Horror author Rick R. Reed has been thrilling gay fans of the genre for years, with his Twisted Tales of Obsession and Deadly Vision. Rick has hit every spine tingling nerve for gay men. His most recent efforts included the vampire yarn In the Blood and the serial killer spine tingler IM, which is about gay men being stalked in sex chat rooms. Let’s check in with Rick, if you dare…..

AfterElton.com: What first made you realize you were into horror?
Rick R. Reed: God is Dead. Roman Polanski used a shot of this TIME magazine cover in Rosemary's Baby and it's really a frightening thought. I think horror, boiled down to its purest essence, is all about death, which is unrivaled as a basic human fear. And horror is all about fear.

AE: Give us your thoughts on why you think gay guys like horror.
RRR: In every horror story, there are outsiders (whether they're victims, heroes, or protagonists) and I think, for a very long time, gay people in general can strongly identify with an outsider. Horror usually gives us more outsiders than other genres, so I can see this as one reason for the appeal to gay audiences. For example, in my book IM, which is about a serial killer preying on gay men via internet hookup sites, many readers have identified with the very basic terror of the book: which is the danger we expose ourselves to when we invite complete strangers into our homes, something many of us, myself included, have done. The internet has facilitated this behavior. Besides playing on the "outsider" theme in victims, hero, and villain, IM also explores the dark side of anonymous hook ups and gives the reader a chance to see the bad end some of us come to, and how some of us escape it.

AE: Speaking of which, IM really hits the horror genre close to home for gays.
RRR: Right, IM, almost inadvertently hit a very responsive chord with gay men, many of whom now find sexual and romantic partners via the internet, which is a very widespread--and very modern--way of meeting. But the real horror at the heart of the book is that a monster has gotten inside your house and maybe what makes that even more horrific is that this modern resource (the 'net) has allowed you to invite that monster in yourself.

AE: Chicago is the backdrop for most of your novels, why is Chi town spooky & gay?
RRR: I set a lot of my stories in Chicago because I lived there for a good part of my adult life (I just moved to Miami about a year and a half ago). It's a great city for horror stories because it has its own history of horror replete with hauntings, great crime tales, and the moody, ever changing backdrop that both the tough urban landscape and the lake provide. Why is Chicago gay? Need you ask? (laughs)

AE: Which known horror figure would you most like to have a fling with?
RRR: Well, certainly not Timothy Bright, from IM! The obvious choice to go with Anne Rice's Lestat. He's so dark, handsome, and romantic. You just know he'd be a very slow, deliberate lover.

Log on to find out more about “Scary Rick” at his Myspace page or official site.

Jason Antone is a triple threat: not only is he an accomplished vocalist, he is also a songwriter and producer.

This Chicago native first came to the music world’s attention with his first single “With You” which was a breakout at #3 on the Billboard Dance Charts.

His current ditty, “Be Free” (co-written with Georgie Porgie) is in rotation on Logo and has been on the Sirius Out Q chart at #4 for months. The song also peaked at #23 on the Billboard Dance Charts. Let’s check in with Jason and hear in his own words what it’s like to be an openly gay independent artist who has it going on!

AfterElton.com: Hey Jason, your voice really caught my ear when I heard your track “Be Free” ... you stand out in a generic world.

Jason Antone: Thanks, the problem with most music today is you really do not have to sing anymore, all you have to do is go “ah” into the microphone and they can do anything with that.

AE: Yeah, I have this spin instructor who drives me crazy as she keeps raving about the new Britney album, uh, I could have sang that with her team of producers.

JA: I know, and that whole CD sounds like you could have too, it is so over produced. It is catchy and whatever, but….I am always disappointed when I go to see people live and it sounds so different from the CD. It’s so disappointing, you think: “Oh, they are so great I can’t wait to see them” then it’s a huge let down.

AE: You have, and this is meant as a compliment, a real Karen Carpenter quality to your voice.

JA: Totally! I do!

AE: Glad you understand what I mean by that! Her voice was pure, like a clear line to her soul.

JA: I get what you mean by this, I definitely express myself more when I am singing. Singing to you I could say more than talking to you. There is a complete honesty when I am singing.

We've written a few times about the rather fascinating new game show Without Prejudice, which pits a group of strangers with cash to give out against another group of strangers about whom they know very little. The panel of judges learns about the mystery folks bit by bit, and in the process has to eliminate potential winners until they decide on who gets the money. The over-arching question is, of course, "What prejudices do people harbor that would prevent them from giving the money to any given contestant?"

Recently the runner-up on one of the episodes was Jim Smith, a gay man who is both married (to a man) and a parent. The episode itself is pretty fascinating from a gay-visibility perspective (here is a highlights reel of the panel's discussions of Jim) and brings to light some downright horrifying beliefs about gay men (one contestant is adamant that most, if not all, gay men were raped between the ages or two and four, which made them gay).

