Lady Gaga urges Malaysian people to protest censorship of her pro-gay song

Lady Gaga is calling for young people in Malaysia to protest “peaceably” against the decision to censor pro-gay lyrics in her hit Born This Way by local radio stations.

Some of the song’s lyrics were replaced with garble to avoid contravening strict laws on morality.

The contentious lyrics are: “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track, baby.”

Lady Gaga said in an interview at the headquarters of Google in California: “What I would say is for all the young people in Malaysia that want those words to be played on the radio, it is your job and it is your duty as young people to have your voices heard.

“You must do everything that you can if you want to be liberated by your society. You must call, you must not stop, you must protest peaceably.”

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Reports say Ugandan anti-gay bill has been killed

Reports from Uganda say the country’s anti-homosexuality bill has been dropped.

The controversial legislation would have strengthened Uganda’s current laws against gay sex but several reports say the government has intervened to drop it.

Information minister Kabakumba Masiko told Uganda’s NTV that another bill would cover much of the provisions in the anti-homosexuality bill.

He said: “We had the Cabinet Subcommittee which gave us a report yesterday and we did realise that there are many things that are in the bill that are covered by other laws that are already in place. … And the law that is in offing, the Sexual Offenses Bill, will cover most of the other issues that were going to be covered.”

It is not yet clear what provisions are in the Sexual Offenses Bill.

It has been suggested that directives to drop the bill came from the office of President Yoweri Museveni.

Last January, Mr Museveni appeared to show concern over how the bill would affect Uganda’s global relations.

It “must take into account our foreign policy interests”, he said.

The bill was to be debated by the Law and Parliamentary Affairs committee.

Blogger Warren Throckmorton reported that MP David Bahati, the sponsor of the bill, said he had been assured by the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee chair Stephen Tashobya that debate would go ahead.

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Interview: Andrew Hayden-Smith is grown up, single and returning to your TV

The last time we saw Andrew Hayden-Smith on television he was battling Cybermen alongside David Tennant’s Doctor Who. Since then the openly gay Geordie has been taking a bit of a breather, but not for much longer. Andrew is set to reappear on our screens this summer in a project he says he’s obliged to keep under wraps for now.

It’s now been 15 years since Andrew, 27, won the role of Ben Carter on the BBC’s children’s programme Byker Grove.

“I was at a normal comprehensive in County Durham, which is where I grew up. Byker Grove used to go around regular schools and find kids that didn’t go to drama school. I’d never even thought about acting. At the time my sister was working as a runner on the show and had taken me in to be an extra for the day. Matthew Robinson, the producer, asked if I’d like to audition. I did and I got it.”

He stayed on the show for seven years, balancing the filming schedule with his schoolwork. Towards the end of his stint on the programme he was promoting the series at CBBC’s London studios when he was asked if he’d like to guest present CBBC for a week.

“I had so much fun I just ended up staying. I signed a contract and I ended up staying there for like three years. They put me on BBC One, which I couldn’t believe.”

I point out that live television is very different from a format where, if you make a mistake, you can just do another take.

“It was a laugh,” he says modestly. “I think the viewers enjoyed that we weren’t perfect all the time.”

There was a problem however. He was now presenting CBBC while still appearing in Byker Grove. The live CBBC role necessitated he moved down to London, but the Byker Grove filming was still in Newcastle.

“I was travelling to and fro quite a lot, mostly by train. I was 19. My character in Byker Grove was now a youth leader, I was that old! I asked to be killed off. Characters who leave usually walk down the drive or go away somewhere, but I said I wanted a memorable exit.”

In the programme’s final season his character was hit by a car and killed, a storyline he says means he’s now especially careful when crossing the road in real life.

With less travelling to contend with, his new life in London enabled him to explore gay pubs and clubs in a way he hadn’t been able to in Newcastle.

“I think I went out on the gay scene once when I was in Newcastle. It’s got a great scene now, but back then it was nothing compared to London. I’d been down about a week when I decided to hit the town. I remember going straight to Heaven and I loved it!”

His work life extended again when he added presenting UK Top 40 to his anchor role on CBBC, but it was around this time that his private life caught the attention of the mainstream press.

