursday released the trailer for the highly-anticipated rated R gay romantic comedy film Red, White, & Royal Blue. Based on the New York Times best-seller by Casey McQuiston, the film premieres globally on Prime Video on August 11.

The film is directed by Tony Award-winning playwright Matthew López and co-written by Ted Malawer.

Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez star in the film. Zakhar Perez plays Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the President of the United States (who is played by Uma Thurman) whose feud with U.K. Prince Henry (Galitzine) turns romantic — and R-rated-steamy.

“Separated by an ocean, their long-running feud hasn’t really been an issue, until a disastrous—and very public—altercation at a royal event becomes tabloid fodder, driving a potential wedge in U.S./British relations at the worst possible time. Going into damage-control mode, their families and handlers force the two rivals into a staged ‘truce,’” the press release from Amazon Prime Video reads.

they're not beating the rivals-to-lovers allegations. #RWRBMovie premieres august 11 on @PrimeVideo. pic.twitter.com/u6l3YhZIXx

— Red, White & Royal Blue on Prime (@RWRBonPrime) July 6, 2023

Red, White & Royal Blue | Official Trailer | Prime Video:

LONDON – See-Saw Films and Netflix announced Saturday, coinciding with the annual London Pride parade, that the second season of the runaway hit series Heartstopper will premiere on August 3.

Based on the graphic novels by award-winning author, illustrator, screenwriter, and series creator Alice Oseman, in season two Nick and Charlie navigate their new relationship, Tara and Darcy face unforeseen challenges and Tao and Elle work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to plan, the gang has a lot to juggle as they journey through the next stages of life, love and friendship.

Heartstopper: Season 2 | Official Teaser | Netflix:

HOLLYWOOD – When the NYPD raided the Stonewall back in 1969, we all now know, it was the queens and trans folks who stamped down their high heels first to fight back. 54 years later, they are doing it again.

As anti-trans and anti-drag fascism intoxicates a growingly more unrecognizable Republican party, drag queens and their fans are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. There are 467 bills being championed by GOP legislators in state governments vilifying and harming the LGBTQ community.

“This proposed legislation is a direct attempt to force the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly transgender and non-binary individuals, back into the closet, and the number of bills is growing exponentially by the week. Many of these bills, if passed, will prove deadly for trans youth across the country. As anti-trans rhetoric continues to spread, it’s no coincidence that according to the 2019 annual FBI Hate Crime Statistics report, nearly 1-in-5 of any type of hate crime is motivated by Anti-LGBTQIA+ bias,” states the Drag Isn’t Dangerous website.

“The nerve of these disingenuous politicians is unfathomable. The number one killer of children is guns and these NRA pawns deflect it with a completely fabricated problem that puts the drag community in danger. The hypocrisy is astounding,” states comedienne Sarah Siverman.

Hairspray director Adam Shankman agrees.

“Freedom of expression is guaranteed and enshrined in our constitution’s First Amendment. Drag is nothing but artistic and personal expression and drag artists are simply that: ARTISTS. Drag has always been about entertainment and joy, and has always celebrated this most important of our freedoms. For centuries drag artists have dressed up, told stories, sang, danced, made us laugh, wince, or cry depending on the moment. Drag artists are not dangerous. Frankly, the only thing dangerous about drag is walking in 8 inch heels. That and being hunted by cowardly bigots looking for more young minds to groom into their own cultures of fear and intolerance. Our community has been through this before and every time they come for us, we grow stronger. We will fight and we will prevail, wigs, nails and lashes in place, and like Ginger Rogers did, ‘backwards and in heels’!”

First up in that endeavor—time to raise some cash. For $20 plus tax you can tune into the streaming telethon this Sunday, May 7^th at 4 PM Pacific. If you are in Los Angeles, you have the option to see the telethon at Stache West Hollywood and Kitchen 24. Other cities have live watch parties as well, including New York at VERS NYC, El Paso, TX at Touch Bar, Milwaukee, WI at This Is It, and in Seattle, WA at Flying Lion Brewery.

