Six Activists in Search of Each Other LGBT activists from around the world found a fun way to subvert Russia’s odious “gay propaganda” law during the Moscow World Cup competition this summer. They came from six different countries whose team colors corresponded to the stripes on the rainbow flag. So, when the six met in Moscow and 
donned their countries’ jerseys, the result was a gay flag that was hidden in plain sight. The new friends moved about the city together, making themselves as conspicuous as possible and taking lots of photographs along the way. This took place without incident, until one of the men, Mateo Fernandez of Colombia, was detained at the airport when he tried to leave. His luggage and phone were confiscated and he was held in a small room and interrogated for fifteen hours. Through it all, he was never told why he was being held. However, as the photograph would suggest, the police were not oblivious to the presence of this roaming challenge to Russia’s gag law. Presumably the detention of one member sent just the message that was intended.
Bereit Sein (Be Prepared) At a recent workshop in Dresden, Germany, 600 firefighters received training in techniques for the safe removal of cock rings and butt plugs from bodies in distress. Not to get into national stereotypes about the popularity of extreme sex, but suffice it to say, according to a UK Metro report, “Butt plug and cock ring removals are in high demand in Germany.” Incidents covered in the report range from the silly to the staggering. The man with an apple caught up his butt seems pretty garden variety (cylindrical objects only, gentlemen!), but then there’s the guy in Worms whose erect penis was stuck in the central hole of a 2.5 kilogram iron weight, which had to be removed with a grinder and a vibrating saw. So here’s a suggestion: a seminar for sex education teachers to be titled “Things not to do with your penis and butthole.”
Rally ’Round! Since it went up in 2012, a rainbow sculpture in Warsaw’s Plac Zbawiciela has been vandalized numerous times. But now a new, indestructible monument has been installed, one that can’t be burned down because 
it’s made of light and water. The fact that the artist found a high-tech way to thwart the arsonists is thrilling, but it’s worth noting that the original piece wasn’t intended as an LGBT symbol at all. Artist Julita Wojcik really just meant it to be a rainbow, which can represent any number of things. Quoth she: “The colors the rainbow on flags used in the past symbolized a new era, hope, social change, world peace and even, in Poland in the past, cooperation.” But Poland’s version of the Alt Right decided that it could be a gay symbol and thus had to be destroyed. In doing so, they created an LGBT monument where before there was none, and an indestructible one at that.
Still Farce Marx’s dictum about history repeating itself—first as tragedy, then as farce—often holds true, though sometimes the terms are reversed. Thus, for example, what started as a lighthearted gag as reported in a recent BTW column has come back as a humorless, if not quite tragic, episode. The gag was a meme in which gay bloggers lampooned insecure straight men when they ask: “Is it gay to [do x or y activity]?” A typical jibe went: “Is it gay to pee, as you’re literally holding a dick?” And when they got into masturbation, the questions became even more pointed. So, to get to the “tragic” part: A well-known Internet pastor, Dave Daubenmire, has direly warned his male flock not to masturbate, because, when you do, “You’re having sex with a man. … It’s where the Devil will take us if we give him free range in our minds.” Here he seems to imply that engaging in this act will put ideas into some men’s heads, as in: “Wow, playing with my penis is fun! Who knew?” Okay, it’s still pretty farcical; but here again one is struck by the fragility of male heterosexuality, by how easily “our minds” can be lured away from the straight and narrow path.
producing a breakfast cereal called BootyO’s that’s real and edible and probably loaded with sugar—and it’s being slammed as “homosexual food” by some WWE wrestlers. One of the three partners has come forth to deny the accusation, but on closer inspection… the cereal itself seems to be a knockoff of Lucky Charms, only now the marshmallow bits are unicorn horns, rainbows, trombones, and (what else?) booties. The three men are not publicly out as gay and insist that their product is all about “positivity.” So here’s a photo of the three wrestlers who stand behind this enterprise. You decide.
