"Tuesday's [election] results will show how far attitudes to gay marriage have changed. Florida and Arizona will join California in voting on whether to stop gay marriage. In the past, such propositions have almost always been approved, but polls show a close finish in California and many undecided in all three states." [Reuters]

"Gay men in Britain are fueling a surge in demand for plastic surgery, with a quarter admitting to having gone under the knife already. Despite the current economic crisis, the cosmetic surgery industry in Britain is booming, and a rise in demand for procedures such as nose jobs, liposuction and male breast reductions has been attributed to a surge in male requests. A new survey of 1,000 men, conducted by Gay Times, found that 22% of gay men had resorted to plastic surgery, while 69% claimed that they would like to." Someone forward this to designer Thierry Mugler, whose augmented face you see to the left! [Marie Claire UK]

“I think part of it is that a lot of gay men don’t have children back home, family responsibilities back home,” says a gay veteran of two campaign trails. If they’re in long-term relationships with partners, the partners are high-powered career guys as well, so they’re each doing their own thing. I don’t know if there’s something in the genes that attracts us to politics, but I do think our lifestyles create time, space, a certain sense of freedom.” - So says an anonymous homo-journo on the plethora of pink boys and girls on the campaign trail. [Out]

There are a nauseating number of presidential polls out there, many of which have a margin of error that's astronomical. So, who can you trust in these predictive times? Convenience store chain 7-Eleven. No, seriously. [wowOwow]

"A poll by the Observer newspaper reveals that while 6% of Britons identified as gay or bisexual, 13% said that have had same-sex sexual experiences. Two percent of the respondents said that they were unsure of their sexual identity. The Observer's 2008 Sex survey polled over 1,000 UK adults during September this year about various aspects of their sex life. The poll also found that 16% of women have had sexual contact with another woman, while 10% of men said that they have had sexual contact with another man. Twenty three percent of the 16-24 age group revealed that they have had sexual contact with someone of the same sex." [Mamba]

Did you hear? Ultra-dreamy homo-journo Eric Leven is a gay! (Read: It's never too late to celebrate national coming out day, which was last weekend.) That said - we're gay, too! [Bilerico]

Two gay Iraqi refugees are making serious headway here in New York City, especially among the bear scene: "…Here they look exotic among the mix of bellies, baseball caps and bearded men. It’s this all-American aesthetic, however, that draws Mohamed and Ahmed week after week." [NY Press]

"It is a statistic surprising even to those it describes: Same-sex couples in the Bronx are more likely to have children than those in any other New York City borough, according to a study released last month, and perhaps more than any county in the country." [NY Times]

You know what? You don't know how to drink. Thus, a guide to "not looking like an asshole at the bar." [The Sword]