Just another Pride celebration?

Look very closely at where the schedule is coming from. :-)

Congratulations, Shanghai, for hosting the first every LGBTQ Pride in mainland China!!!! Daring, too, this close to the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Everything's private, no parade... just a lot of great LGBTQ events.

Check out the great article on the BBC about it; thanks to the Shanghaiist for the image above.

Um, Madame Secretary...?

Is anyone else totally disgusted with Secretary Clinton today?

I mean, really?

Gay Penguins Married in China

Seriously? From the Sun:

A PAIR of GAY penguins are so loved-up they have been given a WEDDING service.

The besotted male birds turned out to be such a great parenting pair their keepers thought they deserved a reward and let them marry.

They were once given the cold shoulder at the wildlife park in China for stealing heterosexual couples' eggs to nest as their own.

But after being allowed to try out with eggs rejected by their mothers the couple have become the zoo's best penguin parents.

Now keepers at Polarland Zoo in Harbin, north east China, have rewarded their devotion with a wedding day.

One wore a tie and the other was dressed in a red blouse – a traditional Chinese bridal colour – as they stepped into their icy wedding room to the music of the Wedding March.

Keepers then served them their favourite dish for the occasion – spring fish.

"They have been a good couple and deserved their reward," said one keeper.

The lesson here: the better couples we are, as gay people, the more likely we are to get our "reward" -- i.e., marriage.

It sounds a lot like how black athletes/soldiers felt -- that they had to be better than everyone else several times over just to get the same recognition that "normal" people did. On the one hand, this story is cute and adorable. On the other hand, it makes me sick.

I really don't think China will be acknowledging gay marriage for, you know, humans anytime soon.

HIV/AIDS: My new hero...

This lady, Elizabeth Pisani, has to be my new hero. From this article:

Pisani calls the truth: relying on AIDS treatment instead of prevention is close-minded. Forget abstinence programs that don’t work, she stresses. Safe-needle injection sites, arming prostitutes with condoms and learning about HIV on the battleground level is how governments and AIDS workers should approach this issue.

Hell yea lady, someone wanna buy me this book???

Also from the article:

Treatment is rightly very popular among funders and activists. It’s the most successful thing we have in our response to HIV so far. It’s how we change lives, what is called the Lazarus Effect – a sufferer goes from wondering who’ll take care of the cat during hospitalization to dancing at the clubs and enjoying a full recovery. The problem is we don’t have a compassionate view of prevention, because people are less likely to give clean needles to drug injectors then they are to give drugs to those already infected.

She goes on to talk about PEPFAR and a couple other major issues -- including China's amazing response to the growing (now that they talk about it) AIDS crisis.

It's worth a read.

GENERAL STUFF: Olympics!!!!!

The Olympics are up and running -- YEA!!! :-) Well, sort of. I'm just not as excited as I usually am about this kind of stuff, although I've gotten to watch some fun "off" games while being awake in the middle of the day.

For example, I got to watch the Americans sweep the women's fencing medals. I also got to see a little Equestrian, VERY little Gymnastics, Handball, Water Polo, and Weightlifting (including an attempt by Zhang Xiangxiang to break the world record -- though he failed). I also watched the South Korean team beat Italy in archery... it must suck for Italy to have broken a world record for scores (224, Italy's score was 225), and still come in second (South Korea got 227).

Congratulations to Michale Phelps -- blah blah blah. I'll say it: he's got a rocking body, and I would surely not turn him away in bed, but he's just not that cute. And those long pants Speedos? BLEH!!!! I can't see anything, though his cute little Olympic tattoo is endearing. For those who have lived under a ROCK... Michael Phelps has become the most winningest Olympian ever with 11 gold medals in his life time.

And I'm posting some swimmer's pictures below so that maybe all the people searching for "Speedo's" and finding my page will have an updated post to check out.

AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS (346pm), China is ahead in gold medals, while the US is ahead in overal medal count, though our lead is waning. Here's how it looks (Country-Gold Medals-Total Medals):

China - 17 - 27

US - 10 - 29

South Korea - 6 - 13

Italy - 4 - 11

Australia - 4- 12

Germany - 6 - 9

Japan - 4 - 9

Russia - 2 - 12

Great Britain - 2 - 7

Czech Republic - 2 - 2

Georgia - 2 - 3

I would be curious to know what was the highest winning percentage based on team size that came to the whole shebang. China fielded over 600 athletes, while the US fielded just under 600. Germany? Something like 300. Czech Republic? Less that 100. Is it more notable then for, say, Azerbaijan who fielded 39 candidates but have already won 3 medals than for the larger, more losing teams like the USA or China?

Blah. I'll figure it out later.

Oh, and the team from Georgia is pressing to leave so that they can go fight with their countrymen. Interesting.

Quick fun note: Georgia was actually not on this list when I wrote this at 6:50am... they won today!!! GOOD FOR THEM!!! HELL YEA UNDERDOGS!

Oh, and I do have a confession from my text message, to KH:

I think, watching the Olympics, I'm secretly racist against Asians.

I can't seem to want to root for them... :-(

So! hot pictures of Olympians!!!!!!!!!!!! (And this will count as "Wearing WHAT Wednesday" for this week!)