News: Joe Manchin, Kyoto, Traveling Weave, Design

Celebrate some totally radical 90s holiday movies.

Anti-apartheid leader and former South African President Nelson Mandela, 94, has been hospitalized. "Former President Mandela will receive medical attention from time to time which is consistent with his age," read a statement from current President Jacob Zuma's office.

HRC leaders past and present discuss SCOTUS' decision to hear two gay marriage cases.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear two gay marriage cases puts more pressure on President Obama to spell out his own opinion on the matter: should this be a federal matter or, as he said before, simply left to the states? From Josh Gerstein: "When Obama announced in May that he favored same-sex marriage ... his nuanced language stopped well short of endorsing the idea that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to marry for same-sex couples. He said the issue was best left to the states to decide in the near term."

The New York Times' editorial board on SCOTUS: "Fifty-eight years after it banned discrimination in public education, the Supreme Court has set the stage for the defining civil rights decision of this era — agreeing to hear two cases challenging laws that define marriage to exclude couples of the same sex. To us, and a growing number of Americans, the right course seems clear: that the justices continue the march toward real equality."

Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is appalled by MTV's new reality show, Buckwild. The show, which he calls a "travesty," "plays to ugly, inaccurate stereotypes about the people of West Virginia."

Lindsay Lohan gets what she wants.

Rihanna loses her undies.

If this weave could talk.

Dustin Hoffman play-kissed One Direction member Niall Horan last night.

Officials at the University of Saskatchewan sent a campus-wide note this week giving students and staff a heads up about an anti-gay pamphleteer wandering around town. "U of S officials sent out the advisory to the campus community Thursday morning after receiving complaints that day about a man distributing a leaflet titled Say No to the Homosexual Agenda. The advisory encouraged staff and students to contact the U of S discrimination and harassment prevention services if they were concerned about the material."

Almost 200 UN member countries voted today on an extension of the Kyoto Accord to combat global warming. "The extension was adopted by a U.N. climate conference after hard-fought sessions and despite objections from Russia. The package of decisions also included vague promises of financing to help poor countries cope with climate change, and an affirmation of a previous decision to adopt a new global climate pact by 2015." The United States never signed onto the Accord.

Despite the fact that scandal-plagued, tax-evading Silvio Berlusconi resigned as Italy's premier last year, he's still going to make another run for the office.

Jonathan Adler draws inspiration from his mother and the coffee cup chandelier she made and hung in their home when he was a kid.

Congratulations to Liz Carmouche, the UFC's first openly gay fighter.

Liberal lawmakers in Trinidad and Tobago are hoping to extend anti-discrimination laws to gays and lesbians.

Italian Handball Player Drops Pants, Grabs Manhood After Provocative Kiss from Opponent: VIDEO

Italian handball player Ivan Stuffer has been suspended for two matches after becoming enraged by a provocative kiss from his opponent Pasquale Maione in the middle of a championship match.

The kiss worked. Stuffer shoved Maione, then dropped his pants and grabbed his balls for the crowd, which got him immediately dismissed from the game. The crowd taunted him as he exited.

Stuffer's team, Briskena, lost the match 36-25. No word on discipline for the kisser.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Sicily Elects a Gay Governor Eager to Distance Himself from 'Stereotypical Promiscuous Homosexuals'

Sicily's new governor is gay, the WSJ reports:

Rosario Crocetta—an openly gay candidate backed by a coalition of leftist and Catholic parties—garnered 31% of the vote, beating Sebastiano Musumeci, the center-right candidate backed by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Mr. Musumeci received a quarter of the vote. "This is a Sicily that wants to change," Mr. Crocetta said in a television interview.

The biggest surprise, analysts said, was the number of Sicilians who decided to either stay away from the polls or cast their vote for the Five-Star Movement, a protest party led by euro-skeptic and former comedian Beppe Grillo. Only 47% of voters turned out this year, compared with the 67% that voted in 2008. The Five-Star Movement grabbed 15% of the vote for Sicily's regional assembly—more than any other party. Its candidate for governor, warehouse worker Giancarlo Cancelleri, received 18% of the vote.

He's not likely to help gay rights in the country though, the Guardian reports:

He is one of only two openly gay men to be elected governor in Italy, but Crocetta has never used his sexual orientation to raise awareness of gay rights, or to commit to change Italy's unique status as a western country that does not recognise any kind of same-sex union.

On the contrary, Crocetta has been quoted as saying that if he won he would refrain from sex.

