SACRAMENTO: Thousands Of Bigots Gather To Pray Against Gay Rights

Dominionist, extremist, Christofascist preacher Lou Engle gathered several thousand bigots in California's capital today to pray against same-sex marriage and for "authority over Jezebel and San Francisco values."

The Sacramento event, Engle said, helped to highlight immoral laws being passed out of the Capitol and called on traditional marriage to be restored. "If marriage is going to be upheld between a man and a woman, which we believe is the best for families and children and society, then right now, it seems we need divine intervention," Engle said in an interview between appearances on stage. "That's part of the reason we're coming here, to pray, but also to take a stand and be a prophetic voice to stand for truth."

The above-linked story notes that "offering stations" were set up throughout the audience. Jackpot. Another Lexus for Lou Engle, who, should you have forgotten, is one of the American evangelists responsible for Uganda's "kill gays" bill.

UPDATE: JMG reader Andy sends us the "trailer" for yesterday's event. Scary.

Afternoon View - Staten Island Ferry

Crazy Chuck Norris Wants To Make Sure All Crazy Gun Nuts Get Out And Vote

At least everyone is dressed like a convict.

The Future Is In Helvetica

Craigslist Pulls Hooker Ads

Following a complaint filed by seventeen state Attorneys General last week, Craigslist has pulled its Adult Services section.

Craigslist did not announce the move and its blog was not updated as of Saturday morning. Craigslist did not immediately respond to email and voice mail messages seeking comment. The change comes as the service faces growing pressure in the U.S. over sex services advertised on its classifieds network, as well as allegations that it abets in human sex trafficking. The stakes were raised again last week, when the company received a letter from 17 state attorneys general demanding it immediately shut down its adult services listing, citing the case of two girls who said last month that they were trafficked for sex through the site. If Craigslist has bowed to public pressure that would signal a major shift in the company’s strategy. According the AIM Group, Craigslist’s adult services section accounts for 30 percent of its overall revenue — a projected $36.6 million in 2010 out of $122 million. More than half the company’s revenue comes from recruitment advertising and about 17 percent (almost $21 million) comes from apartment ads in New York City, the AIM Group estimates.

Eccentric Robbery Witness Song

The Gregory Brothers have their usual fun, this time with the witness to a convenience store robbery. The original news clip is first. BTW, their last such effort, the Bed Intruder Song, actually made the Billboard charts and topped iTunes.

First Medical Marijuana Ad Airs In CA

Cue Veruca Salt

Want, want, want.

(Tipped by JMG reader Daddy Ray)

New York Times Outs Christwire

Today the New York Times does what numerous other publications have tried and failed to do, they've gotten the guys behind Christwire to come clean.

Christwire has lately reached new levels of popularity, in part thanks to an Aug. 14 column, “Is My Husband Gay?” Written by Stephenson Billings, the piece is a 15-point checklist to help wives diagnose possibly closeted husbands. “Gym membership but no interest in sports” is one warning sign. So is “Sassy, sarcastic and ironic around his friends” and “Love of pop culture.” “Is My Husband Gay?” was picked up on The Huffington Post and mentioned by Ryan Seacrest on his radio show; so far it has been viewed 8.3 million times. Oh, by the way: Christwire is all one big joke. Not the readership — which hit a high of 27 million page views in August — but the content, the opinions and the fake authors who write the stuff. (There is no “Stephenson Billings.”) Neither of the two founders is a conservative Christian. They are just like-minded 28-year-olds who met on the Internet, have never seen each other in person, and until this week had never given their real identities to a reporter. Bryan Butvidas is a software developer who works out of his house in Southern California. Kirwin Watson is a former Pepperdine student who moved back home in Kansas, where he now works “on the patient-care staff” of a local hospital. According to phone interviews with both men, they met online in 2005, when both were contributing to the news aggregator Shoutwire.com.

I've exchanged some emails with the guy writing as Stephenson Billings, who remains anonymous in the Times article. Last week another well-known New York publication wrote me several times in an attempt to divine Billings' true identity, asking me if he ever "broke character" during our email exchanges.

Sam Seder At Whitestock 2010

Racists? Where? Oh, I see them.

