News: H1N1, Banksy, Drew Gooden, Space Hotel, Justin Bourne

Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear appeal of lawsuit oever same-sex marriage referendum.

Dallas Mavericks Drew Gooden accused of calling fan a "faggot".

Lady Gaga found something else in her closet.

Census data: many similarities between straight married couples and gay married couples.

Gay candidate smeared as child molester in Annapolis election.

Anti-gay sign investigated as hate crime in Maine: "A hand-painted, plywood sign that had a threat directed at homosexuals was found nailed on a tree in the front yard of a Route 156 residence on Friday, police say."

Hypocrite: Rep. Joe Wilson blames Obama administration for vaccine shortage after voting no on funding bill to combat H1N1.

Space hotel to launch in 2012?

A look at Ultimate Fighting, its gay-friendly and not so gay-friendly fighters, and its gay fans: “Any guy involved in grappling is the furthest thing from homophobic in the world. I honestly think it would have no impact whatsoever with not only our fighters or our fan base. The guys in the UFC, everybody is so cool, it’s great sportsmanship, everybody has respect for each other. I honestly, it wouldn’t be a big deal to me and most of the guys I know in this sport, it wouldn’t be a big deal for them either.”

Circus: Kylie Minogue spent Halloween in NYC with Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone.

Miss Gay America crowned in St. Louis.

Minor league hockey player Justin Bourne: End the gay slurs. "In my days as a hockey player, I did nothing but contribute to hockey's culture of homophobia and prejudice against gays. I used gay slurs more times than I'd like to admit. Six months after I left my last professional locker room, I felt a twinge of regret, followed by a full-out, stomach punch of regret. And by the time I finished the first draft of this column, I was disgusted with myself."

Is Precious this year's Slumdog?

Listen: Silverton, Oregon's transgender mayor Stu Rasmussen profiled on WNYC's Radiolab.

Dancing with the Stars' Derek Hough: I'm not gay, but I almost played one on Cougar Town: "It would have been perfect. With all the rumors going around, I thought it would be really funny because it's just not true. But I was like, you know what? If that's what you want to see."

Rihanna discusses assault: "I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears."

Banksy commentary on graffiti vandalism covered in graffiti by vandals.

Minnesota pastor quits over Lutheran position on gay clergy.

Mariah Carey nearly takes spill on Jay Leno.

Twitter war erupts after user calls British actor Stephen Fry's Tweets "boring."

Conservative Washington Times highlights Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway's opposition to lifting ban on gays in the military: "But Gen. Conway has gone further than others in stating his opposition to a change in policy, according to the former official, who has been privy to private conversations on the matter. "He feels very strongly that [removing the ban] would be disruptive, and he opposes it," said the former official. Gen. Conway's private remarks stand in contrast to public utterances by other service chiefs, who have restricted themselves to repeating a well-rehearsed mantra: If Congress introduces a bill to repeal the ban, they will discuss it with the chain of command. If Congress changes the law, they will follow the law."

News: The Gloved One, Mrs. Slocombe, Big Brother, The Cubs

Neil Patrick Harris to host the Emmys?

Glove for sale.

NO! Mrs. Slocombe and her pussy died!

Also, choreographer Pina Bausch. And Karl Malden.

Same-sex marriage stalls in Rhode Island: "None of the bills legalizing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island advanced to a floor vote this session, continuing a trend begun in 1997."

Chaz Bono plays with the paparazzi.

Michael Jackson's will. No public viewing at Neverland. Funeral to be held at L.A.'s Staples Center.

Pennsylvania's Allegheny County passes law forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Stampp Corbin on the Obama Pride reception: "There will be some who even will gather in the Capitol in October to protest your administration’s lack of attention to equal protection for LGBT Americans. You want pressure? We’ll give it to you in spades."

Hollywood gives up on ideas.

Meet Kevin, the gay Big Brother houseguest.

Beau Breedlove has sour grapes over his affair with Portland Mayor Sam Adams. Adams was cleared of wrongdoing last week. Now, because the Oregon AG said he no longer had credibility after posing nude for Unzipped magazine and getting paid for it, Breedlove seems to want revenge: "It really upsets me. It’s just lie after lie after lie until we’re at the end of the bowl and the last person to be burned from the situation is me."

