Travel: Caravans Of Love

At last!
Someone has finally published a list of the top 8 gay-friendly caravan parks in the UK!!!
Like watching the Moon landing or seeing Nelson Mandela walking free from prison, we shall all remember this moment and know that the world will never be quite the same again.
Nay, I shall go further, this - friends - is Britain's Stonewall Riots!

Daily Telegraph: Behind The Times

In other theatrical news, I can disclose that Darren Day is to play a homosexual gospel singer in The Last Session at the tiny Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden next month. The Hollyoaks star tells me: "I am thrilled to be playing the part of Gideon in this work as the book, score and lyrics are stunning. The part is a real contrast to my usual roles as I'll be playing a gay gospel singer who is HIV positive. Also, I love the challenge of performing a musical at an intimate theatre like the Tristan Bates. I'm more accustomed to large scale musicals and television. A new challenge is always fantastic and I couldn't resist this as the piece and part are so brilliant." 

The Daily Telegraph - the only British newspaper that still recommends calling gay men "homosexual" in its style book.
"gay: permissible in headlines if essential but use homosexual in text."
Then later, for clarification; "homosexual is an adjective, not a noun"
The baffling "gays" (a noun, not an adjective) is often used elsewhere - even in some gay media - though I don't know of any "gay" who uses it in speech, unless they are being ironic.
Not that I'm suggesting some gay journalists are completely out of touch or anything.
Heaven forfend!

Allan Horsfall: 1927-2012

A hero.
Founded the Homosexual Law Reform Committee - in 1964!
Carried on campaigning, and was president of CHE - though far more radical than that might suggest.
Here's the website, Gay Monitor, he ran with Ray Gosling latterly, which spoke out against S&M witch trials and against made-up gay "child abuse" allegations - two issues which the gay media was all too often silent on. 
I'm so glad you lived and so sad you died, Allan.

x

Thought For The Day: Stevie Wonder

"I think honestly, some people who think they're gay, they're confused. People can misconstrue closeness for love. People can feel connected, they bond. I'm not saying all [gay people are confused]. Some people have a desire to be with the same sex. But that's them."

Oh dear - bit clumsy, Stevie.
Interview in The Guardian by Paul Lester.
He was responding to a question about Frank Ocean's apparent coming out.
It now seems obligatory for white journalists to bring this up when they interview black artists.
It's a new variation on ye olde 'Hip Hop = Homophobic' saw.
Cause all black people hate queers, right?
More like some white straight journalists can't get their head round the idea of a black gay man.
It's patronising racist Orientalist junk.
Basically.

PS Paul Lester is hardly someone to pull someone up on their homophobia.

Update: An official apology/clarification. 

Abercrombie & Fitch: Bottoming

Abercrombie & Fitch’s (ANF) skin-filled ads and nightclub vibe once delighted American teenagers and infuriated parents. Today, many aren’t even paying attention. The once-edgy retailer has lost a third of its market value in the past year as it grapples with falling sales in Europe and the U.S. While Abercrombie blames the economy for its woes, brand consultants say it also has failed to change with the times. Today’s teens are underwhelmed by the half-naked models and blaring, dimly lit stores. They’re also less inclined to wear Abercrombie’s longtime uniform of pricey denim and graphic T-shirts. “The trick for fashion brands is how to keep the core edgy and hot,” says Allen Adamson, a managing director at brand consulting firm Landor Associates...

Business Week.
Maybe people have stopped wearing Abercrombie & Fitch cause you look like a naff air steward.
You don't look like the hot dudes in the adverts just cause you buy their clothes, you know?
Just sayin'.

Yugoslavia: Come

Dildogate: Knobs

Much mirth in the papers about an American gay couple who are suing Continental Airlines, claiming a homophobic baggage handler had taken a dildo out of one of their bags and sellotaped it on top.
A friend of theirs has posted a photo on his blog - and, err, it looks like the bag just split.
Still, happy suing, girls...

"Ah, America - land of the frivolous lawsuit" Lisa Simpson.

Update: Case laughed out of court.

Sir Rhodes Boyson: 1925-2012

Evil, mad Tory homopophic bigot - who as a school head master was also oddly keen on spanking young boys.
Let me know where he's being buried - I'll go piss on it.

