DEBUT! (Lipstick and Dipstick): Out of Town Rule!

When the cat's away, is the mouse allowed to play? Some couples say yes, others a very firm NO! Lipstick & Dipstick sound off on the topic by reading from their book: "Lipstick & Dipsticks Essential Guide to Lesbian Relationships."

MARKED: Saudi Man Arrested For Arranging Dates With Other Men!

Last month, a 30-year-old man was arrested by the religious police in Saudi Arabia for using Facebook to pursue dates with other men, according to Gay Middle East. The man, whose name is not being released, was apprehended on December 23rd and is being held by the police in Dammam, on the Persian Gulf, where after what may be assumed to have been harsh interrogations by local authorities he confessed to arranging "obscenity acts" with members of his own sex.

Punishments for such acts in Saudi Arabia could include fines, flogging, imprisonment, and death. The severity of punishments for individual crimes are left to the discretion of Sunni religious authorities, and vary widely depending upon the identity of the offender. From GME: Conviction and severity of punishments depends on the social class, religion and citizenship of the accused, whereby non-western migrant workers receive usually harsher treatment than upper class Saudi citizens.

SHORT AND SWEET: Equality and Love!

A short, sweet, simple mini-doc made by students in a course at California State University Long Beach.

CUTE: I Think These Guys Are In Love!

This 'This is Our Year' clip rolled into my inbox with few details, but with this much sweetness who needs any?

/div>
this is our year. from Joe M on Vimeo.

SOLO: The Perks of Marrying Yourself!

After a broken engagement, a New York woman did something unusual on her planned wedding day—Desiree Moodie gathered some friends, headed to Central Park, and "married herself." Her cousin read out vows she had penned: "I will make my happiness a priority and forgive myself when I’m not perfect," and "I will love myself forever more, through good and bad, thick and thin." The bride set a “revolutionary” example, writes friend Rachel Kramer Bussel at the Frisky.

“It’s high time single ladies demand not just rings, but respect,” she notes. As Moodie put it, “I didn’t want to focus on what I had lost but rather what I still had and even what I had gained.” Her pledges of self-confidence and independence “are promises I think we’d all be better off making to ourselves, singled, coupled, or somewhere in between,” Bussel observes. “While the idea may be easy to dismiss as laughable, I found it inspiring to see my friend’s happily beaming face bask in the sunshine, a circle of her friends, and the start of a new life.”

SWING: Ted Haggard to Appear on Celebrity Wife Swap!

In possibly the weirdest news you’ll hear all day, sex-and-drug-scandal-plagued Ted Haggard is going on the celebrity edition of ABC’s Wife Swap reality show … and will swap partners with Gary Busey. Yes, in case you’d forgotten, Haggard still has a wife—despite the fact that he admitted paying for meth-fueled sex with a male masseuse in 2006. 

The probably-bisexual pastor now runs a nondenominational church in Colorado, and Busey is apparently a good match for him: The born-again actor is involved with Christian men’s organization Promise Keepers. However, Busey bizarrely has no wife, just a girlfriend with whom he has a child. Producers haven’t said whether she’s the swapee or not, People notes, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reports that she is. Busey, of course, has slightly more experience than Haggard with reality TV, having already appeared on Celebrity Rehab and Celebrity Apprentice. But Haggard, who is apparently trying for a second career in entertainment, has appeared in a Christian “sex comedy.”

BOOTY CALL: Introducing the Straight Version of Grindr!

It's called Blendr. It's designed by the same sexual revolutionary who created Grindr, but there's less emphasis on random sex. It matches people based on location as well as interests. And it's going to become a honey-trap for straight politicians. 

So Gay men are on it too, Notice 'Lance'!

WHO KNEW? Women's Orgasms Exist Because...!

Turns out there is a unique reason for the female orgasm... but nobody knows what it is yet. The latest foray into female ecstasy involved asking about 10,000 pairs of opposite-sex siblings and twins about their sexual habits. The upshot: Most of the girls had no similarity with their boy counterparts in terms of susceptibility to orgasm. 

Scientists in Australia and Finland say this means that the female orgasm serves a unique evolutionary purpose, New Scientist reports. Why? One popular theory is that female orgasms are an evolutionary by-product from the male—you know, like nipples are on men. If boy-girl siblings and twins had a similar susceptibility to orgasm, that would have established a genetic(or artificial) Male-female connection and bolstered the by-product theory. So if this study is accurate—and not all experts are on board—then scientists can return to other theories, like the notion that orgasms give gals a reproductive boost.

STRAP ON: 'Sensual' Phones Kiss, Cuddle!

Here's a cellphone that's got your number. In pursuit of more "emotional" and "sensory" phones, a designer at the Berlin University of the Arts has come up with three different touchy-feelie models that will blow on your neck, coo, and even kiss, reports the Los Angeles Times.

One prototype has a strap that tightens to simulate a hand squeeze and is triggered by an amorous caller on the other end. The kissing phone involves questionable things like wet sponges and a membrane. "Very intense, huh?" asked the designer when he introduced his models at a German conference. He claims the amorous phones are a natural extension of our desire to reach out and touch someone with our calls. Ring-a-ding-ding.

(OGL) Can we talk?: What your conversation style says about your relationship!

By Gena Hymowech

We talk to each other for many reasons: to get information, to give compliments, to feel reassured, to share a little bit of ourselves with the other person. Most people don’t look too closely at the types of conversations they have with their lovers, but conversations are often the best barometers to tell you how your relationship is going. If your conversations aren’t going well, then there may be a deeper problem.

Find OUT at One Good Love!

Mazel-Tov: Matchmaking Rabbi Pairs Gay Men With Lesbians!

