UK to be offered pill that reduces HIV risk by up to 90%

‘This is potentially the most exciting development in HIV prevention in some years’

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joem

www.gaystarnews.com/article/uk-be-offered-pill-reduces-hiv-risk-90171014

What Is This Enormous Butt Plug Doing In The Middle Of Paris?

Travel to Paris and you can experience Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, Rodin’s Thinker, and Alexandros’ Venus de Milo.

Oh, and this giant inflatable butt plug:

In Place Vendome, one of Paris’ gorgeous and historic squares, artist Paul McCarthy has erected a 24-foot sculpture he calls Tree.

And, OK, it does kind of look like a stylized Christmas tree. But you know what it looks even more like? A butt plug. Why? Because it’s a butt plug:

It’s part of FIAC, the city’s annual art fair, and will remain up the rest of the month.

It’s virtually impossible to believe the artist was going for anything other than a mega-sized sex toy given his past work, which includes this giant inflatable dump in Hong Kong called Complex Pile:

And even more telling, this sculpture called Santa Claus in Rotterdam that locals call “Butt Plug Gnome,” because he is clearly holding a giant penetration device:

One antigay group, Printemps Francais, is up tight about the Parisian plug, having recently Tweeted: “This is where your tax dollars are going!”

And you know if you’re up tight about a butt plug, you’ll never be able to ease into enjoying it.

h/t Gawker

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/hLaDVo453f4/what-is-this-enormous-butt-plug-doing-in-the-middle-of-paris-20141017

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead: State Shouldn't Appeal Monday's Gay Marriage Ruling: VIDEO

Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/wyoming-gov-matt-mead-state-shouldnt-appeal-gay-marriage-ruling.html

Op-ed: After 25 Years, Mapplethorpe's Photos Still Crack the Bullwhip

It’s been a quarter-century since Robert Mapplethorpe’s most notorious exhibition, The Perfect Moment, but his homoerotic photographs, called ‘obscene’ at the time, are as politically charged as ever.

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Nathan Smith

www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/10/17/op-ed-after-25-years-mapplethorpes-photos-still-crack-bullwhip

Prick: The Notorious Henry Hate

With high-profile clients like the late Alexander McQueen and Amy Winehouse in his London tattoo parlor, Henry Hate inked over his Orange County roots.

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Christopher Harrity

www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2014/10/17/prick-notorious-henry-hate

Celebrities go purple to make statement against anti-LGBTI bullying

Annual Spirit Day campaign had Laverne Cox, Demi Lovato, Billie Jean King and others in purple attire

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gregh

www.gaystarnews.com/article/celebrities-go-purple-make-statement-against-anti-lgbti-bullying171014

LGBT Community Oppression
Davenport – 7th.

Former New Mexico Student Says She Was Shunned For Anti-Gay View
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former University of New Mexico student can proceed with a free speech lawsuit against the school alleging she was ostracized by her professors for making anti-gay remarks in paper, a federal judge has ruled.

Chief U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo denied the university’s request to have Monica Pompeo’s lawsuit dismissed, the Albuquerque Journal reported in Thursday’s editions.

Pompeo claims the university acted improperly when she was kicked out of a class in 2012 for describing lesbianism as perverse in a critique of a lesbian romance film.

Pompeo was enrolled in a course called “Images of (Wo)men: From Icons to Iconoclasts” and critiqued a 1985 lesbian drama, “Desert Hearts.” After grading the critiques, Pompeo’s professor told her to pick up her paper and “ponder the responses” the professor gave her.

Those written responses included a comment that the critique was “inflammatory and offensive,” the newspaper reported. The professor also blasted Pompeo’s view that a lesbian character in the film had a “perverse attraction to the same sex” and a “barren womb.”

The lawsuit alleges the teacher violated her own syllabus, which called for “open minds” to examine “representations of a plethora of genders and sexualities.” Instead, Pompeo says, she was accused of resorting to “hate speech,” and the professor refused to grade her paper.

Pompeo alleges the professor also made it clear that it would be in Pompeo’s best interests not to return to the class.

The professor, Caroline Hinkley, did not respond to requests for an interview.

The lawsuit also alleges Pompeo later met with a supervisor at the university and was told the use of “barren” was inappropriate and offensive.

Chief U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo’s Sept. 29 order found Pompeo’s claims were enough to make a plausible case that the university violated her First Amendment rights.

Armijo’s ruling questioned whether a “university can have a legitimate pedagogical interest in inviting students to engage in `incendiary’ and provocative speech on a topic and then punishing a student because he or she did just that.”

“Simply because Plaintiff expressed views about homosexuality that some people may deem offensive does not derive her views of First Amendment protection,” the judge wrote.

Pompeo’s attorney told the Journal she looks forward to litigating the case in court.

“This has been pending for a long time,” attorney Louren Oliveros said. “A university should be a place where freedom of expression is invited and where robust debate is welcomed. We’re very much looking forward to having this case go to trial.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/new-mexico-student-anti-gay_n_5999340.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices