In an effort to increase HIV awareness and promote safe sex in the UK, particularly among 16- to 24-year-olds, the BBC has just launched a campaign that includes an interactive website, events on school campuses, and videos that feature the central figure of the campaign: GI Jonny, a safe-sex crusader.

The first video, which stars GI Joe-like action figures, features graphic sexual moments and shots of certain choice body parts. When I first saw what Captain Bareback's "crotch cannon" could do, I didn't know what to think. But if that's how you get to young people, I guess that's how you get to young people. Thankfully, GI Jonny comes to the rescue, but when he pulls down his pants I was like "WTF?!"

As the news broke that yet another supposedly macho, homophobic, Roman Catholic Latin American nation is on the verge of federal legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, it occurred to me that George W. Bush has likely done more for gay rights--everywhere but here--than all the world's gay activists combined.

I was raised by profoundly dysfunctional and cruel parents. As I observed my peers and their families and watched television families, I quickly came to realize that my parents had it wrong. It dawned on me that the solution to learning what is right was simple and elegant. In any situation, I would just ask myself what would mommy and daddy do and then I would do the opposite.

I think this philosophy has come to dominate politics and social and cultural life in many nations around the world. The presidents and legislatures of many countries have put aside their learning, religious teachings and old traditions and asked themselves, "What would George W. Bush do?" And then they just do the opposite. What other reason could there be for an evil dictator like Hugo Chavez standing tall for gay rights?

Countries like Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and now Venezuela are hardly known as paragons of human rights. The gap between rich and poor in these nations is a thousand times worse than even here. Corruption and violence are the order of the day. And yet one by one these nations are "fixing" their constitutions to extend civil rights and social benefits and protections to all citizens, gay and straight alike.

On Thursday of this past week, we learned that the evil president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, high up on Georgie's hit list, directed the Venezuelan legislature to amend his nation's constitution to formally outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. Last week, I reported that Colombia extended the customary legal and social benefits allowed straight couples to include gay couples. But 40 years after civil rights legislation was passed by the United States to protect women and all minorities--minus us--from discrimination in employment, housing, education, services and social benefits the Bush Administration and the current Congress blather on and on while we remain second class citizens.

Frankly, I find it revolting and profoundly embarrassing to consider that as an American citizen living in the self-proclaimed most robust democracy in the world, I would have more civil rights living in Colombia or Venezuela. I love my country and will go on fighting for my rights, but George W. Bush and the 110th Congress need to join the 21st Century or we need another revolution. The American voters sent a clear message to Washington in November of 2006: change. Just under one year later, things have changed, but for the worse. The Republicans screwed us--all of us--gay and straight but at least they were honest about their intention to do so. The Democrats lied to us and are guilty of betrayal. A Democratic-controlled Congress can't even muster enough votes to pass ENDA much less end the embarrassment and disaster that George W. Bush calls the world's newest American-made democracy, Iraq.

With my seemingly obsessive ongoing posts about High School Musical, you may think that I'm pretty much a one trick pony. But, as you may have guessed, I like to have as many tricks as possible.

There is something to be said, however, for latching onto a theme and running with it. In my plays, I seem to deal with coming out issues repeatedly. Perhaps I'm striving to get it right in art--since the process has been imperfect in my own real life. In these plays, the audience assumes a certain character is straight, but the character eventually comes out, clumsily in most instances and much to everyone's surprise.

For example, in Boyz of All Nationz: The Rise and Fall of a Multi-Ethnic Boy Band (2002), the very religious Hispanic member of the group, Jace, is changing backstage after the band's first big concert. An obviously gay fanboy named Joe sneaks into Jace's dressing room and starts gushing. Soon, gay Joe is trying to figure out which way his favorite boy band member swings.

Some will kick around the new British hate crime proposal as a stellar violation of free speech and freedom of religion, but in an evolved society based on reason and responsibility, when language is used to incite violence, persecution and oppression of a class of people, it is as damaging as sticks and stones no matter how you cut it.

Under a new proposed British law, a number of United States politicians, including members of Congress, prominent members of the American clergy and certain members of the United States military would be subject to up to 7 years of imprisonment. Fred Phelps would probably end up with a dozen consecutive life sentences.

The British government has announced its intention to make it a crime to incite hatred because of a person's sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation. The offense will carry a maximum sentence of seven years.

Last night the British Justice Secretary outlined the plans to members of parliament. The details of the measure are yet to be finalized but the Secretary will insert a clause to create the offense when the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which had its second reading last night, reaches committee stage.

Under the proposal it would be considered a crime to incite hatred against homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and heterosexual people. The Secretary explained to the London Times, "It is a measure of how far we have come as a society in the past ten years that we are now appalled by hatred and invective directed at people on the basis of their sexuality. It is time for the law to recognize this."

Fungible:of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind. Interchangeable, flexible.

Science and contemporary Western culture are category crazy. All living things must fall into a phylum, class, kingdom, species,order, genus, weight class, demographic, ethnicity or zip code. And while I certainly understand the compulsion to bring order to our universe, few things challenge this human impulse more than human sexuality. Heterosexual. Homosexual, Bisexual, Transsexual, Asexual. But what if there's another way?

"You people and your quaint little categories," says Captain Jack of the British science fiction television series, TORCHWOOD, as he drools over two women entwining tongues. And this is the same Captain Jack who exchanges spit with a more than willing male team member who had just risked his life for his girlfriend who was only half human. We haven't seen this kind of sexual flexibility since Jason Biggs made mad passionate love to his mother's hot apple pie and Portnoy went steady with raw liver. The whole category issue is very disturbing. Many of us don't believe in bisexuality. Choose a side. And we even become militant about our own sexual category. The other day I caught myself admiring a women's breast and felt the urge to play with them. I was immediately overcome by anger and guilt. I felt like I had just betrayed my phylum. But they were pretty and fluffy and needed to be kneaded--same reason I love playing with cookie dough. (OK, that was likely a pretty gay description of female breasts, I admit it.)

One must wonder what the reaction of the Bush Administration, Congress and the United Nations would be if Saudi newspapers announced that two Saudi Christians were to receive a brutal public whipping for no other reason than practicing their religion or if two black men were to receive a brutal public whipping for no other reason than being black?

And while we wonder, the world stands silent as Saudi newspapers report that two Saudi men are to receive 7,000 lashes each for committing "homosexual acts."

Saudi authorities started executing the court order just last week. Another Saudi man, meanwhile, was to receive 470 lashes separately for doing drugs and resisting the security forces.

How many American soldiers died to protect Saudi Arabian democracy from Saddam Hussein? How many U.S. troops are currently stationed on Saudi soil to defend this human rights loving nation? It's always a comfort to remember how much of our tax dollars and how much American military blood is invested in protecting these good friends of the Bush-Cheney administration.

And as Bush and Cheney have repeatedly said, we are not in this region to defend or control the oil, we are there to preserve and advocate democracy and human rights.

What's wrong in these United States when Colombia, a deeply religious Roman Catholic country, a nation plagued by endless violence, rebel guerrilla groups, paramilitary militias, open drug trafficking and unapologetic corporate and political corruption provides more civil rights for homosexuals than the world's most powerful and robust democracy?

Yesterday, gay couples in Colombia won the same social security rights as their straight counterparts.

The decision of the Constitutional Court extended health benefits long enjoyed by heterosexuals in common law marriages to same-sex couples.

The first nationwide law of its kind in Latin America, the measure allows homosexuals to include their partners in their health insurance plans.

Despite vigorous opposition from the Roman Catholic Church and a number of bigoted senators, the court stood by constitutional law and reason over "faith."

Almost seven years into the Bush administration, religious fanaticism, racism and human rights abuses are flourishing in one half of the world and on the run in the other half of the world. It says much about George W. Bush and the Republican Party that a nation with a reputation like Colombia is on the side of Canada and the EU, while we are more on the side of China and Iran.

I try to stay light on weekends and just report on the most important gay story of the week, the story that advances our fight for civil rights, our sense of self-respect and the way the world sees us. This week the collective wit and wisdom of the media digs for the truth and reveals that an ornamental bird attacking a car is actually a case of gay rape. Yes, more gay birds.

So what the fowl is going on with birds? Gay penguins, gay flamingos, gay swans and now rough trade peacocks? It would seem that the avian world is more gay than an August night at the Meat Rack on Fire Island. It's an evangelical nightmare. Sodomites found in nature. Homosexual birds flocking from the Central Park Zoo to aristocratic manor houses in the south of England.

