Planet Homo

"MIchael was Homosexual..."

 This is to be expected. Days after Michael Jackson's death, the ponderings, investigations and wonderings of every person with a keyboard are beginning. Of note though, is this entry from the Dailymail in London.
Writer Ian Halperin suggests a story about Michael Jackson that is extremely revealing. Entitled, " 'I'm better off dead. I'm done': Michael Jackson's fateful prediction just a week before his death", the story explores Jackson's decline in his final weeks. But there is also this:
It is clear to me that Michael was homosexual and that his taste was for young men, albeit not as young as Jordan Chandler or Gavin Arvizo.

In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.

The actor, who has been given solid but uninspiring film parts, saw Jackson in the middle of 2007. He told me they had spent nearly every night together during their affair – an easy claim to make, you might think. But this lover produced corroboration in the form of photographs of the two of them together, and a witness.

Other witnesses speak of strings of young men visiting his house at all hours, even in the period of his decline. Some stayed overnight.

Read the story in its entirety here.

Stonewall: A History Lesson

The Stonewall Riots

“When did you ever see a fag fight back? Now, times were a-changin´. Tuesday night was the last night for bullshit.
Predominantly, the theme was, ‘this shit has got to stop!’" — Anonymous riot participant, from David Carter’s book, “Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution”

Up until 1 a.m. on June 28, 1969, it had been an ordinary evening at the Stonewall Inn. But a surprise raid — patrons were usually tipped off — changed everything. At first, it was a raid as usual: patrons lined up at the bar, drag queens were separated and liquor was seized.

But then a person or multiple people decided that enough was enough. Theories vary on what the fuse was. All witnesses acknowledge that some extra spark of outrage lit a powder keg of emotion.

As people were being led out of the bar to a police wagon, a scuffle ensued. Patrons did not simply disperse; they stayed in the street shouting at police. Coins were thrown at the cops, a symbolic reaction to the practice of “gayola,” or gay bars paying off the police to prevent raids.

Tension mounted, and homeless gay teens from Christopher Park across the street joined in the melee. Violence against the police intensified and they were forced to barricade themselves inside the Stonewall Inn, waiting for backup.

As the reinforcements arrived and began marching down the street to scatter the protesters, they were suddenly faced with a kick line of drag queens, dancing and singing:

“We are the Stonewall girls,
We wear our hair in curls,
We wear no underwear,
We show our pubic hair,
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!”

The riot was eventually quashed that evening, but over the next five nights, protests and riots of various sizes occurred in the neighborhood and beyond. As word got out in the press, the crowds grew. The riots ceased after July 3, but the camaraderie that they created evolved into something else, something that lasted.

After Stonewall

"Let it forever be remembered that here — on this spot — men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose and love whom our hearts desire.” — M. John Berry, assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior, at a 1999 ceremony honoring the addition of the Stonewall Inn to the National Register of Historic Places.

Before Stonewall, conservative gay rights groups like the Mattachine Society had been trying to win rights and social acceptance by holding quiet, dignified pickets in cities like Philadelphia. The Mattachine’s method of operation was to try to show the world that gays were not different, but its efforts made little progress. In the span of a few nights, angry gays and drag queens made more progress by showing the world the exact opposite. The message they sent was, “We’re not like you, we look like this, and we’re not going to hide any more.” Gay rights advocacy groups learned that they were more likely to gain rights by being out and about, and the era of gay pride marches began.

One year after Stonewall, the Christopher Street Liberation Day March was held — the mother of gay pride marches. Two years hence, marches spread across the nation and into Europe and membership in gay rights groups skyrocketed across western nations.

The first gay march in Michigan happened in 1971. In 1989 — the 20th anniversary of Stonewall — the Statewide Pride March moved to Lansing and has since been an annual event.

As the application to the National Register of Historic Places points out, the Stonewall Riots were to gay rights what Rosa Parks was to black rights, or the Boston Tea Party was to the American Revolution. Yet this critical event isn’t discussed in American history textbooks and isn’t included in the curriculum of public schools. The lucky few who take a human sexuality or civil rights class in college might learn about Stonewall.

