'Beard Clubs' Now Forming at High Schools

The facial hair trend is getting extracurricular recognition at Olentangy Liberty High School in Ohio:

"A dozen students have joined, they said, with two male teachers -- both bearded, of course -- serving as advisers. Under a mission statement that emphasizes spreading 'beard awareness and hygiene throughout the school community,' future topics include the history and care of beards, and grooming products. 'Lumberjacks are our icons,' Cole said. Though far from the norm, according to observers, the guys at Liberty rank among a growing number of adolescents experimenting with facial hair. 'Without a doubt, teens and 'millennials' are starting to use it as a form of expression,' said Aaron Perlut, chairman of the American Mustache Institute in St. Louis -- a nonprofit, humor-based 'advocacy' group. 'It's like the new tattoo but less invasive,' said Perlut, 38."

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #568

TOO ROUGH?: Bouncer slams gay man at straight bar during "guerilla gay bar" event in Cincinnati.

NUTS: Reporter gets nailed where it counts while chasing down Nancy Pelosi.

FIGHTING BEARDISM: Man rails against the American Mustache Institute.

FOX NEWS: Gets the SNL treatment.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

David Beckham Wants to be Wolverine from X-Men

David Beckham, perhaps the only athlete compelled by the media to make statements about his grooming habits, has offered some insight into his latest facial hair look following speculation that he's grown it because he's superstitious:

"Halloween is coming up and I was thinking of Wolverine from 'X-Men'. It's not some play-off ritual. I'm just lazy and can't be bothered to shave. And everybody keeps telling me to cut it and I'm stubborn."

News: Taylor Lautner, Harrah's, Swaziland, Gay Ice Cream Truck

Lesbian couple in Swaziland bids to become country's first same-sex marriage.

NY Governor David Paterson shaves his beard.

La Toya Jackson makes video she promised not to make because she just can't help herself.

"Marriage Minutemen" form in New Jersey to oppose marriage equality: "We want to stop any redefinition of marriage that happens without a public vote."

Is this what life without Britney does to a man???

America's first black lesbian mayor, Denise Simmons of Cambridge, Massachusetts, marries her partner Mattie Hayes.

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck a finalist in NYC's Vendy "street food" Awards.

Harrah's Atlantic City casinos in bid to draw gay and lesbian tourists: "Harrah's has been catering to gay and lesbian travelers at its Las Vegas casinos for a few years, but will launch a similar campaign in the country's second-largest gambling market with an 'Out in Atlantic City' weekend of partying Sept. 25-27. The event, expected to draw more than 1,000 people, will bring some of the best-known names in the gay and lesbian entertainment scene to the Harrah's casinos."

Quadriplegic sails around Britain solo.

Renzo Piano's "Shard" to dominate London skyline: "Construction has begun on the Shard, a skyscraper that will be the tallest building in Western Europe and will provide amazing views of London...inspired by towering church spires and the masts of ships that once anchored on the Thames."

Thousands call for Turing apology in Britain.

Possible arson investigated at Stereo nightclub in Montreal.

Sex club planned for historic hotel in Gloucester, UK.

Truman Capote signed one of his books...to Harry Potter: "Howard Rose of Brier Rose Books in Teaneck, N.J., is selling a first-edition copy of Truman Capote’s 1967 book The Thanksgiving Visitor, autographed by the author in January 1978 'for Harry Potter with gratitude.'"

Cranberries to reunite.

Bruce Weber points his lens at Twilight's Taylor Lautner.

And that other vamp, Robert Pattinson, does Premiere.

Gay Big Brother contestant Kevin finally wins Head of Household competition, reads letter from partner of nine years.

Maine governor Baldacci to appear at marriage equality fundraiser.

Full slate of LGBT candidates vie for NYC City Council seats.

Transgender teen in Vermont makes plea for genderless bathrooms: "Kyle Giard-Chase, 16, asked the Vermont Human Rights Commission on Thursday to endorse the effort. He said that before he came out last year as transgendered, he was a three-sport athlete and the co-captain of the field hockey team, a girls' sport, at South Burlington High School. At an away game, he said he was verbally harassed and threatened by the members of the host school's football team for using the girls' restroom. 'The harassment only stopped when I was reduced to tears and told them I was in fact a female,' said Kyle, now a senior."

Rufus Wainwright Reveals New Opera, New Beard

The opera that Rufus Wainwright has been working on for some time now recently debuted in Manchester, UK.

Wrote the NYT: "There are inspired touches and disarmingly beautiful passages in this mysterious, stylistically eclectic work. With a libretto in French by Mr. Wainwright and Bernadette Colomine, 'Prima Donna' depicts a turning point in the life of a prematurely retired opera singer, a day when she confronts the demons that drove her from the stage and finds new resolve. But Mr. Wainwright’s score and his attitude toward the drama often seem muddled, as if he were relying too much on his keen musical and theatrical instincts lest he overthink and impede his imagination."

The BBC recently broadcast a documentary on Wainwright, his family, and the making of the opera, which you can watch, in six parts, AFTER THE JUMP...

Michael Phelps' Pornstache Gives Him the Edge

It must be good luck.