Snippet: The Killers do "Hotel California".

DJ Earworm: My life would suck without you in my place.

Manhattan apartment prices plummet to just $760,000 to $849,000 in the median range.

Wentworth Miller broke out of prison, now he's going to Law & Order: SVU.

Homophobia alive and well among Chicago baseball fans.

Labor big Stuart Appelbaum outs himself.

Dallas Million Gay March to move out of gay ghetto into "more mainstream area" next year.

Gay resort opens near Tampa: "While open to anyone, the hotel caters almost exclusively to gay men. Photos of butt-baring hot guys adorn the walls — and are available for $169 apiece. The second-floor club has a darkened maze room and other "intimacy zones.'' The courtyard boasts a kumquat tree and a 50-man hot tub, possibly the largest in Tampa. If it sounds like a bathhouse, don't describe it that way to the owners. Technically, and according to the city, the Ybor Resort & Spa is a hotel and a men's health studio. Sex and nudity in public areas is not allowed."

From Heaven to Hell in a New York Hotel

Check out this video mural by Marco Brambilla created for the elevator bank at the Standard Hotel in New York City. It's made up of over 400 video loops which have been patched together and play on a high-definition monitor through a viewing port in each of the elevators at the hotel. The video depicts the journey from Heaven to Hell, or Hell to Heaven, depending on which way the elevator is moving.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Ace Hotel Christens New York's Newly-Minted 'NoMad' Neighborhood

Those of you who might be heading to New York for the upcoming Pride festivities surrounding the 40th anniversary of Stonewall will likely want to know about The Ace Hotel, a colorful, upscale accommodations option that opens this weekend in an unlikely, almost forgotten pocket of the city.  Broadway at 29th street between Madison Square Park and Herald Square isn't the trendy kind of neighborhood you'd expect a hotel to pop up, but at one time the historic (the 1904 Breslin Hotel) property's locale was the Times Square of its moment, one of New York's first to be electrified with lighting and signage.

New Yorkers will likely read about the neighborhood's re-branding (NoMad - north of Madison Square, it's called - there's even another hotel called The NoMad, going up down the street), the hotel's history, and the restaurant that's opening soon (The Breslin, from the restaurateurs who brought you West Village 'gastropub' The Spotted Pig), but you probably won't hear that the group behind The Ace Hotel are gay.

Longtime friends (from the early 80's) and entrepreneurs Alex Calderwood, Doug Herrick, and Wade Weigel brought their collective force to the attention of a small building in Seattle in the late 90's to create the first Ace. Subsequently, they've opened hotels in Portland, Palm Springs (I mentioned it in April), and now New York. Their unique partnership is the force behind a blooming brand built around collaborations, independent businesses, and creativity.

Herrick told me: "I'm definitely more operations — take care of staff, make sure they have the right culture. Alex is the mastermind of PR and sales. Wade has a great design sense. We all feed off of each other. It's a very organic approach. We've been able to create a really good staff."

Calderwood gave me a tour of the place two weeks ago, which has been designed in collaboration with New York-based firm Rowan & Williams. The playful lobby which was receiving its finishing touches is articulated with found objects — salvaged doors from the old Macy's building, vintage apothecary cabinets, and a central long, library-esque work table, echoed in the lobby bar by floor-to-ceiling book shelves. Most everything is custom-designed or vintage. Down to the ceramic-tiled floor they discovered under two inches of concrete and 80's linoleum, the first impression is of a "worked-in" comfortable, creative space that eschews trendiness for authenticity.

Calderwood told me: "A lot of times we get lumped into being the 'hip' hotel, but really we're trying to create an instant classic. Sure there's edgy elements, and that's great, but I'd rather create something that lasts over time. It keeps getting layered, so you can keep adding touches, adjusting, and tweaking, and it's not so rooted in a time period."

Collage artist Michael Anderson is creating a mural with a collection of all the New York street tags and stickers he's collected since the early 90's around the lobby's central staircase. "Like an artful bathroom wall," Calderwood explains. "Street, clashed with elegance."

