NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Leaves Republican Party

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has left the Republican party, he announced Tuesday evening.

Said Bloomberg: "I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party. Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city. A nonpartisan approach has worked wonders in New York: we’ve balanced budgets, grown our economy, improved public health, reformed the school system and made the nation’s safest city even safer. We have achieved real progress by overcoming the partisanship that too often puts narrow interests above the common good. As a political independent, I will continue to work with those in all political parties to find common ground, to put partisanship aside and to achieve real solutions to the challenges we face. Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology. Working together, there’s no limit to what we can do."

At an appearance at Google headquarters yesterday, Bloomberg pretty much trashed the presidential debates that have been held so far:

"They have absolutely nothing to do with the job and the qualifications. And they don't tell you anything about whether or not any of those candidates would be good or bad presidents. What they really say is, did they memorize their notes of 'What to say if …' and whether their staff was able to anticipate. If you look at both debates, they pandered, what I would argue, the same ways."

Bloomberg lamented the lack of solutions from the candidates, said they were exploiting terrorism, and decried the state of "dithering" Washington, according to the New York Sun.

Will the billionaire run for president? Although he told the crowd at Google that his "next career will be in philanthropy," these are certainly some interesting developments.

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Washington Redskins' Chris Cooley is a Tight End

And he takes the title seriously, showing it off in hotpants at the Redskins' mini-camp.

Deadspin notes that "Brandon Lloyd...appears to be impressed with the look. I can't tell if that look on his face says, 'Man, you are crazy,' or 'I sho' wouldn't mind hittin' that from the back.'"

John Stockton Thinks This Is Excessive [deadspin]

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Gay Marriage Bill Passes New York State Assembly Committee

By a vote of 16-5, Governor Eliot Spitzer's gay marriage bill was approved by the New York State Assembly's Judiciary Committee last night. All five opposed were Republicans.

The bill is undergoing an historic debate in the New York State Assembly as I write this post. If you can get an audio or video stream, you can listen here.

The NYT City Room notes: "It’s worth putting this in context. According to the Empire State Pride Agenda, only in California has legislation to pass same-sex marriage been passed by one or both houses of a state legislature. (Both the California senate and assembly did so, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill.) In Connecticut, a same-sex marriage bill passed a legislative committee but never made it to the floor. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage through a court decision rather than through legislation."

The Senate is where the bill faces its toughest challenge as a majority there remain staunchly against it. Republicans hold a two seat advantage.

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Saving Laguna Beach's Boom Boom Room: PR and Prayers

Laguna Beach resident Fred Karger talks to the L.A. Times' Dana Parsons about his battle to save the coastal resort town's bastion of gay nightlife, the historic Boom Boom Room bar and Coast Hotel.

If you remember, Karger recently took an ad out in Variety pleading with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, once rumored to be interested in the property, to help 'Save the Boom'.

As a former public relations man, Karger knew what kind of publicity that might get his cause.

Said Karger: "It worked beyond my wildest dreams about getting attention. And that was without any reaction from them. It got a lot of attention. That was my hope, by invoking their names. There are still a lot of people who think they bought it, and this was to kind of further that rumor a little bit and have fun with it. These guys, they kind of kid each other...Brad Pitt is the one who has said he won't get married until everyone can...It was all done humorously. And the ad, which I wrote, was tongue-in-cheek, meant to get their attention and, bottom line, to find a new buyer [for the Boom Boom property]."

Karger's plan just may be working. On Save the Boom's blog, Karger writes "The ad has triggered an outpouring of support and interest in our efforts to find a buyer who will keep the historic Coast Inn and the landmark Boom Boom Room as gay businesses...we have received many calls and emails from potential buyers and press from the UK, Asia, Italy, Canada and throughout the U.S. We have meetings coming up, and have put some of the serious buyers in direct contact with the property owner."

It can be a blast trying to save a Boom [la times]
Save the Boom [official site]

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Kathy Griffin on Her Love Affair with Gay Men

Newsweek's Alexandra Gekas talks to Kathy Griffin about life on the D-list and asks, "What do you have in common with other female entertainers like Bette, Barbra or Liza that make gay men love you?"

