News

On the campaign trail, Governor Rick Perry talked up Texas:

That prompted a question, later on, from someone in the audience who wanted to know if the governor of Texas wants to be the next president of the United States. "No," Perry said. "I have no intention to go to Washington, D.C., except maybe to go to a museum, like the Smithsonian."

Social issues might be in the back seat, but they're still in the car: "There is still a land of opportunity, friends — it's called Texas," Perry said. "We're creating more jobs than any other state in the nation. ... Would you rather live in a state like this, or in a state where a man can marry a man?"

Hurricane Earl heads for East Coast.

Police find "no evidence" that slain British spy Gareth Williams was gay.

The summer's most important news story? "Since 1950, the study found, the oceans have lost 40 percent of their phytoplankton. As these organisms account for the production of half the earth’s organic matter, this is not good. It’s like finding out that there’s half as much money in all the earth’s banks as we thought there was."

Snooki gets a greased-up Guido marriage proposal.

Study: Heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers.

Images from Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally.

LGBT refugees face xenophobia in South Africa: "I feel that people like us who stay in urban areas do no face half the issues of xenophobia and homophobia like our brothers and sisters who stay in townships. But you never know who you may piss off just by speaking your home language.”

Leading poppers company goes out of business.

Aussiebum CEO Sean Ashby goes undercover on Australian TV.

Kylie Minogue to tour U.S. again.

X-Factor runner-up and spray tan enthusiast Olly Murs models a fan's boxers at London's G-A-Y.

Omaha World Herald rejects same-sex wedding announcement: "Our daughter Kristin Wilke will wed Jessica Kitzman August 20, 2011, in Northern Minnesota. We are so proud we asked to buy an announcement ad in the Omaha World Herald to share our glorious news with our friends. I am disgusted to say that the publisher himself, Terry Kroeger, called me personally to say same-gender couples are not allowed to buy announcements in the Omaha World Herald. Please call 402-444-1328 or write pulse@owh.com if this action disgusts you as it does us. Over 1500 papers sell such ads in the US. Including the NYT."

Social networking site for gay and lesbian Mormons set to launch? "The site is called Cor Invictus, which loosely translates to, 'Unconquered Heart,' from Latin. It differs from other online communities for Gays and Lesbians of the Mormon faith by being open to all, no matter the individual’s current standing in the LDS church."

Bradley Cooper and Ryan Reynolds teaming up as cops.

If you can't get enough bearded Jake.

Veritas, play about Harvard gay witch hunt, wins Overall Excellence Award for Best Ensemble at NY International Fringe Festival.

Male model fix: Ryan Koning.

AbFab's Jennifer Saunders writing Spice Girls musical?

The internet kills the Oxford English Dictionary: "A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition of the OED – known as OED3 – for the past 21 years. The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form. The most recent OED has existed online for more than a decade, where it receives two million hits a month from subscribers who pay an annual fee of £240."

Modern Family's Cameron has a bike short fetish.

Ryan James Yezak and the boys behind 'California Gays' are back, showing off to Katy Perry's 'Peacock'.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Last week I posted about a challenge to Wyoming's marriage law brought by David Shupe-Roderick and Ryan W. Dupree of Cheyenne.

The AP reported: "They're asking U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson to stop the state from enforcing any laws that block gays and lesbians from access to civil marriage. Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg declined comment Tuesday, saying he hadn't reviewed the lawsuit yet. Shupe-Roderick and Dupree are acting as their own attorneys in the case."

However, LezGetReal reports that the couple behind the case have quite a past:

Shupe-Roderick, 25, served 4 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary after he, his brother, and their two girlfriends left Cheyenne in a rental car in January 2004. When they didn’t return the rental car on time, the rental company contacted police. Two days later, Shupe-Roderick – then known as Gerald Shupe — was arrested in Arkansas after being pulled over for an illegal lane change.

After being sentenced, Shupe-Roderick unsuccessfully requested a reduction in his prison sentence on the grounds that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and wasn’t taking his prescribed medication when he took the rental car.

Lezgetreal has been contacted by parties close to source as well as information from local authorities and now received further verification through the investigation of other media outlets.

