MORNING GOODS — Ah Chris, sitting there, still, at the construction site, wearing his work gloves to make sure his hands stay protected. When operating heavy machinery. And such.

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Tagged: Models, Morning Goods, Photos, risque

If operations like Tim Gill's Fight Back New York are targeting lawmakers voting against LGBT equality, you can be damn sure endorsers of discrimination have their own plans to oust pro-gay legislators. And that's exactly what the National Organization for Marriage is doing in Washington D.C.

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Tagged: anthony motley, campaigns, David Catania, Elections, National Organization for Marriage, NOM, Politics, rev. anthony motley, Washington D.C.

Joe Cao is a Republican Congressman from Louisiana. It's his first term in office, so don't blame the guy for taking some time to figure out where to invest his mostly empty gestures, as a freshman lawmaker's decisions are generally determined by the party (if he has any hope ascending its ranks), or desires to tickle. But Rep. Cao is finding his way, and today it landed with the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, the bill introduced this month in both the House and Senate that would repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. Cao has agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor. Except now both the Human Rights Campaign and the Log Cabin Republicans are taking credit for scoring Cao's support, and one of them is pissed!

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Tagged: DADT, HRC, Human Rights Campaign, lcr, Log Cabin Republicans, military readiness enhancement act, mrea

And it's done: After being elected last year, Mary Glasspool of Baltimore, is the Los Angeles diocese new assistant bishop, making her the Episcopal Church's second gay one after 2003's consecration of V. Gene Robinson. [AP]

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Tagged: Anglican Church, Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, mary glasspool, Religion, V. Gene Robinson

American Apparel is a clothing brand known for workplace sexual harassment allegations against owner Dov Charney, and iconic solid color pieces. Trans Am, a spoof line of clothing for gals packing a little something extra, would fit right in. Genius.

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Tagged: American Apparel, Comedy, comercials, Fashion, lols, spoofs

"wthulhu," a user on the Digg-esque site Reddit, describes himself as bi/poly, 6'4, 210 pounds, and the wearer of pink clothing and makeup. He lives in Alaska and likes to head to the woods with friends for bonfires, where there's usually alcohol involved. If this sounds like Levi Johnston's Tuesday night, here's the difference: wthulhu ran into a "Brad" and "Jake," who decided to try to pummel his ass. Was this a gay bashing?

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Tagged: Alaska, Gay Bashing, Violence

Gus Van Sant is among the big Hollywood names officially approached by Summit Entertainment about directing Breaking Dawn, the final (and, likely, two-part) Twilight film. Also on the list: Lost in Translation's champagne muse and Dreamgirls's Bill Condon. But it's Van Sant, the Oscar-nominated Milk director, who has Robert Pattinson's personal support. So what would a Van Sant version of Twilight look like?

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Tagged: Gus Van Sant, Movies, twilight

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Tagged: ACLU, Californians Against Eliminating Basic Rights, Equality California, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, prop 8, protect marriage, protectmarriage.com

Daniel Villarreal is on the ground in Austin covering the SXSW Film Festival Below, he reviews Clay Liford's lesbian sci-fi flick, Earthling.

Less than a month before he began shooting his sci-fi pic, Earthling director Clay Liford cast a woman in his lead role. Which called for a man. The film already had a leading lady, Rebecca Spence, but none of the young actors that Liford auditioned to play her James Dean-esque co-star impressed him. That's when he discovered Amelia Turner, a young actress auditioning for another movie across the hall. After one audition, he cast Turner into the male role, changed the character of Harry to Abby, revised all the pronouns in his screenplay, and called his female lead to say, "Hey, you know that heterosexual sex scene you were going to be having? Well… not anymore." Spence trusted Liford's judgement, but Liford had to start re-thinking several scenes including a knock-down drag-out fight, a suggestive rape scene, and, of course, that heterosexual sex scene.

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Tagged: A Four Course Meal, Alien, Amelia Turner, Black Hole, Charles Burn, Clay Liford, Daniel Villarreal, Earthling, Entertainment, Ernst Haeckle, Film, Lesbian, Movies, My Mom Smokes Weed, Peter Greene, Rebecca Spence, sci-fi, Sigourney Weaver, sxsw, The Blob

When it comes to threats and incitements of violence, the First Amendment doesn't apply. Courts have long ruled this to be the case, whether those threats are written on Post-Its or screamed in your face. So when a 16-year-old high-schooler took to the website of a 15-year-old then-classmate, whom he believed (wrongly) was gay and, posing as a concerned parent, left comments about wanting to "rip out your … heart and feed it to you" and his urge to "pound your head in with an ice pick," he doesn't get to hide behind his free speech rights, a California appeals court just ruled.

