A “gay zombie porn” flick which shows aliens engaging in necrophilia has been pulled from Australia’s biggest film festival after being rejected by censors, organizers said Tuesday.

“L.A. Zombie”, which also features homosexual sex and full-frontal male nudity, is the first film in seven years to be banned from screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival, which starts on July 22.

Festival director Richard Moore told The Age newspaper he had received a letter from censors rejecting the film by Canadian director Bruce LaBruce.

Described by Moore as a “video art zombie film”, “L.A. Zombie” stars French porn actor Francois Sagat as a man convinced he is an alien zombie sent to Earth to roam the streets of Los Angeles in search of dead bodies and gay sex.

Australia’s film classification board said the movie had been denied an exemption from classification, not banned as Moore had claimed.

An exemption would have allowed the film to be shown at the festival, but board director Donald McDonald said he had concluded, from the film’s synopsis and the director’s previous classification history, that “L.A Zombie” was not suitable for screening.

“In the opinion of the director, the film, if classified, would be classified X18+ or RC (refused classification) and, in this circumstance, the law requires the director to refuse an exemption,” McDonald said in a statement to AFP.

Films may not be screened publicly unless they are classified, while classifications of X18+ or RC prevent a film from being shown in most public cinemas.

Moore has defended the festival’s attempt to show the film, telling public broadcaster ABC that people have a right to judge it for themselves.

“They know they’re not gonna go and see Fantasia or Bambi,” said Moore.

“L.A. Zombie” will have its world premiere next week in Locarno, Switzerland.

Last year’s festival drew protests from China and had its website hacked over the decision to show “Ten Conditions of Love”, a biopic of Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.

A now-defunct Web site that catered to gay youth is now ensnared in a federal bankruptcy proceeding that the founder says could result in as many as 1 million profiles being sold to creditors, putting its former subscribers’ privacy at risk.

XY, which billed itself as a young gay men’s magazine and could be found at XY.com, ceased publishing in 2007. Its founder filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, which could put names, addresses, e-mail addresses, unpublished personal stories, and other information about gay minors into creditors’ hands.

The Federal Trade Commission recently expressed its concerns, saying in a letter to creditors and attorneys involved in the case that “any sale, transfer, or use” of XY’s personal information “raises serious privacy issues and could violate” federal law.

XY’s creditors have hired a lawyer to obtain the personal information held by the magazine and Web site. But because XY.com’s privacy policy said that “We never give your info to anybody,” any personal data should be “destroyed,” wrote David Vladeck, the head of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, in a letter this month.

The question of who owns personal data collected by a failed company–and what should be done with it–is not exactly a new question.

A decade ago, as the dot-com bubble collapsed, failed companies scrambled to sell assets to appease creditors. In 2000, Boo.com sold its customer list to Fashionmall.com. The same year, Toysmart.com, majority-owned by the Walt Disney Co., tried to follow suit, but abandoned its plans following pressure from state attorneys general.

But none of those bankruptcy proceedings included information as sensitive as the customer list for a magazine and Web site that targeted gay youth between 13 and 17 years old who were in the process of grappling with their sexual identity.

(more a cnet)

(Ed note: Man, I miss XY Magazine. I still have dozens of copies. It never was on time and it really did just crash and burn, but man was it so satisfying to have that flying the faces of all those fuckers who try to put you down as a gay kid. I highly recommend finding some via the internets.)

One man and five minors were arrested in Piedmont Park on Friday night after an assault and robbery of a gay couple, according to an Atlanta police report.

At approximately 10 p.m., Jarvis Johnson, 19, and five other males ranging in age from 13 to 17 approached two men having a picnic in Piedmont Park, asked if they were gay and then threatened them, the report states. The suspects then began to attack each individual separately.

“We were just finishing up dinner and playing cards when they came up to us and asked if we were gay,” Joshua Noblitt, 32, told the AJC on Tuesday. “It wasn’t very organized. I don’t know if they thought gay men in the park would be an easy target based on stereotypes and stuff, or what.”

Noblitt said one of the suspects used a large stick to assault him, which he grabbed away from him and turned on his assailant.

The report states that Noblitt and his boyfriend, Trent Williams, 25, “began to get the best of the suspects,” and Johnson used his cellphone to call for help from friends.

(more at AJC.com)

It’s July! JULY! You know, that month that brings America independence, fireworks, BBQ, and afternoon and evening thunderstorms. It also means we’re about 6 weeks away from BP possibly finally maybe probably not cutting off their massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurrah! Wait, whut?

The summertime song is allegedly destined to be “California Gurls” by Katy Perry featuring Ludacris. But you know, I’m more particular to Kat DeLuna’s “Push, Push” (featuring Akon, cause you know everything features someone.) And then there is that patently silly “Pretty Boy Swag” by Soulja Boy. Wait, he’s a pretty boy? Oh… wait.. no… he says “no homo” in the song. Psha! Like us respectful fags would accept you, assclown.

On to more important news: The economy seems to still blow for most, but thankfully my local economy is really picking up some steam. I’m trying very hard to adjust and make sure I’m putting some away now that I’m not spending so much on things like car payments and full coverage insurance. I could use some health care, god knows. And I don’t mean the kind that comes in a cocktail glass.

Pride Weekend is once again moving in Atlanta. We didn’t have it in June -again- which blows donkey balls. Last year, it was on Halloween which apparently worked out really well. I just went to the parade which was cold but nice as always. The Latinos looked like they were celebrating the hardest. The rest of us should look to that and be reminded what it’s like to have some real fire in our pride. This year Atlanta Gay Pride is on my birthday weekend, October 9th.

But before that happens, I gotta do the Alchemy thing with Kaze up in the North Georgia Mountain. It’s kind of like Burning Man, but on a smaller scale.

Also coming up is another fine edition of DragonCon. It’s Labor Day Weeekend, always, always, always. Maybe you should come and join me. It’s a lot of fun, the most accessible geek celebrities, and will make you rethink that whole “nerds don’t get laid” stuff.

Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about Magic: The Gathering again suddenly. I bought a terrible terrible version of it on Steam the other day called Duels of the Planeswalkers. It’s also on XBOX. It’s horrid. Don’t buy it. It was a waste of money to be sure. You can’t even build your own deck? WHAT? Magic: Online is cheaper and certainly is making me think about it a bit. There’s also a new Core set coming out in two weeks. Is this something I could get into again? If it’s still played, maybe I could even make some new friends. I’d chalk this nostalgia up to the fact that I’m 31 (almost 32), but that would imply that I’ve grown up in the meantime, which we all fucking know is not true.

Anyway, that’s the update for now. Don’t forget to buy some books.

1. World Cup.  Alright, everyone’s got their vuvuzula stuff out of their system by now right?  I mean, this thing has been underway for a while and the competition is heating up.  There are bad ref calls and whatever.  What I just learned is that the United States wants to host the Cup in the future.  Why?  While the US Team is doing fine and dandy, people don’t really care.  They may pretend to care just like they pretend to like classic films like Casablanca when they haven’t ever really seen it.  I’m more than okay letting the world enjoy their World Cup without America feeling like she has to get all into it.

2. Oil Spill. OMFG, is that shit still going on? You know, when I made my first Facebook post about that, it was already two weeks old. Now it’s more than two MONTHS old. Beaches are getting trashed, lives are being devastated, and it’s become quite the nightmare environmental scenario. Worse, the relief wells are still not due to be complete for over another month and you know, I am not all that confident that’ll fix things either. This situation cannot be minimized. It really is THE most important thing in America right now. It practically screams what’s wrong with our government, our industry, and our energy policy what with all the corruption and inaction across the board.

3. Afghan War. A big time general got kicked out because he said lots of negative things about those in charge in an article published in Rolling Stone. First, Rolling Stone still exists? Secondly, I want to know why we’re still in Afghanistan. It ain’t to fight Al Qeada like was originally planned. They’ve moved on to Pakistan. Is it to fight the Taliban? Is it to fight people that only fight us because we’re there fighting them fighting us? I thought I elected Obama to get us out of these wars. Wait, that brings me to…

4. President Obama. He hasn’t closed down Gitmo. He hasn’t brought home our troops. He hasn’t really done a very good job at bringing our economy back. He kept many of the Bush era policies of warrant-less wiretapping and secret prisons. He’s half-assed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He’s half-assed nominated liberalish people to the Supreme Court. I’m going to say what many of my liberal friends won’t… he’s not been an effective leader. Yes, I know it’s only been such and such many months. Yes, I know he inherited many problems. But he’s had plenty of time to suck on his own. He completely has bungled the Oil Spill. He continues to not be a good leader in economic policies that reform the way things are done. Handing out cash isn’t a solution. His one big win of Health Care isn’t even really that impressive considering it lacks a Public Option and the implementation of the effects are all way diluted with time. He has squandered a majority in the house and senate and now with mid-term elections looming, under his leadership or lack thereof, there are overwhelming predictions that Republicans (and even more terrifying Tea Party members) are going to be roaring back. Son, I am disappoint.

