Yale Students Welcome LGBT Alumni Back with Music Video Set to Gay Anthems: WATCH

Yale's LGBT Alumni group GALA is planning its second reunion in February and if this video 'invitation', which cycles through an incredible musical/dance production of "Over the Rainbow", Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues", "No More Tears", "I'm Coming Out", "Like a Prayer", "I'm the Only One", "Beautiful", "Born This Way", and "Love On Top" is any indication, it should be a gay old time.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Yale Tight End Beau Palin Loves to Wear Old Glory: VIDEO

The Yale Daily News points out this amusing video family self-portrait by one of its football players:

"Tight end Beau Palin '14 stands at 6'3'' and weighs in at 240lbs. He worked in an Illinois mustard factory one summer and baled hay in Wisconsin during another one. He likes to wear the American flag. This is the story of him and his brothers at their home in Oconomowoc, WI."

Apparently all of his brothers enjoy wearing Old Glory in a similar fashion, and they are accomplished barefooters.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

P.S. - he's not related to the Mama Grizzly.

Yale Launches First Undergraduate LGBTQ Magazine

Q, Yale University's first LGBTQ magazine is set for release on campus tomorrow, December 3.

Its editor, Jake Conway, and publisher, Alice Song, both class of '11, write:

"Its mission is to serve as a guide to students on campus through the celebration of the queer experience. The feature of the first issue, 'We Are Yale,' is a compilation of personal essays from ten students representing the diversity and vibrancy of queer life at Yale. Other articles include: 'Cruising or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cock,' an exposé of cruising culture at Yale; 'The Lowdown: Lesbian Sex,' a short essay demystifying lesbian sex with accompanying photo shoot; 'Undressing Jonathan Weinberg,' an interview with nude portraitist and Yale art critic Jonathan Weinberg ’78; and 'Missing Pages: The Diary of Albert Dodd, 1838,' a historical essay discussing bed sharing between Yale men in the nineteenth century."

The magazine is to be published once a semester, in a print run of 2,500 copies for distribution to the entire campus.

Conway says the magazine will have an online component next semester.

Yalies of the Day

Love this photo - by Daniel Carvalho at the Yale Daily News.

Apparently, 25-year-old evangelical preacher Jesse Morrell has been attracting a crowd on campus:

"While Morrell failed to attract much attention from passersby during his first two days on campus, on Thursday afternoon, about 100 Yalies gathered to watch him rail against moral corruption at Yale. Several of those gathered wondered aloud if Morrell actually believed the things he said, and others heckled during his sermon, while others still took photos and videos on their cell phones. 'It seems like he’s really enjoying this, frankly,' Jeremy Poindexter ’11."

Larry Kramer Rails at Yale's 'Conspiracy of Silence' on Gay History

Gay activist and playwright Larry Kramer was invited back to Yale last week to receive the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the university's Gay and Lesbian Association.

Kramer used the opportunity to rail at Yale's "conspiracy of silence" on gay history, criticizing an endowment offered to the school by his brother to set up the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies because it was misdirected, he says, and used for gender theory and 'queer 'studies (Kramer despises the word "queer", calling it adolescent and demeaning). Kramer wishes the school taught more about gay people in history and talks a bit about his new book, The American People.

Here's an excerpt of Kramer's speech:

Here are some of the things that I have uncovered about our history in writing my new book, The American People:

That Jamestown was America’s first community of homosexuals, men who came to not only live with each other as partners but to adopt and raise children bought from the Indians. Some even arranged wedding ceremonies for themselves.

That George Washington was gay, and that his relationships with Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette were homosexual. And that his feelings for Hamilton led to a government and a country that became Hamiltonian rather than Jeffersonian.

That Meriwether Lewis was in love with William Clark and committed suicide when their historic journey was over and he wouldn’t see Clark anymore.

That Abraham Lincoln was gay and had many, many gay interactions, that his nervous breakdown occurred when he and his lover, Joshua Speed, were forced to part, and that his sensitivity to the slaves came from his firsthand knowledge of what it meant to be so very different. And that the possibility exists that Lincoln was murdered because he was gay and John Wilkes Booth, who was gay, knew this.