The show will be hosted by some of the biggest names in drag and the world’s most spectacular celebrities. There will be live and pre-recorded exclusive performances, as well as cameos, by drag stars, Oscar winners, music superstars, Broadway’s best, comedians, and more. There will also be a live celebrity phone bank accepting donations.

The full roster at press time includes: Ada Vox, Adam Lambert, Adam Shankman, Alaska, Ali Wong, Amber Tamblyn, Amy Redford, Ashley Fink, BeBe Zahara Benet, Billy Eichner, Blair Erskine, Blu Hydrangea, Bob The Drag Queen, The Boulet Brothers, Brandon Stansell, Bridget Everett, Charlize Theron, Cheri Oteri, Chris Wood, Danielle Cabral, David Cross, Darcy & Jer, Darienne Lake, Desmond Is Amazing, Devon Green & Ned Douglas, Elizabeth Banks, Ella Vaday, Elektra Fence, Emma Hunton, Eureka O’Hara, Frankie Grande, Ginger Minj, Glass Battles, Henry Platt, Heidi N Closet, Idina Menzel, IMHO (Alexis P Bevels & Darby Lynn Cartwright), Isaac Mizrahi,Jack Falahee, Jackie Beat, Jasmine Kennedie, Jai Rodriguez, Jane Castor (Mayor of Tampa, FL), JAX, Jen Kober, Jesse Eisenberg, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jiggly Caliente, Jinkx Monsoon, Joey McIntyre, Jujubee, Justin Martindale, Katya, Kelly Mantle, Kelly Osbourne, Kerri Colby,  Kitty Scott-Claus, Lala Ri, Laganja Estranja, Lance Bass, Leadr, Leland, Leslie Jones, Loni Love, Love Bailey, Manila Luzon, Marcia Gay Harden, Margaret Cho, Max Harwood, Melissa McCarthy, Mercy Collazo, Michelle Visage, Militia Scunt, Miz Cracker, Monét X Change, Nika King, Nina West, Orville Peck, Peppermint, Salina EsTitties, Sarah, Hyland, Sarah Silverman, Scott Hoying, Sherry Vine, SNG, Stephen Trask, Sutton Stracke, Tammie Brown, Tolliver, Tom Kitt, Trinity the Tuck, Trixie Mattel, TS Madison, Vanity Milan, Whitney Cummings, Wilson Cruz, VINCINT, Zee Machine with more names to be announced.

The event will also launch a new charity single, aptly titled, Drag Isn’t Dangerous featuring Jayelle and Ocean Kelly (Bob The Drag Queen) written by Ashley Gordon (Alaska, Trixie Mattel), Drew Louis and Ocean Kelly and produced by Drew Louis. After its premiere, you can purchase the single on all the major streaming services.

Go here for tickets and then receive your email with the telethon link: https://www.moment.co/dangerous/dragisntdangerous-drag-isnt-dangerous-live

May 7^th at 4pm Pacific

Ticket sales and donations for the telethon have already surpassed $100K since the event was first announced. All net proceeds from the event will be divided among approved charities that support LGBTQIA+ causes and drag performers in need, especially in states where they face discrimination and bans. None of the performers or organizers are taking fees for their work on the campaign. All donations are tax deductible and 501c3 verification will be available on request. 

After tucking, corseting and strolling a runway in tiny stilettos, do they really think a few pesky old Republicans can get us down? They have not even begun to see our “well regulated militia” yet… but you can, Sunday at 4pm. Be there.

*********************************************************************

Rob Watson is the host of the popular Hollywood-based radio/podcast show RATED LGBT RADIO.

He is an established LGBTQ columnist and blogger having written for many top online publications including The Los Angeles Blade, The Washington Blade, Parents Magazine, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, Gay Star News, the New Civil Rights Movement, and more.

He served as Executive Editor for The Good Man Project, has appeared on MSNBC and been quoted in Business Week and Forbes Magazine.

He is CEO of Watson Writes, a marketing communications agency, and can be reached at [email protected] .