5. “Later, Skater: On Tour!” Buy your copy for summer reading today. Sales haven’t been great, which is confusing me. I mean, I sold and gave away lots and lots of copies of the original “Later, Skater” The sequel is bigger and better and downloadable for instant gratification for only 5 dollars. FIVE DOLLARS! Get it today to help keep me encouraged about my writing.

A teenager talks to his boyfriend on the phone, but hangs up when his dad (who doesn’t know he’s gay) returns to the table. His dad laments that the kid is in an all-male school, saying he’d get lucky if there were girls in the class. The kid smiles knowingly. The tag line is “venez comme vous etes”, which means “come as you are”.

I didn’t hit on this story right away because I really didn’t give a flying fuck that another douche bag who hates us was caught with his pants down and a rentboy. This particular douche bag is special I suppose since he’s the co-founder of the insipid Family Research Council and one of the leading advocates for the same kinds of ex-gay camps that is the subject matter of my novel “Later, Skater.”

But I got a few links here in case you are interested.

Gawker
Miami New Times
more at Miami New Times
Joe My God
Unzipped

Now you can just bathe in the sea of something that’s far beyond hypocrisy.

Fans of my novel Later, Skater who aren’t necessarily fans of the television show House should catch the May 3rd episode. (Season 6, Episode 19) The patient he treats makes mention of an ex-gay camp perhaps similar to New Horizons for Daily Living. The subject continues to run through the course of the problem solving medical comedy-drama, and touches on the concepts of sexuality and choice. When I did my research, I didn’t find any places doing anything medically to any of the people admitted to one of those type camps, but it’s additionally terrifying to think that some do things like experiment with hormone or other chemical compound therapy.

Whether under the guise of Freedom of Religion or not, such facilities really ought to be looked into. And in the case of those being placed there under the age of where they can legally consent themselves, it shouldn’t be seen as anything other than abuse.

Later, Skater and it’s sequel Later, Skater: On tour are both available at lulu.com.
House airs on FOX on Monday nights and is available at hulu.com.
To learn about all things ballet, that is available at tutu.com.

COCHRAN — Derrick Martin had a question he couldn’t answer, so he did what any 18-year-old would. Fingers tapping, he logged on to his computer last December and Googled the following words, which changed his life:

“I’m gay. Can I go to the prom?”

He can, and will. But those eight little words have done more than ensure the high school senior can take a same-sex date to Bleckley High School’s prom next month.

Seeking that answer has thrust him to the forefront of a national discussion. It’s touched off heated discussions in beauty salons and restaurants here and elsewhere, and made this small middle Georgia town a focal point in the debate over gay rights. Some applaud him for bravery. Others say his soul’s in peril.

All he really wanted, he says, was a night to remember.

“I didn’t anticipate this,” Derrick said earlier this week, a few days after news got out that he would bring his boyfriend, a young man from Tift County, to his prom. “I thought this might run on the second page of the paper.”

Instead, he’s Derrick Martin, sudden celebrity. As he sat on a bench underneath a bare oak tree outside a Bleckley school building, a Ford pickup, kids hanging out of its cab, zipped by. Derrick! Derrick! young voices belled.

A Honda sped past. It sprouted arms from every window. Hey, Derrick!

Derrick sighed. “If I could have just brought him without asking, I would have done that.”

‘You better sit down’

Derrick Martin is young enough that his facial hair is still spotty; like the rest of him, it’s not done growing. His 160 pounds are stretched across a frame nudging 6-foot-3. He is as long and narrow as a church pew, and only slightly more comfortable discussing all that’s happened since his Google query.

As he searched Web sites, Derrick came across the legal defense site for the national gay-rights organization Lambda. A representative of the group told him that if a school system didn’t have rules forbidding same-sex dates, then Derrick likely could bring his boyfriend.

“They did warn me that the school system could cancel the prom,” he said.

That wasn’t just conjecture. School officials in Itawamba County, Miss., canceled a prom recently after 18-year-old Constance McMillen said she wanted to bring a girl to her school’s April 2 dance. The American Civil Liberties Union, claiming the school board violated her right to free expression, has demanded that McMillen be allowed to attend.

Nothing like that occurred in January, when Derrick requested a meeting with Bleckley High Principal Michelle Masters. Because his date isn’t a Bleckley student, school rules required Derrick to fill out a form identifying him. He decided to check with Masters first.

“You better sit down,” he began.

Masters took the request to the Bleckley County Board of Education. When the board next met, it also discussed another Martin — Derrick’s father, Ray, a math teacher at the high school. Board members named him Bleckley’s teacher of the year.

Then they turned to his son. In early March, the board announced that Derrick could bring his boyfriend to the prom. School Superintendent Charlotte Pipkin, who declined comment, earlier this week released a two-paragraph statement.

The board decision, the statement said in part, “is not an endorsement of any particular practice or life style, but rather recognition of the legal environment in which public schools operate today.”

Bleckley High School, home of the Royals, would hold its prom April 17, as originally planned. The junior class would plan it, as well as decorate the school gym. This is a BHS tradition.

But tradition, people soon learned, was about to get a test.

A town debates

Cochran, about two hours south of Atlanta, is a confluence of U.S. and state roads that come together for a few blocks before fanning out again across rolling land that yields peanuts and cotton. A museum near the police department is dedicated to those agricultural staples.

About 5,200 people live here. Wednesdays at noon, much of downtown adheres to a practice that has just about gone the way of the mule. Stores close. People head to the municipal golf course, visit Macon to shop, or catch up on the latest events.

A lot of catching up these days focuses on Derrick’s decision, and how it reflects change — not just in Cochran, either.

Barbara Anderson’s shears snipped quickly, as if they were as indignant as she.

“I think they [the school board] ought to do like that other state and cancel the prom,” said Anderson, who owns a styling salon here. “They won’t allow us to have God in school, but they’ll allow this?”

Across the street, waitress Victoria Cagle took a break after the lunch rush. She is a 2009 Bleckley grad who hopes to attend nearby Middle Georgia College and teach high school biology.

“I think what they [the board] did was the right thing,” said Cagle, 19. “I think what he’s doing is awesome.”

Merchant Jason Ledbetter isn’t so sure.

“It bothers me,” said Ledbetter, 47, part-owner of a downtown music store. “By him doing that, it shows we accept it.”

Business partner Kenny Laney wasn’t as ruffled as Ledbetter. “It’s like an inter-racial couple,” said Laney, 54. “I thought we would have gotten over that by now, and gotten over this, too.”

The boys may face a divine reckoning, said resident Faye Ortiz. “What they do is up to them,” said Ortiz, 45, who recently moved back to central Georgia from Texas. “They’ve got to answer to God.”

Dealing with fallout

Opinions aside, Derrick’s action has come at a cost. He’s no longer living at home. Staying there, he said, became intolerable as news spread that he was taking his boyfriend to the prom. For now he’s staying with a friend, the girl he escorted to last year’s prom.

“She’s my best friend,” he said.

He also has friends who are gay, Derrick said. He expected some of them to stand with him when he took his request to school officials.

“I thought I would have had a little bit of backup,” he said, disappointment creeping in his voice. “But it’s just me.”

His boyfriend, who’s also 18 and a school senior, has not made any public comments. Derrick’s parents are remaining silent, too.

So Derrick talks. He talks about school. Kids there have known he is gay for a while. Most of them, he thinks, are on his side.

He talks about work. He is an after-school tutor for elementary and middle school kids at risk of not passing state tests.

He talks about the future. He’s planning to attend Georgia Southern University, which he said has given him a scholarship in recognition of his 92.5 average. He wants to go to law school, maybe someday become the state or U.S. attorney general. “That would just be so awesome.”

He also thinks about what has happened these past few months.

“I only wanted to be honest,” he said. Now, he feels an obligation. If he has to be the face of gay rights, OK.

A big lesson to learn from eight little words.

Not only do we have the kissy-kissy picture I posted yesterday causing the stir, you can add to that the following.

Prom in Mississippi school called off when it was found out a lesbian was going to bring her girlfriend.

Virginia politicians first undo then kind of half-assedly redo protections against gay discrimination.

Florida legislators are pondering using tax breaks as a way to mold family-values, making sure to try and exclude gay stuff.

And of course, homophobia abounds in the fall out over the Eric Massa shit.

That’s just a couple days worth of news that I uncovered during my regular looking over things on the interbutts. I didn’t even include things that are happening in other parts of the world.

So what’s the deal? Is it because we got pussy-acting Democrats in control over both houses of Congress and the Presidency that now the other side is all revved up and ready to trample over basic human rights? Because, let me tell you something, if the Bush Years made everyone so goth damned depressed… I have to suggest that maybe we homos should feel even more goth damned depressed now.

Powerful photographs can have lasting impact, and a Post photo of two men kissing is an image that many readers can neither forget nor accept.

The photo, which ran on the Washington Post’s newspaper’s front page and online last week, captured Jeremy Ames and Taka Ariga kissing outside D.C. Superior Court on the day that the District began accepting license applications for same-sex marriages.

