Edmonton Public School Trustees Unanimously Pass Policy Designed To Protect Staff And Students From Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation Or Gender Identity; First School Board In Western Canada To Do So

Edmonton public school trustees have unanimously passed a sexual orientation and gender identity policy designed to protect sexual minorities and make schools welcoming and safe for all students and staff. "This includes those students, staff and families who identify or are perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, queer or questioning their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression," the policy says. "The board expects all members of this diverse community to be welcomed, respected, accepted and supported in every school." The Edmonton Journal reports that trustees voted in favour of the policy Tuesday after months of analysis that included gathering public input and revising the draft document. Board chairman Dave Colburn called the decision a "historic and important" moment but also "just the first step" in creating better support, acceptance and school environments for sexual minorities. "We're having a conversation now in Alberta that is overdue - and we know that over years it's going to shift the culture, so this is really very exciting," Colburn said. School district administrators will develop a set of regulations to give the policy its teeth. That will include rules about how staff are expected to respond to bullying, Edmonton Public Schools Supt. Edgar Schmidt said. Schmidt also intends to establish an advisory group that will help school district authorities make sure the policy is successfully implemented. School authorities will provide annual updates so trustees can see if the policy and regulations are working, Schmidt said. The Edmonton public school board started working on the policy in March, becoming the first school board in the prairies to approve development of a specific policy to protect sexual minority students and staff. The school district developed the wording for the policy after gathering input from students, staff and the public, and examining similar policies in Vancouver and Victoria. The school district already had an umbrella policy dealing with discrimination against sexual minorities. However, trustee Christopher Spencer, who raised the idea of creating the policy last February, said the past rules didn't go far enough. More than 2,000 respondents answered a web-based survey to offer their views on the draft policy released in April. Most people voiced support for the policy. Among those opposing the policy was a Christian program that operates inside seven public schools. The Edmonton Logos Society sent "an alert to parents" in June outlining concerns that the proposed policy might force teachers and principals with the Christian alternative program to go against their beliefs.

15-Year-Old Levi Sever Sentenced To Ninety Days In Juvenile Detention Center For Anti-Gay Attack On 15-Year-Old Zach Huston, Following News Story Cleveland Police Finally Investigate Bias-Motivated Attack On Transgender Female, Former Colorado Sheriff Arrested For Trading Methamphetamine To Male For Sex

A 15-year-old Ross County boy will serve 90 days in a juvenile detention center for the assault of a gay student that gained national attention after a cell phone video of the attack went viral on the Internet. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Levi Sever, 15, was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to a delinquency count of assault before Juvenile Court Judge Richard Ward. Zach Huston, 15, was assaulted on October 17 in a classroom at Unioto High School, with the youth and his mother both saying he was targeted because he is gay. Sever was ordered to undergo mental health counselling and continue his education during his detention, said Prosecutor Matthew Schmidt. Sever has not attended school since the attack, but school officials have declined to discuss the discipline he received. Huston and his mother, Rebecca Collins, have complained that school officials did not respond appropriately to their reports about bullying due to his sexual orientation. The attack prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio to threaten to take legal action against the school district unless it enacts changes to better protect students from bullying. School officials have declined to address the ACLU’s request, which included amending the district’s anti-bullying policy to specifically prohibit the harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

19 Action News broke the story of a transgender woman attacked at an RTA stop last week in Cleveland, Ohio and Wednesday reports that there has now been some progress in the case. Though still sore from being beaten and robbed, Alison Lancaster returned to the scene of the crime, the RTA station at W. 65th and Madison. On November 19th, three teenagers shouted gay slurs and punched and kicked Alison until she was unconscious. The 39-year-old nursing student, who spends much of her time volunteering as a suicide prevention counsellor, was walking out of the RTA station when she was attacked by 4 teenagers. "I was on the ground, there was blood everywhere. People screaming. And it was just surreal," said Allison Lancaster. She says the teenagers were shouting gay slurs, adding, "I had my big pink sweater on and that probably set em off." Days after the attack Allison felt like she was being dismissed by police. 19 Action News discovering that the officer who took the report failed to record it as a hate crime, and Cleveland Police took more than a week before they even assigned a detective to the case. However, days after the story aired, the FBI's Hate Crime Unit showed up at Alison's door. "Without 19 Action News, they probably would never have gotten wind of this. And I was amazed, because no police agency whatsoever has done anything close to this," said Alison. The area where Alison was robbed is dimly lit and not visible from the street. There are emergency call boxes, but when Alison was bashed, two of the three did not work. And according to a detective, the surveillance cameras were not working either. "My issue is, I'm coming home at eight o'clock at night, it's dark and I have to trust that this place is safe," said Alison. Today, all the call boxes have been fixed, but the surveillance cameras remain out of order.

