THE WEEK ACCORDING TO GARÇON STUPIDE

*Openly gay rapper Bry'Nt covers SGL Weekly. Here he is interviewed by Christopher Street series creator Dwight Allen O'Neal:

*Buju Banton's message of hate loses him more money: now prominent Salt Lake City music venue Urban Lounge cancels his show.

*And six more U.S. venues cancel 'Kill Gays' artist.

*In Ottawa, activists attempted to have Beenie Man denied entry to Canada ahead of last Sunday's show; sadly, the "controversial reggae star performed Sunday night in Ottawa without a hitch."

*Kanye: shut the f**k up. Your contributions to a dialogue about sexuality are unwanted.

*Dolce & Gabbana Stopped Supporting the Gays. Time to Stop Supporting D&G?

*"This is a lot more fun than raiding niggers with crack." How Atlanta's police get their kicks.

*Obama gets more time to ditch Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

*Our children are hurting: "We found clear and concerning signs of higher rates of eating disorder symptoms in sexual-minority youth compared to their heterosexual peers even at ages as young as 12, 13 or 14 years old."

*In the UK, psychiatrists have called on the government to clamp down on websites that promote anorexia and bulimia as a lifestyle choice. A 90 per cent increase of eating disorders amongst men is reported.

*Gay, and seeking a job. Thousands of boys and girls lined up for Out to Work, a LGBT job fair in Manhattan.

*Legal eagles explain just why making a will is essential for gay couples.

*More reasons to love Mehcad Brooks: "But I'm also not even concerned with marrying somebody until it's legal for everybody to get married. And what I mean by that is the whole Prop 8 thing. I find it really offensive. I just find it really problematic when you start throwing people's rights away. Until we get our gay brothers and sisters back into a realm of consciousness that everyone else is in, it's just not right. A woman who's getting married — it's probably going to be a gay man who made her dress, and a gay man who’s doing her hair and makeup, but he can't get married. How messed up is that?" We love you, Mehcad.

*The first inductees into the Queer Hall of Fame.

*London is to get its very own Gay Tourist Office. Shaun Newport told PinkNews: "The majority of the time LGBT travellers have the same needs as straight travellers, what we want to do is provide that extra bit of inside knowledge that can help LGBT people when in another country. [The] London gay scene is massive and as it grows it can become increasingly difficult to find something that is gay AND relevant to you." Under Ken Livingstone, such a venture would no doubt have had the support of City Hall - you can bet Tory Boris won't be getting London officially involved.

*"All these guys started kissing each other and humping each other. They were kissing each other, holding each other and grinding, basically having sex with clothes on standing up. I'd say there were about seven guys dancing around, off and on. I pushed them apart because they were clinging on to each other and told them it wasn't appropriate." A female martial arts instructor explains why she knocked out a soldier at an army barracks party.

*" 'Some people are gay. Get over it' say Stonewall in a big banner at Central Station. Yes, and most people find it disgusting - you get over that!" What the readers think of Stonewall's anti-homophobia campaign (guess the message hasn't really sunk in then). More importantly, why did Metro publish such a letter in the first place; they claim they won't publish anything racist or sexist. Homophobia is okay then, is it?

*The youth of today... An 18-year-old tries to gas, then stab, a 47-year-old with whom he had just had sex. They met online and had been texting for some time, apparently.

*And I thought my high school days were rough: a 12-year-old pre-operative transexual boy turns up for his first day with "long hair in ribboned pigtails after his parents changed his name to a female one by deed poll over the summer holidays." The school also helpfully calls an assembly to tell everyone the news.

*Last week we heard about the Out in Africa South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and saw some of the lovely artwork publicising the event. More than 700 Posters with that artwork were systematically removed over days, by a suspected "fundamentalist religious or right-wing groups".

*The cinematic event of the year, Brazilian film Do Começo ao Fim, won't debut at Première Brasil in Rio after all. Director Aluizio Abranches says it won't be finalised in time. Via Made in Brazil (since I can't read the original source in Portugese).

*Backstage coverage of this year's Mr. Gay Brazil (in Portuguese).

*Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell defends Elton John's plans to adopt a 14-month Ukranian boy: "Leaving him in an orphanage is not a good option. Some celebrity adoptions of children from developing countries have been criticised. It is preferable for children to be adopted in their home countries. As a last resort, international adoption is probably in Lev's best interests. Given that David and Elton are an internationally famous gay couple, adopting Lev could help break down ignorance and prejudice concerning gay adoption. They could become role model gay adoptive parents and help raise worldwide awareness about same-sex parenting. I hope this publicity will encourage more people - gay and straight - to consider adopting a child in need, or to support charities that help support parents who are struggling to cope with their children."

