Flexing Farm Boys 'Bare-Chested in the Barnyard'

Here's a little Prop 8 break for you. Some shots from the tryouts for the 2010 Switzerland's Sexiest Farmers calendar. According to Spiegel Online, this year's calendar "focuses on landed men of the Jungfrau Mountains." I don't know what "landed men" means but I'm sure some of you would be happy to land one.

According to Urs Schneider, the deputy head of the Swiss Farmers' Union, "Swiss farmers still suffer under the prejudice that they are a bit conservative and uptight."

Two more shots, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Provincetown, John Mayer, Jamaica, Willem Dafoe, Zurich

Official boycott launched against Jamaica for persecution of gays.

128 prisoners, many of whom were jailed for the "crime" of homosexuality, are set to be executed in Iraq in the near future: "According to Ali Hili of IRAQI-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. IRAQI-LGBT urgently requests that the UK Government, Human Rights Groups and the United Nations Human Rights Commission intervene with due speed to prevent this tragic miscarriage of justice from going ahead."

John Mayer turns fan cruise into Love Boat.

Recession-era spending: Elton John celebrates 62 at Hamburger Hamlet.

Russia's Gay Pride organizers plan activist tie-in to Eurovision Song Contest awards: We believe this is the best way for those who support democratic values in Europe and who take part in the show to bring support to human rights campaigners in Russia."

Zac Efron attacked by Q-tips.

More on the growing threat to gays in Uganda: "We’ve gotten word from three separate Ugandan sources that local gays and lesbians in Uganda are worried about imminent violence, with many making plans to go into hiding or leave the country."

Jon Stewart talks marriage at University of Vermont: “I can understand being against gay marriage — if they decided to make it mandatory. This isn’t a cultural divide: They’re wrong.”

 Protestors shadow Vermont Governor Jim Douglas in wake of same-sex marriage veto remarks: "Roughly 200 protesters greeted the governor and his wife when they showed up at Green Mountain College for a maple sugaring event Saturday. The crowd watched quietly, sang or chanted while Douglas used a hand-cranked drill to tap a tree in an arboretum decorated with rainbow ribbons."

Madonna determined to adopt again in Malawi...

Zurich, Switzerland has a new lesbian mayor: "Zurich, Switzerland, has elected its first female and first openly lesbian mayor, Corine Mauch. A member of the centre-left Social Democrats, Mauch has been elected with a lead of 11,000 votes over her opposition following the surprise resignation of previous incumbent Elmar Ledergerber late last year."

New York Post says it has seen a video of Vice President Joe Biden's daughter doing cocaine: "The video, which the shooter initially hoped to sell for $2 million before scaling back his price to $400,000, shows a 20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair taking a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder."

Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone show their love in Ipanema.

Right Whale mania grips Provincetown... Video...

L.A. Times on Barney Frank accusations: Does Antonin Scalia hate gays?

Gay rights groups want the Royal Family to give the okay for a hypothetical same-sex couple in the Monarchy to be able to engage in a civil partnership: "[Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights group Stonewall] said: ‘I have little doubt that in 21st and 22nd Century Britain the public will judge the quality of their monarch by much more than their sexual orientation.’ He said the subject could be debated openly now because, as far as he was aware, there are no gays in the Royal Family."

Willem Dafoe gets "cheeky" for new Lars von Trier film.

Josh Hartnett rushed to hospital for abdominal pain.

Campaign against homophobic bullying to be launched in Wales: "The new bilingual version of 'The School Report' will be distributed to all secondary schools in Wales. It found 65% of pupils had experienced bullying because of their sexuality. The launch takes place at the Stonewall Cymru annual event in Llandudno. The education minister Jane Hutt said the assembly government was working to develop guidance on anti-gay bullying. 'The Welsh Assembly Government fully supports the launch of 'The School Report' which highlights the vital role schools can play in preventing and responding to homophobic bullying, both within their boundaries but also in the wider community'"

Obamas to pay for White House renovations out of their own pockets: "They 'are not using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters,' says Camille Johnston, director of communications for the First Lady. Nor is the couple, who reported $4.2 million in household income in 2007 tax returns, using money from the White House Historical Association, a privately funded foundation that paid for a $74,000 set of china shortly before Laura Bush left town."

News: Mormons, Roy Scheider, Art Heist, Suicide Blog, Millionaires

Writer's to vote on agreement to end Hollywood strike: "The Writers Guild of America moved swiftly Sunday toward a resolution of its three-month-old strike, with guild leaders deciding to recommend a tentative contract to members and ask them to vote on a quick end to the walkout. By calling for separate votes on ending the strike and accepting the new three-year deal, the union cleared the way for the entertainment industry to return to work almost immediately. Membership meetings will be held Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles to allow writers to decide whether the strike should be brought to a speedy end, said Patric Verrone, president of the guild’s West Coast branch."

