Sharron Angle: How To Stay Pretty After A Hard Day Of Teabagging Crazy Racism!

Over the weekend, Sharron Angle shared make-up and hair tips at a Las Vegas beauty show headlined as "An Evening Of Glamour." Yup.

(Via - Alan Colmes)

Today In Frivolous Lawsuits

A New York college student is suing a Vegas hooker for $1.8M because she only stayed for thirty minutes instead of the agreed upon full hour.

Unhappy customer Hubert Blackman said he was traumatized by the "tragic event," especially when he called cops and they threatened to bust him, the Las Vegas Sun reported Thursday. "I also would like to get my $275 payment back and a $1.8 million verdict for the tragic event that happened," Blackman said in the suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court, the paper said.

Blackman says he thought prostitution was legal in Las Vegas, hence the call to the cops.

LAS VEGAS: Evangelical Pastor Arrested For Molesting Teenage Boys

In a case highly similar to that of Atlanta's "Bishop" Eddie Long, a pastor in Las Vegas has been arrested and charged with 11 felony counts of molesting teenage boys. According to police, Pastor Billy Eskstine McCurdy used biblical verses to coerce the boys into sex.

North Las Vegas police arrested Billy Eckstine McCurdy, 57, following an eight-month investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted teen boys at his home. McCurdy is the pastor at Revival Temple Church of God in Christ at the intersection of Tonopah and Vegas drives. At the church Friday night, men in all black suits said no church officials were prepared to comment on the arrest. The new charges involve two teen boys who said McCurdy forced them into sexual relationships with him. They told police he used his position in the church and Bible scriptures to force them into sex acts, authorities said. Both boys testified at a grand jury, which indicted McCurdy Thursday on six counts of sexual assault and five counts of open or gross lewdness. He was being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail.

Police expect other victims to come forward. Five years ago a similar charge was brought against McCurdy, but the case was dropped because prosecutors felt they could not prove their case. Back then McCurdy's parishioners rallied behind him. The historically black (and virulently anti-gay) Church of God in Christ (COGIC) has long been accused of covering up sexual misconduct by its pastors.

GetEQUAL & Las Vegas Activist Derek Washington Spar Over ENDA Protest

Via Karen Ocamb's LGBTPOV, here's an audio clip of GetEQUAL's Robin McGehee and Las Vegas Stonewall Democrats chairman Derek Washington sparring over the effectiveness and purpose of GetEQUAL's blockage of the Las Vegas strip during Netroots Nation. This was recorded during Washington's local radio show and things get rolling at the 9:00 mark. Below are photos I later took of the two at a party in Mike Rogers' hotel suite.

A Little Slice Of Gay Vegas

I didn't get to see much of Las Vegas' gay scene as Netroots pretty much kept us busy day and night. But I did get out to Fun Hog Ranch for a couple of hours, where I saw the first cigarette machine I think I've seen in a gay bar in about 20 years. Nice place, just the sort of dive-y bearish joint I tend to prefer these days. The club was hosting the guys in town for Mr. International Deaf Leather, but since the only ASL I know is "pretty girl," I didn't interact much with the crowd.

We also briefly dropped in at Buffalo (empty at 2am) and Piranha, which was packed, but all laser beams, strobe lights, and explosions. That would have entertained me long ago, but not so much in my dotage. At Fun Hog Ranch I met famed drag performer Kenny Kerr, who was pointed out to me by JMG reader David, a recent Vegas arrival from New York. Kerr and I chatted a bit about the renewed success of RuPaul, which Kerr feels is quite undeserved. To put it mildly. And speaking of RuPaul, on Sunday night I ran into Drag Race winner Tyra Sanchez, who was performing at the Mirage's gay night in their Heaven nightclub. And that's pretty much all of my gay time in Vegas. I promise to provide much more in-depth coverage of Montreal's nightlife this week.

I Went To Chippendales!

Several hours after I posted a Morning View shot of the Chippendales Theatre last Wednesday, I got a charmingly effusive email from their publicist, Randy Slovacek (above), who outed himself as a longtime JMG reader and invited me to the show. So Friday night, in the company of fellow activists Phil Attey, David Castillo, and Zack Ford, we were seated in the Olivia Newton-John booth (SRSLY!), enjoying free booze, and ogling a dozen or so redonkulously hot dancers.

Most of the 99% female audience appeared to be on bachelorette excursions and at times the screaming reminded one of a 747's backwash. The show was slick and high-tech, with projected graphics, light effects, many set changes, and we were surprised that there was live singing and guitar playing. Randy told us that while none of the current cast members are gay, they've had gay dancers in the past and that the show is very welcoming of gay men. At one point, I thought poor Phil was going to have a coronary when the dancers were out working the audience and made a beeline over to our booth. But all we got was friendly bro-hugs. After the show, Randy presented us with gift bags containing a Chippendales calendar and a poster. Such a nice man. We had a blast.

