OUT Passions

THE MORNING AFTER: Premiere webisode from HIV Big Deal, a new website promoting awareness and prevention of HIV and AIDS among gay men.

CYNTHIA NIXON: Cubby Bernstein, whose previous episodes featured Patti Lupone and Nathan Lane, Cheyenne Jackson, and the boys from Xanadu, is back, with some advice from the Sex and the City star.

BUGGING OUT: News reporter catches a fly in his mouth. (warning: language NSFW)

TRICIA WALSH-SMITH: She's back, with another installment, from the stairwell of her apartment. Everyone's taking advantage of her!

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

Today we have a special treat for you Jay Brannan fans (and those of you who have yet to discover him). It's an exclusive free download of Brannan's track "Half-Boyfriend". An older version of the track has been out for a while, but this is a new version recorded specifically for the album featuring different orchestrations.

Those of you not familiar with Brannan's music may know him from the John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus.

Brannan's album Goddamned is set for digital release on July 1st (you can pre-order it here, and arrives in stores July 15th. He'll also be doing a U.S. tour in July, starting on the 11th in Boston.

Listen and download, AFTER THE JUMP...

Jay Brannan — "Half Boyfriend" Click to listen. Right click and "save target" to download.

(images from a shoot for Zoo magazine, last year)

How gay is your Shul? "In June, Jewish Mosaic and their partners will start surveying nearly every congregation in the U.S. on their policies and practices of inclusion—for example, whether they offer same-sex spousal benefits, follow a written nondiscrimination policy regarding sexual orientation, or use nonexclusive language on membership forms. When the survey concludes later this summer, Jewish Mosaic will use its findings to create a "resource guide to best practices" on LGBT inclusion for synagogue leaders, who have few places to turn for help with questions on sexuality and gender."

Unicorn discovered in Italy!

Gee, thanks: Bakersfield, California police say they won't arrest couples getting married outside the county clerk's office. "The Rev. Byrd Tetzlaff, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kern County, told The Chronicle on Tuesday that the police would not allow them to conduct the ceremonies there. On Wednesday, Tetzlaff said it had been a misunderstanding."

Two men punched to pub floor in homophobic UK assault. Police seek witnesses.

Michael Jackson designing clothing line.

The impossible divorce: Rhode Island Superior Court judge refuses to hear case of lesbian couple "but questioned whether the law that barred the women from ending their marriage unconstitutionally denied them a right enjoyed by heterosexual Rhode Islanders."

Police chief in Budapest, Hungary bans gay pride: "Budapest police chief Dr. Gábor Tóth has banned the Gay Pride March, it emerged last night. The march, which Dr. Tóth said would disrupt traffic in the city, was scheduled to take place on Saturday July 5 on Andrássy, one of Budapest’s main streets."

Presbyterian church of Wales in harassment and discrimination lawsuit: "Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr Price, who is openly gay, said he worked alongside Ms Jones at the church's 250-year-old Trefeca centre, a 37-bed retreat near Brecon, Powys, visited by church groups from around Britain. He told the hearing he was forced to quit as the assistant manager because of Ms Jones's ceaseless comments about sex, which included calling him a 'stupid poof'."

Pittsburgh Presbyterian minister remains under fire for conducting same-sex union ceremonies: " A Presbyterian minister from Pittsburgh still faces two charges that she conducted a prohibited gay wedding ceremony. But the Rev. Janet Edwards will not face charges for performing the ceremony improperly when her church trial resumes in October. Church officials have dropped charges alleging Edwards committed errors when she omitted Bible readings and references to Christian traditions in the ceremony. Edwards made the changes because one of the lesbians she married in 2005 is Buddhist."

Oprah tops Forbes' richest celebrities list — again.

High School Musical stage production outs character that was "coded gay" in the films. Playwright: "I wanted to present Ryan as something from my own past, a version of me, I guess — though he's a lot better dancer than I ever was! In the movie, the character has a gay tint. But in the stage version, I wanted to more fully articulate that tint and say, hey, this kid is who he is. Yes, I consider him a young gay guy without ever having to say it. I’d rather say it with behavior and action. And we do." Film role was played by Milk's Lucas Grabeel.

Matt Damon to play rugby captain in new film.

FOX calls Michelle Obama "Obama's Baby Mama".

TIME: California's Gay Marriage Rush. "A report released by the Williams Institute at UCLA law school says fully half of the state's 102,000 gay couples could wed in the next three years. UCLA law professor Brad Sears told TIME that the number is in keeping with experience in Massachusetts, where gay marriage is also legal, and Vermont, which permits civil unions. Another 67,000 or so are expected to arrive from other states, says Sears, the report's co-author."

A flash game based on the 1969 Stonewall riots is to be released on June 22 to coincide with Gay Pride celebrations in New York. It's designed by Eric Orner (The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green) and Jay Laird of Metaversal Studios.

