After seeing a plane skywriting VOTE NO in the skies over Sydney, 13 Reasons Why star Brandon Flynn took to his Instagram to express his support for marriage equality and publicly come out of the closet.

Just saw the “vote no” message in the sky, looming over Sydney. Thank you for raising money and hiring on a plane to write your lack of support amongst the clouds. I hope your hate and lack of understanding fades, just like those words will. Too many of my friends have been kicked out of their homes, kept in the closet, beat up, killed, ridiculed by church and state, institutionalized… and you are scared that if we vote YES, you won’t be able to show your hate for Us. Fuck that. We’ve been scared shitless our whole lives thanks to all the stigmas that surround Us, stigmas that were set in place by the same kind of people who flew that plane over Sydney. We’ve fought, we’ve come out bravely even in our fear, and you wrote a message in the sky because you’re scared. Equality takes courage, it worries me that too many people in this world lack the balls to stand up for what is right. #fuckhate

Good for him. And WELCOME ABOARD, SON. Glad to have you on our side.

Also: See this previous post…

(Featured image via Instagram)

Just saw the “vote no” message in the sky, looming over Sydney. Thank you for raising money and hiring on a plane to write your lack of support amongst the clouds. I hope your hate and lack of understanding fades, just like those words will. Too many of my friends have been kicked out of their homes, kept in the closet, beat up, killed, ridiculed by church and state, institutionalized… and you are scared that if we vote YES, you won’t be able to show your hate for Us. Fuck that. We’ve been scared shitless our whole lives thanks to all the stigmas that surround Us, stigmas that were set in place by the same kind of people who flew that plane over Sydney. We’ve fought, we’ve come out bravely even in our fear, and you wrote a message in the sky because you’re scared. Equality takes courage, it worries me that too many people in this world lack the balls to stand up for what is right. #fuckhate

A post shared by Brandon Flynn (@flynnagin11) on Sep 17, 2017 at 10:39am PDT

“I didn’t get dressed up. There is no me”- Jim Carrey

A post shared by Brandon Flynn (@flynnagin11) on Sep 19, 2017 at 6:52am PDT

4 more shows at @vineyardtheatre get $20 tickets an hour before show time and experience Kid Victory. Feeling the blues with the end in sight. This has been a very important journey for me ⛵️

A post shared by Brandon Flynn (@flynnagin11) on Mar 17, 2017 at 2:21pm PDT

Happy Monday

A post shared by Brandon Flynn (@flynnagin11) on Nov 5, 2012 at 7:16am PST

The post “13 Reasons Why” Cutie Brandon Flynn Comes Out in Passionate Instagram Post appeared first on The WOW Report.

I’ve known writer and man-about-town Kevin Sessums for a long, long time, kids. He worked for Vanity Fair when I was there in the 80s and he interviewed the biggest stars of the day, like Madonna, Cher, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Depp, Jessica Lange, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Courtney Love, Richard Gere, Matthew McConaughey, and Roseanne, to name a few.

VF’s editor Tina Brown hired him away from Interview magazine and after which he was a contributing editor at Allure, where I also worked in the 90s. He has since written two New York Times bestselling memoirs Mississippi Sissy and I Left It on the Mountain and was briefly the Editor of FourTwoNine magazine.

And now? He lives in San Francisco and has just started his own online magazine, kevinsessums.com as of yesterday. That’s why I’m giving him the big build-up here. It’s NOT free, it’s a pay subscription. I know, I lost you already, right? Are you sitting down? It’s $20 a year! Crazy, right?

Right now you can read his Ali MacGraw interview FOR FREE here, and just for WOW Report readers you can also read an extended excerpt from his interview with Warhol superstar Baby Jane Holzer. It’s good.

And if you want to subscribe here, it’ll be $20, well spent, I promise. As Kevin says,

“A whole YEAR of entertainment? Or one single night out for popcorn and a movie? Price is the same!”

Me, Jane

By Kevin Sessums

Diana Vreeland once called Jane Holzer, Andy Warhol’s first and biggest superstar, “the most contemporary girl I know.” At 76, Holzer – a real estate mogul who has vastly expanded an empire begun by her father in Palm Beach, Florida, and who has amassed one of the great modern art collections in the world – is still pretty damn contemporary. She’s still a superstar. I accompanied her last year around this time down to Palm Springs to attend the rock festival Desert Trip, which featured Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, The Who, Neil Young and Roger Waters. I had a grand time not only at the shows but also hanging out with Jane who is, in her own way, as legendary as those guys who took the stage. Tom Wolfe even wrote about an earlier Stones concert she attended as the mise en scene of his iconic 1964 New York magazine profile of her titled “The Girl of the Year.”

Wolfe wrote:

“That girl on the aisle, Baby Jane, is a fabulous girl. She comprehends what the Rolling Stones mean. Any columnist in New York could tell them who she is … a celebrity of New York’s new era of Wog Hip … Baby Jane Holzer. Jane Holzer in Vogue, Jane Holzer in Life, Jane Holzer in Andy Warhol’s underground movies, Jane Holzer in the world of High Camp, Jane Holzer at the rock and roll, Jane Holzer is … well, how can you put it into words? Jane Holzer is This Year’s Girl, at least, the New Celebrity, none of your old idea of sexpots, prima donnas, romantic tragediennes, she is the girl who knows … The Stones.”

KEVIN SESSUMS: So how many Rolling Stones concerts have you been to over the years, Jane?

JANE HOLZER: Not that many Maybe four or five at the most. There was the one I went to when I introduced them to Andy. Maybe one or two more.

KS: You’re like Dolly in Levis in some way. You’re the matchmaker for all this cultural icons. Your a kind of connecting thread.

JH: (Laughing.) I was more like Dolly in couture. I once asked Coco Chanel to make me a replica of the plain white suit she had on since I’d already bought so many of the things in her collection that year but I hadn’t seen that particular suit. I asked her if she would make me one just like it and she agreed. The Met now has it.

KS: Let’s go back a bit before your Warhol and Chanel days. It begins in tragedy with your father’s death.

JH: Yes. He was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer when I was 21. I panicked. I thought, Jesus, what is my mother going to do, what is my brother going to do. My brother is older, but he had no business experience. My mother certainly had no business experience. She was the sweetest person. I loved her to death. But my mother was a little weird around the edges. I had to help them survive, but wondered how I was going to do that. So I thought: I’ve got to go find it and marry it. At that point Lenny Holzer, who was to be my second husband, was a mess. We’d been dating and he’d take me out to look for engagement rings but never buy one. I’d been dating Lenny since I was 15. I liked him because he was a bad boy. I was very attracted to bad boys.

KS: Is that because you were a good girl? Usually it’s the good girls who are attracted to bad boys.

JH: Maybe. I certainly dabbled in drugs, but I never got hooked or anything. Southern girls are basically good girls.

