News: Carol Channing, Episcopalians, Biological Blob, Savannah

Bishop Gene Robinson speaks about the Episcopal church's recent moves toward accepting gays and lesbians.

The Vatican embraces Oscar Wilde.

Janet Jackson is a single woman again.

Pepsi outraged over release of Michael Jackson hair fire video.

Florida Gay couple and lesbian couple battle for custody of child: "After considering arguments from both sides, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Leon Firtel on June 3 found Ray was nothing more than a sperm donor. Because there was no contract before birth, he had 'no rights.'"

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) appointed to Air Force Academy Board of Visitors.

ESPN columnist LZ Granderson: Gay is not the new black. Pam Spaulding responds: "This nonsense about 'Is Black The New Gay,' just reached another plateau of bullcrap."

Bush's Justice Dept. blacklisted LGBT groups: "The Blade recently learned that among the blacklisted groups was Immigration Equality, which focuses on LGBT-related immigration issues. Also blacklisted was the immigration project for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis."

Johnny Depp's dream role is to play Carol Channing.

Biological "blob" drifts for miles in arctic waters off Alaska: "It's certainly biological. It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter. It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism."

Groups assembling war chests for election marriage battle in Maine.

Former GOP Rep. Pickering's wife sues his mistress for adultery that ruined their marriage and his career.

Polish European Parliament leader under fire for homophobic remark made in 2000: "The latest row has been sparked by a short video clip available online dated July 2000, in which Mr Kaminski - a member of Poland's Law and Justice Party - uses the word 'pedal' to refer to gay rights campaigners, in a TV interview. This is a derogatory Polish word for homosexual, usually translated into English as 'fag' or 'queer'."

Orlando Bloom robbed of $500K in home burglary.

Madonna offers tearful memorial to two workers killed by her tour stage collapse in France.

France bans videogame in which players shoot a gun at naked gays.

Savannah Morning News: Crack down on gay cruising in public.

Anderson Cooper visits David Letterman. Video.

Metropolitan Museum of Art "de-gays" blockbuster Model as Muse exhibit: "Room after room is shoulder to shoulder with over seven decades of queer genius, showcasing the extraordinary visions of gay men whose simultaneous status as sidelined outsiders and ultimate insiders, dressing the planet's most visible women while their sexuality was illegal, spurred them to perpetually reinvent not only what we wear but how we live in the world. That's where art comes from and that's what the museum ignores."

News: Tori Spelling: Lambda Literary Awards, Fred Hochberg, PSB

Lambda Literary Awards handed out in New York.

Quincy, Massachusetts Church of the Presidents has its rainbow flag stolen for the fourth time in nine months: "The flag was stolen last August, and again last September. Two months later it was burned, and this week it was stolen yet again. It’s a symbol of the congregation’s support for equal rights for [GLBT] persons."

Candy Spelling: Tori Spelling killed my husband.

Mixner: On becoming a civil rights movement.

Get a new free Pet Shop Boys song here.

St. Petersburg, Florida vetoes unmessaged rainbow flag: "They say the flag does not meet St. Petersburg's street banner policy, which states all banners must carry a written message."

Orlando Bloom celebrates Burberry Day!

New Yorkers plan weekend rally to pressure state senator George Onorato, who continues to refuse to meet with his constitutents on same-sex marriage.

T.R. Knight done with Grey's Anatomy? Looks that way.

Mom saves the day.

British soap EastEnders to feature gay Muslim storyline.

Gay Times: Cristiano Ronaldo is the sexiest man alive.

Pennsylvania court rules in favor of an accountant whose license was revoked following a hate crime conviction: "The panel, in a 2-1 ruling, ordered the board to impose a lessor punishment on Kevin Allen Ake, who was convicted of a felony in Chicago for leaving messages on the answering machine of a lesbian he believed had him kicked out of the YMCA for trying to start a Bible program."

Fred Hochberg sworn in as 23rd president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Porn actors Damien Crosse and Francesco D'Macho get married.

Senator David Vitter does not support the Uniting American Families Act.

Once Upon a Time: A significant Keith Haring mural turned 20 this week.

7 unanswered questions in the Angie Zapata murder case.

Harrah's Casino hopes you don't boycott Nevada because of its Domestic Partner bill-vetoing governor.

Schwarzenegger parole board appointee rejected for anti-gay comments: "Douglas Drummond, a former Long Beach City Council member, had been censured by the council for voicing support of Fidel Castro's sequestering of gays in Cuba, applauding the fact that same-sex couples don't reproduce and saying about gay political activity: 'How do we deal with it short of killing them?'"

