More fuel for the Matthew Shepard Act, sadly. A report released Tuesday shows that violent attacks on members of the LGBT community nationwide grew by 24 percent in 2007 over the previous year. The 78-page report was prepared by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs with input from more than 30 of its members across the U.S. The number of …

History was made yesterday when Portland, Oregon elected openly gay Commissioner Sam Adams, 44, as their new mayor, making Portland the largest American city ever to be helmed by an out gay man. “I’m running not to be a gay mayor, but a great mayor,” he said after delivering his victory speech. “But I’m very cognizant, very aware that I’m …

Two weeks after his drunk driving arrest revealed his double life with a longtime mistress and their “love child”, anti-gay “family values” blowhard Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island) announced that he will give up his reelection campaign Fossella said in a statement on his Web site Tuesday that the choice was a difficult one, based on a need to balance …

Horrible. Sen. Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and will remain hospitalized for at least several days as he and his family determine his treatment options. The Massachusetts Democrat suffered a seizure Saturday and has since been hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He has been talking and joking with family and friends while undergoing …

Ho hum.

The bottom of the door to Nowhere Bar lets folks coming down the stairs what the deal is inside. I don’t usually enjoy low-ceiling’d basement bars, but Nowhere is always full of friends.

Things are continuing to get better for Cuba’s gays. Cuba’s gay community celebrated unprecedented openness – and high-ranking political alliances – with a government-backed campaign against homophobia on the weekend. The meeting at a convention center in Havana’s Vedado district may have been the largest gathering of openly gay activists ever on the communist-run island. President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela, …

These guys kill me.

In a similar vein to HotOrNot.com, it’s actually spelled Pos Or Not, and it’s from MTV and Kaiser. Pos or Not, has a serious purpose (tasteful or not). The site, www.posornot.com, introduced in late April, is an H.I.V. education effort disguised as a game. It shows photographs and brief biographies of men and women ages 21 to 30, and asks …

Regarding this story from Fox News… As gay couples celebrate their newfound right to marry in California and opposition groups rally to fight the ruling, many struggle with this question: Is homosexuality natural? On this issue, Nature has spoken: Same-sex lovin’ is common in hundreds of species, scientists say. The Freepers respond: – “Dogs eat feces but it’s not something …

No words. Two Indian women whose families had tried to break up their relationship set themselves on fire in what police describe as an apparent suicide. The charred bodies of Christy Jayanthi Malar, 38, and her partner identified only as Rukmani, 40, were discovered Saturday in the home of one of the women in the town of Sathangadu. Police said …

Via Towleroad: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh says he will ‘cut off the head’ of any homosexual caught in his country. Addressing supporters at the end of his meet the farmers tour Sunday, Jammeh also ordered any hotel or motel housing homosexuals to close down, adding that owners of such facilities would also be in trouble. He said the Gambia was …

Brooklyn Heights as seen from near the Manhattan foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. No identical cousins were sighted.

From the San Jose Mercury News: It was 1964. Conservative groups across California, angered by a new law aimed at discriminatory housing practices, mobilized to wipe the law off the books by amending the state constitution. The initiative was a hit at the ballot box. Two-thirds of the state’s voters approved the change in the constitution. But the new law …

Via SFGate.com: GOP Rep. Sam Graves unveiled an ad this week using the money phrase to disparage his Democratic challenger Kay Barnes, aka the “Big City Mayor” (formerly that is, of Kansas City.) Barnes’ sin: She attended a fundraiser thrown by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and she shares Pelosi’s “San Francisco Values.” You know what that means. Or at least …

Unreal: Some 75,000 people flocked to Portland’s waterfront Sunday to watch Barack Obama speak, making it the biggest rally the campaign has held to date. Thousands stood on the lawn, dozens watched from boats and from the bridge stretching across the Willamette River. A few kayakers held their paddles and tried to keep their kayaks straight as they watched the …

Saying that the saliva of HIV positive persons should not be considered a “lethal weapon”, Lambda Legal has lodged a protest against last week’s sentencing of a Texas man to 35 years in prison for spitting at a police officer. A gay-rights group is protesting a 35-year prison sentence given to an HIV-positive man who was convicted of spitting on …

Boo-hooing that they are being intimidated, wingnuts in Maine are crying foul because LGBT activists plan to stand next to them at polling places during the primary and urge voters not to sign their anti-gay petition. Via WingNutDaily: A lobby for homosexuals and transgenders in Maine has announced plans to shadow individuals who will be working to collect signatures on …

An interesting op-ed piece in the NY Times makes a suggestion. Here’s an easy answer. Give Mr. Clinton a real job with real power, a challenging position that would be engaging, in part because it would be new. Let me explain. Once the campaigns agree on an Obama-Clinton ticket, Mr. Obama calls Gov. David Paterson of New York, lays out …