Gay Porn Star Threatens to Out Lindsey Graham

I have caught flack over the years for referring to GOP Senator Lindsey Graham as the "Palmetto Queen."  Generally, I believe that when one comes out is a personal decision with one exception: if you hold elected office and are in the closet and supporting anti-gay policies and/or anti-gay politicians, then you are open game for "outing."  It's a simple matter of exposing hypocrites.  Rumors have swirled around Lindsey Graham for years, but his self-prostitution to Donald Trump, a man who is waging war on LGBT Americans, has made outing him a high priority if he's a closeted gay and aiding those harming the LGBT community.   If Graham is a closeted hypocrite, then he deserves to be outed.  FitNews based in South Carolina) has details on the latest rumors about about Graham.  Here are excerpts:

Around the time most South Carolinians were sitting down to their evening meals on Thursday night, a gay porn star by the name of Sean Harding fired off a tweet that set tongues-a-wagging across the Palmetto State (and in the nation’s capital).

“There is a homophobic republican senator who is no better than (Donald Trump) who keeps passing legislation that is damaging to the LGBT and minority communities,” Harding tweeted. “Every sex worker I know has been hired by this man. Wondering if enough of us spoke out if that could get him out of office?” Wait … what?

“I cannot do this alone,” Harding added in a follow-up tweet. “If you’d be willing to stand with me against LG please let me know.”

Considering there is only one member of the U.S. Senate with those initials, speculation quickly turned (again) to U.S. senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has been dodging rumors like this for the better part of the last decade. This time, though, the allegation quickly took on a life of its own. By Friday afternoon, the hashtag “Lady G” – which is purportedly Graham’s nickname among male sex workers – was trending on Twitter.

Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any crazier, right?

For years (most recently in October 2018), Graham has denied being a homosexual.

“I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men – I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge – but I ain’t available,” he famously told The New York Times Magazine in 2010. “I ain’t gay. Sorry.”

Still, the rumors have persisted … with many of Graham’s conservative opponents espousing the theory that he was being manipulated (or blackmailed) politically due to secrets surrounding his sexuality.

To be clear: This news outlet does not care about Graham’s sexual orientation. In fact, the sooner we can stop contemplating whatever might turn on the 64-year-old Central, S.C. native, the better.

We are much more concerned with Graham’s chameleon-esque inability to settle on a political orientation. An erstwhile #NeverTrumper, he flip-flopped and began supporting Trump in late 2017 when it became clear he was about to lose his seat.
Were we surprised? No … everything with this guy is calculation.

Thankfully, there are those in Trump’s orbit who are able to see this career chameleon for what he is … an ally in name only.

We think his votes are bad … and we would like to see him out of office. But we are not going to vilify him over something in his personal life without a damn good reason. Like abuse of power. Something involving tax money. Overt hypocrisy. Or maybe … a clown mask?

Graham is facing a tougher-than-expected fight this fall from Democrat Jaime Harrison, who has attracted significant national support (and raised some serious cash) in his bid to oust the third-term lawmaker. Harrison, incidentally, has been the focus of similar rumors over the years … which we care as much about as the rumors surrounding Graham.

Still, something about this particular installment of the “Lindsey Graham is about to be outed” rumor that seems … different. Lots of national reporters are clearly chasing it (including several who have called our news desk), and the chatter about numerous male escorts contemplating the consequences of violating alleged nondisclosure agreements seems curiously (disturbingly) specific.

Stay tuned … we will have to wait and see what the future holds for the senior senator from South Carolina as he battles the latest (and greatest) round of rumors.

The Unexpected Public Contribution of Stormy Daniels

Survey: Daniels more credible than Trump by 41 points

Not to beat a topic to death, but the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes continues to resonate.  Tellingly, a poll shows that 62% of people surveyed believe Stormy Daniels while only 21% believe Donald Trump. That's a 41% spread in favor of the porn star over the occupant of the White House.  I cannot remember anything comparable.  A piece in the Washington Post by Michael Gerson - a former member of the George W. Bush White House and sickened Republican - looks at this stunning situation and the contribution that Stormy Daniels has done to the American public: she has shown that Trump is foul, morally bankrupt, pathological liar. This reality is clear to seemingly everyone but evangelical Christians.  Even Sarah Huckabee Sanders ducked the White House press briefing yesterday in an apparent display that even she would not submit herself to the degradation defending Trump.  Here are column excerpts:

Some who watched the Stormy Daniels interview on “60 Minutes” claimed it contained nothing new. On national television, an adult performer alleged that Donald Trump engaged in an extramarital fling, that his minions legally and physically threatened her to discourage public disclosure of the affair, and that Trump’s fixer paid her $130,000 in hush money to secure her silence immediately before the 2016 election. People should just go back to their knitting. Nothing to see here.

