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#9353

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:39 am
Subject: Request For Room

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Hi!

I will be moving back to Atlanta or Charleston in January and was wondering if anyone has a room for me for a month? Or if you know someone?

Let me know.

Cheers!

Tom Dempsey

--
Tom Dempsey
Cell: 850-377-3658
Fax: 801-881-6172
Google Voice: 850-366-8708

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#9352

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:24 am
Subject: Request for housing

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Hi!

I will be moving back to Atlanta or Charleston in January and was wondering if anyone has a room for me for a month? Or if you know someone?

Let me know.

Cheers!

Tom Dempsey

--
Tom Dempsey
Cell: 850-377-3658
Fax: 801-881-6172
Google Voice: 850-366-8708

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#9351

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:54 am
Subject: Mary Norwood For Mayor

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#9350

From: "Chuck" <chuck@...>
Date: Sun Nov 29, 2009 4:15 pm
Subject: Out & Equal-Atlanta announces its 2010 Lifetime Achievement Awards finalist

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Out & Equal-Atlanta (O&E) announces Atlanta's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender (LGBT) 2010 "Lifetime Achievement Awards"
finalist.



The winner will be honored at its holiday party, "All I Want for the
Holidays is Workplace Equality," hosted by Melissa Carter, Q100's
"The Bert Show" on Thursday, December 10, 2009, from 6 p.m. to
10 p.m. at the luxurious Palomar Hotel in Midtown.



Out & Equal-Atlanta is open to everyone; join us as we honor our own.
Tickets are available at www.oeatlanta.info <http://www.oeatlanta.info/>
.



The Out & Equal-Atlanta Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor
Out & Equal-Atlanta can bestow upon an individual.  This prestigious
honor is reserved for leaders who have made significant contributions to
the LGBT workplace advocacy for Equality.



The nominees are:



Allen Thornell

Cathy Woolard

Donna Dell

Doug Shipman

Harry Knox

Jeff Cleghorn

Ken Britt

Lisa Borders

Melissa Carter

Philip Rush

Zandra R. Conway



Out & Equal-Atlanta honored Ronald Moore with its 2009 Lifetime
Achievement Award.



Out & Equal is a national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
organization that promotes awareness and advocacy for equality in the
workplace.  www.outandequal.org <http://www.outandequal.org/>

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#9349

From: "sydn3y3" <ghostlyking@...>
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:21 pm
Subject: Free Presents next Sat ; Kinky X-M-Ass Sat Dec 5th at the Jungle Atlanta

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Our next event is KINKY X-M-Ass  Saturday Dec 5th ~ at the Jungle

Literally hundreds of Dollars in prizes and gift certificates will be given away
by free raffle tickets upon entry Sat Dec 5th!


Huge Dancefloor, multiple bars+lounges,
+amazing lights+sound.
DjAnthony+guests play 80s, electro+dance music.
plus!!!
2 performances by www.myspace.com/gia_nova
<br>
the Jungleclub/Old Chamber
2115 Faulkner Rd, Atlanta , Ga 30308.
18 to enter, 21+ to drink.
Always Free Parking!!!
18-20 $10, 21+ $7 Ladies, $10 Men

<br />
<img
src="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/60/l_740b9bbc6e9641108d1d655438\
33137d.png">
<br />



Prizes from; Liberator.com, Torvea.com, virtueandvice.com,
myspace.com/sirdamonmace , and more...
<br />

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#9348

From: "Chuck" <chuck@...>
Date: Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:36 am
Subject: Out & Equal-Atlanta will be holding a live auction fundraising event

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Out & Equal-Atlanta will be holding a live auction fundraising event on December 10, 2009. Out & Equal-Atlanta provides equality in the workplace for the LGBT & Ally communities whose lives are impacted throughout Atlanta and the South East. Our programs are geared around achieving employment protections for all including:

Advancing best practices successes with diversity education practices
Organizing community networks and engagement activities
Sharing and developing leading practices for corporations, small businesses, non-profits, educational institutions, government employees and the community.

All of the funds raised from this event will be used to support Out & Equal-Atlanta's Educational Scholarship Program in our community. The Out & Equal-Atlanta Scholarship Program supports our future leaders of the LGBT community by providing financial resources, role modeling and hope to outstanding LGBT and Allied students.

We're in the process of collecting merchandise for the event, and I'm writing to request your assistance in making our "All I want for the Holidays is Equality in the Workplace" event a success. By donating an item, you'll be making a tax deductible contribution that will help our educational scholarship program continue to help make life better for individuals in need. We know that your investment will lead to a brighter future for generations to come.

The items we are most interested in are;

Art Work (valued $1000.00 or more)
Premium Wines (valued at $200.00 or more)
Gift Cards (valued at $50.00 or more)
Air/Hotel stays in Atlanta or elsewhere
SPA packages, including makeovers

*****All donated items, except Art Work will be grouped together to create high value packages*****

Additionally, you'll benefit from the exposure of your name or your company's name to those who attend the event. Donors will be visible at the event and listed in our quarterly newsletter that reaches 10,000 (+) readers. The merchandise you give will be on display through the event. As a donor, you'll be invited to attend the event, so you'll be able to meet prospective customers and even possibly find a few bargains of your own.

Will you consider donating an item or items to support the continued work of Out & Equal-Atlanta? If you're unsure of a item you might have to donate, please reach out to me at berlin.mediationworks@..., so I can call you by December 5th to find out how you would like to participate in the Out & Equal-Atlanta's live auction.

If you haven't purchased your $20.00 tickets, please do so on-line at www.oeatlanta.info, they are going fast.

Please don't hesitate to share with others. We appreciate your generosity, interest and support!

Sincerely,

Sarah E. Berlin

Live Auction Coordinator

Advisory Board Member

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#9347

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Sun Nov 29, 2009 4:21 pm
Subject: Facebook: Mary Norwood For Mayor

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Mary Norwood

Today as you are out and about Atlanta, help me virtually "shake" the hands of 5 of your friends. Ask them to support Mary Norwood for Mayor. Atlanta needs to start working for its citizens again rather than raising Taxes again!

