Towleroad Guide to the Tube #556

MISTAKEN IDENTITY: Contessa Brewer mistakes Jesse Jackson for Al Sharpton.

KIM ZOLCIAK: The Halloween costume kit.

WHAT IS THE LAUGH?: And Fox wonders why the White House doesn't consider it a real news channel.

VACCINATIONS: Don Imus' wife suggests the Obama daughters should get the H1N1 vaccination on live TV.

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News: Walt Whitman, Submarines, Leona Lewis, Polaroid, Steve-O

HRC's Joe Solmonese responds to 2017 letter uproar.

18-year-old arrested in beating death of Oakland Park, Florida gay man.

Clinton disappoints gay activists in Moscow by not decrying anti-gay abuses of Mayor Luzhkov at Walt Whitman statue unveiling, but does urge Russia to respect human rights and the democratic process: "In an innovative society, people must be free to take unpopular positions, disagree with conventional wisdom, know they are safe to challenge abuses of authority."

Man punches singer Leona Lewis in the face at book signing.

Gay poet Carl Phillips a finalist for National Book Award.

House Minority Leader John Boehner thinks sexual orientation is not an immutable characteristic, and that's why he opposes hate crimes legislation that includes it.

Ed Westwick explains his giant feather tattoo.

Navy considers allowing women to serve on submarines: "Some sailors and wives warn that putting men and women together in extremely close quarters underwater for weeks at a time is just asking for sexual harassment cases and wrecked marriages. But supporters of the idea say it is a matter of fairness and equal opportunity, and what worked on ships can work in subs."

Last-minute donations pour in for Referendum 71 in Washington: "The campaign in favor of R-71, called Washington Families Standing Together, now has nearly $1 million in the bank. Big donations include $60,000 from a special fundraising committee set up by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group. Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates each gave $25,000. The campaign against R-71 also has some last-minute donors. A relatively new committee called Vote Reject on R-71 has collected about $200,000 from the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a Lynnwood-based conservative religious group."

GQ launches in China.

Patrick Swayze gets a memorial jack-o-lantern.

Masks come off: Michael Jackson's kids to co-star in Jackson family reality show.

Gay sex club closes after man falls to his death in D.C.: "At Men’s Parties, safety doesn’t mean ensuring that the apartment’s stairs, surfaces, and exposed metal pipes provide a secure sexual landscape for party attendees. It doesn’t even mean encouraging members to engage in protected sex. At 1618 14th St., 'safe' means ensuring anonymous sex for a group of gay men sporting wedding rings, sensitive careers, or shame."

Same-sex marriage state by state: an interactive map.

Polaroid instant film cameras to make a comeback.

Video Phone: Beyoncé and Lady Gaga team up for super secret music video.

Steve-O stands up for frogs.

Senator Olympia Snowe, the sole Republican vote on the Senate Finance Committee which approved the health care bill yesterday, says any final bill that includes a public option won't get her vote.

Queer theory: "Vampires have overwhelmed pop culture because young straight women want to have sex with gay men."

Make love on a real train and get crabs while you're at it.

John Mayer gets $800 haircut, debuts new video, wants to sodomize an editor at New York magazine.

Hillary Clinton and Homophobic Moscow Mayor to Inaugurate Monument to Gay American Poet Walt Whitman

Will Hillary Clinton mention the human rights abuses against LGBT people inflicted by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov when she and Luzhkov inaugurate a monument to gay American poet Walt Whitman in Moscow tomorrow?

Luzhkov has said publicly that he suppresses the opinions of gays because they spread AIDS, arrested gays rather than their attackers following a violent 2006 Gay Pride parade, and has branded gays "satanic".

Yet he is erecting a monument to a gay American poet who wrote overtly about sexuality.

UK Gay News reports:

"The monument to Walt Whitman, an author forever linked to gay culture and its history will be located in the gardens of the Moscow State University, where last May the Mayor ordered the arrest of 32 gay and lesbian activists from Russia and Belarus who were attempting to stage a Slavic Gay Pride. Among the people arrested were also British human rights activist Peter Tatchell from Outrage! in London and Andy Thayer from Gay Liberation Network in Chicago. Mr Luzhkov was accused last week of trying to shut down Moscow’s oldest and most popular gay club. The Club is due to close by November 15."

