Chaz Bono--Transtion: The Story of How I Became a Man --REVIEW

Chaz Bono's groundbreaking and candid account of a forty-year struggle to match his gender identity with his physical body and his transformation from female to male
 
At first, America knew the only child of Sonny and Cher as Chastity, the cherubic little girl who appeared on her parents' TV show. In later years, she became famous for coming out on a national stage, working with two major organizations toward LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights and publishing two books. And just within the past eighteen months, Chaz Bono has entered the public consciousness as the most high-profile transgender person ever.
 
All through the hoopla surrounding his change, Chaz has insisted on maintaining his privacy. Now, in Transition, Chaz finally tells his story. Part One traces his decision to transition, beginning in his childhood-when he played on the boys' teams and wore boys' clothing whenever possible-and going through his painful, but ultimately joyful, coming out in his twenties, up to 2008, when, after the death of his father, drug addiction, and five years of sobriety, Chaz was finally ready to begin the process of changing his gender. In Part Two, he offers an unprecedented record in words and photographs of the actual transition, a real-time diary as he navigates uncharted waters. These chapters capture the day-to-day momentum of his life as his body changes.
 
Throughout the book, Chaz touches on themes of identity, gender, and sexuality; parents and children; and how harboring secrets shatters the soul. It is an amazing contribution to our understanding of a much- misunderstood community.

Undercover Newark Cop Touched Himself And Fondled Masseuse During Sting Operation

Police in Newark, N.J., will implement a new protocol for sting operations after an undercover vice cop pleasured himself and fondled a masseuse during a prostitution bust at a massage parlor.

After being offered a "full massage" by a 22-year-old woman in a Bloomfield Avenue parlor on Sept. 28, the detective -- who was wearing a wire -- stripped down to his underwear, paid the woman $80 and touched himself while putting his hand on the masseuse's breast, according to police documents obtained by The Star-Ledger.

Law enforcement officials reportedly burst into the massage parlor and arrested two women for promoting prostitution and narcotics charges.

The incident might raise eyebrows, but Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio told the paper that the officer wasn't acting with "bad intentions."

"There is no department protocol in place for what to do in an undercover vice operation. And that's what we're going to change," said DeMaio. "Looking at it, certainly, there's no bad intentions here on (the officer's) part. I just don’t think he was prepped properly."

DeMaio placed the six detectives involved in the sting on administrative duty, according to Newsday.

News of the botched raid comes as the Newark Police Department faces heightened scrutiny.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department launched a federal investigation into the police force over years of allegations of misconduct. The investigation comes after the city laid off 162 officers citing budget constraints.

Tenn. Highschool Principal Allegedly Threatens Student Over Pro-Gay T-shirt

A seventeen-year-old senior at Sequoyah High School in Madisonville, Tennessee, was reportedly shoved, bumped in the chest and verbally harassed by the school’s principal for wearing a tee-shirt supporting students’ efforts to launch a gay-straight alliance. In response, the ACLU of Tennessee is calling on the school district to protect the students’ rights to free speech in the classroom.
According to a press release from the ACLU of Tennessee:

[Chris] Sigler wore a homemade T-shirt to school last Tuesday that said “GSA: We’ve Got Your Back.” A teacher ordered Sigler to cover up the shirt in the future. Sigler, knowing he had a right to wear the shirt, wore it again Friday, and resisted an order to remove the shirt. Sigler says that [Principal Maurice] Moser then ordered all students out of the classroom, except for Sigler’s sister Jessica, who refused to leave. According to both students, Moser then grabbed Sigler’s arm, shoved him, and chest-bumped him repeatedly while asking “Who’s the big man now?” Sigler’s mother reported that when she arrived at the school, she saw her son seated in a desk with Moser leaning over him and shouting in Sigler’s face. The Siglers filed a report about the incident that afternoon with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.

Students at  Sequoyah have been trying to start a GSA during the school year, but have been blocked and threatened with suspension by the school’s principal.
The ACLU says that if the school doesn’t receive an satisfactory answer by October 11, they will explore legal options, including filing a complaint in federal court. Assistant Director of Schools Tim Blankenship responded:

“The Monroe County School System is aware of the alleged accusations. We have received written statements from all eyewitnesses. Our documentation clearly indicated that there are always two sides to every story. We’ll gladly provide more information as it becomes available.”

