The Reverend Thomas Ogletree: Father and LGBT Ally

The Reverend Thomas Ogletree thought he was doing the right thing, performing a marriage ceremony for his son, Thomas Rimbey Ogletree. Trouble was, the younger Thomas was marrying another man, Nicholas Haddad, and what started out as a deeply personal act, is now a full-blown church scandal.

The wedding was soon condemned as a public display of ecclesiastical disobedience, because Reverend Ogletree is minister at United Methodist Church, which does not allow its clergy to perform same-sex weddings.

Now, Ogletree is facing a possible canonical trial for his actions, and though he isn’t the first United Methodist minister to face discipline for performing a same-sex wedding, he does have the highest profile because he is a retired dean of Yale Divinity School and a scholar of the very type of ethical issues that face him now.

“Sometimes, when what is officially the law is wrong, you try to get the law changed. But if you can’t, you break it.”—Dr. Ogletree recently said, perhaps foreshadowing his involvement in his son’s wedding.

Ogletree has five children, two of whom are gay, His daughter was married in Massachusetts, in a non-Methodist ceremony, but when his son asked him to officiate at his wedding, he instantly said yes.

“I was inspired. I actually wasn’t thinking of this as an act of civil disobedience or church disobedience. I was thinking of it as a response to my son.”—Dr. Ogletree.

It was the wedding announcement in The New York Times that prompted several conservative Methodist ministers to file a complaint against Ogletree with the local bishop. The Reverend Randall Paige, pastor of Christ Church in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y. led the charge, and declared that, under the rules of the church, “this ceremony is a chargeable offense.”

Still, the two men, Paige and Ogletree, met in January to try and resolve the situation, Paige demanded that Ogletree apologize and promise never to perform such a ceremony again, but Ogletree refused.

“I said, this is an unjust law. Dr. King broke the law. Jesus of Nazareth broke the law; he drove the money changers out of the temple. So you mean you should never break any law, no matter how unjust it is?”—Dr. Ogletree to Dr. Paige.

Like many Christian denominations, the United Methodist Church struggles over LGBT rights. Back in 1972, the denomination added a line to its rule book declaring the practice of homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” and it bars the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” as clergy; it also prohibits clergy from officiating at same-sex unions. Rather hypocritically, though, the denomination calls The Gays “persons of sacred worth,” and welcomes them as members.

Not to minister or be married, though. And that is what Ogletree finds contradictory, and why he decided to break the laws of the church in an effort to change the laws of the church.

“The church’s official motto is open minds, open hearts, open doors, even though our rules on same-sex marriage contradict that claim.”—Dr. Ogletree.

Since his meeting with Paige in January, Ogletree has been working with Methodists in New Directions, a New York-based group that is part of a growing movement to change the church’s rules. More than 1,100 United Methodist clergy members—of about 45,000 in the nation—have expressed a willingness to perform same-sex ceremonies, even if it means they may face suspension or censure.

“He does the right thing because he believes in doing the right thing. And then, if there is any question about that, he is willing to stand up and place a claim for that in a public way.”—Thomas Ogletree, the son, speaking of his father.

The Reverend Thomas Ogletree is not just a father, wanting to be part of his son’s marriage; he is an LGBT-ally, who understands that churches need to change if they want to be part of the cultural landscape in this country. If you teach, and preach, love and understanding and compassion, then, as Ogletree has done, you need to practice it as well.

I say hats off to the Reverend.

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In Maryland, Martin O'Malley Signs Death Penalty Repeal

First off, I think he’s kinda hot. There, I said it. I’m shallow like that. But, secondly, he signed into law Maryland’s same-sex marriage law, so he’s hot and an LGBT ally. But now, Maryland Governor, Martin O’Malley has abolished the death penalty in his state, making Maryland the second state south of the Mason-Dixon Line to abolish the death penalty in nearly 50 years, alongside West Virginia. Maryland is now the 18th state to abolish the death penalty; Delaware also made a push to repeal it this year, but the bill has stalled.

"I don't know exactly what the timing is, but over the longer arc of history I think you'll see more and more states repeal the death penalty. It's wasteful. It's ineffective. It doesn't work to reduce violent crime."—Governor O’Malley

Here’s the deal, well, my deal on the death penalty. What good does it serve? Does it stop murderers and violent criminals? Does it miraculously bring the victims of violent crime back to life? Does it provide closure?

