TotallyOz

The Associated Press was at least half-right when it ran a headline, in 2001, saying Larry Kramer was dead. He was awfully close. Because he’d been sick for several years, many people who didn’t know him thought he had died already, presumably from AIDS. But AIDS, for so long his cause, was not Kramer’s problem. His long-standing HIV infection had never progressed, the virus perhaps having found that rare human host more ornery than itself. Rather, he had end-stage liver disease, the result of a hepatitis B infection contracted decades earlier. His partner, David Webster, an architect and designer, kept him as comfortable and hopeful as possible in their Greenwich Village apartment and Connecticut country house. Still, at only 66, Kramer knew it was time to close up shop. He appointed a literary executor: Will Schwalbe, a young family friend who was then the editor-in-chief at Hyperion. Among the properties that would eventually fall under Schwalbe’s purview were plays including The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me, the novel Faggots, the screenplay (from his Hollywood days) of Women in Love, and a raft of journalism, blog posts, op-eds, and historically important letters and e-mails. These were works that marked the world: that prompted, in a way rarely accomplished by words on paper, social action. He might have died proud of that alone. And yet to Kramer, everything he’d been known for was just a prelude to a massive unpublished work called The American People, at which he’d labored on and off since 1978. All the plays and speeches put together would not equal it in extending his argument about the centrality of gayness in human achievement. It would also, he believed, deliver the coup de grâce to those who had for years forbidden his work entry past the polished gates of art, consigning it instead to the slum of agitprop. The American People would prove him a citizen of both neighborhoods, which were actually not even separate. The only problem was that it wasn’t nearly done, and time was running out. “He had thousands of pages of manuscript,” recalls Schwalbe, who started working with Kramer on the material that summer, using index cards to map out the plot. “It was his legacy—and it was a mess.” But Kramer didn’t die. On December 21, 2001, in a thirteen-hour operation, he received the liver of a 45-year-old Pittsburgh-area man who had suffered a brain embolism. The new organ seemed to set Kramer’s clock back a few decades. His chest hair, white before it was shaved for the transplant, grew back black. The liver also seemed to recalibrate his humors, pushing his reflexive biliousness and melancholy sweetness to greater extremes. Perhaps that’s why it was possible, earlier this fall, to find him waving shyly from a leather-upholstered, artificial-flower-bedecked, horse-drawn carriage as it clopped through the streets of Dallas. Dressed in white overalls (they don’t disturb the scars the way pants do) and encrusted with turquoise (as amulets against relapse or rejection), he looked more like a retired folk singer than the gay world’s leading apostle of unrest. He was, strangely, the honorary grand marshal of Dallas’s 2009 pride parade. Never having been so honored in New York, he was flattered. Still, after a lifetime spent in opposition, at 74 he seemed to find the perquisites of tribute both awkward and insufficient. What happened to the convertible he was promised? Was the day too hot for the horse? Would anyone listen to his speech at the end? For he was aware that few of the 35,000 revelers along the parade route seemed to know who he was, despite a sign hastily attached to the coach and despite a three-minute biographical video that for the previous few weeks had been looping in gay bars amid the regular fare of sports, music, and porn. The video, produced by the Dallas Tavern Guild, which also produces the parade, emphasized the AIDS work that made Kramer both a hero and a lightning rod for controversy, in particular his co-founding of Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1982 and, when that ended badly for him, his creation of ACT UP in 1987. Arguably, these organizations were responsible, in their good-cop-bad-cop way, for bringing drugs to market that now make it possible for millions of HIV-positive people to live reasonably normal lives. As a side effect, they also instigated a fundamental shift in the way the public participates in decisions about health policy and pharmaceutical research. His former archenemy, now friend, Anthony Fauci, longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, divides American medicine broadly into two eras: “Before Larry and after Larry.” So while it was nice that Dallas named him an honorary grand marshal, putting him in the company of such luminaries as Bruce Vilanch, why has this man not been awarded a Nobel Prize? Read more: How Larry Kramer's Boundless Outrage Has Changed the Course of AIDS -- New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/features/62887/#ixzz0b2rZXJKr

Well, that is adorable. Now I am turned on. Thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFl-WQAXMto&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvjGIkl2yDY

No, the e-mail went out to regular members by mistake. We put a message on home page apologizing. I should have posted here too. While I would like to see your pic TomCal, it is not now nor ever required. Also, it is not build into our system to let clients upload photos other than in the forums. I doubt many would be interested including myself. My picture in the forum (avatar) is a perfect resemblance of me. Sorry guys.

