WORLD OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

THE WEEK
ACCORDING TO
GARÇON STUPIDE

• Last week we saw Oguchi Onyewu strip down for ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue. This week it's the turn of Nelson Cruz, who shows us his big bumper.

• What was it like to be gay in the mid-1980s? Pictures speak volumes, none more so than in Doug Ischar's stunning coverage of the Belmont Rocks in Chicago 1984-1985. Where are these men now, I wonder...? (Pictured right and below left.)

• WorldPride 2014: what it means for Toronto.

• Gay marriage rights for the state of New York?

• "We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men." Dr. William Bynum on Morehouse College's new dress code, which bans cross-dressing.

• And Rev. Irene Monroe's got something to say about it too.

• Here's a lesson they won't be teaching at the all-black college: Malcolm X was bisexual. Peter Tatchell questions why leading (LGBT) black icons are ignored by Black History Month.

• U.S. Senate clears "Matthew Shepard" bill, approving new federal penalties for attacks on the LGBT community.

• Is gaybashing on the rise?

• He's 86-years-old, straight, a Republican and a D-Day veteran. And he said this: "The woman at my polling place asked me, do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach? It makes no sense that some people who love each other can marry and others can't, just because of who they are."

• Lt. Daniel Choi's rise to fame has put a few gay activist's noses out of joint. "I've gotten [shit] from other activists... I wouldn't go to the point of saying that I don't deserve to be in this role, but they say, "You sort of came out of nowhere.'"

• Report recommends the U.S. military should repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (or in other words, get rid of the sodomy ban).

• The Navy senior chief at centre of the Joseph Rocha hazing scandal has been forced to retire.

• You Will Eat Your Babies, screams Shirley Phelps-Ropers placard. No word on whether that's a biblical command, a threat, or helpful advice on how to withstand the financial crisis.

• "Everybody is different. I don't want to watch two grown men wrestling with panties on. I'm from the hood, we don't play that. To me, I'm not buying a ticket to watch two grown men with panties on, sweating, [with] nuts in their face. That's not me. To compare that to boxing is ludicrous. It's a porno. It's an entertainment porno." Boxer Bernard Hopkins. Yawn.

• The gays are everywhere - even in the Mafia. Watch your backs...

• Transgender people victims of global counter-terror campaigns.

• Gay policeman charged with sex attack on junior officer.

• London sees an 18 percent rise in homophobic crime.

• So why is the Metropolitan Police Service cutting back on LGBT liaison officers?

• The Met doesn't have gay people's trust.

• Homophobia in football: Guilty bystanders and alpha male eunuchs.

• Here's a really revolting thought - the leaders of two far-right facist groups in a gay affair. Yuk.

• Remember the Gay Tourist Office I mentioned back in September? It's now open for business.

• Congratulations to Kenyan couple Charles Ngengi and Daniel Chege Gichia, who married in London last Saturday. Gay Tanzanian model Julius Reuben was present at the ceremony in Islingon. The source article is sadly laced with homophobia and there's in excess of two hundred comments of pure venom.

• Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants gay couple to conduct civil partnerships in Westminster Hall's chapel, "on the grounds of the Parliamentary estate".

• Children's charity Barnardo's wants more gay couples (and even individuals) to adopt children.

• The Scottish National Party (which holds power in Scotland) passes a resolution criticising the UK government for its treatment of LGBT asylum seekers.

• Stephen Gately: Gay group reports Jan Moir to police.

• Stephen Gately: Will the Press Complaints Commission act on Gatley Daily Mail article?

• Stephen Gately: Jan Moir - real consequences, or much sound and fury signifying nothing?

• Stephen Gately: Jan Moir apologises to Stephen Gately's parents but attacks 'hysterical overreaction' of critics.

• Stephen Gately: Jan Moir changes her tune.

• Stephen Fry talks Poles, politeness and politics in the age of Twitter.

• As the decade draws to a close, Peter Tatchell reflects on the last ten years.

• Sports stars come out: All-Ireland hurling star Dónal Óg Cusack announces he's gay.

• Indian man castrates himself to join begging eunuchs.

• Don't force homeless people to perform oral sex. It'll go wrong. Badly wrong.

• Nepal wakes up to the power of the pink rupee.

• Women, bloggers and gays lead change in the Arab world. Don't look at me - I'm not a girl.

• There's talk of these Arab winds of change in The Guardian too.

• Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill Put Off Until 2010. Don't get too excited, that's just 68 days away.

• Concentration Camp: the name of a party by, and for, gays. Yes, really.

• Half of LGBT teenagers in New Zealand have self-harmed.

• "Faggot Kid! You don't know what real marriage is!" Australian teacher shaping the mind of a young student.

• A calendar featuring transgender models posing as the Virgin Mary? Well that's not gonna cause problems in deeply Catholic Spain, is it?

• Sweden allows gay couples to marry in church.

• The Big Picture: Diwali 2009, pictured above and below (33 pictures).

• Kite strings coated with glass powder: they take kite flying seriously in India.

• How to purify the body: stab yourself in the cheeks with machine guns, pineapples, any old thing really. 13 (graphic) pictures.

• And I thought our police were bad. Justice, Rio style.

• Tortured, shot and dumped in a shopping trolley.

• Mexican city Ciudad Juarez is the murder capital of the world.

• 25th suicide at France Telecom demonstrates the human cost of privitisation.

• Undercover film-maker Guenter Wallraff exposes the casual racism prevalent in Germany.

• Koran verses 'appear' on skin of miracle Russian baby. Miami Ink's Ami James spotted tattoo pen.

• The greatest wine sale ever known...

• What Dubya did next: motivational speaker. "I suggest to ya'all, that the best thing to cure the blues is to get out there and start a war, kill some evil terrorists. God bless America."

