News: Chris Brown, Google, Madonna, Mercury

Is Chris Brown's new song asking Drake to come out of the closet?

Ben Cohen on the day he received a phone call from Elton John: "He said, 'I hear you’re deaf. I love the work you’re doing and I’d love to help you. When you’re next in America I’m going to send you over to [hearing aid manufacturer] Starkey and fit you out with new state-of-the-art hearing aids. While you’re there you might as well see the head guy, the owner.' It was an amazing day."

Neil Patrick Harris and Newt Gingrich are just two of the few celebrities/notables who have been selected to give Google Glass a whirl.

Howard Kurtz says Anderson Cooper is not interested in Matt Lauer's gig on The Today Show.

20-year-old Cason Crane is on his way to becoming the first openly gay mountaineer to climb the so-called "Seven Summits." He started on number six yesterday: Mount Everest.

Katy Perry and Jane Lynch bump into each other while out on a hike.

The green meteorite found in Morocco last year might just be from the planet Mercury.

Madonna's homeless brother gets blunt about his relationship with his sister: "She lives in her own world. I never loved her in the first place, she never loved me."

Nelson Mandela on the mend after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

The Real World cast member Marlon Williams admits to a past gay experience but insists he is neither gay or bisexual.

Facebook co-founder Sean Parker will get married in June in a medieval-themed wedding celebration.

'Out' Unveils All Four Out100 Covers

Out magazine has finally given it up and released all four covers for its annual Out100 edition.

Jane Lynch, Boy George, Sharon Needles and Andrew Rannells are the stars this year, providing the round-up with more than pretty faces but tenacity, courage and talent. The magazine has also revealed more of its honorees, including MSNBC host Thomas Roberts and husband Patrick Abner, an HIV liaison for Merck, and actor Matthew Wilkas.

Click HERE to check peruse the magazine's Out100.

LGBT Celebrities Speak Out for Obama: VIDEO

Jane Lynch, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Chaz Bono, George Takei, Zachary Quinto, Wanda Sykes, and Billie Jean King speak out about Obama's LGBT accomplishments and what it means to them in a new video for the campaign.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

And remember, get out and vote!

Jane Lynch: 'F**k Chick-fil-A'

On Saturday night, there was a roast for Roseanne Barr in Hollywood, and Jane Lynch kicked things off nicely, the Huffington Post reports:

Before introducing the evening’s honoree, Roseanne Barr, Lynch took a few quick jabs at the assembled roasters, which included Carrie Fisher, Katey Sagal and Ellen Barkin among others. Lynch quipped of the woman-heavy dais, "This show is serving up more old spoiled hens than a Chick-Fil-A. Oh, that reminds me... Fuck Chick-Fil-A. "

Judging from the riotous laughter and applause the joke received, there were few Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day attendees in the audience.

The roast airs August 12 on Comedy Central.

Wealthy, Influential Lesbian Activists Form Super PAC, LPAC

Why should boys have all the political fun? Frustrated by a seeming lack of organization among civic-minded lesbians, a group of women led by Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and including Jane Lynch and Billie Jean King have founded LPAC, a super PAC that will fight for women's and gay rights.

"Being a woman and being gay is really a unique position in our society,” Ricketts told the Washington Post. "I know in my experience of activism, oftentimes it makes a difference if something is women-focused. It’s likely to get the attention of women much more easily.”

Ricketts knows a thing or two about political schmoozing: she's an Obama bundler and co-chair of the DNC's LGBT Leadership Council. And politics is in her blood: her father is Joe Ricketts, the TD Ameritrade founder and fellow Cubs owner whose political advisors suggested he resurrect the Jeremiah Wright controversy to derail President Obama's reelection.

LPAC hopes to raise $1 million to help fight measures that would ban marriage equality or hinder women's rights, they said. And though that's not a lot of money in political terms, LPAC chairwoman Sarah Schmidt says the group is as much about visibility as it is about dollars and cents.

"If it raises $5 million, amazing. But if it raises $500,000, we have still raised $500,000 for critical races and it’s being raised from lesbian leaders whose voices may not have been heard before," said Schmidt, who, like Ricketts, comes from a wealthy and influential Midwest family: her forefathers began the oil distribution company U.S. Venture Inc.

The Post reports that gay activist Urvashi Vaid and former Provincetown Banner publisher Alix Ritchie sit on LPAC's central committee, while high-profile lesbians Lynch and King "also have pledged support."

King told the paper, "The formation of LPAC provides lesbians and the entire LGBT community a new, stronger voice and a real and respected seat at the table when politicians make policy that impacts our lives."

Obama LGBT Video Narrated by Jane Lynch Caps Outreach Effort Launched Today: VIDEO

A new video from the Obama campaign narrated by Jane Lynch highlights the President's LGBT accomplishments from the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to hate crimes, to why he supports marriage equality. The video also looks forward at what’s at stake for the LGBT community in this election.

The video caps a major outreach to LGBT voters launched today which includes a new 'LGBT Americans for Obama' website which you can visit HERE.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Earlier today on a conference call, the Obama campaign  noted that LGBT Americans for Obama is launching with trainings, phone banks and house parties in a number of states including Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada and Michigan. Grassroots LGBT volunteers will organize neighborhood by neighborhood and block by block, talking to their friends, family and coworkers.

Said LGBT Vote Director Jamie Citron:

“To kick off our efforts yesterday, in honor of Harvey Milk Day, OFA held LGBT focused voter registration drives across the country. Harvey was a strong believer in the power of the ballot box, a belief that President Obama also shares. The President knows the importance of making sure our voices are heard in November and to that end we will continue to make voter registration and volunteer recruitment a top priority through Pride month and into the fall.”

HRC President Joe Solmonese was on the call, and wearing two hats, as MetroWeekly's Chris Geidner notes. Solmonese is one of the co-chairs for the campaign for President Obama's re-election.

Solmonese responded generally, talking about collective decision-making regarding priorities, but did specifically mention the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as "landmark issues" that remain to be addressed.

"One of the things I've really been inspired by the president and the administration -- and this goes back to the days that we met with them in the transition offices before we were in the White House, and quite frankly, it goes back to during the campaign in the general election -- one of the things that was always clear to me, and it came from the president, was that the agenda was really a collective conversation between the president and the administration, us as a community and our allies on Capitol Hill in the House and the Senate," he said. "And that collective agreement and collective sense of where we were had everything to do with why we moved hate crimes first, we moved 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' second. So, I think that collective understanding of where we're going is how we're really going to shape the agenda for the next administration.

"Obviously, we have landmark issues that we need to continue to address, continue to move on, like the repeal of DOMA, like the passage of a fully inclusive ENDA.

More at MetroWeekly...

Watch the new Obama LGBT video narrated by Jane Lynch, AFTER THE JUMP...