Gerald David Shupe-Roderick, aka Gerald Shupe, now asking to be called David- is currently being prosecuted for falsifying state documents. Last October, he applied to become a notary public, and he allegedly certified on his application form that he wasn’t a convicted felon.

The lawsuit also alleges Shupe-Roderick used a fake same-sex union certificate from Massachusetts to obtain a Wyoming driver’s license.

That seems to be the tip of the iceberg.

According to the Billings Gazette: [Shupe Roderick has] filed five other lawsuits in the past three years. In one, he accused prison guards of sexual misconduct, and in another, he accused a would-be business client of assault and breach of contract. He has also sought $16,398 in loans and debts from his former employers/roommates and asserted that Bank of America unlawfully refused to release $5,107 from his bank account. All of those cases were eventually dropped or dismissed.”

Fight Back NY has posted the results of its request for information on New York state senator and gay marriage foe, Ruben Diaz, Sr. What did they turn up? See below.

"10 Truths About Ruben"

1. Ruben Diaz was investigated by the FBI
2. He was arrested for possession of heroin and marijuana
3. Ruben Diaz was only member of the New York Senate to vote against the ethics reform bill
4. He was the only Democrat in the New York Senate to vote to shut down the state government
5. Ruben Diaz refused to meet with his own constituents
6. He compared the use of stem cells for medical research to the Nazis using “the ashes of the Jews to make bars of soap.”
7. Ruben Diaz appropriated monies totaling $250,000 to an organization he founded, the Christian Community Benevolent Association
8. He also appropriated monies totaling $1,120,000 to the Hispanic Federation, of which the Christian Community Benevolent Association is a part (see #7)
9. Ruben Diaz defended former Sen. Hiram  Monserrate, who was expelled from the Senate due to a conviction for misdemeanor assault against his girlfriend
10. Ruben Diaz and three other Democrats refused to support the Majority Leader, only to change their minds after he "offered them perks and committee chairmanships."

Fight Back NY wants people to know that Ruben Diaz, Sr. is bad for all New Yorkers.

Kylie Minogue joined Rufus Wainright for a special performance at the Watermill Center Summer Concert Series on Saturday. The duo sang "Locomotion", "Can't Get You Out of My Head", "All the Lovers", and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart".

Clips, AFTER THE JUMP...

An animation from Rob Tisinai, featuring a glammed-up Maggie Gallagher as she meets St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

American Family Association's Bryan Fischer ripped Glenn Beck a new a-hole (so to speak) for his recent statements in support of same-sex marriage, accusing Beck of siding with "people who want to use the anus for sex."

It’s not too late to issue a mea culpa and come back into the light and be a vigorous advocate once again for the truth about marriage and the family. You have done a noble thing in calling this country back to God through your “Divine Destiny” evening at the Kennedy Center and your “Restoring Honor” event at the Lincoln Memorial.

You have done a noble thing on your radio and television programs by repeatedly calling us back to our founding history and to our foundational values as a country.

But Glenn, our “Divine Destiny” as a nation does not include societal approval for people who want to use the anus for sex. The “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” don’t endorse such behavior. And neither should you.

Butt sex appears to be the only bullet these wingnuts still believe they have in their arsenal. And they intend to use it (and think about it) a lot.

(via @pamspaulding)

In late July I posted about OutServe, a group formed to facilitate the transition for gay troops serving under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an open military.

Last night, the group announced the formation of at least ten base and regional chapters around the globe including Afghanistan and Iraq. Five of the initial chapters will be domestic, and five international.

The group writes:

"For safety reasons the exact location of the chapters will not be known, except for inside the exclusive network, but 5 chapters will be located overseas and 5 chapters will be located stateside. Although the demand to establish additional chapters is high, OutServe will start with ten this week and expand in the near future. For information on the group go to www.outserve.org The goal of each base and regional chapter will be to provide information, resources and social support to actively serving military personnel. 'Don’t Ask Don’t Tell' places an immense burden upon individuals who think they are alone at their base and these networks will seek to fix that. Each chapter will be charged with growing and expanding their networks and offering support in their specific areas. OutServe Headquarters will be tasked with supporting those networks and serving as the voice of the national organization. 'We need to start to empower local military networks to expand and unite them under one banner,' said JD Smith, OutServe’s co-director and active duty officer in the U.S. Armed Forces. He continued, 'Informal networks of gay and lesbian military members have existed well before World War I and it’s time to take those networks and start connecting them and giving them more resources.'"

