Anoka-Hennepin School District Eleven Gay-Straight Alliances Attempt To Increase Acceptance Of Sexual Orientation, Same Sex Marriage Message Conveys Gentler Tone In Maine, Two Soccer Fans Arrested In Brighton For Homophobic Chants, Worries That Spain’s Newly Elected Conservative Government Will Repeal Same Sex Marriage Law, Eddie Redmayne, Justin Bieber And His Pink Underwear

Carlyn Erion looked at sophomore Dan Frazier last year and saw someone who did not want to be seen. "He wanted to be invisible and as silent as possible," said the Coon Rapids, Minnesota High School English teacher. A more confident junior is emerging, in part because of his involvement in the school's Gay-Straight Alliance club, both say. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the club is one of 11 in the Anoka-Hennepin District, where adults on the school board, in administrative offices and in the community have agonized for more than a decade over how -- or whether -- to broach issues of sexual orientation at school. The question has taken them from the board room to the courtroom and led to a federal civil rights investigation as the issue has become intertwined with allegations of bullying and harassment tied to sexual orientation. Meanwhile, student-led GSA clubs in each of the district's middle and high schools have informally given students a venue to work things out. The clubs are a place where youth can be themselves when schools and families sometimes may want them to be someone else. In the classrooms of mentor teachers, the students share stories, offer support and plan how to transform their world to a place where all people are accepted just as they are. As the name suggests, not all members are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. For that matter, they're not asked to identify themselves by their sexual orientation. Some have been bullied; others have not. The groups are popular not only with GLBT students and their allies, but others who just want a place to fit in, said Barry Scanlan, the district's prevention coordinator. There are about 4,000 GSA clubs at schools around the country. Research by the Gay-Lesbian-Straight Education Network found that GLBT students in schools with such clubs were less likely to hear slurs daily, more likely to feel safe, to have identified allies among peers and teachers and to feel a sense of belonging at school. All the Anoka-Hennepin GSAs were student-initiated, Scanlan said. But when a call has gone out, multiple teachers have offered support. "We had to turn people away," he said. "And people still show up to help." Not that the GSAs have operated problem-free. Martha Pedersen, a family and consumer sciences teacher, has mentored the Champlin Park High School GSA (the district's longest-running) since it started 14 years ago. It ran smoothly at first. Then some parents protested because she kicked off the year with an ice cream social, she said. "My theory was, if they were nervous about going, they could say, 'I'm just going for the ice cream,'" she explained. But "they were saying I was using ice cream to entice the children to be gay." She was reprimanded, and told not to offer food. About that time, GSA groups were told they couldn't advertise. They were assigned a school counsellor. Neither directive lasted long, but Pedersen still doesn't initiate snacks. Nowadays, the district's controversial neutrality policy -- which allows teachers to discuss issues related to sexual orientation but requires them to remain neutral -- puts her and other advisers at the edge of a thin line in guiding students, but she said it's not difficult when members lead the discussions. Despite the squall of attention GLBT issues have drawn, it seems as if people are slowly starting to get what they're about, she said. A notable point, she said, occurred during last year's controversy over a lesbian couple (GSA members) elected as Snow Daze royalty at Champlin Park, because students didn't understand the fuss over letting them attend events as a couple. "It made you feel like we were in a school that can see past issues like that and be supportive of our classmates, no matter who they are," she said. At Anoka High School, nine members of the GSA group advised by teacher Paul Kelley talked recently about their group and some of its activities. Fall: Ally Week. Winter: No Name Calling Week. Spring: Day of Silence. For the winter event they collaborate with Student Council, National Honor Society, Key Club, Young Democrats, Young Republicans and Broken, the school's Christian club. Junior Kira Martin was one of several to recall previous generations' work in the civil rights movement. "I feel like we're in the middle of changing history," she said. Sometimes, the transformation involves one person. In Coon Rapids, Dan Frazier had come out to a few friends before joining GSA, and had begun a dialogue with his parents but felt deeply that being gay was enough reason for others to despise him. Acting on intuition, Erion, the English teacher, let him know about the GSA, which she mentors. It was a few meetings before Frazier shared that he had known he was gay since sixth grade. He's still quiet, but that's just him, he said. Life is better.