KS: Last night we were sitting watching all these old rockers still rocking out. What was going through your mind watching them all? Some of them you know, shall we say, rather well. What were your reveries sitting there? You have personal history with these people. You’re not just a fan.

JH: I do. Lots of memories. I saw Mick Jagger at a party Jimmy Iovine was giving and he was a bit standoffish. Keith Richards is always like “Oh, Baby Jane!” But Mick is like that now. In the early days, Mick was so polite. He’d call up after a dinner party and thank me for inviting him. He’s changed a bit. And yet when he was married to Jerry Hall, they took my son when he was a kid to a rock concert and held his hand and were so sweet and took good care of him. Mick seemed to be on a mission at the Iovine party. I think he was chasing Taylor Swift – and not for what you think. Mick is a businessman. He probably was after Taylor Swift to do some deal with him.

KS: Back in your young’un days were you more a Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney kind of girl?

JH: Well, when I was dating David Bailey, Mick was trying to sleep with David and me. He followed us to Paris.

KS: He wanted to sleep with both of you?

JH: Clearly. Why would he follow us to Paris and want to hang out? I was so into Bailey back then though I couldn’t see straight. All I wanted to do was fuck Bailey. He as so adorable. That’s all I wanted to do: sleep with Bailey. I didn’t have any eyes for Mick at all.

KS: So you never said yes to Mick.

JH: No.

KS: Did David say yes?

JH: I … don’t …. hmmmm .. think … so … but I don’t know that. I really don’t think he did, at all. So I wouldn’t want to say. There is a drag queen part of Mick, and good for him for getting it out. That’s what I say.

KS: Well, with lips like his it would be a sin not to put them to use in whatever way he deemed they be used.

JH: (Laughing) All right!

KS: Have you ever been intimidated by fame, Jane?

JH: No. I had this experience once in Florida. I was walking down Worth Avenue once when I was a young woman and all of a sudden I’m thrown up against a wall of Van Cleef & Arpels. We happened to own that building. And I look and who’s in my face but John Kennedy! He’s literally on me!

KS: Like Trump?

JH: Yes, like Trump, basically.

KS: JFK was the one who pushed you up against the wall?

JH: Oh, hell, yeah. The good news is that Peter Lawford was mentored by my father. He called my father “Cappy.” I saw Peter out of the corner of my eye and said, “Peter! Peter! Get him off of me! I’m Cappy’s daughter!”

KS: Did you ever acquiesce to any of these advances?

JH: No! It would be like acquiescing to the trash man – a good-looking trash man. And I don’t regret it. What I enjoyed was talking to Warren because he is very smart. What I enjoyed was knowing Mick. But I never wanted to sleep with them.

KS: Oh, come on. Tell me the Warren [Beatty] story.

JH: Okay. It’s really funny. I went out to Hollywood in the 1960s to meet with Ray Stark or to do something with TV. Something like that. I was meeting with all kinds of people. I was on the phone with my husband one day in my hotel room at the Beverly Hills Hotel and in walks Warren Beatty while I’m on the phone with my husband, and he starts kissing me on my neck. How the fuck do you get Warren Beatty off of you while you’re talking to your husband on the phone and pretending like nothing is going on? Who would believe it? But it happened to me. Once I hung up, I got him away from me.

KS: You have lived in so many different worlds. Hollywood. Warhol’s Factory. … but The Factory was your home for a while. Let’s talk about Andy. Were you soulmates?

JH: Yes. We were. I didn’t know why. I’ve never questioned why I have felt that way with someone.

KS: Did you enjoy the attention from him? Did you feel curated?

JH: No. I was just never a lady who lunched. In those days, you were either a lady who lunched, or you weren’t. I wasn’t. Well, I take that back. I did go to lunch, but I went to lunch with Anita Loos – which was very cool. She asked me to go to lunch a lot. I loved it. I was all about meeting interesting people in my twenties. Andy and Anita and Mick and Keith – they were all interesting. Growing up in Palm Beach – those people were not interesting.

KS: I hope you do write the book you want to write. You just have to find the real reason to do it. You certainly don’t need the money.

JH: It’s sort of like why I built a shopping mall and put art in it. It was so that some kids from Long Island would go and look at that art and maybe get inspired to be an artist. That was why I worked so hard to convince my husband and his corporation to do it: to put real art in a shopping center. We were the first ones to do that. If I wrote a book, I would want people to understand that women can have power. I was trained as an actress. I had no business training. I went to the school of hard knocks. Really hard knocks. I didn’t go to the Harvard Business School. I had to fucking knock my head against a wall. To this day, there are some days I can barely get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other. But I want to be a positive presence in the world and I positive influence. I’ve always wanted that, to be that.

KS: You are, baby. You are, Baby Jane.

The post #WOWExclusive: Sneak Peek at Kevin Sessums’ New Online Magazine (Just For Wow Report Readers) appeared first on The WOW Report.

If you missed last week’s super-fab big premiere of Big Freedia Bounces Back, now is the time to get caught up! The entire episode is now on FUSE!

The season six premiere sees Big Freedia is shaking things up and letting folks know #EverythingMustChange. Freedia’s recent felony conviction forces her to change her life and career – from ending a lifelong love of marijuana to figuring out who in her world might be holding her back. Freedia is back and nothing (or nobody) will stand in her way of reclaiming her throne.

Watch it HERE.

And don’t forget, tonight is an ALL-NEW episode! Watch it on FUSE at 10PM!

The post Missed Last Week’s Episode of “Big Freedia Bounces Back”? Watch It NOW on FUSE, Before Tonight’s Second Episode! appeared first on The WOW Report.

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!

WE’RE ALL DOOOOOOOMED!

Christian researcher David Meade its claiming that the Biblical rapture will start THIS Saturday. That’s when all good Christians ascend to heaven, leaving the sinners here on earth to battle the Anti-Christ during the chaotic “tribulation” period of the Apocalypse (as foretold in the book of Revelations).

Why Saturday?

Meade calculated it would occur 33 days after last month’s eclipse.

“Jesus lived for 33 years. The name Elohim, which is the name of God to the Jews, was mentioned 33 times [in the Bible],” Meade told The Washington Post. “It’s a very biblically significant, numerologically significant number. I’m talking astronomy. I’m talking the Bible … and merging the two.”

Meade believes global catastrophes will be caused by a secret planet called Nibiru passing the Earth on Saturday. The world won’t end, “but the world as we know it is ending,” he told the Post.

Of course NASA ― and just about every astronomer ― said the secret planet of Nibiru doesn’t exist.

“Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax,” the space agency said on its website a few years ago when similar doomsday predictions went viral. “There is no factual basis for these claims.”

Even fellow Christians are calling out Meade and others over the latest doomsday predictions.

“Meade’s views are not endorsed by Roman Catholic, Protestant or eastern Orthodox branches of Christianity,” Fox News reported.

