AfterElton Briefs: Soccer's Sexy Stars, Derrick Martin Attends WeHo Pride, and Gay Days Gets "Time" Treatment

Plus Broadway Bares announces special guests, Tony Awards ratings down, and James Franco continues to confuse and confound.

Contestants for Mr. Gay Netherlands

• The kind folks at Mr. Gay Netherlands know me all too well and sent over the above picture of a pile of hot men who make up the 12 finalists this year. They include a Palestinian Muslim and an Israeli Jew according to the press release, so perhaps a peace accord can be hammered out? Final judging takes place August 6th, but while one of these guys may be the winner, I don't see any losers.

• Today's Briefs are very soccer-centric, so we'll get right to the news that soccer has officially come out as gay to TheOnion.com.

• British goalie Joe Hart is adorable, and after Robert Green's oopsie over the weekend vs. USA, he's probably the new starter. He's also a gay icon according to the Daily Star. He recently got a gift of green Aussie Bum undies from a male fan. He has in the past been caught on film dancing in his underwear in hotel rooms.

Plus, he's very flexible.

• The Washington Post reports that the current state of repeal for Don't Ask/Don't Tell has commanders on the ground hesitant to enforce the policy, and scared not to. Some investigations go into the bottom of a desk drawer as they await guidance, causing what must be unbelievable stress on the troops being investigated.

• It seems U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is trying to do more for gay rights in Africa than just getting the recently imprisoned men in Malawi released. He's also working with the president in Uganda on their infamous 'kill the gays" law.

• The NewNowNext Awards air this week, and Logo's John Polly went backstage to talk to OMFG Internet Awards nominees Hunter and Jessica. 

• I was really enjoying Time's profile on Disney Gay Days (which the park doesn't officially sanction), until they made it a point to twice mention illegal substances being consumed, and had the anonymous source who said Disney would issue refunds or free next-day tickets to families offended by all the red shirted gays hugging Donald Duck. Now I'm mad at Time and Disney.

• Derrick Martin, whose schoolteacher father kicked him out of the house for wanting to take his boyfriend Richard Goodman to prom went to the Life Out Loud event at Pride in Hollywood. He's one heck of a kid, and I feel lazy after hearing his commitment to equality. Said Martin, "Definitely. I’ll march on any street in any town, whatever I have to do." He and his boyfriend look adorable in their NOH8 shirts.

• I can't show you New York City's Naked Bike Ride directly, and it should be obvious it might be NSFW, but the BP protest did prove that good looking people do get naked in public, contrary to most nude beaches I've seen.

• World of Wonder ran into James Franco and Kalup Linzy (from the odd Campari party) at Pride in WeHo, and filmed them about their upcoming collaborations, which include art installations, and Kalup appearing on General Hospital with Franco.

• Nellie's Sports Bar in DC became the only gay bar to apply for special permission to open at 7am for the World Cup under special emergency legislation introduced by out Council Member Jim Graham.

• In a profile on Freddie Ljungberg, the retired Swedish soccer player and Calvin Klein underwear model says he's proud to be mistaken as gay:

There’s been a gay rumor for a long time. I don’t mind at all. I am proud of that. I love fashion, and I think so many gay people have amazing style. So that is a compliment to me. I really don’t know why people are so interested. I just made a decision that I won’t talk about it.

Part of Freddie's resume.

• DeGrassi: The Next Generation alum Drake seems a little less than grateful for the experience, which I think is fairly sad. Adamo Ruggerio always seemed to appreciate where he came from.

I'm just grateful [that] I'm not just the kid off DeGrassi anymore. Everybody on DeGrassi, the producers, made us feel DeGrassi was the biggest thing we would ever do in our lives, like that was the end of the road for all of us

• The Tony Awards broadcast was down 6% in viewers from last year. While I was really pleased with Sean Hayes hosting, he probably didn't have the heat coming in that Neil Patrick Harris was riding last year when he hosted.

• Broadway Bares XX Strip-opoly has announced their Special Guests, i.e. folks the target audience doesn't want to see naked. On the list are Bruce Vilanch, Vanessa Williams, Kristin Chenoweth, and my new hero after last night's Tony Awards speech, Kate Finneran.

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