Jaws police chief Roy Scheider has died at the age of 75 (photo via slog).

Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger says the next season of the Bravo show may focus on gay millionaires: "There would have to be a gay person at the helm to consult with me. But attraction is attraction. When a guy comes in and he's flamingly queeny and he goes for butch, you can't give him another queen. Somebody wants their car door opened. Somebody wants to be called back. Somebody wants someone to pay the bill. It's not about the sexuality. You have to be able to hear what attracts somebody. The gay community has a lot of money because there's no second decision maker. They don't have an ex-wife or children. But what they're saying to me is that there's a whole subset of the gay community, where people are hooking up for real love. And that's why they want marriage."

"Spectacular" art heist in Switzerland sees theft of four paintings worth $163.2 million: " The robbery...occurred Sunday at the E.G. Buehrle Collection, one of Europe's finest private museums for Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, police said. Three masked men who entered the building with pistols are still at large. A police statement said the three robbers wearing ski masks and dark clothing entered the museum a half-hour before closing Sunday. While one of the men used a pistol to force museum personnel to the floor, the other two robbers went into the exhibition hall and collected the four masterpieces. The men were about 5 feet 9 inches tall and one of them spoke German with a Slavic accent, the police said. They loaded the paintings into a white vehicle parked in front of the museum. Police, asking for witnesses to come forward, said it was possible that the paintings were partly sticking out of the trunk as the robbers made their getaway."

Atonement wins "Best Film", Daniel Day-Lewis "Best Actor" at BAFTA's. Full list of winners here.

Sensing softening of attitudes, gay Mormon group Affirmation requests meeting with new church president Thomas Monson. Assistant executive director David W. Melson: "I would like for us never again to have gay individuals, particularly our young people, being told that they are not welcome in the church they grew up in."

Paris Hilton's film The Hottie and the Nottie bombed at the box office this weekend. To mark the occasion, her publicist Elliot Mintz showed up to her pre-birthday party as the Nottie.

Attention, artists! The South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement is seeking theme and logo submissions for its 2008 Pride celebration.

Aussie cricket team hits gay bar: no photos please.

CBS News host Bob Schieffer cuts "Brokeback Mountain" reference from tribute song to Sumner Redstone in wake of Heath Ledger's death: "Singing 'Mr. Redstone' to the tune of 'Mr. Goldstone' from the musical 'Gypsy,' Mr. Schieffer sang about the boss splitting up CBS and Viacom in 2006. 'You are the guru, and who would know but you what a little change in Viacom's name would do. Have an éclair, Mr. Redstone, buy some networks, make a movie, play a tune. Take a break now, Mr. Redstone, 'cause another deal will come along real soon.'...In the recorded version though, there was no claim that 'I don't understand this interlude.' Instead, Schieffer says, 'I ain't some Brokeback Mountain dude.'" Funny how we respect the dead more than the living.

Woman plans to kill herself in 90 days, and she's blogging about it.

Swiss AIDS Experts Issue Shock Statement on Unprotected Sex

The Swiss National AIDS Commission was criticized by North American and European health experts yesterday after it released a statement saying that it was okay for some HIV+ people to have unprotected sex with negative partners.

"The Swiss National AIDS Commission said patients who meet strict conditions, including successful antiretroviral treatment to suppress the virus and who do not have any other sexually transmitted diseases, do not pose a danger to others. The proposal, published this week in the Bulletin of Swiss Medicine, astonished leading AIDS researchers in Europe and North America who have long argued that safe sex with a condom is the single most effective way of preventing the spread of the disease — apart from abstinence. 'Not only is (the Swiss proposal) dangerous, it's misleading and it is not considering the implications of the biological facts involved with HIV transmission,' said Jay Levy, director of the Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research at the University of California in San Francisco."

The Swiss health experts based their statement on inconclusive U.S. studies showing that transmission depends on viral load in the blood.

The World Health Organization dubbed the new Swiss 'rules' an experiment: "The World Health Organization said Switzerland would be the first country in the world to try this approach. 'There is still some concern that you can never guarantee that somebody will not be infectious, and the evidence I have to say is not conclusive,' said Charlie Gilks, director of AIDS treatment and prevention at WHO. 'Many countries in western Europe would regard this as an interesting experiment,' he said, adding it was unlikely they would follow suit anytime soon. 'We are not going to be changing in any way our very clear recommendations that people on treatment continue to practice safer sex, including protected sex with a condom, in any relationship,' Gilks said."

