05/01/2007
News: Gay Hobbits, Heroes' Zach, Steve Ballmer, Facebook
New study cites "alarming" rate of unsafe sex among gay HIV-positive British men: "Thirty-seven percent of HIV-positive men said they had had unprotected sex with more than one partner in the past year, while the rate among HIV-negative men was 18 percent."
The Lord of the Rings: Online cuts marriage feature altogether after makers couldn't agree on gay marriage: "The game has been in beta (a test version) since September, and during discussions of new features for the game, which was officially released Tuesday, the design team wound up in a heated discussion over what restrictions should be placed on marriage. They debated not only gay marriage but also marriage between members of different species. Finally, the game's executive producer settled the matter by pulling the entire marriage feature."
Lance Bass' new flame has his connexion exposed.
Lead singer of thrash metal band The Haunted gets a massage at a gay bathhouse and lives to write about it.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says Apple's iPhone has no chance of capturing market share: "No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get. In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job. But it's not like we're at the end of the line of innovation that's going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I'll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we'll get him to own a Zune."
Thomas Dekker responds to the controversy surrounding Heroes 'gay' character Zach following disclosures by executive producer Bryan Fuller that the character was axed because Dekker's manager thought his playing a gay teen might affect future casting. Dekker: "I would like it to be known by everyone, that I have played a gay character three times before in my career, one when I was twelve (which is on youtube), one when I was fifteen, and another when I was seventeen. I, nor my management have ever had any kind of problem with creating a gay character...What transpired on heroes is something far more complicated than anyone being "afraid" to make Zach homosexual." More...
Minnesota senate approves domestic partnership bill, sends it on to House: "The legislation would give unmarried domestic partners the standing to visit and make health care decisions for each other in the hospital. The bill defines domestic partners as adults in a 'committed interdependent relationship' who live together."
Her back in pain, Ellen DeGeneres to broadcast from bed.
Report: Social networking site Facebook shuts down Arab LBTG group due to pressure from governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others. "The governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab regimes have complained to Facebook about the group "Arab LBTG" (Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Gay) saying it goes against Islamic code of conduct. They threatened to ban Facebook if their countries' users still had access to it. After Facebook received the complaints, they contacted the group's owner and demanded that the group be closed. After the owner refused, Facebook then closed the group themselves." [UPDATE: 'Tis apparently a hoax. Thanks, commenters]
MySpace no longer includes the option of choosing "gay" as one's sexuality on member profiles? (warning: site NSFW)
Gay rights activists to stage rally at New York capitol in Albany today.
Posted 1:02 PM EST by Andy in AIDS/HIV, Apple, Ellen DeGeneres, Gay Rights, Great Britain, Lance Bass, Minnesota, New York, News, Television, Video Games | Permalink
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re myspace:
if you are a man, you are given the gay option (and not the lesbian option).
if you are a woman, you are given the lesbian option (and not the gay option).
Posted by: Ladd | May 1, 2007 1:27:55 PM
Re: re myspace:
You're incorrect. If you read the comments on that blog, you'll see that they even tested that. It seems if you're a male and you click lesbian it will but list you as gay on your myspace, but it doesn't show the gay option. I checked mine and it had the bullet filled in next to lesbian, but on my myspace it shows gay.
Posted by: Rick | May 1, 2007 1:52:40 PM
Haven't those game designers heard the news? Hobbits are very, very gay:
http://www.malbela.com/hobbitsareveryverygay/
Posted by: John C | May 1, 2007 1:55:35 PM
I try to live up to my liberal credentials--not be prejudiced against a group/nationality/race of people; but I'm just about as sick of these...well, maybe it's just the corrupt governments in these Muslim and Arab countries--yes, that's it...not the people, or their religion. I'll keep believing that. Hell, the Muslims can't be any worse than these ungodly fundamendalist Christians we got over here. These church monsters here just don't have as much power to control and kill as the ones in Iran, Afganistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and now, Iraq. Some one told me that under Saddam, Iraq (along with Lebanon) was the only Arab/Muslim country where there were known gay bars and where gay people didn't have to fear for their lives. Not no mo.
