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Downpour didn’t dampen the anger of about 60 demonstrators who stood under umbrellas on the steps of an empty Atlanta City Hall on Saturday to protest a police raid on a gay nightclub. “We were mugged by the police,” said Mike Alvear, 50, of Midtown, a community activist and the host of HBO’s ‘The Sex Inspectors.’ “They stole our dignity the same way crooks steal our wallets.” Danni Lynn Harris, the Police Department’s liaison to the gay community, asked the crowd to let the internal affairs unit investigate the Sept. 10 raid of Atlanta Eagle on Ponce de Leon Avenue....

A San Francisco sex group's four-year strategic plan, aimed to "change the way Americans think about sex" by desensitizing mainstream American culture to aberrant sexual practices, has been leaked. The document reveals a well thought out strategy to acclimatize the American public to everything from the practice of sadomasochism to orgies and every other "consensual" sexual behavior besides. "CSC will be taking the lead in framing the sex positive discourse in our culture," writes the Center for Sex and Culture in its 2007-2011 strategic plan. "In this ambitious vision of the future, certainly more than five years distant, CSC will...

Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus San Francisco, Calif., Sep 18, 2009 / 06:12 am (CNA).- A homosexual activist group is claiming that groups at dozens of high schools and middle schools in California, including at least one Catholic school, have signed up to show and discuss its explicit films. The films include one in which a boy “comes out” by wearing his mother’s bikini.Another film uses Native American spirituality to depict lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people as being “two-spirit” people.Parts of the discussion materials encourage students to question whether religious and cultural celebrations such as bar...

LONDON (Reuters) – British men are becoming increasingly interested in having their eyebrows professionally groomed, according to Debenhams department store which plans to hold men-only "guybrow" nights. Men, it said, now make up 40 percent of the visitors to its brow bars, double the proportion of a year ago. They are going for a treatment called "threading," an ancient method of hair removal which originated in India in which a thin twine of cotton thread is rolled over the offending area, plucking the hair from the follicle level.

Use The Force, Barack: Obama Shows Off His Skills With Lightsaber (And Probably Wishes He Had A Real One To Deal With Opponents) JULIAN GAVAGHAN 17th September 2009 His charm, eloquence and winning smile were enough to earn him the presidency. But judging by his efforts with a mock lightsaber today, Barack Obama may be glad his opponents are the Republican Party and not Darth Vader’s forces. [Pics in URL] Luckily Mr Obama was only practising with members of the U.S. fencing team on the White House lawn to support Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Barack Obama Plays With Star Wars Lightsaber As He promotes Chicago's Olympic Bid 16 Sep 2009 President Barack Obama jokingly jousts with a light saber during a fencing demonstration on the South Lawn of the White House. [Pic in URL] Watched by his wife, Michelle, Mr Obama used a Star Wars lightsaber to "attack" Tim Morehouse, the American Olympic fencer who won a silver medal in men's sabre fencing in Beijing. Mr Obama's "lunge" took place on the South Lawn during an event supporting Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The President said that the whole of America was...

"The Newlywed Game" is bringing on its first gay couple. It's a celebrity duo for the long-running game show, now on the GSN cable network. George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek," will appear with his partner, Brad Altman. They just celebrated their first anniversary after being married in Los Angeles. Takei and Altman have been together for 22 years, so they're nothing like the giggly young couples who appeared on the first version of the show. The new edition of "The Newlywed Game" began airing on GSN a year ago and has been a ratings

SAN FRANCISCO — Wah Cheong, a lifelong Republican and the soon-to-be divorced father of two teenage boys, sometimes surprises his co-workers and neighbors in a relatively conservative community outside San Francisco when he says he supports same-sex marriage. "Here is my situation," the 47-year-old chemical engineer tells them when the hot-button topic comes up. "If gays and lesbians were more accepted, I wouldn't have married a closeted lesbian."

