The draw for the 2013 edition of the French Open has been released! With the news earlier in the week that World #3 Andy Murray was withdrawing from the tournament due to a back injury all eyes are on where World #4 (#3 seed and 7-time champion) Rafael Nadal would end up in the draw. It turns out that last year's champion is in the same half of the draw as World #1 Novak Djokovic, meaning that a reprise of last year's final is not possible, but a reprise of the ...

The Boys Scouts of America have voted to end their ban on openly gay Scouts but did not vote on the existing ban on openly gay adult Scout leaders. NBC News reports Over 61 percent of Scouting's National Council of 1,400 delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban, BSA officials said. The final tally was 757 yes votes, to 475 no. The ban on gay leaders was not voted on and will remain in place.  "This resolution today dealt with youth. We have not changed our adult membership standards. They have served us well for the last 100 ...

This picture of 17-year-old Barack "Barry" Obama at his senior prom has been making the rounds. It was taken just a few months before he would start school at Occidental College in Los Angeles (where I teach). I think it is an interesting enough picture that it should be today's Celebrity Friday. Can you tell that he would become the first Black president of the United States? I can't! I wonder where the other people in the picture are now? Hat/tip to Wonder Man ...

It's pretty rainy here today, as you can see but hopefully we will escape the clouds as we make the 55 minute hope from St. George's, Grenada (GND) to Christ Church, Barbados (BGI). ...

As I predicted yesterday, Eric Garcetti will be the next Mayor of Los Angeles. He beat Wendy Greuel by a surprising 8 points, 54% to 46%, in a hard-fought, expensive campaign whose outcome was not known until after 3am local time! In fact, despite polls showing Garcetti ahead, when all the vote-by-mail ballots were counted, Greuel led 50.9% to 48.1% but turnout went up from the primary to the general election, to around 20%. Garcetti, at age 42 will be the youngest mayor in nearly a century and the first Jewish one. The other election results were ...

Michael McShane was confirmed today by voice vote to be a district court judge in Oregon — Obama's 5th out LGBT judicial nominee confirmed. — Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) May 20, 2013 The fifth openly LGBT federal judge during President Obama's tenure has been confirmed by a voice vote, according to a report by Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner. Michael McShane will serve as a federal district court judge for the District of Oregon. The other four openly lesbian or gay federal judges confirmed since January 2009 are J. Paul Oetken (U.S. District Court for Southern District in New York), ...

There has been a pretty disturbing development in Washington late yesterday while I was out celebrating my birthday at the Aquarium restaurant in Point Salines, Grenada. Senator Pat Leahy (D-Vermont) withdrew his amendment which would guarantee same-sex binational couples a right to stay together in the United States in the  comprehensive immigration reform bill the Senate Judiciary Committee was marking up. Basically, Leahy bent to political pressure fueled by homophobia from Republicans (and political cowardice from Democrats, most likely Senator Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer) to prevent the Uniting American Families Act from even getting a ...

Today, besides being my 45th birthday, is also an important day because it is also Election Day for the next Mayor of Los Angeles. Eric Garcetti, 42, and Wendy Greuel, 51, are the two candidates competing in the run-off today. Garcetti, who this blog has endorsed, has been leading in almost every poll published since the March primary, but turnout is expected to be very low in today's general election so the result is still very much in doubt although recent polls also show that among people who have already voted ...

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France officially enacted marriage equality this weekend when Socialist President Francois Hollande signed the measure passed by the French legislature last month into law on Saturday, one day after the nation's highest court ruled that the measure was indeed constitutional. France became the 14th country in the world to open civil marriage to same-sex couples. Hollande made "marriage for all" a central plank of his presidential election campaign last year. On Friday, he tried to turn the page on months of bitter opposition to the measures, arguing it was "time to respect the law and the Republic".   And he warned that ...

Episode 7 of Season 3 of Game of Thrones is titled "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" which in the fictional land of Westeros is avery famous song and as depicted in the image at the top of this post, refers to the plight one of our favorite characters, the gender-bending Brienne of Tarth, finds herself in  during this episode. S3E07 was written by George R.R. Martin, the author of the source material for the series of books which inspire the television series (it's not clear if we can call the HBO series an adaptation of the books any more ...

Daniel Akyeampong has been featured eye candy on this blog twice before, January 10, 2011 and January 28, 2013. He is most well-known for being an Abercrombie & Fitch model, but despite his youthful appearance, rest assured he is definitely over 21 years old. Enjoy! ...

Rafael Nadal continued his startling 2013 run of good form by defeating his arch-rival Roger Federer  6-1 6-3 in the final of the 2013 ATP Rome Masters in just over an hour. (Interestingly, this was the identical score that Serena Williams beat Victoria Azarenka to win the WTA title right before, although that match took 93 minutes. Nadal has won a tour-leading 6 titles (in 8 finals) in 2013 and has only lost twice while playing 58 matches so far (the vast majority on clay). The 2013 BNL Internazionali d'Italia title is Nadal's 41st clay court title (of ...

Serena Williams extended her winning streak to 24 matches in a row by defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 to win her 51st WTA title, the 2013 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Serena has won all 16 matches on clay played this year, claiming titles in Charleston (d. Jelena Jankovic), Madrid (d. Maria Sharapova) and Rome, with Roland Garros starting next Monday May 27th in Paris. She is now clearly the #1 player in the world and the clear favorite to win her second French Open title. Serena hit 41 winners to 19 unforced ...

This is a typical beach in my homeland of Grenada. It's called BBC Beach and is very near the more famous Grande Anse, which some people think is the best beach in the world. ...