President Obama Signs Memorandum Specifying Same Sex Spousal Benefits Extended To Federal Employees, South Oregon University Students Who Wrote Anti-Gay Graffiti Insist They Are Not Homophobic, Male Bikini Baristas, Guys With iPhones Inspired Art, Male Model Hotness, Orlando Bloom

President Obama late Wednesday signed a memorandum that extends benefits made available to the same sex partners of federal employees, a package best deemed modest that will make them eligible for day care, employee assistance programs, travel and relocation allowances, and, in some instances, enabling spouses to inherit retirement benefits. In make the proclamation, President Obama lamented that the federal law that is the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as that only existing between one man and one woman, prohibits him from extending the complete range of health and retirement benefits to all federal employees, and called upon Congress to pass legislation that would repeal DOMA.

Southern Oregon University students Blake Adkins and Kevin Novotny wrote anti-gay slurs on the walls of two campus dorm hallways, including one hallway on a gender neutral floor that is home to several gay students. The two were arrested April 30th and charged with second-degree mischief. On May 19th, they pleaded guilty, and received a $400 fine each. The university is still considering what, if any disciplinary action will be taken – Adkins and Novotny, if found to have violated the school’s code of conduct could be permanently dismissed. According to Adkins, the two, who have since apologized and intend to volunteer at SOU’s Queer Resource Center, “are good people, we just made a mistake. It was a reckless act. It wasn’t supposed to be a hate crime or anything like that. It was a poor choice of words.” Adkins added that “by no means are we homophobic.”

Seattle barista (a word now devoid of any meaning) Zachary Carlsen, a co-founder of Sprudge.com, is leaving the Emerald city and moving south to San Francisco where he intends to open a male bikini barista stand he plans to call “Cup of Man.” “In the beginning, I’ll be asking my friends to come visit and do guest barista shifts,” said Carlsen. “My female barista friends must wear fake moustaches. It’ll be a cute novelty, but it will be serving the best coffee in San Francisco at the same time.”

Yigi Chang is a Toronto-based student studying design and illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Chang cleverly has found inspiration for a series of paintings of modern age male Adonis in the photographs posted at Guys with iPhones. (NSFW)

Didio photographs Ferminio Anderson, who is smoking sexy. (NSFW)

Orlando Bloom spoke Wednesday at Rockefeller University in New York City on his own struggles with dyslexia, during a lecture called Dyslexia and Creativity: Two Sides of the Same Coin.