Catholic bishops are getting political in California, where they've endorsed Proposition 8, the amendment some hope will ban gay marriage in the Golden State.

The California Catholic Conference issued a statement Friday strongly encouraging members of the faith "to provide both the financial support and the volunteer efforts needed for the passage of Proposition 8."

In the statement, the bishops say their position is based partly on the presumption that while all people deserve to be treated with dignity, being raised by a married mother and father is "the ideal for the well being of children."

Meanwhile, state attorney general Jerry Brown said yesterday that Proposition 8 should not - and would not - invalidate same-sex marriages that have already gone down.

CONTINUED »

Boy, this is the scandal that won't die!

Recently released emails reveal that South Carolina's Tourism honcho, Chad Prosser, explicitly requested the controversial "So Gay" adverts stay up in London.

Once the scandal broke, however, Prosser and his colleagues told the press they were unaware of the campaign and, once made aware, tried to put a stop to it. That story's a little shaky:

After the posters were put on London subway walls, state tourism officials heard about them. [And] Prosser said the state would not pay the nearly $5,000 for its share of the campaign, saying he doesn’t think it’s appropriate to use state tourism marketing funds to support any specific social agenda.

But PRT emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that, on July 3, Prosser told his staff the state would take part in the campaign. The email to London says, “Per Chad’s direction as of 4:40 p.m. today, (July 3) DO NOT ask the vendor to remove South Carolina from the campaign.”

The story broke on July 11th, at which point lawmakers had already squashed the campaign.

CONTINUED »

"Sources" claim that actress Lindsay Lohan wants to wed her alleged lesbian love, Sam Ronson. While some of us may think that's just grand, Lohan's father, Michael, says he can't endorse their potential same-sex marriage, but insists he supports their plans:

…If the couple were to wed, Lohan’s dad Michael probably wouldn’t play the proud father giving away the bride.

“I haven’t heard anything (about an upcoming wedding) from Lindsay, but if she was marrying Sam, I don’t think she’d ask me to walk her down the aisle,” says Michael. “She knows about my (Christian) faith…she just wouldn’t ask.”

That’s not to say that he doesn’t support Lindsay and a possible relationship with Ronson, he just supports her in more indirect ways.

“I want her to be happy and healthy and stay on the right path,” he says. “If I discuss (her relationship), I say that I want her to be happy.”

She'd probably be happiest if you stopped discussing her in the media, putz.

Andrés Segura should be no stranger to regular readers.

We've previously featured the gorgeous model as a morning goods, but simply couldn't resist putting up these shots from L'Officiel Hommes.

He's so attractive, it should be illegal - but we're lucky it's not!

Identity politics has a way of sneaking up on you.

Once exceedingly popular among gays and many other movements, the idea that one's "minority" existence challenges higher powers has, in some ways, gone out of style.

Blame it on consumerism, blame it on relatively more inclusion, but for many people "queerness" no longer carries the same sexy, radical thrust. What's more, identity politics can be seen as divisive in this post-global world. Just look at the gendered, racialized debates that have played out during this extended presidential election.

While identity politics doesn't provide the fuel for contemporary gay rights debates - marriage, adoption, finances - it has a curious way of rearing its complex head.

CONTINUED »

Tammy Baldwin came out swinging for Barack Obama today.

The lesbian Congresswoman from Wisconsin released a lengthy statement emphasizing her support for the Democratic presidential hopeful. Baldwin, who endorsed Hillary Clinton during the primary season, obviously wants to appeal to people who are still weary of Obama - or perhaps still committed to Clinton. Said Baldwin:

…The primary season is now over and, like Hillary and millions of other Democrats, Independents, and many Republicans, I am proud to support the candidacy of Barack Obama for President. Endorsing Barack was not a difficult decision and it is not based on party affiliation alone. Rather, it is based on my concept of what the promise of America means and on the stark differences between the two candidates.

For me, the promise of America is a commitment to our collective well-being, rather than each struggling to get his or her own. The promise of America is embracing our democracy and protecting it and working to make it operate even better on behalf of the people. The promise of America is in pushing, prodding, and testing our democracy to make it flourish, not chipping away at its very foundation in pursuit of a political agenda or personal gain.

If elected President, Barack Obama will move us forward charting a new, hopeful, progressive course, while John McCain would keep us mired in the failed policies and divisive politics of the status quo.

Baldwin then launches into a scathing comparison of Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain.

For example, McCain wants to keep troops in Iraq "indefinitely," hopes to stack the Supreme Court with conservative judges and maintain "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." These are all things that Obama would prevent or oppose - and with which Baldwin whole-heartedly agrees, concluding:

I am working to elect Barack Obama President, not because I’m toeing a party line, but because we share a commitment to equality for all Americans…I am working to elect Barack Obama President because he dares to believe in and work for ‘one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’

And the home of the brave!

Check out the complete statement. Count how many times Baldwin reiterates that she's not backing Obama because he's a party peer.

CONTINUED »

Smoldering model Jhonnes Mattos recently preened for photographer Didio. There are those pictures…

[Images]

Rumor has it Barack Obama will pick Indiana Senator Evan Bayh as his running mate this Wednesday.

Speculation that Bayh would be the vice-presidential nominee goes back to the beginning of the summer, when Bayh, a former Hillary Clinton supporter, admitted that he would be interested in the position. Those rumors have been getting a lot of fuel in recent weeks and journo Bil Browning offers five reasons why it's about to go down.

First and foremost, Obama wants to beat the epic Olympic coverage. Also, a Tuesday trip to Midwestern Indiana not only bring the candidate to Bayh's home state, but opens up the rest of the battleground region.

