Just In Time For Christmas

Like Fathers, Like Son

ATLANTA — At last, Chad and David Craig's quest to become fathers is over. They say they feel more happy, and more tired, than they have ever been.
The gay couple, whose attempt to create a pregnancy through a gestational surrogacy arrangement was followed last year in a Los Angeles Times series, welcomed their son, O. Jansen Hodge Craig, into their lives nine weeks ago.
"We just look at him and think he's a miracle," Chad said last week as he drew Jansen, clad in a snug jumpsuit, close to his chest. "It's something we just always believed in. Finally, he's here."
Chad and David's attempt to bring a child into the world involved a woman they barely knew. After fertilizing her eggs in vitro using both men's sperm, another woman would carry the resulting embryos to term. They had no idea whose DNA would carry the day.
Jansen's birth marked the end of a four-year journey that involved three egg retrievals, 65 eggs, seven fertilization attempts, three surrogates and more than $200,000 in expenses.
There were many ups and downs. In June 2006, Chad's sister, who had agreed to take on the role of surrogate mother, gave birth to twins, Asher and Holland. But the tiny siblings were premature and lived for only three and six days respectively.
Chad and David came out of that experience with enough hope to keep trying. They signed on with a new doctor, arranged for a third retrieval from Jessica -- the egg donor who had helped them produce the twins -- and found a new surrogate, a school crossing guard and mother of three from Massachusetts.
Finally, they had found the right components to make it work.
Jansen was born Oct. 13 at Massachusetts General Hospital, weighing 8 pounds and 2 ounces. When a nurse read out the time of birth -- 6:16 p.m. -- his fathers burst into tears. The time echoed the date of the twins' birthday: June 16.
Both Chad, 37, and David, 39, like to think that Jansen, who has a ski-slope nose and plump cheeks, bears a physical resemblance to the twins.
As for the identity of the biological father, they prefer not to know. Chad says the baby has David's chin and small nose; David thinks he has Chad's dark hair and olive skin.
As the new family settles in its Atlanta home, the surrogate continues to pump and freeze breast milk for Jansen. Each week she ships bottles from Massachusetts to Georgia packed in dry ice.
Other than that, Chad says, "we're just going through what all parents go through."
Jansen's fathers take turns feeding and changing him, fussing and fidgeting. Their favorite thing, they say, is to squat down beside his bouncy seat and caress his cheeks, tickle his feet and marvel at each small development.
Already, his blue eyes are becoming more gray, and his dark eyelashes are getting longer.
And he has begun to smile.
from The Los Angeles Times

Matthew Rhys Talks About Kevin Walker

On Brothers & Sisters, Matthew Rhys plays Kevin Walker, the family lawyer who also happens to be gay. Rhys has no trouble playing Kevin as he has portrayed homosexual characters before, and isn't worried about being stereotyped for gay roles. In fact, he has some pretty steamy love scenes with both Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in the upcoming movie, The Edge of Love.
“That's the flip side of the coin. I mean you play the gay part and then you play the heterosexual part,” Rhys told The Star Online. “It's a balance of yin and yang, I guess.”
While Rhys is finding balance in work, his television persona is struggling to reconcile the contending forces in his life.
“He's both sides of the penny,” he said. “On a professional level, he's this very confident lawyer who knows what he's doing and does it very well. And on the flip side, his love life is a complete no-hoper. He desperately tries to put that side of his life together. ”
Clearly, Rhys' Kevin is a complex individual, although he is only one among a diverse group of characters that Brothers & Sisters show audiences every week. The series is also known for its rich but complicated themes, and its quality writing, which was what initially drew Rhys to the show.
“The writing was very strong; I hadn't read any writing of a pilot like that for a long time,” Matthew Rhys said. “You had some characters who interact beautifully on the page. [Creator and writer Jon Robin Baitz] writes conflicts so well.”
While Rhys has no qualms about his Brothers & Sisters character, there is one thing that has proven to be quite challenging: speaking with an American accent.
“I do find it difficult,” Rhys, who was born and raised in Cardiff, South Wales. “It's not something you can just do. I always work at it. It doesn't come naturally.”
He shares this burden with costar , a native of Melbourne, Australia. He and Griffiths maintain their American accent while on the set.
“When we talk in our own accent, it makes going back to the American accent so much harder,” he explained.
Rhys and Griffiths are only among the numerous foreign actors who have sought work in the United States. Rhys thinks that, in the case of British actors, the surge is mainly due to the lack of jobs in Britain.
“I'm sure very soon the Americans will grow very tired of us,” he said. “But God bless them for letting us work here.”
from Buddy TV

Eyeliner For Men?! Pencil These Guys In

When Josh Lomon brought his fashion A-game to the Kelly Clarkson concert at DAR Constitution Hall this fall, he wore skinny jeans and a dramatic necktie and topped off the ensemble with a black fedora. But his friend Mary Betancourt was taken with the thick, black rings of eyeliner around his eyes, smudged just so.
"You look so . . . affected," she said.
Guyliner. The new catchphrase for boys behaving girly, joining last year's manbags (handbags), mandals (sandals), mannies (nannies) and himbos (bimbos). It's the lexical equivalent of making pink hammers for women.
Of course, the fellas have been dipping into our makeup bags for years. (Yes, we noticed, and we have one tip: It's called blending.) But eyeliner? That can take years to master, even with coaching from teen magazines and a few shots of Jaeger.
Plus: Why? You can deal with a man who gets a manicure. You can deal with a man who handicaps "Project Runway." But eyeliner? Let's explore.
The guru of guyliner is Mr. Ashlee Simpson, a.k.a. Pete Wentz, the bassist for Fall Out Boy, who created a video for People.com on how to apply the stuff properly.
"Smear it because when you're a guy, you don't really want your makeup to look perfect," he says. "Which usually isn't a problem."
Another tip: Sleep on it. "Day-old makeup is way better."
Of course, Wentz is not the first or only guyliner aficionado. David Bowie and Alice Cooper were your frontiersmen of the '70s, and then Robert Smith, of the Cure, and Prince, rocked it in the '80s. Johnny Depp's kohl-lined eyes helped make Jack Sparrow the swishy swashbuckler we love. Pop-punk bands My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco and the Killers wear guyliner to emphasize their angst. Their darkness. You don't know my pain.
Dustin Schaad, a 22-year-old assistant buyer for a men's clothing store, doesn't leave his Silver Spring home without applying guyliner. He started wearing makeup in high school because "a little concealer goes a long way when you hit puberty," he says.
It almost always starts with the concealer. The skin-colored glop is the gateway drug of men's cosmetics. But don't call it makeup.
"You mean our enhancing and correcting line?" interrupts Marek Hewryk when asked about his men's makeup line, 4VOO (pronounced "for-vou").
4VOO sells $25 "enhancing eyeliner" in black and brown. The Canadian company even offers application instructions on its Web site, with a warning: "Apply only a fine line. Too much 4VOO enhancing eyeliner will make your eyes look hard, [whereas] a light line will define your eyes and enhance the color."
Beth Loffreda, an associate professor of English at the University of Wyoming who also teaches courses in gender and sexuality, thinks that guyliner is a byproduct of consumer culture. It's about repackaging women's products for men, therefore tapping into new markets. Is there that much difference between Nivea and Nivea for Men?
But Loffreda also sees guyliner as an outlet for men to experiment with gender roles.
"Women have for a long time always been able to treat our appearances as a kind of theater," she says. "There's no denying the pleasure of giving a really good hair performance. I think that men -- and especially straight men -- haven't had nearly as much access to that kind of theatricality and the pleasure of that theatricality."
At Bluemercury, an upscale beauty store in Dupont Circle, 25-year-old makeup artist Renee Smith says she sells eyeliner to men. And "it's not just punk rockers and gay guys."
When straight men shop for eyeliner, they tend to choose a subtle brown instead of black, then grab for the nearest cotton ball.
"They'll buy it, but they'll always take it off before they leave," says Smith, "then try it at home." Smith has been in the makeup business for three years and, while she's seen a steady increase in guyliner sales, she estimates she sells only one pencil to a man per week. (Liquid eyeliner -- not for the novice.) Clearly, some people are not hip to the trend. Sample response from a preppy-looking young man in a coffee shop, when asked if he wears eyeliner: Laughter and then, "Wait, is that a serious question?"
Ah, but might he dabble in shine-reduction powder? This is one of 4VOO's top sellers, which Hewryk promises will not alter skin color or give a matte effect like women get with their makeup. Of course, there's a word for that, too: "mancake," as in pancake foundation. To use it in a sentence: "Zac Efron, the 'High School Musical' heartthrob, is often accused of wearing mancake."
Actors have worn makeup on and off the set for decades, but Hewryk has a surprising explanation for why it's getting so much attention now: HDTV.
"There's a heavier tan and more powder. If you have high-definition TV? Wow. There's no mercy," he says. "You can see everything . . . every wrinkle."
Manly cosmetics demand manly names. Clinique's concealer for men is called "M Cover," and the company suggests applying it on shaving nicks. John Varvatos sells a steely gray canister of cream concealer in the three colors "light, medium and dark." (Women, however, have a choice of ivory, warm beige, honey and soft sable in the CoverGirl section at the drugstore.) Jean Paul Gaultier offers a line of "complexion enhancers," including "tinted brow and lash groomer," which some of us call "mascara."
Men can't use "mascara" because culturally, men can't borrow from women as easily as women can borrow from men. Nobody writes articles anymore when women wear cargo pants and baseball hats (did they ever?).
Straight men have historically had the most power in our culture, so to adopt their style is to redouble your power, says Loffreda. But for men to borrow from those who are supposedly "beneath them" is a far riskier proposition.
As university professor and cultural contemplator Camille Paglia once said, "A woman putting on men's clothes merely steals social power. But a man putting on women's clothes is searching for God."
Guyliner as spiritual quest? Maybe not.
"It's not changing the world," Schaad says. "It's just saying it's okay to be different."
Schaad and Lomon, who both swear by MAC eyeliner, say they're just fighting monotony.
"Here's the deal: Boys' clothes are so boring," says Lomon, 23. "In the end, you're going to wear a T-shirt or a button-down. So you have to do what you can."
And despite his appearance at the Kelly Clarkson concert, Lomon usually goes for the subtle look.
"People's first thought should be 'That looks amazing, his eyes really stand out,' " he says. "Not 'He's wearing makeup and he's a boy.' "
from The Washington Post

