Newt Gingrich Editorial Cartoon

 

David Pocock Says He Won't Marry Until Gay Marriage Is Legal In Australia

Rugby star David Pocock (pictured Left) says he won't marry until Australia legalizes gay marriage.

Pocock, the 23-year-old Western Force and Wallabies openside flanker, told The Sun-Herald Extra that he and his fiancee Emma Palandri won't wed until their gay friends can.

“More than 60 per cent of Australians are in favor of same-sex marriage, so it just doesn't make sense to stop it from happening,” Pocock said. “For a lot of Christians, it's a big issue and I know there's a lot of people who don't share the same opinion as me. It comes down to equal love. I don't think it's the government's role to tell people that their love is right or wrong.”

In a previous interview, Pocock said he gets “pretty annoyed with the Christian lobbies around the world who say gay marriage destroys the family and that kind of rubbish.”

“I guess it is fear of the unknown – if you talk to someone who doesn't like gay people you can almost guarantee that they don't know too many.”

“Emma and I decided not to get legally married until our gay friends could do the same,” Pocock added.

Just because----

Devin by Sergio Garcia--NSFW

Devin by Sergio Garcia

Tush Magazine "Farbzuwachs"

The new 26th issue of TUSH magazine features the men's grooming story 'Farbzuwachs', with models Alexander Pohnert, Hannes Kettritz and Sigurd Larsen. The men were photographed/groomed by Armin Morbach, and styled by Kaey with coloring by Isabel Eiler.

Massachusets' Passes Transgender Equal Rights Bill

Massachusetts' transgender community had a reason to feel extra celebratory this holiday weekend, as the state's governor signed legislation Wednesday forbidding discrimination based on "gender identity" to anyone seeking housing, employment or post-secondary education.

As The Patriot Ledger is reporting, the Transgender Equal Rights Bill also expands the state's hate crime statutes to include violence against transgender men and women, although the removal of a provision that would have required all "sex-segregated facilities" such as rest rooms or locker rooms to grand admission to people based on gender identity was heavily criticized by many who considered it a key component.

"No individual should face discrimination because of who they are,” Patrick said in a statement. "This legislation gives Massachusetts the necessary tools to stop hate crimes against transgender people and to treat others fairly. I am proud to sign it."

In what may have been a nod to the provision's removal, Patrick added that state lawmakers would "come back around to public accommodations," according to the Ledger.

Patrick's decision to sign the bill, which had been widely expected, drew praise from many transgender rights advocates. “Gov. Patrick was a staunch advocate of the Transgender Equal Rights Bill from the earliest days of his administration,” Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), is quoted by LGBTQ Nation as saying in a statement. “We are so grateful for his leadership in getting this bill passed and for his unwavering commitment to ensuring that all residents of the Commonwealth, including transgender people, are treated with dignity and respect under the laws of our state."

When the bill takes effect next July, Massachusetts will become the 16th U.S. state, along with Washington, D.C., to offer vital protections against discrimination to its transgender residents.

Skip Donating to the Salvation Army

The Salvation Army's Red Kettle bell ringers have become a truly iconic part of the holiday shopping season. However, many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates are now calling for shoppers to skip the donation buckets due to the organization's conservative view of homosexuality.

"The Salvation Army has a history of active discrimination against gays and lesbians. While you might think you're helping the hungry and homeless by dropping a few dollars in the bright red buckets, not everyone can share in the donations," Bil Browning notes on The Bilerico Project. "The organization also has a record of actively lobbying governments worldwide for anti-gay policies -- including an attempt to make consensual gay sex illegal."

Indeed, as Browning points out, the group's position statements reveal a somewhat rigid outlook on LGBT lifestyles. "Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex," one statement reads. "The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage."

However, the statement does go on to note, "Likewise, there is no scriptural support for demeaning or mistreating anyone for reason of his or her sexual orientation."

Like the Protestant Christian organization's holiday campaign itself, the controversy is very much an annual one. Last year, Jeffrey Curnow, the public and corporate relations manager for the Salvation Army, defended the position to Chicagoist, noting:

"I appreciate the opportunity to correct the record when it does come up. In fact, the Salvation Army serves countless people across the country every day from any variety of backgrounds, including gays and lesbians. This number probably reaches into the thousands, though it is impossible for us to determine, primarily because we would simply never ask about a person's sexual identity."


