Michael Savage Dropped By Creative Artists Agency

Melissa Etheridge doesn't have to worry about running into one of radio's most antigay personalities when she's visiting her powerhouse agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
TMZ reported earlier today that CAA recently signed Michael Savage, who hosts the conservative radio program Savage Nation.
Savage has a history of spewing homophobic rhetoric. Savage was fired from MSNBC in 2003 for referring to an unidentified caller to his weekend show on the cable channel as a "sodomite" who should "get AIDS and die." And just this week, he reportedly went off on Etheridge's Oscar win, because she had thanked her wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, during her acceptance speech. "I don't like a woman married to a woman," he said, according to TMZ. "It makes me want to puke. I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it's child abuse."
It looks like Savage's life at CAA was short-lived. I just got word from CAA's rep, who said in an email, "No longer rep him."
Why on earth CAA thought it was a good idea to add Savage to its roster is beyond me. But I'm sure the agency's megawatt clients like Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close, Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts will be thrilled to learn Savage is no longer part of the family.
from E! Online

Hotels With No Condoms Get Fined

BEIJING - A Chinese province has taken the unusual step of fining hotels and bars more than $600 if they do not provide condoms, part of efforts to fight the spread of AIDS, a newspaper said on Friday.
The booming eastern province of Zhejiang, with 1,859 recorded infections by the end of last year, started enforcing the rules on Thursday, the Beijing News said.
"Condoms or condom-vending machines must be placed in hotels, bars and designated public places, or the managers will be fined 5,000 yuan ($650)," the report said.
The Chinese government originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West -- a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.
It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.
But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.
from Reuters

Mexico Troops With HIV Win Case Vs. Army

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the armed forces cannot kick out HIV-positive members because doing so is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The court, with an 8-3 vote, ordered Mexico's Defense Department to return to duty four soldiers who were expelled from the armed forces for testing HIV-positive.
The judges spent five sessions debating whether HIV-positive armed forces members were "useless," as the military had argued.
The president of the court, Guillermo Ortiz, said the military can still expel members who have full-blown AIDS or who medically cannot complete their duties.
The case rose to the Supreme Court after several soldiers appealed the Defense Department's decision to let them go.
A congressional commission has requested that Mexico's armed forces provide them with figures on the number of military personnel infected with the AIDS virus and how many have been discharged because of their illness.
from The Associated Press

Just One Look...#54

'Cup Check' Leaves Student in Danger Of Losing Testicles

SACRAMENTO - A locker room prank as common as the snapped towel has one Ponderosa High School student in danger of felony assault charges and another in danger of losing his testicles.
According to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department, a 17-year-old Ponderosa junior performed a "cup check" on his 14-year-old freshman teammate following a snowboard team competition at Sierra-at-Tahoe on Feb. 12.
"They do this thing called the 'cup check,' " said sheriff's Lt. Kevin House. "It's this small group of guys that does it to one another."
A common sports gag, a cup check involves striking a teammate's groin, ostensibly to determine if he is wearing a protective cup.
In this case, the freshman was not and, according to the sheriff's report, fell to his knees in pain.
A coach reprimanded the junior, who is not being identified because of his age, and told the team not to conduct any further cup checks. Because the injuries did not appear severe, the coach did not seek medical assistance, said House.
Sometime later, the boy complained to his mother of pain, House said. On Feb. 19, after she noticed her son wincing when he sneezed, she took him to a doctor, who sent him to the emergency room.
There, according to investigators, he was told he had internal bleeding and an infection, and that he could lose one or both of his testicles.
The boy's parents brought the incident to the attention of Ponderosa High School Assistant Principal Darrin Slojkowski and sheriff's Deputy Laura Bradshaw, Ponderosa's school resource officer.
According to the report, the victim said he was struck with a closed fist with the intent to cause damage. The alleged perpetrator told investigators he used an open-hand slap, that it was a joke and that he never meant to hurt his teammate.
The 17-year-old signed a citation and was released to his parents' custody, House said. The citation is under review and if sufficient cause is found, the boy could face charges of battery causing serious bodily injury, a felony.
Slojkowski said he could not comment because the matter involved privacy concerns of his students.
Dr. Eric A. Kurzrock, chief of pediatric urology at UC Davis Children's Hospital, said that in his 16-year medical career, he had never seen a patient who needed both testicles removed.
Speaking generally, Kurzrock said the injury most likely to lead to removal of a testicle is a fracture, in which the outer layer of the testicle, which is made up of collagen and other tissue, is cracked by some sort of impact.
Minor fractures can be sewn back together, he said. Severe fractures that cause extensive bleeding usually lead to immediate removal of the injured testicle.
"It's usually a kick that does it, or skateboards and snowboards when you're doing a trick," he said.
Kurzrock estimated that the UC Davis Trauma Center treats two to four testicular fractures per year.
If the student has his testicles removed, he'll need a lifetime of testosterone replacement shots, especially now that he's going through puberty, Kurzrock said. Any viable sperm in the testicles would need to be frozen if he hopes to reproduce.
One Ponderosa student said that while activities like cup checks are ubiquitous wherever teenage boys gather, the practice isn't excessive at the school.
Jason Dyer, a 17-year-old senior at Ponderosa, has spent four years on the school's football team and two years on its wrestling team.
"It's just as prevalent as any football thing," he said of cup checks. "We don't do it excessively."
While Dyer said he's heard of hazing rituals taking place for younger athletes at other schools, he said he's seen none of that at Ponderosa.
"We get serious (about sports) around here," he said.
from The Sacramento Bee