Michael Luongo Returns To Baghdad

This week Gay City News launches a four-part series from Michael Luongo in which he examines "what changed and what didn't" since he last investigated gay life in Iraq in 2007. Here's an excerpt from the first installment:

This visit would be full of stark contrasts. It was as if there were two different Baghdads — at least. I would interview men from Sadr City, one of the poorest, most dangerous districts, who talked about friends killed by sprays of bullets in drive-by shootings, their gathering places firebombed, their names posted on lists, others raped and disappeared by militia-infested police squadrons at checkpoints. I would see a hospital where the bodies of gay men had been dumped, their anuses closed shut from a heavy glue used to torture them. I would visit a safe house, chatting with gay men and transgender Iraqis who hid for safety, yet at the same time were welcoming and life-affirming, teaching me gay Arabic slang and joking about sex with gay Saddam-look-alikes.

And I would meet other men from different parts of Baghdad, young, fashionable, masculine, with far less to fear, who did in fact cruise along the colorful banks of the Tigris on Abu Nuwaz Street and spend their evenings at fashionable cafés popular among gays in West Baghdad, flirting with men they met through the website Manjam as they sat back in comfortable seats visible from the street. I would grow to fall in love with a newly vibrant Baghdad. Not that I didn’t still have much to fear as a visiting gay journalist — from conversations that could be tapped to entrapment, spies, and the bullets of panicked Iraqi soldiers.

Read the entire first installment.

Pitchfork's Top 20 Singles Of The '90s

The Stranger points us to Pitchfork Magazine's top 20 tracks of the 1990's. The only entry I'd agree with is Mazzy Star, but then again I've never even heard of half of this list. The full Top 200 list and Pitchfork's reasoning on each can be found here.

DNC Issues Attack On Hooker Patron GOP Sen. David "Diaper Boy" Vitter

Last week Sen. David "Diaper Boy" Vitter easily won the GOP primary in Louisiana despite having been named in 2007 as a regular patron of the famed DC Madam. Vitter later admitted to patronizing prostitutes and committing adultery, but since he's a hard-right conservative "sanctity of marriage" defender, the GOP has given him a pass. Watch the DNC's "suspense thriller" about Vitter's secret life.

Sen. Gillibrand On DADT Repeal

Good As You tips us to this In The Life segment in which Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand talks to two victims of DADT. Gillibrand remains one of the staunchest Senate proponents of the repeal of DADT.

Sirius XM At 2pm: Michelangelo Signorile Hosts Special Panel On Ethics Of Outing

On SiriusOutQ at 2pm today, Michelangelo Signorile hosts a special discussion on the ethics of outing. The show will be broadcast live from the convention of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.

Our panel includes Mike Rogers of Blogactive, who was at the forefront of reporting on Senator Larry Craig, Congressman Mark Foley, Ken Mehlman and many others; LZ Granderson, columnist for ESPN Page 2, host of the web-based ESPN360 talk show “Game Night” and a frequent commentator for CNN.com; and Michael Triplett, a contributor for the media analysis site Mediaite, assistant chief of correspondents for the Bureau of National Affairs, and a board member of NLGJA. They and other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender NLGJA members in the audience, journalists from across the country, will be participating, asking questions and commenting, as will be listeners from coast to coast calling in.

You can stream the show online for free. (Registration required.)

Massive Quake Rocks New Zealand

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake centered near Christchurch rocked New Zealand today. The quake hit at 4:30am Saturday morning local time and initial press reports are light on details so far. Aftershocks are continuing. As is the case for breaking news these days, Twitter users are providing the most information. It appears that tsunami warnings have not been issued.

CALIFORNIA: Meg Whitman Dismissed As Juror In Child Molestation Case

California GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has been dismissed as a potential juror in a child molestation case after telling the court that she could not give the case her "100% best" due to the campaign. The accused man is alleged to have molested several boys, leading attorneys to ridiculously ask the potential jurors if they feel that homosexuality is "a crime or a sin." Whitman's response to that question is not noted in the above-linked news story.

Not missing an opportunity to slam gays, the repulsive asshats at California For Marriage have tweeted the story this way: "Meg Whitman dismissed as juror in homosexual child-molestation case."

Scissor Sisters To Open For Lady Gaga

Scissor Sisters have been tapped to open for Lady Gaga during the second leg of her U.S. tour, which launches in February. Dates include two nights at Madison Square Garden. Get tickets here.

Röyksopp - The Drug

Filmed in the ruins of Detroit. Strange even by their standards.

Gay-Baiting, Not Gay-Baiting

The Advocate wonders if Sarah Palin's blow-up at Vanity Fair over their hit piece on her wasn't deliberately loaded with words meant to attack the sexuality of its author.