Almost immediately, editors began hearing from upset readers. That’s normal when controversial photos appear in The Post. The same thing happened recently when The Post published disturbing images of Haiti earthquake victims. Typically, the complaints quickly subside. With last Thursday’s photo, they continued into Friday, through the weekend and even today. Early this morning, before D.C. Superior Court began issuing licenses to same-sex couples who had applied, a caller phoned to warn that he would cancel his Post subscription “if I see another photo of men lip-locking.”

A few of the readers have engaged in rants, often with anti-gay slurs. One called me to complain about “promoting a faggot lifestyle.” Another complained about the photo in an e-mail to the two Post reporters who wrote Thursday’s story about the licenses: “That kind of stuff makes normal people want to throw up. People have kids who are being exposed to this crap. I will be glad when your rag goes out of business. Real men marry women.”

But most simply said The Post had offended their sensibilities by publishing the photo, especially on the front page.

Ann Witty of Woodbridge wrote to say she had canceled the Post subscription she has held since the 1960s.

“I am 65 years old and I realize that the world is changing rapidly – much more rapidly than I would like it to,” she e-mailed. “While I realize that the Post must report on these changes – even the ones with which I do not agree – I feel that the picture on Thursday morning was an affront to the majority of your readership. It is not something that I want coming into my home. I believe that even your editors know that it would have been better placed in the Metro section and that it would have mitigated its impact to do so.”

Wrote Lee Miller of Columbia: “I would appreciate it if your cover pictures would not be so disturbing where my kids can see it easily on the kitchen table… please don’t shove this “Gay” business in our face. This is something that should have shown up on an inside page or two (without the picture).”

In comments to the ombudsman’s call-in line (202.334.7582), one reader said, “the picture of two guys kissing makes me cringe.” Another called it “ridiculous,” adding: “Put it on page 10 or page four, put it in the paper, but I do not like it right there where I can’t avoid looking at it.”

Many threatened to cancel their Post subscriptions, and more than two dozen did. Post circulation vice president Gregg Fernandes said that late last week 27 subscribers canceled, specifically citing the photo. In contrast, The Post reported only two cancellations immediately after last July’s ethics uproar over its ill-advised plan to sell sponsorships to off-the-record “salon” dinners at the publisher’s residence.

Did the Post go too far? Of course not. The photo deserved to be in newspaper and on its Web site, and it warranted front-page display.

News photos capture reality. And the prominent display reflects the historic significance of what was occurring. The recent D.C. Council decision to approve same-sex marriage was the culmination of a decades-long gay rights fight for equality. Same-sex marriage is now legal in the District. The photo of Ames and Ariga kissing simply showed joy that would be exhibited by any couple planning to wed – especially a couple who previously had been denied the legal right to marry.

There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites. Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change.

Gayer than Bloomington, Ind., and Iowa City, Iowa?

Yes. According to The Advocate magazine, Atlanta rates as the nation’s gayest city, followed by Burlington, Vt., Iowa City, Bloomington and Madison, Wis. Don’t bother looking for San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles — those alleged gay meccas don’t even place in the Top 15 in the rankings compiled by the nation’s oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publication.

Though their research was admittedly unscientific, it’s not without merit. Correspondent Mike Albo awarded points based on same-sex households per capita, statewide marriage equality, gay elected officials, gay dating and “hookup” profiles per single male population, gay bars per capita, cruising spots per capita, and gay films in Netflix favorites.

“I buy that,” said Joe Pennington, 23, a barista at Outwrite Bookstore in Midtown. “Odds are 50 percent that if you’re gay and lesbian, you’ll eventually end up in Atlanta.”

While Georgia has only a few gay elected officials and no laws endorsing same-sex marriage, social and cultural metrics vaulted Atlanta to the top of the Advocate’s list.

“Atlanta is undoubtedly our gayest city — with 29 gay bars here, there’s a reason it’s dubbed Hotlanta,” Albo wrote. “Atlanta guys are hunky, the ladies are gracious, the gay sports leagues are seriously well organized, and its housewives (and their gay BFFs, complete with handbags and heels) are now camp icons. And who doesn’t love the sweet lilt of a Georgia accent on a knockout guy or gal?”

Pennington, who moved from Cincinnati six months ago, said the contrast between his adopted home and his birthplace is stark.

“I love Cincinnati, but for gay people, there’s no comparison,” he said.

Albo said the study reflects the mainstreaming of gay people into contemporary American life, noting that Iowa City, Austin, Texas; and Asheville, N.C., have more gays per capita than the major metropolises.

Mexico City lawmakers on Monday made the city the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, a change that will give homosexual couples more rights, including allowing them to adopt children.

The bill passed the capital’s local assembly 39-20 to the cheers of supporters who yelled: “Yes, we could! Yes, we could!”

Leftist Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of the Democratic Revolution Party was widely expected to sign the measure into law.

Mexico City’s left-led assembly has made several decisions unpopular elsewhere in this deeply Roman Catholic country, including legalizing abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. That decision sparked a backlash, with the majority of Mexico’s other 32 states enacting legislation declaring life begins at conception.

The conservative Nation Action Party of President Felipe Calderon has vowed to challenge the gay marriage law in the courts. However, homosexuality is increasingly accepted in Mexico, with gay couples openly holding hands in parts of the capital and the annual gay pride parade drawing tens of thousands.

The bill calls for changing the definition of marriage in the city’s civil code. Marriage is currently defined as the union of a man and a woman. The new definition will be “the free uniting of two people.”

The change would allow same-sex couples to adopt children, apply for bank loans together, inherit wealth and be included in the insurance policies of their spouse, rights they were denied under civil unions allowed in the city.

“We are so happy,” said Temistocles Villanueva, a 23-year-old film student who celebrated by passionately kissing his boyfriend outside the city’s assembly.

Only seven countries allow gay marriages: Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. U.S. states that permit same-sex marriage are Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

Argentina’s capital became the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex civil unions in 2002 for gay and lesbian couples. Four other Argentine cities later did the same, and as did Mexico City in 2007 and some Mexican and Brazilian states. Uruguay alone has legalized civil unions nationwide.

Buenos Aires lawmakers introduced a bill for legalizing gay marriage in the national Congress in October but it has stalled without a vote, and officials in the South American city have blocked same-sex wedding because of conflicting judicial rulings.

Many people in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America remain opposed to gay marriage, and the dominant Roman Catholic Church has announced its opposition.

“They have given Mexicans the most bitter Christmas,” said Armando Martinez, the president of the College of Catholic Attorneys. “They are permitting adoption (by gay couples) and in one stroke of the pen have erased the term ‘mother’ and ‘father.’”

City lawmaker Victor Romo, a member of the mayor’s leftist party, called it a historic day.

“For centuries unjust laws banned marriage between blacks and whites or Indians and Europeans,” he said. “Today all barriers have disappeared.”

(Ed note: America slips further behind the rest of the advanced world.)

When Netflix released a trove of “anonymized” information about consumers as part of a contest for a better recommendation tool, it only took a few weeks for researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to show how easily the data could be de-anonymized.

“An adversary who knows only a little bit about an individual subscriber can easily identify this subscriber’s record in the dataset,” they wrote.

If Netflix was chagrined by this development, you’d never know it. Not only did the company continue with the contest, but proudly declared it intends to hold a second one — for which it will release even more information than last time. For the new contest, Netflix will make available customers’ gender, ages, ZIP codes and previously rented movies in hopes of gleaning insight into users’ tastes.

Stunned privacy experts wasted no time bashing the plan. University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm implored Netflix to reverse course. “Researchers have known for more than a decade that gender plus ZIP code plus birthdate uniquely identifies a significant percentage of Americans,” Ohm wrote. Even without birthdates, he said, interested researchers will be able to figure out many people’s identities.

Attorney Jay Edelson predicted that Netflix would face a class-action lawsuit if it went through with its plans.

As it turns out, Edelson’s law firm, KamberEdelson, along with Joseph Malley of Dallas and other lawyers, decided not to wait for Netflix to start the contest. This week, they filed suit on behalf of four Netflix consumers, arguing that releasing the information would violate the federal Video Protection Privacy Act — a 21-year-old law, passed after a newspaper obtained the movie rental records of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork — that bans movie rental stores from revealing personally identifiable information about consumers.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in San Jose, Calif., seeks damages on behalf of people whose information was released by Netflix in the past.

The consumers also seek an order prohibiting Netflix from making any information available about their video records. One of the four, who sued under the pseudonym Jane Doe, alleges that she is a closeted lesbian who would be harmed if people figured out that she had rented a number of “gay-themed” movies from Netflix. “Plaintiff Doe does not want her movie selection or rating transactions to be included in any public disclosure of data for purposes such as the Netflix contest, regardless of any attempts by Netflix to anonymize or perturb the data,” the lawsuit alleges.

A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

A publication aimed at filling the void left by Southern Voice has decided on a name that might ring a bell.

GA Voice (pronounce it as you wish, its creators say) is set to debut early next year both online and in print. Gavoice.com will take over its web domain next week, providing updates on the official launch while posting occasional news items.

