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. After we called everyone together, we did something that's never been done before in this town. We just said to everybody. 'We need to bring this community together with people who are responsible and call them to be accountable'.

Loveless and his cohorts have asked South Side officials to help establish more gay friendly centers to combat homophobia and, hopefully, prevent another attack.

This story apparently broke a few months ago, but is only now making it's way into the mainstream media. It seems Venus Magazine publisher Charlene Cothran has found Jesus and realized the error of her formerly lesbianic ways. It all started back in 2004, when Cothran joined her queer comrades at Chicago's gay pride event, when she realized that she "doesn't belong" with the gays. Thus, last October, she released a statement, effectively rescinding years of lesbianism:

...I must come out of the closet again. I have recently experienced the power of change that came over me once I completely surrendered to the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a believe of the word of God, I fully accept and have always known that same-sex relationships are not what God intended for us...

With her change, Cothran said that her 13-year old magazine - one of the few for lesbians of color - will take a new, less homo-centric direction...

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• So, Eliot from Fast Hugs has a crush on Jim Halpert: John Krasinski's character from The Office. He's asked us to put out a call for any gay men who fit the description: dead-end job, a complete coward and fictional. Sounds like a dream...

• Kenneth of kenneth in the (212) fame needs to get his mind out of the gutter. How do we know? He's getting his kicks from TJ Maxx, that's how.

• Ben Gannon, legendary producer of The Boy From Oz, has succumbed to cancer, The Age reports. He was a measly 54 years of age. No jokes here.

• Queer artist Mike "Mikiki" Hickey uses his craft to comment on the world of internet sex. His first order of business: get a fake tan, according to The Montreal Mirror.

• New York Magazine reports that despite favorable reviews and seemingly endless press, Broadway's The Little Dog Laughed will close in February. For some reason, we don't think it's laughing.

• From Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago's finest have finally ruled that the six-person shooting is not is not a hate crime. It's just good old fashion blood-letting. Phew, what a relief!

For those of you slow on the up-take: Chicago's fine police force have not found enough evidence to classify Sunday's shooting of six as a hate crime. Police spokeswoman Bond, Monique Bond said:

At this point it has not reached that level. Nothing has given us any indication there were elements of a hate crime involved.

According to the Chicago Lawyers' Committee website, in order to be classified as a hate crime, the shooting would have to involve one of the following: "language or symbols (for example, slurs), previous incidents in same area or by same offender, lack of provocation by victim, absence of other motives (for example, money), offender's membership in hate group," among others. Hmmm, isn't being part of a hate group a little unfair for this sort of ranking? What if you're a white dude in the KKK and get in a fight with a man who just happens to be black? Does that qualify? But, we digress...

As you may recall, while the scene had a reputation as being the neighborhood's "gay house" - and thus a center of immoral depravity - the owners also had a habit of aving late-night parties that riled neighbors. Therefore, it could be the shooters were just tired, cranky souls in search of good night's sleep. Or, of course, it could be neither the faggotry, nor the noise. It could just be that it's Chicago's South side...

Previously: Six Shot at Known Homosexual Apartment

A raucous party turned ugly early Sunday morning when two masked gunmen crashed with two semi-automatic guns and promptly shot at the crowd of 100, hitting six. While there's no conclusive evidence, police are looking into whether the attack can be classified as the dreaded hate crime.

You see, two gay men owned the apartment and apparently their faggotry and frequent late-night parties didn't sit well with the neighbors. A particularly eloquent 18-year old neighbor named Kevin Carter mused:

We always be seeing them, and they always be looking at people. They give you that gay look, like you're a female or something. That ain't cute. People be ready to fight...

Ain't cute, indeed. Almost as uncute as referring to women as "females".

Anyway, the case may seem cut and dry, but the attackers didn't spew any anti-homo vernacular - you know, like, "Die Faggot, Die", thus blurring the motivational lines.

A concerned neighbor who would only identify himself as "Mr. Cartel" - a suspicious name, to say the least - says the owner's been harassed for being gay and they feared something like this would happen:

I know they have been having problems periodically. That's why I've been coming over here to check up on him. I hope this was not a hate crime.

Does it really matter if it's classified as a hate crime, Mr. Cartel? Sure, it makes for a more dramatic case, but the fact that six people got shot's pretty gross in and of itself. We're more concerned with police finding the gunmen rather than the linguistic legalities of it all.

As we learned from the dearly departed Gay Speak, there's no shortage of insults for gay people. And, if given the chance, derogatory remarks can wear down one's sense of self. While this may be true, we're not sure how we feel about a case unfolding in Chicago.