During a visit to Ukraine, the singer said he and his partner David Furnish were keen to become parents to a 14-month-old they had met there. "David and I have always talked about adoption," he said. But as Mr Furnish held baby Lev on his knee, Sir Elton revealed he had changed his mind. "Having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. The singer said the death of his long-term keyboardist, Guy Babylon, had also helped change his mind about children. "It broke my heart...

Look out, Madonna and Angelina Jolie — pop star Elton John may be joining the ranks of A-list celebrities with adopted children. John and longtime partner David Furnish are interested in trying to adopt a Ukrainian toddler named Lev they met during an orphanage tour there. The singer told reporters in Ukraine on Saturday that Furnish has long wanted to adopt a child but that he was reluctant until he met Lev at an orphanage where many of the children's parents have died from AIDS. "David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said 'no' because I...

A local church switched from Pepsi products to Coca-Cola, but it's not because they don't like the taste of the product. The Bell Shoals Baptist church in Brandon got rid of the products as part of the American Family Association's boycott.

A homosexual man is suing a third national Bible publisher for "mental anguish" after he says the company published Bibles with a negative connotation toward homosexuals. Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., alleges William Tyndale Publishing manipulated Scripture when it published Tyndale’s New Living Translation Holy Bible and the New Life Application Study Bible by using the term "homosexuals" in a New Testament passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9. "One Bible dictates homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, while the other is completely void on the issue altogether," Fowler wrote in a statement on his blog.

http://ag.ca.gov/initiatives/activeindex.php?active=A 09-0026 Submitted for Title and Summary on September 01, 2009. "2010 California Marriage Protection Act." PDF link here: http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i823_initiative_09-0026.pdf SECTION 1. Title. This act shall be known as the "2010 California Marriage Protection Act." SECTION 2. Section 7.6 is added to Article I of the California Constitution to read: "No party to any marriage shall be restored to the state of an unmarried person during the lifetime of the other party unless the marriage is void or voidable, as set forth in Part 2 of Division 6 of the Family Code. Relevant section of the Family Code: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/code/getcode.html?file=./fam/02001-03000/2210-2212 Website:...

If you tuned in to the soap "One Life to Live" this week, you may have noticed there's been a change of character. One character in particular. Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs. Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on "OLTL" for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired. Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian,...

After the judgement of the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex, a number of parents have approached private detective agencies to spy on the sexual preferences of their children. The trend, which was going on covertly for past many years, has seen a significant increase especially after the court verdict, detective agencies say. "We have been approached by parents to help them in finding their children's sexual orientation. Our detectives spy on them to find out whether their wards are homosexuals or lesbians," said Sanjay Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Indian Detective Agency. Parents are even taking the help of...

Patricia Mauceri who has been on 'One Life to Live' for fourteen years, claims she was fired for objecting to a gay storyline. She also claims she was fired for...

The increasingly nasty fight between South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer escalated further this week with charges from a legislative ally of Bauer that Sanford and his supporters are spreading malicious rumors that Bauer — a Republican like Sanford — is gay. GOP state Sen. Jake Knotts made the charge in a letter to state legislators Wednesday that was obtained by POLITICO. In an interview in June with The State newspaper, Bauer voluntarily brought up the subject of his sexual orientation. Asked if he was gay, he responded: “One word, two letters. No.” But the rumor...

Former Democratic strategist turned journalist George Stephanopoulos appeared on Thursday’s Good Morning America to declare that President Obama’s address to Congress on September 9 must "intimidate Republicans a little bit." Stephanopoulos, who was a top aide to Bill Clinton, added that the White House should force the GOP to "make sure they understand the consequences of failure."

OLYMPIA, Wash. (BP)--Voters in Washington state this November apparently will get to decide whether to keep or overturn the state's same-sex "everything but marriage" law, which grants homosexual couples all the legal benefits of marriage and which conservatives warn will lead to the legalization of full-fledged "gay marriage" in the state.