I'm Not Gay....

Reality Show Gays Are Dating

We love it when there's love in the family! And across shows, no less! So we are thrilled to share the news that our very own Dale Levitski from "Top Chef" is dating "Project Runway's" Jack Mackenroth. How did we uncover this news? We picked up the phone and called Jack, who had this to say:
"It's very baby steps. I really like him a lot. And geography is a bit of an issue, but we'll see where it goes. I like him a lot. I assume he likes me a lot. Unless he's lying...(laughter)... He's adorable. I like keeping it incestuous, keep it in the Bravo family."
SO we immediately had to call Dale, who told us,
"Yeah, we randomly met over Myspace. And then we bumped into each other at the OUT100 party and clicked. He's hilarious. We're just gonna roll with it and see what happens. And he's cute as %&#@. We have the same sense of humor. We giggle a lot, and you know, anytime you end up going through the Bravo-reality-show...we just looked at each other and said, 'yeah...'"
The picture was described to us, by the way, as "it was the first time we met. All starry-eyed and stupid."
from Out Zone TV

HIV-Positive Navy Priest Accused Of Sexual Misconduct

An HIV-positive Navy chaplain and Catholic priest who allegedly had consensual and non-consensual sex with other military men without disclosing his condition will face a court-martial, military officials said Tuesday.
The court-martial of Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee, 42, will begin on Thursday at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.
The Archdiocese of Washington, where Lee was ordained in 1993, received allegations of sexual misconduct in June and subsequently “removed his faculties to perform Mass,” said Susan Gibbs, a diocesan spokeswoman. He also was relieved of his military duties in June, though military officials would not disclose his current duty status or unit.
As of Tuesday night, Lee was a patient at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. When reached by phone in his hospital room, he declined to comment on the upcoming court-martial.
“No thank you, no thank you. I don’t wish to talk,” he said, before abruptly hanging up.
The five charges Lee is facing include allegations of sodomy, aggravated assault, indecent assault, fraternization and conduct unbecoming a military officer, according to a statement issued by the Marine Corps officials Tuesday night.
The Marine Corps did not offer any details regarding the victims in the case. Sources said the sexual partners in question are all men.
Sources said Lee has tested positive for HIV, which could explain the aggravated assault charges. In cases dating back to 1987, military prosecutors have brought criminal charges for HIV-positive troops who have unprotected sex and fail to inform their partners. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in 1991 approved the use of the aggravated assault charge in such cases.
Lee served as a chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., from 2003 to 2006, and then he was transferred to Quantico, according to military records.
From April 2001 to September 2003, Lee was stationed in Gaeta, Italy, with Naval Forces Europe, 6th Fleet Detachment, and on the guided-missile cruiser Port Royal from 1998 to 2001, records show.
Lee grew up near Philadelphia and graduated from the seminary St. Charles Borromeo in Wynnewood, Pa., in 1987, Navy records show.
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese for the Military Services declined to comment on the case. A spokeswoman from the Naval Academy also declined to comment Tuesday night.
More than 25 priests working in the military diocese have faced allegations of sexual misconduct in the past 30 years.
“We believe that the problem may be worse in the military than in other dioceses,” said David Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victim’s advocacy group.
“For a sex offender priest, the military is very attractive because of the transience of military families and the even greater authority and trust that comes with having two titles — both a priest and an officer,” Clohessy said.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services has one of the largest member populations in the United States, and its geography spans the globe.
from Navy Times

Jesse Metcalfe Goes Gay

Actor Jesse Metcalfe has been snapped holding a plaque that reads 'gay'.
But it was only for an awards ceremony at London nightclub G-A-Y to celebrate its 15th birthday.
Jesse was presented with a special award, bearing the club's name.
On-off girlfriend Nadine Coyle shared the stage with the Desperate Housewives actor as he accepted the tribute.
The Girls Aloud star, 22, was performing with her bandmates.
Jesse cuddled her on-stage so looks as if the pair are definitely back together.
from Now Magazine

