Fake Campaign Web Sites Lead To Gay Porn

FLORIDA — Two candidates running for city council in Tampa are trying to figure out how to shut down Web sites using their names that link to a hard-core, gay porn site.
Joseph Caetano says he found out about the site yesterday. His official site is registered under just his first and last name, but the other site uses his full name. Caetano says he plans to consult with his lawyer about shutting down the site.
Frank Margarella says he doesn’t even have a campaign Web site. He says he regrets not taking advice to register his own name to prevent something like this from happening.
Records on GoDaddy-dot-com show the domains are owned by fictitious companies. The site administrator is listed as Lilly Muenster of 1313 Mockingbird Lane. That’s the address of the fictional family on the ’60s T-V comedy “The Munsters.”
Caetano and Margarella are both running for the same seat in north Tampa.
from WTSP

Right-Wing Poster Boy Exposed — Literally

For Marine Reservist Matt Sanchez to dismiss the fuss over his gay porno star past as “just another blip on the blogosphere” shows how clueless he is about why so many people are upset about his association with the right-wing movement that wants to crush any gains queers have made in the past 50 years.
For those who came in late, Sanchez is a former gay porn star named Rod Majors. In addition to making a string of x-rated films, he also supposedly sold his body for $200 bucks a pop. Since giving up the sex industry, Sanchez has been busy doing God and George Bush’s work as a military recruiter at Columbia University in New York.
The reincarnated Sanchez is paying his dues for his new life of virtue. He’s being hounded by anti-war “Socialists” who have dubbed him a “baby killer.” Or so he claims.
That’s how he ended up winning an award at the recent Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Washington, D.C. The same gathering where columnist Ann Coulter made her now infamous faggot slur against Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards. In fact, Sanchez happily posed for a pic with the obnoxious Coulter who frequently uses the f-word, even once dubbing former Vice President Al Gore “a total fag.”
In a March 7 statement released after pics from his former life started popping up on gay blogs, Sanchez was mum about whether he’s still queer. Amazing how finding god, apple pie and flag can do that to someone. Not to mention the threat of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.
He told MSNBC that he was always “bad at being gay.” Not from the looks of some of the films he made. Maybe he was just a good actor.
To top it all off, Sanchez is writing a book. Shades of Jeff Gannon, another gay porn star who saw the light and became a born-again White House correspondent with special access. Allegedly, it wasn’t his journalistic skills that gained him entry into press conferences, but rather his willingness to plant info for Bush and his buddies. He’s penning his autobiography, too. Has the publishing industry sunk that low? Obviously, that’s a rhetorical question.
What irks me about the reborn Sanchez is that he either doesn’t realize who he’s hobnobbing with these days or he just doesn’t give a damn. Sanchez is recruiting for a military that discriminates against queers, not to mention sends young people off to murder innocent civilians in other countries. He’s buddy-buddies with conservatives who are doing everything in their power to turn the clock back to the 50s when queers were forced to hide behind closet doors. In fact, many of those who were in the room cheering him on when he received his award from CPAC would gladly legislate the death penalty for queers.
In his statement after the scandal broke, Sanchez did not address queer concerns at all. He merely said that he doesn’t agree with everything that Coulter writes. Without specifics, that means nothing. Does he disagree with her views on queer rights or some other issue? To my knowledge, he’s never disassociated himself from the homo-hating ideology of the right-wing crowd that has made him their poster boy.
That leaves him guilty by association.
from Beyond Chron / Tommi Avicolli