“We’ve pretty much got the money for the pre-launch expenses,” said Chris Cash, founder of Southern Voice and publisher of the soon-to-debut GA Voice. “We’re in the process now of forming our core team.”

Cash expects GA Voice to debut sometime in early 2010. “You’ll probably see us online before you see the print version,” she said. Former SoVo editor Laura Douglas-Brown has been working with Cash to get GA Voice up and running.

Last week the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation gave the duo $12,000 in matching funds for the new news outlet. Cash said they’re still seeking donations at www.savesovo.com.

Window Media LLC closed SoVo and a handful of other gay publications last month after years of struggling financially. Windows was forced into receivership earlier this year by the Small Business Administration.

Remember just a week ago I complained about the uproar over the American Music Awards gay kiss. I said we need more than just Adam Lambert macking on some hottie. We need to push it every way we can.

Well, take The Sims homosexuality embrace and bump it up a few notches.

Too bad it’ll probably get pulled from shelves and shit due to the goddamn ratings board and such.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert on Wednesday admitted he got carried away during his racy American Music Awards performance, as furor over his singing and dancing stoked a wider controversy in the U.S. gay community.

More than 14 million people watched the gay, glam rocker close the live AMA telecast on Sunday with a performance that included Lambert kissing a male keyboard player and pushing the head of another performer into his crotch.

Complaints poured in to the ABC TV network that aired the show, and it canceled the Lambert’s appearance on its “Good Morning America” news and chat show set for Wednesday.

Yet rival network CBS put him on its “The Early Show” program, where Lambert claimed he had not intended to provoke audiences but declined to apologize, saying: “I’m not a baby-sitter. I’m a performer.”

“I admit I did get carried away, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. I do see how people got offended, and that was not my intention,” he said.

“If it had been a female pop performer doing the moves that were on the stage, I don’t think there’d be nearly as much of an outrage at all,” Lambert added. “I think it’s because I’m a gay male.”

The “Early Show” also ran video footage that blurred Lambert’s male kiss, and doing so caused the network its own problem. Gay rights groups accused CBS of hypocrisy by also playing unedited video of a kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears at 2003′s MTV Video Music Awards.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said the CBS decision “reinforces an unfortunate double standard that is applied to openly gay performers.”

CBS said it had thought hard about the issue. “The Madonna image is very familiar and has appeared countless times including many times on morning television. The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated, and for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences,” a CBS News spokesperson said.

The broadcast of material deemed obscene or indecent can leave U.S. TV networks open to fines.

Some members of the gay community also scorned Lambert.

Jennifer Vanasco, editor in chief of website 365gay.com, said his performance hurt the cause of gay marriage in the eyes of mainstream Americans “who think gay life is exactly what (he) portrayed on the American Music Awards.”

Lambert, 27, took a flair for showmanship, powerful vocals and sexual ambivalence all the way to the finals of top-rated U.S. TV show “American Idol” in May.

But his weekend performance at the AMAs has drawn mixed results. ABC received more than 1,500 complaints, but sales of Lambert’s debut album “For Your Entertainment” are strong.

Released on Monday through Sony Music Entertainment, “For Your Entertainment” was No. 3 on the iTunes U.S. album chart by Wednesday night. Music industry sources told Billboard magazine it is outperforming expectations and could sell about 225,000 units in its first week.

(Ed note: Okay, first off, REALLY? Are we still going on about this? I know it’s only been a few days, but don’t you have a major holiday to be thinking about America.

We don’t need less Adam Lambert making out with other guys. If anything we need more. We need A LOT more.)

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the city of Atlanta on behalf of 19 patrons searched and detained during the Sept. 10 raid of the Atlanta Eagle gay bar.

Police Chief Richard Pennington and 48 of his officers, including members of the department’s Red Dog unit, also are named in the civil rights suit, which claims violations of federal and state law.

“The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD,” said Greg Nevins, an attorney in the Atlanta office of Lambda Legal, which is representing the plaintiffs.

According to police records, undercover vice officers had been to the Ponce de Leon nightclub and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched. The department also received complaints alleging drug sales on the premises.

No charges were filed against any of the 62 patrons forced to lie down on the bar floor during the raid, though eight Eagle employees were arrested for permit violations. Pennington said the patrons were “frisked” for the officers’ safety. No search warrant was served.

“My first thought was, ‘we’re getting robbed,’” said one of the plaintiffs, Geoffrey Calhoun, who works as a local 911 dispatcher. He described feeling “dehumanized and humiliated” by the officers conducting the raid. “It needs to stop here. Silence is no longer an option.”

Last month at a community forum, Deputy Chief Carlos Banda defended the use of the Red Dog unit, which is known for its aggressive tactics.

“The procedures are very strict and they go bam, bam, bam by the numbers,” Banda told the forum, organized by Atlantans Together Against Crime. “Sometimes the tactics are a little more aggressive than we would see on regular patrol because of the enforcement problems we are given.”

Attorney Dan Grossman, a co-counsel in the lawsuit, said Tuesday that policy contradicts constitutional law regarding probable cause.

“Police didn’t care whether they were suspected of a crime or not,” he said. “I couldn’t believe police officers would have such a callous disregard for people’s human rights.”

Grossman said the suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, also aims to change police procedure.

“It’s unfortunate we need a federal judge to make our police department follow the law,” he said. “Since [police] don’t think they did something wrong they’re going to do it again.”

Acting city attorney Roger Bhandari said he would reserve comment pending review of the complaint.

NEW YORK — Complaints poured in Monday about Adam Lambert’s sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards, including criticism of his kiss with a male keyboard player that was left out of rehearsals for the show.

ABC did not expect one of Lambert’s dancers to stick his face in the singer’s crotch during the S&M-themed performance of “For Your Entertainment,” a moment that was cut out when the awards show was broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on the West Coast on Sunday.

During a rehearsal last week that an AP reporter attended, Lambert thrust a male dancer’s face toward his crotch, though the dancer did not get as close to Lambert in the rehearsal as he did on Sunday night. At one point during rehearsals, Lambert also caressed a male dancer’s upside-down face, but he kept his hands off the dancer’s cheeks Sunday night.

“A lot of what I do is kind of freestyle,” the singer told The Associated Press last week about the routine’s choreography. “That’s how it was on ‘Idol.’ That’s how I perform. I like to have a framework, and just do stuff. So that kind of came about because of the connection that I had with that dancer.”

Both hostile and supportive comments were posted online about the “American Idol” glam rocker’s performance. While prowling an elaborate set during the number, Lambert also fondled one dancer and briefly led two dancers around on a leash. It followed the song’s lyrical theme in which the singer warned, “It’s about to get rough for you.”

“For Your Entertainment” is the first single from Lambert’s new album, which went on sale Monday.

Lambert’s kiss recalled the MTV Video Music Awards moment in 2003 when Madonna and Britney Spears briefly locked lips. Lambert, who’s openly gay, had even talked before going onstage about pushing the envelope on how provocative male performers could be.

He later told CNN that his kiss was “in the moment” and that if people were upset about it, “That’s a form of discrimination and it’s too bad.”

ABC said more than 1,500 people complained, what it termed a “moderate” response, and the Parents Television Council also said it had heard from upset members.

“They’re outraged,” said Timothy Winters, president of the Parents Television Council. “They just can’t believe the nature of the content, the explicit nature, and how much graphic content there was.”

Winter said it seemed artists who appear on music awards shows are constantly competing to push the envelope.

“These programs are wholly unsuitable for children now and it’s pathetic, given the amount of economic support that children and teenagers bring to the industry today,” he said.

Lambert’s performance was a subject for the “hot topics” segment of ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” on Monday, but apparently too hot: Barbara Walters said it was too racy to be shown on daytime TV.

ABC spokeswoman Hope Hartman and Lynda Dorf, a representative of Dick Clark Productions, which put on the show, did not comment on how producers and network executives felt about the performance. Dorf noted that Lambert had not kissed any of his fellow performers during rehearsals of the song.

The performance was a hot topic online, too. Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker praised Lambert for being “an event unto himself.”

“As a TV viewer, I thought Lambert’s performance was a gas, a delight, a blast of brash vulgarity in the midst of merely ordinary vulgarity,” Tucker wrote.

A Boston Globe television critic called the performance “pretty harmless.

“It’s all posing and mugging and selling, not real honest provocation,” Matthew Gilbert wrote on a Globe blog.

Lambert said later, “I had fun, my dancers had fun, the audience that was in the Nokia (Theatre) had fun. Anybody else who was watching it and enjoying it, thank you for being entertained.”

In an interview a few days before the performance, Lambert had talked about trying to make a statement with it.

“There are a lot of double standards as far as that goes,” the singer told the AP. “We’ve seen female pop and rock performers do that for the last 10 years. They’ve been very provocative, owning their power and sexuality. You just don’t see men doing it very often. And I’m hoping to break down that double standard with this number.”

