Morning Brew: The London Olympics have their first lesbian medalist, Chick-fil-A in New Hampshire goes rogue

Good morning, Brewbies.

It was a big day for our openly gay Olympians yesterday.

Seimone Augustus scored nine points as the US women’s basketball team defeated Turkey. Lisa Raymond and her US doubles partner Liezel Huber defeated their Russian opponents in straight sets. In handball, Rikke Skov scored seven goals for Denmark even though her team fell to Spain 24-21. Bisexual goalkeeper Mayssa Pessoa from Brazil helped her team move past Great Britain 30-17. And French handballer Alexandra Lacrabere scored a single goal as her team defeated Sweden 29-17.

In sad news: Australia’s Natalie Cook announced her retirement from professional beach volleyball after she and her partner Tasmin Hinchley were eliminated from the games after their third straight loss. Cook won a bronze medal at the ’96 Olympics and a gold in Sydney in the 2000 games. But she won’t be leaving the sport forever; she’s already been mentoring Australian volleyball players and plans to take a support role in helping coach future Aussie medal hopefuls.

In glad news: After placing 37th out of 40 in the cycling road race, Germany’s Judith Arndt rallied to capture silver medal in the cycling time trial, making her the first lesbian Olympian to medal at the London Games. She told cyclingnews.com:

I put my focus on every race. I gave everything in the road race: we missed the break and I gave it all to try and get them back for Ina [Teutenberg], because I really believed in her that she could be Olympic champion. Today was a new race, and in two days it will be another new race and I will give everything again, all the same.

As always, if I missed anyone, kindly let me know in the comments.

The always wonderful Jane Lynch stars in a new episode of the web series Ask Big Lou called “Home Security.”

The only Chick-fil-A restaurant in New Hampshire has gone rogue! According to Jezebel:

[Anthony Picolia], the manager of the state’s only Chick-fil-A, has announced that unlike his parent company’s CEO, he’s just fine with gay people. So fine, in fact, that he’ll continue to be a sponsor the state’s gay pride festival so all the gays can gay around proudly, in the open, in ways that make all the people participating in Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day terribly uncomfortable.

Picolia released a statement saying he has gay friends and family, gay employees, gay customers, and that the only goal of his restaurant is to treat everyone with respect.

Logo’s NewNowNext is looking for the next best music video! All you have to do is upload your video to NNN’s Facebook page, where fans will vote for their favorites. If you win, your video will be featured on Logo TV! The contest starts right now and runs through August 31, so if you want to get famous, get to uploading!

Glee is adding a couple of new faces to the season four mix. According to TVLine.com, the show has cast Melissa Benoist and “relative newcomer” Becca Tobin as new McKinley High students. All we know is that their names are Marley and Kitty and that they’ll never be Santana and Quinn!

And finally, the most important news of this or any day: Simone Lahbib – who played Helen Stewart, the Bad Girls‘ G-Wing governing governor, the love of Nikki Wade’s life, and the subject of hundreds of thousands of words of my own personal fan fiction – has joined the cast of Downton Abbey for the third season. She’ll play a servant on the show and the queen of my heart in real life.

Today in lesbian-ish TV: The Ellen DeGeneres Show (rerun), Talking Liberally with Stephanie Miller (Current 9 a.m.), Bound (TMAX 10 a.m., Caroline Rhea & Friends (Showtime2 12:45 p.m.), The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS 1:30 p.m.), The Talk (CBS 2 p.m.) – Guest: Margaret Cho, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (Food Network 2 p.m.) (rerun), Chopped “All-Stars Tournament: Part 3” (Food Network 8 p.m.) (rerun), True Blood “Somebody That I Used to Know” (HBO2 8 p.m.), Glee Live in Concert (HBO Signature 8:30 p.m.), The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC 9 p.m.), Project Runway “Welcome Back to the Runway” (Lifetime 9 p.m.), Big Brother (CBS 9 p.m.), Glee “Hold On to Sixteen” (Fox 9 p.m.) (rerun), The Real L Word (Showtime 10 p.m.), Degrassi “Waterfalls, Pt.2” (TeenNick 10 p.m.), Iron Chef America “Cora vs. Simon” (Cooking Channel 11 p.m.), True Blood “Somebody That I Used to Know” (HBO 11 p.m.), Black Swan (MMAX 11 p.m.), Jimmy Kimmel (ABC midnight) – Guest: Wanda Sykes (rerun), Big Brother After Dark (Showtime2 1 a.m.) [Thanks for the schedule, Roni!]