That Franklin Pierce, who became one of America’s worst presidents, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who became one of our greatest writers, as roommates at Bowdoin College had interactions that changed them both forever and, indeed, served as the wellspring for what Hawthorne came to write about. Pierce was gay. And Hawthorne? Herman Melville certainly wanted him to be.

That most of the great actresses who endlessly toured America during the 19th century bringing theater to the masses were lesbians and occasionally dressed as men. Just like Katherine Hepburn.

That the plague of AIDS was allowed to happen because much of the world hates us and most of the world knows nothing about us. They don’t know we are related to Washington and Lincoln.

I needed no queer theories, no gender studies, to figure all this out.

Why can’t we accept that homosexuality has been pretty much the same since the beginning of human history, whether it was called homosexuality, sodomy, buggery, hushmarkedry, or hundreds of other things, or had no name at all? What we do now they pretty much did then. Period. Men have always had cocks and men have pretty much always known what to do with them. It is just stupidity and elite presumption of the highest and most preposterous order to theorize, in these regards, that then was different from now.

Read the full speech at The Daily Beast.

(image david shankbone)

News: Volcano, Wales, Baker's Dozen, Tampa, Sam Adams, Zombies

Obama: Wall Street bonuses "shameful."

Scientists: Alaskan volcano eruption imminent.

This is the height of irresponsibility.

Police raise rainbow flag in Wales: "Sexuality is a highly emotive and personal matter and I have great respect for those involved with The Gay Police Association who, over the years, have worked selflessly to promote equality within our organisation. I am immensely proud to support our gay officers and staff and I hope that this event sends out a clear message as we continue to strive for inclusivity and equality."

Prince Harry look-alike says he's getting too much attention.

Sardi's needs a new artist: Portrait looks nothing like Daniel Radcliffe.

University of Tampa to provide benefits to same-sex couples: "This comes just a week after Hillsborough County refused to even discuss the issue in a 5-2 vote. The Minaret Online cites an email sent to faculty and staff explaining that the same sex domestic partnership benefits will begin April 1st. The benefits do not extend to heterosexual domestic partnerships because they are legally able to marry in Florida."

You may remember the Yale Baker's Dozen New Years Eve San Francisco bashing case. It has finally been settled: "[Sharyar] Aziz said Thursday his civil suit case was settled against his personal attackers, Richard, Michael and James Aicardi. Brian Dwyer, the fourth man originally named in the civil suit, was dropped from the case earlier due to contradictory accounts of the attack. 'I am happy we can all move on,' Aziz said in a telephone interview."

Road sign hacked to warn drivers of zombies ahead.

Close-up: Ian Thorpe's Brazilian housemate.

LGBT paper in San Diego calls on Portland's Mayor Sam Adams to quit.

Former SF Mayor Willie Brown representing two 24 Hour Fitness employees who claim the company retaliated after they complained about racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks at work: "Brown and Renne are part of a legal team representing Paul Drobot and Reginald Allison, two managerial employees who complained about instances of discrimination in hiring on the basis of race, as well as frequent racist, sexist and homophobic comments. In August 2006, the two employees filed charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about alleged discriminatory practices dating back to 2003. According to those charges, management within the company not only refused to address the inappropriate behavior, but eventually retaliated against the employees for having complained. 'When these two reported to their immediate supervisor about actions not in keeping with the employee manual, what happened? They got squashed. They got demoted and eventually terminated,' Renne said."

NASA peers into Moon's shadowed craters.

Film Experience takes a look at the GLAAD awards.

SPOILERS: If you're interested in knowing who on American Idol made it through Hollywood week (which hasn't aired yet), the list is here.

A new trio of Beckham Armani shots.

Clergy at Cleveland Ohio's Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ refuse to sign licenses until all can marry: "Heterosexual couples exchanging wedding vows at the church will need an additional civil ceremony by a justice of the peace or a judge to make their union legal. The move was approved by an overwhelming voice vote during a congregational meeting last weekend. Head pastor Rev. John Tamilio III calls it a civil-rights protest."