“There was a tabloid that said: we know Andrew’s gay, he’s been to Heaven, we’ve seen him out clubbing, we might run a story about it. So I thought: well I’m going to do Attitude, I’m going to beat them to it.

“It wasn’t a big deal though. I’d already told my parents and my friends. I’d already dealt with it myself. I was just getting on with it. My boss at CBBC said it was fine and to just go ahead and do it. They were all very supportive.”

That he can be so relaxed not only in recounting the story, but also at the time of his coming out is testament to the progress of the last 20 years. That the tabloids thought it would be news shows there is further to go.

With everything seemingly perfect I ask him why he took the decision to leave CBBC. The timing had a lot to do with his appearance in Doctor Who, then under the stewardship of Russell T Davies.

“I fell into presenting. I didn’t really want to pursue it as a career. One of my producers at CBBC, a huge Doctor Who fan, said I should give Russell a call to see if he could use me as an extra. I didn’t think he’d get back to me.

“I first met him on the set in Cardiff. It was a freezing cold night and I had a really nice chat with him. Queer of Folk was on when I was 15 so I was completely in awe of him. That show was a huge part of me dealing with my sexuality. The nice thing was he said to me that he’d been planning on writing me a letter to say how proud he was about me coming out.”

Andrew’s last Doctor Who episode aired the same day he left CBBC and he took the opportunity to take a well-deserved break.

“I’d been working almost non-stop since I was 12! It was the first time I was able to take a breather. I wanted to be an actor so I took a break and slowly immersed myself into the routine of auditions and castings.”

A stint as Romeo in the West End followed and garnered generally good reviews. For the past three years TV viewers have also heard Andrew’s melodic tones as an announcer on ITV.

“That’s the good thing about being a Geordie in London,” he jokes. “Wouldn’t work at home! It’s ITV too, so that’s nice because up to that point I’d always been a BBC boy.”

I level with him and tell him that prior to our meeting I’d been worried his coming out had affected his career, or perhaps slowed his transition to adult actor.

“Not really. I just needed a bit of a break. I’m pretty excited about this year. I’ve got a couple of things coming out, but I can’t talk about them, which is the worst thing for me because I’ve got a massive mouth!”

I press him for details, but he charms his way out of it. He’s happy to talk about his bachelor status, however:

“I had a boyfriend on and off for six years between the ages of 19-25. We were together when I came out. You change a lot in your early twenties and in the end I think we were both worried we were somehow missing out. We broke up two years ago. Right now I’m having a good time being single and hanging out with my friends.”

In my head I wonder if his having come out of a relationship is connected to the new impetus in his acting career. If it is, the viewing public should hope he remains single for quite a while to come.

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Chemical influences sexual behaviour in mice

Scientists in China say they have discovered that the sexual behaviour of male mice is influenced by a chemical in the brain.

They bred male mice without the neurotransmitter serotonin and found that these mice lost interest in females.

The modified mice appeared to show sexual behaviour towards other males instead and were far more likely to attempt to mount them and make ‘mating calls’.

A series of experiments were carried out. The modified mice showed no preference for either gender when presented with a choice of male and female partners. But when a single male was introduced, they were more likely to show sexual interest.

But sexual interest in females could be restored by injecting serotonin into the brain.

The report said: “Serotonergic signalling is crucial for male sexual preference in mice. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a neurotransmitter in the brain has been demonstrated to be important in mammalian sexual preference.”

The experiment has not looked at the effects of serotonin in female mice.

Scientists have cautioned against relating these findings to human sexual behaviour. Although serotonin can affect libido in humans, no evidence has been found for any effect on sexual orientation.

Study co-author Zhou-Feng Chen, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, told Science News: “We have to be cautious because this is work done in mice. I would be extremely careful to extrapolate these results into humans. We just don’t know much about this.”

The study, led by Yi Rao of the National Institute of Biological Sciences and Peking University in Beijing, was published online in the journal Nature this week.

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Elizabeth Taylor ‘fashionably late’ for own funeral

Elizabeth Taylor was laid to rest in style yesterday afternoon, having arrived fashionably late for her own funeral.

