Can RuPaul Revive Drag?

(NEWSER) - Gay bars across the country are facing an unexpected dilemma, the Anchorage Daily News reports: Attract straight customers or close down. With Americans growing more tolerant and gay connections moving online, one gay activist says "it's like 'mission accomplished.'" But bars from Pittsburgh to San Francisco are shutting their doors as more gays integrate into the straight world. More»

Gathering at West Hollywood gay bar hiss at controversial pastor's invocation

(NEWSER) - A crowd gathered today at West Hollywood’s premier gay bar to celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration, but also to watch with dismay as Rev. Rick Warren took the Capitol stage, the Advocate reports. Many in the community were shocked by Obama’s choice of the anti-gay marriage pastor to deliver the invocation—and many hissed or left the room during Warren’s invocation. More»

Lithuanian called for 'another Hitler to exterminate' gays

(NEWSER) - In Lithuania, a 37-year-old man was slapped with a fine of nearly $600 for posting on Facebook that there should be another Hitler who should kill gay people. The furniture-maker wrote the comment under an article about Lady Gaga's criticism of the Lithuanian government, reports PinkNews . A court ruled that he was guilty of inciting violence toward gays, and he has since apologized. More»

Cops launch hate crime probe

(NEWSER) - Police have launched a hate crime investigation into vandalism of a "gay nativity" scene outside a California church. The scene at Claremont United Methodist Church featured three wooden light boxes portraying a heterosexual and two homosexual couples holding hands beneath a Star of Bethlehem and the words: "Christ is Born." The gay couples were pushed over, reports the Los Angeles Times . The church has a history of featuring social or political messages in its nativity scenes, but they have never before been vandalized. "Christ's birth in a stable had a lot to do with being marginalized," said the church pastor. "What this church has tried to do through these scenes is say, 'What would that look like today?'" More»

Team with bisexual players stripped of trophy by gay sports group

(NEWSER) - Three bisexual softball players who say they were stripped of a trophy because they were deemed "not gay enough" have reached an out-of-court settlement with a national gay sports organization. San Francisco's D2 team lost its 2008 second-place trophy in the Gay Softball World Series when the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance determined through a series of "intrusive" questions about their sexuality before a panel that three members were "non-gay," and the team therefore exceeded the limit of two heterosexual players, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . Though one of the three men was married at the time, all three consider themselves bisexual, but say they were told at the time: "This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series," according to their lawsuit. The amount of the settlement sum was not disclosed, but part of the deal is that the second-place trophy will be restored to the team. More»