Jian Ghomeshi ejected from CBC over sex allegations (Canada)
The CBC announced Oct 26 it will cut ties with star radio host Jian Ghomeshi. Ghomeshi shot back immediately with a lengthy Facebook post, claiming the CBC fired him because an ex-girlfriend is peddling false rumours based on his BDSM sex life. “’I’ve been fired from the CBC because of the risk of my private sex life being made public as a result of a campaign of false allegations pursued by a jilted ex girlfriend and a freelance writer,” he wrote. He also said that he plans to launch a $50-million lawsuit against the CBC. The Toronto Star says it has interviewed three women who claim to have been assaulted by Ghomeshi.
Read more at the Toronto Star, or read Ghomeshi’s statement here.
There are (sort of) two kinds of female orgasm (France)
Another shot in the great clitoral/vaginal orgasm battle has been fired. Two French gynecologists show in a new study that genital blood flow shows “functional differences” between orgasms from clitoral and vaginal stimulation. External stimulation, the authors found, only affects the top of the clitoris, while internal stimulation affects the whole clitoral complex and particularly the root. Both were, strictly speaking, clitoral orgasms (sorry, Freud) but focused on different parts of the clitoris. Weirdly, researchers had their female subjects stimulate their vaginas with wet tampons.
Read more at Salon, or see the study here.
Murder behind Laramie Project was not hate crime, journalist claims (Wyoming)
When gay man Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die in a field near Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998, his murder was widely accepted as a hate crime and inspired legislation to fight violence against gay people. According to a new book by gay journalist Stephen Jimenez, however, Shepard was not the random victim he was portrayed to be, and his murder was not because of his sexuality. In The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths about the Murder of Matthew Shepard, Jimenez argues that Shepard’s murder likely had more to due with his dealing of crystal meth and that one of his killers was gay himself and had a sexual relationship with his victim.
Read more about the book’s rocky reception in The Guardian.
Mississippi gay-marriage challenge has a champion
Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer partly responsible for taking down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, is representing plaintiffs in a challenge to Mississippi’s ban on gay marriage. The challenge is the latest in a series that has knocked down gay-marriage bans across the United States, including in Utah, Wyoming and Oklahoma. Kaplan told The Huffington Post that writing the brief was “one of the best experiences of my life.”
Read more at The Huffington Post.
Serbian Pride marchers face down violent crowd
A new Vice documentary shows participants at this year’s Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, surrounded by onlookers shouting, “Kill, kill, kill the faggots.” This was the first parade in four years, since violent clashes in 2010 left 150 people injured.
US Marine charged with murdering trans woman handed over to Philippines
US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, who is charged with murdering 26-year-old trans woman Jennifer Laude, has been transferred to a Filipino military base. Pemberton was initially held on a US naval vessel, but after weeks of protests, he was finally handed over to authorities of the country in which his alleged crime was committed. Laude’s murder enraged many Filipinos and threatened a visiting-forces agreement being negotiated between the American and Philippine governments.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Penmachine
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jian_Ghomeshi_in_Vancouver_2009.jpg
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