NEWS: Funny Money, Odd Hats, And Dubious Advice (VIDEO)

Have civil liberties you're not using? Turn 'em into cash, AFTER THE JUMP ...

Brian Moylan, late of Gawker, teaches Guardian readers how to be gay:

Everyone used to know to glance over your shoulder after three steps if you were interested in that sexy stranger on the sidewalk. There was a complex network of looks and signals that men used to use to attract each other, something that made gay men much more attuned to body language and perceptive than our straight counterparts. Learn how to do that. Not only will it improve your gay experience, but the way you interact with everyone. Street cruising is mostly dead – no, it can't be done on Grindr – but a trip to a bath house will teach you all you ever need to know.

The AP recaps the volleys of recrimination following the FRC shooting.

Moscow Pride deferred for a century.

In Britain, Tory support for marriage equality may cost them at the polls:

Almost six out of 10 people who attend [church] services regularly say they are less likely to vote Conservative at the next election because of the plans to redefine marriage.

More than a third of those polled said it had no effect on whether they would support the Conservatives but most of them would never vote for the party anyway.

Support among churchgoers for Labour and the Liberal Democrats was also damaged by their stance on the marriage question but the biggest impact by far was on the Conservatives.

... Gary Streeter, the Tory MP for Devon South West and a committed Christian, said: “Whatever the merits or demerits of the policy it is not smart politics.”

Russian clerics forgive Pussy Riot:

"We did forgive them from the very start. But such actions should be cut short by society and authorities." Archpriest Maxim Kozlov expressed similar sentiments on state television, but insisted that the church hopes the women and their supporters see the errors in their ways.

The words from the two top clerics came after the church reiterated its criticism of the women but called “on the state authorities to show mercy to the people convicted within the framework of the law, in the hope that they will refrain from repeating blasphemous actions." The remarks were widely seen as an indication that the powerful church would not object if the government moved to pardon the women or reduced their two-year sentences, points out Reuters.

Octomom is now a musician.

Craving something nasty? Read some of these epic takedowns, courtesy of Longform.org. My favorite's the Peter Bart story.

As many as 15,000 people marched at Prague Pride. Earlier fears that the event would cause God to level the city a la Sodom proved unfounded.

Bill Cunningham says farewell to Anna Piaggi.

Denmark Gay Bar: No Straight Kisses Allowed

A minor brouhaha is fomenting over the ejection of equality activist Jobbe Joller and several friends from the gay bar Never Mind, in Copenhagen. Here's what happened, from Homotropolis:

Jobbe states that ... himself and his gay friend Martin ... were going out with two straight female friends and their boyfriends. They arrived at Never Mind and entered the bar without any problems. At one point when Jobbe came back in to the bar after talking on the phone outside, he meets one of his friends who was on her way out of the bar to speak to the bouncer who, a few minutes earlier, had informed her that it is not allowed for her, as a straight person, to kiss her boyfriend in Never Mind.

“I told the bouncer that it had to be discrimination against heterosexuals to say that they were not allowed to kiss,” Jobbe says, when we ask him to explain his version of the story.

“The bouncer replied that it was unacceptable to conduct in that kind of behaviour at a gay place and that Never Mind receives a lot of emails from its gay guests concerning the high number of straight guests that visit the bar. I asked him if it was not the same as saying that black people are not allowed to kiss in Never Mind, but he disagreed and told me that the owner of Never Mind may decide who can kiss and who can’t kiss in the bar,” says Jobbe, who also admits that he did not let the discussion stop there, but stuck to his argument on the alleged discrimination against heterosexuals.

“I repeated my claim that it corresponded to banning black people from kissing each other, and he asked me whether I was aware of § 3, 4 and 5 of the Penal Code, which I was not. When I replied that I would love to hear more about them, he could not explain what they actually state. At the same time my other friend and her boyfriend came back after a trip to 7-eleven, and they were then told that they couldn’t enter Never Mind again, probably because they had walked hand in hand showing that they were straight ... "

An argument ensued between Jobbe and several Never Mind staffers, and eventually Jobbe was told that he, too, was now banned from Never Mind, despite his sterling gay bona fides. Jobbe later sent an email to Never Mind, to which owner Christian Carlsen replied:

there are not many gay places left in Copenhagen, and that Never Mind is one of the places remaining and it is important to the gay community that Never Mind is kept as a gay place. So it is therefore not allowed for heterosexuals to kiss and so on in Never Mind ...

