Queens of the Stone Age Singer Josh Homme Says He's No Homophobe

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has responded after remarks he made to a concertgoer at Norway's 'Norwegian Wood' festival last week circulated via YouTube.

After being hit with a shoe during a concert, Homme launched into a tirade, telling the guy who threw it, "I may have a 102 temperature and been puking for three days but I'll still butttfuck you in front of all your friends." He then proceeded to call the thrower a "chicken shit fucking faggot" and "a miserable fucking cunt."

Homme posted a letter online, saying, "My gay family and friends, as well as myself, know I am not a homophobe. For years now I've known gay is not a choice. You see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong."

Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP...

JOSH HOMME'S FULL LETTER

Member of the Peanut Gallery:

Some journalists & citizens on the internet & are wondering: Q? Am I a homophobe because I included a slang for gay in with other "acceptable" curse words during a verbal lashing I gave a young concertgoer, after being hit by his shoe, during a show the other day? A= Nope. My gay family & friends, as well as myself, KNOW I am not a homophobe. For years now I've known gay is not a choice; one's skin color doesn't determine one's intelligence level; & red hair doesn't mean you're someone's stepchild. You see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong, but apparently, based on your outrage to my flu-infused rant, you do! By that logic... I also told that young whipper snapper I'd have anal sex with him... how can I possibly reconcile these opposing viewpoints? I called him a pussy too. Does it mean I hate our one worlds' collective vagina? I never have been nor intend to be politically correct. That's your cross to bear. To me, that PC world would suck more shit than the porta-potty truck at Glastonbury. Homophobic? I'm in Queens of the Stone Age for crissake... You say, "So. Your band name doesn't prove anything." Maybe not. But it's a helluv a lot more definitive than the logic of some watchdog... (sorry canine-American, canine-European, canine-African, canine-Australian & canine-Asian) moralist, keeping score from pure perfectionville? If your glass house is squeegeed that clean & you need to do something, do what the great philosopher Bill Hick's once suggested: — forgive me-. Or don't. I'm not asking for either, OK? I think you should let both of your cheeks go loose so the stick will drop out. Either way I expect that you'll soon find another injustice from your chair, then roll to your bullhorn & point it out to the rest of us... Because you're so above it all. Or If you'll allow me to translate a wish of mine into your PC lingo:
Will you please go have, consensual, sex with yourself.
Pretty please with all natural, carbon offset sugar on top.

Sincerely,
Mr. Missundastood
A.K.A. Joshua, Baby Duck, Jho
Head Choreographer & Do Stuff Corporation's pansexual spokes-thing

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Norwegian Parliament Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Norway's parliament has granted same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, and granted lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated:

"After a heated debate, the members of parliament adopted the text by a vote of 84 to 41. The three centre-left coalition parties in power and two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, voted largely in favour of the law, while the Christian Democrats and the far-right Progress Party voted against it. 'This decision is of an importance comparable to universal suffrage and our law on parity,' Labour Party rapporteur Gunn Karin Gjul said during the debate. The most controversial part of the law is that which gives lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated. The sperm donor must be identified so that the child can seek out his or her biological father at the age of 18."

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News: Elizabeth Taylor, Old Trees, Heatherette, 'Ex-Gay' Protests

Protest as hundreds gather in Mountain View, California to 'pray the gay away': " A traveling national conference billed as an event 'to provide help for those struggling - and those whose loved ones struggle - with unwanted same-sex attractions,' drew about 700 people to a Mountain View church on Saturday. The gathering at the evangelical Christian church, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, also drew a small protest by members of the Bay Area's gay and lesbian community incensed by the conference topic, the longstanding controversy on whether gays can be 'converted' - or turned into so-called 'ex-gays' through a Christian 'step out' program."

Details beats up Ashton Kutcher.

Marilyn Monroe sex tape unearthed, sold for $1.5 million.

Hundreds protest marriage equality in Norway: "The protesters included immigrants and native Norwegians, and they came from the villages and the cities. All were firmly against marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples."

Royal blackmailers Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan head to court to face charges.

Search on for Hollywood actor to play first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.

Gay fashion duo Heatherette out of business. "The demise of Heatherette has been months in the making. The label actually canceled their fashion week show in February, though founder Traver Rains claimed at the time that he and partner Richie Rich were simply reorganizing the company and would be back in time for next fashion week. The reorganization was supposed to involve finding a new financial backer after Rich and Rains burned through the $6 million given to them by the Weisfeld Group, owner of urban streetwear outfit FUBU; a source tells Radar that the duo's efforts were unsuccessful, and that Rains and Travers have now amicably parted ways."

Have scientists found the oldest living trees?

With opening of Chaps II, leather scene returning to San Francisco's SoMA district: "On Friday, David Morgan threw open the doors to Chaps II, the most recent indication that leather is making a comeback in SoMa. 'There's a resurgence happening,' said Morgan, 39. 'A lot of people have been saying the leather scene was dead, but there just wasn't a place for people to meet up. ... Gearing up in leather and going to a bar where you're the only one dressed is kind of like a woman going to a bar in a ball gown while everyone else is in T-shirts.' Chaps II, at 1225 Folsom St., is named for Chaps, a bar that operated from 1983-85 on 11th Street, where the DNA Lounge is now located. Appropriately enough, Chaps II hosted a meet-and-greet to open the 30th anniversary Mr. San Francisco Leather contest, which concluded Sunday. Next year, one of the contest's events might take place at another leather bar, Hole in the Wall, which Morgan says plans to reopen soon."

Suicidal Tendencies or homosexual ones?

Orlando Bloom loves New York.

Elizabeth Taylor recently O.D.ed on prescription drugs and booze.

Lesbian couple told to "act straight" in UK pub: “We were told to make our sexuality less obvious. The landlord said there were complaints that the pub had too many dykes.”

POLL: Parents find men kissing more offensive than severed heads in video games.

Gay man arrested for using gay slur towards a police officer: "A gay man has been accused of homophobic breach of the peace - for allegedly calling an ex-police officer a p**f. Marc Sneddon, 38, clashed with former detective Stephen Whelehan while walking their dogs. He was charged and his partner Graham Spence - a police IT worker - was later arrested over claims he also shouted homophobic abuse on another occasion. The couple deny the claims and say neighbour Whelehan and his parents, James and Bridget, launched a vendetta of malicious complaints about them. Graham, 40, said: 'His dog attacked ours. Marc asked him to put it on a lead and got a torrent of abuse. Whelehan started calling him a 'wee f*****g p*****r'. Marc was provoked and asked whether he had a problem with his sexuality and did his wife know he was in the closet. Marc reported it to police but we were stunned when HE was charged."

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Norway Likely to Approve Same-Sex Marriage and Adoption

Norway looks set to become the next nation to approve same-sex marriage as well as adoption if new legislation proposed today is adopted.

Agence France Presse reports: "According to the Norwegian news agency NTB, the draft bill will probably receive the support of parliament, where the government holds 97 of 169 seats, when it comes to permitting gay marriage and adoption. It was however less clear if parliament would back in vitro fertilisation for lesbians, NTB said...The law proposal was voted through at a cabinet meeting, but two centrist members of government expressed their opposition to making artificial insemination accessible to women living in lesbian relationships."

Said Children and Equality minister Anniken Huitfeldt: "The lives of homosexual and of heterosexual couples are worth the same. The new law is not a weakening of the institution of marriage; rather it represents a strengthening. The value of marriage does not decrease because more people gain access to it."

Gays should be allowed to wed, adopt: Norway [afp]

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #201

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: The actor does a "screen test" for the New York Times.

SENATOR CHRIS DODD: The Dem Presidential hopeful has a question for the GOP YouTube Debate.

NORWAY: Scene left out of the Michael Moore documentary "Sicko" because he thought people wouldn't believe it.

SANDRA OH: Lets it rip at the Hollywood WGA Thanksgiving rally.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here

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News: Norway, Spice Girls, Talan Torriero, Gregg Araki, Taipei

University of Virginia attempts to deal with anti-gay football chant: "After a Cavalier touchdown, the marching band strikes up what, to an outsider, sounds like 'Auld Lang Syne.' But, to its tune, students and alumni sing the 'Good Old Song,' its lyrics written by Edward A. Craighill in 1895, its mention of all being 'bright and gay' a throwback to when 'gay' meant 'happy,' the line a launching pad for what’s since become a university tradition of negating the word 'gay' with gleeful (often drunken) shouts of 'not gay!'"

Spice Girls lipsync their way through Victoria's Secret fashion show.

Is Laguna Beach's Talan Torriero the next Aquaman?

Norway's Lutherans vote to allow clergy in same-sex partnerships to serve: "The compromise decision reflected the realization that the church may have to live with a deep split over the issue. After an anguished week of debate at its annual meeting, the church's 86-member governing synod voted 50-34 to make the change. Two members abstained. The meeting, which ended Friday, was held in the town of Lillehammer. The decision means that six of Norway's 11 bishops are likely to open the pulpit to gay clergy in partnerships. In a vote earlier in the year, those six bishops voted in favor of easing the ban. The church already allows gays to serve in the clergy as long as they are not living in a homosexual partnership."

