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NEW ZEALAND - A liquor company is offering a Russian bride as first prize in a vodka promotion, a gimmick Russian women in New Zealand say is offensive.
The competition offers $8000 or a return trip to Moscow with spending money, to join a "find-a-bride" tour. The promotional material includes an image of a blonde scrubbing a floor, and the words: "Let me tell you, those Russian women are awesome, they don't care if you watch cricket on Valentine's Day, hell they don't even care if you're short and fat. It's almost too good to be true."
But statistics show that Russian women are not flocking to look after fat, lazy Kiwi husbands. In the last financial year, only 17 Russian women were granted entry to New Zealand under the partnership visa policy.
The company offering the bridal trip, 42 Below, started the campaign for its Stil vodka in stores and by email yesterday.
42 Below is known for its stunts aimed at gaining publicity.
Last year, a New York gay bar owner took umbrage at the "stereotypical" way the company portrayed homosexuals in advertising. Company president James Dale replied with an expletive-laden tirade which ended up in the gossip columns.
The company recorded a $2.7 million loss in the six months to last September and market analysts say its shares are a "bit of a punt" for investors.
Chief executive Geoff Ross said the Russian campaign might be seen as offensive, but it was really "a bit of fun". Stil vodka was aimed at "classic Kiwi blokes, pub drinkers" who would love to meet "hot" Russian women on bridal tour websites such as www. loveme. com.
"For the single Kiwi bloke who might not be an All Black or very good looking, this is a chance to get hooked up with somebody pretty hot," said Ross.
The image of the woman scrubbing a floor was tongue in cheek, he said.
"The ideal woman for the Kiwi bloke is one who keeps him fed and looked after all day and meets all his needs."
But Russian women contacted by the Sunday Star-Times said the idea of Russian women desperate to come to New Zealand and look after overweight, idle husbands was wrong.
"Most Russian women I know are highly educated, with university degrees," said Auckland consultant Maria Gorokhova.
Most of the Russian women on singles websites - one has more than 400 Russian women wanting to find Kiwi partners - are professionals, including doctors, lawyers and economists.
Gorokhova said offering a bride in a competition was degrading to women. "It's treating women like some kind of toy, or trophy."
Auckland businesswoman Olga Essina said most Russian women were better educated than Kiwi men, and the image of the woman cleaning the floor was offensive.
Russian women were house proud, but they would not put up with cooking and cleaning for long.
"She would quickly realise she was being used."
Essina said a lot of Russian women who came here with dreams of falling in love and having a better life were disappointed, as men exaggerated their worth.
"Most of it is based on lies - they lie about property ownership and a lot of things."
Ross said he did not know how immigration matters would be handled for the competition winner. "We leave all that to the bridal tour organisers. They say it's easily do-able so we're taking their word."
The Immigration Service said the marriage of a foreigner to a New Zealand resident did not automatically give the foreigner residence in this country.
"The department's policy requires that applicants for residence must provide sufficient evidence to satisfy an immigration officer they have been living together for 12 months or more, in a partnership that is genuine and stable, with a New Zealand citizen or resident," a spokesman said.
from Stuff
Morgan Freeman has tipped Brokeback Mountain for victory at Sunday's Academy Awards - despite admitting the film didn't dazzle him. The Oscar winner acknowledges the gay cowboy movie has a contemporary appeal with audiences, but he has another favorite.
He says, "Brokeback Mountain is this year's right subject at the right time, which is all that counts. I liked the movie ... but I wouldn't choose it over Capote or (its star) Philip Seymour Hoffman."
The controversial Ang Lee production - which leads the nominations for the 78th annual Academy Awards with eight nods - faces off with Capote in five categories, including Best Picture and Best Actor.
from Star Pulse
Pro-family groups are asking why it was there in the first place.
Its not there anymore but for a time the Department of Health and Human Services website included what many considered homosexual propaganda. Peter Sprigg with the Family Research Council complains that good information on the site was minimal while the web page instead focused on celebrating homosexuality.
“There were links to outside organizations as information sources as resources that people could go to and virtually all of those links were to pro-homosexual activist organizations. There was no balance.”
Regina Griggs with PFOX wants balance too but she goes a step further. She thinks organizations that claim homosexuals can’t change should not be allowed to advertise on a government website dedicated to health.
“I think if you’re not a medical association, if you’re not providing fact-based, replicated studies and information you ought to not be listed. We ought to be concerned about the AIDS infection rate, drug use, sex outside of marriage.”
Now that the pro-gay page is gone, Jody Huckaby with the activist group PFLAG is complaining.
“The problem for us is that taking the information off the website will not make the issues go away. These issues have to be dealt with; it’s complete lack of equal treatment. There was very good information on those websites.”
Others beg to differ. The Department of Health and Human Services has not indicated when or if they will update the information on their site.
from Focus On The Family
UNITED KINGDOM - BBC presenters such as Anne Robinson and Jeremy Clarkson have been criticised in a report for perpetuating negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men.
The report, by charity Stonewall, concluded that gay people were “almost invisible” on BBC1 and BBC2.
It said lesbian and gay lives featured in 38 minutes of the 168 hours it monitored.
That included 32 minutes of derogatory or offensive references and only six minutes of positive portrayals.
Robinson came in for criticism for repeatedly using gay innuendo to belittle a contestant on The Weakest Link – Celebrity Chefs.
The presenter, who previously got into trouble for joking about the Welsh, asked a contestant: “What do you do in your restaurant? Just mince around?” and “Is Reza more puff than pastry?”.
She added: “Reza, before you go, and bear in mind that this is a family show, what’s the strangest thing you’ve ever put in your mouth?”
Examples of negative portrayals also included a joke on The Lenny Henry Show, accompanied by a limp-wristed gesture, about a man being arrested for being gay and let off by a gay judge.
The report said it was not unusual to hear Top Gear presenter Clarkson unfavourably describing cars as gay, and also criticised Ally McCoist on A Question Of Sport, who featured in a montage of clips of sportsmen kissing.
Afterwards, the report said, McCoist “was quick to point out that he was not instigating the kiss, in other words, that he is not gay”.
The report concluded: “The BBC rarely challenges homophobia and consistently allows its presenters to perpetuate negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and gay sexuality.”
Focus group participants singled out the BBC as the least successful broadcaster at capturing the realities of gay lives, with one interviewee calling it a “caveman” compared with Channel 4.
The report, Tuned Out, carried out with researchers from the University of Leeds, found that 51% of all individual references to gay people on the BBC were in the form of jokes.
Lesbians hardly feature in BBC programming at all, according to the study, and viewers believe that lesbian sex was only ever shown on TV to titillate heterosexual male fantasies.
The report said the “phenomenon” of “an acceptable or palatable form of pseudo-lesbianism” was illustrated by BBC2’s Top Gear.
