Another 11th hour option is comin’ your way for this evening, along with a couple other chances in the days to come.

Savory Pink Productions and Darklady Entertainment are bringing Buck Angel to town for three days of “education, sexiness, and queer debauchery.”

The adult superstar, also an educator and trans icon, has a weekly show that discusses the challenges of being a trans male in the public eye, as well as a website dedicated to health and fitness.

The first “Go BUCK Yourself” event is at tonight’s Portland Queer Porn Nights, where the showcased feature is The Buck Stops Here. The film begins at 8:30 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.) at Crush (1400 SE Morrison), and will be followed by a Q&A with Buck Angel. Also on tap: raffle prizes from SheBop and It’s My Pleasure. Admission is $10.

Next up is Queer Cornucopia. Held on Friday, March 12, the night will be filled with “saucy queer go-gos, lap dances, and erotic performances” — including performances by Buck and other local favorites. Head on down to Invasion (412 SW Fourth) at 8 p.m. Friday for the fun, and raffle prizes from My Wet Spot and Spartacus. Admission is $15.

Lastly, get up close and personal with Buck at SheBop (909 NE Beech) at an in-store DVD signing Saturday, March 13 from 7:15 to 9:15 p.m.

Buy tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets for the March 10 and 12 events and save $5, and contact Savory Pink’s Sophia St. James for more information.

The Sex & the City star doesn’t hold back (but does so with such elegance and poise!) in this new spot for Fight Back PAC, a group attempting to remove senators in New York State from office who in December voted against marriage equality.

Fierce, and forceful.

Chicago-based musical duo Amy & Freddy are set to perform this weekend in concerts benefiting Camp Starlight. The encore performances aim to beat the $25,000 mark achieved in 2009.

Amy (Armstrong) and Freddy (Allen), accompanied by guest drummer Steve Moretti, will perform three shows: 6 and 9 p.m. Friday, March 12 at Wilf’s (800 NW Sixth Ave.), and at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 13 in the Melody Grand Ballroom (615 SE Alder Street).

Camp Starlight, a weeklong, cost-free residential summer camp for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, is a program of Cascade AIDS Project. Located on the Oregon coast, it serves scores of kids each year ages 5 to 14.

“We are very excited to be returning to Portland for the Camp Starlight Benefit!” Allen said via press release. “Nothing would make me happier than to know that more children will be able to attend and benefit from camp and its amazing volunteers this year.” The duo have recorded four albums, including Amy and Freddy – The Debut, Life is a Cabaret, Naturally Flawless and Feeling Good.

Tickets for all three 21+ shows are $30 each. To purchase tickets, call CAP at 503.278.3801 or PBS Design Group at 503-546-9662, or email ehoffman@cascadeaids.org. Tickets can also be purchased at CAP’s office at 208 SW 5th Ave., #800 in Portland.

Most of you probably received your 2010 U.S. Census forms in the mail yesterday. And hopefully ALL of you read the FAQ tip sheet blog we posted yesterday, as this will be the first time in history the Census allows same-sex couples to self-identify as either married or unmarried partners.

On March 18, a kickoff event at Q Center will officially unveil two PSAs targeting Portland’s gay, lesbian, bi and trans community to spread the word about the changes to the Census.

Interested to see what these PSAs are all about, before the Q Center event? We’re glad you asked. Here’s one of them.

Two decades after the suspension of paid sex-change operations in Cuba forced many transsexual citizens to live in bodies they did not feel comfortable in, the operations have begun anew under President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela, Cuba’s top gay-rights activist, and the country’s universal health care system, reports The Associated Press.

With a history of being fiercely anti-gay – specifically during the ’60s, when homosexuals were fired from state jobs, and many fled into exile (transsexuals were considered the same as homosexuals) – Cuban society is slowly, but surely, joining the ranks of tolerance and acceptance. Fidel Castro said as much during a series of interviews between 2003-2005 with French journalist Ignacio Ramonet.

“I’d like to think that discrimination against homosexuals is a problem that is being overcome. Old prejudices and narrow-mindedness will increasingly be things of the past.”

Beginning in 2008, eight Cubans have undergone the surgery, with another 22 waiting to have it performed. However, Mariela Castro has said the government is moving cautiously, doing only a few per year. The program had been suspended sine 1988, because the Communist government thought the money could be spent in better ways.

“There has been a lot of resistance because homophobia remains strong in our culture,” she said at a recent conference on sexuality.

Mariela Castro has seen to it that the state formally recognizes transsexuals. A state-trained kindergarten teacher with a degree in sexuality, she runs the National Sexual Education Center. It spent years lobbying communist officials, who finally agreed to lift bans on sex changes in 2008 — though the resolution was never made public to avoid unwanted attention.

“These processes of negotiation are sometimes done very quietly,” Mariela Castro said, “so as not to stir up ghosts.”