In fact, a British aristocrat has been forced to warn visitors to his manor home not to park cars painted a particular shade of blue on his property, after his "gay" peacock caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to a luxury car it mistook for another peacock.

The horny bird attempted to rape an employee's "peacock blue" Lexus parked on the grounds of Sir Benjamin Slade's country manor, Maunsel House, in Somerset in England's south, report English newspapers.

The car was left with thousands of dollars in scratches and dents as a result of the frisky bird's amorous attack, and Sir Benjamin has now erected signs in his car park warning drivers of blue cars of the danger presented by his bird.

"It started when he fell in love with this Lexus, which was in a very distinct peacock blue and looked like another peacock boy," he said.

"He couldn't control his urges and tried to shag it. He attacked the panels so hard that the car needs a total respray.

"The insurers, Lloyd's of London, are not very happy about it.

"They've had claims for all sorts of things like lions biting people, but never have they heard of a peacock sexually attacking a car before."

Sir Benjamin has also decided the peacock, whom he named Ron Davies after a former bisexual Welsh Secretary, is gay. "Peahens are brown, but Ron Davies is only attracted to blue cars so I can only assume he's gay," the aristocrat, who has made headlines before by offering to give his manor away and hire his dog Jasper as a "best man" at same-sex weddings, said.

Most writers don't start off an interview by gushing over the artist with whom they're about to speak. I have spent time with and talked to my fair share of celebrities -- I like to think I can just act normal around pretty much anyone -- so in planning what to say to Annie Lennox, I certainly didn't expect that I would gush. Fearing it was a possibility though, I told myself (I might have even said outloud), "don't gush." But when Annie Lennox got on the phone and said my name, what was a gay guy to do? I gushed. Only for a second, but it was a gush nonetheless. She took it in stride, we even had a moment of, what, gay flirting(?), and then proceeded to talk about her new CD being released tomorrow, 'Songs of Mass Destruction.'

There are few artists working today who have what Annie Lennox has, which includes, namely: unparalleled musical talent, staggering commercial success, sustainable creative relevance, political conviction and a gravitas of spirit that envelopes whatever she does and wherever she goes. The Scottish-born artist who burned up the 80s as one-half of the Eurythmics sets a standard all her own, eschewing the trappings of diva for a journey in which she sets out to examine -- and then share with us -- the deepest, darkest places inside herself.

It's been four long years since

I was beside myself. I was

I spend so much time bashing bigots, morons and fools that I often overlook the heroes among us. But Travis Price and David Shepherd, two straight high school seniors from a Canadian high school in Halifax are getting my newly created Queer Heroes Award of 2007--even thought the year is far from over.

Travis and David witnessed bullies going after a gay 9th grader who apparently was "flaunting" his homosexuality by wearing a pink polo shirt to school.

Our heroes, Travis and David were furious and decided to do something about it.

"I just figured enough was enough," Shepherd told a reporter for Canadian national television. So David and Travis went to a nearby discount store and bought 50 pink shirts, including tank tops, to wear to school the next day.

Then the two boys went online to e-mail classmates to get them on board with their anti-bullying crusade that they dubbed a "sea of pink." A tsunami of support poured in the next day. Not only were dozens of students outfitted with the discount tees and tanks, but hundreds of students showed up wearing their own pink clothes, some head-to-toe. In fact, the school estimates that more than half of the school's 830 students wore pink in support of the 9th grader.

I have a theory that masturbation--or a lack of it--is directly responsible for the problems we're having with religious fundamentalists. They don't. Can any of you imagine just how frustrating that must be? There you are alone. It beckons. Yoo hoo! I'm here. I'm easy. And instead you force yourself to imagine a very old and very angry man in a long robe and white beard. Well just how grumpy would that make you? If you consider this carefully, how can you not feel a renewed sense of compassion and pity for Evangelicals, Al Qaeda and Hassidic Jews?

How can a human being survive without an occassional voyage of self-discovery? As Socrates once said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." If you read between the lines, you know he was taking about unexamined genitalia. And who would argue with the obvious fact that any man or woman' must begin the voyage of self-discovery between the legs?

So it being Sunday and all, I thought what better place to rethink the concept of Sunday School? Pay close attention. You will be tested.