Americans who find this unremarkable have missed an extraordinary cultural moment. Daniels’s allegations are denied by the White House and an attorney for President Trump’s lawyer. Yet who in their right mind would trust Trump’s word over hers? In this case, the porn star has more credibility than the president of the United States. It is not even close.
 If these allegations are true, they reveal a man of poor character. (The technical term in moral philosophy, I think, is “sleazeball.”) Trump seems to regard beautiful women as an employment benefit of the wealthy and powerful. Porn stars and Playboy models are in the same category as a private jet or the key to the executive washroom. This is hardly surprising in our culture of celebrity. To a large number of American males, this represents exactly the kind of treatment they would want as a sports star or rock star.

This type of scandal demonstrates why character does matter in politics. . . . . . Trump feels exempt from the normal rules of honesty and decency. He plays close to ethical and legal lines. And he uses his wealth and influence to shield his embarrassing behavior from view — with hush money, nondisclosure agreements, legal threats and lies from the White House briefing room podium. He forces everyone around him to become complicit in his corruption. Members of Congress, White House staffers, party officials, conservative media figures and religious leaders are all expected to be accomplices. And we are left with a vacuum of integrity at the heart of our government.

Trump has made a career out of paying and manipulating people to be dishonest about him. . . .  This weakness of character is now what moves Republicans in Washington to speak of him as though he were a great leader — bowing and scraping in the hope of getting what they want. Sometimes they do. But in the process they give Trump what he wants: people pretending he is something he is not.

In this scandal, such tactics aren’t working. Trump can’t get the porn star to say he is wonderful and move on. This is the strange, unexpected public contribution of Stormy Daniels.

It is a very sad day when a porn star has more moral integrity and credibility than the occupant of the White House.  Sadly, anyone familiar with Trump's business history over the decades would not be surprised with this result. Everyone, of course, except sanctimonious and morally bankrupt evangelical Christians. 

The Stormy Daniels Interview Should Scare Republicans

I, like I suspect many, I watched the 60 Minutes interview of Stormy Daniels last evening.  My take away?  Donald Trump is an adulterous pig.   In my view, a very unattractive adulterous pig.  Perhaps my favorite part of the interview was this:

Anderson Cooper: You were 27, he was 60. Were you physically attracted to him?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Anderson Cooper: Not at all?

Stormy Daniels: No.

I suspect that this exchange will most enrage Der Trumpenführer since it dismisses his delusional attractive image of himself.   

On a more serious note, what the Daniels interview may do is further alienate women voters - a demographic with whom Trump does poorly - by reminding them of Trump and the GOP's anti-women agenda.  With the 2018 mid terms a little more than seven months away, the last thing Republicans need is more alienation of women voters or, in the alternative, energized women voters out for retribution.  A piece in CNN looks at why Republicans should be worried.  Here are excerpts:

But one way that the Daniels story could have a very real political effect is in its ability to further energize the women's vote, especially that of white college-educated females. From the start of his presidency, Trump has had a gender problem. Hillary Clinton won 54% of the women's vote. The first mass protest against his presidency, the Women's March on January 21, 2017, drew hundreds of thousands of women from all over the country.
 The president has done nothing to allay the concerns that he is a sexist-in-chief who is dismissive of any policies that aim to achieve gender equity and who is prone to espousing the kind of "locker room talk," as he called it, that was on display in the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that emerged during the election. While many Americans had been hopeful that Clinton's candidacy would signal a historic milestone in the fight for gender quality, the story turned out differently. The victory of Trump felt to many women like a huge step backward. In the period that has his followed his election, many women voters have only become more determined to reverse the damage that his victory caused. The #Metoo movement pushed the issue of sexual harassment to the front and center of our national conversation. Activists brought down numerous leading figures in key industries and have created immense pressure to transform the rules and norms of workplace behavior. The anger among women in the electorate could be decisive in the midterm elections. With a record-breaking number of female candidates running for office, many women are clearly determined to shake up Washington. If women voters who oppose President Trump turn out in large numbers, they can provide the key to electing a Democratic-controlled House and Senate. Ronald Brownstein has noted that 62% of college-educated women are planning to vote for Democrats in November. According to an NBC News/Wall Street poll, the president's favorability rating among college-educated white women has fallen from 32% to 27%. And the Republicans only receive positive marks from 23% of this pool. In the special elections in Virginia, Alabama, and Pennsylvania, the Republicans performed poorly with women voters. And [Trump's] the president's numbers have also fallen among blue-collar white women who were important to his victory last November. In RealClear Politics, David Brady and Brett Parker recently recounted how weak the enthusiasm is for his presidency among female voters, and the widening gender gap between the parties. Donald Trump has represented, both symbolically and in terms of the policy agenda, a reactionary presidency toward the feminist movement that has pushed the country toward greater gender equality. The daily tumult in the White House and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation create woes for Trump. But the decisive factor that could put real institutional brakes on this [Trump] President may well turn out to be the women's vote.