Clarkson used lesbian sexual fantasies as a metaphor to describe his enthusiasm for a car, saying: “Now this, for me, when I was little, was, kind of, Jordan and Cameron Diaz in a bath together”.
Viewers also criticised the BBC for allowing Radio 1 breakfast DJ Chris Moyles to make regular homophobic comments.
The report said that gay sexuality was frequently used as an insult, and gay innuendo was broadcast across a wide range of programmes.
It said the BBC relied heavily on cliched stereotypes of sexually predatory or camp and effeminate gay men, citing the character Shane in BBC1 series Cutting It.
The corporation “seems reluctant to present lesbian and gay people in everyday scenarios such as stable relationships or family life”, it added.
The study asserted that lesbian and gay issues were rarely tackled or mentioned in factual programmes.
Viewers in focus groups said that gay characters were rarely developed in BBC soap operas, and that their sexuality completely defined their role.
Once their “coming out” or sexually-orientated storylines were over, they were commonly written out, the report said.
Stonewall said gay men and lesbians pay an estimated £190 million a year to the BBC in TV licence fees.
from IC Wales
Did the handsome son of macho "High Plains Drifter" star Clint Eastwood have a "Brokeback Mountain" romance with another man?
A top New York real estate agent says he had occasional liaisons with critically acclaimed musician Kyle Eastwood during the younger Eastwood's 14-year marriage to model Laura Gomez.
"I think I was the rope in a tug-of-war between them," Sam Kelley tells us. "I cared about them both."
Though Kyle calls Kelley's claim "utter rubbish," Kelley says, "Kyle has told me on more than one occasion that he loves me. And I said, 'Kyle, I love you, too.'"
Kelley contends that he and Kyle had their first sexual encounter in L.A. about 10 years ago.
"We went out, and it was late, and I ended up staying over in his hotel room," Kelley tells The News' Jeffrey Slonim. "There was only one bed. And I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, and I got in bed, and Kyle was — how do I put this? — happy! I was shocked. But I'm an openly gay man. I wasn't not going to do it."
Kelley says that, after that, "Kyle and I had encounters six or eight times — just oral sex."
Once, when Kelley stayed over at the couple's apartment, "Kyle and I were hanging out in the living room. We did it on the sofa."
"It was nothing that was ever planned," adds Kelley. "Kyle was into it at the moment.
"The last time I did anything with him was two years ago in Paris," where Kyle lives near estranged wife Laura and their 11-year-old daughter.
Kyle's rep, Bobbi Marcus, argues that Kelley has been closer to Laura, who filed for divorce last year in Manhattan Supreme Court.
According to Marcus, "Kyle says, 'This is absurd. I don't know why [Sam] is doing this.'"
Laura was said to be traveling. But a friend says she's "disgusted" by the latest allegation in their split. The onetime favorite of photographer Helmut Newton is already reeling after learning that an Iraqi woman in London has claimed that Kyle is the father of her child. Kyle has asked for a DNA test.
Word of Kyle's matrimonial drama comes as his father is mourning his own 97-year-old mother, Margaret Ruth Wood, who died earlier this month. Kyle, who has been writing music for Clint's new film, "Flags of Our Fathers," is due to return to the States for his grandmother's memorial service.
from New York Daily News
MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS - The men’s room at Malden City Hall has earned high ratings on a Zagat-style, gay meet-up Web site, prompting city councilors Tuesday to call for the basement lavatories to be closed indefinitely.
Mayor Richard Howard, however, overruled the decision Wednesday, and the bathrooms remain open.
The Web site "Gay Universe" rates sites all over the U.S. for male-on-male sexual meet-ups, and the Massachusetts section lists some of the most public parks and beaches, prominent malls and department store bathrooms all over the Boston area. In addition to Malden City Hall, an unnamed public park on Fellsway East is named, along with public places in Medford and Somerville.
"Gay Universe" (www.gayuniverse.com) has given the City Hall men’s room a perfect score for safety as a place for gay men to meet without running afoul of the law even while a uniformed Malden Police officer is routinely working a security detail one floor above at the Social Security office.
Frank Conway, of the Government Center Commission, which oversees City Hall’s physical plant operations, said Wednesday that the men’s restroom would be closed "indefinitely" following the discovery of the Web site. A meeting with the Public Safety Commission regarding the restrooms will be held Feb. 28.
But the men’s room was open for business as usual when a reporter went to City Hall Wednesday afternoon, and men were inside. Conway had left for the day when the bathroom was discovered open and could not be reached for comment as to when the bathrooms will be closed or whether a bathroom monitor will be stationed there.
In an interview, Howard said he believed the bathrooms should remain open.
"We will not shutter this facility," Howard said. "I don’t believe in overreacting to these kinds of things. The public needs these kinds of facilities and I don’t see the need of closing it. I think it would be an overreaction to close it."
Ward 4 Councilor Jeff Donahue said he wasn’t surprised the mayor ordered the bathrooms open.
"Of course the mayor says keep them open. He’s got a bathroom in his office," Donahue said.
City Hall employees also use their own bathrooms on the upper floors that aren’t open to the public.
City Council President Michael Sheehan sent a letter Wednesday afternoon to Howard also demanding the mayor forward his safety plan for the bathrooms to the council.
The issue of the public restrooms was brought up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting by Ward 5 Councilor John Furlong when he made a vague suggestion at the end of the meeting that the men’s bathroom be closed until the City Council had a chance to confer with the Government Center Commission. Furlong said he was concerned over "illegal activity" that was being advertised over the Internet that posed a possible threat to public safety.
After the meeting was over, Furlong said the council had been alerted to the Web site called "Gay Universe" by way of an anonymous letter. The restrooms at City Hall were listed on a Web page alongside other popular sites for "cruising," or most-often anonymous, gay activity. City Hall is not zoned for adult entertainment, incidentally.
"God forbid someone’s kids are in there when this is going on," Furlong said. "Supposedly there’s a hole [for peeping and other illicit activities] in there and everything else. Imagine taking a child into the bathroom and seeing something like that?"
Donahue, whose ward includes City Hall, confirmed that the "glory hole" was there, and that it was even lined with toilet paper to pad the hole in the metal wall between stalls.
"There is a glory hole in there, as advertised. I went in to check that out myself," Donahue said.
Conway said the decision to close the men’s room was made shortly after he became aware of the Web site on Friday, Feb. 17. Conway said he decided to close the bathrooms when he learned Massachusetts Law dictates that any city hall must maintain a public bathroom within 600 feet of the building.
"The bathroom in the police station is within that distance, so let’s let these guys try to go over to the police station to do this thing," Conway said, adding that he’s had to call for police help on several occasions due to problems in the restrooms. "We’ve had people charged with trespassing for damage and other things."
Malden Police Lt. Tom Swanson said he not been contacted by councilors regarding illegal activity in the restrooms. Swanson said the police would likely assist in any future investigation.
