News: Sweden, Morrissey, Cameroon, Walmart, Kris Allen, Kenya

Straight ex-spouses speak up for marriage equality: "They are federal workers and professionals, men and women who share little except that their former spouses tried to live as heterosexuals but at some point realized they could not."

British town mourns albino squirrel.

WATCH: Morrissey storms off stage after fan hits him on head with bottle of beer.

POLL: Majority of Californians oppose putting marriage equality on the ballot in 2010. "Overall, 51% of California voters favored marriage rights for same-sex couples and 43% were opposed. Strikingly, however, almost 60% of Californians did not want to revisit the issue in 2010, just one election cycle after it last hit the ballot."

Conservatives up in arms over gay-friendly recommendations in Fort Worth Rainbow Lounge police raid report.

Asheville, NC city council to take up extending benefits to same-sex partners.

Manchester, UK closes gay village to cars in weekend experiment.

Wingnut Peter LaBarbera calls FBI on gay blogger Joe.My.God over reader comments he characterizes as "domestic terrorism".

Popular DJs Fernando and Greg back on the air in San Francisco: "Fernando Ventura and Greg Sherrell had been the most recognizable voices on KNGY's gay-themed programming schedule since 2005. Last year they received the Fall Honors award from northern California chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, and in 2007 they were named to OUT Magazine's Top 100 most influential people in gay culture."

WATCH: Kris Allen's new music video for "Live Like We're Dying".

Shortened, revised trailer "de-gays" Tom Ford's A Single Man?

Gay activist detained in Cameroon after dispute with taxi driver.

Cleveland City Council to get mass postcard delivery on transgender rights ordinance.

Male model fix: Parker Gregory.

Gay couple, twin sons banned for life from Walmart over BIC lighter dispute: "'They asked if I had Bic lighters. I said, 'Yes,' and handed them over,' Paolucci said. 'Then they asked if I had a receipt. I said, 'Yes, you're holding it.' Then this group of Wal-Mart employees started forming around us.' Paolucci and Hitchcock said the employees were threatening and that one used a vulgarity. Their accusations frightened the boys, who began 'crying, screaming and freaking out,' they said."

The Guardian profiles fashion designer Henry Holland: "I think it [being gay] makes you more experimental. There's not that whole thing of, 'I can't wear that, I'd look like a poof', because you are a poof."

Master performance: "Tardy for the Party".

Sweden's Lutheran Church ordains first openly lesbian bishop: "Eva Brunne was ordained as bishop of Stockholm's diocese in a ceremony on Sunday. She lives in a "registered partnership" with another woman, a civil union between gays used in Sweden before same-sex marriages were legalized this year. The couple also has a child. 'It is very positive that our church is setting an example here and is choosing me as bishop based on my qualifications, when they also know that they can meet resistance elsewhere,' the 55-year-old Brunne told The Associated Press by phone."

Possible gay element investigated in murder of 55-year-old man in India.

More info on Kenya's plans to conduct "census" of gays for HIV/AIDS purposes: "Initial media reports said the project, which was announced last week, would be a gay census — raising fears that gays could be exposed against their will and questions about whether such a count could possibly be accurate. But Muraguri says all information collected by the government will be kept confidential and officials will not seek to contact all men who have sex with men in Kenya. The government will also seek to interview both male and female sex workers and intravenous-drug users."

News: Venezuela, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Chapel Hill, Mormons

Marriage Equality New York holding rally tonight to protest anti-gay vote in Maine: "Please join us at a rally on Nov 4th in Union Square on 14th Street side at 5:30pm urging the NYS Senate to vote and in response to the votes on marriage equality across the United States."

50 Cent is a power ______.

Venezuelan police harassing and arresting LGBT citizens: "Like most of those arrested, our identity documents and mobile phones were taken away, we were beaten, our sexual orientation was insulted in degrading language, and we were refused permission to speak to the Justice Ministry officials and members of the National Guard who were present."

Mark Kleinschmidt becomes openly gay mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Just Jared interviews Glee's Mark Salling.

Author details how Tom Cruise personally audited him for Scientology: "You tell the ashtray, 'Sit in that chair.' Then you actually go over and put the ashtray on the chair. Then you tell the ashtray, 'Thank you.' Then you do the same thing with the bottle, and the book. And you do this for hours and hours."

