News: Jake Gyllenhaal, Stonewall, Minnesota, Tumblr, Russia

 Game of Thrones set to end after its seventh season.

 Jake Gyllenhaal strolls around SoHo in disguise.

 A comic book about Stonewall will hits stands on the 44th anniversary of the riots. Watch a trailer here.

 Singer and Daft Punk collaborator Romanthony dead at 46.

 Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson might be done.

 Neighbourhood Watch survey inquires whether responder is gay, bisexual or straight: "The questionnaire by West Midlands Police asked residents in Birmingham questions about their sexual orientation so they could help officers 'detect crime and anti-social behaviour.'"

 80,000 expected to attend today's Long Beach Pride parade.

Pride communion celebrates marriage equality in Minnesota: "Revolution Church in Minneapolis served congregants rainbow-colored communion bread during its inaugural service last Sunday."

 European Union asks Russia to not move forward with "gay propaganda" bill: "'The EU called on Russia to refrain from adopting federal legislation on ‘homosexual propaganda,’ which it believed could increase discrimination and violence against LGBTI individuals,' the EU said in a statement on its website. The statement referred to the results of a meeting on May 17 in Brussels between Russian and EU diplomats on human rights issues."

 Yahoo will fork over $1.1 billion dollars for Tumblr.

 Star Trek: Into Darkness has raked in over $84 million at the box office since it opened Wednesday.

News: Meningitis, Puerto Rico, Rob Ford, China, Russia

Epidemiologists puzzled over NYC's Meningitis outbreak: "What is concerning is that it is largely restricted to men who have sex with men. So we don’t really understand why that is.” Have you been vaccinated?

Thousands marched in support of gay rights in the capital of Puerto Rico of San Juan: "Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and Sen. Ramón Nieves Pérez, who sponsored the sweeping anti-LGBT non-discrimination bill the Senate on Thursday passed by a 15-11 vote margin, unfurled an LGBT Pride flag from the balcony of City Hall as marchers passed."

Britney Spears claims the leaked version of her upcoming single is just an early demo.

Colin Egglesfield knows how to wear a t-shirt.

North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles in a northeastern direction earlier today.

Sookie flips the paparazzi the bird.

The very first film to be adapted from a David Sedaris short story set to open Outfest.

Gawker wants to raise $200,000 so they can purchase and publish the videotape of anti-gay Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack. Also, don't expect to hear Ford air his weekly radio show this weekend.

Some promising yet frustrating news out of China on the International Day Against Homophobia: "Activists said they felt encouraged when the communist party's official mouthpiece China Central Television published a Weibo post on Friday morning advocating respect for the LGBT community. But the post was soon deleted without any explanation."

Could Smell-O-Vision be coming back - in a mobile form?

Reacting disapprovingly to today's momentous legalization of same-sex marriage in France, Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov said this morning that his country will now consider changing its child adoption policy with France.

Moscow Officials Refuse to Authorize Gay Pride Parade

In news that's disappointing but not so surprising, Moscow authorities are refusing again to allow a Gay Pride march in the city, The Moscow Times reports:

"From our point of view, there is no need for such events in the city," said Alexei Mayorov, head of City Hall's security department and Moscow's pointman on approving rallies, Interfax reported.

He said gay activists would be officially notified about the rejection Wednesday.

On Monday, gay activists applied for official permission to hold a parade, picket and meeting on May 25, saying they would take to the streets irrespective of whether authorities grant permission. Every year since 2006, when the first request was filed, Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for a gay pride parade.

First Photo Emerges of Gay Russian Man Killed in Horrific Murder

This is reportedly the first image to emerge of Vladislav Tornovoi, the 23-year-old Russian man who was tortured, raped, and murdered over the weekend in the southern city of Volgograd after his acquaintances learned he was gay:

In an murder which has sparked outrage across Russia and overseas, the young man's face was smashed with a rock and was then set on fire. Tornovoi was allegedly killed shortly after coming out as gay to friends during a boozy Victoria Day celebration. Two men  aged 22 and 27-years-old - who were reportedly Tornovoi's friends, are under arrest on suspicion of killing him.

(via international business times)

Previously...
After Gay Man's Horrific Murder in Russia, Fears of More Violence [tlrd]
Man Beaten to Death in Russia After Acquaintances Learn He is Gay [tlrd]

After Gay Man's Horrific Murder in Russia, Fears of More Violence

Late on Friday I posted about the horrific rape, torture, burning, and murder of a gay man in the southern city of Volgograd, Russia by two men who killed him after learning he was gay.

The men have been arrested but the act has inspired fears of more violence, and the government looks to be giving the public permission to commit such acts with its policies, Reuters reports:

The victim's 22-year-old friend and a former convict aged 27 were detained for the attack, which gay rights activists say is a brutal example of rising violence against homosexuals in the year since President Vladimir Putin latched on to family values to shore up support in Russia's largely conservative society.

Along with a planned new law banning the spread of gay "propaganda" among minors, Putin has also overseen a religious revival that aims to give the Orthodox Church, whose leader has suggested that homosexuality is one of the main threats to Russia, a more public role as a moral authority.

Gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev said the draft law, which could be passed this month, and Putin's criticism of gays for failing to help Russia's population decline, amounted to "a call to action for the scum who committed this crime".

"It essentially gives these people carte blanche to commit such crimes," he said of the law, a local version of which is already in place in Russia's second city of St Petersburg.

Alexeyev told Interfax that he will press for a hate crime law:

"The monstrous incident in Volgograd demonstrates fruits of the homophobic policy that is being pursued in the country, part of which is the initiative to ban the propaganda of homosexuality. Such crimes will increase in number from year to year unless this policy is changed. We are planning to press for hatred of sexual minorities to be qualified as an aggravating circumstance if it is a motive for a crime," Nikolai Alexeyev told Interfax.

"At the moment, hatred for sexual minorities is practically disregarded as a motive, and most likely that [Volgograd] crime will be investigated as one caused by a trivial row and the homophobic motives will gradually disappear from all the documents," he said.

Man Beaten to Death in Russia After Acquaintances Learn He is Gay

A gay man has been beaten to death in Russia, Reuters reports:

The body of a 23-year-old man was found in the courtyard of an apartment building in the southern city of Volgograd early on Friday with multiple wounds including in the genital area, the federal Investigative Committee said on Saturday. It said a 22-year-old acquaintance of the victim and a 27-year-old ex-convict had been detained on suspicion of murder.

A investigator in Volgograd, Andrei Gapchenko, told Ekho Moskvy radio that the suspects said they had been drinking with the victim and began beating him after he told them he was gay.

It is rare for law enforcement authorities in Russia to specify suspicions that homophobia was the motive in an attack, and activists say many attacks against gays are not treated or described as such by the police.

Radio Free Europe adds:

The two men...allegedly beat him, sodomized him with a beer bottle, and smashed in his skull with a stone.

Articles in Russian media here,  here and here.

Killing in Russia adds to concerns over treatment of gays [reuters]