Writer Ramin Setoodeh takes on the ultimate Hollywood taboo, gay sex, at the least kind between men in an interesting essay that speculates on the various reasons that actually seeing gay sex is not more forthcoming:

A supposedly leaked cover of People magazine's January 7, 2012 issue outing Taylor Lautner is actually nothing more than a halfway-convincing Photoshop job, according to Gossip Cop.

The cover, which features the "Twilight" hunk "out and proud," is "absolutely fake," a rep for the magazine told the gossip patrol site.

On the doctored cover, Lautner is quoted as saying that he's "more liberated, and happier than I've ever been" after finally "announcing" his homosexuality.

"Tired of rumors, the 'Twilight' star opens up about his decision to finally come out," the cover claims.

The image also features two sidebar photos - featuring Brad Pitt and Carnie Wilson - that are ripped directly from a May 2006 People cover.

Celebrities like Russell Simmons, however, were duped by the viral cover.

The hip-hop mogul tweeted that he was "proud of Taylor Lautner for his bravery and his courage," but upon realizing that the image was a hoax, he rescinded his initial statement, writing instead that he was "disappointed that people would joke about someone coming out about their sexuality. Let Taylor Lautner be whoever he wants to be..."

Lautner, 19, is no stranger to rumors about his sexuality. In November, he told Parade magazine that "it's tough" to avoid reading about himself: "It's definitely impossible to avoid stuff about me sometimes, but it's pretty important to try.

"It's very rare that things are true about yourself that are on the Internet," he said at the time. "It's just sad sometimes. So you definitely want to stay away from it as much as possible."

BERLIN, Germany — With the debt conflagration now blazing across Europe’s borders, the world is urging the euro zone’s leaders to staunch it by unleashing the powers of the European Central Bank.

Many European leaders are advocating this as well. The problem: Germany is resolutely opposed to this.

The U.S. took a groundbreaking step on global LGBT rights Tuesday, joining the UK in tying foreign aid to governments’ protection of sexual minorities, raising the stakes in the increasingly globalized battle over gay rights.

This is a guest post from Sparky, of Spark in Darkness.  Many of you are  familiar with him from Livejournal, as well as from his insightful and often hilarious commentary here. Each Tuesday, Womanist Musings will be featuring a post from Sparky.

So, GLAAD has a new campaign in favour of awkward thanksgiving. In not censoring oneself and speaking up about your life at the family dinner table.

Oh and didn’t that strike a chord with me!

  While we can celebrate the geosocial networking tool, Grindr for allowing us company on the lonely nights, we MUST celebrate the website, Douchebags of Grindr, for revealing what must of us have suspected for a long time: gay men can be pretty rude. If you're not familiar with Grindr, its a curious little app for the iphone, Blackberry and Android that uses your location as a starting point for interaction between gay men. It  is a kind of Craig'sList with chat and while allowed only one profile image, the exchange of images (one has to be certain!) can also occur. One is given a small space in which to spell out one's hopes, desires and an extremely short biography. And herein lies the problem and why we LOVE Douchebags of Grindr: people tend to reveal some of their racism, agism, and other physical demands in a way that, thankfully, Douchebags fully documents. And it is funny. Sad funny, but funny that people really don't mind making an ass of themselves publically, at least that is what Douchebags of Grindr allows us to witness.

Our hats are off to Douchebags for providing comic relief to the world of gay social networking where everything is serious businesss. Thanks to Sam Page for bringing to our attention.

Living in New York City in the 1980s, at once exhilarating, slowly became exhausting as friend after friend slowly succumbed to a series of horrible diseases and died.

Arriving to the eastern shores of New York City in 1980, I was given a sentimental journey by  a friend showed who showed me around the Brambles in Central Park, the piers down in the West Village, the Gaiety in midtown, The Anvil in the meat packing district—this was New York City at its wildest, with the shadowy figure of men in bushes, on delicate planks of wood, this was New York City before the storm. Fresh from the last vestiges of disco, the gay community was alive and well in 1980. By the next year, mostly through the reporting in the New York Native newspaper, weekly reports of young men succumbing to strange diseases became rampant.

