News: Super Bowl, Jack Frew, Germany, Christine Quinn, Bjork

LGBT activists protest outside National Prayer Breakfast.

Mona Lisa copy discovered at the Prado.

Outsports gay guide to the Super Bowl. "Gay-friendly owners. Madonna. David Beckham in his underwear and 106 players in tight pants. Welcome to this year’s Super Bowl. Gay enough for you? For those who want to dazzle fellow Super Bowl partiers with obscure porn references and some insight to the game, I present my annual Super Bowl for the Clueless."

Buzzfeed: Hotties of the Super Bowl.

Ebony: Four Black pastors at the forefront of LGBT equality.

Sarah Jessica Parker as feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

Matt Bomer and Darren Criss to tackle Duran Duran on Glee: "A show source says the Duran Duran number will be 'very sexy and fun and big,' adding that Bomer is a 'big dancer,' and that Darren Criss, who plays Blaine, is a major Duran aficionado who 'has long hungered for some of these songs.'"

Jake Gyllenhaal reminds us it's actually winter somewhere.

Man enters plea in Santa Barbara hate crime murder: "The Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office says Curtis Martin pled no contest to first degree attempted murder and admitted a hate crime allegation. In September 2010, Martin stabbed a male employee twice in the neck, telling detectives he did it 'because he's gay, I don't like gay people...I hope he dies.' Martin is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8. He faces a 26 years to life sentence.

Liza Minnelli talks to the HuffPo about her mother, Judy Garland: "The biggest misconception people have about my mother is that she was so unhappy. I think people enjoy thinking that -- some of them, anyway. They see the tragedy as opposed to the fact that she understood how to play tragedy."

VIDEO: Bjork interviewed by Stephen Colbert, performs "Cosmogony".

Scottish teen gets mandatory life sentence for murder of gay classmate Jack Frew: "Roy's defence team said he was worried that Jack (pictured) would tell his boyfriend, Christopher Hannah, about their previous sexual contact."

German dad wants daughter institutionalized because she is trangender: "The Berlin Youth Office apparently agrees, and according to IGLYO, Alexandra is about to be committed. Afterwards, the Youth Office allegedly recommends that Alexandra be forced to go through puberty as a man, and then plied with 'football and cars' to make her more masculine. It also wants her placed with a foster family.."

National LGBT Cancer Network conducting survey focusing on the experience of LGBT people at the moment of a cancer diagnosis. If you know an LGBT person who has ever been diagnosed with cancer, they can participate here.

NYT studies the relationship between City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her lobbyist friend Emily Giske: "Over the two decades of their friendship, each woman has become powerful — Ms. Quinn is the speaker of the City Council, while Ms. Giske is one of the best-connected and most popular lobbyists at City Hall and in Albany. And now, as Ms. Quinn seeks to solidify her status as a leading contender in the 2013 campaign for New York mayor, their close but complex relationship poses a challenge to both women, in a contemporary twist on a perennial political story line that will test Ms. Quinn’s leadership abilities if she is elected mayor."

'The Hunger Games' New Trailer: VIDEO

So, the preview I posted earlier from ET was just a taste of this.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

 

9th Circuit Says Videotapes in Prop 8 Case to Remain Sealed

Citing efforts to retain "sanctity of judicial process", the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that videotapes shot of the Proposition 8 trial will remains sealed: "The integrity of our judicial system depends in no small part on the ability of litigants...the public to rely on a judge’s word..."

Here's a brief section I pulled from the ruling:

Interpreted in their full context, at least two of Chief Judge Walker’s statements amount to unequivocal assurances that the video recording at issue would not be accessible to the public. No other inference can plausibly be drawn from the record. First, following the Supreme Court’s issuance of a stay against the public broadcast of the trial, Chief Judge Walker stated in open court that he was going to continue “taking the recording for purposes of use in chambers,” but that the recording was “not going to be for purposes of public broadcasting or televising.” It would be unreasonable to expect Proponents, upon reading the Supreme Court’s opinion andhearing Chief Judge Walker’s statement in response, to foresee that a recording made for such limited purposes might nonetheless be released for viewing by the public,either during or after the trial. Had Chief Judge Walker not made the statement he did, Proponents would very likely have sought an order directing him to stop recording forthwith, which, given the prior temporary and further stay they had just obtained from the Supreme Court, they might well have secured.

Read the ruling, AFTER  THE JUMP...

Our legal expert Ari Ezra Waldman will have analysis as soon as he can take a closer look...

11-17255 #73 - Decision

Maryland School District Defends Distribution of 'Ex-Gay' Group's Flyers to High School Students: VIDEO

FOX5 in D.C. is reporting that Montgomery County Public Schools is defending the distribution of flyers from the "ex-gay" group PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) to students at Einstein High School in Rockville, Maryland.

Montgomery County Public Schools released a statement after getting a complaint from a parent.

It says in part that "the board of education policy allows materials and announcements from non-profit community organizations to be distributed at four designated times during the school year," as long as those non-profits meet certain criteria.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

School Defends 'Friends of Ex-Gays' Flyer Handed Out to Students: MyFoxDC.com

 

'212' Rapper Azealia Banks Comes Out as Bisexual: VIDEO

"212" rapper Azealia Banks, a 20-year-old from Harlem, comes out as bisexual in the NYT:

The aggression in “212” is palpable, not just in the beat but also in the crass lyrics, in which she asserts her dominance over a male opponent. Ms. Banks considers herself bisexual, but, she said: “I’m not trying to be, like, the bisexual, lesbian rapper. I don’t live on other people’s terms.”

Watch "212", AFTER THE JUMP...

Kansas Lawmakers Prepare to Symbolically Condemn Gays By Leaving Sodomy Law in Place: VIDEO

Kansas lawmakers are prepared to ignore once again a bill repealing state law that criminalizes sodomy even though it's moot, because the topic is just too "sensitive" to address, according to one state senator.

Writes Igor Volsky: "Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas struck down anti-sodomy laws as unconstitutional, Kansas’ statute has no force and effect. Yet Republicans are determined to keep it on the books as a purely symbolic gesture of their condemnation of gay couples and a repeal bill stalled in the legislature last year."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...