News: Tim Cook, Nick Gruber, Nevada, 279

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today defended Ambassador Rice from GOP-led attacks and again pushed aside speculation that she'll run for the White House in 2016. "I'm frankly looking forward to returning to living a life that enjoys a lot of simple pleasures and gives me time for family and friends and other pursuits," she said.

Tim Cook, Apple's gay CEO, told NBC News' Brian Williams that the tech giant will start manufacturing a few of his products here in the States. "We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States," he said. But don't expect a deluge of jobs, because Cook tells Businessweek the work done in the USA will be minimal: "Next year we’re going to bring some production to the U.S... This doesn’t mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people and we’ll be investing our money.”

Janee Harteau has been sworn in as the first female and first openly gay police chief of Minneapolis. "Thank you to my life-partner and better half, Holly. And for those of you who know us both, she's truly the better half," she said at the swearing in ceremony.

Lindsay Lohan is everywhere The Wanted want to be - and she takes the bus there.

Congratulations to Steve Elmendorf: the political strategist has just been voted in as chair of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

Judd Apatow guest edited the latest edition of Vanity Fair. Yes, there is a Freaks and Geeks reunion, of sorts.

Rejoice! Morning sickness-stricken Duchess Kate has been released from the hospital.

Glee actor Matthew Morrison likes his pants tight.

Here's Terry Miller's shot of him and Dan Savage getting their marriage license.

Get your Game of Thrones on.

Nick Gruber, famous for being designer Calvin Klein's former boyfriend, sat down for an interview with the New York Post's Page Six magazine and claims to be straight, that he presented a military sergeant with a bisexual porn he did to get out of service and that Klein hooked him up to a lie detector test to see if he was cheating.

The U.S. Senate today advanced the nomination of lesbian Judge Pamela Ki Mai Chen, a nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. If she wins the seat, Judge Chen will be the first out Asian-American on the federal bench.

Ellen DeGeneres and Rachel Maddow have both been nominated for Best Spoken Word Grammy Awards, DeGeneres for her book Seriously… I’m Kidding and Maddow for Drift: The Unmooring Of American Military Power.

Like Washington State, Maryland has started distributing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. "I started tearing up when I saw the marriage license; all of a sudden, it's right there in front of you," 34-year old Alli Harper, who plans to marry girlfriend Jennifer Monti, told the Herald Mail.

279 marriage licenses were given to same-sex couples during the first six hours of legality today.

The Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in Nevada is asking the Supreme Court to hear their case against equality, thereby bypassing an appeals court and perhaps intentionally delaying SCOTUS' consideration of same-sex nuptials. "In the past this year, it has appeared that the court held off on considering any of the petitions until all of them were fully briefed. And, with the court scheduled to discuss the 10 petitions at its conference on Friday, this petition could be a last-ditch effort to hold off a decision on which of those to hear," writes Chris Geidner.

A clue for the Doctor Who Christmas special?

News: Jovan Belcher, Hoverboard, Frank Bruni, Drones

Model Renato Seabra was found guilty of murdering and mutilating journalist Carlos Castro in January of 2011. He will be sentenced December 21.

A detailed review of Mattel's so-called hoverboard.

The New York Times' Frank Bruni to Bill Clinton: "...DOMA, which says that the federal government recognizes only marriages of a man and a woman, is one of the uglier blemishes on your record, an act of indisputable discrimination that codified unequal treatment of gay men and lesbians and, in doing so, validated the views of Americans who see us as lesser people. If our most committed, heartfelt relationships don’t measure up, then neither do we. If how we love is suspect, then so is who we are. No two ways to interpret that. No other conclusion to be drawn"

Watch Adam Lambert's performance from the Mnet Asian Music Awards.

Florida tossed out Christian Slater's vote because his signature didn't match the one they had on file.

Boy Meets World actress Danielle Fishel does Lindsay Lohan doing Elizabeth Taylor.

Tom Daley and his mama hit the town.

The Rabbinical Council of America has come out against "ex-gay" reparative therapy.

Get excited for Jonny Pierce from The Drums' solo album.

I got a chance to talk with Darren G. Davis about Lost Raven, the graphic novel he wrote about coming to terms with his HIV positive status. I'd love for you to read it.

Police confirm that Kansas City Chiefs' linebacker Jovan Belcher, 25, fatally shot his girlfriend and then, despite his coach and others' attempts to calm him down, he shot himself. "[His coach, general manager and others were] standing outside and appeared to be talking to him. It appeared they were talking to the suspect," said police. "The suspect began to walk in the opposite direction of the coaches and the officers and that's when they heard the gunshot. It appears he took his own life."

Despite some architectural activists' efforts, an apartment complex where JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald will be torn down. "We're not just losing a piece of fundamental history to Dallas related to the assassination, we're also losing a piece of fundamental architecture to this area," said the building's owner.

