The Problem Is Too Much, Not Too Little, Gay TV

What passes for a media watchdog show on Fox News has failed again. Discussing the new pro-homosexual propaganda film, Brokeback Mountain, Fox News Watch panelist Jane Hall declared that 10 percent of the U.S. population was gay. Host Eric Burns countered that it may be as low as 5 percent. They were both wrong, as another panelist, James Pinkerton, pointed out. He noted the real figure is 1 percent. It comes from census data. The higher 10 percent figure comes from the discredited work of Alfred Kinsey, who greatly overstated the amount of sexual perversion in the population because he used criminals and pedophiles as his subject matter.
Jane Hall is no ordinary pundit. She teaches journalism at American University and claims a master's degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. And yet she was uninformed about the available scientific data on the number of homosexuals in the population. With people like Jane Hall teaching student journalists, it's no wonder we face a seemingly never-ending problem of liberal bias in the major media.
Burns went on to wonder why 5 or 10 percent of the films and TV programs weren't geared toward a homosexual audience. Did it occur to him that doing programs geared to a small percentage of the population might drive away viewers? The question misses the point, however. The media fall all over themselves catering to the whims and desires of the homosexual lobby. The problem is too much, not too little, gay TV.
LOGO, the new homosexual TV network launched by MTV, is already in 13 million homes. It claims to have "more than 200 lesbian- and gay-themed feature films, an ongoing documentary series, newscasts tailored for the gay and lesbian community and quality original shows and specials."
LOGO has a partnership with CBS News. They are both part of the Viacom media conglomerate. Someone named Jason Bellini of CBS News appears on the channel to bring "exclusive news" of interest to gays and lesbians.
One such news report concerned the first "gay divorce," involving the first civil union couple, Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson. Conrad had gotten a "relief from abuse" order against Peterson and said she feared physical harm. On the Fox News Watch program, Cal Thomas wondered why the split wasn't getting as much attention as their original loving commitment, which was featured on front pages five years ago.
In response to my recent commentary suggesting the media adopt a "Stop Gay Sex" campaign to save lives, I was contacted for an interview by someone with Q Television World News on the Q Television Network. I declined after discovering that this is yet another homosexual channel.
One show, Queer Edge, hosted by one Jack E. Jett, "takes viewers to the farthest reaches of 'Queerdom'…" Jett delves into all definitions of the word 'queer' with his special guests, video features and celebrity guest co-hosts. Guests have included Buck Angel, a female to male transsexual porn star, and Mark Christian, the former lover of Rock Hudson, who died of AIDS in 1985.
This is worse than Rita Cosby's MSNBC show. This programming poisons our culture. But most commentators are reluctant to say this. Either they are gay themselves, too liberal to care, or fearful of getting hate-filled email messages generated by stories from homosexual David Brock's Media Matters.
My count shows that the homosexuals now have two networks devoted exclusively to their cause. And what about conservatives? We used to have Fox News Channel. Now it runs global warming specials featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and its news coverage is being manipulated by a Saudi Prince and investor in the Fox parent company to benefit global Islam.
Will the Saudi Prince please call Rupert Murdoch and pull the plug on Fox News Watch?
from Accuracy In Media

'Gay Friendly' Prom Brings Protest Threat

TRACY, CALIFORNIA - Justin Daley is more than happy to talk about the upcoming "gay friendly" prom he is organizing. Just don't ask him to mention where it will be held.
The West High senior and president of his school's Gay/Straight Alliance Club is not trying to be coy, but at this point, he would simply rather not say.
Not with an impending protest from the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas, which brought its message of "God hates fags" to the Central Valley last spring to protest graduation day at Tracy and West high schools.
"I don't want to make things too easy for Rev. Phelps and his followers," Daley said of his cloak-and-dagger routine surrounding the prom's official location. "We will announce the actual location of the event about a month before the prom."
The self-described "hate mongers" from Westboro have made numerous trips to the West Coast in recent years to protest everything from "gay friendly" proms to funerals of American soldiers killed overseas.
According to a fax from the Westboro headquarters, "America has raised a generation of filthy fags and dykes" and "every body bag filled with body parts is the work of our schools."
The church claims that school officials are "irreversibly bound for hell" for allowing gay/straight clubs to form.
The church has said it plans to picket the funeral of Army Sgt. Cheyenne Willey, 36, of Fremont, who was killed in Iraq on Dec. 23.
Despite the prospect of uninvited
from The Argus

Flour In Condoms Sent Her To Jail

She was a freshman on an academic scholarship at Bryn Mawr College, preparing to fly home to California for Christmas, sleep-deprived, with questions from a calculus exam still racing through her head.
In the space of a few hours on Dec. 21, 2003, Janet Lee landed in a Philadelphia jail cell, where she would remain for three weeks, held on $500,000 bail and facing 20 years in prison on drug charges.
All over flour found in her luggage.
"I haven't let myself be angry about what happened, because it would tear me apart," Lee said. "I'm not sure I can bear to face it... . I'm amazed at how naive I was."
That naivete, she said, began when screeners at Philadelphia International Airport inspecting her checked luggage found three condoms filled with white powder. Lee laughed and told city police they were filled with flour. It was just part of a phallic gag at a women's college, she told them, a stress-reliever, something to squeeze while studying for exams.
The police didn't find it funny. They told her a field test showed that the powder contained opium and cocaine.
A lab test later proved the substance was flour - and no one now disputes that Lee is innocent, including the prosecutor.
But the case returned to the courts last week as Lee filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against city police. The lawsuit seeks damages for pain and suffering, financial loss, and emotional distress.
Capt. Benjamin Naish, a spokesman for the Police Department, declined to comment, noting that the department rarely comments on litigation. Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, also declined to comment.
Lee's lawsuit seeks to answer a central question: Why did the police field test initially conclude that the white powder contained drugs?
Her lawyers, former prosecutors David Oh and Jeremy Ibrahim, say there are two possibilities: Either the field test was faulty or someone fixed the results.
Ellen Green-Ceisler, who directed the Police Department's Office of Integrity and Accountability from 1997 to 2005, called Lee's case highly unusual. Field tests are rarely wrong.
'Almost never happens'
"I've looked at thousands of these cases, and in the context of trained narcotics officers, it almost never happens," she said. "The whole issue will come down to the field test. Was the officer trained? Was the test contaminated?"
Ibrahim said he waited to file the lawsuit until last week, on the eve of the end of the two-year statute of limitations, because Lee needed time to process what happened.
"She was devastated emotionally," Ibrahim said, noting that the event became a minor scandal among her Korean American family and friends. "She lost significant face with this event."
Many records in the case are still confidential, not yet accessible even to Lee's lawyers. What is undisputed is that she was detained at the airport shortly before she was to board a plane to Los Angeles. Court records confirm her arrest and three-week detention on drug charges. Records also confirm why prosecutors dropped the charges.
Lee, who is now a junior comparative-literature major at Bryn Mawr, gave the following account in an interview this week.
Just before she was to board the plane, someone called her name on the public-address system, and she reported to the ticket counter.
An officer told her that she had something in her luggage that shouldn't be there.
"I was like, 'Is it my curling iron? Because it's metal?' He was like, 'No, something else.' "
The officer asked about the white powder in the condoms.
They were filled with flour, she said, and were silly stress-relief contraptions that she had made with classmates as part of a freshman rite of passage in her Main Line dorm.
'It's a girl thing'
"I tried to explain that it was a joke, a gag gift for friends. It's a girl thing. I said, 'You squeeze them to reduce stress.' "
Police stared skeptically. They took her to the Southwest Detective Division, where they tested the powder. Lee figured it would be sorted out soon.
"Mostly, I was worried because I had missed my flight, and now I had to make up an excuse to tell my parents."
When the detective returned, he said the powder tested positive for opium. Police returned her to her cell. "I started hyperventilating," Lee recalled. "The detective was very nice, and said he would test again."
The result was the same.
She said that someone came by her cell and read her an arrest warrant, which mentioned amphetamines. Then police fingerprinted and photographed her. She called her father but couldn't quite express herself through her tears and panic.
"A detective gave me a hug because I was crying so hard," she said.
Police put her into a van for the trip to court. She said she overheard talk about "a kilo."
"Up to that point, I still thought it was a joke, that someone was trying to teach me a lesson," she said. "I was telling everyone my story, and no one believed me - except the people locked up inside with me."
Because the amount of powder was so large, Lee faced 20 years in prison. A judge set bail at $500,000. He also mentioned something about cocaine.
"That's when it sunk in that they were serious," she said. "I said, 'I didn't do it. It's flour.' No one listened."
At that point, having just finished her finals, she had been up for four straight days, she said. "I'm the kind of person who can sleep anywhere or eat anything, but I stopped eating and sleeping," she said.
Later, she hit a bit of luck. A prison guard recognized her from a Bryn Mawr volunteer job at Overbrook High School and took pity on her. The guard told Lee that she believed her and that the whole thing was probably racial. The guard got her a trashy romance novel to help kill time.
Lee acted tough to protect herself. She did modern-dance moves to keep limber. Inmates saw this and gossiped: "Everyone thought I knew karate because I'm Asian." She certainly didn't discourage the stereotype.
Inmates saw the high volume of visitors and figured she was important. Again, she did not discourage the notion. She did not tell her cell mates that the visitors were actually volunteers from Catholic churches in Philadelphia who had taken up her cause.
The volunteers helped her hire Oh.
"I believed her story because things just didn't add up," Oh said. For one thing, Oh said, the field tests were odd because they detected the presence of not one drug but three.
"People don't mix drugs like that," Oh said.
First, Oh contacted Bryn Mawr and confirmed that Lee's dorm mates had, in fact, made the condoms together during a pre-exam session they call a "hall tea."
Then, Oh said, he called Assistant District Attorney Charles Ehrlich, who agreed to expedite laboratory tests. Ehrlich also agreed to help seek reduced bail, Oh said. A day after the new test came back and confirmed that the substance was flour, Lee was released.
She flew home first class.
from The Philadelphia Inquirer