The genesis of the hotel's "hippie" (not "hip") influences may originate in Calderood and Weigel's early Seattle days: "Wade lived in the lobby of an old hotel in Chinatown," Calderwood tells me. "He convinced the owner to let him live in the lobby, turned it into an artist's loft, den, and local musicians, artists, and the creative community would get together for illegal parties." Calderwood introduced Weigel to Herrick at legendary Seattle gay bar Tugs, and the three (none formally educated) began collaborations which would eventually turn into their Ace adventure.

The Ace has also spawned a brand of its own as an extension of its culture — products created (sometimes out of necessity) for the hotel which are the result of unique collaborations with designers they admire. Also, plaid blankets which cover the beds, robes based on vintage boxing jackets, guitar strings, and a forthcoming Ace shoe in collaboration with Converse, to name a few.

Said Calderwood: "There's definitely no big business plan behind it. It's all gut instinct. The network of people that we work with. It keeps growing. We see the Ace brand growing in terms of number of hotels, but within the hotels we see the depth of collaborations that are a part of it growing as well."

I wasn't able to get photos of the lobby (you'll likely able to see it soon in a NYT exclusive) but I was brought up to the rooms which are bright, spacious, and eclectically furnished with artist-designed murals and over-sized lines of text from song lyrics or poetry. Some of the rooms come with guitars and record players.

"It's a rock and roll cousin to what Andre Balazs does. We have a different sensibility," Calderwood tells me. Andre Balazs is the owner of The Standard chain of hotels, one of which opened in New York recently as well. In fact, the three have a close relationship with Balazs that continues. They met their New York developer, Andrew Zobler of GFI Development who found them the old Breslin property, through Balazs. Zobler, too, is gay.

Zobler contacted Calderwood three years ago when the trio was searching for a New York property and said he had something appropriate to show them in the old Breslin Hotel building.

"We have a great partnership, and there's a unique sensibility in terms of our interests. It's not a one-dimensional perspective," said Calderwood, of the partners. "That said, I don't think of ourselves as a 'gay hotel'. We get families here, artists, a downtown crowd. It kind of appeals to everybody. We've just always been inclusive versus exclusive."

Calderwood and the Ace partners would like to extend a special invite to Towleroad readers which includes a room rate of  $239.00 for a standard room or stuff your package and upgrade to a deluxe room for 50.00 more per evening. The package also includes a bottle of Rudy's Barber Shop Shampoo (West Coasters may be familiar with the Rudy's Barbershop chain, another venture by the Ace partners), a choice of several spirits out of our mini bar, and an in room movie of your choice.

The rate is good for Towleroad readers throughout the summer. Bookings can be made here (just make sure that the corporate/promotion code says 'Towleroad').

Palm Springs Secret

Those of you who head to Palm Springs to party in white for the Easter weekend may want to check out the former Howard Johnson's that's been converted into the Ace Hotel. What many people don't know is that the founders and developer behind the just-opened hotel are all gay men. Later next week I'm going to be talking to them about the property they're converting here in New York. There's a cabaret at the Ace this weekend featuring a bunch of theatre folk as well.

Trump Presents Gayest Celebrity Apprentice Ever

Anybody else catch the gayest Celebrity Apprentice ever on Monday night? The show's competition was about hospitality and producers packed the Loews Hotel full of rooms of demanding gay men (probably a good strategy) and Joan Rivers seemed absolutely high off of it. That, or the sugar from the cookies she jammed into her purse.

One of the rooms featured a trio of gay men (which included actor and OUT columnist Jesse Archer) who apparently spent the night having some sort of three-way as they were pictured in the morning hanging out in the same bed in bathrobes. I knew two of the other gay men, the ones who went off with Rodman for dinner. Producers gave the various guests $1,000 in spending money.

The show also featured some Herschel Walker (above) and Dennis Rodman beefcake, although Rodman's strip came at the end of a frustrated day fueled by his alcohol abuse. That issue became the focus of the episode, ultimately a big downer for everyone.

Boardroom (SPOILERS), AFTER THE JUMP...