Adventures in Britain continue...
David and I are clubbing around London and Manchester this month. Last weekend was a public holiday long weekend (the last one in the UK this year) which saw thousands of queens heading from all parts of the country for Manchester Pride.
The "Village" around Canal Street is closed off for about four blocks and the only way in is with a ($10 money to charity) wrist band. This is a fantastic idea and the three day event combines a sort of fair day with parade and numerous competing parties.
Every bar has its own thing happening and the whole are is alive for party, party and more party.... One highlight for the organisers this year was that the Army came! About 10 uniformed soldiers paraded and manned a recruitment stall. Some 20 RAF colleagues manned a float featuring a plane cockpit - the RAF was the first armed service to join a gay pride festival at last year's event. Gay news for the Queer Australian
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Jurors in the Gwen Araujo murder retrial reached verdicts for two defendants, then asked Judge Harry Sheppard if those decisions would be affected if they are unable to render a verdict for the third. Sheppard told them they would not. "It\’s torturous sitting here not knowing, wondering what they\’re talking about. I wish we could be in the deliberation room," said David Guerrero, Gwen\’s uncle. "But we\’ll just have to sit here and wait." 
While RuPaul is currently reading Augusten Burrough\’s "Dry," it\’s "The Di Vinci Code" that changed her life. RuPaul writes, "I still can\’t shake The Di Vinci Code. The book answered so many questions (that I) have had for years concerning the demonization of feminine energy. I believe that goddess energy is making it\’s triumphant return in our lifetime. I believe that hurricane\’s are passionate and unpredictable like feminine energy. I\’ve always said that if North America was a woman, the Mississippi Delta would be her womb. 
For those of you who haven\’t been paying attention, Bush is looking to fill a seat on the Supreme Court and his nominee, John Roberts, is now officially in the hot seat. Day one brought the expected wingnut nonsense from a conservative wackjob, this time being Senator John Cornyn. Cornyn, pictured, told Roberts that Lawrence vs. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court ruling overturning state sodomy laws, was an example of how the court has misinterpreted the Constitution, and while three others warned of creating "new rights" for us unmentionables, it was Senator Edward Kennedy who was the only member of the Judiciary Committee to say "gays," including us in a litany of groups whose rights the Supreme Court should expand, rather than take away. Here, here! 
Legendary drag superstar Holly Woodlawn was on hand for the screening of "The Life and Times of Andy Warhol" at the Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. "That whole era is gone, and it will never happen again, unfortunately - and sort of fortunately," she says. "I\’m a cockroach. It\’s not symbolism or metaphor or whatever. I\’m a cockroach because when the human race is wiped out, I\’ll probably be still living! I have no idea what I did." 
Queer Day is back from rebirthing class and I couldn\’t be happier to be holding this squeaky clean baby in my amazingly large and thick and long-fingered hands. With the dawning of the new day I\’m also installing comments here, something previously avoided to save myself from comment spam and the requisite wack-jobs. But TypeKey is, hopefully, going to prevent all that. One simple sign-up with the industry standard and you can have your say for days to come. Let\’s get interactive! 
With New Orleans 80 percent under water, hope springs eternal. The Oxford Press quotes a bar owner as saying he hopes the power is back on for the event. In Myrtle Beach, the paper quotes a restaurant owner just waiting for the power to come on so he can start cooking for it. WorldNet says the two events are connected and that God sent Katrina to stop the party. 
Handing gay rights advocates a major victory, the California Senate approved legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriages in the nation\’s most populous state. The 21-15 vote made the Senate the first legislative chamber in the country to approve a gay marriage bill. It sets the stage for a showdown in the state Assembly, which narrowly rejected a gay marriage bill in June. Will Gov. Schwarzenegger sign it if it passes? It doesn\’t look good so far. 
