Rob Halford’s band, um, Halford, brings a hard rockin’ Christmas this season.

This week I reviewed Halford’s holiday CD, Winter Songs. If you’re not sure about mixing heavy metal and Christmas carols but curious, click here for a free download of “Christmas For Everyone.” It’s  a fun song, actually, that’s less carol and more pop-rock.

Hard to believe from a heavy metal god, huh?

I also had a very pleasant phone converation with the out singer talking about the new album and his coming out experience 10 years ago. We’ll have that for ya in the new few weeks in the paper.

An employee at LA Fitness on Mockingbird Lane who was accused of calling a customer a “faggot” has been fired, according to another employee at the gym who spoke to Dallas Voice on condition of anonymity.

Representatives at LA Fitness’ corporate office in California have failed to respond to numerous phone calls seeking comment since the incident was first reported to the newspaper 11 days ago.

Gay LA Fitness customer Jason Evans, 36, alleges that on Sunday, Nov. 8, employee Mark Ramirez twice said to him, “Have a good workout, faggot.” Read Evans’ full account of the incident by going here.

The LA Fitness employee who spoke to Dallas Voice anonymously said Ramirez was fired earlier this week after a thorough investigation. The employee said the company took Evans’ allegation very seriously but also didn’t want to make any rash judgments.

While the case amounted to Evans’ word against Ramirez’s, the investigation determined that even if Ramirez didn’t use the word “faggot,” he treated Evans inappropriately, according to the employee.

The employee said while numerous customers at the heavily gay gym have inquired about the incident, only two have actually cancelled their memberships.

Evans couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Queer LiberAction will be bringing the Milk Box back to Sundance Square next Sunday, Nov. 29, starting at 5 p.m.

The last time QL set up the Milk Box at Sundance Square, a large contingent of folks from Pastor Joey Faust’s Kingdom Baptist Church in Venus (Texas, not outer space, though sometimes it’s hard to tell) showed up and the two groups got into something of a confrontation.

And on Nov. 10 outside the Fort Worth City Hall — as the council was inside preparing to approve an amendment to its nondiscrimination ordinance to protect trans people — QL’s Rick Vanderslice got into a shouting match with a Kingdom Baptist congregation member.

QL spokesman Corban Bates said the group fully expects Faust and his Baptist flock to show up again next Sunday. But QL will be ready for them and will stand their ground in exercising and proecting their free speech rights.

Okay. A couple of days ago, I posted a blog here about 10-year-old Will Phillips of Arkansas who has refused to stand up in class and recite the Pledge of Allegiance until there truly is — as it promises — liberty and justice for all, and that includes equal rights for LGBT people.

Will told CNN in an interview that because of his stand, his classmates have made the assumption he is gay and have been making fun of him and calling him “gaywad.”

Now Jon Stewart has arranged some protection for Will:

Pookz, left, and Dz are gonna school you.

Pookz and Dz have may have already accomplished their goal. I wasn’t familiar with the term, “stud,” until just now. Come to find out, stud is defined by Kathy Belge on Lesbian Life as a “dominant lesbian, usually butch, often African American.” But I think the two young ladies who classify as studs intend a deeper education.

They have started Studology 101 as a way “to inform the world about the LGBT movement and exploit this lifestyle from ever aspect through opinionated and commonly asked topics in hope to demolish fear and rid the world of discrimination due to lack of education.” That was taken word for word from their Web site, by the way.

I’m not sure about the exploit part but I’m betting they have good intentions. They host a multimedia site tackling subjects that are of interest to gay youth in hopes of reaching an audience that will take a step closer to ending discrimination. Hey, we can get behind that.

I’m kind of digging their Intervention video. It runs a bit too long but humorous only because I know too many people like that.

When news broke Monday morning that Window Media had closed up shop — and in doing so folded the Washington Blade and Southern Voice among several other LGBT newspapers and magazines — Blade editor Kevin Naff, speaking for the newspaper’s stunned staff, vowed they wouldget another D.C. paper up and running as soon as possible.

And they have.