Since the Northwest flight was almost attacked a few days ago, I have many friends who have traveled and they said they airlines had really tightened up things. A good friend said that he was limited in his carry on luggage in First Class domestically. He had never had this issue before. Has anyone else been traveling noticed anything? I have a flight New Year's Eve (not to LOS unfortunately) and worried that my quick trip down and back is going to be a problem.

I have found many guys over Thailand that I really like. Most of my long term guys have not been bar boys but met other places. The one bar that did the most for me when I first started visiting Thailand was Future Boys in Bangkok. I had so many wonderful guys there that I didn't know what to do. I loved my time there and I knew I would get lucky every time I took a guy from there. In Pattaya, I always had good luck at the old Kaos. I met some great guys there. One of my longest BF's in LOS I met at Krazy Dragon and I am still friends with him and still absolutely adore him. He was great and I still have fond memories of the old sleezy Krazy JO contests. Those are the bars where I have the most luck at. They are not necessarily my favorite bars as I tend to like a Cabaret like show and have a good time.

I have had many experiences in gay Thailand and have loved them all. I love the Thai food and I really enjoy trying new things. I have eaten several odd things that I never thought I would taste including Scorpions and Cobra. I have also eaten many of the bugs off the carts just to say I tried them. I think the most enjoyable odd thing I have eaten was on my bike trip last year and I had a lady that had a fresh honey comb that was still full of dead bees. The honey was the sweetest thing I have tasted and it was fantastic! What is the strangest thing you have eaten or the most enjoyable you have eating in LOS?

Max Lincoln, CEO of one of Europe's largest gay pornography producers 'Eurocreme', speaks exclusively to PinkNews.co.uk about his decision to stop producing bareback porn. "Consumers of gay porn prefer to watch 'bareback' films over 'condom' porn, and bareback production companies enjoy significantly stronger sales than those that require their performers to use condoms," he told PinkNews.co.uk. "There is a window period between an individual becoming infected with the HIV virus, and that individual showing up positive in an HIV test. During the window period, the infected individual can transmit the virus to others during unprotected sexual intercourse. "For that reason it is not possible for a production company to guarantee the safety of an actor in a bareback film." Earlier today Pinknews.co.uk reported that an American HIV/AIDS charity are petitioning for a ban on the production of bareback porn in the state of California. "Last year, in order to protect its performers against HIV infection, Eurocreme took the difficult commercial decision to produce only 'condom' films," continued Lincoln, who founded the company in 2002. "In the absence of any legislation governing porn production in the UK, this moral stance places us at a serious disadvantage in the marketplace." Bareback porn saw a massive resurgence in popularity in the late nineties and is now one of the top selling genres in the multibillion pound gay pornography market. Many have blamed the rise in popularity on an increasingly apathetic attitude towards HIV/AIDS amongst gay men. Commenting on the campaign in California to make the production of bareback porn illegal, Lincoln told PinkNews.co.uk: "Bareback sex is not a criminal offence, and it would be a dangerous precedent for the Government to legislate against the depiction of a perfectly legal activity. "Porn companies exist to entertain, and it should not be left to them to educate the general public at their own expense. "It is also facile to imagine that legislation will prevent the consumer accessing bareback porn; It will instead send him down the route of piracy and filesharing. The correct approach in the UK is for the producers, retail outlets and the gay press to self-regulate, much as has been proposed in the USA. This would at least allow responsible adult companies to compete on a level playing field." "If the Government is to become involved in this issue in any way, it should be to devote funding to HIV awareness programmes, particularly directed towards young people." Eurocreme was founded in the United Kingdom by director Max Lincoln, whose first film was 'DreamBoy', released in 2002. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/12/21/exclusive-eurocreme-ceo-speaks-to-pinknews.co.uk-about-the-bareback-porn-debate/