LONDON – British-Australian film and television production company See-Saw Films, founded in 2008 by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, and Netflix announced Monday that the new season of hugely popular LGBTQ+ coming-of-age series Heartstopper will be back on August 3.

Based on Alice Oseman’s beloved graphic novel series of the same name, Season Two sees Nick and Charlie navigate their new relationship; Tara and Darcy face unforeseen challenges and Tao and Elle work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to plan, the gang has a lot to juggle as they journey through the next stages of life, love and friendship.

While details surrounding the new season are kept as hush-hush as Fisayo Akinade’s (Mr. Ajayi) art skills, fans can get a taste of what’s to come by reading Alice Oseman’s beloved graphic novel series — especially Volume 3.

“Season 2 is based on Volume 3,” Oseman told — the official Netflix site, on the set of Heartstopper. “So we had a good foundation. But there’s not enough in the book to take a whole season of TV, so there had to be a lot of creation of new stuff.”

Newly minted boyfriends Charlie and Nick are ready to explore their relationship further in Season 2. “Charlie goes on more of a journey this season. His story’s a bit more mature,” says Locke.

The rest of the Season 1 squad will also be back to brush up against even more Heartstopper moments of queer joy and discovery, including Finney, Gao, Brown, Edgell, Sebastian Croft (Ben), Tobie Donovan (Isaac), Rhea Norwood (Imogen), Cormac Hyde-Corrin (Harry) and Jenny Walser (Tori).

Akinade, Chetna Pandya (Coach Singh), Alan Turkington (Mr. Lange) and Olivia Colman (as Nick’s mum, Sarah) will also return as the adults shepherding these young teens toward who they’re meant to be.

Reflecting on the cast dynamic, executive producer Patrick Walters told Tudum on set that “it’s really gorgeous because they’re such a bonded gang in the comic and in the scripts that [Alice] wrote. And then you have these actors who are also equally bonded and love each other so much. It’s an energy of friendship on set, whenever the actors are there and a whole big gang. It’s really nice.”

There are plenty of fresh faces that will be joining the Heartstopper cast for Season 2 as well, including Leila Khan as Higgs student Sahar Zahid and Nima Taleghani as Truham teacher Mr. Farouk. Both of them pop up in the behind-the-scenes video above. Bradley Riches (who played a Truham student in Season 1) will also return as James McEwan. We’ll meet more of Nick’s family in Season 2, including Jack Barton as Nick’s older brother, David, and Thibault de Montalembert as Nick’s father, Stephane. Bel Priestley as Naomi and Ash Self as Felix will both play new friends of Elle.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alice Oseman (@aliceoseman)

Heartstopper:

• Series 1 has a 100% Critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is ‘certified fresh’ [Source: Rotten Tomatoes]
• It reached the Netflix Top Ten list in 54 countries [Source: Netflix Top 10]
• The Heartstopper graphic novel series has sold over 8 million copies, been published in 35 countries worldwide and featured in the international bestseller charts, achieving #1 spots on both The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller lists 

Heartstopper Season 2

• Premiere date: 3rd August
• Episodes: 8
• Production Company: See-Saw Films
• Written and Created by: Alice Oseman
• Director: Euros Lyn
• Executive Producers: Patrick Walters, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Alice Oseman, Euros Lyn
• Cast: Kit Connor, Joe Locke, Yasmin Finney, William Gao, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Sebastian Croft, Tobie Donovan, Rhea Norwood, Jenny Walser, Cormac Hyde-Corrin and Olivia Colman

LOS ANGELES – The political and media worlds were jolted Monday by news that Fox News host and pundit Tucker Carlson and the network had abruptly parted ways followed by news from Atlanta within an hour that CNN had terminated morning anchor Don Lemon.

Both men had stirred controversy within the ranks of their respective networks in recent months with on-air comments and behind the camera drama as described by insiders at both Fox and CNN to the Blade.

Word of Carlson’s departure came in a statement from the network early Monday:

“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.

Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21^st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”

Co-anchor of “CNN This Morning,” Lemon’s termination was announced on Twitter by Lemon himself:

” I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned> After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network. It is clear that there are some larger issues at play. With that said, I want to thank my colleagues and the many teams I have worked with for an incredible run. They are the most talented journalists in the business, and I wish them all the best.”

