July 29, 2010

, Managing Editor on July 29, 2010

Variety is reporting that Ellen DeGeneres has pulled out of judging American Idol, saying she "wasn't comfortable" returning for a second season.

Ellen said:

A couple months ago, I let FOX and the American Idol producers know that this didn’t feel like the right fit for me. I told them I wouldn’t leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next. It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for.

With the exit of Simon Cowell last season, rumors have swirled over who would be next to join the panel of judges. Recent rumblings have included names like Jessica Simpson.

Fox made a statement shortly after Ellen released her own:

We love Ellen and understand and support her decision to bow out of Idol. We were fortunate to receive the humor, energy and love for talent that she brought to the show.

She will certainly be missed, but with several other projects in the works, including her new record label, 11:11 Records, it's not a surprise that Ellen would have to give something up. She added:

I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on Idol and I am very grateful for the year I had, I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be.

It seems Ellen prefers to be backing artists she believes in, rather than breaking the spirit of hopefuls. It's likely for the best, as Ellen has always maintained that she's not a fan of negativity and is usually a purveyor of dreaming big and never giving up — which is one of the reasons why we like her so much.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Says Older Lesbians Just Couldn't Find A Man

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck Says Older Lesbians Just Couldn't Find A Man

posted by: Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

Like everyone else who has seen this video and commented on it, I am completely floored that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is allowed on national television. Although she is certainly not afraid of spouting controversial (and often just plain crazy) opinions on topics as rich and varied as abortion, the morning-after pill, stalking, and Erin Andrews' choice of dress, her latest insight into lesbianism has (rightfully) sparked much internet outrage.

As the ladies of The View speculated on the rise of "late-blooming lesbians" (thank you, Whoopi), Elisabeth Hasselbeck put in her two cents:

"I’ll tell you what’s happening, it’s that older men are going for younger women, leaving the women with NO ONE."

Joy Behar responded forcefully to Hasselbeck's logic, which does seem to strongly imply that being gay is a choice, saying, "Being gay is not just holding hands and walking through the tulips. I don't think you suddenly wake up one day and say, 'Oh, I wanted to do that.' You wanted to do it, but you were just trapped in a system that has just said, 'get married.'"

Hasselbeck then tried to back down, saying that perhaps said older women simply wanted companionship, but not a sexual relationship. Which is of course absurd, and plays off two damaging stereotypes about women - that we are not as sexually desirous as men, and that we are not independent. And of course, apart from being sexist, it's homophobic.

As usual, I find The View to be an inane show (and this conversation did not bode well to begin with), but I really do question why we continue to pay attention to people like this. And of course, by writing this post, I'm helping to fan the flames, but it frustrates me endlessly that anyone takes her seriously, or that this kind of homophobia is tolerated at all.

Jake Gyllenhaal says he is not Gay*, but that He is Done Pot.

According to new reports, Jake Gyllenhaal is a huge pot smoker and that is what led Reese Witherspoon to break up with him and move on with Jim Toth. *He also said that he was not gay, but since he is an actor he is done a little of everything, particularly pot.

f833b38d38rtless Jake Gyllenhaal’s Weed Habit Caused Reese Witherspoon Split

Anne Rice Ditches Christianity Because, Have You Heard, It's So Anti-Gay?

Anne Rice, the best-selling author and mother to gay mystery novelist Christopher Rice, is quitting Christianity, she announced on Facebook. But why?

Because after 10 years of trying, she can't reconcile being a Christian and being anti-gay (and anti-a-lot-of-everything), which so often the faith calls for. You know, because she loves her son more than Jesus.

Rice famously swapped out vampire writing for stories about angels and god after becoming more invested in Christianity, saying, "The day to day differences in my life now that I am writing for the Lord are that I am consumed only with research and other fiction that will be of help to me with this vocation. I simply give no time to other themes. —- I consecrate each day to Christ, I try to remind myself to love each and every person I encounter, to hurt no one, to embrace all, and to use my imagination for novels which will reflect and even put forth my Christian principles and beliefs."

No more of that.