Night of the Iguana

If you have never seen this 1964 classic black and white film by legendary director John Houston, rent it. The film is the stuff of legends: The movie featured a defrocked priest (Burton), bawdy widow (Ava Gardner), spinster artist (Deborah Kerr) and nymphet (Sue Lyon, fresh from Lolita). But Liz Taylor upstaged the entire 1964 film with her saucy shenanigans. Her passionate affair with the leading man – both were married to other partners – garnered headlines around the world. After the filming, the couple lingered in the idyllic tropical town. For her 32nd birthday, Burton gave her Casa Kimberly, a $57,000 villa linked to his own by an arched, cotton-candy-pink bridge, one story above the cobbled street. Also present were the peculiar playwright Tennessee Williams and rowdy, pistol-packing Mexican director-actor Emilio Fernandez. Once Huston reminisced: "The press gathered down there expecting something to happen with all these volatile personalities. They felt the lid would blow off and there would be fireworks. When there weren’t any, they were reduced to writing about Puerto Vallarta. And, I’m afraid, that was the beginning of its popularity, which was a mixed blessing." One only wonders if Williams had his way with the two very sexy Mexican servants, Pedro and Pepe, who literally shake their maracas throughout the movie. The film was made in 1963; while filming, President Kennedy was assassinated. Houston, fed up with America, would renounce his US citizenship. He would eventually retire to Puerto Vallarta. The film itself is extraordinary for its performances: Richard Burton casts a sexy, boyish charm to his defrocked priest. Ava Gardner plays Maxine, a kind of retired beat poet hostess who gets to keep the Mexican boys, but yearns for Burton. Deborah Kerr is the unsuspecting key to the movie. Clearly there was something going on (in character) with Burton and Kerr, and she gets to deliver the best Williams lines. Tennessee Williams certainly did have this themes, and one them was poetry. In this film, a 97 year old poet completes his final poem and dies. But there is poetry throughout this film, in that fascinating mood that only Tennessee Williams could create, which is a world where people speak in beautiful metaphors with lush prose that nearly borders the ridiculous, but manages to stay just on the side of reason.

The View from Here

 

Jet

 

We're taking a little hiatus from all the world as we head to the steamy tropics of Mexico. Tomorrow will be the Summer Solstice, the first day of Summer so it's an appropriate day to travel. We will be sending reports back between margaritas and guest bloggers will take up some of the space while we enjoy this sojourn.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Online magazine HOT

Who Knew?

Picture Relief

"I See Gay People...L.A. Pride 2009 photos by Jay Jorgensen"

How Are We Feeling?

It's hard to explain, so let me have the creators explain it:

We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.

Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.

The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine's Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on.

The interface to this data is a self-organizing particle system, where each particle represents a single feeling posted by a single individual. The particles' properties – color, size, shape, opacity – indicate the nature of the feeling inside, and any particle can be clicked to reveal the full sentence or photograph it contains. The particles careen wildly around the screen until asked to self-organize along any number of axes, expressing various pictures of human emotion. We Feel Fine paints these pictures in six formal movements titled: Madness, Murmurs, Montage, Mobs, Metrics, and Mounds.

At its core, We Feel Fine is an artwork authored by everyone. It will grow and change as we grow and change, reflecting what's on our blogs, what's in our hearts, what's in our minds. We hope it makes the world seem a little smaller, and we hope it helps people see beauty in the everyday ups and downs of life.

A special thanks to Richard Velasco for discovering this magnificent site. Please visit and see how we're all feeling.

Calvin Klein ad too suggestive?