CNN CEO Chris Licht said that the network and Lemon have “parted ways,” according to a memo posted on CNN’s official communications Twitter account.

“Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years,” the statement said. “We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”

Carlson joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009 and served as a co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend’ from 2012 to 2016.  His show Tucker Carlson Tonight aired in 2016 and a year later moved into the primetime 8 p.m. slot in April of 2017.

Carlson has had a lengthy history of inflammatory commentary during his tenure at Fox. He has targeted minority groups as noted by Washington D.C. progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America. The groups’ researchers Madeline Peltz and  Nikki McCann RamIirez noted:

Since the early days of his tenure as a Fox prime-time host, Tucker Carlson’s unabashed championing of white grievances earned him the accolades of neo-Nazis, who praised him as a “one man gas chamber” and complimented the way he “lampshad[ed] Jews on national television.” While Carlson claims to have nothing in common with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, he constantly echoes their talking points on his show and was very reluctant to condemn white supremacists following their deadly 2017 demonstration in Charlottesville, VA. In fact, Carlson’s racist roots can be traced back more than a decade.

For the American LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender people, Carlson has led a relentless campaign mocking and denigrating trans people. In a late December 2022 episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, he hosted Libs of TikTok owner Chaya Raichik, who labeled LGBTQ+ people as: “They’re bad people. They’re evil people. And they want to groom kids. They’re recruiting.” 

Raichik’s Twitter account has spewed anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech with special emphasis on singling out American transgender youth, attacking healthcare professionals who provide gender affirming care including Children’s Hospitals in Boston, Nashville and Washington D.C. which has led her over 1 million followers to pummel those medical facilities with hate filled online abuse and escalating to criminal acts including bomb threats and death threats against doctors.

During that interview Carlson nodded sympathetically as he embraced Raichik’s extremism.

During the August 22, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson, while interviewing former Russia Today and current Rebel News reporter Jeremy Loffredo about his story regarding Amish farmer named Amos Miller, who has legal problems with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration over food safety concerns, at one point blurted out: “Maybe if he promises to put more chemicals in the milk to turn kids trans, they’ll lay off.”

Carlson has long targeted President Joe Biden, his family, and members of the president’s administration. During the May 10, 2022, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, he mocked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is an openly Black lesbian:

“Karine Jean-Pierre is our first out LGBTQ+ White House Press Secretary and that’s all you need to know. It’s a good thing, shut up and celebrate. That’s why she got the job. She’s in the right group and so the Biden administration, which thinks exclusively in terms of groups and never in terms of individuals because individuals are messy and inconvenient, the group is all that matters. […] Not only is she a member of the out LGBTQ+ community, she’s also, critically, the product of a private school and an Ivy League college and yet still oppressed somehow. She is furious at America despite her ample privilege and enraged by its racist systems of oppression. And she’s happy to tell you about it.”

On the political front, Carlson’s embrace of the far-right extremist elements had led to disagreements and heated internal debate a Fox News source told the Blade on Monday. Adding to the controversy and in turn exacerbated by the massive $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in the lawsuit filed against Fox in March 2021 over defamatory comments, including a Jan. 26, 2021, episode of Carlson’s show featuring MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, was Carlson’s role.

CBS News notes that Carlson has been a fixture of cable news for decades, hosting shows on CNN, MSNBC and PBS before he joined Fox News. He also co-founded the conservative website The Daily Caller, which launched in 2010. Carlson stepped down from day-to-day oversight of the website after landing his show on Fox News and sold his stake in the outlet in 2020.

Monday’s termination of Don Lemon by cable news giant CNN comes after NBC News reported that media industry news and entertainment outlet Variety published a story earlier this month on allegations that he mistreated his female colleagues over the course of his career there. And earlier this year, he faced backlash over widely criticized comments he made on-air.

Lemon has been with CNN since 2006, joining the network after anchoring at NBC Chicago and working as a correspondent for NBC News, the “TODAY” show and “NBC Nightly News.”