Baby, Take It Easy On My Penis

CHINA - A young man damaged the spongy tissue of his penis when he was making love for the first time, Chongqing Morning Post reported today.
The young man, who gave his name as Huang, helped by two companions, arrived at Xinqiao Hospital late last night, looking shy and awkward, the paper said.
It took some time for the young man to pluck up the courage to tell the doctor he felt he had wrecked his penis when he was making his sexual debut with his girlfriend.
An examination showed the spongy tissue of his penis was damaged while he had an erection. In an immediate operation, which took half an hour, doctors sewed the tissue and repaired the damage, the report said.
Doctor Jin, from the hospital's urology department, said that over excitement and lack of experience might well contribute to such accidents. Jin said people in such cases should immediately consult a doctor and any delay could be dangerous.
from Shanghai Daily

Iowa Klansman Wants Protest Of Gay Marriage

DES MOINES, IOWA - A Charles City man who said he's a member of the Ku Klux Klan is trying to organize a rally next month to protest attempts to legalize same-sex marriages in Iowa.
Douglas Sadler, 41, said his efforts are prompted by lawsuits filed earlier this month on behalf of six gay couples this month to alter the state’s marriage laws.
‘‘We don’t believe God’s law should be perverted any more than it already has been,’’ said Sadler, a Charles City resident and father of four. ‘‘The further we go away from God’s law, the further we get away from God.’’
Lambda Legal, the organization that spearheaded the same-sex marriage drive across the country, is representing the gay couples in the lawsuit. Group officials said they will argue that the state constitution’s equal protection and due process clauses make it unlawful for the state to bar same-sex couples from marrying. They plan to take the case to the Iowa Supreme Court if necessary.
That’s exactly where Sadler plans to protest. He said his contingent from Cerro Gordo, Floyd and Mitchell counties will head to Des Moines sometime next month and spread their message.
‘‘We don’t believe they have the right to marry,’’ Sadler said. ‘‘In fact, we don’t think they have the right to exist.’’
Sadler claims he leads a northern Iowa contingent of the Klan, but would not name any other members.
Lionel Foster, executive director of the Mason City Human Rights Commission, said he is aware of Ku Klux Klan activity in Iowa but is not extremely concerned.
‘‘They spread the same propaganda as they always have and they thrive on it,’’ he said. ‘‘To be honest, there aren’t that many Klansmen in Iowa. We’re more concerned about the sympathizers than we are with the Klan because they cause the trouble.’’
from The Doimes Register

Fort Lauderdale Man Suspected Of Preying On Gay Men Gets 15 Years

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - A man suspected of preying on gay men, and charged with the March 2001 murder of a Fort Lauderdale warehouse manager, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for violating his probation.
Kevin Hoffman, in jail awaiting trial for the killing of Michael Sortal, has been charged with having marijuana in his cell and of falsely accusing a Broward Sheriff's deputy of striking him with a tear-gas can.
Hoffman, already serving probation on an unrelated attempted murder conviction, was sentenced Tuesday by Broward Circuit Judge Susan Lebow to 15 years in prison and 15 years' probation for violating his probation.
Broward prosecutor Howard Scheinberg said Hoffman had a small amount of marijuana in his cell in the spring. The pot was found after jail officials read a letter in which Hoffman complained to a friend that he had a ''doobie but no match.'' Hoffman was also found guilty of falsifying a report that accused a Broward Sheriff's Office sergeant of striking him. Two inmates later said Hoffman tried to bribe them to lie about the incident.
The 29-year-old Hoffman is awaiting trial after being charged with fatally beating Sortal in March 2001.
Police discovered the body of Sortal, 47, a manager at A Advantage Storage Warehouse, in his apartment, with a plastic bag over his head. He had been robbed, beaten and strangled with a belt.
Police arrested Geoffrey Kennedy, 31, and Hoffman, both of Fort Lauderdale. Detectives believed the two men, who were roommates, targeted gay men, robbing them in their homes.
Kennedy was convicted in January 2002 and sentenced to life. After his sentencing, Kennedy agreed to testify against Hoffman. But in February, Kennedy changed his story and said he was alone at the time of the murder. Kennedy's recantation, along with the contaminated DNA evidence, led prosecutors to drop the case. Hoffman was released from jail June 23, 2003.
But after Hoffman's release, new witnesses came forward. Hoffman had told several people about the murder, authorities said, and new DNA evidence placed Hoffman at the scene of the homicide.
Police collected genetic evidence and several prints in the home and, using new technology, detectives were able to recharge Hoffman with Sortal's murder in July 2003.
from The Miami Herald

"Porn" Missing From List Of Top 2005 Junk E-Mail

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Ads mentioning real estate tycoon Donald Trump and those hawking "Penis Patch" body enhancements were among the top 10 junk e-mails in 2005, according to America Online.
Noticeably absent? Porn.
"Porn is passe when it comes to spam," Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman said.
Sexually suggestive e-mails took another tumble this year after slipping in popularity last year.
More than a half-trillion junk e-mails, known as spam, were blocked by AOL filters, slightly above 2004 levels, the company said. The number of junk e-mails reported by AOL's 26 million members worldwide has declined about 75 percent since 2003.
E-mails using more sophisticated tactics that attempt to deceive recipients by purporting to be from a friend or a legitimate agency or bear subject lines such as "Your Mortgage Application is Ready" are also beginning to replace blatant product promotions, AOL said.
Spammers "are (employing) 'back alley' tactics, and they are doing it with a specialized team that's working overtime to hide the source of their spam by employing zombie PC's, bot-nets and using other nefarious tactics," Charles Stiles, AOL's postmaster, said in a statement.
In 2005, AOL blocked an average of 1.5 billion spams per day. Approximately 8 in 10 e-mails received at its gateway were blocked as junk.
AOL is a division of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc..
from Reuters

LAPD Going To Gay Games To Find Cops

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - The Los Angeles Police Department is looking for a few good men and women -- and they're coming to Chicago to find them.
The department will be in the city in July during the Gay Games to recruit officers, even offering a written test over a four-day period, officials there said.
The LAPD also is co-sponsoring the games -- the first in the more than 20-year history of the games that will draw about 12,000 athletes competing in 30 events -- and will be marching in uniform during opening ceremonies along with members of Los Angeles' team, which will include officers.
"It demonstrates the commitment of the L.A. Police Department to diversity," said Kevin Boyer, co-vice chairman of the Gay Games Chicago Board of Directors. "We're very happy they are using the Gay Games to do that. It sends a strong message to other departments and the world."
The aggressive marketing move is also because Los Angeles -- which has a force of 9,200 -- needs to fill 400 newly created slots.
"Our overall crime rate is down, but we have areas of the city that it is not down enough," said Bruce Whidden, a spokesman for the LAPD's personnel department. "In order to take care of some hot spots, we need to grow the department."
No lack of applicants here
Whidden said officials hope the warm sun and a starting salary of $52,000 to $55,000 will be a draw for recruits.
The Chicago Police Department is in the middle of its own recruiting drive, recently announcing the application date will be extended to Jan. 9. Supt. Phil Cline also recently announced the test will be offered four times a year, instead of once, to give more people an opportunity to apply.
But police officials here said they don't mind that L.A. is trolling in Chicago for candidates. So far, 2,000 to 3,000 people have signed up to take the current test, according to department spokeswoman Monique Bond. She said 550 or so positions open each year because of attrition, and finding enough applicants is not a concern.
There have not been a significant number of new positions created in Chicago's 13,500-member force since President Bill Clinton authorized federal money for more police officers across the country in the 1990s, said City Council Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers (29th). Carothers said several other alderman expressed concern that some pockets of the city were not being covered adequately.
But a more pressing issue in Chicago, Carothers and department officials said, is the lack of minorities who are signing up for the test. The percentage of minorities signing up has fallen from a high of 50 percent in the early 1990s to just about 33 percent today, Carothers said.
Cline has reached out to African-American churches in the past, and just last week he met again with pastors and other religious leaders to ask for help recruiting.
Meanwhile, Chicago officials said they had no immediate plans to do a special recruitment during the Gay Games, and organizers said they don't think it is necessary, either.
"We are so thrilled with the response from the Chicago Police Department," Boyer said. "They have been a partner with us all along the way."
from Chicago Sun-Times

