Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1299

IAN MCKELLEN HONORED: The out gay actor delivered a lecture on religious and homophobic prejudice at the University of Ulster over the weekend.

BABY'S FIRST STEPS: A landmark moment, interrupted.

SLOTHS: Do they sink or swim?

WALTER CRONKITE: 1967 program on the office of the 21st century.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

News: Ed Koch, Delaware, G-A-Y, Alexander Ludwig, Lil Kim

NYT: Obama's Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. faces choice on the Prop 8 case.

Hunger Games hottie Alexander Ludwig in his upcoming film Final Girl.

Meet Lil' Kim's new face.

Illinois' leading marriage activist says gays can and should "change", says "Satan wants to destroy God's creation".

Gavin Newsom gives an interview to Salon on marriage equality, where we are today, and his actions in 2004: "What people saw, and the chief justice of the California Supreme Court all but acknowledged this — and ultimately became a principal player in what is now in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. He saw mothers and brothers and sisters and uncles and kids and grandkids, and that was what was so remarkable — how unremarkable it was. People realized it was about them — it’s about their neighbors, about their friends and family. It wasn’t just about 'an abstract,' the gay community."

Britney Spears hints at Las Vegas residency.

Nebraska Lt. Governor Sheehy resigns amid "a scandal involving thousands of calls to four women on his state-issued cellphone, including one woman who said she had a romantic relationship with the politician."

Here are all the movie trailers that played during the Super Bowl.

Delaware Bishop Francis Malooly attacks marriage equality: "If unrestrained romanticism damages marriage so also does its opposite – the individualism, isolation, and plain selfishness of our era."

Owner of London's G-A-Y nightclub buys back HMV's stake: "Mr Joseph, who founded G-A-Y 20 years ago as a radio programme and grew the business to four nightclubs including Heaven in London, said he "signed his life away" by taking out a multimillion pound loan from Metro Bank to fund the purchase."

Signorile: Ed Koch and the corruption of the gay closet.

The Nation on Ed Koch: "All that said, there is a special place reserved for Koch in gay hell—because he was mayor during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, which he is widely seen as failing to do enough about, and because it’s commonly assumed that Koch was a closeted gay man. 'I hope he’s burning next to Roy Cohn'—or sentiments quite like it—have appeared frequently on my Facebook feed, especially from vets of ACT UP."

How to Survive a Plague director David France speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about the film, AIDS, homophobia, and how it left his NYC neighborhood decimated: "It was a crazy time and it’s also crazy to think ... just 25 or 30 years since then ... what a dramatic cultural transformation has taken place with the integration of gay people in ordinary life. And that’s one of the legacies of the AIDS activists. That’s one of the first things that AIDS activists had to take on, to establish -- as ridiculous as it sounds -- the idea that people who had AIDS were human and deserving of compassion and empathy."

People for the American Way has started a blog series on DOMA. Here's their first installment.

Male model fix: Arran Sly.

Elton John bringing Animal Farm children's musical to Broadway? "John's partner David Furnish told Britain's Hello! magazine, 'Later this year we begin filming Rocketman, a biopic of Elton's early life. Towards the end of the year, we are also planning to open a children's musical on Broadway.' The Guardian reported in July 2010 that John is working on a musical adaptation of Animal Farm, based on George Orwell's novel. This is likely the 'children's musical' to which Furnish is referring. The project has been in development since roughly 2008."

CNN's Carol Costello Stomps Out Hate Group Leader's Boy Scout BS: VIDEO

CNN's Carol Costello spoke with hate group leader Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, the group who took out the full page ad in USA Today urging the Boy Scouts to retain its gay ban.

Sprigg says that parents have the right to protect their kids from teh gay.

Said Sprigg: "The mere fact that someone openly identifies themselves as homosexual means that they are modeling for boys the acceptability of homosexual conduct. And parents who do not agree with that view have a right to protect their children form that...They have a right to protect their children from the potential risk of child sexual abuse at the hands of men who might be attracted to other males."

Costello correctly asserts the APA study that shows homosexuals are not any more likely to molest kids than straight men.

"Unless you're condemning every single homosexual in the country as being a possible pedophile, that's not fair!"

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Thomas Roberts Talks to IL State Senator Heather Steans About Upcoming Marriage Equality Vote, Aaron Schock: VIDEO

MSNBC's Thomas Roberts spoke with Illinois State Senator Heather Steans today about the marriage equality bill in Illinois and plans to vote on it on Valentine's Day. He also asks her if she's concerned at all about Rep. Aaron Schock, who opposes same-sex marriage and has expressed an interest in running for governor.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Rick Santorum: Gay Inclusion Will 'Murder' the Boy Scouts

Rick Santorum says allowing gay scouts and leaders into the organization will destroy it.

"Wednesday’s vote is a challenge to the Scouts’ very nature and is another example of the left attempting to remove God from all areas of public life," warns Rick Santorum in a World Net Daily column on plans this week by the Boy Scouts to drop its ban on gay scouts and scout leaders.

He adds:

"Scouting prepares boys and teenagers to be virtuous men in a world that desperately needs men who are brave enough to stand up for those principles, to live by the moral code of the Scout Oath and Law and hold themselves to that standard – whether at the schoolyard or in the boardroom. Scouting may not survive this transformation of American society, but for the sake of the average boy in America, I hope the board of the Scouts doesn’t have its fingerprints on the murder weapon."

The Boy Scouts this morning were set to receive more than 1.4 million petitions calling for an end to the ban.

Today, the Family Research Council and other hate groups took out a full-page ad in USA Today urging the BSA to retain its anti-gay policies.

President Obama weighed in during a 60 Minutes interview that ran before the Super Bowl, saying that the Boy Scouts should allow gays to join its organization . Said Obama: "My attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life."

Billy Eichner Accosts New Yorkers with Zachary Quinto: VIDEO

Billy Eichner finds that most New Yorkers are disappointingly blasé when socked with Spock.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...