Intrade, the online stock trading /gambling site that allows players to bet on social issues rather than sports, is currently showing California’s gay marriage amendment as selling at 40, meaning that only 40% of the site’s thousands of traders believe that gay marriage will be overturned. If you buy at 40 and the players’ opinions turn in the amendment’s favor, …

Is this funny? Crowds in Arkansas came for the lure of cage fighting and $1 beer, but police say what they got instead was men ripping each others’ clothes off and kissing – a stunt suspected of being orchestrated by Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” fame.”We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived,” said Dwight Duncan, president and …

At York Avenue & 70th Street, NewYork-Presbyterian is rated the 6th best hospital in the US, and its ambulance service is the most-used by NYC, hence the non-stop wail of sirens going up my street. Trivia: Richard Nixon, Malcolm X, and Jim Henson all died here. Dumber trivia: the proper spelling of the hospital specifies there be no space between …

Via Good As You comes word of a “Straight Pride Parade” to be staged in Brooklyn on August 31st. The parade is being organized by a reggae music label who is pissed off because a hit song by their artist Stapler, Hit Them Hard, has been banned by some radio stations because it encourages violence against gays. From the press …

“The news on Friday about Helms’ death was certainly satisfying for those of us who experienced his reign of terror, and I among others gave him a fitting send off. “But let’s not let history forget that a powerful gay man was instrumental to Jesse Helms, even as Helms was vilifying and demonizing gay men and allowing them and and …

In light of last month’s stories about sex arrests on Fire Island, it’s interesting that gay activists in the UK are calling the plans to raze a local cruising area “discriminatory.” Scrub clearance work on Bristol Downs has raised concerns among some gay men who use the area for sex, the city council has said. The authority’s lesbian, gay and …

From Strange Maps: Mississippi is the fattest state in the Union, with 30.1% of Mississippians being obese. That’s almost one in every three inhabitants. Not that the Magnolia State (in red on this map) should be singled out for its massiveness. It is surrounded by four of the eight other fattest US states (in brown on this map): Tennessee (29.0%), …

Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes went on Fox News yesterday to urge John McCain to start gay bashing if he’s going to win in November. On which campaign wedge issues McCain should use, Barnes said: “In particular, gays in the military for one. We know Barack Obama is for allowing gays in the military, and Bill Clinton tried to do, …

Among the new words added to this year’s Merriam-Webster dictionary: netroots, webinar, air quotes, Texas Hold ‘Em, mondegreen, pescatarian, infinity pool, dirty bomb, mental health day, subprime. I’m still waiting for “embiggen” to make it. Also: “greedy bottom.”

Renowned circuit party DJ Cary Stringfellow was found dead on Saturday after he failed to appear for his headlining performance at California’s IndepenDance party in Long Beach. Last weekend Stringfellow headlined at San Francisco Pride’s Saturday night event, Frisco Disco. I’m told that Stringfellow committed suicide and left a note.

I’ve lost stuff at airports over the years, usually a hat or a jacket that I took off while waiting for a flight – but this surprises me. Lost your laptop at a U.S airport and thought it was bad luck, well guess what? You are one of 12,000 in a week. According to a study published by the Ponemon …

Queerty is reporting that this lovely sign appeared in the window of a West Village Rite Aid yesterday. Rite Aid simply ain’t right. A reader sent in this image from one of the pharmacy’s New York City locations (on Sixth Avenue at West 13th Street) and, as you can see, it’s not the most welcoming message. This isn’t the first …

Sen. Larry Craig’s world-famous airport men’s room stall is about to be back in the news. Thousands of members of the international media will have to walk past it when they land at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul at the end of the summer. Many will feel obligated to stop and file …

Neo-Nazis disrupted the Budapest Pride parade this weekend, pelting marchers with stones and eggs and hurling fire bombs at police. Police were forced to use water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters. Right-wing extremists hurled stones and eggs at a Gay Pride procession in the Hungarian capital on Saturday before clashing with police called in to protect the …

I finally found my memory stick from Pride 2008, so here’s a quick photo recap of the day. Our gang gathered at the corner of Christopher & Gay, as always, and while the intermittent rainstorms drenched the crowd and the marchers, each crack of thunder only brought a joyous roar from attendees and nobody seemed to flee. Below are the …

Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), the most notoriously racist and homophobic politician in the history of the United States, has died at the age of 86. Happy Independence Day!!! And now for some choice quotes from DEAD Jesse Helms, the greatest embarrassment to my home state of North Carolina and the nation: – On threatening the life of a sitting …

– Critics are predicting that next month’s opening of All My Sons starring Katie Holmes will be a major flop. Advance sales have been abysmal. The cast includes John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest. – Spike Lee will film Tony winner Passing Strange over several performances later this month for release as a feature film. The movie will likely air on …

The American Family Association has launched a boycott against McDonald’s (with its own website, no less) in protest that an openly gay McDonald’s executive has joined the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. From the site: What the boycott of McDonald’s IS NOT about This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals. It is not about homosexuals eating at McDonald’s. …

Barack Obama is defending his Thursday announcement that he may slow his promised withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, saying that he has said all along that he would work with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to effect a withdrawal timetable that would not destabilize Iraq further. After his first comments on slowing the withdrawal caused a firestorm in the …

Well, that didn’t take long. Florida Governor Charlie Crist became engaged today to Carole Rome, 38, a woman he met only nine months ago on a trip to New York. Rome has two daughters, 9 and 11 years-old, from a marriage that ended in 2007. She is president of the Franco-American Novelty Company, a century-old Glendale, NY-based Halloween costume wholesaler …