Adam Lambert’s clownish, BDSM-lite performance at the American Music Awards last weekend twisted the nickers of roughly 1,500 people enough that they’ve called in to ABC to complain. For reference, that’s about 498,500 fewer than complained about Janet Jackson’s sleight-of-breast at the 2004 Superbowl. I wonder if this crop of cranks was more displeased about the kiss/sex, or that jacket Lambert wore?
Elsewhere…
Georgia – While former owners of the Southern Voice, Washington Blade, and other big-name LGBT magazines are struggling under a $15 million mountain of debt, former SoVo editor Laura Douglas-Brown and former SoVo owner Chris Cash are trying to resurrect the newspaper as a reader-funded magazine. (ProjectQAtlanta, Queerty)
New Jersey – Towleroad has a roundup of the Garden State’s marriage equality fight, which has turned into a race against time with Democratic Governor John Corzine’s November loss to conservative Republican Chris Christie. Activists are trying to replace the state’s less-expansive civil unions with marriage. The money quote, from the Asbury Park Press:
The election was widely viewed as a referendum on high property taxes, strangling state debt and continued unemployment, making some lawmakers skittish about taking on a potentially divisive issue like marriage equality. Gay rights activists lobbied at the Statehouse on Monday, calling on lawmakers to post the bill for a vote and threatening to withhold support to Democrats who don’t back the measure.
D.C. – Support for DOMA may be part of a new litmus test for “true Republicans.” (Queerty)
Connecticut – A Connecticut school district says you must compete in sports according to the gender of your birth certificate, not the gender you live. (The Advocate)
Puerto Rico – Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, the 19-year-old victim of a brutal hate crime last week, was laid to rest yesterday. (Edge)
Massachusetts – Nya nya ne-nya-nya! A study performed partly in Scotland, partly in Massachusetts by the UK’s National Association for Parenting Practitioners concludes that lesbian pairs make the best parents because their children are less likely to be bound by traditional gender roles in their lives and occupations. (Scottish Daily Express)
Rhode Island – Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), son of the late, great Senator Ted Kennedy, has been told he is no longer welcome at (Catholic) communion by his bishop because of the younger Kennedy’s support for abortion rights. With the Stupak amendment to the House’s healthcare bill, which effectively banned health insurers from covering most abortions, the Catholic Church flexed its political muscles to great effect. Now that elements of the Church in Maine and D.C. are actively on the warpath against LGBT rights, will communion become the next weapon against our allies and supporters? (Change.org)