DUXBURY, Vt. -- Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage on Tuesday at midnight, but anticipated demand has been low. Bill Slimback and Bob Sullivan waited 17 years before finally tying the knot in a midnight ceremony at a lodge in Duxbury. The couple, who planned the ceremony for late Monday, were pronounced married long before the sun rose Tuesday, when a new law legalizing same-sex marriage took effect. "I didn't think it was even going to be possible," Slimback said. "We've waited so long to do it, but there are many other people behind us." Justice of...

Mitt Romney told aides that he was dropping out of last year's presidential campaign because he didn't want to aid "a surrender to terror" by damaging John McCain's campaign, according to an account in the Boston Globe. The quote is from Sasha Issenberg's piece in the Globe magazine on Romney's past and future campaign, worth a read-through. Romney was considering last February whether to stay and fight, Issenberg writes: Eventually spokesman Madden’s BlackBerry buzzed with a draft from Romney. Staying in the race, he had concluded, would only weaken McCain’s prospects against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. “In this time...

  Alan Turing, who is said to be the father of modern computer science, was a WWII code-breaker until he was prosecuted by the British government for having homosexual relations. Thousands have now signed a petition calling for a government apology.Turing committed suicide two years after his prosecution in 1954, but was before given experimental chemical castration as a “treatment”. He is most well known for his NAZI enigma code breaking work for the British during the second World War and his helping establish a test to measure the intelligence of a machine which is now known as a Turing Test.So...

Men accused of having sex on stranger's lawn They are accused of lewd conduct near the beach. LAGUNA BEACH Police arrested two men today on suspicion of having sex on a stranger's lawn. The incident occurred in broad daylight, police said, in the 1000 block of Gaviota Drive, which is a neighborhood of multi-million-dollar homes near Thalia Street Beach, on the ocean side of Coast Highway. Police Sgt. George Ramos said the home's owner called police at 12:57 p.m. to report that the men had just finished having sex and had walked off. "We were able to locate them within...

Equality Arizona continues to push its radical agenda onto the citizens of Mesa, one of the nation’s more conservative communities. Earlier this summer, Equality Arizona encouraged homosexuals to move to Mesa, and now it is campaigning for domestic partner benefits with city officials there. This is nothing more than an effort to undermine marriage and family. What’s more, this group is asking its members call or email members of the Mesa City Council, Mayor Scott Smith and the Human Relations Advisory Board “to let them know you support a process to explore relationship recognition that that will provide opportunities for...

Madonna Booed During Romanian Concert Over Gypsy Remark August 28, 2009 7:13 a.m. EST Anne Lu - Celebrity News Service News Writer Bucharest, Romania (CNS) - Madonna's stance on equality was not warmly received in Romania. The pop superstar was booed during a concert after she mentioned discrimination of gypsies and homosexuals in the country. She told the "Sticky and Sweet" concert crowd in Bucharest, "I've never been to Romania before and I am happy to be here." "But I found out that there is a lot of discrimination against gypsies in Eastern Europe and that makes me very sad,...

Lutheran ministers who are in same-sex relationships will not be allowed to serve as clergy in United Methodist congregations despite the new full communion agreement between the two denominations. Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, made clear on Wednesday that UMC's ban on noncelibate gay clergy still stands. "Our Book of Discipline on that subject did not become null and void when they took that vote," said Palmer, according to the United Methodist News Service. "It still applies to United Methodist clergy." Palmer was referring to the highly publicized vote last week by the chief...

Let us detour for a moment from the recent death of Senator Ted Kennedy and the continuing debate over health care reform to consider a bizarre little happening in the Twin Cities that occurred last week. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America convened for an annual meeting at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Among the items on its agenda was a vote to decide whether to allow non-celibate homosexuals to be ordained as pastors. On Wednesday, the day of the vote, a freak storm unexpectedly swept through town without warning, bringing a tornado that damaged both the convention center and the...

State attorneys will make their case Wednesday in Miami before an appeals court as to why Florida should continue its strict ban on gays and lesbians adopting children.

A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit filed against the Defense of Marriage Act, saying that the suit had been improperly filed in state court before it was transferred to his jurisdiction. Because of the technicality, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter refused to entertain arguments on the suit’s merits and said the case must be refilled in federal court to be considered. "There is no point for us to go down the line of decision-making and waste time," he said during the hearing in Santa Ana, Calif., according to The Associated Press. Though the gay Southern California...