*The issue of sexuality aside, Ukraine got one thing right: Elton John, at 62, is too old to be a father. Would you want an 80-year-old as your Dad when you're 18? Utterly selfish.

*"Tops were more likely than both bottoms and versatiles to reject a gay self-identity and to have had sex with a woman in the past three months. They also manifested higher internalized homophobia." Top scientists get to the bottom of gay male sex role preferences.

*Indonesia introduces severe penalties for homosexuality; public lashings and up to eight years in prison. Amnesty International has demanded the new laws be repealed immediately.

*How Islamist gangs use internet to track, torture and kill Iraqi gays: Iraqi militias infiltrate internet gay chatrooms to hunt their quarry – and hundreds are feared to be victims.

*How murder of our gay man in Jamaica has exposed the double standards of the paradise island.

*Last week's good news story from Uruguay might not be so.

*The European Union votes to adopt a resolution criticising the recent law (reported last week) passed by Lithuania which prohibits discussion of homosexuality in schools or in media accessible by young people.

*And "if the Baltic state perseveres with new homophobic laws, it has no place in the European Union," writes Joseph Galliano for The Guardian.

*Elsewhere in Lithuania, the European U23 Track and Field Championships were proceeding. ka-ostheory favourite Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (below) was there, doing his best impression of Usain Bolt (as if we hadn't seen enough of that aready).

*Belgrade Pride 2009, which should have gone ahead today, is cancelled. Serbian police rescinded permission when they decided they couldn't guarantee security.

*Towleroad has extensive coverage of events leading up to the decision.

*The International Festival of Queer Culture has launched in St. Petersburg, Russia.

*Lebanon: "We're Here, We're Queer, We're Online"; Bekhsoos, an online magazine "covering topics related to (homo)sexuality in the Arab world" and founded by Lebanese group Meem (a support community for LGBT people) is relaunched.

*Gay Chinese confront police, empower community.

*The Big Picture: China prepares for its 60th anniversary (above) (35 more pictures).

*South Africa's athletics chief lied about Caster Semenya tests. Meanwhile, having been utterly humiliated (if not destroyed) in front of a global audience, the real victim in all of this, Semenya herself, has been placed on suicide watch: "She is like a raped person. She is afraid of herself and does not want anyone near her. If she commits suicide, it will be on all our heads. The best we can do is protect her and look out for her during this trying time."

*Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a gay panic, and tries to steer attention away from his Eddie Murphy boy crush by saying, "If I was white, I'd be the biggest athlete in America. I know that for a fact." Er... aren't all the biggest athletes black?

*The 2010 Dieux du Stade is imminent. Queerty have a video of its making.

*Or how about a Lego calendar?

*Obama and the unicorn.

*Six African boys, some of whom are thought to be as young as seven, paddle over to Spain in a toy dinghy.

*The Big Picture: One year after Hurricane Ike (13 pictures).

*The rightwing political party, the British National Party (BNP), denies that it is homophobic or sexist; last month, BNP legal director Lee Barnes denounced modern women self loathing, sexless and androgynous monstrosities.

*But what's the best way to deal with the BNP and its ilk? The Trades Union Congress wants to bar BNP members from working in the public sector, and others think they should be banned from public forums like the BBC's Question Time. Jessica Green writes for PinkNews: "Instead of pretending they're not there and allowing them a kind of perverse matyrdom, seek them out, challenge them and drown out their voices in a sea of reasoned, logical debate."

*Really honest advertising (right).

*Do people fall in love on trains?

*Transport for London (TfL) decide to declutter Mr Beck's Tube map, by removing the zones which tell passengers how much they pay, and the Thames, which everyone gets their knickers in a twist about, even though it serves no practical purpose.

*Transport for London decide to reinstate the Thames; the media puffs its chest out in pride at this monumental victory. Passengers still won't know what zone they're in, however.

*The Guardian's Diamond Geezer has a day-by-day account of the whole idiotic saga, which demonstrates how lame the mainstream media really is, and what a complete tosser Mayor Boris is.

