Peter Akinola and other anti-gay Anglicans may soon get a new punching bag. The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago included openly gay Rev. Tracey Lind on their shortlist for the Windy City’s new bishop.

New Hampshire caused an international - and ongoing - religious incident when they inducted Gene Robinson back in 2003.

Robinson’s ascension riled up conservative leaders, such as Nigeria’s Akinola, who are urging the international Communion to take a firmer stance on the fagalas.

What a shitty way to start the weekend: a 22-year old Chicago homo asserts a gang of three anti-gay men harassed him this morning. Then, as a bit of icing, one of the thugs punch him in the face. The man told Chicago police three men confronted him early Friday morning in the 6700-block of North Sheridan Road, used a derogatory anti-gay term and then one of the men punched him in the face before they all ran off. Yes, FRC, police are treating the incident as a hate crime.

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Hundreds of evangelical Lutherans got a gay shock this morning after eighty-two ministers staged a coming out of Biblical proportions. Protesting the churches ban on gays and gay marriage, God-loving queers lifted the veil and stopped living a lie.

One of the men, Rev. A. Dale Truscott, retired from his Michigan parish early to enjoy more time with his longtime lover, whom he kept hidden during his four year tenure at Saline’s Holy Faith Episcopal and Lutheran Church. I retired a couple of years sooner than I needed to because of this. I have been quiet and tried to keep the peace, and it’s very painful. You finally get to the point in your life where you’re tired of the pain. The active, retired and on leave reverends, pastors and seminarians plan on making their voice heard at next week’s Lutheran conference in Chicago. During this biennial event, Lutheran leaders will discuss, among other things, the role of gays in the broader church community.
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As gay priest scandals go, this one’s pretty juicy.

Chicago Reverend Mark Sorvillo pleaded guilty last Friday of bilking more than $200,000 from his parish, St. Margaret Mary.

While Sorvillo spent some of the money on himself, the majority of the dough went to a married gay-for-pay male stripper, James Sosnicki.

The two men met while Sosnicki, who lives in Louisville, gyrated at a Chicago gay bar. Sorvillo apparently fancied him, because the men became fast “friends”. Sosnicki claims the men never slept together, but the details do seem a bit suspect - and not just for the stolen loot…
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Jasmyne Cannick has a war of words on her hands.

Flavaworks‘ porn producer Phillip Bleicher filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the sappho-journo and other gay bloggers after they wrote about his run in with Chicago’s Department of Health, a phony charity and an investigation down Miami way.

According to Cannick, Bleicher packed up his Chicago-based company, which operates Cocoboyz, Thugboy and PapiCock, and moved the crew to Miami after getting busted for unsafe sexual practices. Bleicher says that’s bullshit and wants Cannick to pay.
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Plenty of gays love Whole Foods - and now the mega grocery’s showing it’s love for the gays. The chain will open a 40,000 square foot location to anchor Chicago’s new Center on Halsted: a gay epicenter.

While some companies, such as Wal-Mart and the repentant Kroger, eschew the bent boys and girls, Whole Foods looks forward to being a big name - and humble - advocate. Store manager Tom Marciniak says, “It’s not that big a deal. We’re going to really promote the center. We’ll be one of their greatest marketing vehicles.” A grocery with fruits on the menu? Now that’s fresh.

A Chicago justice sparred spared Nicholas Gutierrez his life. A court found the 23-year old gay guilty of the 2002 rape and murder his female funeral home co-worker, 51-year old Mary Stachowicz.

The peers apparently got along swimmingly, but things took a fatal turn when Gutizerrez came out.

365 Gay provides the gory details: On the day of the murder she allegedly asked him “Why do you have sex with boys instead of girls?”

He flew into a rage and beat, raped, stabbed and strangled Stachowicz in an apartment above the funeral parlor.

He then wrapped the body in bedsheets, placed the wrapped body into a plastic garbage bag and stuffed it into a crawlspace. Gutierrez claimed Stachowicz’s reaction recalled his mother’s abuse, which Gutierrez’s lawyers pleaded be considered in his sentencing.
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• Dick Jefferson, one of the two CBS employees beaten last year in St. Martin’s, alleges CBS fired him for speaking out about the attacks.”I thought I was doing the right thing, but CBS made me feel like I was doing something wrong,” he says. Now he’s filed a $50 million sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit against the network.