See you in Hell, possums!

Last night, I had the good luck-- or mazal if you will-- to discover Eytan Fox and Gal Uchovsky, two of the most brilliant artists working in contemporary queer cinema today hanging out at New York's Splash Bar. At first I thought they were just trolling for some new talent, the next gay movie star, but when they weren't seducing New York bartenders with promises of screen tests, these two Israelis were hosting a party to celebrate the U.S. opening of their latest work, The Bubble.

I reviewed The Bubble just a few days ago and if you missed the review, click here and read it now. And if you're fortunate enough to live in or near one of the towns where The Bubble opens today, go and see it. This is the kind of queer cinema that will likely not come out of Hollywood for many years to come. And unlike a lot of the romantic comedy fluff that comes out of most other gay directors from around the world, Israeli queer cinema is transcendent and speaks to issues and emotions that resonate for all, straight and gay.

Gal was telling me that they previewed The Bubble on Wednesday night at Manhattan's Jewish Community Center for an audience of mostly conservative middle-aged and elderly Jewish ladies who admitted to being a little uncomfortable with the graphic gay sex (graphic by middle-aged Jewish lady standards but not by my standards) but couldn't wait to recommend The Bubble to their friends. Go Gal and Eytan!

The Holy Father has taken time out from his busy schedule of spreading the teachings of Jesus; inspiring love, compassion and forgiveness; feeding the hungry; healing the sick; and providing comfort and nurturing to orphans for some good old fashioned homophobia and gay bashing. Bless his generous soul.

Yesterday, September 1, appearing before 300,000 pilgrims who trekked to Loretto, Italy to rally for traditional marriage, Pope Benedict listened to young people's stories about their broken homes and assured them that he and the entire Roman Catholic Church were praying "that the crisis that is affecting families today doesn't become an irreversible failure."

Once again, Benedict bemoaned the collapse of family values and spoke of the need to support "traditional" marriage between a man and a woman. The Italian bishops conference - which organized the rally - has mounted a major campaign to support traditional families and oppose proposed Italian legislation giving same-sex couples new rights.

The Pope cataloged the impact of gay marriage on the traditional family. "There is so much failure of love all around us!" Benedict told the crowd, camped out on a vast, dusty field. "How many couples don't succeed and separate? How many families end up in pieces? How many kids, even among you, have seen their parents separate and divorce?"

I feel awful about this and want to point out that I personally have no intention of ever marrying. I really hope that helps save a few Catholic families. I really do. Of course, I'm not quite sure how this works. Every time two gay men or women legally marry an avenging angel swoops down from heaven with a flaming divorce sword and divides an opposite sex couple? Or is there a finite amount of love in the world and when two queers fall in love, it uses up love that would have otherwise gone to heterosexuals? I suppose you have to be closer to God to have the answer to this odd puzzle.

What a difference an ocean makes. On this side of the Atlantic Irish Catholic "conservatives scorn and ban gay men and women from the nation's largest and most famous Saint Patrick's Day Celebration down Fifth Avenue in the city that is home to the largest urban gay population in the Western World. On this side of the Atlantic the world's largest democracy and self-proclaimed champion of civil and human rights has a president that is fighting for a constitutional amendment to ensure that gay men and women are denied civil rights.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Mary McAleese, the president of the very Catholic Irish Republic yesterday called for a "national change in attitudes to end the bullying of gay people."

Addressing the International Association of Suicide Prevention Conference in Killarney, Ireland, President McAleese said the link between sexual identity and suicide had to be addressed.

"Ireland is making considerable progress in developing a culture of genuine equality, recognition and acceptance of gay men and women," she said. "But there is still an undercurrent of both bias and hostility which young gay people must find deeply hurtful and inhibiting."

The President said: "Homosexuality is a discovery, not a decision, and for many it is a discovery which is made against a backdrop where, within their immediate circle of family and friends as well as the wider society, they have long encountered anti-gay attitudes which will do little to help them deal openly and healthily with their own sexuality."

It's really rather astonishing to consider how many American believe our nation to be a free nation, a nation of human rights, a champion of freedom and an exporter of democracy worldwide. This is simply a great lie and one of the most amazing examples of mass self-deception in human history.

Erin go bragh!