Gay

Just in case your political opinions are influenced by celebrities, actors, and activists, a new video featuring all of the above has emerged in support of PFC Bradley Manning, who is currently on trial for leaking videos and documents exposing war crimes on the part of the U.S. military personnel stationed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the video, celebrities like Russell Brand and Maggie Gyllenhaal and activists Lt. Dan Choi and Angela Davis attempt to educate the viewer on exactly what Bradley Manning is being tried for, with a very, very heavy emphasis on their own beliefs that he is being persecuted (and prosecuted) for being a whistleblower. No matter what you think of the trial, or PFC Manning, or overbearing celebrities foisting their political opinions on ill-informed masses who are influenced by star power, the video is worth a look. Meanwhile, in the courtroom, there were a few major developments last week.  We’ve aggregated with a huge thanks to our friends at FireDogLake.com who are doing some major reporting from the scene of the trial at Ft. Meade, MD: Since the military would not allow court transcripts, thousands of dollars were raised via outside sources to send stenographers to cover the trial, thus further lifting the veil of secrecy on the happenings inside the courtroom.  The defense supported this, and the judge, Col Denise Lind, ruled favorably. The prosecution is now working overtime to defend the evidence that links Manning with WikiLeaks.  In question are tweets that WikiLeaks sent out requesting .mil email addresses and asking for help decrypting visual material which would later become known as the “Collateral Murder” video.  Since PFC Manning isn’t charged with conspiracy, this evidence is being used to try to bolster the initial “aiding the enemy” charge. An Apache helicopter pilot testified that the “Collateral Murder” video revealed “sensitive Army aviation information.”  Whether the leak of the video and other info was or was not “aiding the enemy” is a crucial part of the trial, and the testimony could be used to bolster the prosecution’s case that the leak was harmful to American interests and put soldiers in danger. PFC Manning’s trial is set to continue throughout the summer, and we’ll be right here for you with updates every step of the way.

SACRAMENTO PRIDE 2013: Not the largest Pride, but large in spirit. AVICII: "Wake Me Up". SCOTT THORSON: Talks to Howard Stern about his relationships with Michael Jackson and Liberace. STEVE JOBS: On his legacy. For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

With all the big Cher news of her performing at New York pride and last night’s much talked about performance of “Woman’s World” on The Voice, we almost missed the update on her duet with fellow gay icon, Lady Gaga. A fan asked Cher on Twitter about “The Greatest Thing”, the title of this sure to be hit, said fans have been waiting a long time. Cher snapped her finger and typed, “U Think You’ve Waited? It’s done & she doesn’t like it, or want it to come out.” What the what! @hausofdicki U think You’ve Waited? It’s done & She doesn’t like it,or Want it to come out.She’s an ARTIST,it’s Up to Her.Im Disappointed 2 — Cher (@cher) June 11, 2013 Cher either understands Gaga, or is mocking her. It’s hard to tell. Ugh. Mama Monster what are you doing to us?! Cher brought up her concerns on The Voice last night, saying: ”I did a song with Gaga and I think it’s brilliant and I thought her performance was great but she doesn’t like it.” Can someone on team Cher just leak it for us already? Thanks.

I'm not going to talk about the Paula Deen drama until the truth comes out. Remember, the story came from The Enquirer.

Saying they have no confidence that the coming Supreme Court rulings will change things for Florida, activists there say they are gearing up to place a repeal of that state's constitutional ban on the ballot. They've got a tough battle ahead of them. "We think it's going to be a wake-up call for a lot of people who are thinking that the Supreme Court is going to rule and the next day they can finally get married," said Equality Florida executive Nadine Smith. It would take 60 percent of the state's voters to repeal the amendment. And to even get on the ballot it would require either action by the Legislature — which won't happen while both chambers are nearly two-thirds Republican — or a petition drive that would require the signatures of 683,149 registered voters. Smith said she believes a majority of Floridians now support same-sex marriage. "All of us know people who have gone from a place of staunch opposition to actual support and we're seeing more and more of that," Smith said. Still, the 60 percent threshold is a concern. The group plans to use rallies, T-shirts, bumper stickers and celebrities and elected officials who do support same-sex marriage to garner support for the idea.Florida's ban on marriage passed in 2008 by margin of less than 2% after have been endorsed by then GOP Gov. Charlie Crist, who has since become a Democrat and flipped on the issue.

“I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate. I just thought, that’s someone who’s in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs.” - actress Melissa McCarthy, speaking on a recent review of her movie Identity Theft, where the writer picked apart her weight as opposed to her acting skills. PR Photos

PHOTOS: James Franco is stunning as Janet Leigh for Psycho Nacirema, an exhibition featuring multi-media installations by everyone’s favorite master queer-baiter. The exhibit is being presented by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon at London’s Pace Gallery, now through July 27. A little background: Psycho Nacirema presents a mise-en-scène of director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho, remodelling the infamous Bates Motel where the intrigue of the film takes place, intertwined with the 1920’s Arbuckle scandal…James Franco uses the motel structure as both a physical and literal framework, reinterpreting iconic scenes from the original film through evocative details such as the motel neon signage or the infamous shower room where the film character Marion Crane, is murdered…Franco’s installations heighten the psychological entrapment set out by Hitchcock, beckoning the audience to become a participating character within the plot. We would make a joke about James Franco getting figuratively stabbed in a shower, probably one involving a dropped bar of soap, but this is art so we’re gonna keep it classy. It’s how Franco would want it. Next Photo » 1 of 4 1234 Photos courtesy of the Pace Gallery