Former Arapahoe County, Colorado Sheriff Patrick Sullivan was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to trade drugs to a man for sex, as investigators monitored the deal. Drug task-force officers were "visually monitoring" the deal when the 68-year-old former national Sheriff of the Year delivered methamphetamine to an Aurora home and sought sex in return, said current Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson. "This shows that no one is above the law, particularly a current or a former peace officer," Robinson said. The Denver Post reports that Robinson said Sullivan had an ongoing relationship with the man as well as other men he had a history of bonding out of jails in the metro region. Sullivan is being held on $250,000 bail in the jail that bears his name, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. He was sheriff from 1984 until his retirement in 2002. A call left at his family home in Littleton on Tuesday night was not returned. Sullivan's adult daughter told TV reporters outside her parents' home that the family was in disbelief and asked for privacy. The former sheriff was being held in an isolation cell Tuesday night and was scheduled to appear in court as early as Wednesday morning, Robinson said. The investigation is ongoing, and more charges and arrests are expected. Robinson said investigators received a tip earlier this month that Sullivan was involved in meth distribution, sparking the investigation that culminated in his arrest and staggering fall from grace. Sullivan had retired from law enforcement to become director of safety and security for Cherry Creek Schools in 2002, retiring from there in 2008. He was hired in the aftermath of security concerns following the deadly Columbine rampage of 1999. In a statement released Tuesday night, Cherry Creek School District Superintendent Mary Chesley said: "We are absolutely stunned at the news of Mr. Sullivan's arrest and are fully cooperating the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office with their investigation." Sullivan had a storied law enforcement career and was named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriffs' Association in 2001. In 1989, the sheriff drove a Jeep through the fence of an Arapahoe County home to rescue two deputies and a wounded 17-year-old boy who had been taken hostage by a rape and murder suspect armed with a machine gun. He was named undersheriff in 1983 and appointed sheriff six months later, after Sheriff Ed Nelson died of a heart attack. He went on to win four elections. Sullivan was a nationally expert on cyberterrorism and other law enforcement issues. He participated in a state-wide meth task force in 2000. Sullivan faces a charge of unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing or sale of a controlled substance, the Sheriff's Office said. The Class 5 felony carries a penalty of up to six years in prison. Robinson called it a "sad time" for his department.

Despite A Cell Phone Photograph Of Daniel Hauff Being Punched Cook County Illinois Judge Finds All Three Defendants Innocent Of Attacking The Gay Man

A cell phone photo may have captured the punch of a gay Chicago man by one of three Evanston men accused of beating him on the CTA Red Line because of his sexual orientation, but a Cook County judge acquitted the three Wednesday, questioning the credibility of Daniel Hauff, the victim who was cross-examined for about seven hours during the trial. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Sean Little, 23, Benjamin Eder, 25, and Kevin McAndrew, 24, were found not guilty of aggravated battery and a hate crime, she said. “The victim is not to be believed,” Judge Diane Cannon said. “His inability to recall who did what is understandable. His inability to recall what he did the day after this incident is not understandable.” Hauff, 35, testified during a bench trial last month about what happened to him between 2 and 3 am January 10, 2010, as he rode the northbound CTA Red Line L toward his home. He said the three men punched and kicked him while calling him a “stupid faggot” after he asked them to stop gay bashing another young man on the train. He replied dozens of times on cross-examination that he couldn’t remember — where he’d been earlier that night, who he spoke with the next day and more. “We don’t choose our victims and we don’t choose our witnesses,” Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Kirk said during closing arguments. “This picture” he said, holding up the cell phone photo a witness took of Eder punching Hauff, “is a perfect witness.” The witness who took the photos turned out to be a convicted drug dealer, defense attorneys pointed out. And his testimony was at odds with Hauff’s. Rows of relatives and friends of Eder, Little and McAndrew cheered and applauded at the verdict, prompting the judge to hush them. “There is no reason to celebrate any verdict in this building,” she said. “There are no winners, there are no losers.” All three defendants walked out of the Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California free men. Little and McAndrew left the courthouse without commenting. Eder’s attorney, Todd Pugh, argued that Hauff’s media blitz and persistence in the weeks after his alleged attack got the case upgraded from simple battery to a hate crime. “The case never should have been charged as with a hate crime,” he said after the hearing. Court watchers from Out for Justice, who had supported Hauff throughout the legal process, were stunned. Elana Mendelson, a spokeswoman for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims’ group, said the aggravated battery seemed obvious from the photo, even if the hate crime was hard to prove. “There was a picture of Daniel being punched in the face by one of the defendants,” she said. “How is that not evidence enough no matter what the story is?” Hauff did not attend Wednesday’s hearing but afterward called the verdict disappointing. “Without video evidence of what happened, there was no way to prove what happened to me,” he said by telephone. “It was important to me that they be tried and that they have to defend themselves against what they did.” He now avoids the L, preferring the bus, where, unlike the train, the driver is always visible. “That was the third incident (in which) I have stood up for someone on a train before,” he said. “I feel you need to stand up for people.”