“Meade is a made-up leader in a made-up field, and should not be on the front page of anything, let alone Fox News,” Ed Stetzer of Christianity Today wrote.

While the writers of the Bible have used numbers at times, Stetzer said there were no “secret numerical codes that require a profession called ‘Christian numerology.’”

Of course, Meade COULD be right. Saturday just might be the day that Trump launches the nuclear bombs that obliterate North Korea, setting off a chain reaction that devastates the world and literally ends the age of man. Soooooo, let’s not get too cocky just yet. I’m saying a few prayers tonight just in case.

Watch the video below, in which a space queen gives birth in front of a seven-headed moon lizard, for further clarification.

(Photos: Pixabay; via HuffPo)

The post #TheEndIsNigh: Christian Numerologist Claims the Rapture Begins Saturday appeared first on The WOW Report.

Late Late Show host James Corden faced fan backlash after a pic surfaced on Instagram of him kissing despot enabler Sean Spicer at an Emmy awards afterparty on Sunday.

Via HuffPo:

Critics accused Corden of “normalizing fascism,” and likened the move to “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon’s infamous ruffling of President Donald Trump’s hair during the 2016 election campaign.

Corden tried laughing off his actions on his show last night:

“Anyone ever have that feeling when you get a little drunk and then wake up the next morning and think, ‘Oh God, who did I kiss last night?’ It’s a bit like that. Some people have been disappointed by this photo. In truth, I’m disappointed by it as well.”

He went on to say:

”I have been reading a lot of harsh comments on Twitter today, and I hear you loud and clear. Truly, I do.”

Here’s a quick smattering of those Tweets:

Fuck James Corden, next time you have a heartfelt monologue on late night, we will all remember you kissing Sean Spicer.

— The Nerdy Panda (@Rimzzzeee) September 18, 2017

Pisshearted maggot James Corden kissing Sean Spicer. Resist tyranny with art is just going swimmingly.

— Christian Read (@mrchristianread) September 18, 2017

Fuck James Corden and quite frankly every celebrity taking happy photos with Sean Spicer.

— Louis Torres (@Louis1117) September 18, 2017

Let’s stop normalizing people like Spicer. He’s pathetic and #TrumpsAWhiteSupremacist https://t.co/jkgz6ItZNd

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) September 19, 2017

Just for the record, here is a roundup of OTHER celebrities eager to pose with the villainous former Trump mouthpiece.

pic.twitter.com/Ed7A5uLOly

— رياض (@softcontroI) September 18, 2017

(Featured image via Variety Instagram)

The post James Corden Laughingly Apologizes for Sean Spicer Suck-Up appeared first on The WOW Report.

At 4:00 last Sunday afternoon, as RuPaul’s DragCon NYC was finishing, I grabbed a camera crew and RACED around the Javits Center searching for a few lovely freaks to interview for a piece I call “Anatomy of a Look.” So many queens, so many questions: What are their inspirations? How did they create their looks? How long did it take to pull it together?

Watch for the surprising answers below.

The post DragCon NYC EXCLUSIVE: JSJ’s “Anatomy of a Look” appeared first on The WOW Report.

RCA Records

On a late summer night in 1974, Cass Elliot finished one of her stunning sold-out concerts of her two-week gig at the London Palladium, when she was found dead in Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place in the Mayfair neighborhood of London. The flat belonged to singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. Four years later, The Who’s drummer Keith Moon died in the same room. Elliot and Moon were both 32-years-old when they left this world.

A ham sandwich and can of Coca-Cola were on a table in her room, hence the urban myth that Elliot died from choking on a ham sandwich.

Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore on this day, September 19, in 1941. She grew up in Washington, DC, performing in musicals in school and in summer stock. After graduating, like many before and after her, Elliot moved to NYC determined to become a star. She auditioned for the role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale in 1962. A certain someone else got that part, but Elliot got a job in a tour of The Music Man.

The next year, she formed a folk trio called The Big 3. They recorded two albums and appeared on The Tonight Show. The group broke up, and Elliot had very short solo career before she joined The Mamas & The Papas in mid-1965.

The Mamas & The Papas were big stuff. The group included John Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Michelle Phillips. They released five studio albums and seventeen singles, six of them made the Billboard Top Ten, selling 50 million records worldwide. The Mamas & The Papas was inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998.

The Mamas & The Papas time together was filled with intrigues and drama during their four years as a band. In April 1967, Elliot gave birth to a daughter, and she refused to publicly or privately acknowledge the father, which freaked most people out in 1967.

In 1968, Dream A Little Dream Of Me, a popular standard from the 1930s, was released. It became Elliot’s signature song. She had a short, but very popular and distinguished solo career. She made many television appearances throughout the early 1970s when variety shows were a thing, including: The Mike Douglas Show, The Andy Williams Show, Hollywood Squares, The Johnny Cash Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and The Carol Burnett Show. She even guest hosted The Tonight Show.

In 1973, her gay caftan wearing manager Allan Carr, who was also managing the careers of Tony Curtis, Ann-Margret, and Peter Sellers, felt Elliot needed to drop Pop and Rock music and go out on the cabaret circuit. An act featuring standards and showtunes, along with a few new songs written just for her, was rehearsed. It included Elliot and two male backup singers. The act was titled Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore.

MCA Records

On the evening of July 29, 1974, after giving a spectacular performance, Elliot called Michelle Phillips sharing that she had received standing ovations each night of the run. Debbie Reynolds claims in her memoir Unsinkable (2013) that she, and Carrie and Todd Fisher saw Elliot at a party that night at Mick Jagger’s place. Reynolds wrote that there was a lot of cocaine and other drugs at the party; it was 1974, after all.

In 1968, Elliot had her live solo debut headlining in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace, scheduled for a three-week engagement at $40,000 per week ($276,000 in today’s dollar), with two shows per night. Elliot went on a six-month crash diet before the show, losing 100 of her 300 pounds. The diet led to a stomach ulcer and throat problems. Elliot was confined to bed for three weeks before the first performance, as the director, band, and production supervisor put together a show in her absence. She was scheduled to rehearse for a full three days before the show opened, but she managed to get through only part of the first run-through before saying that she was losing her voice. She skipped the remainder of rehearsals and drank tea and lemon, hoping to recover and pull herself together for opening night.

1000 common people and celebs including: Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Liza Minnelli and Mia Farrow were in the audience at the Circus Maximus Theatre at Caesar’s on that evening. Friends urged her to cancel the show, but Elliot insisted on performing. Sick and having barely rehearsed, she began to fall apart during her first performance. Her voice was weak and the audience was unsympathetic, despite the famous well-wishers. At the end of the show, Elliot apologized to the audience, stating: “This is the first night, and it will get better”. She then sang Dream A Little Dream Of Me and exited the stage as some of audience applauded half-heartedly and others noisily walked out. The rest of the concerts were canceled.