"Because The Salvation Army is a church we do have theological positions on a variety of topics. These positions are intended for our church members or those who are interested in our church. Just as you wouldn't expect everyone you meet to share all your ideas or beliefs, we would never expect everyone we help, our donors, or even our non-church-member employees to necessarily agree with these theological positions."


Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, was similarly critical of the Salvation Army's stance, noting, "If a racist organization was trying to collect money with the message that some of the money was going towards doing good, would you support them? I would hope not." He went on to suggest people would be better served by donating to more pro-LGBT organizations such as the Howard Brown Health Center, the American Red Cross, or The Trevor Project.

Hollywood to Dollywood

Gary and Larry Lane have done an amazing job in this documentary called from Hollywood to Dollywood.

This film referred to as a road trip documentary and civil rights odyssey features appearances by Leslie Jordan (Will & Grace), Chad Allen, Beth Grant (Sordid Lives), Dustin Lance Black (MILK), and Ann Walker (Sordid Lives)to name just a few!

The premise: The handsome gay twin boys wish to get their script (written with Dolly and only Dolly in mind) into the hands of the Queen of Country herself, so the boys drive an RV cross country to Dollyland in the hopes of hand delivering their brilliant script to Miss Dolly Parton herself!

George Michael Hospitalized

George Michael is reportedly worsening after being admitted on Monday to an Austrian hospital for the treatment of pneumonia. His management has announced the cancellation of the remaining dates on his world tour. Via yesterday's Vienna Times:

He is currently in intensive care on the 13th floor of the red tower as a result of heart problems believed to be caused by the shortage of oxygen caused by his pneumonia.

On Thursday afternoon he was fitted into a special full-body bed designed to keep all the pressure off his lungs and to help them to function - so far without any sign of improvement. Head doctor from the nearby Otto Wagner Hospital, Norbert Vetter, said that the reason a person with a lung problem was being treated in the cardiac unit probably lay in the fact that if there was a lung problem - and not enough oxygen being taken into the body - then that could affect the heart especially if the heart had already been damaged in some way. He added in the worst case the heart could cease to function.

Business Week quotes one of the singer's doctors as saying he has "severe community acquired pneumonia." Michael's spokesman confirmed his condition as "bad." Some tabloids are already rushing out with AIDS rumors and commenters on anti-gay sites like Free Republic are saying exactly the sort of things you'd expect from loving Christians.

UPDATE: Pink News reports that Michael's team is denying the Vienna Times report about his heart.

The star’s spokeswoman said in a statement: “George Michael is ill with pneumonia and any other speculation regarding his illness is unfounded and untrue. “He is receiving excellent medical care, he is responding to treatment and slowly improving”. A source told the Daily Mail: “George has woken up and he’s in good spirits. Doctors are very pleased with him, and he’s making progress.” “He’s been in terrible pain. He’s had a dreadful chest infection, but he’s been in good care. He’s in very capable hands”.

Our prayers are with you George!

Gay Marriage Is Unconstitutional Because It Gives Women An Unfair Advantage

So says David Usher of the just-formed Center for Marriage Policy, who claims that non-gay women will marry other women just to get the financial benefits of "feminist marriage"

Feminist marriage directly violates 14th Amendment protection against sex discrimination, and the 5th Amendment is violated at the Federal level. The Constitution cannot accept a structure of three-party marriage establishing an arrangement of government-sponsored economic polygyny as a protected, superior class of marriage under any rational-basis test. Secondly, the Constitution cannot accept any marital arrangement structurally establishing three classes of marriage, where the classes are crisply defined and either rewarded or discriminated against because of the natural reproductive capacity one sex is born with that the other sex does not have.

Corporations supporting the repeal of DOMA are making a tragic mistake supporting feminist marriage. Feminist marriage will demolish men’s drive to be successful, motivated workers. It will also further weaken the American job market and harm women’s employment opportunities. Our “Competitiveness Gap” with marriage-based Asian economies will expand as men’s productivity and educational attainment continues to decline, while growing social problems, violence, and higher taxes stimulate businesses to move jobs overseas.