Lemon had come out as an openly gay African-American news anchor 12 years ago in 2011 telling The Washington Blade in a May 2011 interview:

“I have to tell you I can’t even put it in those terms. I mean, it goes way over a scale of one to 10, honestly. And it goes way over incredible. I mean I just feel like a new person.” 

Lemon also faced hate and anti-gay extremism, at one point during the Trump era filed a police report with the New York Police Department for “aggravated harassment” after receiving death threats on Twitter.

The anchor, who is partnered to fiancé, Tim Malone, a real estate agent, had heated arguments with network staff after his negative treatment of CNN This Morning co-star Kaitlan Collins was discussed within the company.

NBC News noted Lemon also came under fire in February during a segment on “CNN This Morning” in which he remarked that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 51, was no longer in her “prime.” The comment was made while discussing a suggestion by Haley that candidates over the age of 75 should be subjected to mental competency exams.

“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” Lemon said. “When a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”

When pushed by co-anchor Poppy Harlow, Lemon told her not to “shoot the messenger.”

At the time of the Variety article, a spokesperson for Lemon said in a statement to NBC News following the report that it was “amazing and disappointing that Variety would be so reckless.”

“The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip,” the statement said.

ORLANDO – What’s billed as “The Final Season” of Star Trek Picard is now streaming on Paramount+, to the delight of fans of the 56-year-old franchise, especially those who grew up watching The Next Generation, or TNG, television series and films. 

Helmed by executive producer Terry Matalas, employing a Vulcan mindmeld that combines infinite fan service with diverse, mature and all-too human characters, along with intriguing sci-fi plotlines, this third season of the series is a love letter to all Star Trek fans. It’s more of a ten-part feature film, reuniting the major characters of the TV series that launched in 1987, who last teamed-up in 2002 for a flop of a final film, Star Trek Nemesis.  

CBS and Paramount+ recently invited a select number of journalists to a virtual junket with actors Sir Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Jeri Ryan, Michael Dorn, Michelle Hurd and the new member of the cast, Todd Stashwick, as well as showrunner Matalas.

In our interviews, McFadden revealed her thoughts about a TNG episode written by gay writer/director Michael Horvat, that she said LGBTQ+ fans often ask about. Ryan and Hurd addressed questions about the lesbian relationship their characters revealed previously on Picard. Matalas spoke about what he thinks would be the best way to introduce a regular transgender character in Star Trek.

And there’s more, plus a few spoilers about the first six parts, so be warned before you watch!

STAR TREK PICARD Season 3 Stars and showrunner chat with Melody Maia Monet and Dawn Ennis

HOLLYWOOD – If you are like many who have reacted harshly to Real Friends of WeHo, you may feel a bit hopeless regarding reality television and its representation of gay men. 

For all its misses, the reality TV genre still explodes across broadcast and streaming services. There are endless contests, there are weird matchmaking gimmicks and through it all, you can still find some gay fingerprints. And of course, there is Drag Race.

One of my personal guilty pleasures has been various “Real Housewives” franchises. Each franchise seems to study the behaviors of women who possess big egos, lots of money and are plied with a sloshing amount of alcohol. Sitting back in an armchair, shoveling popcorn and watching, is gay man, and executive producer, the boss and god of the Real Housewives world, Andy Cohen… (and oh yeah, me.)  There is a perverse pleasure observing a hetero world where the Higher Power is gay and watching them all descend into madness.

It is all theatrical and somewhat staged, of course. We are the fourth wall of their world, and situations are played out and exaggerated for our benefit, and from the accounts of the people we are observing, only represent a fraction of their real lives. 

Against this backdrop, Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life plays on this voyeuristic concept but is refreshingly unique and insightful. While it certainly has Real Housewives trappings, it centers around the uber-wealthy and has even had Jill Zahn, an OG New York Real Housewife, drop in to give advice, the core is less about superficial squabbles and more about cultural oppression and the quest for personal empowerment. 