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#9346

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:49 am
Subject: NYT: CBS Is Criticized for Blurring of Video

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CBS Is Criticized for Blurring of Video

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

Published: November 27, 2009

An appearance by the singer Adam Lambert, below, on “The Early Show,” the CBS morning program, on Wednesday has led to further complaints from those who say Mr. Lambert has been subjected to a double standard. At issue is a video package that was used to introduce the interview with Mr. Lambert, the “American Idol”finalist who gave a sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards on Sunday. When CBS rebroadcast a clip from that show, it blurred a scene of Mr. Lambert kissing his male keyboardist. But it did not blur a scene of Madonna and Britney Spears kissing at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. In a statement, Jarrett Barrios, the president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said, “I would have hoped CBS would provide the same treatment for images of gay and lesbian people and not create an unfair double standard that treats our community differently.” A representative for CBS told the entertainment program “Extra” that the image of Madonna kissing Ms. Spears “is very familiar and has appeared countless times including many times on morning television.” He added, “The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated, and for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/arts/television/28arts-CBSISCRITICI_BRF.html?_r=1

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#9345

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:27 pm
Subject: A Bombshell for DOMA – Judge in California Challenges Executive Branch

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A Bombshell for DOMA – Judge in California Challenges Executive Branch

by Melanie Nathan: I do not go a single day without wondering how the Federal Government can usurp the rights I have been given by my State, which rights in essence are nothing more than civil rights providing me with rights equal to my fellow Americans. Doma is a Con, and America has fallen for it, including President Obama. What will happen if we disregard DOMA; if we simply pretend it is not there? The only way we can do that is to keep asserting our rights and filing in the forms that they say do not apply to us.

Time.com reports a bombshell and a big kick in the side for the Obama Administration. A little hole in DOMA which may lead to a blow out for the iniquitous law:

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeal issued an unusual and exceedingly profound challenge to the power of the Executive Branch, by doing something not even the most sweeping state-court constitutional decisions on gay marriage have been able to do: put the issue of equal treatment for gays to President Barack Obama in a way he will find hard to ignore.

”The Office of Personnel Management shall cease at once its interference with the jurisdiction of this tribunal. “ He gave the Obama Administration 30 days to permit Karen Golinski, a lawyer employed by the Ninth Circuit, to include the woman she married under California law last year on her family health-insurance plan. “Some branch must have the final say on a law’s meaning. At least as to laws governing judicial employees, that is entirely our duty and our province. We would not be a co-equal branch of government otherwise.”

Will President Obama defend the actions of the FEDS and refer to the Defense of Marriage Act, a policy that Obama has consistently said that he is against (even though the Obama Administration has defended the law on several occasions since his taking office), and run the risk of Judge Kuzinski taking further legal action? Or, will they concede that the Office of Personnel Management overstepped its bounds by interfering with the judicial branch, and flirt with conceding too that DOMA itself is overreaching and infringes not just on this one Court’s ability to make rulings independently, but a state’s right to autonomy, and, as part of that, its right to define marriage by its own constitution as expressly stated as part of the Defense of Marriage Act?

more...

http://lezgetreal.com/?p=23335

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#9344

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:53 pm
Subject: Community meeting to name your new Voice

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Community meeting to name your new Voice

Please join us for a community meeting on Dec. 3 to discuss what you feel is most important in a new LGBT news outlet for Atlanta, and to help name your new voice.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at First Existentialist Congregation, 470 Candler Park Dr. in Atlanta. Many thanks to Rick Westbrook and the good folks at First E for donating the space.

Come to the meeting and be the first to know the new name! Here’s how it will work: To submit a name for consideration, please email your suggestion tosavesovo@... with “name” in the subject line. Please send your suggestions by midnight on Sunday.

We’ll narrow them down to a few choices, make sure that they aren’t copyrighted by anyone else, then you’ll get to vote at next Thursday’s meeting.

In the meantime, please keep the ideas, support and, yes, donations coming.

Here are those details again:

Name suggestions: Email to savesovo@... by midnight on Sunday, Nov. 29.

Community meeting: Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. at First Existentialist, 470 Candler Park Dr.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. The events of the last few days have certainly shown us how much we have to be thankful for in Atlanta’s LGBT community.

http://www.savesovo.com/

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#9343

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:33 pm
Subject: NP: No limits placed on Burke's love for son

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No limits placed on Burke's love for son

Bruce Arthur, National Post Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Leafs general manager Brian Burke said his son's coming out didn't change a thing about his feelings for him. "I love him, and I'm proud of him."

Mark Blinch/ReutersLeafs general manager Brian Burke said his son's coming out didn't change a thing about his feelings for him. "I love him, and I'm proud of him."

"This story isn't about me," said Brian Burke, talking on his cellphone during halftime of a Toronto Raptors game. "It's about my son, and his courage. It's not about me."

He is only partly right. When Brian Burke took the general manager's job in Vancouver in 1998, it was because nobody else was hiring. He had tried like hell to get the Atlanta job, but it didn't work out. He was stuck on the West coast.

So Burke took his four children from his first marriage to lunch, and he made them a promise. "You won't lose one day with your father," he said. And for 11 years he would fly from Vancouver - and then from Anaheim - to Boston for weekends, twice a month.

For all the talk about how the Toronto Maple Leafs are the Vatican and how the next guy who wins a Stanley Cup here will have schools named after him, Brian Burke didn't come here just to slay the blue-and-white beast. Brian Burke came here because of the kids -Molly is in Maine, Katie and Patrick in Boston, and Brendan is in Oxford, Ohio, and headed for law school in New England next year. As their father, he wanted to be closer to his family.

But when he was still in Anaheim, Burke's family life took an unexpected turn. In a wonderful and deeply felt story on ESPN.com, John Buccigross tells the story of how Brendan told his family and his hockey team at the University of Miami (Ohio), where he is the student manager for the No. 1-ranked team in the NCAA, that he is gay. And the story is also about how he told his dad. It is deeply affecting. Everyone should read it.

ESPN story: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=4685761

The Burke FamilyBrendan Burke, standing by the Stanley Cup, after his father won it all with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.

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#9342

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:49 pm
Subject: GCN: Who Shuttered the Washington Blade?

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Who Shuttered the Washington Blade?

Window, Unite bankruptcy filings add to the murky confusion

Published: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 9:56 AM CST

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

“As far as the circumstances that have led to the operations of Window and Unite Media being closed down, I can’t speak to that,” Steve Myers, who was co-president of the two companies with Mike Kitchens, said in a statement published on projectqatlanta.com, which first reported the bankruptcy filings. “Unfortunately, the closing of the company was a circumstance we could not control.”