Court Says Sperm Donor Liable For Child Support

NEW YORK - A Nassau County man who said he donated sperm to a female co-worker as a friendly gesture - and then sent presents and cards to the child over the years - is legally considered the father and may have to pay child support for the college-bound teenager, according to a judge's ruling.
"What's the saying? No good deed goes unpunished," said Deborah Kelly, a Garden City lawyer for the man, who acknowledged that he is named as the father on the child's birth certificate.
Like all the involved parties, the man remains anonymous because of privacy concerns.
Nassau County Family Court Judge Ellen Greenberg ruled on Nov. 16 that despite the mother's willingness to have the child's DNA tested, the man was barred from seeking a paternity test to determine if he is truly the father because the results could have a "traumatic effect" upon the child, who is now 18 years old and lives in Oregon with the mother. The next step is a meeting with a support magistrate to determine the amount of child support payments - if any - the man would have to pay until the teen turns 21, Kelly said.
The magistrate will determine child support based on the mother's earning capacity; the reported income of her female partner; and the income of the father.
Even without genetic evidence, the man's interactions with the child over the years had a patriarchal nature, said Jeffrey Herbst, an attorney who represents the mother in the lawsuit through a federal agreement called the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.
"It's still a parental relationship," Herbst said.
According to the man's testimony, in the late 1980s he was a physician at the same Nassau County hospital where the child's mother was a resident. After learning the woman and her female partner wanted to have a baby, the man donated his sperm and the woman gave birth on July 26, 1989. Married at the time, the man agreed that he would not have any rights or benefits in raising the child, but the verbal agreement was never put in writing, according to court documents.
Still, he took the unusual step of allowing his name to appear on the child's birth certificate because he thought it was in the child's "best interests that he would have an identity when he grew older," he said in court documents.
Before the mother, her partner, and the child moved to Oregon in 1993, the man had contact with the child, according to court documents. He also sent the child money, gifts, and cards and letters signed "Dad" or "Daddy," and spoke to him by phone about seven times in the past 15 years.
That correspondence, coupled with an affidavit from the child stating that he "has never known anyone other than [the man] to be his father," is enough for a parental relationship, according to Herbst.
"The fact of the matter is that he held himself out as the child's father for 18 years until he asked for DNA testing," Herbst said.
In the murky legalities of artificial insemination by a known donor, the best protections are to have everything in writing and "do your homework," said reproductive lawyer Melissa Brisman of Park Ridge, N.J.
"You can't be half a father, and half a not, under the law," she said.
But the man's trust was abused, his lawyer said.
"The doctor was told this is how it's going to be," Kelly said. "And 18 years later, you end up dealing with something that you didn't know you were going to deal with. Sometimes people aren't really thinking about the legal ramifications."
from Newsday

Advertise on GaribaldiGay

Jerusalem's Only Gay Bar Closes Its Doors

JERUSALEM - The owner of the only gay nightclub in the Israeli capital decided this week to call it quits apparently due to the establishment's failure to turn a large enough profit.
The Shushan nightclub was as much a political and ideological statement as it was a business. But owner Saar Netanel told Ha'aretz that "with all due respect to ideology, ideology does not pay the rent or municipal taxes."
Netanel insisted that Shushan had plenty of patrons, including individuals from the traditionally anti-homosexual Orthodox Jewish and Muslim Arab communities. However, downtown Jerusalem is home to a large number of thriving bars and nightclubs, so it was difficult to understand how one that was purportedly flush with clientele could not remain in business.
Netanel noted that it is difficult for one to flaunt his or her homosexuality in Jerusalem, where two-thirds of the population is comprised of the aforementioned Orthodox and Muslim communities, and many of the rest maintain a more conservative or traditional outlook than those in other parts of the country.
Earlier this year, Jerusalem's tiny gay and lesbian community forced itself upon the rest of the city by holding an outlandish "gay pride" parade through the streets of the holy city. Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders - including Evangelical Christian leaders abroad - decried what they called the desecration of Jerusalem and urged the Israeli authorities to not allow the parade.
from Israel Today

Harry Potter Stars React To Gay Twist

The stars of the Harry Potter films have been giving their reaction to JK Rowling's revelation last month that the one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is gay.
"I thought it was hilarious," said Daniel Radcliffe, who has played the lead role in all five Harry Potter films.
He said actor Michael Gambon, who has played Dumbledore since the third film, had been "really camping it up for the last three weeks ever since he found out".
Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay to a packed house in New York's Carnegie Hall as part of her US book tour in October.
Radcliffe told BBC News: "JK Rowling is an incredibly intelligent woman. She can't have thought for a moment that that would go down well in the Bible Belt of America, but she put it brilliantly herself: 'He's my character - I can do what I want with him.' Which I think is fair enough."
David Yates, who directed the fifth Harry Potter film - Order of the Phoenix - said he was told in September by JK Rowling during a read-through for the next film on the set of the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
"Jo leaned over to me and said: 'You know Dumbledore's gay don't you, David?' And I thought 'Wow that's pretty cool'."
Yates, who was speaking at the press launch of the Phoenix DVD, added: "He's a wonderful character, Dumbledore - graceful, wise, powerful, quirky, terrific sense of humour, loves knitting. There's a jumble of things in there and his sexuality is just another thing."
Filming on the sixth film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, began in September, with Yates again at the helm. But he said not to expect any changes to the way Dumbledore is portrayed on film.
"Michael Gambon hasn't changed his approach. A person's sexuality is just one part of who they are, and so it hasn't really shifted where we're taking him."
Producer David Barron confirmed that Dumbledore would remain "the character Michael Gambon has already established".
But he added: "Michael's camped it up a bit off-camera, he's just been amused by it."
Emma Watson, who plays Harry's friend Hermione Granger, said: "It never really occurred to me before, but now JK Rowling's said that he's gay it sort of makes sense."
She added: "I think what surprised everyone was the amount of media attention it's received. I think it's nice that the story has ended but there are still things that people don't know."
Evanna Lynch, who plays the part of eccentric student Luna Lovegood, said she had always thought that a younger Dumbledore would have made an ideal partner for Luna.
"If only Dumbledore was a 100 years younger they would be perfect, and I put that to JK Rowling," she said.
"But as we know now, that's never going to happen."
from The BBC

Gay? Who cares?

Last Tuesday, the New York Times ran a front-page story on the diminishing allure of gay enclaves in the United States. The next day, the San Francisco Chronicle published a Page 1 story explaining how same-sex couples in California are a lot more socioeconomically and ethnically diverse -- read: less white and less wealthy -- than you might believe. The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School will release a report today by demographer Gary Gates that all but poses the question: Is gay the new straight?
Gates' research on U.S. Census data drives home a point that the gay vanguard has been wrestling with for a while: The hedonistic, transgressive, radical ethos (and stereotype) that once characterized gay culture doesn't represent reality anymore. The decline of urban coastal gay communities, the increase in the gay population in the interior U.S. and the overall diversification of the gay population are facts. What's more, Gates argues, these trends are a function of the growing acceptance of homosexuality among the American public.
Acceptance? Really? Has Gates forgotten about the 45 states that have laws or constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage, or the anti-gay discrimination bill that is stalled in Congress and faces opposition from the White House?
Not at all. There is, he says, a vocal, virulent -- and sometimes violent -- anti-gay movement, but it doesn't negate decades of opinion surveys that show a marked increase in tolerance in most Americans' attitudes toward gays and lesbians. In 1998, for example, a Gallup poll found that only 33% of Americans thought that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal. By 2007, that figure had risen to 59%.
Growing acceptance of homosexuality means a decline in social stigma associated with same-sex relationships, and a consequent shift in the politics of coming out. The more people come out, the more accepting people are around them, and the more accepting the public becomes, the more people come out.
Gates' study shows that the number of openly gay couples in the U.S. has quadrupled since 1990, and the biggest increases are in the country's more socially conservative areas.
Utah is the poster state. Between 1990 and 2006, for example, it went from having the 38th-highest concentration of same-sex couples in the country to 14th highest. In that same time period, the percentage of gay couples who lived in large cities declined from 45% to 23%. Even more counterintuitive, from 2000 to 2006, states that banned same-sex marriage had above-average increases in the number of gay couples. And places where voter referendums went against same-sex marriages saw even larger increases.
Some of the growth in the number of openly gay couples in conservative areas could be because of migration. And yes, some on-the-barricades members of the gay rights movement have gotten older and mellower and moved out to the heartland. But the larger trend is simply that as more gays come out, they don't need to change or assimilate to fit into the mainstream because they are already very much a part of it.
"The demographic characteristics of the gay population are converging with those of the mainstream," Gates says. If you're from a state like Utah or Nebraska, chances are you're going to share a lot with your neighbors whether you're straight or gay: "They're rural," Gates says, "they're religious, and they're Republican."
So what does this all mean for American culture at large?
"Society is beginning to say that being gay is not such a big deal," Gates says. "What that means for gays is that homosexuality won't have the centrality to their identity it once did. Being gay then becomes one of a variety of an individual's competing identities."
In other words, as the challenges associated with coming out diminish, so does the primacy of the identity that that act of self-discovery and self-assertion once forged. It means that the culture once associated with gay identity becomes less distinctive from the mainstream.
Gates doesn't believe that these trends spell an end of gay "associational" life. The process he's describing is not unlike the one experienced by so many immigrant or minority groups in America that fought against discrimination, moved beyond their enclaves and then felt a little sad that they lost the embracing sense of uniqueness and community that they once enjoyed.
As gays meld into the broader population, places like West Hollywood and the Castro district in San Francisco will inevitably lose some of their appeal. As more gays come out in more places, the diversity of homosexual politics and lifestyles will come out with them, and the tolerant will multiply.
For some of the pioneers from the edgy, embattled, ecstatic "good old days," this may be bittersweet. "But isn't that what everyone wanted 20 years ago?" Gates asks. "Just to be treated like everyone else?"
from The Los Angeles Times / Gregory Rodriguez