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Tagged: Bullying, First Amendment, Free Speech, harassment, kids, Lawsuits, School, www

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Tagged: Adoption, Britain, Catholic Church, Children, kids

Fine, so we are late in watching VH1's new makeover show TRANSform Me, which premiered on Monday night. And it is better than Queer Eye and America's Next Top Model put together (and then cut into thirds, and shared among friends).

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Tagged: Fashion, Jamie Clayton, laverne cox, Nina Poon, transform me, VH1

It's as if Anderson Cooper's producers create these segments specifically so they will be talked about on the Internet. Like how Anderson Cooper as a Neanderthal looks just like some of the bears we've seen in his boyfriend's East Village bar.

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Tagged: Anderson Cooper, candy crowley

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Tagged: Blind Items, boy bands, Celebs, Gossip

How do filmmakers turning out gay-themed flicks get non-gay audiences to care enough to buy tickets? Kevin Iwashina — former Hollywood agent and Parlay Media producer for independent films like 8: The Mormon Proposition, Man on Wire, and Brotherhood — knows a thing or two about crossover appeal, and going after the hetero set.

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Tagged: 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, Brotherhood, Daniel Villarreal, Film, Gay, Kevin Iwashina, Man on Wire, Movies, sxsw

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Tagged: ACLU, Constance McMillen, Education, Itawamba Agricultural High School, Lawsuits, Mississippi, prom, School

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Tagged: bashing, Crime, Gay Bashing, Violence, Washington D.C.

Though conservative mayoral candidate Don Marsh will never admit he was behind them, the fliers circulating in Gainesville branding Craig Lowe, a gay man, as a proponent of "The Gay Agenda" either didn't work, or helped propel him into the lead in yesterday's run-off election. Except Lowe didn't secure more than 50 percent of the votes, which means he faces off against Marsh again on April 13.

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Tagged: Craig Lowe, don marsh, gainesville

On Friday, Here/Regent Media chief Paul Colichman, who publishes magazines named Out and The Advocate, fired the staff of Unzipped and ordered it closed.

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Tagged: Here Media, Magazines, Media, Paul Colichman, Porn, Regent Media, unzipped

That cup Jon Stewart is holding is not, in fact, a spittoon for reacting to bullshit, but the Holy Grail, which is appropos, given we're gonna get into some Vatican prostitution shiznit.

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Tagged: Catholic Church, Jon Stewart, Vatican

What's more scandalous: That a homosexual member of Al Qaeda was sought out as an informant for the CIA? Or that the CIA actively sought out a homosexual terrorist because they could use his sexuality as leverage to force him to cooperate?

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Tagged: Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, Al-Qaeda, CIA, Homosexuality, Iraq, Khalid al-Mihdhar, Pentagon, Shakir el Iraqi, Terrorism

Queerty-spondent, Daniel Villarreal, is covering the SXSW Film Festival. Here's his review of a documentary about Europe's oldest brothel.

If you think that cruising sites like Manhunt.com are destroying gay culture, imagine the effect of Europe's oldest, most popular brothel. Pascha, in Cologne, welcomes guests for 5 euros. Some 500 men pay up each day to enter the 11-story venue, choose from over 150 women (1st floor, quickies; 4th floor, Asians; 7th floor, transsexuals; top floor, an orgiastic sun deck with a BBQ pit and a jacuzzi). But for all the high-fiving talk of a brothel might encourage, film director Dominika Daubenbuchel doesn't belive clients leave feeling Like A Pascha (that is, like a king). Rather their sexual high is a short-lived fantasy, and an ultimately dehumanizing experience for both the hooker and hookee.

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Tagged: Cologne, Daniel Villarreal, Dominika Daubenbuchel, Film, Germany, Like A Pashca, Movies, Pascha, Prostitution, sxsw

While exiled prom date Constance McMillen spends an evening with a certain celebrity gossip blogger, back home in Mississippi the ACLU is kicking its lawsuit against the Itawamba County School District into high gear. Which a hearing scheduled Monday to see if a federal court will force the school district to reinstate the canceled prom, new details emerge of the Student v. Administration battle in court documents filed this week.

