Ohio Hospital Denies Woman Her Deceased Wife's Medical Records

Marcia Gallas, a woman from Blue Ash, Ohio, has been denied access to her recently deceased spouse's medical records. While Gallas and her attorney have a federal injunction that is based on a similar case from Cincinnati, Bethesda North Hospital says they cannot release the information due to "state and federal privacy laws."

Watch a WCPO report on the story, AFTER THE JUMP...

To Gallas, it seems the hospital's rationale for this denial is that they are waiting for Ohio's marriage equality fight to make its way through the courts. Said Gallas:

I'm grieving...It's going to take a long time to get over Barbara and I really don't understand why they won't recognize... what am I to think except that they have a problem with same sex marriage?

Gallas is trying to obtain the records of former spouse Barbara Graham because Graham participated in an 18-year study that requires the records.

While Bethesda North is stubborn in their position, Gallas did not have the same problems getting records from Cincinatti's Jewish Hospital. Said Gallas:

They [Bethesda North] just aren't budging... All they need to do is release her medical records, that's all I'm asking for...I don't think that's too much to ask for.

Gallas can get permission from Graham's sons to access the records, but this could take weeks to process.

[h/t WCPO]

Wentworth Miller On Being Closeted: "I Was Looking To Food As A Fix"NewNowNext

After coming out last year, Wentworth Miller kept a fairly low profile. But he’s back in the upcoming thriller The Loft, about a group of men who find a dead woman in a secret apartment they share for extramarital affairs.


Miller also appears in the August issue of Details, where hediscussed the film, his battle with depression, and the toll that being in the closet took on him.


“At one point I was about 45 pounds heavier than I am now,” recalls
the 42-year-old actor-writer. “I was looking to food as a fix for
something missing inside—it was about putting layers of protection
around me.”


Coming out, he says, has enabled him to feel “more fully expressed.”

After Prison Break, I came to grips with the fact
that my public persona was in misalignment with how I actually felt. I
was out to a handful of people in my twenties, and once I hit 30, I was
out to family and friends.


But professionally, I was feeding a fantasy. I created this air of “We don’t address that thing.”

He regrets denying he was gay while Prison Break was on, but thinks “audiences knew to a certain degree.” He also thinks America can handle gay actors in hetero roles just fine.


“I think it’s possible to have a man-crush if you’re not gay or to
have a crush on a guy you know to be gay if you’re a woman,” says
Miller. “I think our imaginations are strong enough to hold a container
for all of this complexity, even if we know on a subconscious level
something’s not what it appears to be.”


Yep, it’s called acting.

Can't Get Kylie Minogue Out of Our Heads

Big icons come in small packages. The petite pop princess Kylie Minogue is not just a gay icon, but, according to a survey printed in The Sun, she’s the biggest gay icon of all time.


You’re free to disagree, but there’s plenty more evidence in her favor. Even Rufus Wainwright named her one of his top gay icons,
saying “I love Kylie, she's the anti-Madonna. Self-knowledge is a truly
beautiful thing and Kylie knows herself inside out. She is what she is
and there is no attempt to make quasi-intellectual statements to
substantiate it. She is the gay shorthand for joy.”

She’s acknowledged and celebrated her gay audience throughout her decades-long career.

“I didn’t become a gay icon or become popular in the gay community
for doing something specific. That happened just because I was being
myself,” she told The Advocate last year.
“When I’m on tour, I think there’s a little bit of everything there.
From a row of muscle Marys and drag queens to dads, moms, grandmas, and
three generations of girls – everyone is there. So I try to put into my
shows and albums a little bit for everyone and I hope that colors my
work in the best way.”

Whether LGBT audiences adore her for her disco-flavored dance tunes,
flashy costumes or charming personality, Kylie’s fervent fans have made
her an institution since the late 1980s.

See her in action in some of our favorite clips, AFTER THE JUMP …

Kylie’s first big acting gig was on an Australian soap opera called Neighbours.

