New research reveals–not surprisingly–that female writers, directors, producers, etc. fare better in the world of indie films–though still make up only about 24% of the field.

KRS-ONE says hip-hop needs more women. I’m not sure what happened to female rappers. We used to have Queen Latifah, Lil’ Kim, MC Lyte, where’d everyone go?

In its first weekend, the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It grossed over $100 million dollars across the globe, with 21.3% of it coming from the U.S.

A gay man in Karachi, Pakistan was beaten to death after being caught with another man in his home by an angry mob.

Oprah says audiences may not “enjoy” the gritty Lee Daniels film Precious but she says people will appreciate the experience.  The film opens on November 6.

West Hollywood, a gay hotspot in California, is trying really hard to reach out to gay and lesbian tourists in order to boost revenue for the city.

Black comedian Wanda Sykes is being criticized for using white sperm to impregnate her white wife–the couple now have two white babies.

Are the Bonobo apes riot grrls? An article about whether the primates known for living in an unusually matriarchal structure are feminist friendly.

Jack Price, the gay man whose bashing by two thugs in Queens, NYC three weeks ago was captured on surveillance video, left the hospital yesterday following six days in a coma, six days on a respirator, and four surgeries. He lost the vision in one eye.

Here he speaks to local news about his attack, which he says he never wants to see the video of, and comments on the allegations that the men beat him because he was soliciting for sex.

Delibrately spreading misinformation, Christian extremist Pat Robertson discussed the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd, Jr. Hates Crimes Prevention Bill on The 700 Club, saying “The noose has tightened around the necks of Christians to keep them from speaking out on certain moral issues.”

The most hilarious part is that he seems to be blithely unaware of the fact that religion (including Christianity of course) is already covered under the federal hate crimes bill and has been for some time now. Beyond that, there’s language in the bill that already protects religious leaders from speaking out against homosexuality. Just a boat load of ignorance all around.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s late wife Coretta Scott King and eldest daughter Yolanda King were vocal gay rights supporters but one of King’s other daughters Bernice King has on the other hand been very anti-gay and has even marched in anti-gay rallies against same-sex marriage.  

Now that Bernice has been named the first female leader of the Southern Black Leadership Conference, black publication Daily Voice is asking King to renounce her previous anti-gay bigotry.

She should renounce the anti-gay bigotry of her recent past. That bigotry was on shameful and insulting display in December 2004 when she and thousands of marchers stood at the gravesite of her father, Martin Luther King, Jr., and denounced gay marriage. The implication was that King might well have stood with her and them in their protest against gay rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. King’s fight against bigotry and discrimination, all bigotry and discrimination, was relentless and uncompromising. If anything that day, King would have been across the street from his gravesite with the hundred or so other counter-demonstrators. They loudly shouted that what Bernice and the marchers were doing at her father’s gravesite and in his name, was a travesty and a disgrace. King sullied her father’s name to show her enmity to gay marriage. She also sullied her mother’s too.

A few years before Bernice’s gravesite antic, Coretta Scott King issued a public statement forcefully denouncing anti-gay bigotry and made it perfectly clear that her husband would be a champion of gay rights if he were alive. [snip] On its website SCLC clearly says “its mission is to challenge all people of good will, of every persuasion, who believe in the principles espoused by Martin Luther King, Jr. to join us.” Presumably that’s the mission of its new president. She can prove it is by publicly renouncing her anti-gay bigotry.

I certainly won’t hold my breath.

I don’t know if any of you heard about this, but I had to post it ’cause I found it both poignant and hilarious, especially coming from a straight guy. Some background:

Kansas City Chiefs Larry Johnson has been suspended by his team after conducting a series of unnecessary remarks aimed at head coach Todd Haley after the team lost 37-7 against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, and one of his Twitter followers.

The Twitter follower reffered to an incident where Johnson spat at a women in a nightclub, to which then Johnson commented on the followers profile photo calling it a “fag pic” and “ Christopher Street boy” which is a reference to a Pride march route in New York.

(via Pink News)

Then Jay Smooth (founder of longest running hip-hop radio station and most known for hip-hop blog Ill Doctrine) laid his ass the hell OUT.

Video below.

Jay was selected by Salon.com as one of the “sexiest men living”.

On the heels of the release of Hilary Swank’s new Amelia Earhart biopic, which is getting horrid reviews, critics are asking where have the strong female characters gone?

A group of LGBT individuals in Boston are planning to protest President Obama for not being enough of a fierce advocate for gay rights, on issues like DADT and DOMA.

Two Sudanese women were arrested during a raid and  sentenced to $110 in fines and twenty lashes for nothing but simply wearing pants.

A judge in Cook County has dismissed a case brought against Craiglist for not effectively curbing prostitution ads on its website.  The judge says there are plenty of legitimate services being offered.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their crime-fighting ways are moving to Nickelodeon, as Viacom buys the franchise from the Mirage Group for $60 million.

A student in Australia has been attacked by a school supervisor for promoting a rally in support of gay rights.  The teacher yelled “Faggot kid, you don’t know what real marriage is!”

Couples Retreat star Kristen Bell says she’s excited to get back to her “snarkier roots” in the movie musical Burlesque where she plays Christina Aguilera’s rival. She also says Christina has written music for the film.

Ewan McGregor says he enjoyed kissing Jim Carrey in the film I Love You Philip Morris, which is set for a February 2010 release in the United States.

Is Tom Cruse a homophobe? The AV Club seems to have gotten that impression around the time that he was filming the movie Risky Business.

A federal bill was introduced Monday that would penalize anti-gay adoption states. States such as Florida and Arkansas would lose federal funding unless they changed their laws.

