The sign at J. Crew and other retailers in the city might as well read “transgender people need not apply,” an advocacy group tells the NY Daily News today.

Members of the nonprofit group Make the Road New York are rallying today in front of the preppy haven’s Fifth Ave. location to protest what they say is employment discrimination.

Julian Brolaski, above, says he was refused work.  Join him and others today, 1:15pm, 91 Fifth Ave. between 16th-17th Sts.

We’ll let the idiocy of this story, reported by the Associated Press, speak for itself:

“Former Air Force sergeant Jene (jeh-NAY’) Newsome says she played by the rules. She never told anyone in the military that she was a lesbian.

“But Newsome was discharged earlier this year under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law after Rapid City, S.D., police officers saw an Iowa marriage license in her home and told the Ellsworth Air Force Base.

“The police were at Newsome’s home in November with an arrest warrant for her partner, who was wanted on theft charges in Alaska.

“Newsome and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a complaint against the department claiming police invaded her privacy.

“Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender says Newsome was uncooperative, and the marriage license was relevant because it established the residency and the relationship of the two women.”

Read more. And weep.

GLAAD says figure-skating superstar Johnny Weir has been shut out of Stars on Ice because he’s gay.

“Johnny Weir is a two time Olympian and three time U.S. champion. Other athletes of his caliber would be granted the opportunity to perform during national tours like Stars on Ice,” the organization said in a statement yesterday.

“By choosing not to bring the performances and talent of Johnny Weir to American audiences, Stars on Ice is reinforcing an unfortunate double standard that is too often applied to gay athletes and athletes perceived to be gay.”

More at WindyCityTimes.

The first same-sex marriages got underway Thursday in Mexico City, and “the city put on quite a show” for the historic weddings, reports the Los Angeles Times.

“The ceremony took place in the columned courtyard of the 300-year-old Municipal Palace, on a stage festooned with white lilies and a larger-than-life bust of Benito Juarez. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard attended, applauding warmly and hugging all of the newlyweds, as did the heads of the city’s legislature and highest court.”

Oh, by the way, we still can’t marry in New York State.

Read more.

Next Fall, a gay-themed romance that was a hit at Playwrights’ Horizons last year, makes a giant leap to Broadway today.

Reviews are mixed, but the critics agree on one thing:  “This six-character play that focuses on a relationship between an atheist and a committed Christian faces a challenge to find its audience in the current climate.”

More at CultureMob.

That’s a real headline from today’s UK Guardian, and probably the funniest synopsis of an absurd drama that’s playing out in Mississippi.

Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old student at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi, asked to be able to take her date to the prom.

The school’s board objected – and to McMillen wanting to wear a tuxedo – so the ACLU stepped in.

How did the school react? By blaming “distractions to the educational process” and cancelling the prom.

We think Constance McMillen’s a heroine.  We think the school’s run by “belligerent ghouls”, as Morrissey used to say.  And we think we now understand why kids grow up hateful.

More on the story at TowleRoad.

San Francisco – traditionally a huge draw for gay travelers – is facing a dire forecast for tourism this year.

Fewer LGBT travelers visit SF than New York or Las Vegas, the SF Chronicle reports; the latter two are much bigger and have many more hotel rooms.

A revamped microsite, onlyinsanfrancisco.com/gaytravel , will aim to draw more LGBT travelers.

Read more.

Hey, kids – remember HIV?  We don’t hear much about it these days – so ’80s.

But men who have sex with men are at least 44 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than other men, and 40 times more likely than women, according to an analysis released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the 2010 National STD Prevention Conference in Atlanta.

Oh, they’re also are more than 46 times as likely to have syphilis than other men and more than 71 times as likely than women to have that sexually transmitted disease.

More in WindyCityTimes.  Now back to our regular stream of news and factoids.

Just when we think everything’s going to hell – guns at Starbucks!  Hiram Montserrate!  Prop 8! -  images like this restores a little hope that America isn’t a total shipwreck.

Angelisa Young (right) and Sinjoyla Townsend hold hands as Rev. David North speaks during their wedding on Tuesday in Washington, DC.  They became the first same-sex couple to wed under DC’s new marriage-rights law.

If you don’t tear up watching this video, check your ducts.

More at the Huffington Post.

We swear we’re not making this up.

A bill that aims to expand the state’s film incentive program would limit a proposed tax credit to productions that do not promote ‘nontraditional family values.’  Yep, that’s code for you-know-what.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Stephen L. Precourt (l.) – an Orlando Republican – says he’s not targeting the gay community but that shows with gay characters would not be something he’d want ‘to invest public dollars in.’” As always, got to wonder what his real agenda is.

A reminder, people, that the infamous Hays Code prohibited interracial relationships, suggestive dancing, and ‘lustful kisses’” in Hollywood films from the ’30s until the ’60s.  That’s legislator Will Hays, right.

More at PerezHilton.