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Gay Men Vent Aggression Through Verbals, Not Violence

Young men can be aggressive - even during the season of goodwill. Now, a new study by University of East London (UEL) psychologist Tom Dickins shows how patterns of male aggression vary with sexual orientation.
According to the findings of the study, forthcoming in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, homosexual men score higher for empathy and show significantly lower levels of physical aggression than heterosexual men.
However they do show similar levels of non-physical and indirect aggression, that is the ability to inflict pain while avoiding identification and counter-aggression, for example by spreading malicious gossip.
Dr Dickins' findings are based on data collected from an internet sample of two groups of 91 homosexual and 91 heterosexual males he surveyed using self-report psychometric questionnaires. The participants were recruited and interviewed online to ensure privacy.
Dr Dickins, who has published extensively on evolutionary psychology, said: "Homosexual males are often reported to be less physically aggressive than heterosexual males. Previous aggression studies have not, however, compared all forms of direct aggression, indirect aggression, and empathy among these populations.
"These results suggest that homosexual men are not less aggressive than heterosexuals per se, they simply express their aggression in different ways."
from Physorg

Mark Feehily Is Gay, But He Prefers Jolie To Brad Pitt

LONDON - 'Westlife' heart-throb Mark Feehily has revealed that he would prefer to bed the sexy 'Lara Croft' actress Angelina Jolie over her beau Brad Pitt even though he's gay.
The singer said that his gay lifestyle had not stopped him from fancying women, especially Jolie. However, Feehily would pass on Pitt, as the actor doesn't happen to be his 'type', and added that his preference in men ran to regular guys.
"I fancied girls - I still fancy girls. I really fancy Angelina Jolie but I just don't want to do anything about it any more. Brad Pitt is very good looking but he's not my type. Generally I prefer everyday blokes,"
from NewIndPress

Gay Couple In Egyptian Wall Carvings?

When Egyptologists entered the tomb for the first time more than four decades ago, they expected to be surprised. Explorers of newly exposed tombs always expect that, and this time they were not disappointed - they were confounded.
It was back in 1964, outside Cairo, near the famous Step Pyramid in the necropolis of Saqqara and a short drive from the Sphinx and the pyramids at Giza. The newfound tomb yielded no royal mummies or dazzling jewels. But the explorers stopped in their tracks when the light of their kerosene lamp shined on the wall art in the most sacred chamber.
There, carved in stone, were the images of two men embracing. Their names were inscribed above: Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Though not of the nobility, they were highly esteemed in the palace as the chief manicurists of the king, sometime from 2380 to 2320 B.C., in the time known as the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Grooming the king was an honored occupation.
Archaeologists were taken aback. It was extremely rare in ancient Egypt for an elite tomb to be shared by two men of apparently equal standing. The usual practice was for such mortuary temples to be the resting place of one prominent man, his wife and children.
And it was most unusual for a couple of the same sex to be depicted locked in an embrace. In other scenes, they are also shown holding hands and nose-kissing, the favored form of kissing in ancient Egypt.
What were scholars to make of their intimate relationship?
Over the years, the tomb's wall art has inspired considerable speculation. One interpretation is that the two men were brothers, probably identical twins, and this may be the earliest known depiction of twins. Another is that the men had a homosexual relationship, a more recent view that has gained support among gay advocates.
Now, an Egyptologist at New York University has stepped into the debate with a third interpretation. He has marshaled circumstantial evidence that the two men might have been conjoined twins, popularly known as Siamese twins. The expert, David O'Connor, a professor of ancient Egyptian art at the university's Institute of Fine Arts, said: "My suggestion is that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were indeed twins, but of a very special sort. They were conjoined twins, and it was this physical peculiarity that prompted the many depictions of them hand-holding or embracing in their tomb-chapel."
O'Connor elaborated on his hypothesis in a recent lecture and in an interview in New York. He will further describe and defend the idea at a conference, "Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt," this week at the University of Wales in Swansea.
Opposition to his proposal promises to be spirited. Most Egyptologists accept the normal-twins interpretation advanced most prominently by John Baines, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford in England.
"It's a very persuasive case Baines makes," O'Connor acknowledged.
And he noted that the gay-couple hypothesis had become the popular idea in the last decade. A leading proponent is Greg Reeder, an independent scholar in San Francisco and a contributing editor of KMT, a magazine of Egyptian art and history. The most Google references to the tomb, archaeologists say, concern the homosexual idea.
The gay argument leans on the analogy with depictions of married heterosexual couples in Egyptian art, which was first suggested by Nadine Cherpion, a French archaeologist.
Because the embraces of heterosexual couples in the tomb art convey an implicit erotic and sexual relationship, and perhaps the belief of its continuation in the afterlife, Reeder and his allies contend that similar scenes involving the two men have the same significance, that they presumably are gay partners.
Calling attention to the most intimate scene of the two embracing men, Reeder said: "They are so close together here that not only are they face to face and nose to nose, but so close that the knots on their belts are touching, linking their lower torsos. If this scene were composed of a male-female couple instead of the same-sex couple we have here, there would be little question concerning what it is we are seeing."
In an interview last week, Reeder said that O'Connor's new interpretation was fascinating, but added, "It's the most extreme and unnecessary theory." Baines, in an e-mail message from Oxford, said that he "would stick with my own interpretation, because it seems to me to require the smallest amount of 'exceptionalism' and to fit reasonably well with other patterns."
As for the sexual implications of the embracing poses, Baines has suggested that they could signify the "socially and emotionally linked roles" of two men who probably were twins.
Or they could symbolize "protection or close identification and reciprocity" between the two.
Ancient Egyptian art, experts say, is not meant always to be taken literally.
James Allen, an Egyptologist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who is not involved in the research, called the twins hypothesis probable and the conjoined-twins idea "an interesting wrinkle." The least likely, he said, was the homosexual relationship proposal.
Baines said, "The gay-couple idea is essentially derived from imposing modern preoccupations on ancient materials and not attending to the cultural context."
If O'Connor is correct, the tomb holds a rare example that far back in history of documented conjoined twins, he said, and thus an insight into ancient Egyptian attitudes toward disabilities. He cited other records, and art of the dwarf Seneb, who in a somewhat later court was "overseer of dwarfs in charge of dressing" the king and a tutor of the royal sons, both positions of elite status. Egyptians appear to have viewed such people as auspicious figures, not freaks.
The apparently close relationship and equal standing of the two men are illustrated not only in images of them together, either holding hands or embracing. In other instances, O'Connor said, one man appears alone on a wall face, and the other on the opposing wall. Their stature and pose are identical, and they are performing similar acts.
While one fishes in the marshes, for example, the other hunts birds in the same setting.
These scenes and the ones of intimate embraces led to the speculation, initially by Mounir Basta, the Egyptian archaeologist who first explored the tomb, that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were brothers, probably twins. Baines developed the idea in a seminal study in the 1980s, and others took up the gay-couple idea.
When O'Connor looked into the matter, he was struck by a comparison of the images of the two men with pictures of Chang and Eng, the famous conjoined twins born in 1811 in Siam. They were seen close together, arm in arm. They and a number of documented conjoined twins also had wives and children - like the two Egyptians - and engaged in strenuous activities, much like the hunting and fishing of the two Egyptians.
Their names, Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, suggest another clue, O'Connor said. Both names refer to the god Khnum, the deity who fashions the form of a child in the womb. Though not an uncommon part of Egyptian names, in this case it might be a play on words to signify their paired lives.
David Silverman, an Egyptologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and his student Joshua Robinson pointed out to O'Connor that the name Khnum was also similar to the ancient Egyptian word khenem, which means "to unite" or "be united."
One problem, however, is that none of the tomb art shows a physical link between the two men, as in some pictures of Chang and Eng.
Whether the two men were normal twins, conjoined twins or a gay couple, the speculation highlights a problem and an opportunity for scholars.
"We don't have a lot of information about how twins were viewed in ancient Egypt or how gay life was perceived," said Allen, of the Metropolitan Museum.
Few accounts refer to twins of any kind in the civilization, and an honored role for conjoined twins, if that is what they were, would be even stronger evidence of Egyptian attitudes toward people with physical disabilities.
"Such attributes were often seen as fabulous rather than monstrous, and positive rather than negative," O'Connor said.
"They attested the creator god's ability, if he wished, to bring wondrous changes upon the norms he himself had established."
Besides, O'Connor pointed out, "the fact that they could have worked simultaneously on the grooming of the king's two hands might have been seen as especially appropriate and desirable."
Homosexuality was only occasionally referred to in Egyptian documents, sometimes in myths of certain gods, implying that it was not considered a normal relationship. The prevailing attitude, scholars say, was not antigay, though probably negative, and certainly not as accepting of homosexual activity as in classical Greece.
If the tomb of the two men was indeed a public profession of their emotional and sexual attachment, scholars say, it could inspire a reassessment of the place of homosexuals in Egyptian culture.
Defending his interpretation, Reeder said the similarity of the embracing scenes with those of husbands and wives should not be dismissed. He further noted, in his lecture in Wales, new evidence that he said suggested that one of the men died well before the other.
Khnumhotep was described in one place as being honored by a great god, possibly meaning he had by then entered the afterlife, while in a corresponding scene Niankhkhnum had only official titles of his career in life.
If, then, Niankhkhnum was the one who finished decorating the tomb, Reeder said, it was unlikely that they were conjoined twins.
"They would have had to be surgically separated," he said in an interview. "The Egyptians had surgical knowledge. But separating such twins would be expecting too much."
The fact that the two men had families is not seen as contradicting the gay hypothesis, Egyptologists said. Like others of the time, the two men would presumably have sired children to carry on after them and maintain the cult dedicated to their well-being through eternity.
Reeder said his hypothesis "resonates in the gay community because it shows two historical men being intimate with each other, and this was something that could be shown in an ancient culture."
O'Connor acknowledged the interpretation's appeal. "Gays and lesbians still experience a great deal of prejudice and discrimination, and these two ancient Egyptians are yet further proof that homosexuality goes far back in history," he said.
"The semipublic nature of their tomb chapel," he added, "suggests their gay relationship was accepted as normative by the elite of a particularly famous and illustrious civilization."
Finally, O'Connor conceded that the conjoined-twins hypothesis, like the other two, is not "fully supported by conclusive evidence."
from International Herald Tribune