After Las Vegas, rumors began to spread that she had been doing drugs. Elliot later admitted that she had shot heroin immediately before going on stage. Embarrassed, Elliot plunged deep into depression.

In 1988, musician David Crosby wrote:

“Heroin was always the bad drug, always the worst. It got a little more open around the time that Cass and I were doing it, but it wasn’t something you told people about. It wasn’t anything you bragged about, you know. Me and Cass Elliot were closet junk takers and used to get loaded with each other a lot. We loved London because there was pharmaceutical heroin available in drugstores there. UK Government dope, in these injectable tablets that you crushed and dissolved in order to shoot them. Me and Cass used to just mash them up and snort the powder. Cass took lots of pills, usually from the opiate family: Dilaudid, Demerol, Percodan, downers of all sorts, and we did a lot of coke together.”

Rumors were rampant after her untimely death: a drug overdose, an FBI assassination plot, she was pregnant with John Lennon’s child, it was suicide. The most popular and resilient rumor was that she had choked to death while eating that ham sandwich.

That myth was fueled by the report of Dr. Anthony Greenburgh, the physician who first examined Elliot after her death. Greenburgh told a reporter:

“She appeared to have been eating a ham sandwich and drinking Coca-Cola while lying down—a very dangerous thing to do”.

He believed she died of asphyxiation. Greenburgh overlooked the fact that the ham sandwich sitting on the table had not been touched.

Keith Simpson, one of Britain’s leading forensic pathologists at that time, said that the forensic autopsy showed she ” …had a heart problem leading to heart failure; there was no sandwich or any other item lodged in her throat or trachea; and she had had very little to eat the day before she died”. A routine drug screening showed no drugs were in her system. The official cause of death was: “Heart failure due to fatty myocardial degeneration due to obesity.”

In the film Austin Powers, International Man Of Mystery (1997), the title character checks the list of the people he knew, mentioning Cass Elliot along with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, crossing her name out with remark “deceased, ham sandwich”.

In the lovely gay-themed film Beautiful Thing, a teenage boy is obsessed with her recordings, and another character reflects on her memories of Elliot and how the singer changed her life.

Today would have been Cass Elliot’s 76th birthday.

The post #Flashback74: Thinking Back on the Death of (Mama) Cass Elliot appeared first on The WOW Report.

Illustator Silverjow has the answer. He recreated the characters as hot muscle daddies for his Instagram followers and now you.

He set up a Patreon (a method for artists to get paid) so he would have more freedom to make the art he wanted,

“I used to take commissions but it was too much restrictions for me. So it’s another reason I chose to do Patreon that is no strings attached with my artistic freedom. Hopefully by receiving the patronages from you guys, my quality of life will be greatly improve and I can keep on putting more time, resources and effort into creating art and illustrations, hopefully my own artbook in the future.“

Who needs Snow White, when you can be your own Sugar Daddy?

Sleepy! #7drawfs

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on Aug 12, 2017 at 6:22am PDT

Bashful! #7drawfs

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on Jul 2, 2017 at 12:54am PDT

Happy! #sevendwarfs

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on Sep 12, 2017 at 3:03am PDT

Sneezy! #7dwarfs patreon.com/silverjow

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on May 20, 2017 at 4:45am PDT

Dopey #7dwarfs

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on Apr 12, 2017 at 4:38am PDT

Beefy Doc #doc #7dwarfs

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on Mar 7, 2017 at 8:25pm PST

Hunky Grumpy 6 more to go, which one you guys wanted to see next? #grumpy #7dwarfs

A post shared by Silverjow's art (@silverjow) on Feb 3, 2017 at 8:11am PST

(Images, Silverjow; via Gay Star News)

The post #HumpDayHotties: What Would Snow White’s 7 Dwarfs Look Like as Muscle Daddies? This. appeared first on The WOW Report.

On a recent “Social Sit-down” with Maury Povich (he’s still on?), guest Martina Big explained her decision to change her race through chemical injections. Martina says after briefly trying to look like Pamela Anderson, she has made another lifestyle change and is no longer a a white woman but a proud, beautiful, black woman. The audience is clearly NOT buying it. What do YOU think?

See previously.

The post #HereWeGoAgain: Woman Tells Maury Povich She’s Changed Her Race, and Is Now Black appeared first on The WOW Report.

Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles star Josh Flagg and his yummy new husband Bobby Boyd take time out from their gaspingly chic Bora Bora honeymoon to tell us how things are going so far, and their plans for the rest of the trip.

Lounging at the Four Seasons Bora Bora’s lagoon-front Sunset Bar, Bobby tells about their typical “boring” days in paradise:

“Boring for other people [I Suppose]. But for us, we sleep in. We go to bed at like 8:30. We drink wine, we drink champagne, we eat.”

Adds Josh:

“We drink a lot. We have sex,” he said.

Bobby said emphatically, “We have lots of sex — everywhere.”

And by everywhere, they meant everywhere. “We have a two-bedroom villa,” Josh said. “We don’t even need the second room but we wanted to have sex in there just so we could say we could.” For reference, the luxe property’s two-bedroom villas on the beach comprise more than 3,000 square feet, with their own private pools, hot tubs, and beach access.

And yes, the couple took advantage of all that (ahem) real estate. According to Bobby, they had sex at “the beach, the pool, the private pool, the Jacuzzi.”

And what’s a honeymoon without steamy surprises, after all?

“I jumped in the water in my Speedo, but then I thought, why not?” Bobby said. “I just took it off and got naked. It was very Mariah Carey ‘Honey’ video in Puerto Rico — but in Bora Bora!”

“That is what this place brings out in you — it brings out just like your true self,” Bobby said. “If you have no worries in life, everyone can be happy. And right now we have no worries! We’re not planning a wedding, we’re not building our house. We just get to be newlyweds.” (Watch as Josh then joked with his new hub, “Don’t touch me.”)

Any other plans?

“We have a really fun Polynesian barbecue at our villa, dancers with fire [coming to entertain us],” Bobby shared. “I think we might do a sunset catamaran tour around the lagoon. [Josh wants] to do shark swimming. My new thing is jet skiing. I did it on my bachelor party and I made [Josh] do it in St. Tropez.”

Sounds like absolute bliss. Can I join you guys?

Watch below. (via Bravo)

The post Catching Up with Josh Flagg & New Hubby Bobby Boyd on their Steamy Bora Bora Honeymoon appeared first on The WOW Report.

If – after watching nine seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race – you’ve got a hankerin’ to give drag a whirl, but weren’t quite sure where to begin or how much it was going to cost you, Miss Gay Texas 2017 Violet S’Arbleu breaks it down for you in the latest issue of MGAzine (The World of Miss Gay america).

Says Violet:

Drag is EXPENSIVE. Trying to do it on a dime, while admirable, is virtually impossible….

And if you’re in an amateur contest, the only money you can expect to get is given to you one dollar at a time by a critical crowd who just saw the latest runway looks on RuPaul’s Drag Race. That’s a high bar to match, and it’s almost impossible to turn a profit on your first outings.

