• Iranian police warned shopkeepers today not to use any mannequins with visible curves. Mannequins are also barred from appearing in windows without a headscarf. • In response to an abysmally low conviction rate for reported rapes, British officials have ordered a review of how rape victims are treated by authorities from the moment they report the assault onward. • Elizaveta Mukasei, who, with her husband, Mikhail, spied during the cold war for the KGB, has died at 97. The New York Times calls the Mukaseis "one of the most famous husband-and-wife duos in the history of espionage." • A new study reveals that more adults than previously thought (three out of five) have suffered from depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction or marijuana abuse at some point in their lives. Previous studies had placed the number much lower, but they also did not follow participants over time, which doctors believe has lead to a more accurate picture of American's mental health. • Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who is a Yankees fan, is scheduled to throw out the first pitch on Saturday before New York's game against the Boston Red Sox. • A three-year custody battle over Dexter the pug has finally come to a close. A judge ruled that the dog will spend five weeks at a time with each of his owners. • Swedish female soldiers are demanding that the military provide them with combat-tested bras because the sports bras they're forced to buy unhook too easily. Men are provided with military-issue underwear, but there are no military-issue bras, so women have to buy their own. • According to the Census Bureau, 27% of gay couples say they are in a relationship "akin to husband-and-wife." This number is much higher than the number of gay couples who have been legally married, and analysts say it reflects the couples who would get married if they were granted equal rights. However, there were fewer same-sex couples reported this year than last, but that may be because fewer straight couples checked the wrong box on their forms. • Researchers have found that mice who are fed alcohol at a young age are more likely to make stupid decisions when they reach adulthood. Although this does not mean people who drink as teens grow up to be risk-takers, it does open up the possibility that the two things are related. • Tanning salons generally do not allow minors to visit without parental permission, but once they are in the door, they do not limit the number of tanning sessions allowed, a recent undercover operation found. •  A girls school in Pakistan was the target of another terrorist attack this Tuesday. Authorities believe the building was blown up by Islamist militants. • Researchers say when people are stressed they actually choose less familiar foods rather than "comfort foods." Study participants were asked to rate the level of change in their lives, then choose between American potato chips and British chips with odd flavors like Camembert and plum. Those experiencing more change were more likely to choose the unusual chips. • Australia's parliament will debate a bill that will decide whether two Kenyan woman can stay in the country as refugees, or if they will be forced to return and undergo female genital mutilation. Grace Gichuhi is seeking asylum because the Mungiki sect that killed her mother for refusing FGM wants to murder her for the same reason. She and fellow Kenyan Teresia Ndikaru Muturi both fled the country, but they'll be deported unless the parliament votes to expand refugee protection laws. • Researchers say people who are dieting should beware of naturally skinny friends who eat too much. 210 students participated in experiments in which a thin or overweight researcher ate snacks with them while watching a movie. The subject's portion choices mimicked the researcher's, but they adjusted and took a smaller portion if the researcher was overweight. • British Attorney General Baroness Scotland has been fined £5,000 for employing a housekeeper who wasn't allowed to work in the U.K. She didn't know it when she hired the housekeeper, but didn't keep a copy of her documents as required by law. • More women are murdered by men in Louisiana than anywhere else in the United States, according to a report from the Violence Policy Center. The national rate of women being murdered by men is 1.3 per 100,000, but in 2007 Louisiana's rate was 2.53 per 100,000. Alaska and Wyoming had the second and third highest rates. • A 19-year-old Indian girl confessed that she and her 20-year-old boyfriend strangled seven members of her family who opposed their relationship. They are charged with murdering her mother, father, grandmother, and four other relatives after lacing the family meal with a sedative. The family wouldn't let them marry because they belong to the same gotra, a group descended from a common ancestor. • Ron Paul on his appearance in the film Brüno: "I don't feel good about it because I was the subject of a trick, and nobody likes to be tricked. I understand they're not making a tremendous amount of money off this movie, so maybe the American people aren't as cynical as they assumed." •

