John Cusack Prefers the Gay-Loving Jesus

Vanity Fair asks John Cusack: "Who are your heroes in real life?"

Says the actor, who stars in the summer political satire War, Inc (above): "Let’s go with Jesus. Not the gay-hating, war-making political tool of the right, but the outcast, subversive, supreme adept who preferred the freaks and lepers and despised and doomed to the rich and powerful. The man Garry Wills describes 'with the future in his eyes … paradoxically calming and provoking,' and whom Flannery O’Connor saw as 'the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of [one’s] mind.'"

He's also asked what living person he most despises: "Very tough question. They exist in the realm of war profiteers. These men and women are the lowest form of human consciousness, truly and completely spiritually fucked. Theirs is an amazing satanic dance: create a new market with war, bar competitors from the aftermath, then pay your own companies at a cost-plus basis, which guarantees profits, all at the taxpayers’ expense. They are the biggest welfare freaks on the planet."

The trailer for War, Inc, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Clinton advisor Mickey Kantor statement on Indianans unearthed: "Look at Indiana...it doesn't matter if we win. Those people are shit. How would you like to be a worthless white ni**er?" Kantor denies... UPDATE: Director Pennebaker says clip doctored...

Barack Obama pledges to stop fighting between Lauren and Heidi on The Hills.

Christian Siriano hosting virtual prom.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd signals that he may block a move by the nation's capital to legalize civil unions: "The Prime Minister warned today that he would never agree to gay marriage, which would require amendments to the Marriage Act. The act expressly states that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. While the ACT government, led by chief minister Jon Stanhope, argues its civil partnerships are different to gay marriage, the Government is concerned it too closely mimics marriage. Mr Rudd now holds the power to disallow any ACT laws that he deems to replicate marriage, just as the Howard Government did during its final term. Despite previously arguing it was a matter for the states, the Prime Minister said today that no other state was proposing laws similar to the ACT."

Mariah Carey marries Nick Cannon in the Bahamas.

Banksy, who has curated an underground graffiti exhibition in London in a tunnel which opens tonight, tells Reuters: Creating graffiti "better than sex, better than drugs."

Tom Ford makes debut as costume designer for Santa Fe opera The Letter.

Massachusetts publishes 120-page anti-bullying guide for schools. Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach: "Our kids deserve to grow up in an environment that is free from harassment and violence. The consequences of bullying can last a lifetime, but all too often it is treated as a rite of passage."

Brazilian gymnast takes his talent to the street.

Never has a shirt on: Lipstick Jungle's Robert Buckley is the new Matthew McConaughey.

Jesus is coming in 2015, look busy.

North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry behaving conservatively.

Man charged in killing of Florida gay activist Scott Graham: "A man has been charged with murdering West Palm Beach, Fla., gay rights activist Scott Graham, who was found dead in his home on April 16, The Palm Beach Post reported Wednesday. Ricardo David Fuenes-Valle, 20, was arrested on Tuesday near Tampa by Hillsborough County deputies and U.S. marshals. He is being charged with first-degree murder. Investigators found the suspect on Tuesday after they were told that Fuenes-Valle was planning to rob Graham or burglarize his home to steal jewelry and money, West Palm Beach police captain Pat Maney told the Post. Witnesses said Graham was last seen on April 14 with Fuenes-Valle. 'We don't really have a motive at this point,' Maney said in the article. 'We are working under that assumption.'"

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News: Oscar Wilde, Tasmania, Project Runway, Erotic Jesus

Gay property developers driven from Tasmania by homophobic locals after dead kangaroo is found nailed to door. Stephen Roche: "It's been an interesting ride. But I don't feel as though I've been pushed out at all. It's a very small minority that have had any sort of homophobic prejudice. Tassie's probably got a way to go with acceptance of gay people."

Shopping with Milo Ventimiglia.

Lifetime poaches Project Runway from Bravo and NBC is MAD AS HELL.

Joe.My.God reports on the National Gay & LEsbian Task Force's New York Leadership Awards which said good-bye to Executive Director Matt Foreman.

