Towleroad Talking Points: Emmys, Romney's Stand-Up and Iran

BY SAM GREISMAN

A look back at today's big stories

ENTERTAINMENT

Everyone's favorite TV Stars gathered for the Emmys last night and Chick-fil-A was the butt of a few jokes. As for the awards, Modern Family came away with it's third Outstanding Comedy Emmy and there was a changing of the guard in the drama category as Homeland supplanted Mad Men as this year's Emmy darling. The freshman show also grabbed awards for Lead Actor and Lead Actress. Jullianne Moore and Game Change were the big winners in the TV Movie/mini-series category. 

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ELECTION 2012

The Romney/Ryan campaign may be one that does not seem that friendly toward the LGBT community. However, Paul Ryan's view on the idea of a reversal of DADT would seem to go against their anti-gay vibe. 

Looking for a laugh? Check out this compilation of Romney's funniest "jokes" in the Obama campaign's new ad. 

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WINGNUTTERY

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the United States for the UN General Assembly and sat down with CNN's Piers Morgan. Yes, Ahmadinejad still hates gays. 

And Brian Brown, President of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM), is very confident that the Supreme Court will not hear the Prop 8 case.

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MARRIAGE EQUALITY

Unfortunately it seems that anti-gay wingnuts may be close to accomplishing a victory in Minnesota, where a ban on gay marriage is currently leading a tight race in the polls. 

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GAY FUN

Looking for a place to go with your boyfriend? Why not swing by Atlantic City?

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VIDEO OF THE DAY

Check out this eerily beautiful video of a hybrid rocket combusting. 

This Is What It Looks Like When A Hybrid Rocket Combusts: VIDEO

Awesome mad scientist Ben Krasnow built a hybrid rocket out of a transparent acrylic rod, thereby allowing us, the viewer, to see how it all works. A bit of explanation on the actual mechanics:

I lit the engine by inserting a burning cotton swab (with wooden stick) while a small amount of oxygen was flowing. The acrylic catches fire very easily in a pure oxygen environment. The engine can be throttled and shut off completely, which is a major benefit to hybrid engine designs. Solid-fuel rockets cannot be throttled or shut off, which makes them difficult to control.

Watch the rocket get spent - and learn a little something, too - AFTER THE JUMP.

Atlantic City Campaign Wants Gays To Fall In Love Again (There)

The Atlantic City Alliance today launched the next phase of its "DO AC" ad campaign, including a version that encouraging same-sex couples to visit the casino town and fall in love again.

Press of Atlantic City reports:

Following up on its $20 million “Do AC” advertising blitz over the spring and summer, the Atlantic City Alliance is spending $6 million to promote the town this fall as a place to “Do Change.”

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Another print ad features two men sharing a meal under the headline, “Do fall. Do falling in love again.” It will run in a gay publication in hopes of drawing more gay travelers to Atlantic City.

Jeff Guaracino, a spokesman for the Atlantic City Alliance, noted that the gay travel market is worth an estimated $64 billion annually. The alliance’s gay-themed ad is an extension of the marketing efforts that some casinos already do to attract gay and lesbian travelers, he said.

If you click on the image you'll note that the couple here is married, which gives the "falling in love" action its added oomph.

Competing Bus Tours Vilify, Defend Iowa Supreme Court Justice

Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins was the center of attention today as two competing bus tours kicked off to attack and defend the Iowa Supreme Court Justice whose career is on the line this November.

On one side there stood the likes of failed presidential candidate and former Sen. Rick Santorum, perennial gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats and others who are trying to oust Wiggins for participating in a unanimous 2009 decision allowing marriage equality in the Hawkeye State. Three other justices were voted out in 2010.

"Justice Wiggins used the Constitution and twisted it to undermine the other thing that our founders understood to be necessary – virtue," said Santorum, according to the Des Moines Register.

He also told his bus' crowd that Wiggins and his peers' unanimous vote amounted to "tyranny of the oligarchy, the tyranny of people who believe they should determine what’s best for us.”

On the other side, driving their own bus directly in the wake of Santorum et al's campaign, there stood Democrats and other allies who are fighting to keep Wiggins on the bench. But their campaign is more about keeping politics out of the judicial branch than a debate about morals, as the right would have it.

"We don’t want to return to the days where politics have been injected into our system, and remove the fair and impartial courts that we have, [that are] well-respected throughout this country," said Des Moines-based attorney Guy Cook.

Both sides of this divide will be touring all week and hits a total of 17 cities, so watch out Iowa!

Towleroad Guide To The Tube #1214

BUMP: Obama discusses Chris Stevens' death on 60 Minutes.

RESPONSE: Romney reacts by saying, "I can't imagine saying something like the assassination of ambassadors is a bump in the road."

'BEAUTIFUL CREATURES': Trailer for new star-studded flick.