Site To List State Lawmakers' Stances On Gay Marriage

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF
PUBLISHED: JULY 29, 2010

A gay marriage site that documents the views of state governors and federal lawmakers on the issue will begin adding state lawmakers to the list.

After creating a comprehensive online database of all 50 governors, 100 senators and 435 representatives, StatesThatAllowGayMarriage.com is ready to add state lawmakers to their list.

Representatives from the website said Thursday the action was important because most of the “expansions of equal marriage rights have taken place at the state level.”

“Until StatesThatAllowGayMarriage.com launched, there was no one place you could go to find this information,” Michael Zuyus, founder of the website, said. “We want to make it easy for people to get the information they need in order to support candidates who will vote for marriage rights in their state.”

Zuyus said the website will begin with New Jersey, Rhode Island and Maine, states with an ongoing vigorous debate on gay marriage.

In New Jersey, gay couples are suing for the right to marry after lawmakers rejected a gay marriage bill in January. Voters in Maine repealed last November a gay marriage law approved by lawmakers. And gay marriage is a pivotal gubernatorial issue in Rhode Island, where gay activists are working overtime to put a supporter in the Governor's Mansion.

Rush Limbaugh Says He Shares Elton John's View On Gay Marriage

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF
PUBLISHED: JULY 29, 2010

Controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday that he shares Elton John's view on gay marriage.

John made headlines earlier in the week when he snubbed a boycott of Arizona and performed in Tucson. Gay groups the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce are among the groups that called for the boycott after state lawmakers approved an immigration law the groups say will lead to “racial profiling, discrimination and anti-immigrant extremism.” (A federal judge on Wednesday blocked some of the law's most controversial provisions from taking effect.)

John said he was pleased to be playing in Arizona and then called musicians honoring the boycott “fuck wits.”

“Let's face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what the fuck's up with these people?” the 63-year-old singer-songwriter told the crowd.

Reports in the media went on to say that the openly gay singer drew the ire of gay rights groups last month when he accepted a $1 million paycheck for performing at the wedding of Limbaugh, who has a long track record of demeaning minorities, including the LGBT community. John entered a civil partnership in the UK with filmmaker David Furnish in 2005.

Before playing a clip from ABC's The View, where former Fox News anchor E.D. Hill (refereed to as the “infobabe” by Limbaugh) is heard saying that John is “all about the money,” Limbaugh says that he and John share similar views on gay marriage.

“Elton John is not married to David Furnish, and Elton John is not a supporter of gay marriage,” Limbaugh tells his audience. “Elton John is on the same page as I am, as is Obama on gay marriage. He's for civil unions, but he's not for marriage.”

“Of course it had to be mentioned in the story that Elton John played my wedding reception ... even though I am 'vehemently anti-gay marriage and Elton John is married,'” he said, then added, “He's not.”

While John's civil partnership is not a marriage, the institution is looking more like marriage everyday. The British government is considering a proposal that would allow civil partnership ceremonies to include religious elements, a main distinction between the two institutions. And earlier in the year, the government lifted a ban on gay unions in churches and other places of worship.

Gay Men in the U.K. and the U.S. Differ in Definitions of Sex

By Celeste Lavin, 365gay.com
07.28.2010 12:37pm EDT

A recent study conducted by the Kinsey Institute found that gay men in the U.K. and the U.S. define having “had sex” differently.

The study, published in the July issue of the journal AIDS Care, compared 180 gay men in the U.K. ages 18 to 56 to190 gay men in the U.S. ages 18 to 74.

While nearly all agreed that penile-anal intercourse constituted having “had sex,” opinions differed when it came to other interpretations of sex.

Gay men in the U.K. were found to have a broader definition of sex.

Of the U.K. gay men, 84.9 percent agreed that giving oral-genital stimulation constituted sex, compared to 71.6 percent of U.S. gay men.

Fewer men defined giving and receiving oral-anal stimulation as having “had sex,” with 78.4 percent of U.K. gay men defining it this way, and 61.2 percent of U.S. gay men.

Giving and receiving manual-anal stimulation was called sex by 70.9 percent of the U.K. men, while just 53.4 percent of the U.S. men agreed.

