Sir Alan Bates may have been married to Victoria Ward, but a new biography reveals the British actor had a thing for men.

Otherwise Engaged: The Life Of Alan Bates by Donald Spoto offers new details suggesting the strapping sex idol - known for his roles in Women In Love, The Fixer and The Entertainer, among others - got down with the boys. And one of his male mates came in the form of Olympic figure skater, John Curry (pictured after the jump). Daily Mail paraphrases the Olympic-sized details:

While he liked to appear publicly with women, and to cuddle with them privately, his deepest romances and his most passionate sexual life occurred with men.

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Larry Kramer sure knows how to get a rise out of people. Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (the organization otherwise known as PFLAG) have issued a response to Kramer's Los Angeles Times op-ed in which the legendary gay activist blasted so-called straight hate.

Kramer's offending piece opens, "Dear Straight People, Why do you hate gay people so much?" The 200,000-strong PFLAG insists that's just not so.

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Larry Kramer's riding the rising tide of the newly revived ACT-UP and has penned a Los Angeles Times op-ed entitled, "Why do straights hate gays?"

In this piece addressed to the apparently monolithic, omnipotent "straight people", the rarely affable activist takes on America's discriminatory political process, insisting that even though not all straight people hate the homos, their political representatives sure seem to.

In response to this unending cycle of legislative injustice, Kramer seems to think that gays should remove themselves from the democratic process entirely.

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It's a never ending gay activist bonanza up in this piece. Joe of Joe.My.God fame just sent us this link to some more pictures from today's ACT-UP demonstration in NYC. He also informs us that National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman and lovely lesbian Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum got cuffed by the fuzz for blocking Broadway. That's them just before the coppers came down on them.

Meanwhile, homeboy Jeremy Hooper over at Good as You has some moving image! That's right. They're like pictures, but moving! You feel like you're actually there...which you should have been. We should have gone, too, but we've got a legitimate excuse. Hemorrhoids. Really, really bad hemorrhoids.

Attendance aside, we have to say it's refreshing to see those old rabble-rousers out stirring the shit. Now, if we can just get a few of you kiddies out there...

Larry Kramer (pictured, looking like he's ready to rumble) led the New ACT-UP "army" to Times Square today to call for General Peter Pace's not-so-nice remarks on the gays and the ever-contentious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

Among this paltry army (a shameful 60-person strong, although, maybe the fags have day jobs and couldn't get out to join the socially conscious fun), one can see former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey (below):

Now, we don't want to be naysayers or anything, but doesn't it seem as if McGreevey's just there for the photo-op? He's not even pretending to protest. He's just standing there with his coffee, chatting up that dude. Publicity aside, Towleroad correspondent Dave G. (The "AY" is silent) has snapped one of the most captivating shots we've seen in the last hour. That stoic man's definitely fantastic. For reals.

For more pictures of the protest, go pay Andy a visit. Tell him Queerty sent you and be sure to wipe your feet. We don't want him thinking we've raised total ragamuffins.

Puffta portends to be the UK's "leading website for gay teens". That said, we turn to them to see what the queer kiddies are up to - you know, sap as much of their youthful energy as possible.

Anyway, we were just trolling around their site and heeded their virtual call to explore their DList page. Our opinion? It's alright, nothing special. Editor Simon Johnson just got back from a gay cruise and offers like-minded lispers a little advice:

Don’t be afraid to dress up. You may feel like a fool on your own but a group of you all wearing the same outfit will make your stand out from the crowd.

Groundbreaking. Although, judging from Puffta's DList profile, we're not sure why we expected anything more.

If this is the state of gay youth today, Larry Kramer's spinning in his grave - wait, what's that? Larry Kramer's alive and kicking? He wants America's youthful (and not-so-youthful) gays to be kicking, too? Well, let's hope they're not reading Puffta, then.

Larry Kramer employed his inimitable charm at last night's celebration of ACT UP. Speaking to a packed crowed, Kramer insisted that the fight for gay rights is far from over.

I wish I could make all gay people everywhere accept this one fact I know to be an undisputed truth. We are hated. Haven’t enough of us died for all of us to believe this?
...
No one is looking out for us anymore the way ACT UP looked out for us once upon a time.

ACT UP is not saving us now. This is not meant as finger-pointing or blame. It just is. No one goes to meetings and our chapters all over the globe have almost disappeared. And we must recognize this, I beg of you.

I don’t want to start another organization. And yet I know we must start another organization. Or at the very least administer major shock therapy to this one.

As part of this revival, Kramer has asked concerned homos to gather in Times Square tomorrow at noon to protest Don't Ask, Don't Tell. While there's no telling how many sissies with show their beautiful, outraged faces, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey's pledged his support. That's what he tells New York, at least.

We love all the feedback on yesterday's Larry Kramer post. (Yes, even when Seamus from KY called us a "shallow little endeavor".) Make no mistake, we have loads of respect for Kramer. We're just not so keen on his methods. There's definitely a difference.

We agree with Steve S of Adamant Sun when he says, "A loss of rights IS doom". We'd like to remind you lot that the battles not over. Nor are all gay activists dreary Donnas. As Kramer succumbs to a nasty case of fatalism, 48-year old performance artist Tim Miller treks on...

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Earlier in today we took a look at the influence of big money on pro-gay politics.

While Kerry Eleveld may laud goal-oriented investment, legendary activist Larry Kramer's not so supportive. In an interview with Australia's SX News, Kramer gripes:

Our organisations are just useless. The other side spends a lot of money on creating image and making their demands and we don’t have any way to make our demands because no one is willing to step up to the plate and do it.

And, pursuing the same line of thought that gave rise to his controversial harangue, The Tragedy of Today's Gays, Kramer warns that the days of gay activism are numbered:

If you want anything you have to fight for it every day and as long as the gay population remains as passive, invisible, voiceless and leaderless, we’ll stay right we are, which in my opinion is pretty much nowhere.

Always nice to hear from you, Larry, especially in your tiresome incarnation as the harbinger of doom.

• John McCain reaffirms his support for the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, citing senior armed forces officials' reports that the rules are working. [PageOneQ]

• Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, an openly gay Indian royal who works for an AIDS organization, has been disowned from his family for – you guessed it – sleeping with men. So stop calling Manvendra's mother his, ahem, mother. [Gay.com UK]

• It took just a year for gay marriage in Spain to look just like straight marriage: ending in divorce. [EITB]

• The Kramer Brothers are no longer the face of homophobia in the family. Today, the famed playwrite and his brother are the face of gay advocacy. [NYT]

• While the rain brought down Atlanta's Gay Pride Parade, the real storm may not be over. Tomorrow, the state's Supreme Court will hear the argument on whether to reinstate the constitiutional ban on gay marriage. [AP]

• Marketers love us, they really love us! [NYT]