'POOFTER' License Plate Rejected

VIRGINIA - For 11 years, over nearly 200,000 miles, with the blessing of the state of Virginia, David Phillips has driven his Tracker with the "POOFTER" license plate, and nobody has complained -- not even when he parked at the British Embassy, where everybody knows "poofter" is British slang for a gay man.
"It's always a rolling good laugh for them," says Phillips, who is gay and chose his tags' message because "it's just an amusing word that I self-identify with."
The commonwealth of Virginia is not amused. It gave Phillips his vanity plates in error, Carolyn Easley, coordinator of the special license plates office, wrote in a recent letter. "You may have grown fond of your personalized plates," but they are "socially, racially or ethnically offensive or disparaging" and "you must return them." There was no explanation for why it took Virginia 11 years to figure out what "poofter" means.
They'll have to pry those plates from Phillips's cold dead hands, or something like that. The 42-year-old Arlington County resident, who works as a computer consultant, says he's not sending back the tags, even if the state has generously provided a prepaid envelope for that purpose.
The next step: a hearing in Richmond. But Phillips's chances are not good, because his case has been to the Word Committee, a panel of a dozen Department of Motor Vehicles employees who review vanity plate applications that have either drawn a citizen complaint or been flagged by a computer program that searches proposed plate messages -- forward and backward -- for obscene, explicit, excretory, violent or offensive content.
In Phillips's case, it must have been a citizen complaint that triggered the review because the state doesn't just randomly go back and reconsider plates that have been on the road for years. "We definitely rely on residents to report any inappropriate message," says DMV spokesman Melanie Stokes, who, citing privacy rules, won't comment on how Phillips's tags came in for reinspection.
If you, like Phillips, are amazed that the state would bother to spend tax dollars chasing after vanity plates, you'll want to grab the blood pressure meds before reading this: Hundreds of battles over personalized plates have used up untold government resources in a strange corner of the law that has some of the nation's top courts issuing contradictory rulings.
Ever since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New Hampshire could not stop residents from covering up the state's "Live Free or Die" motto on license plates, courts have struggled over who gets to decide what words may go on tags. States have denied drivers messages such as "GVT SUX," "WINE," "PUSHER," "QUICKEE" and even "ATHEIST."
But courts have pushed back: One federal appeals court ordered Missouri to approve "ARYAN-1," saying the state "may not censor a license plate because its message might make people angry." In Vermont, however, a federal appeals court said the state could ban scatological terms because that doesn't involve quashing any viewpoint.
In Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit prohibited the state from banning a Confederate flag logo on a special license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans because that would be viewpoint discrimination.
The state did strip Alice Deighan and her partner, Scout, of their "2DYKES" plates a decade ago; the then-Alexandria residents' appeal was denied.
The lesbian couple's argument was the same as Phillips's. "This is how we identify," says Deighan, a social worker who now lives in Rhode Island. "We obviously weren't calling random motorists 'dykes.' This is what we call ourselves. There are a lot of things in the world that are offensive, but this wasn't one of them. If the word offends you on the road, don't look at it. But the word police wouldn't consider our argument."
Like many Virginians -- the state is No. 3 in the portion of drivers (12 percent) who personalize their plates -- Phillips uses his car to send messages. For a while, he had a sticker that altered the state's 400th anniversary Jamestown plates to say "400 Years of Oppression and Bigotry."
But his vanity plates were always more about having a chuckle over his personal identity than about making any political point. "People have to be into British humor or have some contact with that culture to have any idea what it means," Phillips says. He first heard the word in adolescence while watching Boy George appear on the old Phil Donahue talk show. "Some old British woman gets up and asks, 'So, Boy, when did you realize you were a poofter?' "
Then and now, Phillips found the name funny but hardly offensive. Merriam-Webster says "poofter" is "usually disparaging," and the Oxford English Dictionary calls the word "derogatory slang," but it's routinely aired on broadcast television, and Phillips says it's less disparaging than "nancy boy," which happens to have been his previous license tag message ("NANCBOY," for four years, with no complaint from the state). "Poofter," Phillips contends, "is a pretty neutral word. It gets past any e-mail filter."
Phillips will fight on to Richmond, but, as a realistic fellow, he's also looking ahead: "I wonder what they would do with a word like 'queer.' "
from The Washington Post / Marc Fisher

Prince Harry Licking A little Nipple

Have Prince William snort some Vodka and he will lick your nipples.
Lets have him snort a little more and see what he moves on too!

from DListed

No Gay T-Shirts In School

The Spencer-Van Etten School Board voted to review its dress code policy at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. This comes just four days after a tenth grader was asked to leave school because of the message on her t-shirt.
Now, 16-year-old Heathyre Farnham is speaking out.
"They definitely weren't mean, but they were just like, 'You gotta take it off,’” said Farnham.
On Friday, she wore a t-shirt to school saying, ‘Gay? Fine by me.’
She says her principal, Ann Sincock, said the shirt was inappropriate and asked her to change it, cover it up, or turn it inside-out. When she didn't, Heathyre was sent home. She says she's worn the shirt before and never had any problems.
"I haven't gotten anything bad, just a lot of support from people I don't even talk to who just appreciated what I was doing,” she said.
After community members spoke out at the school board meeting, Superintendent Steven Schoonmaker said Principal Sincock made the right decision.
"From everything I can tell, administratively, procedure was followed. I do think, in looking at the overall situation, that it really is an issue where we might have a flawed policy,” said Schoonmaker.
People we spoke to supported Heathyre, and her t-shirt.
"I don't have a problem with her shirt. I'm not one to decide what is and isn't appropriate for school. That's a job for the people in that room and the teachers and the principals,” said Spencer resident Doreen Hettich-Atkins.
"Something really needs to be done about this. And what's been done is just to make it seem like this town is more bigoted and ignorant, which isn't true, I think this town has a lot of potential. I think the issue that's being discussed is not helping that issue,” said former student Chloe Friedman.
In the meantime, Heathyre says she'll continue to wear her t-shirt -- even at school.
from WENY TV

