Despite having to bail out neighboring Dubai and its billion-dollar bust-up, the oil rich Emirate of Abu Dhabi is still managing to have some fun.

Next month, the tiny petro-state will host the annual “Ms. Camel Contest” — a beauty pageant for the desert beasts in which the humped creatures are judged for the “grace of their necks, shape of their noses and style of their hair”.

We kid you not!

Officially dubbed the 2010 Al-Dhafra Festival, the event will see camels sashay down runways much like canines at the Westminster Kennel Show — with some $10 million in prizes available to the most beautiful beasts.

Last year’s show saw some 24,000 camels in competition and this year even more are expected. And new categories are launching too; including one for the animal “which produces the most milk”.

The whole thing is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

All we can say is — can’t wait for the swimsuit issue.

An unusual case is making its way across the typically tranquil island of Puerto Rico right now involving foreign bio-tech firms, monkey farms, anti-globalism activists and Jew-bashing. And it’s catching the attention of big-time machers such as the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman.

The story goes like this: Apparently fake allegations have surfaced in Puerto Rico over a proposed monkey-breeding facility in the town of Guayama on the island’s southern coast.  The lab appears to be owned by a Mauritius- based firm called Bioculture, with 19 such facilities worldwide.  The plan is to open the monkey lab and raise up to 3,000 animals there — one assumes to be used in medical testing.

Poor creatures.

Anyway, rumors began to spread that the plant is actually owned by evil “Israeli interests” and that the plant was actually part of some from-the-future scheme to ethnically cleans and enact genocide on the island and destroy its ecology.

Of course, the Jews were behind it all — and accordingly, local anti-monkey/anti-Israel/anti-Semitic activist Roberto Brito called upon the good folk of Puerto Rico to boycott locally-owned Jewish business both on the island and up Norte on mainland USA.

Harsh!

Now the ADL is involved — calling the Jew-baiting “inexcusable” and imploring the Puerto Rican masses to reject this ridiculousness.

We couldn’t agree more.

Of course we absolutely reject any attempt at anti-Jew rhetoric — obvi! — but we gotta ask.

How did Israel and the Jews get involved in this whole mess in the first place.

Is the bio-lab actually owned by Israelis and if so — why not just say it.

Is there a back-story here — and if so, what is it?

A newspaper reporter in Maine has been fired from the Morning Sentinel newspaper in the town of Waterville after it was revealed that he sent an angry email from his personal account attacking LGBT leaders who blamed the recent defeat of same-sex marriage in the state on Gay-haters.

Indeed, reporter Larry Grand concedes he sent an anonymous email to the Human Rights Campaign saying it was actually the Gay rights group who are spreading hatred and not Maine-staters.

Grand, who said he’d gotten no sleep the night before, used his own e-mail to send a response to an HRC release lamenting homophobia in the Iron State. “They said the Yes-on-1 people were haters. I’m a Christian. I take offense at that,” he said. “I e-mailed them back and said basically, ‘We’re not the ones doing the hating. You’re the ones doing the hating.’

“I sent the same message in his face he sent in mine.”

Grand thought the message he’d sent was anonymous — but it turns out that the folks over at HRC were able to do some crafty detective work and sussed out his identity.

Apparently, Trevor Thomas, a director at HRC, Googled Grand’s name, realized he was a report and demanded that the paper fire him — and now Grand has been canned.

And so has his wife — a freelance food columnist now told her services are no longer required.

Unsurprisingly, Grand is peeved — and says he is the victim of anti-Christian bias. He has taken his case to the local Portland Newspaper Guild which is “defending (Grand’s) contract”.

In other words,  they’re fighting his dismissal.

Grand’s paper editorialized in favor of same-sex marriage — even though Grand himself did not cover the topic.

Although Grand says perhaps the paper is correct in penalizing him for his actions — but insists firing is…well…beyond beyond.

What do you think.

Should Grand have been fired for his email to the HRC. And should the HRC be Googling folks who with countering opinions?

This is a murky one.

It’s amazing how news can go from good to bad so quickly. Just days ago we were talking about the beautiful tribute to Nir Katz, the Tel Aviv youth counselor who was killed in last summer’s horrific Gay center shooting. Katz was honored recently by Israel’s Association for Civil Rights for his bravery and gerenal right-onness.

Now it turns out that a 15 year-old kid injured in the same attack is SUING the Gay center for $4 million — asking for compensation for major injuries he sustained in the tragedy.

Indeed, young Yonatan Buks — who has trouble speaking as a result of his injuries and is in regular physical therapy — and his lawyer are basically blaming the Center for allowing the attack to take place.

“I am sure (the gay center) was full of good intentions, but when you take upon yourself such a huge responsibility, replace the parents, and take a child through an activity that holds danger it is your duty to get the parents’ approval,” said Eitan Peleg, the kid’s lawyer.

“The center functioned with an ‘open door’ policy, every Saturday at the same place and the same time, and without security cameras, an alarm, call buttons, or escape routes. We have all been exposed to the homophobia that runs rampant,”  Peleg added. “You can start by closing the door.”

Unsurprisingly, despite insurance, the Center does not have $4 million to shell out to Buks — and we suspect coming up with such a sum could send them into non-profit Chapter 11!

Peleg says City Hall must help the Center come up with the necessary funds — and fast. He predicts more victims will sue the Center as the extent — and the cost — of their injuries compound.

Way to make a tragic situation truly tragic!

A few weeks back we reported on the drama over in Israel surrounding a pair of Tel Aviv jeans billboards featuring the model — and Leo-ex — Bar Refaeli.

Turns out the poster up top — the one with the cleavage — was oh-so scandalous to Tel Aviv’s orthodox types, who protested loud and proud and got Fox jeans to replace it with the more modest poster below.

