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Store Yanks "Gay Best Friend" Blowup Doll, Serbia Cancels Pride, More: Today In Gay

gay best friend Doll tescoTesco, a major British retailer on par with Walmart, has pulled a controversial "gay best friend" blowup doll from its website.

The crude-looking  item, which was suggested for children as young as 3, came with a description touting its assets:  “Your inflatable g*y Best Friend is ready to give you fashion advice, tell you if your bum looks big and b**ch about everyone who doesn’t wear Jimmy Choos.”

A spokesperson for Tesco explained that the doll had been uploaded by a third-party seller and was taken down as soon as the company became aware of it.

"We can’t imagine why any woman would choose to buy an inflatable gay best friend when there are two million of the real thing already available in modern Britain," Ben Summerskill of the British LGBT group Stonewall told Huffington Post UK. "And most of them are much better looking than Tesco’s pale imitation."


Anton HysenGay footballer Anton Hysen, says he’s been contacted by fellow players who want to come out.

“I’ve had quite a few anonymous phone calls from players who want to come out but I don’t know who they are or where they play,” Hysen told CNN. “I hope that someone else will come out just like Robbie Rogers did. That was great for US soccer. At last we’re having a discussion about it and that’s huge."

Hysen, who came out in 2011, says he understands why other players are hiding in the locker-room closet: “There’s so much ignorance... Some people who are homophobic don’t even know a gay person. It’s all about preconceptions."


The Serbian government has put the kibosh on a gay Pride parade set for Saturday, citing security concerns.

The last celebration, in 2010. was marred by violence between riot police and reactionary counter-demonstrators. Right-wing thugs have already threatened violence if a march was held this year.

Insisting the ban “did not mean a capitulation to hooligans,” Serbian prime minister Ivica Dačić said, “The only limitation that will always be there are security reasons, when it comes to any [public] gathering."

How about you work on banning violent hooligans instead of peaceful gay people, Mr. Dačić?


Credit: Jupiterimages wedding In addition to the news that New Jersey courts have mandated same-sex marriage in the Garden State, a lawsuit brought by 25 same-sex couples looking to overturn Illinois' same-sex marriage ban is moving forward.

Circuit Court Judge Sophia Hall ruled the suit, which claims the state's ban is unconstitutional, can proceed on two of the five counts filed.

Hall agreed defining marriage as between one man and one woman violates the due-process rights of gays and lesbians, as well as the state's equal-protection statute covering sexual orientation.She dismissed three additional counts, including the claim that the ban violates the right to privacy.


His health began flagging in 2011, when he was brutally attacked by police breaking up a pro-gay demonstration. Davydov's arm was broken in the assault, though police denied the attack and no investigation was ever conducted.

“He never cared about arrests and attacks. He just pursued our mutual goal," activist Nikolai Alexeyev wrote on Facebook. "He has no relatives. He dedicated all his life to activism. He was always next to me in the worst times, including the day my flat was raided by police and prosecution just a month ago.”

Despite being on dialysis, Davydov was committed to LGBT rights in Russia until his death, unfurling a banner in Red Square in July that read  “Homophobia is the religion of goons!” Just last week, he picketed outside Russia’s parliament, demanding that anti-gay lawmakers be forced to undergo psychiatric treatment.


exxonExxon Mobil has announced it will provide health-care benefits to legally married same-sex couples starting October 1.

The company, which is actually facing a major gay-discrimination lawsuit in Illinois, says its only following federal guidelines: "We haven't changed our eligibility criteria. It has always been to follow the federal definition and it will continue to follow the federal definition," said spokesman Alan Jeffers.

Exxon Mobil already offers benefits to same-sex couples in 30 countries where marriage equality is legal, but activists in the U.S. aren't patting the fuel company on the back: "It's a shame Exxon waited until after the Labor Department issued official guidance explaining that their old policy does not comply with American law," said Tico Almeida of Freedom to Work.

Additionally, Exxon still doesn't ban workplace discrimination based on orientation or gender identity—something other big-shot oil companies do.

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