Canadian Foreign Minister Baird Condemns Proposed Nigeria Anti-Gay Measure, Australian Labor Party Called On To Support Same Sex Civil Unions After Queensland Parliament Passed Laws Allowing Gay Civil Unions, Fox Affiliate In Boston Outs Teacher’s Gay Porn Past Forcing Charter School To Place Him On Leave, Sacha Harding Nudity, Kellan Lutz Shaved

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is speaking out against Nigeria over a proposed anti-gay law, The Canadian Press reporting that he says legislation being considered in Nigeria would disregard basic human rights. The country's Senate has approved a bill which would further toughen Nigerian anti-gay laws and make same-sex marriages punishable by 14 years in jail. It also targets those who support or even witness such unions or those who form gay-rights groups. Baird says Nigeria should ensure equal basic rights for all its citizens. At the October Commonwealth conference in Australia, Canada was part of a failed effort to persuade member states to rescind anti-gay laws. Baird says Canada will keep trying, even though 41 of the group's 54 member countries have anti-gay laws. He said governments have a duty to all citizens. "The government of Nigeria must protect all Nigerians, regardless of sexual orientation," he said. "Through the Commonwealth and other forums, Canada will continue to make this point in the most forceful of terms." Many Third World countries maintain tough anti-gay laws and condemn western efforts to change their views.

Australia’s Federal Labor must change its position on same sex marriage after the Queensland parliament passed laws to allow same sex civil unions, a gay rights lobby group says. The AAP reports that the Queensland parliament on Wednesday night passed a bill that will allow gay and lesbian couples to enter into legally recognised civil unions from early next year. Australian Marriage Equality National Convener Alex Greenwich said the new Queensland laws should pressure federal Labor to change its position on gay marriage. "When we have the traditionally-conservative Queensland parliament accepting the legal recognition of same-sex relationships through official ceremonies, it's a safe bet Australia is ready for same-sex marriages," he said. "It sends a clear message to the ALP National Conference that it's time to provide equality for all Australians regardless of their sexual orientation or the state in which they live." The ALP will consider the issue of gay marriage at its national conference this weekend. Labor's cross-factional same sex marriage advocates on Wednesday said they were confident they had the numbers to change the party platform on the issue. Prime Minister Julia Gillard supports a conscience vote on the issue, but has previously said she considers marriage to be between a man and a woman. ACT Treasurer and Right faction member Andrew Barr is expected to move an amendment at the conference for Labor to amend the Marriage Act to ensure equal access to marriage for all couples irrespective of their sex. Finance Minister Penny Wong, who is openly gay, is expected to second the amendment. A Labor source has said the cross-factional Rainbow Labor lobby is confident it has the numbers to both change the party platform and get up a conscience vote on the issue in federal parliament. Healthy Communities, a health promotion charity that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Queensland, said the Queensland vote was an important milestone. The bill passed 47 votes to 40, with all 31 opposition Liberal National Party (LNP) voting as a block against it. "The passing of this Act brings lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Queenslanders a large step closer to full equality," executive director Paul Martin said. "While the LNP couldn't bring itself to support civil unions, we hope that they can support initiatives to reduce suicide and mental health problems among LGBT people and tackle the wider health and wellbeing problems that affect our communities." During parliamentary debate, Opposition attorney-general spokesman Jarrod Bleijie called the bill a political stunt by Labor, aimed at shoring up Greens support. He said Labor had rushed the bill through, and Queenslanders had not been given appropriate opportunities to raise their concerns, and added that the bill was not a priority for Queenslanders, who are more concerned about cost of living pressures. Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser, who put up the bill, said gay and lesbian couples could now have their relationships regarded as equally valid in law. "The fact many Queenslanders now feel dealt into the community, part of the community, in a way they haven't before is the absolute goal of being able to be a member of parliament," he said. The Family Law Practitioners Association of Queensland said the Labor government was committed to reducing discrimination against same sex couples. "This is a huge reform that will place Queensland at the forefront of acceptance and tolerance for committed relationships," president Deborah Awyzio said.