Paralympics: I Am What I Am

I know I should probably dismiss this as a load of sentimental old nonsense, but this made me cry.
Like a little gurl.
Ah, maybe I'm losing my edge.
Or maybe there's some hope for the world.
Take it away, Beverley...

Twin Nation: Non-Identical

Fascinating Radio 4 programme about identical twins where one's gay and one's straight.
They claim research indicates this happens in over half of identical twins. 
Reinforces my belief that no-one has the slightest clue why anyone turns out gay.
Or straight.

PS It's not about twins doing it, pervs. 

Cameron Carpenter: Popular Player Of The Organ

I hesitate to imagine what words will be used to describe Cameron Carpenter’s two recitals at the Proms this weekend. But I will wager 5,000 organ pipes — or their equivalent in Carpenter’s cherished Swarovski crystal — that the word “boring” won’t be on anyone’s lips. 
At 31 Carpenter is to the stuffy world of the classical organ what Ché Guevara was to 1960s politics and Nijinsky to 20th-century ballet: a figure who seems to embody revolution and glamour in equal measures.
“Actually, more like Caravaggio, Turner or Mozart,” says Carpenter, not a man to underestimate his own impact. “They all had to deal with the sort of shit that I have to deal with from the organ community — the ridiculous idea that you can damage art by using it in a certain way. I guess that people who want to be artists need to be totally immersed in their medium and totally at odds with it at the same time.”
That Carpenter is immersed in the organ, and has been since the age of 4, is evident to anyone who has heard him play. Forget the glam-rock, crystal-studded, biceps-hugging white suits in which he performs (though he says that, for the Proms, he will be “looking out some Chanel”). Concentrate instead on the astonishing technique. Even in spangled boots his feet fly over the pedals with balletic precision, while his hands deliver impossible knots of counterpoint with what seems like insouciant ease... 

The Times.
The writer, Richard Morrison, seems rather excited by this doubtlessly talented young man.

Update: Radio 4's usually excellent obituary programme, Last Word, ran one on Carlo Curley; "Flamboyant organist... he never married..." etc etc.
Flamboyant bachelors make great players of the organ - who knew?

Scott Mills: Bye

Britain's second most boring gay man has written his autobiography.
Mere words can not convey my - or indeed the entire world's - total lack of interest.
Remaindered shops here we come!

GLAAD: TVODear

GLAAD released its sixth annual Network Responsibility Index (NRI), a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of LGBT people on [US] primetime broadcast and cable TV.
The number of LGBT images has stabilized this year as the range of impressions continues to grow. With 69% of LGBT impressions on broadcast networks made by gay men and 66% of LGBT-inclusive broadcast hours showcasing white people, the Network Responsibility Index also calls for networks to highlight the great ethnic and cultural diversity of the LGBT community.
“Americans expect to see their off-screen worlds represented onscreen and today more than ever that includes LGBT people and families,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Storylines of families like Mitchell and Cameron on Modern Family and young people like Emily on Pretty Little Liars are not only growing acceptance of our community, but have found praise from viewers and critics alike at a time when visibility and acceptance of LGBT people is at an all-time high...”

GLAAD's somewhat random annual report.
Trying to think how you'd place UK channels, but, as regular viewers will know, I don't own a tellybox, so I'm the last person to ask, really.

Cecil Beaton: Hello Sailor!

Cecil Beaton was one of the most prolific photographers of the Second World War – this exhibition presents over 250 of his rarely seen wartime photographs alongside his personal diaries, drawings and work in film.

Cecil Beaton: Theatre Of War - Imperial War Museum from September 6th. 

Thought For The Day: Mark Steel

"There's a company called Atos, that you may have heard of, and the achievement it's best known for is to be despised by thousands of the disabled. Graffiti such as "Atos kills" is common on some housing estates, which must be why Atos is one of the main sponsors of the Paralympics. It makes sense, in the way that if you had a gay Olympics, you'd get it sponsored by the Pope..."

The great Mark Steel in the Independent on the cruel irony of Atos sponsoring the Paralympics.
Atos are currently being paid £100m a year to try and scare the disabled, sick and vulnerable off benefits.
I wish them all dead.  

PS There are a series of actions against Atos hypocrisy - Disabled People Against The Cuts, Atos Victims Support Network.

