• Jim McGreevey successfully stole the thunder from former beard, Dina Mato McGreevey's Oprah appearance. The Gay American "is entering a seminary amid reports that he wants to become an Episcopal priest," according to NYC's NBC affiliate, WNBC. IHT confirms that the formerly - and publicly - Catholic New Jersey governor has been embraced by the Episcopal Church. With this successful entry, McGreevey's plunging into the "discernment" phase, says IHT . This process which clears the pipes for deeper spiritual penetration and eventual priesthood. After all is said and done, McGreevey could looking at over three years on his knees for god. Dina best come out with a sequel. [Image source]

• Last week, The Advocate broke the story on Micron Technology's board of director's heavy-handed refusal to endorse a shareholder sponsored non-discrimination policy. Now the Boise, Idaho company has reversed it's position. From The Advocate:

Micron Technology Inc. decided Tuesday to amend its company policy so employees can no longer be fired on the basis of their sexual orientation. The move comes after The Advocate revealed last week that the Boise, Idaho, company’s board of directors had ignored an unprecedented 55% shareholder vote in favor of adding both sexual orientation and gender identity to its nondiscrimination policies.

• Don't forget all the homo-politicos. Referring to a string of recent political gains, Denis Dison of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund tells Deb Price: "We have seen in the last month at almost every major win, almost always there is an openly gay legislator behind that story." This article comes with complete "gay" political gain time line!

• Scary Spice v. Eddie Murphy heads to the court room. That's some baby mama DNA drama.

• Don Imus may file a lawsuit against CBS, thus ensuring we'll continue to hear America's most outrageously offensive catch phrase since "Let's Get Retarded".

• New York thinks it's time to come out of the American Idol closet.

• Don't forget Good Times tonight at Eastern Bloc! We'll totally be there. Details after the jump!

[Read On ...]

To describe Steven Cohen’s performance art as “shameful” would be true on two levels. First, the South African artist shames himself – for example, he caused a stink during 2000’s Limping Into The African Renaissance when he shat on the Dance Umbrella Stage. Cohen’s work can also be described as shameful in a slightly different, slanted way: it is, quite literally, full of shame. The 54-year old’s elaborate and highly personal pieces force the viewer to confront and digest shame.

[Read On ...]

• Slowly but surely, Madonna's becoming a woman.

• The Jewish Theological Seminary has decided to admit queers. Why can't all religions be so cool?

• A group of techie jokesters hacked Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's MySpace and declared, "Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage…particularly marriage between two passionate females." This, of course, makes one think of McCain masturbating which leads to severe psychological scarring. Thanks, guys...

• Democratic Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts on gay marriage: "After a couple years, the average heterosexual person forgets gay marriage is there."

• A church security guard apparently pulled a gun on someone trying to take pictures of Britney Spears. Um, church security guards carry guns?

• Greg Scarnici makes a better looking Fergie than Fergie herself.

• Former American Family Association Attorney Joe R Murray on homophobia: "The gay issue is a human issue, and thus I strongly believe that it must be approached with concern and compassion. Furthermore, the individuals engaging in the debate must recognized that behind the theories there are real life human beings that are made in the image of the Creator." We just shat our pants. In a good way, of course...

• Gay performer Charles Knipp aka Shirley Q. Liquor is apparently "not a racist".

• Simon Doonan's job is just one challenge after another. He had to travel down to Dallas to organize a fashion show and then comment on the designs! Things got so hectic that he couldn't remember the model's names! How'd he cope? By breaking every stereotypical moniker rule in the book:

...I had no time to gather their names. This left me with no choice other than to assign fake monikers. I gave all the white Nordic girls names like Taneesha and Shaneequa. All the black gals got Euro-trash, aristo-sounding names like Fabuleena and Fallopia. To the male models, I assigned more straightforward names like Irving and Igor.

