A member of Barack Obama’s transition team is denying media reports that the president-elect has decided to delay efforts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” until 2010.

An Obama transition team spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the decision on how to approach repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prohibits gays from serving openly in the military, would be made after more experts have joined the Obama administration.

See Obama team denies it will delay ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal

The virus that causes AIDS could theoretically be eliminated in a decade if all people living in countries with high infection rates are regularly tested and treated, according to a new mathematical model.

It is an intriguing solution to end the AIDS epidemic. But it is based on assumptions rather than data, and is riddled with logistical problems. The research was published online Tuesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.

See STUDY: HIV could be eliminated in a decade

Leaders of national AIDS organizations revealed this week their recommendations for moves President-elect Barack Obama and his administration can make during their first 100 days in office to fight HIV/AIDS in America.

In a letter, the leaders call for “a comprehensive and adequately funded response to the domestic AIDS epidemic in the United States,” which Obama supported during the campaign.

“The purpose is to get renewed leadership for the domestic epidemic,” said Carl Schmid, director of federal affairs for the AIDS Institute, a national public policy organization. “These are all things he can do on his own without turning to Congress. These are non-legislative actions that the agencies can do.”See AIDS groups appeal to Obama for help in fightin…

The more we learn about the “No on Prop 8″ campaign the clearer the picture gets: The people running “No on 8″ were almost criminally negligent—utterly clueless, thoroughly useless, and a full purge is in order. We need to hold them responsible for what they did and did not do; at the very least none of these people should never work in positions of authority in queer politics ever again—they’re barely fit to work phone banks.

We’ll never know if the outcome would have been different if campaign had bothered to do real outreach to the African American community—to both gay and straight African Americans—but this vote was ours to lose going in, according to polls, and we lost it in part because, as Harris-Lacewell called it just days after the vote, the “No on 8″ campaign “didn’t do enough work in the communities of color.” But as Harris-Lacewell also said, communities of color—and other communities—demonstrated an awfully bigoted vote. Yes, the “No on 8″ campaign blew goats. But voters who stripped same-sex couples of their right to wed were motivated by bigotry, plain and simple, and there has to be some responsibility there too. African American voters were ignored by the leadership of the “No on 8″ campaign; gays and lesbians of all colors were failed by a criminally inept “No on 8″ campaign. But it has to be said that it’s gays and lesbians who were victimized in California—by the voters, not by the “No on 8″ campaign.

When a minority group is targeted for discrimination, when their rights are under assault at the ballot box, the ineptness of the political campaign waged to defend that minority does not excuse the actions of voters who back discrimination. White people ultimately have a responsibility not to be racist; men have a responsibility not to be sexist; Gentiles have a responsibility not to be anti-Semitic.

And straight people—of whatever race, or whatever religion—have a responsibility not to be homophobic.

See The ‘No on 8′ campaign, race and responsibility

The YouTube video was an instant hit in the gay blogosphere.

Three Los Angeles police officers were shown on live television approaching a Proposition 8 protester who had broken through a police line. Officers then took the man down, hitting him with batons before arresting him.

The man was Kevin Miniter, 25, a gay activist. And in his first interview about the Nov. 5 incident, which was captured on video by a local TV news helicopter crew, Miniter told the Blade that events culminating in his arrest began earlier that day.See Beaten, arrested, held for two days

During the interview, Cooper challenged Phelps to a race, with a few conditions to try and even out the playing field.

Phelps had to swim underwater, with no breathing, and could only use his legs. Cooper also got to dive in while Phelps could only push off the wall.

Plus, Phelps has not really been training since the games and is, for him, sort of out of shape.

WATCH: Anderson Cooper (In A Swimsuit) Races Michael Phelps

ALBANY — After a pledge from New York Democratic leaders that their party would legalize same-sex marriage if they won control of the State Senate this year, money from gay rights supporters poured in from across the country, helping cinch a Democratic victory.

But now, party leaders have sent strong signals that they may not take up the issue during the 2009 legislative session. Some of them suggest it may be wise to wait until 2011 before considering it, in hopes that Democrats can pick up more Senate seats and Gov. David A. Paterson, a strong backer of gay rights, would then be safely into a second term.

The question of how aggressively to proceed has touched off an intense debate among legislators and gay rights supporters about how ready the broader electorate is to embrace same-sex marriage, both in New York and across the country.

Many are still stung by California voters’ approval this month of a measure that reversed a court decision that gave gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Heavy spending by church groups and others opposed to same-sex marriage helped the proposal win.

“We want to get there, but we want to get there the right way or else we risk setting ourselves back another decade,” said Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who represents the Upper East Side. “I think the California proposition and the recognition that entities with large amounts of money who oppose same-sex marriage have decided to be large players in this have a lot of people going back to the drawing board.”

See New York Democrats May Skip Gay Marriage Vote
New York Times, United States 

Chris Lee writes about film and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times and he sent over this, uh, unexpected take on “Transporter 3,” the action film that opened Wednesday. We may never watch the fire hose scene quite the same way…

Alas, the Transporter is gay no more.

In the trailer for “Transporter 3,” Jason Statham (in character as the tactiturn commando-turned-courier Frank Martin) is very clearly seen making out with sexy costar Natalya Rudakova –- a stunning development for anyone intimately acquainted with the car-chase-crazy, karate-tastic French-financed action franchise.

In 2005, Louis Leterrier, the director of “Transporter 2” (and also credited as “artistic director” of the first “Transporter”) told me he created a gay subtext for the character so as to avoid making a “Steven Seagal kind of movie.”

“If you watch the movie and you know he’s gay, it becomes so much more fun,” Leterrier said then. “It’s so great — the first gay action movie hero!” He continued: “Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, ‘ “The Transporter,” that’s such a great movie!’ If they only knew they’re really cheering for a new kind of action hero.”

See ‘The Transporter,’ gay action hero?
Los Angeles Times, CA

The LA Times has a follow-up story. A transcript of the event will be posted here within a day.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center is hosting a virtual town hall meeting tonight to discuss Proposition 8 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The forum will be hosted here and moderated by journalist Karen Ocamb.

Answering questions will be Geoff Kors from Equality California, Lorri L. Jean from the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Shannon Minter from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Rev. Eric Lee from Southern Christian Leadership Conference Los Angeles, John A. Perez, Assembly Member-elect from California’s 46th district, and Steve Smith, No on 8 campaign consultant.

See Virtual Town Hall meeting on Prop 8

  Yuma’s The Amancio Project and The Yuma County Gay Rights Meetup recently met with other gay rights organizations around the state to discuss how to next proceed in light of the passage of Prop 102 in Arizona and similar issues across the United States.

  The passage of Proposition 102 created a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages in Arizona. As a result, the constitution now states a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.

  “It is not a matter of whether same-sex marriages are right or wrong, who cares?” said Michael H. Baughman, founder of The Amancio Project. “It is a matter of putting something into a constitution that denies people rights.”See Gay rights in Yuma County take a proud step forward
Yuma Sun,