WARNING: This post contains sexually explicit language. Please read on at your own discretion.

Last weekend I watched a TV commercial aimed at women. (I was watching Lifetime, OK?) It started with a bunch of generic ideas for Valentine's Day gifts for men: a mug, cologne, a tie. The voiceover...

It's been quite the hot minute since pop culture has glorified "girl power." At least that's what Simon Cowell thinks. The concept most recognizably takes the form of a young female pop group as it skyrockets to the top of the charts.

Now not since Beyonce decided Destiny had only one...

The holiday season is officially here, which can only mean one thing -- a sense of unaccomplishment as another calendar year comes to an end. Are you finding yourself asking, where did 2012 go? I should have traveled more, taken more pictures, gotten back into reading, finished my dream project,...

"Chang puak kird ni pa," say the friendly Thai locals. In English the phrase's literal translation employs the evocative imagery of baby white elephants to signify that the best things in life are difficult to find. Fortunately in a country so devoted to the art of relaxation, it is not...

1. Forget about the deficit, the problem is personal debt: Whereas the national deficit will probably never affect us on a personal level, credit card debt has been the real financial detriment of my generation. Immediately after reaching any semblance of accountable credit (mostly through cell phone plans), we get...

Chris Crocker will always be a byproduct of Britney Spears. And it's easy to hate him for that, as easy as it is to hate Paris Hilton, Perez Hilton and anyone on reality TV. In the new documentary Me at the Zoo, premiering tonight on HBO, I got the sense...

There comes a time in every It Boy's life when he must explore beyond his bright lights, big city. That time is usually the second (or third) weekend in April, when the prospect of high-intensity live music drives you out of the comforts of your urban bubble to the scorching...

I have a photo of myself, wet and shirtless, standing in front of a mirror. I have another photo of me flexing while licking my bicep. A third photo is a closeup of my face, pouty lips, my Marlon Brando. These photos are hidden in a folder on my computer...

Gay coming-out novels are a dime a dozen. But The World of Normal Boys is something else. It's a detailed, play-by-play exploration into the consciousness of a 13-year-old boy as he struggles to figure out who he is meant to be.

K.M. Soehnlein's book encapsulates all the pain and pleasure...

For every teen, prom season brings up a flurry of first-time emotions: anxiety, self-doubt and the prospect of adolescent love. Will that dreamy boy ask me out? Am I good enough?

For gay teens, those emotions are magnified by the fact that we know deep down that dreamy boy will...

"Everyone you meet here in San Francisco has some anecdote about 'the wild night I ended up in SoMa,'" author Kemble Scott said back in 2007. Sure, the neighborhood has experienced a gentrified taming since then. The outdoor orgies of yesteryear have been replaced by outdoor patio furniture...

It's difficult to find anything negatively written about Justin Torres' debut fiction novel, We the Animals -- and that's probably because nothing negative has yet been written. Dorothy Allison called it, "a miracle in concentrated pages," and Michael Cunningham said it was, "a dark jewel of a book." So Torres...

Not many places in the world can be considered gay landmarks, but certainly LGBT bookstores have played a big part in cultivating our history, serving as resource centers for queer and questioning youth and fostering relationships in gayborhoods beyond one-night stands and drunken blackouts.

Unfortunately, when it comes to making...

Even before this month we had already seen Lindsay Lohan half-naked. However, her recently leaked shoot for the January issue of Playboy magazine has garnered lots of attention for the actress, the first roughly related to her career since her brief stint in the fashion industry before her last stint in rehab....

Last night, kids got naughty for the first time on Glee. The episode had a premature ejaculation of controversy, mainly because the Parents Television Council called the cherry-popping story arc "reprehensible" even before it aired. Apparently the PTC has never watched Gossip Girl or Teen Mom, where popped...

On Friday night, Chaka Khan asked the stylish crowd at the makeshift Moroccan-themed tent outside Ken Fulk's studio to join her in singing, "I'm Every Woman." But the iconic female anthem might have resonated more (albeit off-key) with the power gays than the actual women in attendance: haute couture collector...

While back in Chicago for a friend's wedding, I witnessed the city's gay community conflicted over at-risk LGBT youth and the violence they brought upon Boystown. It got me thinking about getting older, the stability of settling down, and what it means to make a family of one's own. I...

While back in Chicago for a friend's wedding, I witnessed the city's gay community conflicted over at-risk LGBT youth and the violence they brought upon Boystown. It got me thinking about getting older, the stability of settling down, and what it means to make a family of one's own. I...

While back in Chicago for a friend's wedding, I witnessed the city's gay community conflicted over at-risk LGBT youth and the violence they brought upon Boystown. It got me thinking about getting older, the stability of settling down, and what it means to make a family of one's own. I...

Last year when my friend John returned home after a yearlong stint in Afghanistan, I noticed there was something different about him. Yes, he still joked about dating a cougar, and yes, his musical taste had enriched somewhat overseas (he asked me to burn him the new Sufjan Stevens's album),...