Towleroad Guide to the Tube #572

FISH FRY: Eaten alive?

RELIGIOUS RIGHT: The threat to Obama.

BLOWER: Turn your iPhone into a leaf blower, for very small leaves.

CELEBRATION: A Madonna flash mob in Tokyo.

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #570: Obama in China Edition

President Obama spoke and took questions at a town hall meeting in Shanghai, China earlier today.

One of several questions was about the internet, censorship, and Twitter. Said Obama: "Well, first of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter. I noticed that young people -- they're very busy with all these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone. But I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves."

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News: Walt Whitman, Submarines, Leona Lewis, Polaroid, Steve-O

HRC's Joe Solmonese responds to 2017 letter uproar.

18-year-old arrested in beating death of Oakland Park, Florida gay man.

Clinton disappoints gay activists in Moscow by not decrying anti-gay abuses of Mayor Luzhkov at Walt Whitman statue unveiling, but does urge Russia to respect human rights and the democratic process: "In an innovative society, people must be free to take unpopular positions, disagree with conventional wisdom, know they are safe to challenge abuses of authority."

Man punches singer Leona Lewis in the face at book signing.

Gay poet Carl Phillips a finalist for National Book Award.

House Minority Leader John Boehner thinks sexual orientation is not an immutable characteristic, and that's why he opposes hate crimes legislation that includes it.

Ed Westwick explains his giant feather tattoo.

Navy considers allowing women to serve on submarines: "Some sailors and wives warn that putting men and women together in extremely close quarters underwater for weeks at a time is just asking for sexual harassment cases and wrecked marriages. But supporters of the idea say it is a matter of fairness and equal opportunity, and what worked on ships can work in subs."

Last-minute donations pour in for Referendum 71 in Washington: "The campaign in favor of R-71, called Washington Families Standing Together, now has nearly $1 million in the bank. Big donations include $60,000 from a special fundraising committee set up by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group. Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates each gave $25,000. The campaign against R-71 also has some last-minute donors. A relatively new committee called Vote Reject on R-71 has collected about $200,000 from the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a Lynnwood-based conservative religious group."

GQ launches in China.

Patrick Swayze gets a memorial jack-o-lantern.

Masks come off: Michael Jackson's kids to co-star in Jackson family reality show.

Gay sex club closes after man falls to his death in D.C.: "At Men’s Parties, safety doesn’t mean ensuring that the apartment’s stairs, surfaces, and exposed metal pipes provide a secure sexual landscape for party attendees. It doesn’t even mean encouraging members to engage in protected sex. At 1618 14th St., 'safe' means ensuring anonymous sex for a group of gay men sporting wedding rings, sensitive careers, or shame."

Same-sex marriage state by state: an interactive map.

Polaroid instant film cameras to make a comeback.

Video Phone: Beyoncé and Lady Gaga team up for super secret music video.

Steve-O stands up for frogs.

Senator Olympia Snowe, the sole Republican vote on the Senate Finance Committee which approved the health care bill yesterday, says any final bill that includes a public option won't get her vote.

Queer theory: "Vampires have overwhelmed pop culture because young straight women want to have sex with gay men."

Make love on a real train and get crabs while you're at it.

John Mayer gets $800 haircut, debuts new video, wants to sodomize an editor at New York magazine.

News: Serbia, Caster Semenya, China, Tim Hardaway, Cleveland

Obama appoints law professor, ENDA expert, and former legislative counsel to the AIDS Project of the ACLU Chai R. Feldblum as Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Hamburglar chic at Marc Jacobs show.

Orbitz, Bertolli, Cadillac, Subaru, Lifelube, Allstate, Coors Light among nominees for GLAAD  Media Awards in Advertising.

David Beckham looks like a fool trying to golf.

Amnesty International: Serbian gay rights activists under attack. Serbian authorities expect Gay Pride clashes...

Teen sentenced to up to 9 months in juvenile detention for gay bashing of Steven Harmon in Portage, Michigan, after pleading guilty to aggravated assault. More on the crime here. "The 16-year-old was also ordered to obtain anger management counseling, victim restitution and write a letter of apology to the victim, Steven Harmon, said Karen Hayter, division leader for assistant prosecuting attorneys in the Family Court division of Kalamazoo County Circuit Court."

South African runner at center of gender debate,Caster Semenya, on suicide watch: "She is like a raped person. She is afraid of herself and does not want anyone near her. If she commits suicide, it will be on all our heads. The best we can do is protect her and look out for her during this trying time."

Gays take a stand (and a seat) in a public park in Guangzhou, China: "When the police descend on People's Park and shoo away the gay men gathered there, the men usually scatter to avoid trouble. But recently, about 50 or so confronted five officers who began a sweep and finally forced a police retreat after a heated but nonviolent standoff."