That last one, I’m not so sure about, but I do know that if murder is illegal—and it is—then how is state sanctioned murder acceptable? Murder is murder. And let’s not even raise the issue of anyone being put to death, only to discover, years later, that they were innocent of the crime. Think that doesn’t happen? Well, Kirk Bloodsworth, a Maryland man was the first person in the U.S. freed because of DNA evidence after a conviction in a death penalty case proved his innocence. He is alive and attended the O’Malley news conference.

For me, the death penalty is barbaric. It serves no purpose, it is not a deterrent, and it costs more money than convicting violent criminals and sentencing them to life without parole. There aren’t years and years of appeals, which cost the taxpayers’ money. The criminal is put away, for good. For good.

For me, putting a man, or woman, to death isn’t punishment; they’re dead, they don’t know anything, or feel anything. But, if you take that criminal and lock them up until the day they die, and they sit in prison day after day, year after year, thinking, and reliving, the reasons why they’re behind bars, that’s punishment. Oh, and before you say that these violent criminals have no remorse, I say, So what? They’re still locked up; their lives, as they knew them, are over.

I can go on and on about why I think this way, but the one person who said it better than me is the best person to quote now.

We all remember that Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson murdered Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998. But, what some may not know is that Matthew’s father, Dennis Shepard, spoke at Aaron McKinney’s sentencing hearing [Henderson, at the time, had already pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.] With the agreement of Judy and Dennis Shepard, Henderson and McKinney will spend the rest of their lives behind bars. In a statement read to the court, Dennis Shepard said that the sentence means:

“I would like nothing better than to see you die, Mr. McKinney.

However, this is the time to begin the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy. To use this as the first step in my own closure about losing Matt.

Mr. McKinney, I am not doing this because of your family. I am definitely not doing this because of the crass and unwarranted pressures put on by the religious community. If anything, that hardens my resolve to see you die.

Mr. McKinney, I’m going to grant you life, as hard as that is for me to do, because of Matthew. Every time you celebrate Christmas, a birthday, or the Fourth of July, remember that Matt isn’t.

Every time that you wake up in that prison cell, remember that you had the opportunity and the ability to stop your actions that night. Every time that you see your cell mate, remember that you had a choice, and now you are living that choice.

You robbed me of something very precious, and I will never forgive you for that.

Mr. McKinney, I give you life in the memory of one who no longer lives. May you have a long life, and may you thank Matthew every day for it.”

That, to me, says it all. And so, today, I’d like to thank Governor O’Malley for his efforts to abolish the death penalty in one more state.

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It's Monsoon Season, Bitches!

Condragulations Jinkx Monsoon!

You are this seasons Drag Superstar! 

And after seeing your Little Edie impression,

I had no choice but to join Team Monsoon!

Check out JinkxMonsoon.dot.com HERE

America, Where A Five-year-old Can Own A Rifle And Accidentally Shoot and Kill His Baby Sister

First off, let me get this queer: a mother and father decided that the best gift they could give their five-year-0old son was a gun. You know, not a bicycle or a game, or a ball and glove, but a weapon, for a five-year-old.

So, naturally, you know where this story is headed. The five-year-old’s mother stepped outside their home for just a couple of minutes, but it was long enough for that young boy to shoot and kill his two-year-old sister with his birthday present.

In Kentucky, the shooting death of Caroline Sparks has been ruled an accident, according to Kentucky State Police Trooper Billy Gregory, who also said: "It's just one of those nightmares. A quick thing that happens when you turn your back."

On a five-year-old with a loaded rifle. But, you know, that’s okay, I guess, because, again according to Gregory, "In this part of the country, it's not uncommon for a 5-year-old to have a gun or for a parent to pass one down to their kid."

But a five-year-old. I mean, we don’t let parents give their five-year-olds cars because, well, that would be stupid, but it’s just A-OK to give a kid and gun and then step outside for a minute.

Now, the family did say that they kept the Crickett rifle—Yes, that’s the name of the gun because it’s marketed to children—in what they considered to be a safe spot, but then the young boy got his gun, began playing with it and now his sister’s dead.