Is Sarah Palin using code words to slam gay journalist Michael Joseph Gross, a frequent Advocate contributor who wrote the much-buzzed-about profile of the former vice presidential nominee in this month’s Vanity Fair? Palin didn’t mention Gross by name while talking Thursday on Sean Hannity’s WABC radio show, but she seemed to be referring to the article — and pointedly used emasculating words that have long been used as euphemisms for homosexuality — when she called reporters who publish “rumors” about her “impotent,” “limp,” and “gutless.”

GOProud director Chris Barron rushes to Palin's defense.

"It is The Advocate, not Sarah Palin, who is guilty of ‘gay-baiting.’ I don’t think most people associate the words ‘impotent,’ ‘limp,’ or ‘gutless’ with being gay – I know I certainly don’t. If the folks at The Advocate think these words are euphemisms for being gay or lesbian then I think that speaks volumes about their own internalized homophobia. Governor Palin was absolutely right to use the words she chose to describe the pathetic hatchet job penned by Mr. Gross."

Backstage At The Jan Brewer Debate

Tweet Of The Day - Louis CK

Comedian Louis CK got his in-flight drunk on and went a little crazy on Twitter. Bravely, he has not (yet) deleted all the hilarious messiness about Sarah Palin, although the tweets in which he claimed to have blown 32 cops are now gone.

9/11 Truthers Launch TV Campaign

The so-called 9/11 Truthers, who believe that the U.S. government secretly plotted the attack on New York City, have launched a fundraising campaign to place the below ad on national television.

Fans Brawl At U.S. Open

Fans descended on a young man at the U.S. Open yesterday after he argued with a woman seated near him. Watch what happens after the woman's elderly father comes to her defense. Huffington Post has the incident from another angle. Apparently it all started because the younger man was shouting obscenities at the players.

Bugging Teenagers

A "mosquito" device has been installed at the Chinatown entrance to DC's Metro system in hopes that its shrill tone will drive away lingering teenagers. The sound is only audible to young people.

Similar devices have been installed in Britain with the same purpose of discouraging young people from congregating outside shops. According to Councilmember Jack Evans, the founder of the Gallery Place development had the device installed on his company's Gallery Place building. These devices are wrong and most likely illegal as well. This device was placed at a popular Metro entrance and just a few feet from a popular bus stop. Toddlers, teenagers, and young adults waiting for the bus or emerging from the Metro will now have to endure a shrill screech purposely aimed at annoying them and driving them away.

According to the above-linked story, such devices may violate the DC Human Rights Act. Many teens install the sound as their cellphone ringtone so that adults (usually teachers) can't hear their phone ringing. The below clip demonstrates the frequencies which cannot be heard by older people.

Maddow On Jan Brewer's Meltdown

Hillary 2012 Ad

The below clip began running on New Orleans television this week.

A Chicago dentist has launched the 2012 presidential campaign a smidge early by running a pro-Hillary ad on television, reports CNN. The 30-second spot, paid for by William DeJean, says Clinton has "more experience working in and with the White House than most living presidents" and is "one of the most admired women" in America's history. "Let's make sure the president we should have elected in 2008 will be on the ballot in 2012," it says. The $5,000 advertisement has run in New Orleans and may soon hit Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, notes CNN. Clinton, who has said she won't run for president, has not commented on the science fiction-esque spot. As for why DeJean aired it so early, perhaps the ad's final lines are a clue: "Start Now. Where there's a Hill there's a way."

Earl Downgraded To Category Two

Attack Of The Flash Mob

Broadway Friday

-Openly lesbian Tony winner Cherry Jones (Doubt) begins previews tonight in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. Opening night is October 3rd.

-Next Sunday (Sept. 12) La Cage Aux Folles lead Kelsey Grammer hosts the annual Broadway On Broadway spectacular in which the casts of more than two dozen hit Broadway shows perform for free in Times Square to the accompaniment of a 30-piece orchestra. Arrive by 11am (or earlier) for a good view as Times Square will be mobbed blocks deep in front of the stage. Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes will perform New York State Of Mind for the finale.

-AbFab's Jennifer Saunders is collaborating with Mamma Mia! mastermind Judy Cramer on Spice Girls: The Musical, which "won't be a tribute or bio show, nor will it feature characters with any of the names of the famous five-piece." OK, then.

-John Paragon (the original Jambi) and Lynne Marie Stewart (the original Miss Yvonne) have been cast for the "re-imagined" Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway. Mekka-lekka-hi.

-Stephen Sondheim's 1981 bomb Merrily We Roll Along opens tonight at Fire Island Pine's Whyte Hall. Get tickets here.

-The Broadway debut of the WWII gay love story Yank! has been postponed until the fall of 2011. The show played Off Broadway last year to (mostly) rave reviews.