ctor and sex symbol Colin Farrell is expected to fly into Ireland from Los Angeles to celebrate his gay brother’s wedding. Eamon Farrell reportedly already married artist Steve Mannion in Canada earlier this year, with Colin as his best man, because same-sex marriage in not yet legal in Ireland. Eamon, however, has planned to mark the union in his home country with a "wedding blessing" ceremony next weekend. The event will be followed by a night out at trendy Dublin hotspot Krystle nightclub. Colin and Eamon will be joined by mother Rita and sisters Claudine and Catherine. A civil partnership bill in under consideration by Ireland’s national parliament and, if passed, will provide for civil partnerships for same-sex couples but not full civil marriage rights. http://www.mambaonline.com/article.asp?artid=3988

Anti-gay laws sweeping through East Africa have sparked a debate in the United States about the possible influence of American evangelical leaders and lawmakers with strong ties in that region. U.S. activists are also shedding new light on the risks that gays face in East Africa. In his book called The Family, American journalist Jeff Sharlet criticizes a group of influential American Christian leaders and conservative lawmakers with close ties to politicians in East Africa. He accuses them of treating some of the countries they deal with as social and political experiments. "It has become sort of a Frankenstein's monster and is the family going to take responsibility for the empowerment they have given to some of these politicians?," asked Jeff Sharlet. In his book, Sharlet specifically refers to politicians in Uganda proposing an anti-gay law that would criminalize homosexuality. The law, which could be passed within weeks despite international condemnation, includes possible punishment by death. Anti-gay laws were recently passed in Burundi, are being discussed in Rwanda, and could soon be expanded in Kenya and Tanzania. The American group Sharlet calls The Family is also known as The Fellowship. It organizes an annual National Prayer Breakfast with the U.S. president and foreign guests, but besides that activity shuns publicity and does not openly list its members. But Sharlet says more American reporters are looking into the group and its alleged ties to Africa. These include helping African politicians with money so they can push socially conservative agendas. "We see reporters in Iowa, in Pennsylvania, and in Oklahoma, going to their elected representatives who have a link to this whole thing and saying 'tell us about the link'," he said. "They are not accusing them of anything, they are saying, 'You have a relationship with the Ugandan government, what is the nature of that relationship? And, are you going to use that influence to oppose this legislation that seems to be supported by some of your allies?'" Religious leaders like Rick Warren have also been under the microscope. He is the senior pastor of the California-based Saddleback church, which is active in both Uganda and Rwanda. After being questioned about his role by U.S. media, Warren issued a video message on the Internet, denying his support for the law in Uganda. "As an American pastor, it is not my role to interfere with the politics of other nations, but it is my role to speak out on moral issues and it is my role to shepherd other pastors who look to me for guidance, and it is my role to correct lies and errors and false reports when others associate my name with a law that I had nothing to do with, [and which] I completely oppose and I vigorously condemn," said Rick Warren. "I am referring to the pending law under consideration by the Ugandan parliament, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill." Rwanda's parliament is also working to pass a law which would criminalize homosexuality but Warren has yet to address his church's role in that matter. In 2005, he called Rwanda a "purpose driven nation." Warren went with dozens of American evangelicals to hold meetings with government ministers, lawmakers and donate materials to churches across Rwanda. Several American lawmakers who have been linked to the Fellowship, like Nevada Senator John Ensign have called the Ugandan law proposal "outrageous". But others like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who went to Uganda in 2004, have said they do not know enough about the bill to comment. The executive director of the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Cary Alan Johnson, welcomes some of the questions now being asked. "It is a debate that has to happen and we are glad it is happening," said Cary Alan Johnson. "Rwanda and Uganda are both countries with deeply spiritual people and as of late we have understood that some of the more conservative elements in the United States have been funding the most violent and homophobic discourses about homosexuality." Johnson says those seeking to push an agenda should understand the consequences of their actions. He warns anti-gay laws could worsen already high HIV levels in east Africa. "The impact of these laws on HIV prevention is extremely worrisome to us," he said. "Laws we are talking about in Uganda, Rwanda, will make it impossible for groups to do HIV education that targets men who have sex with men or that targets bisexual people and we know that there is a strong impact of HIV on this community and on society in general." Lisa Laurel Weinberg, from the Massachusetts Lutheran Social Services Human Rights Protection Project, says the situation is already very difficult. In her other job as an asylum attorney, she recently helped a young Ugandan woman win asylum to the United States. The woman's apartment had been raided by police while she was inside with her girlfriend. "The police broke in and brought them to the police station and raped them in what is called a corrective rape," said Lisa Laurel Weinberg. "It is when males of authority try and correct lesbianism through rape." But Weinberg warns trying to fight the new laws from the outside is very complicated. "I got an e-mail yesterday that said be really careful and check with Ugandans before you do any advocacy from the West, because us imposing our values, they are really sensitive to the whole colonialism history, so that the email cautioned be careful what you do and let it come from them," she said. Some prominent politicians and journalists in East Africa have called homosexuality the "white man's disease." Pro-gay groups in the region, which are mostly underground, say they are becoming increasingly afraid to ask for help, and believe outside interference could worsen the persecution they face. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/human-rights/Africas-Anti-Gay-Laws-Spark-Accusations-and-Denials-in-US-79853182.html