Window owned and operated the Washington Blade and Atlanta’s Southern Voice, two of the nation’s oldest gay newspapers. Unite owned and operated two gay publications in Florida and one in Atlanta. All five were closed on November 16.

The two businesses were owned by the Avalon Equity Fund, a small business investment corporation that was licensed by the federal Small Business Administration in 2000 and borrowed $39 million from the SBA since then. Avalon was forced into receivership last year after it violated its SBA contract.

As the court-appointed receiver, the SBA was ostensibly engaged in selling off the Avalon assets to pay creditors. One major asset in one of the six Avalon portfolio companies, a cable television property, has been sold since August of 2008, and another, Genre Media, which owned the gay magazine Genre, was closed. Chapter 7 is also a process of liquidating assets.

“The only question is whether they need to even bother to file for Chapter 7,” said Barry E. Adler, a law professor at New York University who specializes in bankruptcy law. “It may just be that people want to have an orderly end to the business.”

Window Media was the ambitious project of William Waybourn and Chris Crain, who bought a string of gay publications, including the Voice in 1996 and the Blade in 2001. The deals they closed to build a gay media empire put unsustainable debt on the newspapers’ balance sheets. They were bailed out in 2001 when Avalon bought a controlling interest in the company.

Collectively, Window, Unite, and other Avalon operating units, HX Media, owner of HX and the New York Blade, and Genre Media, have shut down roughly one dozen gay newspapers and magazines since 2001.

more...

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/11/25/gay_city_news/news/doc4b0d4f3b9ed96846542158.txt

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#9341

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:39 pm
Subject: CNN: Lambert: I'm a performer, not a baby sitter

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Adam Lambert performed without the raunch on "The Early Show" on Wednesday morning.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

CBS snapped up Adam Lambert for a talk-and-sing session after ABC canceled
Lambert said there were other racy AMA performances, but he did get carried away
He believes the backlash is because he's gay
Lambert's mother was "a little taken aback" by song, but "I just went with the flow," she said

Lambert: I'm a performer, not a baby sitter

By Jo Piazza, Special to CNN

November 25, 2009 11:49 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- Adam Lambert cleaned up his act for his CBS "Early Show" appearance Wednesday morning, giving a performance no one could take offense with.

Lambert said on the show that he believes he has been unfairly attacked because he is a gay man, and he blamed parents upset with his performance for letting their kids watch the American Music Awards without supervision.

"It's a double whammy -- I think it's because I'm a gay male, and I think people haven't seen it before," Lambert said about the negative response that has erupted over his Sunday night AMA performance.

ABC has received more than 1,500 complaints from viewers upset about Lambert's raunchy dance sequence at the AMAs to his single "For Your Entertainment," in which he simulated oral sex with one of the dancers and kissed a male keyboardist on the mouth. The network's morning show, "Good Morning America," canceled Lambert's scheduled appearance Wednesday because, it said, it couldn't trust what he would do.

CBS offered to give Lambert a platform to speak and sing after ABC's cancellation.

"The Early Show," which has typically been third in morning ratings behind "Good Morning America" and the "Today Show," made the most of the opportunity and allowed Lambert to dominate the morning programming as he took questions from fans, chatted with host Maggie Rodriguez and performed two of the songs from his new album, avoiding any untoward dance moves.

The former "American Idol" finalist admitted that he did "get carried away" during the AMA performance, but said that his dance moves came from an "impromptu place" and that they were not planned in advance.

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/25/adam.lambert.concert/index.html

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#9340

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:33 pm
Subject: PGN: What the closure of the Blade, Southern Voice means to LGBT media

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What the closure of the Blade, Southern Voice means to LGBT media

by Mark Segal

For those of us in LGBT media, it was a sad week. Our brothers and sisters who work in a variety of LGBT newspapers run by Window Media showed up at their offices Monday and discovered that their publications had closed, including Washington Blade, Atlanta’s Southern Voice, David magazine, 411 magazine and South Florida Blade. That alone is a lot of employees, but in recent months the same company also closed down Genre magazine and the online-only Houston Voice, and it or members of its management had connections with HX, which also folded. To say this is the biggest failure in LGBT-media history is an understatement. That said, what does it say about LGBT media? The short answer: nothing.

While media outlets in general are going through changes, there are some basic publishing lessons that can be learned from this, and in some ways it even makes LGBT media stronger.

The first rule of local LGBT publishing is to remain relevant in your community. And the way to do that is not to be afraid of taking positions and allowing free discussion in your publication — even if it opposes your position. Don’t sugarcoat the news. If an LGBT organization is not doing its job or something is not on the up and up, it's the media’s job to expose it. Make local news your priority, news that only you will be publishing. And don’t be afraid of controversy. Remember the basics of news in every story: who, what, when, where and why.

Now to the business side. If you do your journalism correctly, you will be relevant, trusted and a necessity to your community. That brings readers, which brings advertisers, which pays the bills. Your first line of advertisers should be the community itself, which should support its publication of record. Next are the gay-friendly and non-gay businesses in gay neighborhoods and the non-gay businesses frequented by the LGBT community. And once that is in line, it should cover your bottom line. Any national advertising that comes your way is the cream of the business.

Of course, you still need basic business practices and leadership to bring it together. Here’s a possible example of how the above rules applied to the Washington Blade. Window Media and their other partners began their course of destruction when Chris Crane discredited and cheapened what was one of the nation’s leading LGBT publications (he even included a “Bitch Session” column and hired a former escort as a political columnist). That led to a decline in advertising, which resulted in cutting ad rates to undercut competition. At the same time, David Unger, head of Window, went on a publication-buying spree with money guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. They had a sinking ship and went further in debt. When Crane was let go/resigned, the Blade began to regain its stature but, still under Unger’s leadership it continued to buy other publications and cut benefits. Various business arrangements with other publications, such as HX, entered the Blade world. Who owned what became blurred. Lack of trust from readers and advertisers, a possible fight among partners and an ensuing host of lawsuits spelled the end.

more...

http://www.epgn.com/pages/full_story/push?article-What+the+closure+of+the+Blade-+Southern+Voice+means+to+LGBT+media+%20&id=4557247-What+the+closure+of+the+Blade-+Southern+Voice+means+to+LGBT+media+

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#9339

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:21 pm
Subject: GCN: Confession Questioned in Puerto Rico Slaughter

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Four hundred turned out for a vigil remembering Jorge Steven López Mercado in New York City on November 22. (GRCC)

Confession Questioned in Puerto Rico Slaughter

Are the defendant and his attorney merely setting up a "gay panic" defense?