The greatest difference in interpretation of what constitutes having “had sex” was how gay men viewed giving and receiving sex toy stimulation. While 77.1 percent of U.K. gay men saw this stimulation as sex, only 55 percent of U.S. gay men agreed

Subjects’ definitions of having “had sex” has implications for the health world because it affects men’s number of reported “sexual partners” and frequency of “sexual encounters,” two inquiries often made by doctors about patients’ sexual health.

Lead author of the study, Brandon Hill, a researcher at the Kinsey Institute said, “It is important for researchers and clinicians not to assume that their definition of ’sex’ is shared by their participant or patient, and to use behaviorally specific criteria when conducting sex-behavior assessments, especially when assessing risk of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infection transmission.”

A New Social Google Service?

There's a lot of speculation about a new Google service called "Google Me" that is supposed to compete with Facebook. Most likely, the service will expand the already existing profiles and activity streams, while adding support for social apps.

Wall Street Journal reports that Google has been in discussion with companies that develop social games for Facebook. "Google is in talks with several makers of popular online games as it seeks to develop a broader social-networking service that could compete with Facebook, according to people familiar with the matter."

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, said that "the world doesn't need a copy of the same thing", suggesting that Google won't try to imitate Facebook. It's clear that Google hasn't anticipated Facebook's success, placed losing bets and efforts like OpenSocial couldn't save Facebook's competitors from extinction.

Now that people spend a lot of time online using Facebook and find information filtered by their friends, even Google's search engine can become less useful. A lot of information is trapped inside Facebook: social connections, status messages, discussions and Google can't use most of the data to improve the relevance of search results.

Google has been more concerned with creating open standards for building social apps, for delivering real-time notifications, for public preferences, aggregating social graph data, but it didn't manage to build a coherent user experience that links all these pieces.

July 28, 2010

Inception hunk Tom Hardy admits: 'I've had sexual relations with men' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1298384/Inception-hunk-Tom-Hardy-admits-Ive-sexual-relations-men.html#ixzz0v2IrgztS

Inception hunk Tom Hardy admits: 'I've had sexual relations with men'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 5:25 PM on 28th July 2010

Engaged: Tom Hardy and fiancee Charlotte Riley at the Inception premiere in London earlier this month

Hollywood heart-throb Tom Hardy has revealed he had a string of gay flings as a teenager.

The 32-year-old Inception star, who is engaged to British actress Charlotte Riley, 28, and also has a two-year-old son with a former girlfriend

But asked if he'd ever had any sexual relations with other men, the broody actor said: 'As a boy? Of course I have. I'm an actor for ****'s sake.

'I've played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I'm in my thirties, it doesn't do it for me.

More...

Make-up free Megan Fox enjoys romantic lunch with new husband Brian Green

'I'm done experimenting but there's plenty of stuff in a relationship with another man, especially gay men, that I need in my life.

'A lot of gay men get my thing for shoes. I have definite feminine qualities and a lot of gay men are incredibly masculine.'

London-born Tom found big-screen fame with Star Trek Nemesis, and in the 2009 hit Bronson, where he played the notoriously violent criminal Charles Bronson to critical acclaim.

In Guy Ritchie's hit Rock'n'Rolla he starred as gay gangster Handsome Bob, and had a crush on Scottish hearthrob Gerard Butler.

He then starred as Heathcliffe in a BBC remake of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, where he met stunning fiancée Charlotte.

In an interview with Now magazine, the former party-boy who has battled drink, drugs and crime to turn his life around, added: 'A lot of people say I seem masculine, but I don't feel it.

'I feel intrinsically feminine. I'd love to be one of the boys but I always felt a bit on the outside.

'Maybe my masculine qualities come from overcompensating because I'm not one of the boys.'

