Arts & Entertainment

See Inside the Last Original Artist Lofts in New York

It wasn’t uncommon for artists to afford rent without wealthy patrons before developers and high-rises took a chokehold of Manhattan. They gleefully lived and worked where they slept, mostly in lofts, even if it was technically illegal. A new book is opening the curtains to the last creative residential sanctuaries left in the city.

Photographer Joshua Charow’s Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts, newly released on Damiani Books, captures a fading way of life. Since the

The Everlasting Appeal of The Real Housewives

I used to be cynical about watching The Real Housewives until I unexpectedly found myself inside New York’s Sonja Morgan’s hotel room for her Halloween party at the Kimpton in 2018. Her hairstylist invited me, as Morgan embraced a more-the-merrier mentality for gays.

I was shirtless, and Morgan quipped about my nipples, managing to partake in several conversations simultaneously. Production made every extraneous person sign a release waiver before a crew member yelled, “Action!” Countess Luan d

Art Insurer Warns Museums of an Unsuspected Threat: Selfies

An unsuspected danger is keeping art museums on high alert: visitors taking selfies.

Specialist insurer Hiscox has reported a trend of selfie-taking visitors damaging valuable paintings, objects, and installations by walking into them backward. Although the insurer is positioned to gain more clients from the uptick of such disasters, it doesn’t lessen the risks of selfies. Fine art is vulnerable to the touch of a fingerprint, much less a bumper-to-bumper encounter with humans.

Hiscox’s head of

The Sexy, Liberating History of the Leather Bar on 'American Horror Story: NYC'

The walls are painted black; the lighting dimmed to the point you can only see what's in front of you. Masculine faces and bodies take up the perimeter; many are shirtless, wearing harnesses or leather gear; some try to lock eyes with you. But, of course, if you're only experiencing a gay leather bar via fiction on a screen, such flamboyant promiscuity must mean that danger is near. The mystique and allure of gay leather bars make them such a convincing setting for trouble. For over 40 years sin

Peer Inside the Ancient Egyptian Tomb of Neferhotep

A prominent Egyptian scribe from the 18th Dynasty has been resurrected on the west bank of Luxor—well, their tomb, at least. After nearly 20 years of restoration work, the tomb of Neferhotep has reopened for tourists to gaze into the eyes of history.

The country’s secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziry, and Argentinian ambassador, Gonzalo Oriolabeta, inaugurated the much-anticipated reveal. The completion of the restoration was aided by an Argentine mission affi

I'm Mariah Carey's makeup artist - 5 drugstore makeup finds 'as good as luxury'

MARIAH Carey's makeup artist has revealed his all-time favorite drugstore makeup products that compete with luxury. Kristofer Buckle has shared exclusively with The U.S. Sun five cosmetic products under $20 that he'd recommend to anyone sold at retailers like Walmart, CVS, and Amazon.

Why the Phenomenon of the 'Breakup Song' Is Absolutely Gay Rights

Whenever Robyn's "Dancing on My Own" blasts inside a gay nightclub in New York, I throw myself into the center of the dance floor amid a crowd of tipsy strangers. My body and soul dance to the rhythm of every lyric; it's my anthem of joy, perhaps, revenge against any man who has ever dared to stop loving me.

The "breakup song" is my favorite genre of music. It channels many elements of queerness: weaponizing pain and rejection as an opportunity for rebirth and becoming stronger and carefree aft

Pop star Fedro sits down with Jamie Valentino for Queerty's first-ever Spanish language video interview

The Daily Beast

Is It Time for Bravo to Cast Its First Gay Male ‘Real Housewife’?

What gay man hasn’t seen themself in one of the eccentric, fearlessly bedazzled women that have brought international acclaim (and criticism) to the Bravo franchise? One could argue there has been more visibility of gay culture among the Housewives themselves than in the glimpses of gay men tokenized in sporadic episodes, like the next must-have accessory.

Taylor Dayne talks competing as a drag queen, her crazy TV mishaps, and new music on the way

The disco balls at gay bars have been spinning to the music of Taylor Dayne for three decades. We recognized the ’80s icon watching Electra Owl lip-sync for her life on Rupaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race episode 1. You can’t hide pop legends from millennial gays! So, it was all the more surprising that she had to lip-sync for her life again in episode 2, this time being eliminated. But, perhaps, it’s really a compliment to Dayne’s authenticity as a vocalist that she struggled with remembering

Penguin Random House UK

The importance of raunchy gay literature | Queer novels

As American teenagers, my friends and I hung out at the mall on weekends doing what older teens with driving licenses called 'loser laps' – walking around aimlessly until we’d meandered around most of the shops, then walking around them again. One day, my mom was late to pick me up, so I lingered in a bookshop. I browsed books to pas

Legendary Jack Mizrahi is spreading the gospel of ballroom across the globe

Television shows like Netflix’s Pose and HBO’s Legendary might’ve brought the art of ballroom to an international audience, but they were hardly the creators of it. The scene originated in New York City in the 1920s underground by drag queens and trans women, then it expanded to include gay men in the 1970s.

This community was desperate to make themselves seen – at least to find visibility in each other – liberating their inhibitions from a society determined to ignore or erase them.

