#2019 tony awards

[biggestcringefailure]

I’m gonna tell my kids the 2019 tony win for best featured actor in a musical was a tie between these two

[laflamejpeg]

Photo Stills From One of My Favorite Movies of All Time “Waves” (2019).

[cloveroctobers]

JAMES EARL JONES

James Earl Jones was an American actor known for his iconic voice acting roles and for his work in theater. Over his career, he received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi in 1931, he had a stutter since childhood. Jones said that poetry and acting helped him overcome the challenges of his disability. A pre-med major in college, he served in the United States Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting. Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Claudine (1974). Jones gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film. Jones' other notable roles include in Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Sandlot (1993), and The Lion King (1994). Jones reprised his roles in Star Wars media, The Lion King (2019), and Coming 2 America (2021).

He was described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances on stage and screen, and "one of the greatest actors in American history.”

( January 17th, 1931 — September 9th, 2024)

Rest well.

[vladcvnt]

Gothic/Sci-fi/Vampire/Queer novels by Black authors:

(((Recommendations for AMC's Interview with the Vampire fans!)))

Toni Morrison (1931 - 2019)

Beloved: Set in the period after the American Civil War, the novel tells the story of a dysfunctional family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. The narrative of Beloved derives from the life of Margaret Garner, an enslaved person in the enslaving state of Kentucky who escaped and fled to the free state of Ohio in 1856

The Bluest Eye:  The novel takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression. She is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her mannerisms and dark skin. As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with "whiteness".

Sula: The Bottom was a Black neighborhood on a hill above the fictional town of Medallion, Ohio, set to be bulldozed at the beginning of the novel for the creation of a golf course. The Bottom originated as an agreement between a white farmer and his Black slave. The farmer had promised freedom and a piece of valley land to his slave should he complete some difficult chores. Upon the completion of the chores, the farmer regrets his end of the bargain, no longer wanting to give up the land. In order to get out of the arrangement, the farmer feigns regret to the slave over having to give him valley land rather than "Bottom" land. The farmer claimed that "Bottom" land (actually located on top of a hill) would be better than valley land because it was closer to the bottom of heaven.

Octavia E. Butler (1947 - 2006)

Fledgling: The novel tells the story of Shori, a 53-year-old member of the Ina species, who appears to be a ten-year-old African-American girl. The Ina are nocturnal, long-lived, and derive sustenance by drinking human blood. Though they are physically superior to humans, both in strength and ability to heal from injury, the Ina depend on humans to survive. Their relationships are symbiotic: the Ina's venom provides a significant boost to their humans' immune systems and extends their lives up to 200 years. However, withdrawal from this venom will lead to the human's death.

Survivor: The novel follows the early contact between the Missionaries, a group of human colonists fleeing a plague on Earth, and the Kohn, intelligent natives of the planet on which the Missionaries have arrived. In particular, the novel focuses on Alanna, the adopted daughter of the Missionaries' leader, as she attempts to prevent the Missionaries' destruction or assimilation at the hands of a dominant local culture. During the course of the novel, Alanna's experiences assimilating and negotiating with the Kohn draw upon her earlier, similar experience joining the Missionaries themselves, and Alanna's ability to interact with the various cultures becomes the key to their survival.

Jewelle Gomez (1948-)

The Gilda Stories: The protagonist starts in 1850 as an unnamed runaway slave in Louisiana. After killing a bounty hunter in self-defense, she is rescued by Gilda, a vampire who runs a brothel named Woodard's. The women at the brothel begin to educate her and welcome her into their family. Eventually, she becomes a vampire and adopts Gilda's name when Gilda chooses to end her own life. The novel then proceeds in historical vignettes through different cities and time periods, highlighting key moments in Gilda's life. She is in California in 1890, Missouri in 1921, Massachusetts in 1955, New York in 1981, New Hampshire in 2020, and the "Land of Enchantment" in 2050.

Linda D. Addison (1952-)

Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes: This collection of poetry received the HWA Bram Stoker award and includes interior illustrations by Marge Simon, full color cover by Colleen Crary, and an introduction by Charlee Jacob. It captures the path between things gone bad and transformation.

