Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the Week on Towleroad

Ahmadinejad: "In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals"
"Homosexual" remarks omitted from Iranian president's official website.
Senate Passes Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill by Vote of 60-39. Roll call.
Anti-gay Hate Crimes: Provincetown update, Washington D.C., New Hampshire, Idaho.
"Deep disappointment" from experts as Merck AIDS vaccine tests fail.
Larry Craig: Calls pardon; Prosecutor slam, Judge delays ruling.
Chris Crocker: "I am the key to world peace."
Michael Sandy trial: Fourth suspect fingers friends, "gay" defense challenged.
On the Tube: Columbia Dean, Iran gays underground, toe-tapper, Bill O'Reilly, Peter Pace.
Anglican Archbishop defends gays before Episcopals throw them under the bus.
Prison Break's Wentworth Miller to German mag: "I'm not gay."
Insurance Co: Gay-Friendly Church a "Higher Risk" Property.
Poor Larry: Minneapolis airport installing new partitions in bathrooms.
Folsom Street Fair's "Last Supper" ad provokes outrage, boycott of Miller brewing.
Music: Amazon Goes Digital, Duran Duran, Kurt Cobain, Madonna Rihanna, Ne-Yo.
Rottweiler replica: Camilla Parker-Bowles Goes in for a Full Body Wax.
Ja Rule responds to furor over remarks: I don't care about gay marriage.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace goes out with a bigoted bang.
Oregon gay rights foes meet deadline to turn in signatures, but is it enough?
New Jersey civil union couples say: It's not enough.
Mitt Romney slams Democratic support for gay-themed children's books.
Tim Hardaway turnaround: becoming an LGBT youth advocate.
Next top president? Barack Obama gazes into Tyra Banks' crystal ball.
EARLY FALL HARVEST OF HOTNESS: Jake Gyllenhaal, Clint Mauro, Milo Ventimiglia, Dennis Batbayli, Daniel Radcliffe, Amir Khan, Mario Lopez, Anderson Cooper, Rodrigo Santoro, Justin Timberlake, and more Milo.

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TowleTech V.74

Please welcome Jon Barrett, who is penning the TowleTech column this week here on Towleroad!

Coffee, tea, and tunes. Starting October 2 and lasting for 37 days, Starbucks will give away iTunes music downloads with orders. The free downloads, which include music by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Paul McCartney, are part of a promotion to kick off the company's partnership with Apple. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports: "Starbucks will pick an artist each day and provide its customers with a complimentary download card that can be redeemed through the end of the year at the iTunes store. Some of the other artists are Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, Bebel Gilberto, Annie Lennox, and Keith Urban."

For any iPhone-phobes out there, Palm on Thursday introduced Centro, the company’s first non-Treo smartphone. Centro, which will be available from Sprint in mid-October for $99.99 after rebates, measures 4.2 inches long by 2.1 inches wide and 0.7 inch deep and weighs 4.2 ounces. It has a full QWERTY keyboard, supports most email programs, and comes with Yahoo, AIM, and Windows Live IM clients. Cnet’s Bonnie Cha writes: "It’s a nice compromise between a regular cell phone and business-centric smartphones… However, the design doesn’t do much for me. It lacks the flash and ‘wow’ factor of a device from HTC or Nokia, and in the hand it feels, well, a bit cheap."

Don’t come crying to Apple if your unlocked iPhone hits the skids. The company announced that hacked phones are not covered by warranty.

The results are in! Plans for a 1,200-foot tall Transportation Transit Center were approved by San Francisco city officials last week. It's scheduled to be complete in 2014. As designed by Pelli Clark Pelli Architects and Hines, the obelisk-like tower will be the tallest in the city and will be topped by an elevated public park the size of five football fields. In August, we showed you the various designs vying to be chosen.

Amazon’s new music service to give iTunes a rhythmic run for its money. On Tuesday Amazon.com announced that it would offer 2.3 million songs from 180,000 artists for download. The songs, most priced 89 cents to 99 cents, will be sold without copy protection.

A too-cool flipbook advertisement from subway sandwich company Erbert & Gerbert. I could have used a closer-look at the shirtless guy at the end of the how-to video, though.

Here’s a sweet way to catch a flick: GrandOpening, a retail concept in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which actually welcomes a new store in its space every few months, is now featuring DRV-IN. It’s a drive-in movie for one car, and they provide the car. Scheduled screenings sold out fast—at $75 a pop. But now a few are up auction at eBay. (Thanks Eric!)

iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum and Scooba floor mop, came out with two new consumer robots Thursday. Looj cleans your rain gutters and ConnectR—the cooler of the two—will provide you remote audio and visual access to your home.

Designer Ross Lovegrove is planting "solar trees" outside the Museum for Angewandte Kunst in Vienna. The solar-powered street lighting, which has been engineered by Artemide with the help of Sharp Solar, will be unveiled October 8 during Vienna Design Week.

