Planet Homo

Read All About It

BlindGossip – This A list actor has always dated the most beautiful girls in the world. These girls are his beards. He actually prefers skinny boys. His latest flame is a boy who was involved in a European scandal involving starlets, drugs and high class prostitution. Scandal Boy recently shipped out to Los Angeles so that he could be at the beck and call of our actor. (The suspects thus far are Leonardo, George Clooney, Joey Arias and Orlando Bloom, though one person wrote: "Didn’t Orlando Bloom paint his house black? A gay man wouldn’t do that."
Poor Andy Towle of Towleroad is taking heat for his non-stop reporting of neo-celebrity Adam Lambert, who stopped by the Jay Leno show. In one of the great non-stories of the day, Andy writes:  "Adam Lambert stopped in to Jay Leno for a moment last night and found himself under some creeping mistletoe." Irate readers have quickly replied: "Andy, it's your blog and you can do what you want with it, but you seem to have an obsession with someone who really isn't all that interesting. He goes to a gay bar, he's on TV and on and on and on. Enough already."
  The Advocate is reporting that swimmer and cover boy Matthew Mitcham has topped the list of the 25 most influential gay and lesbian Australians. The list is compiled from nominations by the Australian public. One wonders how big the list is? The list also included pop star Sia and MTV personality Ruby Rose. We include this story mainly to post the picture of Mitcham, who is a top on any list.

Gay activists in Chicago celebrated a victory in removing the band Evil Incarnate from a multigroup show scheduled at the White Star Night Club this Saturday. The band’s songs include the antigay and racist track “Killer of Faggots.”
In a statement, the Gay Liberation Network hailed concert promoter Renato Brierio for agreeing to remove the neo-Nazi band from the bill.

Anderson Cooper comes out? Gawker reports:  "While Anderson Cooper was guest hosting Live with Regis and Kelly, Ripa said, "Anderson was just saying to me, 'I hope I come out.'" Whoa, that can't be true. Anderson loves his closet something fierce! Actually, the quote seems more like a Freudian slip. When guest Fergie walks onto the set, after a little bit of dancing and lip syncing with Ripa, she sits down and Kelly says, "Anderson, isn't this your dream? Anderson was just saying to me, 'I hope I come out—I hope Fergie comes out to dance with me, because I love to dance.'" Oopsie! She didn't mean to insinuate that, you know, Anderson Cooper is a man who likes men? No, she would never insinuate that. But she must be used to using "Anderson Cooper" and "comes out" in the same sentence, because it sure rolled off her tongue. (Listen people, blogs are like 24 hour news channels, they have to fill the void with something) Gawker has been relentless in its pursuit of Cooper and has filed a few reports about the alleged boyfriend of AC, Benjamin Maisani who is the co-owner of gay bar Eastern Bloc.

Cha Cha

The news from around the world today starts with: Twitter users are complaining about a debate on the BBC's website which asks 'Should homosexuals be executed?'. It appears on the Have Your Say debate boards.
Reaction is pouring in like static on a cashmere sweater as Out magazine's Gay 100 Albums of all time is being published everywhere. One listener wrote: "What about Songs From the Big Chair by Tears for Fears? Isn't 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' about the homosexual agenda?"
Queerty announces that Tim Burton's upcoming flick, Alice in Wonderland is the gayest film of the next decade: "The story. A young girl traveling to a world of colorful characters, villains, helpful allies, questions of morality, and a giant fancy dinner party? This is practically the gay rights struggle — and every seven-year-old gay boy's dream world — packaged into a single big screen adventure." Nice!

A volcano in the Philippines is ready to blow! But it's beautiful.

 Popular blog Queercents, a site for gays who like coupons, is taking a break from publishing, but promises to come back, someday.

 Interesting story at afterelton called, "Coming Out" In Droves: Eleven Who Did in 2009. Not sure eleven is a drove, but the usual suspects are Adam Lambert, Chris Golfer (Glee), from the Broadway production of Hair, Calvin Creel, and singer Mika.

The Gist: Interview: GLAAD's Barrios on ABC & Lambert

This is from The Gist, Michelangelo Signorile's website:
This is my full interview (clip below) on the show yesterday with Jarrett Barrios of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation regarding the widespread criticism of the group in its handling of the Adam Lambert/ABC controversy, which had GLAAD sending out statement after statement trying to counter reports that it backed ABC in banning Lambert from several shows. Barrios came into the studio to sit down with me and sincerely wanted to clear the air. He accepted responsibility for what happened and admitted that the group's first update after ABC banned Lambert from two more shows was problematic, attributing it to a lack of clarity. But I still believe the explanations given weren't adequate -- and judging from the callers to the show afterward, many people agree -- and that GLAAD is still not taking a forceful stand. Nor do I believe, as I told Barrios, that the decision by The View to book Lambert for a taped segment Thursday was a "partial victory," as he called it, since he's still banned from shows they had dumped him from.Overall I think GLAAD has a long way to go in explaining what happened here and also its larger mission. It is compromised by the fact that it takes money from ABC --something else we discussed -- and that it just doesn't seem to be at the forefront of controversies and defamation, more so focused on giving out awards and patting media on the back.
The interview can be heard here.

via www.signorile.com

If that's what it means to be gay, I quit by Sky Gilbert

I am no longer gay. I quit. But that doesn't mean I don't still adore my pink high heels (and the questionable stains on them). In fact, my unrepentant love for those smelly old shoes has very much to do with why I am defecting and/or just resigning from the club.

No, it's not just because I'm old and tired (although I am); it's because the love that dare not speak its name is now shouting it out from the rooftops. Gay is everywhere and, paradoxically, gay is also over. But the new gay that is simultaneously invisible and ubiquitous is not the gay I once knew.

I think it was Modern Family that did it. I flicked on the TV – as I always do when I hear of a new sitcom with gay characters – and what a shock! Not only is the gay couple on the show completely accepted by their family as a whole, but there is nothing the least bit gay about them. They are a pair of nice, overweight, unattractive middle-class men obsessed with their adopted Asian daughter. I found myself searching for a camp moment, but I'm afraid neither of them is any nellier than the straight husband on the show.

But, like most mainstream entertainment, Modern Family is merely a symptom of what's really going on. For years, gay neo-con Andrew Sullivan (he's the only gay man you are likely to see on CNN, ever) has been telling us that being gay is all about being a good citizen. In fact, if you speak to the leaders of most gay and lesbian political groups about what it means to be gay today, they will probably answer using the words “love” or “family” or “caring.”

Well, the world of pretty rainbows, church on Sunday, monogamy, respectability and good citizenship is not the world I signed onto when I filled out my gay card.

How did this happen? Well, we live in a cyber-reality of Twitter, blogs and virtual sex. The great movements of the sixties – leftism, feminism, gay liberation and civil rights – are over. That doesn't mean we're done with class inequities, misogyny, racism or homophobia. But political correctness makes us think they're gone – and besides, we have the endlessly satisfying drug of technology to assuage any and all insecurities. Heck, these days no one interacts with anyone in the real world long enough to care about what goes on out there anyway.