Contrary to the popular stereotypes about gays, a recent study from The Barna Group reveals some surprising insights about gay spirituality. The study shows that there are both similarities and differences when comparing the spiritual beliefs of homosexuals and heterosexuals. "People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts," said George Barna, Barna Group founder and a best-selling author of numerous books about faith and culture on the Barna Group Web site. "A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a central facet of their life, consider themselves to be Christian, and...

(08-24) 11:55 PDT Carson City, Nev. (AP) -- Monday marked the first day Nevada couples could begin registering as domestic partners in advance of a new law that takes effect in October. Same- and opposite-sex couples who apply soon could receive their certificates of domestic partnership as early as Oct. 1. That's the day a new state law goes into effect extending rights similar to those held by married couples to cohabitating couples, whether gay or straight, who register. Applications will be accepted at the secretary of state's office. There is a $50 fee, and the applications must be notarized....

In spite of the overwhelmingly negative information reported regarding health disparities for bisexual men and women, the 2009 Bi Health Summit was groundbreaking, insightful, and well-facilitated. Researchers, sexual health educators, and policy makers provided important information for activists and health advocates to engage both local LGBTQI institutions and larger mainstream healthcare organizations. Even with the information disclosed, however, researchers at the Bi Summit stressed the need for more bi-specific research to be done, both in general health and related to STD and HIV prevention, to advocate for funding and policy changes. Over and over, bi researchers, sex educators, and policy...

Travel icon Arthur Frommer says he won't be spending his tourism dollars at the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else in Arizona, because the state's laws allow people he described as "thugs" and "extremists" to openly carry firearms. The author of budget-travel guides said on his blog Wednesday that he was "shocked beyond measure" by reports that protesters openly carried guns and rifles outside a Phoenix building where President Barack Obama spoke on Monday. Frommer says he won't personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons as a means of political protest.

Leaders of the nation's biggest Lutheran denomination voted Friday to allow gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy in the church -- making it one of the largest Christian denominations in the country to significantly open the pulpit to gays. Previously, only celibate gays were permitted to serve as clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination of 4.8 million members. But delegates to a church assembly voted 559-451 to allow gays in "life-long, monogamous" relationships to serve as clergy and professional lay leaders in the church. The vote is the culmination of a years-long process in...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a controversial vote late Friday afternoon to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Despite strong opposition, the ELCA passed the vote 559 to 451, marking a historic change, and repealing a ban on gay clergy. At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA would be one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy. "We are today part of a church denomination that is changing, and it will make possible...

In December 2005, Kerry Pacer, then 17, was featured on the cover of the national gay news magazine The Advocate as its "Person of the Year" — making her the youngest gay person to achieve that honor – for fighting for a "gay-straight alliance" at White County High School in Cleveland, Georgia. But there’s apparently no embarrassment for the gay press....when she takes on a boyfriend and they have a baby. In The Washington Blade, Dyana Bagby reported: But today she lives with her boyfriend, a construction worker, and their baby daughter, Marley, who turns 1 year old on Saturday....

Anchorage, Alaska, Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed a pro-gay measure Monday that likely would have threatened religious liberties. The ordinance had been approved by the Anchorage Assembly, 7-4. It was designed to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, education and other areas. Pro-family groups said it would have forced Christian ministries, churches and others in the faith community to hire people who don't share their religious beliefs. Jim Minnery, president of the Alaska Family Council, said communities across the country have been negatively affected after sexual orientation measures were implemented. "In each of those communities, there's been documented cases of Christian adoption...

Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a "homophobe" in a recent interview with the gay news Web site 365gay.com . The Democratic lawmaker, who is gay, was discussing gay marriage and his expectation that the high court would some day be called upon to decide whether the Constitution allows the federal government to deny recognition to same-sex marriages. "I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court," said Frank. The video of the interview is available online. Frank's office...

