National Gay News

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court says it won't unseal video recordings of a landmark trial on the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/national-news/5557-court-wont-release-ca-gay-marriage-trial-videos.html)

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Gay rights protesters in Minnesota threw glitter at Romney before he took the stage, making him the latest candidate to be "glittered" by activists opposed to his position on gay rights. Romney, who opposes gay marriage, put a positive spin on the sparkle in his hair. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/national-news/5556-romney-not-focused-on-poor-gets-qglitter-bombedq.html)

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington state Senate has passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, bringing the state a step closer to becoming the seventh to allow lesbian and gay couples to wed. But the threat of a ballot challenge looms. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/national-news/5555-wa-senate-approves-bill-to-legalize-gay-marriage.html)

Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/local-news/5553-soundbite-q-february-1-2012.html)

Legal Quirk Stops Gay Prosecutions Florida is one of at least 32 states nationwide that have criminal statutes specific to HIV, many of which date to the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, when fear of spreading the disease was at its peak. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/local-news/5552-same-sex-couples-saved-from-hiv-disclosure-laws.html)

It’s all about business…it’s all about visibility. The focus of any chamber is to provide products, opportunities, and programming that will showcase its members and their goods and services.  As the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC) is a “community” based chamber, our focus is less about supporting a particular governmental entity (i.e. Kendall or Miami Lakes); rather, our focus is to expand the understanding and business prospects for the community that we serve…LGBT owned businesses and those desiring to do business with this market.  During the Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/sfgn-columnists/guest-columnists/5550-the-most-important-next-step-is-for-the-community-to-respond.html)

KNOXVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee Republican lawmaker is defending comments he made on a satellite radio show about the origins of AIDS and how it’s transmitted. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/national-news/5549-campfield-defends-aids-comment.html)

A former SFGN employee Matt Clark, our calendar editor, sent an email to State Sen. Stacy Campfield in Tennessee after he made the outrageous claim that it was almost impossible to transmit HIV through heterosexual sex. (Associated Press Story (news/national-news/5549-campfield-defends-aids-comment.html)) This is Campfield’s response: Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/national-news/5548-state-sen-stacy-campfield-responds-via-email.html)

The father of a gay college student who died after being beaten says he's disturbed by anti-gay legislation being proposed in Tennessee. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/news/national-news/5547-activist-disturbed-by-anti-gay-tenn-bills.html)

We are proud to re-launch our quarterly magazine, with a new name, title, and look. Welcome to The Mirror. We bounced many names around, but I reached the conclusion that The Mirror contained a message. After all, a mirror reflects who we are, and so does our magazine. It is a reflection of our lives. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/editorial/publishers-editorial/5456-publishers-message-the-mirror.html)

Panama City, Florida, with its sugar sand beaches and busy tourist trade, is affectionately considered the Redneck Riviera. Folks from Alabama and its neighbor states make the trip down Highway 231 and straight into the Florida panhandle, breezing through a stretch known as Watermelon Alley, where locals sell fruit and souvenirs along the asphalt in hopes of sidetracking some of the cash the drivers have saved for their weekend adventures. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/sfgn-columnists/guest-columnists/5454-did-i-abandon-family-for-gay-community.html)

If you’re local Pride Fest just isn’t enough check out some of these extraordinary events ranging from our very own Pride Fests here in South Florida in Lake Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors and Miami Beach to Black Pride in Washington D.C. and even World Pride hosted in London this year. This guide will help you journey through multiple pride fests all over the world. Many of festivals featured here are still being planned and details are subject to change so make sure you visit their webpages for up Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/life-and-style/travel/5453-pride-guide-2012.html)

Here is Rick Day’s follow up to his best selling photography book “Players.” The sequel continues Day’s exploration of sexuality in sports with beautiful images of semi naked and fully nude men in various sports outfits or accessories like basket balls, footballs and boxing gear. Sensual and sexual, this book is a must have for photography lovers or just admirers of gorgeous men. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/book-reviews/5452-players-two-rick-day.html)

Bulging biceps are attention-grabbing and a well-defined chest is always impressive, but nothing screams sex appeal on a man like chiseled abdominal muscles. A “six-pack” midsection is the crowning achievement of a truly fit man. From Michelangelo’s famous statue of David to the pages of the world’s top fitness magazines, images of the perfect male body always reflect sculptured abs. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/life-and-style/health/5451-abs-olutely-fabulous-the-secret-to-six-pack-abdominals.html)

Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/life-and-style/sfgn-profiles/5450-activists-and-allies-men-and-women-who-are-making-a-difference-across-the-country.html)

When I checked in at Island House, Key West’s fabulous clothing optional gay guesthouse, on  Dec. 17, owner Jon Allen supplied a ticket to see Tom Judson perform that evening on stage at the Tropic Cinema. Jon, who is on the Tropic’s board and is working to get more live gay entertainment in Key West, was also hosting singer/composer/author/Broadway performer Judson—aka ex-porn star Gus Mattox—at Island House which made the prospect of lounging poolside even more attractive.  His cabaret-style performance that night was a delightful surprise that unleashed the Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/music/5449-tom-judson-sings-his-way-out-of-gus-mattox.html)

On a sleepy Saturday morning, this six block stretch of Eighth Street could be anywhere in Latin America. Rows of mom-and-pop shops and cafes, their colorful signage all in Spanish, prepare for another busy day. Except this just isn’t any street, it’s Calle Ocho, the de facto capital of the Cuban exile community in America. (Image: Our colorful guide, Grace Della, introduces us to the unique and flavorful staples of the Cuban diet.)   Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/dining/5448-culinary-adventures-and-more-on-calle-ocho.html)

Inmates on paradise "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"/Nothing beside remains./Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away.” – From Ozymandius, by Percy Bysshe Shelly, 1792-1822, poet, dramatist, essayist, novelist, traveler, friend of Byron & Keats, perhaps homosexual. Some 70 miles west of Key West, in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, one encounters a “colossal wreck, boundless and bare.” However, it is not a massive monument to some long-forgotten king, although the Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/life-and-style/travel/5447-the-dry-tortugas-a-fort-jefferson.html)

In this interview with David Bromstad, winner of HGTV’s first season of Design Star and current host of Color Splash, we discuss everything from his upcoming projects, which includes two new shows, his relationship status (sorry guys he’s taken), the reasons he no longer takes off his shirt (as much) on television to more serious subjects like growing up bullied in high school. His honesty and sincerity was refreshing and he didn’t seem to hold anything back. Read more... (http://www.southfloridagaynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/film-cinema/5446-interview-with-david-bromstad.html)