San Francisco Mayor Called To Task Over Gay Porn Proclamation

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s administration will change its policy on issuing laudatory proclamations after a gay porn studio was honored last week without the mayor’s knowledge, city officials said Friday.
Conservative activists and pundits nationwide belittled the city after Newsom’s office declared Feb. 23 to be Colt Studio Day, honoring the 40th anniversary of a San Francisco movie company whose Web site invites visitors to “come inside to experience the hottest man-on-man action.”
The official document, bearing Newsom’s name, was presented by a representative of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services to the company during its anniversary party. It said Colt Studio “has produced movies that have entertained the gay community over the past 40 years” and has contributed to the city by bringing in “hundreds of millions of dollars in business” and “stimulating the job market and the local economy in general.”
Newsom’s office issues nearly 2,000 proclamations a year, most covering such innocuous topics as Australian Heritage Day and Graffiti Watch Day. They are typically issued by the Neighborhood Services Office without the mayor or his top aides reviewing their content, which was the case with the document honoring the gay porn studio, Newsom’s spokesman said Friday.
But in the wake of attacks by conservative media figures such as talk show host Bill O’Reilly — who said the proclamation reinforced San Francisco’s reputation as the nation’s “Sodom and Gomorrah” — Newsom has decided to change the policy and have any potentially controversial proclamation cleared by either his chief of staff or director of government affairs.
“If there are any questions about proclamations, they will be reviewed,” said Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard. “There’s just going to be a stricter review process from now on.”
Ballard stopped short of saying the administration had made a mistake in honoring Colt Studio, but said, “The mayor is concerned about it. And we’ve changed the policy to reflect that.”
The proclamation was written by Neighborhood Services staffers after they learned state Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and city Treasurer Jose Cisneros had issued similar commendations.
Neither of those elected officials expressed regrets Friday.
Leno attended the company’s anniversary party Feb. 23 and publicly thanked Colt Studio for producing images he said contributed to his development as a gay man. On Friday, he issued a statement saying Colt produces “adult, gay, male home entertainment.”
“The owners of the studio are taxpaying, law-abiding San Francisco employers who promote safe sex,” Leno said. “With a war out of control and the planet’s temperature rising, I would have hoped Bill O’Reilly had more pressing issues to discuss. Clearly, with his viewership currently plummeting, he thinks denigrating gay male entertainment will be his lifeline.”
Cisneros, who sent a representative to the anniversary party, said Friday that issuing a proclamation to Colt Studio “was fine. We acknowledged a business that has been in business for a long time.”
But the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition sees it differently. The group issued a statement Thursday condemning Newsom and the other officials for honoring what it called “one of the largest producers of explicit homosexual porn in the country.”
“San Francisco has proven yet again why they remain the mocked city of the country,” the Rev. Lou Sheldon, the group’s chairman and founder, said in a statement. “No other major city in the nation has gone so far as to blatantly glorify a homosexual porn producer and company.”
O’Reilly also chastised city officials Tuesday during his show “The O’Reilly Factor.”
“There is not another city in the country that has ever had a ‘gay porn day,’ ” he said. “And you wonder why San Francisco values is mocked and your city is mocked and it’s looked upon as a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.”
This is the second time in recent months that the pornography business in the city has been in the news. In December, the online porn company Kink.com bought the old armory on Mission Street, where it now films X-rated bondage videos. Neighborhood activists called the company’s presence inappropriate, and Newsom took their side.
San Francisco has the reputation of being the world headquarters of the gay adult entertainment industry. Last weekend, the industry held the GAYVN Awards — the Oscars for the gay porn industry — at the Castro Theatre.
John Rutherford, Colt’s president and creative director, did not return calls for comment Friday, but said in an e-mail that he appreciated everyone who attended the company’s anniversary party.
Supervisor Bevan Dufty attended the porn industry award ceremony and fired back at the conservative critics, calling Colt “a classy company that has been a standard of male erotica for 40 years.”
“Pick up a Colt 40-year anniversary book and look at it,” Dufty said. “It’s a throwback to the 1950s muscle pictorial. By (the critics’) standards, they’d probably go after Michelangelo’s David.”
from The San Francisco Chronicle

Naked Principal Found With Gay Porn

PHILADELPHIA – A 50-year-old principal was found naked in his school office while watching gay pornography on Tuesday, according to sources. Sex toys were found nearby, the sources added.
Police said John Acerra was a longtime teacher and principal in the Bethlehem Area School District, but was also allegedly selling crystal meth out of his school office.
Acerra, of Allentown, was the principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, and was arrested minutes after he arranged to sell the notoriously addictive drug to a police informant, according to investigators.
Police arrived and found meth and drug paraphernalia on his desk, according to court papers.
“Mr. Acerra took the money for the product in his office in Nitschmann Middle School,” said Randall Miller, Bethlehem police commissioner. “Officers effected the arrest at that location and did recover some drugs.”
Police said there was no proof that Acerra was selling drugs to students, and an informant said he sold to them from his school office on weekends and after school hours sometimes.
The case was still under investigation.
from NBC 10