The episode that featured her character Charlene Mitchell’s wedding was
seen by an audience of 20 million British viewers. She’s continued to
act throughout the years, appearing in Moulin Rouge and a fantastic episode of Doctor Who, as well as some projects she’d probably rather forget. See a clip from her farewell on Neighbours, above.

She made the jump to music with her first single, “The Loco-Motion.”
It spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles charts and
reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Kylie faced resistance trying to break in as a singer after being known primarily as an actress. She told The Advocate
that she thinks overcoming that criticism strengthened her connection
to the LGBT community. “I really resisted being pigeonholed and perhaps
that’s one reason the gay community has felt some allegiance with me.
Because I didn’t want to be told I was one thing and couldn’t be
another. I didn’t want to have just one color to my personality.”

The peak of Kylie’s popularity in the United States hit in the early 2000s, when she released her album, Fever.
The album included singles “Love At First Sight” (above) and “Can’t Get
You Out of My Head,” which hit number seven on the Billboard Hot 100
and was number one in more than forty countries.

Not only has Kylie performed with LGBT performers (like Rufus Wainwright and Scissor Sisters) as well as playing established gay bars (G-A-Y and Splash), but she’s also been involved with LGBT organizations, like amfAR and GLAAD. See her get introduced by Boy George and perform a sing-along version of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” at the GLAAD Media Awards earlier this year, above.

For her most recent album, Kiss Me Once, Kylie collaborated with Sia on the track “Sexercise.” The official video features Kylie having a steamy workout session with two other women. However, we prefer the scintillating clip above, showcasing some hunky dancers. (There’s also this male cover of the song and video.)

What’s your favorite Kylie track? Do you agree with The Sun that she is the biggest gay icon of all time?

5 reasons you need to watch more porn

On the Internet, it’s easy to find a screed about why you need to give up porn or why it’s ruining our kids, our culture, our relationships, and our lives. You can blame almost anything on porn, from the shortening of our attention spans to the rising divorce rates and the UCSB shootings. If you look, you can probably even find articles blaming porn for Marisa Tomei’s 1993 Oscar upset. #neverforget



While pornography
won’t be curing cancer anytime soon, it’s not nearly as bad as the
anti-porn frenzy would suggest (the Internet’s version of Reefer
Madness) and, in fact, comes with surprising benefits for porn users. To
defend porn against its critics, the Daily Dot’s two resident porn
enthusiasts, EJ Dickson and Nico Lang, are here to tell you why you a
little Internet porn is good for you.

1. Because it’s healthy.

EJ Dickson: Despite the many, many, many studies claiming that porn is bad for your brain and your relationships, there are just as many studies saying that porn does not cause irrevocable harm to the brain or your sex life—in fact, it might even be kinda good for you. In a paper from 2008, two Danish researchers Gert Hald and Neil Malamuth concluded from a survey of 688 Danish adults that porn did not yield any negative mental or health effects.
In fact, the researchers found a positive correlation between the
subjects’ porn viewing and increased sexual satisfaction, as well as
self-reported benefits in other areas of their lives.



And as for the old chestnut that too much porn viewing can lead to addiction?
The consensus is still pretty split on that one, but some sex
researchers like Dr. Louanne Cole Weston believe it’s important to
differentiate between an addiction and a compulsion, in the same vein as
compulsive nail-biting.



“People who say pornography is an addiction, they tend to come from the
addiction community and not always the field of mental health or
sexuality,” Weston told me a few months ago. “They tend to say ‘This is
dangerous, porn is fraught with danger. You better watch out, it’s a
slippery slope.’ It was sort of the same as people in the drug addiction
community saying if you smoke pot, you better watch out or you’ll be
doing heroin.”



Translation: Porn is probs not gonna send you on the street, muttering
to yourself about alien satellites in your brain with needles in both
your arms. If anything, the only thing it’ll probably do is make your
arm a little buffer.