The Growing Menace of the Trump/Pence Regime

If a fiction writer wrote about a White House like the one now on daily display even as recently as five (5) years ago, everyone would have condemned the narrative as "ridiculous" or "unbelievable."  Now, with each passing day we become increasingly aware that the occupant of the White House operates more or less like a crime boss, dealing with underworld figures, Russian oligarchs, cavorts with porn stars and then threatens them with physical violence while simultaneously trying to silence them with hush money.  Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin - who likely has his own cashe of blackmail materials - smiles on as American prestige and engagement with the world as a super power lurches from one embarrassment to another.  The story line put out by Trump sycophants and Republicans  - whose willingness to prostitute themselves to the morally bankrupt that would shame a tawdry whore - has been that "adults in the room" would rein in Trump's worse excesses.  As we are witnessing, this storyline is a crock of bullshit.   Every decent, honest American - which I am sad to say excludes evangelical Christians who put this human refuse in the White House - should be appalled and gravely worried.  A column in the New York Times looks at the rolling disaster.  Here are excerpts:

Since the beginning of this nightmare administration, we’ve been assured — via well-placed anonymous sources — that a few sober, trustworthy people in the White House were checking Donald Trump’s worst instincts and most erratic whims. A collection of generals, New York finance types and institution-minded Republicans were said to be nobly sacrificing their reputations and serving a disgraceful president for the good of the country. Through strategic leaks they presented themselves as guardians of American democracy rather than collaborators in its undoing.

Last August, after the president said there were “very fine people” among the white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville, Va., senior officials rationalized their continued role in the administration to Mike Allen of Axios. “If they weren’t there, they say, we would have a trade war with China, massive deportations, and a government shutdown to force construction of a Southern wall,” Allen wrote. Since then, we’ve had a government shutdown over immigration, albeit a brief one. A trade war appears imminent. Arrests of undocumented immigrants — particularly those without criminal records — have continued to surge.

Over the past 14 months we’ve also seen monstrous levels of corruption and chaos, a plummeting of America’s standing in the world and the obliteration of a host of democratic norms.

Increasingly, however, the people who were supposed to be the adults in the room aren’t in the room anymore. The former Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell left in January. Gary Cohn, head of the National Economic Council, announced his resignation on March 6. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was terminated by tweet on Tuesday. National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster will reportedly be among the next to go, and Trump may soon fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, possibly as a prelude to shutting down the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The self-styled grown-ups are, for the most part, being replaced by lackeys and ideologues. Larry Kudlow, the CNBC pundit Trump has appointed to succeed Cohn, is known for the consistent wrongness of his predictions. Tillerson was a terrible secretary of state, but unlike his chosen successor, the director of the C.I.A., Mike Pompeo, he never trafficked in nut-job Benghazi conspiracy theories or anti-Muslim invective. John Roberts of Fox News reported that McMaster could be replaced by uberhawk John Bolton . . . .

This new stage of unbound Trumpism might make the administration’s first year look stable in comparison. That would partly vindicate the adults’ claims that things would be even messier without them. But it would also mean that by protecting the country from the consequences of an unhinged president, they helped Trump consolidate his power while he learned how to transcend restraints.

Whatever their accomplishments, if from their privileged perches these people saw the president as a dangerous fool in need of babysitting, it’s now time for some of them to say so publicly. . . . Of course, unlike Omarosa Manigault Newman, who confessed horror at her former boss’s presidency on “Celebrity Big Brother,” they haven’t. Their defenders among anti-Trump Republicans say it’s because some of them still have a role to play in staving off potential disaster. One Republican in regular contact with people in the White House told me that Powell and Cohn “need to protect their capacity to reach in and help manage in the event of any national crisis.”

I don’t find this entirely convincing. If these people see the administration as unequipped to handle an emergency, they owe the country a firsthand account of our vulnerability.

[I]f there’s one person who has no excuse for not speaking out, it’s Tillerson, once one of the most powerful private citizens in America, now humbled and defiled by his time in Trump’s orbit. . . . . There’s little doubt that Tillerson holds Trump in contempt and disagrees with large parts of his agenda. After Charlottesville, Tillerson refused to say that the president’s words represented American values.

“Rex is never going to be back in a position where he can have any degree of influence or respect from this president,” my Republican source said. Because of that, the source continued, “Rex is under a moral mandate to do his best to burn it down.” That would mean telling the truth “about how concerned he is about the leadership in the Oval Office, and what underpins those concerns and what he’s seen.”

In this case, patriotism and self-interest point in the same direction. Before entering this administration, Tillerson was a vastly more respected businessman than Trump . . . . Now the first line of his obituary will be about a year of abject failure as the country’s lead diplomat, culminating in a humiliation fit for reality TV.

The only way he will ever change that is by joining those who would bring this despicable presidency down. If Tillerson came out and said that the president is unfit, and perhaps even that venal concerns for private gain have influenced his foreign policy, impeachment wouldn’t begin tomorrow, but Trump’s already narrow public support would shrink further.

Last year, Axios’s Allen and Jim VandeHei half-jokingly called the insiders trying to circumscribe Trump the “Committee to Save America.” Now the committee, having failed, is disbanding. The least they could do is be frank with the rest of us about what we’re up against.

