News: Germany, Belmont Rocks, Rent, Dot Gay, Uganda, Polar Bears

Website devoted to raid on Atlanta Eagle bar launches.

Health care: Pelosi publicly whipping on robust public option?

SPACE: A giant hole found in the Moon, the youngest and most distant galaxy cluster ever recorded, and a stunning map of exploration of our solar system.

News anchor finds himself in a remake of The Birds.

Boston gays to protest Obama this weekend.

PFOX urges libraries to carry books about the "ex-gay" movement.

Jack Mackenroth slams Oprah over HIV show.

Utah Catholic high school defends production of Rent: "Sister Catherine Kamphaus, superintendent of schools in the Salt Lake City diocese, said she read the script at the request of Bishop John Wester, and she watched a dress rehearsal Tuesday. 'There is absolutely nothing that would be offensive,' Kamphaus said Thursday. 'It wasn't condoning the gay and lesbian lifestyle.' Rather, she said, the play shows friends forming a loving and caring community while facing AIDS and other challenges."

Homophobic Daily Mail writer Jan Moir was thrilled to be in spotlight over Gately death.

San Diego gay man says attack in Hillcrest area was hate crime.

Producers shaft the hot dude on Melrose Place.

Time capsule: Chicago's Belmont Rocks.

Tom Cruise: American Psycho.

Report: International transgender community at higher risk in counterterrorism operations. "The report, by noted International Law Professor Martin Sheinin, concludes that because security personnel regularly seek out men 'dressed as women' as potential terrorists, soldiers often target all men in female clothing — including those who do so as part of their gender identity. This is particularly the case in Middle Eastern/Islamic nations — or against Middle Eastern/Islamic people.' Enhanced immigration controls that focus attention on male bombers who may be dressing as females to avoid scrutiny make transgender persons susceptible to increased harassment and suspicion,' the report says."

Coalition releases statement condemning anti-gay bill in Uganda.

UK's first gay tourism office opens in London's Soho district.

Obama administration sets aside 200,000 acres in Alaska for Polar Bears.

Model Paul Sculfor shoots gay scene in Madrid.

The Dot Gay Alliance has competition from a straight German man in Riga, Latvia: "While both groups have left open the possibility of cooperating, they haven’t yet joined forces. Both groups say they plan on starting the application process with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, to create top-level domains, akin to .com, .edu, .org and .net."

German high court backs pensions for gay married couples: "A failure to give gay partners the same benefits infringes the basic right to equal treatment, the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said. The decision nullified an earlier ruling from the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) regarding a Hamburg man who has been a public servant since 1991 with a supplementary pension. The public-sector pension company VBL – the largest such company in the nation – refused to give the man married status, despite the fact that he’d been living in a registered civil union for eight years. This meant that his retirement benefits would be €74 less each month, and his partner would receive no surviving dependants’ pension in the event of his death."

News: Outrage, Eric Brewer, Crocs, Serbia, Mark Foley, Germany

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized, released...

Dear Harvey: Play about Harvey Milk opens at San Diego State.

Eric Brewer, Mayor of East Cleveland, Ohio, in women's lingerie photo scandal.

Kept: Reality show about NYC gays to be a reality.

Outrage (see my write-up here) is coming to HBO on October 5.

UK gay man targeted in blackmail scam: "The 49-year-old had arranged to meet a man in the town through a known gay social networking website. But when the victim arrived he was approached by men posing as police officers who demanded a 'fine' and took his bank card. It later emerged £200 in cash was taken from the man's bank account, which was used to buy a mountain bike, alcohol and cigarettes."

London, Ontario 'football hero', allegedly responsible for gay bashing of modeling agent Brandon Wright, has been arrested at the airport.

Rabbi: No Crocs on Yom Kippur.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram talks to one of the gay brothers on this season's Amazing Race, which premieres on Sunday.

Brad Pitt joins Bill Clinton's Global Initiative.

