It hasn't been that cool to be gay in Iraq, like, ever, but it has been especially bad since the fall of Saddam because Islamic fundamentalist militias have been targeting gays for both torture and assassination both because homosexuality violates Islamic law, and because homosexuality is seen as a Western import. CNN has a feature story that's making the rounds of the blogs, including interviews with two young gay Iraqis who are using the pseudonyms Kamal and Rami. At age 16, Kamal was thrown in the trunk of a car by armed gunman, held captive and repeatedly raped for several days until his family rescued him with a $1,500 ransom. The motive for the rape and torture was his sexuality.
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We may have been hoodwinked into believing a lot of people were spending their economic stimulus package dollars on porn, but still we felt confident that the porn industry would weather the current economic crisis just fine. Not so, says a new piece in Wired. According to AVN founder Paul Fishbein and Steve Orenstein of Wicked Pictures, sales are way down. It seems porn purveyors are facing a host of obstacles not only related to soft consumer spending; the industry also faces increased oil-related production costs, stiff  competition from free and amateur content on the internet and a glut of product overall.
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Apparently Tuesday's a big night to go out on the gay strip in Dallas, and Crews Inn owner David Moore has had it with the ne'er-do-well drag queens coming in and causing a ruckus in his gay strip club, so he's now saying they're not welcome:

“Drag queens act like they are divas and think they can’t do no wrong,” Moore said. “They have stolen money straight off the bar, hassled costumers for drinks and locked themselves in the bathroom with a bunch of guys. And with Tuesday being our busiest night, there is just no way for me to keep the draq queens under control then."

Yep, sounds like drag queens alright. But without them, who do you turn to for local color and a little amusement amidst the Bud Lite-swilling masses?

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A man convicted of stalking San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom turned himself in to the offices of the Bay Area Reporter late last week, after again alledgedly attempting to run someone over with his car for the second time in 18 months. Then, the real fun began.
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Just to prove to you all that we aren't completely cynical killjoys about this whole gay marriage thing, here's a quick roundup of notable news items from this week in California's Summer of Gay Marriage.

First off: A new poll shows that opinions may be shifting when it comes to approving a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban gay marriage. 51% of voters now say they are against the amendment—which will be on the ballot in November as Prop 8 —with 42% saying they are for it.  Back in 2000, 68% of voters approved Prop 22, which ostensibly defined marriage as between a man and a woman and which the CA Supreme Court (you may have heard) recently deemed unconstitutional. We look forward to about 900 similar polls to follow.
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Just when you thought it was safe to put on a pair of heels and go shopping in the Middle East's newest metropolis... We're receiving news today that either 17 "gay tourists" (if you trust police), or 17 transvestites (if you trust Dubai's Gulf News), were rounded up from malls around Dubai and arrested in an apparent crackdown on "outward homosexual behavior," which remains a crime in the hyper-capitalist, westward leaning city-state. Just a couple months ago two lesbians were jailed and deported for kissing on a public beach.

We're still waiting for stories from Collin O'Neal's recent trip to Dubai, and since we saw him with boyfriend in tow walking up Castro Street the other night we can assure you is not currently rotting in an Arab prison.
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Americans for Truth and the American Family Association, two of those fundie orgs bent on convincing the world that Christians are good and clean and gays are disgusting petrie dishes on legs, are calling for a boycott of McDonald's restaurants on the grounds that they're being way too nice to the gays. They in fact held a "press conference" today, not quite at McDonald's headquarters, but at the McDonald's restaurant adjacent to McDonald's world headquarters." HA. This seems to come in response to the HRC praising the corporation for its domestic partners policies, donations to gay-friendly organizations and protection of rights for the transgendered. Using the brilliant logic fundies have always been known for, Americans for Truth's Peter LaBarbera draws the comparison that healthy salads run counter to McDonalds' support of the gay agenda.  To wit: ...read more

Maybe it's the cheese. In a crime reminiscent of those of Wisconsinites Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein, a 46 years young paper-mill worker from Wisconsin Rapids has has been charged with the abduction and sexual assault of two men, who were found chained naked inside his basement last week.
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Chad Hardy, the lustful Las Vegas Mormon behind the sexy Mormons Exposed calendar series has been excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints over the "beefcake" pictorials that showcased the buffer and vainer side of the church's legendary missionaries (note bouffant at right). While we can't quite muster the same degree of disbelief that Hardy and others are exhibiting in the face of the notoriously conservative church's reaction to the calendar, we can take an extra moment to ogle the 2009 coverboy who, with his five o'clock looks less like a man of the cloth and more like a man of the cum rag.

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Oh, those silly Chinese. The Beijing Olympics are a few weeks away, and muckrakers, gays and other 'undesirables' in China have faced persecution in recent months, all likely stemming from an effort by Chinese authorities to put on a good face for the world. AIDS activist Wan Yanhai has been repeatedly followed by police and plans to leave the country in August. Dechen Pemba, an Tibetan with a British passport and a Chinese work visa was picked up by police outside her apartment, taken to the airport and put on a plane to London. And Lu Jun, a campaigner for the rights of Chinese people with Hepatitis B, has seen his website taken down and was detained by authorities when he arrived back in the country after attending a Hep B conference in Los Angeles.
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