|||The majority of African-Americans favour marriage equality, claims Ben Jealous, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
|||Chelsea Clinton's video supporting marriage equality was blocked by NBC.
|||This is hairdresser Shaun Woolford (below left), who was murdered by jilted boyfriend Devineil Brown (below right) in Brooklyn. DNAinfo.com has more pictures.
|||Tak Yamamoto, a pioneer in the Japanese-American gay equality movement, is dead. He was 74.
UK NEWS
< Prime Minister David Cameron faces "biggest rebellion ever" over marriage equality. "Among the 118 Tory MPs planning to vote against marriage equality is gay MP Conor Burns (left), who says gay people do not want to be married."
|||Despite what the mainstream media would have us believe, girls are not the only victims of child sexual exploitation: "Randall, a 15-year-old boy of mixed ethnic heritage, was unaware of safe ways to meet other gay young people. He told professionals that groups of men offered him alcohol, cigarettes and acceptance in exchange for sex. Professionals are trying to keep him away from areas of risk, but he continues to go missing."
> Brunel University slammed for giving anti-gay Muslim cleric Abu Usamah At-Thahabi platform to speak.
|||Muslim radio station in Leeds fined after female presenter calls gay people "evil" who should be "beaten up".
< Gay Ugandan torture victim Asuman Kabugo fears death penalty if deported from UK; the Border Agency claims he hasn't proven his sexuality to them, or that his life would be in danger should he return to Uganda.
|||Sir Ian McKellen inspires students in London school to set up gay-straight alliance.
|||ITALY: A 15-year-old boy who loved to wear pink trousers and pink jumpers has committed suicide after a campaign of homophobic abuse on Facebook and at his high school.
> FRANCE: Gay-friendly mosque to open in Paris. The association of Gay Muslims in France (HM2F) are behind the move. Right, HM2F founder Ludovic Lütfi Zahed and his South African partner Qiyam al-Din; they married earlier this year in a Muslim marriage.
|||FRANCE: President François Hollande admits his comments about marriage equality were "inappropriate".
> JAMAICA: University of Technology security guards plead "not guilty" in gay beating. The university says that students who are found to have been a part of the abuse "will be dealt with".
|||JAMAICA: Equality campaigners protest against Jamaican homophobia in front of the Jamaican consulate in New York.
|||COLOMBIA: Gay sex "revolting" and lesbian sex "inane", Colombian Senator Roberto Gerlein announces during marriage equality debate.
> The Big Picture: An Indian boy sells deities of the goddess Lakshmi and the god Ganesha during the festival of Diwali in New Delhi, 13th November 2012.
|||PHILIPPINES: Filipino people are ready for same-sex marriage, claims gay pastor Reverend Ceejay Agbayani, of the LGBTS ("S" for straight) Christian Church in Metro Manila.
|||PALESTINE: Gay couple killed by Israeli Gaza bombing.
|||United Arab Emirates LGBT rights group releases video calling for a dialogue on the human rights of gay Emiratis.
BOOKS, ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
< In Vienna over the next few months? Be sure to visit the Leopold Musuem, where Nude Men, an exhibition covering 1800 to the present day, is on until 28th January...
> London's hidden interiors, in pictures. Right, Battersea Power Station. < Abandoned cities and villages around the world, in pictures. Left, Prypiat in Ukraine.
|||Rikki Beadle-Blair's new collection of motivational daily meditations, Reasons To Live, is out now. Get it!
|||Review: These Things Happen, by Richard Kramer. "A compassionate novel with a heart as big as New York City. There are no villains here, only flawed human beings. Compulsively readable and affecting take on the way we live now."
> Talking to DC Moore about Straight, about two old university friends reuniting to shoot a gay porn movie.
< Review: Black T-Shirt Collection. "The play tells the story of two young men from Nigeria – Mohammed and his foster-brother Matthew, originally from a Christian family – who grow up to launch a successful T-shirt business, powered by Matthew’s growing talent for design. The story darkens, though, when Matthew learns that Mohammed is gay, and at imminent risk of exposure, in a social climate already made dangerous by escalating tension between Moslems and Christians."
> The Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival - Mumbai's gay film festival - arrives in Britain, screening movies at one of London's oldest cinemas.
|||Talking to openly gay Indian film-maker, Onir (My Brother... Nikhil).
|||So you don't have to watch the Twilight films (but you still want the good stuff) here's every no shirt moment, in one handy video. Enjoy.
< Young Soul Rebels is one of The Guardian's season of British cult classics. "The story of a couple of soul-patrol pirate radio DJs – one gay, one straight, both black – is threaded with an investigation into a homophobic murder. Julien presents the street culture of the time as a pan-racial, pan-sexual anti-establishment free-for-all. Presumably, though, a film like his would have been untenable at the time."
|||Brilliant: The Day the Earth Stopped Masturbating.
TV
> Sheldon Stephens has retracted his retraction, and now says he was underage when he had sex with Sesame Street actor Kevin Clash.
|||A second accuser, Cecil Singleton, also claims he had a relationship with Clash, and naturally is suing for a multi-million dollar payout. Funny, that...
< Cecil, by the way, chooses to represent himself to the world like this.
|||Clash has resigned from Seasame Street: "Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work Sesame Street is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer. I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately."
|||Larry Hagman: "Hagman was easily the best thing on the [Dallas] reboot. His advanced age deepened the character. J.R. was worried about his legacy now, and his retinue of women was just for show – an expression of financial rather than sexual potency. Hagman seemed to draw on his own age and health problems as he acted the part. He moved more slowly now, conserving his energy like an old cobra who could only strike once a day. J.R. was still Richard III, but was turning into King Lear; that he was the only character who seemed to know this added a poignant dimension to his evil plots, and connected the new Dallas to the old."
|||Rylan Clark calls for homophobic viewers of The X Factor to be "locked up", saying "enough is enough". And JLS have spoken out to condemn the "witch hunt".
|||Another X Factor contestant, Union J's Jaymi Hensley, has now come out as gay.
|||Listen to Bruno Mars' new track Moonshine. Seal, anyone?
> Elton John invests in the photography of Ross Watson - including a shot of Bel Ami boy Dolph Lambert - who John had on his yacht this summer.
< Watch gay NYC rapper Le1f's sizzling new video, Soda. And here's an interview with Le1f, and his production partner Boody. And another - this time from Dazed Digital - where you best not call him a "gay rapper": "IM NOT SOME RHYMING JUKING FAGGOT CAKE WALK. FUCK." Love. Him.
SKIN
|||Why the LA porn condom law is a judgement on studio producers. "Bareback gay porn puts millions of viewers at risk, as well as the performers who make it."