Fort Worth, Texas task force makes recommendations on expansion of gay rights in the city: "Jon Nelson, an attorney and chairman of the task force, called the recommendations 'one of the most far-reaching actions this city has taken, in the shortest amount of time.'"

Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, who refused to marry an interracial couple, has resigned.

Female Spectacled Bears suddenly go bald in Leipzig.

Carrie Prejean - Miss California USA settlement details revealed: "We've learned the Pageant will fork over around $100,000 for Carrie's lawyers and publicists connected with the public battle royale. That money goes directly to her flacks and not into her bank account. We're told Carrie personally gets zilch. What Carrie walks away with: Her book comes out on Monday and we're told the Pageant won't fight her for writing it without its permission."

Sean Penn's son arrested at school.

Blu Dot tracks NYC abandoned chairs in "curb-mining" experiment.

Foundation for Reconciliation to deliver 2,000 signatures to Mormon leaders: "About 50 people are expected to deliver the petition to the offices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday. Organizer Cheryl Nunn of Santa Cruz, Calif., says the petition is a reaction to the Salt Lake City-based church's support for Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that banned gay marriage in California."

Brad Pitt dresses up his beard with beads.

Facebook: the movie?

Seattle gay rights pioneer Paul Barwick reflects on applying for a marriage license in King County, Washington in 1971: We knew they weren't going to give us one, but damn it, they were going to have to tell us no to escort us out the door."

Early marriage equality advocates?

Gay Annapolis alderman candidate to file complaint over gay 'child molester' smears.

Dallas Morning News corrects article labeling OUT and The advocate "alternative lifestyle magazines."

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison recommends gay man as U.S. Attorney: "Some Republicans are vehemently and unapologetically not ready for that. That could make it even harder for Hutchison to woo social conservatives in her bid to outflank and oust Gov. Rick Perry in March. "

Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga to hawk MAC lipstick for AIDS fund: "MAC Viva Glam Gaga Lipstick and Viva Glam Cyndi Lipstick, $14 each, will launch in North America on March 18 and globally throughout the month, with 100 percent of the proceeds being donated to the MAC AIDS Fund."

NC Country Singer Banned After Slamming Gays at Fall Festival

Local country singer Matt Boswell and his Hillbilly Blues Band have been banned from city performances in Reidsville, NC after injecting a Merle Haggard song with his own homophobic lyrics while performing at the city's Fall Festival.

Boswell's lyrics? "Well you’ll never take my guns, and I’ll pray anywhere that I please / My daddy always told me, if you were able, and didn’t work then you don’t eat / All you Wall Street bankers, as far as I’m concerned, you can all go to Hell / And you can’t get married, you stupid gays and queers, so why don’t you go somewhere else?”

Watch the performance, which I've clipped to the inappropriate segment, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via pam)

Haven't North Carolina Gays Waited Long Enough for Marriage?

Triad Equality Alliance has erected a billboard in Greensboro, North Carolina that's getting some attention:

"The billboard takes a subtle approach, not mentioning the word 'marriage.' The image on the billboard displays four couples and indicates how long they have been together. At the bottom of the billboard it says: 'Haven't we waited long enough?'...According to the Triad Equality Alliance, the purpose of the billboard is to open minds and eliminate prejudice. The billboard is part of a five-year campaign. The first billboard went up along I-40 in 2004 and this billboard will remain up for two months."

Some reactions on the billboard, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Roman Polanski, Frog, Angela Merkel, ENDA, Graham Norton

Blake Hayes, the gay man at the center of the NYC gay bashing over the weekend, asks that you stop calling McCoy's Bar, in front of which the incident occurred, because the owner is cooperating.

Equality Texas offices vandalized in possible hate crime.

Report: Madonna to marry Jesus in "lavish ceremony".

Conservative columnist and Nixon speechwriter William Safire dies.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry: Make ENDA top priority. "I believe that if we all concentrate our efforts where it needs to be concentrated, which is on the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we can get the job done. If we can get ENDA enacted and signed into law, it is only a matter of time before all the rest happens. It is the keystone that holds up the whole bunch, and so we need to focus our energies and attention there."

