NEW: Aussie Passports Get a Third Gender: X

Australians applying for new passports now have three gender options to choose from: Male, female, or "X." The government says the option for indeterminate gender has been added to remove discrimination against transgender people, some of whom had faced questioning and detention at airports, the AP reports. 

Applicants will be allowed to list their gender as X if they can provide a doctor's statement supporting the choice. "'X' is really quite important because there are people who are indeed genetically ambiguous and were probably arbitrarily assigned as one sex or the other at birth," says lawmaker Louise Pratt, whose partner was born female and is now identified as a male. "It's a really important recognition of people's human rights that if they choose to have their sex as 'indeterminate,' that they can."

(2011 East Coast Tour) MK Takes Philly by Storm!

MK @ Liberty Bell

by MK Scott

On Thursday, August 25th I boarded a Bus in New York for Philadelphia on Bolt Bus (a great and inexpensive way of traveling the east coast). After 2 hours, I arrive in a stormy and Rainy Philly and got ready to attend the LGBT Media Summit and NLGJA Convention at Loews Philadelphia.

(2011 East Coast Tour) MK takes the Big Apple by Surprise!

by MK Scott

My East Coast Tour Started Saturday, August 20th with an extended visit to the Big Apple (New York City) and my tasks included RE-viewing 3 Broadway shows, INTER-viewing a Broadway Star, Discussing Marriage Equality with a panel of experts (for a Special Edition of OURview), and PRE-viewing the Gay Marriage boom that has hit NY, since Gay Marriage became Equal to Straight Marriage.  I spent a total of 5 nights in New York and worked from beginning to end. The finished coverage will last into Fall.

TAMED: Gladiator Thugs Busted at Colosseum!

Gladiators and centurions clashed in front of Rome's Colosseum this week as police attempted to crack down on thugs targeting tourists. Undercover officers dressed as centurions were sent in to investigate the dozens of fake gladiators, centurions, and Roman legionnaires who make their living outside the ancient stadium, posing with tourists for photos, then demanding exorbitant payments, or offering expensive nonexistent tours. 

Wooden swords were waved in the air as a group of fake gladiators attacked the police centurions, the Guardian reports. Nearby undercover cops posing as street cleaners joined the fray and nine gladiators were taken away in handcuffs. The fake centurions and gladiators come from seven families who jealously guard their turf outside the Colosseum, driving off rivals with threats and sometimes violence, according to authorities.

CANDY: Hot Man Eats His Way Around the World, in a Minute!

Here are parts two and three of the 'MOVE' around-the-world-in-a-minute video I posted yesterday, titled EAT, and LEARN, respectively. While not as visually resonant as the former, they do feature the same man candy, Andrew Lees, and are mighty purdy to look at.

CLOSED: NYC's Storied Chelsea Hotel Closes Doors!

It looks as though rock and roll could lose one of its most storied landmarks. The Chelsea Hotel in New York City will be closed to guests for an indefinite period of time, reports the New York Times. A developer is set to spend $80 million on the dingy throwback to rock's glory days, and renovations are expected to take up to a year. 

The Manhattan hotel once hosted the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone, and it's where Nancy Spungen—the girlfriend of Sid Vicious—was found stabbed to death in 1978. The hotel's 100 permanent residents will be allowed to remain, but nobody is sure of the long-term plans for the building, which is a historic landmark. The architect overseeing renovations says iconic elements of the hotel—like its iron stairwell and its art—will remain intact. "People should not be nervous about that,” he says.

LOOKIN' GOOD: TSA Scanner Images: Now, Less Naked!

After six months of testing, the TSA has finally unveiled software to make us look a little less naked to its airport scanners. The software, which works on the millimeter wave machines installed at 41 airports, replaces the blurry image of a passenger’s actual body with a generic gray body image, the Washington Post reports. 

Similar software for backscatter machines is still in the works. “This software upgrade enables us to continue providing a high level of security through advanced imaging technology screening, while improving the passenger experience at checkpoints,” a TSA administrator says. But one part of the “experience” that’s not changing is the aggressive pat-down. If you refuse the scan, or it turns up anything suspicious, you're in for an unpleasant groping.

OUTscene: Book RE-view Nick Krieger's Gender Journey!

by Lincoln Rose

Some books feel universal. They reach across time and space, imparting feelings and lessons that impact people deeply. Nina Here Nor There is not this sort of work, and that’s okay. Nick’s book is firmly centered in a part of San Francisco that I have never seen, and had only heard negative talk about. His experience as a travel writer brings cultural details into sharp focus, and weighs individual meanings.

There was something I found compelling. Until I read Kreiger’s book, I had never noticed how much trans characters avoid looking at each other. I mean truly, solidly seeing our bodies and the multiple meanings of them. I felt like he observes bodies as maps and topographies that tell stories just as much as trees and snow-covered mountain caps.