ON OUR GAYDAR — News, notes, clicks, and quips from around the web.
• A final vote on the Matthew Shepard Act, attached to the Defense Department’s spending bill, could come within 24 hours.
• It should come as no surprise that Christopher Hitchens has no love for the Catholic Church.
• Christina Aguilera, Cher, Kristen Bell, Twilight’s Cam Giganget, Stanley Tucci, and now Alan Cumming will star in Burlesque.
• The LAPD says g’bye to the Boy Scouts because of their anti-gay rules.
• The Lutheran Church of Sweden is gonna get on board with the whole gay wedding thing.
• Puma’s Dow Jones stripper is Tetu‘s new coverboy.
• Herman Thomas, the former judge accused of trading sex favors with in mates for lighter sentences, had kidnapping and extortion charges dropped, leaving 21 charges including sex abuse, sodomy, attempted sodomy and assault.
• Uganda’s gays are safe — until January 2010, when a bill that makes gays subject to the death penalty will be brought back before Parliament.
• Need a last minute Halloween costume? Try the Gaylien.
• After covering the gay beat for the Washington Blade for thirty years, Lou Chibbaro Jr. finally scored a front row seat at an Obama presser. He was not called on.
• Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new speech writer? Newspaper scribe Nigel Hannaford, who’s written regularly about stemming gay rights. “Referring to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 decision to decriminalize homosexuality, Hannaford wrote in 2005, ‘Fine, said lots of people. Leave gays alone? Fair enough. But, let ’em be Boy Scout leaders? Have each other’s benefits? Adopt kids? Marry each other? Ridiculous. Anybody seeking political office who suggested it would have been laughed off the hustings. Yet, the Liberals are ready to legalize gay marriage. How did we get to this point?'”
• Nepal wants the gays.
AlanInUtah
I wanna go to Nepal now. It has always facinated me, but now it does even more.
Fitz
Maybe we can form a nonprofit to help with relocating the Ugandan gays to Nepal?
B
Fitz wrote, “Maybe we can form a nonprofit to help with relocating the Ugandan gays to Nepal?” Nice thought, but Nepal apparently wants gay tourists, not gay refugees, as Nepal is too poor to support a large refugee population.
Darrien
Nepal already has a large refugee population. They’re called Tibetans. They probably couldn’t support another refugee population, though. Having been to Nepal some years ago, I can confirm that the country is absolutely beautiful and the people are lovely. The best holiday I ever had was in Nepal and I can’t recommend the place highly enough. If you have the money, go there – you’ll love it. But don’t do it as a sex tourist. Nepalese men are frequently gobsmackingly beautiful, but if you want to hook up, do it in the gay clubs or hotels. And no, I don’t work for the Nepalese tourist board – but I think the country and the people are fantastic. Love that place.