On "Gay Universe" the bathroom is listed on a page as a "Cruise Spot" that Web users have rated a five out of five (with five being "excellent") for "safety," or not being detected by security or police, and a four out of five (with five being "hot!") for "action."
According to the Web site, Malden City Hall was first pegged as a choice gay hook up site on June 29, 2004 and the site said the page was last updated on Dec. 11, 2005.
One of the written testimonials on the page directs men on just how to get to City Hall from the Malden Center MBTA stop and even tells men that the "afternoon" is the best time to meet. One commenter on the site, writing on Oct. 18, 2005, said the restroom is "still active" for gay activity and said he has "never seen security" near the rooms.
Another poster, writing in June 2004, boasts that, even as an older gentleman, he is able to engage in oral sex "much more than average" at City Hall.
The Web site lists City Hall among myriad sex shops, parking lots, highway restrooms and other public places as a top spot to meet up.
Although the site lists a number of publicly operated locations as hot spots for gay sexual activity, City Hall seems to be the only government building on the list.
Conway said the Government Center Commission would field suggestions from city councilors on how best to remedy the situation in the restrooms and added that any work to the bathroom will likely include new partitions separating each stall.
"We’ve got a job to do and we’re going to do it the best we can with whatever tools we are given," Conway said. "I just hope we don’t have to hire a detail officer to stay down there all the time."
But a detail officer is exactly what the Ward 4 councilor wants.
"Enough is enough," Donahue said.
Howard said he was intent to see the restrooms cleaned up and building personnel will randomly check the bathrooms, but said the incident may not represent a black eye for Malden.
"In this day and age I don’t really know if you can say this is the only City Hall or government building where this is going on; it’s probably the only one to end up on a Web site," Howard said. "When you have a public place there is going to be a whole manner of human activities, but we want to make sure that people can come to City Hall and do their business, as long as that business is legal. I think in the future we’re just going to have to ensure that the bathroom is being used for what it’s intended."
from TownOnline
EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY - To the students at Eagleswood Elementary School, she used to be Mr. McBeth.
Now, after undergoing a sex change, 71-year-old Lily McBeth is ready to return to teaching. But not everyone in this rural Ocean County community wants her teaching children.
"It's just bigotry," said Leslie Farber, McBeth's attorney, referring to community opposition.
McBeth, a retired sales executive who was married for 33 years and had three children, underwent gender reassignment surgery last year and applied for permission to resume teaching at the school, where she had worked as a substitute for five years.
"Why not?" McBeth said. "What's so difficult about me being a teacher? If I was so good before, what's the difference now? Just because I had a gender change?"
She said she always wanted to be a woman but put off the sex change for her family's sake.
"It's never to late to be yourself. Keep in mind one thing: To my way of thinking, when you're on your death bed, you won't regret the things you did, you'll regret the things you didn't do."
Earlier this month, the Eagleswood Elementary School District's board voted 4-1 to accept her application to return to the classroom. But once word of the move got out, one parent took out a full-page advertisement in the Tuckerton Beacon newspaper urging people to attend a school board meeting Monday night.
"Attention Residents, Parents and Taxpayers," it read. "The agenda of this meeting should not be missed. Anyone concerned about the rights of our children does not want to miss this very important meeting ... Come and see what's going on. You won't believe it."
Mark Schnepp, who paid for the ad, declined comment on it Monday, saying "Come to the meeting, and you'll hear what I have to say."
People who have undergone a sex change operation and are often described as transgender, are protected under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, according to McBeth's lawyer.
School board members plan to meet privately with McBeth and Farber to address concerns among board members about McBeth's hiring, according to board attorney Paul Carr.
"The public is upset and concerned, and they have questions, understandably," said Carr. "So they'll come and express themselves at the meeting," said Carr.
Carr said McBeth was a good teacher who had received favorable evaluations during her tenure as a substitute. He wouldn't say what concerns the school board wanted to talk to McBeth about.
Farber said there was no reason McBeth shouldn't be allowed to return to teaching, a thought echoed by Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a gay rights advocacy group supporting McBeth's bid to resume teaching.
"A great teacher is a great teacher, period," said Goldstein.
from Newsday
ROME, ITALY - Cardinal-designate William J. Levada said a priest who publicly announces he is homosexual makes it difficult for people to see the priest as representing Christ, the bridegroom of his bride, the church.
A public declaration of homosexuality places a priest "at odds with the spousal character of love as revealed by God and imaged in humanity," said the U.S. cardinal-designate, who is prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal-designate Levada made his remarks during a Feb. 26 homily as he presided over a Mass for the installation of the new rector of Rome's Pontifical North American College.
In the presence of some 170 seminarians, Msgr. James F. Checchio made a formal profession of faith and promised his fidelity to Catholic Church teaching as he took over as rector of the U.S. seminary in Rome.
In his homily, Cardinal-designate Levada reflected on the challenges priests face today and on the Sunday Scripture readings, which described God's love for his people as the love of a husband for a wife and described Jesus as the bridegroom of the church.
Referring first to "the tragic problem of sexual abuse of minors by clergy," the cardinal-designate said, "thanks be to God, it is now possible to say that the measures taken by the bishops on behalf of the church have put into place a comprehensive program of education, prevention and care for victims, as well as measures to ensure that abusive clergy are not returned to ministry."
"One of the more immediate challenges facing seminaries," he said, is the implementation of the Congregation for Catholic Education's November instruction that men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" should not be admitted to the seminary or ordained to the priesthood.
The instruction, however, made clear that the church was not questioning the validity of the ordinations of gay men who already are priests.
The cardinal-designate said the instruction "is not directly related to the U.S. sexual abuse crisis, but it is not without relevance for it," insofar as a study commissioned by the U.S. bishops identified homosexual behavior as a component in many clerical sex abuse cases.
Beyond the issue of psychosexual maturity, Cardinal-designate Levada said, "the question also needs to be viewed from its theological perspective," particularly in light of the biblical images of God's spousal relationship with his people and Gospel passages in which Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom.
The doctrinal chief said he wanted to look specifically at "the situation of the gay priest who announces his homosexuality publicly, a few examples of which we have recently heard reported" in reaction to the Vatican document.
"I think we must ask, 'Does such a priest recognize how this act places an obstacle to his ability to represent Christ the bridegroom to his bride, the people of God? Does he not see how his declaration places him at odds with the spousal character of love as revealed by God and imaged in humanity?'" he said.
"Sadly, this provides a good example of the wisdom of the new Vatican instruction," he said.
The cardinal-designate also told the seminarians: "It is important for our people to hear us priests preach and teach about the fundamental character of God's love imprinted upon humanity in the original act of creation: 'God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.'
"It is here that we find the basis for church teaching about marriage and about the family," he said. "It is here, too, that we find the basis for church teaching about homosexuality and the reason why proposals for recognition of homosexual marriage are contrary to sacred Scriptures and the natural law."
from Catholic News Service
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - Drew Lachey is indeed the champion of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, but the dancing king had one of his ad-lib moments censored last week on Thursday night.