Enter Jac

How to paint an orgy, find models on Grindr, & stage sexy selfies: 3 queer artists reveal their secrets

A Tom of Finland bulge, a Keith Haring illustration with intertwined body parts, or a provocative Diane Arbus photograph — each represents the artist’s viewpoint, but they also play significant roles in LGBTQ+ visibility. It’s one thing to say, “We’re Here. We’re Queer.” It’s another to see it.

Despite decades of criminalization, ostracization, the AIDS epidemic, and a new wave of anti-LGBTQ+ vitriol, queer artists continue to push boundaries, with many putting body-positive sexuality front and

These 5 young queer Latinx influencers are stylishly slaying the internet

While influencers sit at the intersection of trends and culture, those with intersectional identities can give visibility to multiple communities at once. Prominent Latin queer individuals know all too well how identity can become blurred when your Latin roots transcend an American upbringing: How do you honor heritage while paying respect to nationality? How can marginalized people unburden themselves from social ignorance? And where does queerness fit into geography?

The five following Latin-

Binge these 5 LGBTQ+ compelling TV characters from across the Hispanic world

The world of TV becomes so much queerer when you stop filtering for English. Hollywood isn’t the only place embracing the rising trend of LGBTQ+ storytelling. In fact, many Latin American TV shows that have become popular in the U.S. are filled with daring and complex LGBTQ+ characters.

These characters show that the nuances of LGBTQ+ identity transcend culture, resonating with queer U.S. audiences even though they speak a different tongue. So here are LGBTQ+ Hispanic TV characters worth stream

‘And Just Like That’ finally finds the sex (and its soul) in the city

I mourned the loss of Sex and the City after watching a few episodes of the first season of the And Just Like That reboot. I was one of the millennial gays that came of age binging the original series as a teen, and therefore I knew exactly what to do when I entered New York adulthood.

OK, real life materialized a little differently than the fantasy I fell in love with, but as a gay man, I never resonated with a show more, which had nothing to specifically do with queerness.

Needless to say, A

Manu Ríos is ‘Elite’s’ breakout star, but there’s so much more to this Spanish sex bomb

Manu Ríos knows sex sells–or at least his agent does. The art of seduction is plastered all over the 23-year-old’s career and on Instagram. The Elite breakout star is not shy to trap his 10 million followers in thirst with his on-screen sex scenes and off-screen selfies. But beyond the smokes and mirrors of his undeniable sex appeal, who is this young internet sensation?

As the Spanish sex bomb delivers some serious sex bombs in the forthcoming season 6 of Elite, Queerty staff scourged the Int

Daniel Franzese on ‘Mean Girls’, which ‘Drag Race’ judge deserves the Burn Book, and being a “big man”

Daniel Franzese starred as one of the first gay characters in the film industry to be shown in countries where identifying as LGBTQ can cost your life. That’s because Mean Girls‘ Damian might have been too gay to function, but he never verbalized his sexuality in the movie, which allowed it to move past censorship, and many viewers around the globe got a glimpse of their first gay person. Foreign homophobes were probably screaming: She doesn’t even go here!

Regardless, Franzese is still here an

How the movie “Shelter” helped me come out and redefine love

The last thing gay men need in the queer film industry is another coming-of-age trope, but after rewatching 2007’s Shelter, I couldn’t help but think that maybe more would be OK.

Seeing five-year-old Cody (Jackson Wurth) insist his young uncle Zach (Trevor Wright) be his ‘Daddy’ (in place of his absent father), I remember the times I, too, forced this role on unsuspecting older men. But I digress.

Nothing new could be said about being closeted besides that it sucks. And that’s what makes Shelt

Thom Filicia on his drag persona’s tipsy backstory, that latex jumpsuit, and a ‘Queer Eye’ crossover

Thom Filicia has touched the homes of countless Americans (including Jennifer Lopez and Tina Fey) and served as the design expert of the original cast of the cultural staple Queer Eye for the Straight Eye. He publicly celebrated the transcendent magic of queerness on television before homophobia was policed online.

There’s not much Filicia hasn’t accomplished in his career, though drag queen is now part of his Rolodex. After being the third contestant eliminated on Rupaul’s Secret Celebrity Dra

5 gay-approved Latina pop stars you should be streaming now

Pop music might sound a lot like gay rights, but the actual stage often only offers room for heteronormative artists. In Latin America, it’s even harder for unabashedly queer Latinx pop stars to thrive. And while it’s easy to root for the hunky, shirtless Ricky Martin and Pablo Alboráns of the world, our Latina queer/ally ladies deserve love too. So it’s time to learn the names of women who’ve weaponized their music to blur the lines between entertainment and resistance.

Related: Ricky Marti

Artist Colin Radcliffe is sculpting the most intimate – and thirstiest – glimpses of queer culture

Art has been the longest-lasting constant in 29-year-old Colin Radcliffe’s life, besides his queerness and the support of his parents. Growing up outside Long Island, New York, he came out to his family at 18, but he did it more as an act of love than breaking news. Like many intuitive parents, they already knew but were waiting for him to be ready.

Radcliffe has been creating in one way or another since he was old enough to hold a crayon. He remembers his first masterpiece was a drawing of Eri

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