Since California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriage in 2008, supporters of such unions have dissected what went wrong with their campaign to defeat Proposition 8 and similar campaigns across the nation: The advertising, the messengers, the tone, and the themes. On Tuesday in Maine, where voters in 2009 repealed a state law that would have legalized same-sex marriage, supporters of gay nuptials will launch a new TV ad that shows what they have learned - much of it culled from research in California and led by an Oakland pollster. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Maine is being targeted because the issue probably will be on the ballot there next year. Instead of being preachy, the ads aim to empathize with the "journey" voters are taking as they try to sort out their conflicted feelings about same sex marriage. National gay leaders and funders will closely gauge the reaction from the target audience: the one-third of Maine voters who are comfortable with civil unions but conflicted about supporting marriage. Reaction to the new messages will have implications for how activists approach other state ballot fights. "You bet that people are watching this nationally," said Rick Jacobs, chairman of the 750,000-member Courage Campaign in Los Angeles, whose online members contributed $250,000 in 2009 toward research into the marriage question. Nationally, the movement is nearing a tipping point. Although polls show that most Americans support same sex nuptials and the military has ended its "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gay and lesbian service members, the movement has failed to win a ballot initiative in nearly three dozen tries. Winning at the ballot box in Maine could have national reverberations, analysts said, and reviving fatigued donors in the gay community to support other state ballot fights, including possibly in California. But winning will not be easy. Past ad campaigns in support of same-sex marriage have been criticized as too preachy. The language used didn't connect with independent voters. In 2009, 53-percent of Maine voters supported overturning their legislature's decision to legalize same sex marriage. Pastor Bob Emrich, who helped lead the repeal campaign in Maine, said the new ads aren't going to persuade Mainers. There is "lingering resentment" among opponents of same-sex marriage, he said. "People here don't want to talk about it," said Emrich, who leads a 150-person congregation at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Plymouth. "They don't want to make it so personal. People here ... don't want to change what the institution of marriage means." Still, supporters of same sex marriage see Maine, a geographically small state with 1 million voters and a mostly white electorate, as a state they can swing. It is small enough to make direct contact with voters, which is key to changing minds on such an emotional issue. In addition, most states in New England have legalized same-sex marriage, and voters in Maine can readily see that legalizing gay nuptials "has not caused an earthquake of change" around them, said Oakland pollster Amy Simon, who has done much of the research that helped shape the Maine ads. The Courage Campaign's Jacobs said, "What I like about these ads is that they meet people where they are." Timed to run around Thanksgiving, when families gather around the table and in front of the television, the first 30-second ad features a close shot of an elderly Catholic couple from rural Maine who have been married 42 years, describing the journey they took to accept that one of their daughters is a lesbian. At first, Jeanette Rediker says, "there were a lot of emotions." But after they asked their priest for advice, Rediker says, "I will never forget the answer he told me: 'She is the same person you loved yesterday.' “The closing frame features the words "Love. Commitment. Marriage." over two gold wedding bands.

Two men have been questioned by police after allegedly chanting homophobic abuse at Brighton fans during this past Saturday’s Albion game. The pair, both Southampton fans, were arrested after allegedly singing offensive anti-gay chants during the match, which was attended by more than 3,000 Brighton fans. They were arrested by officers from Hampshire police during the game at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium. The Brighton Argus reports that people reported offensive singing in the stands despite police warning Southampton fans before the match that any homophobic chanting would be taken seriously. The arrests, believed to be among the first of their kind, come just weeks after Albion fans said they believed they were targeted because of the city’s large gay population. John Hewitt, the chairman of Brighton and Hove Albion Supporters’ Club, said, “We get it everywhere we go. The ground regulations say you cannot use homophobic behaviour. There’s a certain amount of banter between fans, but when it crosses that line and becomes offensive it’s not acceptable.” A spokesman on behalf of the Brighton-based Justin Campaign, which works to tackle homophobia in football, said, “Southampton fans were warned before the game by police that any homophobic chanting would be taken seriously. While there is still a lot of work for equality in the game, these arrests do show that the authorities are taking positive action to show homophobia is not welcome in the beautiful game.”

Spain’s Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy's and his conservative Popular Party are likely to attempt to the social reforms that have transformed the traditionally Roman Catholic country. Since coming to power in 2004, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has enacted radical social reforms that would once have been unthinkable Spain – legalizing same sex marriages, relaxing divorce laws and reforming the abortion law. The Telegraph reports that in Campillo de Ranas, a tiny hamlet in the Ocejon valley 80 miles north of Madrid, there are very real fears of what the future may bring under the new conservative government of 56-year-old Rajoy. The picturesque village has carved out a reputation for holding the record in Spain for the number of gay weddings since the Socialists legalized same sex marriages in 2005. The socialist mayor Francisco Morato has reversed the fortunes of the once-dying community by welcoming gay marriages and bringing a much-needed boost to the local economy, but he now fears the good times are over. "I get the feeling that there is a lot of concern," said Mr Morato. "I have been holding marriages every weekend – sometimes as many as three weddings in one day – I simply haven't stopped. A lot of people tell me they fear that Mariano Rajoy will revoke the law, so there has been a rush to go ahead with their weddings before it is too late." Some 20,000 gay couples have wed since the law, which also lets gay couples adopt children, made Spain only the third member of the European Union after Belgium and the Netherlands to allow same sex weddings. But the PP lodged an appeal against the law with the Constitutional Court and has also been outspoken against abortion on demand. It was previously only available in cases of rape, deformity or where the pregnancy endangered a woman's health and was rarely carried out in public hospitals. But little mention of such polemic issues has been made in the 100 point programme presented by the PP, a deliberate ploy to avoid scaring off wavering voters. Paco Garcia Flores, 60, a dog hairdresser from Madrid, married Andres, his partner of 25 years in the tiny town hall of Campillo de Ranas – which translates as Little Field of Frogs – but he bristles with rage when he considers a future under a PP government. "It was a wonderful thing to be able to publicly celebrate our commitment and it angers me to think that hard-won right might be taken away, that we might be forced back in the closet," he said. "The whole election is being fought on the economy but we shouldn't just sacrifice all the good that has been achieved by the Socialists, those things that make me proud to be living in modern Spain."

The very cute Eddie Redmayne arriving at the United Kingdom premiere of My Week with Marilyn.

Apparently a YSL belt is not enough to hold up Justin Bieber’s pants, his pink underwear on full display Monday in Los Angeles while walking his dogs.