CONTINUED »

Gangs of floating homos invaded Amsterdam's famed canals for the gay pride drift this weekend:

Organisers of Amsterdam's 13th annual Gay Pride festival which ended on Sunday said the annual canal parade on Saturday drew a record crowd of more than 500,000… According to the paper, "80 boats full of partying homosexuals" took part, including a police boat and a government boat…

Uniformed seamen also took part, a first.

[Image]

Neil Patrick Harris graces the latest cover of gay glossy Out. And, like the mensch we know he is, the dreamboat actor spread himself wide open - emotionally, that is - to reveal the quiet trials and tribulations of his otherwise well-documented life. A taste:

OUT: Did growing up in Hollywood make it easier or harder for you to come out?
NPH: I think it was harder. Actually, I think it was easier for me, because I was around a lot of people who were gay and I was around a lot of people who were very confident. I was surrounded by people I could talk to freely about anything, and they were very successful emotionally and otherwise.
OUT: And yet…
NPH: And yet, part of the coming-out process is figuring out who you like and what that means and how to act upon it. Being an actor reduced my level of anonymity. I couldn’t just go to some bar and walk in and ask someone out on a date, because there was too much awareness of me. So it made it more difficult in that sense. I couldn’t be, like, “Maybe I like this kind of guy” or “Maybe I’m into this” — I couldn’t really experiment. I sort of had to narrow my gaze from afar. If I had any regret, it would be that strange lack of anonymity that created panic within myself that I would be found out. But I think that’s everyone’s big fear.

Harris also points to Real World: New Orleans' gay Danny as an "empowering" example of someone who wore his sexuality "comfortably." And he was pretty cute, too.

An Egyptian man claims "gay panic" led him to stab his flatmate to death last week.

British national Stephen John Havering's body was found in the Saudi Arabian apartment he shared with 26-year old Muhammad Mukhlis Shamsuddin. Both men reportedly work for an investment company, Shoaibi Group, a job that had Havering traveling regularly from his home in Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. His wife and children lived in The Netherlands and were expected to move to Bahrain in the near future.

Shamsuddin admitted to the stabbing, but claims he was simply defending himself from Havering's sexual advances. It's now up to a coroner to confirm or deny such a struggle.

Finally - some closure in South Carolina's "So Gay" advert scandal.

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we all now have an inside view as to what went down after the State's tourism officials first heard of the controversial ad, which had been designed and distributed in London:

When an ad campaign appeared in the London Underground promoting South Carolina as a "So Gay" destination for gay and lesbian tourists, the spokesman for the state's tourism agency shared his unease with a colleague.

"I'm praying this little story doesn't jump the pond, especially as the later summer slow news cycle sets in," Marion Edmonds wrote in a July 3 e-mail. "Let's hope that doesn't get picked up by some SC tourist and brought back. It would be a classic case of a picture doing the damage of a thousand words."

Edmonds' prayer was not answered. The story broke in early July in the blogosphere, and then moved into mainstream news reports.

A pile of e-mail printouts at the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department illustrates the agency's confused response to the ads—which apparently were approved by a lone employee who may not have even looked at them—and the media storm that followed.

Freedom of Information requests yielded a four-inch stack of e-mail and documents dating to 2004.

The documents also reveal the ad agency's philosophy - reclaiming "so gay" to bolster the state's image as an inclusive vacation destination. The scandal, which caused the approving South Carolina employee to resign, ended up tarnishing the state's image.

California's Log Cabin Republicans are flexing their muscle. The gay group's joined forces with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to smack down Proposition 8:

Today, Log Cabin sent a message out to its California membership announcing the creation of Republicans Against 8, a coalition of concerned Republicans who believe in limited government and individual liberty. Our goal is to reach out to that 5-6 percent of persuadable Republican voters and convince them that, regardless of how they feel about marriage, protecting fundamental freedoms for all Californians is more important.

In 1978, when the Briggs Initiative threatened to take away the fundamental freedom for all Californians to teach in Public Schools, Governor Ronald Reagan stood up and opposed it. Today, another Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is fighting for the rights of all Californians once again.

This here image is a mock-up of the ad. We think they should feature Arnold in his not safe for work body building days.

John McCain's campaign sure knows how to evolve! Realizing that their Barack Obama as Paris Hilton angle wasn't sticking, the Republican's ad team has thrown together this Biblically-proportion video: "Praise The One," which paints Obama as a self-entitled, self-professed messiah.

A placidly sarcastic narrator opens the piece, "Let it be known that in 2008, the world will be blessed. They call him 'The One." Thus begins a collection of Obama footage that a fearful person might read as evidence of a false prophet - or, perhaps, as an exceedingly presumptuous charlatan.

CONTINUED »

Doesn't José Maria Correi know gay men don't do pussy?

Apparently not, because the 53-year old Brazilian national has been found guilty of attempted murder after shooting a neighbor he thought was another neighbor whom Correi claims sodomized his cat, thus turning it gay.

Confused? We don't blame you:

[Correi] asked neighbor Anabela Silva Cruz to help catch the animal which had escaped on to an adjacent piece of land. A second neighbor, homosexual José Pedro Macedo, who was at his window, saw they were having trouble in their attempts and offered his help too.

As he tried to join in the mission, José Correia yelled insults at his neighbor concerning his sexual orientation.

After catching his pet, José Correia went to his neighbor’s house with a 6.35 calibre Browning pistol. Anabela Cruz remained on the property’s patio and was injured when the Browning was fired.

Courts proved that it was a case of mistaken identity, that José Correia believed it was his other neighbour on the patio, and was convinced José Pedro “was a homosexual and that there had been contact of a sexual nature between the neighbour and his cat.”

Said "sexual contact" then turned the cat into a queer, claimed Correia. A magistrate described the man's tale as "one of the silliest motives I have ever heard in my life." But at least it's imaginative!