Lawrence!: Song For Europe

Still no news so...
This is my musical hero Lawrence, in a rare TV appearance.
Thanks to Capp.
Here's a picture of Tom Daley - who I'm starting to go off cause of his closeted product placement crap.
Everyone knows you're gay, girl, stop twatting about.

Grimmy: Have A Banana

Nick Grimshaw and Harry from One Direction buy a banana.
Hmm, something tells me today might be another slow news day.
Banana? Manana!

PS Please don't infer from this that they are bumming.

PPS Grimmy's bananatastic t-shirt design in full.

Tom Daley: The Sun Gets It

DIVING hunk Tom Daley has joined Team GB Olympics heroes signing up for The X Factor — and could win a permanent job on the show. 
The London 2012 Bronze medallist will line up along with Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Chris Hoy in Olympics Week. 
Bosses are predicting 18-year-old Tom’s bubbly personality and toned physique will be a big hit with girl and boy fans...

The Sun.
Odd that The Sun seems to be the first newspaper to acknowledge a lot of fags are going mad for Tom Daley.

PS This is in The Sun, so there's no guarantee it'll happen. They also make the ludicrous claim that Tom made £1m in sponsorship deals last year - erm, don't you think he might have moved house, then...

Fagburn: The Essex Lion

As you may have noticed there is no actual news today, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow.

x

The New Yorker: When Mitt Met Paul

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan getting it on in the New Yorker. 
Guess this is going to be as big a cliche as David Cameron and Nick Clegg's Brokeback bromance.
Snore...

Prince Harry: Love Locked Out

Leading arse art critic Brian Sewell appraises the Prince Harry photo on Radio 4's PM.
"Oh that's sweet! That's so coy. It's a beautiful example of a contraposture, the rhythm running through the body from the shoulders, the thrust into the hips and down, the relaxed leg. It's a classical image, that's like Love Locked Out that famous Victorian picture, it's perfect Victoriana..."

Thanks to Andrew.

Mail On Sunday: Come To Daddy

Quite touching piece in the Mail On Sunday about a gay dad and a lesbian mum.
The Mail, despite their homophobic columnists and right-wing bias, have quite a good record on sympathetic stories about gay parenting and gay teen suicides.
Maybe cause it's just a load of sentimental twaddle that appeals to yummy mummies.
Not sure.

Marriage Sunday: Evil

In all things, we as Catholics look to Jesus Christ as our model and teacher.   When asked about marriage He gave a profound and rich reply: “Have you not read that the Creator, from the beginning, ‘made them male and female’, and said: ‘This is why a man must leave father and mother and cling to his wife and the two become one body’.”  (Matthew, 19: 4-5)
In the Year of Faith, which begins this October, we wish to place a special emphasis on the role of the family founded on marriage.   The family is the domestic Church, and the first place in which the faith is transmitted.   For that reason it must have a primary focus in our prayerful considerations during this period of grace.
We write to you having already expressed our deep disappointment that the Scottish Government has decided to redefine marriage and legislate for same-sex marriage...

Letter read out in Scottish Catholic Churches for Marriage Sunday - somewhat ironically by priests who can't marry.
The Bible also supports genocide, slavery, misogyny, paedophilia, child sacrifice, incest, and eating shit.
If you go by what Jesus said you have to castrate yourself to go to heaven; "For there are eunuchs, that were so born from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, that were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, that made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."  (Matthew 19:12 ASV)
Not my idea of a moral guidebook, but there you go. 

News Of The World: RIP

"I always quite liked stories about gay affairs. I remember following a married judge who was going to gay nightclubs. I liked bringing down people like that. If you haven't got the honesty to stand in front of the people who elect you and say 'there's nothing wrong with being gay' then you have a right to be brought down."

Paul McMullan, Former News of the World deputy features editor, quoted in the Independent On Sunday - in an article about what constitutes "the public interest".

Another straight man telling gay men how to live their lives.
Thanks for that.

PS Judges aren't elected, you berk.

Daily Mail: Proud Tits

Only the Mail Online could write a story about a gay pride event that centres on a woman's lovely knockers.
Great stuff guys!

