News: Boston Red Sox, Joy Behar, Salt Lake City, John Travolta

Rep. Steve King (R-IA): Same-sex marriage part of push for socialism.

UN to get visit from WBC.

DreamWorks and Showtime to chronicle development of a Broadway musical, from inception to opening night: "Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who are well versed in adapting tuners for the big- and smallscreen, are in negotiations to join the project, as are tunesmiths Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. DreamWorks TV toppers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank are shepherding the project with Spielberg."

Today in deep-fried pareidolia.

Celebrities band together to protect insurance companies.

Two popular gay venues in Sydney to close — The Midnight Shift and The Flinders Hotel.

AfterElton talks to Modern Family's gay dads, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet.

Joy Behar to Ukraine: Let Elton adopt. "Mr. Pavlenko, here are some tips about family, youth and sports. Family doesn't mean a huddle of orphans sharing a few soiled mattresses, it's not youth if you die of AIDS before you reach kindergarten, and wrestling over dinner scraps is not a sport. But that could be Lev's fate now, because the Ukrainian government said Elton and his beau David Furnish are too old to adopt the boy. It sounds like the real reason is they're too gay."

White House to see picket line on weekend of National Equality March?

Courier: Microsoft's tablet computer?

Neil Patrick Harris lights up for new photo shoot.

Orange County Board of Education opposes 'Harvey Milk Day': "The addition of commemorative exercises reduces important classroom time in core subject areas. Instructional time is at a premium and students cannot afford to lose quality educational time."

Tom Ford seeks $50 million investment.

Man gets life sentence for gang rape and murder of South African lesbian track star Eudy Simelane: "Ms Simelane was approached after leaving a pub and robbed of her mobile, trainers and cash. She died from wounds to the abdomen after being gang raped and stabbed 12 times. Her naked body was dragged towards a stream and dumped." Two others were acquitted.

Boston Red Sox rookies hazed in drag.

70th anniversary: The history and promises behind The Wizard of Oz. "What's also rather striking, especially considering its suffragette heritage, is the way the film and Garland became such an iconic part of the gay movement. I'm not going to pretend that I know very much about the current iconography within the gay and lesbian community, but I know that the film used to represent acceptance and a fervent belief that things could (and would) be better."

John Travolta takes the stand in extortion trial.

Trial underway for gay Salt Lake City man beaten by his neighbors after removing their children from a rowdy party they were having: "She claimed the children were in and out of Latu's home during the party and said the parents were guilty of child neglect. 'No one was supervising these kids,' Gustin told jurors. She suggested that when Latu found her daughter and nephew missing, 'she needed someone to blame' and picked Bell. Bell was dragged from his home by his then-shoulder length hair and his head was repeatedly smashed against the pavement, Gustin said. Blood was oozing from his right ear and he still suffers hearing loss, she said. Someone used a piece of broken glass to cut Bell's throat, chest and one of his toes. Bell's partner, Fair, also was beaten, and a large TV was thrown onto his head."

State Dept. Contractors Exposed for Hazing in Afghanistan

Check out this report on military contractors hired as security for the State Dept. over in Afghanistan and their elaborate sexual hazing rituals which involve pissing on one another, doing shots of alcohol from one another's butt cracks, eating from said ass cracks, getting naked with one another, and simulating anal sex.

Of course gays can't be anywhere near the military because "it would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline."

What's wrong with this picture?

Watch the report, AFTER THE JUMP...

Clearer shots over at Gawker.

San Diego Padre Rookies Hazed, Made to Wear Hooters Uniforms

The San Diego Padres observed an annual hazing ritual on Wednesday when they made the rookies dress up in Hooters uniforms.

The rookies then announced that, like the city's firefighters, they would be suing their managers because of the stress of being looked upon as sex objects, and subjected to cat calls, lewd comments and gestures*...

They were also subjected to "raised eyebrows" out on the town.

One more shot, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Leo Abse, Gorilla, Daniel Radcliffe, Semi-Colons, Hazing

Can orange juice counteract prescription medications?

Here we go: the marketing onslaught begins.

LeRoi Moore, Saxaphonist for Dave Matthews Band dead due to complications from an ATV accident.

Semi-colons are apparently gay.

Vanity Fair tracks down long lost half-brother of Obama? "According to Italy's Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world. Vanity Fair also noted that he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael. He told the magazine: 'I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist.'"

Is Katy Perry's mom homophobic? Her daughter clears the air with a fart.

Eye on gay Shanghai!

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones hospitalized after being found unconscious behind the wheel of a moving car.

Won't let go: Zoo gorilla in Germany mourns death of baby.

