Video | Pro-gay Californians Against Hate TV ad

Here's the new TV commercial from Californians Against Hate, the group seeking to preserve gay marriage in that state:

Video | California anti-gay marriage TV ad

Here's the first TV ad aired in California by the Yes on 8 Protect Marriage pac, which is seeking to ban gay marriage in that state.

American Airlines supports ENDA, federal nondiscrimination act

News release:

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines, the world’s largest airline and a founding member of the oneworld Alliance, has written Congress a letter of support for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which is currently under consideration. In the letter, American states:

“(We are) proud to express our strong support of federal workplace non-discrimination legislation that would extend basic job protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. We are proud to have been the first major airline to implement same-sex domestic partner benefits, first to implement both sexual orientation and gender identity in our workplace non-discrimination policies, and first to have a recognized LGBT employee resource group – GLEAM.

“Our endorsement of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is consistent with our longstanding Statement of Equal Opportunity … The principles fostered by ENDA are consistent with our corporate principles in treating all employees with fairness and respect. On behalf of our more than 80,000 employees, we appreciate your consideration and encourage Congress to enact this important legislation.”

The letter of support was signed by Denise Lynn, American’s Vice President of Diversity & Leadership Strategies; Michael Wascom, American’s Managing Director of International & Government Affairs; and Betty Young, American’s National Sales & Marketing Manager for the LGBT Community.

About American Airlines

American Airlines is the world's largest airline. American, American Eagle and the AmericanConnection^® airlines serve 250 cities in over 40 countries with more than 4,000 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 1,000 aircraft. American's award-winning Web site, AA.com, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld^® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve nearly 700 destinations in over 140 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. American Airlines, American Eagle, the AmericanConnection^® airlines, AA.com, We know why you fly and AAdvantage are registered trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR)

Miami-area participants sought for HIV focus groups

Curt Coomes, a research health policy analyst at RTI International in North Carolina, asked me to post the following:

Researchers Seeking Miami-Area Participants for Focus Groups on HIV Testing, October 21-22

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has partnered with RTI International on a study to explore people’s opinions about HIV counseling, testing and referral (CTR) services in non-health care settings, such as outreach locations or freestanding HIV counseling and testing sites. RTI will be holding focus groups in the Miami area October 21-22, 2008 with a variety of HIV CTR users and potential users to get feedback on how to make testing more acceptable and accessible. The results of this study will be used with other information being collected by CDC to develop recommendations for improved HIV CTR in non-health care settings.

RTI is looking for the following individuals who have tested recently and are HIV-negative: gay men, male-to-female transgender individuals, and injection drug users. Women who have never tested or do not know their HIV status are also needed for a focus group, as are HIV-positive heterosexual men. Discussion groups will last up to 2 hours, and participants will receive $50 to help repay them for their time, effort, and travel expenses. All information shared in the groups is confidential.

For more information on the groups, or to see if you are eligible, contact Curt Coomes at RTI International at 1-800-334-8571 ext. 28348.

Matthew Shepard memorial dedicated in Wyoming

By BOB MOEN, Associated Press

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- About 100 people have attended a ceremony at the University of Wyoming dedicating a memorial bench in honor of a gay student who was murdered nearly 10 years ago.

Matthew Shepard died Oct. 12, 1998, five days after he was found brutally beaten and tied to a fence outside Laramie. The two men who killed him are serving life sentences in prison.

The crime triggered nationwide sympathy and revulsion and brought a re-examination of attitudes toward gays.

Shepard's parents established a foundation to fight hate and promote diversity and both spoke at the short ceremony on Saturday.

Judy Shepard says the nation has grown a lot in the last 10 years in accepting the gay community.

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Below, click start to watch a video from the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Add Matthew Shepard Foundation to your page

DJ Oren Nizri ... At the Boulevard

Israeli-born DJ Oren Nizri of Miami Beach appeared Saturday night At the Boulevard, the on-again, off-again gay strip club-disco on Biscayne Boulevard near Northeast 79th Street.

Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald staff

Nizri and his manager, George Maiko Coronado, marketing director of Give Me A Beat Productions.

Nizri with Jessica Londono and attorney Michael Gongora.

Gay travel | NYC still boogies down

As the dance scene undergoes a matamorphisis, new clubs and new enclaves spring up in and around Manhattan.

BY JUSTIN OCEAN, OutTraveler.com

With more than 50 gay bars and a seven-night-a-week fun factor, New York remains the undisputed center of gay life in the United States. But its dance club scene is undergoing a major metamorphosis. Gone are the heady nights of the '90s when a rebellious energy parted the AIDS-crisis gloom and created the chiseled Chelsea boy archetype.

''As young gay guys get more integrated into society, they don't need to hang around in a bar to cement their identity,'' says Daniel Nardicio, party promoter and founder of DList.com, a social networking site for gay men. ``I meet kids nowadays who'd rather sit at home on their iPhones than go out to a bar.''

Factor in other websites such as Manhunt.net that are used strictly for hooking up (a reason many go to gay venues), soaring rents, the rise of bottle service clubs, archaic Cabaret License restrictions -- a prohibition-era law that makes dancing in bars illegal without difficult-to-get certification -- and the general Sex-in-the-City-ification of Gotham, and there simply hasn't been mass LGBT support for the weekly spectacle of big gay dance clubs.

Result: ''Gay nightlife has had to become more specific,'' says Benjamin Solomon, club listings editor at Next Magazine, a weekly NYC gay nightlife guide. ``It's become about the type of gay crowd you're looking for: fetish, alternative/indie, minority, etc.''

That's not to say there's nowhere left to boogie down. ''The best place to be right now is where people are who they are, regardless of sexual orientation,'' says New York City DJ Van Scott, who's co-producing an event at M.I.A. skate park in Miami this October. ``Gays are flocking to indie scenes that attract fashion-forward and music-savvy straight people. It's more about authenticity and originality.''

Case in point, his dance rock/Indie Tech Sunday night party DJs Are Not Rockstars at mr. Black that bridges the gay-heterosexual divide. The hugely popular dance den also pulls in mobs of gay men with a music-first mentality the rest of its nights. Fans of the sardine-like old location (which shuttered following a police raid, Labor Day 2007) will really groove at the now three times larger, two-floor new space near Madison Square Park. A reliably riotous time, its dark, shadowy nooks and basement dance floor sees all types behaving badly to electro and house music till 6 a.m. (the bar closes, as all in NYC do, at 4 a.m.). On Fridays and Saturdays, come before 11 p.m. or risk a line, and whatever you do don't cross Connie Girl at the door.

For a more relaxed entrée into a ''new gay'' scene, hop the L Train and head to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where much of the city's young talent incubates thanks to its über-hipster vibe (think skinny jeans, tattoos and irony for days) and relatively cheaper rents. Boasting a gritty industrial location, loft-like atmosphere, huge bar, occasional live acts, tiered lounge areas and a crammed smoking patio, Sugarland can downright heave -- or loom strangely quiet. Fridays or Saturdays are your best bets. Under the same management, nearby Metropolitan more consistently packs in gay guys and gals throughout the week and makes a good back-up plan -- sans dancing -- once you've made the cross-borough trek.

If you're after a more traditional scene (i.e. pop and hip-hop music), head to The Ritz in Hell's Kitchen, the latest gay neighborhood to supplant Chelsea and the East and West Villages. With a welcome everyman (and woman) vibe, a small back patio, and large cushy second-floor sitting area that feels like your nautical-loving uncle's living room, it's a relaxed place for happy hour and weekday nights. On weekend nights, it anchors the scene from its bustling Restaurant Row location. As the only ''Hellsea'' address in which to dance, the first floor backroom turns into a giddy mess that's equal parts sweaty humidity, smoke machines and flashing lights.