The handsome young star made a pretty funny joke about Oscar favorite 'Brokeback Mountain' during the show.
Jeannette Walls dishes the gag:
“Dancing With the Stars” fans on the West Coast didn’t get to see an off-color gag by eventual show winner Drew Lachey last week.
On the last show before Sunday's finale, Judge Bruno Tonioli joked to Lachey that a certain dance number could make him the star of “Brokeback Mountain: The Musical.” Lachey responded by grabbing a cowboy hat and covering his behind with it.
Censored
The gesture made it on the air on the East Coast, but apparently was cut from the West Coast feeds, where viewers hear Tonioli’s quip, but saw the audience’s response instead of Lachey’s.
A rep for the show — when asked if the gag was edited out — responded merely: “We’re not commenting on that.”
I saw the gag and it was absolutely harmless and actually quite funny. The censorship was unneeded from ABC. Its part of the reason Lachey was able to capture the crown as his charisma shined through.
from The National Ledger by Jim Roberts
After creating a major rumble in November with its launch of a faith-based apparel line, a Christian clothing company is back in the news with a T-shirt that takes direct aim at the pro-homosexual message of the popular movie “Brokeback Mountain.” A press release from the Florida-based Second Coming Clothing Co. noted that its radical new line of T-shirt designs include “God-Inspired messages that are burning with the fire of truth taking aim at high profile controversial issues.”
The company’s latest T-shirt design, which zeros in on the Academy-Award nominated “Brokeback Mountain,” depicts an angry Moses on Mount Sinai observing a group of ancient Israelites and modern homosexual cowboys dance around a Golden Calf idol.
“In his anger, Moses BROKE the two tablets of stone that the Ten Commandments were written on while walking BACK down the MOUNTAIN,” noted the company’s official press release launching the T-shirt design.
The T-shirt carries the bold slogan, “The Original 10 Commandments, BrokeBack on the Mountain.”
“The message is the same now as it was at the time of Moses,” said Rick Wade, CEO of Second Coming Clothing Co., “that God’s covenant is broken with His people, God’s heart is broken for His people, and that judgment is coming prior to the return of the Lord, which is soon.”
Added Wade, “If you look at what the Bible says in Luke 21:25 about the signs of the return of Jesus Christ, it would be hard to argue against His return occurring soon based upon recent worldwide natural disasters and current world political and economic conditions. The book Of Revelation appears to be lining up.”
Second Coming Clothing Co. recently unveiled a national print advertising campaign with its trademarked slogan, “Take Your Faith Out of the Closet, and Put Our Clothes Back In”™.
“Our Faith in Jesus Christ needs to be taken out of our hearts and worn on the sleeves of our daily walk in life as we witness to others and take an affirmative stand in controversial issues before it is too late,” said Wade.
He explained that Second Coming Clothing Co. was started as a way to allow believers to “Wear the Mission” of preaching the gospel message.
“We are not just another Christian T-shirt company,” said Wade, “although the Lord has inspired me with over three hundred messages for t-shirts.”
Noting that 100 percent of the company’s net profit will go toward humanitarian aid worldwide, he said that the focus of the company is to “burst open the Heavens through our Internet sales so that we can bless those who are less fortunate and in so much need.”
from WDC Media
President Bush recently appointed a conservative Baptist minister who advocates a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage to the Presidential Advisory council on HIV/AIDS.
Rev. Herbert Lusk, a former Philadelphia Eagles football star and current pastor of Philadelphia's Exodus Baptist Church, was named as one of five new appointees to the presidential AIDS advisory panel, also known as PACHA.
Although Lusk has no background in HIV/AIDS policy, he founded the multi-million dollar faith based social services agency known as People for People. An organisation, that according to the New York Times receives about $10 million a year in government funding.
Critics have said, these federal grants came as a reward for his strong endorsement of President Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
Bush visited Lusk's Philadelphia church twice during the past five years.
LGBT activists have raised concerns regarding Lusk's leadership role as an adviser to the Alliance for Marriage, a conservative religious organisation that lobbies lawmakers to support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Stacy Sobel, executive director of the Philadelphia-based Centre for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, argues “Fundamentalist Christians don't legitimise the lives of gays and lesbians or the lives of people with HIV/AIDS."
from GCN
LONDON, ENGLAND - Police arrested singer George Michael on suspicion of possessing drugs after he was found slumped at the wheel of a car.
The former Wham! star was taken into custody at Hyde Park Corner in central London early yesterday morning, following a call from a member of the public.
Michael, 42, was checked by paramedics but did not need hospital treatment.
Officers arrested him on suspicion of possessing Class C drugs before bailing him to return to a police station next month.
He was also initially arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive, but after being taken to a police station and examined by a doctor he was de-arrested for this alleged offence.
Liquid ecstasy
The Sun reported that the singer was booked by police under his real name, Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou.
The substances seized by officers are suspected to be cannabis and GHB, a drug also known as liquid ecstasy which is popular with clubbers, according to the paper.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We were called by a member of the public to a man seen slumped over the steering wheel of a car on the street close to Hyde Park Corner.
"An ambulance attended, but the man was not suffering from any injuries so was not conveyed to hospital.
"Police attended and spoke to the man, aged 42. A search of the man revealed what was believed to be controlled substances.
"He was arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled substances of category C and on suspicion of being unfit to drive.
De-arrested
"Following an examination by the duty doctor in the custody suite he was de-arrested for the driving offence.
"He has been released on bail to return to a central London police station on a date in late March pending analysis of the substances recovered."
A spokesman for London Ambulance said: "We were called to Hyde Park Corner this morning. One ambulance attended but no-one was taken to hospital."
This is not the first time Michael has found himself on the wrong side of the law.
In 1998 the star was arrested for lewd conduct in a public toilet in Los Angeles after being spotted by an undercover police officer.
The incident led him to reveal he was gay, ending years of mystery about his sexuality.
With schoolmate Andrew Ridgeley, the other half of Wham!, Michael had a string of hits in the mid-1980s with songs such as Wham Rap, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Freedom and I'm Your Man.
from Manchester Evening News
UNITED KINGDOM - Gay clubs will risk prosecution if they deny entry to heterosexual customers under new laws intended to protect homosexuals from discrimination.
Under regulations to be published next month it will be illegal for a gay bar or nightclub to exclude anyone on the grounds of sexual orientation.
The full implications of the new law have caused alarm among gay rights activists, who are surprised at the perverse effects of a measure they believed would advance their civil rights.
They are also worried that it could erode the atmosphere of homosexual clubs and expose gays to homophobic customers.
“A lot of people are very anxious indeed about having to open their doors to what they perceive to be hostile straight people,” said Haydon Bridge, a columnist for QX International magazine.
Department of Trade and Industry rules make it illegal to advertise for a “gay decorator”. It is already illegal to specify a “female” or “white” recruit. Now, for example, it could become unlawful for a lesbian bar to deny entry to a straight man.
