More accurately, their nylons will be doing the saving. A San Francisco-based group called Matter of Trust is calling for donations of nylon stockings, human hair, and pet fur to make booms they say will effectively strain oil from the surf and prevent it from washing up on shore, using the same chemical properties that make your hair greasy when you don’t wash it. The booms are in sharp contrast to typical oil spill cleanup and mitigation booms: usually big plastic booms are placed out to sea from environmentally sensitive areas, but in the Deepwater Horizon spill/leak/mess, choppy seas have pushed the oil right over commercial booms deployed to protect bird nesting grounds. Matter of Trust hopes that their decidedly unconventional approach will sidestep the problem entirely, and have directed their 400,000-pound stockpile of hair and fun towards Gulf Coast cleanup efforts. Only a few things stand in the way of this ambitious project: the supply of hair and fur, the need to hand-stuff the nylons, and the fact that almost no-one wears nylons anymore.

That’s where the drag queens come in. Along with Walmart and Hanes, the San Francisco drag community (questionably called “transvestites” in this NPR piece) has readily donated lots of stockings. Salons and pet groomers are pitching in, too, with more signing up to donate hair trimmings in the last 72 hours than have signed up in the last six years, and volunteers all along the Gulf Coast organizing “Boom-B-Qs” to stuff hair sausages.

Elsewhere…

D.C. – It was easy to predict, but Kerry Eleveld has confirmed that Defense Secretary Bob Gates’ letter opposing congressional action on DADT repeal this year has made life a lot tougher for repeal advocates on Capitol Hill. Unless you’re a Human Rights Campaign board member, that is: an HRC or Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network staffer leaked emails to Pam’s House Blend showing that the HRC was indeed lying when it claimed yesterday that it would be paying for a bus for veterans to use in next week’s DADT Veterans’ Lobby Day. (The Advocate)

New York – No hate crimes charges will be brought in the case of Hakim Scott, who was just convicted of beating Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Suchuzhanay to death while shouting anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs. Scott reportedly thought Suchuzhanay was gay. (Towleroad)

Florida – Joe.My.God has the first interview with Jo-Vanni Roman, the rent boy hired by Family Research Council co-founder George Rekers to give him sensual massages and lift his luggage on a 10-day vacation to Europe. Pretty interesting stuff! Also, it turns out we (and the rest of the LGBT media) were wrong when we reported that Rekers’ association with the Family Research Council had been purged from their website. Turns out it’s still there: we were just spoofed by a site reorganization. (Joe.My.God, The Box Turtle Bulletin)

Moscow – Will the US Embassy host Moscow Pride this year? In previous years, marches have been broken up by police, attacked by skinheads, and denied permits to march by the Mayor of Moscow. (Towleroad)

Teh Interwebs, Dept. of Decline of Western Civilization – Do you text during sex? Apparently, 10% of American under-25s think it’s ok to do so. (Mashable)