30 Colombian LGBT activists attend Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute attend political training forum: "The program, which was coordinated by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, was the first to take place as part of the USAID-backed LGBT Global Development Partnership that will contribute $11 million over the next four years to advocacy groups in neighboring Ecuador and other developing countries."
The Wizard of Oz is getting a 3-D re-release this year. "Nearly 75 years after its dazzling Technicolor debut, The Wizard of Oz will be converted to 3-D and IMAX for a one-week theatrical run in September, Warner Bros. and IMAX officials will announce Tuesday. The restoration marks the film industry's highest-profile conversion yet of a 2-D classic. Already, studios have remastered films including Titanic, Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Benjamin Alire Saenz's Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club wins Gay General Fiction award at the Lambda Literary Awards. Garth Greenwell reviewed it for Towleroad here. See all the winners here.
What to expect when you're expecting…and gay: "So you’re going to be a gay parent? Congratulations! No doubt you’ve been through a lot to get to this point, whether you’ve traveled the path of adoption, IVF, artificial insemination, surrogacy, fostering or whatever. Now, you have a lot to do to get ready."
Louisiana House gives final approval to surrogate parenting bill: "Unmarried and gay couples in Louisiana will be blocked from becoming surrogate parents if Gov. Bobby Jindal signs a bill approved by the House on Sunday. The bill would set up surrogacy contract rules in the state as well as define who is eligible to enter into such contracts."
Restaurant ice machines contain more bacteria than toilet water: "The Daily Mail collected ice from ten fast-food franchises — McDonald's, Burger King, and Starbucks among them — and determined that in six out of ten locations, those innocuous-seeming cubes contained higher levels of bacteria than the water samples taken from toilet bowls at the same establishments."
Could the Uniting American Families Act pass as a floor amendment to immigration reform? “I can tell you if the immigration bill is moving toward a vote before we have a Supreme Court DOMA ruling — or after we have a bad Supreme Court ruling — a floor option is something we very much want to look at,” Ralls said. “We’re kind of in two competing timelines here; it’s not entirely clear how quickly the immigration bill will move forward for a vote, and we don’t know exactly when we’re going to have a Supreme Court ruling.”