Should a former gay porn star teach school? A Fox affiliate doesn’t think so. The Boston Globe reports that a high-ranking teacher at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School has been placed on administrative leave after a news outlet reported today that the teacher previously acted in pornographic films. Kevin Hogan, who was hired to head the English department last August at the Malden school, was placed on leave pending an investigation into the matter, said Martin Gately, Mystic Valley spokesman. The assertion was first made by Fox 25, in a segment in which a reporter confronts Hogan and asks him about his pornographic past. "I don't know what you're talking about," Hogan said in the video. The school notified parents of the situation about 2:40 pm today in an e-mail reassuring them that charter staff followed regular hiring protocol when they checked his background in California, where he formerly resided, and in Massachusetts, according to the e-mail and Gately. “What the media outlet has claimed, if true, was not reported by the employee in the application process,” the message to parents said. The background checks in both states came back clean, and “the references the school received for this employee were superlative,” according to the e-mail. Hogan came to apply for the position through a third-party recruiter, Carney, Sandoe & Associates, which performed an initial screening, the e-mail said. “We do wish to confirm the school's insistence that any applicant for a position here be candid and forthright about disclosing past employment positions,” it read. The school’s investigation is a result of the media inquiry, and not a parent or student complaint, it said. Hogan also served at the school's crew coach this fall. The text of the e-mail sent to parents reads, "Recently, a local news outlet contacted the school asserting that one of our employees was unsuitable because of the nature of this person's previous employment. When we hire employees for the school, in any capacity, we seek comprehensive information about their past employment activities and fitness for the position. In this particular case what the media outlet has claimed, if true, was not reported by the employee in the application process. The employee in question came to us through a recruiting relationship with Carney, Sandoe & Associates, which is the largest school recruitment firm in the country. Supplemental to the screening process conducted by Carney, Sandoe & Associates, the school followed its normal hiring practices, which included CORI checks in both California and Massachusetts. Additionally, the references the school received for this employee were superlative. We are unable to offer further comment about these circumstances until we have completed our own investigation. We do wish to confirm the School's insistence that any applicant for a position here be candid and forthright about disclosing past employment positions. And we can confirm that our investigation results exclusively from what we learned from this media source and not from any complaint by any parent or child. The employee in question has been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of our investigation."

Smoking sexy rugby star Sacha Harding graces the cover of the December Gay Times, the Naked Issue, the oh-so-hot Harding naked, naturally.

Kellan Lutz shaved his head, photographic evidence via his own WhoSay.com page.

Ontario Premier McGuinty Announces Introduction Of Legislation Meant To Expand And Strengthen Anti-Bullying Policies; PC Education Critic Also Announces Anti-Bullying Bill

The Ontario Liberal government is introducing tough new anti-bullying legislation in wake of high profiles youth suicides in Ottawa and Durham. The Toronto Star reports that speaking at L’Amoreaux Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Premier Dalton McGuinty said the anti-bullying bill expands and strengthens the consequences against bullies. If the bill passes, expulsion could be a consequence. The Progressive Conservatives are also expected to introduce a private member’s bill on bullying. “We will not tolerate bullying of any kind, for any reason,” McGuinty told reporters Wednesday morning. “As a premier and as a parent ... I want our students to be free to be who they are, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or (cultural) traditions.” School boards must intervene when bullying has taken place, he said. The suicide of Ottawa teen Jamie Hubley, who took his life last month after becoming a target of bullying due to his sexual orientation, was top of McGuinty’s mind when this legislation was created. So was the death of Mitchell Wilson, an 11-year-old Ajax boy who took his life recently. McGuinty also followed the federal Conservative’s lead by creating his own It Gets Better YouTube video, available at the source. Teachers and parents have a responsibility to make it stop, he said. “If we are going to make the appropriate changes in our society I am going to call on our parents,” he said. “Bullying is wrong.” Bullying is not okay in our schools, said Education Minister Laurel Broten. “Every single student has seen it and suffered some form of it.” It would have been Hubley’s 16th birthday last week. PC education critic Elizabeth Witmer also announced her party’s own private member’s bill addressing bullying, including a provision to introduce anti-bullying curriculum in kindergarten. She said the Anti Bullying Act, 2011, looks at reporting, accountability, education and remedial programs for bullies. “It provides for a formalized process, clear responsibilities and resources for victims and perpetrators,” she said. Last year, Witmer was successful in naming a bullying awareness and prevention week.

