Pope "Benedick" releases long-awaited document barring gays from the priesthood. Rules bar "practicing" homosexuals, men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies and those who support gay culture. In a commentary intended to accompany the release of the document, a Vatican newspaper argued that "homosexuality risked 'destabilizing people and society', had no social or moral value and could never match the importance of the relationship between a man and a woman," according to Reuters.

Swedish pastor who called homosexuality "a deep cancerous tumor on all of society" is acquitted of hate crime accusations. Case pitted freedom of speech against protection of minorities. Ake Green says he'll not deliver any more sermons on gays: "I don't need to. I have said so clearly where I stand on the issue."

The United States has condemned the arrest of more than two dozen men preparing for a "mass gay wedding" in the United Arab Emirates. Authorities in that country have threatened to try the men for adultery and prostitution, test them for male hormone levels and order them to be injected with hormones as a possible sentence reduction option. In a statement released Monday, the U.S. State Department said, "We call on the government of the United Arab Emirates to immediately stop any ordered hormone and psychological treatment and to comply with the standards of international law."

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U.S. 1

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Was on the road today from Miami to Key West. Hope to have more updates soon...

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Thanks for Being There

Before thanking my advertisers this week, I'd like to thank those of you who read this blog on a daily basis as well as those of you who drop in occasionally. I am so thankful to be able to get up every morning and share my interests with you.

Towleroad will be quiet until early next week, when I'll be posting from Key West, where I haven't been in more than ten years. Not sure what the posting sched. will be but hopefully I'll have some reports from the southernmost point and fill you in on what's happening down around Duval Street, out on the gulf, and at the Island House.

In the meantime, I've created a special page on the site. I've written so much about Brokeback Mountain over the past two years that I thought it might be good to collect most of the writing on one page, as well as link to as many of the reviews and articles that will be coming out about this groundbreaking film. If you see any articles that you think I haven't linked to, please send 'em along.

I wish all of you a safe and happy Thanksgiving and look forward to blogging with you soon.

And now, thanks to my advertisers. Supporting them supports Towleroad.

THIS WEEKEND: The White Party, benefiting Care Resource.

If you're in Miami over the next four days, think about attending one of the White Party's cultural or dance events, benefiting Miami's largest HIV/AIDS organization. It's not all about parties either. This year the schedule also includes film screenings, book signings, panel talks, brunches, and more.

Outsports: Hot, shirtless, athletic, and out of the closet sexy jocks.
Island House Key West. Make the tropics your winter destination.
Hot gay videoclips and more at The Malcontent!
Tolerance Bracelets: Wear your respect for diversity now.
Have you ordered your Absinthe yet? The green fairy awaits.
Win your very own signed, limited-edition Lewis Payton print.
Achieve sweet dreams with new hits and classics from the Eurythmics!
Gay.com serves up personals, news, gossip, and style.
Fight aging and pamper your skin with Body Tools!
Gay Sex in the 70s: "Portrait of a lost libertine paradise."
How far out can you get? Visit tropical Key West.

I also want to thank those of you who've supported Towleroad with a donation. Every donation of $25 receives a T-shirt! I received these photos this week from some Towleroad readers. Remember, shirts make great gifts too!

Here are Lee from South Carolina, and Paul in front of Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London, which he says is quite rocking on Sunday afternoons...thanks so much guys!

Image of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger above by Roberto Parada, from Esquire Magazine.

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A Few Thanksgiving Odds and Ends

Cooking for Thanksgiving? Bloghungry may have some answers for you, depending on what's on the menu.

If you're ready to take the plunge into the next holiday, but at this point only from the safety of the Internet, you can check out houseblinger, a site that catalogues houses in the UK that have been dressed up in lights. Mom and dad always used to drive us around the neighborhood to looks at the lights this time of year. Here's a way to do the same thing but save gas.

I've heard from the most die-hard Rent fan I know and he gives a thumbs up to the new Chris Columbus adaptation of the musical that opens today. The NYT seems to agree: "In telling their entwined stories, Mr. Columbus has managed a feat similar to the one he pulled off with the first two 'Harry Potter' movies; he has taken a source that is fiercely and jealously loved by its core fans and refrained from messing it up. It is not just that he shows dexterity and imagination in transferring the spectacle onto the actual streets of the East Village in Manhattan. The real key to his success is his utter lack of condescension." This is definitely the movie to see this weekend.

If you've got some time on your hands and want a creative project over the long weekend, here's something unique you can make for someone's gift this season. It's a flipbook printed on business cards, created from .avi movies. And unfortunately, it's for Windows only. Grrr.

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American Airlines launches microsite for gay and lesbian travelers.

SF's Bay Area Reporter details the progress in New Orleans' gay community, which was not hit as hard as other parts of the city. Resident: "There are two attitudes among the New Orleans gay community: this is my home and I'm not going anywhere, or there's no reason to stay and I'm out of here. The difference depends on what they have left to come back to." At right, a couple FEMA workers visiting a bar on Halloween.

Hollywood studios have reached a deal with Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, the file-sharing software that allows people to download feature-length movies illegally in a matter of minutes. This, of course, sets Cohen up for a windfall of deals once studios begin using the software legally to distribute their films.

NJ police officer sues township, saying he was harassed after confiding to a fellow officer he is gay. President of the Gay Officers Action League urges end to anti-gay activity in the police force: "We've gotten to a point where if there's an instance of homophobia, officers need to come forward."

Backers of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in Massachusetts say they have more than enough signatures to get the issue on the 2008 ballot.

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Proulx on Avedon

Annie Proulx, author of "Brokeback Mountain", drops a gorgeous review of Richard Avedon's newly reissued (in the UK) photographic tome In the American West. And who better to review it when that region's cast of characters are being so thoroughly re-examined this December? Even in this simple review, Proulx's prose on Avedon's subjects ("drifters with weatherbeaten faces like cracked mud, people with tiny heads and big tits, acne, moles, freckles, a salesman and a gravedigger, blood-spattered slaughterhouse workers, a fat pre-teen with his rifle") is eloquent and unflinching:

"Even now the Rocky Mountain western states see themselves as movie locales populated by handsome cowboys, noble ranchers and brave pioneer women living out lofty family and Christian values. These touchy people did not see the stern beauty in the portraits. They did see the dirt and unsmiling faces. Avedon's work was called vicious, sick, sensational, cruel, by people who did not understand anything beyond photography than that it was representational. They did not get it that they were seeing Avedon's observations rather than likenesses, art rather than tourism photos."

And at the end of the short review she sends up a signal flare that says as much about the upcoming release of Brokeback as Avedon's portrait book:

"Flames of resentment flare when the region is portrayed as anything but down-home, clean, decent, pioneer-spirited whatever. As one elderly rancher put it a few years ago, 'reality has never been much use out here'."

After the Gold Rush [guardian]

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