In this contradictory era, there is a black U.S. president and yet police officers are still being accused of racial profiling. And Adam Lambert – the gayest American Idol contestant ever – was recently criticized by the gay community for wearing makeup and kissing a guy in his act. (Jennifer Vanasco, editor-in-chief of website 365gay.com, said Mr. Lambert tarnished the reputation of gays in the eyes of middle America, “who think gay life is exactly what he portrayed on the American Music Awards.”)

The contradictions of postmodern culture don't stop there. Though some real-life gay men are adopting Asian children, some are so pressed by the new, perfect, sanitized gay ideal that they end up drowning themselves in suicidal drugs and unsafe sex.

Here's my own personal solution. I reject the gay world. I have a new identity: I'm an ESP (pronounced ESPIE). That means effeminate sexual person. I'm committed to things that are no longer gay: alternative sexual and romantic relationships (promiscuity) and gender play (I prefer my women to act like men and my men to act like women). Don't worry, you can be a butch woman and still be an ESPIE – all you have to do is commit to gender-inappropriate behaviour of any kind and enjoy sex for pleasure alone (please don't do it – yawn – just to beget children).

Lately, Toronto's gay press has been bemoaning straight forecasts of what some have called “the premature death of Church Street.” One gay columnist says that, even if the condos drive the gays out of our neighbourhood, we will always have Church Street (sigh) in our hearts.

But it isn't just Church Street that's on the wane. When being gay is the same as being straight, there's no need for gay anything. Gay bars, books, gay magazines, gay newspapers – gay culture as we know it – will eventually disappear.

But, hey, I'm an ESPIE! So I don't care. And finally I can stop complaining.

Sky Gilbert is University Research Chair in Creative Writing and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. His latest poetry collection is A Nice Place to Visit.

via www.theglobeandmail.com

Remember

 

The Final Hours at the Blade

The Washington City Paper took an inside look at the last few hours of the Washington Blade as management told its staff that it was shutting down on Monday afternoon.The process started about 12:30 p.m., when movers arrived to evacuate boxes of personal and work-related items, and lasted through 3:30 p.m., the time designated for staffers to leave. Steve Cheverton a friend of those on staff, told the City Paper that he arrived at the Blade offices at the National Press Club with his Ford F-150 truck. “I know a lot of the employees, and I’ve supported them throughout, in all the gay pride marches and stuff like that,” he said. “I just think it’s really without integrity the way they did this. ... The least we can do is help these people take their stuff home.”Read the full story at the Washington City Paper.

via www.advocate.com

Mike Alvear on the "gift" of HIV

"If I hear one more HIV+ man tell me he's "grateful" for the disease because it made him a more peaceful, loving, open, honest person I'm going to scream. Those afflicted by disease --whether it's cancer or HIV-- have taken a pernicious slide toward rationalizing their conditions as something "necessary" for them to achieve some kind of enlightenment. And we can lay that awful trend on the likes of Louise Hay, Deepak Chopra and that whole positive thinking guru crap that passes for spiritual insight."I don't want to be mean to my friends and acquaintances that have the burden of a terrible condition, but I just can't be silent anymore. I simply can't listen to anyone who tells me he's embraced the virus as a gift because it's made him a better person. Just last week an acquaintance said, 'HIV has given me a new life. I needed it to open my eyes to the joy of living. I'm emotionally stronger and I have a new sense of priorities.'"What a crock of caca. HIV as the path to God? The virus as your friend? This is the kind of fertilizer the fields of Ireland long for. Here's what I say to all my HIV+ friends: Don't be grateful; be angry. Don't carry the burden of trying to make HIV your friend. Like all friends, it'll expect you to be loyal and introduce it to your other friends. [snip] While HIV is not your friend, it isn't your enemy either. It just *is.* Learning to deal with it is an admirable accomplishment, but please, don't tell us it's a gift. Or that your grateful." - Author Mike Alvear, writing for the Bilerico Project.Labels: Bilerico, HIV, HomoQuotable, Mike Alvear

via joemygod.blogspot.com

The Washington Blade Shuts Down

Incredibly sad and surprising news for the LBGT media world, not to mention the local media scene: The Washington Blade has been shut down. The LGBT publication's twitter feed first alerted us to what was going on just a little while ago: "Washington Blade, like all Window Media publications, is closing today. Thank you for your support. (Keep following us for developments.)" Sure enough, even the Blade's web site has been taken down.

via dcist.com

Remembering Laramie

Last night across the country, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later was performed in commemoration of the death of Matthew Shepard, which was eleven years to the day of his murder. One of those performances was held at the Broad Stage Theatre in Santa Monica. A production mounted by the Gay Men’s Chorus and the Speak Theater Arts, this show featured some Hollywood talent with special guests Mary McCormack, Mary McDonnell, Sharon Lawrence, Charlotte Rae, Randi Driscoll and Bradley Whitford. The distinction of this production was the Gay Men’s Choir acting as a Greek Chorus of sorts. The production began with a swaying version of Wind, by the Sons of the Pioneers. What evolved in a three hour production was a hybrid musical and play, textured by great acting and punctuated by emotional moments from the Chorus. In reviewing the consequences of Matthew Shepards’ death, eleven years later, this epilogue addresses the question raised by 2004’s 20/20 newscast, which angled that the real reason behind the brutal murder was not homophobia but drugs and money; what role does a community have to remember and be responsible and where are we, as nation, eleven years later.

There is an awkward moment in life when the revelation that there is no truth is revealed: There is only interpretation, generally conceived within the will of one’s agenda. So imagine, a young Anne Frank becomes a spy for the Nazi army, the Holocaust simply never happened. The past is easy to rewrite because there a few living challenges, but not so in the case of Matthew Shepard.  In 2004, 20/20 turned a blind eye to the truth and suggested that the Matthew Shepard murders were prompted by drugs and money rather than sexual orientation. This is called negationism. The 20/20 revisionist theory is based on statements made by the girlfriend of convicted killer Aaron McKinney, who claimed that the attack was a result of heavy drug use, a robbery and a beating gone awry.  But in 1998 she told 20/20: "They just wanted to beat him bad enough to teach him a lesson, not to come on to straight people, and don’t be aggressive about it anymore.” The question then boils down to was McKinney homophobic and did it play a role in the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard? In a 2008 interview McKinney stated: “The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals,' He goes on, according to the interview, to say that he still dislikes gays and that his perceptions about Shepard's sex life bolstered his belief that the killing was justified.

It should be noted that over the weekend, a gay man in Queens, NY was attacked by two men and yelled anti-gay slurs while he was in the store early Friday,” the AP reported. That man is currently in a coma.

The Diminishing Gay Return

A recent trip to Washington D.C. and New York City revealed some interesting aspects to gay life: gay life has diminished. Gay life simply isn’t what it used to be and that may not be a bad thing…or is it?  Today’s march on Washington will make a little dent in the politics of gay equality or as Rep. Barney Frank said “The only thing they're going to be putting pressure on is the grass.”  It does give outlet for some people who are emotionally tied up in the politics, but to what degree it influences—we will have to wait and see.

My own belief is that culture and politics are mostly changed by art. Movies and television in particular have an enormous influence on young people. To that degree we have certainly been engaged in mainstream culture, though one wishes the stereotypes would someday end (Chris Colfer’s Kurt in Glee is a lovable but extremely stereotypical character). Movies and television reach millions and send out messages about the degree to which our American culture is willing to invite and accept being different. So while Kevin Walker’s relationship (in Brothers and Sisters) with the slightly annoying Scotty Wandell is a great step forward, their physical relationship has always seemed awkward and without flame.

