Everything you know about sex is true.

An advertising campaign launched on the London Underground during gay pride week earlier this month has caused a political storm in South Carolina.

News of the campaign and a poster with the tagline "South Carolina is so gay", designed to promote a gay tour operator and to increase tourism to various US destinations noted for being gay-friendly, reached the state where it was condemned by Senator David Thomas. The state employee who approved the campaign has since resigned and Senator Thomas is calling for an audit of the tourism department's advertising budget.

Other US destinations featured in Amro Worldwide's campaign - including Washington DC, Las Vegas, Boston and Atlanta – have not reported any such backlash. The Boston poster, which picked up on its status as capital of the first US state to legalise same-sex marriage, is thought to be expecting a huge gay-tourism boost if a ruling goes ahead to allow out-of-state gay marriages there as well.

An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros (79,981 pounds) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual.

When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his licence withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance."

Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his licence for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.

Wrestler Maximo, left, tries to kiss his opponent who slaps him during a bout at Arena Mexico in Mexico City. Maximo's effeminate gestures and pink costume have earned him the image of the gay wrestler in the ring, who often tries to kiss his opponents. But in actuality Maximo is part of a long line of Mexican wrestlers known as "The Exotics."

Sharing is sexy is an open source porn laboratory working to create sex positive community. Sharing is Sexy is based in the San Diego / Tijuana borderlands.

We can only subscribe to their "vision":

* a free, copyleft, open publishing porn website
* a space for queer people, transgender people, people of color, differently abled people, people of all sizes, polyamorous people, plushies, furries, doms and othered bodies
* an experimental attitude because most of us have not yet been sex workers
* rejecting categories of sexual expression
* a consensus based group where we’re all equals, non-hierarchical
* only consensual acts, we do what we want, only 18 and over participants
* we want to make porn that is hot!

They recently had their first DIY queer burlesque show! It was a private party but it has been publicly documented.

Image galleries from J and Lotus.

Europe's first old people's home for gay residents is already a huge success in its first month.

The purpose-built, located in Berlin, caters for 28 residents in luxury rooms and is fully booked.

Christian Hamm, a Berlin-based architect and nursing home board member who came up with the idea for the home, said: "When you're old the last thing that you want to do is to have to hide.

"And you certainly don't want to give up your identity and live in some hostile environment, possibly sharing a room with someone who despises you."

Image.

Lesbian National Parks and Services was founded in 1997 to insert a lesbian presence into the landscape. In full uniform as Lesbian Rangers, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan patrol parklands, challenging the general public's ideas of tourism, recreation, and the "natural" environment. Equipped with informative brochures and well-researched knowledge, they are a visible homosexual presence in spaces where concepts of history and biology exclude all but a very few.

Lesbian National Parks and Services, ongoing (1997-present), performance. Photo: Gareth Pammenter.

Lesbian National Parks and Services: A Force of Nature (Video Clip 7.2 MB)

This mock-u-mentary follows the intrepid Lesbian Rangers through Jr. Lesbian Ranger training camp, research missions, deep-sea rescue, and field work around the globe. Premiered at the Sydney (Australia) Gay/Lesbian Film Festival.

Via critical spatial practice.