Two Alberta Teen Males Charged After 12-Year-Old Boy Sexual Assaulted, Both Sides Dispute Why Openly Gay Filmmaker Was Fired By BYU, Gay Catholics In Partnerships Barred From Attending Church-Sponsored Same Sex Marriage Conference, Openly Gay Australian MP Wong Breaks Ranks Over Same Sex Marriage Conscience Vote, Zachary Quinto And Mystery Male, Adam Parker, Jesse Tyler Ferguson And Justin Mikita Are Out 100

The mother of a child who was allegedly assaulted by two youths in Calmar, Alberta in October spoke to CTV News about how the incident affected her young son. "It keeps me awake at night, I think about what happened and if I could I have done something different? You blame yourself too." The distraught mother, who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, is still dealing with the fallout of what happened to her young son on October 30. Witnesses said the boy ran to a Calmar gas station for help, and was bruised and bleeding. RCMP officers and emergency crews responded to the 911 call at 1:00 am at the station – and the boy was rushed to the Stollery Children's Hospital for treatment. "It broke my heart, I [saw] him sitting there, his face was all bruised and [there were] burn marks on his cheek." RCMP have not made many details of the case public, only that it happened in Calmar, and on Thursday the serious charges laid against the two youths in the case were released. The youths are facing several charges, including assault causing bodily harm, sexual assault, forcible confinement and administering a noxious substance. The mother says the people responsible for the crime lured the child to an apartment, and made him drink alcohol, before burning, punching, and cutting him repeatedly, and sexually abusing him. She said her son has not spoken at length about the experience. "He's talked in bits and pieces of it, but he's pretty ashamed of the sexual abuse part. He doesn't talk about that." Whatever happens, she said the family has no choice but to leave the area in order to protect the boy. "We protect our kids from all the monsters in the world out there, but sometimes the monsters are in your backyard, in your school yard, and they're in your neighbourhoods."

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-owned Brigham Young University has fired Kendall Wilcox, an executive producer in the school’s broadcasting department who, on his own time, is making an independent documentary about being gay and Mormon. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Wilcox announced the move Friday morning on his Facebook page, saying he was terminated the previous week by his BYU supervisors who “cited certain tasks and communications that I had not performed to their liking.” The Emmy-winning filmmaker, who in an e-mail Friday declined to be interviewed, defended himself in his Facebook post. He said he faced “an increasingly hostile work environment over the last several months with which I refused to continue to engage.” BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said emphatically that Wilcox was not let go for being gay or for his work on the documentary. She mentioned Wilcox’s August interview about his life and work with Radio West’s Doug Fabrizio, in which he told the radio host that his BYU supervisors “were very respectful and loving” when he told them about his homosexuality and documentary project. “They kept reminding me over and over about our friendship,” Wilcox told Fabrizio, “and since then all of our interactions have been full of love and respect and open-heartedness.” According to Jenkins, however, Wilcox has not stepped into BYU Broadcasting offices for two months. “Kendall was terminated for two basic reasons,” Jenkins said Friday. “He refused to come to work, and he refused to communicate with his supervisor.” Jenkins said the school was surprised by Wilcox’s claim of “a hostile work environment.” That was something “he had said in a text message to his supervisor after he was terminated,” she said, “but this claim did not go through human resources or through [BYU’s] equal opportunity office.” Wilcox cautioned Facebook readers not to see his firing “as one more example of institutionalized homophobia on the part of BYU or the Church.” He is still optimistic that the Mormon community “is at a time in our history when we are proactively putting the destructive polemics behind us and treating each other with genuine love, respect and empathy.” To that end, Wilcox is continuing to work on “Far Between,” a film that will document his journey to find a place in a faith that gives him no option but a life of celibacy and in a culture that pushes him to reject his religion. He is interviewing current and former Mormons, activists and defenders, those in mixed-orientation marriages, gays with longtime partners, writers, scholars, therapists, mothers, spouses and children to see how they manage that tension. He also created a non-profit organization, Empathy First Initiative, to help improve conversations about homosexuality and other issues. “No one is perfect at this, least of all me,” Wilcox wrote on Facebook. “But I do believe we’ve reached a tipping point at which — while keeping an eye to the sad events of the past regarding the [LDS] Church and homosexuality — we can all support one another in seeking truth, forgiveness and reconciliation.”

