Supporters of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus are letting their voices ring in an online contest to help the agency win $25,000. Voting continues through this week in the Southwest Airlines LUV Grants for Good poll, which is awarding $75,000 to Georgia charities.

“We are the only LGBT organization that is represented, and so we’ve been getting a lot of help from the community,” said AGMC Executive Director Crystal Anderson. The chorus has been using Facebook, Twitter and e-mail blasts to rally folks to vote online, and supporters can cast a vote each day until March 18.

In its pitch to Southwest, AGMC noted that most grantors tend to donate to service-oriented non-profits instead of arts organizations, and added that winning a grant would aid the chorus and Atlanta’s gay community.

“I think some of it will obviously go toward general operating expenses, but it would also, in the next one to three years, help us implement our strategic plan,” Anderson said. The chorus is hoping to build partnerships with metro school districts such as the Atlanta Public Schools to work on issues such as bullying and homelessness among gay youth, and is developing plans to establish a women’s ensemble to compliment the AGMC.

In addition to building support for the Southwest grant competition, AGMC is also prepping for its spring show, “Gleeful Noise: Celebrating Glee Clubs, Then & Now,” which takes place March 30-31 at the Cannon Chapel at Emory University.

Social media networks were saturated last week with a short film entitled “Kony2012,” which shone a global spotlight on Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony’s merciless treatment of citizens of the African nation over the past three decades. [See video below article]

The documentary and its massive social media campaign – coordinated by the San Diego-based charity Invisible Children – was intended to offend people’s sense of justice to the point that they would want to intervene in the Ugandan crisis. However, offensive information is arising about the source of Invisible Children’s funding, as its supporters have donated heavily to stop gay marriage in the U.S., and to advocate for the death penalty for homosexuals in Africa.

The U.K.’s Daily Mail identifies Terry and Barbara Caster as chief benefactors of Invisible Children, as is the Georgia-based National Christian Foundation:

The 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United has introduced a new beast to American politics: the Super PAC. Whereas there is a $2,500 cap for individuals donating to a presidential candidate, they can now make unlimited contributions to a Super PAC that is closely aligned – but officially unaffiliated with – that candidate.

Super PACs have thus far propelled Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential primary, and Newt Gingrich has been able to remain on life support due to gargantuan donations to his Super PAC from businessman Sheldon Adelson, who has funneled at least $10 million into Gingrich’s campaign.

Now LGBT donors are looking to consolidate their financial support of President Barack Obama through the creation of a Super PAC known as the Pride PAC. Unlike the deep-pocketed donors that have thus far defined Super PACs, the San Francisco-based gay effort is hoping to use social media to corral small donations into one million dollars by this summer.

“As we get closer to the election we want to show how powerful the LGBT community is,” Pride PAC co-founder Rose Dawydiak-Rapagnani told the Bay Area Reporter. “We can demonstrate that corporate America doesn’t lead. That is the status quo right now with the Super PACs.”

Co-founder Marcus Lovingood adds that although Obama hasn’t been perfect on LGBT issues, he is deserving of the community’s support.

“He has done more for the LGBT community in the last four years than has been done in the past 20 years,” Lovingood said. “He is fighting for us and he will continue to do so.”

A New Jersey jury will hear closing arguments this morning in the case against Dharun Ravi, then will retire to deliberate whether the Rutgers University student’s spying on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, was motivated by anti-gay bias. Days after Ravi used his webcam to watch Clementi having sex with another man, Clementi killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.

Ravi is charged with invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence and witnesses, and faces up to 10 years in prison. He is not charged in Clementi’s death, but he is charged with bias intimidation, or a hate crime, as prosecutors contend that Ravi’s cyberspying was intended to ridicule Clementi for being gay.

Ravi’s defense team wrapped up its case yesterday, with the defendant choosing not to testify.

“It’s my decision, yes,” Ravi told the judge, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Conversely, Ravi’s trial has put the scope of hate crimes laws to a new test, with legal scholars disagreeing as to whether New Jersey’s bias intimidation law was applied correctly.

The last month has been quite a drag for Lily White, one of Atlanta’s pioneers of female impersonation.

The venerable drag queen was taken to the Redmond Regional Medical Center earlier today after complaining of chest pains, and suffered a heart attack that has left him in the critical care unit for the next 24-48 hours.

