All that lobbying paid off. The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1592 232-to-180, with 208 democrats and 25 republicans voting in the affirmative. The Bill, also known as the Matthew Shepard Bill, will now go to the president. Unfortunately, the President has fallen in line with his conservative base and has vowed to veto the bill.

A White House spokesperson released a statement earlier this morning:

The Administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crime, including crime based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, religion, or national origin. However, the Administration believes that H.R. 1592 is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable. If H.R. 1592 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

Meanwhile, the ACLU's law-loving activist Washington legal head, Caroline Fredrickson applauded the move:

Prosecuting violent hate crimes is critically important. This bill will also protect due process and the Constitution, especially our First Amendment rights to speak freely and associate with whom we'd like. When a person inflicts violence based on hate, it is important that they be punished.

She did warn, however, that we must all respect free speech.

Barney Frank spoke freely after the vote. From Joe.My.God, "From the podium, Barney Frank exhulted, 'The bill is passed!'" Go on and celebrate, Frank, you deserve it.

Ivan Massow built a £22m business dedicated to providing insurance and mortgages. to gay men and women. All it took to take it down was a homophobic insurance giant, he claims

Massow founded Massow Financial Services back in the early 1990s, when insurance companies refused to give gay people equal protection. The AIDS crisis made gays a bad investment and many companies denied gays coverage. And, if they did, the rates were extortionately inflated. Massow stepped in to adjust the rates. The company took off and soon enough Massow found himself competing with the big boys. He even ran a series of adverts taking on more established companies' anti-gay reputations, including a 1996 poster against a company called Allied Dunbar, which would later become part of Swiss insurance monolith, Zurich.

In 2002, Zurich approached Massow to arrange a cease-fire and potentially lucrative business deal. As part of the arrangement, Zurich floated Massow a £330,000 loan. Massow admits he doubted Zurich's claims that they would adjust their policies for gay people, but he signed the contract anyway. It soon became clear, however, that Zurich had no intentions of altering their discriminatory ways. He alleged they were cruising Massow's client list.

[Read On ...]

The Canadian Supreme Court once again proved its liberal chops when it ruled that the government must grant gay couples survivor benefits. Though lawyers hoped the judges would request a pay off for back benefits from1985, the Court has ruled that the government can only be held accountable for cases dating back to 2000. The Court wrote:

Just as ignorance of the law is no excuse for an individual who breaks the law, ignorance of the Constitution is no excuse for governments. But where a judicial ruling changes the existing law or creates new law, it may, under certain conditions, be inappropriate to hold the government retroactively liable.

The government will now pay approximately $50-75 million in back payments to nearly 1,000 gay widows/widowers. Activists insist it's not about the money, but about civil rights. While that's certainly true, we'd love a little pay off. Too bad we're not Canadian. And don't have a dead lover. Or a live lover, for that matter. Tear, tear...

• Mel Gibson on Good Morning America. (And something else?) [Gawker]

• Kirk on Foley. (And Hastert, too.) [365 Gay]

• "Borat" on faggotry. (And touches upon Kazakhstan.) [The Advocate]

• Harley-Davidson on beef jerky. (And...???) [Rocking Mountain News]

• Kim Ficera on gay rumors. (And with all the big names.) [AfterEllen]

• Kevin Aviance is on Tyra Banks Today! (And go!) [The Tyra Banks Show]

• Ireland on big changes. (And that's all folks!) [Ireland Online]

Republican senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has taken issue with the nomination of Michigan judge Janet T. Neff because of her role in a same-sex union four years ago, 365 Gay reports. While no other senators seem to have an issue, Brownback, a voracious enemy of gay rights, wants to launch a full inquiry into whether or not Neff broke the law.

Even though Neff was nominated by President Bush himself, Brownback's apparently so bent out of shape about gay marriage that he feels it necessary to take aim at a judge in state in which he has no other interest. While gay marriage gained legal status in Michigan in 2004, Brownback wants to know if any laws were broken in 2002.

Now, we're not lawyers, but can you find someone guilty for breaking a law after that law's no longer valid?

• We can't believe People actually paid for these pictures of Anna Nicole's Bermuda wedding? Fuck, they should sue. [People]

• Speaking of suing, Coach is totally taking Target to court for imitations. [CNN]

• Politicians will be going to court soon, because the House Ethics Committee issued subpoenas for Foley cover-up [. [365 Gay]

• Legendary gay rights activist, Franklin E. Kameny donates over 70,000 personal papers to Library of Congress achives. Now that's some good reading. [The New York Blade]

• Terry Richardson shoots actor Vincent Gallo for Butt's more stylish brother, Fantastic Man. First we see Chloe Sevigny suck his cock in Brown Bunny, now we get to see him dancing gleefully in a dress. Wheee! [ohnotheydidnt]

• Alexis Arquette's totally down with the Baldwin brothers. For some reason, we're not surprised. [AOL]

The Supreme Court must have been in a shit mood today as it embarked on a new term, because they refused to hear not one, but two gay-themed cases.