Quotes of the Day: Maureen Dowd Shreds Trump

I have always aspired to be a writer who can slice and dice politicians I dislike with just the right amount of bitchiness and razor sharp tongue.  My blogger friend Pam Spaulding has always exceeded at turning the English language into a polished weapon.  Another such writer is New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd who when in stride can simply amaze with her wit and sarcasm.  In a column yesterday, Dowd took aim at Donald Trump and out did herself.  Here are some wonderful excerpts:

Melania has learned a few things from the master.  The first lady will never be as brilliant at trolling as her husband. He is an idiot-savant who plays in the roiling ocean of Twitter as naturally as a blubbery-necked sea lion.

But the Slovenian Sphinx has her moments.  It started when she seemed to sartorially upbraid Trump for his Billy Bush vulgarities by wearing a pussy-bow blouse to the St. Louis debate. Then, in a master stroke, she chose a first-lady project that could only be interpreted as a wicked rip on her husband: fighting vicious cyberbullies. Last spring, Melania’s personal Twitter account favorited a GIF of her own downcast face at the Inaugural Address with an accompanying crack: “Seems the only #Wall @realDonaldTrump’s built is the one between him and @FLOTUS.”

Last weekend, on the anniversary of the inauguration, Melania Instagrammed a throwback picture of herself in her powder-blue Jackie suit, not with her husband but with a hunky Marine escort. She wore a delighted ear-to-ear smile, the kind she never seems to flash around the Donald. (It would have been even funnier, of course, if she had posted a photo of herself in front of some empty stands and a sparse crowd, but we’re talking more grounds for divorce there.)

After the Stormy Daniels story broke — about Trump cavorting and watching Shark Week with the porn star and telling her not to worry about Melania, at home with a new baby, and then having his lawyer allegedly pay Stormy $130,000 during the campaign to hush her up — a wintry Melania canceled her plan to accompany her husband to Davos.

Instead, . . . . Remembrance Day. This looked like a subtle reproach to Trump for his unspeakable defense of the “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Va., and an allusion to the president’s statement last year on remembrance day, which somehow neglected to remember Jews or anti-Semitism. What a Stephen Miller special that was.

[A]s Stormy Daniels began her media tour on “Inside Edition” and booked an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel,” Melania was making a stealthy landing in Florida on an Air Force plane.

Trump could humiliate his wife by being a big, horny pig, but he is the one who comes off as the embarrassment. He’s an embarrassing husband and an embarrassing president and an embarrassing leader of the free world. Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels. Donald Trump is paying off porn stars and denigrating struggling countries that send minorities to the U.S. as “shitholes.” How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?

Everyone wondered if Melania’s rebellious vanishing act — combined with the simultaneous Times scoop that Trump had already tried to fire Robert Mueller but was blocked by the White House lawyer, Don McGahn — was the beginning of the “unraveling,” as one top Democrat put it. (Surely, the Trump unraveling began with his birth, like Damien in “The Omen.”)

“It’s like ancient Rome where they’re all turning on each other. McGahn is taking out the long knives to stick Trump in the back. At some point, General Kelly may do the same. Bannon is exiled to the outer walls of the city, where he is collecting wayward Roman soldiers to go back and attack Trump. There are orgies and payoffs and mud wrestling, so beyond anything we’ve experienced anywhere.”

It’s a shattering moment for the country, when many of the institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country — the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business — seem corroded and immoral.  When we look in the mirror and try to figure out who we are now, elevating a corporate tax cut over our fundamental values is not going to cut it.

Trump, Porn Stars and Evangelical Christian Moral Bankruptcy

Here in Richmond in the afterglow of the inauguration of three decent and moral leaders who will lead Virginia for the next four years, one has to pause to recall that the majority of evangelical Christians voted against these new leaders who reject the values and ugliness of Trumpism.  Meanwhile, these same "Christians" continue to support the current occupant of the White House who continues to put his moral depravity on constant display.  Between the continuing international fallout and condemnation for his "shit hole" remarks directed at majority non-white nations and new disclosures of Trump's payments of hush money to porn stars with whom he allegedly cheated on his current wife, one has to wonder (i) what is wrong with these "Christians" and (ii) why does anyone give them any deference.  They need to be condemned like their "dear leader" and avoided by decent, moral people.  The following are highlights from a piece in the Washington Post and The Daily Beast that look at Trump's sexual immorality.  First these highlights from the Post:

An adult-film star was paid $130,000 by a lawyer for Donald Trump in the weeks before the 2016 election to not talk publicly about a sexual relationship with the then-Republican candidate, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, allegedly paid Stephanie Clifford to remain silent about an encounter at Lake Tahoe in 2006, a year after Trump married his third wife, Melania, according to the Journal. The Journal said the payment was made to a client-trust account at City National Bank in Los Angeles.

Cohen has called himself Trump’s “fix-it man” and has become part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election for his emails to Russian officials about a business project there, including a note to Vladi­mir Putin’s spokesman.  

In the days before the 2016 election, the Journal reported that Clifford was in talks with ABC’s “Good Morning America” to air her story about Trump. That report came days after The Washington Post released a video from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump said he could grab women by the genitals because he was famous.

