Marriage = an institution free from state-mandated gender roles

Everyone’s saying you’ve just got to read the full text of Judge Vaughn Walker’s overturning of Prop 8 in California last Wednesday — apparently it’s a page turner! You can view it here in full. We admit, we haven’t yet read the whole thing ourselves, but thanks to Rachel Maddow, we were apprised of one [...]

New wedding mag for same-sex couples

“Equally Wed” is the new online magazine for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples who are tying the knot (legally or not). Launched this past March with their Spring Issue, they plan to publish one issue each season (their Summer Issue is up now). It’s got the typical bridal magazine stuff that just feeds the [...]

Guess whose high school yearbook pic?

Yep, Rachel Maddow’s. Out and proud Rachel Maddow of MSNBC’s kick-ass liberal politics show “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Maddow, who wears as little makeup as the producers will let her get away with, who would never be caught dead in feminine jewelry (let alone pearls!), who’s always in jeans and sneaks under her television desk, who gets her haircut with what looks like a Flowbee. Don’t get us wrong — none of that is a dis. We love, love, love that Maddow refuses to abide by the strict beauty rules set for women in our society, especially in our society’s television media. Which is perhaps why this picture is so striking — it’s such a 180 for her, the epitome of the feminine ideal, even today: blonde, long-haired, tan, make-up-ed, and accessorized. We admit, our first reaction was: OMG! But why?

10 sexy reasons to love Iceland

Okay, okay, we know that Iceland really screwed up air travel with that volcano incident. And the collapse of their financial system was a major international bummer. But they deserve to be forgiven — check it out:

1. Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir just married her long-term partner, making her the world’s first national leader with a same-sex spouse. The wedding took place the day a new law took effect, which defines marriage as a union between two consenting adults, regardless of sex.
   
   
2. Before she got married, her claim to fame was that she was the world’s only openly gay prime minister. But it was never a big deal in Iceland. Because, you know, it isn’t. Iceland has long been progressive in LGBT matters. All the way back in 1996, they passed a law creating registered partnerships for same-sex couples, which covered nearly all the rights and benefits of marriage.
   
   

Kids of lesbian parents may fare better than their peers

A new study analyzing long-term data on kids from birth to adulthood just came out that suggests children of lesbian parents do better than their peers.

House votes to allow repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Just in case you missed it over this long holiday weekend, at the end of last week the House voted to allow the repeal of the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy against gays, as did the Senate Armed Services Committee. It’s [...]

Perez Hilton says something smart

We never thought we’d say this, but Perez Hilton has a point. We’re usually not fans, but he’s got a good bit on the importance of coming out on the fabulous site Big Think, which interviews hundreds of experts, from hedge-fund managers to neuroscientists, to help us plebs make better decisions and form more erudite [...]

Will the real Elena Kagan please stand up?

We have mixed feelings about Maureen Dowd: on the one hand she is a totally awesome butt-kicking columnist who can swing with the big boys while pointing out how many of them are actually just whiny little boys. But on the other hand, she seems to phone it in a lot these days. That said, her recent columns about Elena Kagan have made us swoon again.

Illinois state lawmaker makes a personal case for gay marriage

Last week, Illinois lawmaker Deborah Mell spoke on the state House floor to announce her “bittersweet” engagement to her girlfriend of six years — “bittersweet” because she’ll have to go next door to Iowa to tie the knot instead of doing it in the state where she grew up, where she now represents 100,000 people [...]

New Jersey vs. California: Which state is worse for sex?

Remember when former Miss California Carrie Prejean got famous for (a) getting pageant-funded breast implants and (b) saying “I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there”? Well, suddenly No-Offense Prejean is looking like the picture of tolerance (after all, she did also say “I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage.”)

Enter Lauren Ashley, who will be representing Beverly Hills in the Miss California pageant this November. She was all like, I’ll see your “marriage is between a man and a woman” and I’ll raise you “punishment by death.” No, seriously.

The Superbowl ad you WON’T see this weekend

We used to look forward to Superbowl Sunday for the ads (that, and the excuse to over-indulge in junk food). But it looks like CBS is determined to ruin the one sports-related joy in our lives. First of all they went and accepted an anti-choice ad from conservative Christian group Focus on the Family — apparently CBS no longer bans advocacy submissions or controversial ads, as they have claimed in the past. Of course, Focus on the Family claims the ad is not controversial at all, and is simply about “the issue of life.” Riiiight. The ad — which has not yet been released — is expected to feature Pam Tebow (mother of college football star Tim) and her decision to carry Tim to term despite a recommendation from doctors that she have an abortion. Sorry: despite a recommendation from doctors regarding the issue of life.

Unfortunately CBS’s policy on “controversial” ads still holds firm if the ad happens to come from a gay men’s dating site.