Published: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 9:31 AM CST

BY DOUG IRELAND When the remains of savagely murdered 19-year-old gay activist and college student Jorge Steven López Mercado were discovered in Puerto Rico on November 13 after he had been dismembered, decapitated, and burned in an apparent hate crime, shock and anger spread like wildfire across the United States, burning up the gay blogosphere and leading to vigils, demonstrations, and memorials all over the country, from New York City to Chicago, from Miami and Dallas to San Francisco, as well as in San Juan.

“Jorge Steven was the greatest, very loving, a very pure soul,” Puerto Rico’s best-known gay activist, Pedro Julio Serrano, a friend of the victim, told Gay City News from the home of the murdered lad’s family in the small town of Toa Alta, where López lived with his parents and nine-year-old brother. Serrano, the founder of the largest LGBT group on the island, Puerto Rico Para Todos, which has 30,000 members, is now the New York-based communications manager for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF).

Serrano flew to Puerto Rico to lead the fight for justice for the murdered and mutilated hate crime victim the day after the body was identified by the murdered lad’s partner of six months, 27-year-old Luis Rivera.

A suspect, 26-year-old Juan Martínez Matos, was arrested three days after the murder, and the prosecutor in the case, Jose Bermudez Santos, told the newspaper El Nuevo Dia that Martínez confessed to killing López and mutilating his body. In his confession, Martínez claimed he’d met López while looking for a woman in an area known for prostitution, that López was dressed as a female, and that he killed and mutilated him after discovering he was a man.

But NGLTF’s Serrano contradicted the implications in the confessed murderer’s account of the crime.

“None of Jorge Steven’s friends, and I’ve spoken to many of them, knew anything about his ever having engaged in sex work, not his family, and not the police,” Serrano, who met with investigators on the case, told this reporter. “Nor was he known as a cross-dresser. He identified and lived as a very proud gay man, he was very genuine and authentic. He was just very fashion-oriented and what you could call a gender-bender, but not in a transgendered way.”

Serrano added, “We do not know if the murderer’s claim that Jorge Steven was wearing a dress is true or not, because the body had been so dismembered, its legs and arms and torso strewn in different locations, and it had also been burned along with the clothes he was wearing.”

In footage aired on Telemundo-Puerto Rico, Martínez was asked by a reporter if he was gay, to which he replied no, and added, López “tried to kill me.” When he realized that López was a man, Martínez said he regressed to an incident when he was sexually assaulted during a prison term, Telemundo and local reports said.

more...

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/11/25/gay_city_news/news/doc4b0d46b089fc0263838761.txt

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#9338

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:18 pm
Subject: GCN: Long on Talent - The set designer, costumer out of Carolina is up to Harlem, down to Tribeca

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William Ivey Long’s latest project is a revival of “Dream Girls,” opening at the Apollo, with a national tour to follow. (STEPHEN CHERNIN)

Long on Talent

The set designer, costumer out of Carolina is up to Harlem, down to Tribeca

Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009 2:07 PM CST

By WICKHAM BOYLE

William Ivey Long has a long name, and he uses all of it, all the time. After all, he’s a Southern gentleman. But he is also long on talent, ideas, energy, generosity, friends, and real estate.

Long is best known as the costume and/ or set designer for many a great show you have clambered to see during the last three decades. (He resembles an impish prep school professor half his age; he must have a picture aging somewhere in a distant attic.) The list of Long’s New York credits include: “9 to 5,” “Pal Joey,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Grey Gardens,” “The Boy from Oz,” “Hairspray,” “The Producers,” “The Music Man,” “Contact,” “Swing,” “Cabaret,” “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” “Chicago,” “Smokey Joe’s Café,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Crazy for You,” “Nine,” “Assassins,” Robert Wilson’s “Hamletmachine,” and Madison Square Garden’s “A Christmas Carol.” He also dressed Mick Jagger for the Rolling Stones’ “Steel Wheels” tour, Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage Hotel, before the tiger incident, and the Pointer Sisters at Caesar’s Palace. Long has been nominated for 11 Tony Awards, winning five times. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in January 2006, and his home is filled with many other awards.

W.I.L., as his staff refer to him in emails, will only read them if you put “Please print for William” in the header. A proud and adamant self-professed Luddite, he garnered a masters from North Carolina School of the Arts and another from the Yale Drama School, but all these accolades, work, and education really tell you nothing of the man. This will.

When I arrived for our interview, the capacious Chelsea brownstone Long has occupied for the last 15 years was in wild disarray. This surprised me, as photographs and stories of his abode are legendary. The New York Social Diary has pictures of his wonderful home online that will knock your socks off –– flocked wallpaper chosen by C.Z. Guest, 18-century family antiques restored to perfection, dazzling Moreno crystal chandeliers even in the baths, and every cornice and marble mantel hand-rubbed to sheen. Instead, the dwelling was full of boxes and empty rooms. Why?

Long decided to sell his brownstone to his neighbor, 97-year-old sculptress Louise Bourgeois, because she needed to expand to create a museum. Okay, so he made a handsome profit –– the Times reported a price of $4.7 million –– but Long insisted he sold to honor the spirit of creative expansion evinced by Bourgeois, even as she edges toward 100: “Southerners honor women, and we especially revere our women as they age, unlike northerners.”

And this is quite a tribute. The entire brownstone is being packed up, and Long and his crew of young thespians are decamping to the wilds of Tribeca. Long purchased a ground floor and basement downtown and will renovate this space to be his home, office, and atelier. And mind you, all of this was happening while he was in the throes of opening “Dream Girls” at the Apollo. This little show features 600 costumes, 400 of which are worn every night; the others are for understudies or to accompany the road tour that begins in Baltimore in late December.

William Ivey Long’s parents were farmers who left the land to become academics. They taught and worked in the theater in a small town in North Carolina called Manteo. This town today is best known for a robust annual theatrical reenactment of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony. This historical drama, written by Paul Green and in production for 72 years, was where W.I.L. cut his theatrical teeth, as an eight-year-old colonist, and he has never looked back. Long is one of the primary benefactors not only of the “symphonic drama that is ‘The Lost Colony’” but also of the town of Manteo, as he has renovated many of the hamlet’s buildings and retreats there every summer to design the theatrical production and bask in his Southern roots.

more...

http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2009/11/25/gay_city_news/features/doc4afc5c935c728115634752.txt

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#9337

From: "Matt H" <matt@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 2:59 am
Subject: Atlanta Eagle patrons file federal lawsuit over Sept. 10 raid

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Read the full post from Project Q Atlanta: http://tinyurl.com/ygjgdm5

Some 19 people detained during the Sept. 10 raid of the Atlanta Eagle fired back
Tuesday, filing a federal lawsuit against the city, its police chief and
four-dozen officers claiming violations of federal and state laws.