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Posted by: JR | May 1, 2007 2:16:21 PM
@ Jamuna, I'm sure your site delivers _plenty_ about scams on Internet. Heh.
Posted by: RSL | May 1, 2007 2:17:28 PM
Apparently the Facebook story may be based on a fake email.
Posted by: RJ | May 1, 2007 2:21:37 PM
Americablog mentions the Facebook story is a hoax but doesn't post any details or evidence.
Posted by: John C | May 1, 2007 3:04:20 PM
As an avid World of Warcraft player, I've seen many in-game weddings take place and several of them were between players/characters of the same gender (and even of different species) and Blizzard (the maker of WoW) just stays out of it. Personally, I think that's the correct course for a game maker to take.
Posted by: Dave | May 1, 2007 3:27:03 PM
Do blogs have any other hobby besides stalking Lance Bass's boyfriends? We get it, he only dates models, but do we really need to search the internet until we find every single social networking site they're on?
Posted by: GENE | May 1, 2007 4:31:48 PM
Go to facebook and search for Arab LBTGay and you can see that the group is still active and that the person who contacted the group was a homophobic prankster. I would hope that A) governments have better things to do than censoring our basic right to free speech and B) that the college-educated folks at Facebook would stand up and say no to such authoritarianism!
Posted by: H | May 1, 2007 4:33:32 PM
Thanks for posting the myspace story.
Here's what you're not taken into account: Myspace has been bought by Ruppert Murdoch, who has been on a ravid (and unchallenged) venture to take over world media and turn it to the right:
"Murdoch's News Corp has holdings in film, television, cable, newspapers, books, magazines, and more. Properties include the New York Post, the National Geographic Channel, HarperCollins Books, and 20th Century Fox. In 2006, Murdoch acquired MySpace, the popular social networking website, as part of Fox Interactive Media. (For more, see NewsCorp.com.)"
--------
Since myspace has been acquired by Murdoch, there has been accounts of profiles being deleted simply for representing radical and dissident views, in videos or images.
The most publicized case being Toronto queer band Kids On TV, who had its profile deleted on On March 1, 2007 with all its 14,000 friends, and that without any reason. -- After the story made news on the net, and in German magazine, the profile was restored, but it became apparent that myspace is on a c
http://blogto.com/arts/2007/03/myspace_censorship_hits_kids_in_toronto
http://www.stillepost.ca/boards/index.php?topic=74445.0
http://www.myspace.com/myspaceprofiledeletions
It's clear with this latest "glitch", that they're pushing the provocation a little further (for political reasons). And that's a huge mistake on their part, cause they don't understand the youth yet.
Posted by: Da | May 1, 2007 5:07:39 PM
@da
Murdoch is on a ravid (and challenged) venture to make money. Guess what - pandering to the right makes him lots of money. So does pandering to the left. Murdoch, a smart move once again, picked up myspace for a song and it rakes it millions in profits a day in advertising. Murdoch gets new media and how to make money off it. Furthermore this little "glitch" doesn't exist and the recent changes on myspace has more to do with it trying to deal with overzealous politicians and parents than a political agenda. Besides - myspace will be replaced soon enough with something else - its time has come and gone...
Posted by: yoshi | May 1, 2007 5:37:56 PM
Yoshi I'm not sure what I understand your comment: are you trying to dispell the fatcs I presented as being unfounded? cause I provided links...And do you have insider info about myspace to say that the glitch "doesn't exist", or was requested by parents? cause obviously none of that was in the press, and myspace were not informed about it.
You must really think I'm stupid not to understand how global propagandists like Murdoch work and what he is on about -- besides, I've seen you in just about every thread attempting to dispell any facts people present on gay issues, and you also were defending Schwarzenegger's plan to veto gay marriage by blaming the democrats. So there you go..