2. Because sometimes it’s better than the real thing.

Nico Lang: Some nights you want to get dolled up, put on a freakum dress, and pretend to be someone does not
eat food out of the garbage long enough to trick a guy into having sex
with you, but you don’t always want to put in the kind of effort that
involves changing out of your pajama pants. In lieu of being able to
have sex with your Netflix subscription (in which case no one would ever leave the house), free Internet porn is the next best thing.



Anti-porn nutbags might suggest that you use your one-some time to
create your own erotic fantasy, escaping into the vast Blue Lagoon-like
garden of your sexual imagination, but that’s not really the point of
pornography. Porn is great for when you want your fantasies created for
you, because let’s be honest, we’re not always that creative. For
someone who writes for a living, my erotic reveries are shockingly dull,
displaying all the playful imagination of a golf match. You can only
picture George Clooney being bent over a table so many times before you beg to change the channel. (Sorry, G-Cloo.)



I don’t think pornography is a replacement for the real thing, but
research has shown that having a healthy masturbation schedule actually
makes us better sex partners -- and partners in general. While being
good for your physical and mental health (as EJ mentioned), it’s a way to continue making sure that your own sexual needs are being met outside of the bedroom, which is likely why it’s so common, even for those in relationships.



Surveys show that anywhere from 70 to 95 percent of adult men and women
get it on alone, and, yes, that includes people involved in monogamous
relationships,” wrote The Frisky’s Erin Flaherty. “According to Kinsey
research, 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women in relationships
masturbate. A survey of Playboy readers found 72 percent of married men
masturbate, and a similar Redbook survey found 68 percent of married
women do it, too.”



As Flaherty argues, watching porn in a relationship isn’t cheating,
just like watching it when you’re single doesn’t make you immoral or
perpetuate our singledom. It’s a necessary part of self-love. Besides,
if you’re worried that porn might be ruining your sexcapades or your relationships, perhaps they weren’t that good to begin with.

3. Because it’s hilarious.

EJ: I don’t watch porn often with my boyfriend, mostly
because we have wildly divergent tastes—he likes ten-minute sloppy
blow-job clips, whereas I’m a fan of narrative-driven vintage content,
particularly if the term “X-rated musical fantasy”
is somewhere in the title—but when we do, we tend to focus less on the
action onscreen and more on what’s going on in the background.



For instance: Why is there a long-haired Maine coon at the living-room
orgy? Did he receive an invitation, or is he merely an impartial
observer? (We’re not the only people to discuss the presence of cats in
pornos, too, if the Tumblr “Indifferent Cats in Amateur Porn”
is any indication). Why does the same KARLSTAD white chaise sectional
appear in literally every gay porn I’ve ever seen? Did every gay porn producer get together and decide to do a run on IKEA?



And why do lady porn stars’ voices always crack like that of a goddamn
bar mitzvah boy’s when they’re trying to talk dirty? (In this vein,
we’ve taken to greeting each other with the phrase “Wanna fuck my
puss-EE?”, our voices going up and squeaking on the last syllable..



By saying that porn is “funny,” I’m not trying to denigrate porn and
the people who make it. I’m saying that porn is funny because sex, in
general, with its unanticipated noises and bodily fluids and ridiculous
O-faces, is funny. The fact that there’s an added level to artifice to
porn makes it even funnier: Even if you can’t get into porn itself, you
can at least get into the Ron Swanson-esque expression on the Maine
coon’s face as he watches his camgirl owner go to town on herself with a
drilldo.



And besides, research shows that laughter is an aphrodisiac, so even if you guys are busy chuckling over the Thuja Green Giant-sized bush
on that 70s MILF porn star, it’s dollars to donuts if you keep
watching, you won’t be laughing for very long. (Because you’ll be
fucking. You know, in case that wasn’t, like, clear.)