L.A. Banks (1959-2011)

The Vampire Huntress Legend Series (Book #1 Minion, book #2 The Awakening): Damali Richards is a successful hip-hop artist by day, but come nightfall, she hunts vampires and demon-predators. Most people believe these creatures are only myth or fantasy-but Damali and her Guardian team know otherwise. Damali is the Neteru, a vampire huntress whose mission is to vanquish evil from the world. In this series of contemporary fantasy and horror, a battle is brewing, and increasingly brutal supernatural murders are happening—and only Damali can stop the evil.

Tananarive Due (1966-)

The Good House: The home that belonged to Angela Toussaint's late grandmother is so beloved that townspeople in Sacajawea, Washington, call it the Good House. But that all changes one summer when an unexpected tragedy takes place behind its closed doors...and the Toussaint's family history—and future—is dramatically transformed. Angela has not returned to the Good House since her son, Corey, died there two years ago. But now, Angela is finally ready to return to her hometown and go beyond the grave to unearth the truth about Corey's death. Could it be related to a terrifying entity Angela's grandmother battled seven decades ago? And what about the other senseless calamities that Sacajawea has seen in recent years? Has Angela's grandmother, an African American woman reputed to have "powers," put a curse on the entire community?

My Soul to Keep: Jessica, a reporter, is in a happy marriage to David, a professor. After close friends and family begin dying around her, Jessica feels David is hiding something. David reveals that he is immortal and has been for centuries. Jessica’s recent investigations into deaths at nursing homes revealed the death of his own daughter, Rosalie. The coinciding tragedies were David’s attempts to keep his past lives hidden and protect Jessica.

N.K. Jemisin (1972-)

The Dreamblood Duology: In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe... and kill those judged corrupt. But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh's great temple, Ehiru - the most famous of the city's Gatherers - must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess' name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh's alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill - or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.

Helen Oyeyemi (1984-)

White is for Witching: In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly -Slipping away from them -And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story. "Miri I conjure you." This is a spine-tingling tale that has Gothic roots but an utterly modern sensibility. Told by a quartet of crystalline voices, it is electrifying in its expression of myth and memory, loss and magic, fear and love.

The Opposite House: Maja was five years old when her black Cuban family emigrated from the Caribbean to London. Now, almost twenty years later, Maja is a singer, in love with Aaron, pregnant, and haunted by what she calls “her Cuba.” Growing up in London, she has struggled to negotiate her history and the sense that speaking Spanish or English made her less of a black girl. But she is unable to find herself in the Ewe, Igbo, or Akum of her roots. It seems all that’s left is silence. Meanwhile distance from Cuba has only deepened Maja’s mother faith in Santeria —the fusion of Catholicism and Western African Yoruba religion—but it also divides the family as her father rails against his wife’s superstitions and the lost dreams of the Castro revolution. On the other side of the reality wall, Yemaya Saramagua, a Santeria emissary, lives in a somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. Yemaya is troubled by the ease with which her fellow emissaries have disguised themselves behind the personas of saints and by her inability to recognize them.

Rivers Solomon (1988-)

Model Home: The three Maxwell siblings have kept their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. It wasn’t being the only Black kids in the neighborhood that pushed the children to flee, but rather the strange and inexplicable things that began to happen in the house as soon as they moved in. Was it some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-class? Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned. As adults, the siblings finally got away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away.

An Unkindness of Ghosts: Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot—if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

... Aaand, that's it for now! Please feel free to reblog with your own recommendations <3 I didn't get to read all of these authors unfortunately, but for those that I didn't, I've seen them greatly reveered by the genre's enjoyers.

(((I sincerely hope that you get to enjoy a far more diverse and politically-aware tale than AR's TVC in the IWTV season 3 interim with these)))

[demifiendrsa]

EGOT winning american film, television, and broadway actor James Earl Jones has passed away on September 9, 2024 at the age of 93.

Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Claudine. Jones gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film. Jones' other notable roles include in Conan the Barbarian, Matewan, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, The Hunt for Red October, The Sandlot, and the voice of Mufasa in The Lion King. Jones reprised his roles in Star Wars media, The Lion King (2019) remake, and Coming 2 America.