The show centers around Julia Haart. Her life is literally “unorthodox” as her story arc describes her escape from the orthodox lifestyle of the ultra-conservative Haredi Jewish Community in Monsey, New York. In season one, three of her four children follow her and she mentors them into living life in the secular world as they each make personal strides to find their own unique identities. Julia herself becomes a fashion and design mogul, married to an incredibly wealthy husband Silvio Scaglia Haart, and best friend to her gay business partner, Robert Brotherton. Robert and Julia could not be more “Will and Grace” if they tried. Julia ends season one trying to matchmake Robert and find him true love. Apparently, she did not need to bother, as he had already been working on something off camera on his own.

As the sun rises on season two, we see seismic shifts have been made in the relationship statuses of the cast. Julia is now going into a divorce war with Silvio, and her oldest daughter has left her husband and their marriage which had been originally rooted in Haredi orthodox standards. Robert on the other hand, is no longer single, but has a boyfriend, with whom he has had a seven-year relationship.

Enter Ra’ed Saade, the boyfriend. Handsome and positive with a killer smile, he is somehow reminiscent of a male, Lebanese, gay Mary Richards as Lou Grant defined her in the classic sitcom.

Lou: You know what? You’ve got spunk…

Mary: Yeah, well (slight giggle)

Lou: I HATE spunk!

Ra’ed has spunk. In every sense of the word—double entendre intended. Will America “hate” his brand of spunk?

 Mary, in her day, was one of the only single working women representations on network TV. Ra’ed is the first gay Arab man on Netflix reality TV. He is sex positive and allows himself to be a walking commercial for open relationships. On the show, he mixes a deep sense of romance and being the ultimate boyfriend, a superior friend and confidant, with being frequently horny, or as he himself describes it, “a slut.”  

Ok, so maybe Mary Richards never called herself a slut.

While Ra’ed is from Lebanon, he seems to have lived elsewhere most of his life.  This is not unusual, he tells me, “The majority of the population of Lebanon live outside. We have more Lebanese people in Brazil than there are in Lebanon.” Ra’ed was born in Dubai, moved to the Philippines, lived in Holland, and then spent his high school years in Saudi Arabia. He credits those high school years as being the ones that shaped him. “Saudi Arabia is a very conservative, Muslim country. There is when I discovered that I was a homosexual gay man. Surviving three years in Saudi Arabia as a homosexual man and keeping it to myself, acting and putting on… doing all the things you do when you’re acting to cover up. That shaped a lot of things for me in my life. All the trauma of that period made me into this funny guy that knows, if I survived that, I could survive anything… I was considered an abomination and could have gotten up to the death penalty, especially in Saudi Arabia, and especially during the time that I was there. It was very frightening and scary. I didn’t tell a soul other than the people I was sleeping with, of course they knew.”   

When he came to America and Syracuse University, everything changed. He met Robert.  “It was like, opening a cave and letting the puppy come out. I smelled freedom. I felt I saw the rainbow colors in the sky every day. I just obviously fell in love. And here I am. I feel like I’ve arrived.”

It was with that survival instinct that gave him the courage to go for the Middle East edition of The Voice, and to audition for America’s Got Talent. When he hit the AGT stage, the audience loved his personality. His act?  Not so much. He got booed off.

Spunk.

In the second season of My Unorthodox Life, Ra’ed and Robert starred in the first episode describing how they were living together.  While the show misleadingly implied that their relationship was new, it was not only not new, but tried and true.   “Rob and I have been soul mates for 16 years. We know each other through thick and thin, through rich and poor, famous and non-famous and good and bad. All of it. We know each other inside and out,“ Ra’ed told me on a recent Rated LGBT Radio discussion.

Haart’s eldest daughter Batsheva was harsh when Ra’ed revealed that he believed in open relationships. She advocated for the couple to break up immediately. She made her comments right to Ra’ed’s face on camera. 

