Tonight's anticipated HBO premiere of True Blood — from creator Alan Ball, of the excellent Six Feet Under — introduces us to a race of vampires, who have made themselves known publicly after centuries in the shadows. They even have an official organization, with representatives making the TV rounds! Indeed, the vampires are considered a "race"; this is how Ball intentionally conceived of the bloodsuckers. And now that the vampires just want to fit in, they're going to face the same civil rights stuggle that, say, blacks and women, and yep, even us gays, have faced. Which means, aside from the obvious vampire questions — Can they survive daylight? What kills them? — there are plenty of opportunities to discuss racial things like inter-vampire dating and sex, and whether vampires should enjoy the sames rights as the mortal/human race. It also let's Ball have an enormous amount of fun with manipulating the current status quo to fit this vampire world.

Example 1: The "God Hates Fangs" sign seen here (click to enlarge). "God hates fags" has adorned many a church marquee and protester sign. This "God Hates Fangs" sign appears in the show's opening sequence. As you might imagine, there are some folks who just don't approve of the immortal.

Example 2: "Coming out of the coffin." Much as the gays must come out of the closet, vamps must bust through a wooden door of their own. The show's lead, Anna Paquin's Sookie Stackhouse, utters the line in the series premiere (if our memory serves us right).

Curious about rumors that MSNBC's Chris Matthews will soon run for Senate, Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal asked the MSNBC news man where he stands on gay marriage.

Matthews sort of skirted the issue. First he declared, "I always start with freedom. That’s where I start on every issue," because that's where the constitution begins. Then Matthews said he has an "open heart" about this "evolving issue" and "will have to live with it." Again, that's confusing.

Hoping to get something relatively coherent, Segal continued pressing for a more robust response, to which Matthews replied, "I can answer it the way I have, which is any fucking way I want. I can answer in my way even if it isn’t your way."

Well, we've heard the just released audio, which we've included below, given it a thorough listen and, well, the Queerty team's torn on what to make of this all!

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A roving gang of reporters cornered Jesse Ventura at the Republican National Convention Ron Paul's Rally For The Republic this week. Panicked, Ventura did what any self-respecting maverick would do: he started blasting big government's perverse fascination with same-sex marriage!

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Who doesn't love a song that consists primarily of the lyrics "Everybody's dancin' and truckin', Everybody's swingin' and fuckin'"? That said, here's Commander Cody with "Everybody's Doin' It."

Oh, yes!

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin - the most tabloid ready politician ever - may soon have another full blown scandal. We've all heard about the unwed pregnant daughter and Palin's attempts to get revenge on her sister's ex-husband, a state trooper the Governor allegedly tried to get sacked because divorces are messy and revenge is fun.

Well, the National Enquirer reported this week that Palin had an affair with her husband Todd's ex-business partner. The McCain camp's absolutely livid about the tale and have their lawyers working every angle to clear up this "smear." Meanwhile, up in Alaska, Palin's alleged beau's legal team's working overtime to get his divorce records sealed tighter than an abstinent girl!

Two Bosnian imams are in an absolute tizzy over a gay film and art festival going down in Sarajevo next month.

Seid Smajkic and Sulejman Bulgari of Mostar are not only angry that the gays are going to flaunt their stuff, but they're doing so during the holy month of Ramadan, a big holiday in Bosnia, which is 85% Muslim.

While they don't advocate violence, the men have come out to condemn the homo happenings:

"We will not grab them by the neck on the street, but we have to say: This is immoral … a promotion of ideas that are in violation with religion," Seid Smajkic, an imam from the southern city of Mostar, was quoted as saying in Friday's Dnevni Avaz, a daily newspaper.

Another local imam, Sulejman Bulgari, said on television Thursday night that the Quran forbids homosexuality and that the holy book is clear about that.
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Several posters have appeared in the streets of Sarajevo this week, saying "Death to Gays." Police quickly removed them.
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Slobodanka Dakic, an activist of the Bosnian Q Association, a festival organizer that promotes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual rights, said there was no plan to antagonize anyone. But she also said the event will not be canceled nor rescheduled because of Ramadan.

Bosnia is supposed to be a secular society in which events are not planned according to religious calendars, she said at a news conference in Mostar.

Mustafa Ceric, the leader of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, has remained mum on the matter.

We foolishly thought that the McGreeveys would go away after finalizing their divorce last month. We were wrong.

Former New Jersey first lady Dina Matos' lawyer announced today that his client will drop "sexual fraud" charges against her gay ex-husband - for a price, of course…

A lawyer for former Gov. James McGreevey’s ex-wife said Thursday she will drop a charge that she was duped into marrying him if he agrees to pay her $109,000 a judge says he owes.

Dina Matos’ lawyer John Post said the fraud claim filed by his client will be dropped if McGreevey makes full payment and agrees not to appeal the judge’s divorce ruling.

That drew an immediate rebuke from McGreevey lawyer Steve Haller, who said, “we will appeal or not appeal at our own discretion.”

A private meeting with the judge in the case is scheduled for Monday.

We can hardly wait.

Australian singer Jack Ladder calls this song "Black Hole Blues," but we find it queerly joyful.