Matthew Shepard Act Moves One Step Closer

The Democratic-led Senate on Thursday voted to let federal law enforcement help states prosecute attacks on gays, attaching the provision to a massive spending bill for the Iraq war and daring President Bush to veto the whole package.
The White House wasn't commenting on the prospects for a veto of the underlying defense authorization bill. But some Republicans warned that's just what would happen after the Senate voted by voice to accept the hate crimes amendment.
"The president is not going to agree to this social legislation on the defense authorization bill," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "This bill will get vetoed."
Still, the hate crimes provision attracted significant support from the president's party. Nine Republicans were among the 60 senators who voted to halt any filibusters and bring the matter to the final voice vote.
The White House stopped short of reiterating Bush's veto threat, issued earlier this year when the House passed the same hate crimes provision as a stand-alone bill. But presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino made clear that Bush believes the federal provision is unnecessary.
"State and local law enforcement agencies are effectively using their laws to the full extent they can," Perino said. She wouldn't comment on the prospects for a veto.
The provision has progressed to this point before. In the Republican-controlled Congress, the Senate in 2004 attached a similar measure to the same authorization bill, but it was stripped out during negotiations with the House.
This time, majority Democrats first passed the provision in the House. So the prospect of being stripped out during negotiations is less likely, leaving open the question of a presidential veto.
The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay college freshman who died after he was beaten into a coma in 1998 in Laramie, Wyo.
Under current federal law, hate crimes apply to acts of violence against individuals on the basis of race, religion, color or national origin. Federal prosecutors have jurisdiction only if the victim is engaged in a specific federally protected activity such as voting.
The bill would extend the hate crimes category to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability and give federal authorities greater leeway to participate in hate crime investigations. It would approve $10 million over the next two years to help local law enforcement officials cover the cost of hate crime prosecutions. Federal investigators could step in if local authorities were unwilling or unable to act.
Democrats and the provision's Republican supporters said the bill would create a safeguard in states that do not have laws against hate crimes committed based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And they insisted that the provision is relevant to the underlying military spending legislation because both are strikes against terrorist behavior.
"The defense authorization is about dealing with the challenges of terrorism overseas...This (bill) is about terrorism in our neighborhood," said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the chief Democratic sponsor. "We want to fight terrorism here at home with all of our weapons."
That's a stretch, not to mention a heavy-handed maneuver that "hijacks" a bill that includes a pay increase for troops in wartime, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
"I think it's shameful we're changing the subject to take care of special interest legislation at a time like this," Cornyn said on the Senate floor.
During a test tally that preceded the final vote, nine Republicans were among the 60 senators who voted to support the amendment: GOP co-sponsor Gordon Smith of Oregon, Sens. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Susan Collins of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John Warner of Virginia and George Voinovich of Ohio.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., did not vote.
Republicans were careful not to attack the intent of the legislation, focusing instead on what they said was the "non-germane" nature of the amendment to the overall spending bill.
"There may be a time and place for a hate crimes discussion, but it is certainly not now when national security legislation is being held up," said Senate Republican Conference Chairman Jon Kyl of Arizona.
Retorted Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.: "For some, it never seems to be the right time or the right place."
from The Associated Press

Tila Tequila’s ‘bisexual’ dating show is another small step for MTV-kind.

Britney Spears' limp-wristed jiggle jiggle of an opener at this month's widely panned MTV Video Music Awards, suggested to some that the music station might be on its last legs of cultural relevance. Some say it sold out a decade ago; others argue that as soon as it became older than its target demographic (turning 25 last year), the station was officially too crusty to be cool.
MTV's latest effort -- a serialized bisexual dating show starring Tila Tequila, mistress of MySpace -- could be considered another sign of the station's shift from music network to sleaze peddler. But even if that's true, at least MTV is doing what it has always done best: making controversy while quietly breaking, or at least exposing, some pop-culture barriers.
Those of you who aren't Maxim subscribers or MySpace obsessives may not have heard of Tequila, the Singapore-born, Internet-bred girl who is ripe to become a bona fide B-lister. Her solicitation of well over 2 million "friends" on the social networking site and her off-kilter sexpot persona landed her on magazine covers, and even led Time magazine to dub her the "Madonna of MySpace."
And so, in two decades, MTV has gone from helping to create Madonna to counting on Tequila's half-proven celebrity appeal. On "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila," following the road-tested formula of VH1's "Flavor of Love," Tequila will welcome 16 straight men and 16 lesbian women into a mansion, where they'll all live for a scandalous season while vying for her affection. MTV's first serialized dating program represents a big commitment from a network devoted to the short-attention-span crowd, meaning we can expect as much squabbling, back-stabbing and pansexual make-out sessions as 10 episodes can hold.
But the main selling point for MTV and Tequila seems to be the bisexual angle, as both try to prove they're busting a taboo. Tequila, for her part, claims she's never come out as a bisexual before (though her MySpace profile suggests otherwise). MTV, meanwhile, gets to brag that "A Shot at Love" is the first bisexual dating show on a network not specifically targeted to the LGBT community.
But Tequila's description makes it clear that the show is not so groundbreaking as all that. As she writes in her slangy, all-caps way:

the show will be about me finding love as a BISEXUAL!!!!! THAT IS CRAZY RIGHT? ..... the only twist is that these guys and these girls have NO IDEA that I am bisexual and that they are competing against each others sexes!!! GUYS AGAINST GIRLS......WHO WILL I END UP HOOKING UP WITH????? WILL I BE STRAIGHT OR LESBIAN IN THE END?????

In other words, the old sexual categories remain, embedded in the structure of the show: guys against girls in the mansion, straight against lesbian in Tequila's heart, with little in the way of "bisexuality" in sight. And contestants will probably confirm many a sexual stereotype (straight guys making girl-on-girl jokes, lesbian women happily cavorting for them as if that were the point of being lesbian, and so on).
Still, at least the concept of bisexuality, and dating-while-bisexual, will be out there in MTV-land. MTV has always pushed sexual boundaries, whether it's airing those first Madonna videos (even if they were later pulled) or featuring anHIV-positive cast member on "The Real World" in the early 1990s.
These days, the envelope-pushing is more likely to amount to simple sleaze (try watching more than five minutes of "Spring Break" programming without feeling the need to shower). But even that sleaze can serve a higher purpose of sorts, particularly when much of pop culture remains homophobic. Young, impressionable viewers, while watching gay men or lesbian women compete for dates on MTV's "Next," are able to learn that gay and lesbian kids can be just as self-important and sex-starved as straight kids. And isn't that what has always united the MTV generation(s)?
The generation that actually grew up with MTV might insist it was the music that once united its audience. But that point has long since passed -- MTV simply hasn't kept pace with the many new ways would-be video viewers can consume music. Why watch in hopes that your favorite video will air when you can just go to YouTube?
Even if it helped invent the music video, MTV has long known it can't live on music alone -- it even made a show about two characters who sit around criticizing the videos. The station may once have been about songs, but it has always been about spectacle, whether of the political, socially conscious, crassly consumerist or just plain sleazy variety. "A Shot at Love" may manage all of the above.
from The Los Angeles Times