Over 100 "pro-family" leaders applaud Romania's bigotry.

iTunes Canada removes Jamaican dancehall "Murder music": "This action followed a campaign led by the Canadian LGBT rights group Egale and Stop Murder Music. The songs include advocating or approval of killing gays: 'iTunes is exercising its corporate responsibility by pulling this murder music and raising the bar for other retailers and distributors to do the same,' says Akim Larcher, founder of SMM. He calls iTune’s decision a victory for the gay community in Canada and in the Caribbean."

Oscar Wilde brand alive and well and living in Paris: "In his day, Wilde - iconoclastic, bisexual, Irish - found fame and, briefly, fortune by dint of genius, charm and application. In his own time, he was an outsider and an exotic. Now he’s one of us. We understand his craving for celebrity. We share his obsession with youth. ('Youth is the one thing worth having,' he wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray.) Gay or straight, we are easy with his sexuality. Indeed, so prejudiced are we in his favour, we tend to overlook the fact that most of the young men in whom he took an interest were little more than boys."

Christian radio station miffed over Wisconsin school district's dress-up day: "Students at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex. A local resident informed the Voice of Christian Youth America on Friday. The Milwaukee-based radio network responded by interrupting its morning programming for a special broadcast that aired on nine radio stations throughout Wisconsin. The broadcast criticized the dress-up day and accused the district of promoting alternative lifestyles."

Will you make it to third base with Neil Patrick Harris. These bitches did.

UC-Berkeley blood drive encourages gay men to find donors to take their place.

Sex and the City girls the star attraction at a benefit for The Point Foundation.

Erotic Jesus exhibit sparks outrage in Austria: "The source of the dispute, which Austrian media has dubbed Vienna's version of the Mohammad caricature row, is a retrospective honoring Austria's cherished artist Alfred Hrdlicka, who turned 80 earlier this year...The Church hastily removed the main picture, 'a homosexual orgy' of the Apostles as Hrdlicka describes it. But the protest has continued, much to the surprise of the small Cathedral Museum which is nestled down a narrow street in Vienna's historic Gothic quarter. The museum's director defends both Hrdlicka's work and his decision to host the artist's controversial versions of biblical imagery in a museum tied to the Catholic Church. 'We think Hrdlicka is entitled to represent people in this carnal, drastic way,' Bernhard Boehler said in his small museum office, across the street from Vienna's imposing St. Stephan's Cathedral. He said the museum never intended to offend people but that art should be allowed to provoke a debate."

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News: Gayle King, Hunky Jesus, Yale, Charlie Crist, Tibet

A dog's life: NYC penthouse purchased for Gayle King in name of Oprah's recently deceased cocker spaniel, Sophie.

San Franciscans battle it out to be Hunky Jesus in Easter competition: "Catholics have labelled the annual pageant blasphemous, considering that previous entrants have included 'old school Jesus', 'surfer Jesus' and 'zombie Jesus', an irreverent take on the Easter message of Christ rising from the dead."

Last night's How I Met Your Mother guest starring Britney Spears was the show's highest rated episode ever.

18-year-old charged with stabbing death of gay man appears in Brooklyn court: "The defendant, Omar Willock, is charged with a hate crimes offense...At Willock’s arraignment last spring, Hynes told reporters that Willock 'shouted anti-gay remarks' at Roberto Duncanson, taunting him even as he tried to get away from Willock. Willock allegedly followed Duncanson, who’d been trying to avoid the confrontation, which had its roots in an verbal exchange earlier that same night, when angry words were exchanged between the two men. Willock had claimed that Duncanson stared at him in an unwanted manner, though the incident did not become violent. When Duncanson returned along the same route later that evening, Willock is alleged to have renewed his taunts. Witnesses told police the two engaged in a brief fistfight, culminating in a chase that ended with Duncanson’s stabbing death."

Florida Governor Charlie Crist loves women.

