Coral Smith, former Real World housemate, comes out: “I’m definitely venturing toward my lesbian qualities. It’s been a long time coming. At that time, I was really unsure. That was not the proper venue, the proper platform. To come out to your parents on a fucking reality show, I think that’s just mean, so I didn’t.”
Stavros Niarchos: Flying solo.
Dare Odumuye, founder of Nigeria’s gay rights organization Alliance Rights Nigeria, has died at 41: “Although details of his death remain hazy, a friend confirmed that he died “after a long illness,” and Odumuye himself had noted that six members of the organisation’s board had died of AIDS between 2000 and 2002. Odumuye, the former manager of an insurance company, founded Alliance Rights on 2 July, 1999 after seeing friends, one of whom was a senior executive of a bank, sacked and harassed for being gay. In 2003, Alliance Rights Nigeria won a Breaker of Silence Award and in 2004 it was among the lesbian and gay organisations which, in a groundbreaking event for this deeply homophobic country, made the first-ever appearance at the country’s fourth national Aids conference in the capital, Abuja.”
Blotter: Suicide bomber teams sent to U.S., Europe.
Lesbian blogger Jasmyne Cannick has begun a petition to get Isaiah Washington his job back on Grey’s Anatomy, saying his firing was racist. (Petition)
It’s coming: iPhone application list.
Religious groups hoping to “reclaim” a Moscow park from gay men who use it as a meeting place, say they were beaten up: “Interfax news agency has reported that late on Saturday night five young men went to the police to report an attack on them carried out by up by eight men.”
Star Jones and hubby head out for a Hamptons birthday bash.
Michael Moore’s Sicko pirated. Shows up on YouTube, others…
Scientologist John Travolta thinks he has the answer to what’s behind Virginia Tech, Columbine, and all the other maniacal school shootings: “I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is [psychotropic] drugs at the bottom of it.”
Bush administration trying to muzzle hurricane director after he makes unfavorable comments about where the federal government’s money is going.
Artist Eve Mosher is drawing a chalk line around New York City to bring awareness to the effect global warming could have on the city: “The chalk demarcates a point 10 feet above sea level, a boundary now used by federal and state agencies and insurance companies to show where waters could rise after a major storm. Relying partly on research conducted by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, Ms. Mosher is trying to draw attention to projections that the chance of flooding up to or beyond her line could increase significantly as a result of global warming.” (video)
Hillary Clinton has chosen Celine Dion’s “You and I” as her campaign song.
British teacher who had mother-approved affair with underage male pupil is given a year in jail. Judge: “It is perfectly apparent that the boy was already a person who was attracted to you. Indeed, much that occurred was at his instigation. Sadly, though, this case is a classic example of a substantial and serious breach of trust.”
346 same-sex couples have registered partnerships in the Czech Republic since they were legalized last July.