[San Francisco, May 26. Image via Getty]

SAN FRANCISCO - MAY 26: Kerri McCoy (L) and her partner Erin Carder embrace following the California Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Proposition 8 May 26, 2009 in San Francisco, California. The California State Supreme Court voted 6-1 to uphold proposition 8 which makes it illegal for same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. More than 18,000 same-sex couples that wed before prop 8 was voted in will still be legally married. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

5.) Anal Is Optional Some gay men I know who are in their mid to late 20s have never had anal sex and don't really ever want to. Maybe they just haven't met that special guy to lose their anal virginity to, or maybe they are correct in the assessment that it just isn't for them. (I wouldn't know about pitching, but catching can hurt like a motherfucker.) Other gay guys I know only have anal sex with someone They're really close to. In this day and age where porn is so pervasive, people feel required to be a little more adventurous (which can be a good thing!), but just because you're open to trying new things, doesn't mean that your asshole is. And forcing the issue can lead to rectal bleeding.

4.) Sex Can Be Expected Or A Given For the most part, when gay men go on a date, or hook up with someone they've met on the internet or whatever, both parties assume (and hope) that the end result of the evening will be sex. I totally get this. Particularly because, personally, I would never be alone with a man unless I'd already decided that I wanted to fuck him, and also because I don't see the point in holding in my farts around someone all night long unless I got something out of it. Camille Paglia has said that "one of the costs of modern feminism is that women must be like gay men who understand that every date is a sexual encounter," adding that the way for women to be safe in our sexual relationships is to acknowledge and accept that it's dangerous territory, and to be equipped to deal with all that that entails. She's said, "Everyone in the gay male world knows that the price of sexual adventure can be death, so I am tired of young women regarding themselves as a special class that somehow wants a perfect experience."

3.) Stay Friendly With Former Lovers Every gay guy I have ever met stays friendly with at least some of his former hookups. Sometimes they become really close friends. Sometimes the old flames (heh) set them up with other guys they'd slept with, acknowledging that they are much better suited for each other. Sometimes they have sex with their ex-BF's ex-BFs. It's called "six degrees of Kevin's bacon." This might just be a New York thing, I dunno. But it's kind of a good idea. I say, yes, stay friendly with past hookups — and eliminate any jealous feelings — especially if they're hot or really genuine, because birds of a feather and all that. They might be able to set you up with someone else that you can actually date long term.

2.) Dominant/Submissive Roles With most gay couples there is a top and there is a bottom. But there is a give-and-take aspect to pretty much all sexual relationships across the board. In straight relationships, there seems to be this embarrassment for "progressive" people about a man taking the dominant role and a woman taking the submissive role. It's like the parties involved are afraid they'll set the women's movement back 50 years if a girl's hair gets pulled, or if her ass gets smacked, or if she's told what to do in bed. As long it's between consenting adults, no one should feel bad about what turns them on. Gay men don't have this problem of dividing the sexual power play.

1.) Resolving Our Sexual Selves With the Rest of Our Lives Identifying as gay means that your sex life helps defines who you are way more than it does for straight people. Perhaps having it so out there is why it's so much easier for gay men to embrace their sexuality while also embracing other facets of their lives, like for example, domesticity. Maybe it's part of the whole virgin/whore thing, but people find it weird when hyper-sexual women are also into things like, say, homemaking. It's totally accepted that gay men can be equally psyched about going to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and sniffing out a sale on pillows and matching damasks, and going to bed and having marathon sex (maybe in a threesome?). But people still have this stereotype in their minds of what a woman who enjoys filthy sex should be like. We should all accept that women, too, are multi-faceted creatures who might be into sucking a dick one night, and tatting a doily another; nailing a picture to the wall one night, or getting nailed against a wall another.

Earlier: Mad Men: Don Draper Dominates Dames