North Dakota's Newest Pin-up Gay

The boys over at The Awl have put together a benefit calendar for a 21-year-old North Dakotan gay activist named Zack:

"Zack P. is not from an out-of-touch family that is famous or rich or of political royalty. He is not a pointy-headed elitist coaster who knows what’s best for everyone. He carries no baggage from the 1960s. He’s young. He’s a hard-working guy from Middle America and he gets down and dirty politically and risks his neck for what he believes in. He should be the left’s future. He should be the left’s poster child, its goddamn sex symbol—not some actor who happens to lend his good looks to whatever 'awareness' campaign is hot. Zack is not the future America deserves but he's the one it needs. Zack should be one of this pitiful nation’s sexiest people."

Read more about it here.

News: Michigan, Kris Allen, Boston Gay Bars, Kathy Griffin

3GS: Apple releases follow-up to iPhone. 3G now $99.

GALLUP POLL: 58% of conservatives favor gays in the military.

 Tween Idol.

Kris Allen signs record deal, discusses album.

Pat Steadman, first out gay man in the Colorado senate, sworn in.

Proposition 8 protest in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Faces of Us: "a photo campaign created with the purpose of bringing the fight for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) rights to the National spotlight. The campaign is still small, but growing, and shows the faces and identities of members of the LGBT community and allies who care about these issues."

Gay porn actor Timothy Boham (aka Marcus Allen) murder trial goes to jury: "Twenty-eight-year-old Timothy Boham testified Thursday that Denver businessman John Kelso committed suicide and that they had planned to make it look like a robbery for life-insurance purposes. But prosecutors say Boham shot Kelso during a robbery and a police detective testified this week that Boham confessed to the killing."

Two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea.

Is the gay bar scene in Boston finished?

Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D List returning tonight at 10 pm: "Since 'D-List' premiered in 2005, Griffin’s career has moved in a different direction. So she thought her show should, too. 'It’s kind of silly to make the show about what it was four years ago, which was I can’t get a job, I’m going to go do stand-up at gay rodeo,' she said. 'It’s a very different place than I was in four years ago.' So this season, Griffin visits, among others, Lily Tomlin, Paula Deen, T.I., Gloria Estefan and Paris Hilton to get a glimpse into their lives."

Male model fix: Christopher Fawcett.

Signature collectors begin drive to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams. Organizer Jasun Wurster: "This is a positive, non-partisan and intelligent campaign that is comprised of very talented volunteers who are solely focused on holding Sam Adams accountable for his civic transgressions."

Images from a cocktail party held by the New York Times in honor of same-sex couples that have made their wedding announcements in the paper.

Snow falls in North Dakota in June.

Cristiano Ronaldo exposed?

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway reuniting on screen for Love and Other Drugs.

Michigan shift in public opinion on gays called 'seismic': "In October 2004, a Glengariff poll showed 24% of Michiganders supported marriage rights for same-sex partners, and only 42% supported legal recognition of civil unions. In the new poll, support for same sex marriage was 46.5% and for civil unions 63.7%. Forty-eight percent of state voters said they opposed adding marriage rights, the only one of nine gay rights issues not winning majority support."

UK Catholic mother launches legal battle after son is placed with gay foster parents. Catholic church says adoption rights for gays amount to child abuse.

News: Frank Kameny, North Dakota, Tom Brady, Playboy, Tony Dungy

In 1971 pioneering gay rights activist received a letter condemning homosexuality as "sexual perversion" from the White House Office of Personnel Management after protesting the firing of a gay employee there. Last week, Kameny was invited to the swearing in of John Berry, the openly gay man recently confirmed to head that office. How times have changed.

Aretha Franklin thought she had the biggest bow hat of the year.

Gay man appointed interim ambassador to India: "Peter Burleigh, a seasoned foreign service officer with deep expertise in South Asian affairs, will serve as America’s top diplomat in India until a permanent ambassador is named."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom makes swing through South Florida, addresses LGBT community at Miami Beach's Halo Lounge.

In an unusual defeat, Madonna returns to London.

North Dakota House rejects legislation (54-34) banning discrimination in housing, employment and credit based on a person's sexual orientation: "Rep. Corey Mock, D-Grand Forks, one of the six sponsors of the bill, noted that 20 other states already have laws barring discrimination against gays and lesbians. In those places, he said, the laws do not grant special rights, privileges or legal immunity for sexual deviants, as some bill opponents have claimed would happen here. 'There is not a person in this chamber that is not related to or friends with someone that would be affected by Senate Bill 2278,' he said. 'That means people we know and love may be evicted, denied services or terminated because they are gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered with no regard or consideration of merit.'"

Ashton Kutcher spends more time running around shirtless for his new movie.

Here comes the gayborhood: Pizza parlor emerges as gay bar in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Help: Censorship in focus in Lebanon as a film is banned just days before scheduled release. "In Lebanon, a censoring body of security officers influenced by the Muslim and Christian clergies continues to review all plays and films before they are shown, cutting all scenes that might 'offend public morals.' Although the contentious sex scenes in 'Help' are far from explicit, the film features a threesome of a woman and two men. That may explain the controversy: Homosexual acts are illegal in Lebanon."

NPR on Tony Dungy's invitation to join Obama's advisory council for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Former Playboy fashion director Joseph DeAcetis sues magazine: "In a $4 million Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, Joseph DeAcetis (pictured), 45, says his boss often 'made fun' of him because he was gay and his hair was gray. The suit says editorial director Christopher Napolitano called him and other gay men 'girls.' A Playboy Enterprises spokeswoman, Elizabeth Austin, said the company 'takes these allegations very seriously' and was conducting its 'own investigation.'"