Yale University appoints first openly gay residential-college master, tapping acclaimed singer Richard Lalli MUS ’86 to lead Jonathan Edwards College: "He will be joined by his partner, Michael Rigsby MED ’88, who will add the designation of associate master to his current title: medical director of Yale University Health Services. Lalli, an adjunct professor of music, has taught at Yale since 1982; both are already JE fellows and freshman advisers in the college. 'This is a great occasion. It’s probably the greatest occasion of my life,' Lalli said to JE students after University President Richard Levin announced his appointment over dinner Wednesday night in Commons." College master is one of Yale's highest recognitions.

Gay Syrian applies for asylum in Scotland: "After Mr Yakob's terrible ordeal in Syria, it is unacceptable that the Home Office would consider sending him back. There is a very real risk that he would suffer further ill treatment or even possibly death. He has sought asylum in Scotland and I will make an immediate representation to the Home Office in an effort to overturn their ruling before his final hearing in May."

OP/ED: Repeal of gay rights laws in Oregon would have chilling effect.

Chinese paramilitary police open fire on mass crowd of monks, nuns, and Tibetans: "Residents of Luhuo said that a monk and a farmer appeared to have been killed and about a dozen people wounded in the latest violence in Tibetan areas of China. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said that one officer was killed when police confronted a 'lawless mob' in Luhuo. The demonstration began at 4pm when about 200 nuns from Woge nunnery and a similar number of monks from Jueri monastery marched towards the Luhuo Third District government office. They were joined by several hundred farmers and nomads, witnesses said."

Ashton Kutcher plays douchebag in new film.

How does Priscilla Presley stay looking so young? Special facial injections of auto lubricant.

Gay sex expert Michael Alvear spent three months filming couples and analyzing the footage: "I don’t think that people are really that aware of their contributions to the breakdowns in a relationship, and the cameras are able to cut through all the false perceptions that they have about themselves. I’ve always believed this through writing and advising people about sex—the question, 'What are you unaware of that, if you became aware of it, you could change and make the situation better?' That’s what the cameras allowed people to do—become aware of the things they’re not aware of. It’s like a mirror that way."

Gay Wisconsin man settles lawsuit alleging two men attacked him in a deli because he was gay: "Brett Timmerman's lawsuit claims that he walked into a sandwich shop in Platteville in July 2005 when Oden Waite and Enove Urias made anti-gay remarks to him, put him in a headlock and took him to the ground. Timmerman claims that Waite spit on him twice. Timmerman's attorney, Jim Madigan, said that he reached the deal with Waite's attorneys last week. He said that the settlement calls for terms to remain undisclosed."

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Gay Jesus Play Stirring Up Controversy in Sydney

"Pro-family" and religious groups are incensed over the Terrence McNally play Corpus Christi, which is set to open in Sydney which features a gay Jesus Christ who is seduced by Judas, and who performs a same-sex marriage for two of his apostles.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: "The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, questioned the integrity of Corpus Christi and expressed his outrage at the 'unhistorical and untrue' depiction of the son of God and some of his disciples as homosexual. 'It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it,' he said. 'It's historical nonsense and I wouldn't want to go and see it. Life's too short.' Australian Family Association spokeswoman Angela Conway said the play's creators had committed "a big enough crime" by neglecting to treat Christianity and Christian believers with more sensitivity. 'The ideas are offensive and really border on blasphemous. It's just completely fanciful and self-obsessive,' she said."

The play is timed to open for Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, at the New Theatre in Newtown on February 7.

Its director, Leigh Rowney, told the paper he welcomes the controversy: "I would be surprised if people bothered to protest outside the New Theatre … but if they did, bring it on. I think [the play] humanises [Jesus Christ] in a way Christians might find difficult because we like to believe God and the son of God are ultimately divine and above all of us. I wanted this play in the hands of a Christian person like myself to give it dignity but still open it up to answering questions about Christianity as a faith system."

It's not the first time the play has created an uproar. A fatwa death threat was issued by the Shari'ah Court of the UK when it opened in London in 1999 and in New York as well.