A new Calvin Klein ad in New York City is creating a brouhaha in certain circles because of the apparent age of the models and the suggestive "orgy" atmosphere in the picture. As one reporter in the Louisville Kentucky Examiner asked: "Many have asked today; just who is the girl in the ad? And is she over the age of 18? Because what is portrayed on the billboard is highly closely related to child pornography. Some are speculating that she is likely under the age of 18 and Klein will have no choice but to remove the ad and charges could likely be filed against the clothing manufacturer for contributing to child pornography." Oh my!

Shot by Steven Meisel, the lightning-rod photographer behind Madonna's 1992 book Sex, Calvin Klein's print and video campaign appears online at calvinkleinjeans.com.

Censored adaptations of the ads will appear later this year in North America, while Europe -- long known for sexually liberal advertising -- will see the unedited versions.

With their hidden-camera esthetic and resemblance to pornography, the new ads are evocative of a 1995 campaign by the company that drew a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into whether Calvin Klein Inc. had violated child pornography laws. (The models weren't minors, so the Justice Department found no statutes had been broken).

Sex Sells.

is Bruno too gay?

As the July 10th opening date nears, the public begins to way in on the potential effects of the Brüno movie, starring Sacha Baron Cohen. At issue is whether or not the Brüno character reinforces gay stereotypes all the while clearly being a caricature.

Graden to leave MTV

Brian Graden, the celebrated gay MTV Networks executive who helped launch programs such as The Hills and South Park while increasing the media giant’s social awareness activities during his 11-year tenure, will leave the company, perhaps as early as the end of this month, reports the New York Post .

Graden serves as president of entertainment of MTV Networks’ Music and Logo group, where he has overseen programming for channels including MTV, VH1, and Logo. His position is unlikely to be replaced.

His departure is part of a broader reorganization at MTV Networks, which is struggling with declining ad revenue and sagging ratings, according to the Los Angeles Times . Insiders say there is a sense that MTV has moved too far toward reality programming, a direction that Graden, 46, engineered.

Graden, whose official title is president of entertainment, MTV Networks Music Channels, has been with the company for almost 12 years. Shows that were launched during his tenure include the reality hits "The Hills" and "The Osbournes." He also played a part in the creation of Comedy Central's huge hit "South Park," which was developed after Graden commissioned an animated short Christmas card from the show's Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The short was such a hit that it led to the birth of "South Park."

SOURCE: The Advocate

Flagging Design

In 1978, Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag (also known as the gay pride flag) as a symbol of LGBT pride, liberation and diversity. "In the beginning the Rainbow Flag was about liberation," Baker said in a UK Gay News op-ed piece. "It was about breaking free of an existence limited by fear and conformity, the right to express sexuality without shame or retaliation from those who legislate "morality.'"

The Rainbow Flag debuted at the 1978 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. It has since been used around the world as a symbol of LGBT unity in many variations, including adaptations such as bumper stickers and decals. However, despite its widespread use, in a May 2008 UK Gay News op-ed, Gilbert claimed that the flag was not complete and that it continues to grow along with the movement it represents.

But now, with the level of LGBT activism at heights unseen since Stonewall, is it time for a change? WNYC & PRI’s Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen thinks a makeover is in order. The station is asking listeners to redesign the rainbow flag for the 21st Century. Artists can submit their ideas on 360's Flikr site. The winner will be announced on WNYC's June 26th show.

"WNYC & PRI’s Studio 360 is all for gay pride...but rainbows are so...1978," the station says. What do you think? Is it time for newly designed pride flag?
To date there are only six entries, perhaps because people know instinctively there is little need to redesign an icon. All entries can be viewed here.
SOURCE: gaylife.about.com

School for Scandal

Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, is feeling the heat after pictures of him allegedly having sex, were posted online.  The racy images were apparently sold to a photo agency by Black’s former lover.
Perezhilton.com published the racy pics; the gossip site even claims there may be video of the incident which may have taken place back in 2006.  The steamy shots show two men performing unprotected anal and oral sex.
Recently a book "And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture", by Bill Wasik, attempts to understand our ravenous need for information:

With so many different mediums, why do they all seem to follow these same stories? At the end of the day, why does anyone care so much about this random singer that none of us have ever met?