The easiest way to present this information is to break down what everything costs, and of course the only person whose budget I know to the dime is my own. So, perhaps it’s the wrong choice or too much information, but I’m going to be completely honest with you guys about exactly what it costs to create one Violet S’Arbleu….

One appearance costs $650 in supplies. My usual Friday show takes over $1000 to put on. And these are CHEAP estimates. Ready for the breakdown? Get out your grocery lists, because if you want to make your own Violet S’Arbleu at home, you’re going to need to pick up a few things.

She then goes on to extensively list (and list and list) EVERYTHING you need to do before stepping out of the house your first time SNATCHED TO THE GODS.

First things first: She’s got a face.

$2 – Elmer’s Disappearing Purple glue stick for the brows.
$20 – Ben Nye Super White setting powder to cover the glue (you can buy a smaller container for $8 but the largest tub is much more bang for the buck so it saves money in the long run).
$9 – Ben Nye clown white PASTE (not the cream) over the mustache area, then…
$8 – Ben Nye tattoo cover in Apricot over the clown white, then set it with…
$12 – Ben Nye Fair setting powder to lock in the neutralizing orange beard cover before foundation.

So far, all you’ve done is get rid of your eyebrows and your 5 o’clock shadow and you’re about $50 in.

$12 (x4) – foundation pan sticks… I use four Mehron colors: Ivory Bisque, Light Olive, Medium-Dark Olive, and True Tan (a hot pink used just to cover my mustache) and then…
$9 – Ben Nye cream foundations in clown white (NOT the earlier paste) and dark Egyptian to exaggerate the highlight and contour AND to draw my brows (white for the brow bone highlight, brown for the brow), all set with…
$20 – Ben Nye Translucent Neutral Set setting powder to lock the face down.
$50 + ($12 x 4) + $29… so now you’ve got on your new skin and brows, pre-“makeup” for $125.

Now here things get tricky: I’ve got a LOT of colors and products I’ve accumulated over the years… like for Christmas, I do the Grinch, which is a green foundation with yellow and black cream to highlight and contour, plus the same white I already use, or my blue face which needs two blue foundations. For brevity, let’s condense this to a bare bones “no frills” face of just neutral brown shades and blush, like when I’m really rushing for a show.

$12 (x6)- Ben Nye Eyeshadows. I’ve got about 24 of them, but a standard “neutral” face needs five: White (to highlight cheeks, nose, and eyes), Nude (“Shell” for eyes and blending anything into my skin), Light Brown (“Cork” to contour nose, forehead, cheeks, and jaw), Dark Brown (“Black Brown” to deepen eyes, fill in eyebrows, and add the darkest contour spots to nose, forehead, and cheeks), and Black (for eyes). Add in “Nectarine” for blush and that’s six eyeshadows.

$1 – Liquid Liner. No lie, my favorite liner that I use RELIGIOUSLY is from the dollar store by my house. There’s my winged eye and my beauty mark. I get my gloss there too, but lips come later.

$73 of product added to the $125 from above is roughly $200. It’s actually more by now because of tax, but we’re going to ignore that on this list. And you don’t even have lips and lashes on yet.

$10 – Ben Nye lip liner. There are cheaper options at CVS, but I treat myself to good liner, and you should too, because if you sweat at all [I do] you don’t want that to move. Besides, we’re doing Violet’s expenses for this worksheet.

I have AT LEAST 7 lip liners in different shades and some 40 lipsticks and almost as many glosses… but again, we’re doing bare-bones expenses for this Violet face: one of each. A good standard shade is Rum Raisin. Dark enough to read, neutral enough to cover a lot of nice shades.

$5 – lipstick. You can get a $3 CVS brand, a $5 Ulta shade, or a good $8-9 brand like Revlon or L’Oreal. Your call. A favorite pink of mine is an old Ulta called “Pink Crush”. And it works with Rum Raisin.

$1 – lip-gloss. I’m not a dancer so I don’t usually worry about hair in lips. If you’re a mover and shaker, set your lips with neutral set (which will mute it) or eye shadow (which ups the color. You can use the Nectarine for a strong coral or drop another $12 on a fiery red to really wow). I don’t like dry lips so I don’t do any of that, and I just use my favorite LA Colors glitter glosses from the Dollar Tree by my house. Bargains are always good.

$3 – eyelashes. Grab a good pair of 301s which can be $2-6 depending where you find them.
$5 – eyelash Glue. Duo in Dark is my preference.

Now we’re up to $225, but the face is finally on. Oh, but we didn’t use any brushes or sponges!

A pack of wedge sponges is $4, and my acrylic brushes for foundation were $20 for the set, and my cosmetic brush collection is a handful from Mary Kay, Urban Decay, an organic line from CVS, Mustaev, Ben Nye, and e.l.f. …..let’s just round DOWN and say my brushes cost around $75 total. So $100 for applicators.

$325 now.

You could maybe find cheaper brushes, but I doubt it, and again, this is what a Violet costs.

Now, for you die-hard Violet fans, you’ll know I NEVER leave the house without glitter. Add in $6 for Ben Nye brush-on glitter glue in clear and $2 for glitter from Sally Beauty, or $6-8 for glitter from Ben Nye/Mehron/Graftobian, or $15 for glitter from Bella Terra or Mac… I have about 60 glitters now because I LOVE playing with the colors. But let’s just price one for this example.

Average that to another $15 and we’re at $340 before paying any sales tax. But doesn’t she look pretty!

Haha now that we’re good on the face, let’s do the body!

$20 – foam from JoAnn’s (the good green stuff) to make hips.
**we’re not even going to put a price on the 8 hours I take to carve the hips for myself**
$30 – boob forms, clear but a realistic silicone gel, also currently from JoAnn’s because my former style went out of business.
$5 – nude bra that I got on sale that is falling apart but I WILL NOT give up.
$15 – nude body shaper, also on sale. It needs replacing but that style disappeared.
$18 (x6) – dance tights! Cover that green foam with a layer of black tights, then five layers of flesh tone on top to even it out.
$15 – nude fishnets. Not a requirement but they keep you from having the dreaded “wood leg”.
$10 – waist-cincher girdle. It keeps the pantyhose from rolling, to put it succinctly.
$8 – Nails. I make mine, but a pack of Kiss press-ons is about $8 so we’ll just use those for the sake of speed in this list. After all, if you’re not wearing nails, you’re not doing drag.
$325 from before + ($18 x 6) + $103 = $535, just to be a bald Barbie Doll.

Now, she needs to go out in public and make money. I am still going off of what a Violet S’Arbleu will cost you, but we’re going to do a VERY inexpensive outfit just so your head doesn’t explode.

