Just last month, Hollywood actor Colton Haynes posted several adorable photos of him and his boyfriend, florist Jeff Leatham, celebrating Valentines Day together.
Since then, the couple has been enjoying each others company and shared their happiness together both on social media and on the red carpet.
On Valentines Day, Colton wrote: “The most special day of my life. Thank you @jeffleatham. We were actually in the clouds…speechless. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you. #LoveWins. Never be afraid to love harder.”
“It’s not every day that someone comes into your life & makes you want to be a better man. I feel so blessed to be by your side @jeffleatham #WhatMoviesAreMadeOf,” he continued in another post.
And now Colton just wrote on Instagram that Jeff proposed and he said yes!
“I SAID YES!!!“
Haynes, who came out swinging last year, is best known for his roles in Arrow and Teen Wolf, and will appear in the comedy Rough Night alongside Scarlett Johansson later this year.
Congratulations, Colton and Jeff! We’re really happy for you!
With progressive attitudes on social issues and a spirited, chic style that evokes Paris, Rome, and New York City, buoyant Buenos Aires has become the LGBT capital of Latin America.
In this distinctly European-feeling city, the worlds of high fashion, haute cuisine, and tango come together, and an unstable economy has become a boon for visitors from other nations, because it’s led to favorable foreign-currency exchange rates. Indeed, what was not long ago the most expensive capital city in South America has become one of the cheapest major metropolises in the world.
This city of nearly 3 million (12 million live in the metro region) sits along the southern bank of the Rio de la Plata, a wide estuary that forms the border between Argentina and Uruguay.
Spanish conquistadors established a foothold here in the early 1500s, and the city retains close ties to Europe – many Portenos (as residents are known) have Spanish and Italian lineage, and significant numbers also trace their roots to Germany, Great Britain, Russia, and France.
This is very much an international destination, and Buenos Aires has followed the lead of many European cities by actively courting LGBT tourists (the tourism office produces an excellent gay brochure and map) and legalizing same-sex marriage.
North Americans are sometimes deterred from traveling to Buenos Aires by steep airfares, but once you’re actually in Argentina, the cost of travel is so amazingly low that you can easily spend less on a vacation here than you would in western Europe or the Caribbean.
During the southern hemisphere’s summer season, November is the gayest month, honoring 1967’s pre-Stonewall founding of Argentina’s LGBT rights group Nuestro Mundo. Manuel Puig, author of Kiss of the Spiderwoman, was an early member.
Argentina’s national LGBT rights march, known as Orgullo – Spanish for Pride – takes place in Buenos Aires the first or second Saturday of November. That same month, dance the gay Argentine way during the Tango Queer Festival, or watch gay films during Asterisco, Argentina’s International LGBT Film Festival.
The city government of Buenos Aires throws its own gay festival, BA Diversa, full of events, talks, sports, art exhibits and more each August, timed with the G-Networks gay travel and business conference.
Buenos Aires (aka B.A.) is a sprawling city, but because cabs are easy to hail on the street and extremely inexpensive, they’re a very practical way to make your way around. This is also a generally safe and enjoyable city to explore on foot.
The central neighborhoods of Microcentro, Congreso, and Retiro are typical business and commerce centers, and nearby Recoleta is a wealthy hub of high-end hotels and ritzy apartment towers. In these areas you’ll find many of the city’s top museums, performing arts venues, and political buildings, but you need to venture farther afield to get to know gay B.A.
Start with a walk through Barrio Norte, a busy and bustling district with a sizable gay presence and loads of fine clothing, home-furnishings, and electronics stores along the main drag, Avenida Santa Fe.
The most charming neighborhoods for exploring, however, are Palermo and the adjacent Palermo Viejo – the latter has the most pronounced LGBT presence in Buenos Aires. Narrow cobblestone streets lined with uber-chic boutiques, snazzy wine bars, Euro-inspired cafes, and offbeat galleries abound in both neighborhoods but particularly in Palermo Viejo.
Another district with gay cachet is San Telmo, which is close to downtown and whose elegantly faded 19th-century buildings, many of them former tenements, now contain a fabulous array of antiques dealers plus a growing number of hip restaurants.
Beef rules in Argentina. Get a juicy slab of it at La Cabrera in Palermo, an Argentine parrilla or steakhouse. Visitors who want to splurge on a formal experience head to Cabaña Las Lilas overlooking the Puerto Madero waterfront.
Argentine beef is on the plate and all around in gay bar and restaurant Pepo Pepona in Palermo, with male dancers and hunky waiters with pepper grinders, spicing up the service. Especially busy during the Sunday Feria de San Telmo Street Fair, PrideCafe is a great place for a snack and to chat with locals.
As expected in a large, gay-friendly metropolis, Buenos Aires has a vibrant nightlife scene, although many bars and clubs are only popular on certain nights of the week. It’s best to ask around to learn which are likely to be busy (or even open) on a given evening – also keep in mind that most places don’t get going until 2 or 3 in the morning (although they often remain busy until dawn).
The majority of B.A.’s “gay” nightlife options draw a mix not only of women and men but, in many cases, gays and straights – this is a city where folks from all walks of life seem to revel quite happily together.
Buenos Aires gay love traffic lights
Gays and music loving straights mingle at Amerika, one of the city’s largest clubs. Contramano, popular with bears and a mature crowd, was established soon after Argentina’s military dictatorship ended, heralding the country’s emerging freedom. Living up to its name, Glam in Barrio Norte offers an elegant scene with beautiful men throughout its several spaces. Sitges offers a humorous drag show along with dancing.
