News: Tel Aviv, John Berry, Betty White, Miami, Lobster, Mercy

Five gay couples wed in ceremony on Tel Aviv beach as Pride celebration climaxes.

Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson tape for No H8.

WATCH: Betty White plays beer pong.

City of Miami passes Domestic Partner ordinance: "The domestic partners benefits measure extends to unmarried gay and straight employees of the city who register their relationships with Miami-Dade County's domestic partner registry."

White House Office of Personnel Management head John Berry delivers impassioned speech at Justice Dept: "My family has never known divorce. Were we married? No, but I dare anyone to say that we were not in love.... Where do you stand? Honoring love as precious and true wherever you find it, or with those who would demean or deny it? I urge you: Stand where you can be proud. Stand with service and truth. Stand with love. Stand for liberty and justice for all."

San Diego County school district apologizes for refusing to let student deliver report on Harvey Milk during class time: "In a letter to Natalie and her parents, Supt. Robert Graeff and Mt. Woodson Principal Theresa Grace apologized and said they had acted out of an abundance of caution for the 'tender sensibilities' of Natalie's fellow students. 'It is our hope that -- together -- we can all view this incident as a learning experience and emerge wiser from the entire experience,' wrote Graeff and Grace, on behalf of themselves and the school board."

Bret Michaels releases lengthy statement on Tonys mishap that left him bloody.

Yellow lobster is 1 in 30 million.

On the bus to Kayseri, Turkey: "Kayseri is home to a group of gay men and lesbians who have fled Iran and are now waiting in Turkey to be resettled in a Western country. The government of Turkey does not allow non-European refugees to stay in Turkey, and it is the responsibility of UNHCR to find a host country to take them in. Currently there are over 18,000 refugees in Turkey, some of whom have been waiting for over 2 years to be resettled elsewhere. While in Turkey, the authorities insist that refugees can only stay in one of 30 designated small cities. These locations are assigned based on the asylum seeker’s nationality, gender, age, and reason for seeking asylum."

Madonna confirms Mercy adoption.

Anti-gay hate graffiti under investigation in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Hate crime charges against Staten Island man dropped: "A spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan would not comment because the case is sealed, but confirmed the hate crime case against James Champagne, 24, of Stapleton, has been dismissed. Champagne had been accused of beating up another man in West Brighton July 29, and during the attack he allegedly yelled, 'we don't like faggots on Barker Street.'"

GQ interviews Barney Frank.

Beyond Hatred: PBS to air documentary about French gay man murdered by skinheads.

The Daily Beast interviews openly gay Iraq vet and candidate for Congress Anthony Woods, who was discharged under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell': “I knew getting into it that if I took a stand, it would be a costly decision and it certainly has become one. But people have to take a stand for what's right. There's a reason this policy is on the front burner now... We're a country fighting two wars, having trouble recruiting, yet we want to turn away some of our most talented, most well-trained soldiers?”

Lesbian Refused Access to Dying Partner Meets Heart Recipient

You may remember the story of Janice Langbehn (above, left)  the Seattle woman whose partner Lisa Pond suffered a stroke in July 2007 right before the couple and their three kids were scheduled to leave on a cruise vacation from Miami. Even after a power of attorney naming Langbehn was sent to Jackson Memorial Hospital, the hospital refused to allow Langbehn access to Pond, who died of a brain aneurysm about 18 hours after being admitted. Langbehn was finally allowed to see Pond as a priest delivered last rites.

Langbehn recently had a bit more closure to that horrific episode. At a reception in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, she was able to meet Jerry Lawrence (above, right, with wife Maxine), whose life was saved after receiving Pond's heart in an organ donation.

Said Langbehn: "This is the best outcome I could hope for. Lisa is inside of him.”

Lambda Legal has filed suit on behalf of Langbehn and her three children.

News: Michael Phelps, Kiss Arrest, Richard Serra, Australia, Oral Sex

Houston judge and AIDS activist John Paul Barnich, the first openly gay man to become a city court judge in Texas, dies at 63. Gay historian and NYC activist Donn Teal dies at 76.

Google Earth helps scientists find wealth of new species in Mozambique, including pygmy chameleon.

Meet the sheriff who's out to get Michael Phelps!

Phelps makes first appearance.

