Fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden skyped into a SXSW panel today via seven proxy servers, a tactic probably taken to cloak his location. NPR has the story: Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked large amounts of classified information about the agency’s electronic surveillance programs, spoke via video to a sympathetic audience at South By Southwest …

“The day’s speeches have ended and conference-going night revelers are about. The indoor balcony to my 12th-floor room faces, as the hotel website accurately boasts, a ‘spectacular 18-story glass atrium.’ My balcony door is open wide, and the bustling din from several parties across the cavernous vestibule soaks the room. A chorus has begun. What is this? Have party-goers launched …

Promoted this weekend from the CPAC main stage. Right Wing Watch recaps: The plot revolves around an evil senator who is obsessed with a piece of legislation, “The Faith and Fairness Act.” It’s never clear exactly what the Act does, but it seems to force all religions to operate under a single umbrella organization, and to allow members of any …

Via press release: At a joint press conference today, United Methodist Bishop Martin McLee and Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree announced that the church was dropping the case against Dr. Ogletree for officiating at his son’s wedding. In a huge victory for the Methodist movement that is organizing ministry to all couples on an equal basis in open defiance of …

Stereogum reviews: Between her work with Shit Robot and the Juan McLean, 2013 was the year Nancy Whang began her ascension to becoming one of the great current dancefloor divas. And 2014 — the year both those projects drop long-awaited new albums — seems to be her chance to really claim that title. Whang’s great strength, as this video for …

Openly gay NFL prospect Michael Sam has begun selling self-branded items including t-shirts and buttons. Towleroad reports that proceeds will benefit a St. Louis charity for at-risk youth.

Mother Jones today published a lengthy profile of anti-gay evangelist and hate group leader Scott Lively. While many of the article’s details might be familiar to longtime JMG readers, I encourage you to read the story. Here’s how it opens: In late February, when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the nation’s harsh new anti-gay bill into law, he claimed the …

The Times Of Israel reports: The widespread opposition to the draft poses a challenge to the country, which is grappling with a cultural war over the place of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society. The issue of army service is at the core of that struggle. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 8 percent of Israel’s …

Debris from the aircraft may have been found. Vietnamese aircraft spotted what they suspected was one of the doors belonging to the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Sunday, as troubling questions emerged about how two passengers managed to board the Boeing 777 using stolen passports. The discovery comes as officials consider the possibility that the plane disintegrated mid-flight, a …

Last month a Ugandan tabloid published a list of that country’s alleged “top 200 homos.” Following a petition campaign by All Out, one of the paper’s major advertisers has pulled out. Via press release: Orange, a subsidiary of France Télécom, announced its decision to pull their advertising from the website of Red Pepper on Friday, after 77,329 All Out members …

In January, a panel of judges from the Ninth Circuit Court invoked heightened scrutiny in a ruling involving a gay juror who had been booted from a lawsuit between two HIV pharma companies.  The deadline to appeal that ruling passed last week and its impact on pending and future LGBT rights cases could be profound. Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed: …

Former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed says that the Federal Marriage Amendment, which is still being flogged by the likes of NOM, is effectively dead. Michelangelo Signorile interviewed Reed at CPAC this weekend: Reed, who in his speech at CPAC attacked “left-wing bullies” whom he said forced Gov. Jan Brewer to veto an anti-gay bill in Arizona and railed against …

As I noted on Saturday, Furler is an openly bisexual, liberal, vegan, animal rights activist who has appeared in ads for PETA. Palin’s exit music at her CPAC speech was Furler’s global smash Titanium, which has been certified as multi-platinum in eleven countries including the United States.

A Houston lesbian couple has been found murdered. The bodies of Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson, both 24, were found next to a dumpster outside the Fisherman’s Cove store in the 700 block of State Highway 87. Deputies say the women were involved in a relationship. A beer deliveryman found the victims around 7:30 a.m. when he took out some …

Via CNN: In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have developed a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease that predicts with astonishing accuracy whether a healthy person will develop the disease. Though much work still needs to be done, it is hoped the test will someday be available in doctors’ offices, since the only methods for predicting Alzheimer’s right now, such as PET …

The media made a big deal about GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans being denied booth space and speaking slots at CPAC, but I didn’t see a peep about yesterday’s “Why Conservatism is Right for Women” panel being moderated by homocon radio shrieker Tammy Bruce. Bruce took the stage to Bob Seger’s 1978 hit Old Time Rock N Roll and immediately …

Pet Shop Boys aren’t the only ones to have put music to Panti Bliss’ now-legendary speech. The track below is from Out!rage Dublin and download proceeds go to BeLonG To, which works on behalf of Ireland’s LGBT youth.