Universities Can Ban Students Who Refuse To Treat Gay Patients As Normal Human Beings: Judge

Eastern Michigan University can kick out students in its counselor program who refuse to treat gay patients without telling them what they're doing is disgusting, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Julea Ward (pictured) was axed from EMU's graduate counseling program in March 2009 for, according to her attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund, "not affirming homosexual behavior as morally acceptable." The school requires counselors in training to accept gay clients — but Ward said instead she'd refer those clients to another counselor, because she could not treat them according to her religious beliefs. As Inside Higher Ed points out:

Eastern Michigan's counseling program — like many others — requires its students to practice in ways that are consistent with the counseling association's ethics code, including requirements that bar behavior that reflects an "inability to tolerate different points of view," "imposing values" on clients or discrimination based on a number of factors, including sexual orientation. The counseling association does permit referrals, but they are supposed to be for the good of the client, not for the comfort of the counselor. Typically, a referral that would be seen as legitimate might involve a counselor referring someone to a colleague with expertise on a particular problem.
Ametrano, the Eastern Michigan professor, who was on the review panel that expelled Ward, said that the requirements that counselors work with clients of a range of views and background are essential. She noted that counselors regularly work with clients who make decisions about such matters as birth control, sex, drug use, abortion and many other choices that a counselor may or may not support. And clients come from a variety of backgrounds and sexual orientations. A counselor can't be effective, she said, with litmus tests on who may be helped.

U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh issued a 48-page summary judgment in favor of EMU in the lawsuit filed in April 2009, saying the school's requirements — and adherence to the American Counseling Association's ethics code — didn't infringe on her right to religious expression, free expression, due process or equal protection. Says EMU in response: "We are pleased that the court has upheld our position in this matter. Julea Ward was not discriminated against because of her religion. To the contrary, Eastern Michigan is deeply committed to the education of our students and welcomes individuals from diverse backgrounds into our community."

Sounds like Jennifer Keeton, the Augusta State University student kicked out of her counseling program for the same reason, and who the Alliance Defense Fund is also representing, was just dealt quite the uphill battle.

Ireland Is Nearly There!

by Jason Shaw

Nearly There! Claims Irish Senator David Norris! The Irish politician is talking about Gay Equality!

Senator David Norris, a human rights campaigner in the Republic of Ireland, who is the first openly gay person to get elected to office in Ireland, spoke out before an Amnesty International Belfast Pride lecture on Monday this week.

“The recent passage of the Civil Partnership Bill by the Oireachtas in Dublin represents a very significant advance. It was a victory, not for gay people, but rather a victory for decency and for this country as a whole” He said, “It is clear that we are very nearly there in terms of the accomplishment of full human and civil rights of gay people in Ireland, both north and south. But we are not there yet”

“Despite such victories, sadly there is still prejudice against the gay community – including among those active in public life in Northern Ireland. We must continue to work to ensure human rights for all people and to educate others that equality is a right not a threat.

“It is crucial that we do not shed our concerns for others throughout the world who live in less favourable circumstances and whose sexual orientation places them every day in danger of being murdered, either by members of the public or by their governments.”

Amnesty International is asking people to support its ‘Love is a Human Right’ campaign during Belfast Pride week that starts this week.

Jason Shaw

GayAgenda.com’s UK Correspondent.

Study Finds Pre-Exposure (PrEP) Is Safe in Gay and Bi Men

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir (found in Viread, Truvada and Atripla) is safe for men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a U.S. study presented Friday, July 23, at the XVIII International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Vienna.

PrEP is one of the most promising prevention tools on the immediate horizon. With PrEP, HIV-negative individuals take antiretroviral drugs to prevent becoming infected with the virus. The first PrEP studies are testing tenofovir alone (Viread), while several later studies are testing tenofovir plus emtricitabine (Truvada). Currently, all studies are looking at daily ongoing use of the drugs, but future trials are planned with intermittent dosing. The first efficacy results are expected later this year, but researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta presented findings from a safety study at this year’s IAC.

For that study, CDC-4323, Lisa Grohskopf, MD, from the CDC and her colleagues enrolled 400 HIV-negative MSM. All reported having had anal sex with a man at least once during the previous year. The men were recruited in Atlanta, San Francisco and Boston. The majority were white, while 15 percent were African American, 9 percent were Hispanic and 4 percent were Asian or Pacific Islanders. Ultimately, 373 completed the course of the study.

