When one changes his or her field of work, such as when a beauty queen tries to break into the music industry or a movie star tries to reinvent herself as an author, he or she can meet a lot of skepticism.  This skepticism can come not just from the intended audience of the work but also from the insiders in the industry that the person is trying to penetrate.

But that is not to say that it cannot be done.  Vanessa Williams, the first African-American Miss America, proved that she can sing and act, and excellently too.  Carrie Fisher was able to show people that she is more than her Star Wars character Princess Leia – she can write bestselling novels and screenplays to critically acclaimed movies.  Now, we have another artist that is trying to jump the fence, and that is Colton Ford.

Do you know who John Amaechi is? If you are an NBA fan, chances are that you know that John Amaechi is the first British basketball player ever to have an opportunity to play in America's most influential basketball league. With a professional playing career that spanned eight years, he played for such teams as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz. He also garnered special recognition in the NBA Hall of Fame for scoring the first points of the year 2000.

But what you may not know is that John Amaechi is the first NBA basketball player ever to come out of the closet.  Although he made this revelation that he was gay only after he had retired from professional basketball, it was a revelation that was applauded by some and reviled by others.  Through this revelation, John Amaechi has shown himself to be a brave man in a sport that essentially harbors homophobia.

Interview with Photographer Jeff Sheng

By b brian topaz

Thank you for graciously agreeing to be interviewed by sfgam.com.

Your most recent and ongoing Fearless project is a great example of community activism by showcasing photographs of out and proud young athletes in the very schools in which they attend.  What was your inspiration for this project? Were you or someone you knew involved in high school or college sports as an out (or closeted) athlete?

My inspiration for the project was mainly based from my own experience as a very closeted athlete.  I played competitive tennis as a junior since I was 7 years old and tennis was a large part of my identity growing up.  I was incredibly closeted about my gay identity through high school, and being an athlete had a lot to do with this.  It wasn't until college, when I was at Harvard University, after I had quit playing the sport, did I finally begin to allow myself to accept my sexuality.  Incidentally, during this time, my first relationship with another guy happened to be with someone on the water polo team who was also very closeted.  We were in a relationship for about 6 months, and then broke up, and many of our problems came from the fact that I was coming out and was more visible than he was.  He actually eventually came out two years later to his team, and they not only accepted him, but voted him to be the team captain for his senior year. 

Dorian Ho: Glitz and Glamour Straight from Hong Kong

The term "Made in China" has for a long time been synonymous with the words "cheap," "low quality" and "low value" in Western thinking.  But not so, if Dorian Ho had anything to do with it.

For more than ten years now, Dorian Ho has been proving to the world that not all things made in China are automatically inferior to anything made in the West.  The clothes that this fashion designer has been making since the early 1990s are true testaments to high-end, high-quality fashion.  Dorian Ho has certainly given the world a taste of glitz and glamour with a definite Asian twist.

In the music industry, it is totally unheard of for two totally divergent genres such as Christian music and gay music to come together.  A song is either Christian or something that appeals to the gay community; they are fully exclusive of each other.  But with the music of Jason and deMarco, the lines between Christian music and gay music have become blurred.

Jason and deMarco are a singing duo composed of Jason Warner and deMarco DeCiccio. The two are also gay lovers. Their music speaks of love, freedom, peace and justice, which are ideals that are looked highly upon by the traditional Christian church.  But because of the special personal relationship between them, they have a special appeal to those in the gay community.

Except for those who belong to the inner circles in the elite world of the stylistas and fashionistas, no one really knew who Jason Wu was before Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States.  Jason Wu’s name is not a household name, unlike that of Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta, whose thrones in the fashion world Jason Wu is seen as likely to inherit when they step down.

And then, history happened when America voted its first Afro-American president.  Jason Wu became part of that history when First Lady Michelle Obama chose to wear his gown at the Obama inauguration ball.

The reason why it has become safer for gay people to come out of the closet is because of the initiatives taken by gay activists. Through their efforts, more and more gay people have confidently come out from hiding and embraced their sexual preferences and their identities more willingly.

One of the most notable gay activists of our time is Michelangelo Signorile. A journalist, radio talk show host and an author, Michelangelo Signorile helped pave the way for gay people to come out more easily. There may be a bit of controversy attached to his name from his actions in previous years, but nonetheless these actions helped shape the way gay people can freely live their lives today.

It is not surprising that most people outside of Japan think of the Japanese as conformists. After all, while most Japanese people do exert pressure upon others and upon themselves to strive for whatever excellence they could reach, they typically make sure that they always toe the line rather than cross it. They usually try not to be different from the rest.

But here we have N.Hoolywood, a rising star in the world of fashion, both in Japan and across the globe. N.Hoolywood is a brand of menswear that tries to draw from the past and spin something truly different from it. In a sense, N.Hoolywood is a creation of something new and unique from something old.