According to Gay Gamer, "The gameplay hearkens back to the old side scrolling brawlers like Streets of Rage and Ninja Gaiden...Orner and Laird hope that the launch of the game will educate younger LGBT folks on the events that led to the whole reason we are able to celebrate Gay Pride today."

Why did the California Supreme Court overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriage?

The reality TV actress told Us magazine: "It is because of me — I definitely think [my show] has helped the movement. Before it came out, everyone was still a little apprehensive about [same sex relationships]. Then they realized, 'Wow, everyone is really into this stuff, and it is fine.' The next thing you know, [gay marriage] is legal."

You're kidding! And all this time I thought it was Lindsay Lohan's doing!

Via newnownext, and Gawker, who supplied the edifying clip AFTER THE JUMP...

So You Think You Can Dance is one of my guilty summer entertainment pleasures, for sure, but producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe, who has been known to take dancers to task for their lack of masculinity, last night told a contestant that he looked "like someone's taken a broomstick and shoved it up where the sun don't shine."

How Lythgoe might have first-hand knowledge of what that looks like I have no idea, but it was a pretty rude comment. The audience thought so too, and I don't imagine he'd say the same thing to a woman.

I've clipped it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Here, also, was one of my favorite performances of the night:

Previously
So You Think You Can Strip is Back [tr]

After giving the crowd a flash of his anatomy, Andy Roddick stepped into the quarterfinals of the Artois Championships at the Queens Club in London today after his opponent Mardy Fish was forced to step out because of an injury.

Also, some news on Andy Murray from the Queens Club here and here.

The "superfit tennis champ" is also profiled in this month's Outside magazine. Check out a behind-the-scenes video here, and the cover, AFTER THE JUMP...

Previously
Andy Roddick Defeats Djokovic to Enter Dubai Final [tr]
It's Hot in Melbourne [tr]
Terra Cotta Tennis Warriors Unveiled in Shanghai: Federer, Nadal, Davydenko, Djokovic, Roddick, Ferrer, Gonzalez, Gasquet [tr]

Katherine Patrick, the 18-year-old daughter of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, has come out publicly in an interview with New England gay paper Bay Windows.

Said Katherine: "As private of an issue as it is, we’ve sort of had to come to terms with the fact that we are a public family and there you give a part of yourself away...And we also ... wanted people to know that it’s not only something that we accept, but it’s something that we’re very proud of. It’s a great aspect of our lives and there’s nothing about it that is shameful or that we would want to hide. ... And I’ll always remember the first thing my dad did was, [he] wrapped me in a bear hug and said, ’Well, we love you no matter what.’""

Bay Windows reports: "Patrick is the first elected official in the country to win statewide office after having campaigned on support for marriage equality. He spent a significant amount of political capital on the defeat of the marriage amendment, meeting privately with more than a dozen wavering legislators, strategizing with legislative leaders and publicly discussing why he supported marriage equality and why he thought the amendment should be defeated. But he says that the notion that one of his daughters could be gay didn’t factor into his advocacy on the issue. 'I don’t think we thought about who they loved - more that they knew what love was and that they would have love in their lives,' he explains. 'You know, it’s interesting even just thinking about having this interview. Katherine and Diane and I and her aunt and Sarah were all talking about, you know, would we give an interview to announce one of our kids was straight? It’s just not about the public ... it’s just about making sure that they had the fullness of their personality and their humanity...Fault me for not getting it,' the governor adds. Then he reveals when he got the first inkling that his daughter might be gay: 'I think when Katherine started to memorize all the episodes of The L Word, there was some hint that maybe she was sending us.'"

Watch a clip of Patrick speaking to the crowd on July 14, 2007, following the failure of the proposed amendment banning gay marriage, AFTER THE JUMP...

With love and pride [bay windows]

NOT TOO IMPORTANT: How McCain feels about bringing the troops home from Iraq.

DNC AD: The DNC quickly took McCain's "not too important" statement and whipped it into a web clip.

JOHN CUSACK: The actor is featured in this new ad from MoveOn.org.

OH, MCCAIN!: The candidate is parodied Schoolhouse Rock-style.

SAFE: The new national TV spot from the McCain campaign.

DEVASTATING: A video created by the Ron Paul campaign that's been re-edited to cut out some distasteful material about McCain's behavior as a POW. This is all useful.

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

New Scientist, who published the image, calls it "history in the making." It's the clearest picture ever of an egg being produced by an ovary. Jacques Donnez at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Brussels, Belgium "captured the event by accident while preparing to carry out a partial hysterectomy on a 45-year-old woman."

More, AFTER THE JUMP...