The actress and HIV campaigner died on Wednesday aged 79 and was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery just outside Los Angeles.

She was 15 minutes late to the private ceremony – having stipulated before she died that she “wanted to be late for her own funeral”.

The star, who was mobbed by fans whenever she went out in Los Angeles, had a peaceful and dignified service with just a few dozen family members and close friends in attendance.

She had been suffering from a congestive heart condition for years. Her Jewish faith meant she was buried quickly.

The icon, who had a huge gay following, was laid to rest in the same mausoleum as her late friend Michael Jackson.

Her funeral was threatened by an appearance from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church. However, no members of the controversial cult showed up.

Taylor, who dedicated her later years to HIV awareness, was hailed as an “extraordinary” gay rights ally yesterday.

Broadway is to dim its lights in her honour tonight.

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Rugby fans warned over anti-gay chants at Gareth Thomas

Castleford Tigers fans have been warned by the club’s chief executive to ensure that homophobic chants directed at gay player Gareth Thomas are not repeated.

The club was fined £40,000 last year after a small number of fans abused Crusaders star Thomas. The fine was cut to £20,000 on appeal and the club banned three people.

The Crusaders are to play an away match against Castleford on Sunday and chief executive Richard Wright urged fans to prove that the club is not anti-gay.

He said: “We’ve put a lot of hard work into taking every step possible to prevent a repeat of last year.

“There has been a fantastic atmosphere at games so far this season and we are grateful to our fans for that.

“We’ve invited the RFL’s [Rugby Football League] equality and diversity officer as guest of honour for Sunday’s game and we are very proud of the fantastic progress made in introducing new initiatives, some of which are firsts for rugby league and sport in general.

“We know that it was a small number of mindless fools that let the club, the town and the sport of rugby league down last year and we have taken steps to deal with these. Anybody found guilty of homophobic abuse has, and will be, banned from games indefinitely.”

He added: “Sunday is an opportunity for the fans to make a statement that Castleford Tigers are not a homophobic club. The club has played its part, it’s now up to the fans to concentrate on cheering the team and proving once and for all how this is a proud club, that warrants its reputation as one of the friendliest, family-orientated clubs in the game.”

Mr Wright described measures taken by the club to stamp out homophobia, including a poster campaign, improved CCTV audio recording and briefing of stewards.

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US retailer Target sues gay rights group

Target is suing a San Diego gay rights group for canvassing outside its stores.

The US retail giant claims that Canvass For A Cause, which is working for gay marriage, is driving away its customers.

Target has already been criticised for donating money to anti-gay political groups. Lady Gaga recently walked away from an exclusive Target deal over the issue.

Last year, the retailer gave a $150,000 donation to Minnesota Forward, which used the funds to back Republican state gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who is against gay marriage and has voted against other gay rights initiatives.

The retailer’s case against Canvass For A Cause begins today.

Target says that the gay group’s activists regularly canvass outside eight San Diego stores and refuse to leave when asked. The retailer says it receives around a dozen complaints every day from shoppers angry at the campaigners.

But Canvass For A Cause, which asks people to sign gay marriage petitions, claim Target wants to silence it because it is against gay rights.

Director Tres Watson told AP: “It’s very David vs Goliath. We understand they’re the Goliath in the room. They’ve got all money in world to get us to stop talking about gay marriage.”

He added that volunteers are trained to be polite and professional and that shopping centres have been recognised as public places where freedom of speech is protected.

After the donation to Minnesota candidate Mr Emmer, Target said it would “use the benefit of time to make thoughtful, careful decisions on how best to move forward”.

It received a 100 per cent rating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual diversity index before the controversy.

Responding to Lady Gaga’s public criticism, it said: “Target remains committed to the LGBT community as demonstrated by our contributions to various LGBT organisations, our recently established Policy Committee to review our political giving and our respectful, inclusive workplace environment.”

Target voluntarily pays benefits to same sex partners, despite no federal requirements to do so.

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Feature: Is Botox poison or pleasure?