Porn Maker Michael Lucas Sued Over ‘Dolce Vita’ Title

NEW YORK – The good name and dignity of the classic 1960s film “La Dolce Vita,” directed by Federico Fellini, is being stripped away by two pornographic movies using the same name, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
International Media Films Inc. accused New York filmmaker Andrei Treivas Bregman of trademark and copyright infringement for the porn films he made under his business name, Michael Lucas. The lawsuit seeks to stop sales of the movies, “Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita” Parts 1 and 2, and to collect unspecified damages.
Bregman, who moved to the United States from Moscow in 1997, called the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan a joke.
“Nobody can be confused and think they’re buying Fellini’s movie by buying mine,” said Bregman, noting the name Michael Lucas was part of his title, which otherwise means “The Sweet Life.”
New York-based International Media Films said it believed the gay pornographic films, released last month, will “infringe, tarnish and dilute” its trademark rights to the highly decorated “La Dolce Vita,” which won the 1961 Academy Award for costume design and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best foreign film of that year.
“La Dolce Vita,” with its famously sexy scene of Anita Ekberg coaxing Marcello Mastroianni into the Trevi fountain, also won the Golden Palm at Cannes. Fellini won a lifetime achievement award in film in 1993, shortly before his death.
International Media Films said it bought “La Dolce Vita” in 2001. The film introduced the term “paparazzi” as it followed the life of a tabloid journalist who covers the show business life of Rome while yearning to write about more serious subjects.
from The Associated Press

I Found Gay Porn On His Computer

I looked on my friend’s computer history and saw he was looking at gay porn. It’s been awkward because I just want him to come out. What do I do?
-A concerned friend

WHAT DO YOU DO?!? Love that stuff up, man. You’ve gotta take advantage of this. I mean, it’s not everyday that you get the experience of living with someone who could teach you so much. Don’t be scared, though. If he hasn’t tried anything yet, I doubt he’ll try to get on you. One common misconception is that all gay guys are interested in every guy they see. Let’s be honest…you probably don’t meet his standards.
Nonetheless, if I were you, I would just plain out ask him. Be a man – it’s time to get serious. Sit him down and tell him you don’t care-you just want to know. Don’t be pissed if he doesn’t answer, though, because really deep down you do care and you want to know. I would want to know.
Whatever you do, don’t be like my mom and say you can bring anyone you want home…ANYONE! I laughed for a good couple of days after she told me that.
Another question you need to ask yourself is, are you gay yourself? Are you just really excited to find out about him because it would be an easy way for you to come out? It’s cool, man. No one cares. It doesn’t change who anyone else is. It might not be that fun at Simpson, but you’ve always got Des Moines 15 minutes away.
What it comes down to is:
1. If you’re really comfortable with your sexuality then his sexuality shouldn’t make a difference.
2. If you’re gay yourself, sweet, more power to you. Most girls feel more comfortable around openly gay men anyway.
3. Look at this as an experiment. Test it out. Maybe he could help you “find yourself.”
Although National Coming Out Day has come and gone, it’s never too late to not be straight.
-Zachary Robert Rus

What? First of all I don’t think the issue is your friend, it’s you. What are you doing on your friend’s computer snooping around? You have caused this awkwardness between you and your friend that can’t be addressed.
Good relationships are based on trust. By you violating your friend’s personal space and intruding on things that they obviously didn’t want anyone to know, you’ve damaged your friendship. This makes me think, if they’re gay it’s been your behavior that makes them feel like they can’t trust you with this secret.
Then I began to think about how many times in my pointless surfs online I’ve tried to find something and ended up getting something completely different. It only takes the addition or omission of a letter that can quickly send you somewhere else. So there’s always the chance that though the sites were on his computer it was merely an accident that they ended up there.
If there were several different selected pornography Web sites or sites revisited on different occasions in the history of the computer, then my previous guess would be less likely. You can’t force someone to “come out of the closet.” If he’s gay and he chooses not to lead a life that makes him most happy, then indeed that is a tragic thing. I think as a friend possessing this information, the only thing you can do is be supportive of other gay people and be careful not to say anything that might make your friend feel uncomfortable.
Hopefully, if your friend see this support and acceptance he will someday feel comfortable enough to confide in you. But until that day comes, quit snooping around and love your friend for the person he is, not for who he might choose to have a relationship with.
-Ashley Van Alstine
from The Simpsonian