FBI Agents Very Angry At Film’s Suggestion That J. Edgar Hoover Was Gay

Gregg Schwarz frowned as he positioned himself, just so, in front of the wrought iron fence surrounding John Edgar Hoover’s grave, a place he has visited countless times but never before in anger. A retired FBI agent who joined the agency in 1972, the year Hoover died, Schwarz had hired a videographer to film him for YouTube expressing his displeasure with a movie that depicted Hoover as a repressed homosexual. In a dig at Clint Eastwood, the director of J. Edgar, Schwarz titled his video response, Dirty Harry to Filthy Harry. “Mr. Hoover was portrayed as an individual who had homosexual tendencies and was a tyrannical monster,” Schwarz said into the camera, as the sun glinted off his FBI cuff links and FBI lapel pin. “That is simply not true.” Many former FBI agents share Schwartz’s pique with the film’s dropped hints of an abiding love between Hoover and aide Clyde Tolson, who is buried a few grave sites away. Historians agree that there is no evidence that either man was gay, and a request for comment from either Eastwood or screenwriter Dustin Lance Black was declined. Since J. Edgar’s release early this month, The Washington Post reports that hundreds of agents have griped about the film on xgboys, a closed e-mail list for FBI retirees that takes its name from one of Hoover’s pet dogs, which in turn is a play on the old nickname for federal agents, G-men. “I don’t know anyone who’s not extremely upset,” said Bill Branon, a former agent who is chairman of the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation, which grants scholarships to college students studying law enforcement and forensics. “It’s not only because of our admiration for him. It’s the fact it’s just not true. If it were true, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But don’t do that to the poor guy when he’s dead and gone.” The widespread unhappiness over Hollywood’s imagined rendering of Hoover’s rumored-but-never-proven personal life largely comes from men who started their FBI careers when Hoover was still in charge. Their devotion is undimmed almost four decades after his death. Nowhere is that more evident than at Hoover’s grave at Congressional Cemetery. The headstone usually has several stones perched atop it, a sign of recent visitors. There are often fresh flowers inside the wrought iron fence that was forged by a former agent turned metalworker. Retired agents periodically tend to the grave site, removing weeds and overgrown grass. And some newly minted agents make post-graduation pilgrimages there, even though Hoover is not on the curriculum at the FBI Academy. Agents younger than 70 or so don’t get it, said Brad Benson, president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. “Devotion is probably a good word for my generation and up,” said Benson, 70. “The more recent people can’t understand why all the energy is being devoted to this when our [retirement] benefits are at stake.” Older agents say their admiration for the late director is cemented in his role in building up the FBI and instituting several law enforcement innovations, such as crime labs and fingerprinting databases. Many cite his thoughtful gestures, the kind that engender loyalty, including the personal notes he sent to mark special occasions in an agent’s family — such as births, deaths and anniversaries. But mostly, they say, they are offended on his behalf because the intimation that Hoover was gay is false. They say agents, apparently a gossipy bunch among themselves, would have heard about it if it were, because Hoover was always tailed for his protection, despite his objections; they called it “Hoo-Watch.” Fred Robinette, a former FBI agent and Hoover’s grand-nephew said, “It’s hard to have an illicit homosexual love affair with an agent looking in the back window of your car.” John Fox, the FBI historian, said speculation about Hoover’s sexuality never got very far. “Hoover was single all those years,” Fox said. “His closest friend and associate was another man. Periodically through the history of his tenure, there was an innuendo here, an innuendo there that he was homosexual. But that was the extent of it.” What is known is that gay men were blackballed from the FBI during that era because Hoover considered them vulnerable to blackmail if their sexual orientation were discovered. “He thought people with homosexual tendencies were a security risk,” Schwarz said. “Everybody knew it at the time. Anybody who thought homosexuality was a security risk would not, and did not, condone that type of activity.” Former agents who were consulted said they told the filmmakers that rumors of Hoover’s homosexuality were untrue. Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, a former high-ranking FBI official whose office was across the hall from Hoover, said he told that to both Eastwood, who called him for advice, and Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor who played Hoover. In a sit-down meeting with DeLoach, DiCaprio asked DeLoach to help “make me Hoover.” “He said he didn’t think the movie was going to delve into it in great length,” DeLoach said of DiCaprio. DeLoach praised both Eastwood and DiCaprio as decent men but added, “It’s wrong making insinuations [Hoover] was homosexual. I think it was an attempt to gain popularity, and they had to use several insinuations that weren’t correct.” When Branon, of the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation, started hearing rumors the film would portray a sexual relationship between Hoover and Tolson, he wrote Eastwood a letter seeking reassurances. “It would be a grave injustice and a monumental distortion to proceed with such a depiction based on a completely unfounded and spurious assertion,” said the letter, dated April 8 and posted on the foundation’s Web site along with Eastwood’s response. In an April 13 letter, Eastwood wrote: “Please rest assured that we do not give any credence to cross-dressing allegations . . . nor do we intend to portray an open homosexual relationship between Mr. Hoover and Clyde Tolson,” the letter says. Some agents say their confidence was misplaced. “We were led to believe this would be an accurate portrayal of Mr. Hoover,” said Thomas McGorray, who runs the e-mail list xgboys. “Everybody feels betrayed. It’s typical Hollywood. They went off on the sex stuff.” As a technical adviser on the film, former agent Scott Nelson said he also advised the filmmakers it was “gratuitous” to include a scene showing Hoover and Tolson kissing and to show Hoover putting on his mother’s dress in his grief after she died. But Nelson thinks some of his fellow former agents are overreacting. “It’s a biopic. It’s not a biography,” said Nelson, who now runs his own security firm in California. “That doesn’t mean it’s factual. Agents deal in fact, and they’re offended at the literary license taken by the screenwriter. I know why they’re offended.” However, Nelson said, the film does not disparage Hoover, and the speculative focus on his personal life was part of dramatic storytelling: “That’s Hollywood.”

