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

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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

Don't Be Embarassed About Your Penis Size

A man in Germany who was embarrassed about his penis size is facing charges, after asking his girlfriend to have sex in the dark – and getting his brother to stand in.
Manfred Schuh, 26, feared he would lose his 24-year-old girlfriend if he did not 'perform well', so he insisted on keeping the lights off during sex and going to the toilet beforehand.
His brother Walter, 28, would then enter the room and have sex with the woman. She found out after two months – when she turned the light on.
A police spokesman said: 'She apparently had no idea. Both men look similar as they are brothers, and the older brother made a point of not speaking when he was impersonating his younger sibling.'
from Metro UK

Gay Porn Murder To Go To Trial

Two gay porn actors will go to trial on charges they murdered a rival porn executive in a dispute over a coveted actor after a judge's ruling Thursday.
District Magisterial Judge James E. Tupper ruled that, based on the testimony of 14 witnesses during a two-day hearing, there was enough evidence against Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes for both men to go to trial. They are charged with murdering Cobra Video executive and gay porn kingpin Bryan Kocis.
"It sucks," Harlow Cuadra said to reporters when asked how he felt as he left the courtroom. "I didn't do it. I didn't kill that man."
Police say Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis because of a dispute involving actor Sean Lockhart, known in the adult film industry as Brent Corrigan.
Police say Cuadra, 25, and Kerekes, 33, went to Kocis' Dallas, Pa., home Jan. 24 and slashed his throat, nearly decapitating him. After he was dead, they stabbed him 28 times and burned his body and home to hide the crime, according to police documents.
Kocis' body was found that night by firefighters responding to the fire. Police believe Cuadra and Kerekes gained access to the porn executive's home by tricking him into thinking Cuadra was a new model who was interested in making a movie for Cobra Video.
Both men continued to assert their innocence as they were led separately out of the courtroom flanked by state police officers.
"I was never in that house, and I intend to get an expert to prove that," Kerekes said.
During the hearing, prosecutors showed nearly 40 gruesome photos of Kocis' body and the wounds he sustained.
They also showed a surveillance video of both men in a gun store, where Cuadra purchased a gun and a knife, as well as semi-nude photos prosecutors say Cuadra e-mailed to Kocis. A state police captain testified the knife purchased could be capable of killing Kocis and inflicting the wounds he sustained.
Grant Roy, an adult film producer who knew both Cuadra and Kerekes, recounted a taped conversation he had with both men at a nude beach called Black's Beach in San Diego, Calif. on April 28.
Roy said that Cuadra and Kerekes spoke about doing reconnaissance work at Kocis' home sometime before he was killed and that both men mentioned being at Kocis' home the night of his murder.
Court documents also showed that Cuadra ordered a background check on Kocis from his computer with a credit card.
Roy also testified that Cuadra spoke cryptically about his emotions the night he was at Kocis' home.
"[Cuadra] said it went really quick, and he said that [Kocis] never saw it coming," Roy said. "He said it seemed kind of sick, but he felt like he had got even with [Kocis] in a way. It made him feel good."
But neither Cuadra nor Kerekes specifically admitted killing Kocis, although Roy said he felt the killing was implied.
Although both men admitted to destroying most of the property, Roy testified, they claimed to have taken some videos from Kocis' home and watched them at the house they shared in Virginia Beach, Va.
Roy said Cuadra debated whether to keep a film of Sean Lockhart, but Cuadra thought it was "too hot and would connect him to the murder," Roy testified.
Roy said that Cuadra told him at one point while in the home, he got nervous that Kocis might have realized he was not the model he was pretending to be.
"At that time, the doorbell rang and it got crazy," Roy quoted Cuadra.
"What did Cuadra say happened after the doorbell rang?" Luzerne County Assistant District Attorneys Michael Melnick asked.
"He said that's when his dude arrived, and it was over," Roy testified. He did not specify who the "dude" was.
A Pennsylvania State Police trooper testified that an e-mail address tied to Cuadra had been created solely for contact with Kocis. A model, who identified himself as Danny Moilin, asked to meet with Kocis to work on a film. The semi-nude photos included in the e-mails were of Cuadra. As the photos were being showed, Cuadra turned to his mother and sister and lowered his head.
The last communication between the model and Kocis occurred at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 24, the night of the murder. A meeting had been set up for 15 minutes later at 7:30, less than an hour before Kocis was found dead, Trooper Brian Murphy testified.
An e-mail account registered to Kerekes was accessed shortly before the murder, but Murphy said he didn't currently have records to show whether the account just remained open or if e-mails were sent.
"So he could have logged in and walked away to do something else, like walk in a house or commit murder?" Melnick asked.
"Or he could have been sitting there the whole time?" Kerekes' lawyer, Joe Necito, asked during cross-examination.
As he left the courtroom after the hearing, Kerekes said he would eventually show proof that he was at a motel room sending e-mails when the murder occurred.
State police Cpl. Leo Hannon, who headed up the investigation, testified that the men did have a hotel room in the area, but cellphone records place both men near Kocis' home, not at the motel room at the time of the murder.
Hannon said Cuadra also rented a car for the drive from Virginia to Pennsylvania. The mileage on the car, he said, mirrored the trip from their home in Virginia to Kocis' home. The route matched records from a disposable cellphone that "Danny Moilin" used to call Kocis.
Judge Tupper tossed burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary charges against both men, accepting arguments from defense attorneys that they men could not have committed burglary if one or both of them was let into the home willingly by Kocis.
Kerekes and Cuadra will now face trial on charges of homicide, robbery, arson, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy to commit murder.
Melnick said the district attorney would decide if the state would seek the death penalty in this case, a decision he said would be reached in the coming weeks.
from Court TV