Anti-gay laws sweeping through East Africa have sparked a debate in the United States about the possible influence of American evangelical leaders and lawmakers with strong ties in that region. U.S. activists are also shedding new light on the risks that gays face in East Africa. In his book called The Family, American journalist Jeff Sharlet criticizes a group of influential American Christian leaders and conservative lawmakers with close ties to politicians in East Africa. He accuses them of treating some of the countries they deal with as social and political experiments. "It has become sort of a Frankenstein's monster and is the family going to take responsibility for the empowerment they have given to some of these politicians?," asked Jeff Sharlet. In his book, Sharlet specifically refers to politicians in Uganda proposing an anti-gay law that would criminalize homosexuality. The law, which could be passed within weeks despite international condemnation, includes possible punishment by death. Anti-gay laws were recently passed in Burundi, are being discussed in Rwanda, and could soon be expanded in Kenya and Tanzania. The American group Sharlet calls The Family is also known as The Fellowship. It organizes an annual National Prayer Breakfast with the U.S. president and foreign guests, but besides that activity shuns publicity and does not openly list its members. But Sharlet says more American reporters are looking into the group and its alleged ties to Africa. These include helping African politicians with money so they can push socially conservative agendas. "We see reporters in Iowa, in Pennsylvania, and in Oklahoma, going to their elected representatives who have a link to this whole thing and saying 'tell us about the link'," he said. "They are not accusing them of anything, they are saying, 'You have a relationship with the Ugandan government, what is the nature of that relationship? And, are you going to use that influence to oppose this legislation that seems to be supported by some of your allies?'" Religious leaders like Rick Warren have also been under the microscope. He is the senior pastor of the California-based Saddleback church, which is active in both Uganda and Rwanda. After being questioned about his role by U.S. media, Warren issued a video message on the Internet, denying his support for the law in Uganda. "As an American pastor, it is not my role to interfere with the politics of other nations, but it is my role to speak out on moral issues and it is my role to shepherd other pastors who look to me for guidance, and it is my role to correct lies and errors and false reports when others associate my name with a law that I had nothing to do with, [and which] I completely oppose and I vigorously condemn," said Rick Warren. "I am referring to the pending law under consideration by the Ugandan parliament, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill." Rwanda's parliament is also working to pass a law which would criminalize homosexuality but Warren has yet to address his church's role in that matter. In 2005, he called Rwanda a "purpose driven nation." Warren went with dozens of American evangelicals to hold meetings with government ministers, lawmakers and donate materials to churches across Rwanda. Several American lawmakers who have been linked to the Fellowship, like Nevada Senator John Ensign have called the Ugandan law proposal "outrageous". But others like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who went to Uganda in 2004, have said they do not know enough about the bill to comment. The executive director of the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Cary Alan Johnson, welcomes some of the questions now being asked. "It is a debate that has to happen and we are glad it is happening," said Cary Alan Johnson. "Rwanda and Uganda are both countries with deeply spiritual people and as of late we have understood that some of the more conservative elements in the United States have been funding the most violent and homophobic discourses about homosexuality." Johnson says those seeking to push an agenda should understand the consequences of their actions. He warns anti-gay laws could worsen already high HIV levels in east Africa. "The impact of these laws on HIV prevention is extremely worrisome to us," he said. "Laws we are talking about in Uganda, Rwanda, will make it impossible for groups to do HIV education that targets men who have sex with men or that targets bisexual people and we know that there is a strong impact of HIV on this community and on society in general." Lisa Laurel Weinberg, from the Massachusetts Lutheran Social Services Human Rights Protection Project, says the situation is already very difficult. In her other job as an asylum attorney, she recently helped a young Ugandan woman win asylum to the United States. The woman's apartment had been raided by police while she was inside with her girlfriend. "The police broke in and brought them to the police station and raped them in what is called a corrective rape," said Lisa Laurel Weinberg. "It is when males of authority try and correct lesbianism through rape." But Weinberg warns trying to fight the new laws from the outside is very complicated. "I got an e-mail yesterday that said be really careful and check with Ugandans before you do any advocacy from the West, because us imposing our values, they are really sensitive to the whole colonialism history, so that the email cautioned be careful what you do and let it come from them," she said. Some prominent politicians and journalists in East Africa have called homosexuality the "white man's disease." Pro-gay groups in the region, which are mostly underground, say they are becoming increasingly afraid to ask for help, and believe outside interference could worsen the persecution they face. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/human-rights/Africas-Anti-Gay-Laws-Spark-Accusations-and-Denials-in-US-79853182.html