Two women say they were arrested for kissing at a San Antonio mall: "Garcia said the officers — a Bexar County sheriff's deputy and an employee from a private security company — began harassing them Dec. 26 because her girlfriend gave her a kiss on the cheek while sitting inside the mall on a bench. Mall officials said the women, both 22, were acting inappropriately and were told to leave because they were not complying with the shopping center's code of conduct."

Tom Cruise shows off his bod in Brazil.

Gay Bishop Gene Robinson leads Maryland Senate prayer "[in which he asked God to bless the legislators with] anger at discrimination in all its forms."

Someone left Richard Serra out in the rain...

Federal judge: Gay porn website Cocodorm has right to run business out of Miami home: "Cocodorm.com features black and Hispanic men, known as 'dorm dudes,' who share a webcam-filled house together and have sex on schedule. For that they are paid at least $1,200 a month, plus free room and board. Miami has tried to shut the house down, arguing it constitutes an adult business illegally operating in a residential area. The city's Code Enforcement Board in 2007 agreed, but Cocodorm responded to the code enforcement proceedings by suing in federal court."

Google now wants to know where you are all the time.

Does oral sex help protect against HIV? "The study, published in the (expensive, subscription only) AIDS journal and helpfully summarised by Aidsmap suggests that men who give lots of blow jobs to their HIV-positive partners develop antibodies specific to that partner’s virus, protecting themselves against infection. The more virus their partner has kicking around in their semen, the higher the concentration of specific antibodies, and the protection seems to last for quite a while too."

L.A. Times: Penn's Milk an act of kindness.

Jason Mraz meditates on spirituality.

Jesus: Is Madonna pulling a power trip on A-Rod?

Iceland's Sigurdardottir wants nation to join EU: "Sigurdardottir touted EU membership at a joint news conference Tuesday with Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, whose Left-Green Movement teamed up with the prime minister's Social Democratic Alliance to form the new two-party minority government. The Alliance party was until recently the only movement in Iceland's five-party parliament to push EU membership as a viable way to rescue Iceland's suffering economy."

In the green room: How Ang Lee discovered gay Woodstock figure Elliott Tiber's memoir about the music festival that is the subject of his forthcoming film.

Gay extortion suspect sought in Sydney: "Investigators are looking into the matter, which began when a 39-year-old man met another man at a hotel in Bourke Street, Darlinghurst on November 30 last year. The pair went back to the victim's Potts Point home where the items were stolen. 'Since then, the man has been subjected to ongoing threats of violence and forced to handover his bank account PIN numbers,' police said today." Police warn of AIDS cure scammer too!

Bruce Weber's Miami Vision

Yesterday I posted some shots of actor Javier Bardem in a pink bathrobe that were part of a huge portfolio tribute to Miami shot by Bruce Weber in the new issue of L'Uomo Vogue.

Another peek at the issue, here, and AFTER THE JUMP (some possibly NSFW)...

Javier Bardem is Pretty in Pink for L'Uomo Vogue

Bruce Weber shoots Javier Bardem in and out of a pink bathrobe for the new issue of L'Uomo Vogue. The issue features a 100-page portfolio on Weber's vision of life in Miami.

Said Italian Vogue editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani to WWD: "L’Uomo Vogue is not exactly what you call a fashion magazine anymore. Basically, I am more free than anyone else because I don’t think that you sell clothes through a [fashion] credit. I think that you go through an image, that you sell a dream, and [then] the clothes. I think that Javier Bardem in a pink bathrobe is more a fashion statement than to have something with a big logo on his shoulder."

More shots of Bardem, AFTER THE JUMP...

More Challenges Underway to Florida's Gay Adoption Ban

A Miami gay adoption case has begun in closed court:

"The case is a new challenge to Florida's 31-year-old law that allows gay people to foster children but forbids them from adopting. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman is presiding over the trial to determine whether Gill, 47, and his partner, 34, can adopt two half-brothers whom they've had custody of since December 2004. The boys' mother and respective fathers lost their rights to raise the children in 2006."

Earlier this month, a Florida circuit court judge struck down the state's ban on gay adoption to allow Wayne Smith (left, with partner Daniel Skahen) to adopt his 12-year-old foster son.

Read about their story here.