This Is What's Hot In Russia...

MOSCOW - When he flexes Russia's diplomatic and military muscle, Vladimir Putin always makes headlines.
But few could have predicted the squall of gossip and speculation that erupted after the president stripped off his shirt for the cameras while vacationing in the Siberian mountains last week.
The resulting images, prominently enshrined on the presidential Web site, inspired admiration, criticism and some racing pulses among his admirers.
The Russian media still can't get enough.
The tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday published a huge color photo of the bare-chested president under the headline: "Be Like Putin." Its excuse? A guide showing exactly what exercises were required to build up a torso like the Russian leader's.
Kremlin watchers have been trying to guess what kind of political message the pictures send, given that the 54-year-old Putin has insisted he plans to step down at the end of his second term next year, as required by the constitution.
One radio talk show host speculated the photos were meant to enhance Putin's personal appeal to voters - a strong signal that he doesn't plan to relinquish power. When the commentator, Yevgeniya Albats, went on to suggest the half-naked photo shoot was unbecoming for a Russian leader, female listeners peppered her with e-mails expressing admiration for Putin's physique.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that women who visited its Web site posted comments on Putin's "vigorous torso" and said they "were screaming with delight and showering (him) with compliments."
Russian gay chat rooms and blogs were particularly intrigued by the photos: Some claimed that Putin, by stripping to his waist, was somehow pleading for more tolerance of homosexuality in Russia - where gays and lesbians are for the most part forced to remain closeted.
One satirical photo circulating on the Internet jokingly compared Putin's mountain adventure with Prince Albert II of Monaco to the movie "Brokeback Mountain," a love story about two cowboys who conceal a homosexual affair.
The Russian president, who is married with two daughters, has long cultivated an image of machismo and manliness. Well-known as a downhill skier and black belt in judo, Putin has appeared on national television driving a truck, operating a train, sailing on a submarine and copiloting a fighter jet.
These exploits have been widely publicized, thanks to the Kremlin's control of major Russian media.
In contrast to his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, notorious for drunken antics, Putin has established an image as serious, energetic, sober and sharp-witted. In a country that worships its Olympic and other world-class athletes, he has also taken care to stay physically fit.
In interviews, he speaks avidly about judo and athletics.
"Sport has helped me form my own personal point of view on the world, on people and my approach to them," he said in an interview posted on the Kremlin Web site.
Some say it's all part of the Putin mystique.
"He's cool. That's been the image throughout the presidency, cool," said Sergei Markov, Kremlin-connected head of the Moscow-based Institute for Political Research.
But Putin's outdoor outing last week took this manly public persona to a new level.
The prince and the president spent several days on vacation in the mountainous southern Siberian region of Tuva. Dressed in fatigues, fingerless gloves, a bush hat and chic sunglasses, Russia's most powerful man was shown on TV broadcasts in scenic footage riding horses, rafting down a river, fishing for grayling and off-roading in a sport utility vehicle.
Amid the outdoor posturing, the image-handlers were careful to make sure Putin was shown staying on top of major events - a lesson he learned after he was criticized for failing to immediately interrupt his vacation after the submarine Kursk sank in August 2000.
Putin's Siberian holiday coincided with the bombing of a passenger train near St. Petersburg. This time, TV footage showed him reportedly issuing orders to top ministers by cell phone from his vacation retreat.
Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategy Institute think tank, said the pictures from Tuva were nothing more than an effort to reassure Russians that Putin knows how to relax - and was preparing for retirement.
Yevgeny Volk, who heads the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office, said the political elite increasingly views Putin as a lame duck leader and that the photos only strengthen the impression that he should no longer be taken seriously.
from The Associated Press