Although many gay establishments are relaxed about their entry criteria, others refuse entry to people they believe are straight.
A DTI memorandum says: “Some gay bars employ door staff who may screen potential customers wishing to enter by asking them questions designed to establish their sexual orientation or familiarity with the local gay scene.
“If customers were turned away only because their answers to these questions indicated that they were straight, this could be discrimination.
“However, a gay bar would still legitimately be able to turn away customers who they believed might be disruptive, or might wish to enter the bar to cause trouble.”
There is irritation among many gays that the change will lead to an increase in “slumming it”, the practice of women patronising gay clubs and bars.
Bridge said: “Gay men are getting very annoyed because teenage girls on alcopops are coming to gawp at gay boys having a cuddle, and things are even worse in the sticks. I’ve talked to bar owners who have had to put security on the doors to keep straight people out because ‘lads’ are going in there to cause trouble.”
There is at least one benefit for homosexuals, however: it will also be illegal for a hotelier to bar gays from sharing double beds — a ban still common in bed-and-breakfasts.
Meg Munn, the women’s minister, is expected to publish the document shortly. The rules are being introduced under the Equality Act. They can be passed by a simple parliamentary procedure without having to go through the full legislative process.
The rules are designed to make discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation illegal in the same way as race or sex.
They were primarily drawn up to protect gays from being denied “goods, facilities and services” on the grounds of sexual preference.
from Times Online
Does music have a sexual orientation?
Apparently AOL thinks so.
Call up its massively popular AOLmusic.com site, scroll through its "musical styles" choices, and right below "soundtracks" and just above "classic rock" you'll find a heretofore undiscovered genre known as "gay and lesbian" music.
And Sony/BMG has just proudly trumpeted a new label meant to tout lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered artists called Twist. Its first releases arrive this June.
The label comes complete with a radio show, which just began spinning "gay music" in New York on WPLJ-FM.
On the surface, this all reads as terribly liberated, as if the conglomerates were saying: "Look how gay-friendly we are! We're promoting you guys to the hilt."
Unfortunately for, say, Twist, most gay musicians would sooner be shoved into the "spoken word" category than be ghettoized by their sexuality. It's not that many don't want to be known for who they are. It's that they make music for the same audience any artist does: as large and lucrative a one as possible.
By labeling their music "gay," it sends a message to straight people that they can't possibly relate to what they're singing about.
In the case of AOLmusic, the "gay and lesbian" music section makes assumptions about taste that necessarily stumble into stereotype. Take a look at what AOL considered "gay music" in its debut week: a show tune (from "Rent"), a song from a fashion-oriented sexpot (Gwen Stefani) and a dance cut from - guess who? - Madonna.
Why not throw in something from Judy Garland?
The only two acts included in the pop top 10 of late that have openly gay members are the one-named singer Antony and the Scissor Sisters, who, at least in England, have enough presumably straight fans to have hit No. 1 on the charts several times.
Of course, AOL didn't become a major corporation by being dumb. Stereotypes have some basis in truth. If you go to a Pet Shop Boys concert in New York, it's a safe bet a hefty percentage of those attending have been to a bar named Splash. And, of course, we've all gone to Broadway musicals and noticed the line at the men's room is significantly longer than the one at the women's.
But AOL's labeling of music as "gay and lesbian" is hardly the benign equivalent to those like-named sections that appear in travel books, city magazines or Internet guides like Craigslist. Those outlets provide crucial information for LGBT people about health, safety and the most likely place to find sex at 3 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon.
What's irritating about the growing "gay" demarcation for music isn't only that it's nonsensical. It's that it purports to be cutting edge while hinging on something as old as the proverbial hills: targeting a market.
from The Hub
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Just as "Brokeback Mountain" has become a pop-culture phenomenon in the United States, a gay-themed movie has racked up big box-office in South Korea.
"King and the Clown" — about a delicately effeminate male clown caught between the affections of a despotic king and a fellow performer — has sold more than 11 million tickets since its Dec. 29 premiere, making it the third-most popular film ever in this conservative country.
Even President Roh Moo-hyun has seen it. (By contrast, President Bush said last month he'd yet to see the Oscar-nominated cowboy romance.)
The surprise hit is about a troupe of entertainers condemned to die for an act mocking 16th-century King Yonsan but who beg to be pardoned if they can make the king laugh with their skit lampooning him and his favorite concubine. The clowns succeed and become court jesters.
Kong-gil, the gentle-faced male clown who portrays the woman in the skit, draws the king's attention — staging private puppet shows to Yonsan's delight but evoking the jealousy of clown leader Jang-saeng, who has always protected his friend from other men's amorous advances.
The gay story line is muted. The king and Kong-gil share one quick on-screen kiss.
The movie is based on a fictional play inspired by a brief mention in the king's diary about his favorite clown.
Homosexuality has only recently gained some acceptance in South Korean society, with its strict Confucian traditions and strong Catholic church.
In April 2004, the government removed homosexuality from a list of "socially unacceptable sexual acts."
Actor Hong Suk-chon caused a national sensation in 2000 when he became the first celebrity to publicly reveal he was gay. Hong's coming out cost him his job on a children's TV program, and he only returned to the small screen three years later — playing a gay designer.
Director Lee Jun-ik said he has been surprised by the success of "King and the Clown." He says it's because the audience enjoys a window into palace life and the class differences between the aristocracy and lowly clowns — not because of the homosexual theme.
"People who talk about homosexuality today have totally different concepts from the past," Lee said.
He said the story of the relationship between the king and the clown was based on the tyrant's emotional emptiness that his concubine Nok-su was unable to fill — not physical desire.
from The Pioneer Press
MANCHESTER, MISSOURI - A traveling conference of former gay ministries came to the suburbs of west St. Louis County on Saturday.
As gay-rights groups staged a peaceful protest outside the First Evangelical Free Church, conventioneers spent the day inside, mostly listening to speakers who say they were previously gay. Parents of gay and lesbian children got advice and could speak to counselors about what to do, short of accepting their child’s behavior.
"We suggest you decline an invitation to a civil commitment ceremony," Melissa Fryrear told a group of parents. Some busily took notes; a few others wiped away tears. "So many Christians are yielding on this part."
The Love Won Out event was sponsored by Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group that Fryrear works for in Colorado, and Exodus International, an umbrella group of ex-gay ministries. The conference is in its eighth year, but this is its first time in St. Louis.
Organizers say the turnout of 1,700 was the largest of their 37 U.S. conferences. Organizers said people came from 28 states.
Most of the audience were parents and family members of gay people, while about one-fourth were ministers.
"There’s not one set model of, ‘If you do this, someone will go straight tomorrow,’" said Alan Chambers, president of Exodus, who said he left homosexuality in 1991. "It’s a long process."