Amherst College students apologize to five Hampshire College students who "were allegedly called names, threatened, spit at and were blocked from leaving the dorm" following a gay party at which they were guests: "Dozens of students gathered outside Valentine Dining Hall at the college yesterday carrying signs that said 'We're Sorry Hampshire' and "I don't want to be 'tolerated.' They also asked passers-by to sign a banner that said 'Please Come Back.'"

IndieWire chats with filmmaker Gregg Araki about his film Smiley Face. We previewed a couple John Krasinski stills from the movie in October.

AfterElton talks to Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann about their gay storyline as Luke and Noah on As The World Turns. Hansis: "My parents are so proud of me it sort of embarrasses me. My mom cried on the red carpet at the Emmys this year when she was asked about how she felt for her son to be nominated. It was actually really nice. It’s great to see your parents so proud of your accomplishments. Both my parents now go through the soap magazines at the grocery store and point to pictures of me and tell the cashier 'That’s my son!' They are generally busy during the day so I think they watch the show online. But they have always been my biggest fans and I couldn’t ask for anything more."

From the just-don't-get-it dept: Taipei restaurant gives a completely new meaning to potty-mouthed.

Esteemed design group Pentagram takes a look at the redesigned Advocate: "Today gays and lesbians are no longer an ignored minority, and the younger generations have experienced a saturation of media both from and about the community. Activism, while still important, is less in the mix, and issues like gay marriage, medicine and civil rights have shifted to the mainstream press. At the same time, the circulation of newsweeklies is changing as news and information is more readily available online. The magazine’s redesign reflects these transformations. The new Advocate is modern and vibrant while continuing to confront politics and difficult LGBT issues. Impressively, it manages to successfully straddle the line between opinion leader and entertainment magazine without losing its journalistic integrity and with a tone that is sophisticated, but not frivolous."

Rod McCullom on HuffPost: John Edwards and Barack Obama make mistake of repeating Republican talking points to attack one of their own. "...something funny happened to Senators Edwards and Obama on their way to Las Vegas. Maybe the high-roller suites have complimentary testosterone and egos on the pillows, or, possibly they bumped into Elvis, who told them, "A little less conversation and a little more action." They lost their mojos. Instead of throwing the hungry audience sound bites that were wrapped in juicy, red meat, the two candidates tossed stale, Republican talking points at frontrunner Hillary Clinton and the audience booed and hissed."

Without fanfare, Nicaragua drops anti-sodomy laws: "In adopting a new national civil code on Monday, the Nicaraguan National Assembly sidestepped the longstanding law that penalized sodomy between members of the same-sex with up to five years in prison by overwhelmingly voting to approve a new civil code that simply did not mention it."

Bah Humbug: The Bill O'Reilly Christmas Store is now open!

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News: Jeffrey Toobin, Wildebeest, Ann Coulter, He-Vage, Norway

Norwegian clergy to defy church, carry out same-sex marriages. Chaplain: "There will be a certain amount of civil disobedience. I want to start wedding homosexuals as soon as a new Marriage Act is in place."

Diana's final smile on film.

Jeffrey Toobin looks at Lawrence v. Texas in new book on Supreme Court, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court: "There was no mistaking the significance of Kennedy's opinion. The point was not that the court was halting sodomy prosecutions, which scarcely took place anymore. Rather, the court was announcing that gay people could not be branded as criminals simply because of who they were. They were citizens. They were like everyone else."

Welsh gay and lesbian film festival offers record £25,000 prize for best film: "Festival director Berwyn Rowlands said talent from at least half of the films shortlisted were flying in from all over the world to attend the event. 'This is a prize that unites a global network of film festivals located in LA, Sydney, Manila, Hong Kong and Dublin to bring together the most promising new talent from around the world,' he said."

Ann Coulter's piehole opens up: "If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women."

Britney Spears now licensed to cause havoc on the streets of L.A..

Anglican advisory committee says Episcopalian church has "complied with a directive" on same-sex unions and gay bishops folowing an announcement by the Episcopals that they would be exercising "restraint" on those issues in the future.

10,000 dead. One-percent of world's entire wildebeest population die in mass drowning over the course of several days. "As the animals passed through southern Kenya during their annual migration, part of the herd attempted to cross the fast-moving Mara at a "particularly treacherous" point, according to Terilyn Lemaire, a conservation worker with the Nairobi-based Mara Conservancy who witnessed the incident. 'Once they jumped into the water, they were unable to climb up either embankment onto land and, as a result, got swept up by the current and drowned,' she wrote in an email to National Geographic News."

The Daily Mail tackles some tough issues. How much He-vage should a man show? And which aging male stars have had plastic surgery?

Folsom Street down under: a look at Sydney's recent sleaze ball.

