A gay-owned Virgia rtrant is a dispute wh s neighbors - Washgton Post

Contents:

• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
• I WAS 'STRAIGHT,' THEN 'GAY,' THEN 'BISEXUAL.' NOW I KNOW WHO I REALLY AM.
• ENTREPRENR SAYS BUD LIGHT GOT ALL WRONG, LOOKS TO SH ON FIAS WH ‘GAY WATER’
• IS BARBIE GAY AND WHY IS THE NEW MOVIE RATED PG-13?
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• CONSERVATIVE NEIGHBOR TOSS AD RAT ON PROPERTY OF GAY UPLE’S RTRANT AMID FD
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN
• GAY RIGHTS
• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay muny has long given to the simple vodka and soda cktail — has been spired by the dtup to bee even bolr about the dience ’s targetg, founr and CEO Spencer Hodson told The Post.

CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

Gay Water — a nned cktail brand that plays on the gay muny’s lloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drk — lnched on Wednday and promis to unrstand s dience better than Bud Light. “Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson told The Post.

“Part of the pot of lnchg outsi of Pri month is to rerce the msage that Gay Water is here to make the LGBTQ+ muny more visible 365 days a year, not jt a sgle month, ” he said. When our relatnship end, after three years, she found another “straight” girl, and I was left whout any nnectn to the gay muny, embarrassed wh how ltle experience I had at pleasurg a woman, and lgerg Christian shame about what sex and love were supposed to look like.

I found myself g out aga, not as gay or bi or even pansexual, but as queer, an inty that implied a prehensive rejectn of sexual and romantic many people born before Generatn Z, makg choic about our sexualy feels self-dulgent. We grew up a time when queerns was seen as unnatural and wrong, where gay and straight were two opposg teams that everyone was expected to choose I was 20 years younger, this inty wouldn’t feel so out of place.

I WAS 'STRAIGHT,' THEN 'GAY,' THEN 'BISEXUAL.' NOW I KNOW WHO I REALLY AM.

And while the Bud Light brand has been all but annihilated via a surprisgly effective boytt, one entreprenr is lookg to palize on the LGBTQ+ anxiety wh a nned cktail lled “Gay Water.

“Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson said. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.

“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.

ENTREPRENR SAYS BUD LIGHT GOT ALL WRONG, LOOKS TO SH ON FIAS WH ‘GAY WATER’

“There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space. Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love.

IS BARBIE GAY AND WHY IS THE NEW MOVIE RATED PG-13?

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

Before jog Jacksonville’s achg staff, he was a strength ach for the football teams at Baylor and Febary 2022, Maxen reached out to NFL player Carl Nassib, who me out as gay 2021, to seek advice. The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

(Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple. They married 2020, five years after they opened the Front Porch, which quickly beme a statn The Front Porch has been flyg a Pri flag on s pat sce 2016, not long after a gunman killed 49 people a gay bar Orlando. “I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic.

“I have que a few gay iends, clients and a fay member, and I have patronized a gay-owned rtrant for years, ” he whether the Washers are tryg to remake The Plas to their image of Ameri — Whe, nservative, Christian — Melissa said, “I n see where you’re g om. Waybourn has been an LGBTQ rights activist for s, risg to promence as print of the Dallas Gay Alliance when sued Parkland Memorial Hospal for failg to provi proper re for AIDS patients.

SiegedSec, a self-scribed group of gay furry hackers, took s skills to state ernments late June, breachg agenci across five stat and releasg a wealth of stat targeted on June 27 were Texas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and South Carola.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

When gays, socially speakg, are the procs of beg tegrated to the mastream, and when the cultural works created by and/or about gay people are no longer nsumed exclively or even mostly by gay people, what do this say about what gay culture has bee? The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey. Dpe major chang laws and norms surroundg the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opn on the acceptance of homosexualy society remas sharply divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment.

For example, some untri, those who are affiliated wh a relig group tend to be ls acceptg of homosexualy than those who are unaffiliated (a group sometim referred to as relig “non”). For example, Swen, the Netherlands and Germany, all of which have a per-pa gross domtic product over $50, 000, acceptance of homosexualy is among the hight measured across the 34 untri surveyed. The study is a follow-up to a 2013 report that found many of the same patterns as seen today, although there has been an crease acceptance of homosexualy across many of the untri surveyed both years.

But sub-Saharan Ai, the Middle East, Rsia and Ukrae, few say that society should accept homosexualy; only South Ai (54%) and Israel (47%) do more than a quarter hold this view.

CONSERVATIVE NEIGHBOR TOSS AD RAT ON PROPERTY OF GAY UPLE’S RTRANT AMID FD

However, while took nearly 15 years for acceptance to rise 13 pots om 2000 to jt before the feral legalizatn of gay marriage June 2015, there was a near equal rise acceptance jt the four years sce legalizatn.

This staggerg 56-pot difference exceeds the next largt difference Japan by 20 pots, where 92% and 56% of those ag 18 to 29 and 50 and olr, rpectively, say homosexualy should be accepted by society.

In South Korea, for example, those who classify themselv on the iologil left are more than twice as likely to say homosexualy is acceptable than those on the iologil right (a 39-percentage-pot difference).

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

In a siar ve, those who support right-wg populist parti Europe, many of which are seen by LGBT groups as a threat to their rights, are ls supportive of homosexualy society. In Spa, people wh a favorable opn of the Vox party, which recently has begun to oppose some gay rights, are much ls likely to say that homosexualy is acceptable than those who do not support the party.

And Poland, supporters of the erng PiS (Law and Jtice), which has explicly targeted gay rights as anathema to tradnal Polish valu, are 23 percentage pots ls likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted by society than those who do not support the erng party.

But even untri like France and Germany where acceptance of homosexualy is high, there are differenc between supporters and non-supporters of key right-wg populist parti such as Natnal Rally France and Alternative for Germany (AfD).

GAY RIGHTS

Relign, both as relat to relative importance people’s liv and actual relig affiliatn, also plays a large role perceptns of the acceptabily of homosexualy many societi across the globe. In 25 of the 34 untri surveyed, those who say relign is “somewhat, ” “not too” or “not at all” important their liv are more likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted than those who say relign is “very” important.

Among Israelis, those who say relign is not very important their liv are almost three tim more likely than those who say relign is very important to say that society should accept homosexualy.

For example, those who are religly unaffiliated, sometim lled relig “non, ” (that is, those who intify as atheist, agnostic or “nothg particular”) tend to be more acceptg of homosexualy. Though the opns of religly unaffiliated people n vary wily, virtually every untry surveyed wh a sufficient number of unaffiliated rponnts, “non” are more acceptg of homosexualy than the affiliated.

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

Koreans who are religly unaffiliated are about twice as likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted by society (60%) as those who are Christian (24%) or Buddhist (31%).