The Guardian: Homophobic? Much

We met in 1985 and, with the zest of naive young am-drammers, fell in love. We were going to be funny actors, alternative and groundbreaking. I was going to produce beautiful babies. We were going to live in a villa overlooking the sea. There's something to be said for not having a clue. We were going to be magnificent.
We married during the storms of 1987. Big dreams were replaced by normal jobs. We were a unit, self-contained, solid. Then this: my infertility. It was devastating. But that was fine, we could adopt. Then this: your new job in theatre. It took you to London, Monday to Friday. You felt too itinerant to commit to the adoption process. I agreed. That could wait.
Then this: your secretive, moody self. Your quick temper. Your regular excuses to stay in the capital over the weekend. My conclusion: someone else was getting the smiley side, the nice part of you. I compensated by being nicer. I tried to be prettier.
Then this in 2002: your coming-out. I began to realise how truly horrible you'd been to me for years...

The Guardian.
Written by "Anonymous" - thankfully.
Don't you think he might have had his own problems?

Lawrence: Love And Death

I love Lawrence so much.
Denim and Go-Kart Mozart are my favourite sound.
Used to see Lawrence of Belgravia buying Cornish pasties at Victoria station.
That is my Lawrence story.
Thank you.

James Franco's Cruising: Yay!

Obviously we're all thrilled to bits here at Fagburn Mansions to hear about James Franco's Cruising, a new "art porn film" directed by Travis Mathews.
That's the title, by the way - James Franco's Cruising.
Franco had wanted to do a remake, but couldn't get the rights.
So it's "inspired by", recreating or imagining what was in 40 minutes William Friedkin cut from the movie before release (it's unclear whether this is just a film short).
Friedkin has said he wasn't approached about the rights, so there's hope for a proper remake.
Though if it's updated will the cop just log onto Grindr?

Gay Marriage: The Conservative Case (For Votes)

If, as some argue, the Prime Minister were to drop his plans to introduce gay marriage he would be unlikely to win many back on the strength of it. People who oppose gay marriage would remember that he was in favour of it before the going got tough. Those who support it would see that he abandoned the idea in the face of a determined minority. Those who don’t much care either way would notice another flip-flop. In political terms, ditching gay marriage would probably be more likely to put off Joiners and Considerers – whom we need if we are to win a majority – than it would to win back Defectors.
It is notoriously difficult in polling to work out the electoral impact of a given policy with any certainty. People vote for a host of different reasons; their choice must take into account everything they know or feel, good and bad, about a party or candidate. They are therefore very unreliable when it comes to assessing to what extent one issue, taken in isolation, will affect their decision. Some Conservatives will no doubt find themselves unable to vote Tory this time if the plans gothrough – but it is also clear that the traffic would not all be one way...

From a fascinating, detailed article on Conservativehome by Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative Party's chief electoral strategist.
Note its implication that dropping gay marriage has been seriously considered.
And how principle doesn't come into it.

Tom Daley: Heat

Notorious heterosexual Tom Daley is in Heat.
Form an orderly queue queens ladies...

Bradley Manning: FFS

How Bradley Manning Became a Gay Martyr

Ideologically speaking, supporters of Bradley Manning—the 24-year-old army private expected to face a court martial beginning either in November or January for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks—are a fairly predictable bunch: libertarians, antiwar activists, hackers, whistleblowers. (As one Manning supporter put it to me: “Bradley is Welsh, so we started looking around in Wales.”) But what’s sometimes escaped notice is that much of the public support that Manning has received has actually come from certain segments of the LGBT community. After it publicly emerged that Manning was gay (the rumors that circulated after his arrest were confirmed by a New York Times profile in August 2010), many activists offered him their support. In the Washington Blade, Rainey Reitman, a digital freedom activist who is also gay called for the gay community’s engagement: “[A]s queer activists have long known, there is power and transcendence in choosing truth, even when that truth makes others uncomfortable.”

Some right-wing cunt called Eliza Gray - who is evidently not a gay man, so I'm not sure why she thinks she she has some god-given right to patronise us thus - joins the shit storm.
From top leading right-wing bum wipe The New Republic.
Oh, do fuck off you stupid fucking fuck.

Marriage: Pointless Fiasco Put On Hold

David Cameron has been warned by the former Tory deputy chairman Michael Ashcroft that he will do himself political damage if he gives in to the Tory right by abandoning plans to legalise gay marriage.