4. Because exploring your sexuality is how you find out what you like.

Nico: There’s a reason that the first step in every queer
man’s coming out process is looking at pornography: Unless you’re
exposed to sexual practices outside of what you’ve been told is
acceptable, it’s hard to become comfortable with your own desires or
normalize them in your brain. Just as sex ed is how we find out about
the mechanics of sex -- what goes where -- pornography is how many of us
begin to figure out how that relates to our sexualities. Pornography is
not an ideal replacement for sex ed (because if you think Bait Bus is
realistic, you’re in for a world of hurt), but it’s an excellent
education as to what’s out there for you to explore.



This isn’t just true for gay men. Porn allows all users a safe space to
work out proclivities they might be uncomfortable elsewhere, like sleep porn or rape porn.
There’s not always an opportunity in daily life for a primer on the
wide world of tentacle erotica, and finding these resources for
ourselves is how many of us become exposed to them. How else would
people in the BDSM
and leather communities have figured out that’s what they were into
without some hot muscle bear action to help show them the way?



And even for those who find themselves entrenched in a niche community,
porn can be a way to continue to explore your sexual horizons and
reeducate your desires. Sex researcher and blogger Jaime Woo
used Internet porn to explore the world outside of who he had been
taught to find attractive. In his BOYS essay, “The Gandhi School of
Hookups,” the Chinese-Canadian writer describes the process of actively
exploring men of a plethora of races like being a “kid who suddenly
realized that the candy shop spanned blocks."



We all know that porn is a profoundly racist institution, but so is online dating
-- and all dating, for that matter. The more we more to break down the
limitations within ourselves, the more we make the world a better place
for our wanking and non-wanking needs.

5. Because honestly, guys, you could probs learn a thing or two.

EJ: Let’s just get this out of the way: Porn is by no
means an instructional manual for how to have sex IRL. It’s a fantasy,
and sometimes it’s a very silly one. No one (or at least very few
people) enjoys having sex the way people have sex in porn; no one (or at
least very few people) is turned on by spitting into a butt, or gagging
on a penis, or washing their face with baby batter, or any of the other
porn tropes that lead radfems and anti-porn activists to conclude that
porn is dangerous and destructive to women.
But just because these things are kinda gross and unseemly to you
doesn’t mean that no one likes them, and just because there are a few
things you’ve seen in porn that you wouldn’t do in your own sex life
doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can learn from watching porn.



The fact is, regardless of whether you think you’re the Yitzhak Pearlman of having sex,
you probably aren’t; you’re probably just OK at it. And just as
aspiring concert violinists learn how to better their craft by watching
Pearlman play, your own sexual repertoire could similarly benefit from
watching an adult performer whose skills you respect and admire.



Porn doesn’t just give you the skills to learn how to better please
your partner, either: It also can help give you skills for how to better
please yourself. If you masturbate semi-regularly, chances are you know
enough about yourself and your own body and what it likes to be able to
ask for it in bed, which will ultimately lead to a much more satisfying
sex life, whether alone or with a partner.



Practice makes perfect, people. So go find your Yitzhak Pearlman of sex
and rub out a few practice scales on your instrument of choice today.

On True Blood, Jason Stackhouse Has a Most Wonderful Dream

True Blood,
now fully engaged in its seventh and final season on HBO, has always
been a very smart show, concerned with philosophy, intimacy, and the
concepts of heroism and self-sacrifice, and also dudes having sex with
other dudes all the time.

One
of the most interesting and intelligent twists in the show's core cast
has always been Jason Stackhouse's downstairs situation. While sometimes
that goes to some dark places, like his gang-rape by panthers for
example, most of the time it reminds you that he is a pretty respectable
guy. He loves his sister, his best friend Hoyt, and his town.

Jason's
relationship with his own penis is as complex and poignant as any
romance. It has gone through as many changes, from the sublime to the
wretched, as his sister Sookie's relationships with various dead people
and animal people. (Sookie once randomly masturbated on a porch while
everybody was at church, which remains one of the coolest things she has
ever done.)