$25 – hair! I have a fabulous store with $25 GOOD lacefronts, so pick a bouncy full one to toss around.
$30 – American Apparel leotard. Maybe you’re a dancer, or maybe I’m just feeling sassy for the night, but there are some fun prints at the American Apparel and you could make one work for an 80’s number with some fun accessories. Which reminds me…
$5 – for a decent belt from Harwin, a cheap shopping district here in Houston.
$20 – a fair pair of clip-on earrings ($5), a ring ($4), and maybe a bracelet ($10) if you’re feeling fancy. I’m not big on necklaces, and they usually cost more.
$20 – Maybe you found a cute pump at Payless, maybe you grabbed something wild from a resale shop.

Either way, she needs a shoe.

A VERY SIMPLE belted Leotard outfit for something like….. Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical”… just cost you $100. Now that I have picked that song too, I would personally toss on some leg warmers to really make it sing; depending on where you find them, add $10 more for $110.
$110 + $535 = about $650. I’m rounding up because once again, we haven’t thought about sales tax.

Now I know what you’re thinking: $650 to do one number?

Yep. It’s true. And we haven’t even gotten to the outfit yet. That’s going to push the cost over a thousand dollars. YIKES.

And God help you if you’re performing two or three numbers that require different outfits, different wigs, and different jewels.

The cost of all THAT is SHOCKING.

Thousands upon thousands of dollars…

Then… figuring out a YEARS worth of drag, and you are EASILY in the five digits.

Check out the rest of Violet’s expenditure costs here. It’s pretty eye-opening.

And keep this list in mind next time you shade a young queen for not living up to your high drag standards.

(Top Pic: Miss Gay Texas America 2017 Violet S’Arbleu by Michael Andrew Voight)

The post How Much Does Getting Up In Drag ACTUALLY Cost? Miss Gay Texas America Violet S’Arbleu Breaks it Down appeared first on The WOW Report.

Kim K wants her fans to know that she really, truly, sincerely plans to stop posing in the buff… just sometime in the future. And she doesn’t quite know when.

“I’m like, I’m going to tone it down,” the reality star told Allure magazine in an article published Monday. “But then I’m like, wait, I can’t be doing it in 10 years, so — I might as well. I don’t know what the age cutoff is.”

I don’t know. IS there a cut-off limit to when you should stop posing au natural? Helen Mirren did a super-sexy shoot when she was well into her 60s. Sharon Stone still vamps it up on occasion. Madonna‘s had some accidentally/on purpose nip-slips lately. And Maime Van Doren is 86 and still posts some pretty racy nudie shots (God bless her). I mean, if you feel sexy and confident, go for it! Haters gonna hate, but your fans will always appreciate your openness.

Via CNN:

Nudity was one of several topics Kardashian West discussed with the publication. She also talked about how she and husband rapper Kanye West are determined to raise their kids to not be materialistic.

“We don’t do gifts,” she said. “Kanye and I talk about it all the time, about not getting too much and trying to be as grounded and well-rounded as possible.”
That’s extends to herself as well, Kardashian West said.

She said that she no longer likes receiving gifts and didn’t exchange any with her husband during their recent wedding anniversary.

One gift she does treasure, however, is one her young daughter North gave her prior to Kardashian West’s fateful trip to Paris, where she was robbed.

Kardashian West said she was feeling anxiety before the trip, something that had never happened before, and her then 3-year-old daughter sensed it.

“She gave me a little plastic treasure box, and she put her little jewels in it — like fake little plastic jewels — and she was like, ‘Mommy, this will keep you safe when you go to Paris,'” the star said. “To have something really sweet like that is more important to me than all the jewelry.”

(Photo: Pacific Coast News)

The post Kim Kardashian Plans to Stop Posing Nude – Really – She Just Doesn’t Know When appeared first on The WOW Report.

According to the New York City Police Department, the skeletal remains of Brooklyn man were found in his bedroom where they may have been laying for as many as eight years… while his mother continued to live in the house!

The man, who has not yet been identified, probably died in 2008 at age 43, according to authorities. His skeletal remains were discovered Thursday, after his 80-year-old mother was hospitalized. A female relative, police said, was retrieving belongings for the woman when she made the gruesome find.

“She went to the second floor bedroom and that’s when she noticed a dead body ― completely decomposed skeletal remains ― on the floor,” a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told The Huffington Post on Monday.

The man, who was last seen alive in 2008, and had reportedly been terminally ill, was previously employed as a driver for a Brooklyn car service.

Nobody knows why his mother, who is also not being identified, didn’t notify authorities of her son’s death.

(Or why nobody he was dead, for that matter)

Via HuffPo:

A neighbor described the woman as a loner who ignored their greetings.

“She never said hello,” the neighbor told New York Daily News. “She always walking down the street with a grocery bag [and] she would walk looking down. Something about her always seemed a little weird.”

The neighbor also said a tan Ford Explorer, possibly belonging the dead man, is parked in the driveway of the woman’s home and has not been moved in several years. Google Earth appears to show the vehicle has remained in the same spot since at least October 2007.

Authorities on Monday told HuffPost they are still awaiting the results of the dead man’s autopsy. Until then, it remains unclear whether his mother will face criminal charges.

(Top photo: Google Earth; bottom photo: Pixabay)

The post Brooklyn Mother Lived with Son’s Decomposed Corpse for Nearly a Decade appeared first on The WOW Report.

Says Cher of the unlikely collaboration:

“I didn’t know who Future was before this, but I knew it would be so fun to work with someone who is completely unlike me, and who is young, really talented and striving.”

In a separate interview with People, Future echoed the same sentiments and praised the singer as “a true performer and a legend.”

Check out the (heavily auto-tuned)(but still pretty mesmerizing) cover of Sly & the Family Stone‘s 1969 classic “Everyday People,” below.

The 1969 song gets a timely rework and transforms into a trap-style hip-hop tune, an area where Future thrives. The pop star’s voice is bathed in with auto-tune as she sings “Sometimes I’m right and I can be wrong/ My own beliefs are in my song” with Future providing a few ad-libs.

(via Billboard)

The post Cher & Future Cover “Everyday People” in New Gap Commercial appeared first on The WOW Report.

September 20, 1973–  The Battle Of The Sexes

55-year-old Bobby Riggs was a former Wimbledon champion. In the early 1970s, he began announcing to anyone willing to listen, that he could still win against any woman player. With great reluctance, Billie Jean King became the second woman who took him up on that challenge.

An exhibition match titled The Battle Of The Sexes was announced, and Riggs knew how to attract attention by throwing out a bunch of misogynistic comments to the press, including: “The best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot”. Yet, King trounced him 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in front of more than 31,000 fans at the Houston Astrodome, at the time, the biggest audience ever to watch a tennis match. It remains one of the most famous tennis events of all time.

Riggs was once considered the best tennis player in the world. In 1939, he won the men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon, winning an extra $100,000 by betting on himself. He also won several U.S. championships, as an amateur and a professional.