That relates to the "Long-Tail" -- the idea that the Internet will allow us to splinter off into a lot of smaller niches. The Internet does allow for smaller and smaller communities of interest that have more and more intense likes for shared things. But I also think one great value of culture for us is that we like to have something to talk about with each other. And so, you might have a great love for some very, very obscure form of heavy metal and on the Internet you can find all the other 5,000 different people around the world who like this very particular heavy metal music. But it's also true that if you go to high school or if you work in an office or if you have sort of friends out in the real world, you're going to want to engage with them in the shared stuff of mass culture. Mass culture continues to exist precisely because it's the stuff of cultural exchange among ourselves. And so, that to me is the reason why you have 10 million people becoming obsessed with Susan Boyle instead of 10,000 people. Precisely because she becomes grist for this bigger conversation.

Morrisey Moment

Coffee Bean Blocks Gay Internet

Despite advertising the availability of free wireless internet access at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coffee shops, the connection comes at the cost of "technical" discrimination. Philip Minton, who runs the Unite the Fight LGBT equality blog, couldn't get internet connection at home, so he went to the Coffee Bean on 3rd and La Cienega, in West Hollywood, CA, to do his blog posting from there using their free Wi-Fi service.

Coffee Bean is another chain coffee shop, like Starbucks, with free Wi-Fi service for customers to use while sitting around drinking coffee and doing work, just relaxing, or meeting with people. When Minton set up his computer and started to go through his news feed, accessing various other blogs, he got this message:

 If you can't read it, it says that Pam's House Blend is blocked due to "sexuality." (Same thing for Towleroad among others.)

It is not uncommon to experience "technical" discrimination while trying to access newsworthy sites posting stories on LGBT issues from a computer at most work places or the library; simply containing the word "gay," "lesbian,"  "homosexual" and similar key words is enough to have the sites detected. As a result, those sites or articles are blocked for the same reason DNS, the Wi-Fi source for Coffee Bean, has described above -- "sexuality."

Minton has emailed the company to inquire whether or not the sites would be blocked had he typed in "heterosexual." Most techies can vouch that it is difficult to filter out pornography, or other adult content sites, without blocking non-adult LGBT sites. Minton brings up a good point in his blog post:

"But then we reach a deeper issue. Is the LGBT population feeding the popularity of LGBT porn, thus making the "homosexual" key word more equivalent to porn than a description of who we are (though many of us hate that word), thus justifying the wingnuts arguments against us about being simply a sexually driven population? Or is it simply so many people are in the closet and make these LGBT porn sites and their corresponding key words so much more popular than we possibly could on our own? (Again, another issue there.) Or is it just downright discrimination?

"Or is it all these things?"

Until he gets to the bottom of the issue, Minton asked his Unite the Fight readers to bear with him while he "[weeds] through the "technical" discrimination.

An answer was received: We only provide network admins with the tools to block content on their networks, we as a company do not block anyone for any reason. If this user (i.e.business) chooses to block a particular type of content on their network, we cannot interfere.

You however, as a consumer, have every right to boycott their business for the way they choose to block content on their networks.

SOURCE: Gay News Blog

Andrew Oldershaw (public relations for Coffee Bean) sent PH this email later in the day:

At approximately 3:00pm on Thursday we were notified by a customer using our complementary wi-fi service that two specific sites catering to the LGBT community were blocked from access. Those sites included Pam’s House Blend and Towleroad. After learning of the issue, our technical team researched the situation and took immediate steps to unblock the sites that were brought to our attention. It is not, and has never been, the policy of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to block Internet content or websites from our customers or members of the LGBT community. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf subscribes to an OpenDNS platform that incorporates a peer review component which allows users to flag particular sites they deem inappropriate. In this case, a small amount of flags triggered the system and the sites in question were blocked automatically. No web-content filter is perfect, but we are grateful to the customers who quickly brought this to our attention for resolution. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf supports diversity on all levels and values the community members of the areas we operate in. Our goal in offering free wi-fi service is to open communication and exchange of information, not to block information,” stated Tim Casey, Vice President of Marketing & Operations, International Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, LLC.