The Crickett website features three .22-caliber rifle models for kids, with shoulder stock colors ranging from pink to red, white and blue swirls. "My first rifle" is the company's slogan.

“My first rifle that I got hold of and accidentally killed my sister.”

But, what galls me more than parents buying guns for five-year-olds and then leaving them unattended, and what galls me more than gun makers marketing weapons to children, is that the grandmother of that poor dead girl had the nerve to say, "He just picked (the gun) up before he realized it."

Just picked it up? From where? Where it was safely stored?

The grandmother—whose name I won’t mention because her 'Oh well' attitude disgusts me—then has the balls to say that, while she’s devastated, she is comforted knowing that her granddaughter is in a better place: "It was God's will. It was her time to go, I guess. I just know she's in heaven right now and I know she's in good hands with the Lord."

So, God wanted a two-year-old dead and he wanted her five-year-0old brother to be the one who killed her? Is that the God that these morons believe in? I’d prefer to believe in a God who’d come a’calling at their house the day they bought a child a gun and tell them that they might want to rethink their purchase. Maybe then we wouldn’t be mourning the death of a child, and mourning the lost innocence of her brother. Maybe then, rather than talk about these children, we can talk about the parents, and question their motives, and question their need to arm a child.

But, you know, the NRA will find someone to blame for this—probably Obama—and this will get shoved in a drawer alongside Newtown and Aurora and countless other places where guns shouldn’t have been, in hands they shouldn’t have been, taking the lives of people they shouldn’t have been taking.

So, again, let me get this queer: this young boy couldn’t drive a car because he wasn’t sixteen; and he couldn’t join the military because he’s not eighteen; and he can’t drink because he’s not twenty-one. But he was allowed to own a rifle at age five?

We have got this so backwards in this country, and we keep letting this happen and letting this happen and then mourning the deaths of the innocent, and the death of innocence, while our elected officials either sit on their hands doing nothing, or hold their hands out to the NRA asking for money to keep them in office.

When is it going to be enough?

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Bryant Huddleston Uninvited To Speak At His Sister's Graduation Because He's :::gasp::: Gay

Here are the facts:

Bryant Huddleston is a graduate of Sloan-Hendrix High School, a school in northeast Arkansas. He’s a single dad and TV Writer and producer in Los Angeles. His younger sister is graduating this June from Sloan-Hendrix.

He had been invited to speak at Sloan-Hendrix High School's graduation this year, but, apparently, when it was discovered that Huddleston is also a gay man, he was disinvited.

And he decided to write to the school board, and the superintendent, Mitch Walton, expressing his dismay over being asked not to speak:

To the Sloan-Hendrix School Board and Superintendent Mitch Walton:

Dear Mr. Walton,

I am writing to express my disappointment in your recent decision to recant your invitation for me to be the keynote speaker at my little sister, Madicyn's, graduation from Sloan-Hendrix High School this year, based solely on the fact that I am gay.

What baffles me Mr. Walton is that you chose to disregard the fact that I grew up in Imboden, and my career accomplishments--KAIT news anchor and reporter, successful television producer in Hollywood, producing shows such as E! News, Access Hollywood, etc., --were dismissed and instead you chose to make me a hot bed controversial issue.

Mr. Walton, your decision forced the members of the Sloan-Hendrix School Board to vote on my participation but what was equally unfair is that you forced the President of the Board Steve Huddleston (my father), to abstain from voting, thus forcing a tie and then declared there would be "no speaker this year," ultimately nixing any opportunity to share my pathway to success with the graduates. Was this in the students' best interest or is this a decision based on religious beliefs?

During my years at SHHS, I was the student body president for two years in a row. I also helped lead our Student Council to receive state-wide recognition for the first time-- all despite being bullied on campus for many years. Mr. Walton, your decision here is like being bullied again twenty-three years later. Personally, it's both sad and disappointing. I'm disappointed that board members Preston Clark and Aaron Murphy, who represent the school that my sisters and I hold so dear, fear that I would be unfit as a role model, and I'm saddened that you Mr. Walton, appear to be more concerned with what your congregation might say on Sunday, rather than doing what is right for the students.