The first gay superhero comic

If you suspected a few members of the Justice League of America were gay (hello, Aquaman?) and always wished they’d come out of the closet, there’s now a new ALL-gay superhero comic just for you. It’s called Spandex. What it lacks in artistic skill (visually speaking, this ain’t no DC Comic), it makes up for in fabulous gay pride. There’s “Liberty (glamorous transvestite superhero), Diva (a lesbian Wonder Woman), Prowler (absorbs the abilities of gay people), Glitter (male Dazzler), Indigo (beautiful French teleporter), and Mr Muscles & Butch (strong twins)” (see above). We would have thought there’d be at least one big buff or bearded super dude and one super butch without cleavage, but that’s just us (and we’re neither gay nor comic-book readers, so what do we know?). It’s available from the U.K. but you can download a pdf of the first 40-page comic in the series via Paypal here. More excerpts after the jump.

Naked news, gay marriage edition

Image is a summary of states’ attitudes on gay rights issues from a paper recently published in the American Political Science Review

• Maine residents will decide Tuesday whether to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage, an effort that has succeeded in every state where it has been put before voters.
  
  
• Defenders and haters alike have descended on the state, where it seems the fight is neck and neck.

Penguins continue to wage war on family values

photo by Paul_Mannix Guess which book, according to the American Library Association, is the title most often requested to be removed from schools and libraries in the U.S.? Give up? For the third year in a row, it’s And Tango Makes Three, which is a guide to building your own bomb while smoking crack and attending [...]

Naked News (10-06-09)

photo by Brian_L_Romig

• One step forward in Texas: A judge in Dallas just ruled that it would hear a divorce suit by a gay couple who were married outside of Texas, even though same-sex marriages are banned in the state. (Perhaps they heard our recent suggestion to the state of Indiana that it’s Good Family Values to dissolve a marriage you didn’t think should exist in the first place.)
• …and one step back: The University of North Texas student senate voted down a proposal allowing same-sex couples to run for homecoming king and queen.

Bisexuality: Doing it like they do on the Discovery Channel

photo by Paul Mannix

We were tickled pink a few weeks back when we read about the so-called gay penguins who were raising an adopted chick. But “bisexual penguins” would probably have been more accurate; most scientists agree that animals that engage in same-sex activity don’t usually shun heterosexual encounters. Rather, they simply have ingrained gay tendencies that are a part of what make their little animal community work. As sociologist Eric Anderson of the University of Bath in England so succinctly puts it, “Animals don’t do sexual identity. They just do sex.”

Naked news (06-16-09)

photo by slushpup

• New study shows that two-thirds of men and 40% of women masturbate. Women: shame on you for not breaking the 50% barrier. (Here’s inspiration if you need it.) Men: shame on you for lying.
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Comments: Posted by: Em and Lo
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Tags: Em & Lo / Em and Lo / EMandLO.com / Gay Issues / news / Research

Gay animal kingdom

While the issue of same sex relationships ruffles the feathers of various tribes among the supposedly higher brain functioning bipedal primate sub species of homo sapiens, this is barely a controversy in the rest of the animal kingdom who seem to all shrug their collective shoulders or fins or wings at gay and lesbian lifestyles. Scienceray lists ten animals comfortable with same sex partnerships.

Naked news — the super gay extravaganza edition! (06-09-09)

In honor of 1) June being LGBT Month (officially proclaimed by President Obama) and 2) Bradford Shellhammer joining our li’l SUNfiltered gang, we’ve compiled a fabulous round-up of recent gay-related news:

• In case you live under a rock: New England is officially the coolest part of the country now that New Hampshire is down with gay marriage
  
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• Hopefully, New York will feel the heat from the nearby states to jump on the gay marriage party wagon.
  
  

Read more fabulous Naked News picks from Em and Lo!

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Comments: Posted by: Em and Lo
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Tags: Em & Lo / Em and Lo / EMandLO.com / Gay Issues / Gay Pride / LGBT

Naked News (05-05-09)

From the book I’m Glad I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl! The new documentary OUTRAGE, opening this Friday, exposes closeted gay politicians who publicly oppose gay rights. The theory being, why should they get to stay in the closet if they’re actively holding back the gay rights movement in their day job and [...]

Naked News (04-27-09)

Study: Children Exposed To Pornography May Expect Sex To Be Enjoyable If Mainers and New Yorkers embrace Iowans’ “mind your own business” mentality, their states could be the next to legalize gay marriage (hope, hope). Of course, then you’ll get whackjob judges like this all over the place refusing to perform any marriages, just so [...]

Gay marriage: be afraid, be very afraid

It’s this kind of thing — a new, totally rad T-shirt logo from Wordboner — that scares the bejeezus out of homophobes like the National Organization for Marriage. So frightened are they of an imaginary army of gay soldiers forcing them into a life of sodomy that they put together this gem of fear-tactic propaganda [...]

Gay marriage — all the cool kids are doing it

photo by Maxintosh Love must really be in the spring air this week: not one, but two states have legalized gay marriage in less than 7 days! Last Friday it was Iowa, and just this past Tuesday it was Vermont.  That brings the grand total of cool states dedicated to marriage equality up to four, [...]

Who knew Iowa was so cool?

photo by Kables When you think of Iowa, what do you think of? Corn, perhaps. FIELD OF DREAMS. The cornfields in FIELD OF DREAMS. Famous Iowan natives named “Wood,” like American Gothic painter Grant Wood and that adorable little hobbit, Elijah Wood. Admit it: if you were to play a word association game with Iowa, [...]