Posted by: Da | May 1, 2007 6:19:32 PM
The MySpace thing is clearly a bug that's been misinterpreted.
When I go to "edit profile", mine now says I'm "lesbian". Ha!
Seriously though, it doesn't seem like anything anti-gay if "gay" has been replaced with "lesbian". That seems more like a simple mistake.
When I actually go to my public profile, it still says "gay", so it seems there's just a bug with the "edit profile" page. Someone claiming to be from MySpace says it's supposed to say "gay" if you're a guy and "lesbian" if you're female. I imagine that "feature" is simply screwed up on that one page.
Posted by: Rich | May 1, 2007 6:22:36 PM
I agree with Rich. It's most likely just an innocent error, since
"lesbian" is still listed. Must we always jump to a homophobic
conclusion from what could just be a simple error? (Not to say
that there aren't homophobic actions.)
Posted by: Jeff Atlas | May 1, 2007 6:31:15 PM
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
Posted by: Travis | May 1, 2007 6:32:26 PM
DA is right. Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-American right wing religious zealot who has publicly spoken out against gay marriage. His purchase of Myspace bothered me immensely, as he is making major dollars but more importantly a clause in Myspace states that they own the rights to any and all material published in profiles. Artists such as Billy Bragg took Myspace and News Corp. to court over that issue as Bragg did not want Myspace to own his music. It seems Rupert Murdoch and News Corp (which own Fox News fyi) are interested in getting into the Music Business through Myspace, by promoting and "owning" new musicians, claiming any musicians fame that has been possibly accrued from Myspace entitles them to a piece of the pie....
Recent news suggests News. Corp./Rupert Murdoch are interested in buying the Dow Jones. Jesus, what is next???
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/business/media/02dowjones-web.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Posted by: Cory | May 1, 2007 6:58:45 PM
Re: MurdochSpace and homophobia.
While it's likely there was some technical fault at play, Murdoch's empire has been actively homophobic for decades so people are right to be suspicious. His attack dogs at the worst of the UK tabloids, The Sun and The News of the World, were virulently homophobic throughout the 1980s. The only reason they've tempered their language is because the nation has changed its attitudes towards gay people, not because Murdoch has suddenly become gay-friendly. (And yes, he does care what they write even though he lives in the US now. He's a born newspaper man and quickly fires editors who don't toe his line.) His papers still come out with sneering crap like this:
http://uk.gay.com/article/4933
And you just have to look at the way The Sun promoted the Lord Browne story earlier today to see they're happy to describe gay men dressing "bizarrely" when they'd never describe one of their half-naked Page Three girls in the same manner.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007200276,00.html
Posted by: John C | May 1, 2007 9:44:41 PM
Thomas Dekkar should not be be afraid to play a character. Ryan Phillippe played a gay teen on the soap "One Life to Live" and it didn't hurt his career.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXYSMP6XX4
Posted by: Billy Douglas | May 1, 2007 9:55:25 PM
Thomas Dekker can backtrack all he wants, but his hateful homophobic manager needs a kick up the ass.
Posted by: Louie | May 2, 2007 7:53:43 AM
Shut up, Ambiguously Straight Zach! Although Fuller just disclosed more behind the scenes stiff on ZachGayte, Kring already told the world the problem months ago. Why is he only reacting now? This situation kind of reminds me of Isaiah Washington and GA, when he apologized months after being protected by Shonda Rimes.
So is he doing the Sarah Connor Chronicles or is this an attempt to fiangle his way back into Heroes?
Posted by: Glenn | May 2, 2007 9:24:10 AM
I think the image of a room full of tech nerds arguing about gay marriage is hilarious. Nerds as a rule aren't exactly experts on human coupling (There but for the Grace of God went I).
The Sims games have had same-sex coupling for several years now. The gaming community can handle it, guys.
Posted by: mark m | May 2, 2007 10:11:35 AM