Jones' television work includes playing Woodrow Paris in the series Paris between 1979 and 1980. He voiced various characters on the animated series The Simpsons in three separate seasons. He then was cast as Gabriel Bird, the lead role in the series Gabriel's Fire which aired from 1990 to 1991. For that role, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and was nominated for his fourth Golden Globe Award, this time for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama. He played Bird again in the series Pros and Cons, which ran from 1991 to 1992; that earned him his fifth and final Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama. He then had small appearances in the series Law & Order, Picket Fences , Mad About You, Touched by an Angel, Frasier. His role in Picket Fences earned him another Primetime Emmy Award nomination, one for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. His later television work includes small roles in Everwood, Two and a Half Men, House, and The Big Bang Theory.

Jones' theater work includes numerous Broadway plays, including Sunrise at Campobello (1958–1959), Danton's Death (1965), The Iceman Cometh (1973–1974), Of Mice and Men (1974–1975), Othello (1982), On Golden Pond (2005), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008) and You Can't Take It with You (2014–2015). He was also in various off Broadway productions and Shakespeare stage adaptations such as The Merchant of Venice (1962), The Winter's Tale (1963), Othello (1964–1965), Coriolanus (1965), Hamlet (1972), and King Lear (1973). His roles in The Great White Hope (1969) and Fences (1987) earned him two Tony Awards, both for Best Leading Actor in a Play.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Shaggy - Hey Sexy Lady 2002

Lucky Day (2002) is the sixth studio album released by Jamaican-American singer Shaggy. It peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and later reached Gold certification. Shaggy have scored hits with the previous singles "It Wasn't Me", "Boombastic", and "Angel". He has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning twice for Best Reggae Album with Boombastic in 1996 and 44/876 with Sting in 2019, and has won the Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist in 2002. In 2007, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction with the rank of Commander. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Brown University.

"Hey Sexy Lady" was released in November 2002 as the first single from Lucky Day. The song features Brian and Tony Gold and the song uses the Sexy Lady Explosion riddim with additional beats. As of August 2014, it was the 110th best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 287,000 units sold.

"Hey Sexy Lady" received a total of 49,8% yes votes.

[cupidsbaird]

ROLES IN MY ACTRESS DR °‧🦢⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

THE VVITCH (2015) - THOMASIN

“my spirit slips away from my body and dances naked with the devil.”

- making her film debut at age 13 playing thomasin , a 13 year old girl who is slowly turned on by her family being branded a witch reeking havoc on them. giselle sanchez received critical acclaim for her performance along with a bafta rising star award and a breakthrough performer gotham award.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (2016) - LUX LISBON

“lux was the last to go.”

- after seeing her performance in the vvitch sofia coppola asked giselle to audition for the role of lux in her upcoming film. giselle portrays a mysterious young girl following the death of one of her sisters. following the release of the film giselle would receive a chopard award at cannes film festival.

GIRL , INTERRUPTED (2019) - LISA ROWE

“that is fucked up , daisy!”

- after taking an almost 3 year break giselle sanchez returns to acting with a stellar performance as lisa rowe , a sociopathic psych ward patient. this would earn her an oscar nomination for best supporting actress and an oscar win at 18 years old.

WEST SIDE STORY (2021) - MARIA VASQUEZ

“i feel pretty and witty and bright!”

- at age 18 giselle sanchez starred in steven spielberg’s reimagining of “west side story” as maria , a puetro rican immigrant who falls in love with the ex-leader of a rival gang.

YELLOWJACKETS (2021-2026) - LOTTIE MATTHEWS

“who the fuck is lottie matthews?!”

- filming the pilot during november 2019 and the rest of season 1 in early 2021 giselle sanchez plays a cannibalistic cult leader that spirals out of control as her soccer team is stranded in the canadian wilderness for 19 months. by the third season she is awarded with an emmy for outstanding supporting actress in drama series.

BONES AND ALL (2022) - MAREN YEARLY

“all i think is that i love you.”

- alongside timothee chalamet giselle sanchez portrays a lonely cannibalistic girl who ventures off on her own , coming across those just like her. despite her efforts all roads lead back to her past.