What is best time to go?

What is the deal with MJ's on Xmas Night? You think it will be crowded?

The U.S. Justice Department is closely monitoring the fallout from an apparent anti-gay killing in Puerto Rico in an incident that could become the first prosecuted case under the new federal hate crimes law, according to a department official. Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, told reporters Dec. 17 that federal officials are keeping a close eye on the case. “That case is being investigated and prosecuted right now by the state of Puerto Rico as both a murder, and they do have a hate crimes law in Puerto Rico, so we’re closely monitoring that case, as we do all cases, and we continue to follow that case very closely,” he said. Juan Martinez Matos, 26, is accused of killing Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, who was gay. The dismembered body of the 19-year-old college student was found last month along a road in the town of Cayey, according to the Associated Press. The Associated Press quoted the local prosecutor in the case as saying Martinez met Lopez while looking for women in an area known for prostitution. The suspect reportedly said the victim was dressed as a woman and that he stabbed Lopez after discovering he was male. Martinez was charged with first-degree murder and weapons violations, and was jailed on a $4 million bond, according to the Associated Press. The next hearing in the case is set for Jan. 13. The defense has said Martinez is mentally unfit to stand trial. A state psychiatrist is evaluating the defendant, and the court will decide Jan. 13 whether he’s mentally competent. Should federal officials decide to prosecute the killing as a hate crime, it would be the first such prosecution under the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed by President Obama into law in October. Asked what would factor into federal officials’ decision to prosecute the killing under the new law, Perez recalled recent news from Shenandoah, Pa., regarding an allegedly bias-motivated fatal beating of Luis Ramirez, a Latino man. Two people — Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky — were indicted under a previously enacted federal hate crimes statute. “We’re monitoring [the Puerto Rico case], just as we monitor the prosecution in the Shenandoah case,” he said. “We kept a very close eye on it, and when the case ended, we conducted our own private independent investigation, and you saw the fruits of it earlier this week.” Also closely monitoring the case is the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Pedro Juliano Serrano, spokesperson for the organization and founder of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, said his organization is calling for local and federal authorities to consider the killing as a hate crime. “We do think it is a hate crime and we’re asking the authorities to investigate it as a hate crime,” he said. “We called on the local authorities to investigate it and we’re certainly satisfied that the federal authorities are monitoring the local investigation, and might be involved, if possible.” The U.S. attorney involved with the case, Rosa Emilia Rodriquez, reportedly told Puerto Rican media last week that her office is monitoring the case and will file paperwork with federal authorities if the defendant is not convicted of a hate crime. Still, El Nuevo Dia, a Puetro Rican newspaper, quoted Rodriguez as saying she believes the case is moving ahead properly. Puerto Rico has had a local hate crimes statute since 2002, but Serrano said he’s skeptical that Martinez would be prosecuted under this law because no conviction has taken place under this statute. “In the seven years that the hate crimes has been in place in Puerto Rico, we’ve had more than 20 killings that have clearly had signs of being probably hate crimes,” Serrano said. “None of them have been classified as such.” Serrano said the lack of prosecutions under the Puerto Rico hate crimes statute is what’s prompting activists to ask the federal government to keep an eye on the case. “That’s why we are calling on the authorities to keep monitoring the situation because if the local authorities again fail to process this as a hate crime with their statute, we’re hoping that the federal authorities can come in and assume jurisdiction,” he said. Serrano said he believes the incident was a hate crime because Martinez reportedly confessed to killing Lopez out of hatred for gays. “He said that supposedly … he had been raped during a stint in prison because he was convicted of domestic violence, and because he was raped, he hated gays,” Serrano said. The brutal violence of the crime, Serrano said, also indicates that it was bias-motivated. He noted that Lopez’ body was dismembered, decapitated and burned and that it’s unclear whether the victim was in fact dressed in women’s clothes because of the condition in which the body was found. Attention to the case in Puerto Rico comes as the Justice Department is ramping up efforts to comply with the newly enacted hate crimes statute. Perez told reporters his office is busy training federal and local authorities to make the law fully effective. “We have an implementation plan put in place that involves training the assistant United States attorneys, training the state and local authorities and local prosecutors, working with our community partners to train them, and also to work on prevention initiatives,” he said. http://dcagenda.com/2009/12/23/feds-%E2%80%98closely-monitoring%E2%80%99-anti-gay-puerto-rico-killing/