The civil rights complaint seeks a judicial order to change the Atlanta Police
Department's procedures concerning raids and unspecified monetary damages to
compensate patrons for false imprisonment, assault, battery and trespass.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include patrons who were searched and detained during
the raid, though only one of the eight employees and dancers who were arrested.

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#9336

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:07 am
Subject: AJC: Submit Your Questions To Atlanta Mayoral Candidates

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Submit Your Questions To Atlanta Mayoral Candidates

Posted: 4:18 pm EST November 24, 2009Updated: 4:23 pm EST November 24, 2009

ATLANTA -- WSB-TV will host the final debate between Atlanta mayoral candidates Mary Norwood and Kasim Reed on Sunday, Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m.

The runoff election will be Dec. 1.

Channel 2 Action News anchor John Pruitt will be moderating the Sunday debate.

If you have a question for one or both of the candidates -- please submit your question via the comments section at the bottom of this page.

http://www.wsbtv.com/politics/21714273/detail.html

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#9335

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:04 am
Subject: Atlanta police chief confirms departure

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Atlanta police chief confirms departure

Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Dave Williams Staff Writer

Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington confirmed Tuesday he will resign as Atlanta's top cop effective Dec. 31

View Larger

Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington confirmed Tuesday that he will be leaving office at the end of the year, departing city government at the same time as the mayor who hired him.

It already had been widely reported that Pennington would step down along with term-limited Shirley Franklin, who brought him to Atlanta from the New Orleans Police Department in 2002, her first year in office.

Despite growing concerns in the city about crime stirred by several highly publicized incidents, Pennington reported Tuesday that the highest- priority crimes in Atlanta are down 13 percent so far this year.

more...

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/11/23/daily31.html

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#9334

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:00 am
Subject: CNN: Federal lawsuit filed against Atlanta police over raid at gay club (+ comment)

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This story is getting major traction. And that could be bad news for Kasim Reed. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has been under fire because of the Eagle raid - and she supports Kasim Reed for the next mayor. - Tom Dempsey

Federal lawsuit filed against Atlanta police over raid at gay club

November 24, 2009 6:34 p.m. EST

Geoffrey Calhoun was at the gay bar at the time of the raid and said some officers didn't identify themselves as police.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Gay bar patrons allege police used anti-gay slurs, violent tactics during raid
Police raided the Atlanta Eagle bar in September; patrons say they feared for their lives
Atlanta official said he hadn't been served with suit and wouldn't comment

The suit, filed by the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, names Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington and 48 officers who were at the Atlanta Eagle bar the night of September 10. Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Atlanta police over a September raid at a gay club, on behalf of 19 patrons who say they were forcibly searched and detained.

"The Atlanta Police Department dispatched about 20 to 30 officers to the Atlanta Eagle, including its 'Red Dog' unit dressed in SWAT team gear," according to a statement from Lambda Legal. "But inside the bar, the APD found no public sex, no drugs or illegal weapons." No patrons were charged with any crime, the organization said.

During the raid, patrons were made to lie face down on the floor while background checks were run on everyone, the statement said. "Eagle bar patrons heard anti-gay slurs; were forced to lay in spilled beer and broken glass; and one was forced to lie on the floor even though he had injured his back in the Iraq War."

Some of the patrons were restrained with handcuffs, and officers used excessive force, including shoving some people to the floor and kicking others on the floor, the lawsuit says. Authorities searched everyone on the property, seizing their driver's licenses or other identification, the suit says.

"These actions were taken without particularized reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe that any individual patron, let alone every person at the establishment, was involved in criminal activity whatsoever," said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Atlanta City Attorney Roger Bhandari said in a statement Monday that the city had not been served with the suit or had an opportunity to review it, so he would not comment. Bhandari's office told CNN on Tuesday that its response was the same, as it had not seen the suit.

The only charges filed were against Eagle employees, for allegedly violating the city's law about unlicensed adult entertainment "because four dancers were observed, in the words of the arresting officers, allegedly 'wearing underwear' and 'dancing,' " the lawsuit said.

"Imagine if the police walked into a Wal-Mart and see someone shoplifting, and because they see what they think is a crime taking place in Wal-Mart, they take everyone at Wal-Mart, throw them on the floor, spread their legs, put their hands in their pockets, take their IDs, put their name in the computer, simply because they're out of place or someone else may or may not be doing something wrong," co-counsel Daniel Grossman said at a news conference Tuesday.

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/24/georgia.gay.club.lawsuit/index.html

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#9333

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:32 pm
Subject: Blog For Democracy: I stand with Kyle Bailey

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I stand with Kyle Bailey

By Mel on November 13, 2009 12:17 AM | Comments (12)

One of the strongest, truest, and most tireless Democratic LGBT activist I have ever had the pleasure to know has recently become the subject of a smear campaign by supporters of Kasim Reed.

A rumor is being spread that Kyle's support and endorsement of Mary Norwood for Mayor has been paid for either in cash or by the promise of a job. This is absolutely false. As Kyle writes:

In a democracy, we all have the right to support the candidates of our choice without fear of intimidation and attack. It's unfortunate that my support and volunteer time donated to the candidate of my choice in the mayoral race has resulted in these slanderous accusations against me. But these attacks have only emboldened me to fight for the election of Mary Norwood as Mayor of Atlanta.

More on the story from SOVO, (includes Reese McCranie's response from the Reed Campaign) and ProjectQ. Kyle's complete statement is included in the SOVO story and is also below the fold.