I understand that Mr. Clark and Mr. Murphy both stated there would be "concern from the community" if I were allowed to speak. I'm curious--did you think my speech would have focused on recruiting youngsters and passing out "Go Straight to Gay" cards over sharing the tools that I used to achieve success? You might be surprised to know that "recruitment" does not and never will work. And just for the record, just so we're clear, my words were not going to address a "certain agenda," but I was hoping to empower your students to continue their education. My speech would have also touched on the importance of women, like my sister, who will go out into the world and know that they can now pull their chairs right up to the table of equality. To encourage them that they can no longer sit in the back and let men make the important decisions for them. And for that matter, letting them know that someday a woman or two or three can become a member of the Sloan-Hendrix School Board. After all, there's an opening, since my father will resign from the Board later this month.

I could just sit back and let this slide, but if I did, the discrimination that has taken place here would go unnoticed like it has so many times in history. Unless my arguments here cause you to reevaluate, nothing will change. But what must change, is the way we treat our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth because, News Flash, the world is changing and it starts in our homes, our schools and yes, even in our places of worship. The suicide rate amongst LGBT teens is staggering. As Superintendent, Mr. Walton--I hope you are aware that LGBT youth already attend classes on your campus. They are going from class to class with a fear of being outed or being treated horribly by their classmates--so adding educators and mentors to that mix prohibits these teens from thriving. The Board represents them too, and by silencing me, you're telling those students that it isn't okay to be who they are.

Being gay is not all that I am and it's certainly not something I chose. I'm a loving son, brother, a professional, and a fantastic friend. But what I am first and foremost is a father who tries every day to do the best he can to raise a kind and loving son. My little boy came into my life from the Los Angeles foster care system. I was the luckiest man in the world when, as a single parent, the adoption was complete. I'm raising him to understand that there are all kinds of people on our planet, all kinds of families and all kinds of love. While you want me to steer clear of the commencement podium, I am asked to speak annually to hundreds of potential parents about the importance of adopting these forgotten children.

Finally, I heard someone say that progress comes from those who are willing to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. We are currently fighting against inequality in our country. It's a fight--by the way--which we will ultimately win. Your decision to ban me from speaking solely because I'm gay is not unlike the arguments white men made years ago, to not allow black children to share the same school house halls with white children. It's the same thing, Mr. Walton, it's called discrimination. And, in closing, in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

"...Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world."

Today, by your actions, that small place is in a small town called Imboden, where decisions are made around a small table, surrounded by five men and a School Superintendent. So, next time you're faced with an important decision, I hope you take time to think twice, have a proper dialogue, and most importantly choose to be on the right side of history.

Bryant Huddleston, Sloan-Hendrix Class of 1990

While the minutes of school board meetings don't reflect the vote on whether or not Bryant Huddleston should be allowed to speak, they do show that his father School Board President Steve Huddleston was reportedly not allowed to participate. Huddleston identified School Board members Preston Clark and Dr. Aaron Murphy as the key votes against his appearance, though the decision was reached privately by the superintendent and some of the board members.

In other words, Mitch Walton and the two board members who didn’t want a gay man speaking at graduation, Preston Clark and Dr. Aaron Murphy, voted No. Steve Huddleston said the two other board members wouldn't oppose his son speaking but that Clark and Murphy “thought there would be backlash if we allowed an openly gay man to speak."

In 2013. I mean, I know its Arkansas, but it’s 2013.

This is Mitch Walton’s response:

Sloan-Hendrix has had individuals to speak at graduation in the past. Contrary to what has been said, no invitation was extended this year to anyone. As superintendent, I have the authority to decide about who the speaker will be or whether we have a speaker at all. The school board does not vote on speakers for graduation.

This year, Mr. Steve Huddleston, a board member, suggested his son as a speaker. Bryant Huddleston graduated from Sloan-Hendrix in 1990 and went on to success in the entertainment industry. He was never invited by me to be the graduation speaker. After visiting informally with board members, no agreement was reached as to who should be invited to speak. Therefore, my decision was to do what had been discussed in the past—to discontinue the use of outside speakers and thereby shorten an already lengthy graduation program.

Sloan-Hendrix has exceptional graduates. Graduation this year and in the future will feature only student speakers. Graduation is a celebration of the accomplishments of Sloan- Hendrix students and a time to let those students shine for their families and the community at large. We welcome the presence of everyone in the community to share in this event.