Mark Foley hits the airwaves in South Florida.

Mysterious "lump" spotted forming around nearby star.

Mother of Ryan Keith Skipper speaks at Florida Hate Crimes Awareness Summit: "You may relive your pain, but you also relive your love. It keeps Ryan's memory alive and to me, that's an important thing. I don't want his death to have been in vain."

Reese Witherspoon ring sparks whispers of Gyllenhaal engagement.

Brokeback Mountain actor arrested for skipping out on hotel bill.

Carrie Prejean: Scantily-clad Halloween costume model.

UK teacher suspended after students found photos of him posing on a gay porn website.

Openly gay man tipped to be Angela Merkel's Foreign Minister in Germany. "[Can] a gay man, who sometimes takes his partner on official overseas trips, can function as a foreign minister. Could there, for instance, be snubs from President Ahmadinejad (who, after the execution of two gay men, told a Western audience: “We don’t have homosexuals, as in your country.”). Or jokes from Silvio Berlusconi (whose supporters recently used homosexuality claims to get rid of a critical editor)?"

Serbian prosecutor calls for ban on hate groups that caused cancellation of Belgrade's Pride parade: "Serbian authorities withdrew approval for gay activists to hold a rally in central Belgrade on Saturday after soccer hooligans and the extremist groups Obraz (Face) and Association 1398 threatened to attack the parade. 'The two groups were identified as those which must be outlawed immediately,' prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic told B92 television."

Hillary Clinton on international violence against LGBT people: "We are starting to track violence against the LGBT community, because where it happens anywhere in the world, the United States must speak out against it and work for its end. Through our annual human rights report, we are documenting human rights abuses against LGBT communities worldwide. And we are seeking out partners at the United Nations such as Brazil, France, Sweden and the Netherlands to help us address these human rights abuses."

News: Tallest Man, The Moon, Net Neutrality, Mexico City, DOMA

National Equality March releases preliminary schedule of events.

Department of Justice lawyers again defend same-sex marriage ban: "Consistent with the rule of law, however, the Department of Justice has long followed the practice of defending federal statutes as long as reasonable arguments can be made in support of their constitutionality, even if the department disagrees with a particular statute as a policy matter, as it does here."

8'1": 27-year-old Turkish man named world's tallest.

Wockner: Campaign to undo Prop 8 kicks off in San Diego. "The campaign's first main task is to collect 694,354 valid voter signatures to put an initiative on the 2010 ballot to remove Prop 8 from the California Constitution. It is generally believed that about 1 million total signatures need to be collected to get the required number of valid ones."

NASA reveals crater at the moon's south pole where it will crash a satellite on October 9. It's the coldest known place in the solar system.

Pierre Trudeau, Mark Tewksbury inducted into Candian Queer Hall of Fame.

LETTER: Student's claim of teachers' anti-gay harassment was retaliation, according to six other students.

Are you lookin' at Kellan Lutz?

In case you missed it: Parks & Recreation's gay penguin episode.

In anticipation of its introduction, New Jersey Catholic bishops step up attacks on marriage equality bill.

Mexico City gay bar patrons warned of homophobic crimes.

Is D.C.'s police chief dismantling the department's Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit?

Barney Frank not interested in Kennedy Senate seat.

Robert Pinter, who was arrested by the NYPD in a porn shop sting, has taken his case to federal court: "The actions taken against the Plaintiff in targeting him, entrapping him, arresting him, taking him into custody, and otherwise detaining him and prosecuting him were taken for collateral objectives other than the legitimate objectives associated with an arrest and prosecution."

Male model fix: Brian Shimansky.

Adam Lambert steps out to Pink concert with boyfriend Drake LaBry.

Nathaniel Rogers from Film Experience talks about his trip to the Oprah show.

Mike Huckabee wins Values Voter Summit straw poll for 2012 presidential candidate: "Abortion was key for the activists in their voting, with more than 40 percent saying it was the most important issue in determining their choice of candidate to support. Protection of religious liberty was next with more than 18 percent of the vote; gay marriage was third with more than seven percent of the vote."