Pope Implies That People With Poor Ethics Spread AIDS

This week a U.N. AIDS report said the number of new HIV infections worldwide has stayed at about 2.7 million for the last three years, suggesting that the epidemic is leveling off. That’s great news! But then comes along Pope Benedict XVI reminding everyone that unethical, slutty, un-Godly people spread HIV. Uuuggghhh.

 Here’s what the Pope said exactly while speaking about the AIDS epidemic in Africa:

Above all, [the spread of HIV] is an ethical problem. The change of behaviour that [solving Africa's AIDS epidemic] requires—for example, sexual abstinence, rejection of sexual promiscuity, fidelity within marriage—ultimately involves the question of integral development, which demands a global approach and a global response from the Church.
“For if it is to be effective, the prevention of AIDS must be based on a sex education that is itself grounded in an anthropology anchored in the natural law and enlightened by the word of God and the Church’s teaching.”

On one hand, he has a point. If a person knows about the importance of getting tested, knowing their status, communicating with sex partners and taking the necessary precautions to prevent HIV, not doing so could be construed as deliberate and unethical. But in Africa where many communities do not have safe-sex educators to disseminate information about HIV-prevention, the spread of the disease cannot be marked up to pure ethics and morality—money, government support, education and condoms all play a part too.

It’s a double-edged sword because even if the Pope considers governments “unethical” for failing to equip their citizens with HIV-prevention info, we can only imagine that sex education “enlightened by the word of God and the Church’s teaching” would also fail to teach people how to responsibly and safely fuck and go for an ineffective abstinence-only approach instead.

Pope Benedict XVI got a lot of well deserved flack in 2009 when he said that condoms in Africa actually make the AIDS problem worse. But he has since backtracked on that by saying that male hookers and pretty much everyone else can use condoms because “using condoms ‘is the lesser evil than passing HIV onto a partner.’

So while he’s managed to offensively imply that people who catch and spread HIV to others have some sort of moral or ethical failing, he’s at least implicated governments for those same failings while instructing the larger Catholic following that using condoms is more ethical and moral than

15 Die in Fire at India’s Transgender Gathering

15 more members of the global LGBT community have died by fire, though (thankfully?) burning someone to death doesn’t seem to be the motivation in this story ( which has been the case this last week in other transgender murders).

A fire broke out in the kitchen at India’s national transgender gathering, the Eunuch Gathering in East Delhi. Over 1000 of India’s estimated 700,000 transgender citizens were in attendance.

One witness, Angelie, said there was a loud short, then flames suddenly erupted and a gas cylinder exploded. Crowds of people ran to the exit from the fairground, the witness said.

 

Television reports cited fire officials as saying initial investigations suggested the fire had started in the venue’s kitchen.

“We were rescued and brought outside the community centre but we don’t know what has happened to some of our friends who we think are still inside,” one person present at the gathering told reporters.

“The police aren’t giving us the right information … They are taking the bodies out through the back door of the hall,” they said.

It’s worth noting that the term eunuch is not used in a derogatory manner in India.
Our condolences go out to those who lost loved ones in the blaze

Abercrombie & Fitch Holidays "Special"

"Ho ho ho!"

Consider this your very friendly reminder that Abercrombie & Fitch will be once again staffing malls across America with shirtless male greeters this holiday season. Please, no overt drooling on the near naked boys!.

Touching PSA

6 Parishioners Dead After Lying Pastor Tells Them They’ve Been Cured of HIV

 

A Sky News undercover investigation has revealed that evangelical churches in the UK have been lying to HIV positive patients about the curative powers of holy water, and insisting that patients stop taking their HIV medications. Now at least six are dead.

The broadcaster sent three undercover reporters to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), in the south London Borough of Southwark.

 

All of them were told by pastors they could be healed.

The team – who are all HIV positive – had water sprayed in their faces as part of the healing process.

They were also shouted at and told it would rid them of the devil.