SF City-Funded Adoption Agency Advertises with “Mister Marcus” AdoptionSF.org, a joint project of the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency and Family Builders by Adoption is advertising for adoptive parents on the “Mister Marcus” page of San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter website. The Reporter’s front page motto is “Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community since 1971.” “Mister Marcus” publishes a weekly column in the Reporter which covers and publicizes upcoming “leather” events. Examples include: “A weekend of bdsm activity and featuring NW Master and slave contest on Sat. night” (July 2, 2009) and “Hell Hole Fisting Party...

Hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months, some by the nation's security forces, Human Rights Watch said Monday. Iraqi clerics say homosexuality must be eradicated but warn against anti-gay violence. Interviews with doctors indicate hundreds of men had been killed, but the exact number was unclear because of the stigma associated with homosexuality in Iraq, the New York-based watchdog group said in its report. "Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program...

Psychologist Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of psychology at Grove City College, Pennsylvania once met a woman who was in a lifelong lesbian relationship and suddenly, with no prefaced desire to leave her lesbian lifestyle, fell in love with a guy at work. She left her lesbian partner and married the man. The American Psychological Association just published a report on whether therapists can make this change happen. In examining change therapy, which claims that people with homosexual desires can switch to heterosexual desires, the report says there is insufficient evidence that the therapies work. But it also found that while...

The report was compiled by a six-member task force that admitted to a built-in bias that "same-sex sexual attractions, behavior and orientations per se are normal and positive variants of human sexuality and are not indicators of either mental or developmental disorders." The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) said the task force was stacked with gay or gay-friendly activists who would naturally conclude that reparative therapy does not work. "No APA member who offers reorientation therapy was allowed to join the task force," said David Pruden, NARTH vice president. "In fact, one can make the case...

Gov. Charlie Crist today asked for three applications for the U.S. Senate vacancy, The Palm Beach Post has learned. Crist said he asked for applications this afternoon from U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami; former U.S. Attorney Bob Martinez; and former Florida Secretary of State Jim Smith. “There will be others,” Crist said in an interview.

Here is video of former President Bill Clinton pandering to the "Netroots (Nutroots) Nation" meeting last night where he confessed that his signing his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Gays in the Military Policy into law was something he did only because he could not get a more radical policy through Congress. He said he regrets how it has been implemented by "middle level" military personnel. He also confessed that he signed the "Defense of Marriage Act" into law, not because he believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage, but because it was a move to keep Congress from sending a...

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A study finds about twice as many gay, lesbian and bisexual Californians sought mental health or substance abuse treatment last year than did heterosexuals. The study was conducted by UCLA scientists and involved data from a survey of more than 2,000 Californians. The researchers found 48.5 percent of gay lesbian or bisexual individuals said they participated in treatment during the past year, compared with 22.5 percent of heterosexuals. Lesbians and bisexual women were most likely to receive treatment and heterosexual men were the least likely. "It is well known that health services utilization is...

I’m not trying to beat this public sex thing to death, but I couldn’t resist posting the following e-mail I received last week from one of the four men arrested in the bathrooms at NorthPark Center recently. I’m withholding the defendant’s name, because Dallas Voice doesn’t typically identify people charged with misdemeanor crimes. Here’s the full text of the e-mail: I was one of the four people arrested and charged with indecent exposure at North Park Mall last week. I strongly believe that I was wrongly charged. The statements given by the police did not match what happened. The cop...

“I guess Mother Nature was a drag queen and she’s looking down on us today because it is absolutely beautiful out here,” drag entertainer Symone said. “I think it’s our biggest Pride ever! The floats were amazing and people have been so receptive,” she added. From booby burlesque beauties and leggy can-can dancers to uniformed Mounties and scantly-clad politicians, the parade, boasting 150 entries, was a spectacle of celebration and awareness centered on the theme of education, celebration and liberation. Parade organizers estimate that 530,000 people battled record-breaking heat to attend Vancouver’s 31st annual Pride parade this year — sporting...