Barbarism Begins With Barbie, The Doll Children Love To Hate

Barbie, that plastic icon of girlhood fantasy play, is routinely tortured by children, research has found.
The methods of mutilation are varied and creative, ranging from scalping to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving, according to academics from the University of Bath.
The findings were revealed as part of an in-depth look by psychologists and management academics into the role of brands among 7 to 11-year-old schoolchildren.
The researchers had not intended to focus on Barbie, but they were taken aback by the rejection, hatred and violence she provoked when they asked the children about their feelings for the doll.
Violence and torture against Barbie were repeatedly reported across age, school and gender. No other toy or brand name provoked such a negative response.
“You might expect little girls to love their Barbie and expect an imaginary love in return. Instead girls feel violence and hatred towards their Barbie,” Agnes Nairn, one of the researchers, said.
One interpretation of this phenomenon is that the children are reacting to the proliferation of different types of the doll, which range from Fashion Barbie to Queen Elizabeth I Barbie and even a Geisha Barbie.
“The children never talked of one single, special Barbie. The girls almost always talked about having a box full of Barbies. So to them Barbie has come to symbolise excess. Barbies are not special; they are disposable, and are thrown away and rejected,” Dr Nairn said.
She added: “On a deeper level Barbie has become inanimate. She has lost any individual warmth that she might have possessed if she were perceived as a singular person. This may go some way towards explaining the violence and torture.”
Previous research from the US into Barbie abuse suggested that prepubescent girls destroyed the doll because she reminded them of adulthood at a time when they were still clinging to their childhood, but Dr Nairn found no evidence of this.
She also dismissed the idea that overweight little girls might be jealous of Barbie for being the girl who had everything, including a tiny waist. It was more likely to be a simple reaction against a toy that the children had grown out of, she said.
“The children we were talking to were aged 7 to 11, whereas the right age for having a Barbie seems now to be 4, even though Barbie doesn’t exactly look like it is aimed at four-year-olds,” Dr Nairn added. She and her colleagues Christine Griffin and Patricia Gaya Wicks concluded that, while adults may find a child’s delight in breaking, mutilating and torturing their dolls to be disturbing, from the child’s point of view they were simply being imaginative in disposing of an excessive commodity, in the same way as one might crush cans for recycling.
from Times OnLine

Is It Art Or Is It Snow Porn?

It was the perfect advertisement for Viagra.
And because the 1.5-metre-high penis sculptured from snow was made by second-year McMaster University engineering students, it was stabilized to stand up to kicks and attempts to push it over.
It stood over the weekend until it was knocked down Tuesday by a work crew.
But for some residents, the snow penis was highly offensive and another flashpoint in the ongoing problems of student parties, pranks and antics that plague the neighbourhoods around McMaster.
Retired Mohawk College professor Bill Goruk says the sculpture may have offended families with young children in the area.
He and other residents are tired of students who live off-campus and party in the area.
"How often do we need to be woken up at all hours to hooting and hollering, bottles being broken in the street and students puking on lawns?" Goruk asked.
The students, identified as Mitch and Kevin, said they created the sculpture to relieve the stress of exams.
The sculpture may have upset some people, but most laughed and chuckled at it or took pictures, Kevin said.
"We make snowmen, snow angels, snow forts, and a sculpture that is phallic shouldn't offend someone," Mitch said in an e-mail. "It's there for people to laugh at and be reminded that winter is a time to have fun and be creative."
from AZ Central

Pop Idol Favorite Wants A Penis

The hot favourite to win the German version of Pop Idol is planning to use her winnings to buy a penis.
Didi Knoblauch, 25, one of the finalists on Germany Searches for a Superstar, was born a girl but is now half way towards becoming a boy.
Knoblauch told German media: "I never felt comfortable in my own skin, I don't want to be a girl.
"Two years ago I had my breasts removed in a very painful operation. But having a full sex change is expensive, about £40,000.
"I'm taking part for the experience of being on the show, but if I win I'm hoping to earn enough to afford the operation."
from Ananova

Pope’s New Representative To U.S. Had Denounced Jerusalem “Gay Pride”

WASHINGTON, DC - Archbishop Pietro Sambi, newly appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, had condemned a Gay Pride celebration planned for Jerusalem last August. Then Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Palestine, Archbishop Sambi called the planned gathering “a provocation to the Jews, Christians and Muslims of Jerusalem and all over the world,” reported Joel Greenberg for the Jewish World Review.
“This is a holy city for people who accept the Lordship of God on their life. It’s not for pride,” Archbishop Sambi said. “No one can assure that this parade will go on in a peaceful way and will not provoke reaction from the faithful.” (Julie Stahl for CNSNews.com)
Spiritual leaders for the Jewish, Moslem and Christian communities in Jerusalem joined with Archbishop Sambi in denouncing the event. Intended to be the second annual WorldPride celebration, the event was later cancelled.
The Italian-born Sambi leaves the post of Apostolic Nuncio to Israel to serve as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. The Vatican made the announcement December 17.
A Nuncio represents the Holy Father to both the hierarchy and Church of a particular nation and to that nation’s civil government.
In a statement welcoming the appointment, Bishop William S. Skylstad, President of the United States Conference of catholic Bishops, (USCCB) said:
“The Bishops of the United States are pleased that the Holy Father has honored the church in our country with the appointment of a Nuncio with an extraordinary life of service to the Church in many areas of the world.”
from Life Site

AIDS Pill As Party Drug?

