A broad coalition of nine major LGBT rights and legal groups have issued a joint statement asking out-of-state gay couples married in California NOT to then sue the federal government, their home states, or their employers for recognition of their marriage status. Four lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) legal organizations and five other leading national LGBT groups today issued …

Well, at least the Catholic Church isn’t using the procreation argument just against gays. A paraplegic man was recently denied a church marriage by a bishop in Italy because he was impotent, say reports. The 26-year-old man ultimately had to go for a civil marriage on Saturday in Viterbo. “No bishop, no priest can celebrate a wedding when he knows …

The Federal Court of Appeals has issued a setback to the fight to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that the military did not violate the constitutional rights of 12 gay and lesbian servicemembers when it discharged them. The First Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Boston, had been told that …

Check out the sweet PFLAG parents and supporters protesting at last week’s “Love Won Out” conference of “ex-gays” in Orlando. (Via – Queerty)

This time, it will be legal. When same-sex marriages start at 5 p.m. June 16, San Francisco will stage a repeat of the ceremony that started the 2004 Winter of Love, when thousands of gay and lesbian couples married at City Hall. This time, though, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon’s wedding will be legal. Mayor Gavin Newsom said Monday that …

Calling opposition to homosexuality a “perverse disease“, Brazil’s President Luiz Lula launched that country’s first ever national convention on LGBT rights. Brazilian President Luiz Lula had the First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals (GLBT), inaugurated by presidential decree, and called for “a time of reparation” in Brazil. Accompanied by six ministers, Lula exhorted all those opposed …

The faster, smaller, cheaper iPhone: Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, introduced a new cheaper iPhone model on Monday that navigates the Internet more quickly, expanded its distribution overseas and displayed a range of new applications and services in order to establish Apple as a major player in the cellphone industry. Apple, the maker of consumer electronics and computer …

After publishing a letter to the editor that compared gays to pedophiles and drug dealers, a Canadian pastor has been found guilty of violating human rights laws and must pay $7000 in fines. The pastor must also stop publishing any attacks against gays. A former pastor will appeal a human rights ruling that orders an apology and the payment of …

Courtesy of the Saint-At-Large, today’s swag giveaway is two tickets to their official post-Pier Dance party at Pacha featuring DJs Stephan Grondin, Jonathan Peters, and Junior Vasquez. The Saint At Large, gaydom’s premiere dance party for over 28 years, presents CHAMPIONS – The Official Afterparty for Dance on the Pier. Heritage of Pride, the non-profit organization founded to produce New …

“The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest gay-rights group, recently announced plans to spend at least a half-million dollars to defeat the California Marriage Protection Act. What a waste; gays and lesbians have far more urgent needs. The Golden State constitutional amendment poses no substantive threat to them – it will take nothing away from same-sex couples but the word “marriage.” …

Yup. New York City Opera has commissioned American composer Charles Wuorinen to write an opera based on “Brokeback Mountain,” a love story about two U.S. ranch-hands that won three Oscars when it was turned into a movie. The opera house’s spokesman Gerard Mortier said in a statement on Sunday that Wuorinen had accepted an invitation to compose an opera based …

New York Magazine has posted an excellent dissection of “who still dies of AIDS, and why.” By the time [Mel] Cheren learned he had AIDS [in 2007], he was already suffering from a rare, drug-resistant pneumonia, what infectious-disease specialists refer to as an opportunistic infection, and he had lymphoma, an AIDS-related cancer that had spread to his bones. Within a …

Continuing its expansion of LGBT rights, Cuba has announced that it will pay for sex reassignment surgery for any citizen that qualifies. The move is the latest in a series of changes implemented by President Raul Castro since he succeeded his elder brother, Fidel, in February. Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela, heads Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education, which strongly backs …

Colton Ford lends his bod to Cyndi Lauper in this video shot at NYC’s Splash Bar. Meanwhile on the dance chart, Lauper’s collaboration with Rich Morel rockets into the top five. Will this be Morel’s 6th number one as a remixer/producer? The highlight of last week’s True Colors show at Radio City for me was Lauper’s performance of Set Your …

Via the Independent (UK): A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared. In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO’s department …

World famous pregnant man Thomas Beattie, now in his 8th month, has revealed that he and wife are expecting a girl – and that the couple plans on having more children. “I’m 36 weeks now and almost due but I feel fantastic. Every day Nancy and I think about how we just cannot wait to hold our daughter for the …

JMG reader Kurt sends us this photo of a bear contingent at the pride parade in Boquerón, Puerto Rico this weekend. Kurt says that the pride events in Boquerón draw bigger crowds than in San Juan. Yesterday the Puerto Rican Day Parade took place here in NYC, drawing millions and stopping traffic on the Upper East Side for most of …

Via USA Today: Jeff Friedman and Andrew Zwerin were high school sweethearts on Long Island. After college and graduate school, they returned to New York to Rockville Centre. When they adopted Joshua, now 4, Friedman quit his job as a lawyer to be a stay-at-home dad. Despite deep roots in New York, they will fly to Los Angeles this month …

Manhattan is a pretty miserable place to be when it gets this hot, innit? Be glad this only happens a few times a year.