We had the opportunity to ask Smith a few questions about his experience.

AfterElton.com: Without Prejudice seeks to parse out the thought processes behind how we judge others. First and foremost, do you think the show is valid? Do you feel that it's working in the name of progress?
Jim Smith: This is a great show that gives mainstream audiences exposure to people who are different, but it’s not like the “Jerry Springer” portrayals of our community. The contestants are all great people, and you discover that along with the panel as they dig beneath the surface. I mean, I’m boring. My hair isn’t pink and I don’t talk with a lisp. I would never get on Fox. But I did well on the show because the game takes the time to overcome stereotypes and first impressions, and brings out the best in people instead. That’s progress.

AE: Were you coached not to reveal your sexuality until a certain point in the interview, or was the information saved for later in the game through editing?
JS: Everything on the show was pre-taped, so I didn’t have any control over when they outed me. Everybody on the show had a ‘thing.’ Some people wore it on their sleeve through their race or gender, others, like me, weren’t ‘outed’ until later. The producers never encouraged or discouraged me to ‘come out,’ they kept telling me to be honest and truthful all the time about myself and my sexuality. If you want to do well on a game show, listen to the instructions and do exactly what they say, so that’s what I did.

AE: On the show, a group of strangers are essentially picked apart by a panel of "everyman" judges. Did you feel the panel was a reasonable cross-section of today's American culture?
JS: The panel was not nor was it intended to be a cross-section of our culture. It had five people with extremely biased viewpoints. I think most people in this country just want to be left alone to do what they want to do, and are content to let others do their thing in peace. These people were, for the most part, bothered by the mere existence of people who are different, whether they are gay, black or just plain bigoted.

AE: Were you at all surprised to hear some of the more uninformed views on homosexuality (namely, that we were all apparently raped as children)?
JS: I wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, knowing how they cast the panel, I was prepared for worse. I decided early on that I wanted to treat those people with all the dignity and respect that I could, because only by meeting people like me are they ever going to learn the truth. It is annoying to have to argue the ‘nature vs. nurture’ thing over and over, but it is really easy when you’re standing up there to say “I’m gay, and I wasn’t raped” and completely rock their world.

Earlier this week ABC Family's sci-fi teen mystery Kyle XY aired a gay-friendly episode in which the main characters learned a lesson about discrimination against same-sex couples. The response from gay and lesbian viewers was one of pleasant surprise, although the haters of course came out full-force on the show's message boards with the usual bigoted rhetoric in tow.

AfterEllen.com's Malinda Lo had the opportunity to nab Julie Plec, supervising producer/writer of Kyle XY, at yesterday's TCA conference and get a few comments on the episode and series in general, and we're tickled to be able to share it here.

AfterElton.com: The episode, "Free To Be You and Me," was so positive and so inclusive, and I was wondering if Kyle XY would ever take the next step and have a gay character on the show.
Julie Plec: I think that it's always a possibility. I mean, I'm a big believer that what you never want to do is … just introduce a gay character for the sake of having a gay character. You really want it to be born out of who that character is and what they're going through in life. And because we're a tight-knit group of seven, it would take a lot of time to evolve the ability to bring somebody like that into their life so that it's not just the guest star of the week. I love it when they do it on other shows because it's very important, but to just kind of like, "Hey guess what? This character is coming out, and it's very painful," and you know we'll never see them again — I don't want to do it that way. I think that as seasons go on, there's always the possibility of that, because I think a positive portrayal in television is like sort of the most important thing we can do. We got hammered on some of the chat boards for that.

AE: Did you really? I was wondering if you got any negative feedback.
JP: There was a surprising reaction to what was considered an amoral presentation of the gay agenda, like pushing the gay agenda. … You know, the angry kind of response … it's what you would expect, but I was really surprised and disappointed … because I thought it was such an innocent, positive portrayal, deliberately not heavy-handed and deliberately not guest star of the week-based. Just, you know, a nice story about Kyle who is a person without judgment, without bias, who innocently wouldn't even think anything would be any different than anybody else. I was surprised.

Comic book legend Stan Lee, who has created heroes ranging from Spiderman to the X-Men to Pamela Anderson's Stripperella, has long been a champion of diversity, truth and understanding. In the days leading up to the premiere of the second season of Lee's Who Wants to Be a Superhero? reality show (which, like last season, features a gay contestant, Parthenon), we had the chance to talk to the icon-maker about how gays fit into the superhero community.