More info at OutServe.

Blogger Randy Rainbow continues his conversations with the famous, speaking to Lindsay Lohan following her lock-up, AFTER THE JUMP...

Previously in the series...
Mel Gibson is Dating a Gay Man [tr]
Watch: The Morning After Chelsea Clinton's Wedding [tr]
Randy Rainbow gets on the horn with Dr. Laura [tr]

CBS Corporation this morning announced the formation of its first affinity group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees:

"ANGLE will hold kick-off meetings in New York and Los Angeles for CBS, Showtime, Simon and Schuster and other CBS division employees," according to a group spokesman. "ANGLE plans personal and professional development events, speakers bureaus as well as social gatherings each month."

The group's website can be found HERE.

Last night, closeted Florida governor Charlie Crist clarified remarks he made earlier in the day to Ed Henry on CNN's State of the Union, in which he expressed his support for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Said Crist in the clarification:

"In an interview that aired today, I was not discussing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, which I do not support, but rather reaffirming my position regarding Florida’s constitutional ban that I articulated while running for Governor. In fact, the interviewer’s question reflected just that. I am fully supportive of civil unions and will continue to be as a United States Senator, but believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman."

Watch the Crist State of the Union clip, AFTER THE JUMP...

A same-sex marriage video commentary, by activist Sean Chapin.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

The L.A. Times does some trendspotting in China:

"From the countryside to sophisticated urban centers such as Beijing, men of all ages, social standing and stomach sizes resort to a public display of skin, a hot-weather fashion faux pas that's the Chinese equivalent of knee-high black socks with shorts. They're known as bang ye, or 'exposing grandfathers'(despite their age range). In the hottest weather, bang ye seem to be everywhere, striding among the tall buildings in Beijing's business district, playing chess in parks, holding children's hands at the zoo and negotiating crowded alleyways. There are precious few washboard abs among the lot. Still, many fail to notice that they're drawing smirks from fashion-conscious passersby. Most just don't care."

(via buzzfeed)

Bravo's Andy Cohen talks with The Hollywood Reporter about how he wrangles the housewives for his various reality shows, talking specifically about the physicality of tonight's NJ Housewives Reunion:

"If there would ever be a situation where someone was in jeopardy of physical harm, production would ensure that it didn't get to that level. We don't want anyone to feel threatened. On [tonight's] reunion episode, there is a moment where I'm actually concerned. We've had two situations where someone has gotten out of their seat in a threatening way. And in this case, I thought, 'OK, I have to intervene.' And just watch what happens when I try to get between Teresa and Danielle...The New Jersey reunion is the best one we've done. It's the icing on the cake of two intense seasons. The last 10 minutes of Part 2 is totally under wraps, but it's the party that will really have people talking -- even beyond me being thrown around like a rag doll by ['RHNJ' star] Teresa [Giudice]. I get a first-hand account of how strong she is...She did [throw me down]! The tweets I'm getting are hilarious. People are saying, 'How could you let her push you?' and 'Andy, are you hurt?' I should have gotten hazard pay for this one."

Preview here.

pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/GoodbyeforlgbtQnews.Andthankssomuch_130A4/image.png"img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 4px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/GoodbyeforlgbtQnews.Andthankssomuch_130A4/image_thumb.png" width="244" height="334" //a After four years of throwing pebbles and (hopefully) a few nuggets of information onto the web, this website has now gone into archive mode. The current posts will remain for at least a few months and maybe even for a year or so, but nothing new will be added from this point forward./p pAlthough I was never able to build the site’s readership as much as I had hoped, I have continued to do summaries of the day’s lgbtQ news each day because of those anonymous “hits” I see on the site’s visitor counter. I appreciate that. And I especially appreciate the handful of folks who have posted comments or sent email along the way./p pI started this blog under the url strongemseaQwa/em.com/strong with high hopes. Through my own failings, I failed to meet most of those hopes. I scaled back after two years to simpler (and cheaper) blog software after realizing the expensive system I was originally using wasn’t justified for what I’d been able to create for the blog. That’s when I switched to the url strongemlgbtQnews/em.com/strong since the hoped-for Seattle posts had not developed as I had hoped they would./p pBut I figured I could still scour various search engines for lgbt-related news items, and perhaps lend some clarity by distilling information from multiple sources into a quick summary. I’ve never much tried to make it a comprehensive source of all the lgbt news. After a few initial months of scattering simple clips from stories, I realized that the only way I could offer something slightly unique would be to copy edit the source stories into a freshly written summary. And that takes much longer than just copying the lead ‘graph from a story./p pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/gaynews/goodbye-for-lgbtqnews-and-thanks-so-much.aspx#continue"More.../a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lgbtQnews/~4/SegtmwfUMlk" height="1" width="1"/