Sincerely,

Mitch Walton

Superintendent Sloan-Hendrix School District

Funny, that.

Walton says they’ve always used outside speakers at graduation. He admits that Bryant’s father, Steve Huddleston, a board member, suggested his son as a speaker, but then says no one talked about it after that.

Is that odd only to me? They’ve always used outside speakers, until this year, when a gay man is suggested, and then suddenly Mitch Walton decides to abolish the practice and just let students speak.

I hope the students do speak, and I hope they speak about Mitch Walton’s apparent discomfort with having a gay man speak at graduation, because, guess what y’all, lots of gay folks graduate high school; lotsa gay folks go on to have something worthwhile to pass on to future generations of people. And, as Bryant Huddleston said, he wasn’t going there on a recruitment mission, he wanted to talk about his time at school, and how it made him the man he is today.

Not a gay man, because he was already gay when he was in high school, but how it made him a man. Too bad Mitch Walton, and those other board members, never got that lesson.

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Sunday Funnies

I Ain't One To Gossip, But ...

Okay, so People Magazine made a deal with Paltrow's publicist to name her 'Most Beautiful Woman' while at the same time the People Of The World named her the 'Most Hated Celebrity' but I'd like to nominate her for the I-Think-People-Are-So-Stupid-They’ll-Believe-Whatever-Comes-Out-Of-My-Mouth award.

See, this week Gwyneth Paltrow attended the premiere of Iron Man 3 wearing a rather hideous dress with sheer side panels and wack-a-doodie sleeves. And then she played like she had no idea her flabby ass cheeks were exposed, telling Ellen:

 “I had kind of a disaster. I was doing a show and I changed there and I went and I couldn’t wear underwear. Well, let’s just say everyone went scrambling for a razor… I went from being the most beautiful to the most humiliated. In one day.”

Um, simmer down sir. Most beautiful? Hardly. Best paid publicist? Of course.

But here’s my issue: you know damn well Paltrow saw a slew of dresses to wear to her big event, and you know damn well she tried many of them on, especially the one she chose, in case it needed alterations.So the whole Oops, there goes my ass bit is another Paltrow lie. As for the ‘scrambling for a razor’ line.

Yuck. She makes me pine for Lohan news ….

Speaking of ….

Lindsay Lohan has ALLEGEDLY blown off yet another legal case as she readies herself for court-ordered rehab—that story below.

See, Lohan was sued last year by Nubia Del Carmen Preza, who claims that, back in 2010, Lindsay ran a red light, injuring her and barely missing the baby stroller she was pushing back. The nanny’s lawyer filed legal docs demanding that Lindsay answer certain questions about the incident, but apparently Lindsay blew it off and never responded.

Stop and ponder those questions: did you hit me? Where was the water bottle of vodka? Did you say someone else was driving yet you were the only one in the car? What happened to your lips? Hell, what happened to your career.

A hearing is set for May 8 where a judge will decide whether to fine Lohan for ignoring the questions. Now, Lohan won’t be in court that day because, this time she has a good reason: locked up in rehab.

Now, on to someone who could have been Lohan if she had any talent to mix in with her drinking and drugging and idiotic behavior. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you Tara Reid. It seems Tara wants everyone to know that she is not friends with Lindsay Lohan, telling TMZ, “We don’t really like each other that much.” And then adding, like this is a good thing:

“If I get drunk, I’m a happy drunk, you know? When she gets drunk, she’s just mean. She’s so paranoid, she takes her drink anytime someone thinks she has a camera phone on, and drops it in the ice bucket … I think this girl gets chance, after chance, after chance, after chance. I just feel like … she keeps getting to move onto different stories and my stories that are bad about me keep getting stuck with me.”

She has a point that Lohan has had too many chances, but Lohan at least had a viable career before she tanked. Reid is most well-known for cheesy films and baring a surgically altered breast on the red carpet and not knowing it was exposed because, A] she was too drunk, or B] the surgical scars were numb to the cold temperatures so she couldn’t feel her breast jiggling in the breeze, or, C] A & B.

Tara Reid, you sir, are no Lindsay Lohan. Consider yourself lucky.

