South African Township Male Denied Bail After Raping Lesbian For Five Hours To Teach Her A Lesson, Oklahoma Hate Crimes Exclusion Bill Failure, New Poll Again Finds Majority In California Support Same Sex Marriage, American Census Bureau Wants Gay Couples Counted, ABC Admits Kish Storyline Eliminated Because It Was Not Mainstream Enough

Andile Ngcoza, a 43 year old male, and native of Gugulethu, appeared in Wynberg Magistrate’s Court Tuesday on charges of rape, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and kidnapping after he allegedly raped and beat a a 30 year lesbian for five hours in order to “teach her a lesson.” Gugulethu is a township near Cape Town, South Africa, the area besieged by reported incidents of “corrective rapes” against lesbians. Ngcoza was denied bail, and the case was postponed until April 13th.

Oklahoma Senate Bill 1965 – a bill meant to exclude the state from participating in a federal hate crimes legislation, if passed prohibiting local and state officials from cooperating with federal authorities investigating hate crimes against gays –was pulled by Senator Mark Russell, the bill’s author, from a committee hearing, and now the fate of the bill seems uncertain. Without a hearing, the bill cannot proceed through committee protocol, and House committees have only till Thursday to vote on Senate bills. According to Russell, Senate Bill 1965 was intended to protect free speech, which the Senator argues, is infringed upon by the federal hate crimes legislation passed last year, revised to include sexual orientation.

A new Los Angeles Times/USC poll finds that a majority of registered voters in California support legalizing gay marriage, 52-percent of the respondents replying favourable compared to 40-percent of the those surveyed who opposed gay marriages. Perhaps most telling, those under the age of 30 who were polled strongly supported same sex marriage, while those over the age of 64 were opposed.

The United States Census Bureau is urging same sex couples to be counted as married, even those who are without a marriage license. It is the first time that the American census will be counted, and the campaign’s champion, Tim Olsen, says that gay couples are “a powerful, important part of American society, and we have to reach out and engage this part of the population,” he said, adding that “anything less than that is a failure.” While only five states and the District of Columbia recognize gay marriage, the Census Bureau says same sex couples in any state who consider themselves spouse should check the husband or wife boxes on the census form instead of the box indicating unmarried partner. The move towards inclusion has drawn the wrath of conservatives who argue that this is another attempt to redefine marriage and erode tradition.

ABC Daytime public relations head Jori Peterson now says that the decision to eliminate the gay storyline from daytime drama One Life To Live was made with an eye towards ratings – and by obvious extension, towards advertisers –because the gay characters of Kyle Lewis and Oliver Fish were not “mainstream” enough to attract and hold viewers. Said Peterson “The Kish story did not have the appeal we hoped it would. We are going to spend our time on stories that have more favourable reaction from our audience.”