A father is standing trial in Queensland, Australia, for allegedly forcing his 14-year-old son to sleep with a prostitute because he thought the boy was gay. According to the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, the alleged incident happened in 2007 at a family barbecue. The father, who cannot be named, was said to have phoned a sex worker and arranged to meet her at a motel on Yaamba Road, North Rockhampton. He waited outside the motel room after telling his son he expected to see a used condom as proof he had sex, Rockhampton magistrates court heard. The alleged offences came to light after the father called the Child Protection Investigation Unit in May 2008. The police officer who answered his call said he claimed authorities had not acted on his suspicions the boy was abusing his younger brother and admitted he had taken the 14-year-old to see a prostitute to sort the situation out. The boy's mother said her son had tearfully told her his father had taken him to see a prostitute but wouldn't say any more. Magistrates said there was enough evidence to charge him with the rape of his son. The case will be heard in a higher court next year. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/12/24/father-forced-gay-son-to-have-sex-with-a-prostitute/

The global gay rights movement was yesterday celebrating the passage of a bill in the Mexico City legislature legalising gay marriage, making the huge and overwhelmingly Catholic megalopolis the first territory anywhere in Latin America to put same-sex couples on the same standing as heterosexuals. The law, which is likely to be signed soon by the city's increasingly high-profile leftist Mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, was passed by a vote of 39 votes to 20 in the city assembly on Monday to loud chants from supporters in the galleries of "Yes, We could. Yes, we could" – words that will become "We do" for some couples early in the new year. It was a victory not just for gay rights activists in Mexico and across Latin America but also for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) which has controlled government of the sprawling Mexican capital since 1997. The bill was opposed by members of President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party (PAN), which holds power nationally. Party officials have already vowed to challenge the new city law in the Supreme Court. As in many – though not all – parts of the world, calls for marriage rights for gays and lesbians have begun to resonate more loudly in Latin America. Civil unions, which fall some way short of outright marriage, have been available to same-sex couples in Mexico City for some years as they are in all of Uruguay, Ecuador and Colombia. Debate on the issue is raging in Argentina meanwhile. Same-sex civil unions were approved in Buenos Aires a full seven years ago. Now, however, the country is awaiting a ruling from the national Supreme Court on the marriage of two men after a lower court judge declared that the government's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional. The couple had planned to marry late last month before the wedding was blocked. Video: Mexico City allows gay marriages Mexico City, which passed its law in the face of fierce opposition not just from the top ranks of the Catholic Church, joins the seven countries and five US states that offer full marriage rights to gays. Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium permit gay marriage as well as Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire in the US. (New Hampshire's law comes into effect in 2010). But while gay rights advocates around the world were toasting Mexico City, none could ignore the sobering counterpoint from another continent, Africa, and specifically Uganda where parliament seems poised to pass a law not only criminalising homosexuality but threatening the death penalty in certain circumstances, for instance if one of the parties is HIV-positive or is under 18 years of age. A law conferring same-sex