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Tagged: ACLU, Constance McMillen, Education, Itawamba Agricultural High School, Lawsuits, Mississippi, prom, School

We admire Kathy Griffin's spunk as she heads to Washington D.C. tomorrow to rally for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Mostly because Kathy is Irish, will be pretty blitzed on box wine today, and will be facing the noon sunshine with a blistering hangover. She should bring some aspirin, and this new survey data.

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Tagged: Afghanistan, DADT, HRC, Iraq, Kathy Griffin, Military, polls

The two mommies of the two children being forced out of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School in Boulder aren't some publicity-crazed parents, as some ridiculous people have suggested. Nor are they bad Catholics, in so much as gays can be good Catholics. In a lengthy statement released by the lesbian parents of the two kids, they would like to remind everyone that they don't march in those gay parades, they aren't some political martyrs, and dammit, how come their kids aren't allowed in the school when "divorced parents, children of parents born out of wedlock, non-Catholics, and non-practicing Catholics" are allowed to enroll their offspring? "Their eligibility has not been questioned. There seems to be a subjective rating system of which sins are more unacceptable."

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Tagged: boulder, Catholic Church, Children, Colorado, Education, kids, Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School, School

As we celebrate St. Patrick's Day today, we're sort of loving this guide to Ireland's gay scene. "Irish people are known for their gift of gab and you will notice that when you strike up a conversation. They love to chat with strangers. There is seldom a hidden agenda, just a natural curiosity about other people." We read sentences like this all the time in guidebooks, where the locals are described as if they are animals at the zoo.

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Tagged: dublin, Ireland, St. Patrick's Day, Travel

Even if members of the incoming college freshman class describe themselves as "far right," some 24 percent of them walk on to campus supporting same-sex marriage, compared to just 14 percent of America's conservative Republicans as a whole, according to new data from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. Moreover, the freshman female-male ratio of support stood at 72-57; nationally, that rate is 43-34, according to a Pew survey.

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Tagged: College, Conservatives, Marriage, Republicans, Studies

So that was a pretty nice thing voters in Queens did yesterday, telling now-former State Sen. Hiram Monserrate to take his face slashing and anti-gay marriage votes and get the hell out. [NYT]

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Tagged: Elections, Hiram Monserrate, jose peralta, New York, Politics

MORNING GOODS — Raised in Cleveland where he earned his wrestling chops, model Chris Leabu signed on to a paid 2(x)ist underwear campaign. But lucky you, he's not a brand discriminator where it counts most.

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Tagged: Models, Morning Goods, Photos, risque

When Dr. Brad Lopez, a health instructor at Fresno City College, in California, told students about how homosexuality is a "biological misapplication of human sexuality," that gay relationships were "one-sided foundation[s] for raising children," and said the world would end, according to the Bible, with the earth engulfed in flames, and how "that is the real global warming we should be worried about," he was merely exercising his constitutionally protected right to free speech. Or at least the college district's academic freedom policy. Fresno City College has, appropriately, disagreed.

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Tagged: ACLU, brad lopez, College, Education, fresno city college, Jacqueline Mahaffey, Jay Matthews

Looking around the SXSW Interactive's first-ever LGBT panel, "Engaging the Queer Community", I saw a shrunken pink-haired woman wearing steel-toed platform boots and green stockings walking past a large-nosed horn rimmed kid with horse teeth and acne scars, and I realized that even though we're all adults now, we very much remain the theater fags and lunch geeks we were in high school—conflicted and sightly scared people looking for a voice. But why then are our personal stories so often trumped by the like of homophobic senators and, bless her, Lady Gaga?

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Tagged: After Ellen, Bil Browning, Bilerico, Daniel Villarreal, Fausto Fernos, Feast Of Fun, Lady GaGa, Media, Sinclair Sexsmith, Sugarbutch, sxsw, Trish Bendix

Since at least January, Tim, a gay 22-year-old senior at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, has been recording himself masturbating, and uploading the videos to Xtube. He goes by the username "SpeedoStudent1," which represents his fetish for all things Speedos, Lycra, and jocks; he got his first Speedo at age 19 and has been hooked ever since. The earliest video of him on Xtube is called "First load of 2010." He is, plainly, an exhibitionist, and for the titillation of his fans (he has 2,286 on Xtube) and his own self-satisfaction, decided to traverse his college campus and record himself in Speedos, sometimes aroused, in each classroom he took a course in. With the help of a friend working the camera, he managed just that — even without receiving class credit! In one video, titled "Classroom speedo jerkoff," he masturbates to completion on a desk. And then he learned the lesson of posting anything to the Internet: It's very public. And even college administrators know how to use the WWW.