• The NAACP and Jasmyne Cannick are not homies, okay? [Jasmyne Cannick]

• The ACLU and some faglings fought successful to establish a GSA at California's Madera High School. Go team! [San Diego Union-Tribune]

• People love the Queerty-sponsored, Svedka-stocked, (New York's best new gay bar) eastern bloc-housed Wednesday party, Good Times! [twerking]

• Meanwhile, Iranian Pop stars love making fun of Mullahs through music! [Radar]

• Philosophy! What is it good for? Everything when discussing homosexuality through the thoughts and theories of Thomas Aquinas and how they relate to the Catholic Church. [Stephen Law]

• Richard Rothstein and Madame are daytime drinking buddies. We think they need to invite us next time they go on an afternoon binge. [QueerSighted]

• Here ye, here ye! We're now officially naming reader Tracy the nerdiest, most fabulous person in human history. She sent us an email informing us that she once worked on a Teen Witch "Where Are They Now". While time and endless drug abuse/sluttery have destroyed most of her brain cells, she still remembers a thing or two. Details (and a picture of Louise's little brother grown into a somewhat alarming man) after the jump.

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There's been loads of chatter about "straight" black men who blow their loads over other men, but some researchers claim the phenomenon of "Down Low Brothers" has been overblown. What's more, they say that misrepresentation of this subculture may be doing more harm than good by leading men into riskier behavior.

The idea of the down low brother has led to endless speculation and investigation into the spread of HIV among black communities, with many people to conclude that black men's shady behavior increased infection rate among black women. Dr. Chandra L. Ford of Columbia University insists that the down low behavior is not exclusive to black men and, what's more, the myth of the DL rests on some tried and true discrimination.

[Read On ...]

We knew it was only a matter of time before controversial performer Charles Knipp spoke out against detractors who call his portrayal of black women racist. In case you haven't been keeping up, Knipp's made a name for himself as Shirley Q. Liquor: a "comedic" black face caricature chock full of negative stereotypes of black women. People weren't laughing, to say the least.

Homo-journo Jasmyne Cannick helped lead the crusade against Knipp's act, a move that led GLAAD to break its silence and issue a statement against Knipp - a statement many accused of being disingenuous, considering their silence on the Isaiah Washington shit storm. Of his particular shit storm, Knipp had this to say:

I don't mind critics. I'm not scared of controversy...I'm so glad black and white folk, especially the gay community, are finally getting the REAL discussion started. I'm glad to be the 'boogeyman' if Americans of various races will finally speak TRUTH to each other. This politically correct shit has done nothing but silence the conversation that black and white Americans have needed to have for WAY too long now.

There's no shortage of opinions about homophobe "It" boy, Isaiah Washington. While certainly there have been a number of articles, op-eds and general rants penned by white gay men, less attention has been given to opinions within gay black communities. Thus, we'd like to take a little second to ponder a Louisiana Weekly piece by a black lesbian named Jasmyne Cannick.

Over the past few weeks, Cannick's railed against gay white media, insisting that even though Washington should be reprimanded for his now legendary faggot-flinging, some journalists and activists have been too quick to jump on the Down with Washington band wagon. She writes:

[The protest] reminds of 1876 in the Deep South, when a White woman would scream rape at the hands of a Black man, and that Black man was then dragged out of his home into the middle of the night and beaten and lynched by an angry White mob without any proof or evidence, just the word of his accuser. It was another case of guilty until proven innocent.

...The gay mafia's wheels were in motion and they smelled meat, dark meat. And whether Isaiah apologized or not, it was all down hill for him anyway.

[Read On ...]