The Journal also reported in 2016 that the National Enquirer — a publication owned by a close friend of Trump — paid Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for her story about an affair with Trump but never published it. 

Then there is this in the Daily Beast:

The Daily Beast was informed late Friday that porn star Jessica Drake is not allowed to discuss President Donald J. Trump on account of a non-disclosure agreement she signed barring her from any such talk. NDAs are often deployed as part of settlements to silence accusers.

“Jessica’s NDA blankets any and every mention of Trump, so she’s legally unable to comment,” her publicist informed The Daily Beast. “Jessica signed a non-disclosure agreement after her allegations of misconduct, and she can’t do as much as peep his name publicly.”

In late October 2016, Drake became the 14th woman to accuse then-candidate Trump of sexual misconduct. At a public press conference, Drake, flanked by her attorney Gloria Allred, claimed that after she met Trump in July 2006 at Nevada’s American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, where she was working a promotional booth on behalf of the adult film company Wicked Pictures, he made a pass at her. Trump’s wife, Melania, had recently given birth to their son Barron at the time. She alleged that Trump later called her and asked, “'What do you want? How much?” and then offered her $10,000 for sex. “This is not acceptable behavior for anyone, much less a presidential candidate,” Drake said at the presser. The Drake NDA news comes on the heels of a Friday report in The Wall Street Journal that President Donald J. Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, had arranged a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels “as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.” Around the time Drake came forward, then-candidate Trump issued a vow of revenge, threatening to sue every woman who came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” Trump announced at a rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Oct. 22, 2016. “Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”   Thus far, he has not sued a single one. 

The reason one doesn't sue is because one in litigation, Trump could be sworn under oath and the courts could order the production of banking records, etc.  Trump will never sue these women because he'd lose and they would likely be shown to have been telling the truth - something that is unknown to Trump.

As for the evangelicals who continue to support this vile man, it's the height of hypocrisy that they say the gays threaten the "sanctity of marriage" even as they support this serial sexual predator and hate-filled man. Oh, and as for porn stars, they are more honest, in my view, than many of the "godly folk" who pretend to be something that they are not.

Josh Duggar Cheated on Wife with a Second Porn Star

Duggar with Virginia Queen of Hate, Victoria Cobb in 2014

This morning's posts focus on hypocrisy and duplicity largely because there seems to be an unlimited supply of stories unmasking hypocrites ranging from Pope Francis to GOP elected officials and members of the professional Christian crowd.  In the latter category, yet another story exposes Josh Duggar - a former leader at Family Research Council's - appetite for rough sex with women other than his wife.  Over the years in the legal field I have found that attorneys who constantly talk about their "faith" are usually the ones that will rob their clients blind and/or screw over employees and co-workers.  So too with folks like Francis, Duggar and Kim Davis.  In Touch has details on Duggar's latest transgression against the "sanctity of marriage."  Here are highlights:

In Touch magazine is exclusively reporting in its new issue — on newsstands now — that Josh Duggar had an affair with another porn star. The shocking revelation comes barely one month after porn star Danica Dillon revealed that she and Josh had “rough sex” twice last spring while his wife, Anna, was pregnant with their fourth child.

“A second porn star is saying she also hooked up with Josh and had a bad experience, too,” a source told In Touch magazine, adding that the woman plans to go public with her story.

In August, after Josh admitted to having an account on Ashley Madison and cheating on his wife, Danica shared explicit details about how during two hotel room encounters in March and April, Josh was “verbally abusive” and “grabbing my hair and calling me names.”

According to the source, “The second porn star had a similar experience — Josh was also rough with her. He’s a monster with what he did to these women and the embarrassment he’s caused his family.”

For more on the Josh Duggar scandal, pick up the latest issue of In Touch magazine, on newsstands now!

What a douche bag!!!

Pope Benedict Unwittingly Blesses Bel Ami Actors In Gay Porn Film "Scandal In The Vatican"

Given the horrible things that the Vatican and Roman Catholic Church hierarchy do to LGBT individuals on a daily basis as they preach that we are "inherently disordered" and attracted towards evil, it's nice to on occasion see the nasty, bitter old men in dresses made to look utterly ridiculous.  A particularly fun example is a scene in an upcoming Bel Ami video where Pope Benedict XVI blesses two of the stars in an upcoming video entitled "Scandal in the Vatican."   On Top Magazine has details.  Here are highlights:

A scene in which Pope Benedict XVI blesses two Bel Ami gay porn models will be included in an upcoming film from the studio.

According to Bel Ami founder George Duroy, viewers will see the pope blessing the main actors in the gay porn film Scandal in the Vatican. Duroy said the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church was not aware that the men were porn actors, Gay Star News reported.

The film stars Trevor Yates, who posted pictures on Facebook of himself dressed as a priest in Vatican City along with the message: “Mine is not the usual career path to get to the church. Came here through the adult industry.”

In response to the news, a The David Pakman Show viewer said: “The headline reading Pope Benedict is blessing gay porn actors is a moral improvement over what the Catholic Church is normally doing with sex. After all, blessing two consenting adults is far better than violating little boys.”