ExpandHe
is a good friend and ally, and worries often about perfecting his
skills to protect the things he loves. He worries that he is too full of
hate, and then he worries that he is too accepting and tolerant, and
then he goes the other way again. Always worrying, always trying to do
the right thing. To find his way in a complicated world that has
vampires, fairies, werewolves, and sometimes people who are all of those
things in it.

But from even the first season, one thing Jason Stackhouse has never worried that much about is how he is constantly having homoerotic dreams about all of them, all of the time.

I
have been going through life thinking that probably the scene above—in
which Jason invents not just one but several kinds of gay porn while
dreaming about his sister's fiancé, the fairy vampire Warlow—was the
hottest thing that was likely to happen in our lifetime. I thought the
technology had plateaued.

But
as it turns out, Jason's capacity for really getting in there and
making sure we get our money's worth is not something that can be
ignored. The boy is a gay porn factory, whose dreams could power a Wilhelm Reich orgone generator machine so powerful that it could probably destroy the world. Or save it!

All I know is that True Blood is still the smartest show on TV, and gets no credit for it. But one of the ways it is very
smart is how last night, Jason Stackhouse and Eric Northman fucked each
other, and it was excellent by any standard you can think of.

Other things also happened last night on True Blood, a very good television program with many important things to say.

[Images and video via HBO]

Dominican Cardinal Tells U.S. Ambassador to ‘Take His Gay Pride Elsewhere’

Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, a Catholic Cardinal from the Dominican Republic who has previously
referred to U.S. Ambassador James “Waly” Brewster as a maricón (Spanish
slur for “faggot”), is again voicing his displeasure with the idea of
an openly gay man serving as ambassador to his Caribbean nation.


Dominican Today reports:


Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodríguez on Thursday again railed
against the openly gay U.S. Ambassador, asking James Brewster to "take
his pride elsewhere," and reminded him that diplomacy is used to promote
relations, moral values, trade agreements and mutual cooperation among
the world's countries.


"Diplomacy is not for that sort of thing, an absolutely negative propaganda," the Archbishop
of Santo Domingo told reporters who asked about a video released by the U.S. Embassy, where Brewster and his husband Bob Satawake promote the celebration of "Gay Pride Month” in June.


The cardinal spoke after heading a mass to mark Corpus Christi in San Antonio parish, in the Gazcue sector.


"I am totally against that, everybody knows it, my position is not new, not
because this man with this kind of attitude has now arrived."


When Brewster was first nominated last year, a group of conservative Dominican Republic religious leaders organized a 'black armband' protest against what was seen as an "insult to good Dominican customs"

Backfired My Man Your Plan: Jarre & Stamos: Adam & Steve

We've seen John Stamos cuddle with Bob Saget, and we've seen his kisses auctioned off
for a good cause, but now it seems like the former "Full House" hunk
just genuinely loves kissing men (or at least pulling off a good prank).
Vine superstar Jerome Jarre has become most famous for unexpectedly
smooching other people and seeing how they react. A recent attempt,
however, left the shocked Jarre with a mouthful of Stamos and a lot of
unwarranted anti-gay backlash.
Gay.net reports:

Jarre posted the video to his 6.1 million followers on Vine with the
tongue in cheek (pun intended) caption: “KISSPRANK BACKFIRED - CHILDHOOD
RUINED - #FULLHOUSE #FULLMOUTH w/ John Stamos.”

He expected the same light, fun comments he usually gets on videos.
Instead, his comment feed was littered with homophobic statements. “Gay.
Unfollowed,” reads one. “God made Adam and Even not Adam and Steve,”
reads another.

"I am receiving death threats now, but I would not delete this Vine
for anything in the world," Jarre told Mashable in an interview.

Rather than give into the gay panic, Jarre opted to create a new
video, revealing he has a "beautiful girlfriend" and then smooching
fellow Vine user Nicholas Megalis. The best part? Megalis is done up in
some particularly unconvincing drag.

"I'm sick of seeing kids being bullied for living their lives. Ignorance is so dangerous," Megalis told Mashable.
"And as someone who makes things, it is my job to make something I
actually believe in. And I believe in this. Gay, straight, alien.
Doesn't mean shit. Love is love is love."

