News Round-Up: March 22, 2018

(via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• First, it was Superman star Henry Cavill going all clean-shaven. Now, one of my favorite InstaHunks, Alex Abramov, (above) is teasing his followers writing, "Trim your scruff!" #KeepTheFur

• LGBT series EastSiders was nominated for 6 Daytime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Daytime Digital Drama Series, Outstanding Writing & Directing for creator and star Kit Williamson and Outstanding Actor in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for Van Hansis.

• San Francisco Airport plans on renaming one of the terminals after gay rights icon Harvey Milk.

• CNN president Jeff Zucker went THERE calling out competitor Fox News as "state-run TV." He added, "It is a pure propaganda machine, and I think does incredible disservice to this country."

• Two separate research teams believe they're found links between genetics and being transgender.

• Emmy Award-winner Lena Waithe covers the latest Vanity Fair in style - her own style. Hit the link because if you don't know her yet, you will love the uber-talented out writer actress after.

At the recent Black Women in Hollywood Awards, she told the crowd, "Being born gay, black and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay black female is.” Now, how you not gonna love that?

Kit Williamson On The Casual Homophobia Of Trump's America

Kit Williamson has penned a personal essay for The Advocate chronicling the adventures of shooting season three of his series, EastSiders, while encountering homophobia in the heartland.

Here's an excerpt:

Idaho’s also an overwhelmingly red state: 59 percent of the population voted for Trump and less than 28 percent voted for Clinton.

Most of the people we encountered in Boise were friendly, but we suspect we lost a couple of locations because the show is about a gay couple. Everything was set to move forward at two of the private campgrounds we had scouted … until we disclosed the name of the project. Then communication suddenly ceased with one and the other wrote back that it was no longer allowing filming.

It’s hard to believe these kinds of things still happen today, but they do. My home state of Mississippi still has a disgusting “religious freedom” law, House Bill 1523, that effectively allows for anti-LGBT discrimination.

We made a decision to start referring to the project by an alternate title, Go West, and when asked about the plot we would say it was about “two friends” on a road trip across the country. We felt a little gross about it, but we were on a tight schedule and couldn’t afford to have any other locations fall through.

Trailer: Eastsiders Season 2

Web series Eastsiders returns for Season 2 beginning September 15.

The dark comedy explores the aftermath of infidelity for a young gay couple in Los Angeles. Think of it as "Friends" only more gay, and much cooler.

You can watch the first two episodes of Season 1 for free here, and all of Season 1 for free if you have an Amazon Prime account :)