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BY DAVID KENNERLEY Every summer, New York City is awash in a sea of performance festivals — mostly tiny, scrappy affairs with just a handful of shows. Some of these upstarts appear one season and vanish a couple of years later without a trace. Comments (3)

A federal district court judge in Honolulu has ruled that Hawaii’s law excluding same-sex couples from marriage does not violate the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Comments (5)

Roughly three hours after the polls closed in Michigan on August 7, Trevor Thomas, an out gay man with four years experience in LGBT advocacy in Washington, conceded the Democratic primary race in the third congressional district centered on Grand Rapids and Battle Creek. Comments (1)

Proposition 8’s Official Proponents have asked the US Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that their initiative violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The Proponents were allowed to intervene in defense of Prop 8 after California’s governor and attorney general declined Comment

Becoming the fifth US trial judge to declare the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional since the summer of 2010, District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant, in Hartford, ruled that Section 3 of the 1996 law, which denies federal recognition to valid same-sex marriages, violates th Comment

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that a same-sex marriage contracted in that state was void under the Massachusetts law against polygamy, because one of the spouses had never formally dissolved a prior Vermont civil union. The court's unanimous ruling means that a pending divorce action to end the marriage will be dismissed. Comment

I should stop being the dyke whining in the godforsaken wilderness and complaining to the cactuses about how lesbians barely make a blip in mainstream culture. Straight men are satisfied with our cameos in porn as two housewives making out until a carpenter or plumber turns up with his big tools. Women shy away from the lavender menace as if we have nothing to do with them because we only dance around Maypoles in May. (Yes, that was a dick joke). Comments (3)

Nothing illustrates the continued tensions between science and morality than the opening of the XIX International AIDS Conference and the US announcing it would embark on a “significant expansion of the war on drugs” in Africa. Comment

The mood at the XIX International AIDS Conference was exultant. For the first time in roughly 20 years, the biennial conference was held in the US. This was made possible by the Bush and Obama administrations ending the ban on HIV-positive individuals traveling to America. But that was just the beginning of the celebration. Comment

As members of the Gay Liberation Front stepped on to Fifth Avenue to join the 2009 Pride March, they took up a chant that they used 40 years earlier when the group organized the first march to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots, which are seen as marking the start of the modern gay rights movement. Comments (2)

From 2006 through 2009, Lisa Winters, then the executive director of the Bronx Community Pride Center, used $338,674 of the non-profit’s money to pay for personal expenses, including $15,953 for her dog walker, $12,000 for meals, $9,604 for pet supplies, and $1,884 for “purchases at liquor stores,” according to a 2012 report from the city’s Department of Investigation (DOI). Comments (3)

While the queer community is pressing Congress to enact legislation that would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the federal courts have grown increasingly hostile to plaintiffs who bring employment discrimination cases. Comment

Jimmy Van Bramer, 42, the openly-gay City Councilmember who has represented parts of western Queens since his 2009 election, married Dan Hendrick, 41, his partner of 13 years, in a ceremony on July 28. Comments (1)

Appearing before the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City on July 25, Brad Hoylman first rattled off the long list of his friends, political and actual, who were there. Then he saluted Thomas Duane, the openly–gay state senator who has represented parts of Manhattan in the state Senate since 1998. Comments (2)

Weeks after federal approval of the first drug for HIV prevention, health advocates are divided over what the next step should be and it is unclear whether access to the expensive pills will be paid for by government programs and private insurers. Comments (16)

The Cole Porter musical, “Nymph Errant,” is the story of Evangeline Edwards, a young girl who is freed from finishing school and intends to return to staid, old Albion to settle down with her maiden aunt and marry the man she loves. She gets sidetracked and travels through Europe and the Middle East where she encounters her classmates who are enjoying their newfound freedom and post-baccalaureate sexual awakening. Handed from nightclub producer to nudist to sheik, Evangeline finally arrives home with, for all her efforts otherwise, her virtue intact, but her spirit champing at the bit. Comment

The Paris Opéra Ballet performed “Giselle” on its recently completed US tour, but also presented the late Pina Bausch’s dance-opera staging of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Orpheus and Eurydice.” Comment

The title characters of “Mosquita Y Mari” are 15 year-old neighbors in the Huntington Park section of Los Angeles. These high school sophomores meet when Mari (Venecia Troncoso), a new girl in school, has to share a geometry book with Yolanda (Fenessa Pineda). Comment

Lillias White, that powerhouse of Broadway theater, has a thrilling project afoot, “Big Maybelle: Soul of the Blues,” opening at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor on August 2. She plays Maybelle Smith (1924-72), the legendary blues singer who recorded “96 Tears,” “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show,” and the Grammy Hall of Fame inducted “Candy.” White admitted this was a different kind of sound for her. Comment

Arnie Kantrowitz recalled a Thanksgiving at 186 Spring St. when he and other early gay rights activists had “20 guests for dinner.” The meal lasted longer than one day. Comments (1)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn announced that one year after same sex marriage was enacted in New York, 7,184 same-sex couples had married in New York City and they generated an estimated $259 million in “economic impact” for those weddings. Comment

The parent company of Gay City News has been sold to a business executive with experience in information technology and e-commerce. Comment