There were four arms of the study. Half of the men in the study began taking tenofovir or a placebo right away. The second half were followed without study drugs for nine months and then given tenofovir or a placebo. This helped the researchers better understand how a person’s risk behavior might change after beginning to take PrEP. The study was not designed to determine whether tenofovir could prevent HIV transmission, only whether or not it was safe compared with a placebo. All of the men were tested for HIV regularly and received rigorous HIV prevention counseling and condoms throughout the study.

Grohskopf and her colleagues found that men taking tenofovir had no more side effects than men taking a placebo. Two side effects of primary concern have been kidney and bone problems, which has been found in a small number of people with HIV who have taken the drug as treatment. Grohskopf’s team measured the men’s creatinine clearance—a measure of kidney function—and did bone scans to detect any potential problems in that regard. The team found no additional kidney or bone problems in those taking tenofovir, compared with a placebo.

CDC-4323 was also designed to measure how the participants’ HIV risk behavior changed during the study. Though data on this issue is still being analyzed, Grohskopf reported that a preliminary analysis found that taking PrEP did not appear to lead study participants to forgo condoms or take other HIV risks.

“We didn’t find any increased risk of harm in medical terms, and on the behavioral side the preliminary work we’ve done also suggests there is no increased risk,” Grohskopf told Reuters News.

Given the promising results from a large tenofovir microbicide study—with a 39 percent reduction in HIV transmissions in women who used the tenofovir gel—establishing the safety of oral tenofovir provides even more hope that this strategy could be employed if the efficacy studies are successful.

David EvansAIDSMEDS...

http://www.actup.org

July 27, 2010

98% of Rome’s Priests Are Gay

98% of Rome’s Priests Are Gay
by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca‚ Jul. 27‚ 2010

The Pope must be having a lot of sleepless nights these days. Especially now that Panorama, a magazine owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has just published an exposé on the secret lives of

Rome’s gay priests.

They’re not sitting home saying the rosary. Nor are they molesting children, as one might think, given how the Vatican has tried its best to push its ongoing sex with kids scandal onto the backs of gay priests.

Instead, these priests are enjoying the gay night life that the city offers -- visiting bars and having consensual sex with other adults.

The article, which is the cover story, is entitled “Le notti brave dei preti gay” (The good nights of gay priests) and is illustrated by a photo of a man’s praying hands with a rosary slung over them and his fingernails painted pink.

The sensationalistic (think National Enquirer) “inchiesta” (investigation) looks at “priests that attend parties with “escort uomini” (male escorts); that have “rapporti omosessuali” (homosexual relationships) with “partner casuali” (casual partners); and that frequent online chats and gay nightspots. For “venti giorni” (20 days) reporter Carmelo Abbate, accompanied by a gay tour guide, followed the adventures of priests “perfectly integrated in the homosexual atmosphere of the capital.”

Using hidden cameras, the magazine caught a French priest (identified as Father Paul, a name given him to protect his identity) at a party (which featured two “escort uomini”) wearing a dog collar and no pants. He is seen on the publication’s website sans trousers with the reporter’s gay guide. In one photo, their bodies are entwined. Maybe they’re practicing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Other gay priests are also seen locking lips with the tour guide.

Incidentally, Father Paul said Mass the next morning and then took the male escorts to the airport. On the Vatican’s dime, no doubt.

Gay priests are apparently not a rarity in Rome. Father Carlo (another fake name) told the magazine that 98% of the priests in the “Holy City” are queer. He sat with the reporter at a restaurant frequented by gays and pointed out a male couple in which one was a priest. Afterwards, he led the tour guide to his apartment and they had “un rapporto sessuale” (a sexual encounter).

Rome’s diocese immediately denounced the publication, saying that its purpose was “to create scandal (and) defame all priests.” It also said that gay priests should come out of the closet and then exit the priesthood. They “ought not to have become priests,” the diocese proclaimed.

But as gay activist Franco Grillini, a former MP, observed: “If all the gays in the Catholic church were to leave it at once--something we would very much like -- they would cause it serious operational problems.” Especially in Rome.

Maybe Pope Benedict XVI should lighten up and remember the old saying: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is co-editor of Avanti Popolo: Italians Sailing Beyond Columbus, and editor of Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, which has been nominated for both an American Library Association and a Lambda Literary award. His website is www.avicollimecca.com.