Police Officer And Former Mr. Gay UK Charged With Sexual Assault, Tulsa Oklahoma Adds Sexual Orientation To Anti-Discrimination Policy, Dallas Transit Authority Creates New Policy That Will Be Able To Discriminate Against Gays And The Transgendered, BP Catastrophe Is Anderson Cooper’s Defining Moment, James Franco Art Show Imagines Love Affair Between Captain Kirk And Spock

Police Constable Mark Carter has been charged with a number of sexual offenses Friday, the 27 year old arrested December 19th, 2009, at the Etap Hotel in Leeds, England, at which time he was suspended from duty. Carter, who was named Mr. Gay UK in 2006, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

Tulsa, Oklahoma City Council Thursday voted to amend the list of protected classes and add sexual orientation. The city’s non-discrimination policy also includes race, color, sex, religion, political beliefs, national origin, age, ancestry, and disability. The vote was 6-3.

In Dallas, Texas, gay activists are concerned that an addition of a word will alter the DART policy that proposes to prohibit workplace discrimination based on gender identity, and will in fact afford no new protections to transgendered employees, and would in effect remove existing protections extended to gay and lesbian employees. Moments prior to a board vote approving the policy of its first reading, board member Ray Noah asked that the word “except” be added. Consequently, the language of the new policy is amended to read that DART cannot discriminate on the basis of “gender identity ...except to the extent permitted by federal and/or Texas law.” Neither federal nor state law explicitly provides protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, so now DART is able, in theory, to discriminate against both classes.

The crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is quickly becoming a career defining moment for Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor assuming the role of the voice of the people, and in doing so, the most ardent on-air critic of BP’s continual camouflage of the truth.

June 23rd, James Franco will open his first solo art show at the Clocktower Gallery, a non-profit space in New York City, the exhibition titled The Dangerous Book Four Boys, which according to curator Alanna Heiss, addresses boyhood and “the sexual confusion” of adolescence, featuring short films focussing on demolition, as well as an imagined romantic encounter between Star Trek characters Spock and James T. Kirk.