As I said, any idiot can smear, but it takes talent to win on merit. Whoever is behind this lacks that and more. Going after one of the most beloved and well-known Democratic activist in Georgia is a huge, huge FAIL.

more...

http://www.blogfordemocracy.org/2009/11/i_stand_with_kyle_bailey.html

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#9332

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:27 pm
Subject: Kasim Reed Would Not Protect The Brooks-Wolf Family - Why LGBT Voters Should Be Very Careful in Their Choice for Mayor of Atlanta

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Kasim Reed Would Not Protect The Brooks-Wolf Family

To: All LGBT Voters in the City of Atlanta

Date: November 24, 2009

From the Following Members of Our Community Concerned About LGBT Families:

Douglas Brooks

Rusty Wolf

Randy New

Russell Tippins

Jeff Cleghorn

Kevin Kirby

Ken Britt

Lawrie Demorest

Lee Kyser

Joe Porter

Sharon Semmens

Dan Bloom

Barry Golivesky

Mike Wright

Bob Glascock

Chris Morter

Jeff Deardorff

Judy Wells

Sally Purvis

Cindy Brazell

Katie Phelps

Jefferson Sargent

Jason Mayberry

Randy Brazee

Jonathan Huff

Rebecca Glatzer

Shawn Lanier

Jon Ritt

Michael Aycock

Barry Baker

Why LGBT Voters Should Be Very Careful in Their Choice for Mayor of Atlanta

We are your friends, co-workers, and neighbors in the City of Atlanta, and we ask you to vote for Mary Norwood to be Atlanta’s next Mayor on December 1.

Please imagine the following actual encounter: Doug Brooks and Rusty Wolf, a couple together for 11 years who were married in 2005 in Massachusetts, took the opportunity to ask Kasim Reed about his position on marriage equality. On November 8, Doug, Rusty and their two young children were in Morningside’s Sidney Marcus Park. With their children in arms, Doug and Rusty politely asked Senator Reed why he did not believe their children were entitled to the benefits of having two married parents. Kasim Reed looked this family in the eye and said that his religious views did not allow him to recognize a civil marriage. This was a tough conversation to have in our own neighborhood with someone who might lead our City and its large gay and lesbian population.

Near the beginning of the race, Georgia Equality noted that 1 in 7 Atlanta voters – about 15% - is likely gay or lesbian, and intowners will tell you that estimate is near the mark. Since we comprise 15% of the tax base, and 15% of your neighbors, we deserve a Mayor who believes that we are full citizens, entitled to all benefits of our straight neighbors.

Marriage equality is important to us, and may be the most important issue to the average gay and lesbian voter in 2009, thus placing the issue front and center in this Mayor’s race. Municipal elections are about quality of life, and there are few quality of life issues anyone would consider more important than the right to get married.

We also typically vote for Democrats, and give money to Democratic candidates. This year, we are supporting Mary Norwood as an independent voice for a better Atlanta. Kasim Reed and the Democratic Party have used divisive, partisan politics in Atlanta’s non-partisan election. Senator Reed took the unprecedented and divisive step of interjecting partisan politics into the fray, accusing all opponents of being Republicans. The Democratic Party then fueled the fire with the unprecedented step of spending Party funds on direct mail pieces to proliferate the lie that Mary Norwood is a Republican. Finally, party line Democrats in droves endorsed Kasim Reed in a lock step effort to make partisan something that never was, and never should be.

Kasim Reed’s anti marriage equality position is not only an insult to the thousands of tax paying gay and lesbian Atlantans, his position represents a step backwards for a City which is currently led by Shirley Franklin, who favors marriage equality. Like many of you, we are disappointed in this year’s race, and not just for Senator Reed’s position, the party’s intervention, and the lock step support from party faithful. The Democratic Party of Georgia asks gays and lesbians to compromise on marriage equality in voting for Reed this year, while doing nothing elsewhere to improve the discriminatory treatment we feel from state government. No member of the Democratic caucus has introduced legislation to repeal the 2004 anti marriage equality amendment; nor to create a parallel structure of Civil Unions, nor domestic partnerships, nor any other advance. Is it any wonder gays and lesbians are – for the first time in memory – ignoring the party’s candidate endorsement to support the pro marriage equality, Mary Norwood?

A candidate’s capacity for empathy with his or her constituency is an important consideration in any election. Senator Reed is not married, and he has no children. While being unmarried and childless in no way disqualifies someone from serving effectively in office, it does prevent Senator Reed from empathizing with the families affected by his refusal to support equality. Were Senator Reed placed in a situation where his spouse or, even worse, his children were denied the rights enjoyed by others, and was told it was simply because the religious beliefs of those in power don't allow for an inclusive view of equality, he would be as offended and hurt and angry as we are.

This year, LGBT Atlantans have a rare opportunity: to (1) get a marriage equality candidate elected; (2) defeat, and perhaps end the career of, a political climber who is against marriage equality; (3) send a message to ALL candidates (particularly Democrats) that they need to support us on this issue to get our votes; (4) all while doing no damage to the Democratic party in the General Assembly, Congress, the Governor's mansion, or the White House. We will not get another chance to send this message again. Please vote for Mary Norwood on December 1.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_XkfM-1JOKGMThkYTg3ZjctNDZhYS00NTM2LTg3ZTYtYjI4MWJmMGViZjkz&hl=en

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LGBT-Allied-Atlantans-for-Mary-Norwood/175215778727

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Norwood/36222173596?ref=ts

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#9331

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:27 pm
Subject: AJC: Atlanta Eagle patrons file federal lawsuit against city

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Atlanta Eagle patrons file federal lawsuit against city

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the city of Atlanta on behalf of 19 patrons searched and detained during the Sept. 10 raid of the Atlanta Eagle gay bar.

"The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD," said Greg Nevins, an attorney in the Atlanta office of Lambda Legal, which is representing the plaintiffs.Police Chief Richard Pennington and 48 of his officers, including members of the department's Red Dog unit, also are named in the civil rights suit, which claims violations of federal and state law.

According to police records, undercover vice officers had been to the Ponce de Leon nightclub and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched. The department also received complaints alleging drug sales on the premises.

No charges were filed against any of the 62 patrons forced to lie down on the bar floor during the raid, though eight Eagle employees were arrested for permit violations. Pennington said the patrons were "frisked" for the officers' safety. No search warrant was served.

"My first thought was, ‘we're getting robbed,'" said one of the plaintiffs, Geoffrey Calhoun, who works as a local 911 dispatcher. He described feeling "dehumanized and humiliated" by the officers conducting the raid. "It needs to stop here. Silence is no longer an option."

Last month at a community forum, Deputy Chief Carlos Banda defended the use of the Red Dog unit, which is known for its aggressive tactics.

"The procedures are very strict and they go bam, bam, bam by the numbers,” Banda told the forum, organized by Atlantans Together Against Crime. “Sometimes the tactics are a little more aggressive than we would see on regular patrol because of the enforcement problems we are given.”

more...

