Thousands Celebrate Gay Pride In India, San Francisco Goodwill Location Serves As Training For Transgender Employees, Openly Gay Black College President Welcomed By Small Town Iowa, Dr. Schlessinger Anti-Gay Racism Coming To Sirius Satellite Radio, Tom Hardy Vancouver Tattoo Escapade, Kellan Lutz Tank Top Tease, David Burtka And Neil Patrick Harris See Cinderella

Thousands gathered along the streets of Delhi Saturday in celebration of India’s first formal gay pride parade since homosexuality was decriminalised by a High Court in July, 2009, Reuters reporting that “under a huge rainbow flag, to the sounds of drums, whistles and horns, 2,000 gay activists and supporters clad in feather face masks shouted slogans and waved placards as they marched through the capital of this still conservative country.” In years past, two protests took place against the legislation that criminalised homosexual sex in India; however the Delhi High Court overturned Section 377 of India’s penal code, enacted under colonial rule, after nine years of legal action. Hilloi Dutta, a gay activist, said “Last year it was about protest, but this year it is all about celebration. It has only been a year, but it has been a huge year.”

Lisa Leff of the Associated Press on a Goodwill store in San Francisco specifically designed as an employment program for the transgender. According to Leff, when a prime piece of commercial property came available in the city’s Castro district, a predominantly gay neighbourhood, activists and officials recognised an opportunity to create a safe space to gain critical employment experience, seven of the shop’s nine employee’s transgender, most of them women born men. They were referred to Goodwill by the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative, a non-profit training and employment service that also works the Bank of America, Macy’s, and Trader Joe’s, among other supportive organisations. Alexie Scanlon, a 38 year old recently promoted to assistant manager at the Castro store, says “I guess it’s fitting that we’re working in a place that’s based on the concept of ‘recycle and reuse.’ If you are born in the wrong body, you learn to make use of what you have.” Ahead of the store’s October opening – it is a pop-up location, operating rent-free until such time as a paying tenant is found by the landlord – an anti-bias training session was held for all area Goodwill staff in an attempt to minimise misunderstandings regarding pronoun and restroom usage. Scanlon, who welcomes her newly found role as ambassador for the transgender community “by being competent,” says that challenges still exist, including tourists who try to her picture, trying to sound professional when she refuses. “I tell them, ‘I’m not a joke. This is my life. Thanks for shopping at Goodwill.’”

The Des Moines Register reports on Grinnell, Iowa and the reaction to Grinnell College’s new president, Raynard Kington, an openly gay black man, who, alongside his partner Peter Daniolos, is raising two adopted children, four year old Emerson and one year old Basil, Jeff Phelps, the owner of Saints Rest coffee shop, echoing the sentiment of most of the small town, saying “This guy is just amazing. One of the things we’ve needed is someone who can help re-establish good relations between the town and college, and he’s really made himself available to the community. He’s a great communicator, and he really, truly seems to enjoy being in a small town.”

From the Hollywood Reporter, news that beginning January 3rd, homophobic, racist Dr. Laura Schlessinger will once again be able to be, well, homophobic and racist, an announcement prematurely published by the Associated Press Friday (then quite quickly, retracted) saying that her nationally syndicated advice program Dr. Laura will end its run on traditional radio December 31st, and her new show will air on Sirius XM Radio days later. “The first and most important thing that appealed to me was the freedom to speak my mind without advertisers and affiliates being attacked by activist groups that just love to censor anything they don’t agree with,” says Schlessinger, adding that her new program will examine situations “that are relevant to the morals, values, principles and ethics that I nag about everyday.”

The Globe and Mail reports mainly on Vancouver’s famed Darkday Tattoo Studio and the artistry of Brian Glatiotis, but mostly about a smoking sexy shirtless Tom Hardy getting a new Union Jack tattoo.

A tank-topped tight bodied Kellan Lutz is spotted shopping Friday in Los Angeles.

New father’s David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris are seen Saturday night in Los Angeles at the opening of a new production of Cinderella at the El Portal Theatre.