Oldest Gay Bar West of the Mississippi Torn Down?

Salt Lake City's FOX 13 takes a look at The RC Lounge, which they claim was the oldest gay bar in the western U.S. until it was torn down a few weeks ago.

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Mrs. Betty Bowers Takes on the Mormon Church

Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, takes on the Mormons and the doling out of civil rights by popular vote.

Says Betty: "Being lectured about what constitutes a traditional marriage by a Mormon is a bit like being scolded for loitering — by a crack whore."

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MUSIC NEWS: Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Angie Stone, Beyoncé, Susan Boyle, Shakira

MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.

TODAY’S FEATURED NEW RELEASES:

We’ve been riding Lady Gaga’s disco shtick since the release of The Fame last year. The woman born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has shot to the forefront of gay consciousness with a combo of cheeky post-Madonna dance grooves and a sartorial sense that makes Björk’s Oscar night Swan dress look like a gingham hand-me-down. Gaga’s follow up, The Fame Monster, features 8 new tunes sold as a single disc or packaged with The Fame. (A super deluxe Fame Monster box set  — to include a lock of her hair (!) — will be available December 15.) Highlights include the single "Bad Romance" (does Gaga have any other kind?), the Spanish-flecked "Alejandro" that’s like half Abba’s "Fernando" and half Madonna’s "La Isla Bonita," and the hi-NRG club jam "Telephone" featuring none other than Gaga’s latest BFF Beyoncé.

For once, the press was right. Christened 'Glambert' for his theatrical preening on last season's American Idol, Adam Lambert brought a sexually ambiguous charisma to a set of stellar pipes that knew how to sell chestnuts from not only Queen and Zeppelin, but Foghat and Tears for Fears. No longer ambiguous — he came out publicly following the end of the season — Lambert juices up his debut For Your Entertainment with a powerful sexual allure. He gets help from Pink with "Whataya Want from Me," one of her trademarked tracks that's tough on the outside and tender on the inside. And from the multi-tracked falsetto of opener "Music Again" to the flamboyant "Soaked," a ballad that sounds like an Arabic showtune by Muse (written by Muse’s Matt Bellamy), it's one blue-rinsed highlight after another. And we mean blue as in profane – this is one proud gay boy who’s not afraid to tell you what he wants, as we saw on the AMAs last night. "Open your mouth, open it wide," he teases on the stealthy "Strut." On the pounding title track he’s a decisive topman with one thing on his mind: "Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do? / 'cause it's about to get rough in you." Well, bring it on, baby. To quote Nirvana — here we are now, entertain us.

Is it possible to listen to Rihanna's fourth release Rated R and not think about the domestic violence incident that transpired earlier this year between her and then-boyfriend Chris Brown? Not really, though you’d be looking for that proverbial needle in the haystack to find a song that point blank addresses the issue. (The closest she comes is “Stupid in Love.”) But, boy, is she angry, which translates to lots of hard rock moves, from Slash’s guest guitar on "Rockstar" to the punk-metal opening riff of "Fire Bomb." Elsewhere, she gets breezy with Jeezy on the island-hip-hopping of “Hard” and stretches out on the mid-tempo Justin Timberlake co-written "Cold Case Love."

MUSIC NEWS:

Seventy-seven-year-old music mogul Clive Davis on the re-launching of Whitney Houston's career, American Idol artist album sales and the music business's rough transition from CD to digital.

"Fallin' on my Louboutins": Jennifer Lopez was so infuriated after she slipped and fell on her famous butt during last night's AMA performance, show producer Dick Clark Productions edited the mishap out of the later west coast airing.

A Q&A with Kris Allen, last season's American Idol winner.

Mika is still using gender-ambiguous terms in describing his dating life.

Sony has announced plans to launch the creatively-titled Sony Online Service to compete with iTunes. It's expected to sell music, films, games and books. No date is set yet.

Vote for your favorite song of the 00's.

MORE NEW RELEASES:

Angie Stone, a sistah from the old skool of R&B, releases Unexpected — 12 sexy slow-ish jams that’ll rock your rump vertically or, oh yes, horizontally.

Beyoncé gets cozy on the 2-CD/DVD I Am Yours…An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas. Her voice is deeper and stronger live, especially on some inspired medleys, including an extended set of songs from a little band named Destiny’s Child.  Also released today: a deluxe edition of I Am…Sasha Fierce, which includes the remix of "Video Phone" with Lady Gaga.

The frumpy Scottish church lady Susan Boyle releases her debut in the aftermath of her Britain’s Got Talent buzz. I Dreamed a Dream includes that star-making song, her pristine version of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," and more easy listening tracks.

Shakira, Colombia's biggest export after coffee, gets the heart racing faster than caffeine on her latest English-language release, She Wolf, with help from The Neptunes and Wyclef Jean.

Also released: Britney Spears — The Singles Collection Deluxe (box set); Kraftwerk — The Catalogue (box set); Various Artists — A Very Special Christmas 7; Fever Ray — Fever Ray (Deluxe Edition); Hayley Westenra — Winter Magic; Pixies — Minotaur (box set)

MUSIC VIDEOS:

Patrick Wolf: "Damaris"
From his superb The Bachelor, this sensual, pagan clip teases the sacrilegious undertones from Wolf’s dramatic telling of Saint Paul’s conversion of Dionysius’s wife.