It’s hard to imagine but this was a time when there was so much uncertainty that every itch, blemish, bump or sore throat was certain to lead to the grave. “You lost weight” was no longer a desired observation but a hint at your medical condition.

Certain habits were created that have remained: a daily inspection of the obituaries. In that first decade, there would usually be three or four death notices, and as it was Manhattan, a small island, so it was probable to know some of the dead and dying. As a gay man it was certain. So, when it came to close friends becoming ill, there was a stage of bewilderment and disbelief. In the 80s, there was so little information that had any certainty: kissing, that simplest and sexiest of acts was on the list of possible ways of contagion. Friends would rally. We formulated a schedule so that our friend was never alone. He was diagnosed with dementia. One evening when I arrived he shit all over himself and did not know to clean it up. I recall that I looked at my friend who was attending him and we both were embarrassed not just for our friend, but for ourselves, we hardly knew how to handle a situation like this.

Death was the easy part, dying required some greater human skill: belief. Talking to a friend who had recently been diagnosed, at age 24, he was telling me he was OK with it, he had lived a good life, he was ready. People would disappear, phones lines disconnected, only be to be found in the obituaries, often on different coasts. And it did feel like it was New York City plague, though we all understood that San Francisco was being equally demolished. Los Angeles, often visited during this time always seemed liked a city on holiday: they didn’t know what I was talking about.  It was further evidence that Los Angeles was not a city, but a landscape.

At some point, things manifested. Small white lesions in my mouth sent me to the bookstore looking up something called Thrush. A visit to the dentist only sent me packing to an oral surgeon, who cut away a slice of mouth and sent it to the laboratory. In the week that I waited I lost weight. I knew it had finally come to me; it was my turn to die. It was 1988 and I was picking out coffins.

In March of that year, Nancy Reagan, then the first lady had undergone a similar procedure and the diagnosis was something call actinic keratosis. The white spots were not Thrush, but the experience was enough to send me away from Manhattan.  Leaving the small studio apartment in the West Village, I said good by to one of the most romantic places on earth, but it had turned ripe with disease, hospital visits and most of all, fear.

Thirty years ago Sunday, a brief report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described cases of a rare form of pneumonia called Pneumocystis carinii in five young Los Angeles men, "all active homosexuals." The cases were noteworthy because the men had previously been healthy, though their particular pneumonia had only been seen in people with severely depressed immune systems.

Within a month, a second report had identified 54 young gay men with a rare cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma, another disease that had been almost unknown in young men. And by the following summer, the mysterious disease underlying these reports had a name: acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

AIDS was a murderous, mysterious delinquent that emerged seemingly out of nowhere. Transmitted primarily through sexual activity and blood, it mowed down whole communities of young gay men, tore through a generation of intravenous drug users and made orphans of millions of the world's children.

In the 30 years since its first recognition, AIDS has killed nearly 30 million people worldwide, including more than 615,000 in the United States. Today, an additional 34 million people — including nearly 1.2 million in the U.S. — are living with the virus that causes the disease, human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. This year, 1.8 million of them will die, including about 17,000 in this country.

The identification of HIV in 1983 brought the promise of a quick fix for the problem, a vaccine that would block transmission. Sadly, that promise has not materialized. The shifty virus mutates so rapidly and has so many ways of entering the white blood cells that are its primary target that vaccine researchers have had only limited success.

The best results so far were from a 2009 trial in Thailand that reduced new HIV infections by a modest 26%. The results hinted that a vaccine might eventually be possible, but suggested that researchers still had a long way to go to produce one that is useful.

story continues here 

Pop Star on Ice and Skating With the Stars judge Johnny Weir has been named grand marshal of the 2011 L.A. Gay Pride Parade.

The openly gay three-time U.S. figure skating champion and star of Be Good Johnny Weir has been an advocate for gay rights and will oversee the June 12 parade as it travels along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif.

"Johnny lives a life with a defined purpose, is dedicated to helping young people and is not afraid to be himself, sometimes not always an easy thing for a world-class athlete,” said Christopher Street West board president Rodney Scott.

Said Weir: “I’m not ashamed to be me. More than anyone else I know, I love my life and accept myself. What’s wrong with being unique? I am proud of everything that I am and will become,” the two-time Olympian said.