• Survivor's race-based competition begins to attract its share of detractors. [AP]

• Queer comic strip Mr. Gisby matches celebrities with their pet versions. (Click image for larger version.) [Mr. Gisby]

• Jesse McCartney lets slip a little something about Jennifer Lopez being pregnant. [A J-C]

• Of all people, it's Matt Lauer who's coming to Tom Cruise's defense. [Us]

• Karl Lagerfeld on Project Runway: "Trash that is funny for five minutes if you're with other people." [Gatecrasher]

With a $350,000 grant from New York City's health department, the New York State Black Gay Network this week launched a billboard campaign (and corresponding website) aimed at battling black homophobia. As the "downlow" phenomenon can attest, there seems to be an added layer of prejudice against gay men and women among people of color. The ad campaign – which, smartly, will be featured in predominently black areas like Harlem and Brownsville instead of, say, Chelsea – also has a second goal: to fight the spread of HIV among blacks. Mark McLaurin, the organization's executive director, points out how the heterosexual black community often ignores the AIDS epidemic and labels it a "gay problem." Three versions of the billboard will appear throughout the city, each carrying inclusive messages aimed at family, religion, and recreation. This is one straight-forward cause that has our full support.

Billboards Challenge Black NYC [Gay City News]
We Are Part Of You

Yesterday's announcement that Survivor's 13th season will have contestants battle for $1 million based on their race raised plenty of eyebrows. You know CBS execs were hoping for that — it's the buzz of the controversy they're after, which will hopefully boost ratings. But Survivor isn't exactly lacking big Nielsen numbers, either. And this is supposedly the last season that Jeff Probst will play host. So the big question is, well: Why?

If you're just joining us, the tiffany network's tiffany reality show is splitting the 20 contestants into four groups: black, white, Hispanic and Asian. The move, claims CBS, was a reaction to criticism over the show not being diverse enough. So, is making diversity the pivotal point of the show the solution? The same goal – to increase the number of non-white contestants – could be achieved by, well, increasing the number of non-white contestants. By splitting the tribes down racial lines, is the show actually discriminating against folks who don't fall into one of those categories, like American Indians? And what about men and women who are bi- or multi-racial? Are they immediately disqualified (surely a violation of every civil rights law) or forced to choose whether they're more black, Asian, or otherwise?

You can just imagine Probst's running commentary: "The Asians are in the lead, but the whites aren't far behind. Looks like some of the blacks are just getting lazy." (Yes, we know he'll refer to the teams by their tribe name, but this scenario isn't too far off.)

It wasn't so long ago Donald Trump floated the idea of having his own reality show divy up contestants based on the color of their skin. The rumors of The Apprentice's gimmick drew such heated criticism The Donald quickly scrapped the idea. It may have boosted his household share for a couple episodes, but it would've permanently placed him on our scumbag list (not that he's too far off already).

On the other hand, Survivor's (and The Apprentice's) men vs. women battles didn't stir much of any drama. So is race just an equal category that happens to be more taboo? If we substituted sexual orientation for race, would Survivor be receiving the same criticism? More? Less?

Chime in. Please. We want to know where you stand.

Speaking this morning at the annual NAACP Convention, President Bush had this to say:

I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historical ties with the African-American community. For too long, my party wrote off the African-American vote, and many African-Americans wrote off the Republican Party.

He's right. The Republicans have overlooked black people for too long. Evidenced by the president's turning down the NAACP's invitations to speak at its annual conventions — every year for the past five years. Oh, and Bush' disavowal of affirmative action, his Florida black vote theft, and his inhumane response to Hurricane Katrina.

Bush calls for unity before NAACP [AP]

• We miss World of Wonder’s “Ask a Black Girl” column. But, now that we have “Ask an Asian Girl,” we’re all good. [WOW Report]

• Elephants, transvestites, and ABBA. Finally, a sport we can get into around here! [Gay.com]

• We don’t need this, since you know, we have great asses. But some of you bottoms who want a firmer bottom just might want to snatch up the Bottom Reformulator Cushion. [Gadget Universe]

• Rikers is closing its gay jail. A gay jail? We had no clue they even existed. But it sounds kinda hot. [NY Daily News]

• “Gay lawmaker expects ‘intense’ session.” Intense session? Giggle. We expect that every time we cruise Craigslist. [Southern Voice]