Check Out 'The Outs,' A New Web Series About Gay Life In New York

New York-based filmmaker Adam Goldman recently unveiled the first installment of The Outs, a six-part web series about a gay man and his friends trying to find work, happiness and, yes, sex here in the Big Apple.

I just checked out the first episode of the Kickstarter-funded series per a friend's recommendation and am already hooked. I think you will be, too. I've included the first episode AFTER THE JUMP. You can learn more about Mr. G and the series at The Outs' website.

Watch the first installment of The Outs, AFTER THE JUMP, but be aware that the language is NSFW.

NEWS: Dumb Florida, Dumb Jocks, And Love In The Big Apple

Florida lowered FCAT language requirements to keep two thirds of the state's kids from failing. Half failed anyway.

New York's most senior gay public servant was married today:

Christine Quinn, New York's highest-ranking openly gay official and the leading candidate to be the city's next mayor, married her longtime girlfriend on Saturday, walking down the aisle to Beyonce's "Ave Maria."

Quinn, the speaker of the New York City Council and a vocal advocate of same-sex marriage, wore a full-length, cream-colored gown designed by Carolina Herrera and a hair comb fashioned with family heirlooms.

Quinn's wife, New York lawyer Kim Catullo, wore a cream silk evening suit designed by Ralph Lauren. Catullo, who like Quinn is 45, walked in to Bruce Springsteen's "If I Should Fall Behind."

Cuomo, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly were among the 275 guests.

Fourth-rate NBA player Dominique Jones really dislikes gay people.

In the Hardin County school system, straight teens are punished for wearing LGBT-supportive apparel; the Southern Poverty Law Center sues.

In Michigan, representatives and senators sign awards for "women of accomplishment" -- unless those women are lesbians.

"Family values" legislator dons bikini, gets hot bod pictured in Maxim.

"The 20 Biggest Consequences of Same-Sex Marriage"

Nick Stahl, lost and found.

Of gays and the boobtube:

Some producers say they have marveled at how fast the opinions of television viewers have changed, even as gay rights activists have marveled at how voters across the country have shifted on gay marriage.

“What this is about, really, is how far America has come, not how far television has come,” said Christopher Lloyd, a co-creator of “Modern Family.”

Shonda Rhimes, the “Grey’s Anatomy” producer, recalled having to “go to the mattresses with broadcast standards and practices” at ABC in 2006 to insist on preserving a steamy shower sequence with three female doctors. That sequence was just a fantasy in the mind of one of the male characters — but now six years later, in the show’s version of reality, two female doctors are married. “Nobody even blinked” at the relationship, Ms. Rhimes said.

The only outcry she recalled came when one of the doctors, Arizona, flirted with a man. “It was from lesbians who said, ‘How dare she sleep with a man!’ ”

Any Towleroad readers following the NBA playoffs? Know this: The Onion's sports coverage is no joke.

News: Queen's Speech, Mitt's Apathy, Graddick's Gripe, Sun's Weakness

This makes me feel gross: "Vice President Joe Biden has apologized to President Barack Obama for comments that led the president to speed up his public acknowledgement of his support for gay marriage."

Is the DNC preparing to move their party convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, after voters there approved gay marriage ban?

Some Brits are pissed after Queen Elizabeth II neglected to mention gay marriage in her law-oriented speech yesterday. "Gay rights activists were described as 'bemused' by the decision not to include the issue in the legislative program outlined Wednesday in the annual speech by Queen Elizabeth II."

HBO is building suspense for the forthcoming fifth season of True Blood with some new promo posters.

Milla Jovavich flashes some tush while filming Avon commercial. [NSFW?]

NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan has, not surprisingly, criticized President Obama for endorsing gay marriage. "President Obama’s comments today in support of the redefinition of marriage are deeply saddening," he said, apparently unaware that there are actual sad things happening in the world.

Brad Pitt is for some reason the new face of Chanel No. 5.

Senator John Kerry and 16 of his colleagues have come out to oppose the deportation of the "illegal" half of binational same-sex couples. "In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the senators said they were troubled that some immigration field offices 'are apparently following a blanket policy to deny green card applications for all gay spouses.'"

The always awesome (seriously) Amy Davidson on Mitt Romney's alleged bullying: "Does [Romney] count this as high jinks or a prank? It was neither; it is hard to imagine that hurt, rather than being the byproduct, was anything other than the point of the attack on Lauber. In terms of what a gay teen-ager might encounter, and what other boys might go along with at a school like Cranbrook, 1965 was different; but memory and empathy are not qualities that have only been invented since then."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer on Obama's gay marriage announcement: "We now confront a variation of that miscegenation issue, and that has been what to call the relationship between two people of the same gender. The word ‘marriage’ has held a specific meaning for centuries as the union between a man and a woman. But it has also meant, in a broader sense, a commitment of one person to another, recognized by each of them and by society."

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is "not personally opposed to gay marriage."

Herndon Graddick, the kind, happy GLAAD president, takes on CNN for using hideous and sad anti-gay activist Tony Perkins to comment on Obama's gay marriage announcement: "Tony Perkins and others of his ilk cannot be used to exemplify those who simply oppose marriage equality. CNN is more than welcome to interview him on the issue of marriage equality, of course. His is unquestionably one of the loudest voices in the nation speaking about the issue. But when Perkins gets interviewed, a responsible journalist needs to tell the audience exactly who Perkins is speaking for."