The 41st annual Los Angeles Pride Parade draws more than 400,000 people to West Hollywood for a weekend of events celebrating gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender visibility. It is organized by Christopher Street West, the group that produced the first LGBT Pride Parade.

Previous grand marshals have included Sharon and Kelly Osbourne, Chelsea Handler, Cyndi Lauper and Kathy Griffin.

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via www.hollywoodreporter.com

Snarkfest gay blog, Queerty is no more. In an e mail from publisher David Hauslaib, sent this morning, Hauslaib cited issues that began with some technical problems and that appear to have ended with Queerty’s corporate masters at 353Media opting not to continue operating the site.

Founded in 2005, the online magazine was known for its brash, bitchy take on news stories and personalities. With one of the easiest commenting systems on a blog, Queerty also became home to a battalion of professional commentors who could be found offering opinions and advice on any topic. Queerty was "free of an agenda, except that gay one" and its sad to see another gay media partner not survive. They will be missed.

The gay mecca known as Palm Springs is about to get an architectual wonder in the form of a living community in the Rancho Mirage area. The philosophy behind the development began with a notion of pioneering a space for gay retirees, an audience seeking a diverse and multi-generational community. That seed has sprouted into an encompassing residence for all ages with a mission of  ”inclusion, not seclusion; about living, not retiring.”

Boom, a planned community slated for 100+ acres in Rancho Mirage, was originally conceived with gay people in mind, but straight people can come too--everyone's invited to the multi-generational, pedestrian-oriented, culture-driven, hyphenation-mad little burg, for which plans include 300 residences in eight neighborhoods, an entertainment complex, a boutique hotel, a gym, and "state-of-the-art wellness facilities" in phase one (phase two will add more residences). The project was created by Los Angeles-based developer Boom Communities, Inc.; architect Matthias Hollwich of Hollwich Kushner; and ten architecture firms, half from New York, half from Europe and California. Matthew Hoffman of Hollwich Kushner tells Curbed in an email that while the group has met with community officials in Rancho Mirage, it hasn't yet started in on the approvals process. Even so, publicity materials say the project will break ground in late 2012 and finish up in late 2014.

As for the extras, two boutique hotel buildings were designed by Sadar + Vuga and Joel Sanders Architect; Rudin Donner designed an indoor-outdoor cafe; J. Mayer H. designed the clubhouse and gym and spa; and Arakawa + Gins created a playground and "Healing Fun House." Landscaping is by Surfacedesign, Inc. Los Angeles' new friends Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the entertainment complex, which includes a rooftop mist disco and market.

Boom, a planned community slated for 100+ acres in Rancho Mirage, was originally conceived with gay people in mind, but straight people can come too--everyone's invited to the multi-generational, pedestrian-oriented, culture-driven, hyphenation-mad little burg, for which plans include 300 residences in eight neighborhoods, an entertainment complex, a boutique hotel, a gym, and "state-of-the-art wellness facilities" in phase one (phase two will add more residences). The project was created by Los Angeles-based developer Boom Communities, Inc.; architect Matthias Hollwich of Hollwich Kushner; and ten architecture firms, half from New York, half from Europe and California. Matthew Hoffman of Hollwich Kushner tells Curbed in an email that while the group has met with community officials in Rancho Mirage, it hasn't yet started in on the approvals process. Even so, publicity materials say the project will break ground in late 2012 and finish up in late 2014.

As for the extras, two boutique hotel buildings were designed by Sadar + Vuga and Joel Sanders Architect; Rudin Donner designed an indoor-outdoor cafe; J. Mayer H. designed the clubhouse and gym and spa; and Arakawa + Gins created a playground and "Healing Fun House." Landscaping is by Surfacedesign, Inc. Los Angeles' new friends Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the entertainment complex, which includes a rooftop mist disco and market.

"I bought the drugs to enhance masturbation. Because what crystal meth does—Mike taught me this—crystal meth makes it so you don't ejaculate soon. So you can watch porn and masturbate for a long time."

It takes only a couple of minutes from the moment we enter the gas station for someone to recognize him. A biker in a leather jacket and a black knit cap spots him as he approaches the register, does a quick double take, and then comes over to ask the same question everyone asks.

via www.gq.com