When she's not trying to censor the Internet of ugly pictures of herself, or wearing a rubber baby pregnancy bump—c’mon you saw that video, you know it—or writing, producing, directing and starring in a documentary about herself, Beyoncé outdoes JLo on the tour rider requests, proving she is the biggest narcissistic diva out there.

One of her requests? $900 worth of drinking straws for her dressing rooms. See, Beyoncé needs $900 for titanium straws, which will be used to drink a special alkaline water that's served at exactly 21 degrees. The temperature of her heart, I think.

She also demands that her entire crew, from drivers to set riggers and roadies, wear only 100% pure cotton to save her from allergic reactions. In addition, she must have plain off-white walls in her dressing rooms, with a new toilet seat at every event, and she will only use red toilet paper. Say what?

Plus, there’s also the demand for a the hand-carved ice-ball to suck after every performance to cool her throat, along with the banning of junk food in favor of glass platters of almonds, oatcakes and green-only crudités.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Beyoncé’s demands have been made public. For her Super Bowl performance, she ALLEGEDLY demanded that Blue Ivy's $22,000 cedar crib be shipped from New York to New Orleans, and her personal dressing room be stocked with $6,000 worth of imported cigars and alcohol for her husband Jay-Z. 

To her, um, credit[?] Beyoncé feels these small requests help her create a fantastic performance because, you know, girl can’t thrust her hips unless she knows there’s a grand in titanium straws backstage.

An insider—and it’s probably Jay-Z because his hand is everywhere—says, "She's extremely regimented and is taking everything extremely seriously, so she expects her list of demands to be adhered too and every detail be taken in. Working so hard and with the toll the travel takes on her body in addition to the intense shows, she feels that her requests aren't too much to ask for as she wants to ensure everything goes to plan."

Uh huh. In plain speak, it means she’s a controlling diva who needs to be pampered or else she throws a fit.

Okay, back to Lohan, who skipped out on rehab as we speak ...more on that further down .....

But, before not going in there were lots of things to do. Pay all those pesky household expenses? No. Call family and friends and have a little chat? Not so much.

As she readied herself for Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach, Calif.—where she was ALLEGEDLY headed in 2010 for another court-ordered rehab sentence before checking into UCLA Medical Center, followed by the Betty Ford Center—she made sure she's properly packed.

Lohan actually posted a photo on her Instagram showing herself sitting among endless piles of clothes in her apartment with the caption: "90 days and 270 looks."

That’s right: her key chore before going to rehab for drinking and drugging and general criminal behavior, was to make sure she would never be seen in the same outfit twice.

You cannot choose your parents, though I bet Katy Perry wishes you could return them.

It seems that while her parents, Keith and Mary, have made a nice living off their daughter’s name by circumventing the globe to speak at churches and publicizing themselves as “Katy Perry’s parents” they also spend a great deal of their time criticizing their paycheck’s daughter’s choice of career because they hoped she’d be a faith healer. Hmmm. Faith healer? Pop star? Which one makes the most money so Mom and Dad never have to work again?

And while they take her money and live the good life, Katy’s dad, Keith, likes to denigrate his daughter at every turn. He once said she would be going to Hell for singing about being a fake lesbian in ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and now he’s talking some more.

He’s actually calling his paycheck daughter a “devil child” and said in one of his ‘sermons,’ “I was at a concert of Katy’s where there were 20,000. I’m watching this generation and they were going at it. It almost looked like church. I stood there and wept and kept on weeping and weeping. They’re loving and worshipping the wrong thing.”

Then he and his wife ask for donations—“not one or two dollars, but 20s”—so they can continue on to Switzerland and lambast their paycheck daughter. They even go so far as asking people to “pray for Katy.”

Pray she keeps working and sending those checks so Daddy can go on the road and call her a Devil.

Speaking of God-awful parents, let’s check in on Demi Moore.

She seems to be getting on with her life after her grandson/husband cheated on her and then divorced her and after she had a mishap with Whip-Its and ended up in rehab and then hid herself away like this century’s Norma Desmond.

She recently resurfaced looking healthy, happy and like she was over Ashton and ready to move on with a new love, who, this time, is 18 years her junior, entrepreneur Harry Morton. You might remember Harry has also dated Lindsay Lohan, but what you may not know is that Harry also dated Demi’s oldest daughter, Rumer.