Gay Couple Attacked at------CHURCH

Jerry Pittman, Jr., and his boyfriend, Dustin Lee, were attacked when they tried to go to church at Grace Fellowship in Fruitland, Tennessee:

I went over to take the keys out of the ignition and all the sudden I hear someone say ‘sick’em,’” said Gibson County resident, Jerry Pittman Jr.
Pittman said the attacked was prompted by the pastor of the church, Jerry Pittman, his father.

“My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad’s request. My uncle smash me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn’t help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back,” said Pittman. He said bystanders did not offer assistance. He said the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived. He said the officers never intervened to stop the deacons from yelling the slurs.

The younger Pittman says that there were about twenty people standing around the front of the church when the assault took place, but no one intervened to stop the assault or call the police. He also says that the sheriff’s deputy refused to take a statement from the victims or allow them to press charges. Gibson County Sheriff Chuck Arnold said, “If I was on the scene I would not have allowed that. The deputy should not have allowed it if he did,… I haven’t talk to him but that would be out of character for my deputy to say unless they were causing a problem themselves.”
The couple later filed assault charges against Deacons Billy Sims and Eugene McCoy. The younger Pittman is also pressing charges against his father and Deacon Patrick Flatt. They are due in court today. The pastor and his wife are also going through a divorce.

Sneak peek at tomorrow's post

Photographer Matthias Vriens-McGrath contributes the story ‘Unbeschreiblich Weiblich’ to the latest issue of Zoo magazine. Styled by Nicolas Klam with casting by Andrey T., the editorial features models Chris Petersen, Cory Bond, Jeremy Santucci, Michael Hudson, Scott Clelland, Erik Soderbergh, Jason Morgan, Eric Bivoino and Colby Jamar.

L'Officiel Hommes Italia Fall/Winter 2011

Photographer Carlotta Manaigo captured the beautiful Clément Chabernaud for the Fall/Winter 2011.12 issue of L'Officiel Hommes Italia, styled by Emil Rebek and groomed by Marco Braca.

Because I LOVE Matthew Morrison

Just because---- RIPPED

Fernando Verdasco: even more

Chris March Last Part: Advocate interview

I don’t think there was anything particularly snarky about the show at all.
Yeah, I mean we have fun with each other, but they’re not pointing a camera at us because we’re yelling and fighting and throwing drinks in each other’s faces. I wanted to have fun and show our creativity and that we just have a fun time in the workshop and that you can enjoy a show just to enjoy it rather than having to have a bunch of drama.

Tell me something about yourself that only gay folks would understand.
Well I probably have over a hundred pairs of high-heel shoes. I collect them. Over however many years, from like the mid ’80s on — yes, I’m that old — I’ve been in drag several times in my life and I collect a lot of stuff and I do have a lot of high-heel shoes that I’m sure a lot of people would be jealous about. [Laughs]

Do you still do drag now? Do you ever get behind the dress anymore?
Not as often as I used to, just because people want me to look the way I look, and for me to do drag I have to shave off my beard and it usually takes two to three weeks to grow it out the way I like it, so most places don’t like me to look different.

Now that you’re a star, you can’t do that.
There is one episode where I dress up, and they wanted me to shave, but I couldn’t shave. You’ll see.

You’re a hairy drag queen? Looking forward to it, then.

Chris March Part 3: Advocate interview

It’s nice to see that you’ll be able to use these kinds of skills in a way that you really couldn’t on Project Runway. On Project Runway those skills were often seen as a limitation: “Don’t get too costumey, Chris.”
Yes, exactly. Boy, if I have to hear that word one more time in my life. One of the funny things they did say on one of the very last episodes that I was on was that a lot of great costume designers have become great fashion designers as well. So I kind of like to have my feet in both worlds. Sometimes I just do costumes, sometimes I just do fashion, and sometimes I blend the two. I think we definitely blend the two on Mad Fashion, but we definitely are along the fashion world because that is what people call me up and ask me to make for them.