Washing Penis May Raise H.I.V. Risk

A study in Uganda has come up with a surprising finding about sex and H.I.V. Washing the penis minutes after sex increased the risk of acquiring H.I.V. in uncircumcised men.
The sooner the washing, the greater the risk of becoming infected, the study found. Delaying washing for at least 10 minutes after sex significantly lowered the risk of H.I.V. infection, Dr. Fredrick E. Makumbi reported on July 25 at an International AIDS Society Conference in Sydney, Australia.
The researchers do not have a precise explanation for the findings, which challenge common wisdom and the teaching of many infectious disease experts who urge penile cleansing as part of good genital hygiene. Health experts have suggested that washing the penis after sex could prevent potentially infectious vaginal secretions from entering the body through the uncircumcised penis.
Washing the penis after sex is common in Africa. To determine whether washing could be recommended as an alternative to male circumcision, Dr. Makumbi’s team from the Makerere University Institute of Public Health studied 2,552 uncircumcised men in the Rakai district of Uganda.
The men, ages 15 to 49, were uncircumcised and not H.I.V. infected when they enrolled. Eighty-three percent said they washed with all sex partners.
The researchers asked about when and how the men washed after intercourse at enrollment and 6, 12 and 24 months later, including whether they washed with or without cloths.
Because of a slip-up, the researchers did not ask details of how the cleansing was done or directly about using soap, said Dr. Ronald H. Gray, a co-author from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Some soaps used in Africa are more irritating than those used elsewhere.
Men who washed within three minutes had a 2.3 percent risk of H.I.V. infection compared with 0.4 percent among those who delayed washing for 10 or more minutes. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases paid for the study.
The washing analysis was a secondary part of a study undertaken to determine the effectiveness of male circumcision against H.I.V. infection. Earlier reports had shown that circumcision was protective.
One message from the study, Dr. Gray said, “is that there ought to be a little time left for postcoital cuddling before you go and wash.”
“Don’t just finish and jump out of bed,” he said.
Dr. Makumbi and other AIDS experts said they did not know why the washing practice increased vulnerability to H.I.V. infection, but offered various explanations. One is that the acidity of vaginal secretions may impair the ability of the AIDS virus to survive on the penis. Delayed cleansing — and longer exposure to the vaginal secretions — may then reduce viral infectivity.
Another is that use of water, which has a neutral pH, may encourage viral survival and possible infectivity.
H.I.V. apparently needs to be in a fluid to cross the mucosa to infect cells, Dr. Gray said. If the H.I.V.-contaminated fluid dries, its infectivity may decrease. Adding water could resuspend H.I.V. to make it more infectious.
The study findings are counterintuitive, said Dr. Merle A. Sande, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Washington in Seattle, and “show why you have to do the studies, because until you do them, you just don’t know.”
Dr. Sande, who was not involved in the study, said, “There is still so much we don’t understand about the complex factors that influence H.I.V. transmission in the genital tract, but this important study will help.”
He also is president of the Academic Alliance Foundation, a group that trains health workers to treat AIDS and other infectious diseases in Uganda.
from The New York Times