Sunday nights belong to the Cuckoo Club at Hiro Ballroom (locals just call the night ``Hiro''), in the massive basement of the Maritime Hotel. There's no cover charge and it's the closest thing NYC now has to a regular gay megaclub; it always packs in a good-looking crowd from voguing scenesters to downtown hipsters, muscle boys to nouveau club kids. It is impossible to get in on holiday weekends so plan an early evening accordingly. Hiro's opulent Asian décor is courtesy of the same design firm as the busy and long-running Beige on Tuesdays at B Bar.

No slouch in the go-go boy department, perennially popular and just as equally maligned Splash offers a different night for every taste: Got2B@Ocean Tuesdays (Latino), Campus Thursdays (college), Fridays and Saturdays (all muscle). Two floors, booming acoustics, all chrome and mirrors, it is the prototypical gay club in the heart of Chelsea. Prod enough locals and they will admit to going there, too, especially for Musical Mondays (7 p.m.-midnight) when off-duty chorus boys and musical nuts pack the place for jubilant sing-a-longs -- choreography included. (Trust us, it's good fun.) Lines form early for Saturday nights, too, with more than 1,000 men making the weekly pilgrimage for top name dance DJs such as Manny Lehman and David Knapp.

VENUES

• mr. Black, 27 W. 24th St., www.mrblacknyc.com

• Sugarland, 221 N. 9th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-599-4044

• The Ritz Bar & Lounge, 369 W. 46th St., 212-333-2554

• Cuckoo Club, Sundays at Hiro Ballroom below the Maritime Hotel, 363 W. 16th St., 212-242-4300; http://hiroballroom.com

• Splash, 50 W. 17th St., 212-691-0073, www.splashbar.com

PARTIES

• Work, various venues, http://peterrauhofer.com

• Alegria, held 7 times a year, often on holiday weekends, www.alegriaevents.com

• Men Are From Mars (for gay men of color), monthly at Mars 2112, 1633 Broadway, 212-489-2112, www.menarefrommars.net

RESOURCES

• Next Magazine, www.nextmagazine.com

• The Out Traveler: New York City by Dan Allen (Alyson Books, 2008)

Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon campaigns in South Florida

Photo provided by the Dean Trantalis campaign:

Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon with Fort Lauderdale mayoral candidate Dean Trantalis, left, and his partner Richard Smith at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Wilton Manors on Saturday. Nixon spent the day in South Florida campaigning for Sen. Barack Obama.

Straight Florida model sues over gay attention

From Queerty:

Ladies and gentleman, meet the new Josh Peters. You remember our former Morning Goods selection, who complained about "finding myself on these stupid gay sites"? Now Genre magazine is facing a similar scenario with straight model, aspiring actor, University of Central Florida student, and former Queerty Morning Goods choice Benjamin Massing, who was featured in the magazine's March/April issue and says the "cruel and vulgar" shot has subjected him to unwanted advances and harassment from gay men. So he's taking Genre and photographer Rick Day to court, claiming invasion of privacy.

Supposedly, Massing wanted the photos for his personal portfolio, and never expected to see them published. Except, as is the case with most model-photographer relationships, if Massing signed a standard release form, he's got no case, since he would have signed off on allowing photographer Day to use the pictures.

Of course, this isn't really a case about Massing being displeased that his photo was published. It's that his photo was published in a gay magazine, and that the gay readers liked what they saw. Worth noting: Massing has posed for Abercrombie & Fitch, a veritable magnet for the attention of gay men.

Or maybe we're wrong? You tell us. Should a model like Massing be able to dictate what types of publications he appears is? Or do industry rules, and his signing a release, say his picture is fair game for anyone to use?

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Click here to visit Massing's MySpace page

Paul Newman, gay rights supporter

From IMDB:

I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.

-- PAUL NEWMAN