News: Johnny Weir, Maryland, Nicolette Sheridan, True Blood, Bush

Killer withdraws "guilty" plea in Ryan Keith Skipper murder case. The plea bargain would have spared William Brown Jr. the death penalty. Brown is now scheduled to go on trial October 12.

Jackman's got milk.

Nicolette Sheridan bitchslaps Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry.

Figure skater Johnny Weir to be subject of reality show: "The half-hour 'Be Good Johnny Weir' will follow its subject, his coach, choreographers and hangers-on as they ready for the 2010 Winter Games. Sundance has ordered eight episodes of the series, which is produced by Endemol's Original Media."

Maryland General Assembly approves tax breaks for domestic partners: "The bill adds same-sex domestic partners to the list of family members who can inherit homes without paying taxes on that property."

John Barrowman wants to be a dad: "We really would like to be parents. I'm extremely broody and emotional right now. I think this year will be the year Scott and I look into making something happen. We're trying to work out whether to take the adoption route or something else. he other night I went to see Jason Donovan in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert and I was in floods of tears watching the scenes between him and his son."

True Blood is on its way back to Bon Temps.

Trans drag performer murdered in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

New Archbishop of England and Wales Vincent Nichols on gay relationships: ""I will always be happy as a guide to stick with Pope Benedict..Homosexuality - is it a sin? Homosexuality is not a sin. A person who is of a homosexual orientation is as worthy and as dignified as anybody else and one of the things I regret about our society is that it tends to identify people by their sexual orientation and that is a diminishing of a person. "Nobody should be put in a box because of their sexuality."

Democracy Now: Somali piracy originally began because of illegal fishing and toxic dumping by Western ships off the coast.

Lindsay Lohan eggs on the paparazzi.

BUSH SIX: Former Bush administration officials may face torture charges in Spain — Alberto Gonzales is among them. Video.

Orlando Bloom is Main Street's finest.

New orangutan population numbering up to 2,000 found in Indonesia: "A team surveying forests nestled between jagged, limestone cliffs on the eastern edge of Borneo island counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a 'substantial' number of the animals, said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at the U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy."

Isaac Mizrahi is a slob: "It takes a lot of effort for me to look this put together. If I had my way, I would sit on the couch all day and eat ice cream and go to pieces with my dogs because that is the ultimate luxury to sit and watch TV with one's dogs. I don't get time enough to do that. My boyfriend thinks I'm a little nuts because that's all I want to do on my time off and he's bored with that. He wants to go to India or something, but I'm not doing that, it's too late for India.""

News: Michael Phelps, Hubble, Beyoncé, DOMA, Iraq, Shepard Fairey

Hillary Clinton: State Department gay and lesbian inequities on a "fast timeline"...

New York's street artist "Poster Boy" (or at least one of them) arrested at art exhibition in SoHo: "While most other street or graffiti artists concentrate on adding their own imagery, illegally, to parts of the subway system, Poster Boy, a kind of anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage, has made his outlaw presence known all over the city by cutting and pasting the images that are already there in the form of ads."

Etta James wants to kick Beyoncé's ass.

DOMA hit: 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals orders health insurance benefits paid to same-sex spouses of government-employed lawyers.

No 2012: Is Michael Phelps going to prove his critics right by letting a bong hit end his career?

Manhattan's maple syrup smell mystery solved.

Hudson, Minnesota man pleads not guilty to attack on lesbian: "During the hearing, a signature bond was set for Dustan Warren, 27, in the amount of $50,000. As a condition of the bond, he was also ordered to not have any contact with the alleged victim or Wesley Stayberg, who the woman said came to her aid during the alleged attack.A $100,000 cash bond had been previously set. The 35-year-old woman had testified in December that Warren punched her in the face, pinned her to the floor and threatened to rape and kill her after making obscene comments about her sexual orientation. She said that Warren was an acquaintance who showed up uninvited to a small party at her Hudson home the night of Nov. 26."

You can vote on where the Hubble telescope is going to look next.

Thread about sexuality of Chicago schools chief Ron Huberman disappears from popular local website.

And they said it wouldn't last.

Cornify: A button that will make your computer shit rainbows and unicorns.

AP going after Shepard Fairey for copyright infringement because "Hope" poster was based on photographer's image.

Gay Iraqi man faces deportation from UK: "Campaign group Iraqi LGBT says the asylum seeker will become the seventh gay Iraqi to be returned to the country by the UK, despite the country being one of only nine in the world where homosexual people are executed. Though a ruling was made in September 2007 allowing two gay Iraqis to remain in the UK, campaigners working on behalf of the man facing deportation tomorrow say his case was held too long ago to benefit from the change in case law achieved in 2007. Keith Best, the director of the Immigration Advisory Service, told the Guardian that the government ought to give the asylum seeker a fresh hearing."