Gay Catholics in partnerships have in effect been barred from an event about gay marriage, after organisers said it was aimed at developing "communication of church teaching" rather than debating it. The Guardian reports that Catholic Voices, which was set up to train ordinary parishioners for media appearances, is holding an event next week called Gay Marriage and the Common Good. But it has informed those with diverging views they are not welcome. In an e-mail exchange, organiser Austen Ivereigh asks Martin Pendergast, a gay man who is in a civil partnership and wishes to attend: "What is your position on gay marriage? Are you in favour? I ask because CV [Catholic Voices] Academy is not a debating chamber but a means for developing the communication of the church's settled positions; and both Rome and the bishops are firmly and publicly against gay marriage. Therefore, if your purpose is to put an opposing point of view, this is not the appropriate forum." Pendergast replies: "I, personally, am not in favour of same-sex marriage but I wish to respect the rights of those who wish to adopt a marital status as opposed to that of civil partnership." The to and fro continues until Ivereigh says: "There are plenty of forums for debating church teaching; this is not one. It is also for Catholics who want to do that on a range of issues, not just one. It is not a public forum. I hope you'll understand therefore if we do not put you on the list." Ivereigh says, "It's nothing to do with being gay or not being gay. The event is not directly concerned with church teaching on sexuality or marriage. It is not a discussion; it's looking at the arguments against gay marriage and its effect on society as a whole and children in particular. Martin has not shown any interest in Catholic Voices until now." Speakers at the event include David Quinn, from the conservative think-tank the Iona Institute, and Neil Addison, from the Thomas More Legal Centre. Terry Weldon, who organises Soho Masses, a fortnightly mass for gay and lesbian Catholics that has the backing of senior clergy and the Vatican, said Catholic Voices was shooting itself in the foot: "I wanted to go and say: how are we going to promote the full teaching of the church? They are only interested in developing the communication of one part. There is another part that says gay people should be treated with respect, dignity and understanding. If you're going to promote this narrow perspective, people will use it as a weapon against the church." Weldon said there was a disconnection between the church's teaching and church practice regarding homosexuality, citing clerical support of Soho Masses as an example.

Senator Penny Wong says equality should be a matter of policy, and not a question of conscience, in an impassioned plea for the Australian Labor Party to endorse same sex marriage. The federal Finance Minister has rebuked the Prime Minister's proposal that gay marriage be decided by a conscience vote, and rejected her oft-repeated support for the current definition of marriage. In a column penned for The Saturday Age, the left-wing cabinet minister, whose partner, Sophie Allouache, is expecting the couple's first child in December, says a conscience vote ''should not be Labor's answer to the calls for equality within the party and the wider community,” adding that, ''Equality should not be a matter of conscience; it should be reflected in Labor policy.'' A large group of Left MPs are furious that Prime Minister Gillard is pushing the conscience vote as the means of resolving the party's internal debate. The Prime Minister supports the current platform, and has espoused a traditional view of marriage as between a man and a woman. Liberal and National MPs on both sides of the gay marriage debate say the Coalition should be allowed a conscience vote. Nationals Deputy Leader Barnaby Joyce said the party was not opposed to a conscience vote but it was more than likely to vote as a bloc against any bill supporting same-sex marriage. ''If there is a whole Coalition push for a conscience vote there won't be a problem from us,'' he said. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has declined to grant a conscience vote in the Coalition.

A better dressed Zachary Quinto spotted roaming the mean streets of Silverlake, accompanied by a mystery male.

Male model marvel Adam Parker.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and boyfriend Justin Mikita are among those seen attending the 2011 Out 100 celebrations.