She now says that financial concerns in the past were simply used to hide prejudices.

The entire article, centering on the transition of Yiliam Gonzalez, is a highly interesting read.

Oh how we loves us some Chelsea Handler.

The ballsy blond lady, whom Just Out columnist Daniel Borgen raves about in the current issue of Just Out, appeared on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon last night, when the funny pair competed in a martini-making/running contest. Comedy — and a bit of carnage — ensued.

Handler won, but the contest unexpectedly ended with Fallon falling flat on his back in a glass-and-vodka mess.

“And I am bleeding,” the host announced, sporting a cut on one hand (a medic tended to him immediately). “I just wanted to promote my book [Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang],” a shocked Handler said in response.

Oopsy. We’d expect nothing less from the best-selling author of Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.

Handler performs at Keller Auditorium (222 SW Clay) at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, March 19. Tickets are $49.50-$75.50, available through livenation.com.

Another late-breaking event this Wednesday: Cascade AIDS Project and the Multnomah County Health Department will commemorate National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day between 4-6 p.m. today at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Prevention and education specialists will hand out free HIV information, coupons for HIV and STD testing, and safer sex supplies.

Per a press release,

“women account for one of every four new HIV cases in the United States. Of newly infected women, women of color are disproportionately impacted, with 20 African American women infected for every four Latinas and one white woman. Even more alarming, when women are diagnosed with HIV, the disease is more likely to have progressed further toward AIDS than it is in newly diagnosed men.

This is the only National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day event taking place in Oregon.

Twenty seven people who formerly subscribed to The Washington Post abruptly canceled their subscriptions after the front-page publication of two gay men – Jeremy Ames and Taka Ariga – kissing while waiting in line outside D.C. Superior Court on the first day same-sex couples could apply for marriage licenses.

The Post is defending its decision to publish the picture online and in print, but revealed the degree to which the unrest had unfolded with certain subscribers.

“A few of the readers have engaged in rants, often with anti-gay slurs,” wrote Alexander. “One called me to complain about ‘promoting a faggot lifestyle.’ Another complained about the photo in an e-mail to the two Post reporters who wrote Thursday’s story about the licenses: ‘That kind of stuff makes normal people want to throw up. People have kids who are being exposed to this crap. I will be glad when your rag goes out of business. Real men marry women.’ ”

Alexander stands by the newspaper’s decision to publish the photo.

“Did the Post go too far? Of course not,” he wrote. “The photo deserved to be in newspaper and on its Web site, and it warranted front-page display.”

Here’s a reason to leave the office early today — or just take a late lunch/mid-afternoon break.

Midwest diva-rapper-crafter extraordinaire Leslie Hall and her team, the Lys, will be making a special in-store appearance at Fat Fancy’s SW Portland location this afternoon, from 3-4 p.m.

“Mama Gem herself will be on hand to sign autographs and take pictures for all the beautiful Gem Sweaters of Portland! Fans will get a chance to meet Leslie in person, purchase Leslie’s New LP Back2Back Palz CD and score Leslie’s handmade spandex apparel from her Midwest Diva clothing line!”

Fat Fancy also carries Leslie and the Lys merchandise.

The boutique’s located at 1013 SW Morrison. Leslie Hall and the Lys will also be performing at Dante’s (1 SW Third) tonight. Admission for the 9 p.m. show, with guest Christopher the Conquered, is $13.50.

Gay porn star Dustin Michaels died on camera after being tasered and choking on bags of marijuana he swallowed while trying to evade police.

Panama City Beach’s WJHG reports on the death of Michaels (née Andrew Grande):

“Just after 2AM Friday deputies responded to a disturbance call at the Executive Inn on front beach road. They say Grande pushed a female friend… When one of the deputies tried to arrest him they say he resisted and stuffed something in his mouth. That’s when at least one of the deputies shot him with a taser. They say he pulled the taser probes out of his body, that’s when deputies noticed he was choking. Deputies performed the Hiemlich maneuver but could not dislodge the item. By the time EMS arrived, he was unconscious. One of the paramedics pulled a large bag of marijuana from his throat. He was pronounced dead at Bay Medical Center.”

Michaels (age 23) was shooting a reality program with Zoo Productions, the classy folks behind Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, Girls Behaving Badly, Guys Behaving Badly, and numerous specials featuring “bisexual poster child” Tila Tequila.

Fascinatingly, mainstream media did not report about this case for over three months – the adult actor choked on his pot last December. However, Gay Porn Blog (site NSFW) reported the death almost immediately at the request of Michaels’ former co-stars. So, let this be a lesson to the mainstream media: if you want up-to-the-minute news, be sure to keep a constant feed of gay porn and gay porn-related news open on your computer at all times. This is the New Journalism!

Photo from NY Daily News.