div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:84E294D0-71C9-4bd0-A0FE-95764E0368D9:7d62ff19-c40d-4d1e-b78f-2db6958e9f7c" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"a href="http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2amp;cp=-15.13576~34.62891amp;lvl=6amp;style=ramp;sp=aN.-15.10395_35.28809_Zomba_~aN.-15.60188_34.96948_Blantyre_amp;mkt=en-usamp;FORM=LLWR" id="map-46535a33-52d6-4668-8ad5-8607930a8a2b" alt="View map" title="View map"img src="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/3b3c2d7773dd_B9CA/map8dc274c17d15.jpg" width="231" height="242" alt="Map picture"/a/div pA gay couple in Malawi who were sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for holding a public engagement ceremony have been sent to separate prisons, the a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/jailed-malawian-gay-couple-separate-prisons"emGuardian/em reports/a./p pStephen Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimalanga, 20, were sentenced following a May 20 verdict to hard labor for “unnatural acts and gross indecency”./p pThe maximum sentence meted out to the couple last week has prompted a renewed round of international outrage about the couple’s detention. /p pOn Wednesday, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa issued a statement condemning the sentences as “a gross violation of human rights” and calling for the immediate release of the couple, a href="http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/decapua-saf-malawi-gays-26may10-94939684.html"VOA reports/a./p pFriends of the couple tell the emGuardian/em that they’re worried because the two are no longer allowed to talk with each other./p p“In terms of morale I know what is going on between Steven and Tiwonge,” said activist George Thindwa, a friend of the couple and director of the Association for Secular Humanism. /p p“Their morale is down because they can no longer encourage each other,” Thindwa told the emGuardian/em./p pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/gaynews/Bishops-and-others-condemn-imprisonment-malawi-gay-cpl_BYN.aspx#continue"More.../a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lgbtQnews/~4/bwz46zOjyHw" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/Watch_12036/image.png"img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 4px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="right" src="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/Watch_12036/image_thumb.png" width="244" height="160" //a In the lead story on her MSNBC program this evening, Rachel Maddow offers a superb roundup of the quickly evolving story around hopeful signs for repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy”./p pThe report includes an extended interview with Rep. Patrick Murphy who helped craft the compromise repeal legislation yesterday and introduced the repeal amendment today in the House./p pem[see video clip at /ema href="http://lgbtqnews.com/gaynews/watch-maddow-and-murphy-on-gop-opposition-dadt-repeal_BYV.aspx#maddowclip"end of this post/aem/emem]/em/p pShe points out that multiple polls find strong find strong public support for ending the ban that prevents gay men and lesbians from honestly serving in the country’s armed forces. An ABC News/Washington Post Poll taken early this year found that 75-percent answered favorably to the question, “Should gays and lesbians be allowed to serve openly?”/p pMaddow comments,#160; “Seventy-five percent of Americans don’t agree on anything. Sometimes it feels like 75 percent of Americans wouldn’t all agree that the world is round. But 75 percent of Americans agree that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is dumb, that gay people should be allowed to serve openly in the military.”/p pThose polls make it difficult for opponents of DADT repeal to claim the “the American people” support the law, but that, as Maddow points out, has not stopped Congressional Republicans from saying exactly that./p pMaddow reports that Republicans in Congress today marched out in lockstep opposition to the compromise amendment./p pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/gaynews/watch-maddow-and-murphy-on-gop-opposition-dadt-repeal_BYV.aspx#continue"More.../a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lgbtQnews/~4/RHDSZDtTs1E" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/0bcce1ec7cc2_BE86/USDepartmentofDefense_seal.gif"img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 4px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="US-Department-of-Defense_seal" border="0" alt="US-Department-of-Defense_seal" align="right" src="http://lgbtqnews.com/qpics/gaynews-images/0bcce1ec7cc2_BE86/USDepartmentofDefense_seal_thumb.gif" width="240" height="240" //a Both the US Senate and the House are expected to vote this week on a matching set of bills that would authorize delayed repeal of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ (DADT) law that bars gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military./p pAlthough one prominent DADT-repeal activist hailed the compromise Monday evening as a “dramatic breakthrough”, it is not the decisive repeal that most advocates had hoped for after President Barack Obama’s statement about the law in this year’s State of the Union address. /p p“This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are,” the president said in his January 27 address to Congress. “It’s the right thing to do,” he added./p pEven if the compromise measures agreed to Monday pass in both houses, DADT would remain in affect until well after the first of the year./p pThe compromise measure would give the military an unspecified amount of time to devise and introduce new rules and regulations pertaining to service by LGBT people in the military, a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2010/0525/Is-Congress-forcing-Obama-s-hand-on-don-t-ask-don-t-tell-repeal"emChristian Science Monitor/em reports/a. In the meantime, DADT discharges would be allowed to continue under the revised, slightly stricter guidelines a title="see lgbtQnews summary" href="http://lgbtqnews.com/gaynews/Gates-announces-new-more-stringent-DADT-enforcement-rules.aspx"announced by the Pentagon/a in March./p pThe compromise is one that LGBT activists describe as necessary and the best remaining hope for finally repealing the law that has resulted in at least 13,000 dismissals of gay and lesbian service members since 1993 at a cost to the military of about $1.3 billion, a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/dadt_numbers.html"according to/a Center for American Progress. /p pJ. Alexander Nicholson III, executive director of a title="link: Servicemembers United website" href="http://servicemembersunited.org/"Servicemembers United/a which participated in the compromise negations, said, that repeal advocates feared that their window of opportunity to change the law is closing fast, a href="http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/99545-congress-white-house-edge-closer-to-deal-on-dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal"emThe Hill/em reports/a. /p p“We absolutely do think that we are running a very big risk if we don’t get it done in this Congress,” Nicholson said. “The environment may not be suitable to passing it next year.”/p pRepublicans, who generally favor keeping the DADT law, are hoping to make substantial gains in November's congressional elections, emThe Hill/em points out./p pa href="http://lgbtqnews.com/gaynews/key-dadt-repeal-votes-expected-this-week.aspx#continue"More.../a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lgbtQnews/~4/xyndOc-Ok9I" height="1" width="1"/