US drones keep crashing at civilian airports overseas. "A review of thousands of pages of unclassified Air Force investigation reports, obtained by The Washington Post under public-records requests, shows that drones flying from civilian airports have been plagued by setbacks. Among the problems repeatedly cited are pilot error, mechanical failure, software bugs in the 'brains' of the aircraft and poor coordination with civilian air-traffic controllers."

The Salvation Army continues to deny it endorses hateful anti-gay politics and rhetoric, despite evidence that says otherwise.

Hillary Clinton compares her ever-changing hairstyles to the "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."

Sally Field spoke with Oprah about raising a gay son, our very own Sam Greisman.

Edie Windsor, 83, says she just wants to be alive when DOMA's overturned.

News: Lindsay Lohan, Mitt Romney, Mercury, Scorpio Sky

Senator-Elect Tammy Baldwin, US Rep-elect Mark Takano and Ambassador David Huebner, all of whom are openly gay, will speak at the Victory Fund’s LGBT Leaders 2012 Conference, which starts today.

Mitt Romney stopped by the White House for a 70-minute lunch with President Obama. The campaign rivals had turkey chili and reportedly talked about "America’s leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future." The White House says the men "pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future." I have the same arrangement with summer camp friends from 1994.

According to Dr. Sylvia Rhue, her family history proves that Abraham Lincoln was gay and had an affair with William Herndon, his law partner.

David Petraeus wrote to a friend about his recent fall from grace, "I screwed up royally. I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day... [But] Team Petraeus will survive though have obviously created enormous difficulty for us. Holly is however once again demonstrating how incredibly fortunate I was to marry her."

Rebel Wilson's on top of the world, and actually deserves to be there.

Low level pro-wrestler Scorpio Sky knows "faggot" is offensive, which is why he uses it early and often.

Sure, Jude Law, you're not as young as you used to be, but you still look pretty darn good.

NYU student Blake Pruitt talks to gay men about gay men.

Sigh. Lindsay Lohan, an actress I really wanted to see have a comeback, was arrested after getting into a bar brawl in New York City. That brawl was reportedly over Max from the band The Wanted.

Meanwhile, Lohan also faces charges for lying about a car accident in Los Angeles.

George Zimmerman is selling autographs to fund the team defending him for Trayvon Martin's murder.

Ellen DeGeneres shares road signs warning wheelchair-bound citizens of incline-assisted alligators and other out-of-the-ordinary public alerts.

Britney and Will.i.am, "Scream and Shout," the video.

Braison Cyrus, brother of Miley and son of Billy Ray, makes his modeling debut in the February edition of Troix magazine.

NASA's Messenger rover found enough ice at Mercury's poles to fill the Dead Sea.

Democratic Rep. Jackie Spier introduced a "Stop Harming Our Kids" resolution today that aims to stop "ex-gay therapy" for minors. "Any effort to change sexual orientation is not medicine, it’s quackery, and we should not be supporting it with taxpayer dollars," said Spier.

Terrible: 60% of youth infected with HIV in 2010 are African-American. "Nearly 29,000 new cases of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, were attributed to gay and bisexual males in 2010, and 82 percent of those cases occurred in large cities," US News and World Report reports.

With marriage equality set to become the law of the land, Washington state is considering gender-neutral language for marriage and divorce certificates. "Our fight for marriage equality is in part a fight for gender equality, not just for the gay and lesbian community. It is a fight for equality of sexes and the idea that marriage does not in itself mean that women are subjugated to men," said State Rep. Jamie Pedersen.

News: Natural Gas, Exhuming, Another Bush, Manbar

90s stars we still know and love today.

Deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's remains will be exhumed on Tuesday as officials investigate yet another rumor that the Israelis poisoned him. Great, just what the region needs: the ghost of Arafat hanging over a cease-fire.

Celebrities react to Larry Hagman's death.

A Chicago-area Catholic Church has offered to confirm Lennon Cihak, the Minnesota teenager denied confirmation at his own church after he supported marriage equality on Facebook.

Early reviews for Les Misérables are sensational.

Bush: The Next Generation: "George Prescott Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the nephew of former Texas governor and ex-President George W. Bush, has filed preliminary paperwork to run for office in the Lone Star state in 2014. That leaves the new Bush poised to become a key face in the next generation of Republican politicians."

Umm... "Does being fat make you more jolly?"

A natural gas explosion damaged 42 buildings, including a strip club, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Critics are not being kind to Liz & Dick starring Lindsay Lohan. Tim Goodman from The Hollywood Reporter called it "spectacularly bad."

Skip It!

The LA Times profiles Dave Roberts, the first Democrat elected to the San Diego Board of Supervisors in over a decade. "He's also gay and married to a retired Air Force master sergeant. The two are adoptive parents to five former foster children, ages 4 to 17, who call them Daddy Dave and Daddy Wally."