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-eagle-patrons-file-212308.html?cxtype=rss_news_81966

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#9330

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:15 pm
Subject: DailyBeast: 8 New Internet Sex Fads

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8 New Internet Sex Fads

by Rachel Kramer Bussel

From an iPhone app that measures and scores your sexual prowess to a website that's tracking where, when and how the entire world is getting laid, internet sexcessories are getting stranger by the day.

In a simpler time, the Internet's sexual potential ended at porn and online dating. Today's Internet, both more labyrinthian and better organized, offers a far greater wealth of dirty tricks. Squeaky-clean companies like Apple have watched their most sophisticated technologies become appropriated as sex toys. Dating sites offer services that would make a porn star blush. And porn stars themselves are now not only available to look at, but to "touch"—all you need is a broadband connection and an easy-to-order device that arrives in an inconspicuous cardboard box.

Following a highly amusing weekend trolling for what's new in online smut, The Daily Beast's Rachel Kramer Bussel presents eight of the Internet's best new sex Web sites, apps, and downloads.

Passion

Leave it to Apple to quantify “good in bed.” An app called Passion, released in July, uses “all of the iPhone’s distinct features such as the microphone, accelerometer, and many others to determine an accurate score” for your sexual prowess. The triple-tiered rating system measures duration (how long you can last), activity level (how much you're “into it,” using the accelerometer), and the intensity of orgasm (decibel-wise). Then it graphs your official score, which you can later compare to others’ scores around the world. I tested out Passion with my boyfriend. Our "activity level" was high enough that we accidentally turned off the Passion app (note to self: buy iPhone armband) and because of this, scored only a 1.8. (I would have given us a 9.)

I Just Made Love

With just shy of 60,000 entries, this site lets you record each of your individual sexploits like a notch on a virtual bedpost. A map of the earth on the homepage tracks where each entry is coming from so you can see where, when, and how other people are getting off all over the world. The map even has a filter option that allows you to view, say, just lesbians, or couples who recently did it outdoors, providing a fascinating, almost anthropological real-time survey of global sex patterns. As of this writing, a gay male couple had just made love in Greenland, the Spaniards were using condoms the most often, Portugal was having the most sex per capita, and someone named Foi Otimo was getting laid on a miniscule South Atlantic island called Edinburgh.

Beautiful People

Dipping its toes in the shallow end of human sexuality, Beautiful People is a dating site that weeds out the hideous, the weird-looking, and the jarringly asymmetrical. “Do looks matter to you?” the site asks. “Do you want to guarantee your dates will always be beautiful?” The site’s selection process keeps out the ugly among us (though ugly folk are still allowed to browse) by only allowing applicants to create a profile once they’ve been “voted in by existing members of the opposite sex.”

Grindr

An insta-hookup device to make George Orwell proud, the Grindr iPhone app tracks your movements via GPS and shows you pics of people in your immediate vicinity who are looking for a booty call that very minute. See a picture you like, and you can instant message that person to ask if they want to hook up. Playing to stereotype, Grindr is made specifically for gay and bisexual men, and markets itself as completely anonymous with no registered accounts or electronic trails left behind—no fuss, no names, and no second “dates."

more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-22/8-new-internet-sex-fads/

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#9329

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:58 pm
Subject: AP: Gael Garcia Bernal's new role is 'provocative'

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Gael Garcia Bernal's new role is 'provocative'

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 43 mins ago

NEW YORK – Gael Garcia Bernal calls his latest film "provocative."

The Mexican actor says he knew what he was getting into when he chose to work on "Mammoth" with Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson, whose previous films have covered such subjects as forced prostitution and amateur porn.

"I definitely knew that it was going to be a confrontational film, that it was going to be provocative in a certain way," Garcia Bernal told The Associated Press in Spanish during a recent phone interview fromCochabamba, Bolivia, where he is filming a new movie.

He said Moodysson's work "profiles people in a sharp, vulnerable way that many people can find irritating, while many others can love."

"Mammoth," which opened on Friday in the U.S., centers around a successful married couple in New York: Leo (Garcia Bernal), creator of a booming Internet site who begins to feel trapped in the rat race, and Ellen (played by Michelle Williams, ex-fiancee of the late Heath Ledger), a self-sacrificing surgeon who spends long shifts saving lives in the emergency room.

Their 8-year-old daughter, Jackie (Sophie Nyweide), spends most of her time with their Filipino nanny, Gloria (Marife Necesito), which leads Ellen to question her priorities in life. At the same time, in the Philippines, the nanny's family struggles to survive without her. During a business trip to Thailand, Leo unknowingly triggers a series of events that have dramatic consequences for all of them.

"I really liked this movie after reading the script," Garcia Bernal said, adding that the idea of working with Moodysson and Williams was also attractive.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_en_ot/us_people_gael_garcia_bernal

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#9328

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:06 pm
Subject: PQA: Perimeter College holds anti-hate rally Tuesday

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Perimeter College holds anti-hate rally Tuesday

By Project Q Atlanta | Nov 24, 2009 | 11:55 AM

LGBT students at Georgia Perimeter College/Clarkston are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take hateful slurs scrawled last month on their interactive art installation for Coming Out Day.

The Triangle Club, the college’s gay student organization, built a full-scale closet at the campus student center to commemorate the Oct. 11 National Coming Out Day. Out students and faculty were encouraged to sign the closet and leave inspirational messages.

Days later, homophobic slurs and hate speech defaced the exhibit.

“This could happen on your campus, too,” says Steven Igarashi, the gay outreach coordinator at AID Atlanta, who is helping drum up support for a Tuesday rally on the campus courtyard.

The United Against Hate rally aims to unite campus organizations and draw attention to the harmful effect that Hate Speech has on everyone.

“I encourage you to join your LGBT brothers and sisters at this rally,” Igarashi says. “An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us!”

more...

http://www.projectqatlanta.com/news_articles/view/perimeter_college_holds_anti-hate_rally_tuesday?gid=4412

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#9327

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:57 pm
Subject: OTM: Former 'Voice' Staffers Slowly Build New Gay Paper

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Former 'Voice' Staffers Slowly Build New Gay Paper

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF
PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 24, 2009

The former editor of the Southern Voice has joined with the paper's original founder to begin a new gay paper in Atlanta.