pem[Originally posted Friday, May 21, but with a mistake that crashed the site]/em/p pHealth issues have forced me (and, therefore, this news site) to take an unexpected hiatus./p pI’m finally able to sit up at my computer just long enough to type out this brief note, but I don’t have time right now to explain in more depth./p pI hope to be able to update this note on Tuesday with more information about what to expect in the months to come from the site./p pI apologize to the site’s loyal readers for just disappearing without explanation as I did last week, but after a marathon of clinic visits and with the help of a few drugs, things are at least under control for now. Unfortunately, however, I have to spend a few days at a hospital without ‘net access, so that will prevent updates for at least a few days./p pMore later./p pThanks for your patience./p pstrongemUpdate: Monday, May 25/em/strong/p pI wrote that Friday as I was rushing to check into the hospital for three days of in-patient chemo treatment./p pUnfortunately, I didn’t check the post (as I customarily do multiple times). I’d made a dumb mistake in the post itself which triggered a bug in my custom code for showing section headings. (I’ve known about that bug for a long time, but since it is only triggered when I’ve made a mistake in the title, I figured it would never cause but a brief problem. So I didn’t fix the bug. Mea culpa.)/p pBut… To the main point: I’m back from the hospital. That first treatment managed to pull me back from a brink. I can actually sit up at the computer and walk around now. That’s much better than what I was stuck with for the last two weeks./p pMore later. Tomorrow. Now that you can actually (hopefully) see the post./pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lgbtQnews/~4/nWJq-LysNyQ" height="1" width="1"/