-Kenny Solms' gay comedy/musical It Must Be Him opened Off Broadway this week at Playwrights Horizon. Emmy nominee Peter Scolari (Newhart) stars. Get tickets here.

-Prostitution whores! On Thursday the cast of Real Housewives Of New Jersey kicked off a four night sold-out appearance in Off Broadway's My Big Gay Italian Wedding. Teresa Giudice, Ashley Holmes, Jacqueline Laurita, Caroline Manzo and Lauren Manzo return to the show for four more appearances beginning on October 20th. Get tickets here.

Drag Jan Brewer Debate Train Wreck!

Sarah Palin: Lamestream Yellow Journalists Are Impotent, Limp, Gutless

That epic Vanity Fair slam piece really must have hit home with Mama Dizzily, judging by how hysterically shrill she's gotten about it. Enjoy beginning at 4:00.

Fire Island Ferries To Be Suspended

I'm being told that Fire Island's ferry service will be suspended at 3pm tomorrow and will resume sometime on Saturday. Tough break for those hoping to get out there after work tomorrow. But stay tuned, they may change their minds again.

UPDATE: You might still be able to get to the Pines and Cherry Grove if you get there quick enough after work. For now.

Fire Island Ferries will suspend service from Bay Shore at 3 p.m. tomorrow. It said ferries would resume early on Saturday, Sept. 4, once conditions improve. The Sayville Ferry Company told the News the 7 and 8 p.m. ferries to the Fire Island Pines tomorrow night are canceled. Ferries to Cherry Grove remain unaffected as of this posting. Ferries to Sailors Haven and Watch Hill have also been cancelled, and the campground in Watch Hill will remain closed tonight and tomorrow night. Davis Park-bound ferries will continue to run (at least for the time being). “We’re going to try and run as many ferries as we can,” said an operator at the Davis Park Ferry Company.

DENIED: Appeals Court Rejects Attempt To Force State Defense Of Prop 8

The California Court of Appeals has just denied the attempt to force Schwarzenegger and Brown to defend Proposition 8. "Petition summarily denied by order." The suit was brought by the anti-gay Pacific Justice Institute on behalf of Pastor Joshua Beckley, with a supportive brief from former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese. The court's full ruling should be posted here by the end of the day.

The Luckiest Girl In The World

Walgreens, Second Avenue, 12:30pm

Chick 1: Flu shots, $25. I guess it's that time again.

Chick 2: Richard got me one for my birthday last year.

Chick 1: You're joking.

Chick 2: Plus dinner at Olive Garden.

Chick 1: You're joking.

Chick 2: I am the luckiest girl in the world.

GLAAD's Jarrett Barrios To Divorce

GLAAD executive director Jarrett Barrios, seen above with his sons, announced today that he is divorcing his husband. Together for sixteen years, the pair married in Massachusetts almost six years ago. Barrios made the revelation in a lengthy Boston Globe editorial today.

As our families continue the march towards equality, the gay and lesbian community often doesn’t talk about divorce, even though some of the most important protections associated with marriage are exercised at the end of a relationship — protections that help the more economically vulnerable partner, give a formula for sharing the care of the children, and establish how two people can disentangle a life’s worth of acquisitions, compromises, and dreams. Just as gay and lesbian couples share the joys of marriage, we will share the pain of divorce, something for which we have no template. Divorce plumbs impossible depths of sadness. It involves separating the dishes and the books and all the other things you acquired back when you both still felt the lightness of love, asserting to a judge at a public trial that, yes, your marriage has broken down irretrievably, and telling your parents whose marriage of 47 years hangs heavy over your anemic explanations to them.

Joe Solmonese Clarifies On Mehlman

After reading last night's JMG post about his Hardball appearance, HRC head Joe Solmonese sends us this clarification on his position on Ken Mehlman.

"As the community has digested the news of Ken Mehlman’s coming out, I believe it’s important for us to move forward and use this opportunity to expand the circle of Americans supporting marriage equality. Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews I gave a short answer regarding Ken’s coming out saying, ‘the past is the past.’ While I do believe we have to turn the page at some point, I should have given a more thorough response saying that we cannot forget the past and while many are finding it hard to forgive, our future is far more important."

Jukebox The Ghost - Schizophrenic

Here's Jukebox The Ghost's Letterman performance from last night which I raved about in today's open thread. Watch this now, their label's Sales Prevention Team will probably get it pulled from YouTube. Song of the year for me, so far.

