Adorbs Minnesota-based lesbian couple Kristin and Jessica are getting hitched next August, and proud parents of (one of the) the bride(s) wanted to run a wedding announcement in The Omaha World Herald to let the world know. Unfortunately, the paper denied their ad. For shame!

Naturally, a protesting Facebook was created, and Kristin's dad had this to say: "We are so proud we asked to buy an announcement ad in The Omaha World Herald to share our glorious news with our friends. I am disgusted to say that the publisher himself, Terry Kroeger, called me personally to say same-gender couples are not allowed to buy announcements in The Omaha World Herald." Not okay, Terry -- take our gay money and like it!

Soon the couple themselves took to the Facebook group's wall, saying, "We have realized that this is now an issue much bigger than the two of us. We have heard from numerous couples who have experienced the same discriminatory policies of the OWH. Moving forward, please understand that this effort is for ALL same-gender couples seeking this right - not just our family. In that light, we ask that you keep this a positive pursuit for change, and not a personal attack on any one member of the OWH. This is about changing a policy - not destroying an organization."

New company. They're called Out of Print. They make t-shirts. The shirts have vintage book covers on them. Very cool old classic book covers. You probably have a Kindle. You probably miss the showing off part of holding a book in public. Now you can show off again. You're too smart to immediately purchase the Moby Dick one. Or the Lolita one. You are too smart for that. They have others. Buy one of them instead. Are you feeling like you're reading a blog post by Ernest Hemingway yet?

Kirby Dick, the director of Outrage -- a must-see documentary about anti-gay politicians, especially the closeted ones -- has weighed in on former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman finally coming out as gay, one of of the worst-kept secrets in DC. (Americablog sometimes referred to Mehlman as the only closeted straight man in America, since Mehlman refused to state publicly that he was heterosexual.)

In an exclusive interview with Queersighted, Dick was asked if he found Mehlman's assertion that he had really just come out to himself "poignant."

"Oh, I found that very disingenuous," says Dick. "Poignant? I don't say poignant at all. He hasn't really even apologized for what he's done or even said that he regretted it in any way. And what he did affected the lives of millions of American gay and lesbian citizens very profoundly. I think he has a lot to answer for."

Some have suggested that coming out is difficult, and now that Mehlman has come out and is devoting himself to fighting for equal rights for gays when it comes to marriage, that at least we should encourage him for doing the right thing.

John Aravosis of Americablog wrote on his gay-centric politics site, "But that doesn't mean we don't embrace him now. And not just for strategic reasons. Mehlman, from what Ambinder says, is doing the right thing. He's now using his position in the GOP to help our community on our number one issue: marriage. For that, he deserves our thanks.

An adorable -- and risque -- piece of advertising for Coca-Cola is making the rounds on the Interwebs right now. Out of Coca-Cola Egypt's World Cup promotion series from earlier this summer, this hilarious and gay-friendly bit just goes to show how progressing advertising in other parts of the world can be compared to what's going on here in the fuddy-duddy old States.

To Coke of Egypt: way to go. This is cute, funny, awkward, progressive, thoughtful, unexpected, etc. To Coke of Atlanta: learn from your international brothers and grow some balls already.

See the advert after the jump.

A slew of A-list artists are slated to release new albums this fall, including Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, Sugarland, Rihanna, superstar producer Mark Ronson, and hip-hop's hair-raising It Girl, Nicki Minaj. But what about the gays? Won't somebody please think of the gays? With pleasure. We've already blathered at length about the forthcoming Antony & The Johnsons album, and here are five more LGBT acts to keep an eye on after you store away your white bucks and straw boater.



TORCHE: Queer metal fans looking for a pin-up younger and brawnier than Rob Halford of Judas Priest could do much worse than Steve Brooks. That's him making bedroom eyes at you, front-and-center in the photo. The Miami combo's dense sound sometimes gets tagged as "stoner" or "sludge" rock, but that doesn't mean they're prone to meandering; their forthcoming EP, Songs for Singles (due Sept. 21), is stuffed with more sharp metal hooks than a tackle box. Preview lead cut "U.F.O." here.

Four more acts to watch out for, after the jump!

TV ideas are for stealing. And by stealing I mean selling. Which is why The Golden Girls has already been remade in the U.K. as Brighton Belles and in Greece as Chrysa Koritsia. The Russian version was called Bolshie Devochki. In Uganda it's called nothing because all they care about there is murdering the gays and The Golden Girls, as you're probably already aware, is sort of ten million percent homosexual.

And now it's Spain's turn to give a new generation of maricónes something to obsess over in that weird gays-liking-funny-ladies way that happens all over for no concrete reason.

It's going to be called Chicas de oro (literal translation: "Girls of Gold") and it's going to star respected Spanish actresses Alicia Hermida, Concha Velasco, Lola Herrara and longtime Pedro Almodovar muse Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).

Every year, Rufus Wainwright hosts a benefit concert for Watermill, the arts center founded by the legendary director Robert Wilson. This year, Wainwright's special guest was Kylie Minogue -- which is definitely a gay two-fer -- at the Hamptons party held on August 28.

One musical highlight was their slowed-down, sexy take on one of Minogue's biggest US hits, "The Loco-Motion." After the jump, a glimpse of that performance with Rufus in rare, backup singer mode.