One of the pastors, Rachel Holmes, told Sky News, that SCOAN has a “100% success rate”, adding: “if symptoms such as vomiting or diarrhoea persist, it is actually a sign of the virus leaving the body”.

Except that’s diarrhea and vomiting aren’t a sign that HIV is rocketing out of your body because Christ commands it to. No, those are signs you are dying of HIV. 

Multiple investigations into the – we’re just going to go ahead and play fortune teller here for a second – criminal actions these churches are engaged in.

In addition to the deaths that have been reported, a case of HIV transmission has been documented by the boyfriend of a male parishioner who stopped HIV treatment after being “cured” by his pastor.

Case Closed: Jamey Rodemeyer's Bullies Not Charged

Police closed the Jamey Rodemeyer case today without prosecuting any of his bullies, saying they lacked proof he'd been harassed.  My thougths here are that This is very disturbing, very sad, and very sickening as well as very shameful.  Why do these bullies keep getting off and waht can we do to change that kind of atmosphere?!

Rodemeyer killed himself in September after facing bullying that he "could never escape,” he said in posts on the Internet. But Amherst, N.Y.,  police chief John Askey said that despite the 14-year-old's complaints online about bullying, there wasn't enough evidence of what happened, and the bullying couldn't be pinned to any single student.

For example, police toldTheBuffalo News that they had investigated five incidents at North High School and found none had been reported to authorities, leaving investigators to rely on secondhand information.

"In most cases, you need a victim and a complaint," Askey told the News, noting that he isn't satisfied with the outcome.

After their son's death, Rodemeyer's parents shared a story on the Today show of how their daughter had gone to a school dance to take her mind off the death of her brother only to be met with taunts of "better off dead." The superintendent identified the student responsible for the chants and issued a suspension, taking the punishment "to the fullest extent allowed under education law."

That appears to be where the punishment will stop in the Rodemeyer case. The superintendent said he planned more education about the effects of bullying.

The tragedy had become a flash point in the national debate over how to address bullying, with Lady Gaga raising the issue with President Obama shortly afterward and activists calling for increased antibullying protections in schools.

Also in recent months, a videotaped beating of an Ohio student whose mother says he was repeatedly harassed for being gay became a viral sensation on YouTube because of outrage.

All of this has contributed to renewed attention around bullying and how it sometimes ends in death, including a special report from Anderson Cooper on CNN. Experts recommend that any young LGBT person with thoughts of suicide contact the Trevor Project’s hotline (866-4-U-TREVOR).

Newt Gingrich views on LGBTQ equatlity

This is what a President Gingrich would mean to us...

-He has been an active and vocal supporter of placing an amendment banning marriage in the United States Constitution

-He has called marriage equality an aberration!

- He supports the lawsuit by Congressional Republicans to defend DOMA.

-He is even opposed to domestic partnerships in private industry.

-He is absolutely against adoption by same sex couples

-He is against the passage of ENDA

-He has personally called homosexuality a sin and should be treated as such.

-He explained in a radio interview last week that “the secular world,” which advocated same sex marriage, was connected to the United State’s economic downfall.

“The concept of family being between man and woman and the concept of all these core values that grow out of 3,000 years of Judeo-Christian tradition,” he said on Catholic Radio San Diego, according to On Top Magazine. “This is a direct threat to the entire secular world.”

-In an Iowa Conservative Forum Newt indicated he would 'abolish' or 'ignore' courts that made marriage equality decisions

Mega Stretch Super Short-short

 

For that special someone who has everything, or for yourself to go cruising bars, this short-shorts would be perfect.  The website also has all kinds of other cool things.

 

.   Check out their website here

Just because- "Save a horse..."

Mariano Vivanco "In the Woods"

Photographer Mariano Vivanco captures Ford models Travis Cannata, Kevin Freed, Billy Morgan, Maryna Lunchuk, and Re:Quest's Nicola Wincenc in the story 'In The Woods' for the second issue of DSECTION magazine.

Styling: Joseph Episcopo | Casting Director: Melissa Lee Batsel @ Batsel Creative | Assistants: Charles Quiles, Max Menacher and Joseph Paquette