Merv Never Revealed The Man Behind The Curtain

Merv Griffin was gay.
Why should that be so uncomfortable to read? Why is it so difficult to write? Why are we still so jittery even about raising the issue in purportedly liberal-minded Hollywood in 2007? We can refer to it casually in conversation, but the mainstream media somehow remains trapped in the Dark Ages when it comes to labeling a person as gay.
Maybe that helps explain why Griffin, who died of prostate cancer Sunday at 82, stayed in the closet throughout his life. Perhaps he figured it was preferable to remain the object of gossip rather than live openly as "one of them." But how tremendously sad it is that a man of Merv's renown, of his gregarious nature and social dexterity, would feel compelled to endure such a stealthy double life even as the gay community's clout, and its levels of acceptance and equality, rose steadily from the ashes of ignorance.
I'm not at all insinuating that Griffin had a responsibility to come out. That was up to him.
But what a powerful message Griffin might have sent had he squired his male companions around town rather than Eva Gabor, his longtime good friend and platonic public pal. Imagine the amount of good Merv could have done as a well-respected, hugely successful, beloved and uncloseted gay man in embodying a positive image.
As it was, I loved the guy, finding him charismatic and charming. And I had more than a passing acquaintance with him, having worked on "The Merv Griffin Show" as a talent coordinator/segment producer in 1985-86 as the show was winding down. Around the office, Merv's being gay was understood but rarely discussed. We knew nothing of his relationships because he guarded his privacy fiercely, and we didn't pry.
Merv's secret gay life was widely known throughout showbiz culture, if not the wider America. It gained traction in 1991 when he was targeted in a pair of lawsuits: by "Dance Fever" host Denny Terrio, alleging sexual harassment; and by assistant Brent Plott, seeking $200 million in palimony. Both ultimately were dismissed.
Over the past 16 years of his life, however, Griffin deflected the sexuality questions with a quip, determining that his private life remained nobody's business. He certainly didn't owe us an explanation, but maybe he owed it to himself to remove the suffocating veil he'd been forced to hide behind throughout his adult life. Then again, Merv carved his niche in the entertainment world at a time when being gay wasn't OK, when disclosure was unthinkable and the allegation alone could deep-six one's career.
If you're Griffin, why would you think a judgmental culture would be any more tolerant as you grew into middle and old age? Even in the capital of entertainment -- in a business where homosexuality isn't exactly a rare phenomenon -- it's still spoken of in hushed tones or, more often, not at all. And Merv's brush with tabloid scandal no doubt only drove him further into the closet.
While it would seem everything has changed today, little actually has. You can count on the fingers of one hand, or at most two, the number of high-powered stars and public figures who have come out. Those who don't can't really be faulted, as rarely do honesty and full disclosure prove a boon to one's showbiz livelihood.
Nonetheless, the elephant that was his sexual orientation never really stopped following Griffin from room to room. He could duck it for a while, but it would always find him. It's disheartening that Merv had to die to shake it for good.
from The Hollywood Reporter / Ray Richmond

Desperate Housewives Names Gay Couple

Desperate Housewives is getting ready for a brand new season and what better way to spice things up than adding some new characters and complicating the plot?
And what better way to complicate the plot than by adding Wisteria Lane’s first gay couple? According to Hollywood Reporter, Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm have signed for recurring roles on the popular show.
There were some rumors, funny, interesting to see to fruition but kind of hard to believe, that British singer Robbie Williams and soccer hero David Beckham would join the cast of “Desperate Housewives,” but it probably wasn’t meant to be.
Instead, viewers will be able to enjoy the sight of Watkins and Rahm starting September, on ABC. It would seem fans of the show will also have to wait for fall in order to find out just what the new characters are about.
What media reports have been saying is that Watkins and Rahm will be playing a couple who moved from the big city to a smaller, quieter place (or so they think). TV Guide reports that Watkins will play Bob, a “country mouse,” while Rahm is Lee, Bob’s “bitchy partner.”
It has also been said that the two new characters received their names from ABC News' Bob Woodruff and his wife Lee, who became friends with series creator Marc Cherry last spring.
Tuc Watkins has worked with ABC before, having a 1-year-long role on soap opera “One Life to Live.” He’s also played in Showtime's “Beggars and Choosers.”
Kevin Rahm is best known as a co-star on CBS' “Judging Amy.” He’s also had small roles on “CSI: NY,” “Joan of Arcadia” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
This will be the fourth season for “Desperate Housewives.” The show had a successful debut in October 2004 and went on to receive numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, as well as several wins.
In the time elapsed since the third season ended, several cast members have had important event happen in their lives, such as Marcia Cross giving birth to twins and Eva Longoria marrying basketball player Tony Parker.
from eFluxMedia

