Former Michigan-Based Gay-Church Pastor Dies, Homeless 23-Year-Old Murder Suspect Matthew O’Brien-Veader Says He Brutally Killed Joed Olivera Because Disabled Man Made A Sexual Advance, Gay Activists Amp Up Pressure For Passage Of Domestic Registry In Orange County Florida, Openly Gay Chicago Alderman Tunney Says Cardinal George Comments Comparing Gay Rights Activists To KKK “Regrettable,” One Of Oldest Gay Bars In New York City Julius Shut By Health Board, The Smart Sexy Mueller Twins Kirk And Nate, Olly Muirs Water Sports, Joe McElderry, Connor Paolo Package Alert

The Reverend Mark Bidwell, a former gay-community church pastor and Ferndale, Michigan police chaplain, died Tuesday of organ failure, his daughter said. The Daily Tribune reports that Bidwell, 52, served until recently as a pastor for the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit in Ferndale. He also had served as a chaplain with the Ferndale Police Department. The MCC released a statement saying Bidwell died about 2:20 pm. Tuesday surrounded by family and friends. Bidwell was also known for his support of the Ruth Ellis Center, a non-profit organization that helps homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and young adults. “My father was a vigilant supporter of the LGBT community and he spent the better half of his life advocating for LGBT rights,” said Bidwell’s daughter, Amy Dooley, 29. “Toward the end of his life he struggled with addiction which ultimately led to medical complications, including organ failure which led to his death.” Bidwell lost his positions with the church and police department over three months ago after a Lincoln Park man, Steven M. Fitch, 43, died at Bidwell’s Ferndale home September 21 of a crystal methamphetamine overdose. Fitch had also injected Bidwell with the drug during a sex party involving a third man, according to a police report. Dooley said Bidwell was “a fantastic father to my brother and I, and a fantastic grandfather to my two children.” Bidwell was well known in Ferndale and throughout the gay community. He began doing same-sex commitment ceremonies in front of City Hall in 2000 during the annual Motor City Pride festivals, which moved to Detroit last year. Mayor Dave Coulter knew Bidwell for more than 10 years and said he was saddened to hear of his death. “I knew Mark as a compassionate and gentle man,” Coulter said Wednesday. “I have nothing but the deepest sympathy for his friends and family.”

A Waterbury, Connecticut man killed a disabled homeless man because he thought the victim made a sexual advance toward him, according to police. The Republican American, citing statements to police, reports that Matthew O'Brien-Veader, 23, allegedly killed Joed Olivera in June 2009 because he believed Olivera made an advance as they slept in an abandoned factory. Court documents state that O'Brien-Veader tried to throw Olivera down a flight of stairs, beat him with the victim's own crutches until they broke and then stabbed him with a dagger after pushing Olivera through a hole in a floor. Jason Benoit, a friend of O'Brien-Veader, testified in Waterbury Superior Court on Tuesday that the suspect didn't approve of gay people and once said they should be dropped on an island. If convicted, O'Brien-Veader faces life in prison.

Some gay-rights activists fear Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs is ignoring early good reviews for a proposed countywide domestic-partner registry and that she actually might be lining up to oppose it. So organizers plan to flood Jacobs with personal stories, adding to the positive feedback she has received from Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie and her own legal staff. According to The Orlando Sentinel, a registry approved by Orlando leaders last month doesn't carry the legal weight of a marriage or civil union, but it bestows a handful of rights in certain situations, such as allowing visitation at a hospital or to make funeral arrangements after a loved one's death. Supporters are eager for the county to offer a similar provision. "She hasn't said no, but why isn't she saying yes?'' asked attorney Mary Meeks of the Orlando Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Committee. "It's caused us to be worried." Jacobs said she needs more time and is not ignoring positive feedback; she just doesn't agree with all of it. For instance, Assistant County Attorney Peter Lichtman wrote to Jacobs last month that federal regulations "have gaps that still leave people vulnerable," and a registry "would solve the problem of 'proof' of a relationship" when couples face a challenge to domestic-partner relationships. But Jacobs didn't agree with all of those conclusions and said she wants to avoid bureaucracy or liability issues for the county, and questions whether a registry best solves these problems. "I've never been a rubber stamp," Jacobs said. "I'm still on a fact-finding mission." A strategy session for gay activists is planned for Monday, where supporters will discuss saving the registry idea, now deemed in "peril," according to a Facebook message that backer and former Commissioner Linda Stewart recently posted. It "has not been clear as to which way she plans move on this," Stewart said in an interview. "That's the reason people want to make sure she understands why it's needed. She's had ample time to review it." Meeks and others argue that nearly all of Jacobs' questions have been – or could be — addressed by city or county officials such as Haynie, who also advised city leaders on how to craft its registry, which was unanimously approved last month and takes effect on January 12. Haynie supports the registry but hasn't lobbied Jacobs on it. "It's a matter of civil rights and showing respect to all people," said Haynie, who added that her office could handle all the paperwork. But Jacobs -- a darling to activists after extending county benefits to its gay workers early last year -- said the registry issue is more complicated. Jacobs wrote Dyer last year to suggest Orlando take a lead in reviewing a registry, and the county could take it up afterward. She's set to meet with supporters later this month. "Some people will have to be more patient than they want to be," Jacobs said.