HADESTOWN (2023-2024) - EURYDICE

“orpheus my heart is yours , always was and will be”

- making her broadway debut giselle sanchez plays eurydice , a hungry young girl who falls in love with the lyre player orpheus. in desperate times eurydice signs her life away to hades in the underworld , promised to be fed and sheltered. orpheus must travel down into the underworld to retrieve his lost lover. this would get her a tony award for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical and a grammy for best musical theatre album.

BOTTOMS (2023) - ISABEL

“i’m gonna fuck up some football players and i’m buying a gun”

- the typical popular cheerleader who joins an after school fight club created by two of the biggest losers in school. forming a bond with one of them , dumping her stupid boyfriend and killing boys!

NOSFERATU (2024) - ELLEN HUTTER

“come to me…hear my call.”

- reuniting with director robert eggers , giselle sanchez plays a young woman haunted by a vampire who is infatuated with her. this performance would earn her her second oscar nomination and win for best actress in a leading role.

THE HUNGER GAMES : SUNRISE ON THE REAPING (2026) - LENORE DOVE BAIRD

“well you know i like my pretty with a purpose”

- while shy in public she can talk up a storm in private. a free thinking member of the covey who has a dark view on many things. the impossible does not exist to her because there is no guarantee the sun will rise tomorrow.

[catsfellfrosh]

Paul: As long as we feel that the ship is still sailing and that the port has not yet been reached, we will continue. Should we enter a port, I would not be sad. I’m very fortunate to have a life alongside Rammstein. My personal goals with the band have been achieved for a long time anyway: I wanted to play at the Huxley in Berlin once and get on the plane with my guitar case. (laughs)

Metal Hammer - June 2019

Interview with Paul, Schneider, Flake and Richard

[finleyforevermore]

🌟THE LIGHTNING THIEF DREAM CAST🌟

(was trying to finish this and post it yesterday for the 20th anniversary of the original book, I failed ]:)

Jeevan Braich, Nolan Almeida, Zachary Noah Piser, Kruz Maldonado, or Anthony Norman as Percy Jackson

Max Harwood as Percy in the picture. (2024 Off-West End/London production)

Gaten Matarazzo, Chibueze Ihuoma, or Michael Fabisch as Grover Underwood

Jorrel Javier as Grover in the picture. (2019 US Tour & 2019 Broadway production)

Hailey Kilgore, Maria Wirries, or Fabiola Caraballo Quijada as Annabeth Chase

Lizzy-Rose Esin-Kelly as Annabeth in the picture. (2024 Off-West End/London production)

Lashana Lynch or Kimber Elayne Sprawl as Sally Jackson and others

Alexis Hope as Sally in the picture. (2023 CTORA/Norman Rothstein Theatre production)

Damson Chola Jr., Matthew Patrick Quinn, or Curt Mega as Chiron and others

Logan Bitz as Chiron in the picture. (2025 Stages Theatre Company production)

Jeff Blim, Christian Borle, or Alex Brightman as Mr. D. and others

Joshua Lay as Mr. D. in the picture. (2024 Off-West End/London production)

Jade McLeod as Clarisse la Rue and others

Kenedy Small as Clarisse in the picture. (2024 Off-West End/London production)

Jamie Muscato, Ali Louis Bourzgui, Will Branner, Alex Pharo, or Kolton Stewart as Luke Castellan and others

Xander Pang as Luke in the picture. (2024 Off-West End/London production)

THEATRE CREDITS:

Jeevan Braich - Rusty in Starlight Express

Nolan Almeida - Peter in Peter Pan

Zachary Noah Piser - Brad in KPOP, Spencer and others in Redwood, Boq in Wicked, Evan in Dear Evan Hansen

Kruz Maldonado - Peter in Peter Pan, Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Anthony Norman - Oscar in Newsies, Marcus in Murder for Two

Gaten Matarazzo - Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Chibueze Ihuoma - Orpheus in Hadestown

Michael Fabisch - Evan in Dear Evan Hansen

Hailey Kilgore - Ti Mourne in Once on This Island, Eurydice in Hadestown

Maria Wirries - Alana & Zoe in Dear Evan Hansen

Fabiola Caraballo Quijada - Jimmy Awards winner

Lashana Lynch - Ms. Honey in Netflix's Matilda: The Musical

Kimber Elayne Sprawl - Emilia in Othello, Nessarose in Wicked

Damson Chola Jr. - Jimmy Awards winner, Davey in Newsies, Shrek in Shrek: The Musical, The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Plankton in The Spongebob Musical, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, Javert & Jean Valjean in Les Miserables