Riggs decided in early 1973 to challenge some of tennis’ top women players. King, who at that point had already won 10 major singles titles, repeatedly turned him down. Number One ranked, 31-year-old Margaret Court took Riggs up on his challenge for $10,000. On May 13, Riggs defeated Court 6-2, 6-1 in what was called The Mother’s Day Massacre. Court:

“I didn’t expect him to mix it up like that. We girls don’t play like that.”

Riggs turned his attention back to 29-year-old King, whom he called “The Women’s Libber Leader”. Riggs:

“I’ll play her on clay, grass, wood, cement, marble or roller skates. We got to keep this sex thing going. I’m a woman specialist now.”

After much prodding, King changed her mind this time and agreed to a match. At a July press conference announcing the $100,000 winner-take-all match, Riggs boasted:

“I’ll tell you why I’ll win. She’s a woman and they don’t have the emotional stability.”

King responded by calling him a “creep”. There was a media frenzy when Riggs promised to jump off a bridge if he lost. He continued to play up his male chauvinist rants, declaring:

“Women belong in the bedroom and kitchen, in that order. Women play about 25 percent as good as men, so they should get about 25 percent of the money men get.”

Riggs had trained hard for his match with Court, but feeling cocky, he spent the summer of 1973 partying and making wise cracks. King continued with her normal routine on the women’s tour.

On September 20, fans filled the Houston Astrodome to watch The Battle Of The Sexes while 100 million people across the planet watched on television.Theme songs were chosen for the event: Conquest, Alfred Newman’s rousing theme from Captain From Castile (1947), a Tyrone Power film, for Riggs, and I Am Woman performed live by Helen Reddy was King’s choice. King was carried on to the court on a glittering gold-colored platform held aloft by toga-wearing members of the Rice University Men’s Track Team. Riggs made his entrance on a rickshaw surrounded by bikini clad women called “Bobby’s Bosom Buddies”. King then presented Riggs with a squealing pink baby pig. Riggs handed King a giant Sugar Daddy candy bar.

Keeping it playful, King wore blue suede sneakers, and Riggs played three sets wearing a gold jacket with the “Sugar Daddy” logo on the back. King wore a little menthol-green and sky-blue nylon number by legendary British tennis couturier Ted Tinling. The dress’s color scheme payed subtle homage to the two-year-old Virginia Slims Women’s Tennis Tour, which had been selling poorly. Tinling delivered the dress in person.

King worked to wear Riggs down with her rallies. She won the first set 6-4. Riggs broke King’s serve in the first game of the second set, yet he still lost it 6-3. Visibly tiring, he then lost the third set 6-3. When he hit a high backhand volley into the net on match point, King flung her racket into the air in celebration. King:

“I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match. It would ruin the women’s tour and affect all women’s self-esteem.”

Howard Cosell delivered a colorful play-by-play commentary, and heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman presented the trophy and the check to King.

Riggs told reporters that King simply “played too well”. Known for having a gambling problem, rumors surfaced that Riggs threw the match for money to pay off his gambling debts.

ABC Television/Wikimedia Commons, Riggs and King with Jack Klugman on  The Odd Couple. October 1973

The Battle Of The Sexes made King the first American female superstar athlete. King landed endorsements for Adidas, Wilson Tennis Rackets, Colgate Toothpaste and Sunbeam Blow Dryers. In 1974, King made more than one million dollars.

King retired from competitive singles tennis in 1983, after winning 12 major titles, including six Wimbledons and four U.S. Opens. She founded a women’s players union, a women’s sports magazine, a nonprofit advocacy group for female athletes and a new team tennis league. Yet, she will always be remembered for The Battle Of The Sexes. King:

“I know that when I die, nobody at my funeral will be talking about me. They’ll all just be standing around telling each other where they were the night I beat Bobby Riggs.”

King met her Larry King, now a lawyer, when they were in college. The couple married in 1965. By 1968, King realized that she was attracted to women, and in 1971, she began an affair with with her assistant, Marilyn Barnett. King came clean about the relationship when, in May 1981, it became public that a palimony lawsuit had been filed by Barnett, making King the first prominent professional female athlete to come out of the closet. King said that she had wanted to retire from competitive tennis in 1981 but could not afford to because of the lawsuit. King:

“Within 24 hours of the lawsuit being filed, I lost all my endorsements; I lost everything. I lost $2 million at least, because I had longtime contracts. I had to play just to pay for the lawyers. In three months, I went through $500,000. I was in shock. I didn’t make $2 million in my lifetime, so it’s all relative to what you make.”

King’s victory, along with the 1972 passage of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, that addresses discrimination on the basis of sex, is credited with bringing a lot of fans to women’s sports.

In 2009, King was awarded the Presidential Medal Of Freedom by President Barack Obama for her work for Women’s Rights and LGBTQ Rights.

Riggs was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1988. He founded the Bobby Riggs Tennis Museum to raise money for cancer research and house his papers and trophies. Riggs left this world in 1995, he was 77-years-old when he was taken by the cancer. In his final days, Riggs reached out to King, and King talked to him often on the telephone. She called him shortly before his death, offering to visit him, but he did not want her to see him so sick. She talked to him the night before his death, and the last thing she told Riggs was “I love you”.

Margaret Court is now an Evangelical Christian minister in her native Australia. She has spoken out against Marriage Equality in her country. Court:

“They want marriage because they want to destroy it. There will be no Mother’s Day, there will be no Father’s Day, there will be no Easter, there will be no Christmas.”

In 2007, some grifter real estate developer from NYC with weird hair named Donald Trump attempted to put together a new Battle Of The Sexes with a one million dollar prize, pitting Serena Williams against John McEnroe. It never really got off the ground because everyone involved new that Trump was a loser (#Sad).

The Battle Of The Sexes (2013) is an excellent documentary Directed by James Erskine and Zara Hayes. There are two feature films about the famous rivalry: the 2001 movie for television When Billie Beat Bobby with Holly Hunter and Ron Silver, and opening tomorrow is The Battle Of The Sexes with last year’s Oscar-winner Emma Stone and Steve Carell.

The post #OnThisDay: 1973, Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs and “The Battle Of The Sexes” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Nicole Richie
Abby Lee Miller
Alfonso Ribeiro
Anne Burrell
Bill Murray
Cheryl Hines
Christian Serratos
Darva Conger
Dave Coulier
David James Elliott
Ethan Coen
Faith Hill
Jason Derulo
Jerry Bruckheimer
Leonard Cohen
Liam Gallagher
Luke Wilson
Maggie Grace
Nancy Travis
Ricki Lake
Rob Morrow
Stephen King

#HOHxREVOLVE @houseofharlow1960

A post shared by Nicole Richie (@nicolerichie) on Apr 12, 2017 at 3:57pm PDT

The post September 21st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Pop superstar Demi Lovato pushes back on the notion that she needs to label herself or discuss her sexuality with the press.

via CNN:

In a recent interview with PrideSource.com, Lovato talked about her song “Cool for the Summer,” which she said she intended as “just fun and bi-curiosity.”
She also discussed why she doesn’t speak about her sexuality.