Sexual Stereotypes Influence Behavior In Adult Bookstores

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA – Visits to adult bookstores elicit behavior that ranges from macho swagger to skulking insecurity in men and bold confidence to adolescent giggling in women, a new University of Florida study finds.
The dividing line appears to be whether men and women go to the stores alone or in a group, with gaggles of women often tittering like bashful teenagers and men with girlfriends resorting to macho bragging and gay-bashing homophobia, said Dana Berkowitz, a UF sociology graduate student whose research is published in the October issue of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.
“In the highly sexualized space of the adult novelty store, people present themselves in ways that both sustain and challenge society’s notions of masculinity and femininity,” she said. “If people can understand these performances of gender aren’t natural and can lead to such problems as violence against women, it might trigger the consciousness to change behavior.”
Lone women can be very assertive claiming what they want, while many single men are reduced to cringing embarrassment about their desires, she said.
Little research exists on how people present themselves in adult bookstores, said Berkowitz, noting that most studies look at how images of sex influence behavior or how these shops are linked to prostitution, drugs and gambling. “These findings are important because they help us look at what it is about groups of men that encourages physical and verbal violence against women and, in even worse forms, against gay men,” she said. “We see it in fraternities, we see it in sports and we see it in the military. On the other hand, what is it about some women that make them uncomfortable with their sexuality?”
Berkowitz did her research at a Florida store that specializes in pornographic videos, magazines and novelty items and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For six months, she frequented the shop two to three times a week for about an hour each time to observe.
She found two kinds of men who shopped alone: One group entered the store only to purchase or rent pornographic videos, while the other would discreetly browse through the entire store for a prolonged time before making a purchase — if they made one at all.
“Interestingly, of all the men I observed purchasing or renting videos, not a single one appeared to be uncomfortable or anxious in this setting,” she said. “It was like they were walking into a pharmacy, picking up their medication and walking out.”
Unlike the “video voyeurs,” the other group of solo men appeared timid and uncomfortable, darting their eyes, hunching their backs and muffling their speech, Berkowitz said. They found creative ways to manage the shame associated with being patrons of pornography, often by feigning interest in more socially accepted products, she said.
One balding man who appeared to be in his late 40s, for example, walked up to the counter one night and asked the clerk for a large box of condoms before proceeding to inquire about various sexual enhancement lotions, considered somewhat more shameful, she said.
Unlike these men, women who shopped alone were not shy, Berkowitz said.
“There was one older woman with gray shoulder-length hair wearing Birkenstocks who felt so comfortable with her sexuality that she waltzed straight into the shop and announced in a voice loud enough for the whole store to hear that her vibrator had broken in use,” she said.
In groups, women displayed such stereotypical feminine practices as giggling and blushing, while some resorted to badmouthing and condemning other women, Berkowitz said. Women are not socially conditioned to flaunt their sexuality, and under the gaze of other females, many felt pressure to distance themselves from certain images and items, she said.
Men who shopped with women tried to reaffirm their heterosexuality, acting according to culturally imposed ideals of ultra-masculine or homophobic behavior, Berkowitz said. Some would loudly describe their sexual exploits with other women, while others criticized the all-male pornography section, saying gays should have their own establishment, she said.
“People may act differently when alone because these shops are somewhat anonymous settings and patrons may feel they don’t need to act in expected ways,” Berkowitz said.
John DeLamater, a University of Wisconsin sociology professor, said Berkowitz’s research “provides a good example of the value of careful observation. People behave differently when they patronize adult stores as part of a group, and their behavior reflects that context, focusing on sexual activity and sexual orientation.”
from University Of Florida News

Suit Bares Sex Beef With McDonald’s

A slimy manager at a TriBeCa McDonald’s harassed two teenage employees, asking them to bare their buns on a gay Web site his buddy ran, a lawsuit against the burger giant charges.
The manager and his flamboyant assistant manager also discussed how they wanted the heterosexual boys to appear in a gay porn movie together, how “cute” they were, speculated about whether they dated men and leered at them, the Manhattan Supreme Court sex-harassment suit claims.
“This is obviously a feeding ground for these guys [the managers],” said Joseph Tacopina, the ex-employees’ lawyer. “These are young kids being preyed upon.”
Tacopina said McDonald’s ignored prior complaints of lewd conduct from manager Jose Irizzary and assistant manager Joffrey Rodriguez at the restaurant at 169 Chambers St.
One plaintiff, Michael Lucena, now 20, said Irizzary asked him to be photographed in the nude for the gay Web site for $200.
McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman said the lurid claims “are baseless” and added the company never received any prior sex-related complaints about the two managers.
from The New York Post