Inside The Gay Brain

Over at Box Turtle Bulletin Rob Tisinai tips us to this fascinating BBC clip in which openly gay actor John Barrowman undergoes a brain scan while looking at nude images of men and women. Researchers can conclude the primary sexual orientation of their subjects by measuring the brain's electrical responses as the images are viewed. We hereby issue an open challenge to Peter LaBarbera, Matt Barber and Charlie Crist to undergo this test!

Jan Brewer Debate Train Wreck

Cornhole 4 The Cure

Perhaps unaware of its other meaning, perhaps not unaware, two men in Memphis are staging cancer fundraisers around the classic country fair game cornhole.

"We just started playing the game cornhole," Spurlin said. "It's just a bean bag toss game. Then, we decided why not make some cornhole boards? My mother-in-law makes the bags for us." That was the beginning of 'Cornhole 4 the Cure,' which in just six weeks has developed into a website and weekly tournament. Games are held every Wednesday night at the Boiling Point restaurant in Southaven. "The purpose is we're raising money for St. Jude," Spurlin said. "One hundred percent of our donations go to St, Jude and fifty percent of all proceeds go to St. Jude."

From a commenter on the linked news story: "I have told my wife for years that cornholing can help cure cancer but she didn't believe me, until I found this group. Now, everytime she objects to a cornholing session, I remind her of how many people might die as a result of her refusing to cornhole. So, whenever she tells me 'but I don't like it,' I have to remind her of what people with cancer are going through. Perspective, people. Perspective." You can watch people cornhole on the event's website.

Century 21 To Open In Lincoln Square

The Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side's Lincoln Square, longtime host to appearances by famous authors and classical music stars, will be replaced next fall by famed downtown discounter Century 21. The bookseller announced last week that it could no longer afford the area's sky-high rent and will close in January. So no more meet-n-greets with opera stars, but also no more schleps to Ground Zero for discount Dolce.

HomoQuotable - Sean Bugg

"We all bear responsibility for the choices we make, especially when one chooses to improve one's own life at the expense of others. Mehlman's plea for understanding that it was 'very hard, personally,' rings hollow when compared to the lives of those who chose to live their lives honestly, even when that choice ended careers or divided families.

"Choices have consequences. The consequences of Mehlman's choices are enshrined in the constitutions of multiple states -- including my own home state of Kentucky -- a web of treachery that will take decades to undo (absent a Supreme Court decision for marriage equality, which no one should hold their breath for).

"Where some may see in Mehlman a pragmatic tool for the hardball political arena, I see a political blood diamond, a commodity so tainted by its past that it's odious to employ in the present. The fight for LGBT equality has to be about more than political warfare, more than collecting checks from rich benefactors. Pragmatism has its place, yet so does principle. Mehlman may someday find redemption enough to cleanse the taint of his past, but that redemption should be earned, not bought." - Sean Bugg, writing for Metro Weekly.

Today In WTF

I guessing this is not real.

PhoboQuotable - Sally Kern

"Here in America we’ve had what maybe three known real big terrorist attacks on our nation. But every day our young people especially, all of us, but our young people especially are in a sense bombarded with the message that homosexuality is normal and natural." - Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern, repeating her 2009 claim that teh gay are worse than terrorism.

Kern's 2010 challenger is Brittany Novotny, whom you can support here.

El Diario Endorses Charlie Ramos

Amazing news: New York's largest Spanish-language newspaper has endorsed Charlie Ramos in his bid to unseat vile homophobe Sen. Ruben Diaz. From El Diario:

While the incumbent Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. has received attention for opposing marriage equality legislation, Ramos says that his votes against community interests and silence on notorious landlords are among the other issues that compelled him to run. Diaz’s narrow mindedness and grandstanding are inadequate for a district that deserves much more. The solid, consistent work of activists like Ramos would build up ample leaders and organizers poised to move a community forward. Vote for Ramos on September 14th.

Contribute to Charlie Ramos here.

Double Rainbow Guy For Windows Live

It's sort of amazing that they got him to do this.

Photo Of The Day - Chris Colfer

Glee's Chris Colfer made Rolling Stone's photo essay of this season's "best characters and most memorable scene-stealers." HELLO.

(Tipped by JMG reader Stacey)

New From Servicemembers United

Hurricane Earl Approaches

Hurricane Earl is moving slightly more to the northwest than had been predicted and evacuation orders have been expanded.

Changing Times On Marriage

New From AZ Gov. Jan Brewer

Points for working the Mexican flag in.