Matthew Patrick Quinn - Hades in Hadestown

Curt Mega - Mark Chastity and others in Nerdy Prudes Must Die, Tadius in Cinderella's Castle

Jeff Blim - Mr. Davidson and others in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, The Narrator in Cinderella's Castle

Christian Borle - Marvin in Falsettos, Shakespeare in Something Rotten, Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Alex Brightman - Beetlejuice/Betelgeuse in Beetlejuice

Jade McLeod - Jo in Jagged Little Pill

Jamie Muscato - Jason "J.D." Dean in Heathers, Anatole Kuragin in The Great Comet of 1812, Tony in West Side Story, Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

Ali Louis Bourzgui - Tommy in The Who's Tommy, Orpheus in Hadestown

Will Branner - Max Jägerman in Nerdy Prudes Must Die, Professor Henry Hidgens in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals (remount)

Alex Pharo - Connor in Dear Evan Hansen, Emmett in Legally Blonde, Agatha Trunchbull in Matilda, J.D. in Heathers

Kolton Stewart - Roger Davis in Rent

[jgroffdaily]

Fans of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s work know that she can pull off pretty much anything she sets her mind to on-screen — including a Spring Awakening reunion.

Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff is on the long list of exciting guest stars who appear in Sherman-Palladino and her husband Dan Palladino’s new Prime Video series, Étoile. And to make Groff’s guest role extra special, the Palladinos paired him with his Spring Awakening co-star Gideon Glick in a move sure to delight fans of the beloved musical.

“With Jonathan, I’ve known Groff forever. But we’ve never really gotten to actually act together. Because in Spring Awakening, we weren’t didn’t truly have scenes — we were just in like group scenes together,” Glick, who also writes for the series, told Decider over Zoom.

“With Jonathan, I’ve known Groff forever. But we’ve never really gotten to actually act together. Because in Spring Awakening, we weren’t didn’t truly have scenes — we were just in like group scenes together,” Glick, who also writes for the series, told Decider over Zoom.

“I think at the end [of Étoile] we felt like we were finally intimate together in a way. That we understood what it was like to maybe date each other. It was odd. It was odd,” Glick explained as he and co-star Luke Kirby shared a giggle. “The power of acting!” Kirby added.

Glick and Groff were original Broadway cast members for Spring Awakening, which ran from December 2006 until January 2009, so the two have been longtime pals. (I mean, look at this GAP ad!) In 2019, Glick took over for Groff as Seymour in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. And the actors reunited for the Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known documentary and concert in 2022.

In Étoile Episode 7, “The Slip,” written and directed by Daniel Palladino, Glick’s quirky, high-strung character Tobias Bell takes a break from choreographing ballet in Paris and flies to meet Groff’s character, Kevin, for coffee. Though the exchange lasts less than three minutes and is completely unnecessary in the grand scheme of the dance series, Sherman-Palladino knows what the people want. And we thank her for it.

[theolderguards]

James Corden talking about the cast of 'The Boys in the Band' at the 2019 Tony Awards. - I just love when people point out how ridiculously pretty Matt Bomer is, and him being embarrassed by it 😂

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Josh Code

Published: Apr 22, 2025

Allan Josephson faced career destruction after criticizing gender-affirming care for minors. Years later, he sees a cultural tide turning—and legal vindication at last.

Child psychiatrist Allan Josephson will receive a $1.6 million settlement this week from the University of Louisville, which fired him in 2019 for criticizing the rush to use hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery to treat gender dysphoria in children.

In an exclusive interview with The Free Press about the settlement, Josephson said when he heard the offer, he was stunned.

“I looked at my wife and I said, ‘This is amazing.’ ” Josephson told The Free Press. “We felt vindicated by the amount that we won.”

In 2019, Josephson was among the first doctors in the United States to lose his job for publicly criticizing the growing movement to quickly affirm and medically transition children with gender dysphoria. His ordeal began after he spoke out at a Heritage Foundation panel on the threat of activist clinicians. “Transgender ideology… is neglectful of the need for developing coping skills and problem-solving skills in children,” he said on the panel.

