News: Tim Kaine, AIDS Bill, Cape Town, Planet Out, 'Ex-Gays'

House passes Lantos-Hyde AIDS bill which would also lift the HIV immigration and travel ban by a vote of 303-115. Pelosi statement.

Clinton campaign-runner Terry McAuliffe recommends Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for Obama VP spot: "McAuliffe was adamant in his recommendation of Kaine as the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee Tuesday, although he stressed to the News-Press after his speech, which included an informal half-hour question and answer period, that the ultimate choice will be Obama's very personal one. However, the fact that he proposed Kaine over his own candidate and long-time friend, Hillary Clinton, suggested that he knows the Clinton option is off the table."

A resourceful and somewhat hot (if you're into that bearish farmer type) sugar beet grower has found a first-rate way to scare off the crows.

27%: Bush approval rating hits new low.

David Beckham having a leg-off with his All-Star teammates?

Cape Town, South Africa outraged over homophobic newspaper column. Columnist: "There could be a few things [about which] I could take issue with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, but his unflinching and unapologetic stance over homosexuals is definitely not among those."

Belfast Gay Pride gets approval to go ahead next weekend. Homophobic Northern Ireland MP Iris Robinson invited...

Clay Aiken blogs for the children of Somalia and Kenya.

EW talks to Big Brother gay cowboy Steven Daigle. Ed: I do want to amend an earlier post. While I noted his racist comment early on in the show, I do want to say that after several episodes he proved to be a warm-hearted player, and did change at least one housemate's mind about gay people, and I wish he would have stayed.

LGBT community to be out in force at Democratic National Convention: "National Stonewall Democrats, the national gay Democratic group, expects more than 300 openly LGBT delegates, alternates, and other participants in 'the gay caucus' next month at the Democratic National Convention. The group has been scrambling for weeks to assemble the names and numbers and still hasn’t identified them all. But from what data it has collected, it appears the caucus will include 305 delegates, at least 84 of whom supported Hillary Clinton during the primary, 74 of whom supported the presumptive nominee Barack Obama, and 147 of whom no one yet knows who they supported."

Kathy Griffin's longtime assistant Jessica has left the building.

Wayne Besen on Exodus International's annual confab of "ex-gays" in Asheville, North Carolina: "Exodus may smile sweetly and tell the mainstream media they love homosexuals. But, judging by the recent hate crimes in the Carolinas combined with the reactionary rhetoric of Exodus, it seems that they are literally 'loving' us to death."

Republicans play the gay card. Via The Gist.

PlanetOut Inc. reports accumulated deficit of nearly $100 million: " The San Francisco web portal (NASDAQ: LGBT), which is aimed at the lesbian, gay and transgendered market, reported an accumulated deficit of $99.8 million as of March 31. For that quarter, PlanetOut lost $10.4 million on sales of $4.8 million. PlanetOut was incorporated in Delaware in December 2000. It runs web sites gay.com and planetout.com."

Penn Badgley takes his brooding looks to GQ.

Report warns of AIDS crisis in the South.

National Stonewall Democrats announce endorsement of Barack Obama: "[Spokesman John] Marble said the group offered its endorsement 'with accountability as well' and said the organization will continue to press Obama on gay issues during the campaign. While gay Democrats rally behind their party’s presidential candidate, the National Log Cabin Republicans have yet to make a decision on whether or not to endorse Republican presidential candidate John McCain in his bid for the White House."

Maryland judge: Gender identity law can be rolled back by voters...

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Heinz Gayonnaise-Gate Update

As of this posting, 6,346 people had signed the petition to reinstate the Heinz Deli Mayo ad.

Yesterday, the UK gay rights group Stonewall launched a boycott of Heinz products.

Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen and the American Family Association's Randy Sharp debated the ad on CNN's Headline News. Dan Hill, a business marketing analyst, chimed in as well.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Bill O'Reilly: I Would Never Poke Fun at Any Minority Group, Ever

Bill O'Reilly and Wayne Besen of "ex-gay" watchdog organization Truth Wins Out (which, incidentally, just relaunched its spiffy new website) had a chat last night about the Jay Leno "gayest look" controversy. Here's a bit of their conversation

O'REILLY: "It looks to me in America that you can't ever make fun of any minority group. Ever. In any way. Anymore. In this country. I think that's where we are really. You can make fun of white Christian men. You can make fun of, famous people. But if you make fun of a minority, any minority... If you're a Jewish guy, if you make fun of Jewish people, Black people, illegal immigrants, any minority. If you poke fun at them, you are gonna catch hell. That's true, is it not?"

BESEN: "I don't think it is true. I think if you look at comedy acts there's a lot of groups being made fun of. I think there's a big difference between making fun of something they do that is funny and making fun of who they are as individuals. The simple act of being Black is rarely made fun of, but being gay is perfectly acceptable. It's a double standard."

O'REILLY: "No I don't think so. Believe me Mr. Besen, I do this every night. I would never at this point, poke fun at any minority group ever, because it is not going to be taken in the same way, someone is going to be offended, and they're going to brand you a racist or a homophobe."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Wayne Besen on the "Ex-Gay" Nude Warrior Adventure

At PageOneQ, Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out discusses the latest trend in "ex-gay" reparative therapy, The ManKind Project's New Warrior Training Adventure:

"This cult-like national program is a $650 weekend boot camp where participants - mostly straight - are greeted by large, intimidating men dressed in dark clothing and faces painted black. During their stay, the men are forced to take cold showers, survive on about four hours sleep, and subsist on very little food. In follow-up meetings, the activities include shaving another man's face, kidnapping a member of another camp group and changing clothes with other men. The idea is to help them get in-touch with their feelings and uncover and heal deep wounds that are barriers to successful lives."

One "ex-gay" who committed suicide after attending the camp described its bizarre rituals which included "blindfolded walking tours in the nude, people blowing sage smoke in his face while 50 or so naked men danced around candles, men sitting in a circle discussing their sexual histories while passing a wooden dildo called The Cock, and naked men beating cooked chickens with a hammer."

Besen adds that the wife of a man who attended the project told a Houston paper why he left: "So, everyone was sitting Indian-style in a big circle in the lodge when the man leading the group said, 'if you wish, you may reach over and grab your brother's dick. If your brother doesn't want your hand there, he can remove it.' Well, my husband told me he just froze. And, from that point on, he just wanted out."

Uh, yeah.

ADDENDUM: A reader has notified me that Wayne Besen recanted his claims that the Mankind Project is anti-gay and that their New Warrior Project is an "ex-gay" retreat. Besen's mea culpa is here.

Wayne Besen: Nude warrior adventure [pageoneq]
Truth Wins Out [official site]

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