4th July

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) Embraced by New York Tranny Community

Daniel Radcliffe celebrates Harry Potter graduation by becoming art collector | Film | guardian.co.uk

I've been really good friends with Jim and his best mate, Tim, a photographer. And they are two gay guys, artists, in New York, and they introduced me to these amazing, crazy, mad, weird, extraordinary people. I was immediately embraced by the New York tranny community.'

Ain't that nice!

Something to Make You Happy - Guards Doing Thriller.

Watch royal military band play Thriller to stunned tourists - video exclusive | The Sun |News

MICHAEL Jackson's mega hit Thriller has been given this hilarious revamp by the army's world-famous Band of the Coldstream Guards - just a stones throw from Buckingham Palace.

Hordes of tourists were left open-mouthed as they were treated to the spectacular show on Wednesday by the top military band.

Forty drummers, trumpeters, clarinet and trombone players belted out the song.

I never really liked Michael Jackson's music, and I don't like military band music. Nevertheless, this article in The Sun (with video I cannot embed), is fun.

The Liberation of Indian Gay People

Another Huge Step Toward Liberation: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

India legalizes gay sex. I think that liberates more gay men and women in one fell swoop than ever before in human history. It's not equality, of course. And homophobia is still rife. But it's a big, big deal if you care about human rights and human dignity.

It's worth reading the online versions of the Times of India, and the Pakistani English daily Dawn, and reading the comments, to realise that this legal change may be challenged by legislators.

Confirmed: God is slightly gay

Confirmed: God is slightly gay / Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that homosexual sex

New research is revealing so many creatures and species that exhibit homosexual/bisexual behavior of some kind, scientists are now saying there are actually very few, if any, species in existence that don't exhibit it in some way. It's everywhere: Bison. Giraffes. Ducks. Hyenas. Lions and lambs, lizards and dragonflies, polecats and elephants. Hetero sex. Anal sex. Partner swapping. The works.

Let's flip that around. Here's the shocking new truism: In the wilds of nature, to not have some level of homosexual/bisexual behavior in a given species is turning out to be the exception, not the rule. Would you like to read that statement again? Aloud? Through a megaphone? To the Mormon and Catholic churches? And the rest of them, as well? Repeatedly?

Mollie Sugden RIP

Mollie Sugden (Mrs. Slocumbe in "Are You Being Served") died today. Over my lifetime she provided a lot more entertainment than MJ ever did. RIP.

In the early 1990s Mollie Sugden found herself acquiring "cult" status across the Atlantic – particularly on the San Francisco gay scene – after American television started running repeats of Are You Being Served?. In 1993 she appeared on the San Francisco operatic stage as the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a speaking role ("I'm no Pavarotti") in Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment.
...
Mollie Sugden and her husband had identical twin sons, born when she was 41.She confessed that when they were very young she had to keep them labelled so that she could tell them apart and that "more than once I bathed the same one twice".

-From The Daily Telegraph's obituary.

The Daily Mail, as usual, has the best pictures.

Guido Fawkes - Homophobe

Brown to do Gay Pride March - Guy Fawkes' blog

Last night Cameron spoke at a Gay Pride fundraiser, though he won’t be on the march itself. Sarah Brown will be marching, though apparently her husband won’t be mincing along.

Forty Years after Stonewall...Pigs still Oink

Forty Years After Stonewall: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Fort Worth cops raid a gay bar and put one customer in intensive care. Seven men were arrested. The police chief says that the violence of the cops was because - wait for it - the cops were hit on.

Dan Savage has a lot more on this.

One View of America

Building an Asian century | Jamie F Metzl | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

America's legacy of global leadership over the past six decades, warts and all, is unprecedented in its relative benevolence and positive impact. America played the lead in creating the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and international humanitarian and human rights law. It resuscitated its second world war enemies, fostered economic development in countries around the world and established a security umbrella that helped Europe and Asia focus more on diplomacy and economic growth than on military competition. It opened its markets and laid the foundations for globalisation and the information revolution, kept sea lanes open for international trade and catalysed the green revolution. The list goes on.

Free Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff goes down in silence - Telegraph

There are at least 13,500 reasons why Bernie Madoff is staring at a 150-year jail sentence when he appears at Manhattan's federal courthouse later today. That is the estimated number of victims (no one knows for sure) of the 71-year-old fraudster who operated the world's biggest ever Ponzi scheme and who came to personify the crooked face of the credit crunch. Many of his victims lost their entire life savings, placed into Madoff's clutches at the promise of 10 to 12 per cent returns.

I have little sympathy for the "victims". They scrambled to get into a special "club" that promised massive returns on their money for doing nothing. Where was that money coming from? Ultimately is was coming from exploiting the labour of people who were actually working.

Something to Make You Happy - Sniff, Swig, Puff

SNIFF SWIG PUFF - BEA ARTHUR & ROCK HUDSON

"GO GIRLZ 4 DECADES! GAY ICONS SINGING AN ODE TO RECREATIONAL AND HABITUAL FOR THAT MATTER DRUG USE. SNIFF SWIG PUFF AND YOUR CARES ARE GONE. TABOO, NEVER. AMERICAN TV IN THE 1970'S. PEACE."