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.

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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• San Francisco's Department of Human Services has launched an ad campaign to recruit gay parents to adopt.

• Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle have clarified their report on the aforementioned ad campaign. The newspaper originally cited Family Research Council's Paul Cameron as an "expert" on the matter. They neglected, however, to mention that he's been debunked by the American Psychological Association and hates gay people. Oops!

• On that note: the APA formed a "task force" to review research on ex-gay conversion therapy. Oh, we're sorry - "therapeutic responses". APA president Dr. Sharon Stephens Brehm bursts with joy: "I am pleased to announce the initiation of this task force. Its work will be of significant value as it will help inform all mental health practitioners about appropriate and effective therapeutic responses to sexual orientation. I look forward to the group's report." That could be good for the children.

• National Runaway Switchboard has published a new brochure for gay teens, "Being Out, Being Safe". NRS director Maureen Blaha remarks, "Research shows that LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to exhibit the symptoms of major depression than heterosexual youth -- which may lead to a runaway episode". Be sure to pack a lunch!

• "Shirley Q. Liquor" - a black face drag comedienne - did an interview with Rollingstone. Jasmyne Cannick - a black sappho-journo - wrote a rebuttal. NSFC (Not safe for children).

• In other baby-related news, here's a baby playing with a cobra! No word on whether the parents are gay.

• Pictures of celebrities smoking pot. Grownup children!!

• Plague strikes Denver zoo! Do not take your kids there. They will die. And so will you... (In fact, don't go to Colorado at all.)

• Looking for a movie about 1980s Liverpool gay teens who venture into a magical trans bar? Well, look no further: The Fruit Machine's out on DVD. Now you can go to the Denver zoo.

• Poor Mary Cheney. Her book, Now It's My Turn, only sells for a measly $.07. Don't people know she's has a baby on the way

• Who tried to keep TR Knight in the closet?

• Michael Bay offers you a look at Transformers.

• Mickey Mouse clone fights for Hamas.

• Connecticut drops same-sex marriage debate.

• Maroon 5's Adam Levine on being gay: "I'm not into dick. I wish I were. It would be so much easier. Because, you know, men have a certain camaraderie with each other that's easygoing and kind of simple, when you think about it." Then why are all gay relationships so dramatic?

We've got nothing but love for Ricki Lake, so we have to give a shout-out to the Hairspray star for quashing her chubby demons.

The 38-year old actress flaunts her new look in this week's Us, telling the tab-rag:

For the longest time, when I was very heavy, I couldn’t cross my legs. I couldn’t physically do it. LOVE that I can cross my legs now...

We may love her, but we suspect hordes of postpartum mama's are shaking their fists at her banging body. Better watch out, Lake, those bitches get mean.

• Crazy comedy duo Joey and David drum up some laughs with this Gap-spoof. Also, QueerSighted's Kenneth Hill thinks that David's "hot". Pass it on.

• Hyatt Hotel ain't down with gay romance. A Houston branch of the hotel chain removed gay romance novelist Lauren Baumbach's very homo promotional materials. When she tried to reason with a customer service representative, he cut her off, "I’m not discussing this with you.” Must not be much of a reader.

• Boy George allegedly has a history of hiring whipping boys. From pop bitch: If George's New York neighbours are to be believed, [Auden] Carlsen is not the first escort he's picked up for this purpose. One tells us that George often brought young chaps back to his apartment for a session with whips and chains. The neighbour regularly resorted to banging on the walls and shouting, "Can you just finish him off quietly, for Christ's sake!"

• White House tells Press, "Only you can or cannot support Tony Snow."

• The World of Coca-Cola Museum will host an Andy Warhol exhibit. Because how else will the World of Coca-Cola Museum be taken seriously/get visitors/get press?

• Iron Man's movie suit revealed! (PS: Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man? Our nerd side says, "no", but our inner art fag says, "yes".)

• Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill to abolish the written consent law for HIV test. If passed, doctors will be able to test patient's blood without their approval and/or knowledge. While this may help curb infection rates, it also blurs the line between a person's rights and public health. Should doctors try to stem HIV, even if it means violating a person's right to privacy?

Neil Gaiman fans have something to look forward to this summer - the big screen adaptation of the comic genius' graphic novel, Stardust. Starring Charlie Cox and Claire Danes, the film tells the story of a man named Tristan who ventures into the faerie world to find a shooting star. Fantastic insanity ensues.

Of course, it wouldn't be a faerie land without a bit of sexual ambiguity. The gender-bending comes in the form of Robert De Niro's Captain Shakespeare: a pirate with a taste for the sexually untraditional. New York Daily News' Ben Widdicombe offers a little insight:

"Whenever [Robert De Niro ] had any gay questions, I just said, 'What do you think, Bob?'"

That was director Matthew Vaughn (aka Mr. Claudia Schiffer ) at the premiere of his fantasy film Stardust on Saturday night. Somehow, he got De Niro into a corset (for a cancan number, no less) for his role as a flying pirate with a nontraditional lifestyle.

"He asked me, 'Am I [supposed to be] gay or am I transsexual?'" Vaughn told me. 'Any kind of pirate you want to be, Bob.'"

There were so many comments this week that we don't even know where to begin with this week's Queerty ReBUTTal. So, rather than offending someone by not picking their comment - they were really all lovely, thank you - we're using this space to feature an electronic exchange between ourselves and a reader.