A gay man named Nicholas Gutierrez is currently on trial for murdering and sexually assaulting a 51-year old woman named Mary Stachowicz back in 2002. Though he originally insisted he knew nothing about the woman's death, Gutierrez still managed to lead coppers to her body (conveniently enough, it was stuffed in his crawl space). Further, DNA evidence found on the body matches a sample taken from Gutierrez.

Obviously none of this looks good, so his defense team has taken a bit of an unconventional road, maintaining that Stachowicz repeatedly derided Gutierrez for being gay. In her opening statements, attorney Crystal H. Marchigiani explained, "It happened because she could not leave him alone in his lifestyle."

Okay. We don't like homophobes, but we really don't like murderers. While we definitely feel for Gutierrez, we have to say that's a pretty shitty excuse for murdering someone.

Also, in an especially disturbing twist (especially considering the sexual assault aspect, which is twisted in and of itself), Marchigiani claims that Gutierrez projected images of his abusive mother onto Stachowicz.

She must be so proud.

• Civil rights leader and Wal-Mart "image maker" Andrew Young steps down from his post after saying the retail giant should displace mom-and-pop stores, as it's been Jewish, Arab and Korean local store owners who've been "ripping off" urban customers for years. [NYT]

• Soon-to-retire Martina Navratilova writes in to People magazine this week to urge Lance Bass to use his celebrity to become a pioneer for gay rights. In his own People coming out story, Lance has said he doesn't only want to be connected to gay issues. [Pink News]

• In Toronto, news comes via the 16th annual International AIDS Conference that new HIV infection rates in Canada, the U.S. Europe, and Australia have been rising 1.9 percent each year. [TodayOnline.com]

• In Israel, porn mogul and star Michael Lucas is set to arrive to entertain the troops. You know, the straight women. [Something Jewish]

• In Chicago, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church may be ousted from the church after revealing he's been in a relationship with a man for two years. The church allows gays to serve in the church, so long as they remain celibate. [Chi-Tri]

• Eva Longoria's publicist rushes to deny reports the Desperate Housewives star claimed she wanted a full-on gay experience and that she flirts with other men to make boyfriend Tony Parker jealous.

In case you were wondering why there was both a Gay Games and an Outgames it's because the gays are typically feuding among themselves. The Federation of Gay Games wanted to centralize the finances following the debacle that was the 2002 Sydney Gay Games, thus taking away some financial freedom from individual organizers, and the group organizing the Gay Games in Montreal was none too pleased. Rather than reconcile, the group split off from the Federation of Gay Games and put together the Outgames.

Both events drew about the same number of participants, and both generated a good amount of revenue for the cities of Chicago and Montreal, but we think it would have been more productive, and competitive, had there only been one gay sports tournament this summer. We hope the queens in charge of both the Gay Games and Outgames will take a hard look at how dividing an already fringy tournament makes the competition seem like a joke.

No reconciliation for gay sports competitions [Washington Blade]

Chicago's Northalsted Market Days festival may be "the largest two-day street fair in the Midwest," but it sure looks like a second Pride celebration to us based on the photos taken by our buddy Alex. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the festival, which features musical acts, street vendors, and more, so we suppose that is the reason the organizers pulled out all the stops and invited Sean Cody models (pictured above) to come and squirt passersby with water guns.

But the gayness did not end there. There were colorful queens, cute couples, and more that made us wonder how one city can possibly handle two Prides in one summer.

Chicago Special Events [Official Site]

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Who cares if temperatures soared like the cries from protesters? That wasn't going to stop some 12,000 atheletes representing 65 countries from kicking off and battling each other at Chicago's Gay Games. Tennis. Rowing. Lifting. Diving. With so much sweating and grunting, it's a shame this competition comes around only once every four years. And as for the protesters? Police reported no altercations or arrests.

The scene was peaceful and organized but not too intense (until the rowing started, certainly). It didn't look like the snippets you might see on TV from a gay pride parade.

Nobody in a diaper. Not a whole lot of flamboyance, period. The most conspicuous-looking folks were the fire and brimstone guys, who were dressed nicely but not for the beach. Them, and the cops – nobody from the Village People – but actual peace officers on duty.

Most everyone else left their costumes at home, if he or she had one to start with.

To realize that a "gay regatta" was occurring on Crystal Lake, the lake, you had to know it was gay going in.

Nothing appeared forced, or forced-upon, in any way. Just some folks rowing their boats for fun and for prizes. Being athletic. Being a teammate. Supporting each other. Being themselves. Having fun.

And to think: The gays can practice sport without wearing mascara and heels.

Gay Games no big deal, just another day at beach [Northwest Herald]
Games lift off with warm reception [Chicago Tribune]