David Gray and Annie Lennox: "Full Steam"
Old Wobbly Head and Ms. Eurythmics are lovers on the lam in this gansta-land clip set in an industrial wasteland. Best effect? Lennox’s industrial-strength pipes — still a thing of wonder after all these years.

Charlotte Gainsbourg featuring Beck: "Heaven Can Wait"
Filled with incongruous images — a skateboard with burgers for wheels, a man with a stack of pancakes for a head — Gainsbourg and L.A. freak Beck take us on a jaunty stroll through a surreal day in suburbia.

Valley Lodge: "All of My Loving" (video NSFW)
And the award for best use of human beings as furniture goes to Valley Lodge, who, as far as we are concerned, one-upped Brüno. We especially like the bed!

News: Martha Stewart, Tel Aviv, Hate Crimes, Oaxaca, Joey Arias

FBI: Anti-gay hate crimes increase 11%.

Joey Arias brings 'Arias with a Twist' to L.A.

Dangerous: Martha Stewart has some strong words for Sarah Palin.

Should PEPFAR money to Uganda be cut off?

Report: 4,000 Anglican priests to join Catholic Church. "Under the Vatican’s initiative, Anglicans, turned off by their own church’s embrace of gay clerics, women priests and blessing of same-sex unions, can join new parishes, called ‘personal ordinariates’, that are headed by former Anglican prelates."

Formed following the passage of Proposition 8, gay rights group celebrates first anniversary in Orange County.

Man attacked after climbing into bear enclosure at zoo in Bern, Switzerland.

Did J Lo fall so people would notice her performance?

Canada border guards seize PG-rated gay films headed for Inside Out Film Festival: "All three movies have been shown in Canada before. Patrik 1.5 is a PG-rated film about a gay couple's foibles adopting a child in Sweden. Clapham Junction is R-rated, but by no means obscene. I Can't Think Straight, the other film seized, is a relatively mainstream movie which had a theatrical release this summer. It stars Lisa Ray."

WATCH: Janet Jackson's new video "Make Me".

Selected entries from National Geographic's International Photography contest.

GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios on former KC Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, anti-gay slurs, and homophobia in professional sports: "I hope the league moves beyond individual suspensions and instead enacts zero-tolerance policies that start to address the danger of homophobia in sports."

Denver evangelical church opens doors to all.

Nude sunbathing initiative led by gay rights activists rejected in UK.

Stonewall Family: World of Warcraft highlights Gay Guild.

Jude Law does his fitness routine for students at NYU.

Male model fix: Nicholas Lemons.

Oaxacan town holds drag festival: "The annual dance and festival of the muxes celebrates a group of homosexual men who don elaborate makeup and traditional dress to dance and crown a queen, all with the support and excitement of the local community. Zapotec Indian culture in the Juchitan area, 277 km south of the Oaxacan capital, treats male homosexuality with openness."

Health care plan to include prayer?

Carrie Prejean's brother on her sex tapes: "If they were put in front of me I'd probably watch it."

Akron and Summit counties in Ohio mull anti-discimination ordinance protecting gays and lesbians.

Geri Halliwell has a revelation: not all hairdressers are gay.

Tel Aviv evicting gays from public park cruising area: "The new policy is divisive even within the LGBT community itself, as some of its leaders sided with city hall. Yaniv Weizmann, founder of the Proud Youth organization and a city council member, told Haaretz that the park's historic role was over. 'The community has matured,' he said. 'We can walk around in broad daylight in Tel Aviv. Something that was relevant when we were a persecuted and oppressed community is no longer relevant today.' Others see establishment leaders like Weizmann as traitors to the cause."

1500 Demonstrate Against Anti-Gay Hate in Liverpool

More anti-hate demonstrations in Liverpool, UK over the weekend:

"More than 1500 people braved wintry conditions to join yesterday’s march in the city centre. It was organised following a spate of 'gay bashing' attacks in Liverpool, with the murder of gay teenager Michael Causer and the assault on Merseyside Police constable James Parkes, 22, who was left fighting for his life after a beating outside Superstar Boudoir, on Stanley Street, last month. Among those attending the march yesterday was Michael’s mum Marie, from Whiston. She said: “It’s been a fantastic turn-out. This is what we need. 'We’re here to get the message across that enough is enough and that homophobia isn’t acceptable, not here, not anywhere.'"

Watch scenes from the march, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Towleroad Contest: Win Lady Gaga And Adam Lambert CDs

Our friends at Modern Tonic -- the guys who compile and write our weekly music column -- have been good enough to secure copies of both the new Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert CDs. We're giving away three pair in each of two contests. That's six sets total.  And all you need to do to be eligible is join our Facebook page and leave us a nice wall message for the first, and follow both Towleroad (@tlrd) and Modern Tonic (@modern_tonic) on Twitter and tweet us.  Sign up and directions below.