Pentagon Defends Survey On Repealing DADT, Nate Silver Suggests Survey Useless, Derrick Martin Launches LifeVest, Whoopi Goldberg Defends Mel Gibson Because He Spent Time With Her Children, Trevor Donovan Gets Cosmopolitan, Taylor Lautner, Ed Westwick Dashing

The Pentagon Monday disputed a suggestion that the Department of Defense and/or the Obama administrations plans to segregate gay and straight armed service members if the military policy that prohibits openly gay men and women from serving is repealed, a spokesperson saying the allegation is “absurd.” The issue arose after the survey sent to 400,000 active and reserve service members on the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was leaked last Wednesday, and among the queries are questions regarding shared bathing or housing facilities with gay colleagues. Friday, during a press conference, spokesperson Geoff Morrell defended those questions – which prompted arguments that the survey itself was biased – saying that “it would be irresponsible to conduct a survey that didn’t try to address these types of things. Because when DADT is repealed, we will have to determine if they are any challenges in those particular areas, any adjustments that need to be made in terms of how we educate the force to handle those situations, or perhaps ever facility adjustments that need to be made to deal with those scenarios.”

Meanwhile statistician extraordinaire Nate Silver criticises the survey, costing the Pentagon $4.4 million, Silver suggesting “that the survey might or might not be biased – the bigger problem is that entire parts of it are completely useless,” mostly since the questions asked require the respondent to engage in speculation based upon gay stereotypes.

The United States Federal Trade Commission sent a letter to the owners of the now-defunct XY magazine and XY.com – both begun in the 1990’s for gay teens and young adults, that they would violate the promises made by the publication to subscribers by selling their personal information in the midst of a bankruptcy proceeding. The magazine, whose target audience were gay men, folded in 2007, the website folding two years later.

Derrick Martin, the Georgia teen who in early 2010 requested and received permission from his high school in Cochran to attend senior prom escorted by his boyfriend, and was subsequently asked to leave home by his parents, is an active definition in determination and resilience. Today, Martin launched a new organization – Project LifeVest –that aims to assist LGBTQ youth and adults who find themselves in situations of abandonment, abuse, and discrimination. The group, which has an accompanying website (also launched today), intends to create a national call center that will be able to provide advice and guidance for at risk youth, as well as create safe spaces in several cities. You can join Project LifeVest, which I have (full disclosure: he and I are Facebook friends), and help Martin and his team attain their goal.

Whoopi Goldberg Monday defended friend Mel Gibson, telling an audience at The View that “I know Mel, and I know he’s not a racist,” adding that “I can’t sit and say that he’s a racist having spent time with him in my house with my kids.”

The CW’s 90210’s Trevor Donovan in various stages of undress in the newest Cosmopolitan.

Taylor Lautner spotted Monday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania filming.

A late for work on Gossip Girls Ed Westwick, package of Marlboro reds in hand, dashes to the set, sexy, sockless, his treasure trail in sight.