Some HIV-negative men are using tenofovir instead of condoms, hoping it provides protection. Physicians say the practice could lead to more infections.
"Taking a T." That's what HIV-negative gay men call the growing practice of downing the AIDS drug tenofovir and, with fingers crossed, hoping it protects them from the virus during unprotected sex.
It's being sold in packets along with Viagra and Ecstasy in gay dance clubs — and even prescribed by physicians, say doctors and AIDS prevention experts. The trend has alarmed public health officials. There is no proof that tenofovir protects against HIV transmission, they say. People who practice unsafe sex while taking the drug could still become infected or suffer side effects from it.
Recreational use of AIDS drugs also might increase overall resistance to the medications, HIV experts say. "This is a very worrisome development," said Dr. David Hardy, an HIV doctor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He said the drug could lead to an even further erosion of condom use, which studies show has been falling among high-risk populations.
A survey released in July by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted at gay pride events in four cities, found that 7% of uninfected men had taken an AIDS medication before engaging in risky behavior and that about a fifth had heard of someone who had.
Prevention experts stress that the number of men taking the drug in this manner remains small. So far, it appears to be most popular among young gay men who aren't using condoms and people who frequent sex clubs and bath houses.
But health officials say the use is growing quickly. They worry that the practice could spread into other high-risk segments of the population, such as sex workers and IV drug users, and then into the general public. HIV experts, in the meantime, continue to promote condom use as the most effective means of preventing transmission.
"If we find out this works, even in some people, we would never recommend people stop using condoms or reduce their number of sexual partners," said Jeff Klausner, STD prevention director for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Nonetheless, there is some research that suggests taking the drug prophylactically can reduce the risk of transmission. Based on promising earlier research, the CDC is funding two clinical trials, begun last year in Atlanta and San Francisco, on whether tenofovir, a staple of the current HIV drug regimen, may act as a shield to infection — much like how a birth control pill can help prevent pregnancy. Each trial is giving 200 high-risk men a daily dose of tenofovir and monitoring them for two years.
The drug already is widely used as part of a drug regimen given to people who may have been exposed to the virus. Health workers who are stuck by a needle, for instance, take a mix of medications, including tenofovir, for 30 days to reduce their chance of becoming infected.
Studies also have shown that the medication may help prevent infection in healthy monkeys.
Marc Conant, an HIV doctor in San Francisco, said he recently began prescribing tenofovir to two uninfected men after they told him they were very sexually active and would not use condoms. Though troubled by the fact that the drug hasn't been proven effective for such a use and that his patients may be increasing their risky behavior while using it, he says using the drug is better than taking no precaution at all.
"What choice do I have? Forty-thousand people are still getting infected every year," he said. "Everyone knows condoms work, but they're not using them. All I am trying to do is reduce the risk that people harm themselves."
Conant said he tests both patients every three months and that they remain negative.
Tenofovir works by blocking an enzyme the virus needs to replicate. Although other AIDS medications may also have protective effects, researchers believe that tenofovir is especially promising at reducing the risk of transmission because the drug has few side effects and remains in the body for up to two days.
Dan Uhler, a prevention counselor at a San Diego gay men's health clinic, said the drug first appeared about a year ago in gay clubs and at circuit parties, festival-size dance parties known for sex and substance abuse. It is sometimes sold with other drugs such as Ecstasy and methamphetamines for around $100. People who use tenofovir believe it "helps justify the risks they are taking," Uhler said.
The growing use of the drug comes as HIV prevention efforts appear to be losing effectiveness among gay and bisexual men. Nationally, new HIV infections remain at around 40,000 a year, but a recent report released by the CDC found that last year new infections among gay and bisexual men rose 8%. A separate CDC report, released in October, found that syphilis rates among these men has climbed 29% over the last four years, indicating a spike in risky sexual activity.
Steven Gibson, director of a gay men's health clinic in San Francisco, said the city's public health department should educate the community about the dangers of taking tenofovir in unapproved ways.
He has opposed trials of the drug, he said, because of the likelihood that men would pursue the regimen on their own.
Other prevention experts worry about the sources of the drug. They believe some men are buying it online, raising questions of drug quality; others are getting it from HIV-positive friends, suggesting that those who are sharing doses aren't keeping up with their own treatment schedule. Some HIV-positive men are selling the drug to make extra money, Uhler said.
Albert Liu, director of HIV prevention and intervention studies at San Francisco's Department of Public Health, said the department planned to survey gay men early next year to see how many of them are using the drug before having sex.
If the numbers are as high as the CDC survey found, he said the department could begin educational campaigns about the drug's risks and widespread use.
"What we are trying to find out is if this is safe," Liu said. "Our goal is to find out what the best course of action is."
from Los Angeles Times

Gay Focus For Domestic Violence

UNTITED KINGDOM - An advertising campaign is launched to tackle domestic violence, which will also focus on the gay and transgender community for the first time.
The Metropolitan Police want to stress they will seek out abusive partners even if the victim does not make a statement.
The posters will appear from Monday in men's toilets, locker rooms, in football programmes and the press.
And for the first time they will appear in gay and transgender bars and media.
Commander Steve Allen said: "The MPS is strongly committed to the prevention and detection of domestic violence incidents experienced by all victims, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
"Our objectives are to stop the violence whilst protecting victims and their children and to hold perpetrators accountable through the criminal justice system."
Jo Todd, director of Respect, the UK Association for Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes and Associated Support Services, said: "We welcome the campaign, which sends uncompromising messages to perpetrators that the police will arrest them with or without a statement from their partner.
"Over the last few years the Metropolitan Police has improved its response to domestic violence considerably.
"While there is still much work to do, this campaign demonstrates its increasing commitment to holding perpetrators to account for their criminal behaviour in order to increase the safety of those affected by domestic violence - usually women and children."
from BBC

Gay Soldier Leaving Army After Assault

SIERRA VISTA, ARIZONA - Fear is keeping Pvt. Kyle Lawson awake at night — not of the enemy, but of his fellow soldiers.
For weeks, the 19-year-old Tucson native has been sleeping on a cot in his drill sergeant's office to protect him from further attacks because he is gay.
He's already had his nose broken — and says he also was threatened with a knife — after a friend let Lawson's secret slip at a party attended by members of the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, a training unit at Fort Huachuca 75 miles southeast of Tucson.
Lawson now feels he has no choice but to leave the military and has requested a discharge. He was training to be an Army interrogator, a high-demand job in the age of terrorism.
"I can't keep living a lie. It's not safe for me here," said Lawson, who is described by friends and family as smart, moral and hardworking — qualities the Army says it values in soldiers.
Critics of the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy say Lawson is one of hundreds of homosexuals harassed or assaulted each year, and say his story is a telling example of what's wrong with the ban on openly gay troops.
"I can't deny who I am"
Lawson was punched in the face by a fellow 309th soldier at the off-post party on Oct. 29, according to a police report of the incident.
The soldier told police Lawson made sexually suggestive remarks. Sierra Vista police Officer Darryl Scott, who investigated and laid a charge of felony aggravated assault, said in an interview that "there was no provocation."
The Army chose not to prosecute the charge, for reasons fort officials say they are not at liberty to explain.
A week after the first attack, Lawson said a second soldier threatened him with a knife outside a barracks as word spread about his sexual orientation.
Lawson said the soldiers who accosted him received little punishment from the Army. Fort Huachuca officials say neither case was mishandled.
Nearly 10,000 gays and lesbians — at least 63 from Southern Arizona bases — have been discharged under the rule that forces them into the closet.
A move is afoot to repeal the 12-year-old policy, with a bill backed by 100 federal lawmakers from both parties, including Southern Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress.
But change will not come soon enough for Lawson, who, despite his woes, wishes he could stay in uniform. Most fellow soldiers have been supportive and sympathetic, he said.
"But I can't deny who I am anymore. I thought I could do it, but I can't," said Lawson, who said he agreed to an interview so the public can see how the policy affects people.
Mom fears for son's life
Striding down a sidewalk near the fort's main gate, Lawson looks as if he stepped off a recruiting poster.
A blond buzz cut peeks from beneath his black Army beret. Camouflage covers shoulders squared by endless push-ups.
His 6-foot-2-inch frame is arrow straight, hands tucked at his sides as if each fist is gripping a roll of quarters — just the way troops are trained to hold their hands while in uniform.
Before joining the Army — before admitting to himself that he was gay — Lawson was a teen preacher at a Baptist church in conservative southern Missouri, where he went to high school after moving from Tucson. His church's disapproval of homosexuality caused him such angst he tried dating girls and willing himself to feel attracted to them, he said. It didn't work.
Rebekah Fitzgerald, Lawson's English teacher and debate team coach at Reeds Spring High School in Missouri, said Lawson was "very discreet" about his sexual orientation, only confiding it to her after graduation last May.
Sheila Lawson, 42, said she hadn't a clue about her son's orientation until he called her from Fort Huachuca after his nose was broken and told her why he'd been attacked.
Since then, "I've been crying myself to sleep," she said. "He told me, 'Mom, I love the Army so much. I don't want to get out.' But I'm afraid for his life."
Fort took "appropriate action"
Before heading to boot camp, Lawson said he leveled with his recruiter, who told him "everything would be fine" as long as he stayed in the closet.
His case is not unusual, say those who help such troops. Beatings, taunting — and occasionally, murders — are fueled by the policy that makes gays hide, they say.
Despite a Pentagon push in 2000 to prevent gay-bashing — spurred by the slaying of a gay soldier at Fort Campbell, Ky. — more than 900 homosexual troops were verbally or physically harassed last year, according to the Service Members' Legal Defense Network in Washington, D.C.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell promotes ill will by stigmatizing homosexuality, said Steve Ralls, spokesman for the group.
"When the military as an institution can discriminate against you, what message does that send to your co-workers about how they can treat you?" he asked.
The military does not do enough to punish personnel who harass or attack gay colleagues, Ralls said.
In Lawson's case, police charged his alleged attacker with a Class 3 felony aggravated assault — a charge that draws an average 3 1/2 years in prison upon conviction in Arizona, more if a judge finds the crime was hate-based.
Lawson told police that the soldier who broke his nose used a profane anti-gay slur.
Fort Huachuca requested control of the criminal case — common when soldiers are charged by civilian police — but didn't prosecute.
Lawson said as far as he knows, his attacker was punished by losing some privileges, such as having his weekend pass revoked.
Fort Huachuca spokeswoman Tanja Linton said that although the Army did not take the case to court, commanders took "appropriate action." She would not say what action was taken, citing federal privacy laws.
Lawson's claim that he was threatened with a knife was not substantiated, so no action was needed, Linton said. However, out of concern for Lawson, he was told to sleep on a cot under his drill sergeant's watch after the knife report, she said.
She said the Army is satisfied that "the soldiers involved did not harbor prejudicial beliefs."
Still, Lawson's colleagues received "reinforcement training" stressing respect for each other, Linton said.
"Harassment of any type is not tolerated," she said.
Anti-gay sentiment common
A 2000 Pentagon study found anti-gay sentiment common in the military.
In the study, 80 percent of troops surveyed said they'd heard homosexual jokes or slurs in the past year; 37 percent said they'd seen or experienced anti-gay harassment.
But attitudes may be mellowing. In one poll this year of potential military recruits, 67 percent said openly gay troops would have "no effect" on their decisions to enlist. Other recent polls have found public support as high as 79 percent for allowing gays to serve openly, said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Some say opening the closet would hurt recruiting and make life uncomfortable for many who already serve.
"The military is not like any other employer," said Elaine Donnelly of the Michigan-based Center for Military Readiness, which wants gays banned from the service and has fought to restrict the role of women.
Troops often live in close quarters with little privacy, creating "forced intimacy," Donnelly said.
"This is not a question of bigotry," she said. It's about "respect for personal modesty."
Not all polls support openly gay service, she noted. A recent Army Times poll found that 65 percent of respondents favor Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Troops serve with foreign gays
Arguments like Donnelly's have surfaced in two dozen countries that legalized gay military service, said Belkin, who runs the research center on gays in the military. But the problems predicted never came to pass, he said.
U.S. troops in Iraq and elsewhere already serve with openly gay troops from Britain, Australia and other allied nations without incident, Belkin said.
Kolbe, the Southern Arizona congressman, said changes in military eligibility — such as including women or blacks — are always contentious at first but end up making the military better.
"I'm sure there were people who said to President Truman, when he signed the desegregation order, 'It will never work if you put a white soldier from Alabama in the barracks with a black soldier from Mississippi.' And today the military is a model of racial integration," he said.
He predicts that will eventually happen with gays.
One day, Kolbe said, "how well you do the job will be the only thing that matters."
from Arizona Daily Star