Sydney councillor lambasts announcement that Oxford Street is to be declared a "homophobia-free zone": “To borrow from Woody Allen, ‘the best response to Neo-Nazis is a baseball bat’. The best response to homophobia and gay bashing is more and tougher high-visibility policing applying an aggressive zero tolerance policy. That is why I have called for Council to finance a community policing centre in the middle of the strip and not the failed ACON safe space on the edge. The last thing we need is ‘homophobia free zone’ signs along Oxford Street. It will not prevent one bashing and may even attract violence.”

UK Gay rights champion Leo Abse dies at 91: "The flamboyant and controversial politician died at Charing Cross Hospital in Central London last night after a short illness, a family friend announced today. During 30 years as Labour MP for Pontypool, later renamed Torfaen, he passed more Private Members’ Bills than any other backbencher. His most famous, the Sexual Offences (homosexual reform) Bill, dicriminalising sex acts between consenting men over the age of 21, became law in 1967."

Daniel Radcliffe arrives in the Big Apple for Broadway debut.

UK man gets 18 months in prison for hate letter to gay couple, one of whom later hanged himself.

Obama smear book author Jerome Corsi tailed by sour investment deal that lost more than $1 million for a group of investors.

Michael Phelps' dad has not even congratulated his son yet.

Varsity high school football team in New Mexico under investigation for broomstick sodomy hazing of up to eight freshmen players at training camp. Charges include assault, battery, false imprisonment and molestation or rape.

Russian Soldiers Forced into Male Prostitution by Superiors

Although men 18-27 are required to serve in Russia's military, many avoid it at all costs due to ongoing abuse of conscripts by their superiors. Now, a soldiers' rights group alleges that Russian conscripts are forced into male prostitution by their superiors who demand the money they earn from it:

"Andrei Gavrilyuk, a spokesman for St. Petersburg's military prosecutor, said his office would launch an inquiry into the allegations brought by the Soldiers' Mothers group, a leading Russian nongovernment organization championing soldiers' rights, Ekho Moskvy radio reported.

An activist with the group in St. Petersburg, Lyubov Yezheleva, told The Associated Press it learned about the alleged abuse from a 20-year-old conscript.

"He said he was forced into male prostitution by fellow soldiers who beat him and demanded that he earn money for them," Yezheleva said. She said the conscript was serving with the interior troops unit No. 3727, in the center of St. Petersburg near the renowned Hermitage art museum."

Conscript abuse appears to be a tradition in the Russian military according to an opinion expressed on the BBC in 2000: "It is important not that the conscript serves, but that he suffers"

Russia Military Allegations to Be Probed [ap]

News: Brandon Flowers, Yale Tennis, Grant Show, Nigeria

Yale tennis team under fire for alleged initiation activites: "During dinner on Nov. 10, team members wearing women’s underwear and fishnet stockings posed as members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and entered several residential college dining halls, where they sang and danced on tabletops, students who saw the incident said. The witnesses said the team’s initiates had signs on their backs that read, 'I’m a fa**ot. Insert Here.' The captain of the men’s tennis team could not be reached for comment last night, but Director of Athletics Thomas Beckett said his department is investigating the incident."

Brandon Flowers wants to read your mind!

Gay man jailed in Nigeria for wanting sex with a man; tells court: "It is the work of Satan but I promise that I will not do it again."

Jonathan Plummer, the ex-husband of author Terry McMillan, says he plans to write a tell-all about the couple's bitter marriage and divorce. Said McMillan: "He is like a f***ing Duracell, and I want him out of my f***ing life, and he won't let me out of his life. I can't live like this."

Isn't it time gay people were part of the marriage discussion?

Scientology leaders have reportedly dubbed Tom Cruise the religious sect's "Christ" figure: "Tom has been told he is Scientology’s Christ-like figure. Like Christ, he’s been criticised for his views. But future generations will realise he was right."

Pop phenom Mika ships in Freddie Mercury's piano for acoustic recording of "Grace Kelly": "He felt totally inspired. He felt the spirit of Freddie surround him and Mika said he felt more creative than he ever had."

Former Melrose Place hunk Grant Show offers another dude his services on Dirt...

Lance and Reichen on the outs? Malkin: "The latest from the slopes of Sundance has it that they've called it quits. This is not the first time that the lovebirds of eight months have broken up. This time around, Bass showed up solo at last night's Blender Sessions party at Tao. Later on, a source spotted him sulking at a party at the Village at the Lift's Heineken Lounge. Bass left the bash around midnight after hanging there for a measly twenty minutes, the party-goer says. Another source reports that Lemkuhl is still in Park City, but has told friends he is cutting his trip short. He says he wants to get on the earliest flight out tomorrow morning."