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Josh Inocéncio

QFest Hosts ‘BPM’ (Beats Per Minute) Film Screening for World AIDS Day

Posted on November 29, 2017

A taste of the Cannes Film Festival will arrive in Houston on December 3 with the QFest screening of BPM (Beats per Minute) at Rice University in observance of World AIDS Day. The film, which is France’s official foreign language submission for the 2018 Academy Awards, follows a group of ACT UP members in Paris—nearly a decade after the AIDS crisis began—as they bring attention to the epidemic. At the Cannes, BPM won four awards including the Grand Prix prize—second…

Yes, I Still Eat Chick-fil-A

Posted on November 22, 2017

The boycotts we engage in largely serve to elevate our own egos, as people think, “Look at the good I’m doing in the world by rejecting the hate chicken.” Plus, it’s not that hard to choose another fast-food restaurant off a U.S. Interstate where they dot feeder roads like weeds. But it’s almost unthinkable for liberals to picket Apple—especially when they have a magnificent pro-LGBTQ record. To add another dimension, we mostly boycott companies that only negatively affect the domestic…

Spectrum South Snapshot #2: Mike Rudulph

Posted on November 12, 2017

I am a 37-year-old gay man from Alabama. I was raised in a predominately white upper middle-class neighborhood just "over the mountain" from Birmingham, and now own a home in city proper. I live with my partner of over 13 years. We have two cats, Uly and Sergeant, and our pit-mutt, Khaleesi. I am a veteran of The United States Marine Corps, serving eight years during “Don't Ask Don't Tell” from 2000 until 2008. During my career in the Marines,…

Spectrum South Snapshot #1: Izzy Broomfield

Posted on October 30, 2017

I am a non-binary transfemme panromantic demisexual Appalachian! At least that’s the basic bio version of my identity. I’ve also spent most of my life living in the rural South, so that’s important to me, too, but it doesn’t come before my Appalachianness. My skin’s white, but I definitely don’t identify with mainstream imperialist white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy, so my lefty politics are also a central part of my identity (but shhhh, don’t tell anyone! They might think differently of…

A Closer Walk with Aj: Southern Born Actor Chats Gay Exorcism Film

Posted on October 27, 2017

A photo of gay actor Aj Knight in a new exorcism film.

As a group of young, white evangelicals move into a predominantly Latino neighborhood to preach the gospel, one of the missionaries, Jordan, develops sexual feelings for the leader, Eli. But once Jordan is caught touching himself by the bathroom door while Eli showers, the group tries to exorcise his gay demons in a kind of conversion therapy. Thus is the premise of director John C. Clark’s new film A Closer Walk with Thee, starring Houston-raised out actor Aj Knight as…

50 States, 50 Pieces of Art: Artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin Excavate Queer American History

Posted on October 24, 2017

A photo of the Texas installation of 50 States by Jake Margolin and Nick Vaughan.

A few years ago, visual artists and married couple Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin stumbled upon some little-known 19th century queer history in William Benemann’s Men in Eden. This uncovered book charts the journey of William Drummond Stewart, a Scottish lord turned fur trader, and his male lover Antoine Clement as they led an expedition of around a hundred men from St. Louis to what is now Wyoming. Inspired by this caravan of same-sex loving men, Vaughan and Margolin crafted…

Don’t Let ‘It’ Get To You: Facing Your Childhood Fears with the King of Horror

Posted on October 13, 2017

My childhood was texturized by horror films, particularly adaptations of King’s work. People still gasp when they hear I watched the original Carrie and It before age 10, The Shining by age 12, along with a host of other classics in between. In Kentucky, I would always spend a night at my Aunt Judy’s and we’d huddle under blankets while watching a horror movie on her wood-paneled TV. I say they left traces; my friend says, “more like craters in your…

‘Welcome to the Jungle’: A Mother and Son Trip to Vietnam and Cambodia

Posted on October 6, 2017

A photo of author Josh Inocéncio at Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Our last mother and son venture—to New York City in 2014—was shattered of all joy when I came out to her as gay at the airport before we departed Houston. But hey, she coaxed me. That, and since my dad and I had hiked Mt. Fuji in Japan, my mom hungered for a trip with me. And I wanted her to go, especially amid the busyness of her new position at work. She longs to see the world, and we…

The 100+ Queer Films Project

Posted on September 22, 2017

Five years and over 100 films later, I’m publishing this list online for others to peruse, enjoy, and add to as well. Consistently, I run into fellow queer people who aren’t familiar with our rich cinematic history that dates back to at least 1930s Germany with Mädchen in Uniform. Local teachers and professors have even started requesting recommendations for their classes. And while my list isn’t perfect, it’s a place to begin a conversation about queer representation in cinema.…

No, I’m Not Sleeping with Your Bisexual Boyfriend

Posted on September 20, 2017

An illustration of three bisexual hearts.

The last time Dan and I had spoken seriously was during our road trip out West where we spent three summer weeks crisscrossing national parks and mountain towns. The journey was our Americana rite of passage, as well as my graduation trip—Dan still had two years left to go, but I had finished undergrad just two months prior. Over a thousand miles away from home in Houston, we buried—or so we thought then—the rumors about each other’s sexuality, particularly mine.…

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Josh Inocéncio

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