Fired City Manager Could Be Transsexual Champion

LORGO, FLORIDA - Steve Stanton loved this city he ran for 14 years. This week, he asked the city to love him back -- to accept his plans to pursue sex-change operation and let him keep his $140,000 job as city manager. It didn't.
Almost 500 people packed into City Hall Tuesday night for a special meeting to decide if they would accept Susan instead of Steve as their top official. And while many spoke eloquently in his defense, more called for his ouster.
"If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he'd want him terminated," said Pastor Ron Saunders of Largo's Lighthouse Baptist Church. "Make no mistake about it."
At the end of the 31/2 hour meeting, the City Commission voted 5-2 to begin the legal process of firing Stanton, only a week after he was forced to reveal his secret by a local newspaper. He is on paid leave while the city begins the legal process to end his contract. He can appeal and the commission must vote again to formally fire him.
Transgender activists on Wednesday called Stanton's firing a "shameful display of ignorance and bias." But they suggested Largo's quick decision to fire a respected government official may be the anecdote they need to convince Congress to extend employment protections to gays, lesbians and transsexuals.
"We think this is a really clear example of the type of employment discrimination that transgendered people face every day," said Simon Aronoff, deputy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C. "By all accounts, he was doing a good job. The only reason he was fired is because he made the brave decision to live openly."
Mathew Staver, founder of the conservative Liberty Counsel legal group, said the city had a duty to reconsider the employment of a top official planning such a drastic change.
"The city hasn't changed the work environment. He has changed the work environment," Staver said. "He has to take into consideration the consequences of that personal decision. I think it would be more difficult for the city to retain this person because of how it might undermine the representation of the city in the eyes of the community. It could become very awkward."
The vote to oust Stanton came only a day after a Christian university in Michigan fired a male professor living as a woman a few days after she legally changed her name to something more feminine. The university claims the former John Nemecek did not honor the terms of her contract.
"I think they decided to terminate me rather than call me Julie," said Nemecek, an ordained Baptist minister who worked for 16 years on the faculty of Spring Arbor University. Both sides are scheduled to be in court ordered mediation in March.
Despite such high-profile setbacks, Aronoff said the transgender movement is gaining ground.
"We think this is our year," he said.
Last summer, a judge ruled a Westchester, N.Y., cook who claims he was fired from an upscale restaurant because he was a woman living as a man was covered by the state's human rights law, even though it doesn't mention sexual orientation. The ruling cleared the way for a $3 million discrimination lawsuit to proceed.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which also lobbies for gay, lesbian and transgendered rights, estimates 10 states and more than 90 local governments have included gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies.
Stanton supported a similar ordinance in Largo in 2003, but the fact he kept his personal life a secret then intensified the anger directed at him Tuesday night. Many in the crowd accused him of harboring a hidden agenda.
"I do not feel he has the integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the confidence to continue as the city manager of the city of Largo," said Commissioner Mary Gray Black, who introduced a resolution to fire Stanton.
Stanton listened with hands clasped throughout the 31/2 hour meeting.
"It's just real painful to know that seven days ago I was a good guy and now I have no integrity, I have no trust and most painful, I have no followers," Stanton told the crowd before the commission voted. "Hopefully after all this is behind us, we'll be better for it."
The surprise announcement stunned this city of 76,000 near St. Petersburg. Stanton said he had planned to reveal his secret this summer when his 13-year-old son was out of school.
Stanton, who is married, said he struggled with his secret desire to be a woman since childhood and hoped to "outrun it." In 2003, he began counseling to deal with his feelings and ultimately decided to pursue a sex-change operation.
In a memo to city employees last week, Stanton said he intended to "live as a woman for one year" as part of a process to prove he is ready for a sex change. He said he has only gone out in public as a woman a few times in cities far from Largo.
At Tuesday's meeting, there was nothing womanly about his appearance as he faced the crowd at City Hall in a dark suit and tie. Stanton has not yet scheduled the surgery, but is undergoing counseling and hormone replacement therapy in preparation for the operation.
"I'm going to be embarrassed if we throw this man out on the trash heap after he's worked so hard for the city," said Mayor Patricia Gerard, one of a few Stanton chose to share his secret with before last week. "We have a choice to make: We can go back to intolerance, or we can be the city of progress." Commissioner Gay Gentry praised Stanton, but supported his firing.
"I sense that he has lost his standing as a leader among the employees of the city," Gentry said. "We have need of an organizational leader that employees will follow."
Stanton left the room before the votes were cast, head down. Gerard and Commissioner Rodney J. Woods -- the first black commissioner in the city's 102-year history -- cast the only votes in his favor.
from First Coast News

Isaiah Hires Gay PR Firm

Controversial "Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington has a new man in his life.
TMZ has exclusively learned that Washington signed with PR crisis expert Howard Bragman and his company, Fifteen Minutes. Bragman started Fifteen Minutes PR in 2005 after selling powerhouse PR firm Bragman Nyman Cafarelli.
Interestingly, Bragman is openly gay and is the man responsible for the wildly successful launch of out and gay NBA center John Amaechi's best-selling book, "Man in the Middle," which was the subject of a homophobic slur by NBA car wash owner Tim Hardaway.
A source tells TMZ that Bragman is known for, "telling it like it is," to his clients, and that Isaiah will be no exception. Bragman's office confirmed that Washington is on board, and in a statement to TMZ said, "Our work with Isaiah is about his future -- not the past. There is an important dialogue in our society about diversity that needs to happen, and Isaiah is uniquely positioned to be the catalyst for this."
from TMZ