“The fact that even back then, that position was being held up as somehow being anti-trans is just absurd,” said Jamie Reed, who in 2023 blew the whistle to allege medical misconduct at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Since Josephson’s firing, a sea change has taken place regarding transgender medicine in America. President Donald Trump was elected after promising to greatly restrict gender-affirming care for minors. During the 2024 campaign season the GOP spent at least $215 million on trans-themed television ads, the most famous of which targeted Kamala Harris’s stance on transgender issues with the slogan “She’s for they/them, President Trump is for you.” On the day of his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order mandating that the federal government acknowledge “women are biologically female” and “men are biologically male.”

“I'm a doctor who pursues the truth for his patients, so when Trump says there are two sexes—male and female—I’m encouraged by that,” Josephson said.

But 2017 was a different time. By then, Josephson had served as the chair of the university’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology for 14 years, received one of the American Psychiatric Association’s highest awards, and testified as an expert witness in several court cases on gender dysphoria. A few weeks before he spoke on the Heritage panel, Josephson visited the university’s gender clinic and met a patient with gender dysphoria. He worried clinicians were failing to treat patients’ underlying mental illness before capitulating to demands for hormones and surgery, he said.

“Of course you affirm the child and love the child, but you don't affirm a bad idea,” Josephson said on the panel.

Five days after the panel, Brian Buford, who at the time was executive director of the university’s LGBT Center, came across a blog post about the panel claiming Josephson’s comments were “anti-trans BS.” He expressed concerns about the comments in an email to Toni Ganzel, then the dean of the University's School of Medicine, who forwarded them to Josephson’s then-supervisor, Charles Woods, according to Josephson’s legal complaint. Six weeks later, Woods sent Josephson a letter telling him that “the majority of Division faculty disagrees with your approach to management of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria” and asked him to resign or be “unilaterally remove[d]” from his division chair position. Left with no choice, Josephson resigned. But it didn’t end there.

The university reduced Josephson’s “salary, retirement benefits, and academic travel funds,” according to the suit. The filing also says that after Josephson’s demotion, his colleagues began soliciting complaints about him, including scrutinizing his tax forms and noting the number of hours he was working. Three faculty members replaced Josephson after his demotion from division chair, and one expressed fear in an email to his co-chairs that the complaint campaign “makes it look like I am intentionally looking for things to target Allan [Josephson].”

As attacks on his character mounted, Josephson’s own faculty began to scour his notes on patients' clinical charts to find evidence of bad practice, he said. “That was the kind of intimidation and fear that I lived with,” Josephson said.

The University of Louisville declined to comment. Buford, Ganzel, and Woods, did not respond to Free Press requests for comment.

Finally, in 2019, the university chose not to renew Josephson’s contract, effectively terminating his position. So he partnered with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal defense fund, to sue officials at the University of Louisville, alleging that by firing him, his former employer violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

“I wanted it actually to go to court, because I thought that would be the final vindication,” Josephson said. “The personal cost was so enormous. I'm getting older, so this came at a good time, and there was a good settlement.”

Jamie Reed, the pediatric gender care whistleblower, said there’s still much to be done to protect children from life-altering surgeries they may later regret. Later this year, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on U.S. v. Skrmetti and determine whether states can ban gender-affirming surgeries for minors. For now, Josephson’s home state of Kentucky is one of 26 states with such bans.

“These kinds of one–off legal wins are hugely important, but I don't see that we're at a position yet where the United States has actually come to face the fact that damage is being done,” Reed said. “Half of our states are still doing this to children.”

==

We're officially in the "Find Out" phase of history's biggest medical scandal.

[jbaileyfansite]

USA Today Interview (2024)

For Jonathan Bailey, one of the biggest perks of starring in a massive franchise is getting your very own Lego figure.

The British actor, who plays the swoony prince Fiyero in “Wicked,” is featured in a 945-piece plastic Emerald City set. Although he has yet to procure the toy metropolis for himself, “Christmas is coming and I hope I’ve been a good boy this year,” Bailey says with a grin.