But back to the tale of two cities.

On a tour to Arlington cemetery we met an older gentleman by the name of Bobby.  He was 69 years old, wore a toupee and the blackest eyeliner against his pale pink skin. He was alone. He sat down next to us and began a conversation. He seemed to know a lot about Arlington and invited us to watch the changing of the guard with him and he knew the exact place to stand for the best view. The changing of the guard is almost a tribute to Michael Jackson for surely they are doing the moonwalk with Bob Fosse like movements. It’s extremely serious and the young men in a tight face-off check each out each other, fixing their ties and fondling their guns. Bobby took us backstage so to speak afterwards and told us that they always have two men of equal height as to not create a distraction. That Bobby knew so much and was alone there in the great cemetery made one wonder: did he have a lover who was in the service or was he simply in love with the rugged good looks of the young men in the changing of the guard?

Back in DC at DuPont Circle was there another kind of changing of the guard. Using the iphone application Gay Cities we located a gay bar in an alley where four muscular boys in underwear were standing atop the bar, gently moving their hips and lowering their crotches into the faces of the people sitting at the bar. On a television screen located above the entrance, porn was looping, a soundless reminder of sex. The music was loud of course, so conversation was reduced to nods and occasional wonderment as a young dancer lowered his underwear to descry a perfect orb of muscular flesh. Not exactly relaxing.

New York City, just like I imagined it…tall buildings and everything. I used to live in New York City. It was the 80s and the decade began with Ronnie Reagan as president and the occasional report of a “gay cancer” showing up in gay men. This was a different NYC. There were the piers, still being haunted by men in shadows and Central Park was notorious for a lot of public sex.

Flash forward to 2009 and the village is essentially a straight haven of expensive cafes and endless gyms. The Greenwich Theatre, a landmark movie house on Greenwich Avenue is now an Eclipse Gym and Spa. Times Square, once home to The Gaiety, a midtown strip bar is gone. Closed in 2005, it opened in 1976 and for thirty years provided a fun outlet for the voyeur in all of us. Times Square now resembles a Main Street theme park only massively populated.

It is of little help for pine for the past. Change is inevitable and written into the DNA of life itself. As one grows older there is an expectation of elegance, a kind of Noel Cowardish desire to be surrounded by beauty, flowers and quaint music. Using that little iphone application once again, after a chic little dinner in the lower east side, we decided to visit at least one gay bar. The closest bar was something called The Cock. We were given free drink tickets and entered into a dark room with about four people. Signs everywhere screamed: sexual activity is not allowed. A DJ played music fit for a party of 40, a loud thumping mixture of grating sounds that allowed no interaction with the four other people, even if we wanted to. Fleeing into the balmy New York night one remembered Uncle Charlie’s on Greenwich, but that too is gone.

As someone who used to write travel articles for gay publications it should be noted that at some point and I think it was San Diego I gave up. SD had some great straight bars, chic, elegant, perfectly modern and sleek, and while we hunted for the legendary Hillcrest, all we found was a few bars that felt like the 80s, wooden, old and not particularly attractive.

This was true of Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City. Along the seashore in PV, there were magnificent bars with 50 foot Buddha’s and shimmering curtains. Maybe our gay radar is broken, but we went to Blue Chairs Hotel rooftop, and indeed it was it offseason, but it was tired.

In Mexico City, there was an enormous amount of public handholding by young gay people. But the bars, all packed into one street resembled fish aquariums with steamed windows and people literally being pushed to the edge of the windows.

Maybe these places are for the young with better tolerance for sound and surrounding. Visiting gay bars is a kind of nostalgia regardless. Most people interested in sex are at home retouching their photos and sending endless emails to strangers.

The Random

1. It's hard to take Sarah Palin seriously, when she speaks.
2. Is there one conspiracy theory that has been proven?
3. A congressman will present a resolution to Congress for Obama to apologize to Cambridge police, but no one has asked George Bush to apologize for starting a war with a lie. Strange.
4. There is a growing impatience with Barack Obama.
5. Weeks later, listening to Michael Jackson sing, "You Are Not Alone", can be devastating.
6. Bruno certainly came and went.
7. Does anyone know what the number one song in the country is?
8. When will a UFO become identified?  
9. Who decided the two day weekend?
10. Merce Cunningham is dead at 90.

From Salon: Gay Men Go to Hell

At a time when legal gay marriage is spreading across the country and when "American Idol's" Adam Lambert's coming out on the cover of Rolling Stone elicits not a gasp but a shrug, it's easy to forget just how shameful and bewildering being gay in America can be. Just last week, a reminder of that came in the form of a jaw-dropping video from a Connecticut church that showed an apparent "gay exorcism" -- a preacher grabbing hold of a teenage boy and trying with every ounce of his fearsome, trembling baritone to shock the gay devil out of the kid.

It's a scene that could almost have been lifted from "God Says No," the first novel by James Hannaham, about a closeted black man trying to navigate the opposing forces of his faith and his desire. Protagonist Gary Gray grows up in the hell-and-brimstone black churches of Charleston, S.C., and marries a sweet Samoan woman from his Christian college in central Florida, but that's not enough to keep him from hungry grope-and-pokes in the Waffle House bathroom with anonymous men, followed by prayer on bended knee. As familiar as this setup might seem from a dozen shame-drenched political press conferences, Hannaham shifts the trajectory in an unpredictable story that zigzags from the Atlanta avant garde theater scene to a religious reparative therapy program called Resurrection Ministries, where men like Gary struggle to purge their sinful desires.

Read the entire review here.

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.

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.

With A Little Help From Our Friends (at AT&T)

In the scandal-a-minute file, news has it that American Idol winner Kris Allen had a little help from the only telephone service in play during the voting, AT&T:
News now that AT&T, one of American Idol’s corporate sponsors, provided phones for free text-messaging services as well as lessons for casting blocks of votes at two Arkansas final performance night fan parties - has many calling foul.

This would appear to have swung the vote in Kris Allen’s favor, as no similar free texting or block voting lessons were provided at Adam Lambert fan parties. Was American Idol rigged this year? Did Kris Allen have an unfair advantage?

While Fox hasn’t yet commented, AT&T issued a statement yesterday that read, “In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”

Idol Bitch

One would have suspected in a season of change, America might have shown some balls, but that was not the case. American Idol declared Kris Allen the winner, much to the surprise, genuinely, of Kris Allen himself. We can look for metaphors floating like sharps and flats in a musical beauty pageant, but in the end, it is nothing less than business-as-usual versus something far more interesting. Adam Lambert clearly was the more exciting, auspicious singer. It some ways it was chills versus yawns, and the yawns succeeded due, one suspects, to a combination of humility, sweet, good looks and a camera-loving charisma. Lambert on the other hand, was and is, rock and roll, in the best sense of the word: individual, slightly reckless and contemptuous of the norm.
American Idol is in many ways like the Academy Awards of old, always predictable and tabulations squeezed out of a fondness for things comfortable. That Lambert may have made some people uncomfortable, what with his painted fingernails and heavy eyeliner and a voice that would never see the light of a Broadway stage, is ultimately to his benefit— he will go on. It's ironic that most people considered Kris Allen the underdog; gay people, at least those who could graciously embrace Lambert as one of our own, was always the the real underdog; a boy clearly crossing an invisible line in culture, the distinctions were drawn on the odd conceit of what is acceptable. So, in quiet defeat, we end another season of the remarkably successful American Idol, slightly dazed at the injustice, which we have become all to familiar with.

