There's been no shortage of reaction over Lord John Browne's gay affair-induced resignation from British Petroleum. While some people have expressed muted outrage over his so-called "deceit", a number of journos have come out in support of Browne, insisting he's a victim. By threatening to publish an interview with Browne's former love, The Mail on Sunday ventured into uncharted, unjust territory.

Never one to miss a good scandal, gay activist and potential politician Peter Tatchell has penned a Guardian editorial on the matter. Though Tatchell doesn't approve of Browne's decision to stay in the closet - "Staying forever in the closet is not a morally clean decision" - he derides The Mail's nefarious approach to Browne's personal life:

Having said all this, there was no demonstrable public interest grounds for the Mail on Sunday - or any other media - outing Lord Browne. He wasn't being hypocritical or homophobic. If he was denouncing gay people or advocating anti-gay laws - or if he had authorised the hounding of BPs' gay employees - that would be a justifiable reason to expose his double standards.
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He may have shown moral weakness by not coming out, but hiding in the closet - however lamentable - is not ethically of the same order as endorsing homophobic prejudice and discrimination.

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Anal cancer's a real pain in the ass. Literally. Once infected, the subject's subjected to slow-growing tumors that invade from the outside in, burrowing deeper into their anal cavities. It may elicit a chuckle from a few of you, but rest assured it's no laughing matter.

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2007 about 4,650 new cases of anal cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. The number of new anal cancer cases has been increasing for many years.

The disease may not have the largest fatalities in disease history, but they're certainly significant...

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A little over a month after issuing a call against British gay activist Peter Tatchell, a group of African gay do-gooders maintain that Tatchell and his group, Outrage!, are still meddling in their business.

They claim that their British counterparts inadvertently brought Nigeria's anti-gay bill back from the dead, thus leading to more oppression. Dorothy Aken'Ova of Nigeria's International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights insists:

Press attention to the bill, even if it is as mild as reporting that it is presumed dead as a result of political tension will be dangerous. Right now, we want silence.

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London police are reviewing video and eye witness accounts that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov's press secretary, Sergei Tsoi physically attacked and verbally threatened a Russian gay activist after a press conference last week.

Mayors from London, Paris, Moscow and Beijing had gathered in London to discuss policy issues, including gay rights. Luzhkov has come under pressure after banning Moscow's gay pride and referring to homosexuality as "satanic". As a press conference wrapped up, Nikolai Alekseev, a Moscow pride organizer, stood up and waved that symbol of fag freedom - the rainbow flag. Tsoi apparently didn't appreciate the blatant display of liberation, because he allegedly started yelling at and pushing Alekseev in an attempt to take his flag. Staffers broke up the scuffle before the fists could fly. Now police are wondering whether they should press charges.

Of the attack, Alekseev remarked:

If in Russia people of such high standing get away in such incidents, in Britain there is a slightly different perception of law abiding. Next time staff of Moscow Mayor will think many times before to breach the law... Mr. Tsoi [had] used homophobic statements [before] and now he is underpinning them with actions in front of all the media, which means he feels more and more untouchable.

Eminent and equally omnipresent British activist Peter Tatchell said:

It reveals yet again the repressive, authoritarian nature of the Mayor of Moscow's regime... It was exceedingly discourteous for Mr Luzhkov’s staff to abuse the hospitality of the Mayor of London in this way.

• If there's one thing lesbians love, it's ladies. Yep, they're all about the chicks. So, of course the sappho-journos over at AfterEllen were all over the Shakira/Beyonce mega-collaboration, "Beautiful Liar". We've reposted the video after the jump, but you should head over and see what the girls had to say. "Sometimes, it’s difficult to distinguish Beyoncé from Shakira and Shakira from Beyoncé. But, really, who’s complaining?" Sluts. [AfterEllen]

• Now this is slutty: NYC Man seeks all of Hell's Kitchen. [craigslist]

• But the ladies at The View think Paris Hilton's the biggest slut of all. She's so slutty, in fact, that she could feasibly have sex with a horse. That's what Joy Behar says... [BWE]

• Peter Tatchell doesn't think London Mayor Ken Livingstone's a slut, but he does think he needs to check himself before wrecks himself. Livingstone implied that Tatchell's an Islamophobe. Tatchell says, "That ain't so, buster!"