Check out both of the Vines, AFTER THE JUMP...

Watch a Morning Show Host Lose Her Shit Over the Michael Sam Kiss

A host of the local Dallas morning show The Broadcast was so overwhelmed by her disdain after watching Michael Sam kiss his boyfriend that she stormed off the set during Tuesday's broadcast.

Amy Kushnir employed the tried-and-untrue "it's being pushed in faces" argument regarding homosexuality before bolting away, shutting down the debate with her three other panelists. She was sassy and reminiscent of Aunt Sassy—her diatribe included the phrase, "I don't want to see that!"

Said Kushnir:

When parents do not have a choice about whether or not they want their children to see this, it is wrong...I don't call it a moment of celebration...It's being pushed in faces. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see cake in your face, kissing each other.

The climax is above, but really the entire nine minutes of the segment is worth watching (see below). In addition to Kushnir's shit fit, it includes her well-meaning co-host Courtney Kerr saying that the anti-Sam outcry is "racist toward homosexuals." Suzie Humphreys falls into the Kushnir camp and is frustrated that she's not allowed to express her bigotry without being told, "Hey, lady, you're a bigot." She reasons that gay acceptance "all has to do with social media, the whole thing."

Good thinkin' all around!

[H/T Towleroad]

Michael Sam Gets Drafted, and the NFL Has Issues

The best Twitter joke this year was W. Kamau Bell trying to start the hashtag #letshaveanuanceddiscussion.
Having a nuanced discussion, one tweet at a time, is only slightly
easier than being that damn camel trying to make it through the eye of a
needle. Today, as the last rounds of the NFL draft played out on
multiple television channels and the names of players scrolled across
the screen, nuance was the last thing many of us wanted to exercise.
Michael Sam, the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year
who told the world he was gay last February, was going undrafted,
eventually picked 249th in the seventh and last round by the St. Louis
Rams. This in and of itself was history, and not only because Sam was
drafted. No SEC DPOY had ever gone that long before being selected. In
fact, no SEC DPOY in the last ten years had even lasted past the second round.

The reasons for this are on one level complicated. Michael Sam had a terrible NFL combine.
He is a “tweener” neither big enough to play defensive line nor quick
enough to be an every-down linebacker. He projected even before he “came
out” as a mid-round pick. All of that being said, Michael Sam fell down
draftboards, costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars, because of
the slow steady drip of groupthink
that became a flood and took over the process. NFL “draft experts”
prepared the public to not expect any history this weekend, emphasizing
that his sexuality had nothing to do with it.

But f Michael Sam’s sexuality’s being an inhibitor to his draft
status is not your starting point for understanding all of this, I
believe you’re lost without a compass. This is not to argue that all
general managers in the NFL are homophobic. It’s not about what kinds of
prejudice lurks in the hearts of individual executives. It’s about a
systemic problem in an NFL that loathes independent thinkers, fears
political controversy, and hates “distractions.”

The NFL's homophobia is in an institution that equates being gay with
being “controversial”, or “political”, not realizing that this is their
problem, not Michael Sam’s. This is the league imbibing and
regurgitating the same backward logic that keeps people in the closet,
scared to tell their family and friends who they are and doing horrible
damage to themselves and the people close to them. This is why we can
talk until the cows come home about whether Michael Sam is a “tweener”
as a player, his poor combine and all the rest of it but it doesn’t get
at the root of the issue. This is why we can praise NFL Commissioner
Roger Goodell—yes, Roger Goodell—for being out front in supporting and
welcoming to Sam when he came out, but we also need to understand what
happened and why this groupthink about Sam took root.