The only gay bar in Cairns, Australia is going straight.

A Single Man: How Tom Ford found his big screen style.

FCC to oppose telecoms in a bid for net neutrality: "The rules will escalate a fight over how much control the government should have over Internet commerce. The Obama administration is taking the side of Google, Amazon.com Inc. and an array of smaller businesses that want to profit from offering consumers streaming video, graphics-rich games, movie and music downloads and other services."

'Traditional Marriage' and Prop 8 Defender Doug Manchester Divorcing

Doug Manchester, owner of the San Diego Grand Hyatt, defender of "traditional marriage", and Proposition 8 supporter, is in the middle of a contentious divorce with his wife of 43 years:

"On July 25, Doug ran out of patience. He sent an 'angry e-mail' to Elizabeth that said he 'wish[es] to pursue all rights to protect all of [his] separate property and wish[es] also to litigate vigorously any and all spousal support.' (Brackets quoted from the petition). That day, Doug wired $100,000 out of the ac-count the couple shared, leaving a $17,000 balance. Elizabeth argues in her petition that the account balance will be negative when outstanding checks come due. She also learned that day that Doug had spent the previous six months taking $9.3 million out of their joint bank accounts and putting it into his separate account. Elizabeth writes that she believes all of these tactics—the mail, the financial restrictions, submitting bills to Doug’s office—are attempts to 'squeeze' her. 'Respondent was attempting to compel me to settle on his terms by impeding my access to funds for living expenses,' she writes in her petition."

Previously...
San Diego Activists Target Manchester Grand Hyatt's Anti-Gay Owner [tr]

Watch: Giant Panda Gives Birth at San Diego Zoo

Bai Yun, a Giant Panda at the San Diego Zoo, gave birth early yesterday morning, the zoo's blog reports:

"She had appeared more restless than usual in the last 24 hours, resting for shorter periods with intermittent nest building through the day and night. At about 2:45 this morning, she was observed leaning back and holding her feet. Regular changes of position become common at this stage of labor, and contractions were evident as the time went by. Bai Yun handled it all well, and staff agreed that this seemed like one of her easiest labors. At 4:58 a.m., Bai Yun stood up and had a series of contractions while on all fours. With the last one, we suddenly heard the loud squawking we had all been anticipating. As Bai Yun turned around to gather up the cub, we all got a glimpse at a wriggling infant on the floor, crying loudly for attention. Bai Yun immediately attended to her newest offspring and spent the next half hour or so soothing it, cradling it in her arms and licking it."

Writes the L.A. Times: "Pandas' reproductive systems are still largely a mystery to researchers, so even zoo staff, who'd been monitoring Bai Yun extremely closely, didn't know when she would give birth."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Suspect in Murder of Gay Sailor August Provost Kills Himself

Jonathan Campos, a 32-year-old sailor from Lancaster, California who faced 16 charges, including arson, unlawful entry, theft of military property, wrongful possession of a firearm, and the murder of fellow seaman August Provost, took his life while in custody:

"Campos...apparently died of self-inflicted asphyxiation, said Brian O'Rourke, a spokesman for Navy Region Southwest. Brig staff members had checked on Campos about 11:45 a.m. and found him in 'satisfactory condition,' O'Rourke said. At 12:21 p.m., however, he was found 'unresponsive on his cot.' The staff administered CPR and took Campos to a hospital, but he was pronounced dead about an hour later. Both Campos and Provost, who was gay, were assigned to Assault Craft Unit 5. Gay-rights leaders and some of Provost's friends and relatives have expressed concern that Provost might have been killed because of his sexual orientation. The Navy has said there was no evidence of a hate crime."

The L.A. Times adds, "Campos...had apparently asphyxiated himself with toilet paper, officials said. He had been on suicide watch in the brig..."