Gay Sick Perverts Prepare For Folsom Street Fair

Once again, San Francisco prepares for the perverted Folsom Street Fair where homosexuals, sadomasochists and others gather for public displays of nudity, beatings, group sex and public masturbation -- PART TAX PAYER FUNDED -- with police just standing by and watching.
This year, "Perverts Without Morals" chose to deliberately mock Jesus Christ, Christians and The Last Supper, by depicting half naked homosexuals, leather men and women as the 12 Apostles, and display sex toys in place of the bread and wine.
A bloody fist can be seen in front of the central figure portraying Jesus Christ, possibly representing the vile sex act of "fisting" - where one's fist is fully inserted into another individual's anal cavity.
Stephen Bennett, president of SBM and a former homosexual said, "This is the most vile, vulgar and disgusting public display of filth I have ever seen in my life. There is no doubt a double standard when Christians and Christianity are mocked by homosexuals and degenerates in such a blatant, vile and sick way. Where is the media outrage over this event? We Christians will no longer tolerate this abuse nor be silent.
"As Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America broke this story calling upon California's officials to take action, I am also calling upon every major media outlet from CNN, to FOX News to CBS, NBC and ABC News to alert the public to this horrific story to show what truly goes on in this sex 'street fair' in possible view of children."
Bennett ended, "I call upon the homosexual Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, GLSEN, and the Gay and Lesbian Task Force to publicly condemn this blatant mockery of Christians and Christianity by some within their community, and condemn this sick public display of immoral behavior. I call upon the Miller Brewing Company to pull their endorsement of this event. I call for the organizers of this filth to immediately apologize to Christians worldwide and remove this Last Supper mockery. I also call upon every law abiding official and citizen in America who has any morals to do what they can to shut down this Folsom Street 'Filth' Fair once and for all."
from The Christian News Wire / Stephen Bennett Ministries

Testicle Size 'Really Is What Matters'

Testicle size is what counts for a clean bill of health and being able to produce children.
Most men are unaware of how important the size of their testes is in relation to their health, Professor Rob McLachlan, director of Andrology Australia, told Fairfax newspapers.
"I've seen men coming in with (testicles) the size of a sultana and they haven't realised (it's a problem) - it happens all the time," Prof McLachlan said.
Men need to be aware of their testicle size, to measure their own health.
"They don't know how big their testes should be - what's normal and what's abnormal," Prof McLachlan said.
Small testes can indicate there is a testosterone deficiency. This can make a man feel tired, lose muscle, gain fat, lose sex drive.
It could lead to osteoporosis or thinning of the bones. And it can also be a sign of infertility, with a higher risk of developing testicular cancer, Prof McLachlan says.
Genital examinations, which take about 30 seconds, are crucial for men and opens the channel for a diagnosis.
"You want to pick these conditions up in men when they are younger if you can because then you have the chance to intervene and give them 30, 40, 50 years of quality of life and protect them from issues such as thin bones," Prof McLachlan says.
To raise awareness of men's health, the male reproductive health centre Andrology Australia is producing orchidometers or different-sized beads.
They range from 1 ml to 35 ml in volume, which help doctors identify reproductive health disorders.
Testicles measured from 15 ml to 35 ml are in the normal range.
"If a man's testicles are the size of a sultana he should see his doctor," he said.
from The Sydney Morning Herald

Gay Or Straight? Body Type And Motion Reveals Sexual Orientation

An individual's body motion and body type can offer subtle cues about their sexual orientation, but casual observers seem better able to read those cues in gay men than in lesbians, according to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"We already know that men and women are built differently and walk differently from each other and that casual observers use this information as clues in making a range of social judgments," said lead author Kerri Johnson, UCLA assistant professor of communication studies. "Now we've found that casual observers can use gait and body shape to judge whether a stranger is gay or straight with a small but perceptible amount of accuracy."
Johnson and colleagues at New York University and Texas A&M measured the hips, waists and shoulders of eight male and eight female volunteers, half of whom were gay and half straight. The volunteers then walked on a treadmill for two minutes as a three-dimensional motion-capture system similar to those used by the movie industry to create animated figures from living models made measurements of the their motions, allowing researchers to track the precise amount of shoulder swagger and hip sway in their gaits.
Based on these measurements, the researchers determined that the gay subjects tended to have more gender-incongruent body types than their straight counterparts (hourglass figures for men, tubular bodies for women) and body motions (hip-swaying for men, shoulder-swaggering for women) than their straight counterparts.
In addition, 112 undergraduate observers were shown videos of the backsides of the volunteers as they walked at various speeds on the treadmill. The observers were able to determine the volunteers' sexual orientation with an overall rate of accuracy that exceeded chance, even though they could not see the volunteers' faces or the details of their clothing. Interestingly, the casual observers were much more accurate in judging the orientation of males than females; they correctly categorized the sexual orientation of men with more than 60 percent accuracy, but their categorization of women did not exceeded chance.
The findings build on recent research that shows that casual observers can often correctly identify sexual orientation with very limited information. A 1999 Harvard study, for example, found that just by looking at the photographs of seated strangers, college undergraduates were able to judge sexual orientation accurately 55 percent of the time.
"Studies like ours are raising questions about the value of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," Johnson said. "If casual observers can determine sexual orientation with minimal information, then the value in concealing this information certainly appears questionable. Given that we all appear to be able to deduce this information to some degree with just a glance, more comprehensive policies may be required to protect gays against discrimination based on their sexual orientation."
The findings also are part of mounting evidence suggesting that sexual orientation may actually be what social scientists call a "master status category," or a defining characteristic that observers cannot help but notice and which has been scientifically shown to color all subsequent social dealings with others.
"Once you know a person's sexual orientation, the fact has consequences for all subsequent interactions, and our findings suggest that this category of information can be deduced from subtle clues in body movement," Johnson said.
from Science Daily

'Top Chef' Contestant Attecked In Gay Bashing

A former contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" was beaten by attackers yelling anti-gay slurs, her lawyer said.
Josie Smith-Malave, who was featured on the second season of the reality show, was among a small group of women who were asked to leave a Sea Cliff bar over Labor Day weekend, lawyer Yetta Kurland said Tuesday.
About 10 young people followed the women and began screaming anti-gay epithets, spitting on them and then beating them, Kurland said.
Smith-Malave, who is in her early 30s, is openly gay, Kurland said.
Nassau County police said they were investigating, but declined to provide details of the incident.
Smith-Malave, a Miami native, is a former sous-chef for Marlow and Sons restaurant in Brooklyn. She has played for the New York Sharks of the Independent Women's Football League.
from The Associated Press

Jerry Apologizes

Jerry Lewis dropped an anti-gay slur - the same one that got Isaiah Washington of "Grey's Anatomy" in trouble - during the 18th hour of his annual Labor Day telethon.
He apologized Tuesday for a "bad choice of words."
The 81-year-old showman - prowling about the stage during the live telecast Monday in Las Vegas - was goofing around and dodging his cameraman, then went into a ramble about imaginary family members.
"Oh, your family has come to see you," he said, speaking to the camera and gesturing toward thin air.
"You remember Bart, your older son," he said, and motioning toward another unseen character, "Jesse, the illiterate f-----.
"No," Lewis said, quickly stopping himself before continuing.
Monday's monologue prompted a critical statement Tuesday from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Neil Giuliano, GLAAD president, called Lewis' use of the term "simply unacceptable."
"It also feeds a climate of hatred and intolerance that contributes to putting our community in harm's way," Giuliano said.
In a statement Tuesday, Lewis said he was making "a joking comment to a member of my production team."
"I apologize to anyone who was offended," he went on. "Everyone who knows me understands that I hold no prejudices in this regard. In the family atmosphere of the telethon, I forget that not everyone knows me that well.
"That something like this would distract from the true purpose of the telethon pains me deeply. ... I accept responsibility for what I said. There are no excuses," he said.
Lewis' telethon, in its 42nd year, set a new record by raising $63.7 million to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association, topping last year's event by $3 million.
from The Associated Press

Jerry Lewis Using 'Faggot' To Help Raise Money

Update 9/5/07 Wednesday:
That clip was taken down but TMZ still has it.
Click here to view it.

Sharon Osbourne Fired For Calling Simon Cowell Gay?