No Halloween Party For Castro District

SAN FRANCISCO - The Great Pumpkin will skip San Francisco this year.
City officials said Wednesday that there will be no official Halloween celebration anywhere in San Francisco in October -- not in the Castro neighborhood, the traditional home of the event, and not at a parking lot near AT&T Park, which had been considered as an alternate site.
"There will be no party," said Audrey Joseph, president of the city's Entertainment Commission.
Officials had been quietly working on plans to snuff out the Castro event, where a shooting last year injured nine people. The goal had been to instead hold a large outdoor concert near the ballpark. But the concert promoter has pulled out of the effort, and there is not enough time to find another, Joseph said.
But officials are still trying to prevent any festivities in the Castro. On Wednesday, Supervisor Bevan Dufty sent a letter to 110 owners of bars, restaurants and stores in the Castro, asking them to close shop on Halloween night to discourage partygoers.
The Halloween event was marred by violence last year after the shooting near the main stage on Market Street. Another person was injured as the crowd fled the area. Dufty and other city leaders had already been concerned about violence at the event, including the potential for attacks on members of the city's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population.
Halloween traditionally has been a major community event -- sometimes referred to as the "gay Christmas" -- but Dufty said that era has passed.
"It's not a holiday in the Castro. It's a night in which the neighborhood is overrun by people who come to gawk, not celebrate, and unfortunately it turns into gang night out in the Castro," he said.
To quell the Castro event, which draws several hundred thousand people, no roads will be closed, no barriers will be erected and no portable bathrooms will be set up, Dufty said. Police will be out in numbers akin to last Halloween, but they will be patrolling with "zero tolerance" for anyone breaking the law, he said.
Dufty has commitments from five businesses in the Castro to close on Halloween night, and he will try to persuade more to do so at a community meeting in the neighborhood next week.
One business that will close that night is Café Flore, one of the neighborhood's most well-known establishments.
"It's normally a big-money night, but it's just too crazy," said Doug Forrester, who manages the cafe, which is a few yards from where the shooting occurred last year.
The city is working with the Convention and Visitors Bureau to encourage people to support business that agree to close by patronizing the establishments on other nights. The city also wants to promote private events at museums and other locations. The city also plans to hire a public relations firm to put out the message within a 100-mile radius that there will be no large, public event in San Francisco.
City leaders had hoped to offer an alternative event to the Castro. The popular singer Pink had given a verbal commitment to play a show at the other venue, and there also were plans for a motocross event there, along with DJs and other bands.
But the promoter the city was working with on the event, Big Billy Inc., decided the Halloween party would be too much to handle, as it is putting on the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park earlier that month.
Also, neighbors in Mission Bay, Potrero Hill and other areas around the ballpark had complained to the city that they had not been consulted on the plans for the concert near their homes.
Castro area residents have similarly complained about the lack of public involvement in Halloween planning. After last year's violence, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Dufty announced they would convene a task force to analyze the problems and organize a 2007 event.
That task force never met because it was unanimous among city department heads -- and residents who contacted those departments -- that there should be no Castro Halloween, thus eliminating the need for a task force, said Nathan Ballard, Newsom's spokesman.
Despite that opposition to a Castro Halloween, some residents in the area do think the party could go on with more planning.
"Other cities do this kind of thing all the time, and you don't hear about excessive violence, you don't hear about gay bashing," said Alix Rosenthal, who unsuccessfully challenged Dufty during his re-election campaign last year and made the Halloween event a central issue. She said she thinks that the city has not put enough resources into the event to make it successful.
And Café Flore's Forrester said he is curious to see how many people still show up in the Castro.
"It's going to be interesting, to say the least," he said.
from The San Francisco Chronicle

Firefighters May Sue Over Pride Parade Participation

SAN DIEGO - Four San Diego city firefighters have filed a complaint with the state saying their superiors forced them to participate in last month's gay pride parade, where they became targets of obscene gestures and sexual comments.
An attorney for the four sent a letter to the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Aug. 1, requesting the right to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Fire Chief Tracy Jarman issued a statement yesterday saying she apologized to the men and plans to have the city's Equal Employment Investigative Office look into their complaints.
Fire Capt. John Ghiotto, Engineer Jason Hewett and firefighters Chad Allison and Alex Kane said they had objected to driving a city firetruck in the July 21 parade on duty, but were ordered to do so to avoid disciplinary action.
“They were getting nowhere through regular channels,” said their attorney, Charles LiMandri, West Coast director of the Thomas More Law Center.
The Thomas More center, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is described on its Web site as a nonprofit public-interest law firm that promotes Christian values and freedoms through litigation and media attention. The center has been involved in the fight against removal of the Mount Soledad cross.
Fire department spokesman Maurice Luque said the fire crew was chosen because its fire Station 5 on Ninth Avenue in Hillcrest is in the community where the parade took place. Luque said another crew had volunteered, but bowed out for personal reasons, including a family death, the day before.
In statements filed with the state, the men said that along the parade route, they were subjected to offensive and lewd comments such as, “You can put out my fire,” and saw men blowing kisses at them. Then, they said, they had to endure protesters who yelled at them that homosexuality was a sin. Some comments were too graphic to print.
Jarman, who is a lesbian, said the fire department has participated in community parades and festivals, including 15 years at the gay pride parade, without a sexual harassment complaint.
from The San Diego Union Tribune

Fireman Showing His Hose Gets Calendar Pulled

Openly Gay Bishop Endorses Obama

The Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president on Thursday, even though they don't share the same views on issues critical to gays and lesbians.
"Frankly, I don't think there's any major candidate that is where we in the gay community would hope they would be on our issues," V. Gene Robinson said in a conference call with reporters. "That being said, I would say the senator has been enormously supportive of our issues. We appreciate his support for civil unions."
The continuing repercussions from Robinson's 2003 election as bishop of New Hampshire threaten to break up the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is part. His supporters hail him as a role model and civil rights pioneer.
He stressed that his endorsement was as an individual, not as bishop.
"I will not be speaking about the campaign from the pulpit or at any church function," he said. "That is completely inappropriate. But as a private citizen, I will be at campaign events and help in any way that I can."
Robinson said he hopes to persuade Obama to embrace marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Obama supports civil unions and rights for gay couples, but stops short of supporting gay marriage.
Robinson, a registered independent and opponent of the war in Iraq, said he was drawn to Obama because of the Illinois senator's experience with racism and discrimination, which Robinson also has experienced.
"I think it would be hard to be a person of color in this country and not be on the receiving end of that,'' he said. ''I think we make a mistake when we think there has to be an act of hatred from one person to another for racism to occur, where our whole culture is set up to benefit one race over another."
from The Chicago Sun Times