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Bulgarian Men in Mad, Icy Plunge to Get Closer to Christ

One of the few things that can bring massive amounts of shirtless men this close to one another in Bulgaria is the celebration of Christ's baptism on Epiphany (January 6), when the race for a wooden cross thrown into an icy lake is as frantic as a shopping stampede at Walmart.

According to Sofia News Agency Novinvite: "The main ritual is performed by a priest who throws a cross into a river or a lake for young men to catch it. It is believed that the first person that gets to the cross will enjoy good health throughout the whole year."

According to the agency, "Krassimir Nikolov, a 22-year-old student at the National Sport Academy, was the first to reach the cross."

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Jesus in Love Cover Sparks Imaginary International Debate

It was about this time last year that I mentioned Kittredge Cherry's book Jesus in Love, a novel about a gay Jesus Christ. Well, here comes Christmas again and controversy has once again supposedly erupted over the newly released cover of the German translation of the book, which, according to the author "shows a near-naked Jesus and John the Baptist rising from the water together after Christ’s baptism. The men’s genitals shine through their wet clothes. A shared halo affirms the union of body and spirit."

Cherry says the cover has "sparked international debate" but after searching high and low on the internet the only debate I could find about the cover was between Cherry and her PR person (who also appears to be Cherry). Go figure. Perhaps Cherry's intent was to get the attention of a few bloggers whose posts on the topic might send the Catholic League's Bill Donohue into convulsions.

Anyway, here's part of the cover, if you'd like to check out the full monty, see AFTER THE JUMP...

View the full=size cover image here.

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Neo-Nazi group targeting gay politicians: "Openly gay Chapel Hill (NC) Town Councilman Mark Kleinschmidt is the target of a bunch of online neo-Nazi thugs who have compiled a list of out gay elected officials, or as one put it, 'List of Open and Unapologetic Faggot Politicians.'"

Gay gossip cabal: "Whatever Paris Hilton is, she came by it honestly."

Watch Barbara Walters "most fascinating" segment on David and Victoria Beckham.

Brazilian President announces LGBT summit: "President Luiz Inazio Lula da Silva of Brazil has announced the country’s first National Conference of Homosexuals, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals, a controversial event that will be held in May 2008 with the explicit endorsement of the government’s Special Secretariat for Human Rights. According to officials, the event will seek to develop directives that allow public policies and a national plan that promotes the rights of homosexuals to be implemented. The conference will also work on strengthening the “Brazil Without Homophobia” program."

Britney Spears has a new man in her life: Jesus Christ.

Fugitive anti-gay shooter arrested in Atlanta: "A fugitive task force arrested a 30-year-old man on charges he shot at two young men while making derogatory comments about homosexuals outside a predominantly-gay Midtown bar in October. Tommy Lee Gresham, 30, of Cobb County is facing a charge of aggravated assault, Atlanta police Officer Darlene Harris said. The Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested him Tuesday afternoon after a Cobb County police officer spotted the wanted man and followed him home. Greshman, nicknamed 'Stretch,' is accused of shooting at two young men Oct. 19 outside the WETbar, located on Spring Street, after he followed them from a nearby gas station. Neither man was seriously hurt; one had a graze wound and the other was hit by ricocheting shrapnel, Harris said."

Hey bidders, those of you who miss out on David Beckham's half-eaten corncob from Wellington, New Zealand may still be able to get in on Andy Roddick's half-eaten banana from the Davis Cup!

Protests cause Grenada to re-think not allowing gay cruises to dock there: "Several hotels received visitor cancellations after the Toronto Star reported last week that the country was questioning whether to allow entry to gay cruise ships, tourism minister Clarice Modeste-Curwen said in a statement yesterday. Some protesters also wrote the Canadian government asking that aid be cut to Grenada's Port of St. Georges where cruise ships dock, she added. 'This does not augur well for our tourism sector.' She said: 'We will continue to welcome all visitors and we will work, along with our population, to ensure that their time and ours will be enjoyable. Grenada respects the rights of all persons of all persuasions and lifestyles.' Left unmentioned was that homosexual relations remain illegal in Grenada. The government's position was reached 'following several days of consultations on the matter involving tourism officials and various stakeholders,' the minister's statement said."