MY MITT!: Mimi Imfurst channels Ann Romney pleading for Mitt.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE!

News: Addicted To Love, In The Life, Discover, 'Honey'

Joel Johnson, one of the men found guilty in the 2010 slaying of gay DC principal Brian Betts, is dead after being shot in the head. He was released from prison 15 months ago after completing an 18-month sentence.

Some General Mills shareholders are upset the cereal company is backing marriage equality in Minnesota. CEO Ken Powell, however, remains steadfast, telling the worry warts, "We see it as a business issue that's not good for our state, our employees and our company. We did not do it as a public relations move."

Christopher Stoll, senior staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, breaks down the gay-related potential SCOTUS cases: "Depending on what the justices do over the next several weeks, marriage equality may soon be restored in California, the Court may be on its way to striking down a destructive and discriminatory law that denies federal benefits to every married same-sex couple in America, and an important precedent about same-sex domestic partners could be set."

In The Life, a two-decade old public television series documenting the trials and tribulations of LGBT people, will close up shop come December. "ITLM has had the extraordinary privilege and responsibility of being the only newsmagazine to reflect the diversity of the LGBT communities, daring to tell stories other media outlets - both mainstream and LGBT - did not touch," said In The Life Media interim Executive Director Ellen Carton. ITLM co-chair Jayne Sherman remarked, "As the media organization that pioneered LGBT visibility on television,we believe ITLM played a significant role in this historic progress."

What does it mean if a 4th century parchment claiming that Jesus, a man "too holy" for sex, was married is authenticated? Well, for one it means that millions of celibate priests have been living a lie for centuries.

In the wake of Kevin McClatchy's coming out and baseball player Yunel Escobar's anti-gay eye black, CBS' Gregg Doyel looks at the culture of homophobia in the wide world of sports - and beyond: "...This country is evolving. Gays are elected officials. They teach school. They cannot oversee a pack of Boy Scouts, but they can openly serve in the U.S. military, they can get married (in certain states) and they can be clergy members (in certain faiths). But they can't play in the NFL, the NBA or Major League Baseball -- not without fear of being ostracized in a culture where anti-gay sentiment is so prominent that a player wrote a homosexual slur on his own face."

A shirtless Hugh Jackman is all muscle, claws and veins in the first still from The Wolverine.

For good measure, here are some more shots of a shirtless Hugh Jackman - this time on a beach!

Andrew Sullivan says President Obama will become Ronald Reagan if reelected: "If Obama wins, to put it bluntly, he will become the Democrats’ Reagan. The narrative writes itself. He will emerge as an iconic figure who struggled through a recession and a terrorized world, reshaping the economy within it, passing universal health care, strafing the ranks of al-Qaeda, presiding over a civil-rights revolution, and then enjoying the fruits of the recovery."

Lady Gaga doesn't give a hoot what the Pope says about marriage equality. ""I think that gay marriage is going to happen. It must. We are not actually equal -- humanity -- if we are not allowed to freely love one another... What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope... It is not a reflection of all religious people."

Stephen Saland, one of the Republican New York State Senators whose support for marriage equality brought down conservative fury, has been declared the winner in his tight GOP primary race.

Payback: "Discover Bank will pay millions in fees to settle accusations by U.S. regulators that it pressured credit card customers to buy costly add-on services like payment protection and credit monitoring. Discover, the sixth-biggest U.S. credit card issuer, will pay a $14 million fine and refund $200 million directly to more than 3.5 million customers, federal authorities said Monday."

The hideous Family Research Council released a congressional scorecard on which LGBT-friendly politicos rank lowest, particularly if they're senators who approved openly gay federal judge Michael Fitzgerald's confirmation. "Mr. Fitzgerald has supported liberal activist organizations and worked to promote homosexual rights in the state of his judgeship," the group gripes.

CNN puts President Obama about nine points ahead of Mitt Romney in the crucial state of Pennsylvania.

Damn! One of the police officers who involved singer Fiona Apple's hash arrest does not approve of how Apple tried to call him and his colleagues out during a recent concert, so the officer, Drug Wars filmmaker and former Glenn Beck guest Rusty Fleming, wrote Apple a letter. This is how it opens: "First, Honey, I’m already more famous than you, I don’t need your help. However, it would appear that you need mine." Conservatives know how to throw shade with the best of them.

Does Aaron Paul's girlfriend deserve all his love?

The Chemistry Between Us claims that love is simply an addictive chemical imbalance. No word how specific it gets on same-sex sexing, but here's a summation on the straight, er, bits: "[The book] claim that sex tricks women into "babysitting" the men they love - nurturing them as they would their own infants, thanks to the goodly amounts of oxytocin released during the sex act by men hitting the cervix with their large penises and playing with their breasts."