Pressing Question of the Day

COVER ART

LA Weekly with  hysterical cover art for the review of "Outrage".

“Once it was ‘the love that dare not speak its name.’ Now it won’t shut up.” So quipped Mike Nichols back in the day — so far back, in fact, that it’s impossible he imagined then that five decades later he’d find himself directing the television adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, a prime example of refusing to shut up. Nichols, like so many other show-business sophisticates, knew how the game was played: Gays and lesbians were everywhere, but everyone was supposed to pretend we weren’t. Heterosexuality ruled with an iron glove. You stayed “in the closet,” lying and hiding rather than risking the loss of job, family and even life itself.

Of course, there were exceptions. If you were well-fixed financially or well-connected socially, you could have a “private life” — even one of sybaritic excess like the one enjoyed by famed photographer George Platt Lynes. “For more than a decade [Lynes] conducted a triangular love affair with the curator Monroe Wheeler and the writer Glenway Wescott,” Armand Linanger recently noted in The New York Times. “He later got cozy with his studio assistant and, after he died in World War II, moved in with the assistant’s younger brother.” Clearly these were things that “everybody knew” in that rarefied and socially protected world. As for the outside world, the credit sequence of Milk, with its newsreel footage of police raids on gay bars, tells the story. “Sodomy” laws were still on the books, so those likely to violate them were “perps” by definition. The gay-rights movement, in which Harvey Milk was pivotal, fought back against all that. READ STORY HERE

Where do we go from here?

At some point everything grows tired. Music, art, books, television, painting, photography and even cinema grow dull—from a certain perspective. Some call it jaded, some called it experienced, but if you are of a certain age, you have seen and heard it all before. Too much of anything will make the heart grow less fonder, so when we consider pornography, and we all have, we have, due to the glorious freedom of the Internet, more cock than one would imagined twenty years ago. In fact, the Internet has offered us more of just about everything: more news, more images, more information and certainly more nonsense. When we have so much more of everything it dilutes the specifics, it all becomes a blur, and endless traffic jam of images and information. We grow bored with the expected. American Idol in whatever seasons it's in, has lost a few million viewers for no other reason than we know what to expect-the surprise is gone. It must be this reason that the Susan Boyle video took the world by storm: it was completely unexpected and genuine. It was in every way a surprise. So too, the recent cast of Hair on David Letterman, where the power of genuine exuberance seemed to reach out from television sets everywhere and touch us. It’s a paradoxical concept, we can only be surprised about something once, and yet we crave it, again and again. Culture craves it. As time and the archive of culture fills itself, originality and surprise become the rarest of things. Culture reinvents itself by recycling everything that has come before. Madonna was Debbie Harry reinvented and Lady Gaga appears to own some Madonna musical DNA. Which is great when you are twenty because it really does sound new. The same can said of photography in a digital age. Everyone can (and does) claim to be a photographer by virtue of owning a camera. Film, that costly thorn from the past, separated the amateurs from the professionals because it was expensive to play photographer. Not any more. There is no need to buy expensive lighting equipment because photography today is just like the Internet, it's immediate, and frankly the more "genuine" the lighting (lamps, flashlights, sunlight) the more immediate it will feel. Then there is the post-immediate school of photography which consists of digital imaging majors who know how to wield a photoshop brush until the flesh is surrealistically powdered with a glossy sheen. Raw versus composite. When everyone has the same tools available, one cannot assume everyone has the same talent. Duh.
So where do we go from here? What will the culture of the future look, feel and sound like? Will there ever be another Beatles, Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Marilyn Monroe? Are they here already and only because there is so much information we are unable to discern their existence? If life is like jet or train travel, little changes over time. The stunning Concord aircraft was put to rest in 2003 and with it any hope for a modern airline. We remain saddled with the now, always expectant and more than eager for surprise.

She's Baaack

"She is attacked viciously for having the courage to speak up for her truth and her values. But Carrie's courage inspired a whole nation and a whole generation of young people because she chose to risk the Miss USA crown rather than be silent about her deepest moral values." The ad will call out "gay marriage advocates to account for their unwillingness to debate the real issue: gay marriage has consequences." So says The National Organization for Marriage as Miss California Carrie Prejean basks in the spotlight because our own Perez Hilton just had to be rude.

Sean Hannity Agrees to be Waterboarded (for Charity)

Event to Remember

This is actually my sixth invitation I have designed for the Lambda Literary Foundation.

More Matt Drudge

Yes, we are fascinated with the outing of Matt Drudge as he comes in #6 on Out magazine's list of The 50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America. Here’s some background:
In 2003, Drudge faced criticism for describing ABC reporter Jeffrey Kofman as "openly gay" in the headline "ABC News Reporter Who Filed Troops Complaint Story — Openly Gay Canadian" after Kofman interviewed anti-war soldiers in Iraq. Drudge's critics, like gay American writer and national talk radio host Michelangelo Signorile, point to the allegations of homosexuality levelled at Drudge him and by columnist Jeannette Walls in her book Dish. Walls wrote that Drudge had a long homosexual relationship with Washington D.C. landscaper, David Cohen. Cohen confirmed the relationship to the New York Daily News. Drudge denied that he is gay, telling the Miami New Times in 2001 that "I go to straight bars, I go to gay bars. [Walls] never said there was sex; she said there was dating. She never had enough to go that far.
In 2002, Drudge discussed suing actor Alec Baldwin with his lawyer, after Baldwin claimed, during a Howard Stern interview, that Drudge had propositioned him. In March 2008, Baldwin repeated the story to the LGBT magazine The Advocate, saying that there was "a kind of creepy quality" to Drudge's sexual advances, and that he was surprised Drudge was so "uptight about being gay".
In 2005, Drudge told The Sunday Times "No, I’m not gay. I was nearly married a few years ago." He has also said: "How can I be gay when I'm dating a woman with boobs and rollers?"

There's more to this story here.

Survey Says!

Toronto's gay magazine Fab has released the results of its sex survey. The results were compiled by 800 respondents,and lets not forget, its Canada! The Penis survey (shown here) makes no sense, but we like the graphic. Other startling insights: The most pleasurable sex act among respondents is anal sex (96 percent), followed closely by kissing (90 percent). Fucking more than kissing? Blame Canada. To find out what other devilish habits these randy Canadians check here.

The Magic Returns

Illusionists Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn have performed a single final act on stage - with the Bengal tiger which attacked Horn five years ago.
The trio carried out an illusion for a charity event in Las Vegas - their first appearance since the mauling. The act involved Fischbacher in a cage which was then covered by drapes. When Horn removed the drapes, the tiger had replaced Fischbacher.
Their careers ended in 2003 when the tiger sank his teeth into Horn's neck. He was dragged off stage by the tiger in front of a horrified audience. After the incident, Horn claimed that the tiger had tried to move him out of danger after he fainted - a theory which was disputed by animal experts.