Bill Maier, a psychologist and conference speaker, said the talk isn’t fire-and-brimstone as churches did in the past. Organizers stressed that parents should be nice to their children’s gay partners. They shouldn’t bring it up in every phone call or the kids will stop calling.
Still, no matter how kind the organizers said family members should be, their point was not lost. They all stressed that a gay lifestyle is a sin. The speeches breezed right over normally divisive topics without challenge because the opposition was largely outside in the cold. As conventioneers arrived in the morning, more than 350 protesters waited with handmade signs. Police reported no trouble. Protesters waved and smiled at the sedans and minivans lined up to park.
A few young women chanted at cars, "Two-Four-Six-Eight, how do you know your wife is straight?"
"It’s ridiculous the church thinks we need therapy," said Warren Lacey, 65, of St. Louis. He carried a sign, "God Made Me Gay." Lacey said he’s known since about age 5 that he was attracted to males. "It’s part of your nature. It’s not a decision to be made. It’s part of you."
At least four of the conference’s main speakers said they previously were gay but were now living heterosexual lifestyles. They took center stage in the church’s massive sanctuary, with highly orchestrated slide presentations flickering on overhead screens on either side of a stained-glass cross window.
Fryrear’s presentation was typical for the day: Bathed in overhead lights, she paced the stage in her cream-colored skirt and business jacket. She chronicled how she went from a 13-year-old questioning her sexuality to a college student whose whole life revolved around being gay. She said she left that lifestyle after immersing herself in church activities in Kentucky and now works for Focus on the Family as a genders issue analyst.
She told parents in the crowd not to blame themselves for their children’s struggles with same-sex relationships. Sometimes, she claimed, lesbianism can be traced to "an inner sense of emptiness and longing," a fractured mother-daughter relationship" and some type of sexual abuse.
"Ever wonder why some lesbians look mannish?" she asked. "It’s a vulnerability to be a woman. That suit of armor to keep you from being hurt."
One parent, Diana Hoaglan of Memphis, has a 21-year-old son who told her six years ago that he was gay. She said she loves her son and insists they have a good relationship, but she told him early on that he can never bring his partner into her home.
"He has a choice" about his sexuality, Hoaglan said. "I can pray for him but I can’t control him."
Conference speakers hawked books outside. A $50 boxed set called "Male Homosexuality Package," for example, included books called "Coming out of Homosexuality" and "You Don’t Have to Be Gay."
Not everyone inside the church supported the conference’s message. Critics came, as well – paying the same $50 or $60 admission fee to take part. One was Meredith Anderson, a student at Eden Seminary and a member of the United Church of Christ. She said the tone at the conference was far from any feel-good message of love that promoters claimed.
"What I’m hearing instead is, ‘We’ll really love you more if you will change,’" Anderson said. "What makes me so angry is that a lot of clergy and straight folks aren’t speaking out about this."
Elena Pahl, 21, of St. Louis, said she was standing with the protesters Saturday because she doesn’t like the message the convention was sending.
"They call (being gay) a disease," Pahl said. "I’m a pretty active Christian and I don’t appreciate that view."
In one small group session Saturday, Chambers admitted that one of the founders of Exodus had left the group and married a gay man in a civil ceremony. "What sense do I make of it? People fall back into sin," Chambers said. "There are all sorts of reasons why people go back."
from St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WASHINGTON, DC - Conservative activists are pushing for adoption by gays and lesbians to be prohibited, having been buoyed by recent success in securing bans on same-sex marriages and restrictions on abortion rights.
They now plan to introduce bills or initiatives banning gay adoption in up to 16 states, several of which have voted to outlaw same-sex marriages.
However, polls suggest that they will have a harder time winning support for measures that in effect would deprive some foster children of the chance of adoption. Child welfare groups said homes had been found for only 50,000 of the 120,000 children available for adoption in recent years.
In Ohio, conservative legislators introduced a bill that, if passed, would impose the nation's most restrictive law on gay adoptions. It would make it illegal for "homosexual, bisexual or transgender" residents to adopt children or serve as foster parents.
The conservative campaign suffered an unexpected blow when Jon Husted, the Republican Speaker in Ohio's House of Representatives, spoke of his own experience as an adopted child and described the bill as discriminatory and divisive.
Groups on the religious right believe a ban on gay adoption could be passed in other conservative-minded states.
Critics of the proposed measures accuse some Republicans of exploiting a social "wedge issue" before mid-term elections in November.
from The Sydney Morning Herald
WASHINGTON, DC - Senior FBI officials in Iraq were reluctant to investigate allegations of prisoner abuse for fear that the bureau would lose access to high-value detainees and the stream of intelligence from interrogations, according to documents released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
But the documents also contain numerous complaints from FBI agents working at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The agents said that military interrogators were using abusive, ineffective and potentially illegal methods. One e-mail described an interrogation in which a prisoner was put under a strobe light and shown gay pornographic films.
The e-mails were among more than 50 documents obtained from U.S. agencies as part of a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU.
The documents suggest that harsh interrogation methods were approved of and encouraged by high-ranking Pentagon officials and commanders. In an internal FBI memo dated May 2004, an unidentified bureau official complained that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's public pronouncements about interrogation policies were misleading.
"I know these techniques were approved at high levels within DoD and used" on specific prisoners, said the official, referring to the Department of Defense. The names of the author and recipients of the e-mail were blanked out on the version obtained and released by the ACLU, and no information was provided to indicate how the author knew the techniques were authorized at top levels.
In an e-mail from May 2003, Guantanamo's prison commander, Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, was described as favoring aggressive methods "despite FBI assertions that such methods could easily result in the elicitation of unreliable and legally inadmissible information."
Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer, said the documents offered new evidence that military leaders "endorsed interrogation methods that violate both domestic and international law."
A Pentagon spokesman described the ACLU documents as "old information," and said that 12 investigations and reviews had found there was no Defense Department policy that encouraged or condoned abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
The FBI memos had been previously released to the ACLU in December 2004, but with most of their contents censored.
Although prior documents have revealed tension between the FBI and military interrogators over the methods used at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, the latest documents also show that senior FBI officials in Iraq were reluctant to be drawn into any investigation of prisoner abuses.
Well before the Abu Ghraib scandal became public — along with the photographs that triggered it — one of the FBI's highest-ranking officials in Iraq was warning higher-ups that the bureau should steer clear of any investigative role.
"Our access to detainees at the prison Abu Ghraib is a central part of our mission and very important to our ability to get the job done," senior FBI agent Edward Lueckenhoff wrote in an e-mail Jan. 24, 2004.
The FBI should avoid being drawn into any abuse inquiry because it was "outside the scope" of the bureau's mission in Iraq, Lueckenhoff wrote.
"Second, we need to maintain goodwill and relations with those operating the prison," he wrote. "Our involvement in the investigation of the alleged abuse might harm our liaison."
At the time, the military quietly launched an inquiry of abuses at Abu Ghraib after a guard had slipped a computer disc containing gruesome photos of prisoner mistreatment under the door of military investigators.
