North Carolina native Jim Neal just may be the most controversial queer candidate this political season. The 51-year old entered the race to rival Republican Elizabeth Dole. One would expect resounding praise for a man with such balls - Bob excluded - but Neal's senatorial candidacy became a scandalous affair.

Most people believed that Brad Miller would run as the Democratic candidate, but the Congressman ended up eschewing the race. Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair Chuck Schumer attempted to persuade two other candidates - Sen. Kay Hagan and state Rep. Grier Martin - but both refused. Thus, Neal entered the raise, without Schumer's blessing. In fact, it's been widely reported that Schumer initially ignored Neal's calls, leading many to believe Schumer had little faith in a gay candidate.

Neal recently gave our editor some of his time to discuss the Schumer scandal. But, before we get into the present day political debates, we're going to take a trip back to see how former finance executive Jim Neal became a Democratic Senatorial candidate.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared at the George Bush Presidential Library this morning to deliver his "defining" speech on religion. The Mormon explained that his particular beliefs will not influence his decision making, just as John F. Kennedy kept his Catholicism private. Here are some of the more disingenuous excerpts:

Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
…
As Governor, I tried to do the right as best I knew it, serving the law and answering to the Constitution. I did not confuse the particular teachings of my church with the obligations of the office and of the Constitution – and of course, I would not do so as President. I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.
…
Perhaps the most important question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: does he share these American values: the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another, and a steadfast commitment to liberty?

"They are not unique to any one denomination. They belong to the great moral inheritance we hold in common. They are the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet and stand as a nation, united.

Read the entire text after the jump….

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• Kenneth Hill offers a closer look at John F. Kennedy and his best (and gay) pal, Lem Billings.

• Iranian queer couple speak out.

• Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Russian GQ.

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Launching "The New Issue" with an old publishing great probably strikes some of you as a bit, well, you know - queer - but that's our style. Faithful readers know we like to turn things bottoms up. Remember our very first issue, "The Narcissist Issue," in which we took a new, more positive look at that tired old concept, narcissism?

We're inaugurating this, "The New Issue," with a fresh look at legendary Condé Nast editor Leo Lerman for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Knopf recently published over 600-pages of Lerman's insightful, touching and celebrity filled journals, letters and general scrawlings. Reading through The Grand Surprise, it struck us how much we - yourselves included - can all learn from a man like Lerman.

From modest beginnings, gay, Jewish and "no beauty," as Lerman's former assistant Stephen Pascal described his late boss' looks, Lerman rose to the highest echelons of New York society. He wined, dined, danced and - most importantly - laughed with the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, a few Rockefellers and some Kennedys. The index to The Grand Surprise reads like the best invite list in the world. In history, perhaps. No surprise Lerman loved to party. He could turn what appeared to be nothing into the most spectacular something. Sure, Leo was special, but his pages reveal the "grand surprise:" we're all capable of something great. We just have to find out what that "something" could be.

As part of our mission to learn more about Lerman, we sent our editor, Andrew Belonsky uptown to sit down with a few of the editor's old chums: Joel Kaye, Jonathan Marder, the aforesaid Pascal and, of course, Lerman's long-time lover, Gray Foy. Read the results, some excerpts and find a few surprises, after the jump…

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Despite promises of the proverbial and mythical “American Dream,” America’s pluralistic voting system stymies progressive politics. Not only does our “first past the post” mechanism negate majority rules, America’s plurality voting scheme tends toward a two party rule, which can lead to some pretty queer politics.

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