In Saturday's performance neither performer spoke.

The Associated Press reported that Horn limped, and had to steady himself on his co-star's shoulder as they went on stage dressed in cloaks and masks to disguise who was who. The crowd gave them a standing ovation at the end of the act, when they removed their masks and waved.

The two men are former lovers who met in 1957. Siegfried worked as a steward while Roy was a waiter on an ocean liner. Roy soon became Siegfried's assistant. And the rest is history. They have been rumored to be a writing a tell-all book about their lives including reports of decades of drug use.

A Different Light Goes Out

A fixture in Los Angeles for almost 30 years, A Different Light Bookstore will be closing its doors for good in the near future, reported InstinctMagazine.com.

The LGBT bookstore is located in West Hollywood in the heart of the city's gay village, and was long the epicenter of culture in the neighborhood. The closing of A Different Light follows the recent announcement that New York's gay-themed Oscar Wilde bookstore is shuttering as well.

Bill Barker, owner of A Different Light, told Instinct that two specific events contributed to his decision to close -- a Santa Monica Boulevard street project (where the bookshop is located) that tore up the sidewalk for months on end, and a 2007 fire that closed down a nightclub operating next door to the bookstore.

Barker said his San Francisco store will remain open (a New York ADL shut down years ago) and an online outlet will remain intact. There's no official date set for the closing, but it will be before mid-April. (Neal Broverman, Advocate.com)

Sean Penn's Man Crush

Increasingly double-chinned Bill O'Reilly and loud mouth clown Monica Crowley play critic to the Oscar's as they review Sean Penn's win.

The Teddy Awards

The Teddy Awards announced their winners last week in Berlin and among the winners were John Hurt for Best Acting Performance in "An Englishman in New York", a special TEDDY Foundation Award to Joe Dallesandro for his achievements "as underground film star, gay icon and actor", and the best feature film award went to Raging Sun, Raging Sky (Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo) by Julián Hernández. It has to be noted our dear friend Joey Arias won the "Best Drag Queen in the World" award. As for this titillating photo, this is Eike von Stuckenbrok, who labels himself an "equilibrist", which means modern dancer and acrobat in English The video can be seen here. For all the Teddy, head here.

Report from Iowa

Intrepid reporter Todd Schultz braved the cold of Iowa to file this report:
Wednesday nights in Iowa City, Iowa tend to drag. Or rather, is it the queens who are dragging?
At Studio 13, a gay bar about half the size of an Olympic size swimming pool, Queen bee Drag Queen, and Iowan Gay Icon Dena Cass is a riot. A comedienne, a hell of a dancer, and tits that would put Pam Anderson in her glory days to shame.
 People might not expect this class of drag fervor in a “small town” like Iowa City. But the boys in Iowa know how to get down.
 In fact, Iowa City is said to be among the highest per capita gay cities in the nation. And on Wednesday nights Studio 13 is packed to the brim. Hot men everywhere, drinks are flowing, and the lovely ladies of Wednesday Night’s Drag show parade in their glamour gowns.
 When I decided to cover the drag show, I was a little bit shy about taking pictures, but I was obviously naïve about Drag Queens. Dena was anything but shy. She flaunted her long lashes, and her luscious fun bags, only getting wilder for the camera.
 Iowa may not be your idea of the ideal vacation, but for all of you guys out there who have that corn-fed farm boy fantasy, it just might be the perfect spot.
 And know this: When you come to Studio 13, on a Wednesday Night, you know you’re going to have a good time, Dena will make sure of that.

The Advocate: This is news?

The Advocate is a self proclaimed news magazine and their website is "The Award-Winning LGBT News Site" so it’s a little strange when you see on their pages yesterday this "news" story about the former lover of  Portland mayor, Sam Adams accepting to pose, naked of course for, you guessed it, Unzipped magazine. Cross pollination is nothing new, but rarely this shameless.

The Academy Award of Tricks

It was bound to happen: we live in a digital era, where dating is nothing less than getting online and demanding your particular pleasure and expecting it. It's a nasty playground to be sure. People lie. Many people are bored and assuming a personality and image has never been easier. The "trick" is to never never follow through. If you do, you might find yourself on rateurtrick.com. Started in November 2008, RYT currently has 12,000 members. Started for noble reasons as creator Robert Hallman revealed in a recent interview:  I was living in Seattle in 2000 and a friend of mine and I knew someone named JonPaul who was constantly going off on this guy and that guy and after a while, just listening to him gave me the idea of doing the site. My friend John, however, decided it was a bad idea because of the potential of slander, etc.—but then we hadn’t done our research and we knew nothing about the CDA Act of 1996, so it never happened. I finally made the decision to do it when two things occurred: a friend of mine—who used drugs—was hung and overdosed by some guy while he was in their playroom, while his boyfriend was in the office area in the same house. All my friend remembers is the guy his lover was playing with walk by with this five-year-old laptop and leave the house and then he heard kicking sounds coming from the playroom and found his lover hanging by a noose, frothing at the mouth."
While most encounters are less dramatic, the sheer drama of finding out about next week's trick can be titillating. There will always be the potential for revenge—less than happy tricksters for a litany of reasons, discarding the truth for sexual fictions or other innuendo. ("Tweaker Tweaker Sunny Day, OMG it Sun, girl STAY AWAY....what a mess!") Or in an era of shameless self-promotion, you can always write yourself up in glowing terms. ("Hook up with this guy if you can") . The current listings are surprisingly kind: most men tell it like it is. People may lie about their age a few years, or a few inches, but it seems like most people are out there, having a lot of sex, and enjoying it. Check it out.

Happy Valentine's

Yes it is.

http://www.obviousmag.com/

Mitcham's New Deal

 He is young, good-looking and has the powerful build that comes with years of training in the pool.

He also has an Olympic gold medal hanging round his neck, one he took from the Chinese in the last minutes of the Beijing Games last August.

So there was some surprise that Matthew Mitcham, 20, was not snapped up by advertisers on his return to Australia - so far he is the national face of Aussiebum, an underwear brand.

In a nation notorious for its single-minded obsession with sporting glory, it had been argued that Mr Mitcham's open homosexuality may have been the reason that he was not offered the lucrative ad contracts that so many Olympians were rewarded with before him.

It has now been confirmed that the 20-year-old will represent telecoms company Telstra at events and product launches.

The company said he is a "positive role model for all Australians."

Mr Mitcham said he thought the troubled economic situation was the reason he had not been picked up rather than his sexuality.

He declined to reveal how much the Telstra deal is worth.

"I was a little bit worried (about the lack of sponsors) so hopefully this will be a snowball effect, but I don't want to count my chickens," he said.

"If I can get the opportunity where I would be able to train without having to worry about paying the bills, that would be the ultimate goal."

Mr Mitcham trains 11 times a week for the 2012 London Olympics.

He became a hero to gay people across the world when he won a diving gold in Beijing.

He was the only out gay male athlete to compete in the Games.

In a shocking upset, he took home a gold medal in the 10-metre platform event, beating the Chinese favourites.

Despite intensive coverage of other gold medallist’s personal lives during the Games, US broadcaster NBC failed to mention Mitcham was gay, or show footage of the diver’s partner cheering him on and congratulating him after the win.