The topic? Alexis Arquette. We won't give away the details, but we will say the reader blows up Arquette's spot, if you know what we mean...

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Danny Glicker has always been fascinated by costuming. Growing up on Long Island, he frequently traveled into Manhattan to see Broadway shows - sometimes up to three a week. "There was a time that I could tell you every designer on every show from the last thirty years. I was one of those kids." Those shows - and that attention to detail - informed his career path into adulthood.

Glicker entered the field at the tender age of seventeen, when he worked as a gofer at Barbara Matera - "one of the most extraordinary costume houses in the world" - and took time off from RISD to work on his first feature, Quiz Show.

After college, Glicker worked on a number of indie films and then headed to Los Angeles, where he had a stint at Bob Mackie, with whom he worked on a Vegas "tits and feathers show", called Jubilee! New York called him back, however, and he cut his teeth further on L.I.E. Since then, he's gone on to design for such films as TransAmerica, Pretty Persuasion and Northfork.

These films may not be spectacular blockbusters with outlandish, space-aged costumes. They do, however, deal with another wild, pioneering costume phenomenon: Americana. See what Glicker has to say about his cinematic sartorial philosophy, the cannibals in The Hills Have Eyes and working with Felicity Huffman, after the jump.

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• We found this video over at Best Week Ever and thought we'd pass it along to you. If you ever needed proof that Fox News is a bigger joke than The Daily Show, here it is. Seriously, the anchor's laughing through the entire vasectomy story. There's nothing funny about men getting their tubes tied. Nothing. Vasectomies are totally, unequivocally unfunny. We're not kidding. Okay, we are kidding, but Fox News still sucks impotent balls.

• Ah! Gonorrhea has totally gone super bug!! Does sex have a future?

• German scientists have successfully made "immature sperm" from bone marrow. Wow, talk about fucking with nature. Of course, it's for a good cause: if they can whip these little puppies into shape, they may be able to help with fertility treatment. Or lead to the end of civilization as we know it. It's a toss up.

• Shia LaBeouf will appear in the next Indiana Jones movie. Of course, it'll take another five thousand years for it to be made, but we're sure it'll be worth the wait. That is, if Harrison Ford doesn't die first.

• Turns out the cocaine soda is just as illegal as the real thing. Well, it's marketing is, at least.

• Government looking to dismantle the internet? But where will we go?

• Alvin Tan's older than dirt. And proud of it.

• We know Monday's the furthest thing from your mind right now, but we just wanted to tell you to be on your best behavior for guest editor Gregory Angelo! The former Next EIC will be filling in for that vacation-taking shit bag, Andrew Belonsky. Where's Belonsky off to? Hell. He's got a hot date. Get it? Show Mr. Angelo some love... or else we'll have to send the zombified Giorgio Armani to eat your brains. Scary shit, that...

Farley Granger's new memoir gives new meaning to "Better late than never". The 81-year old's Include Me Out pulls the curtain from the silver screen star's sex life to reveal his bisexual past.

Though he had flings with Ava Gardner and Shelley Winters, the Rope and Gypsy star dabbled in the dick. IHT reports:

Granger describes a Honolulu night that epitomized his life. A 21-year-old virgin and wartime Navy recruit, he was determined to change his status. He did so with a young and lovely prostitute. He was about to leave the premises when he encountered a handsome Navy officer. Granger was soon in bed again.

"I lost my virginity twice in one night," he writes.

Though this may be the first time you've heard of Granger's randy ways, he explains that he actually came out ten years ago, when Arthur Laurents revealed his sexuality in an interview.

Granger certainly wasn't the only closeted actor in old Hollywood. As we all know, Rock Hudson hid his homo ways from the public. Though their fans may not have known, Granger writes of a gay boys club:

There were cliques for gays, like the one that met at (director) George Cukor's house. I was never invited, and I don't think I would have gone if I had been. I was fortunate to join the musical crowd.

Kevin Smith is a genius. That is an established fact. The 37-year old actor, writer, producer has brought us such favorites as Clerks, the lesbianic Chasing Amy, and even appeared on our favorite teen soap, Degrassi. Now the bearded geek's bringing what may be the most exciting project yet: the horrific Red State.

Smith recently sat down with Rotten Tomatoes to discuss the project and one of its equally horrific inspirations: Fred Phelps.

That dude has always fascinated me and he's really informed the horror movie that I'm working on. The movie's called Red State and it's very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Phelps himself but it's very much inspired by a Phelps figure.

While some horror movies employ sadistic slashers to provide the thrills, Smith's taking a more nuanced - not to mention intelligent - approach:

...The notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there's even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that's the other thing that I'm trying to examine in a big, big way... I'm sure there'll be people saying, 'This ain't a horror movie!' But to me, it is.

(Also, we agree with this post: Phelps looks exactly like Kane from Poltergeist. Creepy.)

Sounds like Fergie had some experience playing a lesbian in Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming flick, Grind House. She tells New Zealand lad-mag Stuff that she's gotten down with the ladies:

I have had lesbian experiences in the past. But I started having sex quite late on - after I was 18. I was raised a good Catholic girl.

I won't say how many men I have slept with, although it's not many, but I am a very sexual person.

Speaking of knowing - we're sure Dolly Parton will be glad to know this bit of lesbianic gossip. Someone be a peach and pass it along.

Fergie confesses to lesbian flings [Stuff]