WA GOP State Senator: Gays Deserve Rights, Homosexuality Genetic

Washington GOP state senator Dale Brandland and former Whatcom County sheriff Dale Brandland told the Bellingham Herald this weekend why he voted to approve the domestic partner bill that was passed by the senate last week:

"I guess from my perspective, I've come to the conclusion that people are born gay. I don't think this is something that they just pick up along the way. Once I came up with that kind of conclusion, it wasn't difficult for me to understand that gay people are going to develop feelings for people of the same sex and will want to get into meaningful relationships. I thought it was inappropriate to deny them some of the basic rights that relationship entails."

The paper continues: "Brandland's 'yes' vote didn't please Randall of the Faith and Freedom Network. Randall quoted the senator on the organization's blog post-vote and then called Brandland 'a gay activist's fantasy' who, along with the two other Republicans who voted in favor, 'had abandoned their own Republican party and voted against traditional marriage.' Brandland has said in the past that he considers himself a more fiscally conservative and socially liberal Republican. But he doesn't support marriage for gay couples. 'I basically said I was in favor of going as far as civil unions,' he said"

The measure passed the senate by a vote of 30-18 and appears poised to pass in the House as well.

Family Guy Explores the 'Gay Gene'

On Family Guy's friday night episode, Peter was injected with the "gay gene" and made into a lavender bandanna-wearing, knee-crossing, limp-wristed, shrieking falsetto type of gay.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Burger King, Ryan Lochte, Wikipedia, Steven Klein, Iowa

Chilean pro-family" group Muevete Chile launches campaign to stop government from approving same-sex unions.

FLAME: Burger King to sell cologne that smells like a Whopper, with notes of flame-broiled beef.

Wingnut on crusade against Wikipedia because people keep editing his page to say he's gay: "Joseph Francis Farah is an Evangelical Christian American journalist and noted homosexual of Lebanese and Syrian heritage."

Researchers collaborate with last living member of the original Kinsey team, 92-year-old Paul Gebhard, to revisit The Kinsey Report and studies of bisexuality 60 years later. Gebhard: "'Overall, Kinsey would be disappointed.'...Gebhard said Kinsey and his research team avoided looking for causes for sexual orientation out of concern that the findings could be used against people. Through sexual history interviews, they instead sought to capture snapshots of human sexual experience, which proved to be fluid, according to their research, with individual sexual preferences or orientation often moving along the heterosexual-homosexual scale during one's lifetime."

Guess who's coming to The Office?

Steven Klein shoots Madonna en route in Rio.

Scientists: Society should embrace drugs that boost brain power.

Australian man ordered to pay $40,000 in criminal compensation for gay bashing: "The court was told [Daniel] Proud repeatedly kicked and punched [Gary] Jamieson after he made advances during a fireworks display on the Cairns Esplanade in the early hours of January 1, 2006. In June 2006, Proud was jailed for 42 months, to be released after 14 months, after he pleaded guilty to assaulting Jamieson and causing him grievous bodily harm. Then acting Chief Judge Tony Skoien was told that after the attack, Proud told police he hated homosexuals. The court was told Jamieson suffered a seizure and arterial bleeding to the brain."

British tennis player Andy Murray strips down in Miami.

Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party opens in San Francisco.

Swimmer Ryan Lochte steps out of Phelps' fashion shadow.

NYC police officer who shoved cyclist for no reason is indicted.

City leaders in Sioux City, Iowa delay action on resolution declaring opposition to same-sex marriage: "Mayor Mike Hobart pushed for the delay to allow time for a the state Attorney General’s office to weigh in with advice “on whether we have the jurisdiction and authority to pass the resolution,” which was proposed by City Councilman Brent Hoffman. Hoffman asked other council members to publicly to support the definition of traditional marriage as being between a man and a woman. Nearly 60 people came to Monday’s council meeting to hear the debate, which was 'tabled indefinitely,' according to Hobart."

We all know someone with this gene.

Ecumenical Catholic Church shrinks as other denominations begin to accept gays and lesbians: "When Archbishop Mark Shirilau founded the Ecumenical Catholic Church in 1987, he did so to provide a religious home for gays and lesbians. Now, with the Episcopal Church ordaining gay priests and the United Church of Christ performing same-sex weddings, the Riverside-based denomination is losing members. As more mainstream churches reach out toward gays and lesbians, many gays are leaving churches like Shirilau's. The largest gay Catholic group, Dignity, lost nearly half its active members in the past decade."

News: Senegal, Orlando, Jake Gyllenhaal, Genetics, Edmund White

Company to offer service sequencing an individual's complete genetic make-up for $5,000.

Senegalese entertainer who was forced from his country after appearing in magazine photos of a 'gay wedding', has found refuge in New York: "I'm fabulous. I feel good."

Orlando to become first central Florida city to offer benefits to partners of gay employees: "Orlando city commissioners are expected to approve the plan on Monday. There are currently 18 Orlando city employees who would benefit from the measure, which would cost the city about $37,000. 'It's going to be a good thing. It shows we're progressive. It will help us attract good people. Benefits are an important package if you're going to work for government, and this will help us compete with other government agencies,' Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said."

