Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the Week on Towleroad

Oklahoma politico Brent Rinehart creates anti-gay campaign comic book. Here's it is!
New Yorker under fire for Obama cover. Barack reacts. Editor reacts.
Miss USA upholds metaphor for America's current world status.
Gay Bishop Gene Robinson called 'heretic'. Wales solidarity, Anglican boycott!
Former Aussie Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe in love with someone.
Christopher Ciccone unleashes on Madonna, and more...
McCain says he's against gay adoption, sparks outrage, then backtracks...
U.S. Census Bureau won't be counting gay marriages in 2010.
Goodnight Bush parody flying off shelves.
Banksy outed!
THE TUBE: Lady Gaga, Feist, China, iPhone, Jesse Helms, McStupid, The View.
54 director's cut a lost gay classic?
French Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie stares down the world.
Avoid the dreaded 'bat wing' syndrome!
Greg Berlanti rewarded as GLAAD releases Network Responsibility Index.
Why is John Barrowman gay?
Model Garrett Neff next up in the Calvin Klein brief brigade.
MA Senate approves repeal of 1913 marriage law. CA Supremes reject bid to stop ban.
SPACE PORN: Asteroid fly-by and Earth from a great, great distance.
Elton John gets sweet reward for playing Vermont.
Al Reynolds: I am not a homosexual. And a clarification...
Elizabeth Dole and Jesse Helms: doing the Devil's work.
Catholic school principal arrested in gay backyard three-way.
McCain refers to a country that hasn't existed in 16 years — twice.
Tradition: Drag queens invade Fire Island Pines.
MUSIC: Frankmusik, Rihanna, NKOTB, Beatles iPod.
HIV/AIDS: Senate approves lift of travel ban, 'Achilles heel' discovered?
Lesbian poet Kay Ryan named nation's poet laureate.
Brooding beauties featured in new Armani Jeans campaign.
40 men detained in Dubai in "campaign against transvestites".
High School Metrosexual.
Larry Craig won't be jerked around by the gas nozzle anymore!
Dad tries to beat the gay out of his son with a baseball bat.
kd lang on androgyny, Madonna, new album Watershed.
Florida police officer put on leave over bondage porn past.
Brady Quinn's lawyers discover his M4M Facebook ad.
Tagged with hate: Tulsa, Oklahoma and Wilton Manors, Florida.
PLUS: Streakers, A-Rod, Sean Penn, David Beckham, Reggie Bush.

Sphere: Related Content

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #328

DO NOT PASS GO: Brave New Films says send Karl Rove to jail.

PICKLE: Watch Grandpa John demonstrate the power of Christianity by electrocuting a pickle in a sling. Seriously.

ELIZABETH DOLE: Was Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person" on Wednesday for her attempt to add Jesse Helms to the Hyde-Lantos AIDS bill.

DAVID REMNICK: The editor of The New Yorker talks to Charlie Rose about the controversial Obama cover.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

Sphere: Related Content

News: AIDS Vaccine, Beijing, Albino Eagle, El Paso, Newlywed Game

Obama will not speak at the Brandenburg Gate, according to Bloomberg, but at the Victory Column just down the road: "A stage will be set up at the column, a 19th-century fluted structure that lies at the opposite end of a tree-lined boulevard from the Brandenburg Gate, the newspaper said. The campaign will announce the plans for July 24 today, it said. An appearance at the Victory Column, capped by its trademark gilded angel, will still give the Illinois senator the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop in the distance."

Rare albino Golden Eagle discovered in Colorado.

Australia World youth Day pilgrims tell their gay hosts that they will "burn in hell."

K-Fed gets the kids from Britney in Cheeto divorce trial.

Rue McClanahan, Caroline Rhea, Olivia Newton-John, and Leslie Jordan get ready to make LOGO a bit more Sordid...

San Jose City College biology professor sues community college district for firing her over answering question about homosexuality and heredity: " In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, June Sheldon alleges that college officials trampled on academic freedoms and free speech rights by firing her in February. Sheldon is backed in the case by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that also has been heavily involved in the legal battles over gay marriage in California and elsewhere. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, reinstatement to her teaching job and a court finding that Sheldon's rights were violated."

Proposed George W. Bush Sewage Plant qualifies for ballot in San Francisco.

Gay community center opens its doors in El Paso, Texas: "El Paso's new Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered-Queer Center opened its doors to the public. The center houses non-profit organizations, counselors and even a flower shop. 'We want this place to be the hub of the gay community,' said director Charles Sloane. The facility is the crown jewel of El Paso's emerging gay community; a community that's mobilizing to have their voice heard as never before."