In a further email to Homotropolis, Carlsen wrote:

It is quite clear that gay bars in Copenhagen attract many straight people and that in itself is also okay, but when you come with 3, 4, or 5 straight friends you no longer fit into a gay bar ...

... Problems often arise when the girls, late at night, call their straight male friends and think it’s a good idea that they come by and join the party. They are often quite intoxicated, and most straight guys unfortunately have it a bit difficult with gay men. This often results in a serious situation which our security people than have to handle ...

... In Never Mind we don’t want heterosexual guests to dance, strip, kiss or behave inappropriately. There are plenty of places in Copenhagen that are reserved for heterosexuals, but there are only a few gay bars left, and it is probably fair enough that gays and lesbians have bars where they can meet other homosexual people without having to consider whether it is a straight or gay person they are addressing...

I wonder how many bars remain in Copenhagen where straight people can be absolutely sure they're addressing other hets. 

The Never Mind story is getting picked up all over -- perhaps most fruitfully by the Edge, which has assembled quotes from a plurality of viewpoints on the matter. Opinions are divided. Gawker's Brian Moylan, for instance, blames faghags for the present difficulties of gay bars. Straight girls, he says, ought to stay away.

John Barrowman Gets Cheeky with OK Magazine

OK Magazine trailed John Barrowman on the day of his civil partnership to Scott Gill. The couple wed in late December in Cardiff, Wales.

Barrowman wore a kilt to the ceremony and was captured flashing his Torchwood castmate Eve Myles. Said Barrowman: "We wanted to be ourselves, and so I flashed Eve. And like a true Scot, I had nothing on underneath."

He also told the magazine about how he met his partner of 13 years: "I was doing a play in Chichester and Scott was brought down to see the play by a mutual friend of ours. He told Scott: 'You've got to see the guy in the play, he's naked for the first seven minutes!' So Scott certainly knew what he was getting!"

On relationships: "Relationships are work. We've had clashes but what I have learned from my parents is never go to bed angry...We are a couple who will get through any humps or bumps in the road. But we are not in an open relationship...If we ever split, we're rational. We'll talk about it. But I don't have as much money as Paul McCartney and I'm not married to a gold-digger."

On George Michael and open relationships: "People cruise and I don't have a problem with George Michael doing it, because it is part of the culture. The press see it as salacious, but straight people cruise too, they have sex in public. But it's not a big news story because it's heterosexual. But I want people to see that there are other aspects to a gay life. It's important for gay relationships to be recognised. Then men won't have to cruise parks for sex or be bludgeoned to death on Clapham Common by gay haters for cruising in dark places because they are scared to be seen being intimate with each other."

On kids: "I would love kids. I have a particular celebrity friend who says she will have a child with me. But there's nothing in the works just yet! We would adopt a child too, probably a young child or teenager. I'm a big kid myself. I'm a big kid in a man's body."

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Hampstead Heath to Lose Scenes of a Sexual Nature?

Soon George Michael may have to find another place to get his rocks off.

There's an effort underway to clean up London's Hampstead Heath and its 791 acres of wooded glade, ponds, and rolling meadows. The Independent reports that last year the city of London spent £40,000 removing "condoms and other sex-related waste" from the park.

Said Bob Hall, the park's caretaker: "We accept that cruising takes place on the West Heath, but it is completely unacceptable beyond there. We will certainly not tolerate the kind of behaviour that goes on in the men's bathing area."

He said that an "uneasy truce" between neighboring residents, police, and those who frolic in the bushes may not last much longer, though some, like gay activist Peter Tatchell, say it's not only the gays that use the park for hooking up: "The management of the heath is obsessed with gay cruising and totally ignores heterosexual sex."

Of course it doesn't help Tatchell's argument to have George Michael caught emerging from the foliage like a deer in headlights spouting off to the paparazzi: "I don't believe it! F*** off! If you put those pictures in the paper I'll sue! Are you gay? No? Then f*** off! This is my culture! I'm not doing anything illegal. The police don't even come up here any more. I'm a free man, I can do whatever I want. I'm not harming anyone."

In the new film Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Ewan McGregor plays a gay man with the same habits as George Michael. Scenes reportedly celebrates Hampstead Heath in a way no film has before. The film is released in the UK on November 3.

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Tab: George Michael Sex Cruise on Hampstead Heath [tr]
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