As sportswriter Howard Bryant said, Michael Sam is threatening to the
institutional biases that exist in the league precisely because he was
brave enough to try and control his own narrative. For a league built on
idealized notions of machismo and toughness, for a league that speaks
in military jargon like they would’ve been the first one to storm the
beaches of Normandy if given half the chance, they were a profile in
cowardice this weekend. They were scared. It’s the same fear that you
see when Goodell announces that they want to police and punish players
for saying n____, but are scared to do anything but continue to promote a
racial slur as the name of one of its teams. It’s the same fear you see
when they aggressively promote tackle football for kids—with ads
particularly aimed at moms—during the Super Bowl while their own data
comes in at a taxi-cab meter pace about how playing tackle can cause
permanent brain injury in children. It’s the same fear you see when they
suspend one of their best players for smoking weed. What NFL bosses
want, need and crave above all else, is control. Michael Sam represented
a loss of that control because he dared—I will say it again—to try and
control his own narrative. That is the NFL’s problem, not Michael Sam’s.
It also has nothing to do with his forty-time at the combine. And that,
in my view, it is the starting point for understanding why Michael Sam
lasted until pick number 249. All praise to Jeff Fisher and the Rams for
stepping up and not letting this young man suffer the ritual humilation
of going undrafted udner the brightest possible spotlight. All praise
to Michael Sam for his bravery and self assurance to deliver the kiss heard round the sportsworld. All praise for Sam's righteous anger at having slipped down draftboards, tweeting out, "Michael Sam is pissed off for greatness!" But the NFL has issues, and they were on full-display on Saturday.

Watch: Michael Sam Kisses His Boyfriend After He Was Drafted By The St. Louis Rams Football Team | Pink is the New Blog

Back in February, University of Missouri football Michael Sam came out publicly as gay a full 3 months before the NFL Draft was to take place this weekend. Just a short time ago, Sam was selected by the St. Louis Rams to play professional football for their team … making Michael Sam the first openly gay player in the National Football League. In celebration of his draft pick, Michael did what any other professional athlete would do as soon as he heard the good news … he was first overcome by raw emotion and then happily kissed his partner live on ESPN. Click the video above to see the emotional moment when Sam got the good news and see the sweet kiss he shared with his boyfriend Vito Cammisano. Then, click below to see another cute video of Michael and Vito celebrating today’s very happy news.
Here is a photo that Vito shared on his Twitter profile:

This is a very historic day for professional sports … and for the advancement of equal in this country. On the very day when marriage equality came to the state of Arkansas (of all places in the US), Michael Sam becomes the first openly gay player in the NFL. Wow. So amazing!! The sight of Michael Sam — a player in the NFL — kissing his boyfriend on ESPN is something I never even dreamed possible before today. I’m really overcome with emotion myself. Today is a great, great day.[Source, Source]

Gay Jeans 'Come Out' And Reveal Their Rainbow Threads The More You Wear Them

The fashion innovators at Betabrand clothing are crowd-funding the creation of “Gay Jeans,” denim jeans that “come out of the closet” the more you wear them:

“Gay Jeans begin life looking and acting like regular 5-pocket denim jeans, but as they experience normal washing and wearing over the course of their life, their indigo dye gradually fades away, revealing fabulously colorful yarns just waiting to come out.”

While their ad copy includes ham-fisted joking about “denim equality,” the jeans' creator Steven B. Wheeler explains his personal connection to the design:

"Early in life, I was not wildly unlike any of the other boys on the playground, but as time went by, I noticed things about me that set me apart from others. The same too for Gay Jeans; it takes time for them to uncover the things that make them unique.

"... the name (Gay Jeans) is a pun on the issue of science finding the “gay gene,” and the debate over whether or not being gay is a choice. For these jeans it isn’t a choice. Like me, they were born this way, and like me, they’ll come out in their own time.

"And finally, I love this project because no matter what else they are, Gay Jeans are no more or less a pair of jeans than I am more or less a human being. I'm a gay man, yes, but a man nonetheless."

The jeans cost $78.40 and 10 percent of all proceeds will go to the San Francisco LGBT Center.