Former mob hitman Robert Mormando shocked a Brooklyn judge Monday by declaring he’s gay before being sentenced for his part in the shooting of a bagel store owner.

In spite of the fact that Adam Lambert is an out gay man, Details magazine still decided to sexually objectify a female model in the singer’s most recent photoshoot to promote his new album.

Gay Irish hurling star Donal Ol Cusack says the homophobic taunts and slurs have kept his mother from attending his games.

After reports that a gay man had planted a kiss on him at an appearance at a gay club, John Mayer sets the record straight partly because he doesn’t like the idea that gays can’t control themselves.

Illinois teacher David Burk was given merely a warning for making a comment disparaging “black fags” in the middle of class during a discussion about funding for the arts.

Rapper Warren G (yeah, I’ve never heard of him either) says he’s fine with gay people, as long as they stay in the closet.  ’Cause you know, people got kids and shit.

A male reporter embarrassed himself and George Clooney at the Venice Film Festival when he removed his shirt and proclaimed he wanted George to “take him now”.

Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh talk more about “The Informant”, the film where Damon had to gain 30 lbs to play a man who blows the whistle on his company’s price-fixing scheme.

A gay man in Thunder Bay, Canada was brutally beaten by six to eight men with bricks, and will now require reconstructive surgery to deal with the damage done to his face.

Openly gay Representative Barney Frank is eyeing a position in the Obama cabinet.  I doubt it will happen, but if it did he’d be the first gay person ever in the Presidential cabinet.

Ntozake Shange was slated to write and direct the film adaptation of her play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, but now Tyler Perry has stolen the entire film from her.

Female UK prison officer wins case against correctional facility she claims treated her unfairly for being young, female, and pretty.

More tour dates have been canceled for homophobic Jamaican singer Buju Banton.  One of his most popular songs talks about shooting gays and burning their bodies.

Proud, admitted homophobe Tim Hardaway is now working hard to save gay lives.  He says “we don’t have to accept the act, but we have to accept them as people.” How generous of you.

A gay man in Ontario is now needing reconstructive surgery after being attacked by at least 6 men with bricks.

John “Jake” Raynard suffered 15 fractures to his cheekbone, a broken eye socket, a broken jaw and a broken upper palate when six to eight men surrounded him near a North Cumberland Street business. Raynard, 30, and two friends were smoking outside of a bar after last call when a man approached them for a cigarette. The three friends walked away from the man after he became aggressive. Raynard said as they walked toward the Water Street Bus Terminal a group of males followed them shouting derogatory comments about their sexual orientation.

“It was like they were waiting in the woodwork,” said Raynard, who is gay, from his hospital bed. “The crowd just seemed to get bigger.” One of the men grabbed Raynard’s friend and started choking him. Raynard said he struck the man that was assaulting his friend and then began yelling at the group to try and scare them away. “I managed to fend off six to eight people by yelling long enough to get them (Raynard’s two friends) into a cab,” said Raynard. Once his friends were in the cab, Raynard said the group surrounded the taxi, preventing him from getting in.

He decided to run through a nearby alley towards a local restaurant instead, grabbing a brick for self-defense as the men chased him. “I was screaming loud enough to wake up six blocks,” said Raynard. “How did nobody hear me?”

No arrests have been made.  When will this ever stop?

I have no idea why, but for some reason CNN has decided to hail Perez Hilton as a pioneer for gay Latinos in America, and makes him the main topic of their piece on gays and lesbians coming out of the closet in the Latino community.

Perez Hilton is a celebrity blogger who dishes out the latest Hollywood gossip, but there’s something about his personal life you may not know.

Hilton is a Latino pioneer. He is one of the first Latino public figures in the U.S. to be openly gay. While Latinos have broken ground on the U.S. Supreme Court, in Hollywood and in professional sports, gay Latinos in the nation’s public arena remain largely invisible.

Hilton says deep-seated homophobia within the Latino community has forced many gay Latinos to go underground, but attitudes are shifting.

I suppose it says something about Hollywood and the media if Perez Hilton’s the best “pioneer” they can find, but at any rate they go to discuss the deep-rooted issues with homophobia among Latinos.

Like other gay people of color, Latino gays face a double bind: discrimination from mainstream culture and from their own community, Torres says.

This double bind presents an obstacle to Latinos who consider coming out. Their challenge: risking rejection from their family when they need their family as a refuge from racism.

They mention a poet who struggled with violent homophobia and his own self-loathing but later came to find acceptance.

Emanuel Xavier, a gay poet and spoken word artist, says he almost destroyed himself because he couldn’t find acceptance within the Latino community.

The New York-based poet says he grew up knowing that his sexual identity infuriated other Latinos. He once saw kids pelt a gay Latino hairdresser with stones. He routinely heard Roman Catholic priests condemn homosexuals.

His own mother called him names when she discovered he was gay, says Xavier, editor of “Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry.”

Xavier says he was so filled with self-loathing that he once sold drugs and engaged in risky sexual behavior.

“I became all those things society expected me to become,” he says. “I thought that was the only thing I could be.”

Xavier says he decided to ditch his reckless lifestyle and become a poet. He reconciled with his mother and took on a new mission. He wanted to show others that one could be Latino, gay and proud.

It’s an interesting piece on both the Latin community in the U.S. as well as the changing world in Latin America.  I just really wish they’d excluded Perez Hilton and not given him more reason to think he’s a legitimate celebrity.

Speaking of gay Latinos, this article reminds me of another article I read a while back about a Latin gay couple in the Bronx that had adopted children, and their day-to-day struggle in their community.  It also mentions how gay couples in the Bronx are more likely to adopt children than in any other New York City borough. It’s an interesting read.