(Ed note: *rolls eyes* I can’t believe I even had to post this. God, America sucks. I wonder, dare I say it, that in a lot of ways we’ve LOST ground in the last 10 years rather than gained it?)

With a simple three-sentence notice taped to the door, the publishers of Southern Voice and David magazine ended two decades of gay media in Atlanta on Monday.

The publications, owned along with several others by Window Media and Unite Media, abruptly closed their doors overnight Sunday, ending a months-long battle with federal receivership that imperiled the gay media company.

Laura Douglas-Brown, the paper’s editor since 2006 and an employee for nearly 13 years, says the closings are a significant loss for her personally and for metro Atlanta’s LGBT population.

“Of course, I’m personally reeling as is all of the staff,” Douglas-Brown said Monday morning. “What is the most tragic and breaking my heart the most is that this publication that so many people for the last 20 years have put in so much hard work and has received so much support from the community, that it has reached this point.”

Douglas-Brown joined a handful of the company’s nearly two-dozen employees at the offices off Briarcliff Road on Monday. Some employees of the company were told of the closure through a text message from a co-worker about 1 a.m. Monday. Others discovered the news through a three-sentence note taped to the front door of the Atlanta office from Myers and longtime Window executive Mike Kitchens.

It is with GREAT regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media, LLC and Unite Media, LLC have closed down.

Please return to this office on WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2009 at 11:00 AM to collect personal belongings and to receive information on your separation stipulations. Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time.

Regretfully,
Steve Myers
Mike Kitchens

The websites to Southern Voice and David, which were online early Monday, were shut down by 8:30 a.m. Visitors to the sites received an “unexpected error” message.

Later Monday, Myers confirmed that the five publications, their websites and the web-only Houston Voice, were closed.

“It is a sad, sad day for Window Media and the gay community. Three major newspaper voices are being quieted now for a period of time, along with David and 411,” Myers said. “Right now, it is out of our hands. I would hope something would continue to go on, but I can’t say for certain. It’s been taken our of hands.”

Myers declined further comment about the company’s financial picture and what contributed to its collapse over the weekend.

“We knew about the receivership, obviously, but we had always been led that the way this would end is with the company being sold. I had no inkling and certainly no sign. We were working on Friday night and we were working on Saturday. We just came off of a tremendous Pride. No one knew or thought that this would happen today. Of course people are reeling, but I trust that Steve and Mike did everything in their power to keep it from coming to this point,” Douglas-Brown said.

Southern Voice opened in 1988 and was acquired by Window Media a decade later. David first published in 1998 and was acquired by Window in 2004. The company also owns the storied Washington Blade, Houston Voice, South Florida Blade and 411 Magazine.

“The thought of them not being around is very sad,” says Ryan Lee, editor of David and senior reporter for Southern Voice. “I’m incredibly appreciative of being part of both Southern Voice and David and truly believed that we offered an affirmation of gay life in Atlanta and won’t be able to do that anymore.”

Lee was told by a co-worker about 6 a.m. Monday and joined former staffers at the office so they wouldn’t arrive to see the sign posted in the window and with the locks changed. Lee, like Douglas-Brown, has worked for the company his entire professional career. He started at Southern Voice as an intern after graduating from Auburn University.

“It is more surprising than it would have been earlier in the year. Shortly after I became editor [in January 2009], right around that time, the financial struggles had started pressing down and it was a big concern. During the summer, things seemed to turn around – ad pages were up, paychecks were going back to a consistent schedule. So it makes it a little more surprising,” Lee said.

John Nail, the longtime production manager for Southern Voice and David, said he realized the publications might one day close, but held out hope they would continue publishing through this year.

“I have been kind of steeling myself up for this day,” Nail said Monday. “But I thought we could hold out until next year. Things appeared to have been turning around. Ad sales were picking up a little bit. Our Pride issue was down from previous years, but it was better than I expected. That we just get this bomb dropped – there was no inclination this was coming up. Other media have been writing Window Media’s obituary for over a year and we held out longer than anyone predicted.”

Nail worked for the company twice for a total of nearly seven years. But as a graphics artist, he faces both the loss of a job and a profession in an industry that continues to change and downsize.

“It’s not just losing this particular job, but sort of feeling as if I’ve lost my entire livelihood as far as my career choice. It’s not like I can just go to another paper. I’m having to consider a completely new line of work in my 40s,” Nail said.

Nail said he and other co-workers, despite their bracing for the possible shutdown of the company, were surprised to learn of it through a note taped to the office door and media reports.

“I thought we would get some warning that things are breaking down. I am disappointed in the fact that we didn’t get a personal notice, a phone call,” Nail said. “For so many people that worked there, it was more than just a job. It was a calling. We were the gay voice of Atlanta. To just see that disappear—as much as I have been mentally preparing for it for many months, now the day has arrived. Like any death, I am going through all of the various stages. I think I’m alternating between shock, grieving and anger.”

The company struggled with paying freelancers and those financial difficulties later impacted its fulltime employees. Earlier this year, paychecks were often delayed a week or more and payments were staggered among employees, Lee said.

The publications suffered from a steep decline in advertising that impacted the newspaper industry as well as the fallout from a federal receivership. The company lost its CEO in early July among speculation he was forced out by the Small Business Administration.

In April, the paper’s publisher left after a few months on the job in a revolving door that had brought four publishers in about two years. The executive that hired that publisher in 2008 later quit the company, too, but only after folding its national gay glossy Genre.

News broke in February that the company had been in federal receivership since August 2008. The New York-based investment company that owned a majority stake in the publishers of all five gay publications, Avalon Equity Fund, was sued by the SBA, which had the option of selling the media assets as it dissolved the company.

Southern Voice and David join other casualties among Atlanta’s LGBT media offerings. Labrys, a five-year-old Atlanta-based publication for lesbians, ended its monthly print edition earlier this year and shifted to a redesigned website.

“The two company presidents, Steve and Mike, I don’t begrudge them at all in this situation. I know it was a difficult choice for them. I know they did everything humanly possible to keep those operations up. They inherited a situation that was beyond repair,” Lee said.

14 Year Olds are the most dangerous Sex Offenders in America?

It’s a very strong and sadness inducing argument toward a lot of the things I have, and others have said for a while now. What are we doing? What are we doing?

Normally I don’t go around linking other people’s blogs. But this one seemed a bit more appropriate than usual as it discusses the apparent loss in Maine and win in Washington State.

Young men of Morehouse, pull up your pants, remove your do-rags and remove your shades and hats when you enter a building.

Thanks to a new policy on the campus of Morehouse College, they are no longer permissible.

The new policy is an effort to “get back to the legacy” of Morehouse leaders, said Dr. William Bynum, vice president of the Office of Student Services.

“We expect our young men to be Renaissance men,” said Bynum. “When people go about campus we want them to represent the college in an appropriate manner.”

The policy details 11 expectations of students, including:

* no caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues

* no sun glasses worn in class or at formal programs

* no jeans at major programs, as well as no sagging pants on campus

* no clothing with derogatory or lewd messages either in words or pictures

* no wearing of clothing usually worn by women (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at college-sponsored events.

Students that violate the new rules risk academic suspension.

Bynum said most students are supportive of the policy.

Cameron Thomas-Shah, the student government co-chief of staff, is one of them. While working as a resident’s assistant (RA) he said he noticed freshmen dressed in a way that was unflattering to Morehouse.

“The image of a strong black man needs to be upheld,” he said. “And if anyone sees this policy as something that is restrictive then maybe Morehouse is not the place for you.”

Daniel Edwards, co-president of Safe Space, a gay straight alliance student campus organization said he has heard from students that are for and against the policy, but he believes it is discriminatory.

It is the restriction to women’s clothing that has many students up in arms.

“Some believe that this restriction is what the entire policy is correlated around,” added Edwards. “It is all an issue of perception and what manner of image you want to prescribe to.”

But the new policy is not meant to be discriminatory, said Bynum.

“This is necessary, this is needed according to the students,” he said. “We know the challenges that young African-American men face. We know that how a student dresses has nothing to do with what is in their head, but first impressions mean everything.”

Morehouse is not the only college to enforce a dress policy.

Hampton University also has a dress code, including within its business school where students with braids or dreadlocks are encouraged to cut their hair. And Bennett College, in Greensboro, N.C., has enforced a policy similar to Morehouse’s.

The raid of an Atlanta gay nightclub by the police has over the last week developed into a pretty huge story. There is a lot of false information out there and a lot of people want to know more and what they can do to help. Here is a clearing-house page that hopes to accomplish those goals.

ATLANTA, GA (WABE) – Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington won’t comment on allegations that officers illegally detained and searched the 60-plus patrons at the Atlanta Eagle.

Monday, he did clarify APD policy:

“Each person would’ve had to have been frisked for the police officer’s safety. Now whether or not they searched the person, I don’t know that and we won’t know that until we conduct an investigation. Now if they ran the person’s name through, we do that in normal procedures to make sure the person’s not wanted.”

“You don’t have the right to detain the person beyond the frisk, beyond making sure that the officers are going to be safe.”