Lesbians flock to Bach Bar, and Casa Brandon in the Villa Crespo neighborhood is a unique gay cultural space offering art, talks and other cerebral events. Nothing says Buenos Aires like tango, and two LGBT choices of milongas, or tango halls, are La Marshall and Tango Queer, both offering lessons for beginners.
Prices of accommodations in Buenos Aires vary wildly, as the large and often very impressive international hotels, which appeal to business travelers and well-heeled tourists, tend to charge rates comparable to those in other major world capitals.
Park Hyatt is an absolute treasure, its rooms sleekly and artfully designed, and its restaurants, courtyard patio, wine-and-cheese bar, and spa all top-notch. The Hyatt’s well-trained, thoughtful staff whisks about, tending to guests’ every need.
The classic Alvear Palace Hotel has been serving discerning travelers since it opened in 1932 – the elegant rooms are among the largest in the city and its concierges know everything gay in the city.
Madonna stayed at the swanky Four Seasons during the filming of Evita, using the hotel mansion’s balcony to practice her Don’t Cry for Me routine.
Trendy Palermo has small boutique hotels like the Fierro, known for its gourmand-friendly atmosphere, and Home, with its cozy spa, grassy backyard pool, and DJ’d lobby bar. El Lugar Gay, Spanish for ‘the gay place’ is the gay-owned, men-only hotel just off Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo, with a rooftop patio offering weekly gay tango lessons.
Bo Bo is a smart boutique hotel with moderately priced, avant-garde rooms and an excellent restaurant popular with models and celebs. The intimate Didi Rooms contains 16 rooms, each done with handsome, contemporary furnishings, but the big draw here are the extensive common areas, including a lovely rooftop sundeck with great city views and a hot tub. Charming owner Adriana Teplixke and her knowledgeable staff can recommend great places to shop and eat, and rates here are quite reasonable, beginning around $100 nightly.
International soft drink giant The Coca Cola Company just released a new commercial where a brother and a sister both are drooling over the super hunky pool boy and end up fighting to impress him.
It may not be as revolutionary as Disney including a gay character in their newest movie, but any little step towards normalizing homosexuality is defenitely a good thing.
Well worth watching for the hot pool boy eye candy alone, the ad also has an interesting twist at the end. Watch and enjoy!
Spokeswoman Kate Hartman told The Huffington Post that the “Pool Boy” commercial was simply intended as a “human story where Coca-Cola plays a key role in the development of the drama.”
“The story also includes a wink that touches on our point of view regarding diversity and inclusion,” she said. “We are managing culturally relevant messages organically within our spots, not as the main subject of the story, but as subtext.”
The ad, she noted, was representative of Coca-Cola’s overall stance on the LGBTQ community and other minority groups. “We strive for diversity, inclusion and equality in our business,” she said, “and support these rights in society through our work.”
Even if your friend’s dad turns out to be gay, sleeping with him is a really terrible idea.
Dear Max,
I came out over 2 years ago.
Shortly after, I started spending a lot of time with my best friend’s dad. He was a really good person to talk to and he made me feel so good about myself.
One night, he took me to dinner and a movie to talk about something. During dinner, he told me that he was gay. After that, he started to cry so I took him back to my apartment to comfort him. But then one thing led to another and we ended up sleeping together.
I really like him, but I don’t want to hurt my best friend. How should I break it to her or should I just let him go and forget anything ever happened.
I think you know that you’ve made an awful mistake – in a moment of madness – that is very likely to end with you losing both your friend and your potential lover.
A part of you was probably drawn to the excitement of the “forbidden”, even though you were also attracted to your friend’s dad as a man you like and respect.
You may want to stay away from that situation or at least don’t mention anything.
Whatever your friend’s dad told you was a secret. So you should not tell your friend about it. Let him deal with it at his own terms.
If you like your friend’s dad enough to risk losing your friend and potentially cause a rift in their dad-daughter relationship, at least be patient and don’t go out with him again for a while.
Give him a chance to tell your friend the truth about his sexuality and about your relationship.
Note: The picture is from Notre Paradis, a movie about an aged male prostitute who finds an unconscious young man in the forest, brings him home and the two then becomes lovers. It’s available at Amazon.com.
Disney’s new version of “Beauty and the Beast” – this time with real actors in all the roles – is being released in just a couple weeks. And there are some really big news!
In an interview with Attitude magazine, director Bill Condon revealed that the much anticipated (and heavily promoted) new movie will feature Disney’s first ever gay character.
Josh Gad
Of course we all know that Elsa is gay, even though nobody’s bothered to spell it out to us, but this time it’s for real: Gaston’s sidekick LeFou – played by Frozen’s Josh Gad – is revealed to be gay.
“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon told Attitude. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”
For some this may not sound like such a big deal, but as Attitude’s editor-in-chief Matt Cain so well explains it:
“By representing same-sex attraction in this short but explicitly gay scene, the studio is sending out a message that this is normal and natural – and this is a message that will be heard in every country of the world, even countries where it’s still socially unacceptable or even illegal to be gay.
“It’s only a first step towards creating a cinematic world that reflects the one in which many of us are now proud to live. But it’s a step in the right direction and I applaud Disney for being brave enough to make it – and in doing so hopefully helping to change attitudes and bring about real social progress.”
“Beauty and the Beast” smashed records when its first trailer racked up more than 127 million views in just 24 hours last November.
