THE WEEK ACCORDING TO GARÇON STUPIDE

WORLD
OUTSIDE
MY
WINDOW

*Models - including the City Gym Boys - strut Atlanta designer Lee Gregory's underwears on the catwalk.

*Floyd Mayweather's becoming a regular in this column. But this week he has something sensible to say: "Dudes today are flooded with a thousand tattoos, a bunch of piercings and bright colors, and pretend like that makes them different. But guess what? They all look alike." Quite. The focus of this piece, however, is his supposed "diva-like behaviour" at a magazine phoot shoot.

*Bryan Safi examines the ins and outs of No Homo:

*"By and large in this country the issue of gay rights and equality should be past the point of debate. Really, there should be no debate anymore." Another straight professional football player shows his support for the LGBT community. The full article makes for interesting reading.

*Here's a picture and a half: Lt. Dan Choi and former congressional candidate Anthony Woods (who've featured regularly in The Week According To Garçon Stupide) joined other LGBT veterans for the ceremonial wreath laying at the Tomb Of The Unknowns. Both men were discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

*Here's more of Choi in a televised debate on CNN, with some weird conservative crone.

*Washington expands the definition of violent federal hate crimes to include those committed because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Republicans opposed the legislation. Right, Matthew Shepard.

*"Obama is gays' best friend - to say otherwise is shortsighted, insulting and just plain dumb," writes Earl Ofari Hutchinson. The same can't be said of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

*Or has he just been granted a 7-year pass on gay rights?

*Right wing doesn't care about the abuse of gay kids.

*39 percent of Americans support legalizing same-sex marriage; 49 percent say homosexual behavior is morally wrong. Opposition to gay marriage is significantly stronger amongst black respondents.

*However, as the Rev. Irene Monroe (left) points out, "An idea that was once thought of as an anathema to black queer identity, marriage, in our LGBTQ communities, is being celebrated and on the rise. And many of us are now proudly walking down the aisle to tie the knot."

*Monroe says elsewhere, "No faith community knows better than the Black Church how religion-based bigotry shapes prejudicial attitudes in this country."

*Drink Pepsi! They're homosexual advocates! That's according to the American Family Association (yuk) who want a Pepsi boycott.

*Microsoft could be next on their list. The company donated $100,000 to the campaign trying to approve Referendum 71.

*Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, the authors of And Tango Makes Three, the children's book about a pair of gay penguins, have had a baby daughter by a surrogate mother.

*Peter Tatchell sets out the case for shutting down Buju Banton's current US concert tour.

*Banton is on his way to Dallas despite his concert there having being canceled. The promoter has booked the Palm Beach Club in Deep Ellum for Tuesday, 20th October.

*"I'm a black man of Jamaican ancestry... but because I am gay, [Buju Banton and Beenie Man] say they are at war with me." George Byars writes about songs of hate.

*Homophobic parents can't opt their children out of gay-friendly lessons, the Vancouver board of education rules.

*The stupidity of anti-gay, self-assessment for blood donation is laid bare.

*It's Gay To Smoke...

*Que, of QC Sex Chronicles, has a conversation about bareback sex.

*15 TV characters who never came out of the closet (but should have).

*The things gay geeks can do with photoshop.

*The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has withdrawn two personalised numberplates (F4 GOT and D1 KES) from auction following complaints.

*Said Mohamed, a straight Muslim, plays a gay man in Colonial Gods. The film premiera at the Cardiff gay and lesbian Iris Prize Festival.

*Gay Muslims need support: Some religious communities are not reciprocating the tolerance and respect they insist on from others when it comes to gay rights, particularly in Muslim and some Christian communities.

*Paris Foot Gay, a gay football team, have been denied a scheduled match by a fellow (Muslim) league side, Bebel.

*The likely next Prime Minister, David Cameron, has denied the Polish Law and Justice Party (with which his own party, the Conservatives, are allied) are homophobic. Polish Law and Justice Party MP Michal Kaminski was filmed calling gay people "fags".

