Be sure to check out the terrific lead story in yesterday’s City section, entitled “Speak, Memory.” The article’s writer had discovered a long-lost diary in an old steamer trunk that was being tossed from the basement of her building. (And why we never find old steamer trunks in our building, we’ll never know.) After some detective work, she learned that it once belonged to an upper-class teenager named Florence Wolfson who lived on Riverside Dr. in the 1930s. The diary’s contents provide a great record of ’30s New York, and include mentions of Florence’s various romances with men and women, including her crush on the openly-lesbian actress Eva Le Gallienne.

Speak, Memory [NY Times]

British researchers recently announced that they can now turn embryonic stem cells into sperm capable of producing offspring. What does this mean in the real world? Well, someday it could mean that certain types of male infertility could be overcome. And more “controversially” (as the Daily Telegraph piece explains), it could also mean that a lesbian couple could theoretically be able to produce a child together that was genetically their own. Our plan to take over the world is almost complete.

Scientists grow sperm from stem cells [Daily Telegraph]

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who’s a very pretty man and who briefly kicked open the marriage door for gays back in 2004, gives a blunt Q&A to Rolling Stone in which he states clearly what no one else will: that the majority of Democratic politicians actually support gay marriage, but are too afraid to say so. People know timidity and equivocation when they see it (Hillary, anyone?), and that’s why the Republicans always have marriage as a handy wedge issue. It’s the lack of conviction—not the support for gays— that loses elections for Democrats. Asks Newsom, “Where’s the moral courage?” Read the whole thing here.

State Supreme Court Justice William P. Polito was presiding over a case that had a trans man from Rochester seeking to change his name from “Sarah Rockefeller” to “Evan Rockefeller.” Simple enough, right? Not for the judge. He denied the petition, insisting that the trans man provide medical evidence that he was transitioning because otherwise, the name-change would be “contrary to the public interest.” How? Couldn’t tell ya. The ACLU’s on the case. (Via Queerty)

Judge denies transgender name change [UPI]

After the Massachusetts high court allowed a gay marriage-banning ballot initiative to move forward, we started getting that sinking feeling. Especially because it was looking like the anti-gay-marriage forces had the votes necessary to get the ball rolling. (The initiative would have to get votes from a quarter of the state legislators in two consecutive sessions before it’d be put to a vote in a general election.) After dueling rallies outside the statehouse, the legislature opted to put the vote off until November, allowing gays a few more months to demonstrate how not-scary they are.

Proposed Massachusetts marriage ban dead until November [The Advocate]

We’re not sure why Alexandra Jacobs’ review of Mary Cheney’s tanking memoir Now It’s My Turn is running now in the New York Times Book Review, but it is a pretty pithy put-down. Among her choice nuggets: noting the wierd heebee-jeebees Cheney seems to get from the word lesbian and her arms-length reference to her “sexual orientation,” “as if it were an intransigent military position, perhaps, or a pesky shadow she just can’t shake.” Almost makes us want to buy the book. But so few people have, we’re afraid we’d feel lonely.

Something About Mary [NY Times]

News came last week that LIFEbeat, a music industry organization that raises HIV awareness, had invited reggae artists T.O.K. and Beenie Man to perform at a July 18 benefit concert at Webster Hall. It was a, shall we say, curious judgment call, especially since T.O.K. and Beenie Man are notoriously anti-gay and have written songs calling for the murder of gay men and lesbians. After an outcry from gay activists, LIFEbeat’s less-than-comforting response was that T.O.K. and Beenie Man had promised not to sing those particular songs. Today comes a statement from LIFEbeat, however, that the concert has been flat-out canceled because “…the possibility of violence at the concert from the firestorm incited by a select group of activists…” Sure, blame the gay people.

NYC reggae concert canceled after protests [Yahoo News]

Alison Bechdel’s train just keeps rolling. She hit No. 35 on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list after a string of high-profile raves. There’s a great interview/review in on the Village Voice site on the heels of the New York leg of her publicity blitz last month. And keep track of her blog for continuing coverage of her book tour, and ongoing dissections of her own psyche as it sinks in that she’s not exactly a cult figure anymore.

Gaywheels.com, the research website devoted to cars from an LGBT perspective, just released their list of the top 10 homo cars. Clocking in at No. 1 is the very-gay Saturn Sky. Also on the list, the environmentally-friendly Prius, the sporty Mazda MX-5, and perennial fave Volkswagen Jetta. In other news, Hothouse still doesn’t have a car.

The Democratic challenger for the California governorship, Phil Angelides, hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire. However, he did announce at a press conference on Friday that if elected, he would sign the bill legalizing same-sex marriage that the current governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, vetoed last year. Angelides happened to give the statement while standing next to New York senator Hillary Clinton, who successfully dodged a question about the New York state high court’s decision last week. That was close—we were worried she might actually have to take a stand or something.

Schwarzenegger challenger would make same-sex marriage legal in California [The Advocate]