I can already hear the Catholic League's batshitery eruption once they gets wind of this.  It should be most entertaining.

"Manscaping" is Overtaking Straight Males

The boyfriend and I were recently at a largely gay holiday party and in the course of a discussion with an older straight woman she remarked how the men at the party were overall so much better groomed that what she was used to seeing at parties with large numbers of straight men. She said she wished more men paid as much attention to grooming as gay men. Obviously, she had not frequented many "bear" parties or else here comments might have had some caveats. But, she seems to be onto something in terms of straight men learning a think or two from the gays. At least in terms of the growing "manscaping" boom among heterosexual men. Here are highlights from an article that looks at the trend:

The Atlantic reported this month that female pubic hair in America is on the road to extinction, but that’s a bit like noting the spotted owl is an endangered species. Grooming and waxing experts say the latest trend in pubic hair removal isn’t targeted at women—it’s for the guys. There’s evidence of this all around us (if you dare to look). . . . . The same is true of other celebrities’ trimmed full-monty shots, from football player Brett Favre to Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz.

In ancient times, removing male pubic hair had less to do with aesthetics. Egyptians did it to stave off fleas and lice. Romans removed adolescent boys’ body hair as an initiation into adulthood. In the 16th century, Europeans were aghast when Michelangelo’s statue of David featured a sculpted tuft above his penis; they thought it looked ungodly. The modern manscaped man is a product of today’s post-mextrosexual society, where even the alpha male indulges in spa treatments and $50 Diesel boxer briefs.

“Part of it has to do with shared roles,” says Nicole Caldwell, the editor of Playgirl, who has seen such a steep decline in male pubic hair recently that she has to remind her models not to shave everything off. “I don’t want to say there’s no distinction between men and women, but it’s more acceptable for them to share a space. Guys can occupy salons and it’s not totally bizarre.”

While little scientific research exists on male hair-removal habits, a 2008 study conducted by researchers at Flinders University in Australia concluded that “hairlessness is rapidly becoming a component of the ideal male body.” Of the 228 heterosexual males who participated in the anonymous survey, 66 percent said they had removed their pubic hair at least once, in comparison to 82 percent of homosexual males.

Manscaping has gone so mainstream that stores like Kohls and Bed, Bath & Beyond stock body trimmers right next to facial ones. “The Mangroomer Private Body Shaver is one of our best-selling products,” says Mike Gilman, co-owner of the Grooming Lounge in Washington D.C., an upscale Barber Shop that serves scotch to its clients. Brian Boye, GQ’s grooming editor, agrees that body-grooming products have flooded the men’s market in recent years.

For those seeking a silky smooth undercarriage, there’s always the waxing option. In London, the Strip: Ministry of Waxing reports that one out of every three male customers requests a “Boyzilian.”

Martha Frankel, who co-wrote Brazilian Sexy with Janea Padilha, one of the founding members at Manhattan’s infamous J Sisters salon, is bowled over by the manscaping boom. According to Frankel, waxing used to be a strictly gay phenomenon, particularly in Brazil, where gay men strolled the beach in barely-there banana hammocks. Today, she hasn’t come across a single straight guy under 25 who doesn’t trim, shave or wax.

The study cited in the article can be found here. Meanwhile, one has to wonder when Tony Perkins or Maggie Gallagher and the National Organization for Marriage will launch a campaign against manscaping since it is "too gay" and threatening to "traditional sex roles" or some similarly insane batshitery. Oh, and for waxing, I tried it once and it hurts like Hell!! Never, ever again.

Safe Sex Education is a Must

Tonight the boyfriend and I are hosting a fundraiser for ACCESSAIDS Care at one of the participating restaurants in the area for Dining Out for Life and what strikes me is that with everything that is now known about HIV/AIDS, young gays are still becoming infected at alarming rates. While HIV/AIDS is not the guaranteed death sentence of 30 years ago, why on earth aren't young people - and many older people more careful? If one is not in a 100% monogamous relationship with someone who has been tested and is HIV-, one should NEVER have unsafe sex. Yet it happens over and over again that care and common sense are thrown to the wind and potentially deadly conduct is engaged in as a result of foolishness, too much alcohol or perhaps drug induced stupidity. Now, porn star Sean Lockhart - better known as Brent Corrigan - who is no stranger to controversy and negative news is featured in same sex videos being put out by Washington D.C.– based STD prevention group DC Fuk !t. The first video - which is definitely NSFW - is explicit and hopefully will get the attention of those who might otherwise engage in stupid conduct since Corrigan is featured in it. Here's some highlights from The Advocate's take on the safe sex campaign:
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Porn star Brent Corrigan has partnered with Washington D.C.–based STD prevention group DC Fuk !t for a series of instructional videos on proper condom use and sexual health.
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The program launched last year after a study revealed the nation’s capital has the highest percentage of HIV-positive residents in the country. It promotes safe sex and condom use through the distribution of safe sex kits promoted by a series of provocative, often sexually graphic ads and videos.
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Cofounder Terry Gerace, M.D. says he recruited Corrigan for the campaign because of what he’s learned since starring in a series of bareback films at the beginning of his career while he was still underage.
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“He has long since become an advocate for safer sex and has very publicly apologized for his past appearances in films depicting unsafe sexual practices,” Gerace says. Garace talked to The Advocate about Corrigan’s video shoot, why he thinks the young porn star has more than redeemed himself for his bareback films, . .
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It was really about it being someone who learned from their behavior and made a change, which I think represents most young people. They’ll start out doing something high-risk, and if they’re lucky, they’ll survive it and make a change. That’s what he did, so I think in a lot of ways, he represents your average person.
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It’s about being honest, really. Gay men don’t learn a lot about sex in the sex-ed classroom. They learn on the Internet, from porn. That’s where they’re getting this material, and we were seeing such resurgence in bareback online that we needed to put out an alternative that focused on safer sex. It’s tongue-in-cheek. a little bit. that they’re public service announcements, but they’re very straightforward in showing you exactly what you have to do. I think they’re pretty effective. I was bracing for negative feedback, and frankly, we haven’t gotten any.
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Kudos to Fuk !T and Corrigan. I hope the campaign helps individuals to avoid an avoidable disease. And again, DO NOT watch the video at work!!