“I just feel like everyone’s always looking for a headline and they always want their magazine or TV show or whatever to be the one to break what my sexuality is,” she said. “I feel like it’s irrelevant to what my music is all about.

“I stand up for the things that I believe in and the things that I’m passionate about, but I like to keep my personal life as private as possible when it comes to dating and sexuality and all that stuff just because it has nothing to do with my music.”

She then clapped back at a follower who tweeted,

“I love Demi Lovato, but her reason for refusing to talk about her sexuality is total bulls***.”

“Expectant and rude,” Lovato tweeted back. “Watch my documentary and chill out.”

She later deleted that tweet, but kept the following two.

Just because I’m refuse to label myself for the sake of a headline doesn’t mean I’m not going to stand up for what I believe in.

— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 20, 2017

If you’re that curious about my sexuality, watch my documentary. But I don’t owe anybody anything.

— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 20, 2017

(Photo: Pacific Coast News)

The post Demi Lovato Doesn’t Owe You an Explanation About her Sexuality appeared first on The WOW Report.

Photo: WhiteHouse.gov

September 21, 1996– The Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) is enacted.

Hillary Rodham Clinton:

“On Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA), I think what my husband believed, and there was certainly evidence to support it, is that there was enough political momentum to amend the Constitution of the United States of America, and that there had to be some way to stop that. And there wasn’t any rational argument, because I was in on some of those discussions, on both Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and on DOMA, where both the President, his advisers and occasionally I would chime in and talk about, ‘You can’t be serious. You can’t be serious’.’But they were. And so, in a lot of ways, DOMA was a line that was drawn that was to prevent going further. It was a defensive action.”

Congressional Republicans proposed DOMA in 1996 framing it as a response to a case making its way through Hawaii’s state court system. In 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriages possibly violated the state constitution’s equal protection clause.

Gay Rights activists said that if Hawaii recognized Marriage Equality, the ruling should be applied to the 49 other states under the US Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which requires states: “To honor the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State”. For example, when you have a driver’s license from one state, you don’t have to get a new license every time you cross state lines to legally drive in that state.

Hawaii never did allow those marriages to take place. Marriage Equality came to the Aloha State in 2013 after the Supreme Court overturned DOMA with US v Windsor. The Hawaii case prompted 15 other states to take preemptive measures by passing laws banning same-sex marriages.

Sponsors of DOMA said the law would allow each state to reach its own decision about same-sex unions, and it would define marriage as between a man and woman under federal law for the purposes of federal programs. DOMA barred federal recognition of same-sex marriages for purposes such as Social Security survivors’ benefits, insurance benefits, immigration and tax filing. Opponents criticized DOMA as discriminatory, a politically motivated move to force lawmakers to oppose Marriage Equality before the 1996 election. This was clearly unconstitutional under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and premature; the Hawaii case was not expected to be decided for two years.

I doubt that Democratic lawmakers decided to vote for DOMA because of a threat of a constitutional amendment. Among Democrats who defended their YES votes, most said they supported Gay Rights, but they supported DOMA’s preservation of States’ Rights.

No actual draft for Constitutional Amendment was written, but there was the real chance that if DOMA failed, opponents of Marriage Equality would push for an amendment.

In May 1996, just over three weeks after DOMA was introduced, the White House announced that the President William Jefferson Clinton would support a bill to deny federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Clinton supported most Gay Rights and he said that DOMA was unnecessary and divisive, but he also felt that marriage was a heterosexual union. The then-White House Press Secretary Michael D. McCurry said:

“DOMA is gay baiting, pure and simple and classic use of wedge politics designed to provoke anxieties and fears.”

On this day, September 21, in 1996, Clinton signed DOMA into law after Congress passed it with a veto-proof majority. He announced his signing of the bill on a Saturday, after a campaign stop in South Dakota, and never released the official White House photograph of the signing.

In his memoir My Life (2004), Clinton doesn’t mention DOMA.

When the Supreme Court reviewed the constitutionality of DOMA in 2013, Clinton wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, saying, in part:

“Although that was only 17-years-ago, it was a very different time. In no state in the union was same-sex marriage recognized, much less available as a legal right, but some were moving in that direction. Washington, as a result, was swirling with all manner of possible responses, some quite draconian. As a bipartisan group of former senators stated in their March 1 amicus brief to the Supreme Court, many supporters of the bill known as DOMA believed that its passage ‘would defuse a movement to enact a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which would have ended the debate for a generation or more’. It was under these circumstances that DOMA came to my desk, opposed by only 81 of the 535 members of Congress.”

Many of the Civil Rights achievements of the Obama Administration were the undoing of policies under Clinton’s Administration, such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, mandatory prison sentencing, and DOMA.

SCOTUS struck down DOMA in 2013 because it denied same-sex couples the “Equal Liberty” guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

DOMA defined marriage as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and a spouse as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.” That provision had been struck down by eight lower courts before the SCOTUS’s 5-4 ruling in US v. Windsor should have settled the matter.

Yet, LGBTQ Americans’ marriage rights are under attack in many conservative states, with the encouragement of some Supreme Court Justices. It’s now clear that not all states, and not all courts, find Marriage Equality to be as a settled issue. Opponents have a long-term plan repeal US v Windsor and 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges, the signature achievements of the Gay Rights movement in the USA. Our current president’s Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch would make overturning Marriage Equality not only possible, but a priority.

The post #OnThisDay: President Bill Clinton Signs DOMA into Law appeared first on The WOW Report.

And now let’s take a moment and put aside the horrors of the world today (Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Myanmar, Houston, etc), and ogle the oh-so-yummy men of the Mister International Korea Pageant who gift us with an underwear photoshoot ahead of their competition next month.

via NewNowNext:

The Mister International Organization gathers thousands of bachelors across the globe each year for a pageant that encourages confidence and places an emphasis on giving back to the community.

The competition takes place on October 19 and, below, the finalists strip to their skivvies to promote the event. God bless ’em, every one.

The post Check Out the Mister International Korea Pageant Contestants Parading Around in Their Underwear! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Well, this was a rollicking DragCon NYC panel: Acid Betty, Peppermint, & Horrorchata define what it is that makes NYC queens so fabulous, the various differences between the boroughs (and the queens from those boroughs), and what makes a bio queen. Also: Peppermint discusses being trans within the NYC drag scene… and Horrorchata and Acid Betty have a good-natured (?) tiff about what constitutes Brooklyn drag and where it’s headed. Fascinating stuff!

Check it out below!

The post #WOWExclusive: Acid Betty, Peppermint, & Horrorchata: The Real Queens of New York GET INTO IT at RuPaul’s DragCon NYC 2017 appeared first on The WOW Report.