Lueckenhoff was among the highest-ranking FBI officials in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, with authority over agents conducting interrogations at Abu Ghraib. He retired last year as the special agent in charge of the bureau's Dallas field office, said Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington. Lueckenhoff could not be reached for comment.
Kolko said it was not within the FBI's jurisdiction overseas to investigate allegations of detainee abuse, but that agents had reported their findings through their chain of command and cooperated in Pentagon investigations and reviews.
Most documents released Thursday were communications among FBI officials and others stationed at the U.S.-run camp at Guantanamo Bay. One e-mail appeared to have been written by an FBI agent weeks into his assignment there.
He described witnessing interrogators with the Defense Human Intelligence Service "showing a detainee homosexual porn movies and using a strobe light in the room." The intelligence service, often referred to as DHS, is part of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.
The methods so disturbed the e-mail's author, who was watching from an adjacent booth, that "we moved our interview to a different room," he wrote.
Another FBI e-mail complained of cases "in which DHS personnel have awaited the departure of an FBI supervisor before embarking on aggressive, unilateral interrogation plans which they knew would not have been endorsed by the FBI."
A Defense Intelligence Agency spokesman said he had not reviewed the documents and could not comment on their contents.
from The Los Angeles Times
TURLOCK, CALIFORNIA - Protesters happy that soldier Chad Gonsalves was killed in Afghanistan earlier this month will picket his Turlock funeral Monday, as a second group tries to shield their message from service-goers.
The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Rev. Fred Phelps, believes American soldiers are dying at God's hands for defending a country that accepts homosexuality.
“Our job is to cause America to know its abomination,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the Rev. Phelps and attorney for the church.
Trying to block the church's “Thank God for dead soldiers,” “God blew up the troops” and “God hates America” signs will be members of the Patriot Guard Riders.
A California chapter of the 5,000- member motorcycle group plan to escort Gonsalves from the church to the graveside. Members have been doing this at the request of soldier's families across the country, said California ride captain Steve Rieger.
The church, based in Topeka, Kan., sends protesters to soldiers' funerals across the country, spreading its message that God is punishing America through the war and its soldiers for defending a “doomed” country.
ust this Thursday Phelps-Roper traveled to a Minnesota soldier's funeral with several congregation members to protest. Protesters also plan to attend another in Lincoln, Neb. on Saturday and a third funeral in Colorado on Sunday before making their way to Turlock Monday.
Phelps-Roper said the group has been picketing all over the states for 15 years.
For their protests, Phelps-Roper said about 10 members of the church drive or fly to the funeral town, then stand peacefully on a public sidewalk or right-of-way with their picket signs in hand.
But Rieger said the church's protests are much more confrontational.
“They try and instigate stuff,” Rieger said. “They want someone to raise a fist at them.”
Phelps-Roper said the group funds its travel through the members' regular jobs.
“We don't make a merchandise out of the gospel,” she said.
And although Phelps-Roper said she and the others are aware their message is not a welcome one at these funerals, it doesn't phase them.
“I love the fact that they hate what we do,” Phelps-Roper said. “They get so mad they can't think straight.”
The Patriot Guard Riders, made up of mostly retired soldiers, wholly support the church's right to picket, said Rieger.
“We are not an anti-protest group,” Rieger said. “We are there to honor our fallen brother and sister and pay our respects to the family. We just keep our backs to the other group.”
But Phelps-Roper disagrees, stating the riders - who she called the “MoPed Mamas” - got violent with the men in the church's group at one protest in Kentucky.
“So the next time we went we left the guys at home,” she said.
Often bringing some of her 11 children with her to protests, Phelps-Roper said people get especially angry seeing children passing along the churches message. But she says it her job to teach her children - ages 3 to 27 - what God intended.
“I would not dare do otherwise,” Phelps-Roper said. “I know that they are as good as gold.”
Phelps-Roper said there are more than 20 states trying to pass laws that will keep the group from protesting at funerals. When in those states, Phelps-Roper said her groups make signs calling them the Taliban.
“They will tolerate any filthy thing, but they will not tolerate the word of God,” she said. “They flip (God) off on a daily basis and now they are getting what they deserve.”
from The Turlock Journal
BRASILIA, BRAZIL - Brazil's Roman Catholic Church urged revelers on Thursday to abstain from reckless sex, too much alcohol and violence during the country's Carnival celebrations.
"We are not against people having fun but caution them against hurting others or abandoning good customs," said Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, head of the National Conference of Brazil Bishops.
Carnival begins across Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world, this weekend and crowds of people indulge in a frenzy of drinking, dancing and often licentious behavior.
Although the pre-Lenten festival has its roots in Christian tradition, it provides an annual headache for the church.
Agnelo told reporters "Carnival is not intrinsically bad" but said the use of condoms and "day-after pills" were incentives for promiscuous behavior.
The government will hand out 25 million free condoms to promote safe sex during the several days of parties, revelry and parades. In northeastern Salvador, health officials will provide "next-day pills," Correio da Bahia newspaper reported.
"We don't want a stand-off with the government but the question is whether this is good for society, for Carnival," said Odilo Pedro Scherer, conference secretary-general.
The Rio de Janeiro archdiocese this week barred Mocidade Carnival samba troupe from taking a float with a statue of the Virgin to the Sambadrome parade strip, saying that the use of sacred images in a profane festival may offend Catholics.
The group, one of 14 competing for the champion's title with lavish floats and thousands of bright costumes in Brazil's most famous Carnival, said it will abide and probably cover the statue with a veil.
from Reuters
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - The Army has charged seven paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division with engaging in sex acts in videos shown on a gay pornography website.
Three of the soldiers face courts-martial on charges of sodomy, pandering and engaging in sex acts for money, according to a statement released by the military Friday.
Four other soldiers received what the military called nonjudicial punishments.
The Army has recommended that all the paratroopers involved be discharged.
The charges do not mention the name of the site, but the division had been investigating allegations that soldiers appeared on a gay pornography website. A spokesman for the division said Friday's charges were a result of that investigation.
The military-themed site did not make any direct reference to the division or Ft. Bragg, the base for the 82nd Airborne.
"As far as we're concerned, it's isolated to the unit, and our investigation determined that these seven individuals were the only ones" involved, said 82nd Airborne spokesman Maj. Thomas Earnhardt.
Steve Ralls, spokesman for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a legal group that helps gays and lesbians in the military, said the charges indicated the soldiers' behavior was "a much more serious matter than just their sexual orientation."
Ralls said, "I'm not going to make excuses for service members who are taking part in sexual conduct for money. It would be absolutely criminal regardless of whether they were heterosexual or gay."
Earnhardt said the three soldiers facing courts-martial had been appointed military attorneys, but their lawyers were unavailable for comment Friday.
The three soldiers who face courts-martial are: Spc. Richard T. Ashley, Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen.
An arraignment is scheduled for March 7.