WABE legal analyst Page Pate says a systemic policy of running an ID check on everyone in an establishment, even if there is illegal activity there, is unconstitutional.

“You cannot simply keep them there. You cannot keep them there, and you cannot ask them for their identification and run background checks without their consent.”

Pate says APD policy, as stated by Chief Pennington, violates patrons’ First and Fourth Amendment Constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment guarantees citizens the right against unlawful search and seizure. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of assembly. He says the Eagle’s customers were treated as suspects for no other reason than being present when the raid went down.

“Any post-certified police officer knows you cannot go into an establishment and start arresting and detaining people without probable cause that those people have broken some sort of law.”

No patrons were charged, although eight Atlanta Eagle employees are charged with operating without a proper business license.

Chief Pennington has asked anyone present during the raid to come forward and give their accounts.

He’s promised a full investigation.

NEW YORK — Even as states and jurisdictions made gay and lesbian marriages legal, “The Newlywed Game” has played it straight — until now.

The long-running game show, now on the GSN cable network, said Wednesday it will feature its first gay couple this season on a celebrity edition. George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on “Star Trek,” will appear with his partner, Brad Altman.

They just celebrated their first anniversary after being married in Los Angeles last September, but they’re nothing like the giggly young couples the game is known for. Takei and Altman have been together for 22 years.

“What we want is to display the normality and the joy of having a happy union,” Takei said.

“The Newlywed Game” has been on TV off and on since it premiered in prime-time on ABC in 1967, mostly with Bob Eubanks as host. Singer Carnie Wilson is now host of the show, which is in its second season on GSN and done well in the ratings for the network.

The show always teased and tested couples about how well they know each other, with the slightly lascivious Eubanks delighting in questions about “making whoopee.”

It has since featured older couples, interracial couples and some who have lived together many years before marriage. Even long-ago contestants were retested as part of “Oldyweds Game” segments.

Kelly Goode, GSN’s programming chief, said she couldn’t speculate on why gay couples were never included in the past because GSN, the former Game Show Network, has only been responsible for the show for two years. She said it was in the game’s rules that the couple needed to have a legally-recognized marriage to play.

The change “made sense for GSN,” Goode said. “It seems like the show has always reflected the times in terms of marriages depicted and this felt like the next logical step.”

Takei and Altman haven’t taped their episode yet but expect to do so soon. GSN hopes to air in October.

The show is sprinkling a handful of celebrity players and their new spouses in this season, including Davy Jones of The Monkees, Christopher Knight of “The Brady Bunch” and Jonny Fairplay of “Survivor.”

Wilson said she had been pressing behind-the-scenes to have an all-gay edition of the show. She’s excited about Takei’s appearance.

“It’s needed at this point,” she said. “To me, this is not anything political. This is not a political statement. This show has always been about couples and how well they know each other.”

Even though they’ve been a committed couple for 22 years, Takei said he and Altman are quietly preparing for their appearance. He’s taking careful note of what his partner orders in restaurants and wears.

“To be included in something we never felt we’d be included in is very satisfying,” he said.

UPDATED NEWS STORY LINKS:
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0508.html

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/Report__Atlanta_Gay_Bar_Raided/

Atlanta Police’s liaison to the gay community said the volume of complaints she’s received from patrons at a Midtown leather bar that was raided Thursday night suggests an investigation is warranted.

“There’s too many people saying the same thing for there not to be some validity to it,” said Danni Lynn Harris, Atlanta Police’s LGBT liaison.

Several customers at Atlanta Eagle say they were harassed without prompting. They were forced to the ground and frisked, according to several witnesses.

“Our problem is with the way our customers were treated,” said one of the Eagle’s owners, Richard Ramey.

Eight employees of the bar were arrested around 11:30 p.m., charged with providing adult entertainment without a city permit.

“I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade,” said Nick Koperski, 31, who had just gotten to the bar when the raid commenced.

Only Eagle employees, including co-owner Robert Kelley, were arrested, and six of the eight remained behind bars until late Friday afternoon, when two Atlanta City Council candidates, Miguel Gallegos and Shelitha Robertson, intervened on their behalf.

“I had no idea what the hell was happening,” Koperski said.

(Ed note: Awesome… raiding bars again are we? Shouldn’t you be figuring out who’s attacking all of those people at GA Tech Atlanta PD? Do you want me to tell you what you were looking for at The Eagle? There are male customers sucking and fucking one another behind closed doors. It happens. Now while it probably is a crime to do such, I believe there probably is more important things you could be doing.)

To show support for a new Vermont law legalizing gay marriage, the iconic ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s has renamed its popular “Chubby Hubby” flavor. The new flavor, which Ben & Jerry’s is producing in partnership with Freedom To Marry, will be called “Hubby Hubby.”

For the next 30 days, Hubby Hubby will be available across Vermont. The product’s packaging will feature two men in tuxedos getting married.

In the meantime, a wedding-themed Ben & Jerry’s truck will hand out free “Hubby Hubby” across Vermont today. Scheduled stops include the Vermont Capitol, where lawmakers passed a gay-marriage law that takes effect today. Ben & Jerry’s six Vermont ice cream parlors also plan to sell special “Hubby Hubby” sundaes during September.”

A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.

The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city’s library director he should be tarred and feathered.

The row even spread to this year’s Fourth of July parade, which included a float featuring a washing machine and a sign that read “keep our library clean.”

“If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I’d think, ‘Never in a million years,’ ” said Michael Tyree, director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library.

The strife began in February when West Bend couple Jim and Ginny Maziarka objected to some of the content in the city library’s young-adult section. They later petitioned the library board to move any sexually explicit books — the definition of which would be debated — from the young-adult section to the adult section and to label them as sexually explicit.

Ginny Maziarka, 49, said the books in the section of the library aimed at children aged 12 to 18 included homosexual and heterosexual content she thought was inappropriate for youths.

She and her husband also asked the library to obtain books about homosexuality that affirmed heterosexuality, such as titles written by “ex-gays,” Maziarka said.

“All the books in the young-adult zone that deal with homosexuality are gay-affirming. That’s not balance,” she said.

The library did not agree with the Maziarkas’ suggestions, and the couple appealed to the library board. Ginny Maziarka, a mother of four, began blogging about the issue and the local newspaper picked up the dispute, sparking the opposition.

Maria Hanrahan, also a West Bend mom, set up a rival blog to argue the other side.

“I’m against any other party telling me what’s appropriate for my child and what isn’t,” said Hanrahan, 40, who also created a West Bend Parents for Free Speech group. “We don’t mean to say these are appropriate for everyone, but we don’t feel they should be set apart from other materials or restricted from the young-adult section.”

By this time, many more people had become caught up in the issue, which was generating heat. When Hanrahan appeared on a local radio, callers attacked her views, she said.

“People were being very passionate on both sides of the issue. I think it divided the community a little bit,” she said.

With the debate raging, the city council voted in April against renewing the terms of four library board members, in part because council members thought the board was dragging its feet, library director Tyree said.

The Maziarkas were still fighting to have books moved, having identified 82 questionable titles — more than double their original list. Then they stopped targeting a list of books and circulated a petition that asked the board to label and move to the adult section any “youth-targeted pornographic books” — including books that describe sex acts in a way unsuitable for minors. The books could still be checked out freely by anyone.

“We’re not talking about educational material. We’re talking raunchy sex acts,” Maziarka said.

One book she objects to is “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” in which a fictional teenage boy tells about his freshman year in high school, including rape and homosexual and heterosexual sex between teens.

Tyree said book excerpts found on Maziarka’s blog had been taken out of context and, in the case of “Wallflower,” the criticism missed some of the book’s points.

“In this book, there were consequences of … rape, of indiscriminate sex. Those were not portrayed so glowingly,” he said.

By the time the library board met on June 2, each side had collected more than 1,000 signatures backing their position. Dozens of residents spoke at the meeting before the board — still including the outgoing members — unanimously voted to keep all policies the same.

The demand to move the books was always going to be problematic because no authority has determined that any of the titles are pornographic or obscene, Tyree said.

Book challenges aren’t new. More than 500 were reported in the United States in 2008, mostly in schools and public libraries, Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association said.

But this one was attracting extra attention. Caldwell-Stone, who monitored the dispute, said moving any young-adult book to the adult section would have been a form of censorship, even if teens were free to check them out.

“The whole intent was shelving books not on the basis of age or reading ability, but because they disapprove of the content with the intent of restricting access. That’s a burden on First Amendment rights,” Caldwell-Stone said.

Outside West Bend, the fight caught the attention of Robert Braun, who, with three other Milwaukee-area men, filed a claim against West Bend calling for one of the library’s books to be publicly burned, along with financial damages.

The four plaintiffs — who describe themselves as “elderly” in their complaint — claim their “mental and emotional well-being was damaged by [the] book at the library.”

The claim, unconnected to the Maziarkas, says the book “Baby Be-bop” — a fictional piece about a homosexual teenager — is “explicitly vulgar, racial and anti-Christian.”

