Gay News

According to Treasure Island Media, British film censors have blocked its latest video release, Hard Cuts 1 . Scenes showing drug-fuelled outdoor sex have been opposed by the BBFC, which is demanding evidence that the activities were not visible to members of the public during filming. The company said:

Hard Cuts 1 was released internationally in its uncut form on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, and is available from Treasure Island Media's website, the company added in a statement. However, stores in the United Kingdom must wait for the DVD to be passed with an R18 classification before selling it.

The BBFC has objected to two scenes, it added. One features Dutch porn star Peto Coast fucking in a forest, and the other, titled Stoner Six-Way, shows six naked men smoking an unidentified substance and fucking on an open-air balcony.

Hard Cuts 1 was shot by Liam Cole, Treasure Island Media's London director, who previously attracted criticism for his 2011 video, Slammed, which was believed to show men having sex under the influence of recreational drugs taken intravenously.

In fact since the piece was published the BBFC have awarded an R18 certificate to the video. The BBFC claim that it was passed uncut but the approved running time of 111:52s is shorter than the 170 minutes specified by Treasure Island Media in its promotional material for the US website release. So it seems likely that the disputed scenes were dropped from the UK release.

Autobiography by Morrissey covers his life from his birth until the present day.

Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in Manchester on May 22nd 1959. Singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Smiths (1982--1987), Morrissey has been a solo artist for twenty-six years, during which time he has had three number 1 albums in England in three different decades.

Great news for Smiths fans who don't blush at innocuous descriptions of homosexual relationships, the uncensored version of Morrissey's Autobiography is now available in the United States.

When the memoir saw its initial U.S. release last December (less than two months after its U.K. release), three sentences detailing his relationship with Jake Walters, a British photographer, were removed from the book. Two other sentences were tweaked, and a picture of Walters was excised, too.

Penguin, the book's U.S. and U.K. publisher, declined to comment on the changes at the time.

Now, without explanation, those changes have been undone for the U.S. paperback release of Morrissey's Autobiography, which hits shelves on Nov. 4.

For reference, here are the three cut sentences:

• I am photographed for Creem magazine with my head resting on Jake's exposed belly.
• Indulgently Jake and I test how far each of us can go before 'being dwelt in' causes cries of intolerable struggle, but our closeness transcends such visitations.
• 'Well,' said the woman in the British Airways lounge, 'You're either very close brothers or lovers.' 'Can't brothers be lovers?' I impudently reply.

The Home Office has told PinkNews that it's too early to say if further restrictions are to be placed on the use of poppers, following the publication of a report into legal highs.

The report has called for a blanket ban on all brain-altering drugs. The government said it will consider legislation introduced in Ireland four years ago that bans the sale of all psychoactive substances but exempts some, such as alcohol and tobacco.

It is illegal to sell amyl nitrite (poppers) for human consumption in the UK but they are often sold in sex shops and gay venues as air fresheners .

Poppers are the second most commonly used drug by gay and bi men, and 25 times more common than amongst straight men.

An advertising agency in Kazakhstan has been handed a large fine for a poster of revered bard Kurmangazy locked in a passionate kiss with Alexander Pushkin, Russia's national poet.

Havas Worldwide Kazakhstan says it can't pay the 34 million tenge ($186,000) fine, and plans to appeal. The agency's general director Dariya Khamitzhanova said the ruling is:

nonsense. Not one of the 34 plaintiffs appeared in court. The whole hearing was marred by procedural violations,

The poster appeared in social media in August, enraging anti-gay activists who complained to the police that it insulted Kazakhs and Russians. Thirty-four staff and students of Kurmangazy Conservatory, in the southern city of Almaty, filed a suit last month demanding a million tenge each in moral damages.

Stories of Our Lives is a 2014 Kenya by Jim Chuchu.
Starring Louis Brooke, Allan Bryan Weku and Judy Gichohi.

The film is a collection of five vignettes about Kenya's LGBT community. It has played on the international film festival circuit.

The Kenya Film Classification has just banned the film with the comment:

The decision to decline approval to the said film was because the film has obscenity, explicit scenes of sexual activities and it promotes homosexuality which, is contrary to our national norms and values.

Pride is a 2014 UK comedy drama by Matthew Warchus.
Starring Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West.  

U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.

BBFC: Passed 15 uncut for strong language, sex references

MPAA: Rated R for language and brief sexual content.

Pride has been hailed by critics, winning acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, but a film about gay activists who raised money to help South Wales families during the 1984 miners' strike has received a US rating pretty much in line with that of the UK

The Motion Picture Association of America has ruled the film was R rated, which would be noted as 17A in the UK (ie cinema customers have to be 17 and over to watch it in their own right, but there are no age restrictions for children accompanied by an adult).

Gay activist Peter Tatchell was offended by the R rating, or perhaps offended by the fact that the USA simply doesn't have a rating between its 13 and 17 ratings. He said:

It is outrageous, knee-jerk homophobia. There's no significant sex or violence in Pride to justify strong ratings.

The American classification board seems to automatically view any film with even the mildest gay content as unfit for people under 17.

On its website, the BBFC explains its 15 rating of Stephen Beresford's film as being based on occasional strong language and some scenes with sexual references. One shows men in a gay club wearing 'bondage' clothing .

Of course if people think that the BBFC rating of 15 is about right then it is inevitable and correct that it should be R in the US.

On the other hand perhaps the BBFC rating is harsh too. Other international ratings awarded so far are:

• Canada:PG (British Columbia)
• France: U
• Germany:12
• Ireland:15A
• Netherlands:12
• Switzerland:10