You have an unusual habit of signing Stevie Nicks on every outfit you do somewhere. What’s the meaning behind the Stevie Nicks signature?
[Laughs] That’s a very funny thing they wanted to capture. It’s a funny kind of superstition that I guess started about 20 years ago. I had a photo of Stevie Nicks in my workshop that we put on the ceiling above our work area and we always just had this joke that Stevie Nicks was looking down on us and blessing everything that we did. So one day I wrote her name inside of something I made because I was having a particularly difficult time with it and I was like, “Oh, I hope Stevie helps me with this thing,” and we just started doing it. We started writing her name inside of everything that I’ve made for the last 20 years. And I’m a huge fan of hers, and in fact in two weeks I’m going to see her and I’ve got tickets in the front row center — finally.

Between Project Runway and Mad Fashion, you are now a reality TV maven. Do you get groupies? Do you get hit on all the time now?
Just walking down the street every day I get stopped by people all day long. People want to just say hello or tell me how much they liked me on television or how much they liked the human hair, of course, that I had in my finale collection. And also, now everybody comes up to me and says, “Oh I can’t wait for your show.” So it’s nice, everybody’s very nice and very fun, and people want to take my picture and all that kind of stuff. So it’s something that is an everyday part of my life now. I don’t know what I would do without it. [Laughs]

Has it affected your dating? Are you married? Single?
It’s kind of funny, because the way that I met my boyfriend was because he saw me on Project Runway and sent me an email. And I answered it, and we met, and we’ve been together ever since: four years.

Congratulations. A lot of people would send an email to somebody they saw on TV, and it would go nowhere.
I know. Not that I’m bragging or anything, because I was shocked, but I literally got hundreds of emails from people during my time on Project Runway asking me out on dates. I had no idea that people would even care. And his was the only one that I answered, out of all of them.

Your design team seems equally queer. Is anybody on the team actually straight?
Oh, yeah, well wait, I want to hear your opinion. What do you think of everybody?

I loved it. We were watching, and I was like, “Matt is clearly gay, Alex is clearly gay. Izzy looks like she’s a lesbian,” I’m assuming the young girl is straight. I just kept watching and trying to peg everybody, and I was just like, “I don’t care, the whole team just seems superqueer and I love it.”
Oh, Izzy is totally straight.

No way, really?
Izzy is ... a gay man trapped in a woman’s body. Because she’s worked in theater her entire life, so all her friends are gay. She has a total gay man sensibility, but she’s not a lesbian at all. She loves men; she’s just kind of one of the gay guys just like everybody else. But she’s really, incredibly talented and really fun to be around obviously.

What do you hope viewers will take away from Mad Fashion when it premieres?
I guess my main thing, or one of the main reasons I wanted to do the show, was to show that reality television doesn’t have to star people who are just nasty for a living. I want people to have fun watching the show because we’re having fun. And that’s really why we’re doing it.

Chris March Part 2: Advocate interview

Is it important for you to challenge your clients’ comfort zones? Or is that just a by-product of what you do?
I think that’s a good way to put it — it is a by-product of what I do because most people aren’t quite as outrageous or have quite as outrageous as a sensibility as I do. But I also don’t want to make people feel ridiculous, so I try to get a good sense of ... what they’re comfortable with and maybe what they’re comfortable with but they’re not exactly telling you. So that you can kind of give them the right outfit that makes them have this tremendous experience that they never even thought of. It’s easy to be safe, but it’s more fun to be outrageous. So I try to work within those lines.

You designed a Mardi Gras float ensemble for Jennifer Coolidge. Is that one of the episodes?
Yes, that is one of our episodes. I don’t know how much I’m supposed to say. We got a call from Jennifer Coolidge. She lives part-time in New Orleans. She has this fabulous, huge mansion there, and she was chosen to be the celebrity queen of the Orpheus parade, which is one of the biggest parades there during Mardi Gras. And she called us on a Thursday and she needed the outfit by Monday afternoon.

Oh, my gosh.
So I’ll just leave it at that. It was a very, very fun episode. And Jennifer Coolidge was incredibly fun to work with. It’s probably my favorite episode.

She’s hilarious, so I can imagine how fun it is between the two of you.
Oh, my gosh, you can’t imagine how funny she is in person. I was unprepared. I haven’t seen the episode — I’ve only seen the first episode. So I don’t know what stuff is on and what doesn’t [make it], but she’s so funny, and she’s so tall and beautiful, and she just has this great imposing kind of comical presence. She was very nice.