UFO Moons: "Two of Saturn's small moons look eerily like flying saucers, new observations by the Cassini spacecraft reveal. The moons, which lie within the giant planet's rings, may have come by their strange shape by gradually accumulating ring particles in a ridge around their equators. The Voyager spacecraft discovered the moons, called Pan and Atlas, in the early 1980s. Pan, which is 33 kilometres wide, orbits Saturn within a gap in the planet's A ring called the Encke Division (scroll down for image), while the 39-km-wide Atlas orbits just outside the A ring. Both moons have a flattened shape, being wider than they are tall. But their uncanny resemblance to UFOs only became clear recently, when Cassini viewed them with its powerful cameras."

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Robbie Williams to return to Take That after all? Mom: "On the question of him doing something with them, I feel that will happen. It would be something he wanted to do. I'm thrilled that out of all the negative stuff that happened, there's now something great happening. Take That were excellent when they were all together and they are excellent now."

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Christian Theater Group Spends $90K to Condemn Kathy Griffin

The Miracle Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee has paid $90,440 for a full-page ad in USA Today that ran on Monday condemning the "Suck it, Jesus" remarks made by Kathy Griffin upon accepting her Emmy for Best Reality Show, according to the AP.

The ad reads: "We at The Miracle Theater consider it an honor to stand for Jesus today. We may never win a national award. We may never be household names. We may never be seen in Hollywood. Although others may choose to use their national platform to slander our God, we are honored as professional entertainers to stand for Christ."

Of course the Miracle Theater is welcome to waste their money in whatever way they choose, but imagine how much prouder Jesus would have been had they spent that $90,440 to feed the homeless or help needy children. Instead they spent in on a self-aggrandizing ad condemning free speech.

Check out the ad, after the jump...

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FOX News: Jesus Died on Cross So Kathy Griffin Could Win Emmy

Via Michelangelo Signorile's The Gist comes this completely serious report from FOX News' Religion Correspondent Lauren Green.

If you'll remember, upon accepting her Emmy, Griffin said: ""A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus...Suck it, Jesus. This award is my God now." The TV Academy and E! then announced they would not air Griffin's comments.

Green is angry at Kathy Griffin for telling Jesus to "suck it" and wants Griffin to know that Jesus' death is directly related to winning that Emmy.

Reports Green: "Now I could have been mildly insulted at that and turned the other cheek, as the founder of Christianity taught. But then she went on to say 'Suck it, Jesus. This award is my God now.' Needless to say, she offended me and millions of other Christians. I don't know what went through her mind and why she would think that was cutting edge or even funny. But first, I want to actually show you that, in fact, Kathy Griffin is wrong. Jesus had everything to do with her winning that award. And here's the reasoning. Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago. His dying words were, 'Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.' He died and they buried him in a rock cut tomb. Three days later, as the Bible says, he rose from the dead. That day is what Christians celebrate as Easter...

...After the resurrection, Christianity began to take off like wildfire, spreading from the Middle East northward to Europe and westward into Ethiopia. In 300 A.D. Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and it beccame the religion of Europe. Rome soon became the seat of the faith. After several years of human failings, the church went through conflicts and quite a few unbiblical years — the crusades and the inquisition to name just two. Out of that came the Reformation — the reforming of the Church, sort of a back-to-basics Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Out of the Reformation emerged a vision of law by Samuel Rutherford, called Lex is Rex, Law is King. From that, others devised a secular version that is used to help lay the foundation of government for a new land called America. Ninety-four percent of America's founding era documents mention the Bible; 34 percent quote the Bible directly. The idea of bringing unity to the universal is a particularly Biblical concept....

...The freedoms we enjoy in this country to speak freely and to live freely are directly related to that man who died on a cross 2,000 years ago."

So there Kathy Griffin!

Aside from the astonishing fact that this is being reported from an allegedly mainstream news outlet, isn't Green simply arguing that Jesus gave Griffin the right to tell him to suck it?

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Pro-Gay Jesus Billboards Going Over Well in Indiana

Remember those billboards put up around Indianapolis by the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church challenging Christian assumptions about homosexuality?