Gay Italian Clergy Speak Out Against Vatican Ruling

About 80 members of the Roman Catholic clergy in Italy who are gay posted an open letter online Wednesday saying their sexual orientation has not stopped them from being good at their job.
The letter, published on the website of the Italian Catholic news agency Adista, was in response to a recent statement from the Vatican banning candidates for the priesthood with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies.
They said they felt like the church's "unloved and unwanted children."
According to Adista, 39 priests, 26 diocesans and 13 more members of various religious orders signed the letter. However, the letter published on the website did not include their signatures or list their names.
"We don't have more problems living chastely than heterosexuals do," said the letter, adding that homosexuality is not a synonym for "uncontrollable urges."
"We are not sick with sex and our homosexual tendency has not damaged our psychic health."
The letter goes on to say "we are Catholic priests ... with homosexual tendencies, and that fact has not stopped us from being good priests."
"We consider our homosexuality to be wealth, because it helps us to share the marginalization and suffering of many people."
The Congregation for Catholic Education released official instructions late last month stating that men "who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'" cannot be admitted to seminaries. The only exception would be for those with a "transitory problem" that had been overcome for at least three years.
from CBC

His Gay Claim Likely To Hold Up

TAMPA, FLORIDA - Whether or not Joe Redner is gay, attorneys and First Amendment experts are calling the strip club owner's recent disclosure a brilliant legal move.
Because how can anyone prove he's not?
"I would assume it would be virtually impossible for them to disprove his clear and unequivocal statement," First Amendment attorney Luke Lirot said.
The owner of the Mons Venus and regular county agitator has publicly said he's gay over and over in the newspapers, radio and television in the past week. The disclosure came after Redner sued the county over its June prohibition barring county government from acknowledging or participating in gay pride events.
County attorneys tried to get Redner's case dismissed by arguing Redner isn't personally affected by the ordinance, implying in veiled legalese that Redner isn't gay.
Redner amended his complaint last week to say he is a homosexual.
In the days since, Redner has given ambiguous interviews, saying with a chuckle that he is in a sexual "transition stage" or that he's announced his sexual orientation "to help a good cause," making his sexual disclosure seem contrived or at least well-timed.
Yet, Redner denies his disclosure is a legal ploy made falsely to bolster his case, although he says the case did spur him to reveal it.
Hillsborough County attorneys are particularly skeptical of Redner's claim and are even contemplating deposing Redner under oath, if U.S. District Judge James Moody deems the issue pertinent.
"If he's made an allegation that he's gay, and that's false, then I think that would be of interest to the court," said Robert Brazel of the county attorney's office. "You're normally not supposed to make false allegations to the court."
Redner said he welcomes the opportunity to sit down across the table from county attorneys and tell all.
"I'm available any time they want me," said Redner, who has two ex-wives, five children and several grandchildren. "I can't wait for them to depose me."
Experts in the First Amendment, the area of law governing many gay rights issues, say it will be difficult to prove anything more than what Redner says. No real legal definition or interpretation of homosexuality exists.
"I'm not sure that the courts have felt it necessary to interpret the reference to homosexuality and address the vagueness and ambiguity of that term," said Joseph Jackson, legal skills professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Several attorneys said they think homosexuality is more of a state of mind.
"I think the best evidence of what someone's sexuality is is the way the person considers him or herself to be," said Rebecca Steele, an attorney for the West Florida chapter of the ACLU. "It's going to be difficult to find proof of anyone's sexuality other than what they testify about."
Lirot said that being a homosexual doesn't require a person to be intimate with someone of the same sex.
"I don't know if it actually needs an act to be completed," said Lirot, who has represented Redner before but isn't involved in the suit against the county. "I guess that's why they call it sexual orientation and not sexual activity."
Even if the county attorneys manage to prove or convince a judge that Redner has lied about his sexual orientation as a way to bring his case, the penalties are financial and rarely enforced.
Plus, Redner disclosed his sexual orientation in a legal complaint, which is not under oath. So if he lied, he hasn't committed perjury, said Tampa lawyer John Lauro.
Under the law, whatever Redner alleges must be assumed true, unless proven otherwise, which means the burden lies with the county to spend the time and money to investigate.
"He's taken a legal position that is unassailable and put himself in a position that if he's gay, he's got standing, and if he's not gay, so be it," Lauro said. "The downside is nonexistent and nobody is going to prosecute him for that."
The legal debate over Redner's sexual orientation may never happen. County attorneys say they'll likely pursue a more mundane legal avenue for getting Redner's case tossed.
Redner, they say, has to prove he has an actual injury. And not being able to admire gay pride library exhibits, which were removed days before the county passed its ban, might not be enough to qualify.
That's the main reason the gay rights group Equality Florida has yet to file a lawsuit or get involved with Redner's lawsuit. It is waiting for the county to enforce the ban, which it sees as more of an illegal action, said Equality Florida spokesman Brian Winfield.
"The strongest lawsuit is going to be about implementation, and frankly we've been standing around since the summer challenging them to implement their own policy," Winfield said.
Redner's disclosure might never be debated because some experts say he didn't need to bring it up. He probably wouldn't have lost his right to bring the case based on his sexual orientation.
Redner said he had no choice once the issue was raised.
County attorneys wrote that Redner showed no "concrete or "particularized' interest at all in "gay pride recognition and events.' "
Yet, First Amendment violations affect everybody. Such violations are better raised by someone or a group of people representing more of the general public, some attorneys said.
"When one of us is oppressed, none of us is free," said Jackson, the professor. "Straight people are harmed like gay people are by discrimination that prohibits expression of a gay viewpoint. So too are all of us harmed by discrimination."
from St. Petersburg Times

