Virgen de Guadalupe? or coincidence.....

Playboy, based in Chicago, has offered its "sincerest apologizes" for the newest issue of its Mexican edition, which seems to poke irreverent (some would say lewd) fun at the Virgin Mary.

The magazine's cover features a model clad (barely) in a white cloth, in front of a stained glass window. The headline, "Te adoramos, Maria," means in English, "We love you Mary," or "We love you, Maria." (The model is Maria Florencia Onori.)

The magazine hit the stands on Dec. 1 -- seven days before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church; and 11 days before an even bigger holiday in Mexico, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commemorating the supposed appearance of the Virgin to a Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, in 1531.

In its apology, Playboy said the Mexican edition of the magazine is published by a licensee, and that the parent company did not approve the cover.

"While Playboy Mexico never meant for the cover or images to offend anyone, we recognize that it has created offense, and we as well as Playboy Mexico offer our sincerest apologies," the company said.

Raul Sayrols, publisher of Playboy Mexico, said: "The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe or any other religious figure. The intent was to reflect a Renaissance-like mood on the cover."

ALPHA GAYS?

After reading the article do you agree with the ' new breed ' of gay male? or is it just another marketing approach for our money?

Details magazine, that closeted little glossy, reports on a new breed of power, cash and ego-swinging male: the Alpha Gay."Make way for the A-gays. Moneyed, successful, educated, and comfortable in their own skin, they're fast becoming the new archetype of cosmopolitan masculinity. The urban man's man. They don't own yappy miniature dogs or time-shares in Fort Lauderdale; they own Labradors and four-bedroom summer homes in Sag Harbor."So, who's an A-gay?

Tom Ford.

Who's not?

Carson Kressley.

And who's at the bottom of the pecking order of power-gays?

The Corky St. Claire's of the world. You know the type: A bleached-tipped-dandy with a fold-out soap box who, when not "advocating" for some gay issue (take your pic here: gay marriage, AIDS, whatever - it's really an excuse to talk to mostly disinterested people about his life, workout habits, issues with food and his circle of bottom-rung 'mos) is usually on the arm of some overweight chica who knows not what an A-gay really is and so puts the trainwreck, C-list gay, on a pedestal. '

http://men.style.com/details/blogs/thegadabout/2008/11/the-rise-of-the.html

Toy Drive to benefit ' Para Los Ninos '

Deadline is Dec 15.

Vatican Attacked For Opposing Gay De-Criminalization

Today, a strongly worded editorial in Italy`s mainstream 'La Stampa' newspaper said the Vatican`s reasoning was `grotesque`.

Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalize homosexuality.
The row erupted after the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations told a French Catholic news agency the Holy See would oppose the resolution, which France is due to propose later this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," Migliore said. "For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure," Migliore said.

Pointing out that homosexuality was still punishable by death in some Islamic countries, the editorial said what the Vatican really feared was a "chain reaction in favor of legally recognized homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation"
.
Franco Grillini, founder and honorary president of Arcigay, Italy's leading gay rights group, said the Vatican's reasoning smacked of "total idiocy and madness".

"The French resolution, which is supported by all 27 members of the European Union, has nothing to do with gay marriage. It is about stopping jail and the death penalty for homosexuals," Grillini told Reuters.
The resolution is to be presented by Rama Yade, France's state secretary for human rights.

Human rights groups say homosexuality is still punishable by law in more than 85 countries and by death in a number of them, including Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said "no-one wants the death penalty or jail or fines for homosexuals" but defended Migliore's comments, adding that the Vatican was in the majority on the issue.

"It's not for nothing that fewer than 50 member states of the United Nations have adhered to the proposal in question while more than 150 have not adhered. The Holy See is not alone," Lombardi said.
An editorial in Rome's left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper said the Vatican's position "leaves one dumbstruck". Margherita Boniver, a leading member of the Italy's leftist Democratic Party, called it "alarmingly anachronistic".

Grillini, the gay rights activist, said he feared what he called another "Holy Alliance" between the Vatican and Islamic states at the United Nations to oppose the proposed resolution.

At a major U.N. conference on the family in Cairo in 1994, the Vatican teamed up with Islamic and Latin American countries to defeat an abortion rights proposal.The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. But in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity and a wound"