Ok, so I’m breaking the rule about this being a national news round-up, but how can you not pass on a story like this? The state news agency Xinhua made up a story a few days ago about a long-lost city of 25,000 hot women in the north of Sweden living together in sexy bliss. (TheNextWeb.com)

The city, called Chako Paul was founded in 1820 by a rich widow and is guarded by two blonde guards that will strike men down that try to enter the city of Nordic lesbian love.

Sadly, as you would probably expect, the city doesn’t exist. But the Chinese, being so “inquisitive” have crippled Swedish ISP’s with searches for “Chako Paul”. According to Valleywag, “Chinese men have “swamped… Swedish tourism bodies” with such burning questions in recent days, millions of them. EDIT: News is that now the Japanese are curious about the Swedish Lesbians too.

Elsewhere…

Maine – Most national progressive and conservative groups seem to have forgotten about the ongoing intense battle over marriage equality. (Washington Post)

California – Women are more likely to be discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, says a new study by the Palm Center, a think-tank focused on LGBT servicemembers. (AP)

“It’s very clear the military comes down harder on women than on men, but the question of whether they come down harder on lesbians than on gay men is harder to answer,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a University of California, Santa Barbara, center specializing in gays and the military. “We don’t know whether the statistics reflect lesbian-baiting or just a higher rate of lesbians in the military.”

Georgia – The Atlanta LGBT community is pushing back against what many are calling a thoroughly homophobic police department, evidenced by last month’s bar raid. (Southern Voice)

Washington D.C. – CNN finally gets around to mentioning the National Equality March and a lot of LGBT folk’s dissatisfaction with President Barak Obama…no matter what those Swedes think. (via PHB)

New York – Sean Hanity picks up the NAMBLA meme that’s been dogging Kevin Jennings, the openly gay Education Department official in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Jennings, who founded the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, has been repeatedly attacked for expressing admiration for the activism of Harry Hay, an early radical gay rights activist who founded one of the nation’s first gay rights groups, but won infamy later in life for his support for NAMBLA. The same media strategy was used by right-wing media in forcing Van Jones, the high-profile environmental activist, to resign from his position as an environmental advisor to the White House. (The Daily Beast)