*And The Guardian's Patrick Barkham proves what an odious little twit he is by denigrating frontline Tube staff in response to Thamesgate: " 'What new tube map?' grunted the official stationed at King's Cross, when I asked for a copy of the design classic that shows the lines of the London Underground. 'Your imbecilic and geographically illiterate new diagram that's wiped the River Thames off the map,' I replied, in my head at least." His embarassingly classist comments didn't escape the attention of Guardian readers. leskaiserboom responded, "i wish you had said that out loud and then i wish i had been there to see you get chucked out the station for being an arrogant snob, dosn't reflect well on the tone of the gaurdian, maybe climb down from your ivory tower and reflect some genuine and informed views that are balanced and humble, im sure the tube worker is very sorry he probably dosn't feel jolly enough 24/7 to deal with stupid and annoying questions but maybe he didnt have rich parents to bankroll his rise to fame in a job like journalism, sorry if thats a presumption, maybe your a working class hero but i doubt it considering that quote." Three cheers for leskaiserboom!

*A humpback whale found dead in the Thames is thought to have starved to death.

*A red panda escapes from London Zoo.

*The High Court has dismissed objections by English Heritage and Westminster council and granted permission for a 43-storey residential tower block behind the National Theatre on London's South Bank.

*Things to do with disused Victorian gas holders: giant trampoline and slide.

*There's a giant chess set in Trafalgar Square. I should have taken pictures of it myself, since I work there, but I didn't. 'The Tournament' is by Spanish designer Jaime Hayón, and it's part of London Design Festival 09.

*Brixton gets its own currency.

*The last edition of thelondonpaper was issued on Friday.

*Can we blame anti-gay religion for our higher HIV rates?

*Two-thirds of gay men have had an HIV test - have you?

*"Run your shower for a minute or so before you get in, otherwise you'll get a face full of bacteria." It's the Shower Head of Death!

*"The more closely genetically related the children were, the more alike the age of first intercourse was, regardless of absent fathers. Genetics, they argue, has far more influence on this measure than a father's absence." Absent fathers aren't entirely to blame.

*How did humans come to be hairless?

*The snake with a foot.

*Four-eyed fish!

*Polar bears attack!

*Eco-xenophobia!

*A filtration system which uses living plants to purify the air indoors, by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur.

*Bless. Chris Brown pays his debt to society. Chances of his efforts stopping the hate campaign bandwagon? Zero.

*Everybody hates Kanye! Now that's a bandwagon I'm happy to jump on. Obama calls him a jackass, and Towleroad denounces him as a classless ass. There comes a point when attitude and ego stop being amusing and start grating on the nerves. And answer me this: if West was white, and Swift was black, would there not be cries of RACIST! from the righteous? You bet. In a week where Obama is called a liar and his accuser is condemned as a racist, no seems to have the nerve to point out the ugly anti-white undercurrent to this whole episode...

*Or was it all staged?

*Dizzee Rascal says Kanye (and his ilk) are too expensive: "I don't feel I should pay someone a quarter of a million [to produce me]. Timbaland's not cheap. That's a lot [of money]."

*Robbie Gee to guest in EastEnders.

*"In terms of Neighbours being more multicultural, yes absolutely we could definitely go further with that. It would be fantastic to do that. Having said that, you've got to remember that Neighbours is a beast that deals in generalisations. We do it in broad, brushstrokes. So if Australia is more white then there's going to be a more-white representation amongst the cast. Now being that Australia is far more multicultural, absolutely... make the show more multicultural." A Neighbours actor tries to justify why the Australian soap has never had a non-white character (for more than a few episodes) in over twenty years on air.

*The world's longest running soap, Guiding Light (above left), ended on Friday after 72 years.

*Sex, murder, crime, family intrigue and clothes! A drama about the Borgias, the notorious Italian noble family that ran amok during the Renaissance - could replace The Tudors after its fourth and final season.

*The man everyone loves to hate: Michael Lucas. But what does his family make of him?

*And since we're talking about the Jews... Mixing Jewish + Gay Stereotypes Is a Recipe for Insta-Camp. Queerty tells us about Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!

*Michael Douglas and Matt Damon to play lovers in Liberace biopic.

*A film about the life of Charles Darwin cannot find a distributor in the United States.

*In case you missed yesterday's story: Keyontyli is free!

*Bel Ami launches behind the scenes blog.

*Rod 2.0 runs a Chad White photo post, again running the risk of being labelled a snow queen. There's a little race baiting from some, but one comment bolstered my optimism: "No one should berate someone else for who they find attractive. When I was younger, I used to get offended by black men who were mostly interested in white guys. I would call them snow queens. I am now 43 years old and it doesn't bother me at all now. I love my black brothers of many hues. But I have no right to hate on those you prefer the white boys."

*This fantastic vision is by Dutch architects MVRDV. Unfortunately, it's going to be used by a bank. How sad.

*Patrick Swayze, the actor, August 18 1952 – September 14 2009.

Issue 27 of The Week According To Garçon Stupide was built from articles collated during the week 13-19 September 2009.

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