Jon Voight is out of his mind

Actor and Jolie-daddy Jon Voight has been a knucklehead for quiet some time, but his appearances on Fox News have proven that he is need of medication.

Wig Off

JUNE 10--Now that he is a ward of the California state prison system, wig-loving murderer Phil Spector has been forced to return to his au naturel state. As seen in the below mug shot, the 69-year-old Spector's dome is no longer covered by one of the fright wigs he wore during his criminal trials (the most recent of which ended in the music producer's conviction for killing actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003). Spector, who was sentenced last month to 19 years in prison, was photographed after arriving last week at the North Kern State Prison Reception Center in Delano.

When only a towel will do...

Welcome to summer.

Dame Edna in Los Angeles

First, the curious life of John Barry Humphries, who is Dame Edna. He is married to Lizzie Spender, daughter of British poet, Stephen Spender, who for many of his younger years was a homosexual. Their son, Matthew, is married to Natasha Litvin, who is the daughter of Armenia artist Ashile Gorky. Humphries is 75 years old, which is remarkable if not for his memory alone, but also his stamina. Last night in Los Angeles, Dame Edna wowed a crowded audience at the Ahmanson Theater with song, flowers and a poignant embrace of the audience. In attendance were some gay celebs such as George Takei and comedian Rip Taylor.
Dame Edna Everage came to our attention many decades ago in New York City, as Australian friends would rally small crowds around the television and beg us to watch this man in drag. And we did. With politically incorrect remarks about Madonna's adoption of babies ( "from a small village called Cylamdia"), George Bush's lack of bookshelves in The White House, and the preponderance of gay people in the audience, Dame Edna tortured many in the audience with extemporaneous remarks about clothing, age, lifestyle and career. It was all in good fun as later as she brought a few audience members up to the stage in a "taping of a new talk show" format. An elderly woman named Yvette, who could barely walk, was asked to sing her favorite song, which was "Our Love is Here to Stay" which she did, with ocassional hints of a Susan Boyle inside her. She seemed to be having the time of her life. Dame Edna honored her gay son, Kenny, also her stylists, with an anthem, and for someone not living here, she seemed to know a lot about Los Angeles.
At the end, a standing ovation and a remarkable transition as she left the stage as Dame Edna and returned moments later as Barry Humphries in a tux.

The Advocate's List of 15 Hot Blogs

The Advocate has compiled a list of the top 15 Gay(ish) Blogs. MIA are Qweerty, the ever popular Joe.My.God, Planet Fabulon, or the blog that is the most imitated (especially by a pair of Parisians), fantasticsmag.com. It is to be noted that while we can disparage the notion of Mr. Hilton, his site is currently valued at $5.11 million dollars, whereas Out magazine's popnography is currently valued at $8219.

• AmericaBlog.com:
• Gawker.com
• DListed.com
• HuffingtonPost.com
• OhLaLaMag.com
• Signorile.com
• TowleRoad.com
• WorldofWonder.net
• PerezHilton.com
• Slog.TheStranger.com
• PinkIsTheNewBlog.com
• Popnography.com
• Rod 2.0
• GoodAsYou.org

to catch the story visit here

Nurse Jackie

Nurse Jackie premiered last night and from the moment the song, Valley of the Dolls reached the screen, many of us were hooked. Hooked is an interesting idea here, for Nurse Jackie is certainly hooked on speed and pain killers. Edie Falco (of Soprano fame) is brilliant as Nurse Jackie; a good nurse with some big problems. Her problems come in the form of substance abuse, incompetent doctors (Dr. Cooper, played by Peter Facinelli) who has a peculiar sexual issue, a sexual relationship with the hospital pharmacist and a boss who is keeping her eye on her. What is so great about Nurse Jackie is that she is in many ways played out like a guy. She has casual sex, though she is married with two children, and is unapologetic about it. She has a hot friend, Mo-Mo, played by the sizzling Haaz Sleiman, a friendship with the very droll, Dr. O'Hara, and of course her best friends, the pills. I'm not sure if this was an hour show or half hour, but it ended too soon. Written by Liz Brixius & Linda Wallem, both out lesbians, Nurse Jackie has bite, edge and a lot of character. Indeed, life is full of little pricks, but this is not one them.