At 9:30 this morning, E.S.T., the DC Agenda hit the streets, providing “critical coverage of local and national LGBT issues along with much needed community news,” according to a press release. It was hand-distributed by 17 former Blade staff members.

Publisher of the new paper is Lynne Brown, who was the Blade publisher and had worked for the D.C. institution for more than 23 years, according to the press release. She said: “The power and effectiveness of the Washington Blade did not die with the name. That strength actually came from the spirit and intensity of those who wrote the stories and reached out to the community. It’s those same people who are the backbone of this new venture, a group that is the true definition of grit and resilience.”

Former Blade editor Kevin Naff is now DC Agenda editor. He said the staff has been “buoyed by the outpouring of support from our colleagues, our community, people all over the city and even beyond DC,” and that he expects DC Agenda to “grow and evolve and to eventually include a larger and more diverse group of voices.”

Dallas Voice is looking for nude models. Don’t worry if you haven’t been the gym lately or are even a little camera shy. Because it’s not you who will be nude — it will be your dog.

We’re gearing up with the Readers Voice Awards next spring, where we declare the top dogs in a variety of categories — and what better way to introduce the winners than with our readers’ own “top dogs.”

So here’s the deal: We want you to submit photos of your pooch or pooches. You can be in it or not. You can dress up Fido if you wanna (naked animals are OK), but that’s up to you. In fact, there are virtually NO limits on what you submit … as long as there’s a dog in the pic. Once we get all the entries, the we’ll be selecting the top 10. Those finalists will come in for their own professional photoshoot and those pictures will be put up on the Web site for readers to vote on. The winner gets to be the face of the Readers Voice Awards. (The nine other finalists will be part of the spread, too.)

But that’s not all. The winning team (pet and master) will have $2,500 donated in their names to AIDS Arms’ LifeBark 2010 as a “dogleg-up” on on next year’s LifeWalk event (which can be in addition to any funds you raise yourself if you wanna set some kind of crazy fundraising record).

Don’t take too long, though. The deadline to submit your photo is Dec. 4. E-mail it to TopDog@dallasvoice.com. Yippie dogs go to the front of the line. (Not really, but they think they do.)

So get moving! Who’s a good fella? Who? You is!

Utah state Sen. Chris Buttars said: “I don’t mind gays. I just don’t want ’em stuffin’ it down my throat all the time, and certainly in my kid’s face.”

The Utah Republican has been a staunch opponent of LGBT rights — until now. He authored the state’s anti-marriage law. But certainly he wouldn’t go against the wishes of the Mormon church.

Because the Mormon church has now supported protection for gays and lesbians in housing and employment in Salt Lake City, the senator might support those rights statewide. He may even sponsor the bill.

— David Taffet

Central 214 announced their Thanksgiving Feast this year will also be supporting the Resource Center Dallas’ Food Pantry. Rafael McDonnell from the RCD said that this was a result of the John’s article last week. “I was told by our development department that the restaurant approached us after reading the story about the pantry in last Friday’s Voice,” he wrote in an e-mail to the paper.

And so, $5 of every meal will be going to the Food Pantry. With this menu, hopefully they’ll sell plenty. It is mouthwatering.

The Central 214 holiday buffet features Blythe’s deliciously “naughty” twist on traditional Southern favorites: trio of turkey (roasted, smoked and fried); bourbon sweet potatoes; creamed corn; naughty green bean casserole; butter whipped potatoes; stuffing and dressing, giblet gravy and cranberry chutney; and hot cornbread with honey butter. Top it off with pumpkin and pecan pies and apple cobbler.

Price is $45 per person or $22 for children 12 and under, with $5 of every meal going to charity. Price also includes coffee, iced tea and  juice. Call now for your Thanksgiving reservation at 214.443.9339!

Variety reports that The Oprah Winfrey Show will officially end production, with the last episode to air Sept. 9, 2011. That’s still two years away, and will mark 25 years for the trend maker on national TV.

My concern: What will this do to Kathy Griffin’s act? To David Letterman’s monologue?