Evening View - Moon Over Paris

LIVE VIDEO: Sen. Al Franken's Closing Keynote Address At Netroots Nation

UPDATE: The live stream is concluded. Franken opened with the "NeVAHda vs. NeVEHda" controversy. Preceding him was Tarryl Clark (Michele Bachmann's opponent), and Linda Chavez-Thompson, candidate for Lt. Governor of Texas. Fantastic night!

Sen. Harry Reid Prompts Standing Ovation For Dan Choi At Netroots Nation, Choi Presents Reid With His West Point Ring

Sen. Harry Reid's opening remark at his keynote address at Netroots Nation recognized Lt. Dan Choi, who was sitting next to me in the front row. The entire room gave Choi a standing ovation. Later during the question and answer session, the moderator presented Reid with Choi's West Point ring. Reid promised to return the ring to Choi upon the official repeal of DADT, prompting Choi to leap to the stage and salute Sen. Reid (and also sending a couple of Secret Service men scrambling to protect Reid.)

The two then hugged on stage in a moment that will surely live on in LGBT activism history. It was a great moment. (Most of the queer contingent at Netroots had rushed to the tables at the front of the room immediately upon the opening of the doors, as we'd heard rumors that Choi might "do something.") The video below is by Good As You's Jeremy Hooper, who was further back in the room, so the audio is a bit low. That's me in the blue shirt up near where Choi jumps to the stage.

[Top three photos are mine, bottom photo by Pam Spaulding.]

Netroots Nation: Friday Recap

I started the day early at a breakfast with openly gay Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, who is running for Congress against Rep. Mary Bono-Mack. (I'll post my Q&A with Pougnet a bit later.) Then it was off to the grand hall to catch the tail-end of Van Jones' brilliant morning keynote. After that was the "Organizing For Equality in the Obama Era" panel, featuring moderators Pam Spaulding, Evan Wolfson (Freedom To Marry), and Rick Jacobs (Courage Campaign.) Best panel event so far.

Back to the convention hall for lunch, where speakers included Kate Kendall (National Center for Lesbian Rights), Mike Lux (co-founder of Open Left), anti-racism activist Tim Wise, and Lennox Yearwood (Hip Hop Nation). And then all us homogays gathered for the LGBT Caucus, where Mike Rogers, Kerry Eleveld (The Advocate), and Denis Dison (Victory Fund) broke us into four groups to brainstorm how digital activists and LGBT orgs might better collaborate. (Among other topics.) Whew! Full day. Time for cocktails. Many cocktails.

UNRELATED: It looks like some of us will be hitting Fun Hogs tonight. Come hang with us!

#LGBTNN10: Continued....

We continue to be plagued with spotty and slow internet access here at Netroots Nation, much to the anguish of digital activists and writers who came prepared to tweet, Facebook, and live-blog every waking moment. You can still follow the action at the Twitter hashtags #NN10 and #LGBTNN10, where attendees with smartphones are providing minute-by-minute coverage.

Morning View - The Cher Store

As I walked by with Strong Enough blasting at 120 decibels, I'm quite certain the clerk was signaling for me to kill her. All Cher, all day, every day? No jury would convict. At Caesar's Palace, of course.

Evening View - THE Village People

Maybe "party" makes "the" OK. But still.

#LGBTNN10

Here's some of the LGBT contingent here at Netroots Nation. No time to label all the photos, but you should recognize a lot of these folks. Follow along on Twitter at hashtag #LGBTNN10.

VIDEO: GetEQUAL Blocks Vegas Strip

Here's the video from Tuesday's closure of the Las Vegas strip by GetEQUAL as they protested Sen. Harry Reid's perceived inaction on ENDA.

Afternoon View - Netroots Nation

Netroots Nation 2010 officially opened this morning and of course, interwebs access here is completely borked, hence my radio silence for the last few hours. Paid access in the hotel rooms is extremely slow and the free wifi in the convention center just isn't working at all. Several thousand very frustrated bloggers and digital activists are wearing out their refresh fingers or trying to score access to somebody's phone signal. I don't know whose signal I'm on right now, but thank you LeftyGirlPDX, whoever you are.

Quit While You're Ahead

Evening View - Slots & The City

Morning View - Chippendales

The Chippendales Theatre is in my hotel and their ads line the casino passageways. There's a Chippendales gift shop too!

Daily Grumble

Well, I've only been here a few hours and I've already learned that it is definitely not appreciated if you hover near the craps table and chant "Consuela, Consuela, Bo-Buela, CON-SU-AY-LA!" Seriously, any gay man would have been on the floor.