Brazil Judge Doesn't Want Gay's Playing Soccer

A Brazilian judge faces legal action for homophobia after giving a judgment in which he said football was a masculine sport, not a homosexual one.
The judge is reported to have said no-one who had watched the golden era of Pele and others in the 1970s could ever consider having a homosexual idol.
His comments emerged in a case brought by Brazilian footballer Richarlyson.
Richarlyson, who plays for Sao Paulo, was named on national TV as a gay player by the manager of another team.
The suggestion that a leading Brazilian footballer was gay had already been the subject of considerable public speculation.
Richarlyson started legal proceedings against the manager, claiming that the public outing on television had damaged his image.
Controversial
In reaching a decision to effectively set the case aside, Judge Manoel Maximiniano Junqueira Filho said football was a virile masculine sport and not a homosexual one.
If you were a homosexual, it would be better to admit it or to conceal it completely, the judge was reported as saying.
However, if that was the case, it would be better to abandon the playing field, he added.
The judge said those who remembered the World Cup of 1970 and saw golden players such as Pele and Tostao would never consider a homosexual idol.
It was not shown to be reasonable to accept homosexuality in Brazilian football because this would damage the equilibrium and uniformity of thinking of the team.
A complaint is to be lodged about the judge's comments, which seem likely to become more controversial than the original legal action and his decision to shelve the case is also the subject of an appeal.
from The BBC

The Village People Going Straight

Victor Willis, the troubled ex-frontman for the Village People, is mounting a comeback with a tell-all book detailing his frustration with his flamboyant gay bandmates and why they ultimately caused him to leave the group in the early '80s.
Willis, best-known for portraying the cop and the naval admiral in the '70s disco group, also reveals "Y.M.C.A." was written in Vancouver and was never meant to refer to gay cruising, says his publicist Alice Wolf.
Wolf says the group was on tour when Willis wrote the lyrics at the behest of the band's French producer, Jacques Morali, who wrote the music. But Willis never intended the homosexual innuendo that many fans read into the song.
"Victor Willis wrote about the YMCA and having fun there, but the type of fun he was talking about was straight fun," insists Wolf, adding that Willis has nothing against homosexuality.
"When he says, 'Hang out with all the boys'... he's talking about the boys, the fellas.... But it's one of those ambiguous songs that was taken that way because of the gay association with Village People."
"Y.M.C.A." and its infectious refrain went on to become one the biggest hits of the era, but for Willis it came to represent one of the biggest insults to his career, Wolf says in a phone interview from San Diego.
As the main lyricist and vocalist, Willis was responsible for classics including "In the Navy," "Macho Man" and "Go West," but was appalled by the homosexual subtext they took on, fearing that catering to a "niche" market would doom the group to failure, she says.
The group won a dedicated gay following through suggestive dance moves and macho personas including a cowboy, a construction worker, a soldier, an American Indian chief, a leather man and a cop.
But when a deal to promote the U.S. navy with the song "In the Navy" collapsed in 1979, Willis blamed the band's gay image for spoiling a huge opportunity, says Wolf.
He quit in frustration in 1980, seeking a solo career that never materialized.
In recent years, Willis has made headlines for a string of drug-related arrests that landed him on "America's Most Wanted" in 2005.
But Wolf says the 56-year-old has been sober for a year and a half, completed a drug treatment program in April and is eager to reclaim the songs that continue to earn him nearly $1 million a year in royalties. Wolf says he has refused all interviews since 1979 and would not comment for this story.
A comeback show in Las Vegas on Aug. 31 will mark 30 years since Willis first recorded as the Village People, says Wolf.
The show will be followed by an extensive tour that Wolf says will begin in Australia and take him to Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto in the spring of 2008. The tell-all book is expected to be released at around the same time, she says.
Willis's return to the spotlight comes as the current incarnation of the Village People prepares to visit Toronto on Aug. 17.
Now led by vocalist Ray Simpson, the band maintains a busy touring schedule supported by a diverse fanbase of children, seniors, straight couples and, of course, gay men.
Simpson took pains to divert attention from the personal lives of his bandmates, noting that he, too, is frustrated when the Village People are described as a gay group.
"They're straight, they're gay, they're Catholic, Protestant... it's black, white, Indian, it's a very diverse group," Simpson says of the current lineup.
"Thanks goodness that we're embraced by a lot of different people and a lot of different groups. ... The only way that you can actually exist ... as long as we've been doing this is by having mutual respect for each other and respecting the differences."
Simpson, who worked as a background singer during Willis's term, says he wasn't aware of the impending book, but wished his former colleague the best.
"All I can say is: for every story, there's another story," Simpson says of the memoir.
"Hopefully, he's on track to take care of his life."
Wolf says Willis's stage performance will include all of his biggest hits with the Village People, and several costume changes involving the group's trademark personas.
She says Willis is also trying to obtain the master recordings of a solo album he recorded after leaving the group but never released, for possible release next year.