Graham Norton criticized for calling model a lesbian: "I don't know why they've got some strange lesbian to be the model." The BBC asks: is it ok for gay men to joke about lesbians?

If you're wondering why Hugh Jackman has a topless mermaid tattoo on his arm, click here.

Fugitive director Roman Polanski arrested in Switzerland. (video) Men's art prioritized over women's safety?

Male model fix: Holden Nowell.

Observers: Mormon church regressing on gay issues. "The church has a long way to go to get into the 21st century. They're making incremental movements. What Hafen has done is take them back 25 years."

A few major How I Met Your Mother spoilers...

Friends: the movie?

Erotic festival in Buenos Aires opens to gay groups for first time: "Over 30 exhibitors include TV channels for adults, toys and erotic clothing, aphrodisiac dolls, new technologies, DVDs, piercings and tattoos, cosmetics, anime, books and magazines."

Simon Cowell turns 50, pens lengthy birthday card to himself.

Blogger Pam Spaulding delivers keynote address at NC Pride 2009.

Fanged frog discovered in remote Thailand hungry for birds.

A day in the life of the Approve Referendum 71 campaign.

Angela Merkel claims victory; Germany to get openly gay foreign minister: "The 47-year old from Bonn will become Germany’s first openly homosexual vice-chancellor and could win more than the normal three cabinet positions traditionally reserved for the junior partner in a coalition government."

Bradley Cooper house hunts in L.A.

Boston College Law School defends right of Professor Scott Fitzgibbons to participate in anti-gay "Yes on 1" Maine marriage ad: "Professor Fitzgibbon, as a member of our faculty, is free to express his views … we also have faculty members who hold a contrary view, which they too are free to express publicly. As I think any of our faculty might have done, he stated his views without prior notice to or clearance from the Law School."

News: Autumn, Provincetown, Starbucks, Trevor Donovan, Lutherans

Is the Westboro Baptist Church distributing flyers that read "Kill Jews" around Brooklyn? Sounds like it.

Guess what? It's leaf peeping time.

Anderson Cooper, swine flu victim?

Capital Territory tries again for marriage equality, again faces government opposition.

This is it: Michael Jackson media blitz begins.

Elizabeth Taylor wants to be buried next to MJ? "After sitting through Michael's funeral service at the Great Mausoleum, with its magnificent stained-glass windows and replicas of Michelangelo's artworks, she later told friends, 'I felt a sense of peace there that I've never experienced before.'"

Chapel Hill, North Carolina to woo gay travelers: “We are looking at this from a purely economic perspective.”

Michelle Phillips says Mackenzie is lying about the incest.

Disgusting: NOM targets Californians Against Hate activist Fred Karger with subpoena in retaliation for his investigations of their spending toward anti-gay ballot measures.

Provincetown gay basher Eric Patten slapped with civil rights injunction. You may recall that Patten beat up a lesbian on Commercial Street and pushed her through a window after mistaking her for a gay man.

Office of Special Counsel reopens to federal workers who face anti-gay harassment on the job: "The decision effectively puts to an end any confusion caused by a directive instituted under the Bush administration that had restricted the federal agency from representing certain anti-gay discrimination cases sought by employees of the U.S. government. In 2004 then Office of Special Counsel head Scott Bloch declared that federal law did not protect workers who faced on-the-job discrimination based on their sexual orientation or 'status' as gays and lesbians."

Ian McKellen honored at San Sebastian Film Festival.

90210 hunk Trevor Donovan flashes A/X shoppers.

Starbucks app uses iPhone to pay for lattes.

Long tarmac delays to be banned: "The Capitol Hill event drew both supporters and critics of the legislation, which would force airlines to create plans to deplane passengers after three hours and would require them to provide basic services such as food and water while they are waiting on planes."

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America begs its members not to withhold donations over its recent decision to allow gay and lesbian clergy: "Although these actions are promoted as a way to signal opposition to churchwide assembly actions or even to punish the voting members who made them, the result will be wounds that we inflict on ourselves, our shared life, and our mission in Christ."

Australia's first gay retirement home hits roadblocks: "Those interested in buying off the plan will now have to wait until early 2010 for the Ballan-based village. The $26 million Linton Estate project has experienced a series of delays since it was announced in July last year, with the global financial crisis and thrashing out suitable floor plans being blamed."