He has no regrets. “I’m such an open book and it’s sometimes bad for me… I didn’t have any hesitation because I stopped caring what people think and I am shameless, as you’ve seen on many shows. I just know the truth that is the truth,” Ra’ed said to me about his stance.  “The truth of the matter is Rob and I have been together as friends as you know, sexually active or whatever for 16 years, I mean, there is no doubt the loyalties– the love, is there. There’s no doubt that I would jump off a cliff, I would take a bullet for Rob. All of these beautiful things– but when I’m going to Ibiza …Rob and I are going to go and flirt with everybody in the club. A lot of people do that in secret. It is okay to have an open relationship when you are honest and open with your partner and you guys have set the ground rules and you both are saying, yes, we agree, both say yes, we love, we love this idea. There’s no problem with this and it’s a way more fun lifestyle. I mean that’s the truth. When you’re in a relationship, you are together to lift each other up encourage each other and just build a beautiful life. You just don’t own another person, you know.”

Hi answer is direct, unapologetic and almost innocent. Spunk.

Will there be a season three of My Unorthodox Life? Ra’ed hopes so. “The assignment was my unorthodox life.” Even if season two was the final he feels “like I completed the assignment.” If there are more seasons, “There’s a lot of facets and a lot of a lot of dynamics in my life that are unorthodox so I would love to open up more in coming seasons.”

 In the meantime, while Mary Richards famously twirled and threw her hat in the air on a Minneapolis street corner, Ra’ed is tossing his on a New York City Time Square street corner. 

It is from there that he TikTok promotes his February 10^th “Club Ra’ed” DJ evening of Middle East disco sounds, a one-time event he hosts. He has proven that spunk is alive and well. 

The modern version is just a tad more exciting with a unique Arabic feel and a fun infectious rhythm.

Listen to the complete interview:

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Rob Watson is the host of the popular Hollywood-based radio/podcast show RATED LGBT RADIO.

He is an established LGBTQ columnist and blogger having written for many top online publications including Parents Magazine, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, Gay Star News, the New Civil Rights Movement, and more.

He served as Executive Editor for The Good Man Project, has appeared on MSNBC and been quoted in Business Week and Forbes Magazine.

He is CEO of Watson Writes, a marketing communications agency, and can be reached at [email protected] .

HOLLYWOOD – The “groundbreaking” new reality show launched this week, and man, was there drama. Too bad it wasn’t on the show itself.

Across the meta-sphere, pearls were clutched, and faces were hand-palmed, and the comments went from bitchy and nasty to bitchier and nastier. The WeHo Times “didn’t hate it”, and “kind of related” (but, hello, the show is set in… WeHo.)

The Wrap called it a show “we didn’t need.” The Decider (whose decision is that you “skip” the show) describes the program as “just watching six gays proclaim that they ‘aren’t here for drama’ and ‘don’t tolerate foolishness’ even though they are now contractually obligated to be present for drama and endure an exhausting level of foolishness. It’s a given that none of this is real, but it should at least be entertaining.”   

Those were the nice reviews. 

The writer of the blogshere LGBTQ Nation claimed that the show turned his “brains into real skull goo” and wrote a meandering non-sensical massacre of a review to prove it. None were quite as vitriolic as the Daily Beast however, that called it a “colossal gay nightmare” and stated that it “stinks as badly as the alley dumpster behind The Abbey after jockstrap night.” 

I will have to take his word for that. I saw the show but have no desire to check out said dumpster.

Whether the vitriol is deserved or not, the viewers seem to have stayed away. Or at least, their interest did. The social media accounts for the show have a paltry number of followers so far. Only 3% of Google reviewers liked the show.  It currently has a .8 out of 5-star rating on IMDB. 

The show is really not that bad. Each of the guys has a reason for being on the show, and if they owned their individual motives rather than trying to be generalist and “representative,” the show could be intriguing.  

The biggest failure was in how the show rolled out in the first place. The show came on like a wrecking ball and landed right on itself. The opening claim that “West Hollywood is the epicenter of the gay world” was demonstrative of the arrogance that will likely kill it.

There are gay people in LA that would dispute that West Hollywood is the epicenter of the Los Angeles gay world, let alone the rest of the globe. San Francisco, New York and London may also have something to say about being gay centers. So, unless the intention was to piss off everyone not in West Hollywood, the opening line and its prominence in the promo for the show, was a big marketing mistake.