AUSTRALIA: Anti-Gay MP Fred Niles Caught In Pornography Scandal

Rev. Fred Niles, the longest-serving member of the New South Wales parliament and one of Australia's leading anti-gay activists, is front-page news in Sydney today after an audit revealed that he'd used his government computer to view pornography. A really LOT of pornography, it appears.

An audit of NSW parliamentary computers, which has already resulted in the resignation of a Labor minister, reportedly showed up to 200,000 suspect hits linked to Reverend Nile's parliamentary log-on. Today he admitted one of his staff members had viewed online porn "for just a few seconds" for research purposes. But he insisted neither he nor any member of his staff had been "sitting there perving". "My senior researcher has conducted a lot of research into the pornography industry at my request because we have bills dealing with increasing the ban on pornographic materials," he said. "I have not accessed or viewed any of those sites but my researcher has."

Niles claims that the porn hits came from links found on the site of the Australian Sex Party, a grassroots group formed to advocate for same-sex marriage. The Sex Party rejected Niles' claims as ridiculous and have called for his resignation. Niles has fought many LGBT rights laws in New South Wales and has called for abolishing the Sydney Mardi Gras as a "public parade of immorality and blasphemy."

(Tipped by JMG reader Dennis)

It's Come To This

Longtime Bay Area Reporter Columnist "Sweet Lips" Dies At Age 87

Bay Area Reporter columnist Richard Walters, who penned the paper's gossip and nightlife updates as "Sweet Lips" for the last 39 years, has died at the age of 87.

Sweet Lips and the late B.A.R. founding publisher Bob Ross were roommates when Sweet Lips started his self-described gossip column. Friends had helped with the column in recent years. Declining health led him to retire the column in June. Thomas E. Horn, the B.A.R.'s current publisher, called Sweet Lips "the Herb Caen of the LGBT community from the 1960s on," referring to the late, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist. For years, Sweet Lips wrote about people, bars, and events in San Francisco's Polk and Tenderloin areas. He worked in a few of the bars in the area. "When the Polkstrasse was the center of gay life in San Francisco, Lips knew every bartender, every club owner, most of the patrons, all of the cute boys, and, thus, most of the gossip of the community," said Horn in an e-mail. "He will always be a seminal part of gay history in San Francisco and will be particularly missed by his B.A.R. family," Horn added.

RELATED: The Bay Area Reporter lost another of its longtime writers last October when leather columnist Mister Marcus died at age 77 after penning his column for 38 years.

Taking Down NOM's Prop 8 Lies

AUSTRALIA: State Of New South Wales Approves Gay Adoption

Today the legislature of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, narrowly approved adoption rights for same-sex couples. Sydney is the state capital.

Members of the New South Wales state parliament voted 46-44 in favour of removing discriminatory clauses in the Adoption Act. In two other jurisdictions, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, gay adoption is already legal. The debate on the bill lasted four days and drew a crowd of 200 protestors to Sydney’s Parliament House. David Clarke, who led the protest, argued that his supporters were not motivated by their religious creed. “This has nothing to do with religion,” he said. “This is about morality and this is about the rights of children.” Devout Catholic Kristina Keneally, the premier of New South Wales, supported the bill. “In forming my position on this bill, I have considered my experiences as a mother, my responsibilities as a parliamentarian and my conscience as a Christian and member of the Catholic faith,” she said.

This is the second win for LGBT rights in Australia this week. On Monday the island state of Tasmania recognized same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions.

Focus On The Family Defends Their Fight Against Anti-Bullying Programs

Happy 9-02-10 Day

Let the traditional celebrations commence.

California Senate Debate: Carly Fiorina Vs. Sen. Barbara Boxer On Gay Marriage

Fiorina recap: Marriage is between a man and a woman, blasts Judge Walker, supports civil unions, supports DOMA, supports repeal of DADT. "My position [on marriage] is consistent with that of the president."

Open Thread Thursday

We need some new tunes up in this here joint. What's blowing up your iPod right now?

UPDATE: OK, I just may have heard my favorite song of the YEAR tonight on Letterman. Below is Schizophrenic by the DC-based trio Jukebox The Ghost. Mika meets Scissor Sisters meets late 90's happy trance (sort of, in the piano runs, aging circuit boys will feel me.) Their new album comes out September 7th and you can stream the entire thing here. I totally want to gay-marry this record. And now I need to dance under the redwoods in Guerneville.

UPDATE II: I've removed the audio-only Jukebox The Ghost clip and posted the Letterman performance here.