Long Ago

Even though we seem to have come to a point where little is sacred, in some areas we've actually turned the "frankness level" down a bit. This may be because advertisers discovered that frank talk about body odors and other offenses make people squeamish and turn them off. Or that they discovered it's more effective to tell people they can smell like a budding flower on a spring day just after a rain shower, than it is to tell them they stink.

I can't believe that the problems articulated so bluntly in these ads, which range from 1934 to 1954, were more prevalent then than they are now. But you'd think the solution to almost all social problems back then was to simply purchase the right product.
FROM CREATIVEPRO

The Liberation of Adam Lambert

American Idol’s glamtastic runner-up Adam Lambert opens up in the next issue of Rolling Stone, speaking frankly about his sexuality, though he doesn’t think his revelation is particularly shocking. “I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay,” Lambert says in the new issue of Rolling Stone, hitting newsstands this week.
“I’m proud of my sexuality,” Lambert adds. “I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.” Ultimately, however Lambert tells RS contributor Vanessa Grigoriadis that there are other parts of his life that he’s trying to keep front and center. “I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,” he says.

The Tony Awards

Broadway. The Tony Awards. Theater. What is it about American Theater that makes one sentimental and believe in the beauty of human ability? The musical theater in particular is something of an aberration: it is not real. People do not sing on rooftops, or form peculiar tribes that sing adoration of their hair. But that is just the ticket that makes musical theater so special: we wish it were so. We are reminded of the Oscars, the film industries tribute to their own special management of reality. With film, you have performances embedded in flickering images, edited and directed by directors. It is a director’s medium, they control what you ultimately see. Theater on the other hand, is really about performance. It is live, which means it is prone to accident, mood, and circumstance. And therein lies the difference. Theater is immediate, and despite its flight into imaginary circumstance, it is hopelessly human. It is one of the few arts unaffected by our modern age. There is no Internet influence, no financial confluence that can make or break it. It just is. Year after year, the Tony Awards present a show that is the polar opposite of the Oscars. People seem genuine. Joy seems real. Exuberance is expected. And so it was, on the 63rd Tony Awards, a show brilliantly hosted by Neil Patrick Harris. As he said sang at the end of the show, it was the gayest of shows. That aside, The Tony’s always seem to touch the heart, to reach deep inside all of us and remind us, that we are capable of greatness and art. And we all leave singing.

Bette Davis as The Decorator

Bette Davis was the star of this pilot, produced by Aaron Spelling, in 1964. It was never shown on TV.

Eminem Confesses: It was a stunt

There was something familiar about Bruno's descent into the face of the rap star—we had seen this winged event before and it was from the 1970 film, Brewster McCloud. As suspected, the event was a staged one:
"I'm thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it," the rapper, 36, tells RapRadar about his altercation with the actor, who was dressed as his flamboyant character Brüno. "It had so many people going 'nuts' so to speak. Everyone was blowing me up about it."

Eminem walked out of the awards show on Sunday after Cohen – as Brüno dressed in wings and a thong – landed face down in his lap. Reps for MTV, Cohen and Eminem had no comment at the time on whether or not the act was planned.

So how exactly did the two brainstorm the stunt?

"Sacha called me when we were in Europe and he had an idea to do something outrageous at the Movie Awards," says Eminem. "I'm a big fan of his work so I agreed to get involved with the gag."

Eminem has had altercations in the past – including a scuffle with the puppet, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2002. But at this year's Movie Awards, the rapper was merely playing off his image as a tough guy.