Rod Hall, 53, the openly gay "gentle, caring and mild-mannered" literary agent behind the hit films "The Full Monty" and "Billy Elliot," was stabbed to death by Usman Durrani, 22, after being chained up in manacles in a sado-masochistic sex game. Prosecuting attorney Aftab Jafferjee said that Hall had recently split with his partner of 27 years and had taken to short-term relationships, meeting men apparently more interested in his money. Hall met his role-playing master Durrani online. Durrani has confessed to killing Hall, while denying that he is the murderer. 
London\’s Big Gay Out, one of the largest gay festivals in Europe, took place this past weekend with the likes of Frankie Goes To Hollywood performing, Human League, and if that wasn\’t enough of a blast from the past, after 13 years off the scene Bananarama, pictured, now a duo featuring Sarah Dallin and Keren Woodward, hit the stage as well. They have a new single being released soon too called "Move In My Direction," just in case you were wondering. Anyway, who wasn\’t there was Babyshambles. Big Gay Out organizers had insisted Pete Doherty would perform at the Finsbury Park event, but they scored themselves another no show. Rumor has it Doherty has sacked his bandmantes and no progress is even being made on the buzz band\’s debut album. 
Dallas gay marriage activists announced their plans to begin mailing cow manure to senators who are in favor of placing a ban on gay marriage in Texas. Their website declares that they\’ve "begun shipping pink-painted cattle excrement" to 20 lawmakers and Republican Senators Kim Brimer of Fort Worth, Jane Nelson of Lewisville and Chris Harris of Arlington are on their "send poo" mailing list. Amanda McMurrey, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Fort Worth, notes that, "Excrement, regardless of origin, is mailable only under certain conditions." Apparently a coat of pink paint isn\’t enough. McMurrey says they could face fines and a stay in federal prison. (Thanks Dan-X) 
The Lady Chablis, made famous by the best-selling book and film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," didn\’t know that her performance in Sun City had been cancelled. An official pulled the plug on the show saying her act wasn\’t suitable for the community. Robert Mahnke, who admitted he\’d never seen her act, blamed a breakdown in communication in his office for the show being advertised and for tickets being sold. "I don\’t understand how someone could make this decision when they haven\’t seen my show," The Lady Chablis said. "You wouldn\’t go to Saks 5th Avenue and buy a dress if you hadn\’t tried it on." 
According to travel records, American Nancy Kissel (pictured) and her three children went back to the United States in March 2003 to avoid the SARS outbreak, while her banker husband, Robert Kissel, stayed in Hong Kong for several days before going to Taiwan. Robert was murdered and Nancy\’s on trial for serving him a pink milkshake laced with sedatives and then beating him to death with a heavy metal ornament. Law enforcement has revealed that the deceased had been surfing gay porn sites and looking for sex while in HK. Nancy claimed he assaulted her while drunk after she refused him sex and that he disappeared prior to his body being found. Computer searches were made for "hot male sex\’" and "Taiwan escorts" while Nancy and the kids were away. 
Jason Eng got a $50 ticket for being in violation of a "no stopping or standing" in a fire zone sign. Trouble is, he was on foot talking with a friend in Hudson River Park. The pair had just disembarked from a thank-you cruise for gay pride volunteers. "It\’s so ridiculous that it\’s hilarious," said Eng, 25. "I can\’t believe this actually happened. There\’s no reason I should get a ticket. … We were walking to the subway." Dennis Spafford, 27, an organizer with the Manhattan-based nonprofit group Heritage of Pride, was also cited. While they planned on fighting the charges, once the story hit the media it wasn\’t long before the charges were dismissed. (Thanks Aaron) 
In Iran, mullahs\’ henchmen publicly hanged two young boys in Mashhad. One was 18 and the other was a juvenile. Before the hanging the boys were each flogged 228 times while the executioners wore masks. The victims were charged with "disrupting public order" among other things and had been imprisoned for the past 14 months, thus they were both underage at the time of the alleged offenses. Exactly 24 hours prior to the start of negotiations between the mullahs representative and the European Union in London, the execution occured. The boys conviction for allegedly raping a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint has been decried by Outrage! as a smokescreen to justify killing gay men.