Ellen DeGeneres’ mom Betty would like you to help defeat California’s Proposition 8. As a mother, it is a wonderful gift to share in the love and joy of your child’s wedding day. The excitement, anticipation and happiness are overwhelming. I once believed I would never have the opportunity to be a part of such a special day with my …

Diane Keaton has reviewed The Women (which opens tomorrow) for Seattle’s Stranger. It’s a corker. What’s up, bitches? Diane Keaton here. I just got back from seeing The Women and, um, I couldn’t help but notice something: I AM NOT IN THIS MOVIE. Where the fuck am I? I am the queen bee of this shit. The hive mother. Annette …

Barack Obama appeared on Letterman last night and Dave immediately launched into the “lipstick on a pig” stupidness. Obama was typically smooth and funny about it. (Via – Towleroad)

(This story makes its third appearance on JMG. It last ran on this day in 2006.) Manhattan, September 11th, 2001That day, I got to my office on 42nd Street at about 8:55am. About ten minutes later, I got a call from Thomas in Orlando. “Honey, you should look out your window because a plane just hit the World Trade Center!” …

Sex! Drugs! Corruption! A huge scandal is brewing in the Department of Interior, which oversees the nation’s natural resources. As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy …

According to a new play from a North Carolina minister, you can pray the gay AND the AIDS away! A play featuring anti-gay and “ex-gay” religious themes will be showcased at Winston-Salem State University by a traveling, Atlanta, Ga.-based Christian production company headed by an African-American minister and his wife. The duo claims a person can be healed of HIV/AIDS …

Similar to the program I’ve seen in DC, these bikes are parked all around Berlin for folks to rent and explore the city. You register with Call-A-Bike online or by phone and they’ll give you an access code for the lock of a nearby bike. A 24-hour rental is quite inexpensive at $14 and when you’re done you just call …

What old-school electronics have you given up? Do you still have a VCR? An answering machine? A landline? A stereo?

Sent in by downtown Manhattan reader Blake.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Barack Obama’s blackness: To white people who feel smart enough to assess the relative blackness quotient of black people, I say–Stop Now. No offense, but just on the strength of you having this dialogue, I’m certain you haven’t the fucking faintest idea what you’re talking about. To black people who feel that your years of living in …

Maurice Sendak, author of the beloved children’s classic, Where The Wild Things Are, has come out at the age of 80. From an interview in the New York Times: Was there anything he had never been asked? He paused for a few moments and answered, “Well, that I’m gay.”“I just didn’t think it was anybody’s business,” Mr. Sendak added. He …

With the National Enquirer’s newfound credibility after the John Edwards affair, many are looking with interest to their expose’ of Sarah Palin. According to the story, Palin’s son Track, the Iraq-bound patriot, is a mainlining drug addict (Oxycontin!) who used to break into cars. And preggers Bristol was quite the out of control party girl herself. The ENQUIRER has learned …

A Florida judge has ruled that the state ban on gay adoption is unconstitutional, but his ruling will not immediately upend the ban. A Monroe Circuit Court judge has ruled Florida’s 31-year-old gay adoption ban ”unconstitutional” in an order that allows an openly gay Key West foster parent to adopt a teenage boy he has raised since 2001. Declaring the …

Unsurprising. Citizens in all 22 countries polled by the BBC want Barack Obama to win. US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said. All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to …

On yesterday’s show, Ellen DeGeneres played this lovely behind-the-scene clip of her wedding to Portia de Rossi, once again providing the nation and the movement with invaluable PR for marriage equality. To my mind, Ellen’s gentle, matter of fact discussions of her marriage may be more effective than all the fundraising to fight Proposition 8. (Via – Towleroad)

Via Father Tony comes this amusing blog post about narchitecture, a new name for Miami’s mammoth waterfront homes that appear to be owned by drug dealers. Narchitecture is the pit bull of architecture. It grabs you by the (eye) balls and doesn’t let go, marrying a bevy of Mediterranean styles—neo-Classical, Spanish Revival and Fascist—with the vernacular American school known as …

Thanks to a judge’s miscalculation in the number of required signatures, Lambda Legal and Equality Maryland have thwarted an attempt to roll back transgender protections via a ballot referendum in Montgomery County, Maryland. “We’re pleased with this victory. The court ruled in our favor in our challenge to this improper referendum,” said Lambda Legal attorney Natalie Chin. “Though the order …

Pundits on both sides are going ballistic over Barack Obama’s usage of a common metaphor for dressing up an old idea. “Let’s just list this for a second. John McCain says he’s about change, too. Except — and so I guess his whole angle is, ‘Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health-care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign …

“I’ve got the questions and the answers. Now all I’ve got to do is memorize them. It’s just like learning a lot of lines, so I kind of think that as an actor, I’ll be better prepared than most.”- Scottish actor Alan Cumming, who is taking his American citizenship test in October in order to vote for Barack Obama.

Former SNL cast member and Air America host Al Franken easily won the Minnesota Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate yesterday. Franken will face incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in November. Al Franken is tremendous friend of the LGBT community and has spoken many times in support of ENDA and marriage equality. Let’s wish him well.