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Jonathan Groff On "Looking" Being Boring, An End To "Tales Of The City": Today In Gay

Jonathan Groff isn't unaware that critical reception to Looking has been a mixed bag, with some praising the show's relatability and others call it flat-out boring. Discussing criticism of the show with SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile, Groff was rather diplomatic:

Now that it’s come out and people are seeing it and reviewing it and starting to have opinions about it, it’s sort of become this conversation piece, which at the end of the day is, for us working on the show, really exciting. People are engaging with it, whether they like it or not.

I believe in this more than anything I’ve worked on. So to hear people saying negative things about it, it’s a little hard because it feels like your baby is out there in the world. But I sort of have to put those feelings aside and enjoy the fact that it is a conversation, and it is engaging people and making people talk.


Armistead Maupin knows a thing or seven about telling the stories of gay men in San Francisco: His Tales of the City series has spawned millions of fans and two acclaimed television miniseries. But Maupin is saying goodbye to the gang from 28 Barbary Lane with  The Days of Anna Madrigal, which he claims is the final novel in the Tales series.

Discussing the books origins, Maupin tells Out.com that he got some help from one of Hollywood's biggest closet cases: “I [edited the first Tales book] on Rock Hudson’s living room floor. He said, ‘Take the house and get rid of your distractions.’ I had 120 little chapters from the newspaper and was moving them around like a Chinese puzzle.”


The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill would legalize civil and religious same-sex marriages, reports the Sunday Herald, with an opt-in feature for those officiants willing to conduct ceremonies and legal protections for those who do not.

Tuesday marks the third and final stage of the same-sex marriage bill in parliament. MSPs voted to approve the law in principle in November, when 98 voted in favour, 15 objected and five abstained, suggesting overwhelming support this week.

In Scotland, the Catholic Church and Church of Scotland oppose same-sex marriage, but a number of smaller churches and faiths are supportive, and say they would be ready to conduct same-sex religious weddings. These include the Unitarians, Quakers, Metropolitan Community Church, the Pagan Federation and Liberal Judaism.

Equality Network's Tom French says that if the measure passes "2014 will be a milestone year for equality in Scotland."

While the law normally wouldn't take effect until the end of the year, authorities are hoping to speed the process with a Section 104 Order in the British Parliament, which would enable same-sex marriages in ­Scotland by July.

Same-sex marriages in England and Wales are slated to begin on March 29.


The news is more grim in Sarajevo, where a dozen hooded thugs attacked audience members at an LGBT film festival in the Bosnian capital. The hooligans burst into the Kriterion Cinema and injured at least three people, who were taken to the hospital.

[caption id="attachment_141308" align="alignleft" width="280"]the rookie and the runner "The Rookie and the Runner" screens at Merlinka later this week.[/caption]

The police, who say they are still gathering details about the incident, are being criticized for providing insufficient security. Anti-gay violence has been on the rise in the traditionally conservative Muslim country but only two guards were stationed at the Kriterion.

The assailants “did not break anything, but were yelling and intimidating participants who attended a debate which followed the screening of a movie,” a theater staffer told AFP.

Organized by both Bosnian and Serbian gay rights groups, the Merlinka Film Festival has a slate of more than 30 films that touch on LGBT rights and the gay community.

In 2008, a Gay Pride festival ended in violence when radical Islamists injured eight people and a planned parade was canceled over security concerns.


More than 1,000 participants attended the march, which kicked off from August Kranti Maidan, where Mahatma Gandhi made his historic "Quit India" speech in 1942.

“Ideally, the march is about taking pride in what you are, but this year’s upsurge in numbers is a reflection of the community’s anger and hurt over being recriminalized," says leading activist Ashok Row Kavi. “If courts think they can brush us off and treat us like sub-humans they need to see how they have ended up giving the movement a shot in the arm instead."

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