Microsoft says its launch of Halo 3 for Xbox 360 on Tuesday was the "biggest day in U.S. entertainment history." Wired reports: "In its first 24 hours, Halo 3 racked up $170 million in sales in the United States. This put it ahead of the 24-hour revenues of both the Spider-Man 3 film and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book release."

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Trans Inclusion Cut from ENDA After Vote Reveals Lack of Support

The Employment Nondiscrimination Act, or ENDA, is to be taken up by the Education and Labor Committee next Tuesday, and sent to the House floor after that for a vote. It will not include protections for transgender people as a preliminary vote revealed that because of the trans-inclusive nature of the bill it did not have enough support to pass, the Washington Post reports.

According to The Advocate, Rep. Barney Frank will introduce two versions of the bill. ENDA, which would extend civil rights protections based on sexual orientation, and a new bill, "GENDA", that will take up civil rights protections for transgender people. The latter, obviously, is not likely to pass until further hearings are held.

Via WaPo: "The last time Congress took up ENDA was in 1996, when it failed to clear the Senate by just one vote. It should have passed then, and it most certainly should pass now. The bill will not give 'special rights' to homosexuals, as opponents claim. The reality is ENDA will give homosexuals basic civil rights on a federal level. If the legislation is passed, it would be illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote an employee because of the person's real or perceived sexual orientation."

Barney Frank discusses the decision on the Bilerico report.

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News: ENDA, Diane Arbus, Iraq Deaths, Elizabeth Taylor

Polling agency suggests more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citzens killed since U.S. invaded Iraq.

Wentworth Miller's Prison Break co-star Dominic Purcell gets behind actor's gay denial: "People like to jump to conclusions about him. Went is not gay. I’ve tried it on him many times and he just buffs me right back."

Will Elizabeth Taylor marry for the ninth time?

Gay soldiers react to bigoted comments by General Peter Pace. Antonio Agnone: ""I was actually shocked that he stumbled back into that area of questioning. When he talks about morality, that doesn't have any place. His personal beliefs shouldn't be what he's relying on a day-to-day basis. He broke regulations; he's not supposed to voice his personal opinion."

Democratic Leadership in the House considering dropping trans-inclusive language from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Lane Hudson: "Democrats in general have come under fire from gay activists and funders for a lack of action on legislative priorities such as ENDA and hate crimes. HRC has also come under criticism for the same lack of progress. Both are desperately in need of substantive victories to appease their constituencies. In addition, Speaker Pelosi is slated to receive a major award at HRC's National Dinner next weekend. It's unclear how she will be received in light of this development. All of this boils down to whether we should sacrifice transgender inclusion in the ENDA legislation in order to pass a bill in the immediate future. For me, the answer is simple. No one should be left behind at the convenience of others. It is a moral obligation and a defining moment in the movement for equal rights under the law."

Awards honor best science images of 2007.

Illegal immigrant loses life savings in pursuit of American Dream.

Matthew McConaughey looks awfully strange with clothes on.

Bill O'Reilly on critics of his Harlem restaurant remarks: "[I]f I could strangle these people and not go to hell and get executed ... I would -- but I can't. ... All I can do is expose them. And I will."

Remember the Diane Arbus twins? Now they're all grown up.

Iowa pastors plan October 28 rally supporting amendment to ban gay marriage: "This is not about hate but about differences of beliefs. God's word is clear to us that marriage is only between one man and woman."

Three women in Chicago accuse off-duty police officer of threatening them and roughing them up after this year's pride parade: "According to the lawsuit, a vehicle driven by Fuery came upon a car moving at 30 mph on Interstate 55 after the June 24 parade. Fuery beeped her horn, and Szura responded by slamming on his brakes, speeding up and switching lanes, making it impossible for Fuery to pass, the lawsuit said. Fuery was forced to the shoulder, where Szura screamed words such as 'dyke' and spit at her, according to the lawsuit. The women claim he stuck a gun in Fuery's abdomen, 'causing her to fear for her life.'"

Rosie O'Donnell hangs with her Nip/Tuck castmates.

Meet Project Runway 4's Jack Mackenroth...

A look at at John Edwards' proposed HIV/AIDS program.

Anti-gay lawyer Jack Thompson may be brought down for presenting a judge with graphic gay porn photos as evidence in a suit against gay publisher Norm Kent.

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More Bad News for Senator Larry Craig

The Minneapolis Airport is installing new partitions between the toilets:

"Airport officials plan to put in new stall dividers just 2 to 3 inches above the floor, instead of as much as a foot now. The new dividers will go in two bathrooms where the airport has had complaints about sex, including the one where Craig was arrested."

Hmm. Guess he'll have to stop flying Northwest.

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Milo Ventimiglia: Friday Afternoon Hero Worship

How about a bit of Milo Ventimiglia for your Friday afternoon? This is a new promo shot from Heroes and it looks as though the workouts have been paying off.
(image source)

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Hero in Chains: Milo Ventimiglia [tr]

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