Based on opinion polling, which the billionaire peer commissioned himself, Lord Ashcroft concluded: "If the Prime Minister were to drop his plans to introduce gay marriage he would be unlikely to win many back on the strength of it.
"People who oppose gay marriage would remember that he was in favour of it before the going got tough. Those who support it would see that he abandoned the idea in the face of a determined minority. Those who don't much care either way would notice another flip-flop."
His findings showed how little the public is bothered by the issue. Most people did not know that it was on the political agenda, and more than a quarter said they had no opinion on it, either way.

Daily Telegraph.

I know I keep saying this, but the Tories are too fucked to bother with this pointless fiasco.

Boris Johnson: Still A Posh Tory Twat Shock

Another vile Tory lines up for this McCarthyite nonsense.
NB He can't even say the word "gay".

Peter Gabriel: Games Without Frontiers

Apropos of nothing. 

Tom Daley: Is Gay

This is depressing.
Seriously, it depresses the fuck out of me.
Yes, we all know Tom Daley is gay.
What a cruel world that makes a kid go through this fucking pantomime.
We've created a world where people still can't even say who they love or fancy.
Well done WORLD!

Bradley Manning: Another Man

And while that self-publicist continues to self-publicise, Bradley Manning has been holed up for 800 days.
"It is unwise to give power to those who seek it" - Old anarchist saying.
Run from the vain, their egos will betray all your ideals - New Fagburn saying.

Clicktivism: Political Retards

In Moscow, Pride marches have just been banned for 100 years. Anti-gay activists are using the Russian government's gay gag laws to sue Madonna for $10,000,000 because she spoke up for the LGBT community. And punk band Pussy Riot has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for their musical protest – deemed "homosexual propaganda." 
Add your voice to the international outcry against Putin before he attends the September United Nations Leaders meeting in New York...

Allout.org

Oh crap, how politically retarded would you have to be to think signing an e-petition is going to make any difference?
President Putin, see my online signature and tremble!
No wonder the world's fucked. 

PS And there's an error in every one of the charges above - well done.

Madonna: Self-Promoting Homophobes

A group of Russian anti-gay activists are suing American pop star Madonna for $10m, saying she had insulted their feelings when she spoke out for gay rights at a concert in St Petersburg last week.
Performing in black lingerie with the words "No Fear" scrawled on her back, Madonna attacked a city law adopted in March that imposes fines for spreading homosexual "propaganda". She had earlier called the law a "ridiculous atrocity"...
"She had been warned with words that she should behave in line with the law and she ignored it. So we will speak in the language of money," said Darya Dedova, one of the 10 activists who filed the lawsuit in a St Petersburg court.
"Of course, it is difficult to measure moral damages and suffering but maybe people who earn money regardless of moral rules will better understand this."
Dedova added that if they won the case, the money would be sent to orphanages...

The Guardian. 
This has become a huge story - and it's laughable on many levels.
After the Pussy Riot farce I guess all nutty things are possible in Russia these days, but if this actually goes to court I'll eat my feet.
It looks to me like mere publicity-seeking by some homophobic loons, and as the story's gone global they've clearly won.
The headline-hugging $10m figure has appeared everywhere - the maximum fine for "promoting homosexuality" in St Petersburg is $16,700.
Damages? Schamages.

Update: Yup, this was thrown out (laughed out?) of court late November.

Downton Abbey: Villainous Footman Still Gay

“The gay thing comes back in this series. He stopped being gay in series two!
“I had to ring upstairs and ask Julian, ‘Am I still gay?’ I said, ‘Right, OK.’
“Seriously, in series two the drama focused on the Second World War and the huge impact it had on people back home in Britain in dealing with the dead and wounded. The gay thing was largely ignored.
“But Thomas has a beautiful storyline which evolves right through the new series and there is a massive pay-off.”
“There are some emotional scenes which were very challenging. “I hope the audience will identify with why Thomas is the way he is – he has this secret which he can’t tell anyone about because it’s illegal.
“He has this burden which he wants to share and we see that explained in a lovely storyline, thanks to Lord Fellowes.”

"Downton hunk" Rob James-Collier quoted in The Sun
Who've called the article 'Proud To Play A Gay' - so brave!
Is "massive pay-off" like a money-shot?

Heterosexual Of The Month: Michael Gove

This is the first part of what Fagburn hopes will be a long-running series.
Some others may involve Princess Michael striking similarly rugged and manly poses. 
More here on why I hate him, gay or nay - the right-wing cunt. 

