Several hundred supporters of Portland mayor Sam Adams gathered on Friday night to call on Adams to stay in office. Sex advice columnist Dan Savage was among the speakers and he has photos from the event here.

Two months after she took it to #2 in the UK, this week in 1965 Petula Clark topped the U.S. pop charts for two weeks with Downtown, becoming the first British woman to have a #1 single in America. The first of 15 consecutive U.S. top 40 hits for Clark, Downtown won the 1965 Grammy for Best Rock And Roll …

Immediately after the Mike Jones scandal broke in 2006, officials at Ted Haggard’s New Life Church learned that Haggard had also had a longtime relationship with a young man at the church. The church paid for the young man’s silence with college tuition, but with suspicious timing, he has now come forward as the HBO documentary about Haggard is about …

Haloscan is having its quarterly hiccup and the comment counters are not updating on today’s posts. You can always use the “notify me” function and follow-ups to your comments will be emailed to you directly. We’re all still waiting for Haloscan’s much-touted upgrade, which was promised to us months ago. UPDATE: The Haloscan glitch continues for all users. Your comments …

“I know Kirsten Gillibrand very well and worked for her election to Congress. She has been a steadfast supporter of equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and same-sex couples. I am optimistic that her appointment to the U.S. Senate and her voice in that body will further our community’s cause and bring us that much closer to …

Pam Spaulding points us to the homepage of the National Republican Congressional Committee. The Democrats tear in: “It’s stunning that the Republicans believe that ‘Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong,'” said Jennifer Crider, the Communications Director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Republicans’ stunning claim flies in the face of all …

To the left, our own Dr. Jeff models Aretha Franklin’s now-famous inauguration hat, which has caused a deluge of inquiries for its maker. The calls began to flood Luke Song’s hat shop not long after Aretha Franklin finished belting out “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Franklin, who wore a gray felt custom-designed hat from Mr. …

—Barack Obama, the musical. Yup. Via Playbill: “Celebrating the election and inauguration of America’s first black president, Obama On My Mind takes a humorous look at the weird and wonderful world behind the scenes of a small Obama campaign office and the larger than life characters who make the wheels turn, the cogs whirr and bring in the votes. Pop, …

Poz.com’s Peter Staley reports that noted AIDS treatment activist Martin Delaney died at his home today. Staley: What a terribly sad day this is. A huge, huge loss for people with HIV, and all those who fight for them. This country’s most accomplished and influential AIDS treatment activist, Martin Delaney, died just minutes ago at his home in San Rafael, …

It’s not the bit I mentioned yesterday, but here’s a clip from Tyra Banks “gay for pay” episode in which a completely heterosexual gay porn star claims he only does it for the money. His bisexual girlfriend isn’t so sure.

Beleaguered Portland mayor Sam Adams has announced that he will make a decision on whether to resign within a few days. Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who admitted lying about a 2005 sexual relationship with an 18-year-old boy, says Portlanders should know “within days” whether he will resign. Adams did not appear in public Thursday but told The Oregonian he spent …

Putting aside any doubts some may have had, Senator-to-be Kirsten Gillibrand just announced her support for marriage equality during a nationally televised press conference with NY Gov. David Paterson.

The Swedish parliament has been presented legislation that will allow gays to marry in civil ceremonies or in the Lutheran Church, which until 2000 was the official church of Sweden. “The main proposal in the motion is that … a person’s gender will no longer have any bearing on whether they can marry. The marriage law and other laws concerning …

I guess this guy is going to be taken off the Sex And The City tour. Via Gothamist: At at a time when any decent baker should have been selling racially harmonious black and white cookies by the truckload, one Greenwich Village bakery popular with celebrities and shows like Sex and the City has outraged neighbors by selling a “Drunken …

The Washington Post reveals today that the Maryland state police considered the LGBT activism group Equality Maryland to be terrorists. Equality Maryland, the state’s largest gay rights group, was among the peaceful protest groups to be classified as terrorists in a Maryland State Police database. The group was designated a “security threat” by the Homeland Security and Intelligence Division, which …

Via Wired: NSA whistleblower Russell Tice was back on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC program Thursday evening to expand on his Wednesday revelations that the National Security Agency spied on individual U.S. journalists, entire U.S. news agencies as well as “tens of thousands” of other Americans. Tice said on Wednesday that the NSA had vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, …

Yesterday voters in Nashville defeated an “English First” referendum which would have made English the mandatory language for all city business. Nashville voters rejected a proposal to make English the mandatory language for all government business, easing fears that the measure could damage the city’s reputation and cost agencies millions in federal funding. With 100 percent of precincts reporting early …

Former National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman sends us the below Op/Ed piece on the Proposition 8 battle. Foreman is now program director at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. This essay is rather long and I have linked below to other LGBT blogs where it can be read in full, which I recommend. California’s …

It turns out Yo Yo Ma and crew were only miming their widely cheered inauguration performance. The classical music played for millions of people watching President Barack Obama’s inauguration was not the live performance it appeared to be. Unless you were one of the fortunate few sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers, what you heard was a recording made …

And here it is. U.S. Rep. Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand (D-NY), 44, is Gov. David Paterson’s pick to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. New York City television station WPIX is reporting tonight that the state’s Democratic governor, David Paterson, has settled on Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand as the successor for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s now vacant U.S. …