Homophobic Ex-Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt Running for Office in Colorado

Gordon Klingenscmitt, the disgraced former Navy Chaplain who has said in the past that gay parents don’t love their babies, they “lust” for them and has also bragged that he can “exorcise” same-sex attractions from gay people, is now running for a state House seat in Colorado. 

Right Wing Watch reports:

Complaining that the state's civil unions bill does not have a religious exemption, Klingenschmitt asked voters to "send at least one person to the state legislature who is an ordained minister," vowing that he would defend the religious liberties of Christians from the Democrats' attempt to impose a theocracy upon them. 

Klingenscmitt is running for the state's House District 15, which encompasses portions of Colorado Springs.

Watch his campaign videos, AFTER THE JUMP ...

 

 

 Towleroad

French media goes crazy over rumor that President Obama and Beyonce are having an affair

A French media firestorm has been circulating claims that Barack Obama and Beyonce are dangerously in love.

It came as Francois Hollande, France’s head of state and a well-known love cheat, arrived in America on an official state visit without his now-ex partner, Valérie Trierweiler.

Rumours of an affair between the American president and the superstar singer- both of whom are married- were first made of Europe 1 radio station this morning.

Go-to singer: President Obama is an open fan of Beyonce as well as her husband Jay Z and they have served as fundraisers for his presidential campaigns

Close: She was chosen to sing America the Beautiful at his second inauguration

They led to denials from the Washington Post, who were said to be preparing to break the incredible story.

Kristine Coratti, director of communications for the newspaper, said: ‘I can tell you that it’s false’, adding ‘The Washington Post does not produce articles’ of this kind.

But Pascal Rostain, the photographer who last month took photographs of Mr Hollande secretly visiting a Paris love nest on the back of moped and wearing a crash helmet, spoke of the alleged relationship.

He said revelations of any kind of affair between Mr Obama, 52, and Beyonce, 32, would send shockwaves around the world.

Main squeeze: Beyonce also sang the First Couple's first dance at his 2009 inauguration

Beyonce performed ‘America the Beautiful’ at Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and the pair are firm friends.

'You know, at this moment, in the United States, there’s something huge which is about to happen,’ Mr Rostain told interviewer Jean-Marc Morandini.

‘Indeed, it will come out tomorrow in the Washington Post. We cannot say that it is from the gutter press - a supposed liaison between President Barack Obama and Beyonce. I can assure you that the world will talk.’

Mr Rostain’s claims were reported by a range of respected media in France, including Le Figaro and Le Point.

Solo: The rumor comes as French President Francois Hollande arrived in America Monday for a state visit (seen here with Deputy US Chief of Protocol Natalie Jones)

Guy trip: President Obama met him at Andrews Air Force Base and the pair traveled to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house in Virginia for a tour

Mr Rostain was the first to know for sure that Mr Hollande was cheating on his first lady, Valerie Trierwelier, with the actress, Julie Gayet.

Referring to Mr Obama and his wife Michelle, Mr Rostain said: ‘For the first time, there are still images or televised ones of the Obama couple becoming a bit distant.

‘One can legitimately pose questions. We were told the same thing by the pictures of Hollande and Trierweiler.’

Questioned about the Obama-Beyonce claims later today, Mr Rostain said they were a 'joke'.

Split: Hollande's visit comes on the heels of his break up from his longtime partner Valerie Trierweiler after it was discovered that he was having an affair with a younger actress

The 20 year age gap between Mr Obama and Beyonce is almost the same as that between Mr Hollande, 59, and Ms Gayet, 41.

Mr Obama is a well-known fan of the singer, having invited her to perform at numerous occasions, including at Michelle’s 50th birthday party at the White House last month.

There have also been rumours of increasing tensions in the Obama marriage, although Beyonce’s marriage to rapper Jay Z, 44, is said to be rock solid.

In recent weeks an alleged affair between former president Bill Clinton and celebrity beauty Elizabeth Hurley turned out to be made up.

The unmarried Mr Hollande arrives in America unaccompanied after splitting up with Ms Trierweiler, although his affair with Ms Gayet is said to be ongoing back in France.