Cuadra Found Guilty of Murder - But Was Justice Done?

Last week former Virginia Beach escort and porn star/producer Harlow Cuadra was found guilty of first degree homicide in the murder of rival porn producer Brian Kosis. Although there has not been a much local media coverage of the trial - even though he and his partner according to court testimony made over $500,000 a year running a male escort service in generally conservative, Republican dominated Virginia Beach (with a client base that according to locals included high military brass and Washington, D.C., political players) - I have followed the murder trial of Harlow Cuadra online, partly because of the local connection and partly because I question whether or not an openly gay individual can receive justice in the courts. Especially in rural/conservative areas like Wiles-Barre, Pennsylvania, which is hardly a progressive area of the country. My own experience with the courts here in Virginia where judges allow gay bashing to take place during hearings (even though it is forbidden under the Canons of Judicial Conduct) and allow their own religious bigotry to trump their duty to be an unbiased tribunal unfortunately suggests that being gay and being before a judge and/or a jury puts one in an uphill battle posture at best.

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For the record, I never knew Harlow beyond seeing him dance once or twice as a male dancer in a gay club a number of years back. I'm not even certain if I spoke with him at the time or not. Of those few people I know that knew him, the consensus seems that he wasn't the type to commit this type of brutal crime. The verdict of these same people on his partner, Joseph Kerekes , however, was quite different. They seemed unanimously convinced that Kerekes was all too capable of such violence. At his trial, Cuadra blamed Kerekes for killing Kocis. He said he was inside Kocis' residence talking to him when a jealous Kerekes stormed inside and slashed Kocis' throat with a knife. Kerekes pleaded guilty to second degree murder last December, thus admitting he was involved in the murder if not in fact the actual murderer.

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Suffice it to say we will probably never know the real truth of precisely what went on the night Kocis died and whether Harlow told the truth about Kerekes killing Kocis. Meanwhile, based on the homophobia and improper judicial conduct I have seen first hand in the Virginia courts will leave me with the nagging doubt that just maybe Harlow was innocent of first degree murder and that the jury instead based its verdict based on his sexual orientation.

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I look forward to the day when one's sexual orientation will be irrelevant to one's fate in a court of law. That day has yet to arrive in Virginia or I suspect in conservative areas of Pennsylvania.

Porn Star to Oppose David Vitter?

Sometimes a real news story arises that is just too funny. A case in point is a story out of Louisiana involving an effort to recruit porn star Stormy Daniels to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana now held by Republican Sen. David Vitter. You know, the same David Vitter who has a habit of using New Orleans and DC prostitutes even though he is married and claims to be a "family values" Republican. While her ability to run against Vitter is no doubt limited, even talk of her campaign hopefully will highlight the fact that Vitter is a hypocrite who sings the "family values" mantra merely to dupe the unintelligent into voting for him, Here are some highlights from CNN:

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Fans of porn star Stormy Daniels are drafting her to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana now held by Republican Sen. David Vitter. And it's no racy gimmick, they say. The Draft Stormy Web site says that "2010 presents the Pelican State with the opportunity to start with a clean slate -- to elect a representative that we can be proud of, who will work tirelessly, and who will challenge the status quo.

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Vitter is famous -- or infamous -- for his link to the "D.C. Madam," the woman who ran a prostitution ring. Elected to the Senate in 2004, he admitted to "a very serious sin in my past" in July 2007 after his phone number turned up in records of an escort service run by the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the D.C. Madam.

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The Draft Stormy movement said Daniels' "real world experience and special understanding of the economic hardships facing Louisianans and Americans make her uniquely qualified to take on the tough challenges we face.