The impish heartthrob has been using Legos to unwind while on a weekslong promotional tour for the blockbuster movie musical, which tells the origin story of the witches of Oz. “Just last night, I managed to (put together) the Atlantic Ocean in this giant Lego globe that I’m currently building,” he delightedly explains.

The fantasy film caps off a monumental year for Bailey, 36, who earned an Emmy nomination for his devastating work in Showtime miniseries “Fellow Travelers,” and spent the summer in Thailand shooting “Jurassic World: Rebirth” (in theaters July 2, 2025) alongside Scarlett Johansson.

“It’s extraordinary the types of roles I’ve been able to play these last two years,” says Bailey, who broke through to U.S. audiences on Netflix phenom “Bridgerton” in 2020. “I’m pinching myself. If I could have gone back and told my younger self that this would be happening, I’d probably do a flip.”

Jonathan Bailey brings 'boyish charm' to 'Wicked' prince Fiyero

Bailey is no stranger to musical theater: At just 8 years old, he played the pint-sized revolutionary Gavroche in “Les Misérables” on London’s West End. And in 2019, he won an Olivier Award for a gender-swapped revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” singing the mile-a-minute “Getting Married Today.”

But it was a viral audition tape for the musical “The Last Five Years” that caught the attention of “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu. “It felt like the thing I’ve always loved about musicals, where the song is just an extension of the dialogue. It felt like acting,” Chu recalls. “He just has that X factor. There’s such a boyish charm to him that you’re like, ‘That is Fiyero.’”

Like many, Bailey became obsessed with “Wicked” thanks to its Broadway cast album and 2004 Tony Awards performance with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. “The lyrics are so fascinating and witty,” Bailey says. “I remember laughing specifically at Glinda singing how this hat is ‘really, uh, sharp, don’t you think?’ I screamed!”

When the contumacious Fiyero arrives at Shiz University from Winkie Country, he instantly enchants the besotted Glinda (Ariana Grande), but slowly finds himself drawn to the green-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). He also freely flirts with both his male and female classmates.

“Fiyero is confident and curious and kind enough to invite anyone to Winkie Country,” Bailey says cheekily. But as a gay actor, he’s grateful for the “years and years of progress” that have allowed him to be the leading man in a big-budget movie like “Wicked.”  

“There's been many Fiyeros before me, and many members of the LGBT community who have fought for times where someone like me could play these parts,” Bailey says. "This story resonates for so many people because it’s about identity and celebrates our similarities. In playing Fiyero, you realize what an ally he is to someone who’s outside of society. People are incredibly unkind to Elphaba, and he uses his charm and privilege” to help her feel accepted. “It’s really lovely.”

The 'Bridgerton' dreamboat heads to 'Jurassic World' next

“There's been many Fiyeros before me, and many members of the LGBT community who have fought for times where someone like me could play these parts,” Bailey says. "This story resonates for so many people because it’s about identity and celebrates our similarities. In playing Fiyero, you realize what an ally he is to someone who’s outside of society. People are incredibly unkind to Elphaba, and he uses his charm and privilege” to help her feel accepted. “It’s really lovely.”

The 'Bridgerton' dreamboat heads to 'Jurassic World' next

Bailey delivers one of the movie’s standout numbers in “Dancing Through Life,” in which Fiyero persuades his schoolmates to join him for a night on the town at the trendy Ozdust Ballroom. The song begins in the Shiz library, where Fiyero swings between ladders, slides across desks, and flips through novels using only his feet. The actor spent seven weeks rehearsing the choreography, much of which takes place on rotating bookshelves.

“It turns out in Fiyero’s boots, it’s not so easy to open books and read ‘War and Peace’ with your toes,” Bailey jokes. “I also started training vocally over Zoom while I was filming ‘Fellow Travelers.’ I would do these scenes with Matt Bomer where I’d be smoking and screaming, and then I’d have to come back and sing somehow.”

Ultimately, making "Wicked" helped Bailey feel more at ease taking on the beloved "Jurassic Park" series, in which he plays a bespectacled paleontologist named Dr. Henry Loomis.

“Dancing and closing books with your toes does not save you from raptors,” Bailey quips. “ ’Wicked’ is its own beautiful beast, but it leans so much on the original imagery of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ It taught me to blur out the reality of what it means to step into an incredibly iconic story, and just focus on working hard and having a lot of fun."

