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Rainbow Noise artists Cee, Loco Niinja, Jay Squared , Stud Phamous
Gays in hip hop has always been a complicated subject. It’s no longer completely unknown, Cazwell has stormed the scene, Lady Sovereign is big in the UK, Katastrophe and Athens Boys Choir are constantly touring favs, and there’s dozens of smaller queer hip hop acts both local and national.But much of mainstream urban music can still be homophobic and there’s still a hunger for more positive representations of LGBT MCs and DJs. And a big project just emerged from right across the river called Rainbow Noise Entertainment.
RainbowNoise is an entertainment company that specializes in marketing lesbian and gay talent to mainstream audiences without compromising the artists’ individual style or gender presentation…From conscious rap to old school and party hip hop styles, RainbowNoise artists cover it all. The keen focus on production quality and lyrical strength sets them ahead of many independent labels in their class.
This is a worthy project that is interesting enough for it’s goal but there’s even more compelling aspects.
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Brad Usselman
Brad Usselman, a Vancouver high schooler, recently (along with two friends) started a blog that is aimed at altering perceptions of LGBTQ athletes. They describe themselves as,
…3 young adults wanting to change the way LGBTQ athletes are viewed in the sports world. All of us are varsity athletes in high school who are on our own paths to being who we truly are. We invite you to take the stand with us and begin walking the road to equality.
Brad, a sophomore, has been on his school’s varsity track and cross country teams since he was a freshman, and his goal is to run for a Division 1 college team. I recently conducted a short interview with him.
Aly Sneider: What specifically inspired you to start the blog?
BU: The thing that inspired me the most to start this blog is wanting to help out the younger generations and make sure that they do not go through the internal struggles of acceptance that I went through. I also wanted to start a community where gay high school athletes are able to go and realize they that they are not alone.
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Northbank gay bar in Vancouver
It seems like my little home town, which I lovingly call the ‘Couv or Vantucky, is seeing its 15 minutes of fame these days. Later on we’ll have an interview with an out Skyview high school athlete conducted by new qPDX sports writer Aly Sneider, and right now I’m here to tell you that The Advocate ranked Vancouver, WA as the 6th gayest city in the country!
Now neither Portland nor New York City made the list, which of course brings their radically unscientific methods into question. If they hadn’t listed SF I would have called this list the gayest cities you never knew were gay. But alas, they admit their highly theoretical equation for coming up with the gayest cities could have produced these odd results.
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