• Irish politico Ian Paisley will not apologize for referring to gays as “repulsive”. We refuse to apologize for calling him a dickhead.

• Everyone’s talking about how Elizabeth Edwards will be appearing at San Francisco pride. Big fucking deal. We’d be more impressed if her husband, Presidential candidate John Edwards, were to show.
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• The literal torture of being gay in Iran.

• John Amaechi is a gay pride whore.

• Gay Shame activist on pride: “Queer folks exist because of a legacy of direct action activism. However, the gay mainstream is actively working to ‘clean up’ all forms of queerness that do not fit into the white, upper class, married, heathery dream.”

• More on “hate crime” victim Aaron Hall.

• Developers are closing in on Lake Cuomo, Italy, where George Clooney keeps a home. Naturally he thinks it’s all about him: “I don’t want my presence here to be a pain to the other citizens, but if you ask me these proposals are in every probability just to exploit the fact that I live here.”
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The Chicago Police Department’s getting all sorts of negative attention after Alexander Ruppert alleged coppers smeared him in an anti-gay attack. According to Rupert’s lawsuit, officers took him into custody after he “caused a disturbance” at Uptown Lounge. That’s when things got ugly. And hateful. Continued…

Wow! What a week! We unveiled a new format, a new feature (Trolling Tuesdays, which will be joined by new features in the coming weeks), pumped out some more hits for The Style Issue and even found time to objectify British boys!

While we’d love to spend this week’s Queerty ReBUTTal chatting about these exciting developments, we’ve decided to address a topic that’s come up a number of times this week - the one, the only, the impossibly complex Discrimination! Hooray! We’re sifting through the segregationist stories, after the jump.
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Gay Pride’s all about celebrating diversity. And Los Angeles-based anti-gay preacher Ruben Israel thinks his views should be allowed to protest in Chicago’s upcoming gay pride event.

An angry Israel declares: We are a group that has a different sexual preference and being that this parade is filled with diversity, we considered ourselves welcomed. And we were wrong… [Gay Pride organizers] become dictators and force acceptance of their agenda. I wish to expose this hypocrisy as a double standard for we also love a man, too, and His name is Jesus Christ. That Jesus dude sure is popular…
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Hordes of homos will descend on Chicago this weekend for the International Mr. Leather contest. And, as per tradition, many participants will pop into legendary S&M club, Chicago Hellfire Club. Unfortunately, trans men aren’t invited.

Chicago Hellfire Club - one of the oldest S&M clubs in the nation - enacted a strict no female-to-male policy ten years ago, thus barring a significant portion of the S&M community.

Of their unfriendly policy, former Hellfire Club president and long-time member, David Igasaki said: The general rule of thumb is that there has to be a penile attachment… They don’t want to admit women. It’s not that people are anti-women or personally discriminate against transgender people. It’s just that as a sex club there is a desire to protect a gay environment during play. Igasaki claims that Hellfire Club can bar FTM’s because its a private club.

Critics, however, claim that the Club goes into public space to recruit members. One transman comments: “I don’t think that a private club would set up a table at a public venue and allow anybody to talk with you and inquire to attend an event.” And transmen aren’t the only ones fighting the Hellfire.
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Ever want a husky lumberjack between your crack? Us, too. Luckily the kids over at Chicago-based store, Manifold offer this assortment of tantalizing bath towels.

The sexually-charged handy man, fire man and daisy duke-wearing construction worker are guaranteed to get you dry - and, perhaps, a little wet. Oh, yeah, we’re naughty. We’re so naughty, in fact, we’re thinking about taking a Manifold pin-up bath towel to the beach. Yeah, that’s right. Our depravity knows no bounds…

Don’t worry, ladies, the store also has pin-up gals.

Remember the New Year’s Eve massacre in Chicago when a group of gun-wielding maniacs charged a primarily gay party and shot six people? Sure you do! Who could forget? While it may seem that there’s no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow - no arrest have been made, nor are there any leads - there is, indeed, a silver lining.

A group of activists have used the event as a pad to launch a new movement to curb homophobia in the legendarily bloody neighborhood. Speaking to the press, loving activist Marc Loveless declared: …Out of that tragic incident, we’re able to find our voice and our strength. … Continued…