Morning Meme: Westboro vs. Cos-Players, Brad Rowe's Heading To Port Charles, and "Dragon Age" Changes Gay Gameplay

Plus gay gangsters fly commercial, Pixar consults on new Muppet film, and Derrick Martin tells his story.

One year ago today, our community lost a giant of literature, E. Lynn Harris. We are poorer for his passing.

According to the UK tabloid The Sun, we’re in for a new Spice Girls movie. It’s more like a Mamma Mia! Treatment, with their music being used to tell a story, much like the West End musical, Viva Forever. Brits – I have to ask: Is this in retaliation for Justin Bieber? Because you should really blame Canada for that.

When I was younger, being able to make my own glow sticks would have saved me some serious shopping before the weekend.

Dragon Age: Origins has released a major patch, but one of the things it fixes might be considered a bug, especially by the gaymers. Once you apply the patch, the game will no longer allow “your female character to have sex with Morrigan, impregnating her with dead Alistair's baby."

It’s official, Joss Whedon is directing The Avengers.

Climate change is creating “super marmots.” This is not something I knew I was supposed to be frightened of. I’ll be adding it to the list right below an attack of killer tomatoes.

Hunky Brad Rowe, who has starred in a number of gay roles such as Shelter and Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss, is set to join General Hospital as an internationally famous film star involved with a (female) supermodel.

Justin Bieber is set to guest star on CSI as a troubled teen. This makes sense because he fits so well with the CSI demographic of old people who like to yell at troubled teens to “Get off my lawn!”

Gay geek comic author Brian Andersen is attending Comic-Con and got a profile in San Diego GLBT Times.

Guillermo del Toro quit The Hobbit to make a movie based on Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. I don’t even care that much about Tolkien, and I’m weeping over this.

Lt. Dan Choi has received formal notification of his honorable discharge, and has released a statement. He’s also noted that he’s aware his use of the uniform from this point is extremely limited.

In a rather strange tactic, the ACLU is suing Montana, seeking domestic partnerships. The state has a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. I’m not qualified to speak to the logic being used, but Chris Geidner is.

I am feeling so much better about the new Muppet movie now that I’ve learned Jason Segel flew to Emeryville, CA to talk to the brain trust at Pixar about the story. Pixar knows storytelling, and how to make sure the movie has heart.

To people who don’t read my definitive Twitterwatch, these are the 28 Best Fictional Characters on Twitter.

An Amish teen led police on a presumably low-speed chase after he ran a stop sign in his horse and buggy. He eventually rolled the buggy and fled on foot. But the story gets my eternal love for wondering if the horse was a white bronco.

EastEnders is being criticized for a scene where a frustrated Syed slams the Koran down on a table.

Out Australian radio host and newly single dude Tom Ballard lived my dream and interviewed Elmo in studio. He actually got to touch a Muppet. I am so jealous. They got photos with him, and a twelve minute audio interview.

Adult film companies (later identified as Lucas Entertainment) have joined forces with law firms and sent out pre-settlement letters to file sharers, asking for payment to avoid a lawsuit. The story alleges a much higher success rate than with mainstream movies or music, because people are ashamed to be outed as having anything to do with gay adult films.

The Bilerico Project’s Waymon Hudson interviews Georgia teen Derrick Martin about prom, his family, his boyfriend, and his new outreach project. If you need hope for the future, it’s right there in this kid.

Stonewall claims that the representation of gays on television in the UK is overwhelmingly negative. In one sample they found “BBC One transmitted 44 seconds of positive and realistic portrayal of gay people in more than 39 hours of output.”

In related news, GLAAD sent over their 2010 Network Responsibility Index rating the networks on what percentage of their original programming carries GLBT representation. MTV became the first network to ever earn a grade of “Excellent” for the 42% of their programming carrying GLBT representation. We’ll be discussing the findings of the GLAAD report next week in a series of posts looking at the different networks, and expanding on the GLAAD findings.