FRANKFURT, GERMANY – The outgoing German soccer federation president says it’s time for gay players to come out.
Theo Zwanziger called on gay players “to have the courage to declare themselves,” although he conceded it was surely difficult to acknowledge one’s homosexuality within a team. He pointed to the example of Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who came out years ago.
Speaking at a discussion on the subject organized by the federation, Zwanziger said Tuesday that society was more understanding than a few years ago. Germany captain Philipp Lahm, however, disagrees as far as soccer goes.
“Football is like being the gladiators in the old times,” Lahm said in an interview published Monday. “The politicians can come out these days, for sure, but they don’t have to play in front of 60,000 people every week.”
“I don’t think that the society is that far ahead that it can accept homosexual players as something normal as in other areas,” he added.
Zwanziger, who will leave his job in March, said Lahm is a tolerant person “and if that’s how he sees the situation, I am not going to be the one to criticize him.”
No player in Germany’s professional leagues has so far acknowledged his homosexuality.
from The Associated Press

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY – A Jersey City assemblyman is apologizing this morning for a misogynist, homophobic message that he says a friend posted to his Facebook wall during yesterday’s Giants game.
Assemblyman Charles Mainor, a Jersey City police detective who represents the 31st Legislative District in the state Assembly, posted a message last night that read, “We are not going to just lay down, we come to play. Who the hell do you think we are the DALLAS COWGIRLS OR THOSE GAYBIRDS FROM PHILLY…NO WE ARE THE NEW YORK GIANTS.”
Today, after being told that The Jersey Journal had received at least one phone call complaining about the message’s anti-woman, anti-gay tone, Mainor apologized, and said he only wrote half of it.
Mainor was in Jersey City last night at a party to watch the Giants play the Green Bay Packers when he posted almost the entire above message on his Facebook page, he said. A friend of his sat at the computer and added the comment about the “gaybirds from Philly,” Mainor said.
“I have to take full responsibility because it was under my name,” he said. “I have no excuse, other than me not looking before he did send the post.”
Steven Goldstein, chair and CEO of gay-rights group Garden State Equality, called Mainor’s comments “inadvisable,” adding that they “hurt a lot of people.” Still, he defended the assemblyman.
“I don’t believe, from what I know of Assemblyman Mainor, that they reflect any deep prejudice on his part,” Goldstein said. “He is a good and decent man who made an unfortunate misstep here.”
Mainor, who was recently named chair of the Assembly’s Law and Public Safety Committee, said he hopes his constituents do not take the comment posted on his Facebook wall to mean he isn’t supportive of gay rights.
“I have very, very close relatives who are gay,” he said. “I have nothing against them. I’m far from that.”
Goldstein said he advises every public official to think before they post messages on Facebook, Twitter or any other social-media site.
“Facebook is public,” he said. “It’s a public expression of who you are, and people really need to be careful … it’s not your own personal stream of consciousness.”
from The Star-Ledger
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Jeff Goldblum

It may have taken nearly three seasons, but Rachel’s (Lea Michele) gay dads will finally make an appearance on Fox’s Glee.
Musically inclined actors Jeff Goldblum and Broadway veteran Brian Stokes Mitchell have booked the plumb roles, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The actors will first appear in the Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day episode, titled “Heart,” as first reported by TV Line.
Gleeco-creator Ryan Murphy told THR in June that he was “really interested” in seeing the two characters, who have been referenced countless times but never seen on screen.
“I’m really interested in seeing Rachel’s gay dads who we’ve never met,” he said at the time. “I’ve said that I don’t want to do that. But maybe now is the time to do it.”
THR polled the cast in February, with the top candidates ranging from Taye Diggs, Nathan Lane and Hugh Jackman. Casting for the roles began in December.
Goldblum, whose credits include The Fly, JurassicPark and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, has a roster of Broadway credits including The Pillowman, Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Exonerated and is a an accomplished jazz pianist.
Stokes Mitchell, meanwhile, is a Tony winner for his performance on Broadway’s Kiss Me, Kate, and has been nominated for three other Tonys for his performances in Man of La Mancha, King Hedley II  and Ragtime. His small-screen work includes The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Frasier and Ugly Betty.
Both actors are slated to sing in the episode. They join a season which so far has featured a slew of guest stars in parental roles as McKinley’s seniors — including Rachel, Finn (Cory Monteith), Mike (Harry Shum Jr.) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) — head toward graduation.
from The Hollywood Reporter