Fagburn: Sunday Service

Heal the sick,
Feed the hungry,
House the homeless,
Help the hopeless.
Turn in all your priests who've been raping kids.

Then get back to me.

How To Be Gay: Read A Book

Publisher's blurb! No one raises an eyebrow if you suggest that a guy who arranges his furniture just so, rolls his eyes in exaggerated disbelief, likes techno music or show tunes, and knows all of Bette Davis’s best lines by heart might, just possibly, be gay. But if you assert that male homosexuality is a cultural practice, expressive of a unique subjectivity and a distinctive relation to mainstream society, people will immediately protest. Such an idea, they will say, is just a stereotype—ridiculously simplistic, politically irresponsible, and morally suspect. The world acknowledges gay male culture as a fact but denies it as a truth.
David Halperin, a pioneer of LGBTQ studies, dares to suggest that gayness is a specific way of being that gay men must learn from one another in order to become who they are. Inspired by the notorious undergraduate course of the same title that Halperin taught at the University of Michigan, provoking cries of outrage from both the right-wing media and the gay press, How To Be Gay traces gay men’s cultural difference to the social meaning of style.
Far from being deterred by stereotypes, Halperin concludes that the genius of gay culture resides in some of its most despised features: its aestheticism, snobbery, melodrama, adoration of glamour, caricatures of women, and obsession with mothers. The insights, impertinence, and unfazed critical intelligence displayed by gay culture, Halperin argues, have much to offer the heterosexual mainstream.

David M Halperin's How To Be Gay is very much the gay book du nos jours.
Fagburn hasn't read it, yet but agrees with its general premise, that being gay is as much cultural as it is sexual, and that gay men should celebrate and embrace... well, being gay. 
There are lengthy reviews by Peter Conrad in The Observer - and by Richard Canning in The Independent.
They're both rather sniffy - and Canning's is hilariously snobby, which arguably misses the point.
Or proves it.
Here's a sympatico one by Dwight Garner from the New York Times.
It's a subject that fascinates Fagburn and I hope to return to it when I've got my hands on a copy...

Update: This book is probably shit - a right-wing upper class twit called Mark Simpson has praised it.

Curtis Golden: Car Crash TV

“January 31 is the official date I came out.
"I wouldn’t have done it, but I had a car crash that day and I was concussed."

X Factor hopeful, Curtis Golden, Daily Star. 

Tom Daley: Tattoo

Look, the main thing is do you like it, Tom?
If you like it, then I like it.

x

Elton John: Who's Your Friend?

Well, I always pack one when I'm going on holiday.
But who was it at the Daily Mail who recognised the Bel Ami boy?

Nick Grimshaw: Who Knew!!?

For someone who's never off the TV and radio, he cuts a rather enigmatic figure, rarely giving interviews: "I don't guard my privacy, but I don't really see the point in doing press if there's nothing to talk about. You don't want to be in the paper for the sake of it." 

His personal life seems slightly mysterious, largely because it appears to be nonexistent. One page of a fan website is given to trying to decipher whether or not he's gay – "the truth is that no one really knows because he's not directly answered that question," it puzzles, before adding hastily, "we all love 'Grimmy' either way!" – today, at least, he seems happy to acknowledge that he is. 
But he's never really had a relationship, he says. "I've just not met anyone that I thought oh, I really like you that much. I work so much, when I do go out, I'd rather go out with my friends. I rather do that than, like, go out on the prowl. I literally can't think of anything worse."

It just seems a bit of a waste, I say, given that he's young and handsome and famous. "It does, doesn't it?" He thinks for a minute, before suggesting he'd "really like to go out with Frank Ocean", the R&B singer who outed himself as bisexual earlier this year. He thinks again. "I think he might be whiny, though. Like, why have you not called me? He might be a bit wet. I think I'm just forcing that Frank thing." He laughs. "You see, as soon as I decide, I talk myself out of it."

Nick Grimshaw gets that whole gay thing out in the open and out the way before starting as Radio 1's new Breakfast Show DJ next month.
Though we kinda knew, I guess this counts as Nick's coming out interview. 
He was talking to Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. 

Julian Assange: I'm Meme!