The next failure was rudeness and failure to “read the room” metaphorically. By forcing itself in between RuPaul’s Drag Race and Untucked programs, while stealing time from them, the show runners were completely clueless as to how eventful and anticipated those shows are to their viewers each week. Literally trying to force them to watch “Real Friends” was presumptive that the new show had earned the affection necessary to succeed in that program slot. It clearly had not.

Thus the show seems set up to fail. By promoting that it is thoroughly in love with itself, it has not given the audience a chance to know if we are really even interested in a second date. 

I personally am going back for one. The guys on the show are specific to the here-and-now of gay, design, fashion and entertainment West Hollywood life. It would be nice if they seemed conscious at all of the horror of AIDS we lived through there back in the day, or gave a passing interest to the current right-wing attacks on trans kids, but then their prototypes, the Real Housewives franchises, don’t try to be The View either.

Brad Goreski is featured as the name-dropping designer whose first episode confession is that he has been secretly feeding his husband chicken disguised as turkey. It comes off cuter than it sounds. Goreski is the mouthpiece for most of the show’s self-aggrandizement and I thought he was more charming when he was on What Happens Live, and was more… real.

Todrick Hall is the cast member supposedly of great controversy, and takes his chance to explain and be humble around it. If he was selling, I bought it. I was also mystified – his supposed “scandals” are nowhere near Erika Jayne or Jen Shah levels, but with all the attacks, you would think they were.

Up and coming actor Curtis Hamilton is intriguing, as he is using his participation in the show to come out as gay publicly. We will see how the show handles that, and how his life plays out, but if things do not go well, it is the time in one’s life where one needs friends.

Dorión Renaud is also an intriguing cast member. He is the CEO/founder of Buttah Skin. As an accomplished black gay man fighting against others with more privilege, he could be absolutely fascinating. So far, he is not. He has an emotional armor and seems on guard with a tone of toxic masculinity. He does have a moment where he admits to being painfully socially awkward.

It is at this moment, that rather than showing some compassion, social media influencer Joey Zauzig throws him out of the party for being “negative.”  Joey’s own story on the show needs some depth-infusion. He claims to have “a million followers” across various social media platforms while showing his Instagram page of 200-something thousand. For an “influencer”, that is not a lot.

The first episode features Joey’s engagement to his beautiful boyfriend. It is a story of how they fell in love looking at each other’s pictures and are now destined to be together for life. While that all could be true, the show did not take the audience along for the ride, so it all seems manufactured and artificial. There is no heartwarming emotional moment, at least, not for us.

Jaymes Vaughan, the final cast member, actually brings moments of romance tingles in scenes with his husband Jonathan Bennett. Their brief banter and impromptu kiss came off as authentic and real and charming. There is transparency that the producers actually wanted Jonathan for the show. He refused them, so they went with Jaymes. That disclosure was a bit embarrassing, and while getting more feelings for Jaymes because of it, it made you want to reject the show even more.

In the show Sex and the City, New York City felt like another character in the show. WeHo does not feel present in this show by contrast. Unlike other similarly structured reality shows, the show’s production itself DOES seem like another character presence and is discussed on camera regularly. At this point, it is unclear if that breakdown of reality TV protocol is refreshing or irritating.

Goreski laid claim to being the epicenter of the gay world. In an interview Zauzig predicted “some people are not going to like us and some people are going to love us.”

So far, the lovers have not shown up, and the only epicenter to be seen is one of, potentially unfair, unprecedented disdain.

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Rob Watson is the host of the popular Hollywood-based radio/podcast show RATED LGBT RADIO.

He is an established LGBTQ columnist and blogger having written for many top online publications including Parents Magazine, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, Gay Star News, the New Civil Rights Movement, and more.

He served as Executive Editor for The Good Man Project, has appeared on MSNBC and been quoted in Business Week and Forbes Magazine.

He is CEO of Watson Writes, a marketing communications agency, and can be reached at [email protected] .