The paper was shut down on November 16 along with five other LGBT newspapers and magazines owned by Window Media, including the Washington Blade, Houston Voice, David Atlanta, South Florida Blade and 411 Magazine. The company close down three additional properties over the summer: HX Magazine, the New York Blade and monthly glossy Genre.

But while the former 18-person staff of the Washington Blade managed to churn out a new paper, DC Agenda, less than a week after being shut out of its offices, the former staff of the Atlanta-based Southern Voice is moving more cautiously.

“We know we cant' really save SoVo – that name now belongs to a bankruptcy court and lienholders – but we can save SoVo's mission,” former editor Laura Douglas-Brown said in a blog post located at savesovo.com.

On Tuesday, Douglas-Brown and the paper's original founder, Chris Cash, announced the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation will give $12,000 in matching funds to the new gay paper.

The nonprofit named after the late Atlanta gay activist and businessman supports the gay community in Atlanta and the Southeast.

Cash, who founded Southern Voice in 1988 and sold the publication to Window Media in 1997, said the goal was to build a war chest large enough to weather the new company for about a year.

“We're walking this thin line of putting things in place so we can get out the door solidly but get out the door as fast as we can,” she told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It's a tight rope that we've been walking, but I totally and completely believe that it is possible.”

more...

http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=4911&MediaType=1&Category=26

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#9326

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:43 pm
Subject: CNN: 'GMA' cancels Adam Lambert after racy performance on AMAs

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'GMA' cancels Adam Lambert after racy performance on AMAs

By Jo Piazza, Special to CNN

November 24, 2009 1:42 p.m. EST

Adam Lambert shocked fans with his performance at the American Music Awards.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

"Good Morning America" cancels Adam Lambert's live performance
Lambert shocked viewers with his sexually suggestive dance sequence on the AMAs
ABC received more than 1,500 complaints after the AMAs

ABC was flooded with more than 1,500 complaints, and the network sent an e-mail to potential concert goers letting them know that Lambert would not be performing on Wednesday.The fallout from Adam Lambert's risqué American Music Awards performance keeps coming with "Good Morning America" canceling the singer's live performance scheduled for Wednesday morning.

"Given Adam Lambert's controversial live performance on the AMAs, we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning," a spokesperson for the network said.

"The Early Show" on rival network CBS was quick to announce that they have booked Lambert to perform and discuss the controversy on Wednesday morning.

Lambert shocked viewers with his sexually suggestive dance sequence that included simulated oral sex as well as Lambert kissing his male keyboardist.

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/24/adam.lambert.gma/index.html

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#9325

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:42 pm
Subject: PQA: Southern Voice, David owners collapse with $15 million in debt

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Read the full post from Project Q Atlanta: http://tinyurl.com/y9ja3q8

The collapse last week of the nation's largest publisher of gay newspapers—including Southern Voice and David magazine—came amid more than $15.35 million in debt that touched all facets of its business.

Window Media and Unite Media, companies with weekly publications in three cities including Atlanta, abruptly shut down before daybreak Nov. 16, ending more than a year in receivership with the Small Business Administration. Employees at Southern Voice and David magazine arrived at their offices Monday morning to find the locks changed and a note announcing the closure taped to the front door.

But the companies, which also owned the Washington Blade, South Florida Blade and 411 magazine, suffered from mounting debt that includes unpaid payroll taxes, rent, printing and distribution, health insurance and freelancers, according to petitions filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Georgia.

http://www.projectqatlanta.com/news_articles/view/SoVo_David_owners_collapse_with_15_million_debt?gid=4403

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#9324

From: Tom Dempsey <tomdemp@...>
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:30 am
Subject: AtlanTIX : Holiday Helping Hands

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For Immediate Release

Contact:

Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts

404-588-9890

Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts
Holiday Offer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATLANTA, GA; November 23, 2009
Holiday Offer

Atlanta Performs/ AtlanTIX announces a one week promotion (starting Friday, November 27, 2009) to reinvest in local arts and culture. Customers will receive one $25 dollar additional Gift TIX free of charge with every four Gift TIX purchase. Promotions ends Sunday, Friday, December 4, 2009, at 12:01 AM. Customers can purchase Gift TIX online, www.AtlantaPerforms.com, or at the AtlanTIX, discount ticket booth, inside the Atlanta Visitor's Center, Underground Atlanta.

"We know in this economy, everyone is not able to give as much as they would like this year. This money stays in the community--all $25 go to the organization where the gift is redeemed," said Al Stilo, VP/Marketing Chair, Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts, Board of Directors. "Pair it with a restaurant gift card and not only have you made an unbelievable gift, you are helping arts and business in your community."

About Gift TIX

Gift Tix are the perfect gift for any occasion and are accepted as $25 cash toward purchase of tickets to Atlanta Ballet, Alliance Theatre and over 70 other participating performing arts companies.
www.AtlantaPerforms.com.

About Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts

Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts (ACPA) is the nonprofit service organization working to support and promote greater Atlanta's theatre, dance, music and film arts. ACPA was founded in 1984 by arts leaders from across the region, to connect the performing arts field both as a community, and an industry.

###

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Mary Norwood

CBS Is Criticized for Blurring of Video

A Bombshell for DOMA – Judge in California Challenges Executive Branch

Community meeting to name your new Voice

No limits placed on Burke's love for son

Who Shuttered the Washington Blade?

Window, Unite bankruptcy filings add to the murky confusion

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

Lambert: I'm a performer, not a baby sitter

Confession Questioned in Puerto Rico Slaughter

Are the defendant and his attorney merely setting up a "gay panic" defense?

Long on Talent

The set designer, costumer out of Carolina is up to Harlem, down to Tribeca

By WICKHAM BOYLE

Submit Your Questions To Atlanta Mayoral Candidates

Atlanta police chief confirms departure

Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Dave Williams Staff Writer

This story is getting major traction. And that could be bad news for Kasim Reed. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has been under fire because of the Eagle raid - and she supports Kasim Reed for the next mayor. - Tom Dempsey

Federal lawsuit filed against Atlanta police over raid at gay club

I stand with Kyle Bailey

Atlanta Eagle patrons file federal lawsuit against city

8 New Internet Sex Fads

Gael Garcia Bernal's new role is 'provocative'

Perimeter College holds anti-hate rally Tuesday

Former 'Voice' Staffers Slowly Build New Gay Paper

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 24, 2009

'GMA' cancels Adam Lambert after racy performance on AMAs

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF
PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 24, 2009