Brazil: Bill Could Mean Toilets For Transvestites

NOVA IGUACU, BRAZIL - For most, it’s a choice of the men’s room or the women’s. A Brazilian city is trying to give an option to those who don’t fit easily into either category.
A bill passed by the Nova Iguacu city council yesterday would require nightclubs, shopping centres, cinemas and large restaurants to provide a third type of bathroom for transvestites. Mayor Lindberg Farias will decide whether to make it a law.
“A lot of MPs didn’t want to deal with this issue, but it’s a serious problem in society,” said city Councilman Carlos Eduardo Moreira.
“It’s a way to put an end to prejudice.”
Moreira, a 32-year-old policeman on leave from the force, said he got the idea when dozens of transvestites showed up for a local samba show.
“It was a real problem. The women didn’t feel comfortable having them in the ladies’ room, and the men didn’t want them in their bathroom either,” said Moreira, who is married and the father of two children.
“I’m not doing this for my own benefit.”
He said the “alternative bathrooms” could also be used by men or women who didn’t mind sharing space with transvestites.
Moreira said there are nearly 28,000 transvestites in Nova Iguacu, a poor city of about 800,000 on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
Moreira said many transvestites are reluctant to go out because there’s no bathroom for them. And he denied that the cost of building a third bathroom would be a big problem for restaurant or club owners.
“It requires an initial investment, but after that, the establishment will end up making more money because it will have a larger public. And transvestites like to spend,” he said.
The issue has divided gay groups; some feared it could segregate gays, while others said it recognised a problem within the gay community.
“At first we were against the law, but after some discussion we decided we had to support it because it addresses a real problem for a segment of the gay community,” said Eugenio Ibiapino dos Santos, a founder of the Pink Triangle Association, a gay group in Nova Iguacu.
“We see it as a way to open a discussion about civil rights.”
Brazil is generally more tolerant of homosexuality than other Latin American countries, but discrimination still exists.
A study conducted by the Candido Mendes University in Rio de Janeiro found that 60% of Rio’s homosexuals had met some type of harassment, and 17% said they had experienced physical violence.
from Ireland OnLine

First Gay Civil Union In The United States Ends

BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT - A couple who entered into the nation's first same-sex civil union are splitting up amid accusations of violent behavior.
Carolyn Conrad, 35, asked a court in October to end her relationship with Kathleen Peterson, 46.
Conrad also obtained a restraining order Wednesday against her partner, saying Peterson punched a hole in the wall during an argument and threatened to harm a friend.
"All I want to say is that the civil union was a big source of pride for me, and now it's not," Peterson said.
The two had been together for five years when they were legally joined in Brattleboro minutes after Vermont's civil-union law took effect on July 1, 2000.
By the end of 2004, a total of 7,549 same-sex couples had entered civil unions in Vermont, the first state to offer gay couples nearly all the rights and privileges of marriage. There have been 78 dissolutions.
Bari Shamas, of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, said gay relationships are prone to the same difficulties as heterosexual marriages.
"There's no proof that our relationships are any better than heterosexual relationships," Shamas said.
from The Seatle Times

Gay Football Players Set To Break Team Taboo

Three homosexual German professional footballers have agreed to come out of the closet, but only if campaigners can find eight more gay players to come out with them. One of the three is very prominent indeed, while the other two play in Germany’s lower divisions. It’s another sign that the last bastion of homophobia – male-team sports – is tottering.
It’s about time sport caught up with the revolution in public opinion. Next week Britain becomes the latest western country to recognise same-sex unions. The second-last bastion of homophobia, the armed forces, has already fallen in many western nations. The British armed forces not only admit gays, but send soldiers in tight T-shirts to march in “gay pride” parades as a recruitment device. The Canadian air force has hosted a gay wedding at an airbase. In Europe and North America, the proportion of people saying they have no problem with homosexuality increases each year.
However, conventional wisdom says that male sports teams and their fans remain too moronic to tolerate gays. Team sports have always been terrified of homosexuality partly because so many of their rituals appear homosexual. The single-sex community, shared showers, obsessive toning of bodies, hugs and kisses after scoring, fans singing of their love for a player – to admit the possibility of homosexuality would strip this world of its sexual innocence. It’s not that team sportsmen are all closet homosexuals. Rather, they expect to be able to be naked and loving together without having their sexuality questioned.
But it’s time to revise the conventional wisdom. Though some athletes are indeed morons, the majority are increasingly relaxed about homosexuality. The only gay team sportsman to declare his sexuality during his career, the Australian rugby league player Ian Roberts, discovered this on coming out in 1995. Most players in his working-class, macho sport supported him. “The public reaction when I came out is my highlight over anything I’ve accomplished on the field,” Roberts said.
And the climate in the west has improved since. David Beckham is so comfortable as a gay icon that he has posed as a pin-up for the gay magazine Attitude. In the Nether- lands, when the magazine Johan polled the nation’s professional footballers in 2002, only 20 per cent agreed with the statement: “There’s no place for homos in the football world.” And in the US last year, 74 per cent of 750 professional baseball players surveyed by the Tribune company said that having a gay team-mate would not bother them.
Attitudes have changed even faster in the stands. The Chicago Cubs baseball club introduced a “gay day” for fans in 2001. Named “Out at the ballgame”, it was a blast. Now the Cubs repeat it at one home game each season.
Other teams in North America’s most civilised cities – San Francisco, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh – have followed in pursuit of the pink dollar. A typical “gay day” features a homosexual men’s choir singing the national anthem, a gay celebrity throwing out the first pitch, and, during the seventh-inning stretch, the gay stand leading the crowd in a rendition of “YMCA”.
It’s possible to imagine something like this happening in Europe’s gayer football cities: London, Berlin or Cologne, say. Already several German clubs have gay fan groups, who typically wave rainbow flags bearing the club’s name.
Almost all the above has emanated from society. Now the sports bodies are starting to act. The first mover, oddly, has been England’s Football Association. Derided for decades as hidebound, last month it hosted a summit on homophobia. By the standards of football, this was wild.
The FA has embarrassed Uefa, the European football authority, into action. In February, a workshop at Uefa’s conference in Barcelona will discuss homophobia. William Gaillard, Uefa’s director of communications, told me: “At our level, gay footballers can be sure they will be protected.”
The first job is to find them. Presumably the players will emerge when they judge the environment friendly enough. We are not there yet. Banning morons who shout homophobic abuse would help. So would getting clubs and straight players to speak out.
Bet on a gay team sportsman to come out somewhere in 2006. It probably won’t be in American baseball or British football, though. The US and the UK are still among the western countries least tolerant of gays. Germany – or else Switzerland or a Scandinavian country – is more likely to be first.
from Financial Times

Chinese Police Raid Gay Culture Festival

BEIJING, CHINA - Chinese police shut down the opening of a gay and lesbian culture festival on Friday, an action participants said highlighted deep-rooted intolerance toward homosexuality.
The festival was to be a weekend of films, plays, exhibitions and seminars on the issue of homosexuality, but police raided the opening reception on Friday night and participants said they were still negotiating on whether any of the events could go ahead.
"They didn't have permission to hold this event," said a police official surnamed He.
But participants said the real issue was the subject matter.
"The attitude in China is still very conservative. They say it's illegal, but what's illegal about wanting to understand more about these issues?" asked a film student surnamed Cui.
"They are just conformists, not pluralists. They don't tolerate dissent," said another student, 24-year-old Xiao Ming.
Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder in China until 2001 and even state media have reported the heavy pressure gays are under to stay in the closet because of traditional beliefs that homosexuality is immoral.
A gay-themed film festival was forced to shift from its venue at Beijing University earlier this year under pressure from police. Friday's event had also moved venues at the last minute, probably in an effort to avoid being shut down.
"The police think it's a bad influence. But it's obviously discrimination," said Zhao Yongliang, among participants who retreated to a nearby restaurant after the raid.
Police also briefly detained a journalist covering the event, demanding, "Are you gay?".
This year, Shanghai's Fudan University launched two courses on homosexual health and research to try to shatter common stereotypes about homosexuals, but Zhao said many gays in China still did not talk about their sexual orientation.
"Most are still a secret but it's a secret that gets bigger and bigger," he said.
from Reuters