Outrage At Restaurant’s Gay Porn

SOUTH AFRICA – Patrons of a popular Port Elizabeth Thai restaurant have expressed shock and outrage after getting an eyeful of “gay pornography” adorning the walls of the men’s toilets.
Narai Siam patrons told of their horror and disbelief at seeing graphic pictures depicting men about to engage in sex with one another, caricatures of men with giant members, and full-frontal photos of sexually aroused men, in the toilets.
The images can also be seen by diners on their way to the adjacent women’s toilets — which are decorated with pictures of fairies.
Some patrons have called for signs warning of the unsuitable material, while others called for the restaurant to be closed.
Johannesburg businessman Jeff Rom, who dined at the restaurant with his wife while on holiday in the city last week, said he was surprised local diners had not yet spoken out about the “disgusting pornography”.
“It goes beyond tasteful nudes – it’s outright pornography and it’s disgusting,” said Rom, adding there were several young children at the venue when he and his wife were there. “I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere. I’ve travelled to Thailand but there was nothing like this there — even as a man of 55 I found it shocking.”
Psychologists have warned parents to keep children away from the restaurant for fear they could be exposed to the graphic material which saw “the innocence of children being abused”.
Port Elizabeth psychologist Eugenie Apostolis said while it was unlikely the sight of the pornography would incite deviant behaviour among children, there was no place for it in a restaurant that was regularly visited by families. “The whole world is trying to protect children from this type of thing . . . but at the restaurant there is nothing to protect the child.”
While Apostolis called on the restaurant to either remove the pornography or put up visible warnings, Port Elizabeth head of the organised crime unit Superintendent Willie O’Connell said the exhibition of any pornography was illegal.
“No place accessible to the public is allowed to exhibit pornographic material, or any material that would offend the public,” he said.
“They (the restaurant) could even face closure if their case comes before the liquor board and they decide to take away the restaurant’s licence.”
Walmer resident Brian MacKenzie, who recently dined at the venue, feared for boys who would be exposed to the pornography. “I was very taken aback when I saw the images.
“It’s not something you’d expect to find in a restaurant and I don’t think families with young children should go there.”
MacKenzie added the toilet door was left open, allowing women and girls on their way to the women’s toilets a full view of the graphic material inside.
Sunridge Park resident Debbie Soper, who dined at the restaurant with her husband and friends, called the display “appalling”. “Youngsters cannot handle that sort of thing. The pornography belongs in a gay bar, but not in a family restaurant. It’s immoral,” she said.
Rom said when he complained to the restaurant owner, he was laughed at. “I told the owner his toilet was in bad taste. But he just laughed in my face.”
But co-owner Colin Beelders, who runs the restaurant with his life partner Kajohn Arun, denied they had set out to offend patrons. “The pictures are not porn — they’re possibly risque, but I have never had anyone come up to me and complain about them,” he said, adding he would consider putting up a warning sign. “You see this sort of thing in art galleries, and most patrons find the pictures funny, believe it or not.”
from The Sunday Times

The ‘.xxx’ Web Porn Domain

NEW YORK – The Internet’s key oversight agency has revived a proposal it earlier rejected to create an online red-light district, after adding stronger provisions to prohibit child pornography and require labeling of Web sites with sexually explicit materials.
The use of the proposed “.xxx” domain name would remain voluntary, but any porn sites that choose to use it instead of the more popular “.com” would be subject to the new terms issued late Friday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
The idea of a separate “.xxx” domain has generated significant opposition from conservative groups and even some pornography Web sites.
But ICANN officials said they initially rejected the proposal in May not because of the opposition but because of concerns that the agency might be put in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world’s laws governing pornography. They noted that various nations’ speech-related laws sometimes conflict with one another.
The new proposal does not directly address any potential conflicts in laws, but it calls for the company backing it, ICM Registry Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., to hire independent organizations to monitor porn sites’ compliance with the new rules.
ICANN, the agency in Marina del Rey, Calif., designated by the U.S. government to oversee domain name policies, opened the proposal to public comment but did not indicate when it would rule.
If approved, ICM would be required to help develop mechanisms for promoting child safety and preventing child pornography, “including practices that appeal to pedophiles or suggest the presence of child pornography on the site.”
Porn sites would have to participate in a self-descriptive labeling system, likely one from the Internet Content Rating Association. Under it, Web sites add tags based on such criteria as the presence of nudity and whether it is in an artistic or educational context, such as for sites on breast feeding. Relatively few sites now participate, although major Web browsers have mechanisms for reading the tags.
ICM also would have to develop automated tools to check for compliance and give users ways to report violations.
ICM believes the domain would help the $12 billion online porn industry clean up its act, as those using it must abide by rules designed to bar such trickery as spamming and malicious scripts.
Anti-porn advocates, however, countered that sites would be free to keep their current “.com” address, in effect making porn more easily accessible by creating yet another channel to house it.
Many porn sites also objected, fearing that an “.xxx’ domain would pave the way for governments or even private industry to filter speech that is protected in the United States by the First Amendment.
from The Associated Press