marriage rights was passed this month by Washington DC. The city's Mayor, Adrian Fenty, signed it into law last week. Otherwise, however, the year 2009 has been one mostly of disappointment for the gay rights movement in the US. Lawmakers in Maine signed gay marriage into law only to see it overturned by a popular ballot in November. And efforts to push gay marriage through the New York state legislature ended in failure. For Mayor Ebrard signing the marriage law holds some risk. Regarded as a strong steward of the capital – the population of greater Mexico City exceeds 21 million – he may be positioning himself to run for the Mexican presidency in three years' time. While recent polls showed that residents of the capital were evenly split over gay marriage, the rest of the country remains far more socially conservative and will look askance at the law. For same-sex couples who witnessed the vote on Monday, it was a moment of pure celebration, however. "This is wonderful," commented Judith Vasquez, a gay rights activist. "Gay couples have effectively been together for years, decades, centuries. But now it is our right." The vote changed the definition of marriage in the city's civil code from being between a man and a woman to the "free uniting of two people". "For centuries, unjust laws prohibited marriage between whites and blacks or Europeans and [indigenous] Indians," declared PRD representative Victor Romo who voted for the law. "Today all those barriers have come down." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/victory-for-gay-rights-in-mexicos-catholic-stronghold-1848123.html

I will be in town for most of the holidays and hope that there is something to do to get out of the house. Any suggestions? Anyone know of any special events?

I have a few tats an I really like them. As I have said here before, I really get turned on by a guy with a nice tattoo. I am not young anymore and the older I get, the more I seem to want to get more of these things. Just out of curiosity, does anyone here have one? Do you think that age plays a part in tats as the younger generation seems to be more likely to have many of them?

I have a friend who has been up for 4 days and no sleep. To me that sounds impossible. I can go a night without it but will need a nap the next day. How long is it possible to go totally without sleep?

I am looking forward to this movie. I have always really liked both guys and can't wait to see them in action. I saw Brothers tonight and was not impressed with it at all. I wish I have saved my money. On the other hand, I saw Avaitor and loved it. It was LONG and a bit boring at times but was really glad I saw it.

I am sure many in LOS love the new movies that come out. What do you plan to see this year? I loved Avatar and Up in the Air. Both were amazing. I don't know if Precious came to Thailand yet but if you get a chance to see this picture, it is an incredible piece of acting and directing. I would recommend all 3. For the Thai boy, take him to see Ninja Assassins. My BF loved it!

When you are in Thailand, I think most try to eat the Thai food most of the time. When you get a craving for Fast Food, where do you go? What is your favorite Fast Food Place in LOS?

I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season and a fantastic New Year! I wish I was in Thailand to celebrate with friends and loved ones. To all a great and fantastic New Year!

Thanks for the GREAT report. Much appreciated. The reason Heinz makes so many varieties is that everyone likes something different. I love LaGoa. I have always had luck there and actually met 3 boys there that I am still in contact with. It does have attitude and I have spent many a day there like you and did not take one guy. At 117 in Rio, I usually take about 3 or more. So, yes overall I don't get the same number as I get in Rio. But, I enjoy it all the same. I don't like the lay out of LaGoa either but I am looking forward to seeing your place in PA. TomCal, thanks so much for this great info! You are the best!