New Scientist reports: "The release of an egg was considered a sudden, explosive event, but his pictures, to be published in Fertility and Sterility, show it taking place over a period of at least 15 minutes. Shortly before the egg is released, enzymes break down the tissue in the mature follicle, a fluid-filled sac on the surface of the ovary that contains the egg. This prompts the formation of a reddish protrusion, and after a while a hole appears, from which the egg emerges, surrounded by support cells. It then enters a Fallopian tube, which carries it to the uterus."

Boy George yesterday announced he'll perform a free August 17th concert for workers at New York City's Department of Sanitation, with whom he was sentenced to work following his 2005 arrest for cocaine possession.

George released a statement through his publicist: "The people I worked alongside showed great kindness to me at a very difficult time, and I wanted to thank them all in a way that would show my appreciation"

George turns 47 on Saturday. He'll be touring the U.S. this summer.

The shot above right, is from last night's opening of thee RS lounge in London, where he DJ'ed. More on that at Popbytes.

And as a bonus to yesterday's 1984 vintage Madonna clip, check out the clip of a Boy George look-alike contest in Sydney, from the same year, AFTER THE JUMP...

Back in May I posted about Peter de Vries and Timothy Carter, a gay couple formerly from Secaucus, New Jersey, who filed suit against that town claiming that they were harassed in an April 2004 incident by a group of firefighters who were partying at the firehouse adjacent to their residence.

Earlier this week, they won their case:

"The jury on Tuesday awarded Peter de Vries and Timothy Carter $2.84 million in a civil lawsuit that some see as a victory for the gay community and a launch point for a possible criminal investigation. 'It was a mob attack and then the town government gathered around to protect the perpetrators,' the couple's attorney, Neil Mullin, said of the April 25, 2004, incident and its aftermath. The plaintiffs described the event as a 12-minute tirade that took place outside their home, next door to a Secaucus firehouse. They said it started when Carter complained about a raucous 1 a.m. party held in the firehouse parking lot. Mullin said he will refer the case to the state Attorney General's Office, so it could reopen a bias crime investigation and to the U.S. Attorney's Office for a possible criminal obstruction case. The Montclair attorney questioned whether Secaucus is a safe place for gay residents. 'The same leadership that protected these perpetrators is still in power, and I think that's most unfortunate,' he said. Secaucus town Administrator David B. Drumeler, on the advice of private attorneys representing the town, declined to comment on the verdict."

Christopher Ciccone reportedly has a memoir coming in July from Simon & Schuster.

The AP reports: "'Life With My Sister Madonna' will have a first printing of 350,000. Financial details were not disclosed. 'Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his life and 47 years of growing up with and working with his sister — the most famous woman in the world,' the publisher said Wednesday in a statement...Ciccone will work with Wendy Leigh, who has written biographies of Liza Minnelli and Grace Kelly and a highly critical book about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ciccone, 47, has worked often with his older sister, designing and directing her 'Girlie Show' tour in 1993 and serving as artistic director of her 1991 documentary, 'Madonna: Truth or Dare.' But according to Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, they are no longer close."

AFTER THE JUMP, a clip from back in 1984 featuring Christopher performing with Madonna on French TV...

Previously
An Unidentified Christopher Ciccone Spices Up Top Chef [tr]

Norway's parliament has granted same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, and granted lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated:

"After a heated debate, the members of parliament adopted the text by a vote of 84 to 41. The three centre-left coalition parties in power and two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, voted largely in favour of the law, while the Christian Democrats and the far-right Progress Party voted against it. 'This decision is of an importance comparable to universal suffrage and our law on parity,' Labour Party rapporteur Gunn Karin Gjul said during the debate. The most controversial part of the law is that which gives lesbians the right to be artificially inseminated. The sperm donor must be identified so that the child can seek out his or her biological father at the age of 18."

Stephen Moller, who delivered a fatal punch to Sean William Kennedy after taunting him with anti-gay slurs in May 2007 outside a Greenville, South Carolina bar, appeared in court today to enter a plea and receive his sentence:

"Moller was originally charged with murder in the case. However, in November 2007 a Greenville County grand jury handed down an indictment for a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter against Moller. Moller appeared in a Greenville County courtroom on Wednesday afternoon where he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge. Judge Ned Miller sentenced Moller to five years in prison, but suspended his sentence to three years with credit for the seven months in prison he has already served. The judge also ordered Moller to attend both anger management and drug/alcohol management classes. Moller must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole."

Disgusting.

Previously
Judge Sets Bond for Killer of Sean William Kennedy [tr]
Hundreds Attend Vigil for Slain South Carolina Gay Man [tr]
SC Hate Crime: Mother of Sean Kennedy Speaks Out [tr]
Arrest Made in South Carolina Gay Man's Murder [tr]
South Carolina Gay Man Dies in Potential Hate Crime Assault [tr]