*And if you don't take my word for it, maybe you should listen to Stephen Fry.

*...or better still, Peter Tatchell. He says, "Conservative Party leader David Cameron is all talk and no action on gay rights. [He] has a poor voting record on gay issues. Only last year voted to deny lesbian couples equal access to IVF fertility treatment. In 2003, he voted to retain Section 28."

*That the Tories are showing their true (anti-gay) colours is reflected in the fact that LGBT support has plummeted for the Conservative Party.

*But that won't stop the party that gave us Section 28 soliciting the pink vote. The Tories threw a gay club night: "Skin-tight T-shirts, posters of semi-naked men and buckets of condoms on the tables." 'Cos that's what the gays are all about. I much prefer the sound of "Tory Shame," and its Thatcher lookalike drag queen.

*Don't judge a book by its cover: Thugs attack two transvestites... who turn out to be cage fighters wearing fancy dress.

*"I got into the habit of paying for boys [even though I knew] the sordid details of this traffic... All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously ... the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire." Things you shouldn't write in your autobiography if you're a government minister.

*Russia has until January 20 to answer the European Court of Human Rights questions Moscow Pride bans in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

*Lesbian island!

*Hong Kong's second gay pride parade will run under the theme 'Be proud, be yourself' on 1st November.

*Are gay rights under threat in South Africa?

*15,000 at Johannesburg Gay Pride.

*The Telecommunication Directorate in Turkey has shut down the country's two largest gay and lesbian Internet communities, hadigayri.com and gabile.com.

*Tel Aviv: the world's gay capital?

*The Hunted: From Baghdad — frightening reports of gay pogroms, where homosexual men are targeted, tortured, slayed. From New York — a scurry to find those same men before they are killed, and shepherd them to safety. New York Magazine in depth feature.

*What happens to Manhattan's old subway cars?

*Rio 2016: Proposed Olympic venues.

*The Big Picture: 2009 Sumatra earthquakes, below (40 pictures).

*The Big Picture: The Berlin Reunion, below (35 pictures).

*Why polar bear cubs ride on their mother's backs.

*If you haven't already seen this elephant birth - do. It's incredible. Not sure about the mother's methods for getting the baby elephant to stand up, though...

*'Whatever' so totally tops most annoying word poll. I'm not so sure. Like, try having, like, a conversation with someone who, like, says "like" every, like, few words. Innit.

*The Lego Book. Just what I've always wanted.

*Even the Americans are jumping on the JLS bandwagon - and who can blame them?

*Eating Out 3 makes for a mostly unsatisfying meal.

*Gay Porn Blog revisits long gone porn star Joey Stefano: "The real fun in watching Stefano for me, aside from the amazing ass, is the Nomi Malone whoreyness after nearly a decade of Reagan-fueled shame. The aggressive sluttiness isn't just hot, it's also radically unapologetic about gay sexual desire. Or something."

*Loudmouth jerk-off Jeremy Clarkson: "TV obsessed with hiring black Muslim lesbians."

*Anthony D. Langford discusses the Gay of our Lives in his weekly AfterElton column. Left, Física O Química. Right, Niv Raz and Ofer Shechter in Israeli soap Til The Wedding.

*But it wasn't the gay storyline shaking up EastEnders this week. The honour goes to Stacey Slater's slide into insanity and subsequent sectioning. Harrowing.

*Has gay television finally grown up? Left, Gregory Michael and Paul James in Greek.

*The ex-husband of Little Britain's Matt Lucas, Kevin McGee, hangs himself.

*Reggie Yates would love to go back to Doctor Who.

*Barry Letts, the writer, director and producer, 26th March 1925 - 9th October 2009. A little of the joy he left us, below.

Issue 30 (three days late) edition of
The Week According To Garçon Stupide
was built from articles collated during the week
3rd-9th October 2009.

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