I learn from The Sun that this "Spoof Assange pic is [sic] massive hit."
But for why? Apparently, it is "hilarious". 
The Sun explains helpfully; "But Assange — a lookalike of the actor — is definitely NOT free. He remains holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London’s Knightsbridge after being granted asylum, but is visited by girlfriend Sarah Harrison."
So now you know.

PS Think The Sun adding that he's got a girlfriend may be a legal thing.

Update Sunday: Just watched Julian's Evita moment at the Ecuadorean Embassy. I have a problem with Assange's ego, but good for him for drawing attention to Bradley Manning...

Marriage Polls: Christian Miracles

David Cameron’s plans to introduce same-sex marriage could have cost the Tories the support of millions of churchgoers, polling suggests. 

Almost six out of 10 people who attend services regularly say they are less likely to vote Conservative at the next election because of the plans to redefine marriage.

More than a third of those polled said it had no effect on whether they would support the Conservatives but most of them would never vote for the party anyway...

Daily Telegraph. 

But of course this is in the serial gay marriage bashing Telegraph. 
Can you guess who's behind this poll? 
Yup, it's the evangelical Christian fruitloops at Coalition4Marriage.
And it was conducted by ComRes, who've also conducted marriage polls for the Christian Institute and Catholic Voices. 
Here's why they were both discredited by using dubious methods/questions - and, as if by magic, produced results that showed support for gay marriage at about half that of other polls.
How do they do it?

Pussy Riot: Guilty!!?

Looks like three years.
One year for singing a song, presumably.
One for singing it in a church.
And one for being rude about your president.
Oh, those Russians...

PS And in other news today, they've also upheld a ban on gay marches in Moscow for the next 100 years. The police used to stand by and watch as neo-Nazis used to beat up people on pride marches in Moscow, how ironic that Pussy Riot get imprisoned for "hooliganism" for singing a song.

Update: Two years! In a penal colony!!
A supporter interviewed on PM outside the courtroom said all the - otherwise inspirational - support in the West may have made things worse by angering the "strong man" leader, Putin, who wants to be shown to be standing up against "foreign interference".
Always a potential problem in international campaigns - it's been often said about support for LGBTs in, say, Zimbabwe - usually by African activists...
Update: Or in Uganda.

Daily Mail: From The Message Boards

'Olympic hero Tom Daley cuddles up to US dive sensation Kassidy Cook for night out to see The Lion King

He didn’t want anything getting in the way of a medal at London 2012, telling friends that even girlfriends were off the schedule.
But now, with his Olympic dream accomplished, diver Tom Daley has wasted no time in pursuing a close friendship...'

The Daily Mail.

Some selected - and highly selective - readers' comments.
Have to say I'm extremely surprised the Mail published some of these - particularly as they print endless articles about "online bullying"...

Well, Daley is almost an acronym of Lady....
- Scoosh, Puppy, 16/8/2012 17:12

@ Kev, manchester: My girlfriend taught Tom at secondary school. Let's just say that he has a very effeminate demeanor, and this was well known throughout the school.
- Aerospace professional, Derby, UK, 16/8/2012 16:51

Have you seen the way he walks - its like watching John Inman....
- Judy, Devon, 16/8/2012 16:23

Does anyone really believe this guy is straight? He's obviously not.
- Kev, Manchester, 16/8/2012 15:03

"Tom's mum recently revealed that he hasn't had a 'proper' girlfriend that she knows of." - I wonder why on earth that could be?! Cough.

- Matt, London, 16/8/2012 14:07

There must be some questions being asked about this young man....I mean really....A night withThe Lion King and Show Tunes.... This is NOT a chap in the marketplace for marriage..
- wild, luxembourg, 16/8/2012 13:35

Normally you have to go to a fancy dress shop to get a good beard.........................
- Ciaran, Ireland, 16/8/2012 13:21

I don't think she is his type - and you all know what I mean by that. But I bet his many sponsors don't want him to reveal all. Great lad though
- Jason, London, 16/8/2012 12:07

Oh come on, its obvious he is not straight!
- james, surrey, 16/8/2012 11:39

Good move Tommy boy, I was starting to get a little bit worried about you after seeing you leave the pool with the tight little walk of yours.
- gm, Canada, 16/8/2012 11:21

I think there would be more chance of a romance if Kassidy was a Karl..........
- George, Manchester, Greater Manchester, 16/8/2012 11:00

He'll be outed eventually
- Tara, UK, 16/8/2012 10:51