AfterElton.com: I have to confess that after Levity was booted in the first season premiere, I might not have watched Who Wants to be a Superhero if not for my partner who insisted we watch. I'm glad I did because I came to see how sincere the characters were about the values they preached -- and tolerance was one of those values. Was it important to you that the show included a gay contestant?
Stan Lee: Frankly, we didn’t plan to have anyone who was gay, or who wasn’t gay. We simply wanted the most interesting, colorful, articulate contestants we could find, and of course variety is always desirable. If one turned out to be gay, or black, or Latino, or tall, or short, or red-haired or whatever, so be it. We try to be color blind, racial blind and sexual orientation blind.

AE: This year there are two gay contestants. Again, was that intentional or did it just work out that way?
SL: Frankly, it just worked out that way. Nine times out of ten we don’t even know a contestant’s sexual orientation until after he or she has been selected.

AE: Superheroes have often provided young gay men with a means of escape. At what point did you become aware of that aspect to your work? Did it surprise you?
SL: Wouldja believe this is the first I’ve heard of it in reference to gays. I know that superhero stories, in fact almost all fantasy tales, provide most readers, whether gay or straight, with a means of escape. People often feel prejudiced against because of race, nationality, physical looks, poverty, afflictions, whatever. Almost everyone has his and her insecurities and hang-ups. Superhero tales help give all of us some hope to cling to.

(The below interview is provided by our own Brent Hartinger)

Patrick Farabaugh is a man with a mission. Well, two missions, actually. First, he brought gay hockey to Wisconsin, founding the Madison Gay Hockey Association. And now he's started a new gay publication, Our Lives, in the state capitol of Madison, with the first issue hot off the presses.

Originally from Indiana, he worked at Entertainment Weekly at age 18, and Out Magazine at 19. After a stint at Conde Naste, and with detours to Seattle, Alaska, and even Russia (where he followed a boyfriend), he ended up in Wisconsin, where the strapping journo is definitely making a name for himself.

Why Madison? According to Patrick, "I enjoy the old barns, corn silos and cheese curds in Wisconsin perhaps more than anyone should." (BJ: Having grown up in Iowa and having gotten my first tattoo in Madison at age 16, I can attest to its awesomeness ... and the good cheese curds.)

AfterElton: Hey, Patrick! You've started new regional gay print publication in Wisconsin. Are you outright bonkers or just merely insane? Seriously, why now? Why there?
Patrick: Didn't Seneca say, "There is no great genius without some touch of madness." Well, I'm hoping he was onto something. They call Madison "ten square miles surrounded by reality" and I think that's about right. I've been told that per-capita Madison's gay population can rival any of the world capitals, but the community here is incredibly integrated throughout our entire city. We don't have a gay ghetto like New York's Chelsea or like West Holywood out in LA or… like…well, all of San Francisco. And until Our Lives, we didn't have any local gay press either to help establish a visual identity. Although there is something to be said for how accepted LGBT people are here, you potentially lose something in your personal growth when you're unable find and see others like you. I'm hoping Our Lives can provide that constructive meeting place.

(Note: contributing writer Tony Peregrin conducted the below interview)

The subtitle of Jesse Archer's new travel memoir You Can Run: Gay, Glam and Gritty Travels in South America, seems to say it all — but what it doesn't tell you is that bubbling beneath the surface of Archer's witty-gritty prose are poignant, unflinching observations of himself and the strange, exotic world around him. Fans of Archer's monthly column in Out magazine are familiar with the 33-year-old's uncanny ability to mine his personal life for experiences that everyone can relate to, and You Can Run delivers the same soulful, hilarious writing, but with a dash of good old fashioned gay-boy wanderlust. Archer, a multi-hyphenate talent (author/actor/blogger/model), discusses the column, the new book, and how he ended his longest sexual drought while in South America. (Hint: a banana is involved).

AfterElton.com: Do the columnists for Out magazine ever hang out and get drunk together and flirt with porn stars?
Jesse Archer: Ha! No—but I have hung out with Josh Kilmer-Purcell (author of I Am Not Myself These Days). He's really cool. We'll be out at a bar and he'll admit he has an alcohol problem and then I admit I have an alcohol problem and then we say cheers and drink up!

AE: Jesse—why is your column for Out magazine untitled?
JA: We couldn't come up with one! For a while we thought about using "Gay in the Life," but in the end we thought it would be better PR for me to use my name. (Laughs.) And also people would then know who to slap!

AE: You've mentioned on your blog, Jesse On The Brink, that you receive a wide range of responses to your column for Out magazine. As a relatively new columnist for a national magazine, do you find your self thinking more and more about how your readers will react to your columns?
JA: I would be paralyzed if I did that! I just write for myself. If the editors want to discuss something before it goes to print, I am open to that and I am amendable to new ideas, but I hate being censored. Aaron [Hicklin, Editor in Chief of Out magazine] knows that and he does a good job of giving me creative freedom.