Minnesota Governor Dayton Announces Executive Order Aimed At Battling Bullying

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton will appoint a task force to explore the best methods used nationwide to confront bullying, a problem that affects more than 100,000 students a week in Minnesota, according to a 2011 study by the state Departments of Health and Education. Speaking Tuesday at the State Capitol, Dayton said his 15-member panel will include his commissioners of education, human rights and public safety; four legislators from both parties, and eight other people with expertise in medicine, mental health, law or education. The group is to report back to the governor's office, the Legislature and the public by August 1, 2012, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune. "The time has long since passed to step up and say, 'Enough, this does not have to be this way,'" Dayton said. He said he wants to see "a Minnesota where every child can go to school and know it's a place where they are valued, loved, where school is for learning and creating your future." Dayton's executive order is the second official call to action on bullying in the past week. On Wednesday, Attorney General Lori Swanson proposed legislation to require school districts to respond to bullying reports within 24 hours. The bill also would require districts to create policies for reporting and documenting incidents, plans to protect students who are subject to bullying and those who report it. It was modeled after a law that drew bipartisan support this year in North Dakota. Dayton reiterated that the task force had been in the works for some time but said he hoped Swanson's proposal would complement its work. In addition to studying current research, members will look at other states' laws and school policies, and interview experts, as well as educators, students and their families in hearings held state-wide. Dayton was joined by Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius, Public Safety Commissioner Mona Doman, Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey and Sen. Scott Dibble and Rep. Jim Davnie, both Minneapolis DFLers. He also was joined by Tammy Aaberg, an anti-bullying activist whose son Justin committed suicide in 2010. Dibble and Davnie recalled bipartisan support their comprehensive anti-bullying bill had in 2009, though it ultimately was vetoed by then-Governor Tim Pawlenty. They were unable to secure a hearing for the same bill in 2011. Although the governor can order the study of an issue, he cannot pass a law. That's the job of the Legislature, which passed the state's anti-bullying law in 2006, amending it in 2008 to include cyberbullying provisions. Minnesota has the shortest anti-bullying law in the nation, at 37 words. It requires only that districts have written policies in place prohibiting all forms of intimidation and bullying. The law earned a C-minus grade from the watchdog group BullyPolice USA, the lowest grade of the 47 states that have anti-bullying laws. Echoing Swanson's sentiments, Dayton said, "I want to have the A-plus-plus law, not the C-minus law." The panel's report will arrive too late to influence the 2012 Legislature, but Dibble noted that its audience goes beyond the Capitol. "Minnesota is the audience," he said. "There will be actions for everyone to take in every sector of Minnesota life." Agreement came from Cordelia Anderson, a Minneapolis anti-bullying expert and director of Sensibilities Prevention Services. "As much as we would like our policymakers to have some agreement on comprehensive efforts," she said, "it certainly can come about from the general public having more knowledge and putting more pressure on what our expectations are and what we want." One of the more controversial aspects of the 2009 bill was its inclusion of "enumeration," or spelling out groups in need of particular protection, by race, national origin, gender and sexual orientation, for example. This is a case, Davnie said, where adults can't transfer their own school experiences onto today's students. "We need to take the roof off and look at who's in the schools today," he said, adding that schools are more diverse than they've ever been. "Just saying, 'Be nice,' isn't enough. The bullies know where the low-hanging fruit is." Brooklyn Center schools Superintendent Keith Lester said he hopes the task force will look beyond the surface to the organizational flaws that allow bullying to happen. "What I would hope is they would dig real deep," he said, adding that the study should go beyond crime and punishment, at "rather what causes bullying and what are some of the things you do systemically to prevent bullying."

