Gay News

(Newser) - Barack Obama said he wouldn't require top military appointees to support letting open homosexuals serve, stressing that his priority for Joint Chiefs of Staff is the ability to protect the country. Speaking to a gay magazine, the candidate called “don’t ask, don’t tell” a “counterproductive strategy,” adding he’d ban workplace discrimination against gays and get federal benefits for couples in civil unions. More »

(Newser) - A tiny Vienna museum with ties to the Catholic Church has became the target of worldwide outrage after displaying a homoerotic mural depicting the Last Supper, ABC News reports. The painting, by one of Austria's most cherished artists, shows naked apostles drinking and having an orgy. It has now been removed, and the row has been characterized as a Catholic version of the Mohamed cartoon uproar. More »

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi acted to have a gay Congresswoman's domestic partner included on a military flight to Europe, and the question of government acknowledgment of same-sex partners continues to reverberate, the Politico reports. Tammy Baldwin’s partner took the March fact-finding trip, but Pelosi and Robert Gates are at odds over whether the waiver means the Defense Department or the House granted an exception. More »

(Newser) - Michael Lucas is a successful entrepreneur with a burning interest in politics—not unusual, except that he made his fortune in gay porn. The actor-director-producer, a New York nightlife stalwart, is also a self-proclaimed pundit. The New Republic checks in with the outspoken blogger, who bashes liberal gays who “side with burqa-wearing, jihad-screaming, Koran-crazed Muslims.” More »

(Newser) - A gay teenager who fears the death penalty at home in Iran, after his boyfriend was hanged for sodomy, is fighting for the right to stay in  the UK permanently, the Independent reports. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, lost his asylum claim in Britain and is now in a detention center in the Netherlands, but the British Home Secretary has bowed to pressure and agreed to reconsider. A Dutch court Tuesday said he could not claim asylum there. More »

(Newser) - In a case that has gripped Australia since 2006, two lesbian lovers—one with a vampire fixation—were sentenced to at least 24 years in prison today for murdering a teenage girl, the West Australian reports. They bludgeoned and strangled the girl and kissed over her body, taking video on a mobile phone. The pair showed little emotion as the sentence was read. More »

(Newser) - 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 »

(Newser) - An overflow crowd and hundreds more outside a San Francisco courthouse listened yesterday as the California Supreme Court heard arguments on the state's gay marriage ban, the Los Angeles Times reports. The judges appeared split as lawyers argued for more than 3 1/2 hours. One judge asked if domestic partnership did not basically confer the same rights as marriage. "Doesn't this just boil down to the use of the 'm' word, marriage?" he asked.