Meet Adam Pally, the Actor Behind TV's Funniest Gay Character

Max Blum is a complex guy. He’s a scruffy, lazy sports fan with a mean streak. He’s a pigheaded friend who’s incapable of backing down from a stupid challenge. He’s tone-deaf when it comes to dating, but is a savant kisser capable of inspiring unrequited love from the ladies with a simple smooch. And thanks to actor Adam Pally, Max, a main character on ABC’s lauded comedy Happy Endings, is also the most relatable, offbeat, and compelling gay character on network television.
In the hands of 30-year-old Pally, Max isn’t just comic relief. He’s a beer-swilling, prank-playing, decidedly schlumpy everyman, but at the same time, he’s not just playing against type to teach us a lesson that not all gay guys sparkle. When Max becomes interested in bear culture, it means hibernating all winter, eating honey, and eventually straddling a unicycle. Yet it’s not entirely surprising when his all-guy Madonna cover band -- who go by the name Mandonna -- stage a reunion. You just can’t peg this dude.
For Pally, playing Max isn’t a matter of plotting the layers of his personality. His method is a bit simpler. “I just try to play him for the moment and make him as funny and real as possible,” he says. “If you start thinking about repercussions or stereotypes or ideas to break down, it stops being fun and it’s not pure. I try not to think about the end result.” Embodying Max is something that comes naturally to the actor. “There’s not a lot about Max that’s a stretch for me,” Pally says. “I am slovenly, I like sports, I drink too much, I have a gambling problem, and I’m highly competitive. And do I know someone like Max? Yeah. My best gay friends just got married, and in the middle of their big, lavish wedding they were telling us how they were moving to a better school district. I was like, ‘Wow, you’re really mature. In my mind, you guys are always just drinking or at the gym.’ ”
Comedy is something that practically runs through Pally’s veins. The New Jersey native grew up with a performer father -- his parents were once in a Borscht Belt rock group called Pally and Pal -- and knew early on that show business was for him. “When I was about 17, my parents took me to the Upright Citizens Brigade to see a show,” he recalls. “I loved it and knew that it was what I wanted to do.” After a stint at the University of Arizona (“I went and kind of fucked up for a couple of years and almost died.”) he moved to New York to attend college and join UCB, where he took and taught classes for nearly a decade. A relocation to L.A. turned up Pally’s breakout role in Happy Endings, a series that can be summed up as a richer, more bizarro, more self-aware take on Friends.
In the midst of filming the show’s third season, Pally is penning a script for a film being produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, though he’s sworn to secrecy about its details. He’s less tight-lipped, however, about whether Max will get another chance at love when Happy Endings returns. “I think he really liked his old boyfriend, and when that didn’t work, it made it tough for him to recover,” Pally says. “We’ll see a lot of dates, but we might not see the boyfriend.”
And what about his admirers? Surely, Pally has raised a few eyebrows from fans who mistake him for Max and are surprised to spot him with a wife and kid? “Not really,” he says. “I feel like it used to be a much bigger deal to have a straight actor playing a gay character. Now people just don’t give a shit. They see me on the street and most of them are like, ‘Didn’t I go to high school with you?’ ”

California Republican Supports Marriage Equality

Gary DeLong, a Republican running for Congress in a new California district, has joined the ranks of those willing to go against the party platform on LGBT rights, ThinkProgress reports.
At a recent League of Women Voters forum, DeLong said, “There’s a number of things I disagree with the Republican Party on. I’m pro-choice. They’re pro-life. I support gay marriage. They don’t.”
DeLong and Democrat Alan Lowenthal, also a marriage equality supporter, are vying to represent the 47th congressional district, created by remapping due to population shifts. It encompasses parts of Los Angeles County, including a portion of traditionally liberal, LGBT-friendly Long Beach, and Orange County, which is historically conservative but has been becoming more diverse and liberal in recent years. It is considered a swing district, ThinkProgress notes.

Memphis Moves Forward on Law Protecting Gay City Employees

Gay city employees in Memphis, Tenn. are breathing easier as the City Council moved forward on an ordinance protecting them from being fired for their sexual orientation.
The ordinance initially passed 7-5, but will take a month before its officially law, as officials gather information on the bill's affect on the city charter. Before the ordinance, the city did not have any law on the books that specifically protected city employees from discrimination based on age, race, gender or sexual orientation. The new legislation will not affect transgender employees. A bill passed by Republican Tennessee governor Bill Haslam last year made it nearly impossible for state municipalities to pass protections for LGBT people that go beyond what the state offers in nondiscrimination protections, which is none. Haslam's bill, though, was not so far-reaching that it banned cities, towns, and counties from protecting its own employees from being fired or passed over for promotions because of who they are.

Pocatello to Ban Discrimination Against Gays

Pocatello, Idaho, the city made famous by Judy Garland's "Born in a Trunk" from her 1954 musical A Star is Born, may become the second city in the sate to ban discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation, according to NPR.
The lack of statewide protections has impacted the LGBT citizens of the largely conservative and heavily Mormon city. Susan Matsuura, director of the city’s Human Relations Advisory Committee, told NPR that she's heard stories of people who've had to take extraordinary caution to keep their housing.
“People who are doing their best to hide their living situation, and who brought in extra furniture and made it look like they were just roommates,” Matsuura said. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to have my comings and goings scrutinized by my neighbors.”
Jessica Robinson reported that the city council voted unanimously to draft the anti-discrimination ordinance, and, so far, it faces little opposition.

Couple Says They Were Beaten in Asheville for Being Gay

Mark Little and his partner Dustin Martin say they were walking down a street in Asheville, N.C. when they were attacked and beaten.