In addition to this defacement, "a billboard on Kentucky Avenue carried the original message 'The early church welcomed a gay man' but had the word 'man' sprayed with black paint..." according to the Indianapolis Star.

Said the church's pastor Jeff Miner: "I think it shows the lengths some people will go to suppress ideas rather than have a dialogue."

The Star adds: "Several church leaders in the city say the ad campaign is built on false statements and distorted readings of scripture. But Rev. Andy Hunt of Body of Christ Community Church said vandalism is always a wrong response. 'It ignites passions whenever someone brings a lie against the god you worship,' Hunt said. 'But we can’t go down to their level.'"

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Indianapolis to Receive Pro-gay Message from Jesus

A new campaign from Jesus Metropolitan Community Church of Indianapolis, with help from Faith In America and Metropolitan Community Churches this week began blanketing the Indianapolis area with billboards challenging Christian assumptions about homosexuality.

According to Faith in America, the five billboards (pictured) direct viewers to a website that provides support for the claims made on each.

Said Rev. Jimmy Creech, Executive Director of Faith In America: "In the past, many Christians misused the Bible to support slavery, oppose equal rights for women, and oppose interracial marriage. They went so far as to accuse people on the other side of being unbiblical. The same thing is happening again with respect to same-gender relationships. It has to stop."

Added Pastor Jeff Miner of Jesus Metropolitan Community Church: "Right now, most people think this is a debate between people who love the Bible – conservative Christians – and people who want to throw out the Bible – godless homosexuals. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Church welcomes hundreds of devout gay Christians who love the Bible deeply. Our goal is to rescue the Bible from misinterpretations driven by cultural prejudice, so its true message of grace, hope, and peace can come through."

The Indiana legislature recently killed a proposed ban on same-sex marriage despite dogged efforts by religious and "pro-family" conservatives (including Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy) to pass it.

The billboard campaign is slated to remain up for a month.

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Earthquakes, powerful tsunami strike Solomon Islands. Death toll at 20...

Friendly fire: Memo from Gen. Stanley McChrystal reveals that "the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with leveling with [Pat] Tillman's family." General: "I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public."

Amy Poehler on husband Will Arnett's gay following: "Believe me, the highest compliment as a woman is to have your husband wolf-whistled at in the West Village. Oh, he’s adorable! I really scored. I don’t know what-the-f I did right, but I did something right in my past life to get a handsome, funny hunk of meat and put a ring on that."

New poll shows more people support allowing gay marriage in California than the legalization of ferrets as pets.

Head of Italian bishops, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, causes furor over gay rights warning: "Why say 'no' to forms of legally recognised co-habitation which create alternatives to the family? Why say 'no' to incest? Why say 'no' to the pedophile party in Holland?"

ABC pays a visit to Delta Lambda Phi, NYU's newly recognized gay frat: "The NYU chapter, with 11 members, forbids hazing and incorporates an 'education' rather than a 'pledging' process that requires new recruits to know the fraternity's mission, memorize the Greek alphabet and learn Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Procedure. By offering fraternity brotherhood to gay men, it "breaks boundaries," according to chapter president Matt Maggiacomo. The fraternity's mascot is the centaur, adapted from Greek mythology as the essence of masculinity — the Lambdas' version depicts a younger, clean-shaven man-horse with short hair. The fraternity motto is 'Lambda men are making their presence known,' and the Toast Song is 'Once There Was a Mighty Man.'"

Kylie Minogue and her main gay hit the town in London.

Debate on "Secret Mark" Gospel resumes: "Clement, in this letter, acknowledged the existence of a longer Gospel by Mark known only to initiates. Clement quoted a section involving Jesus’ raising of a young man from his tomb and a nighttime encounter in which Jesus taught the lightly clad youth 'the mystery of the kingdom.'"

