A Small Town Guy Finds his Way Around Gay Toronto in the New Web Series 'Other Men': VIDEO

Other Men is a forthcoming web series written by Ben Ladouceur and starring Nathan Carroll, G. Kyle Shields, and Jonathan Nathaniel about a small town gay man trying to find himself in a big city:

A recently-out man named Jerry tries to find a space for himself in Toronto's queer community, aided by his new love, a playwright named Hank. Jerry finds little comfort in this new space, and a betrayal from Hank causes his known world to unravel.

Check out the trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...

Drew University Baseball Player Comes Out as Gay To His Team

Visibility of gay athletes increased one notch further last Sunday as Matt Kaplon, baseball player for and student of Drew University, came out of the closet to his teammates. Inspired by the story of gay NCAA basketball player Derek Schell, Kaplon credits him with saving his life and said of his own coming out,

Everyone tells me that college is supposed to be the best four years of my life. I've had a great time, but for three and a half of them, I've been hiding things and not being the real me. Building friendships and meeting people and with my teammates, they know part of me but I finally feel like I want them to know everything. I want to be me 100% and make sure they know I'm not hiding anything. I'm ready for that. I'm ready to start not having to hide.

Kaplon was welcomed warmly by his team and congratulated on his decision to come out. Even his coach, Brian Hirschberg, was proud of him.

He's as close to a family member as anyone I've ever coached. He's like a younger brother to me. When Matt shared his story with me, I respected him more, if that's even possible.

NBA to Donate Proceeds from Jason Collins Jerseys to LGBT Groups

The NBA will donate proceeds from sales of Jason Collins jerseys to LGBT causes, specifically GLSEN and the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the Guardian reports:

The league said on Friday that donations would total no less than $100,000, and it will also auction off Collins’s autographed, game-worn jerseys to benefit the same organisations.

Collins says he is thrilled to help the organisations that “work tirelessly to ensure LGBT youth get the resources and assistance they need to be successful in life”.

Kepler Telescope Reveals 715 New Planets, a 'Bonanza' for NASA Scientists: VIDEO

GlobalPost

Four of the 715 new planets discovered by NASA's Kepler are less than 2 1/2 times the size of Earth and orbit in their sun’s 'Goldilocks' zone.

Using statistics and data from the Kepler telescope, NASA announced on Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets, a “bonanza” likely to continue for years to come.

The newest discoveries increase the known planets outside the Milky Way to 1,700 from about 1,000.

To verify this bounty of planets, a research team co-led by planetary scientist Jack Lissauer analyzed stars with more than one potential planet.

“Four years ago, Kepler began a string of announcements of first hundreds, then thousands, of planet candidates — but they were only candidate worlds,” Lissauer said online.

“We’ve now developed a process to verify multiple planet candidates in bulk to deliver planets wholesale, and have used it to unveil a veritable bonanza of new worlds.”

The newly verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system, NASA said.

Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is still almost four times the size of Earth. This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets more akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system.

The research team used a technique called verification by multiplicity, which relies in part on probability. Kepler observes 150,000 stars and has found a few thousand of those to have planet candidates.

If the candidates were randomly distributed among Kepler’s stars, only a handful would have more than one planet candidate. However, Kepler observed hundreds of stars that have multiple planet candidates.

Four of the new planets are less than 2 1/2 times the size of Earth and orbit in their sun’s “Goldilocks” zone, or the distance from a star that’s “just right” for liquid water.

One of these new planets, called Kepler-296f, orbits a star half the size and five percent as bright as our sun. It’s twice the size of Earth, but scientists do not know whether the planet is a gaseous world, with a thick hydrogen-helium envelope, or it is a water world surrounded by a deep ocean.

“From this study we learn planets in these multi-systems are small, and their orbits are flat and circular — resembling pancakes —not your classical view of an atom,” said Jason Rowe, co-leader of the research.

“The more we explore the more we find familiar traces of ourselves amongst the stars that remind us of home.”

Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitable Earth-size planets. Discoveries include more than 3,600 planet candidates, of which 961 have been verified as bona-fide worlds.

An animation of the Kepler system, AFTER THE JUMP...

Federal Judge Puts Three Week Hold on Kentucky Gay Marriage Recognition Ruling: VIDEO

A federal judge in Kentucky has put his order that the state recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere on hold for three weeks, NBC News reports:

The state had asked for a 90-day stay of the order, but Judge John G. Heyburn II is only putting it on hold until March 20, saying that will give the state enough time to comply.

Heyburn's order means that gay couples who were legally married elsewhere but live in Kentucky will be able change their names on state documents and obtain other benefits of married couples.

A separate lawsuit over whether Kentucky can issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples is before the same judge.

There remains a lot of confusion over the new law:

A local county clerk says she wants to follow the law and the judge's ruling but she isn't sure how. The Calloway County Clerk said the main issue is with property transfer taxes. 

Husband and wife are exempt. The clerk thinks married same sex couples are but she's not sure how to file the paperwork.  She's waiting on the state to tell her what to do and how to do it.

She isn't sure what happens if a same sex couple who was married elsewhere gets in line and wants to be recognized as such. The woman who usually has the answers admits she's stumped.

"We have no order, we have no for sure what to do and how to do it," Calloway County Clerk Antonia Faulkner said.

The state always provides clear instructions but that hasn't been the case with same sex couples.

Russell Tovey Makes a Final 'Pass' in His Underwear: PHOTO

It's Russell Tovey's last day in The Pass at London's Royal Court Theatre and he marked it by Instagramming this backstage photo of the cast.

That's Downton Abbey's Gary Carr next to him.

If you missed our sexy post on The Pass with lots more shirtless Tovey and Carr, click HERE.