Towleroad Talking Points: Hillary Supports Marriage Equality

BY SAM GREISMAN

A look back at today's top stories

MARRIAGE EQUALITY

A busy day on the marriage equality front. After last week's pro-gay marriage announcement from Rob Portman, today it was former Secretary of State (and potential 2016 presidential candidate?) Hillary Clinton's turn. This as a new poll shows that public support for gay marriage is higher than ever. 

Here is a pair of related videos that are likely to bring a tear to your eye. Watch 12-year-old Daniel read a powerful letter he wrote Chief Justice John Roberts about his two dads and the upcoming DOMA and Prop 8 cases. Very sweet. And celebrate marriage equality with an accordion-based tribute jam. 

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WINGNUTTERY

In case you haven't heard, Survivor creator Mark Burnett has a History Channel mini-series called The Bible. It turns out that in addition to creating a Satan who looks oddly like Obama, Burnett also hired a panel of prominent homophobes to advise him on Biblical accuracy. I think I'll pass on this one. 

Alt-folk singer Michelle Shocked lived up to her name and cleared out a San Francisco venue with a homophobic rant. Here is a tip, if you want to wave to some pals, don't do it with a Nazi salute. Despite Rob Portman's GOP support for gay marriage, Rick Santorum is still not a fan of it. Shocker. And it seems the RNC would like to make themselves less offensive to some Americans. 

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ENTERTAINMENT

Openly gay singer-songwriter Matt Fishel gives us a new song that skewers the homophobia in the music industry. A man in England did what I'm sure many of us have thought about and asked Prince Harry out on a date and the redhead replied in a surprisingly charming and adult manner. Also Anderson Cooper and Madonna get candid backstage after the GLAAD Awards. 

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VIDEO OF THE DAY

One more video for today. It's a powerful coming out story from a Naval Petty Officer. 

Wingsuited Daredevils Dive Into Rio, Fly Between Skyscrapers: VIDEO

Ludovic Woerth and Jokke Sommer dive from gliders into Rio de Janeiro, landing in a park behind the 38-story Ventura Corporate Towers after flying between its double skyscrapers (at the top of the image below).

Wrote Sommer: "Ludovic and I doing a wingsuit flight into Rio de Janeiro. We did not have permission to fly into the city, but to respect the commercial air traffic we did the jump 05:45 in the morning. The first flights arrive at 06:05."

Watch (full-screen and HD if possible), AFTER THE JUMP...

That's one way to arrive in Brazil.

Jake Shears Serenades Anderson Cooper at the GLAAD Awards: VIDEO

At Saturday night's GLAAD awards, Jake Shears covered "A Real Hero", the gorgeous College & Electric Youth track that served as a musical centerpiece to Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 Ryan Gosling film Drive, and he added a special lyric for Anderson Cooper.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Alt-Folk Singer Michelle Shocked Tells SF Audience 'God Hates Fags', Inspires Mass Walk-Out

Alt-folk singer Michelle Shocked is making headlines after reports she went on an anti-gay tirade during the second half of her show at San Francisco club Yoshi, Meow Online reports:

Michelle Shocked, known for living up to her surname, cleared out San Francisco club Yoshi’s last night, and shut down the venue, after she went on an anti-gay tirade, which she summed up by saying, ”You can go on Twitter and say ‘Michelle Shocked says God hates fags.’”

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Matt Penfield, onstage live-tweeting the performance for Shocked was, well, shocked.

“Eerie foreshadowing at Michelle Shocked show,” Penfield said. “before the show she talked about how ‘people seem like your friends then they turn on you.’”

Her first set was “all cool. 2nd set, she got up went full hate speech,” he tweeted.

Shocked's Facebook page describes her as "your average anarchist skateboard punk rock born again Christian."

Last night she tweeted: "Truth is leading to painful confrontation #shortsharpshocked".

Video of the incident has yet to appear online.

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1329

TRUE FACTS: About the dung beetle.

LUKE'S CHANGE: Destruction of the Death Star an inside job?

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON: A professor goes off the rails at student activist group.

SORAYA SOBREIDAD: Drag queen chef profiled in the NYT.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

News: Beth Ditto, Korea, David Hockney, LGBT Books, NFL

David Hockney's personal assistant and close friend dies after falling ill at artist's home.

Gossip singer Beth Ditto busted for disorderly conduct.

Utah Scout-O-Rama donations drop from $70,000 to $8,000: "Greenberg said the Scout-O-Rama benefits Scouts because they get to show off their hard work. The sponsors for this year’s event include local and national companies. Chris Arnold, spokesman for Chipotle Mexican Grill, said the company will supply food for the event."

A nice shout-out to Towleroad's Ari Ezra Waldman in Slate.

Dispute on transgender rights unfolds at Colorado school: ""It is an issue that has become more commonplace in recent years as advocacy groups push to ensure that school districts are more attuned to the needs of transgender children."

Korea: Surgery no longer required for transgender people to change legal gender status. "Last Friday Seoul Western District Court ruled in favour of accepting requests from five female-to-male transgender individuals to have their family register listing altered to be classified as male. None of the five has undergone operations "

Bradley Cooper rocks some pink curlers.

VIDEO: A new epic Game of Thrones Season 3 trailer.

Trevor Donovan gets his guyliner on for Neux magazine. “If I’m not working… I play with my puppy (my dog, get your mind out of the gutter), eat naked, then work out, not naked.”

CPAC highlights GOP division on gay rights, marriage.

Aksarbent: A few scenes from last week's heated Nebraska hearings on LGBT rights bills.

Justin Timberlake prepping second album for Fall release? "But following a jam session with JT at SXSW on Saturday night, Roots drummer ?uestlove confirmed a rumor that has been floating around lately: JT is prepping a second album for release in the fall. "Spoiler alert," he wrote on the Okayplayer.com message boards. '20/20 Vol. 2 comes out in Nov. 10 songs now ... 10 songs later = 20 vision.' How does Quest know so much?"

Rand Paul introduces "fetal personhood" legislation that would completely outlaw abortion in the United States.

Male model fix: Tomas Guarracino.

What happened when children were to blame for a hate crime.

Blabbeando takes another look at Orlando Cruz's recent win and the slap on the ass that demonstrates Cruz knows exactly who he is.

Publishing Triangle announces finalists for 2012 Triangle Awards.

Pastor Rob Bell comes out for marriage equality: "I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it's a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs -- I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are."

NYT: NFL pressured on gay rights issues.

Victory Institute to send LGBT organization leaders to Duke: "Funded with a $250,000, five-year grant from The LTR Lewis Cloverdale Foundation, the LGBT Movement Leaders Fellowship will sponsor up to four executive directors in year one to attend the prestigious Duke University Nonprofit Management Program. The program provides a structured and rigorous grounding in the establishment, operation, and continuation of a successful nonprofit. The first class of Fellows will begin this June in Raleigh, N.C."