Two Husbands Went for Gelato and Got Hate. This Devon Shop Stood Up for Them

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Two Husbands Went for Gelato and Got Hate. This Devon Shop Stood Up for Them

Two husbands visiting a seaside gelato shop should have made for a straightforward happy photograph. When Nick and Ant stopped at Taste of Sidmouth in Devon, the family business was pleased to share their visit online.

Homophobic comments followed. The shop responded by defending the couple and reaffirming that LGBTQ+ customers belong there.

The incident was reported in late October by Scene.

A welcome worth defending

Nick and Ant are married content creators based in London. Their full names are Nick Toteda and Anthony Cushion; the pair have discussed their marriage and life working together in a joint podcast appearance.

For this visit, the attraction was homemade gelato. SWNS reported that they posed with Ferrero Rocher and strawberry flavours. After abusive responses appeared beneath the shop’s celebratory post, the business said it removed the worst comments.

Its response also assured Nick and Ant that the staff had been delighted to meet them.

The family behind the counter

There is a close family connection behind that stance. Manager Sophie credited her mother, owner Cathy Inglis, with the values she brought to the response.

The business’s own website offers a glimpse of their working relationship. Sophie and Thomas make the gelato, while Cathy continues running the business. The family describes using traditional Italian methods and local Devon ingredients.

Asked on the website about her motivation, Sophie explains that she wants to make her mother proud and continue growing what Cathy has built.

That gives the story a particularly personal dimension: a daughter carrying forward a family business and the values she associates with her mum.

Support, and a simple standard

According to Scene, hundreds of supporters rallied behind the shop. Sophie was especially moved by people thanking the family for speaking out.

She felt that challenging homophobia should be an ordinary expectation: “It should be normal. It should be the bare minimum.”

The shop pledged to continue supporting LGBTQ+ people and celebrating Pride.

For readers who have ever wondered whether being seen with a partner might change the welcome they receive, there is something reassuring in that response. The pleasure of an everyday outing matters — including the freedom to enjoy ice cream with your husband.

📷 @tasteofsidmouth

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Gay Rodeo Turns 50: A Half-Century of Cowboys, Courage and Chosen Family

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Gay Rodeo Turns 50: A Half-Century of Cowboys, Courage and Chosen Family

Fifty years ago, Phil Ragsdale wanted to hold a gay rodeo. Getting the animals proved much harder than finding the idea.

According to OutHistory’s account of the first Reno Gay Rodeo, local ranchers repeatedly refused to rent livestock after learning that the event was sponsored by the gay community. Ragsdale finally secured animals from a rancher in Fallon the night before the rodeo.

On October 2, 1976, the event went ahead at the Washoe County Fairgrounds in Reno, Nevada. What began as a charitable fundraising idea became the starting point for a lasting LGBTQ+ sporting tradition.

Fifty years later, another gathering

This October, that tradition reached another milestone. As Gayety reports, the 38th World Gay Rodeo Finals returned to El Reno, Oklahoma, in gay rodeo’s 50th-anniversary year.

The International Gay Rodeo Association’s official programme placed the event at the Canadian County Expo & Event Center from October 22–25, with rodeo competition on the final two days.

The schedule combined familiar contests such as bull riding, barrel racing and team roping with gay rodeo’s distinctive camp events. Royalty competitions added western wear, public presentation and entertainment to the weekend.

IGRA describes its events as welcoming participants without discrimination and supporting charitable organizations alongside the sport.

The mother everyone called “mom”

For a sense of what that welcome means, an earlier visit to the El Reno finals offers a particularly human example.

Reporting for KOSU in October 2024, journalist Anna Pope met Anna Sherman, a competitor from Mangum, Oklahoma. Sherman had become involved because her son asked her to compete with him.

Among other competitors, she was commonly known as “mom.”

In that same report, then-rodeo director Mark Christensen described the community’s priorities: “We are about family.”

Those remarks come from the 2024 finals, but they offer valuable background to the anniversary: this is a sporting community where relatives can join in and friendships can become lasting sources of support.

A tradition with a future

The early obstacles make the anniversary worth remembering. Before there could be a circuit, championship weekends or generations of shared memories, someone had to insist that a gay rodeo could happen at all.

Ragsdale’s determination helped create that opportunity. Fifty years later, another group of competitors has gathered in an arena under the gay rodeo banner.

The story holds competition, humour and western tradition together with something many LGBTQ+ people recognize immediately: the pleasure of finding a place where you belong.

📷 @igrarodeo

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Tuc Watkins and Andrew Rannells Share a Halloween Kiss in Ghostly Sailor Costumes

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Tuc Watkins and Andrew Rannells Share a Halloween Kiss in Ghostly Sailor Costumes

Tuc Watkins and Andrew Rannells brought a little romance to their spooky sailor costumes this Halloween — including a kiss captured in the middle of a busy city street.

In photographs shared on Watkins’ Instagram account, the actors wear striped tops, battered white trousers and sailor hats, with fishing nets and seaweed-like decorations draped across their outfits. Dark eye makeup completes the ghostly effect.

One picture catches the couple in a dramatic dip and kiss. Others show them posing together outdoors and settling into a booth, still surrounded by their elaborate nautical accessories.

The explanation is very Tuc

Watkins gave the costumes a detailed backstory, saying they were inspired by French First World War sailors François Hervé and Yves Thomas, whom he described as shipmates who died aboard the warship Bouvet in March 1915.

That is the inspiration as described in his caption; the post does not establish that the two historical men were romantically involved.

Then Watkins brought the explanation back to Halloween with a perfectly dry punchline.

“But it’s really just an excuse to wear eyeliner.”

Rannells sounded satisfied with their work, commenting: “We really nailed this.” He added a heart.

