Take note: this is how we like our eyes opened in the morning. Hold the sugar and add an extra shot of scruff, just like amazing ally Ben Cohen does in the "making of" video for his 2013 calendar. 

Skip the triple soy skinny macchiato and follow the jump to watch Ben take it off for a good cause and you'll feel jump-started to tackle the day (and Ben Cohen). 

We would've been satisfied just putting our pom-poms up for the Fabulous Beekman Boys (Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge) on the upcoming season of The Amazing Race. But now, with word that Chippendales have also been cast, our loyalties and legs are up in the air.  

A new poll from Logo TV and Harris Interactive has unveiled a landmark shift in how the general population feels about LGBT issues ahead of the 2012 elections. 

We weren't the only ones with our butt-enhancing tighty-whities in a bunch after the Log Cabin Republicans resoundingly applauded Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan while turning a blind queer eye to the VP contestant's horrible anti-gay history. The Courage Campaign was paying attention, too, and has started a petition asking that the LCR withdraw its support for one of the most anti-gay tickets in decades. Details and a new plea from LCR to Mitt Romney, after the jump!

As hoped, leading Democrats have included marriage equality for same-sex couples as a plank in the party's first draft of a new platform. The final version of the platform will be voted on at the Democratic National Convention. Details follow. 

Did the Texas GOP discover a time machine?

Wait. Nope.

That level of a breakthrough demands some trace of modern intelligence.

Instead—according to its just-released 2012 platform—the Texas Republican Party is partying like its 1959 and has laid the foundation for an all-out war on civil rights. 

Updated 3:15 p.m. EST with responses from the American Foundation for Equal Rights and NOM's Maggie Gallager (after the jump)

David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values was supposed to be the "star witness" of the homophobes defending Proposition 8 before Judge Vaughn Walker a couple years back. But Blankenhorn's testimony didn't exactly end up being as bigoted as Team Prop 8 had hoped (he famously said that it would be in the best interest of children of same-sex couples to allow their parents to marry).

Now, after again confusing his fellow conservatives for opposing North Carolina's disgusting Amendment One, Blankenhorn has officially come out in full force for marriage equality rights. 

With poll numbers neck and neck, attack ads turning up the volume and a multi-billionaire committed to donating up to $100 million to ensure Romney gets elected, there's never been a better time to compare the LGBT positions of President Obama with those of his likely GOP opponent. Luckily, eQualityGiving has done all the leg work for us with a nifty chart!

History was made on Capitol Hill today as Kylar Broadus became the first transgender witness to testify before the U.S. Senate. 

So, what did Kylar have to say to the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee about a life of discrimination?

The Senate Help Committee has just started a hearing concerning an employment non-discrimination act that includes protections for the LGBT community. Watch it live on CSPAN (and follow the jump for more details).

Nothing makes us feel older than when a cherished star of the 1990s (who we actually remember from the first time around) reminds us they exist by looking jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Joey Lawrence and his nipples did just that over the weekend by joining the Chippendales. (We reported the highly important breaking news last month.)

Thankfully, the Chippendale debut of Joey's spray-can and shellacked abs are the perfect remedy for a bad case of the olds. A few more images after the jump!

Shit. Siri must've leaked our secret gay agenda out to the right wing. 

Follow the jump for Jest Comedy's revelation of the "Secret Gay Agenda."