The Watchmen are coming (site not totally sfw).

Same-sex couples ineligible for Game Show Network's new version of The Newlywed Game.

Desperate Housewives gay couple Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm will be back in the upcoming flash-forward-five-years season: "...they now have a four-year-old daughter. Cherry said adding them to the show was 'just my commentary on how a gay couple moves in and nothing much happens.'"

VIDEO: A press rehearsal for the 9 to 5 Broadway musical.

Justin Timberlake kisses David Beckham's foot: "‘That's what $250million [£125m] tastes like,’ he told the audience." Maybe Becks can give him some tips on accessorizing.

Going to Beijing and want to know where to find the "gay scene"?

North Carolina anti-bullying bill killed: "The bill was controversial because it listed 'sexual orientation' and other characteristics as reasons schoolchildren might be the targets of bullying. Groups such as the Christian Action League and the N.C. Family Policy Council did not want the term in state law, saying that gay-rights groups would use it to leverage other rights."

Kenneth Cole's brief encounter.

Large U.S. HIV vaccine trial canceled: "...a top federal official said scientists realized that they did not know enough about how H.I.V. vaccines and the immune system interact. The decision is a major setback in an effort to develop an H.I.V. vaccine that began 24 years ago when government health officials promised a marketed vaccine by 1987. Health officials have long contended that such a vaccine would be their best weapon to control the AIDS pandemic."

High school dodgeball player #2 returning to Ugly Betty this season.

Sphere: Related Content

South Florida Homes Tagged with Anti-Gay Slurs

It's happening everywhere!

Three homes in Wilton Manors, adjacent to Fort Lauderdale, were tagged by vandals early this morning, the Miami Herald reports:

"Someone wrote the slurs on three adjacent homes in the 2800 block of Northeast Seventh Avenue, an area with a large gay population. Five cars were also defaced with black spray paint. However, Wilton Manors police investigator David C. Jones believes that it was a random attack, as a straight couple live in one of the homes hit. That came as little consolation to Aaron Challancin, who awoke Friday morning to cops knocking on his door. When he walked outside, he saw the slurs. 'There's no reason for this to happen,'' Challancin said. ``We didn't do anything to anyone. We're normal people trying to live normal lives.'"

Anti-gay slurs sprayed on three homes [miami herald]

Sphere: Related Content

Reggie Bush Shows it Off in Spain

While on vacation, a pumped up Reggie Bush and his posse of red recently gave the people of Spain some muscle to admire. (via Rod 2.0)

Previously
Reggie Bush Sexes Up Men's Fitness [tr]
Sportrait: Reggie Bush [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

Gay Tulsa Couple Targeted by Hate Vandals

A gay couple in Tulsa, Oklahoma have been targeted by vandals twice in the last week who slashed tires, set a truck on fire, and tagged their property:

"About seven days ago, the message "Gays Must Go" was spray-painted on their garage door, and a symbol resembling a swastika, which is used by some white supremacist groups, was spray-painted on the side of their home. Holes were punched in a friend's pickup's tires and the truck was set on fire while parked in Stotler's driveway. The message 'I'll be back' was spray-painted on both sides of the vehicle. And back the person came. A few days later, holes were punched in the front door of their home in the 11800 block of East 25th Street, and the message 'Gay Go Away' was painted on it."

Because Oklahoma's hate crime laws do not cover sexual orientation, the incidents have been labeled by police as "acts of vandalism or malicious mischief." Anyone looking at the photos can see the threats involved.

Said Freddy Owens, executive director of Oklahomans for Equality, which condemned the attacks: "Oklahomans for Equality deplores the vandalism directed at Robert Stotler, an openly gay resident of east Tulsa. Such intimidation highlights the urgent need for federal and state hate crimes legislation protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Without such legislation, attacks on Robert and other LGBT people will continue to be classified as mere vandalism and will not be prosecuted properly."

The owners of the home have not spent a night recently in their home for fear of their lives but say they are not planning on moving.

Recent Oklahoma news...
OK County Commissioner Brent Rinehart's Homophobic Comic Book [tr]
Oklahoma Politico Preparing Anti-Gay Comic Book for Voters [tr]
PFLAG's Meeting with Sally Kern: The Full 40-Minute Recording [tr]

Sphere: Related Content