It might well be the most unusual matchmaking service in the world: An Israeli rabbi specializes in setting up Orthodox Jewish gay men with Orthodox lesbians for marriage, reports the AP. The idea is that they can raise a family together while still adhering to religious laws. The spouses could "date" members of the same sex during the marriage, which doesn't qualify as adultery because it's out in the open, argues rabbi Arele Harel. 

"The main aspiration here is parenthood," he says. "It allows them to become parents in a way that is permitted by religious Jewish law and prevents a conflict between their religious world and their sexual world." Arele has wed 12 couples so far, and inquiries are coming in quickly now that he has partnered with a religious gay group called Kamoha that publicized the venture on its website. "It is a risky experiment but there is no other choice," says one man using the service.

(OGL) When Your Dating Routine Needs Tweaking!

By Gena Hymowech

OneGoodLove.com

You say you’re not meeting anyone. And you don’t think there’s anything you can do
about it. You’re just going through a bout of bad dating luck, right?

Actually, you’re wrong. Maybe I’m a bit of an optimist but I really don’t believe there
is such a thing as bad dating luck. I think that when you have “bad dating luck,” it just
means that what you are doing is not working and you need to tweak your dating routine
a little.

Find Out at One Good Love!

(OGL) The Who’s, What’s, Where’s, Why’s & When’s Of A First Date!

By Mark Strong, Certified Professional Life Coach

The Who:

When choosing with whom to go on a first date, use onegoodlove.com to its fullest advantage and then switch to your intuition. Women are often better than men at listening at a deeper level. But ask yourself if you felt comfortable on the first phone call. Did they seem honest? Were they inquisitive? Did they make you laugh? Decide what’s critical to you and then go with your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, politely pass and move on.

For the What, Where, Why and When go to One Good Love!

(OGL) It’s Our First Face-to Face Meeting, What the Heck Do We Talk About?!

By Brian Rzepczynski, Certified Personal Life Coach

OneGoodLove.com 

So you’ve more than likely been chatting it up online with a potential dating prospect that you’ve met through your personals ad and perhaps even progressed to talking a bit on the telephone. It is generally best practice to gradually move from email correspondence or online chatting to actually speaking “live” on the telephone before meeting in-person for the first time. This gets the acquaintanceship started at a reasonably good pace and allows you to learn more about each other through written and verbal words before taking the plunge to meet face-to-face, which for most people is the more vulnerable and nerve-wracking scenario. Take time to glean the information you receive about this new man through all your modes of communication you’ve had with each other before deciding whether he meets your compatibility criteria to even proceed with a physical meeting. This will help to save much time and energy in your quest for a good first date material.

WORDS: Chaz and Coulter Debate Religion!

Conservative darling Ann Coulter and LGBT activist Chaz Bono had quite the interesting back-and-forth about religion and psychiatry on last night's Real Time with Bill Maher.

OUTscene: (RE-view) Riverdance's FINAL Irish Variety show comes to Seattle one last time!

by MK Scott

OUTscene Editor

While Riverdance may be on its farewell tour of North America, the Irish dance craze is nowhere near tapped out.

The packed opening night of the Seattle run (June 3-5) of Riverdance proved the city still has a hearty appetite for Irish step-dancing — an athletic, energetic dance style that first captured global attention 17 years ago. I had always thought that Riverdance was about Irish Dance. It wasn't it was a whole lot more. This was an Irish-style variety show with Dance, song, story, and Music Jam session with plenty of instrumental solos.

(OGL) Confidence is Like a College Course!

By Greg Halpen
TheGayGuysLoveCoach.com

As my first class of the new semester ended yesterday, I was reminded of something really profound, and don’t mind if I get a little Woo Woo here, because that’s what I do best. And you are probably wondering what this has to do with helping you build unstoppable confidence, but if you’ll open your mind for a few moments, I promise you it has everything to do with it AND more.

(OGL): Digital To Analog: How To Get From Website To First Date!

By Mark Strong, Certified Professional Life Coach

There is a dance to digital dating. It takes some time to figure out how it all works and the tempo required to move from emailing a profile match to walking into a first date.
 

RELATIONSHIPS: If She Cheats, He'd Prefer It Be a Woman!

Men are more likely to stay with girlfriends who have cheated on them with other women than those who’ve cheated with another man, a University of Texas study suggests. Women, however, are the opposite: they’re more likely to stay with a man who’s cheated with a woman than one who’s cheated with a man, says the study published in Personality and Individual Differences.

A father-daughter research team asked 700 students to imagine partners of three months cheating on them. Men showed a 50% likelihood of staying with women who’d cheated with other women and a 22% likelihood of sticking with girlfriends who’d been with men. Women showed 28% odds of continuing to date men who’d cheated with women and 21% odds of staying with boyfriends who’d cheated with other men.

RELATIONSHIPS: Flirting on Facebook Counts as Foreplay?

Looking for a way to minimize the time you spend trying to convince someone to hop in the sack? It turns out Facebook is the answer—in a sex survey from Shape and Men's Fitness magazines, 58% of men said flirting over Facebook and other social media helps them get to bed faster. For women, 80% agreed that relationships move to the sex stage more quickly than before social media was available.

Maybe so, but all these texts, tweets, and private messages are actually driving us further apart in terms of real and lasting connections, a psychologist tells ABC News. It's creating a sense of "faux intimacy" between couples who think they're tuned into each other but really aren't. "It's easier to hop into bed than have a relationship," she said. "It's all a function of the fast-paced world we live in, where communication skills, genuine communication skills, which means face-to-face communication, are quickly going by the wayside."