"Out"

Gay and straight men in New York are teaming up, literally: The city’s many gay-sports leagues feature scores of heterosexuals looking for competition and friendship. “I was reticent,” admitted one straight footballer. “I was used to a high level of play.” But he and others have since sidelined their hesitance, saying gay leagues are just as tough as mainstream clubs. More »

For some politicians—Dick Cheney, say, or Alan Keyes—a gay daughter might be a major inconvenience. But the public coming-out yesterday of Katherine Patrick, daughter of supportive Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, is being praised as a "very powerful statement" by gay-rights groups, and the low-key nature of how Katherine Patrick's sexuality was made public—in a Massachusetts GLBT weekly—was hailed for its sensibility. More »

Lindsay Lohan turned down a $1 million offer from OK! to come out on the magazine's cover, the New York Post reports. Lohan and the gossip weekly were negotiating a story about her relationship with celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson. "Lindsay really wants this to happen and she needs the money," said a source, but the starlet's flak says there's nothing in the works.  More »

The Seattle Mariners' response to a fan complaint has set off a dispute about gay rights and public displays of affection. A Safeco Field employee told a lesbian couple they had to either stop kissing in the stands or leave the game, KOMO TV reports. One of the women says the kiss was a peck on the lips, but security received a report of "groping and making out," the team tells the Post-Intelligencer. More »

The battle is on for the leadership of France's opposition Socialist Party, and a man who says the nation is ready for a gay president is the surprise leader, the Telegraph reports. Bertrand Delanoë, the popular mayor of Paris, is the early favorite, outpolling Ségolène Royal, who lost last year's election to Nicolas Sarkozy.  More »

Hollywood is filled with closeted gay actors—and off-balance media coverage and Hollywood homophobia are keeping them there, says actor Alan Cumming. “I don't think the people that go see films care that much,” the X-Men 2 star told the BBC. “The media make it more of a deal and it’s made into controversy.” Cumming, who is openly gay, thinks Hollywood is an especially anti-gay place. "Definitely." More »

Out magazine's Gay Power 50 boasts plenty of people with plenty of influence over politics and pop culture: David Geffen: Look at the headlines this Hollywood bigwig sparked when he endorsed Barack Obama for proof of his broad influence. Anderson Cooper: Turn on CNN. Enough said. Ellen DeGeneres: Her daily audience is 2.4 million. More »

Palm Springs is a very gay place. No one is arguing with that. About half the California town’s adult residents are gay, the mayor is gay, and clothing-optional gay establishments dot the landscape. But a recent transplant's new memoir, Postcards From Palm Springs, is riling locals who see it as an over-the-top depiction of a sex-mad town. The LA Times pays a visit. More »

A British tabloid had a field day this weekend outing Princess Diana's butler Paul Burrell, who has parlayed his notoriety into hosting a TV show on etiquette called "American Princess." But for one columnist, the allegations that Diana's married-with-children confidant trawls saunas for sex demonstrate a sea change in public perception: Increasingly, being gay isn't shameful, but lying about it is. More »

A t-shirt slogan—"I love my trailblazing, woman-loving, out and proud grandma"—is proof: A growing demographic of gay couples who had kids in the 1970s are now grandparents. Gay-rights groups tell the Philadelphia Inquirer that such role models show kids how the world can change. "People with LGBT grandparents learn a broader view of how people can love," says one official. More »

At midnight, New Hampshire became the fourth state to allow same-sex civil unions, and more than 40 couples came from across the state to ring in 2008 with vows under the State House arch, the Concord Monitor reports. Planned as a small ceremony for about 20 couples, the event drew almost 200 revelers and a single well-behaved protester. More »

Hustler publisher and professional muckraker Larry Flynt is “arguably the greatest student of the American underbelly since J. Edgar Hoover"—and now he’s got big conservatives in his sights, writes Vanity Fair . Flynt, who has often offered money for the unmasking of gay or adulterous politicians, insists he’s about to expose the misdeeds of a closeted Republican senator—and that a GOP presidential candidate’s scandal may follow. More »

Jodie Foster’s tentative move out of the closet, at an awards show last week, may be the work of an old friend who, rumor has it, may be the father of her children, the Daily Mail reports. Foster  thanked her live-in partner Cydney Bernard—calling her “my beautiful Cydney”—to fulfill a promise to gay director Randy Stone, the Mail says, an old friend who died in February, after making Foster promise to come out. More »

The US military, whose resources are stretched overseas, has become far more tolerant of gays. One Army sergeant turned over a video of a passionate kiss with his boyfriend to superior officers and was merely told to go back to work, according to a "60 Minutes" investigation to be aired Sunday. "I don't care if you're gay or not," he said one officer told him. More »

Sure, Condoleezza Rice is trying to broker Mideast peace, but isn't she really gay? Like Hillary Clinton? And isn't John Edwards having an affair? A recent spate of articles has swung the political spotlight on gossip, the Times of London reports—and the Columbia Journalism Review is so concerned that it hosted a panel this year to discuss government funding of serious newspapers. More »

Perhaps worried that JK Rowling has opened the closet too widely, Bill O'Reilly has made Albus Dumbledore's outing a frequent topic this week, bemoaning the promotion of “parity for homosexuals with heterosexuals.” Calling the Harry Potter author a “provocateur,” the Fox anchor says adults are worried about the “indoctrination of their children,” Media Matters transcripts reveal. More »

The Vatican yesterday suspended a senior official caught on hidden camera making advances to a man and saying that he didn't believe he was sinning by being involved with gays. Italian television showed the priest with his face distorted, but Vatican officials recognized the office where he was filmed. The suspended priest, Monsignor Tomasso Stenico, works for the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, which aims to ensure proper conduct by priests. More »

Iranian gays insist they actually do exist, and in large numbers, contrary to statements made by Iran's president to derisive laughter at Columbia University last week. But life there is much more "complicated" for gays than it is in North America. “You can have a secret gay life as long you don’t start demanding rights,” one man told the New York Times. More »

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig was arrested after allegedly soliciting sex from a male plainclothes police officer in a men's room at Minneapolis airport June 11. The incident is  spelled out in graphic detail in Roll Call , which obtained the arrest report. August 8th, Craig appeared in the Hennepin County District Court and pled guilty to disorderly conduct . More »

Eighteen Nigerian men arrested on suspicion of sodomy face death by stoning under the nation’s Sharia law. Police found the men, reportedly dressed as women, in a hotel in the northern state of Bauchi, where they were allegedly celebrating a “gay wedding.” More »