ABOVE: Big, bad Brad.

BELOW: Keep reading for Minnesota's new conversion therapy restrictions, L.A. County slipping back into the grip of COVID-19, anti-gay slasher nailed in Queens and more ...

(Image via Torso/Matthew Rettenmund Archive)

ABOVE: A shot of Lance in his prime. Keep reading for more on him.

BELOW: Tyler Perry's soapy prostate exam, Kenneth Attacked in the (212) or (646), how Ken Starr saved Jeffrey Epstein and more ...

Vito Russo (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Yesterday, Sunday, July 11, was the 75th anniversary of the birth of gay film historian Vito Russo, a man whose '80s book The Celluloid Closet taught us how to view the totality of cinema through a lavender lens — and who urged us to admit the view was pretty abysmal up till then.

I've encountered gay men who sniff at Russo these days, but I think his work was so incredibly important in getting more people to realize some important facts: that movies aren't just movies; that there is a difference between movies about anti-gay characters and movies whose anti-gay characters presume the audience is also anti-gay; and that while one single movie in which a lesbian dies in the end isn't necessarily consciously homophobic, dozens of movies from the same source (Hollywood) in which all the lesbians die probably are.

The work he did was exhaustive, and — for him — exhausting. Before VCRs were commonplace, he was able to view countless movies, and to secure clips from them in order to give talks that backed up his view that Hollywood had a real hard-on for homos. He was a scholar and educator, not merely a gay cheerleader. But he was that, too.

ABOVE: Tom Daley is going for the gold in exhibitionism.

BELOW: Keep reading for new takes on Maurice and The Wizard of Oz, a gay kid remembering his gay dads, Grant Goodeve's good side and more ...

Listen up, mother Dominique Jackson (@tyraaross) is speaking!

June may be over, but The Queer Agenda is 365 days a year. pic.twitter.com/0HJVhG11Ok

— Most (@Most) July 1, 2021

ABOVE: “Normalize spitting?” No. During sex? If you insist. The rest — yay.

BELOW: Sha'Carri Richardson disqualified, Kenworthy and Underwood continue their media assault, Kirstie Alley wobbles toward QAnonism and more ...

ABOVE: NYC in the '70s. What a trip.

BELOW: Keep reading for male-on-male movies, Texas governor's anti-dog outrage, Madonna's plan to make every queen crazy between now and Thursday and more ...

ABOVE: We can work it out.

BELOW: Keep reading for a Lego head-scratcher, a brutal anti-gay crime, a winning pooch, a hungry whale and more ...

ABOVE: Come for Tony Curtis's feet, stay for Josephine Baker's birthday. Follow here.

BELOW: Ricky Martin on his 10th anniversary as an out icon, Jazz Jennings on anti-trans sports bills, a peek at early Gay Lib in NYC and more ...