Joe.My.God. LGBT News

The broad, tree-lined sidewalk of Fifth Avenue along Central Park is one of the loveliest places for a Manhattan stroll.

Young men who have sex with men are contracting HIV at a rate 33% higher than five years ago, according to recent figures released by the NYC Health Department. For men who have sex with men (MSM), the under 30 age group experienced almost 500 reported new cases of HIV last year, versus 374 in 2001. Perhaps even more frightening, …

Lady R’s glittery wheel landed on Michael of Akron, Ohio, who won last week’s Swag Tuesday prize, the 4-disc first season box set of Showtime’s Dexter, which starts its second season on Sept.30th. Michael sez: “Thanks for the DVD, and also thanks for all the effort you put into your blog, it is very appreciated.” Publicists: if you’d like to …

In addition to finger length and the direction in which your fingerprint whorl spins, scientists are theorizing that a person’s body shape and gait can be indicators of sexual orientation. Researchers at NYU and Texas A&M measured the bodies of eight male and eight female subjects, half of whom were gay. The subjects then walked and ran on treadmills as …

In an attempt to staunch the flow of red ink, the music industry has come up with the “ringle“, a slip-sleeved CD single of a hit song that will feature a couple of bonus tracks from the same artist and a code to allow buyers to go online and download a “free” ringtone of the main song. Cost: $6-$7. User-created …

Today’s Swag Tuesday prize is the brand new novel from gay stand-up comedian and writer Bob Smith, Selfish & Perverse, courtesy of the author and Carroll & Graf Books. Standup comedian and television writer Smith, who published the Lambda Award–winning memoir Openly Bob in 1997, throws his hat into the gay fiction ring with this absorbing, funny and smoldering romantic …

Six years. It doesn’t seem possible, does it? It’s a dark, wet, gloomy morning in Manhattan today, which feels appropriate. In a way, it’s always going to be 9/11 in NYC as you can’t walk five blocks without coming across some marking of the day – a painted firehouse door or a memorial plaque. Here’s the story and photos I …

Despite his endorsing of candidates in 2004, Focus On The Family head James Dobson has been cleared of IRS charges that he endangered the group’s non-profit status, ruling that he acted as an individual, not on behalf of the ministry. Under IRS rules, non-profits can speak out about issues and lobby lawmakers, but they cannot back specific candidates. Liberal watchdog …

Two New York men have filed a $1.5M defamation lawsuit against American University after their alumni paper published a fake wedding announcement stating that the two “life partners” had married in Boston. American Magazine published the announcement apparently without fact-checking with the two men, who are not gay. The announcement also noted that one of the men was a founder …

Larry Craig’s lawyer will file court papers today, seeking to overturn Craig’s disorderly conduct conviction on the grounds that he was under extreme stress after being hounded by journalists about his sexual orientation. According to the lawyer, that pressure caused Craig to plead guilty to the lesser plea following his sex sting arrest. In other Craig news, Sun Valley Online …