Answers Griffin: "I have been asked this a lot, and I've thought about it a lot. As I learn more about the gay community I think it's kind of about fighting to be part of something and fighting to be noticed and taken seriously but always with a sense of outrageousness. That's what I love about Bette, because she used to say 'F--- 'em if they can't take a joke.' And then there's Liza, who overcame drugs and this overbearing man or that overbearing man and an outrageous mother. They love me because I'm outrageous, and I love them as an audience because they're the unshockable gays, which is what comedy should be about. But when I was in high school I went to prom with the gay kid, and I've always been friends with the gay kids. What I admire about the gay community, and what I wish women would learn, is that they are good at organizing and getting stuff done, while women attack each other. I think the gay community is very good about that, they get together they mobilize and they stand up against so much abject adversity."

Trash-Talking, Foulmouthed and Downright Honest [msnbc]

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #145

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: His appearance on Canada's The Hour, with George Stroumboulopoulos.

ERIC SCHMIDT: The CEO of Google speaks with Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, at the World Economic Forum on June 13, 2007, and eventually shows off his iPhone.

MADONNA: The official video for her Live Earth track "Hey You".

BEEFCAKE: Footage from AllAmericanGuys set to Rihanna's "Umbrella".

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here!

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News: Michael Moore, iPhone, Coral Smith, John Travolta

Coral Smith, former Real World housemate, comes out: "I’m definitely venturing toward my lesbian qualities. It’s been a long time coming. At that time, I was really unsure. That was not the proper venue, the proper platform. To come out to your parents on a fucking reality show, I think that’s just mean, so I didn’t."

Stavros Niarchos: Flying solo.

Dare Odumuye, founder of Nigeria's gay rights organization Alliance Rights Nigeria, has died at 41: "Although details of his death remain hazy, a friend confirmed that he died “after a long illness,” and Odumuye himself had noted that six members of the organisation’s board had died of AIDS between 2000 and 2002. Odumuye, the former manager of an insurance company, founded Alliance Rights on 2 July, 1999 after seeing friends, one of whom was a senior executive of a bank, sacked and harassed for being gay. In 2003, Alliance Rights Nigeria won a Breaker of Silence Award and in 2004 it was among the lesbian and gay organisations which, in a groundbreaking event for this deeply homophobic country, made the first-ever appearance at the country’s fourth national Aids conference in the capital, Abuja."

Blotter: Suicide bomber teams sent to U.S., Europe.

Lesbian blogger Jasmyne Cannick has begun a petition to get Isaiah Washington his job back on Grey's Anatomy, saying his firing was racist. (Petition)

It's coming: iPhone application list.

Religious groups hoping to "reclaim" a Moscow park from gay men who use it as a meeting place, say they were beaten up: "Interfax news agency has reported that late on Saturday night five young men went to the police to report an attack on them carried out by up by eight men."

Star Jones and hubby head out for a Hamptons birthday bash.

Michael Moore's Sicko pirated. Shows up on YouTube, others...

Scientologist John Travolta thinks he has the answer to what's behind Virginia Tech, Columbine, and all the other maniacal school shootings: "I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is [psychotropic] drugs at the bottom of it."

Bush administration trying to muzzle hurricane director after he makes unfavorable comments about where the federal government's money is going.

Artist Eve Mosher is drawing a chalk line around New York City to bring awareness to the effect global warming could have on the city: "The chalk demarcates a point 10 feet above sea level, a boundary now used by federal and state agencies and insurance companies to show where waters could rise after a major storm. Relying partly on research conducted by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, Ms. Mosher is trying to draw attention to projections that the chance of flooding up to or beyond her line could increase significantly as a result of global warming." (video)

Hillary Clinton has chosen Celine Dion's "You and I" as her campaign song.

British teacher who had mother-approved affair with underage male pupil is given a year in jail. Judge: "It is perfectly apparent that the boy was already a person who was attracted to you. Indeed, much that occurred was at his instigation. Sadly, though, this case is a classic example of a substantial and serious breach of trust."