Sharon Osbourne is furious with her brother David Arden for his sensational expose in a British tabloid this weekend (02Sep07) and is "devastated" by his betrayal, according to reports.
The rock matriarch is said to be "disappointed" at Arden's revelations in Sunday newspaper the News of the World, in which he claims Osbourne hated her fellow The X Factor judge Simon Cowell and was briefly fired from the British talent show for her constant gay jibes.
Arden also alleges his 54-year-old sister only married husband Ozzy Osbourne to spurn his Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi.
He said: "The truth is Ozzy was way down on her list. Sharon had no interest. In fact she always referred to Ozzy as 'the w**ker'.
"When the label was having hard times, she actually tried to get Ozzy fired."
But Osbourne has vowed to set the record straight in the second installment of her autobiography, which is due out in October (07), and a close friend of the star claims Arden only sold his story because he was so desperate for the money.
The source says, "Their dad is dead and David thinks he can do what he wants.
"Basically, he needed the cash. Now he has to wait and see what Sharon says in the book - he should be trembling with fear."
Arden and Osbourne fell out after the death of their father, music mogul Don Arden, who passed away in July (07).
from The Post Chronicle

Sex Charges Levied Against Police Chief

Texas - The police chief in this South Texas town has been charged with two counts of sexual assault for allegedly violating male employees who were passed out at his home during parties.
Jose Luis Vela, 42, was being held in the Hidalgo County Jail on $200,000 bond after his Thursday arraignment on the two felony charges. The city has placed him on paid leave pending the outcome of the case.
"This is the first time I've ever heard of a chief of a police arrested for sexually assaulting his employees," said Sheriff Lupe Trevino, whose office started an investigation last week based on a tip from a friend of one of the alleged victims.
As he was led out of the courtroom Thursday, Vela denied the charges and said he did not know who his accusers were.
Investigators have accused Vela of performing oral sex on a male employee after the man passed out drunk at a party about a year ago at Vela's home in Mission, according to court documents.
Vela is also accused of violating a different male employee with an object while that man was passed out at a party in July, Trevino said.
Trevino would not identify the alleged victims, nor their positions within the 18-employee department.
City Manager Jorge Arcaute said the city's employees must work through the shock of Vela's arrest. The town of about 4,400 residents is located 10 miles north of the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley.
"This will reflect poorly on us," Arcaute said. "The challenge for us is to keep doing a good job and work harder. We're up to the challenge."
Lt. Eric Hernandez has been named the Alton department's acting chief.
from The Associated Press

Larry Birkhead & Howard K. Stern Were Gay Lovers?

An explosive tell-all book about Anna Nicole Smith's sad demise alleges the two men who battled for custody of her baby girl and control of her fortune were gay lovers.
The bombshell allegations about the steamy relationship between the former Playboy Playmate's longtime companion Howard K. Stern and her baby's biological father, Larry Birkhead, come to light in "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death."
Sordid passages in the soon-to-be released book by former MSNBC journalist Rita Cosby describe how Anna Nicole and her friend allegedly caught Stern and Birkhead with their shirts off and their pants around their ankles in a Los Angeles home.
Jackie Hatten, described in the book as one of Anna Nicole's closest friends, said the men were engaged in oral sex.
"Their bodies were intermingled," Hatten says, according to a copy of the book obtained by the Daily News. "It was obvious what was happening."
The shocking book accuses Birkhead and Stern of cutting a secret deal after Anna Nicole was buried in March, with Birkhead getting custody of Dannielynn in return for Stern being named executor of the star's estate.
Dannielynn, who turns 1 on Friday, could inherit hundreds of millions of dollars from the estate of Smith's late husband, oil tycoon Howard Marshall.
Birkhead and a lawyer for Stern both vehemently denied the accusations in Cosby's book yesterday - and vowed to drag her into court, setting the stage for an ugly legal battle.
"None of it is true," Birkhead told The News. "I'm gonna sue Rita Cosby for it."
Birkhead said he was disgusted by Cosby's claim that he and Stern were gay lovers.
"If she printed that then she is really getting sued," Birkhead yelled. "My attorneys are going after her and that is absolutely false. And I am sure Howard and the estate and everyone else involved is going to sue her too. This is just nonsense."
Stern's lawyer, Lin Wood, called the book's content "false and defamatory." Wood said Cosby "has taken the coverage to a disgusting new low for which she will be held legally accountable."
OK! magazine already has severed ties with Birkhead over the Cosby allegations, axing coverage of Dannielynn's first birthday as the final part of a $1.7 million access deal.
The 244-page book reads like a whodunit novel with cliffhanger chapters, plot twists and tales of deception by those closest to Anna Nicole.
The former stripper knew both Birkhead and Stern were gay, the book alleges. But Smith, who was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, chose Birkhead as her lover because she wanted a blond, blue-eyed baby, according to Cosby.
The tell-all claims Anna Nicole would spread out on her bed and watch a video allegedly showing Birkhead and Stern having oral sex "over and over" while Stern worked on his computer in their Bahamas home. The existence of the video was confirmed by a source yesterday.
Stern is portrayed in Cosby's book as a jealous, money-grabbing control freak who manipulates the erratic blond beauty's celebrity status for his own financial gain.
As her life spun out of control after the death of her son, Daniel, last September, Stern kept Anna Nicole hidden from friends and forced the heavily drugged model to sign stacks of paperwork, the book claims.
His alleged "goodie bag" of meds - including Vicodin, Valium, morphine and Demerol - were never far from reach.
"He was the pharmacist and [the bag] was the drugstore," Anna Nicole's ex-boyfriend Ben Thompson told Cosby.
In Anna Nicole's final days, the buxom blond was holed up in Room 607 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Florida, with a raging 105-degree fever, the book says.
She was watched by Stern, her bodyguard, her psychiatrist and a handful of aides as a pus-filled abscess from a needle injection in her left buttock caused an infection in her bloodstream, Cosby writes.
Cosby alleges a right-handed Anna Nicole could never have administered these injections herself.
As Anna Nicole's life slowly ebbed away, Stern allegedly abandoned her to keep an appointment with a boat broker. The book describes him as cold and nonchalant when told of Anna Nicole's death - a far cry from the picture of a doting lover he painted in interviews.
As doctors rushed Anna Nicole to a hospital in a futile bid to save her life, Stern allegedly was already on the phone to media contacts lining up lucrative exclusive interviews.
"Howard was ready to make his next deal," an eyewitness says in the book. "It showed us that to Howard it was all about money."
Birkhead comes across as no angel either. The book claims Birkhead gave Smith cocktails of drugs and watched as Stern allegedly gave medication to Anna Nicole while she was attached to an IV drip in the hospital during her pregnancy.
His image as the "aw shucks nice guy" was a carefully crafted ploy to manipulate the media, Birkhead's former lawyer Debra Opri told Cosby. Opri is suing Birkhead for failing to pay her legal fees.
Yesterday, Birkhead dismissed Cosby, whose MSNBC show was canceled last year, as a has-been TV hack.
"She got fired and nobody wanted her," Birkhead told The News. "The last story she did was on Anna and now she is doing this book because no one will hire her."
Stern's lawyer was equally outraged, saying: "It appears that Ms. Cosby has joined the ranks of tabloid journalists who are willing to publish the print equivalent of sewerage to engage in character assassination for profit."
from The New York Daily News

