Last week, when the stock market took that record 700 dip, huge numbers of men appeared to be dipping into each other.

According to New York Press, gay hook-up site ManHunt saw a huge spike in its man-on-man membership:

Manhunt, the most popular online "dating" resource in NYC for men looking for a hookup, saw record membership numbers the day of the stock market crash.
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So many people were in need, in NYC, Boston, D.C., etc. that Manhunt recorded three times as many new memberships than usual on Sept. 29 when the stock market fell 700 points. It was the best single day in their entire history.

Apparently a bit of gay sex is just the trick to curing the economic blues. Who knew?!

Homo-journo James Kirchick thinks the backlash against ManHunt founder and former John McCain backer Jonathan Crutchley proves how "intolerant" gay people can be:

The fact that Crutchley is a Republican ought not to come as much of a surprise then, especially considering that he's a self-made millionaire. And he's hardly a radical right-winger either. "I'm a Massachusetts Republican," he wrote, "which is about the same as being an Alabama Democrat."

But such nuance is apparently irrelevant to those who equate homosexuality with political liberalism.
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For too long, many gay-rights activists have acted as if throwing temper tantrums will magically bring about their political agenda. But labeling everyone with whom they don't agree a "bigot" does not help the worthy cause of gay equality.

The truth of the matter is that civil rights for gays can't come about without the help of Republicans. And this means that gay people — and straight supporters of gay equality — need to stand with, not silence, people like Crutchley who are working to change the GOP from within.

While Republicans definitely do help with progressive politics - as we saw here in New York state - Senator McCain's right-leaning ways go beyond his definition of marriage.

For example, he approves of Don't As, Don't Tell, a discriminatory measure that hurts the entire country, not just gay folk. Also, the candidate voted against expanding federal hate crime laws and also came out against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Whether a homo wants to support such policies is their business, but don't be surprised if other gay people get their panties in a twist.

The ManHunt/McCain Scandal takes a new turn this fine, sticky Saturday!

For those of you not paying attention, ManHunt co-founder Jonathan Crutchley came under fire this week for contributing the maximum donation to Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's campaign.

Incensed by the businessman's conservative connections, several ManHunt members canceled their subscriptions and, fearing more backlash, fellow co-founder Larry Basile asked Crutchley to step down as Chairman of the Board. Crutchley agreed..

Which brings us to today…

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• A look at Vogue's first black cover model: Beverly Johnson.

• Another anti-gay Republican reverend bites the dust: D. James Kennedy dead at 76.

• Gay Blind Item Madness: which media "insider" enjoys a little ManHunt?

• Tom Ford's a party monster.

• Queer copper stands up for equality.

• Anti-gay Ugandan not about Human Rights Watch's meddling.

• Wait, straight people hustle for sex on Craigslist, too?

The US Department of Justice may be getting too overzealous in their fight against child pornography. New amendments to the Federal Labeling and Record keeping Law, aka Section 2257, will require adult social networking sites such as Manhunt and Gay.com to keep a log of users who post "sexually explicit" snapshots.

Passed in 1988, Section 2257 works to combat child pornographers, but a series of amendments have expanded the law's net, especially on the net. Though regulations are meant to hinder porn peddlers, they can also be expanded to social sties. Private citizens who submit naughty pictures must register and provide a photo id. These logs can then be reviewed by the Attorney General and the FBI, says The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Those of you interested in fighting this invasion of privacy better hurry up - the public has until September 10th to file a complaint. The Task Force provides all the relevant information.

You ManHunters better watch out, because there's a gang of gays ready to pick apart your crude, embarrassing and just plain rude pictures. We can't reveal their identities, but we can lead you kids to their hilarious website, Hunters and Gatherers, where they dispense commentary on ManHunt's good, bad and ugly. God knows there's plenty of that.

You've been warned: the hosts offer no sympathy and take no prisoners. They even offer their sharp-witted barbs about a man who appears to be legendary gay writer Edmund White.

Former gay porn star Matt Sanchez may claim to be straight, but it seems the conservative hero's up to his old tricks. A reader swears that he stumbled across Sanchez's horntatically homo Manhunt account, the optimistically entitled "Wrist_Thick". Obviously intrigued, our reader asked Wrist_Thick for more pictures and received the image you see here. That certainly looks like Sanchez, who claims to be straight.

You may recall Sanchez garnered endless ink after being feted at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Marine reservist Sanchez claimed that his peers at Columbia University picked on his army-loving ways. Some eagle-eyed homos, however, recognized him as gay porn star, Rod Majors, who starred as a top in such films as Jawbreaker.

According to Wrist_Thick's profile, however, he can "get into fucking". He also informs Manhunters that he's not into blacks or Asians. Ah, discrimination: the great American tradition:

Also, it's worth mentioning that Sanchez claims to be 33-years old. We all know, however, that he's got a few more years on him: three, to be exact.

Read Wrist_Thick's entire conversation with our reader, after the jump.

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Those Brazilians sure are competitive. First, Made in Brazil hosted the 2006 Hottest Brazilian Contest, then came the Mr. Brazil face off, and we have The Hottest Brazilian tournament.

Mix Brasil and Manhunt have scoured the sex-crazed web-page's archives to find the top ten Brazilians up in the 'mo mix. Now it's up to you to decide which one comes out on top. The winning stud receives an all expenses paid trip to São Paulo pride.

So, what do you get? The satisfaction of knowing that you've helped someone pretty. And, really, isn't that what life's all about.

Head on over and cast your vote. We voted for this dude - the only one with body hair.

Oh man, seems like Clay Aiken may be up to his old tricks, if you will. Gossip monger Perez Hilton has posted a set of photographs and text from what seems to be Aiken's attempt to get a little cock action.

Writing under the disgustingly saccharine and totally unsexy name, happychappy2, a man looking suspiciously like the American Idol runner-up wrote, "I do have pics - but I have a VERY recognizable face and can't post them". He then said he'd send them along if his would-be butt buddy promised complete discretion. Unfortunately internet based promises don't mean shit, thus, the conversation and some webcam pictures are now readily available here.

While we can't say for sure, it seems to us that the boy is, in fact, Aiken. Of course, this can mean only one thing. Okay, two things: one, obviously he's a big cocksucker (or, at the very least, extremely curious) and, two, he's got no brain.

Seriously, there's endless speculation over your sexuality and you still put yourself and your career at risk by trolling Manhunt? Dumb, dumb, dumb. Good thing the boy's duped millions into thinking he can "sing", because doesn't seem like he's got much else happening for him…

If you thought that Britney Spears story was big, wait until you hear this one: Manhunt.net now has the distinction of calling itself the biggest homo website in America. Huge, right? How huge? We don't know, we haven't read their profile, but we're thinking long and thick.

The press release (note: not a news release), states:

Since it’s inception as a phone line dating service that still exists today, Manhunt.net has grown into a virtual gay microcosm that reaches all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Brazil and the UK. This week, Manhunt.net continued its growth by launching in all of Western Europe. The site adds about 10,000 new members every week and bills itself as the world’s fastest growing gay website.

It is primarily geared to facilitate gay male sexual hook ups, but has grown into a place where friendships and serious relationships can begin.

Huh? People have gotten into relationships with their Manhunt tricks? Wow.

Don't be fooled, though. Manhunt's rise to power proves that we gays are just as slutty as ever. (It's nice to have some stability, don't you agree?)

Full release after the jump…

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