Fast Five Fix: March 8

A majority of Maine voters support same-sex marriage, but polling shows the exact ballot language confuses people. To help you understand, here's an infographic that took 2 hours to make and crashed our computers twice. (Washington Blade graphic by Phil Reese)

Good morning! As the java sinks in — along with word from ThinkProgress that DC just made it a whole lot easier for out of state gays to have messy, expensive split-ups (that’s the sound of lawyers cheering!) — here’s the gay news that’s got us jabbering today:

• JoeMyGod tips us off to several pieces of HIV treatment and prevention news: FIRST, Gilead is preparing to release a four-in-one med called “Quad” (creative!) that will rival Atripla’s safety and effectiveness, without the neurological side effects, and with higher achievement of target levels of HIV (but more nausea); ALSO, are we on the verge of having an effective monthly injection HIV prevention regiment?
• As seen above, ThinkProgress alerts us to a new PPP poll that says Maine voters are cool with extending marriage rights to same-sex couples… but aren’t really sure about the ballot language that’s been chosen to do so. That’s why its very important that the gays in Maine start making commercials that just say “Yes!”
• Over 100,000 have signed a Change.org petition asking President Obama to deliver an executive order barring LGBT employment discrimination with Federal contractors. And growing.
• AMERICAblog Gay thinks the far right is getting desperate in North Carolina: might we actually beat back an anti-gay ballot measure in the south?
• UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon has called for member states to stop LGBT discrimination during a historic human rights council hearing, according to ThinkProgress.

Finally, this video that Towleroad shared with us is really hard to watch. A nightclub bouncer at a gay bar in West Hollywood drops some homophobic slurs on a decidedly drunk and unruly gay patron, and appears to punch him several times while telling him to “stop struggling.” Is this gay-on-gay crime, or have some gay bars slipped and hired some unenlightened straight homophobes to handle their security?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAozn3Qt3hk

The transcript courtesy Towleroad:

“Look at my face man,” the victim says, “-they f**ked me up.”

One of two men holding him down says: “F**k your face. I don’t give a shit about your face.”

Victim: “Trust me please I didn’t start the sh*t. I was with my boyfriend. I’m a gay boy.”

Face down on the ground, he tries to look up at his captors. One of them says:

“Yeah well your a f**kin’ [unintelligible] … Stop f**kin’ struggling motherfucker. ”

“Stop resisting,” one of the men says. “Stay still motherf**ker.”

Then one of the captors unleashes this: “Stop fuckin’ moving you c*cks**ker.”

Just then a security guard with a badge walks up, and one of the captors says, “Hey can we get some cuffs please.”

“Stay where you are motherf**ker,” the victim is told. “Shut up.”