346 same-sex couples have registered partnerships in the Czech Republic since they were legalized last July.

OMG Blog ripped off by Yahoo!

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Tête-à-Tête: David Geffen and Michael Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg laughed yesterday at the two-day conference sponsored by the University of Southern California on bridging the political divide because David Geffen told him ___________.

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Leather Goods That Bring Up the Rear

Among the strange objects by Argentinian Nicola Costantino on exhibit at The Hours: Visual Arts of Contemporary Latin America at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art are a soccer ball and a bag with realistic reproductions of human nipples and anuses, respectively.

The artworks are meant to comment on capitalism's inhumanity to animals, and feature realistic latex copies of human skin, of course. At least I hope.

The exhibit opens this month and is the largest show of Latin American art ever in Australia.

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Life Interrupted: Alaina Alexander's Gay Pride Message

Former American Idol contestant Alaina Alexander has released a new video set to a song she's working on called "Life Interrupted" which features the victims (gay, straight, and transgender) of anti-gay violence.

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Former Pop Idol contestant Gareth Gates: I'm Not Gay

Former Pop Idol star and fan of sunbeds and steroids Gareth Gates tells Star:

"I’m not gay, but George Michael is one of the best looking guys I’ve ever seen in my life!"

Gates, who became famous in 2002 after coming in second in Britain's Pop Idol, has a new single "Changes" out in the UK and a new album, Pictures of the Other Side, coming out on June 25.

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Lift the Ban: New Spot About Discharged Gay Arabic Linguists

A new spot from Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation about the firing of gay Arabic linguists and the U.S. military's shameful policy. The military has now discharged 58 qualified Arabic linguist simply for the fact that they are gay.

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Alan Turing's Sexuality 'Forgotten' at Statue Unveiling

Today, a statue of Alan Turing will be unveiled at Bletchley Park, honoring the man who has come to be known as Britain's greatest inventor.

During World War II, Turing, who is also known as the father of modern computing, devised the Turing Bombe, a codebreaking device that was used to decipher the Nazi enigma codes, up to 3,000 messages per day.

American billionaire and philanthropist Sidney Frank funded the new statue, according to The Inquirer:

"The life-size one and a half ton statue is made from half a million pieces of five hundred million year old Welsh slate. Stone which would have been in Nazi control, if Turing had not had the mathematical genius to crack the German Naval Enigma messages during world war two. Later, his Bombe machine was to provide a body of work that provided the foundations on which the modern computer age was created. Of the people who have heard of him, few know the proper context of his death. 'The only Alan Turing I know of is the mathematician, logician, and cryptographer who died in 1954 from eating an apple,' said one surveyee. The origin of the Apple symbol is meant to be a tribute to Turing."

The reason thought to be why Turing killed himself with the apple, which was laced with cyanide, is because Turing had been convicted just two years earlier of 'gross indecency' after it was discovered that he had been in a homosexual relationship. Due to that conviction, he had been ordered to undergo hormone therapy.

Turing, a brilliant inventor and mathematician, was pushed to the fringes despite his talents just because he was gay. Sound like a few Arabic linguists we know?

So, the press release announcing this new statue makes no mention of the fact that Turing was gay. Gay.com UK were sent the press release and contacted Bletchley Park. They wrote back:

"Many thanks for your email. I completely understand your comments. However, in the context of the statue and Bletchley Park, the press release relates entirely to his invaluable work during the war years and is not in any way an attempt to whitewash his sexuality. This isn’t to say that his sexuality isn’t important in the overall story of the man and that he wasn’t treated abominably in later years. However, with very limited funds and resources, the Park is not able to tell the full life stories of the many heroes and heroines who made such a difference to the outcome of the war."

They later issued a fuller apology. Said director Simon Greenish: "The press release did not include a statement about him being gay, which perhaps it could have done, this was not a deliberate ommision (sic) but, I certainly accept, could have been an opportunity which was missed."

Said Gay.com's Stewart Who: "It's a bit like talking about Martin Luther King, but not mentioning that he's black."

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