Braun, who says he is president of a Milwaukee group called the Christian Civil Liberties Union, said he singled out the book because it “goes way over the line” with offensive language and descriptions of sex acts.

The call for burning the book showed his passion, Braun, 74, said. “I don’t sit on the fence when I do these things. When I make a decision to speak up on something, I go for it.”

The ALA will help the library oppose the claim if it goes forward, Caldwell-Stone said, adding she felt that was unlikely because “it has very little basis in law.”

Back in West Bend, the Maziarkas and their supporters are gearing up for another go at the library, in part because the board now has its four new members. They do not want books burned, but they do want action.

“We want parents to decide whether they want their children to have access to these books … and we want the library’s help in identifying [them through labeling and moving],” Maziarka said. “It’s just common sense.”

(Ed note: Looks like some people need to re-read the Constitution. It’s probably also available for check out at that library, though I can understand that people obsessed with homosexual sex may not really be all that interested in such things.)

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The video shows the 16-year-old boy lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church cast a “homosexual demon” from his body.

“Rip it from his throat!” a woman yells. “Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!”

The 20-minute video posted on YouTube by Manifested Glory Ministries is being called abuse by gay and youth advocates, who are demanding an investigation. But a church official this week denied that the teenager was injured or that the church is prejudiced.

“We believe a man should be with a woman and a woman should be with a man,” the Rev. Patricia McKinney told The Associated Press. “We have nothing against homosexuals. I just don’t agree with their lifestyle.”

The church posted the video on YouTube but has since removed it; it is still available on some Web sites that copied it. The church declined to make the video available for distribution by The Associated Press.

It shows church members standing the youth on his feet by holding him under his arms, and people shouting as organ music plays.

“Come out of his belly,” someone commands. “It’s in the belly — push.”

Later, the teenager is back on the floor, breathing heavily. Then he’s coughing and apparently vomiting into a bag.

“Get another bag,” a participant says. “Make sure you have your gloves.”

As the youth lay back on the ground, limp, church members put a white sheet over him.

It’s nearly impossible to say how often similar exercises occur in churches nationwide. But Kamora Herrington, who runs a mentoring program at True Colors and has worked with the youth, said she believes it’s fairly common.

“This happens all the time,” she said. “This is not isolated.”

Robin McHaelin, executive director of True Colors, an advocacy group for gay youths, said her organization is aware of five cases in recent years in which youths in her program were threatened with exorcism.

In one case, she said, a child called to report that his caregiver had called a priest who was throwing holy water on his bedroom door.

“I think it’s horrifying,” McHaelin said of the video by Manifested Glory. “What saddens me is the people that are doing this think they are doing something in the kid’s best interests, when in fact they’re murdering his spirit.”

McHaelin said she planned to report the situation to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. An agency spokesman said the agency does not comment on complaints or investigations.

“They have this kid in a full nelson,” she said. “That just seems abusive to me.”

McKinney said the youth was 18. The boy confirmed he is 16 but otherwise declined to comment, citing the advice of his pastor.

McHaelin said the boy told her staff that the church performed the ritual three times at his request. She said the boy has been engaging in risky behavior that she blames on the church’s treatment.

McKinney said the youth went to the church last year and collapsed on the floor during a service.

“He was out of control in the church,” she said. “This young man came to us. We didn’t go to him.”

McKinney denied the ritual was an exorcism, describing it instead as a casting out of spirits. She said the church took care of the youth, providing him clothes.

“He was dressing like a woman and everything. And he didn’t want to be like that,” McKinney said.

The teen had been in reform school for stealing but was eager to get out and go to the church to have what he thought were his demons driven out, Herrington said.

Exodus International, a Christian group that believes gays can become straight through prayer and counseling, does not advocate the church’s approach, said Jeff Buchanan, director of church equipping.

The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, a minister in Oakland, Calif., said he was subject to demon casting in the 1990s when he was at a Baptist church and was struggling with his sexuality. He said he was put in front of the church as members shouted “demon of homosexuality come out of him.”

“It caused nothing but shame and embarrassment,” Stringfellow said.

McKinney also has a weekly radio program. She talked on Wednesday’s program about being “persecuted” in recent days but did not mention the video specifically.

“It’s been a hard time for me, but I’m looking good and I’m standing strong because when you have a mandate like mine you’re not going to say what you want without the adversary coming after you,” she said. “If you are a true prophet you’re not going to be popular with the people.”

Link to a news story that features some of the video. Obviously, I don’t want to promote the video in any way whatsoever.

(Ed note: Disturbing… Totally fucking disturbing. But then again, doesn’t this just make you realize how realistic “Later, Skater” really is?)

Here, in a nutshell, is apparently President Obama’s Plan for Gay Rights.

Personally, I think the page should come up looking more like a standard 404 Error. (As opposed to our customized ones here on pixiesticks and shotalicious.)

UPDATE: Obama offers gay critics a little piece of pie in the form of same-sex partner benefits for fed. workers. Hardly a morsel, most critics claim.

If you order my book via Lulu by clicking the banner ad above this month, I’m giving discounts. What better way to celebrate Gay Pride Month (Obama even signed a declaration of such!!) or to get started on your Summer Reading than to order books written by your favorite perverted webmaster?

Print copies of “Later, Skater” and “Freakshow” are 11 dollars each. That’s a savings of 2 dollars this month.

But the real deals come with the downloads!

You can get a digital copy of this year’s release, “Freakshow” for only 5 dollars.
Best yet, you can get a digital copy of “Later, Skater” for only 3 dollars.

THREE DOLLARS! Hell, you can’t even get a Baconator for that price. So check out the link, the previews, and do some reading (and fapping) this June and thanks!

LOS ANGELES — An openly gay teen has been voted prom queen at his Los Angeles high school in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and popularity.

Sergio Garcia said he felt “invincible” when he was crowned queen of the Fairfax High School dance at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Saturday.

Days before the dance, Garcia told fellow students that he was “not your typical prom queen candidate. There’s more to me than meets the eye.”

He also promised that he would be wearing a suit on prom night, but “don’t be fooled: Deep down, I am a queen.”

And he made good of that promise Saturday, wearing a gray tuxedo topped off with the prized tiara.

Garcia, 18, said he saw fliers advertising the prom and the election but they didn’t specify that the queen must be female. He thought the role would suit him better than prom king.

“I don’t wish to be a girl,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I just wish to be myself.”

Senior class president Vanessa Lo said she and other students were initially against the idea but became convinced he wasn’t just an attention-seeking clown.

“It just goes to show how open-minded our class is,” Lo said.

Unique Payne, 17, said she voted for Garcia because she supported the gay community.

Although many students were supportive of Garcia’s run, others were upset and didn’t understand why Garcia chose to run for prom queen.

“I’m not really happy about that,” said 17-year-old Juan Espinoza. “He should’ve run for prom king.”

SAN FRANCISCO — California voters legally outlawed same-sex marriage when they approved Proposition 8 in November, but the constitutional amendment did not dissolve the unions of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who wed before the measure took effect, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

The 6-1 decision was issued by the same court that declared a year ago that a state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated the right to choose one’s spouse and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.

Prop. 8 undid that ruling. The author of last year’s 4-3 decision, Chief Justice Ronald George, said today that the voters were within their rights to approve a constitutional amendment redefining marriage to include only male-female couples.

Justice Carlos Moreno, in a lone dissent, said a majority should not be allowed to deprive a minority of fundamental rights by passing an initiative.

The justices ruled unanimously that Prop. 8 was not retroactive and that gay and lesbian couples who relied on the court’s May 2008 ruling to get married before the Nov. 4 election will remain legally wed.

Prop. 8, which declared that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California, passed with a 52 percent majority after an intense and expensive campaign. Sponsors, mainly affiliated with Christian conservative groups, raised nearly $40 million for the measure and opponents more than $45 million – combined, a record for a ballot measure on a social issue anywhere in the nation.

The ruling, the court’s third major decision on same-sex marriage in five years, may be the last word from the state’s legal system on the issue. But the matter is far from settled in the political arena. Gay-rights advocates, anticipating the decision, have discussed putting another constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2010 or 2012 to try to repeal Prop. 8.

Meanwhile, same-sex marriage has been legalized by the Supreme Courts of Iowa and Connecticut and the legislatures of Vermont and Maine, joining Massachusetts, whose high court issued the first such ruling in 2003. Similar legislation is pending in New Hampshire and New York.

California’s legal battle dates back to February 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Nearly 4,000 weddings took place in the next month before the state Supreme Court ordered a halt, then voided the marriages in August 2004 and found unanimously that Newsom had no authority to disregard state law.

The city and a number of couples quickly returned to court and sued to overturn the law. They won in Superior Court, lost in an appeals court, and won in the state’s high court on May 15, 2008 – but by then, their opponents had already submitted more than 1 million signatures qualifying Prop. 8 for the November ballot.