More than a month later, the drama has once again re-reared its pretty little head.  Turns out Tel Aviv’s religious folks were so pissed off, that they have now forced city hall to create a new “billboard modesty” committee to review each and every billboard before it goes up in town.

The initiative was launched by City Councilman Rabbi Naftali Lubert, who says his latest initiative is not intended as an act against liberalism, but rather as an act of feminism!

“It is a very grave issue that cynically exploits the law and offends the sensibilities of the residents. This is not an issue of haredim, but one of damaging respect for women,” Luber says.

Surprisingly, even in super-secular Tel Aviv, the new requirement has actually gone into effect — and Tel Aviv city hall has made it clear to all advertisers that forthcoming billboards and posters will have to pass a modesty committee.

Sounds like censorship to us!

Annise Parker is running for Mayor of Houston and needs your help!

Read HERE, and get this woman elected — along with Houston City Council candidates Sue Lovell and Lane Lewis.

This is change you can help make happen NOW.

We at Transracial must admit we did not know much about Donnie McClurkin until today — when the advertisement above arrived in our in-box from the folks over at Black Gay Men’s Network (The BGM Network).

It seems as if Gay and Lesbian black folk here in NYC have had enough of McClurkin — an outspoken and homophobic gospel singer and preacher who’s made a serious habit of hating on the Gays in oh-so public ways.

Moreover, McClurkin is one of the most visible members of the growing “ex-Gay” movement — folks who say they once were same-sex loving, and have now turned to the hetero side. He contends sexual abuse as a kid led him down the Gay path and via prayer and spiritual work he’s now straight.

Good for him!

However and with whom-ever McClurkin chooses to expresses his sexing is his business. But McClurkin’s endless bad-mouthing of Gay folk — especially Black Gay folk — has just got to end.

And it’s Black Gays and Lesbians here in NYC who are putting their money where their mouths are.

Today, the FULL-PAGE advertisement above ran in the city-wide Metro New York newspaper — the free paper handed out by the thousands to commutes all across town.

Supported by the Gay/Black/Christian-focused group GayByGod.net — the add essentially demands homophobes like McClurkin stop hating on the Gays and begin to do God’s real work of loving and supporting one another.

Most importantly, the add is a very necessary step by the Gay Black community to end the silence and anti-LGBT bigotry often preached from the pulpit.

“We want to be sure that Mr. McClurkin realizes that he is NOT God,” says BMG Network Co-Chair Sheldon DeSouza, “and we will no longer sit silently in the pews as he deflects his own personal issues”.

Bring it!

A word of warning to our more delicate-stomach readers: This story is kinda yucky.

But it reads to good!

It turns out that a solider over in Israel was recently put in jail because he made a meal during the Sabbath — AKA the day of rest.

All of us Israel-vets know that things over in the Holy Land kinda comes to a complete halt from Friday night to Saturday night — especially anything associated with the government, the army or most of Jerusalem.

Anyway, the soldier was up on his base about to eat a dish of that old Yiddish staple, cholent, when he realized a cat had beaten him too it.

Kinda grossed out, he quickly made himself a “light” meal — and that’s where the problems began.

You see, cholent is this stew of sorts that’s made the day before the sabbath and then eaten during the sabbath without requiring warming-up. This way, you get a proper meal but don’t break the Jewish ban on labor to make it.

But since the solider’s cholent had been turned into a cat snack, he decided to make something new. Midway through, one of the formal kitchen staff arrived and busted the soldier for cooking on the sabbath, tattled on his ass and got him sent to his commander.

The soldier then had a military trial and spent 20 days — 20 DAYS! — in jail.

HARSH!

Word has now gotten out about this whole sham — and Israel’s army mouth-pieces are trying to play it all down.

“This is a case of a soldier which was sentenced to detention due to disorderly conduct and violation of IDF rules,” an army spokesperson said.  ”The soldier has been known to have disciplinary problems in the past.”

Next time we go to Israel, we’re totally BYO-ing.

As we reflect on today, World AIDS Day, we wanted to take a moment to highlight an important new book we discovered during our recent trip to North Africa:

ISLAM and AIDS: Between Scorn, Pity and Justice

The new book is the first of its kind to address AIDS/HIV through the lens of the Islamic world and chart the effects the disease has had throughout this vast culture.

The book is more a compendium of essays, reportage and observations from leading activists and scholars specializing in both Islam and HIV/AIDS.  The book is a critical — yet sensitive — look at issues surrounding HIV and Islam, ranging from poverty and gender to law, ethics, addiction and sexuality. 

And there is a smart introduction from Peter Piot, the director of the Joing United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Many of these topics remain taboo in the Islamic world and the book does a nice job of bringing them to the forefront with insight and compassion.

Anyone who’s ever spent time in Tel Aviv knows that basically all of the dudes there kind of look like the two above.  Which if you’re into hirsute beef — is a good thing indeed.

So considering the critical mass, it was only a matter of time before the city debuted its first-ever club night devoted to Bears — and their followers.

The party is appropriately named BEEF and takes place each Thursday at the 2012 Club deep in Tel Aviv’s downtown.

BEEF is billed as a “bear fetish party” with sling, cruising and “menly” men — nice going with the alliteration.

The folks over at Time Out Tel Aviv (our former employer) say the party is pretty cool.

As do the dudes who own Pink House Tel Aviv — the city’s first all-Gay guest house, which (like Beef) is freshly arrived on the scene.

The three-room urban retreat is located a quick stroll from the beach in the heart of Tel Aviv’s UNESCO-lauded Bauhaus core and rates begin at a very reasonable 40 Euros per night.

Have fun!