Botox, once the preserve of middle-aged ladies with just a little too much cash, has become increasingly popular among men, particularly gay men. But what’s it like? Does it work? And what does the growth of the practice tell us about the gay community? Tim Davies went to the Private Clinic in Harley Street to try it out.

Walking up Harley Street to visit Dr Gupta at the Private Clinic, I was wondering if I was taking my pursuit of a journalistic story just a little too far. Should I really let someone inject poison into my forehead just to smooth out some minor, but noticeable wrinkles? It certainly seems to be a growing trend within the gay community. If I’m honest, I was also tempted by the fact that Botox has been shown to reduce migraines as a side effect.

I had met Dr Gupta briefly before. Sharing a mirror, we looked at every line on my face. I spotted some lines I had never noticed before.

When I returned to see him, Dr Gupta asked me if I was sure I wanted to go ahead. I replied saying that given the treatment was only temporary, even if I hated it, it wouldn’t be permanent.

After signing some forms, I was lying on a bed waiting for the Botox to be injected. There are some risks having Botox injections. The most common is that that the Botox causes your eyelids to droop, which can last for months and be a pretty obvious sign that you’ve joined the legions injecting poison into themselves. I felt relatively confident that as I was having the procedure performed by a doctor that the risk would be reduced somewhat than if it were by a “Botox practitioner”.

The actual procedure took seconds and it didn’t hurt. The Botox takes a few weeks to take effect, so if you have it done, don’t expect to walk out the door looking years younger!

A few weeks later, good to its word, the Botox kicked in. Some wrinkles on my forehead and a tendency to raise an eyebrow disappeared. It wasn’t a radical change, but I did look younger. But I was worried that it did look a little unnatural. While no one particularly noticed, I realised I couldn’t quite raise my eyebrows as much as I used to.

One of the appeals of having Botox at the outset was the potential for it to prevent wrinkles by stopping the face adopting bad wrinkle-forming habits. This works in theory but it requires you to come back on multiple occasions and it’s not that cheap!

What pleasantly surprised me about the treatment was the considerable impact that it had on my head pain, something that I want to repeat on the NHS.

Dr Gupta said that around 45 per cent of his patients are male, many of them gay. Although everyone wants to look younger, the motivations of why people come vary significantly. Some guys simply want to look younger, to make themselves look more sexually attractive. Others do it for professional reasons, particularly if they work in the City. While in the old days, grey hairs and wrinkles were a positive means of promotion, they are now considered to be a negative, so many guys seek to hide away the signs that they are no longer go-getting whizz-kids.

So would I go again? Maybe. I’m not in a hurry but I wouldn’t rule it out.

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Man takes ‘gay sex addict’ drug case to court

A French man who claims a faulty Parkinson’s Disease drug turned him into a gay sex addict is demanding £390,000 in compensation.

Didier Jambart, 52, from Nantes, is suing ReQuip manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline for his psychological trauma.

A court verdict is expected today.

Mr Jambart, a married father, claims the drug changed his personality and led him to becoming addicted to gay sex.

His lawyers say he began cross-dressing, exposing himself on the internet and indulging in risky behavior which led to him being raped.

He said he had attempted suicide eight times after beginning a course of ReQuip in 2003.

By 2005, he had stopped taking it and says his behaviour has returned to normal, although he suffered psychological trauma and was demoted at work.

According to the Daily Mail, Mr Jambart said: “I have to take this matter to court – it may be a David and Goliath struggle but after all I’ve been through I want to get my dignity back.”

GlaxoSmithKline’s lawyers say there is no evidence the company produced a “defective” drug but said there was the chance of an “extremely rare reaction”.

Requip and other Parkinson’s drugs have been linked to obsessive and addictive behaviours before.

Last November, Pete Shepherd, a former councillor from Hull, said he had become a gambling, sex-addicted cross dresser after taking Cabergoline for symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

He spent £400,000 on a luxury lifestyle and received a conditional discharge for a £45,000 eBay fraud in 2009 after a judge ruled that the drug had affected his ability to tell right from wrong.

Mr Shepherd stopped taking Cabergoline in 2008 and says his behaviour has returned to normal.

