Homoriental
His name is Azis. In Bulgaria, he is a famous chalga singer. (Chalga is Bulgaria's brand of pop-folk, incorporating a blend of Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and Roma (Gypsy) influences, as well as motifs from flamenco and klezmer music.)
He married his husband, Niki Kataetsa, in 2006. Their marriage is not recognized by the Bulgarian law.
That's a billboard of Azis sucking on his husband's chin, which appeared all over Bulgaria before Boiko Borisov, mayor of Sofia, elected to take down billboards, stating that the posters were too graphic. Much more explicit advertising could be found all over Sofia, which of course gave rise to speculation that the same-sex nature of the ad, as opposed to its racy content, led to its removal. The scandal surrounding this billboard was instrumental in inspiring the foundation of Bulgaria's LGBT social movement, Gemini.
But really, anything more I could say about Azis would be insufficient. Instead, watch him swirling about like a dervish in drag, surrounded by Bulgaria's answer to Tom of Finland softcore bear porn.
Click to viewThis is basically the greatest thing I've seen all year. It combines some of my favorite things -- pornographically gratuitous shots of big sweaty bears doing hard manual labor, Eastern European languages, and eye make-up. I mean, really, could it be more perfect?
Here's another one, featuring Azis (dressed as a guy, sorta, this time) and Malina, a gorgeous scantily clad Bulgarian fag-hag, writhing against a wall, inbetween shots of them lounging in bed together the way only a drag queen and his femme gal pal can.
He's so PRETTY! Those beautiful creepy lady eyes over that sleek silver fox 'stache and goatee of his. Mmmmm....
And look! He doesn't even mind getting a bit of straw on his junk! He's a MANLY MAN!
-sigh- I think I'm in love.