• Michael Savage may be a total homophobe prick, but he's going to make CAA lots of money. [TMZ]

• Playboy TV is dead! Oh, dead god, no! Playboy TV is dead!! How ever will we go on? Oh, well,, we'll just have to use the internet. Like everybody else. [Jossip]

• The Black Party's Back. And this time it's holy. [Saint At Large]

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The technological gods at Google have reached a judgement concerning anti-gay Jamaican blog, killbattyman. Under fire from gay activists and media outlets (including this one), the popular search engine and all-around phenomenon has decided to disinherit the Jamaica-based blog. Among the homophobic harangues, one could find more than a few requests for British activist Peter Tatchell's head.

Tatchell lauded the company's ruling, but made sure to take a not-so-civil swipe:

Thanks to...everyone else who lobbied Google to remove this murderous website. It is good that Google has heard our concerns but bad that it took them so long to respond. If this website had been advocating the killing of black or Jewish people, I am certain that Google would have taken a much tougher stand and removed it much sooner.

A bit of a culinary controversy over in England. Mad O’Rourke’s Pie Factory, located in Tipton, West Midlands, serves a so-called "Barrymore Pie", which it describes as "Faggots swimming in gravy". While faggots are a common meatball dish, the pie's name's a reference, of course, to the suspicious death of Stuart Lubbock at gay actor Michael Barrymore's house back in 2001.

Not surprisingly, the offering offends gay rights activists, including Outrage! co-founder Peter Tatchell, who says:

This may have been intended as a joke but homophobia is not a subject of fun in the same way racism is not appropriate for a joke.

But, anything for a rise, right?

There's a bit of a post-colonial scuffle happening over in merry old England. British activist group Outrage! made headlines last month when they called on world powers to raise their voices against some proposed homophobic Nigerian laws.

In a statement, the even outspoken Peter Tatchell railed:

We appeal to gay and human rights groups worldwide to take urgent action to press the Nigerian government to uphold international human rights law and to drop this draconian legislation.

The concerned citizens - including South Africa's Thuli Madi (pictured) - insist Tatchell and his friends of playing a little neo-colonial politics by stoking the coals of a dying controversy through misquotes and false information:

Stay out of African LGBTI issues. You have proven that you have no respect for conveying the truth with regards to Africa or consulting African LGBTI leaders before carrying out campaigns that have severe consequences in our countries. You have betrayed our trust over and over again.

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In yesterday's Happy Endings, we mentioned that Nigeria's government's one step closer to outlawing a number of homo-related activities. In case you're not the go-getter we thought you were, we'll give you the rundown.

Though presented as a simple ban on marriage, the long-winded "Prohibition of Relationships Between Persons of the Same Sex, Celebration of Marriage by Them, and for Other Matters Connected Therewith" will bar all expressions and endorsements of homosexuality. Despite President Olusegun Obasanjo officially centrist position, he and his administration call the country's Christians their core base. Thus, the government's heeding calls for the gay ban. The prohibition's passed the nation's Federal Executive Council, going into the National Assembly to become a law.

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• If there's one thing November's election taught us, it's that sexual panic's alive and well. What, however, does that mean for gay people? Julie Enszer investigates. [SOVO]

• We know Mitt Romney's not swell on the gays, but his 1994 letter to the Log Cabin Republicans says otherwise. [The Boston Globe]

• Nicole Richie's a wild child. That's a given. But her most recent arrest raises questions about her race. [Mollygood]

• It's an established fact that Latvia's got loads of homophobic politicians. Iain MacWhirter wonders what that means for Scotland. [The Guardian]

• Everyone knows Dreamgirls is being tossed around for an Oscar nod, but can you imagine Borat getting a statue? [The Huffington Post]

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the holocaust. Do you know who's furious about it? Peter Tatchell, that's who. [Pink News UK]

• Police identified 18-year-old Lyon Tatum as the second suspect in the San Diego gay pride parade attack. He was originally thought to be a minor, though prosecutors were expected to charge him as an adult. He joins James Carroll and an unidentified 16-year-old boy as the trio of suspects. [SDUT]

• The United States Tennis Association will christen the Billie Jean King Stadium at the National Tennis Center during a cermony at the U.S. Open, which comes as a surprise to even the tennis great, who didn't know she was being honored. [NYT]

• In the UK, anti-abortion group Operation Christian Vote is receiving some of its funding from an unlikely source: royalties on gay anthem "So Macho." [Gay.com UK]

• Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell is calling for the gay community to support the Iranian Ahwazi community following the executions of two gay Ahwazi teens. [Pink News]