"After the ceremony I went back to my hotel and laughed uncontrollably for about three hours," he adds. "Especially after I saw it on air."

V MEN

The new Summer VMAN is homodelicious and ripe with erotica.

Luke Smalley RIP

Luke Smalley, the art photographer famous for his playful images that explored the intersections between fashion and masculinity, died unexpectedly on May 17, at the age of 53.

Smalley’s work cultivated an aura of lighthearted manliness by lifting from an array of masculine ideals — 20th-century fitness manuals, vintage school portraits, antique exercise equipment. Although Smalley was not a household name, he was revered among leading men’s-wear image makers, most notably his frequent collaborator and friend, the designer Kim Jones. (In 2004, Smalley teamed up with Jones on a book chronicling American youth culture, and a year later for a fashion story in T.)

 Smalley’s work appeared in progressive men’s fashion publications such as Dazed & Confused, V Magazine, Vogue Hommes International, Another Man and Arena Homme Plus. His two books, “Exercise at Home” and “Gymnasium,” were showcases for his tongue-in-cheek take on adolescence. (A final book on his work, “Sunday Drive,” will come out later this year.) While certainly homoerotic, Smalley’s images were never perverse. Instead, through the imaginative use of props, costumes and staging, Smalley helped bridge the gap between whimsy, sensuality and machismo — a viewpoint men all too seldom see reflected in popular culture

States of Desire

In what has to be the silliest map ever devised, the people at Manhunt have created a map of bottom and top states. Not sure what country they live in but here is the peculiar thinking behind it:

The MANHUNT Daily team decided to have some fun with demographics. If you've ever wondered what state you should be in if you're a bottom with a ferocious appetite or if you're an ass loving top who wants plenty of pickings, we have the map for you!

Think blue state/red state, but with a MANHUNT twist. Check out the map above as MANHUNT pulled some data from our site and figured out which states were top heavy and the ones that bottomed out. It's pretty interesting stuff, especially the random versatility of the Mountain West.

All in all, I'd say tops top in the United States, so all you bottoms rejoice! We did not include in the data guys who checked off "ask me" as an option for sexual preference.

Gay Men...Good Taste?

One of the greatest myths ever to perpetrated on the public is that gay people have good taste. "Does a gay man have a special gene, an extra chromosome, something that allows him to put plaids and florals in the same room and not have them duke it out?" Well, the Queer Eye for the Queer Guys just couldn’t help but notice what a mess some of the pages at Queerty have become. Long ago, Queerty figured out that people want to see flesh mixed in with their news, so they have regularly featured a number of hot guys everyday. But recently, the images were couched in the most disturbing of graphic designs: porn advertisements. While we all can confess that web design has taken good taste back several decades, Queerty's "my space" sensibility has taken us back to an unpleasant mix of art and commerce. While the rest of Queerty is still fun (it is the easiest site to make comments), several readers have complained about the design of the more physically-oriented pages, and frankly, we agree.

Adam Lamberts Night Out

Suzanne Pleshette look-alike Adam Lambert was spotted last night in Hollywood with  rumored boyfriend, interior designer and 70s porn star look-alike, Drake LaBry (sic) holding hands. Putting an end to the endless speculation that Lambert might be secretly bisexual, the hand holding Lambert is due to announce his sexuality next month on the cover of dinosaur publication Rolling Stone.

Alan Turing: Famous Homosexual

Alan Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. He provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine. Of his role in the modern computer, Time Magazine in naming Turing one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, states: "The fact remains that everyone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine." Turing was homosexual, living in an era when homosexuality was still both illegal and officially considered a mental illness. Subsequent to his being outed, he was criminally prosecuted, which essentially ended his career. He died not long after under ambiguous circumstances.

Why Knot?

A white knot is displayed on a mannequin at a Levi's store in San Francisco, California. Levi Strauss, a long-time supporter of gay rights, is dressing up their windows and clothing with white knots at 20 of their stores across the country as a symbol of support for marriage equality. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)