Said prominent Russian gay activist Nikolai Alekseev: "Hillary Clinton will have a good chance to publicly express her position on gay rights to one of the top homophobic politicians in Europe. I think that no one would understand her silence on the breach of fundamental rights of LGBT people in Russia, the day she inaugurates the monument to a gay poet together with the homophobic Mayor of Moscow."

News: Outrage, Eric Brewer, Crocs, Serbia, Mark Foley, Germany

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized, released...

Dear Harvey: Play about Harvey Milk opens at San Diego State.

Eric Brewer, Mayor of East Cleveland, Ohio, in women's lingerie photo scandal.

Kept: Reality show about NYC gays to be a reality.

Outrage (see my write-up here) is coming to HBO on October 5.

UK gay man targeted in blackmail scam: "The 49-year-old had arranged to meet a man in the town through a known gay social networking website. But when the victim arrived he was approached by men posing as police officers who demanded a 'fine' and took his bank card. It later emerged £200 in cash was taken from the man's bank account, which was used to buy a mountain bike, alcohol and cigarettes."

London, Ontario 'football hero', allegedly responsible for gay bashing of modeling agent Brandon Wright, has been arrested at the airport.

Rabbi: No Crocs on Yom Kippur.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram talks to one of the gay brothers on this season's Amazing Race, which premieres on Sunday.

Brad Pitt joins Bill Clinton's Global Initiative.

Mark Foley hits the airwaves in South Florida.

Mysterious "lump" spotted forming around nearby star.

Mother of Ryan Keith Skipper speaks at Florida Hate Crimes Awareness Summit: "You may relive your pain, but you also relive your love. It keeps Ryan's memory alive and to me, that's an important thing. I don't want his death to have been in vain."

Reese Witherspoon ring sparks whispers of Gyllenhaal engagement.

Brokeback Mountain actor arrested for skipping out on hotel bill.

Carrie Prejean: Scantily-clad Halloween costume model.

UK teacher suspended after students found photos of him posing on a gay porn website.

Openly gay man tipped to be Angela Merkel's Foreign Minister in Germany. "[Can] a gay man, who sometimes takes his partner on official overseas trips, can function as a foreign minister. Could there, for instance, be snubs from President Ahmadinejad (who, after the execution of two gay men, told a Western audience: “We don’t have homosexuals, as in your country.”). Or jokes from Silvio Berlusconi (whose supporters recently used homosexuality claims to get rid of a critical editor)?"

Serbian prosecutor calls for ban on hate groups that caused cancellation of Belgrade's Pride parade: "Serbian authorities withdrew approval for gay activists to hold a rally in central Belgrade on Saturday after soccer hooligans and the extremist groups Obraz (Face) and Association 1398 threatened to attack the parade. 'The two groups were identified as those which must be outlawed immediately,' prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic told B92 television."

Hillary Clinton on international violence against LGBT people: "We are starting to track violence against the LGBT community, because where it happens anywhere in the world, the United States must speak out against it and work for its end. Through our annual human rights report, we are documenting human rights abuses against LGBT communities worldwide. And we are seeking out partners at the United Nations such as Brazil, France, Sweden and the Netherlands to help us address these human rights abuses."

Hillary Clinton: 'My Husband is Not the Secretary of State. I am.'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set a student straight yesterday in Congo when asked what her husband thought about a Chinese loan:

"State Department officials said the student approached Clinton afterward and told her he had meant to ask what Obama, not Bill Clinton, thought about the Chinese loan. A senior Clinton aide said that Mrs. Clinton assured the student not to worry about it. The student's question, according to the State Department translation, went like this: 'Thank you. Mrs. Clinton, weve all heard about the Chinese contracts in this country. The interference is from the World Bank against this contract. What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton and what does Mr. Mutombo think on this situation? Thank you very much.' It was unclear whether the French-speaking student or translator had erred. Either way, she was not pleased at the mention of her husband's name."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #520

LOL: Hillary Clinton on John Bolton.

SANCTITY: Florida woman puts hit out on her fiance, gets nabbed.

THE DIVA LEAGUE: Drag queens do "Disturbia" on America's Got Talent.

ROBOT: The latest from the Japanese.

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