TALES FROM THE MAGIC FOUNTAIN

THE NEWS
ACCORDING TO
GARÇON STUPIDE

• Hudson Taylor (left): The straight University of Maryland wrestling star who champions gay rights.

• Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij (right): "I'm gay."

• You can't keep a good manwoman down!

• For the first time, more Americans don't think homosexuality is morally repugnant than do. Hooray!

• Denied an apartment because they're gay.

• Miss Beverly Hills 2010 wishes to remind the gays that the bible says we'll all be put to death!

• But wait! The City of Beverly Hills says there's no such thing as Miss Beverly Hills! Shame...

• Puerto Rican judge find probable cause to prosecute Juan José Martínez Matos for the murder of teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado.

• Zombie Zealots Coming of Age: "America's religious fanatics are modeling their efforts on the success of radical Islamists in the Middle East, who reversed the trend of secularization in the region by hijacking education."

• San Francisco News looks at how an "inept anti-Prop. 8 campaign fumbled what should have been a winning campaign".

• Karl and Michael are getting married!

• Pennsylvania court rejects 25-year-old legal precedent and rules that a parent's homosexual relationship cannot be used against the parent in determining child custody.

• Big ole croc sucker.

• An introduction to Denham Fouts, prostitute.

• The evolution of gay theatre: "A new breed of plays and musicals this season is presenting gay characters in love stories, replacing the direct political messages of 1980s and '90s shows like The Normal Heart and Angels in America with more personal appeals for social progress."

• Malawi: A judge has refused to hear the case of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza. Their lawyer had appealed to the constitutional court, arguing that the law used against them violated their constitutional rights to privacy, belief and self-expression. The couple must now wait until March for a verdict in their criminal trial.

• A professor at an Indian University has been suspended for being gay.

• Australia's AIDS Council of NSW warns of an increase in homophobic violence accompanying Sydney Mardi Gras (right, in 2007). On a happier note, remember Keith Loutit's stunning tilt-shift time-lapse film from last year's event?

• Complaints lodged with police against anti-gay remarks made by Singapore pastor.

• Gay life in China is legal but remains hidden.

• Argentina: Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Bello (left) become the country's second gay married couple.

• Madrid gay couple buy a flat from the Pope.

• Blow me!

• Gay British Pakistani Muslims: Identity conflicts.

• What to do with a problem like Africa... Pro-gay artists and activists to unite in London on 28th February in response to the continent's continuing political unrest.

• And now a depressing tale of London's first, and oldest, gay pub. Bought by a chain and rebranded as a gastro-pub, it's corporate owners took steps to de-gay the pub, and ban "over-the-top" customers.

• If you play with fire... The gay businessman killed by the man he paid to fight him.

• Design for the new US embassy in London is unveiled. It's to be built on a site "known for its gay clubs". Dezeen has a more extensive gallery of images.

• Bus in distress.

• CoverSpyLondon - what's the capital reading? Your correspondent is currently wrapped up in the utterly brilliant Finlater.

• The Big Picture: Recent scenes from Indonesia (36 pictures).

• Was Darth Vadar Saddam Hussein's ultimate hero?

• Cristiano Ronaldo's erection.

• AIDS: Mass prescription of anti-retroviral drugs could eradicate the disease within 40 years.

• But The Guardian says, "We can't treat our way out of this epidemic".

• But AIDS drugs haven't changed HIV risk with anal sex.

• Last weekend we heard about PETA's Adopt, Don't Buy campaign. Kellan Lutz and his rescued mongrel are fronting the campaign.

• The mouse with a human liver.

• Arachnophobes beware: this clip will make you scream.

• Bleeding glacier.

• Those crazy Italians! They've only gone and convicted three Google executives for privacy violations: "The Google Italy employees were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video of bullying of a teenager with Down's Syndrome to be posted on YouTube in 2006. Google removed the video within hours of being notified of its existence."

• Google responds.

• Another nail in the coffin for Internet Explorer.

• British Library: UK's web heritage could be lost.

• 50 Cent plans to lose 65lbs for his next film role as a high school football player stricken with cancer in Things Fall Apart.

• Poor old Whitney's having a hard time of it in the outback - but who can blame her? It's not exactly civilised, is it?

• Remember that brilliant Old Spice ad from a week or two back? Here's a behind-the-scenes look...

• Everyone knows that the police seen in soaps are pretty laughable cardboard cut-outs. A dyslexic primary school kid could do a better job writing (and usually, acting too) cops on soaps. The real life Feds seem to have finally clocked this too.

• A pretty decrepit Dalek from 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks sold for £20,000 ($US30,555) at yesterday's auction of Doctor Who props. The Kandyman sold for a mere £1,920. Someone picked up a fire damaged Cleaner from 1987's Paradise Towers for £120. The full results are here.

• James Franco's student film The Feast of Stephen: a "slow-motion collision of penises and basketball".

• Coming soon: Die Hard 5.

• World's first cologne just for us.

• MM Apartment (left) by Japanese architects Nakae Architects and Ohno Japan. Incredible - you have to see what they've done inside!

• King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art by Zaha Hadid.

• Christ almighty, would you look at the state of it... It can only be model abuse.

• And finally, what kind of planet are we on?

Issue 51 of The News According To Garçon Stupide

covers the period 22-24th February 2010.

ka-os|theory is not responsible for the content of external websites.

POSTSCRIPT

"You know, we might just as well not have bothered to come.

The whole thing's been ridiculous."

© 2010