Sarkozy Defends Gay French Culture Minister Over Male Prostitutes

Gay French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand's defense of Roman Polanski has now put his own past under the microscope. French politicians have called the defense an attack on the United States and at least one party has called for Mitterand's resignation.

Mitterand, whom Sarkozy appointed as Culture Minister, in June, apparently wrote a book described as "a mixture of straight autobiography and more dreamlike reflection" in which he talks about paying boys for sex.

Says Mitterand in the book: "I got into the habit of paying for boys [even though I knew] the sordid details of this traffic...All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously ... the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended Mitterand through a spokesman: "French political debate sometimes takes on a pathetic form. It's excessive and quite undignified...I have not heard Frederic Mitterrand say anything against France's position of fighting sex tourism."

Muslim Team Refuses Football Match with Gay Paris Team

Paris Foot Gay, a Paris-based football club composed of gay men and  "heterosexuals, blacks, whites, north Africans, and several different religions" according to its co-founder and current president Pascal Brethes, was refused a match by Bebel, a mostly-Muslim team, because of its gay players, Agence France Presse reports:

"PFG said they received an e-mail from Bebel which said they could not honour the match because it was 'against their principles'. ... 'Sorry, but because of the name of your team and in keeping with the principles of the team, which is a team of practising Muslims, we cannot play against you,' said the e-mail, according to Brethes. It added: 'Our convictions are stronger than a game of football. Sorry to have informed you so late.' PFG believe the decision was 'homophobic', and have threatened to press charges 'if Bebel continue to carry on like this', according to Brethes. He said his team was a haven for all kinds of races and also welcomed non-gay players, and he believes Bebel's decision contravenes laws governing racism and homophobia."

Gay Kiss-in Brings Shopping Center to Brief Standstill in Paris

Activists staged a kiss-in to combat homophobia on Saturday in Forum des Halles, an underground shopping center in Paris. The action lasted approximately 5 minutes.

Watch a video, AFTER THE JUMP...

And for a small gallery of photos of participants, check out phillipe leroyer's flickr page.

(image above phillipe leroyer)

Kanye West Doffs Shirt, Flaunts Physique for French Magazine

Kanye West goes shirtless for French magazine Liberation Next.

Butterfly Is Free

Shi Pei Pu, the male opera singer who fooled an accountant at the French Embassy in Beijing into believing he was a she during a lengthy affair that inspired the Tony-winning play M. Butterfly, died at age 70 (link may be NSFW) on June 30 in Paris.

Pu convinced Bernard Boursicot he was a woman forced to play male roles, keeping both his lover and their carefully orchestrated sexual activities in the dark. Boursicot, whose previous erotic experiences had been with men, was hoping to become straight by sleeping with Pu. Where was Ex-Gay Watch when you needed them?

Years after Boursicot left China, Pu purchased a child and claimed he was their son, which Boursicot believed. Their affair was rekindled when Boursicot was stationed in Mongolia, but the Chinese pressured him to become a spy once they learned of the arrangement.

In the '80s, the former lovers were both convicted of espionage in France, allegedly the first time Boursicot realized his lover was a man. Making an already interesting story much more so, Boursicot had since become openly gay, and yet slashed his own throat upon hearing of Pu's deception.

The lovers were sentenced to six years. Both were pardoned after a year.

Told Pu had died, Boursicot said:

"He did so many things against me that he had no pity for, I think it is stupid to play another game now and say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free."

Air France Flight 447 Did Not Break Up in Flight

It plunged vertically, hitting the ocean belly-first. Life jackets had not been deployed:

"Brazil decided on June 27 to call off the recovery operation but France has maintained its nuclear submarine, research vessel and other boats in the area on a final hunt for the black boxes. The BEA lead investigator said the search would continue until July 10. The homing beacons on the flight recorders emit signals for about one month after the crash and the BEA hopes that they will have a longer-than-usual shelf life. Investigators have been scrutinizing some 640 pieces of debris recovered from the crash zone for any clue as to what brought down the plane as it flew through turbulence over the Alantic."

In related news, the sole survivor of the Airbus crash near Comoros, a 14-year-old girl, returned to Paris:

"Yemenia Flight 626 crashed Tuesday morning off Comoros amid heavy winds, and Bahia, described by her father as a fragile girl who could barely swim, spent over 13 hours in the water clinging to plane wreckage before she was rescued. The other 152 people on the plane, including her mother, are presumed dead. It is not clear that Bahia knows her mother is dead because her uncle who visited her Wednesday at a Comoros hospital was too heartbroken to break the news. Instead, he told Bahia that her mother was also recovering."

There are reports that Airbus may be forced to ground its entire fleet of long-range jets.