"I feel like that when the cop first came on the scene he just felt like it was just an ordinary crime," Little told WBTV, "but what had happened is we were hit just because we were gay."

Little told the station that people in a passing car began harassing them while walking through Asheville, which is normally known as gay friendly. When the couple told them to stop, one of the passengers got out of the car and beat them. No one has been arrested.

Body of Ambassador Used in 'Obscene' Ad By Gay Republicans

A print advertisement paid for by the Broward County chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans includes the body of the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed in what has lately been called a terrorist attack.

The ad was reported on by Bilerico Project and printed in an LGBT newspaper called the Florida Agenda. It attacks President Obama as unable to protect Americans.

"If the Obama Administration isn't going to protect Gay/Gay-friendly American citizens from the terror of Islamic radicalism," the ad asks, "what makes you think they will protect us from Shariah Law… ANYWHERE?"

The leaders of the national Log Cabin Republicans have already condemned the chapter's inclusion of Christopher Stevens' body in the attack ad as "obscene." "We reject it completely," wrote executive director R. Clarke Cooper in a letter to the newspaper's editor in which he described himself as "deeply embarrassed" by it.

It has never been confirmed whether Stevens is still alive in the photo, though he is unconscious. And several newspapers were criticized for including it in reports after the attack.

The advertisement implies Stevens was gay, which is an unsubstantiated rumor being circulated by the same oddball blog that claims President Obama is secretly gay. The Advocate contacted the State Department about the rumor some time ago and a spokesman opted against commenting on "the ambassador's personal life."

Cooper swatted down the idea that the attack on the consulate was related to Stevens' sexual orientation — a notion put forward in the ad.

"To suggest that the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attack on the US consular mission in Benghazi was connected to homophobia is just as ridiculous as US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, claiming the attack in Benghazi was prompted by a film critical of Mohammed," Clarke wrote. "Violence against the LGBT community is a challenge to civil society throughout the world, and America is a beacon for freedom for all minority voices. There are plenty of reasons to vote Republican to protect US interests and human rights abroad, but the obscene ad in this publication is fallacious, grossly inappropriate and irresponsible."
The National Stonewall Democrats countered with a comment calling the ad "shameless and callous," and they called on the local chapter to retract the ad an issue an apology.

"The confused hatchet men at Log Cabin are conflating a number of unrelated issues in order to attack Democrats and President Obama," said executive director Jerame Davis in a statement. "First, they latch onto right-wing rumors that Ambassador Stevens was gay and then they insinuate that President Obama is responsible for the attack because he did not protect the Ambassador from 'Sharia Law'…. It is simply unimaginable to me how any political message, let alone the muddy and ludicrous message of this ad, in any way justifies disgracing the memory of a man who gave his life in service to his country."

Another Big Name Company Supports Marriage Equality in Washington

The latest big company to support marriage equality in Washington is Nordstrom, the national high-end retailer.

The Washington-based company's president, Blake Nordstrom, sent a memo today to employees along with Pete Nordstrom, the president of merchandising, and Erik Nordstrom, president of Stores.
"It is our belief that our gay and lesbian employees are entitled to the same rights and protections marriage provides under the law as our other employees," the Nordstroms wrote. "We also believe supporting freedom to marry will help us create a more attractive and inclusive workplace for our current and prospective employees."

They conceded there are "differing opinions" on the issue, as Washington voters head to the polls in November to decide whether to uphold a marriage equality law signed earlier this year.

It is one of many Washington companies to join in supporting the bill, including Microsoft, Starbucks and Nike. Some have faced pushback from the religious right with threatened boycotts as a result.

Model Admits He Killed Boyfriend and Wore His Testicles on His Wrists

Lawyers for Renato Seabra, the hunky Portuguese model currently on trial for stomping his boyfriend to death in New York, offered some unusual defense theories during the trial's opening statements. According to the New York Daily News, attorney Rubin Sinins alleges that Seabra, 21, was so "tortured" by his romance with much older, renown journalist and LGBT activist Carlos Castro that he beat and stomped the man to death, castrated him with a corkscrew, and then wore the victim's testicles like bracelets on his wrists to "harness" their power and extract the "virus" of homosexuality as ordered by God.
“He put one on each wrist," Sinins said. "He did this for his protection. He could also harness the power. He wandered the streets of Manhattan, touching people, because he had the power to cure people from AIDS, because he had the power to cure them."
Sinins agued that the model had a sudden psychotic break, which explains why he confessed to police. "He wanted to explain why he killed Mr. Castro, because he thought what he had done was right."
While Seabra's team is pushing for a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict (which would mean he'd go to a psychiatric facility instead of prison), the prosecution certainly isn't buying it.
Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal insinuated that Seabra was a golddigger who "wanted to pursue a career in modeling. He want to be famous and make money. He also wanted nice things — clothes, electronics, gifts for his family. He wanted to eat in nice restaurants. When Carlos Castro showed up in Renato Seabra's life, he saw a means to an end and he got on board."
Castro allegedly flew the young man to the U.S. from Portugal to meet with model agents in New York and their initial weeks in New York seemed idyllic to friends, according to the Daily News. But Castro's friends testified that the two began to fight after Seabra was caught hooking up with women and telling Castro that he was no longer gay, according to the Daily News' Janon Fisher. Castro reportedly booked his lover an early flight home that night. Rosenthal said that was clear indication that the fling was over.
After a marathon fight that followed, Rosenthal said that Seabra beat Castro with a computer monitor because the man was dumping him: "He knew he was beating, stomping, and mutilating Carlos Castro. And he knew it was wrong."