He Bopped: Robert Downey Jr. on his former compulsions..."I was a compulsive, serial masturbator, but it was the best thing I could have been. I utilized that organ and rode it for everything it was worth."

Columbia International University in South Carolina warns Soulforce they'll be arrested should they try to enter campus today.

Brad Pitt shows his support for Obama.

Report reveals that lesbian soldier Ciara Durkin, who died under 'mysterious circumstances' at an Afghan airbase, took her own life, and sent text messages before she did it: "According to the report, Ms Durkin was found lying against shipping containers behind the chapel. It found that she shot herself in the head while sitting on the ground, leaning back against the containers. Just before she died, text messages were sent from her phone to a friend saying she was going to take her own life. The report does not draw any conclusions as to why the soldier took her own life, but sworn statements from fellow soldiers on the base suggest she was dealing with a range of stressful issues."

Madonna Sticky & Sweet Tour arrives in the U.S.

Signing smack: Project Runway's Jack Mackenroth's thoughts on New York fashion week: "I know some of the designers from other seasons were talking smack about the Project Runway finalists and all their families were right in front of them. I was hanging out with Martin Ritchie, the deaf model on Janice Dickinson’s Modeling agency and we were signing that the Rock and Republic collection was terribly boring so anyone who new sign language within eye view may have 'overheard' us."

Hillary Clinton steps in for Joe Biden at HRC dinner in Washington D.C...."[McCain's] not a maverick. He's a mimic." HRC statement on death of Biden's mother-in-law.

O.J. Simpson guilty on 12 charges in robbery-kidnapping case.

Jake Gyllenhaal goes solo in London.

John Barrowman just wants a little respect.

Rolling Stone eviscerates McCain: "In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward."

British MP once caught up in internet underwear scandal appointed Deputy Leader of the Commons.

Edmund White on his new biography of Rimbaud, and Rimbaud's relationship with Paul Verlaine: "I think it’s quite clear that Rimbaud was the top in the relationship, and I think that’s something that straight people don’t usually grasp very well. They often see the younger boy as being a sort of stand-in for a girl—maybe that comes out of the classical Greek model. But this idea of a tyrannical younger boy frightening and controlling an older married man is something that people who are gay and who’ve lived in gay life recognize as a possible variation of that situation."

Ugandan government promises strengthening of anti-gay laws.

John Barrowman Heads to L.A. to Take the Gay Test

Here's a brief excerpt from The Making of Me, which follows John Barrowman to L.A. to take a series of tests to determine why he's gay. It's just a short bit which features Barrowman's partner Scott Gill. These two are so cute together.

Concludes Barrowman: "I am gay because I have no control over it. I was the way I was born. So I embrace it. I want to embrace it. Because it's who I am. It's what I am. That's the truth. That's the truth about me."

The documentary aired last night in the UK on BBC1 and was the most-watched program, attracting 3.8 million viewers.

Watch the clip, AFTER THE JUMP...

John Barrowman Goes in Search of Why He's Gay

In a new BBC program, The Making of Me, John Barrowman (pictured here at an unrelated appearance at G-A-Y nightclub in London) undergoes "a series of tests including a DNA examination that is compared with his straight brother's, and he takes to the streets of LA to try out a theory that the origin of homosexuality is linked to events in the womb that may affect the foetus."

According to the network, "Throughout the programme, as well as picking up clues from psychologists and scientists, John also meets some celebrities and extraordinary people who help shed light on the origins of their traits."

The Guardian reports: "The results of the programme - is it nature, is it nurture? - are a closely guarded secret, though Barrowman has always been convinced that sexuality is not a choice. 'I've always known who I am,' he says. 'That's what I believe. I feel I was born this way. I've never questioned that.'"...He mentions interviewing a Seventh Day Adventist 'ex-gay' man while filming The Making Of Me, who believed that homosexuality was incompatible with a fulfilling life. 'His idea was that you had to have the white picket fence and the farm and he was talking about it like it was something that I could never have,' says Barrowman. 'And I actually said to him, 'Yeah, but Ron, I have a partner, I have a dog, I have really nice cars, I have a beautiful home, I have a home by the sea and the beach. You can have that and be gay.' But he just couldn't see that.'"

But it was his contact with those who are questioning their sexuality that pushed him to do the show: "I have to put it this way. There are some days that I sign, like, 400 pictures, autographs and stuff. And among those I generally get a bunch of, say, four, five emails and some written letters from young men and women who are struggling to come out of the closet and they don't know who to turn to because they're afraid of their family's reaction and they're afraid of their community's reaction. So when they approached me to do this [The Making of Me], I thought, 'Yeah, you know, I really kinda have to do it.' I do think I've got a responsibility to help change perceived attitudes or try to change them."

The Making of Me airs July 24 in the UK on BBC1 from 9-10pm.