He was immortalised along with other gold medallists at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on a series of special commemorative stamp.
source: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11091.html

Sadly True

An Excerpt

At some point we all lie. In these modern times, in an age of Internet dating, socializing and hooking up, it frequently requires some shading of the truth. The fact is, the New Internet Etiquette is both a blessing and a curse. Never before has the ability to make friends, make love and find sex been accomplished quicker. The most successful gay websites have this potential interaction. The downside is: romance is dead. There is little mystery left in the pursuit of sex, or love. We are now permitted to be as explicit and demanding as we like. It's called shopping. We shop for sex and love. Many people have a list of their needs. It's important to grasp at the subtext: people are sending messages about their shopping list. There is a lexicon for this and it is to be found in words like "chill", "discreet" "NSA", and even the suspicious "bi". Chill, for example means that you are likely young seeking young. Old men don't chill. It's a way of suggesting that we get together without intent, with that distinct but lazy possibility of having sex. Discreet is always a danger sign: This person is likely in the closet or cheating on his lover. They are afraid of something. No one has a explanation why anyone would feel the need to tell the world they are bisexual other than it looks good on paper (or screen), hints at a liberal view of sexuality, and holds a certain allure to many homosexuals. Is it any wonder people are finding ways around the truth when the demands are so stringent? Here's an example pulled from a typical Craigslist ad: You you should be SMOOTH and THIN/ SKINNY or AVG BUILT or MUSCULAR 20-30. What if you are 32, have a slight fat deposit around the middle and a little tuff of hair on your chest? Should you answer this ad? Absolutely! But be prepared to fib, a little. Remember, horny people are usually willing to set aside some of their demands when the moment comes. The fact is, you can't always get what you want, but you can indeed, get what you need.

PHOTOSHOPPING THE TRUTH
Age is certainly the greatest fib ever told on the Internet. Men, especially older gay men lie constantly: they have to. At some point in the sexual life of everyone, they begin to lose their appeal. Age happens. For most men, it’s a slow unraveling: Hairlines recede, laugh lines remain after the laughter, and gravity, that invisible sledgehammer of physics keeps pushing us closer and closer to the Earth and we simply get wider and wider.
Luckily, Adobe invented Photoshop, to combat all the forces of nature. With Photoshop, we can smooth lines, frowns and inches. We can create hair where it should be, and it’s far less expensive. So as images are jettisoned across the vast universe of desire and longing, anyone with some graphic skill can artfully correct the intrusions of age. It’s all-good when innocently bantering with the truth in a situation where a physical appearance is not required. But, what about when it is? What if you actually set up a meeting and you have to show up, as you really are? Your guest may gasp as they ask themselves quietly, “Who is this person, not like the one in the picture they sent me?” It is always best to resort to reasonable explanations: I had such a busy week, I’m so tired. I photograph much younger than I look, or the proverbial favorite, it was the lighting. Remember, horny people are usually forgiving.
The same can be said about the purely sexual encounter, where because of the new sexual etiquette, we can now ask, what we always wanted to ask: how big? People have a tendency to round out the numbers, so a 6½" becomes a 7 incher. These are called Internet inches. No one really believes anyone is going to pull out a measuring tape during sex, so the missing ½ inch is likely to be overlooked as a detail. Again, Photoshop, in the initial Internet introduction can be skillfully used to add dimension and length to any image (it's the clone stamp). The first rule of fibbing on the Internet is be reasonable. Don’t add three inches—that will certainly be noted, measuring tape or not! The same can be said about fibbing about one’s age, be reasonable. If you're 55, don’t suggest that your 35, even if your best friends and Mom tell you how good you look for your age. Keep it in within the range of reality. A good rule is never over ten years younger. All the cosmetic surgery, the jars of Olay, exercise and make-up cannot take you back to an age where they played an entirely different soundtrack to the culture. But, lets get back to the penis. You have suggested and sent an image that is not quite anatomically correct. Now what?  The rule here is don’t lie over an inch. It will be noticed. There is a difference between five inches and six, look at a ruler. No one (some aggressive size-queens are the exception) is going to toss you out of the bedroom because you added a little length and girth. The fact is, quite often both people realize they both have fibbed about it and so begins the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

In Memorium 1988-2008

Produced by Tony Valenzuela and Robert Ferrante (just married!) this is the video that was shown at the 20th Lambda Literary Awards in May 2008. I passed it on to Towleroad because I thought its contents were important enough to be seen by as many people as possible. I want to thank Tony and Robert for giving me access to the video.

If You Just Wait Long Enough....

By Leon Neyfakh/New York Observer

A writer whose books explore the sweetness of mutilation, the beauty of violence and the eroticism of school shootings has found an unlikely home at the corporate-owned publishing powerhouse HarperCollins. Until now, Dennis Cooper, nothing if not a cult icon, has only ever published with independent presses; last week, he left his longtime publisher, Grove/Atlantic, and signed a three-book contract with Harper Perennial, an imprint at HarperCollins that specializes in paperback originals and literary reprints.

Mr. Cooper is a guy who couldn’t get interviews with Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor when he worked at Spin because they both thought the things he wrote about were too weird. Why is a major conglomerate willing to come anywhere near him, let alone put him under contract for a book of short stories, an essay collection and a novel that he has not even begun writing?

Mr. Cooper’s agent, Ira Silverberg of Sterling Lord, is optimistic about the deal, if not a little puzzled by the fact that it happened.

“I’m very, very protective of Dennis, and the whole idea of sending him to this big house was a little bit scary,” he said on Monday. And yet, the big house wanted to publish him, while Grove/Atlantic—once home to the Beats, the French avant-garde, as well as radically experimental New York writers like Kathy Acker and Robert Coover—did not.

As of last year, Grove/Atlantic had published seven of Mr. Cooper’s novels and one collection of his poetry. The first of those novels came out in 1990, while Grove was under the stewardship of publisher Aaron Asher. At that time, Mr. Cooper was already a star in the New York art world and a favorite on college campuses, and Mr. Asher published him with great enthusiasm.

But late last year, when Mr. Silverberg went to Grove’s current publisher, Morgan Entrekin—who bought the company in 1991—with a book of short stories called Ugly Man that Mr. Cooper was ready to publish, Mr. Entrekin said he wasn’t interested unless the collection came bundled with a proposal for a novel. Mr. Cooper didn’t want to do that—he hadn’t yet figured out what his next novel would be about—so he walked away.

Leaving his longtime publisher was something Mr. Cooper had been thinking about for a while anyway, and he has written frequently about his turbulent breakup with Grove on his blog.

“The thing is that the writing has been on the wall with Grove Press for a while now, so although I’m very sad about getting the heave-ho, it’s not a shock,” Mr. Cooper wrote in January. “The head of Grove Press does not like my work much at all. He only really kept publishing me because my work is connected to Grove’s history, and he wanted to maintain that image of the press.”

(Mr. Entrekin could not be reached for comment because he was traveling.)

With his bags all packed, Mr. Cooper just needed somewhere to take them. As luck would have it, one of the people reading his blog was Tony O’Neill, a novelist who had just placed a book at Harper Perennial and was working with a young editor there named Michael Signorelli, whom he liked and recommended. Mr. Cooper mentioned Mr. Signorelli to Mr. Silverberg, who was skeptical at first. “I was kind of like, you’re kidding—Dennis at Harper!?” he said. But when he learned that Harper Perennial publisher Carrie Kania had been a devout reader of Mr. Cooper in college, and that Mr. Signorelli was genuinely interested in working with him, Mr. Silverberg ditched his reservations.