The first-year teacher of a “tough” eighth-grade class in Ontario got a pleasant surprise from a group of rowdy students during class this week. Though “Harry” and “Mark” are noisy, rude, and notorious for defying other teachers, they gave “Mr. K” the ultimate gesture of acceptance in the best way they knew how: With a rap video about marriage equality, of course. It’s hard to believe that Mr. K hadn’t seen the video for Macklemore’s wildly popular equality anthem “Same Love” featuring Mary Lambert, but he hadn’t until Harry submitted it for “YouTube of the Day” time at the beginning of class. “Now that it’s so close to the end of the year, I do a ‘YouTube of the Day’ with them every morning,” Mr. K writes on Reddit. “Kids can send in a short YouTube video for me to show to the class, I preview it, and if it’s appropriate, I play it. So this morning, Harry comes up to me and says, “I have a video I want to play.” Though it wasn’t previously approved, Mr. K says he allowed Harry to play the video. He was skeptical, given Harry’s preference for “non-school-appropriate” music, but gave in once Harry promised it would be epic. And it was: So he goes on over and pulls it on up, and on comes a song I have never heard before. The artist is rapping about growing up gay, about the struggles of being gay, and about standing up in the face of hatred and homophobia. “Same Love,” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The video (linked) was beautiful. And there’s Harry, proudly watching along with the rest of the class as the artist stands up for those gay kids who struggle, and the video shows a difficult, lonely life culminating in a fabulous wedding. Harry. My “tough kid.” The video finishes, the kids applaud, and I thank him, and he says to me, “I told you you’d like it.” And then his loud, rude friend Mark says: “That was for you, Mr. K.” The whole class applauded again – for me this time – and then I cried. I cried the proudest tears I have ever shed.

[Daily Mirror] Which British star is up to his old philandering tricks again? The married dad, a “loyal family man”, told his wife his phone was “broken” during a recent foreign trip. He actually went AWOL for three days on a mission to sleep with as many women as possible…. British Star: Wife (may [...]

With the Supreme Court expected to rule as early as tomorrow morning, we take a look at how they might decide. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia in 1967, reality changed overnight for thousands of couples. Suddenly, Mildred and Richard Loving and their children could live in their home state of Virginia. They could receive the same benefits and rights as other married couples. And other interracial couples could apply for marriage licenses without fear of rejection or being arrested in the middle of the night. Their marriages would enjoy the same societal stamp of approval as all others. Within ten years of the Loving decision, the number of interracial couples with marriage licenses more than doubled –from 51,000 in the 1960 census and 65,000 in 1970 to 121,000 by 1980 and 213,000 by 1990. The Supreme Court’s ruling this month in two high-profile marriage cases involving same-sex couples could change legal and social landscape for the LGBT community, too. Or not. Loving was delivered by a unanimous court; nobody thinks there will be a unanimous decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry (the Prop 8 case) or U.S. v. Windsor (the Defense of Marriage Act case). Loving struck down laws in all 16 states which barred marriage for interracial couples; while some people believe Perry might do the same for laws banning same-sex couples from marriage, most believe it will strike down only the ban in California and perhaps six other states. Windsor might strike down DOMA nationwide, but activists say there will still be limits on couples with marriage licenses who live in a non-marriage equality state. So, how far might these decisions go? Here are three possible scenarios to watch for: 1. Both Prop 8 and DOMA are upheld. Nobody is expecting this, but nobody really expected the Supreme Court to uphold sodomy laws when it did in 1986 and nobody expected the court to uphold the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) last year. To reach this result, a majority of justices must vote together twice: first, to allow that each case’s procedural questions are cleared up, and again to “reverse” the lower court judgments. 2. Both Prop 8 and DOMA are struck down. This is what most experts expect, but there many possibilities for how this could happen and play out. For Prop 8, the court could strike down the ban in California, strike it down in California and other six states (Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, and Oregon) whose bans are similar to California’s, or strike down such bans in all states. It could also reach one of the limited results by ruling against the Yes on 8 proponents on procedural matters. For DOMA, the court could rule on the merits of law’s constitutionality, or it could find some procedural issue that precludes a ruling on merits. That would allow the Second Circuit decision against DOMA to stand. But it’s hard to imagine the court would be comfortable with allowing DOMA to be enforced in some parts and not others. It’s the Supreme Court’s job, after all, to step in where there’s a conflict among the circuits and states. 3. Prop 8 is struck, but DOMA stalls. Again, it’s hard to imagine the court would be comfortable with allowing a federal law, such as DOMA, to remain in force in some circuits but not others. So the justices could opt to make no ruling with regard to Windsor and take up the DOMA challenge through one of the other DOMA appeals awaiting action in its in-box. The court is not likely to look for a better case regarding statewide bans, such as Prop 8, so one way or another, the court is almost certain to take meaningful action on the Prop 8 case. And there are several ways Prop 8 could bite the dust –either by dismissal on procedural grounds or by the court affirming one of two lower court decisions. Bottom line? Whatever the Supreme Court does, it will do it sometime between Monday, June 10, and Monday, June 24, the last day of the session. And many bel