The four soldiers who received nonjudicial penalties were not identified. Their punishments included reduction to the rank of private, 45 days of restriction to the unit area, 45 days of extra duty and forfeiture of a month's pay.
All seven paratroopers were members of the 2nd Battalion of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
The registered owner of the website's domain name lists an address in Fayetteville, the city that adjoins Ft. Bragg. A phone number listed for the registered owner was not in service Friday, and e-mails were returned as undeliverable.
The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that "homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service."
from The Los Angeles Times
PARIS, FRANCE - France's top court ruled on Friday that both partners in a homosexual couple can exercise parental authority over a child, rather than just the biological parent.
The ruling by the Cour de Cassation, which decides how to interpret French law but does not hear trials, could open the way for further debate in France on gay marriage and the adoption of children by same-sex couples, which remains illegal.
"The civil code is not opposed to a mother, as sole holder of the parental authority, delegating all or part of the duties to the woman with whom she lives in a stable and continuous union," the court said in its verdict.
The decision also applied to male homosexual couples, where one of the partners was the biological father of a child.
The court said the right for same-sex couples to jointly exercise parental authority depended on the circumstances requiring such an arrangement and that it must be in the child's best interests.
Until now, French courts have ruled that the law only allowed parental responsibility to be delegated to a person other than the biological parents in unusual cases. This was not regarded as sufficient to include homosexual couples.
Friday's ruling came as the first French same-sex couple to form a civil union -- a right which the then Socialist-led government granted in 1999 -- got married in Belgium.
"It's a shame to have to go abroad to get married," said Dominique Adamski, 52, who married Francis Sekens, 60, in Mouscron, a small Belgian town just over the border from France.
The present, conservative government opposes gay marriage and does not allow same-sex couples to adopt children, but has given homosexual couples who form a civil union more financial rights.
from Reuters
UNITED KINGDOM - Anti-gay feeling is running high among Haringey school children.
New research by Middlesex University says: "There exists a high level of homophobia among school age children."
The conclusion was published in Hate Crime in Haringey 2005, a university report commissioned by the Haringey Safer Communities partnership. It was based on a workshops with school children aged 12 to 13.
Dr Goodman, principal lecturer in social sciences and research leader, said: "It was a very unsafe arena to talk about themselves in a way other than as heterosexual."
The report notes that "on sexuality a more worrying picture emerged" and that a "lack of tolerance was experienced in more than one session" from both boys and girls.
"Justification for these attitudes came from biblical references and church teachings," it reads.
It acknowledges, however, that the council has been "pre-emptive in tackling homophobic bullying" and schools "were proactively tackling the subject of sexual orientation". But adds there is still much work to do.
Councillor George Meehan, executive member for children and young people, said: "Haringey takes the issue of all forms of discriminatory incidents in schools seriously. One incident is one too many."
But he added: "It remains the case, however, that homophobic incidents are a small proportion of reported incidents."
He pointed out the council had been collecting and publishing data for five years to inform anti-bullying strategies and highlighted conferences held with young people on the issue.
These include the Tackling Homophobic Bullying in Haringey in 2004 and this month's Safer Solutions: Young Peoples Conference canvassing the views of school students.
from Journal 24
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA - Attorney General Bob McDonnell has issued an advisory opinion that executive orders ensuring equal state employment rights for gays is unconstitutional.
The opinion he released today is NOT binding on state law but could provoke a legal battle between the Republican attorney general and Governor Tim Kaine, who is a Democrat.
Former Governor Mark Warner imposed the nondiscrimination policy on January 12th, just two days before he left office.
Kaine signed a similar order instituting the same policies moments after he was inaugurated in Williamsburg.
Delegate Bob Marshall, a Republican from Prince William County, sought the advisory opinion.
from WAVY 10
MCKEESPORT, PENNSYLVANIA - woman trying to cheat on a drug test was behind a bizarre incident in which a frightened convenience store clerk thought she had microwaved a severed penis, police said.
The clerk at the store outside Pittsburgh actually microwaved a prosthetic device used to cheat on drug tests, police said Friday.
The incident unfolded late Thursday afternoon when a man and a woman entered the store and the man asked the clerk, "Can you microwave something for me? It's a life-or-death situation," police said.
The man asked for paper towels, wrapped an object in them, and had the clerk microwave the item for 20 seconds, said McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero.
When it was finished, the clerk handed the item back to the man and saw what she thought was a severed penis, Pero said.
After news reports Friday, a woman called police to say she was with the man in the store and explained what really happened, Pero said.
The woman told police she was applying for a job and was required to take a drug test. She said the man had filled the device with his urine, which she planned to submit for the test, Pero said.
The couple stopped to warm the device in the microwave so the urine would "pass the body temperature test," Pero said - that is, be warm enough to not arouse the suspicion of those administering the test.
Pero said police weren't sure why the woman was storing the urine in a device mimicking male genitalia.
The woman wasn't applying for a job at the convenience store, but Pero said he didn't know anything else about the job.
Pero wouldn't release the names of the man or woman. Charges, including harassment and disorderly conduct, were possible, he said.
The clerk at the Giant Eagle Get Go! is "still visibly shaking," Pero said Friday.
A clerk at the store Friday referred all questions to Giant Eagle corporate headquarters. An official there declined comment.
from Times Leader
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - New Zealand-born filmmaker Lee Tamahori, arrested last month on a sex charge while wearing a woman's dress and wig, was placed on probation after pleading no contest on Thursday to a lesser offense of criminal trespass.
Tamahori, 55, best known for directing the James Bond hit "Die Another Day," was also ordered to attend an AIDS education course, according to Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
The film director was arrested on January 8 in a police sting operation and charged with prostitution and loitering in a public place. He was accused of offering to perform oral sex on an undercover police officer in exchange for money.
The no-contest plea, equivalent in California to pleading guilty, was entered on the trespassing charge by Tamahori's lawyer in exchange for prosecutors dropping the more serious charge of prostitution. The loitering count also was dismissed.
Tamahori, who was not at the court proceedings, was placed on three years' probation and ordered to perform 15 days of community service for the Hollywood Beautification Project, Mateljan said.
Tamahori gained notice as a director for the 1994 drama "Once Were Warriors," a film set in New Zealand about a family of native Maori whose lives have been plagued by alcohol, drugs and violence. Tamahori's father is Maori.
He followed that film with the 1950s-era crime drama "Mulholland Falls" and "The Edge," a thriller starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin.
Tamahori made a splash with 2002's "Die Another Day," which starred Pierce Brosnan as British secret agent 007 and Halle Berry as an American agent named Jinx. The movie raked in more than $430 million worldwide.
His action film "xXx: State of the Union," starring rapper Ice Cube, bombed at the box office last year.
from Reuters
NEW ZEALAND - A liquor company is offering a Russian bride as first prize in a vodka promotion, a gimmick Russian women in New Zealand say is offensive.