In this conservative southern region of Sicily, this is likely to reinforce the idea that being gay and having sex is unacceptable, according to Paola Bonesu, a political communication consultant and co-founder of Pane & Politica. "He is ready to refrain from sexual intercourse in order to distance himself from the stereotypical promiscuous homosexual lifestyle," she said.

The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, a centrist party close to the Catholic church, which joined the leftwing Democratic party to form the coalition Crocetta leads, is also likely to limit pro-gay political initiatives in the region. Crocetta's inability to act on social rights will be compounded by the lack of power given to governors under Italian legislation.

Lady Gaga Loves Fur

Earlier this summer, Andy began chronicling the growing animosity between PETA and Lady Gaga, after the songstress appeared in a b-movie promo poster dressed in what looked like a wolf carcass. At the time, PETA vice president Dan Matthews warned Gaga: "... you're making yourself a target just like the mindless Kim Kardashian." (Kardashian had recently been flour-bombed by a PETA activist.)

Gaga, it appears, doesn't much care: She was spotted and photographed wandering around Cologne this week wearing what looked like the carcass of an arctic fox.

Though I cannot find the post, ABCNews notes that Gaga has posted this message to her website:

I am choosing not to comment on whether or not the furs I purchase are faux fur-pile or real because I would think it hypercritical not to acknowledge the python, ostrich, cow hide, leather, lamb, alligator, 'Kermit' and not to mention meat, that I have already worn.

You see a carcass, I see a museum pièce de résistance.

Gaga proceeded to condemn PETA's "violent, abusive, and childish" brand of activism.

In 2009, Lady Gaga appeared on Ellen and described and condemned the wearing of fur:

Ellen DeGeneres quickly turned the conversation to fashion with Lady Gaga running down a list of her costume and hat designers ... One costume that has been dubbed the Kermit The Frog outfit was made by designer Jean de Castelbajac, and looks like a bunch of Kermit The Frog puppets glued together to make a top. Lady Gaga told Ellen DeGeneres, "I really loved that one in particular because I thought it was a commentary on not wearing fur, 'cause I hate fur and I don't wear fur.

Here's Madonna's Full 'Turn Up the Radio' VIDEO

Madonna picks up a band of merrymakers to lift her spirits in Florence, Italy in her new video for "Turn Up the Radio".

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Anti-Gay Facebook Troll Enrages Italy

Last week, the Italian internet was briefly galvanized by an anonymous troll with a rather Catholic-looking Facebook page (see right), apparently created to advocate for the abortion of gay fetuses. Yes -- gay fetuses, which, claimed the troll, doctors now have the ability to identify with some specificity. The page launched on June 19th, with this exhortation:

Too many people have been misled by the false morality of the sodomites. But now, thanks to the miracle of science, we can prevent this. Yes, it is terrible to abort even the poor children burdened with sodomite genes, but it is the lesser evil. 

(The translation's approximate, but that's the gist.)

The page stuck around, and its author stayed busy. Eventually, if I've got the translation right, it seems the author began to provide fake reports from clinics about the murder of infants -- in one case, a report of gay babies who'd been strangled with their umbilical cords. Fake testimonials from fake mothers appeared, including this one:

After my [unborn] son was diagnosed with homosexuality, I wandered aimlessly and craved death above all things ... After aborting the homosexual fetus I became pregnant again. My son is now healthy. I have seen God. I am happy.

It was all insane. It looked like the mindless jabbering of an under-supervised and over-caffeinated 14-year-old with psych issues. None of it was very worth thinking about. Except -- for some reason, this particular detonation of nuttery managed to capture the attention of thousands. By the end of last week, when public furor over the troll caused Facebook to can his account, the profile had racked up more than 2,000 comments, and illicited comment from Italian politicians. Paola Tanning, some kind of official with the Democratic Party, threatened legal action against Facebook if the troll's page didn't disappear. Paola Concia, a member of the Italian parliament, publicly expressed solidarity with any gay kids who might have seen the page. And Stoppello Daniel, a famed lawyer who deals with cases of threats and discrimination against gays, told La Repubblica that the Facebook page was actionable:

In my opinion, [the page demonstrates] abuse of popular credulity -- Article 661 of the penal code -- in which you try to deceive people by promoting scientifically false and completely unfounded hypotheses, exploiting ignorance ... We shouldn't underestimate the fact that [the profile constitutes] a public incitement to abortion.