A Gay Day For Fashion

At a recent cocktail party, an annual Toys for Tots charity drive that draws a crowd of mostly gay men, the designer Peter Som wryly observed that there were so many designers, retail executives and publicists present that if the pier collapsed, "there would be no fashion industry tomorrow."
Two months earlier, Tara Subkoff, the agent provocateur behind the label Imitation of Christ, had remarked during a public forum, with a great deal of irritation, that fashion "is a gay man's profession."
Subkoff was annoyed; Som was amused.
The difference between their attitudes toward the gay male dominance of the fashion industry, a peculiar and widely acknowledged circumstance, illustrates a growing tension between those who feel they are discriminated against and those who feel somewhat favored by a perception, largely unexamined, that men are better designers than women, and gay men are the best designers of all.
Subkoff's remarks, made during a panel discussion of Generation X Fashion at the New Yorker Festival in late September, landed like an incendiary device in the fashion world -- she also accused Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, of supporting only "young, gay men."
A debate has continued ever since on Seventh Avenue in New York over who is most likely to succeed in fashion and also on whether women, who make up most of the customers for this industry, face institutional barriers that limit their advancement on the creative side.
Many female designers perceive that their male counterparts have won more industry honors and are featured more prominently in magazines. On television, they note, advice on style and design is almost invariably sought from a vibrantly gay man -- witness Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the new Isaac talk show with Isaac Mizrahi on the Style channel and Project Runway on Bravo, which began its second season on Wednesday night. Its cast of 16 includes eight male contestants, seven of them gay, a spokesman for Bravo said.
"A 30-year-old woman who is not very glamorous, but approaching fashion from a different point of view, maybe would not get the same attention as a young, cute and probably gay man," said Liz Collins, a knitwear designer who has earned several industry accolades but little commercial success.
"There are some really deep-seated tensions and resentment that have existed for a long time about gender in fashion and who gets things," Collins said. "A lot of those things are not necessarily real, or true, and they may be just suspicions. But you can look at certain examples of people who have had a faster rise to stardom, and the percentage of gay men is higher."
There is no way to accurately measure the success rate of designers based on sex or sexual orientation, or, somewhat speciously, to examine if men are more talented at design than women. As Valerie Steele, the chief curator of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, said: "There is no gay gene for creativity."
But circumstantial evidence is making some designers wonder about the disparities. Of the young US designers most embraced by retailers and celebrated in the fashion press in recent years, the roll call is almost exclusively male: Zac Posen, Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez and Som as well as Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler. Their female contemporaries have had a harder time breaking through, among them Behnaz Sarafpour, Alice Roi and Subkoff.
"Gay men stick together like a band of brothers," Subkoff said in an interview. "It's more common for a man to bring up a younger assistant" who is male "and be proud of that," she added, "whereas a woman would be threatened" to promote another woman.
Who's Who in Fashion, a directory published by Fairchild Publications, is split 60-40 in favor of men, and The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, published last year by Charles Scribner's Sons, included entries on 36 female and 69 male designers. No doubt such imbalances reflect in part the fact that fashion, like all professions, has historically been dominated by men because women rarely had careers outside the home until contemporary times.
Some of the reasons women don't have greater visibility today, insiders say, come down to the same work-life issues affecting women's progress in fields like law and banking.
"Women still prioritize getting married and having babies," said Norma Kamali, one of the most influential female designers of the past century. "There are fewer women willing to give up the time that is required for this kind of career. It's about passion, about being so focused that nothing could distract you."
"I don't show up in the fashion press a lot," she said. "If you look at who is touted in the fashion press, it is overwhelmingly young gay men."
Wintour declined to comment on Subkoff's accusation that she favors gay men among designers prominently featured in Vogue. But other designers came to her defense, noting the November and December issues show dresses by Vera Wang on the cover. There is little dispute that the designs of John Galliano, Jacobs, Rodriguez, Olivier Theyskens and Karl Lagerfeld, all prominently featured on Vogue covers this year, merit the spotlight.
In some quarters, the perception exists that fashion's main consumers, women, are more comfortable taking advice about how they should look from a man. "Men are often better designers for women than other women," said Tom Ford, the former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, who more than anyone in the past decade built a brand on his own persona, that of a man whose sensual appeal is to both men and women.
Whereas Bill Blass, Valentino and Oscar de la Renta founded their empires on the strength of a nonthreatening, nonsexual charisma, Ford aggressively promoted his sexually charged designs. "Of course there are many more gay male designers," Ford said. "I think we are more objective. We don't come with the baggage of hating certain parts of our bodies."
Some designers embrace an extreme version of this position. Michael Vollbracht, the current designer of Bill Blass, said he believes that gay men are demonstrably superior at design, their aesthetic formed by a perception of a woman as an idealized fantasy. "I come from a time when gay men dressed women," Vollbracht said. "We didn't bed them. Or at least I didn't. I am someone who is really pro-homosexual. I am an elitist. I am better than straight people. Women are confused about who they want to be. I believe that male designers have the fantasy level that women do not."
When women design for other women, Ford said, they proceed from a standpoint of practicality -- not fantasy. "Sometimes women are trapped by their own views of themselves, but some have built careers around that," he said. "Donna Karan was obsessed with her hips and used her own idiosyncrasies to define her brand."
Buchman sees little value in such arguments. If men are more objective, she countered, then women are empathetic, which can be useful in understanding the consumer. "I wear my own clothes," she said. "I have lived the life of my customer."
"This disparity is tied in with a lot of areas, not just fashion, where women have achieved less in the eyes of the world," Buchman said. "It is puzzling and troubling to me as a 1970s feminist but who knows, maybe this generation will be the one to change it all."
Fashion, unlike finance or politics, has always included some women at the top. But their visibility has not increased incrementally over the decades like other professions. In the 1920s and 1930s, there were many female designers -- Alix Gres, Elsa Schiaparelli and Chanel -- but after World War II, the big names were male -- Bill Blass, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin. Steele of FIT said the change could be attributed to the evolving role of women in society, from one of strength and independence before the war to the postwar ideal of a feminine mystique.
Likewise, the impression that gay men are more likely to succeed in fashion today, she said, is a reflection of contemporary attitudes and stereotypes.
"There are all of these unexamined and frankly invalid ideas that still seem to be bandied about," Steele said. "I think there are more likely cultural and sociopolitical explanations. But the perception that all good designers are men and that all male designers are gay, which Rudi Gernreich said 30 years ago, all gets down to the totally unprovable to the grossly homophobic."
from Taipei Times

Gay Men's Deaths May Be Linked

DALLAS, TEXAS - Investigators in Dallas, Garland and Arlington are trying to determine whether seven unsolved slayings of gay men stretching back five years may be related.
No direct evidence links the killings, police said, but some of the victims were known to pick up sexual partners they barely knew.
"We're not ruling anything out," said Sgt. Kenneth LeCesne, a Dallas police homicide supervisor whose unit is investigating five of the slayings. "The similarities have been the lifestyles of the victims. We can't say it's a serial killer or anything like that."
Interest in the cases stems from reports in the Dallas Voice, a newspaper that covers the gay community, questions raised by Dallas City Council member Ed Oakley, and the concerns of gay and lesbian leaders. On Wednesday, Dallas homicide investigators prepared a report for Assistant City Manager Charles Daniels on the crimes, but the city has stopped short of forming a task force.
One of the victims was Lawrence Wheat, who served on the Dallas Plan Commission before he was found dead in his South Dallas loft June 5, 2004. At about 10:40 p.m., neighbors heard Mr. Wheat yelling for help. The medical examiner said he was beaten and probably strangled.
"Hopefully this will get the case back out there," said Frances Wheat, Lawrence's mother. "There's a part of me that wants to know [who killed her son] because I don't want anyone to suffer like this. There's a part of me that doesn't want to go through a trial."
The other victims are:
•Samuel Jarnigan Lea, 28, a University of Texas at Arlington student who was found the morning of Oct. 31 inside his ground floor apartment near campus. He appears to have been strangled, police said. He was last seen five days earlier in downtown Fort Worth. He was known to frequent gay bars in Dallas, where he may have met his killer and invited him to his apartment. Police are still looking for his 2004 Chevrolet Avalanche bearing Texas plate 34F YB1.
•Craig Ceson, 46, who was found at 4:15 p.m. Oct. 11 at his apartment on Forest Park Road near Love Field. He died from blunt force injuries to the head. There were no signs that anyone broke into the apartment, suggesting the killer was invited inside.
•James Stephen Watts, 64, who was found by his brother the evening of March 12, 2004, in his house in the 1000 block of North Edgefield Avenue in north Oak Cliff. Mr. Watts, an antiques collector and animal advocate, died from head trauma.
•Agustin Fernandez Jr., 44, who was found critically injured with head injuries in a field in the 600 block of North Franklin Street in west Oak Cliff on the evening of July 27, 2003. Police found $617 in cash on him. He was taken to Methodist Dallas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead four days later.
•Bobby Dalton Berry, 63, who was found dead April 23, 2001, in the corner of a garage in the 6700 block of Mockingbird Lane near White Rock Lake. Police did not find his body for several days after his family reported him missing. Mr. Berry, a former Mobil Oil employee, lived in Athens, Texas, and frequently stayed at a Dallas house belonging to a friend who was in a nursing home. His car was found in a park near the lake.
•Keith Alexander Calloway, 33, who was found fatally stabbed Dec. 22, 2000, inside his Garland apartment on Chaha Road overlooking Lake Ray Hubbard. He was bound, and his throat was slashed. Investigators believe he had been to a bar in Dallas hours before he was found dead.
Arlington police have a suspect in the death of Mr. Lea, and that suspect's name has also emerged in the investigation into Mr. Wheat's slaying in Dallas. But detectives say they have no hard evidence that the man is connected to those cases, or to the other deaths.
The suspect is described as a Dallas man in his early 20s with a violent criminal past and no permanent address.
"He's a hustler. That's how he's taking care of his drug habit," said Arlington Detective Tommy LeNoir, who is investigating Mr. Lea's slaying. "Gay, straight, there's hustlers everywhere who want to go home with people and rip them off."
Anyone with information about the cases can call Dallas police at 214-671-3661, Garland police at 972-272-8477 and Arlington police at 817-459-5772.
from Dallas Morning News