Straight spouses stung by closeted exes speak up for same-sex marriage: "If gays and lesbians were more accepted, I wouldn't have married a closeted lesbian."

Tim Hardaway foundation to hold Miami benefit for gay suicide hotline The Trevor Project.

Popular gay radio show Fernando & Greg booted from the air in San Francisco...

Jake Gyllenhaal takes in the Del Potro knockdown at the U.S. Open.

Penn Badgley on Gossip Girl cast: "In certain circles we're treated like royalty. We're treated like the Kennedys."

Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland City Council lift city's Gay Games bid to the tune of $700,000: "The money would help defray the costs of holding the games here and would not be spent unless Cleveland is the winning bidder. The city is one of three finalists for the 2014 Gay Olympics. Boston and Washington D.C. are the other contenders."

Former Bush speechwriter reveals how Bush dissed everyone in Washington.

Report cards issued to pharmaceutical companies with HIV drugs on the market.

Finish line: "on Sunday, September 13, 2009, 113 riders and a team of 50 volunteer crew members of Braking the Cycle ended their three-day cycling journey from Boston to New York, at the footsteps of the LGBT Community Center...Together, this small group of dedicated individuals raised $274,682 (Net) for the HIV/AIDS services of the Center."

Peoria, Illinois holds first Gay Pride event.

California Bar Association annual meeting split by protest over Prop 8 supporter Doug Manchester's Grand Hyatt in San Diego: "Most nights there is a noisy picket line in front of the hotel. Whether the State Bar should or could move its annual meeting was a great controversy in legal circles earlier this year. In the end, the State Bar decided that it was not prudent or possible to move their convention. However, the now truly independent Conference of Delegates found itself not bound by the State Bar decision. The Conference of Delegates moved more than a mile away to the new Hilton Bayfront, near Petco Park. Attorneys or judges who want to attend both are left to chose between their walking shoes or taking a pedicab or taxi."

Snake with Leg and Clawed Foot Found in China

Not how I'd want to be awakened:

"Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night. 'I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw,' said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China."

It's apparently a mutation and not some kind of new, undiscovered, stuff-of-nightmares species (or Photoshop creation, though I'm suspicious). Still, I think it'd be 'lights on' for a few weeks after that experience.

News: Molecule, DJ AM, China, Thai Boxer, Marvel Comics, Tel Aviv

Male Shanghai prostitute charged for knowingly spreading HIV.

100+ protest in Guangzhou, China over police crackdown on gay activity in public park.

Scientists image first close-up view of a single molecule: "To give some perspective, the space between the carbon rings is only 0.14 nanometers across, which is roughly one million times smaller than the diameter of a grain of sand."

DJ AM dead of drug overdose in NYC. Blink 182 offers tribute.

Gay ACLU counsel Larry Frankel found dead in D.C. park.

Former first daughter Jenna Bush joins the Today show.

Popbytes visits Liza at the Hollywood Bowl.

Disney to acquire Marvel Comics for $4 billion.

"Gravity tractor" to save the Earth from killer asteroids? "The spacecraft would intercept the asteroid and position itself to fly alongside it, just 160ft from its surface. From this position, the 10 tonne craft is able to exert a small gravitational force on the rock, pulling the asteroid towards it. By gradually modifying its course, over several years, the gravity tractor is able to slowly shift the asteroid's trajectory enough to ensure it misses the Earth."

Shalom Sesame: Jake Gyllenhaal to teach kids about Jewish culture.

Thai boxer suspended for three months for appearing in gay magazine photo shoot.

ED: NYT pushes the penis pump.

Lesbian couples having a child through fertility treatments can now place names of both parents on child's birth certificate: "It's brilliant that women in our situation will have full legal rights for the co-parent from the beginning. It's fantastically good news. We didn't conceive our children together, but we did conceive of them. Hopefully it will have a positive effect on society's view of lesbian and gay people, because the government are basically saying that we're OK, and perhaps people who are not gay will begin to think the same."

Two men in India sentenced to life terms for murder of gay man who threatened to expose them.

Lansing, Michigan gay man Shawn Bennett lied about gay bashing: "But investigators say Benett admits he tortured himself. Over and over he burned his own body with a lit cigarette."

Larry King: Chris Brown does not remember beating Rihanna.

FLASHBACK: Madonna's eulogy for Herb Ritts.

One month later, hundreds mourn Tel Aviv gay center shooting victims: "Last week, the manager of the youth center, Shaul Asa-el Gannon, opened a temporary center in an alternate location. He noted that there were more teenagers in attendance at the center's events than there were before the shooting. This week, the gay and lesbian youth center will return to its original location on Nachmani Street - the site of the attack - where it will remain under police and security surveillance."