[rating=4]
Released June 18, 2012
Gabby Young & Other Animals bring to life the magical side of the circus, with lilting waltzes and haunting brass.

“Listening to them conjures up images of 1920s sideshows, painted clowns playing brass instruments, tattooed and bearded ladies, bikini clad showgirls breathing fire and high wire walking contortionists.”

[rating=4]
Cert:U • UK: 60 min • Metrodome Distribution • April 23, 2012

A work-out DVD of 60 second exercises, delivered as a series of 10 minute work-outs, that is manageable, and boasts trainers that are easy on the eye.

“If like me, you are prone to use the excuse that there is not enough time in the day to exercise or go to the gym, The 60 Second Promise is perfect. I genuinely enjoy the exercises (which of course may be a false state of being brought on by pheromones).”

[rating=5]
352 pages • Bloomsbury • April 12, 2012 [PB]

Sad and fatalistic, yet ultimately satisfying and strangely comforting, the tragic love story of Achilles and Patroclus is in Madeline Miller’s hands a life-affirming one.

“When the long-postponed and hoped-for moment arrives, just after Achilles’ sixteenth birthday, the release of tension is palpable. But one is also acutely aware that this is to be a fateful moment, and that the die, once cast, will irrevocably shape the rest of their lives.”

Michael Langan Writes His Coming Out Story.

Polari Magazine series where its readers and writers tell their coming out stories.

“It’s easier to be gay when you’re a pop star than when you’re a person, and it’s on the level of the person that telling our coming out stories still has significance.”

A Great Step Forward in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate.

Denmark passes a law that makes marriage gender neutral, and at the same time manages the potential conflict with the Church.

“Denmark was the first country in the world to pass a civil partnerships law back in 1989. There are roughly 4,100 couples in registered partnerships, and under the new law those couples will automatically be afforded the status of marriage.”

[rating=3]
Released July 15, 2011
An engaging album, a wonderful voice, seamless, although perhaps a little too seamless.

“For the folk virgins, the roster serves as a great introduction, but for those that know their folk, there are very few surprises here, even the contemporary numbers will be well known.”

Part 1: From The First Written Words About Homosexuality to Alexander the Great.

The first part of the series A Queer History that looks back to Early Greece and forward to the way we live now.

“In Early and Classical Greece, homosexuality was part of the culture. The following is a snapshot of that world, and a snapshot of the fragments that are left of it.”

The Proud2Be Project.

Founded in June 2011 by twin brothers Matt and Jon Price, the Proud2Be project is a video campaign with a message of support for LGBT people.

“This is a message for adults as much as it a message for teens. As Stephen Fry says in his contribution, ‘I think part of life is learning what to be ashamed of and what to be proud of’.”

[rating=4]
233 pages • Accent Press • May 9, 2012 [HB]

Tim Bennett-Goodman is angered and moved by this between-the-wars tale of homosexuality and prejudice.

“All the Beauty of the Sun, whilst far from being a polemic, serves as a salutary warning not to judge those who went before us by contemporary standards.”

Polari’s Editor Writes His Coming Out Story.

This is the first in a new Polari Magazine series.

“Maurice armed me with a phrase that I still use to this day, for the most part because it’s so funny: “I’m an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort,” as the hero tells his therapist. It was that exact phrase I used when I came out to my friend.”