I'm Back

Hi everyone. I'm back from a week away and I'd like to thank Boy Culture's Matthew Rettenmund for doing a fantastic job at Towleroad while I was away. Matthew, you're always welcome here. I'd also like to thank my partner here Michael Goff for holding down the fort. I was away on Cape Cod. It's always great to see old friends there and I was happy to meet a bunch of Towleroad readers as well. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

Choi For Now

I am nearing the end of my stay at Towleroad; Andy will be back next week, and I just have another couple of things to post.

One item I'll be posting later on is another interview, this one with the heroic Dan Choi—he had a lot of very interesting things to say in our phone conversation, and I'm hopeful that I asked him some good questions. The first thing he told me was that he was naked, but we'll get into that and issues with more substance soon enough.

It's been a pleasure and a nightmare taking over in Andy's absence, a pleasure as always to read the variety of comments and to have the ability to reach a large, appreciative, critical audience, and a nightmare trying to keep up with the day's news and maintain Andy's level of excellence.

If you like, please visit my blog Boy Culture, friend me on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter.

Thanks to you and to Andy and Mike for having me.— Matthew Rettenmund

Towle Patrol

In case any of you missed Andy's announcement, I will be minding Towleroad while he's on a hard-earned  vacation through Saturday. I was set to begin today, but Sarah Palin's resignation and some other events on Friday led to a bit of a head start. I plan to keep things very consistent with Andy's m.o., and will throw in a few interviews, too, so please check back often. I'll also still be updating my own blog, Boy Culture. Feel free to e-mail me at matthewrettenmund@gmail.com anytime—Matt

Independence

Have a great Independence Day weekend, everyone. We're starting it early here. I'm about to take a much-needed week off the grid. Beginning on Monday, or possibly before, Matthew Rettenmund who writes the blog Boy Culture will be taking the reins here as he did last year at this same time. I hope that you'll welcome him. He's looking forward to it. It'll be our usual mix of politics, pop culture, and perhaps a few surprises thrown in, with Matthew's special twist, of course.

As always, I thank you so much for reading and coming back.

Coffee Bean Blocks Towleroad, Pam's House Blend for 'Sexuality'

The Advocate (via UniteTheFight reports) on censorship at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which operates hundreds of locations, mainly on the west coast:

"Phillip Minton of Unite the Fight -- a group trying to overturn California's Proposition 8 -- had booted up his laptop on Thursday at a Coffee Bean location in Los Angeles and was informed he couldn't access sites like Pam's House Blend and Towleroad due to 'sexuality.' According to commenters at Unite the Fight's website, ex-gay sites for groups like Exodus and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays are accessible on Coffee Bean's Wi-Fi service. In his post, Minton wrote, 'Naturally, I wrote a rather angry e-mail [to Coffee Bean's corporate office in Los Angeles] telling them they need to do a better job determining what is porn or 'adult' from what is a news or editorial blog. If I typed in 'heterosexual,' would the sites pulled up be blocked? I doubt it.'"

The Wi-Fi provider, OpenDNS, claimed the block comes from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and not the WiFi provider. Unfortunately, this practice is all too common. Many corporations censor LGBT websites because they are automatically deemed sexual or adult in nature.

Would love to know where else we are blocked. Let us know in the comments.

Site Issues: We Need Your Help

It has come to our attention that many people are getting a blank page while trying to access Towleroad on various computers. While our traffic indicates that this issue is not widespread, it is prevalent enough for it to be a concern to us and we have been having a very difficult time getting to the root of the problem. Those of you having the issue know what I am talking about.

If you know someone having this issue, please pass this on to them.

 If you are unable to see Towleroad on a computer, but happen to see this post while viewing the site on an alternate computer, can you please leave the following information in the comments section of this post:

The type of computer you are using with its operating system, the browser on which you are trying to access the site and its version number, and any other data related to this issue you believe might be helpful to us in solving this problem. Also, if you can do a "view source" command on the page and send a screenshot of the info you receive to tips@towleroad.com we would appreciate it.

Please write 'Site Issues Info' in the subject line.

ps - we know the site does not load very quickly for the rest of you. It has to do with an aging template, and we're aware of it, and working on it.

Thanks and sorry for the interruption.