Gay Community

Shirtless and squeezed into tight jeans, a hunky undercover Palm Springs police officer hovered in a shadowy parking lot and lured men cruising the Warm Sands neighborhood. The June 2009 gay sex sting netted 19 public indecent exposure arrests, and disbelief and outrage have festered in this desert haven ever since. This is Palm Springs, "the gayest city in America," a gay tourist destination governed by an openly gay mayor and home to the sexually charged White Party, a dance and music festival that attracts tens of thousands of gay men every year.

Re "Why marriage matters," Opinion, June 9 Nathaniel Frank's piece revealed a compressed view of same-sex marriage. Nowhere did it mention children - conveniently dismissed, it seems, as if marriage is simply a celebration of individual rights and public recognition. Through the centuries, in vastly different cultures all over the world, marriage has been a religious and social institution because it is the single greatest unifier of men, women and children. It is self-evident that marriage is much more than Frank's idea of "sharing in the symbolic space of first-class citizenship.

Re "Why marriage matters," Opinion, June 9 Nathaniel Frank's piece revealed a compressed view of same-sex marriage. Nowhere did it mention children - conveniently dismissed, it seems, as if marriage is simply a celebration of individual rights and public recognition. Through the centuries, in vastly different cultures all over the world, marriage has been a religious and social institution because it is the single greatest unifier of men, women and children. It is self-evident that marriage is much more than Frank's idea of "sharing in the symbolic space of first-class citizenship.

It seems these days as if everyone is speculating about how Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will approach the two same-sex marriage cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. But I haven't heard anyone wondering which side Antonin Scalia will be on. He has made his views on gay relationships painfully clear. In December, Scalia spoke at Princeton University, where I am a freshman, and I asked him about language he used in past decisions involving gay rights - language that I, as a gay man, found extraordinarily offensive.

South Coast Repertory recently held a special evening for Orange County's gay community. The Costa Mesa theater offered "Hay Fever," by gay playwright Noel Coward, followed by a Champagne reception with director William Ludel. The event was advertised in a publication that circulates in the gay community, and it drew a larger-than-usual crowd at the 500-seat theater.

Harold Norse, a San Francisco poet often associated with the Beats, who was mentor or peer to many of the greatest talents in 20th century American literature, including Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski, has died. He was 92. Norse died of natural causes Monday at an assisted-living facility in San Francisco, according to his conservator, attorney Mark Vermeulen.

"At the dawn of Stonewall," begins "Buddies" at the Celebration Theatre. The nostalgia grows both celebratory and elegiac. Adaptor-director Scott Edward Smith tackles Ethan Mordden's acclaimed short-story cycle about gay Manhattan comrades at the close of the 20th century with rampant high spirits.

That was quite some article on the use of crystal methamphetamine by gay men to enhance their sexual experience (Westside, May 11). But what really got me and probably others is the comment of Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center: "It's little surprise that drug use is higher among the gay-bisexual community than in the heterosexual community. That is a direct response to living in a homophobic society." Does that mean that we, who are heterosexual, are also responsible for all the other ills that befall the gay community?

Members of the gay community turned out to celebrate their pride with parades in Manhattan, San Francisco and elsewhere. Some marched in evening gowns, some danced to disco music and some had political messages. It was the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, when patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village fought back against a police raid.

Members of Ventura County's gay community are looking for the vandals who tore down a sign at the front of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center on Ventura's Main Street. Officials at the center, located next to Ventura High School, said the sign was destroyed over the Fourth of July weekend. The incident follows other anti-gay vandalism at the center in recent years, they said.

MOSCOW - The lower house of Russia's parliament on Friday approved in the first reading a controversial measure against the spread among minors of “propaganda” seen as supporting homosexuality. But the lawmakers put off until the next reading a central question: What constitutes “propaganda”? The first hearing of the bill was preceded by two days of sporadic clashes over the issue between gay activists and religious Orthodox radicals in front of the State Duma, the lower house.

I've gotten so used to seeing Alan Cumming as high-end attorney Eli Gold, fighting cerebral battles for a compromised politician on CBS' "The Good Wife," that he's almost unrecognizable as the vamping drag queen in "Any Day Now. " Cumming's chameleon quality serves him well in this intimate family drama. It centers on rough-around-the-edges Rudy, who barely covers the rent performing in a 1970s-era gay bar and finds himself unexpectedly in love and in a custody battle over a special-needs child.

David Murray isn't skin deep - - even if he at least initially seemed that way on television. The 29-year-old engineer created a real buzz after confessing to numerous plastic surgeries including a hair transplant and a nose job in the first episode of the new Bravo reality series "Start-ups: Silicon Valley. " (The second episode airs Monday night). But he also packs some serious high-tech punch. Murray has a triple degree from Carnegie Mellon and a master's degree in computer science from Stanford and he started out his career as an associate product manager at Google.

Orlando Cruz lifted what he said was a major “distraction” in his boxing career, announcing he is gay. Cruz, 31, a member of the 2000 Olympic team who is 18-2-1 with nine knockouts as a professional, released a statement Wednesday night in which he said: “I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career.

The reach of Go-Go Juice-drinking Alana Thompson continues to permeate the universe:  "The New Normal" will pay homage to Honey Boo Boo -- and her family, too -- in its upcoming Halloween episode. Ryan Murphy, co-creator of the NBC comedy, told reporters Tuesday that the reality phenomenon gets a hat tip in the episode when Bryan (Andrew Rannells) decides, because of Shania's love for "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," that the family should go in mask as the TLC brethren.  Shania (Bebe Wood)

In Paris Hilton's world, gay men may be the "horniest," but one heiress is apparently the sorriest. She's apologizing big time for derogatory comments about gay men captured on audio by a cab driver earlier this month in New York. "I want to say how sorry I am. I can't fit the whole apology about the cab recording here, so please read it at @GLAAD," she tweeted late Thursday, including a link to her longer mea culpa on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation website. Hilton was in town for New York Fashion Week when, in the wee hours of Sept.

'This does not immediately qualify as a gay cause.' --Bob Craig, publisher West Hollywood City Councilwoman Valerie Terrigno, indicted last week on federal embezzlement charges, is confronted with the formidable task of rallying public support in coming months and raising money for her costly legal defense.

A countywide conference Saturday on gay issues in Ventura County that was criticized by the leader of the county's oldest gay facility drew more than 85 people and was unscathed by protest. The conference in Camarillo, called "The Gathering," was sponsored by a new group called the Lesbian and Gay Alliance. The conference had been attacked earlier in the week by Claire Connelly, the director of the Resource Center of Camarillo, as an effort to undermine her position.

Rupert Everett has shared his idea of the worst thing ever, and it's - having gay parents? Not that the openly gay actor has gay parents. He actually has a mom who's met his boyfriend but also "still wishes I had a wife and kids," he said.  "She thinks children need a father and a mother and I agree with her," Everett told Britain's Sunday Times Magazine (via the Telegraph ). "I can't think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads. " PHOTOS| Gay celebrities: Who's out?

AMARILLO, Texas - It's well after midnight in a parched corner of Texas known as the buckle of the Bible Belt, down the road from the Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center, which is just what it sounds like: an evangelical truck stop. In the back of an empty strip mall, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist with the self-assurance and billowing locks of Samson is shooting a video. His hair is up in a tidy bun and he's enduring a second hour of makeup transforming him into the likeness of a gender-bending woman, all of which makes more sense once you know that Adair Lion began his career by destroying it. Hip-hop has been described as the heartbeat of urban America, but for years, it had an open secret - that heart was brimming with hate.