From playing partners to being partners

The couple’s shared theatrical history makes the coordinated look especially fitting. They first met while playing boyfriends in the 2018 Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band, with Watkins as Hank and Rannells as Larry.

They later returned to those roles in the Netflix film adaptation. As the pair discussed in a joint interview with Out, the characters’ difficult relationship was quite different from their own life together.

The two have also worked together on Black Monday. Their Halloween photos offer another, considerably less formal chance to see them sharing a scene.

The affection underneath the costumes

Speaking to PinkNews in 2025, Watkins described being happy with Rannells and spoke warmly about the bond between his partner and his children.

It is a lovely piece of background to these playful pictures. Behind the ripped clothing, dramatic makeup and carefully arranged netting are two men who have built a relationship beyond the productions that brought them together.

And for this particular night, they clearly enjoyed committing to the same very theatrical idea. The costumes supply the Halloween spectacle; the kiss supplies the romance.

As for the eyeliner? Watkins has already supplied all the justification anyone needs.

📷 @tucwatkins

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Mike Manning Once Feared Coming Out. Now He’s a Husband and a TV Gay Dad

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Mike Manning Once Feared Coming Out. Now He’s a Husband and a TV Gay Dad

Mike Manning once worried that being honest about his sexuality could put the future he wanted beyond his reach. Today, that future includes a husband, Emmy-winning work and a television role built around a loving gay family.

In a new interview published by The Advocate on October 30, the actor reflects on the distance between the uncertainty of his early television years and the life he has built since.

Manning came out as bisexual during his time on MTV’s The Real World: D.C.. That distinction matters when telling his story: playing a gay man and being married to a man do not change how he has described his own sexuality.

The man he wanted to marry

Offscreen, Manning has been married to Nick Tocco since 2017. In an earlier Metro Weekly interview, he explained his decision to marry with a particularly tender answer.

“Because I couldn’t see my life without this person.”

Manning recalled that marriage had not always seemed like something he would choose. Meeting Nick changed that. The couple celebrated their wedding at a friend’s home in Bel Air, surrounded by family and friends.

He also spoke warmly about the reassurance of having a partner beside him through the unpredictable parts of his working life. Behind the red carpets and television credits was something deeply familiar: the comfort of knowing someone had his back.

A family on daytime television

On CBS’s Beyond the Gates, Manning plays Bradley “Smitty” Smith, whose husband is Congressman Martin Richardson, played by Brandon Claybon. Together, the characters are raising two adopted children.

For Manning, that role carries personal meaning. In his 2025 Out100 profile, he described portraying a queer husband and father as something he could not have imagined when he first came out publicly.

The role gives viewers a gay family with relationships and responsibilities that extend beyond a coming-out storyline. Their marriage and parenting are part of the continuing life of the show.

Manning’s career also stretches well beyond Smitty. His official CBS biography identifies him as a two-time Daytime Emmy-winning actor, writer and producer, with credits including The Bay, Days of Our Lives, Teen Wolf and Disney’s Cloud 9.

A future worth protecting

The new interview also carries a warning: Manning believes LGBTQ+ progress remains vulnerable and requires continued advocacy.

His story offers a hopeful perspective on what can become possible without suggesting that honesty automatically brings professional success. The achievement is personal as well as public: he has built a marriage and a career that his younger self once struggled to picture.

📷 CBS / @mikemanning

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These Gay Dads Are Making Halloween Memories on Their Family Farm

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These Gay Dads Are Making Halloween Memories on Their Family Farm

For Dustin Smith and his husband, Burton Buffaloe, Halloween has become a way to make memories as a family. This year, their son brought a new creative direction: monsters.

In an October 30 interview with PEOPLE, the North Carolina dads discussed their family’s costume tradition and son Stone’s choice of a Stranger Things theme.

Dustin helped create his Demogorgon costume, turning the idea into a project father and son could work on together.

The photographs capture a seasonal celebration. Behind them is a longer story about two husbands building a home, sharing parenthood and giving their children traditions of their own.

A new chapter on familiar land

Dustin and Burton are raising twins, Stone and Holland, with a connection to a place that has been part of Burton’s family for generations.

According to Holl & Stone Farms’ official history, William D. Buffaloe established a farming operation there in 1878. The land’s agricultural past included a pick-your-own fruit farm.

In 2020, Dustin and Burton purchased the family property and began reimagining it as a working farm where others could experience the place too.

That purchase fulfilled an ambition the couple had previously discussed publicly. In an earlier WALTER interview, Burton described their dream of buying the farm and opening it to the community.

They imagined a place for celebrations, local produce and shared experiences. What was then a plan became part of their family’s everyday life.

Friends before husbands

In that WALTER conversation, Burton recalled meeting Dustin at a house party he hosted in Raleigh.

The two became friends and stayed in the same social circles before their relationship turned romantic. They later married and became parents to their twins through surrogacy.

Their online presence began with family photographs, much like those shared by other proud parents. Messages from followers brought questions about their lives and encouraged them to tell more of their story.

Through Dustin & Burton — Raising Buffaloes, they have shared parenting experiences, their relationship and their perspectives on being gay dads in the American South.

Making room for family joy

The couple told WALTER that they hoped their visibility would help people recognize the everyday experiences they share with other families.

They also wanted to encourage parents to enjoy time with their children and couples to have fun together.

This year’s Halloween project offers a warm example of that approach: a child has an idea, a parent helps make it happen, and the work itself becomes time spent together.

There is plenty to enjoy in the finished costume. But for a family building its own traditions, the hours of imagination and collaboration are part of the celebration too.

Happy Halloween to Dustin, Burton and their family.

📷 @brandiebairdphoto / @dustinpatricksmith / @bbbuffaloe

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