Yup, Mama’s schtupping her daughter’s ex-boyfriend.

And, in fact, she has moved Harry into her home and if history repeats itself, Harry Morton might just become his former girlfriend’s StepBoyfriendDaddy.

Here’s the latest Lohan scoop:

• She rejected a rehab facility in the Hamptons because they wouldn’t let her smoke.
• She said she would go to Morningside rehab in Newport Beach, California, but waited until the last possible minute to fly from New York to LA.
• Her lawyer and the prosecutor met with the judge in an emergency hearing because no one had signed off on this new rehab, but then the judge Okayed the change.
• Then we heard that Lohan had checked in at Morningside and the checked herself right back out—must have been a hot party goin’ on in town.
• The truth is that Lindsay never checked into Morningside at all; she showed up outside in an SUV, sat in the car for a hot minute, and then drove off, and went shopping at a Fry's Electronics in the valley instead. She must think retail therapy counts as rehab. That's Lohan up there, at Fry's.
• This morning the LA city attorney is going before the judge to ask for an arrest warrant.
• Lohan is begging, b-e-g-g-i-n-g, her former attorney—the one she never paid and then fired—Shawn Holley to return as her lawyer because she is pissed off at Mark Heller for recommending Morningside.
• Holley has agreed to take Lohan back—and apparently plan on never getting paid—and has, in fact, been in touch with prosecutors, trying to get them to agree to a rehab facility other than Morningside.
• It seems Lohan has been cleared by the judge to check into the Betty Ford center, again, in a deal brokered by Shawn Holley, though it’s unclear if she ever checked in there either.
• A source—Hey Dina—claims Lohan didn’t want to go to Morningside because they would not meet her list of demands, like, she needed her cell phone with her at all times; I mean, how else do you score an eight ball.

So, as of now, Lohan is going back to Betty Ford at some point, where she is allowed day passes, and probably cocktail tickets at the nearest bar. But, remember, this is the same place where she tried to clean herself up a few years ago and ALLEGEDLY, after breaking her curfew one night, when one of the staffers tried to stop her, Lindsay beat the woman with a phone.

Stay tuned.

Good News Friday: Jacob Stallman Takes Back His Life

Jacob, Jake, Stallman is gay. In fact, he's known he's been gay for a long time and endured years of bullying about it. But Jake is not letting the bullies win. Jake is taking back his life, and is talking to others who have been, or are being, bullied at his blog on Matthew's Place, called Jake's Place.
This is his story:

“Your son is a fag, and we are coming to kill him.”

Those were the words said to my mother about me the day after the local newspaper printed my mom’s story about her fight against bullying. My name is Jacob Stallman — Jake for short. I am 17 years old and in high school in a small town in Iowa. I came out to my mom in 7th grade.

It was a scary process. I didn’t know if she was going to hate me or love me the same. I was wrong because she ended up loving me more. Being gay is just a part of who I am. The night I received the death threat I just couldn’t understand how someone could hate another person so much that they would want to kill him. Ever since, I have been busy with interviews with radio stations and newspapers, and with my mom’s help, we got my story out there.

I know what it feels like to want to end your life. I have thought of killing myself three times. I know that hearing “it is going to get better” sucks; you want it to get better NOW! I was just like that. It is a slow process, but it’s like climbing a huge hill — once you get up to the top you have the best view ever. Climbing that hill and all that work only makes it more enjoyable. The same goes with it gets better. It makes your life better; it is a boost to keep you going.

My friend has recently convinced me to try out for cheerleading. I am now going to start weight lifting, and I am getting stronger. I am doing this because my school has no male cheerleaders. I am going to change that  — I hope!

My blog’s name is “Jake’s Place.” This is a place to feel safe. Send me an email, ask me a question, and I will answer them in my next blog entry. No one should ever feel alone. I am here to help. You are all amazing, and even if you don’t have any questions, shoot me an email at stallman (dot) jacob63 (at) gmail (dot) com and tell me your story. I am all ears.

Congratulations Jake, and what you're doing is an amazing thing.
Stand up, be proud of who you are and no one will ever be able to bully you again.

Consuelo Roca-Jones

'Bring me a glass cutter!'