After working as Ms. Kania’s assistant, Mr. Signorelli, just 24 years old, was made an assistant editor two months ago. He is “shocked” and “very excited,” he said, to be editing Mr. Cooper, who, at 55, has already served a full term as an icon of outsider literature. Mr. Silverberg is interpreting Mr. Signorelli’s enthusiasm for Mr. Cooper’s work as a sign that a new generation of college-age Cooper fans might be ripe for recruitment.

The fact that Harper Perennial is a major rather than an independent shop does not bother Mr. Silverberg, who has been a champion of small-press publishing ever since 1985, when he took his first job in the book business as—wait for it—a publicist at the Grove Press. As it happened, Mr. Silverberg said, it was he who brought Mr. Cooper over to Grove in the first place.

“[Harper Perennial is] doing what a lot of us used to think the smaller and independent presses were meant to do, but they’re doing it with a lot more muscle,” Mr. Silverberg said. “It’s kind of the new version of this old-school hipster publishing, happening within a major conglomerate.”

Mr. Cooper doesn’t have any qualms about leaving an indie for a major, either.

“If Sonic Youth did it, I figure I could do it!” he said, referring to when the avant-garde rock band signed to David Geffen’s record company in 1990. “They used their power effectively.”

A New Web Series with a Message

Find more videos like this on In the Moment

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23, 2008 – Five young gay guys, living together in an apartment complex where they all face decisions about their sex lives, sounds like the description of a television soap-opera.  But it also describes the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s groundbreaking new HIV prevention/education campaign. By blending the appeal of sexy digital soaps with online forums, the Center’s In the Moment series of “webisodes,” the first of which is funded by the City of West Hollywood, promotes safer sex in a manner that is more entertaining, interactive and accessible than traditional prevention programs. “Since this campaign is available to anyone who has access to a computer,” says Alton Carswell, program coordinator for the Center’s WeHoLife.org HIV prevention program, “we can reach guys who don’t go to bars, clubs or meetings and they can engage—anonymously if they prefer—discussing whatever is on their mind. That was one of our goals.” The first of the 12 planned webisodes, five minutes in length and available for viewing at www.weholife.org, introduces the characters and features a scene with a couple in bed.  When the action heats up, one of the guys reaches for a condom, but before he can finish opening it, his boyfriend has already entered him without protection and in the pleasure of the moment, doesn’t object.  After watching the webisode, viewers will be invited to participate in an online discussion to address such questions as: Whose responsibility should it be to put the condom on?  As a couple is it ever OK to have unprotected sex?  Did the receptive partner lead his boyfriend to believe it was OK to enter him without a condom? Is it ever OK to enter someone, not wearing a condom, without that person’s permission?  Is the pleasure of unprotected sex worth the risk?
For more information and to get hooked on "In the Moment" (which is very well produced and directed) go here.

Sly as A Fox (Network)

Once again, Fox has censored an anti-war voice. This time, from the lips of actress Sally Field. At least it has sparked the usual debate on youtube.com where the chatter is intense. My favorite for no reason other than its funny is from none other than poster george w bush who writes: War is awesome! Sally Field hasn't done any decent acting since Smokey and the Bandit.

In Memorium

From the 2007 Lambda Literary In Memoriam Video. Special thanks to Teresa DeCrescenzo, Tony Valenzuela, Robert Ferrante, and Dusty Jones for their creativity, technological skills, and passion in creating this wonderful tribute.

Having Fun in Peculiar Places

The recent purchase of new toilets in Fort Lauderdale by its Mayor, Jim Naugle has opened up the debate about sex in public. At issue with Naugle, is that he linked the gay community solely as the group engaging in sexual behavior in public places. I found the comments from Norman Kent interesting. Kent, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who specializes in defending men arrested on public sex charges who says that half of the men arrested are not gay.
''The percentage of people I represent on the charges, the vast number of them turn out to be very straight and very married,'' said Kent, publisher of the website NationalGayNews.com.`They're looking for moments of instant gratification.''

Before the modern gay-rights movement, many closeted men resorted to meeting in restrooms for sex. In these times of more acceptance of gay relationships, why do some younger gay men still go to restrooms for sex? ''This is a lot more efficient use of time then going online, going into a chat room or going into a bar,'' says American University anthropology Professor William Leap.

``Secondly, there are gay men who prefer the ambience of the public toilet. There is nostalgia for that, for the old days. It's an alternative to what they have at home with the boyfriend or their conventional way of dating.''  Apparently, nostalgia can take many forms.

What seems probable is that for gay men, some gay men, yes, they are looking for it. There is a website dedicated to people who like to cruise public places, squirt.org. And should you be in Georgia, apparently a place called Heretic is the best place to cruise in the world. Now Squirt.org is a funny site. They have a complete gay glossary, and tips for how to properly cruise in public places: “If you can, give him a quick glance at your cock. For example, if you're Cruising an outdoor venue, like a hiking trail or a camping area, take a piss and let him get a look. Or, if you're in a locker room, lift your towel or take a shower and casually wash your cock so he gets a good look. If he's looking, he's likely interested.” Or this salacious suggestion: “Or, you might try licking your lips, this is a great indication of what you're looking for.” Smack. And they offer tips on help in the event that you're arrested.

Professor Leap may be onto something. Perhaps it is nostalgia. So much porn from the 70s and 80s was public. Los Angeles’ Griffith Park was always a great location.  And having sex in the wild does look inviting. The wild, not a public toilet.

The truth is, most gay men do not engage in sex in public toilets. Tormented straight men, horny pastors and people for whom Exodus did not work are the likely visitors to our public urinals. In this instance, gay men are an easy target. We encourage Naugle to continue his harassment of the gay community. The truth will come out.

For Book People

Saturday in Palm Springs, Ca. the weather is expected to be a reasonable 74 degrees, which should make for good company if you're attending the "Written in the Sand: A Benefit Garden Party for the Lambda Literary Foundation. Hosted by Anne Rice, son Christopher, and Teresa DeCrescenzo, the event will take place at Anne Rice's house in Rancho Mirage. Special guest will be Carson Kressley of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". For tickets and more information link here.
Founded in 1996, Lambda Literary Foundation exists to celebrate and enhance GLBTQ literature in all its dimensions. The Lambda Literary Awards, the most visible expression of its mission, recognize annually the most significant  books published in more than twenty categories, from fiction to poetry to spiritual writing to best debut novel.
The 19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony will take place May 31, in the Katie Murphy Amphitheater at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City.

Smoke in Hollywood

Last Friday, the beloved iconic Hollywood sign was in danger. As a fire spread through the hills to the west, it was at times uncertain if the fire would spread to the 45 foot sheet metal letters. Created in 1923 as an advertisement to the realty company, HollywoodLand, the sign was originally studded with light bulbs. In 1949, The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce took over the sign and they lost the "land" and due to financial costs, they also lost the light bulbs. The sign has also been altered in many artistic manners starting in 1976, when the sign overnight became "HOLLYWEED", it has also changed to HOLYWOOD for various religious purposes and in July 1987 it was momentarily changed to "OLLYWOOD" to note the Iran-Contra hearings starring Oliver North.
During the fire, helicopters would leave the fire station positioned above the sign and head down the small, quaint Hollywood Reservoir and suck up some of the 2.5 billion gallons of water.
Alas, the Hollywood sign was ultimately in no danger. The fire was quickly extinguished and life returned to normal in Hollywood, including the near fatal accident of this writer after photographing these images.