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HomoQuotable - Tom Ford

"A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach." - Tom Ford, from his Five Easy Lessons On How To Be A Gentleman. I do agree on the flip-flops. But c'mon, summer in New York City without shorts? Try waiting for the 6 train on a murderously hot platform some July afternoon and we'll see how fast you cave, Mr. Ford.

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Elizabeth Taylor's Funeral Is Today

Perhaps to thwart the Westboro Baptist Church, who yesterday vowed to picket her funeral, Elizabeth Taylor will be buried today at the famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the final resting place of many Hollywood stars. I just checked the Twitter feed of Margie Phelps, who doesn't yet seem to be aware of the speedy service. Story developing

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NOM Denounces Catholic Marriage Poll

Today NOM screams that the above "LGBT-funded poll falsely claims that most Catholics support same-sex marriage" and links to a story on CatholicVote.org. Who is driving the numbers behind the headline: “Catholic support same-sex marriage”? Catholics who are almost never in the pews. And yet, when it comes to the headlines, Catholics who can’t even trouble themselves to get to Mass with any sort of regularity are lumped in with faithful Catholics who actually try to follow the teachings of the Church. This disparity is revealing, however: it reveals the contradiction between being a faithful Catholic and signing on to the LGBT agenda to redefine marriage. After all, the Catholics who are most serious about the LGBT agenda are typically the Catholics who are the least serious about their faith. [snip]

First, this much-circulated poll was paid for by Arcus – who we know about – and the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. fund, which separately paid PRRI to “help develop religious education strategies supporting gay equality” in 2009. In the same year, the same Haas Jr. fund paid PRRI to survey Presbyterians on LGBT issues. In other words, PRRI provides polling to help gay-rights groups figure out how to better push their agenda among various faith communities. And yet, despite these multiple cash infusions from LGBT-groups like Arcus and its ilk, and despite the clear bent of this polling towards growing support for the LGBT agenda among faith groups, PRRI is still described as a “non-profit, nonpartisan, independent organization.” Really?

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Rep. Trent Franks: Obama May Bring Nuclear Terrorism Upon The United States

"For the first time in my life, when Barack Obama became elected, for the first time in my life, I am actually afraid that America may diminish to a point where it's just unrecognizable. Not just on the economic front, but where he puts people on the Supreme Court that have no fealty or loyalty to the Constitution and weakening our country to the extent that we may see nuclear terrorism, not in our childrens' generation, but in ours, in the near future. And any one of those could destabilize our country to the extent that it would not be the great beacon of freedom for the planet." - Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), speaking on the American Family Association's radio show, where Frothy Mix was sitting in for usual host Tony Perkins

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Leonard Pitts On Majority Rule

"We are gathered here today to look a gift horse in the mouth. It seems a majority of the American people now favor allowing gay men and lesbians to wed. That majority, according to a Washington Post survey released last week, is slender, just 51 percent. But even at that, it represents a significant increase from just five years ago, when only 36 percent of Americans approved. [snip]

"But lurking at the edge of celebration there is, for me, at least, a nagging, impatient vexation. That vexation is based in what is arguably an esoteric question: In extolling the fact that the majority now approves same-sex marriage, do we not also tacitly accept the notion that the majority has the right to judge? [snip]

"That’s the pebble in the shoe, the popcorn hull between the teeth, that nags at the conscience when one reads polls tracking how many of us approve of other people’s lives and decisions. It’s all well and good that 51 percent of us support the right of gay men and lesbians to tell it to the judge, but really, what hubris makes us think we have a right to say yea or nay in the first place?" - Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, writing for the Miami Herald.

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Wife Of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Joins Wingnut Site As Reporter

Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has been hired by The Daily Caller as a reporter.

"We are thrilled to have Ginni Thomas join The Daily Caller as a special correspondent to interview both established and emerging leaders about the serious questions facing our country," said Neil Patel, publisher and CEO of The Daily Caller. "Ginni is always upbeat, she has an unbelievable amount of energy and enthusiasm and she knows our political system as well as anyone in Washington. We could not imagine a better person to take on this role."

A longtime Tea Party activist, Thomas' political activities have prompted calls for her husband to recuse himself from some cases.

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