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Tagged: Blogs, Hawaii, hawaii speedo student, Porn, speedostudent1, xtube

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Tagged: Carl Levin, DADT, david petraeus, Senate

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Tagged: AFER, American Foundation for Equal Rights, California, chad griffin, charles cooper, David Boies, david thompson, Defense of Marriage Act, Dennis Hollingsworth, DOMA, Gail J. Knight, hak-shing william tam, Jeffrey Zarrillo, Kristin Perry, Lawsuits, Mark A. Jansson, Marriage, Media, Paul Katami, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, Peter Henderson, prop 8, protect marriage, Sandra Stier, ted Olson, Vaughn Walker

Since when were prison guards barred from telling colleagues about how homosexuals needs to be sent to death row just like their inmates? It's like, jeez, can't a guy call for the mass annihilation of an entire group of people without fear of losing his job?

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Tagged: Dallas, Discrimination, jobs, Prison, Slavery, Texas, Workplace

SOUNDBITES — "There was this one time in Phoenix when I was called to the far edges of the suburbs very late at night. When I pulled in the driveway the entire house was dark, including the doorbell. After a few knocks, someone looking like Gollum came to the door and brought me to the only room in the house with furniture or light. He poured Welch's grape soda into the chamber of a clear glass water pipe and started smoking either crack or crystal meth. All I remember of that session is how he kept telling me to pull on his nipples as hard as I could and then barking, 'Don't leave marks! My kids don't know I'm gay!' After as much time as I thought I could reasonably call an hour, I told him I needed to get going. I let myself out while he smoked another bowl and returned to the porn that he'd been watching when I came in. Creepy? Yes, but not once was I afraid for my own safety. More than anything I felt sorry for the guy. I spent most of my time debating whether or not to suggest he get some help." —Rusty McMann, a (traveling) Las Vegas call bear, retelling his "scariest" john story and refuting the notion that his job entails much danger, or sicko clients

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Tagged: soundbites

Audiences seeing Kick-Ass, the upcoming film about amateur superheroes, will be treated to Mika's little title track number, from producer RedOne, who works with this lady, during the closing credits, or maybe the opening credits? It always confuses us why movie producers sometimes wait until everyone is leaving their seats to roll the song created just for their movie. Isn't that what happened with 2012's "Time For Miracles" with that Adam Lambert guy?

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Tagged: kick-ass, Mika, Movies, Music, Music Videos

Without a Social Security number, and without jumping through egregious bureaucratic paperwork hurdles, it is impossible to 1) get a credit card; 2) purchase health insurance; 3) pay taxes; 4) receive retirement benefits; and 5) secure a car loan. Originally developed to track Americans in the Social Security program, these numbers are the default identifiers for citizens and immigrants in an increasingly disturbing number of arenas; some cell phone companies use your SSN as your account number. But as Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a proud member of the Birther conspiracy, said on the campaign trail last year, he was considering having his seventh child not receive a social security number because it's used by the government Big Brother-style. The move would certainly help his son avoid discrimination should he ever choose to work at a Virginia State college or university, because without a Social Security number, he probably won't be able to get a job there.

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Tagged: College, Discrimination, Education, Ken Cuccinelli, Ken Cuccinelli II, terrible people, Virginia

As the Pennsylvania State Senate Judiciary Committee votes today whether to move forward a bill that would cement the state's gay marriage ban into the constitution, a threat: If you're a closeted homosexual legislator who votes for it, you will be outed. Also, if you're a raging alcoholic, you'll also be exposed.

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Tagged: daylin leach, John Eichelberger, john morgan, Marriage, outings, Pennsylvania

Back in May, at a New York City gay marriage rally, we spotted Don't Ask Don't Tell mascot Lt. Dan Choi smooching all up on his boyfriend Matthew Kinsey. Cute! That Choi even decided to come out was motivated, in part, by his relationship status; "I had to decide whether I was going to continue to say that Matthew was Martha." But a new party report quotes Choi saying he's … single?

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Tagged: DADT, Dan Choi, Matthew Kinsey, Military, Relationships