Openly gay Alderman Tom Tunney, alderman for Chicago's 44th Ward, which hosts the annual Gay Pride Parade, has released a statement concerning comments made by Chicago Archdiocese Francis Cardinal George likening the gay community to the Ku Klux Klan. According to ABC 7, the cardinal's original comments involved next summer's gay pride parade and whether it would interfere with services at a Lakeview Catholic church. He compared the possible interference with Catholic worship to KKK parades last century. "Cardinal Francis George's recent comments about the LGBT community are regrettable," a statement from Tunney's office said Tuesday. "It is clear that his comments are his own and are not shared by Our Lady of Mount Carmel parishioners and the majority of Chicago Catholics. It also is important to note that before his comments were made public, we came to a friendly compromise on a local issue involving the 2012 Pride Parade that will help protect public safety and allow parishioners to celebrate their morning services." Cardinal George said it is absurd to compare gays and lesbians to the Klan and added he was only comparing parades to parades, not people to people. An organization called Truth Wins Out placed a full-page ad in Sunday's Chicago Tribune calling on Cardinal George to resign.

The last weekend of 2011 brought mild weather to the city, so on their way home from the movies on Friday night, The New York Times reports that Randy Bourscheidt and his partner decided to go for a nightcap at Julius’, a bar on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village. A notice pasted to the door stopped them. “It said, ‘Ordered closed by the Department of Health,’ ” Mr. Bourscheidt said on Tuesday. “It was a fierce sign. We were shocked.” In the first place, closing notices on restaurants are rarely seen. New York appears to have become the Lake Wobegon of restaurants, a city where all the eateries are above average. “It seems like every restaurant you see has an ‘A’ inspection grade in the window,” Bourscheidt said. But the closing of Julius’, even if temporary, is a new wrinkle in part of the city’s social history. “It probably wouldn’t be so exceptional if it weren’t a place with a unique history,” Bourscheidt said. Julius’ makes a strong claim to be one of the longest-running gay bars in the city, if not the oldest, and it is housed in an 1826 building at the corner of West 10th Street and Waverly Place. It remained closed Tuesday, but Helen Buford, the owner, said she hoped to re-open after another inspection on Wednesday or later in the week. The walls are covered with articles and memorabilia. Tables are made from barrels stamped with the name of Jacob Ruppert’s Brewery, long vanished from Third Avenue in Yorkville. Julius’ was ancient and charming when Bourscheidt first visited in 1965 while a student at Columbia University. “It was not so unusual in those days to find a bar that was filled only with men,” Bourscheidt said. “It was quietly known in the gay world as a gay bar. They did everything they could to conceal that fact. In my somewhat distorted recollection from 1965, it seemed that everyone in there had gone to Yale, was dressed in a suit, and was in advertising — which was then an occupation open to gay men, unlike banking or the law.” Around his third or fourth visit, he bought a beer and turned from the bar to look around. The bouncer came over and told him it was New York State law that he had to face the bar. “I said, what kind of law is that?” Bourscheidt said. “It was the only time in my life I’ve ever been thrown out of a bar.” That may have been a bizarre interpretation of a provision of the state liquor law that forbade the service of liquor to disorderly people — a group to which homosexuals, in the view of the State Liquor Authority, automatically belonged, regardless of decorum. This was challenged in 1966 by an organization of gay men, the Mattachine Society. Three men from the group appeared at Julius’ with a letter announcing their sexual orientation and their intention to remain orderly. Refused service at Julius’, they brought a court case and the law was overturned. Until recent years, Julius’ catered mostly to an older crowd in the evenings, though it also served another clientele early in the day: longshoremen who had to shape up at a union hall downtown early in the morning, and were often sent home by 7:30 am. They would go directly to Julius’, said Dave Hunt, who worked at bars in the Village during the 1970s and now runs Coogan’s in Washington Heights. “They’d be up at Julius’ by 8 in the morning,” Mr. Hunt said, “and they were done and dusted by 11:30 am.” Ms. Buford and her husband, Eugene Buford, bought Julius’ 13 years ago, and she took over the operation after his death three years ago. It has become a stop for people visiting historic spots in the Village, and a younger group of artists and writers meets once a month there. “People are discovering this gem in the Village,” Buford said. Bourscheidt said: “I hadn’t been there for years until recently, but it has been going through a resurgence.” Julius’ has never been known for hygiene — it was known as Dirty Julius’ for its blackened ceiling in the years after Prohibition — and was shut down two years ago by the health department. The inspection last week found mouse droppings and an infestation of cockroaches. Buford did not argue that there were problems that needed to be fixed, and said the bar had multiple exterminations over the weekend. But the timing was unfair, she said. “Friday afternoon before a holiday,” she said, meaning she could not get re-inspected or reopened until after the weekend, which included New Year’s Eve. Hunt said he was sympathetic to the owners, and also to Julius’ as an institution. “We must all support longshoremen/gay bars,” he said. “There are not too many left.”

Beta Beat reports on identical twins, the very geek sexy Kirk and Nate Mueller, creators extraordinaire of iPad apps. According to the profile, “The Muellers’ similarities are more than superficial. The twins, who are 27 and stand 5’5″, share the same bank account. They share the same calendar. They share the same curriculum vitae. The same sexual orientation (gay), brownstone (Prospect Heights) and taste in boyfriends (“over 30”). They share the same profession, and the same specialty (interactive design). They even, in a manner of speaking, share an identity. Email the Brothers Mueller at their shared account, and the only way to tell which Mueller is responding is by whose name shows up first in the signature: Nate & Kirk versus Kirk & Nate.”

The very cute, cuddly Olly Muirs spotted splashing in Caribbean waters shirtless in floral-print swim short while on vacation with a group of male friends.

Joe McElderry, equally cute, is hot and cold.

Apparently, if this over-directed year-end effort by Tyler Shields serves as an indication, Gossip Girl’s Connor Paolo has quite the, um, package.