Speaking of tall and imposing beautiful women, you’ve designed for some really big names in recent years, including Madonna, Prince, Beyoncé. Do you have a favorite?
Meryl Streep.

Your Meryl Streep dress was relatively understated by Chris March standards.
Well, see, that’s the thing: I have many different gears for designing, and when Meryl Streep calls you up and says she wants a kind of updated Hollywood glamour gown for the Academy Awards, you don’t make her a sequined drag queen outfit [Laughs]. You make her what she wants. I definitely have a huge interest in that kind of fashion as well; it’s just that people often don’t give me the opportunity to do that. She had seen my collection at Bryant Park when I was on Project Runway, and she thought that I could make her something that she would look really great in, and she trusted me to do it. Luckily it turned out really well, because she was fantastic to work with and it was such an exciting experience.

Meryl made all the best-dressed lists that night.
Yeah, that was the best part, because boy, you’d hate to crash and burn. I think a lot of people were shocked when they heard her say my name on the red carpet. I ran into Michael Kors and he said that he was watching and he was like, “Who designed that dress?” and he said that when he heard my name he literally screamed out loud. He was so happy that I’d made this beautiful dress, because it is a tough thing to do. The entire world has their eyes on their work, and if they don’t like it you’re in big trouble.

You came of age as a designer doing these really outrageous costumes for Bleach Blanket Babylon, which you did for a decade, right?
Yeah, I worked there for 10 years. We actually do make something for Beach Blanket on the show.

Does your experience there continue to influence your work?
Boy, it’s definitely where I learned a lot of the crazy skills that I have: Where I learned about making giant head pieces, where I learned a lot about different materials, how to use them and everything. So I always feel like it’s always in the back of my mind like a foundation of everything that I do. But that was a long time ago, and I have grown and learned and worked with a lot of different people since then, and I think that is one of the fun things about the show, is that we make some more legitimate things, but we give them this crazy spin or edge like we’re going to make someone this glamorous cocktail dress but make it out of something that nobody would ever imagine we would make something out of. And you can’t tell what it is until you get up close to it or until somebody tells you. And that’s one of the fun things that’s different about our show than just some other plain old fashion shows. We’re a little crazy.

Chris March Part 1: Advocate interview

 If there’s one most beloved designer from the handful who’ve made it to Bryant Park via Project Runway fame, it is Chris March.

That’s because he’s a hilarious, friendly, cuddly bundle of gay joy who can wield a drill and a glue gun as well as a sewing machine. Thankfully, the fashion bear is back with his own TV series, the soon-to-be Bravo hit Mad Fashion. Premiering tonight, Mad Fashion offers an up-close-and-personal look at March and his superqueer design team as they take fabulous projects from concept to creation each week, with guest stars like Jennifer Coolidge along for the ride.

March, whose career took off after he appeared on season 4 of Project Runway, also has a new book out. I Heart Chris March is photographic proof of the insane creativity of March, who spent a decade creating wigs and costumes for San Francisco’s famed Beach Blanket Babylon, the world’s longest-running musical revue. The book offers childhood Halloween photos, Project Runway creations, and everything in between.

The designer — who has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, from Madonna to Beyoncé — has seen his work appear on Broadway, in Cirque du Soleil, and at Mardi Gras festivities as well as on the red carpet. We caught up with March, a part-time activist who also donates his time and designs to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, to find out about what makes Mad Fashion must-see TV.


The Advocate: I’m an old San Franciscan and I know you have a huge following there.
Chris March: Yes, I do! [Laughs]

Now that you’re in New York, how has that changed your fashion sense?
That is an interesting question. I live near the garment district. The New York world is definitely geared toward fashion. So many people work in the fashion industry, photography, all sorts of satellite businesses that have to do with it, so there’s no way that it can’t affect you, and it just kind of makes you think with more of a fashion edge. I work a lot more in fashion than I did in San Francisco, so it’s kind of exciting in that way too. All the opportunities I’ve had here I never would have had in San Francisco, so it’s definitely been a good thing for me.

Mad Fashion, which premieres tonight, is great. Did you have any trepidation about doing another reality show?
I had a little trepidation just until I found out the format of the show and what we would be doing. It’s kind of funny to me ... because I was on a competition show [Project Runway], which is very stressful and nerve-racking and stuff, I kept having to get used to the fact that my show was fun and that I wasn’t going to work every day competing with a bunch of people. It was a little bit different.