In related news, scientists are hopeful about new ways they might target dormant HIV: "he AIDS virus has hideouts deep in the immune system that today's drugs can't reach. Now scientists finally have discovered how HIV builds one of those fortresses — and they're exploring whether a drug already used to fight a parasite in developing countries just might hold a key to break in. Researchers have long struggled unsuccessfully to attack what they call reservoirs of dormant HIV, and the new work is in very early stages."

AIDS experts: Unprotected sex OK for some [msnbc]

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Gay Newlywed Swiss Tenor Hugues Cuénod Turns 105

Playbill Arts reports that gay Swiss tenor Hugues Cuénod celebrates his 105th birthday today.

According to PA, Cuénod "was a member of Nadia Boulanger's madrigal group, sang in the world premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, played one of the animals in The Cunning Little Vixen for Simon Rattle's Glyndebourne debut, and made his own Metropolitan Opera debut at age 84."

Now that's a life lived fully. And not only that. Cuénod legalized his 20-year relationship with 64-year-old retired Swiss civil servant Alfred Augustin in a civil union ceremony earlier this year.

Said Augustin: "It was a logical decision, especially at this age! Most people were happy for us, though a few promised us 15,000 years in hell." He also noted that although he is no longer very mobile, "Hugues still likes to go riding in the car, especially with the top down so he can let his long white hair blow in the wind."

Cuénod told the Associated Press about his birthday plans: "I will probably stay in bed. I won't do anything special."

What's his secret for living to such a ripe old age? Cuénod told Swiss Agency ATS: "It's not my fault, I didn't do anything for it! I'm in good health, I'm lazy and I have a [dear] friend to look after me."

We should all be so lucky. Happy Birthday Hugues Cuénod!

The World's Oldest Living Tenor Celebrates His 105th Birthday (And He's a Newlywed, No Less!) [playbill arts]

News: Paula Abdul, Apes, Wiimbledon, Lost, Cristiano Ronaldo

Algerian AIDS crisis hampered by ignorance, misunderstanding: "In Algeria, where
AIDS spreads mainly through sexual contact, 10 million free condoms are waiting in warehouses of the national pharmacy but there are no takers."

Cristiano Ronaldo does a little thumb-sucking on holiday.

USA Today's Pop Candy blog has compiled the 20 most interesting comments/theories they received about Lost on their forums.

Nine U.S. tennis players, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Vince Spadea, Justin Gimelstob, Amer Delic, Robert Kendrick, Sam Querrey Michael Russell, and Robby Ginepri, wiped out in first round at French Open: "It's the first time at any Grand Slam tournament since the 1973 Australian Open that no man representing the United States will play in the second round of singles -- and it's worth noting that no Americans entered that Australian Open."

Paula Abdul whines about her former publicist, gay PR guru Howard Bragman: "I do a call-in every week for OK! Magazine on 'American Idol.' Because of my brilliant job, they want to do a cover on me. I'm being told by Howard Bragman that I'm too old and no one will ever want to do a cover." Bragman responds: "I'm not going into it. I'll stand by my reputation if she'll stand by hers."

Researchers converse with the apes: "The research we conduct here powerfully informs people about the nature of great ape intelligence. We know that humans and great apes share far more than they differ. I think we have to recognize that. If that does not compel us to preserve great apes in the wild, I don't know what can."

Tom Ford doesn't want you to fit into his suits.

Live Journal deletes hundreds of sex-themed discussion groups: "Some deleted LiveJournal communities went by names like childlove and little_children (a community permits multiple LiveJournal users to post entries, while an individual account is limited to one user). Others, however, broadly fall into the category of science fiction, fantasy or user-written 'fandom' stories--and it is those that have sparked the outcry."

Wii tennis pros alert! The first 'Wiimbledon' tennis tournament will soon be taking place in Brooklyn.

Call him sir: David Beckham to be knighted?

Swiss politicians condemn homophobic posters.

Former View host Debbie Matenopoulos weighs in on the Rosie/Elizabeth feud: "The kind of discussions that occurred between Elisabeth and Rosie are real discussions that happen in this country. The View was the only place on TV where open, heated debate happened. By airing debates like that, regardless of who gets offended, it helps the country move forward. It forced people to question their own beliefs and, perhaps, open their eyes to other possibilities. Being polite and complacent doesn't create change. No one is discussing the fact that the fight was less about politics and the war and more about Elisabeth not having Rosie's back, as a friend. Politics aside, by not defending Rosie, Elisabeth was basically saying 'I don't repect you or our relationship. That had to hurt. That was someone feeling betrayed by someone she considered a friend."