Gawker: valleywag, gay pride

Search for "gay" and Google will show its pride

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:40:00 EDT

With gay marriages legalized in California, Google has its rainbow flag out. Google search for the term "gay" and see for yourself (you have to be logged out of your Google account, a tipster tells us). Google's always been plenty gay-friendly, but it's got nothing on big purple. Last October, a brand survey revealed that lesbians and gays may prefer Yahoo 2-to-1. Despite Google wrangling George "Sulu" Takei for the company's Pride parade float the Yahoo's cheesy 2007 appeal for gay users to go ahead and "fabu-lize" their online avatars.

A gay venture capitalist ties the knot

wagger1 — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:56:25 EDT

The Valley styles itself as gay-friendly. But how many queer venture capitalists can you think of? Here's a sign, in the month of gay pride, of change in the wind: NEA's Patrick Chung recently held a commitment ceremony with partner Matthew Burt, a church choir director. After the jump, more on Chung and Burt's Valley links, and a photo of the wedding party.Following a honeymoon in what Chung describes as "the Far East," the couple will be hard to ignore in Sand Hill society. Chung and Burt, known for throwing the occasional croquet party, are well-connected. Burt directs music at Christ Episcopal Church in Portola Valley, a hotbed of venture capitalists. Chung is on the board of wireless startup Loopt and is also involved with the NEA-backed 23andMe. 23andMe, of course, is the biotech startup founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin. As a wedding gift, Castro Confidential recommends his-and-his iPhones. We suspect Brin, at least, can afford them.

Altoids' virtual gay pride advertisement

Tim Faulkner — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:38:56 EDT

Exploiting two marketing trends in one go, Altoids, maker of curiously strong mints, is curiously sponsoring virtual gay pride month in Linden Lab's Second Life along with the obligatory parades and accoutrement. In an apparent attempt to one up Yahoo's gay avatars, the Altoid "parade" is more gay avatars (a pirate and Uncle Sam apparently) standing around amidst gay pride flags and Altoids' ads with little resemblance to the crowds, excesses, and exposure of a real world pride parade. In fact, this is an instance where griefers add more realism than Altoid marketers forced to masquerade as "Pimp" trannies. What's a virtual gay pride parade without flying penises?