Brokeback Mountain Director Comments On New Movie Sex Scenes

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong newspaper reports Oscar-winning director Ang Lee says filming the sex scenes in his new spy thriller Lust, Caution nearly caused him a mental breakdown.
The Apple Daily newspaper quotes Lee adding he was comforted he was able to help his actors through the ordeal.
The Taiwanese director, who won an Oscar for best director for Brokeback Mountain in 2006, was speaking from Venice, where Lust, Caution is competing for the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The movie was screened in Venice last Thursday but has not been released in theatres.
Hollywood trade publication Variety has reported the movie features lovemaking in provocative sexual positions, implied oral sex and also full female frontal nudity.
The film has received the strictest rating in the United States, which bans viewers younger than 17.
"Lust, Caution," based on a short story by famed Chinese writer Eileen Chang, is about a group of patriotic students who plot to assassinate the intelligence chief in the Japanese-backed Chinese government during the the Second World War era.
Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai plays the intelligence official Mr. Yi, while newcomer Tang Wei plays the Chinese student Wang Jiazhi, who seduces Yi to pave way for the assassination. The movie also features Joan Chen from "The Last Emperor" and Chinese-American pop star Leehom Wang.
In a separate interview with Chinese news website Sina.com, Lee said he cleared the set to all but four crew members, including himself, while filming the sex scenes involving Leung and Tang.
"The scenes were completely in a very private space," he said.
Lee told Apple Daily he spent tremendous effort training actress Tang - more so than for Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi when she was a budding star shooting Lee's kung fu hit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
"She (Tang) was picked from 10,000 people. There was three months' training and five months' shooting. I spent a full eight months on her. I've never spent so much effort on one person," Lee was quoted saying.
from The Canadian Press

Sons Of Fat Mothers Could Be Less Fertile

Be aware, overweight mothers-to-be! A new research has revealed that sons born to obese women may be less fertile.
The study carried out by a team of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark has found that overweight women may have sons who are born with sperm of poorer quality, the 'Daily Mail' reported yesterday.
"It's possible that higher levels of the hormone estrogen, associated with being overweight, might harm the development of male foetus reproductive organs," the daily quoted one of the university researchers as saying.
Though it is well known that obesity can affect a woman's chances of pregnancy, this is the first time a link has been made between the weight of the mother and the fertility of the next generation.
In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after tracking the health of over 300 women and their sons in Europe. Although the majority of the women were of normal weight when they became pregnant, 25 had body mass indexes classed as obese.
From tests, the researchers found that the sons of the 25 overweight women tended to have slightly lower concentrations of sperm, as well as fewer mobile sperm. However, the differences were so small that the team couldn't be sure they're not down to chance.
"Further studies should be carried out," the unnamed researcher said.
from The Hindu

Your Ad Here

Too Gay...

Ok. Let's just admit that Reichen Lehmkuhl and his boyfriend Ryan Barry are both good looking, but do they have to wear matching swim trunks?
Isn't that kind of gay?

Senator Pleades Guily To Gay Restroom Sex

In the latest personal conduct controversy to roil Capitol Hill, Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested by an officer investigating lewd-conduct complaints in a men's restroom.
On Monday, Craig denied engaging in any inappropriate behavior and said he regretted his plea.
"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said in a statement. "I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct."
The senator's statement came after the incident was first reported Monday by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, which obtained the arrest report on the June 11 incident at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Craig pleaded guilty Aug. 8. He was ordered to pay $575 in fines and fees and given one year's probation on the misdemeanor charge.
The 62-year-old Craig, who is married, has been a leading congressional voice on issues of importance to the West. The senator, who touts his belief in "limited federal government, free enterprise, private property and individual liberty and responsibility," won election to the Senate in 1990 after serving a decade in the House. He is up for reelection next year.
As word of Craig's arrest spread throughout Idaho and the rest of the country, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign announced that Craig was stepping down as co-chairman of Romney's campaign in Idaho.
"He did not want to be a distraction, and we accept his decision," said Matt Rhoades, a Romney campaign spokesman.
The report of the Minneapolis incident comes after a fellow Republican senator, David Vitter of Louisiana, apologized in July for a "very serious sin in my past" after reports that his phone number showed up among the records of an alleged Washington madam.
According to the Roll Call report, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a senator and said, "What do you think about that?"
Craig was detained for about 45 minutes and photographed and fingerprinted before his release, the newspaper reported.
The arrest was made after Craig entered a men's room stall next to one occupied by the undercover officer, Roll Call reported.
Craig placed a bag against the front of the stall door. "My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall," Roll Call reported the officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia, as writing in the report.
The officer also reported Craig tapping his foot, which the officer called "a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct."
In his statement, Craig said, "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."
Craig's colleagues were silent on the incident.
But the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a statement calling attention to Craig's support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and his opposition to legislation that would expand the federal hate crime law to cover violent acts based on a victim's sex, sexual orientation, sexual identity or disability.
John J. Pitney Jr., a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College, said, "The incident is bad enough, but the contrast with his stand on family values is appalling. In the culture of Washington, political hypocrisy is just as hurtful as anything that happened in a lavatory."
from The LA Times

AIDS Victims Buried Alive

New Guinea - Marabe, who spent five months carrying out an AIDS awareness campaign in the remote Southern Highlands of the South Pacific nation, said she had seen five people buried alive.
One was calling out "Mama, Mama'' as the soil was shovelled over his head, said Ms Marabe, who works for a volunteer organisation called Igat Hope, Pidgin English for I've Got Hope.
"One of them was my cousin, who was buried alive,'' she said.
"I said, 'Why are they doing that?' And they said, 'If we let them live, stay in the same house, eat together and use or share utensils, we will contract the disease and we too might die'.''
Villagers had told her it was common for people to bury AIDS victims alive.
Ms Marabe appealed to the Government and aid agencies to ensure the HIV/AIDS awareness program in cities and towns was extended to the rural areas, where ignorance about the disease was widespread.
Women accused of being witches have been tortured and murdered by mobs holding them responsible for the apparently inexplicable deaths of young people stricken by the epidemic, officials and researchers say.
A recent United Nations report said PNG was facing an AIDS catastrophe, accounting for 90 per cent of HIV infections in the Oceania region.
HIV diagnoses had risen by around 30 per cent a year since 1997, leaving an estimated 60,000 people living with the disease in 2005.
from The Herald Sun

One Of The Biggest Penises In The World Sold At Auction

BEVERLY HILLS - Believe it or not, a 12,000-year-old, 4 1/2-foot fossilized walrus penis was purchased at auction Sunday by Ripley Entertainment Inc., an auction official said. The company, which owns 63 Ripley's Believe It or Not museums in 11 countries, including one on Hollywood Boulevard, bought the walrus member for $9,600, including fees, said Josh Chait of I.M. Chait Auctions & Gallery.
Although it is believed to be the biggest ever found, the Walrus member sold for less than the $12,000 to $16,000 it was expected to go for.
"I'm glad the penis went to Ripley, so everybody will have an opportunity to see it. It is definitely interesting," Chait said. "It's one of the biggest penises in the world as far as I know."
It was discovered in the frozen tundra of Siberia and dates back 12,000 years to the Pleistocene Period. The mammal's manhood is mummified, with a layer of perfectly preserved skin intact, according to Chait. A 22-foot mounted skeleton of an aquatic dinosaur called a Mososaurus, from the Cretaceous period of Morocco and more than 65 million years ago, fetched the highest bid of $90,000, from a private collector, Chait said.
In all, the nearly 200 lots of natural history items garnered a total of about $500,000, he said.
The walrus penis wasn't the only piece of "prehistoric pornography" on the auction block. Bidders also vied for a pair of mating 40 million-year-old insects from the Baltic region of Russia. The two love bugs are forever trapped in the heat of the moment in amber.
Other items at the auction in Beverly Hills included a long curvy Mammoth tusk from the Pleistocene period and a 1.94 gram piece of the moon, along with other meteorites, dinosauria, archeological artifacts and gems and minerals.
from MSNBC