From Monika Johnson's article "Making progressivism last": "Creating progressive infrastructure will ultimately yield decisions that change our economy and society. For example, I was struck recently when a relative turned down a lucrative deal because the organization was enacting anti-gay policies in conducting business. In making this decision, he took a stand for what he believed in and created a ripple effect that will influence that business’s chances of success."

Michael O’Kane, the editor of the Irish Daily Star, has resigned for his role in the publication of the nude Kate Middleton pictures.

A mural of a shirtless Prince Harry has become a huge attraction for London's Manbar.

The New York Times magazine spent some time with Scott Fahlman, inventor of the emoticon. "In 1982, as a young professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he realized the need for a symbol to temper the bickering that plagued online forums. The Internet was just a baby then, and yet already flame wars raged. Fahlman decided that a smiley face could be useful as a 'joke marker' (as he called it) to take the sting out of mocking statements or pranks."

Indiana's Purdue University has big plans for World AIDS Day.

Have Richard III's remains finally been found?

George Prescott Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the nephew of former Texas governor and ex-President George W. Bush, has filed preliminary paperwork to run for office in the Lone Star state in 2014. That leaves the new Bush poised to become a key face in the next generation of Republican politicians.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84166.html#ixzz2DAwg1UUL

News: Justices, Aerosols, Gaza, 'Impeach Obama' Robo-Calls

Did the 2012 election really mark the end of political homophobia and transphobia?

Rufus Wainwright and husband Jörn Weisbrodt star as "married love" in Gap's new ad campaign, "Love Comes In Every Shade." "This campaign celebrates these diverse, optimistic views on family and the many forms love can take," said Gap CMO Seth Farbman.

The Film Experience on the ins and outs Alexander Skarsgård starring as Tarzan: "Though I think the discovery themes of the Tarzan franchise warrant a more 'who is that?' choice, Skarsgård deserves more big screen opportunities (I was sad when he missed out on Thor since he's the closest thing that showbiz has to a Norse God) and his Swedishness and comfort with nudity are surely good signs for the exotic vine swinger."

Mark Guenther, Executive Director of CAGLCC (Capital Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce), was arrested and charged with unlawful entry earlier this month after a male neighbor woke up to find Guenther standing over him.

Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed spoke with a number of Supreme Court experts, many of whom named the same four people as potential Supreme Court justice nominees: Kamala Harris, Pam Karlan, Goodwin Liu and Paul Watford, a judge who was named more than any other. Geidnder provides background on Watford: "A judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Watford was named by more of the panel than anyone else — and is by far the least well-known possibility of the four. Nominated to the appeals court by Obama in 2011, the Senate confirmed Watford in May — with support from nine Republicans, including Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham."

Three South African men have been arrested for at least one of eight seemingly connected anti-gay murders.

Three people were killed and eleven were injured during a series of rocket attacks on Israel, including hits against Tel Aviv, from the Gaza Strip, which Israel has also been hitting with artillery as tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians flare up.

Modern Family actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and fiance Justin Mikita hosted friends, family and supporters at the launch of Tie the Knot, a charity which donates sales from bow ties to marriage equality causes.

Robert DeNiro and Jay-Z are in a fight over phone etiquette.

Gwyneth Paltrow, the writer.

This is Sheldon Stephens, the man who claimed Elmo voice Kevin Clash had sex with him when he was only 16 and then took it back. [Update: link fixed!]

The Conservative Majority Fund is running a robo-call calling for an "Impeach Obama" movement: "We suspect that Obama is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and that there may be grounds for impeachment as is laid out in the Constitution. Further, he may not even be a US citizen—because nobody, I mean no one, has seen an actual physical copy of his birth certificate! Impeachment is our only option."

Are you absolutely, positively shocked to hear that Fox News barely mentioned gay marriage wins and out Sen-elect Tammy Baldwin following this month's elections?

Male model Rob Wilson got started on The Price Is Right.

The City Council in Grand Island, Nebraska, overturned the mayor's veto of employment protections for the city's LGBT staffers, but not for the entire city itself.

Would you let Lindsay Lohan play with your look?

This Tumblr is devoted to exposing racist tweeters and their faces!

An explanation for the incredible picture below: "This simulation shows the various types of aerosols - particles and liquid droplets - suspended in the Earth's atmosphere. It was created using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, a global atmospheric simulation designed at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The model aims to study the climate system."

Lindsay Lohan's 'The Canyons' Trailer Gets a 50's Twist: VIDEO

In October, the mostly crowd-sourced thriller The Canyons written by homophobe Bret Easton Ellis, directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen busted out of the gate with a 70's-style retro teaser, the first of three.

The second trailer is edited as a 50's-style melodrama. The third, which isn't here yet, is supposed to resemble a 30's style comedy. Who knows what the actual film will end up loooking like.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...