2 'Gay' Corporals Walk Into a Bar

That's the title of an op-ed over at the Christianist run WingNut Daily (a/k/a World Net Daily) authored by reported former gay porn star/gay escort Matt Sanchez (pictured at center in the picture at right which I edited to make it SFW) who is/was a Marine and currently a darling of the truly fruit loops crowd among the fundies. At this point, it hard to tell who is/are the bigger prostitute(s) - Sanchez, whose "work" can be seen here (Caution very NSFW) or the folks at Wingnut Daily.

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I'm not quite sure why Wingnut Daily is now resorting to columns by someone who appeared in such memorable "art films" as Jawbreaker, Donkey Dick, Glory Holes Of Fame 3, and Touched by an Anal: Four Hours of Heavenly Anal Action, other than maybe they realize that trotting out the same old tired ex-gays for pay is becoming boring even for the most unbalanced of their readers. Of course, another explanation may be that there are so many tortured closet cases amongst the Christianist crowd - think Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera, etc. - that Sanchez titillates their inner gay and thus boosts Wingnut Daily's readership.

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I sure the thought of someone like Sanchez "embedded" with our troops must have Elaine Donnelly on the verge of the vapors or an orgasm or both. These people are truly living in some bizarre alternative universe.

New Evidence Said to Emerge In Gay Porn Producer Murder

I’m not sure what I believe about this case involving two Virginia Beach men accused of killing gay adult video producer Bryan Kocis at his home in Pennsylvania. I know for a fact that there are local gays in this area who are convinced that Joseph Kerekes and Harlow Cuadra are innocent and were set up to receive the blame. These supporters have go so far as to raise money for their legal defense costs. In addition, there have been persistent rumors that Cuadra and Kerekes were running a call boy network in the Washington, D.C., area that had GOP players in the DC area as clients. Similarly, there has been other speculation that Cuadra and Kerekes are being set up in order to silence them and/or have them destroy the DC client list. Yet other theories even cite that the case somehow has ties with the double murder and suicide last summer in an Orlando, Florida, at the residence owned by the former Executive Director of the Georgia Republican Party (Jason Robert Drake was identified as the shooter) and to right-wing GOP Congressman Patrick McHenry who was found to have numerous young men residing at his residence and to have ties to Jason Robert Drake (http://patgobyebye.blogspot.com/2007/09/traditional-media-ignores_04.html). Again, I am at a loss as to what the true story might actually turn out to be. It's just very ironic that two residents of conservative, GOP dominated Virginia Beach are involved in such a case. In any event, here are highlights from 365gay.com’s latest coverage (http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/02/022708mur.htm):

(Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) The prosecution in the murder trial of two men accused of killing gay adult video producer Bryan Kocis says it has received new evidence from the FBI. The Luzerne County District Attorney's office has told the judge in the case that the FBI has turned over several handed over various handwritten letters believed to have been written by defendants Joseph Kerekes and Harlow Cuadra. The District Attorney's office has not revealed what is in the letters, but a motion to judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. asks for an order requiring both defendants to produce handwriting samples to the court. "The documents indicate that both defendants had written the letters which contain material information relative to the ... case," the motion says.

On the hard drive they found a photograph of a man who was to have had an appointment with Kocis the night he was killed. The picture came with the name "Drake" and police at the time said it could be a nickname or his last name. Several days after the picture was released the Times Leader newspaper found a Virginia Beach escort who said he was the subject of photograph that that it was a head shot that he uses for publicity purposes, that he had never heard of a "Drake" and that he was working in Virginia the night Kocis was killed.

When the pair became suspects in the murder Virginia Beach police and the FBI began their own investigation into the men and started looking into their business. In July Cuadra and Kerekes were charged in Virginia with racketeering, conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to receive money from the earnings of prostitution. The pair made a plea agreement in which they pleaded no contest and allowed police in Virginia to seize their assets.

Matt Sanchez Back as the Weekly Standard's 'Credible' Source

This from Toweleroad about Matt Sanchez, the ex-porn star Marine:

Max Blumenthal reported today for Media Matters that the Weekly Standard recently wrote an article attempting to debunk an article in The New Republic written by Army Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp.The TNR article, in the form of a "Baghdad Diary" and written under Beachamp's pseudonym "Scott Thomas", exposed atrocities committed by American soldiers.

According to Blumenthal, "Thomas alleged that while eating in the mess hall at Camp Falcon, he and several other members of his platoon mocked a woman disfigured by 'IEDs.' Thomas also told the tales of a fellow soldier who ran over dogs with a Bradley Fighting Vehicle for entertainment and another who played with the skull of a dead Iraqi child."

Beauchamp revealed his true identity (and was disciplined for it — "the Army punished Beauchamp by revoking his cellphone and email privileges")in response to right-wing allegations that the claims of the atrocities were false, but not before the Weekly Standard published a hit article alleging that Beauchamp's claims were "looking more and more like fiction." The Weekly Standard's was a story that relied solely on anonymous sources, except for one: Marine Corporal Matt Sanchez.

Isn't it amazing that the Freepers only like gays when they claim they are not really gay?