Seeing Red in West Hollywood

Blue, green and now red, the famed Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood will soon have a new addition. Scheduled for completion in 2009, the bright red building is being designed by architect Cesar Pelli. Situated in the the heart of West Hollywood, the Pacific Design Center (PDC) is the west coast's leading resource for fine traditional and contemporary contract and residential furniture and design needs. Red buildings are a rarity in the business world, but being located in trendy West Hollywood and catering to color-conscious interior decorators and designers, the structure is bound to become as iconic as the current blue building, commonly known as the “blue whale.”
"This is probably the only place in the world you could get away with it," said dapper New York builder Charles Steven Cohen, owner of the Pacific Design Center and the man betting that business owners will pay good money for a spot in a flame-colored building.

 

Reconsidering Elton

Elton John turns 60. And while it may be easy to dismiss Sir Elton has a as an aging curmudgeon, which surely he is, it's also important to note that he still makes the news. It was recently reported that P. Diddy chose to have dinner with Elton, rather than attend the Oscars, and of course today we heard the news that Elton's headline appearance in Tobago next month sent the gown of the Archdeacon into a twirl shrieking,"The artiste is one of God's children and while his lifestyle is questionable he needs to be ministered unto. His visit to the island can open the country to be tempted towards pursuing his lifestyle." You could say the Archdeacon went batty. But Elton will be there. And it's it's as if he has always been there. And the music, for the most part has remained, interesting. He has raised millions of dollars for charity, he performs like a man half his age, he mysteriously has grown a head of hair, and he has been married twice, once to a woman and currently to a man. He has sold over 250 million records, written some of the most notable "pop" songs of all time, and his portfolio of music contains some obscure gems like "Talking Old Soldier Blues" with longtime collaborator, Bernie Taupin. He has endured drug addiction, bulimia, alcoholism and a pacemaker. Hi tantrums have been well documented; he is outspoken against religion, "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people," and as current events will attest, he is both loved and hated. And his turning 60 can only remind us that time indeed moves on, we grow older, and we rarely acknowledge talent, charity and in some odd respect, simply being fun makes life worthwhile, until its time to write the obituary.

Space Oddity

It is the final frontier after all, and now for a price, a steep price, it can be yours. Yes, space flight is at hand. Virgin Galatic will show you the world in a "whole new light" from a height of 50,000 feet as SpaceShipOne separates from the mother rocket, engines ignite and you climb to a height of 360,000 above the Earth. The flight lasts 2 1/2 hours. They have a sensational flash movie that takes you through the flight process and what it is like to be in the outer reaches of the earth's atmosphere. And believe it or not, they are booking now. The price? $200,000. Rumor has it that those world-travellers, the Oh La La Paris boys have already booked their flight.

The News in Brief

A new poll indicates that a majority of Americans would vote for a gay person if he or she were nominated for president. The USA Today/Gallup survey released Feb. 16 found that 55 percent of respondents would vote for their party's gay or lesbian nominee if he or she were "generally well-qualified." A hypothetical gay politician polled better than one who had been married three times – which only 54 percent of respondents found acceptable.

Same-sex couples across New Jersey began claiming the same legal rights as married couples early Thursday in ceremonies that formalized their relationships as civil unions.The state law establishing civil unions for same-sex couples took effect Monday. But because there is a 72-hour waiting period after applying for a license, most couples had to wait until Thursday to hold ceremonies.

Despite being widely perceived a gay-friendly country, France still has reservations when it comes to gay adoption.
On Tuesday, France's highest court ruled against a lesbian couple who tried to adopt a child. While one of the women has remained guardian of the child, her partner cannot be recognized unless the birth mother withdraws parental rights.

A Hollywood movie studio filed a lawsuit claiming gossip blogger Perez Hilton posted a stolen topless photograph of Jennifer Aniston on the Web.
Universal City Studios Productions LLLP filed the suit Tuesday claiming the stolen image was posted on the perezhilton Internet site by Mario Lavandeira, aka Hilton.
The picture was allegedly "misappropriated and illegally copied" during production or post-production of the 2006 romantic comedy hit "The Break-Up," starring the actress and Vince Vaughn, the suit said.

Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. say they have settled the trademark-infringement lawsuit that threatened to derail Apple's use of the "iPhone" name for its much-hyped new iPod-cellular phone gadget.
The companies said Wednesday they reached an agreement that will allow Apple to use the name for its sleek new multimedia device in exchange for exploring wide-ranging "interoperability" between the companies' products in the areas of security, consumer and business communications. No other details of the agreement were released.

Why Celebrities Matter.

Television is rampant with celebrity news. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Headline News and all the local stations are flush with the news that Britney is in and out of rehab, she has shaved her head, she is drowning and needs an intervention, Anna Nicole is rotting and every insect within her family and circle of friends has come to claim the egg and the eggs nest. This is headline news, not stories relegated to the final ten minutes. And very few people are questioning the value and necessity of these stories. News is a vacuum that has to be filled, constantly, and when the real news is less than entertaining, we head south for the vacation, the mindless stories that only intrigue us because in many ways, they are simply bizarre. And, given the alternatives, an endless war in some foreign country, an encroaching enemy with a lexicon of words that promise a menacing future such as Jihad and al-Qaeda, is it any wonder we prefer Britney and Anna Nicole? We all would prefer a time when Muslim meant a fabric. We live in a country ravaged by our own civil war called Democrats and Republicans. Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly have completely lost their objectivity; they are no longer journalists but propagandists, given free airtime because for some reason, people will tune in. And everyone is just tired. Tired of nothing changing, despite a “surge” of voters who in November,  really did want to see this country move in another direction. It’s reflected in the movie box office: A movie like Norbit has taken in $62,011,840 in two weeks compared to Letters from Iwo Jima’s  $11,811,634 in 9 weeks. No one wants to see war, not on TV, or in movie theatres. And its in a foreign language, no thanks, we’d rather watch Ghost Rider. We’d much rather ponder the significance of a crisis hair cut than a crisis. The world has simply become unpleasant. Flying, though never exceedingly fun, is truly work now. Foreign cities, which had such beautiful names such as Kandahar, are places you will likely never visit. We will stay in our backyards and wait it out. Wait for the return of reason, the sitcom and the outcome of who is the father of Dannielynn Nicole. We’ve had enough reality. Give us celebrity.

This Will Teach Him!

More fallout for former Miami Heat star Tim Hardaway after his Valentine's Day "I hate gay people" radio tirade came last week as the South Dixie Highway carwash changed its name from Tim Hardaway presents US 1 Finest Hand Car Wash to Grande Luxe Bathe. A local gay-rights organization called for a boycott and by Saturday, the sign was changed. While Hardaway has apologized, he has lost endorsement deals and an appearance at the NBA's All-Star Game this weekend. (photo by Steve Rothaus/Miami Herald staff)