Philippine Gay Political Party Makes History, Celebrating Andrew McIntosh, Men’s Diving Grand Prix Prettiness With Troy Dumais And Yorick De Bruin, Cristiano Ronaldo Assets

In the Philippines, an historic first, Monday a gay political party – Ang Ladlad, translated to Out of the Closet – will be on the ballot, an opportunity for the LGBT group to secure the maximum three seats afforded a minority party in the country’s Congress. The party is running on a five point platform, the first is to support the Anti-Discrimination Bill that would criminalize any and all discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Variations of that bill have filed several times in the Congress without success. The other points include support for LGBT-related and LGBT-friendly businesses, structuring both legal aid and microfinance programs for the poor and disabled LBGT community, and supporting a repeal of the Anti-Vagrancy law, which Ang Ladlad contends has been exploited to extort member of the LGBT community. Ang Ladlad had to take its case all the way to country’s Supreme Court in order to force the Commission on Elections to officially recognize and register the party – the Commission repeatedly rejecting Ang Ladlad on moral grounds – and only as of April 8th has the party been permitted to formally campaign. The group estimates its membership to be 25,000, and says it has received support from politicians, but in a country where the majority of individuals indentify as Roman Catholic, opposition is clear. Bishop Deogracias Iniguez said this past Tuesday that he remains against the party “because it’s a group that’s of abnormal human persons, according to what we accept as the order that the Creator has made for human persons. Human society – we have male and female, so whatever is outside is abnormal. As with other people, they are members of society. We respect them, we can tolerate them, we are compassionate, but we cannot sanction what they are doing.”

The Oneonta State University of New York men’s lacrosse team played their final home game of the season Friday, one of the team’s four captains announcing online via an essay that appeared at Outsports.com, that he was gay, and since the announcement, Oneonta men’s lacrosse has been a paradigm of support and of tolerance, and Andrew McIntosh, a senior, a quiet hero. McIntosh says that he took refuge from questions regarding his sexuality, saying “I took sports so seriously because I didn’t have a personal life. That was my partner. I didn’t have anything to fall back on.” He also admits to using athletics, finding a way to deny his sexual orientation. “I just thought, you cannot be a gay athlete. Gay and athlete don’t go together.” His ultimate self-acceptance, as well as the courage of his coach, and the support of his teammates, is an important and moving story.

Troy Dumais of the United States in action Thursday during the 3 meter springboard, day one of the FINA AT&T Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.




Saturday saw Yorick De Bruin and Ramon De Meijer of The Netherlands on display during the 3 meter synchronized 3 meter springboard finals.



Cristiano Ronaldo is seen in action Saturday, offering ample proof of the many assets of the Portuguese hotness.