Now you too can own Amy Winehouse's DNA. Your mother will be so proud.

Jerame Davis, the executive director for National Stonewall Democrats, had a little face-off on-air with Brian Brown, the leader of the National Organization for Marriage. Sadly, gloves were (mostly) on.

Why I love being a nerd: Ghostbusters tour of New York.

When Arnie met the Predator, a love story.

Get prepared to say goodbye to 30 Rock.

Your sun is weak: "The sun is no cosmic Concorde. Our star is moving through a cloud of interstellar gas too slowly to create a 'sonic boom' that would shield the solar system from some galactic cosmic rays. The finding could help determine whether the sun's previous passage through interstellar clouds could have led to mass extinctions." That could be useful, actually...

Harry Reid says he supports gay marriage, but would prefer if nuptials were of the heterosexual variety: "My personal belief is that marriage is between a man and a woman. But in a civil society, I believe that people should be able to marry whomever they want, and it’s no business of mine if two men or two women want to get married."

Mitt Romney has no idea how evolution works: "Romney did everything he could to keep Massachusetts from becoming the 'Las Vegas of gay marriage,' backing a constitutional ban at the state and federal levels. But he denies any inconsistency, saying when he said he was for equality, he meant in employment and housing — not marriage."

Ellen In 'The Avengers': VIDEO

I wish they hadn't edited Ellen DeGeneres out of The Avengers. Think she'll make the director's cut?

Watch her save the world, or whatever it is that Avengers do, AFTER THE JUMP ...

News: Chen Guangcheng, The Scream, Gay X-Man, Ashton's Bomb

The forthcoming 50th issue of Astonishing X-Men in which gay hero Northstar is set to marry his boyfriend has helped boost sales for publisher Marvel.

Cooking, cave man style.

Anti-gay pastor Sean Harris on his comments about beating gay kids: "I do stand by is that the word of God makes it clear that effeminate behavior is ungodly. I'm not going to compromise on that."

Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson are reportedly at it again.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng called Congress today and asked to speak directly with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "I want to meet with the Secretary Clinton,” he said. “I hope I can get more help from her. I also want to thank her face to face.”

Chelsea Clinton comes out against North Carolina's Amendment One: "Amendment One unfairly targets women, children and families, gay and straight, who fall outside of the narrow definition of family articulated by those who drafted the legislation. It is our duty to join the fight on behalf of both the gay and lesbian North Carolinians..."

Neo-nazis, meanwhile, are all about Amendment One.

Catholic Media Group honors Modern Family.

My friend Jeff Bercovici picked director Joss Whedon's brain. I'm so jealous.

British Prime Minister David Cameron: "If marriage is good for heterosexuals, it is good for gay couples too."

Demolishing the gender binary.

Is this commercial featuring Ashton Kutcher playing Karl Lagerfeld and people of color offensive?

Vermont and New York Democratic chairmen now objecting to use of their names in push to include marriage equality in party's official platform.

More teens smoking pot than cigarettes. Is that a good thing?

Advice from Log Cabin Republican founder Rich Tafel to Mitt Romney: "Hire gay campaign staff: Romney must hire and retain qualified gay people in positions of leadership in his campaign and promise to bring them into his administration. The Richard Grenell debacle reinforces an image that the far right is in control of his campaign."

More on that controversial commercial.

Lance Bass and boyfriend Michael Turchin look pretty fly topless.

When NPH met Oprah.

The Scream sold at auction for about $120 million. Who says you can't put a price on art love?

A California sheriff's deputy is suing the Merced County Sheriff's Department for anti-gay discrimination.

Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of the Sherlock Holmes television show, says he is "flattered" by gay fan fiction.

Congratulations to Ron Baity, Patrick Wooden, Mark Creech and Tami Fitzgerald for making GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project, a tally of anti-gay pundits currently enlisted to comment through major news outlets.

Now Playing: 21 Jump Street

Chan and Jonah are clueless cops in "21 Jump Street"

BY NATHANIEL ROGERS

YOUR FEATURE PRESENTATION

"High concept" was the hot showbiz term of the 1980s. The thinking went that if you couldn't describe your movie/tv show in one sentence, it wouldn't sell. That popular marketing wisdom stuck and High Concept itself shrank. First it devolved into This meets That, each new pitch being a mashup of preexisting hits. Today instead of one sentence pitches or previous hit fusions most new potential blockbusters are required to rely on a simple colon. It works like so… "Title of That Thing You Already Know: The Movie! "

This has led to all sorts of unfortunate movies based on books, games, plays and tv shows (and vice versa) many of them big hits. The danger is obvious. When you don't even have to try to make your entertainment memorable because the audience brings half the affection with them, creative laziness can often follow. But every once in awhile the audience gets lucky and Title of That Thing You Already Know: The Movie is surprisingly fun on its own terms.

21 Jump Street began its life as a high concept television series

"Young-looking cops go back to high school… undercover!"

And now it's a 21 JUMP STREET: THE MOVIE (the last half of that title is silent/implied) The twist is that rather than the earnest though light-hearted procedural drama it was in its infancy as it introduced Johnny Depp to the world in 1987, it's now a full fledged buddy comedy starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

The new version actually begins in high school where we meet Chan as "Jenko" a dumb popular jock and Jonah as "Schmidt" a geeky schlub.

See what they look like as high schoolers (the first time around) AFTER THE JUMP...