One case came from the Christian Civic League of Maine, which wanted to run an ad urging local politicians to vote for a gay-marriage ban. A federal court stopped the ad from running, but the group insists that they're civil rights were violated, hence taking it to the Supreme Court. The Court said the ad, which the group had intended on running over the summer, was no longer applicable and tossed the case out.

The second - and far juicier - case involves an employee at a Texas sex shop who landed in the slammer after selling a dildo. Apparently, it's illegal to have a dildo in Texas actually shaped like a penis. Who knew? The case rested on the infamous Lawrence v. Texas fight that increased citizens' right to sexual privacy, namely anal sex.

But, it seems the court had something up their asses, because they were having none of it. Don't worry, it's not that they don't like gay people. They also refused to hear the appeal of a former Nazi who wants his US citizenship back.

What could have been a ball busting year of gay law-making came to a disappointing halt on Friday, as Congress adjourned for the year. While the proposed amendment banning gay marriage fell short of the two-thirds majority needed, a handful of LGBT-related bills failed to get through the gates.

Teddy Kennedy's proposed hate-crime legislation, which would add homophobic attacks as hate-crimes, never got the vote, nor did the changes to the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, which would help allocate federal dough to more needy areas in rural areas. And gay federal workers will have to wait until next year to find out if their partners will get benefits.

Ug, waiting for legislation to pass is more frustrating than blue balls, and just as painful. When will we get our political ejaculation? We're dying, here!

In an effort to provide as much care to HIV positive peeps as possible, the House has passed the controversial bill that will allocate more money to the rural South. For years, people assumed that AIDS lurked in urban areas (you know, where all the homos, hookers, and heroin addicts chill), but more and more cases are being documented in the South.

Politicians from larger cities, including New York, which stands to lose about $100 million in funding, have been bitching ever since the changes came up, insisting that they need the money more. Thus, Senators have threatened to stall passage unless revisions are made.

While we personally would like to see more money spent fighting AIDS rather than feckless wars, these politicians need to pull their heads out of their asses and work with what they have, rather than arguing over which citizens deserve more care. These are people's lives, not some pissing contest. One can't help but think that if the big city pols had their way, this would be an AIDS version of Katrina.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has three days to veto a bill that will allow gay couples to register their state taxes as one unit. While this would certainly be a landmark decision - symbolically (and financially) recognizing the validity of gay relationships - it would also lead to a huge pain in the ass, and not in a good way. Why? Because even if the couples register together in Cali, they'll still have to register as individuals at the federal level. Shitty, right?

If the Governor doesn't veto the bill, it will automatically become a law. The former movie star has a mixed record on gay rights: he vetoed a bill that would have made gay marriage legal. With an election around the corner, he's most certainly worried about alienating his more conservative voters, yet knows that by endorsing the bill he'll garner a significant amount of gay support.

What a tangled web we weave...

• CDC says, "HIV Tests For Almost All Ages!" Yay! [Bloomberg News]

• Lesbian Fire Chief Under Fire! Ha! Don't worry folks, we're here all week! (But, seriously, discrimination ain't cool.) [365 Gay]

• Lesbian Mama Under Custody Fire! (Doesn't really translate, does it?) [The Advocate]

• Fashionista David Colman equates Alexander McQueen with Dracula. No, Not Really. [The New York Times]

• Gay Italians to Pope: Don't Forget We're Pissed, Too. [BBC News]

• Michael Jackson + Leprechauns = Theme Park? Lawyers everywhere are drooling. [Mollygood]

We've been around the block, so we're not surprised by much, but we did jolt a little when we read this story. Former Atlanta Attorney General Mike Bowers (pictured at a press conference after admitting to having an adulterous relationship) has been chosen by the Atlanta Bar Association to receive its prestigious leadership award. We're all about people being rewarded for their work (hint, hint), but when said honoree fought to maintain anti-sodomy laws... well, we don't like that so much.

The Stonewall Bar Association decried the proposed honor in a letter saying:

Members in our community suffered for almost an additional two decades because of him... The fact that he pushed very hard in that case, where he had discretion not to, kind of speaks to where his feelings were.

Richard Herzog, president of the Atlanta Bar Association, replied in a letter:

Giving a leadership award does not imply that every member of the Atlanta Bar Association agrees with every action or position of the Honoree.

Well, he certainly told them, didn't he?