• The Ku Klux Klan's (is it just me or is that hard to say?) bloody history.

• Working for Lego like working for the CIA.

• The 'Noughties' are drawing to a close - but how will they be remembered?

• British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin claims Sikhs and Hindus support his party.

• BNP on BBC's Question Time: key quotes. Like, "I shared a platform with David Duke, who was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a totally non-violent one by the way." That's alright then...

• Freedom of speech is fine until the invective is against you.

• The world's most densely populated countries.

• Are you a Tube station?

• Boy babe Louis Smith crashes and burns at the World Gymnastics Championships. Video.

• The ten worst Olympians: loveable losers from the Games. Right, Eric 'The Eel' Moussambani.

• The Dot Gay Alliance lobbies the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for a Top-Level Domain devoted to the LGBT community.

• The internet is 40!

• Internet rules and laws: the top 10, from Godwin to Poe.

• 50 technological advances your children will laugh at.

• Apple: 'Windows 7 is antiquated technology'.

• Microsoft Windows 7 reviews: 27 takes.

• The camera that will record every second of your life. Gee, that's a great idea.

• Last week's Air Multiplier was invented 30 years ago.

• Will the world end on 21st December 2012? NASA say no.

• The day after tomorrow map.

• How to save the planet: downsize or eat your pet, or better still don't have one.

• 15 smart and funny safe sex adverts that don't (really) mention sex (pictured right).

• Alcohol: Red wine makes fish taste too fishy.

• Alcohol: white wine bad for your teeth.

• Alcohol: six in ten people (including your correspondent) ignore safe drinking levels.

• Alcohol: 9,000 people are dying from alcohol-related diseases every year.

• Alcohol: liver disease (including cirrhosis) is the only major fatal disease to be rising in Britain and will be the single biggest cause of death within 20 years.

• Things that make us depressed: late night television and bright lights at night.

• Boffins think drugs could combat sleep deprivation.

• Coffee - with added collagen.

• Scientific proof at last: people who walk'n'talk whilst on their phones are f**king idiots.

• That most beautiful of creatures, the African elephant, could be extinct in 15 years.

• The United States designates 200,000 square miles in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears.

• The only polar bear in Blighty (right) has been moved north to the Scottish Highlands. The bear was rescued from Canada in 1984.

• The 25 best music websites.

• UK's Top selling singles of all time. No.10 is Mary's Boy Child - Oh My Lord, by Boney M, which I've never heard of, but sounds more gay than I thought was possible.

• Er... so what music was used as torture at Guantanamo Bay? Artists want to know. (If it was me, I'd use Shakira, Christina Aguilera and Beyonce.)

• Speaking of boy childs, Chipmunk thinks shehe wants to be a role model. So how come he got caught being a homophobic little bitch by my boy Malachi on Twitter?

• The big boys won't let the pretty little light skin boy cut his hair off.

• Poor baby was a victim of racist bullying too. "When I was 13 I joined a local football squad as I had dreams of playing for my team, Arsenal. I was always the shortest in my side or class at school and there were some comments made, calling me 'shorty' or taking the mick. But I was also the only black kid in the team and the comments started to reach another level. I'm mixed race as my mum is Irish and my dad is Jamaican. But I used to get called 'Osama Bin Laden' or 'Paki' which I just couldn't understand as it didn't make any sense. It was just ignorant but I decided they were never going to break me."

• The moment light entertainment died, was reborn then ate itself. You might be sick.

• This week's Gays of our Lives, with Anthony D Langford. (Happy birthday from ka-os|theory!) Left, David and Fer in Física O’ Química.

• EastEnders: Recession forces 16 actor limit.

• EastEnders: Coming soon, an online spin-off, EastEnders: E20. The web drama has been written by 13 new London writers aged between 17 and 22.

• EastEnders: Former Blake's 7 actress Glynis Barber (Soolin) is to appear as Glenda Mitchell, the estranged wife of Archie Mitchell.

• EastEnders: Former cast member Mohammed George (Gus, right) complains, "One star openly said that the bosses just didn't know what to do with black actors. Their storylines have always been weak and I have no idea why." That may have been true in his time, but sure ain't true now...

• This is so exciting I think I might actually pass out: Sue Ellen may return in the new Dallas!

• The star of new Mexican telenovela Los Existosos Pérez, Jaime Camil, is frustrated his scenes, in which he kisses male co-star Jose Rohn, are being edited out of finished shows.

• B.D. Wong's character in Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit is to officially come out of the closet. Who remembers his sexy priest in Oz?

• Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures is back for its third series - and guess Who makes an appearance? Sexy Clyde (Daniel Anthony, right) sees inside the TARDIS (don't look at me like that, the actor is actually 22!).

• World's hairiest man will have plastic surgery to become TV star. Nothing a Bic wouldn't solve, surely?

• The most famous gull in the world. Where is he now, I wonder?

• Chose the poster for the much-anticipated offering Do Começo Ao Fim.

• I had to call it an "offering". Here's why.

• Johnny Mad Dog. Reviews: Telegraph, Guardian, Variety, Mail Online, Independent.

• Russia's first mainstream film about drag queens: Veselchaki (Jolly Fellows).

• Flava Works and Jean Daniel Cadinot are winners at the first-ever HustlaBall Awards.

• Remember the Puma Index guy from a few editions ago? French mag TÊTU does (right).

• Unfortunate juxtapositions: people photographed near amusing signs.

• Plastic Moon (left) by Japanese architects Norisada Maeda Atelier. Stunning.

• Rotterdam's Stadskantoor, by Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

This edition of
World Outside My Window (The Week According To Garçon Stupide)
was built from articles collated during the week
17th-23th October 2009.

POSTSCRIPT
"You know, we might just as well not have bothered to come.
The whole thing's been ridiculous."