“He had 100 percent blockage [to his heart],” said Charlie Brown, a close friend of Lily White’s. “He had a stent put in, and that’s all I know for now.”

Brown has been the chief organizer of fundraising efforts to help Lily White after a fire destroyed his Rome, Ga., home on Feb. 26. In addition to displacing Lily White and his elderly mother, the fire destroyed countless costumes, jewelry and other memorabilia that Lily White accumulated in more than 30 years as a drag queen.

“Oh my god, he’s been through so much,” Brown said. “When’s it going to end?”

Lily White’s hard times are even more devastating considering how generous he’s been as a drag elder: making costumes for other performers, serving as a drag mother and mentor for numerous youth, helping raise money for agencies like AID Atlanta, Brown says.

“Lily’s a pioneer of the art of female impersonation and she’s worked her ass off for our community, especially during AIDS,” Brown says. “He’s one of my best friends. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for me, and that I wouldn’t do for him.”

Up until 2003 – less than nine years ago – it was legal in certain parts of America for police officers to enter a person’s home and arrest him or her for engaging in consensual sex with a member of the same sex. Such a breathtaking injustice is easy to forget considering how rapidly the tide has turned in favor of gay rights in the decade since Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that decriminalized homosexuality.

The circumstances of Lawrence v. Texas – insight about the arrest, the two men who were charged with sodomy, the legal minefield navigated by gay rights attorneys, and culture attitudes toward homosexuality – are richly chronicled in Dale Carpenter’s “Flagrant Conduct” which arrives in bookstores today.

While the anti-sodomy laws that were still on the books in 2003 were rarely enforced, their mere existence hindered gay rights because opponents of LGBT equality could note that gay people were asking for acceptance while violating the law. The ruling in Lawrence v. Texas forever changed that dynamic, and promises to be the foundation for many legal victories the gay rights movement is set to achieve.

Although filled with the legal insight that you would expect from a law school professor, Carpenter’s book is also a captivating personal story about John Lawrence and Tyrone Garner, two of the unlikeliest characters to become civil rights heroes, as well as other key figures in the historic case.

Lawrence v. Texas is as big a milestone in the gay rights movement as Stonewall: it represents our victorious rebellion against centuries of legal oppression. Yet, the case and its significance seem to be easily forgotten (or worse, never known) and Carpenter’s book is a vital tool to helping us understand our history.

You have selected your top ten available studs (who will be revealed in our March 22 issue), and you’ll have your opportunity on March 31 to bid for dates with them during the second annual Best Bachelor Auction presented by Fenuxe Magazine and Ketel One Vodka.

Held at Raw Space in Castleberry Hill, the romantic event will offer decadent date packages for the bachelor and their winning bidders, as well as a date night auction for those who have already found their true loves. The night promises to be a smash with local celebrity Bubba D as host, some of Atlanta’s favorite drag queens as entertainment and several gorgeous models as eye candy.

And, once again, all proceeds from the auction will benefit AID Atlanta. The organization’s development director, Jon Santos, said the funds will help underwrite the expenses of AID Atlanta’s free confidential and anonymous HIV testing clinic.

“It’s one of the most valuable services we offer, since we know for a fact that getting tested helps save lives,” he said. “AID Atlanta is so thankful to everyone involved in this event. Everyone comes together to create a great event that raises significant funds and ultimately helps to save and transform lives. I am really looking forward to this year’s auction and have been saving up to buy a date!”

Photo from 2011 Best Bachelor Auction

Have we piqued your interest? Read below to see what’s in store for you and the bachelors:

Nice Package!
All of our bachelors and their winning bidders will receive a fabulous date package including dinner for two at STK, a mani/pedi, a spa session provided by Look Young Spa, theater tickets from Horizon Theatre and 7 Stages and much more!

Romantic Raffle
Did that darn guy with the deep pockets outbid you? Well, you still have a shot at winning big with the raffle. Stock up on tickets for your chance to win a hot lather and old-fashioned shave, a dinner for two at Taqueria Tsunami, a bottle of sparkly bubbly stuff (you supply your own glasses) and many more prizes.

Already Have a Man?
Well, head over to our date night auction with bids starting as low as $20. Bid on a romantic horseback riding date or a tour of Atlanta. Are you culture junkies? Then bid high and you might find yourselves at the Atlanta Opera for Don Giovanni with passes to Intermezzo to mingle with the operatic divas. Do you really want to impress your beau? Vie for two tickets, hotel and airfare to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion.