This time, the issue before the justices was whether the voters’ power to amend the Constitution by initiative.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuits were two groups of same-sex couples, some already married and some thwarted by Prop. 8, along with an array of local governments led by San Francisco. They argued that a measure eliminating fundamental rights exceeds the scope of a constitutional amendment and amounts to a revision, which needs a two-thirds legislative vote or approval from delegates at a state constitutional convention to reach the ballot.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, who usually defends state laws in court, joined Prop. 8′s opponents and argued that “inalienable rights” in the California Constitution cannot be repealed by majority vote.

Prop. 8′s sponsors noted that the court had declared ballot measures to be revisions only twice. The court has rejected similar challenges to such far-reaching measures as a legislative term-limits initiative, the Proposition 13 tax cut and the reinstatement of the death penalty.

Backers of the measure argued that the people are the highest political authority in California and the court should defer to their judgment.

It was, simply put, the most stunning abdication since King Edward VIII in 1936 gave up the British throne for Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American socialite.
Only two weeks after being elected to serve his fourth term, Mayor J.W. Lown of San Angelo submitted his resignation letter Tuesday from an undisclosed location in Mexico.

No, being mayor of San Angelo is not exactly the same as being the King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India, but the reason for Lown’s abdication is the same as Edward’s.

Love.

What made it stunning wasn’t the status of Lown’s office, which pays $600 a year, but the status of his lover.

Lown fell for an illegal Mexican immigrant.

A man.

Lown told the San Angelo Standard-Times he had fallen for the man in March, after he had already filed for re-election. The man came to the U.S. five years ago to study at Angelo State University.

It was unclear whether he had a student visa, but if he did it apparently had expired.

Lown told the Standard-Times he chose not to take the oath of office while “aiding and assisting” a person who was illegally in the country.

Lown had been an extraordinarily popular mayor. Only 32 years old, he was elected in 2003 as the city’s youngest mayor. Serving in an office that inevitably requires decisions that accumulate enemies, he managed to get re-elected three times with increasing margins of victory each time. Two weeks ago he defeated two challengers by garnering 89 percent of the vote.

Lown did not give the name of his lover, but said he planned to stay in Mexico to try to obtain a visa so that his partner can return with him if “the people of San Angelo will welcome me back.”

It could be a long wait. According to former Houston city councilman Gordon Quan, an immigration lawyer, Lown’s partner faces two problems in seeking a visa that would permit residency in the U.S.

One involves restrictions caused by his having been in the United States illegally. If he had a student visa and overstayed it more than six months but less than a year, he is not eligible for a visa for three years. If it was more than a year, he must wait 10 years, even for a tourist visa.

The other problem, said Quan, is that he would require a blood relative or a spouse to sponsor him.

And it wouldn’t matter if Lown went to Iowa and married his partner by proxy. The federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages for immigration purposes.
King Edward, who became Prince Edward, lived the remainder of his life in exile. Lown may face the same fate if he stays with his partner.

For some this will be a story of sinful deviance.

Some will sigh at the power of love.

As someone who has closely observed politicians for many years, what I see is the rare integrity of a politician who couldn’t rationalize his way to swearing to uphold the laws of his state and nation while breaking them.

When it comes to sex, we’ve seen the president of the United States lie under oath, the governor of New Jersey provide a high-level job for his unqualified secret gay lover, the governor of New York frequent a high-priced prostitute.

The mayor of San Angelo chose not only love, but also honesty.

MOSCOW (AP) – Riot police violently broke up several gay rights demonstrations in Moscow on Saturday, hauling away scores of protesters hours before the Russian capital hosted a major international pop music competition.
City officials had warned they would not tolerate marches or rallies supporting the rights of gays and lesbians. Activists had targeted Moscow, which was holding the finals of the Eurovision song contest on Saturday, to press their claims that Russia officially sanctions homophobia.

Police seized gay rights protesters as well as some members of religious and nationalist groups that staged counter-demonstrations. They also took away gay rights activists for simply talking to reporters, and ripped the bra and shirt off one female protester.

Moscow police spokesman Anatoly Listovetsky said 40 people were detained, although media reports said up to 80 had been seized.

Among those detained were British activist Peter Tatchell and American activist Andy Thayer of Chicago, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network.

Tatchell and most of the others were detained during a hastily organized protest near Moscow State University in southwest Moscow, where about 30 protesters shouted “Homophobia is a disgrace of this country!” and “We are demanding equal rights!”

“This shows the Russian people are not free!” Tatchell yelled as he was being dragged to a police car. He was released a short time later.

“The arrests were done in a very violent, aggressive manner,” Tatchell told The Associated Press after his release. “We believe the reaction of the Moscow police was totally unjustified.”

Tatchell said Russian gay rights leaders had appealed to Eurovision contestants to denounce the police crackdown from the stage at tonight’s competition. The live contest, which pits singers from different nations against each other, has drawn up to 100 million television viewers previously and is Europe’s most prestigious pop song competition.

“Today’s arrests go against the principles of Eurovision, which are about peace, harmony, cooperation and unity between all the peoples in Europe,” he said. “Gay people are part of Europe, they are part of Russia—their rights and freedoms are as important as everyone else’s.”

Thayer was hustled off by police as he spoke with reporters. He said he had come to help “fight for the soul of Russian democracy.”

“If … the right to assemble is taken away from lesbian and gay people here in Russia, then other Russians have to fear for their own freedom,” Thayer said seconds before police burst through a ring of journalists to take him away.

Police ripped the shirt and bra off one female protester, who identified herself as Ksenia Prilebskaya, and roughly pushed her into a police bus. Her glasses fell and she shrieked in apparent pain.

Eduard Murdin, 40, a human rights activist from the Russian city of Ufa, was flanked by two officers who pinned his arms behind him and marched him, head bent over, to a waiting bus.

“All we wanted was a legal protest,” he said as he was led away. “But we were blocked. What else could we do?”

City authorities had barred Saturday’s rally, saying it was morally wrong.

“(Gay pride events) not only destroy moral foundations of our society, but also purposefully provoke disturbances that will threaten the lives and safety of Moscow residents and guests,” City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying Saturday.

At one rally a short walk from the Kremlin, about 50 demonstrators from nationalist and Orthodox Christian organizations denounced homosexuality. One man was detained when he alleged officials in the Kremlin were gay.

A half-dozen anti-gay rights demonstrators were also seized by police during a demonstration in Moscow’s central Pushkin Square.

A friend of mine has started up a social meet and greet website where they will as they say in their non-mission statement, “provide a place for Fags and the Hags who love them to meet, greet and spill some nasty gossip about the men in their lives – or the men they *wish* were in their lives or the men they wish would get the hell out of their lives!”

Check it out.

Amazon managers found that an employee who happened to work in France had filled out a field incorrectly and more than 50,000 items got flipped over to be flagged as “adult,” the source said. (Technically, the flag for adult content was flipped from ‘false’ to ‘true.’)

“It’s no big policy change, just some field that’s been around forever filled out incorrectly,” the source said.

Amazon employees worked on the problem well past midnight, and then handed it over to an international team, he said.

Seattle-based Amazon.com sells millions of items, so the 57,000 affected represent just a tiny portion of the company’s selection. But Amazon’s perception problem was enormous, and aggravated by the company’s official description of the problem as a “glitch.”

(more)

(Ed note: I just checked over on Amazon.com my first novel “Pixiesticks” which is available over there (the others are exclusively on Lulu.com) and its searchability and sales-rank have been restored.

As for this latest, let’s call it Version 3.5 of Amazon’s response. I’m not so sure it holds water. Many other items didn’t get taken off that absolutely would have been tagged adult. The fact this has been happening since February is also bothersome. And finally, anonymous source? Haven’t we learned anything about Anonymous?)

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Amazon Spokesperson
Drew Herdener

via Seattlepi.com

(Ed note: Ah, the comments that come too late in this modern world. Amazon is an online only company and should have hauled Drew out -yesterday- Holiday or not.

As of today, you can now search for my own book, “Pixiesticks” on Amazon’s main page like you used to before this happened, but I as of right now, still do not have a sales-rank. I still wholeheartedly promote lulu.com FTW!)

The number one word being used over and over on Twitter at this moment is “AmazonFail.”

Why?

Users are angry about a perceived anti-gay policy that removes lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender books from appearing in sales rankings.

Author Mark Probst writes on his blog that two days ago, “mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: ‘Transgressions’ by Erastes and ‘False Colors’ by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book ‘The Filly.’”

Probst eventually got a response from Amazon.com Advantage member services, he says.

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

More than 800 people have signed a petition in strong protest of Amazon’s “adult policy” on thepetitionsite.com.

(more)

Update: There is now the phrase Amazon Rank that’s popped up in our lexicon for the moment.

Update: Here is a really great blog entry about Making Books Disappear.

Update: Here is an excellent article about Twitter’s impact on the news story really made a difference in just mere moments.

(Ed note: Indeed my own first novel, “Pixiesticks” has been de-ranked on Amazon — not that it was ranked very highly. More annoyingly if you try and search for it without specifically doing a search in the book category it no longer will show up. AmazonFail! LuluFTW!)