In the first episode you’re designing an outfit for shoe designer Ruthie Davis, but watching Matt and you drill and tear apart her shoes — it was so brutal.
[Laughs] Oh, well, I’m kind of surprised that people are sort of terrified at that part of the episode. That’s something that I do every day. I’ve had to cut into some very expensive items in my career; there just comes a point where you have to grit your teeth and do it and hope that you don’t make a mistake.

How do your clients react to that, usually?
Well, that’s one of the reasons that they hire me, actually, because they know I can work with that kind of stuff and do a good job with it. She was not exactly into the idea of wearing the shoes at first and then we kind of talked her into it. I just thought that it made it a much more fashionable look than just gluing shoes onto her outfit.

Right.
So that’s why we had to hack into it and make some changes and add some spikes and some glitter.

And in the end she was thrilled.
I was kind of thrilled at how great she looked, I had no idea, because you know we don’t really get to see it all together at one time until she puts it on at the end. I got to see it the first time everybody else did, so it was really exciting.

Wizard of Oz Studio Lot to Get Rainbow

As tribute to a far-off land heard of once in a lullaby, Sony Pictures plans to erect a permanent 94-foot-tall rainbow sculpture by artist Tony Tasset on the Culver City, Calif., studio lot where The Wizard of Oz was filmed over 70 years ago.

The corporation received approval from the city in May to install the structure, which the Culver City Times reports “will be about nine stories high and span 188 feet,” near the studio's Madison Avenue gate.

The project will fulfill Culver City's Art in Public Places requirement, which requires that 1% of the budget for certain development projects be designated for public art. The budget for the sculpture is reported to be $1.5 million.

Tasset, whose works include Eye in Chicago's Pritzker Park and Paul Bunyan at Governors State University in Illinois, says the piece is intended to speak to “the sense of optimism and well-being associated with rainbows in general and more specifically with the rainbow in popular culture as imagined in the iconic Wizard of Oz film.”

The nonilluminated structure is slated to go up in the spring of 2012.

Last night, the Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission unanimously approved the art work concept for Tony Tasset's Rainbow, which will soon tower over Sony's Culver City lot. The structure, to be installed near the studio's Madison Avenue gate, will be about nine stories high and span 188 feet. 

According to the artist's description of his sculpture, it is intended to speak to "the sense of optimism and well-being associated with rainbows in general and more specifically with the rainbow in popular culture as imagined in the iconic Wizard of Oz film, created in the very movie studio that will become home to the Rainbow sculpture.”

Marc Pally, a leader in the development of public art projects who served as Sony's art consultant on the project, explained at the council meeting some of the thinking behind their choice of subject matter and artist. He explained that Sony wanted an art work that was accessible and joyful, so Tony Tasset's comic take on cultural history and populist vocabulary made him a good fit for the project. A rainbow was additionally appropriate for a studio, he added, because, like film, a rainbow only comes alive when light shines through it.

The sculpture will be created from a welded steel truss and clad with aluminum panels custom finished with a resin-based paint that will have a life expectancy against chalking and fading of at least 20 years (the same paint was used on the white panels of the Getty Center's exterior). The majority of the fabrication will be completed off-site, with on-site installation taking between six and eight weeks sometime in early- to mid-2012. The sculpture will not be illuminated.

Given the scale of Rainbow, it will be visible 24 hours per day, 7 days per week from various locations just outside the Sony lot, including the Madison Avenue gate, as well as from certain vantage points around Culver City. Public tours of the studio lot ($33 per person, under 12 free) will allow closer physical access.

Sony's One Percent
This work fulfill's Sony's 'Art in Public Places' requirement. Pursuant to Section 15.06.115 of the Culver City Municipal Code, all new commercial, industrial, and public building development projects with a valuation exceeding $500,000, and all remodeling projects with a valuation exceeding $250,000 are required to set aside one percent of the project's budget for a public art component. 
Sony Pictures Entertainment has been tracking the APPP requirement of various remodeling and new development projects with the intention of pooling together the required one percents into a single art commission. For the current art project, applicable permit valuations have been tracked since 2000, with the majority of the art budget driven by the 2005-06 remodel of Stage 6 and the 2008-09 development project along Culver Blvd. at Motor Ave., which included several office buildings and a new parking structure. To date, the Sony's public art requirement amounts to just under $614,000.