Bailey teases that he has another musical project “on the horizon.” In the meantime, Fiyero will have a more substantial role in "Wicked: Part Two" (in theaters Nov. 21, 2025), which shot back-to-back with the first movie. He still regrets not taking home the character's black leather boots, created by "genius" costume designer Paul Tazewell.

“I did manage to steal some postcards from the Emerald City,” Bailey says. “Some of those accidentally flew off in the middle of a take and landed in my bag. Other than that, I hope Paul will send me Fiyero’s tight pants one day."

Source

[datshitrandom]

Darren Criss | Tony Awards | 2015 ⇢ 2017 ⇢ 2019 ⇢ 2021 ⇢ 2022 ⇢ 2025

📸 by Dimitrios Kambouris, Patrick McMullan Andrew H. Walker, Erik Pendzich, Stephen Lovekin

[writing2changetheworld]

Smosh's newest "Beopardy" about musical theater is a great time for me to talk about Ali Stroker, Marissa Bode, and Jenna Bainbridge.

1.) In 2015 Ali became the first ever wheelchair user on Broadway ("Spring Awakening"). In 2019 she became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony Award (she also is the first wheelchair user ever nominated for one)("Oklahoma!").

2.) In 2024 Marissa became the first wheelchair user to ever play the role of Nessarose (the "Wicked" movie).

3.) In 2024 Jenna became the second ever wheelchair user on Broadway ("Suffs"). This role also means Jenna is the first wheelchair user to originate a role in a new musical on Broadway.

Jenna is also currently playing Nessarose in "Wicked" on Broadway. She is the first wheelchair user to play that role on stage.

Let's celebrate inclusion happening and remember there's still a long way to go.

[stevetonyweekly]

Steve Tony Weekly - Week 1 - Avenger 2012

Welcome to the first list of 2025! I asked y’all to vote last month on what you’d like to see from the blog in 2025, and you were overwhelminingly in favor of weekly themes! So that’s what we’re doing. I’m debating doing a monthly list of what I’m reading as well, but we’ll see how that goes. For now--

Avenger 2012 Fics. 

What I love about this time is how everyone is sorting themselves out, and how hard it leans into the found family aspect of that time period. It’s when Steve and Tony have so many of their best miscommunications, and when they figure out just how amazing they can be together, and honestly, what’s not to love about that? 

Even Though We Know Love's Landscape by lazywriter7 

But at the core, he’s the same brand of poor little rich guy that dot the shadowed corners of every charity gala, every award function. Sure, maybe it comes in a ‘genius billionaire playboy philanthropist’ package…but his mettle is common iron. A drop of sea water, a dash of air, and he’d rust right through.

She, on the other hand, is made of better stuff.

In which Tony compares people to weird things, Steph recites poetry and two dorks fall in love.

Tony Shouldn't Speak Before Coffee by Heartithateyou

Steve and Tony have been secretly dating for months now, until Tony accidentally lets a secret slip at breakfast.

He really shouldn't talk before coffee.

Five times Steve Rogers had to adjust to the modern world, and one time the modern world had to adjust to Steve Rogers by oui_oui_mon_ami

Cap @SteveRogers

HOMOPHOBIA IS BAD. THAT IS MY OPINION. NOW CAN HOMOPHOBES PLEASE STOP USING ME FOR THEIR HATE. THANK YOU.

(Written for Steve Rogers' birthday!)

Perfect Paradise (Staring back at me) by Finduilas 

Tony doesn’t actually notice it at first, and even if he had, he isn’t exactly known for caring what other people think about him. And the first time it does actually catch his attention, Tony is mildly amused.

Code Icarus by FestiveFerret 

Steve Rogers hates falling, but he hates being caught even more.

Never Be Alone by thepartyresponsible

Steve comes jogging up the path in a pair of offensively small bright blue jogging shorts. He’s shirtless and windswept and glistening – actually glistening – in the warm sunset glow.

“Sweet abs of liberty,” Tony says, hooking his sunglasses down his nose to get a better look.

“Of thee I sing,” Clint intones, reverently.

(2019 Tony Stark Bingo T2 - Present Tense)