News: James Franco, Barbara Walters, Albuquerque, Bird Strikes

A 15-year old boy has been charged with the shooting deaths of two adults and three children in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Police say the teen had at least one assault rifle.

Five people were injured in separate incidents during yesterday's "Gun Appreciation Day."

Vicco, Kentucky, population 344, may be the smallest town in America to ban anti-gay discrimination.

What promises made during his first inaugural speech did President Obama keep?

Can former NYC Mayor Ed Koch's AIDS record be discussed without whispers about his sexuality? "Absent the hostility, a more speculative version of this position is offered in the film by Ethan Geto, a media and political strategist, who says simply that during the epidemic "it would have been so incredibly valuable for a popular mayor of New York to declare he was gay."

Labour MP Paul Flynn is introducing a bill that would allow gay royals to marry and for their children to be potential heirs to the British thrown.

This is horrific and graphic but definitely something you should pay attention to: video of a CVS manager strangling a homeless shoplifter to death while pedestrians hold the man down. No criminal charges are pending.

Daniel Radcliffe is already tired and "weirded out" by all the questions about the gay sex in his new film, Kill Your Darlings. "What weirded me out the most last night was people were asking me all these questions about the gay sex scenes. I was like: 'You know I did Equus?'. Some people are asking me questions like this is a more shocking subject, which is so strange," he said.

A review of James Franco's Interior Leather Bar, an homage to the graphic gay sex cut from the controversial gay classic Cruisin': "Interior Leather Bar does contain one very graphic sex scene - a tender encounter between two men we are told are a real-life couple, which seems to be entirely against the film's idea of re-queering gay sex. And in general it's much more about talking about sex than actually showing it, which also makes its claims toward provocation a little weaker."

Did you see Jennifer Lawrence host Saturday Night Live?

ABC News' Barbara Walters was hospitalized after falling and hitting her head at an inauguration party.

Loneliness is bad for your health: "[A new study] reveals that people who are lonely experience more reactivation of latent viruses in their systems than the well-connected. Lonely people also are more likely than others to produce inflammatory compounds in response to stress, a factor implicated in heart disease and other chronic disorders."

More on American anti-gay crusader Brian Brown's efforts to block marriage equality in France.

Want to stop bird strikes? Turn up the bass.

Jared Padalecki's a hot daddy.

Justin Bieber shared his butt with the world.

When Florence Welch met A$AP Rocky.

Hundreds of activists gathered to say adieu as Steven Goldstein prepares to step down as Garden State Equality's executive director.

First Look At Amanda Seyfried As Linda Lovelace: VIDEO

Two days before Lovelace premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, here's footage of Amanda Seyfried channeling the legendary Deep Throat star. And from the looks of it, Seyfried delivers a very compelling and authentic performance of a woman finding herself in the midst of a sexual revolution.

Check it out AFTER THE JUMP.

Gay Inaugural Poet: I Am Here Because This Is America

Richard Blanco, the gay Latino poet chosen to read his work at President Obama's second inauguration tomorrow, penned a piece at CNN today in which eloquently illustrates the quintessential American elements of his origin story, a story that includes a particularly homophobic grandmother.

From his piece:

Being named poet laureate for the inauguration personally validates and stitches together several ideals against which I have long measured America, since the days of watching "My Three Sons" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" reruns.

For one, the essence of the American dream: how a little Cuban-American kid on the margins of mainstream America could grow up with confidence, have the opportunity to become an engineer thanks to the hard work of his parents who could barely speak English, and then go on, choosing to become a poet who is now asked to speak to, for and about the entire nation.

The most powerful quality of our country is that each day is full of a million possibilities: We are a country of fierce individualism, which invites me to shape my life as I see fit. As I reflect on this, I see how the American story is in many ways my story -- a country still trying to negotiate its own identity, caught between the paradise of its founding ideals and the realities of its history, trying to figure it out, trying to "become" even today -- the word hope as fresh on our tongues as it ever was.

Blanco will take the stage tomorrow after Kelly Clarkson sings, which will be directly after President Obama's speech. Obama's first inaugural speech was about 21 minutes, so Blanco should appear tomorrow at about 12:30 or 1ish. But you'll already be watching, so you won't miss him, right?

Another Look At The Anti-Gay 'Fatherless Deviant' Yarn

Garth McVicar is unyielding in his claim that same-sex marriage leads to violent crime. Though most people, including MPs, laughed at the New Zealand anti-gay activist's outrageous claim - and his various misspellings - McVicar this weekend dedicated himself anew to convincing people he's on the right track, and that gay nuptials are a detour to depravity.

In an interview with The New Zealand Herald, McVicar doubled down, saying, "If you look at the court stats, most of the crime that has been committed has been committed by fatherless kids." He also warned that gay adoption would have a similar effect, adding, "That's where it's heading - this is just another step in that politically correct journey that we've been on as a country."

Asked if two gay men, two dads, adopting would cancel out the detrimental effects, McCivar, not surprisingly, said no. Kids need a mother, as well. That's the basic formula for almost all anti-gay marriage movements. Opposition to gays raising kids is one of the main reasons the anti-marriage equality movement in France has such widespread and varied support. In France, in New Zealand and the world over, the conservative refrain remains largely the same: kids need both a mom and a dad, not two moms and not two dads. And, yes, this math also considers a single mother is less than, too.

And that's one of the subtexts that's often unexplored in these conservative arguments: the idea that a woman is not sufficient enough to raise a child alone. That women in general are not equal to men, that their power is only activated when complemented by a man's. Even then the woman's abilities are only suited for cooking, cleaning and birthing. Rational people living in this time period know that's not the case. Even still, it's this old, debunked theory that laid the seed for its more contemporary odious offshoot, the "no two dads; no two moms" meme.

When McVicar and his allies are attacking gay couples, they're also implicitly attacking women. It's hard, tiring - and tiresome - work. And yet most of the right wingers like McVicar still find time, and opportunity, to fulfill what they call their main goal: procreation. Where's Lysistrata when you need her?

President Obama Officially Sworn In For Second Term: VIDEO

President Obama's second term has officially begun!

The president, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters joined Chief Justice John Roberts in the White House's Blue Room today for a private swearing in. The president placed his right hand on a copy of the Bible from his wife's collection as he retook the oath of office, an oath he'll take again tomorrow in front of a far larger crowd.

Until then, watch President Obama be sworn in for his second term AFTER THE JUMP.

'Even Straight People' Welcome In Vegas, Says Ad Campaign

Hoping to entice more gay travelers to their glittering strip, the Las Vegas tourist board commissioned a series of ads featuring average looking middle aged straight couples amidst gay and lesbian revelry. The captions read "Everyone's welcome; even straight people."

I've included three other examples, via BuzzFeed, AFTER THE JUMP.