Ashley Judd is pissed about Sarah Palin's wolf hunting.

A tree blooms from Orlando's crotch.

Penetration has a chat with Matt Alber, whose video we featured late last month.

RuPaul in Details: George W. Bush was a drag on drag culture. "When we live in a fear culture—and it's cyclical, it comes from time to time—gender experimentation goes underground because it's the last thing people want to deal with. Sexual experimentation is thought of as subversive and dark—scary. Now I think drag is coming back."

Ferrari in Cristiano Ronaldo smash-up not faulty, but Ronaldo's driving perhaps was...

British man pleads guilty to gay blackmail: "David Beales demanded £500 from his victim after he had communicated with the married man through a gay website. Beales sent the man a text between August 1 and September 19 last year asking for the money and threatened to tell his wife that he had been using the gay website if nothing was handed over."

Saugus, California woman's car targeted in hate crime: "Sgt. Ron Price of the Santa Clarita Valley station said that a swastika and the words 'gay' and 'bro' were written on the windshield of the car. 'She thought it was unusual because she told us she wasn’t Jewish or gay,' Price said. The victim did have a "bro" sticker on the back of the car."

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."

News: Prince Harry, Eagle Scout, Wolverine, Orlando Bloom

Vigil against violence to be held today in Fort Lauderdale at 4:30pm: "Join the coalition of community leaders and organizations as we gather to remember Simmie Williams and stand up against the rising tide of violence for a memorial service at the murder site at the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale."

Prince Harry has been fighting undercover in Afghanistan for the past 10 weeks: "The news of his operational posting leaked out following the breakdown of a news blackout agreement with the media when the story was posted on the US-based Drudge Report website. The chief of the general staff, Sir Richard Dannatt, who is head of the British army, expressed disappointment over the leak. 'I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run this story without consulting us,' he said. 'This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude that the whole of the UK print and broadcast media, along with a small number overseas, who have entered into an understanding with us over the coverage of Prince Harry on operations.' Dannatt, who had opposed Harry's deployment to Iraq, went on to praise the prince's performance on deployment."

Orlando Bloom is tired of complaints about his natural manly scent.

NYC sees surge in gay syphilis cases: "After seeing the number of syphilis cases remain stable in 2004 and 2005 then decrease in 2006, the city health department is reporting that syphilis cases increased by 60 percent in 2007 over 2006, with that growth due to new infections among gay and bisexual men."

Bollywood actor rejected: not gay enough to play a fashionista. Kushal Punjabi: "I really got along well with Madhur. He's my kind of director. But I really didn't see myself in that role at all. I'd like to work with directors like Madhur who look at actors as actors and not as stars."

Ben Affleck discusses his revenge sex video with Jimmy Kimmel: "You couldn't really do it half-speed. You had to be painting toes and blow-drying hair. At one point we were going to take a bath together, but the bubbles couldn't get high enough, so that ended up getting scrapped. The little outfits, the short shorts, the hands in the pockets -- it wouldn't have been funny if you didn't really commit to it."

Underwear day takes over Brazilian capital.

Gay Canadian Health Minister Smitherman criticized for proposing to wear adult diaper as test in response to nursing home 'filth' issues: "Opposition politicians, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and a nursing home association said Smitherman's plan to test drive a diaper shows he doesn't understand the issue is about staffing levels – not diaper technology. 'For him to suggest that's his answer is a disgrace,' said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory. 'It's some kind of a sideshow he seems determined to put on when, in fact, I think people in Ontario would say: 'George Smitherman, do something about it. Let's see the revolution you promised in long-term care.''"

Hugh Jackman: the claws come out.

Fans go wild: New video of the pint-size breakdancing Beckham.

Matthew McConaughey wins mag's honors for mightiest mammaries.

Texas governor Rick Perry holds book-signing for Boy Scout tome: "Perry's tour to promote the book has garnered national attention. The book debuted at No. 1 on The Washington Post's best-seller list for hardcover nonfiction in Washington-area bookshops. His office touted that achievement the day after The New York Times Magazine published an interview in which Perry said scouting was about building character and not about sex. The word 'homosexual,' he said, suggests that gay people are focused on sex."

Eagle Scout leaves organization disgusted by anti-gay policies: "I am ashamed an organization to which I owe so much has chosen to take such a myopic stance on this issue and hides behind a legal veil to exclude gay Scouts."

Wired publishes disturbing new photos from Abu Ghraib (warning: extremely graphic)