HRC's Joe Solmonese And Some Log Cabin Guy On Ken Mehlman's Coming Out

Joe Solmonese: "The past is the past. We certainly don't have the luxury at this point in our movement to turn away any offer of help." No mention from either of them on the trail of hate crimes, homeless teens, suicides, and broken families left in the wake of vicious Mehlman-led anti-gay ballot measures in twenty-one states. The past is the past and Hitler liked dogs.

Click Away The GOP's Pennies

While I try to do something about these GOP and teabagger text-generated banner ads, feel free to go crazy clicking on them. I don't know what they have to pay-per-click, but maybe you'll feel better for having had to look at such garbage. (Clicks don't affect my end, btw.)

Shocking! Dumbassery At Whitestock!

(Via - Towleroad)

Homocon Tweet Of The Day - Gay Patriot

Meh, predictable. I wonder if GOProud would grant me press credentials for Homocon 2010? I want to photograph the Wealthy Gay White Right without their internet hoods.

UPDATE: We got our answer pretty quick! I asked for a single citation of the below ridiculous claim and got back empty sputtering. He's kind of having a fabulous meltdown if you enjoy watching such a trainwreck.

Earl Update: Fire Island May Be Evacuated

UPDATE: No evacuation is planned. Party on, gurls.Although forecasters are hoping for a mere sideswipe of the northeast, Suffolk County officials will announce later today whether they will call for a full evacuation of Fire Island, a process that authorities say takes eight to nine hours. I'll update this post when they make the call.

Anne Heche's Mom Publishes Anti-Gay Book With Levitical Call For Death To Gays

Ex-Gay Watch reports that Nancy Heche, mother of wacko actress Anne Heche, has co-authored an anti-gay compendium titled The Complete Christian Guide To Understanding Homosexuality.

Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche are listed as the general editors. Though most of the book is written by Joe Dallas and Nancy Heche, contributing authors are listed as: Alan Chambers, Paul Copan, Melisa Fryrear, Mike Haley, Bill Maier and Randy Thomas. All of whom, with the exception of Paul Copan (to my knowledge), are or were speakers at Love Won Out [Exodus International] conferences.

EGW notes that the book contains the usual Levitical call for homosexuals to be put to death. So why hasn't Nancy Heche murdered her daughter?

My interest in homosexuality can be traced to my 25-year marriage to a man who, unbeknownst to me, was living a secret second life as a homosexual. It was his AIDS diagnosis (and eventual death) that finally brought our the truth. Years later, I would be dealing with this issue again from a more public perspective as my daughter, actress Anne Heche, embarked on a well publicized lesbian affair [with Ellen Degeneres].

Remember, we know the Bible is true because it says so in the Bible.

BREAKING: Hostage Crisis At Discovery Channel Offices In DC

An armed man also thought to be carrying explosives is holding hostages at the Washington DC offices of the Discovery Channel. The man has apparently been previously arrested at the Discovery offices. His "manifesto" of demands has already been published online. An excerpt:

Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

The manifesto also calls for shows about finding the solution to global warming, unemployment, and lots more crazy. All the major TV networks are live on the situation.

UPDATE: The moderators at Free Republic are going crazy deleting every other post. Wonder what's being said, eh?

UPDATE II: The gunman is reportedly dead and all hostages are safe.

Glenn Beck-Laden

SAS To Host In-Flight Gay Wedding

Scandinavian Airlines wants to be the first to host an in-flight gay wedding and has launched a contest to find that couple. One proviso - the nuptials must take place in Swedish airspace in order to be legal.

"It will be a very traditional wedding," SAS spokesman Anders Lindstroem told AFP. "There will be wedding cake and dancing in the aisles." SAS is accepting entries from gay couples who wanted to celebrate their nuptials mid-flight from Stockholm to New York on December 6, with the winning entry will be chosen by an online vote. The airline said it would pay for the winners' tickets, hotels and honeymoon in Los Angeles, and cater the on-board banquet, albeit with a special wedding menu instead of normal passenger fare. Linstroem said SAS was playing catch-up to US airlines, who have spent years courting gay, lesbian and bisexuals in the United States with targeted marketing and sponsorship campaigns.

The airline does note that the ceremony will be held in the closed-off business class section so as "not to offend any other customers who may not approve." Well, boo to THAT part. Will there at least be a mile-high consummation?

Downtown Fiction - Fuck You

Lots of Cee-Lo covers are already popping up on YouTube.