Over the last few months we've been charting the journey of the upcoming Adam Sandler gay marriage comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry as it makes its way to screens (it opens July 20th). Given the relative silence of the studio, the tone of the trailers (which consisted of Sandler and co-star Kevin James hitting each other and talking about being "big-time fruits") and strange early press appearances (a 30-minute stint on The Showbiz Show in which the stars didn't say a single word about the movie), we have been concerned with how the film could portray gay relationships and gay life. In a worst-case scenario, this could be just another comedy that uses gays as cannon fodder, which is certainly nothing new. In a best-case scenario, it could be a good film with positive messages that is simply a tricky sell to its core fanbase.

Recently we were able to spend a few minutes with Damon Romine, Entertainment Media Director for GLAAD, who spoke exclusively with AfterElton.com regarding Chuck and Larry and what the film might mean in the big picture.

AfterElton.com: We understand that GLAAD has seen the final cut of the film. What are GLAAD's thoughts?
Damon Romine: This is a big-budget, studio film with Adam Sandler that runs true to his comedic style. His comedies have tremendous appeal to a broad audience. This is a film that will be enjoyed by Adam Sandler fans, and it's a comedy that sends a message to this audience about the importance of family, marriage equality, and about treating others, gay or straight, with dignity and respect.

The fact is, comedy has a unique way of opening people's eyes and helping them connect to simple truths. And part of what makes Chuck & Larry interesting is the way it could help straight audiences understand the experiences of gay couples and question how anyone could continue to support laws that put them in harm’s way.

When you look at films like Talladega Nights or Adam Sandler's Big Daddy, these were also comedies that delivered a supportive, inclusive message to a very broad audience. And this movie will reach that audience as well.

AE: Are the gay elements being used as plot devices for a straight love story, or does some overarching message compensate for this?
DR: This is a buddy comedy about two men, their friendship and the lengths to which they go to protect their family.

Through the disarming use of comedy, there is an exploration of homophobia, which often involves stereotypes and slurs, and it holds a mirror up to that and asks people to consider where it comes from. I can't imagine a studio movie being made five years ago that even dealt with marriage equality and the discrimination that same-sex couples face on a daily basis in this country.

AfterElton.com: In season one Dave Martin made it to the final three. Last season, Carlos Fernandez was knocked out in week six. Please tell us you're going to reverse that slide otherwise the GLBT community might have to disown you.
Dale Levitski: First of all, there are many reasons for the GLBT community to disown me. You should see my apartment. Disaster! I can't dress myself, I have a gay birth defect for style and fashion ... I think that belching and farting are the Funniest things on the planet. My gay card has been suspended many times...LOL. I DO believe on the other hand, that I have what it takes in the kitchen to redeem all of my other gay shortcomings... Don't worry queens.

AE: Dave tended to get a little bit flustered under pressure. How are you going to handle the pressure?
DL: This is a tough one. I normally handle pressure very well, put my head down and go for it... I have been known to lose it every once in a while, scream and throw some pans etc.. But that side of me hasn't come out in a very long time. Generally under pressure my trashy mouth takes over... I'm sure we will see a lot of..."Oh BEEP and Beep with a little Beep and stick that Beep in your Beep!...." Maybe, we'll see...:-)

AE: Your bio on Bravo says you say what everyone else is thinking. What's the most outrageous thing you said during the competition?
DL: It sounds a little dramatic but I am NOT a drama queen at all... I just don't have much of a filter on my mouth. Generally we don't in kitchens. I have been told
by my best friends that I am going to Hell for some of the things I say, but they are laughing their asses off when they are saying that...

Earlier this week we reported this year's recipients of the CCA's Images in Advertising Awards, which recognizes which companies are doing the best work (and the worst) in terms of LGBT visibility in advertising.

We followed up with Michael Wilke, Founder and Executive Director of the CCA, to get his thoughts on the state of gay advertising (Wilke is pictured at center above, with Anthony Cirono, a Board President of the CCA, and presenter Judy Gold).

AfterElton.com: You note that visibility for gays and lesbians is down in advertising, which is what we've also seen in terms of network television and movies. What do you think is behind this trend?

Michael Wilke: The novelty is wearing off of "what happens when a gay/lesbian person is added into this classic storyline?" Advertising is usually several years behind what TV and film are doing, but while there are similarities in how they function, since they both seek to entertain, advertising differs in that it also wants to make friends with the viewer to sell a product or service.

AE: What's the most common mistake used in ads that try to use "gay humor" (and fail)?

MW: Using GLBT people as a punchline -- "surprise" she's a he, "surprise" she's with her, or "surprise" he likes men.

AE: Do you feel that the gay community is too quick to take offense at ads that use gay humor?

MW: Frankly, I think the gay community is too lax most of the time to take offense. Today's world is perhaps too comfortable for many gay people, and they discount the power of advertising to influence how the rest of society views our community.