Tony Tasset
Tony Tasset is an Chicago-based artist. Recent works, such as Eye (in Pritzker Park, Chicago) and Paul (at Governors State University in Illinois), exhibit the same humor and monumental scale as Rainbow.

Westboro to Picket Steve Jobs Funeral (It Said Via iPhone)

In yet another transparent bid for publicity, Margie Phelps has announced that the Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing the funeral of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs because he “served [him]self, not God.”

And just how did she make this announcement? By tweeting it from her Apple iPhone.

The Kansas-based organization, which has protested memorials of everyone from victims of gay bashings to those killed in the 2006 Sago Mine disaster — often times with signs stating “God Hates Fags” — has called for “no peace” for Jobs.

Is it possible that God hates Steve Jobs, but not the products he created?

Cops Investigate Gay Bullying in Arizona

In the wake of Jamie Rodermeyer’s death, everyone from Anderson Cooper to President Obama has been focused on preventing more teen suicides and the scourge of anti-gay bullying. That hasn’t stopped kids from Tucson, Arizona’s Sabino High School, however, from bullying of their own. According to Tucson’s KVOA TV, the Pima County Sheriff's department is investigating an exchange between a gay Tanque Verde student and some Sabino High School students who allegedly made threatening comments after the gay student — who asked to remain anonymous — posted a comment about Rodemeyer’s death on Facebook.

“One of the guys who I went to middle school with supported the bullying and congratulated them on all the things they had done,” says the teen victim, who has often been bullied on the way home from school, with other students driving by yelling threats and gay slurs. The bully's comment sparked hundreds more, says KOVA, and while most were positive and encouraging, several of the bullies comments escalated to “terrifying and disgusting” levels.

“It's terrible. It's more frightening than anything else. It just seems like the stuff that progresses into violence,” the victim told reporters.

The Sheriff's Department spoke to the Sabino school administrators who refused to speak with reporters, but reportedly told the police they “handled it” and have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying.
The victim says the frightening experience has had one positive outcome: “It really alerted me to the support system I have at my school” including staff and fellow students who stepped in to help, including teachers who got involved.

Gay Straight Alliance advisor, Julie Smith, told KOVA, “At first I do have to tell you I sat down and cried. I mean some of the threats on Facebook were physical threats and I was afraid they would be carried out. I just couldn't see myself not stepping in and doing something to help out.”

Nightline On Lawrence King Murder

In February 2008, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney and 15-year-old Lawrence King sat a row apart in 8th grade English. A few days before Valentine's Day, McInerney brought a gun to school and shot and killed King in front of his classmates

Brandon McInerney To Be Retried As An Adult, Hate Crime Charge Dropped

Prosecutors announced today that they will be retrying teenage murderer Brandon McInerney as an adult for the murder of Larry King of Green Junior High and with no hate crime embellishment to the charges. A mistrial was declared last month after some jurors refused to convict McInerney as an adult. Those jurors have since formed a support group for McInerney.

Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell set a Nov. 21 trial date, according to Fox, but it's unclear if it will be held in Ventura County. The first trial was moved to Los Angeles County due to pretrial publicity. McInerney was 14 in February 2008, when he is accused of killing King at E.O. Green Junior High School during a computer lab class. Prosecutors contend McInerney embraced a white supremacist philosophy that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Police found Nazi-inspired drawings and artifacts at his house, and a white supremacist expert testified at trial the hate-filled ideology was the reason for the killing.

Oral Sex deadlier than Smoking?

We haven't had a "shocking" medical study in a few hours.

So here.

A study published in yesterday's Journal of Clinical Oncology reveals that as many as 72 percent of throat tumors in men may be linked to the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV. The researchers hypothesize that the virus spreads predominately via oral sex, and that it may already account for more cases of throat cancer than smoking.

"The burden of cancer caused by HPV is going to shift from women to men in this decade," said Maura Gillison, an oncologist at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "What we believe is happening is that the number of sexual partners and exposure to HPV has risen over that same time period."

Here's the study's abstract.

Simon's Cat in 'Double Trouble'

This is about cats but so help me this is two of my four Shi Itzu's--Ozzie is a year old and Glinda who is like 5 anyway to damn cute