Domestic Violence Hotline for gay/bisexual/transgender men receives $75,000 Verizon grant to expand to cover Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut: "The Verizon grant is significant for several reasons. It expands a model program into other states, and it provides a lifeline to gay, bisexual and transgender male victims currently without access to services. It also raises awareness among other corporations that domestic violence is a critical issue that impacts everyone."

Irish man gets eight months in prison for gay bashing: "Garda John Lavery gave evidence that the victim was walking towards the diving board at Blackrock, at 3am on April 15 last year when he saw a group of youths were already there. He was accosted by Corcoran who shouted homophobic obscenities at him. Corcoran shouted, 'What the f*** are you looking at you poofter, you faggot.' He punched the victim to the face and told him he was going to kill him. The victim managed to escape and he reported the incident at Salthill Garda Station two days later."

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Melting Snow Reveals Body of Slain Gay Doctor Near Oslo

The body of a murdered gay Spanish doctor, Joaquin Leal Bermudez, has been discovered in a snowy valley near Oslo, authorities have reported. Bermudez was last seen in mid-January at the London pub, an Oslo gay bar.

A neighbor reported he had heard "noises and shouts" coming from the doctor's flat the day after he was seen at the bar.

The suspect in his killing, whom police found driving the doctor's blood-stained car shortly after Bermudez disappeared, is a 37-year-old Norwegian who was reportedly involved romantically with the doctor. Since Bermudez' disappearance, he has been held but has refused to speak with authorities.

The cause of death has been described as "a blunt instrument".

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Doomsday "Seed Vault" to Save Plant Life from Cataclysmic Event

This fascinates me in a James Bond-ian, "Day After Tomorrow" kind of way, although the prospects of having to use it are terrifying.

The Norwegian government has unveiled plans for a "seed vault" that would house samples from all known varieties of agriculture from around the world, protecting them from "future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change" in a frozen, arctic mountain bunker on a remote island in the Barents Sea between Russian and Norway.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust, engineering the project, have taken all things into consideration. Said its director Cary Fowler: "We looked very far into the future. We looked at radiation levels inside the mountain, and we looked at the area's geological structure. We also modelled climate change in a drastic form 200 years into future, which included the melting of ice sheets at the North and South Poles, and Greenland, to make sure that this site was above the resulting water level."

The seed samples will be stored at 0 Fahrenheit, a temperature at which some (sunflowers) will last longer than others (peas).

The facility will not be manned. Added Fowler: "Somebody will go up there once every year to physically check inside to see that everything is OK, but there will be no full-time staff. If you design a facility to be used in worst-case scenarios, then you cannot actually have too much dependency on human beings."

What we need now is a cryogenic chamber to store the world's DNA.

'Doomday' Vault Design Unveiled [bbc]

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News: Irish Muscle Mary Cops, Mariah, Budapest, Gay Whales

UN condemns Cameroon for human rights violations for detention of 11 gay men.

Irish cops go undercover as Muscle Marys: "The muscle-bound boys wear skin-tight jeans and tees -- and apparently learn "the walk" -- and patrol Dublin's George's Street and other popular cruising grounds. The detail was set up this summer to combat a trend of rising gay attacks in the area, and in the past three months has made 14 arrests in nearly a dozen attacks. A police spokesperson said that many of those who have been charged belong to a well-known gang."

Brawl breaks out on gay magazine boat party.

Peter Lewis the HSBC banker who sued his employer in the largest anti-discrimination case in Great Britain and lost, will fight the decision: "The case, heard earlier this year, was the first high-profile legal action involving City staff to be heard at a tribunal since sex-discrimination laws were extended to gays and lesbians, and was closely watched as a result. One of the banker's grounds of appeal will argue that, 'because of the pivotal importance' of the areas where the tribunal did find discrimination, it should have decided his dismissal was also discriminatory."

Hungary? Gay and lesbian travel website launched in Budapest!

World's first museum exhibit on gay and lesbian wildlife to open in Oslo: "One photograph shows two giant erect penises flailing above the water as two male right whales rub together. Another shows a male giraffe mounting another for sex, another describes homosexuality among beetles. One radical Christian said organizers of the exhibition -- partly funded by the Norwegian government -- should 'burn in hell.'"

Mariah Carey all glittered out.

Rupert Everett says he was once turned down for a role in a Sharon Stone film after the head of the studio called him a 'pervert': "Sharon wanted me to do it and I went to meet the director and he wanted me to do it. The director rang up the head of the studio and he said, 'Oh no, he's not playing a role - he's a pervert.' He said this in front of lots of people. My agent and lawyer got worked up and we went into battle. Sharon was on the phone to me saying, 'We can close this movie down. We're talking about your civil rights.' I was moving toward a fight with the studio on this one. But in the end those kind of battles are too exhausting to fight... and I didn't."

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