via Reality Cubed

from Jam Showbiz

Alternative Sex To Be Taught In Maryland Schools

A public school district's program promoting anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transvestism as normal sexual variations was recently approved by the Maryland State Board of Education despite strenuous opposition from several pro-family groups. Montgomery County Public School's controversial sexuality curriculum for eighth and tenth grade students is the result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.
In response, the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that it will assist the pro-family groups in their appeal of the Education Board's decision to the Montgomery County Circuit Court. The Law Center will be assisted by Maryland attorney John R. Garza who has been involved in the curriculum fight for several years.
The Thomas More Law Center and John Garza represent Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, and the Family Leader Network.
According to Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, "I'm impressed with the principled and steadfast opposition by these pro-family groups to this outrageously hedonistic and life-threatening sexuality curriculum. The Law Center will do everything we can to assist them in their fight."
The pro-family groups oppose the sex program on several grounds: (1) it teaches students that homosexuality is "innate," which is an unproven theory; (2) it teaches students that anal sex is just another sexual option without warning students of the increased HIV/AIDS risk of anal sex, even with a condom; (3) it labels as "homophobic" children who hold traditional religious or moral beliefs about homosexuality; and (4) it teaches students that transgenderism is just another "sexual orientation," even though transgenderism has been classified as a mental disorder.
The Montgomery County Circuit Court may overturn the decision of the State Board of Education. The court may also stay the application of the sexuality curriculum while the appeal is pending. If the court affirms the decision of the State Board of Education, the case will be appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Edward L. White III, trial counsel with the Law Center, who is handling the case, commented: "This curriculum is full of factual inaccuracies and runs counter to sound educational policy. It should not be taught in the public school."
from Life Site

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Murder Suspect Arrested

CANADA - A manhunt involving three police forces ended last night in Portage du Fort, Que., as Ontario Provincial Police arrested Jesse Norman Imeson, 22, the suspect in three Ontario murders.
Police caught up with Mr. Imeson after a 911 call from a homeowner in Portage du Fort, a small town across the Ottawa River from Renfrew, Ont., about 100 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
"He had broken into a home and was surprised by the owner," said Surete du Quebec Sergeant Michel Brunet.
Mr. Imeson fled the house. The homeowner called police and gave chase. Members of the OPP and the Surete du Quebec surrounded the woods around the home. Mr. Imeson gave himself up to members of the OPP at about 9 p.m. He was carrying two rifles.
Mr. Imeson had been tracked to Quebec because of several break-ins over the weekend that police suspect he perpetrated.
He is expected to be charged with three counts of murder, as well as theft and breaking and entering.
Earlier yesterday, the search for Mr. Imeson had moved to the Ottawa Valley after a stolen pickup truck he was believed to be driving was found in a wooded area west of Renfrew.
Windsor police and the OPP then asked the Surete du Quebec for help in finding Mr. Imeson.
The SQ had said yesterday that it believed he might have crossed into Quebec and was hiding out in the Pontiac area.
"He is extremely dangerous; don't try to confront him," Sgt. Brunet warned at the time.
The manhunt began on July 19, when Windsor bartender Carlos Rivera was found strangled to death in Mr. Imeson's apartment.
Four days later, elderly couple Bill and Helene Regier were found shot to death in their farmhouse near Mount Carmel, Ont., about 50 kilometres northwest of London.
Police began searching closer to Ottawa on Monday night after the grey GMC Sierra pickup belonging to the Regiers was found in Whitewater Township.
As tactical officers armed with semi-automatic rifles guarded the scene yesterday, forensic identification officers examined the truck.
At two neighbouring properties, members of the OPP emergency response team and K-9 officers set up a command post for a ground search, as an OPP plane scanned the area from above.
The site where the truck was found, only a few kilometres from the Chenaux Bridge, prompted police to canvass homes in Shawville, on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River.
Kathy Regier, who lives about 15 kilometres from where the truck was found, said the discovery was a hot topic among her neighbours in Beachburg, Ont.
"It's a shock to have something like that around here, because it is generally a quiet community," said Ms. Regier, who is a distant relative of the slain couple.
It was also learned yesterday that, hours before allegedly strangling Mr. Rivera, who tended bar at a gay night club, Mr. Imeson showed up there looking for a job as a stripper.
Eddie An, who runs The Tap, said Mr. Imeson came to the bar July 17 wanting to dance.
"He was filling out an application form, but he didn't have his ID, so we couldn't finish it," Mr. An said. "He said he forgot it at home and would come back the next day. He stayed and had a few drinks, just as a patron."
Mr. An said Mr. Imeson didn't get a dancing job the night he came to The Tap, but he did jump on stage to dance around the pole "for a few minutes."
Mr. An didn't see the performance, but said Mr. Imeson didn't take his clothes off and wasn't paid.
"He wasn't working as a dancer," he said. "We have amateurs go on stage from time to time."
Nick Cesljar, who took Mr. Imeson to The Tap that night, said the man thought he could make a lot of money stripping at The Tap.
"I tried to advise him against doing that," said Mr. Cesljar, who had partied with Imeson over the past couple of months. "He was just looking at the money, I guess. He got the idea he can get more money dancing for guys rather than dancing for girls, because guys, being perverts, they'll pay more. That's how it began."
from The National Post