The Kings Of Parkour

Tweet Of The Day - Matt Barber

Arch homophobe, closet case, "shemalevideo" lover, kidnapping accomplice, and Liberty Counsel lawyer Matt Barber would like you to know that the precise date of the universe's creation was October 23rd, 4004 BC. From World Nut Daily (of course):

How old is the world? Most people would say: "Nobody knows." But the author of the book frequently described as the greatest history book ever written, said the world was created Oct. 23, 4004 B.C. – making it exactly 6,014 next month. In the 1650s, an Anglican bishop named James Ussher published his "Annals of the World," subtitled, "The Origin of Time, and Continued to the Beginning of the Emperor Vespasian's Reign and the Total Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Commonwealth of the Jews." First published in Latin, it consisted of more than 1,600 pages. The book, now published in English for the first time, is a favorite of homeschoolers and those who take ancient history seriously.

How is this book "a favorite of homeschoolers" if it's never been published in English until now? Highly scientific minds can purchase said book from World Nut Daily (naturally) for a mere $69.99.

Quote Of The Day - Miss Universe

"Look, I believe that every person in this world has the right to profess the beliefs they have and I am in agreement. We have to respect what each human being decides to do with their lives, no? Clearly, there are limitations, of course, also, as there also are with heterosexual couples, no? Better said, there are limitations for any of the two - if they are heterosexual or homosexual - but I believe we have to learn to be respectful because they are people who are the same as us. There is no difference.

"And I don't believe it's just to discriminate somebody based on the gender they prefer, no? Based on the partner they choose to select, if it's a man or a woman. The truth is that I am absolutely against discrimination and, well, what can I say. I have many friends who are homosexual and I adore them. And they are equal folk: There is no reason we should want to set them aside, there is no reason why we shouldn't let them enjoy what they want to enjoy with their partner." - Mexico's Jimena Navarette, Miss Universe 2010, coming out for marriage equality in an interview translated by Andres Duque at Blabbeando.

A Sad And Moldering Strangeness

You've got to read Vanity Fair's just-published profile of Sarah Palin. An excerpt:

Palin has often stated that the strokes of luck propelling her political success were divinely ordained: “There are no coincidences” is a favorite maxim. In Going Rogue, Palin casts herself as a reluctant prophet, accepting providential election against her wishes. The reluctant prophet is a character trope found throughout Hebrew and Christian scripture. (Jesus prays, “Father, if it is Thy will, let this cup pass from me.”) The opening scene of Going Rogue, at the 2008 Alaska State Fair, ends with Palin’s BlackBerry ringing. As she reaches to answer, Palin prays, “Please, Lord, just for an hour, anything but politics,” only to find John McCain on the line, “asking if I wanted to help him change history.”

Whenever I heard Palin speak on the road, her remarks were scored with code phrases expressing solidarity with fundamentalist Christians. Her talk of leading with “a servant’s heart” is a dog whistle for the born-again. Her dig at health-care reform as an expression of Democratic ambitions to “build a Utopia” in the United States is practically a trumpet call (because the Kingdom of God is not of this earth, and perfection can be achieved only in the life to come). But it is Palin’s persistent encouragement of the prayer warriors that most clearly reveals her worldview: she is good, her opponents are evil, and the war is on.

Read the entire thing. It's epic.

Glenn Beck: I Wore A Bullet-Proof Vest To Whitestock 2010

REMIX: Brandon Flowers - Crossfire

Here's a great new remix of the debut solo single from Killers frontman Brandon Flowers. The full length, Flamingo, comes out September 14th.

The Iraq War May Be Over, But Don't Forget The Lies That Got Us There

Watch every minute of this.

Chase Whiteside Is One Of Us

Many of you have expressed admiration for NewLeftMedia interviewer Chase Whiteside, whose impassive apparent approval has allowed so many teabaggers to hang themselves in his videos. You knew somebody that smart had to be gay, right? Here's Whiteside's blog, where he's rather frank about his life. He's single, not looking, hates nipple play, is cut but considers circumcision to be a crime, and likes guys who start with S: "Smart, shy, short, swarthy, smiling, sincere, spry, sweet."

(Via Dominic Holden at Slog)

Like September In Tuscany

Maxi-pads can remind one of September in Tuscany, according to an amusing hottie-infused ad campaign out of Canada. There are more: A Date With Brad and A Date With Ryan.

(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

Hurricane Earl Forecast Improves

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for the Outer Banks, but forecasters are now saying that a weakening Hurricane Earl may only sideswipe much of the east coast. You might get a holiday weekend yet. (But probably not you, P-Town.)

New From Sharron Angle

She's actually IN this one.

Cher & Xtina: The Movie

Morning View - Met Life Bridge

This elevated passageway connects the Metropolitan Life Tower and the Met Life Annex across the street.