Lesbian from Uganda seeks asylum in U.S., claiming she was persecuted for her sexual orientation: "In 2001, Nabulwala says, she was called to another family meeting after relatives learned she was still involved in a lesbian relationship. 'During this meeting, my dad said so many unpleasant and hurtful words to me," she says. "He was so angry that he reached out to grab my neck to strangle me. He stated he was going to kill me because I was an embarrassment to him, our family, as well as the entire clan.' She says two aunts dragged her out of the meeting into her room, where a young man was waiting. 'I was forced to have sex with a total stranger, which was very nasty, while my aunts watched in laughter,' she says. 'Afterwards, they all left me lying there in a lot of pain.'"

Nancy Pelosi criticized by White House for visit to Syria while another group of Republicans visitng that country goes unnoticed.

Tickets for the Glastonbury Festival sell out in 90 minutes: "The Arctic Monkeys are due to headline the festival. Dame Shirley Bassey and The Who are also confirmed to perform but the full line-up will not be released until June."

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Figure Skater Johnny Weir to Portray Jesus on Ice

Attention-grabbing figure skater Johnny Weir told reporters at a press conference in Spokane yesterday that he has heard former skater Mark Lund's recent comments about him were "mean-spirited" but says he'll reserve comment until he's seen the actual tape: "When I have seen it, I'm sure I'll have something to say."

Weir is set to take the ice on Saturday night at the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships with a long program free skate routine set to "Child of Nazareth" by Maxime Rodriguez, in which the flamboyant skater will tell the story of Jesus:

Said Weir: "In no way am I portraying the actual entity of Jesus. I'm just performing the story of his life. It's an interesting concept, an interesting idea to push myself forward and make myself better. It has nothing to do with anything else."

Weir defended his maverick image:

"It's more exciting to walk in a fashion show or portray Jesus than it is to sit at home learning how to play the piano or skating to 'The Nutcracker'...The risks I'm taking are natural to me. I didn't go to BlackBook and say, 'I want to pose in heels.' I said I'd do it because it's fun for me. It wasn't like I went in and said, 'Oh my God, I want heels. I want fur. I want glitter. I want to be made up totally like Amanda Lepore (the self-proclaimed No. 1 transsexual in the world).' ... I think the pictures are very interesting. They're not gaudy. They're not campy. They're just me modeling clothes."

Weir's main competition for Saturday's event will be Evan Lysacek. Weir hopes to equal Brian Boitano's achievement of winning four straight national championships. A record 146,311 tickets have been sold for this week's events.

Kudos to Weir for pushing the envelope. We wish him the best of luck.

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Witch hunt at Ted Haggard's New Life Church: have you f**ked these men?

Is Prison Break's Dominic Purcell moonlighting as a model on Manhunt.net? Eh, I see a few differences in the nose and ears. Close, but no cigar imho. But it wouldn't be the first time a TV star's pre-fame career caught up with him.

Queer Jesus? "Jesus In Love is a work of fiction that sparks debate by raising the issue of Christ's sexuality, including a gay love story between Jesus and his beloved disciple John."

Mitt Romney against bias to gays despite opposition to gay marriage: "I'm not in favor of discrimination of any kind including people who have a different sexual preference than myself. At the same time I'm very committed to traditional marriage between one man and one woman and believe that marriage should be preserved in that way." Where to even begin?

Rare Judy Garland recordings, expected to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000, fail to sell at auction: "The records, which have never been heard in public, feature renditions of four songs sung by 12-year-old Garland in her early vaudeville shows including 'Bill' from the Broadway musical 'Showboat.' They also contain a medley of 'Good Ship Lollypop,' 'Object of My Affections' and 'Dinah.' The seller, who remains anonymous, discovered the records in 1960 while clearing out her Beverly Hills home where Garland once lived, according to Bonhams. It's unknown whether the records were the originals or whether they were pressed for Garland's personal collection."

Work begins at Ground Zero: "The first 25-ton steel column for the new Freedom Tower was installed Tuesday at ground zero, another milestone in prolonged efforts to build a new office tower to replace the World Trade Center."

Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor, wound up as a whistle-blower for the FBI, but was detained by American soldiers who were unaware of his position as an informer. This is his terrifying story of detention.

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