Gay Couple Wins Homophobia Case

MONTREAL - Theo Wouters and Roger Thibault are arguably the most high-profile homosexual couple in Quebec and, partly as a result, they say their lives in a quiet corner of suburbia have been "sheer hell."
Ever since they went public with complaints of threats and harassment by their neighbours in the bedroom community of Pointe Claire, they say they have been victims of homophobia.
And now, in the latest chapter in their public and acrimonious battle, they have won a victory at the Quebec Human Rights Commission, which has ordered a local youth and his father to pay them $10,000 in damages for violating their rights.
The agency ruled that Mr. Wouters and Mr. Thibault, retirees who have been a couple for more than 30 years, were the victims of harassment by a local teenage boy who threw projectiles onto their lawn and threatened to smash their faces.
The incidents unfolded in 2003, one year after Mr. Wouters and Mr. Thibault boosted their public profile by becoming the first gay couple in Quebec to join in a civil union.
"This is happening because we're an open gay couple," Mr. Wouters said from his home yesterday. "We didn't accept being harassed in the first place, and it all escalated from there. The last 10 years have been sheer hell for Roger and I."
The Quebec commission said, in a ruling issued in June and made public by the couple yesterday, that Mr. Wouters and Mr. Thibault had suffered discrimination based on their sexual orientation. Bolstering their case were video cameras that had been installed outside their home and paid for by Quebec's victim-compensation agency.
Although the couple says a group of teenaged boys in a pickup truck harassed them, the commission did not pursue the case against the other youths because they live in Alberta, commission spokesman Robert Sylvestre said.
But it did uphold the case against a youth from Pointe Claire, aged 17 at the time, who openly admitted his disdain for the couple. He acknowledged to the human-rights agency that he'd thrown a lit fuse and rolls of toilet paper onto the Wouters-Thibault property, and threatened the couple with violence once while they were in their car.
The youth, whose name was not released, also stated about the couple: "I didn't like their lifestyle, found them arrogant and it bothers me that they make their story so public," the commission wrote.
The boy's father is being held accountable for paying moral damages because his son was a minor, Mr. Sylvestre said.
The Montreal civil rights group that fought the couple's case says the pair paid a price for their notoriety and their choice to live in suburbia. "We tend to see Quebec as a very tolerant society, but in practice it all depends on where you live," said Fo Niemi of the Centre for Research-Action for Race Relations. "The suburbs are very conservative and family-oriented and heterosexual, so sometimes [gays] aren't seen as very positive by the neighbours."
In 2002, the Quebec Human Rights Commission ordered two of their neighbours to pay the pair $36,000 in damages. But in a separate, criminal case, a Quebec Court judge in Montreal later that year cleared one of those neighbours of criminal harassment and assault.
And the couple's fight isn't over. Mr. Wouters and Mr. Thibault have another case pending before the human rights commission, this time because they say a neighbourhood father came to their door in 2005 and threatened their lives.
"We have no choice," said Mr. Wouters, a 65-year-old former couturier and milliner. "We have suffered greatly for the last 10 years and I simply don't want this to happen to other people."
from The Globe And Mail