Photo from 2011 Best Bachelor Auction

Money, Money, Money
Whether you’re pinching pennies or rolling in dough, you have plenty of options for having a good time and helping out a worthy charity. General admission is $20 and includes three complimentary drinks and parking. If you can swing VIP, tickets are $75 and a special reception at 7 p.m. with the bachelors, an open bar, complimentary valet, private VIP area and bar. For those of you who want to make an entrance, the Prince Charming Package features everything from the VIP admission plus personal concierge for the evening, a limo ride and horse and carriage transportation to and from the event for $150 per ticket. And, you and a friend can pitch in to bid on a bachelor and work out who gets what if you win.

Photo from 2011 Best Bachelor Auction

Want More?
Bubba D just might pick you out of the crowd for special prizes for best first date story, best kiss, longest relationship or hottest couple. And, with some of Atlanta’s hottest drag divas escorting the bachelors down the catwalk, there will surely be a drag performance or two during the night. So be sure to keep some dollar bills in your pocket so you can make it rain! Plus, there will be booze. We’d never throw a party without our favorite signature cocktails from Ketel One, and there will be fine-as-hell bartenders on site doing what they do best.

Special Thanks
We couldn’t throw this swag shindig without some help. So we thank our presenting sponsor Ketel One Vodka, silver sponsor Piedmont Bark, bronze sponsors Nationwide Insurance and Homme Underwear, as well as our other sponsors Delta Airlines, STK, Brushstrokes, Atlanta Opera, 7 Stages, Horizon Theatre, Look Young Spa, Atlanta Rocks, Dip n Dap, and Astroglide.

A fascinating experiment combining machismo, homophobia and brutal violence begins tonight with the premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter” on FX. The mixed-martial arts series will be one of the first instances of any sport – especially a contact sport – welcoming someone with an, er, openly gay past.

Although he doesn’t identify as “family,” Dakota Cochrane admits to being gay-for-pay back in the day, making a reported $80,000 by appearing as “Danny” in Sean Cody pornos.

“It’s definitely a decision I regret,” Cochrane said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “But I had money issues and I needed help. I went there to do pictures, and they started throwing pretty high numbers in front of me. I didn’t really think. It was a big mistake. Every time I was down there, I hated it.”

If that’s the case, then Cochrane deserves an Oscar because he looked like he was in sheer delight when he was “down there” (beneath a top) in Sean Cody scenes.

So, Cochrane is no gay sports pioneer. But his past has introduced all sorts of drama even before the season of The Ultimate Fighter begins, and there is lots of intrigue about how Cochrane’s other fighter/flatmates will respond.

“”I don’t know if I have 15 homophobes here or 15 guys who could care less about it,” said Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which produces “The Ultimate Fighter.”

“It shouldn’t matter to anybody what somebody else does in their life – who they choose to be with, who they choose to spend their life,” White said. “It’s none of your [expletive] business. If you want to be the guy that wants to talk a lot of [expletive] and wants to say goofy stuff like that, you’re going to get your ass kicked on national television by the guy that you’re talking about.”

The young activists taking part in SoulForce’s “Equality Ride” close out a busy week of crisscrossing Georgia with a town hall meeting this afternoon at the Virginia Highland Baptist Church. The forum will focus on issues that particularly affect black LGBT people of faith, and takes place from 4-6:30 p.m.

SoulForce, which advocates for spiritual acceptance of LGBT people, brought its 2012 Equality Ride to Atlanta earlier this week to protest a rally supporting Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. The Equality Ride tours college campuses and religious institutions with anti-gay policies, and from Atlanta the caravan traveled to Athens to work with University of Georgia students.

On Wednesday, the Equality Riders staged a demonstration at Carver Bible College, a historically black institution in southwest Atlanta. After a three-hour vigil outside the Carver chapel, SoulForce leaders were granted a meeting with Carver President Robert Crummie, who was invited to attend today’s town hall meeting.

She’s such a proponent of gay marriage she even officiated her first one last night in New York City. Known only as Tom and Russell, the couple of 20 years won Fran’s “‘Love is Love’ Gay Marriage Contest.”

You can see Fran in action below.