Shotgun wedding: Paparazzi fired upon at Tom Brady-Gisele Bundchen nuptials in Costa Rica.

Integral ice bridge holding Antarctic shelf in place collapses...

Jimmy Carter's former Secretary of the Army, Clifford Alexander slams "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and Elaine Donnelly's crusade against its repeal: "Alexander called the officers' statement 'nonsense' and said the officers were 'like lemmings to the sea' and "those who would sign a petition like this without evidence are acting without facts."

100 attend same-sex marriage rally at Drew University in New Jersey.

San Francisco activists to protest executions of gay men in Iraq at 5 pm today, Harvey Milk Plaza.

Limbaugh Uses Fargo Floods to Express Anti-Gay Disgust

As North Dakotans are forced from their homes and struggle with a flooding river, Republican Party leader Rush Limbaugh has other things on his mind.

Said Limbaugh: "I heard some top of the hour news and it made me feel uncomfortable. It's about the flooding in Fargo, North Dakota brought on by the melting snowpack and the icepack. (reading from news item) "As the Red River threatens to overflow, they're filling in the dikes." Isn't there a more appropriate word? Do we have to say, I mean, we don't have any dikes here. The 'dykes' are over there...They're filling in the dikes. Couldn't we change that to 'they're filling in the contingencies' or something?...We really need to change that word."

Listen, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Pedro Zamora, Kentucky, Jesus Luz, Kate Moss, Twitter

Pedro Zamora's life to be brought to the big screen: "Pedro learned he was HIV-Positive at age seventeen, and spent the rest of his life trying to educate young people about the disease. His appearance on MTV's The Real World: San Francisco in 1994 was groundbreaking, and when he died the day after the final episode aired, it was a shock to all of us who had become enamored of his sweet smile and gentle personality."

Madonna to arrive at Vanity Fair Oscar party with golden boy of her own.

NYC: Couple gay bashed at Regal Union Square theater.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams won't be distracted by Breedlove scandal: "There are things that have affected city business, there’s no question. But the work still needs to be done. There are issues that I care about."

Gays to rally in Frankfort, Kentucky over adoption bill.

North Dakota senate approves sexual orientation anti-discrimination bill: "North Dakota's Senate agreed on Wednesday, voting 27-19 to include sexual orientation in a list of categories protected by the state's human rights law. The bill now moves to the state House."

Buzzed Hartnett topples Champagne flutes at fashion week.

Panic ensues as questionable Oscar winner list leaks...

Peter Facinelli presents Costume Design Guild Awards in his undies.

Utah Showdown: Equality Utah faces off against conservative Sutherland Institute in debate. "Both sides rehashed arguments about whether being gay is a choice and whether gay and lesbian couples ought to be allowed to marry.But Will Carlson, Equality Utah's public policy manager, pushed for common ground: his group's campaign for rights -- short of same-sex marriage -- for gay and transgender Utahns.'Does disagreeing on one thing mean there's no agreeing on anything?' he asked. 'This is appealing to the better angels of our nature. ... Most people agree that basic protections involving health care, fair housing and employment, and basic security for all couples are places where we can find common ground.'Neither side was declared the winner, but the debaters lobbed a few barbs back and forth."

Six Banksy Kate Moss prints expected to fetch big bucks next week at auction.

Suburban Chicago high school sees first gay dance. Teacher: "This is the first time they've gotten to actually plan a dance explicitly for their interests. That seems like a small thing, and it's not."

Gay George Washington University student dismissed from ROTC over 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell': "As a gay man, Belok said he understood how difficult it could be to conceal his homosexuality while serving in the armed forces. 'I had done a report on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in 12th grade,' he explained in an interview with The Hoya. 'I knew what it meant to be gay in the military.' Nonetheless, he planned to keep his sexual orientation under wraps for the time being. Last fall, however, Belok’s boyfriend visited him at GWU and the two attended a fraternity party where other NROTC members saw them together...Belok was removed from the NROTC despite a GWU policy which protects students in school-sponsored clubs from discrimination based on sexual orientation."

Gyllenhaal goes green.

South Beach gears up for annual Winter Party.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey interviewed: "I feel that it's something new. I think it's a new way to communicate. It has a new take on the address book. It's a new way to interact with people. And at the same time, it does a very good job of exposing what's happening in the world right now: You can see what's trending globally, you can limit that locally and figure out what's trending within a five-mile radius of you, or you can use it socially and figure out what's trending within your own social network. That's where the newness is. I just haven't seen anything like that before."

Japan loves babyfaced gay adult movie remixes.

Boy Culture on Kathy Griffin's latest show.

British high court orders Home Secretary to find gay asylum seeker who was deported and bring him back, ruling his expulsion unlawful: "In a written statement, Mr X said that, last September, he was deceived into thinking he was being taken from Tinsley House immigration removal centre, on the perimeter of Gatwick airport, for an interview with an immigration officer. Instead, without warning, he was taken in a van by four security men to a plane. He said that, when he resisted leaving the van, he was handcuffed, and punched in his private parts to make him straighten his legs so they could be belted together. Crying, he was lifted on to the aeroplane and flown out of the country."

Ruins of Yellow Brick Road Discovered North of Kansas

It's actually not in Oz, but in North Dakota. An actual yellow brick road was built at the Trollwood Performing Arts School in the 70's, but has since been covered over with concrete. The road went pretty much nowhere but did spell out the word "Oz" when viewed from above.

Just one of the many sightseeing pleasures brought to you by Google Earth.

Here's a Google Earth location marker for those interested in getting out of Kansas.