Indiana Mother Files Federal Lawsuit Against School District Alleging Employees Failed To Stop Bullying That Led To Son’s Suicide, Lawsuit On Behalf Of Gay Active Duty And Retired Military Personal Argues Defense Of Marriage Act Unconstitutional, Seattle Police Seek Public Assistance In Connection To Gay Bashing Murder Of Danny Vega, Deborra-Lee Furness Dismisses Rumours Husband Hugh Jackman Gay, Barron Hilton Gay Sex Tape Rumours, Joe Jonas Shirtless Puppy Play, Zachary Quinto

The mother of a high school freshman who killed himself last year has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Hamilton South-eastern Schools, accusing the district and its employees of not doing enough to stop bullying incidents which, she says, led to suicide. The Indianapolis Star reports that Natalie Moore alleges teachers and administrators at both HSE Junior High and HSE High School ignored reports that her son, Jamarcus Bell, suffered racially-based bullying and harassment for "perceived homosexuality and emotional disability." According to the lawsuit, filed November 21 in the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, the African-American student was the victim of "constant and ruthless harassment and bullying from other students" who allegedly threw pieces of metal at him during a welding class, stole his shoes, his clothing, had his book bag dumped and was physically assaulted in hallways and classrooms. Bell, who had survived an earlier attempt to hang himself at school in a janitor's closet at the junior high, ultimately ended his own life on October 20, 2010, at his mother's home during fall break. The lawsuit hinges on what Moore 's lawyers -- Delk McNally, LLP of Muncie -- say was the inaction of school officials to respond to the bullying that was taking place in the months leading up to the suicide. "Administrators, teachers and staff members of HSE knew of should have known of these incidents," the lawsuit says. The suit does not specify a monetary amount in damages sought. HSE School officials could not be immediately reached for comment this morning.

Same sex military spouses cannot be designated to receive next-of-kin notices of the service member's death, will not receive surviving spouse benefits, are denied family health benefits, and cannot be buried in a military cemetery next to their spouses, say lawyers for eight couples suing the federal government. In a notice filed with the federal court of Massachusetts last week, the couples, including Rye residents Charlie Morgan — a lesbian member of the N.H. National Guard — and her wife, Karen, ask the court to find they are victims of discrimination because, they say, the facts of the case are undisputed. The Portsmouth Herald reports that U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki are named as defendants in the suit are Washington attorney Jean Lin has been assigned to defend the case and through Charles Miller, a spokesman for the U. S. Justice Department's civil division, said "the government has no comment at this time." Morgan and her wife are two of 16 plaintiffs named in the federal suit seeking "the same recognition, family support and benefits" for same sex couples that the U.S. military provides for heterosexual couples. The suit alleges gay and lesbian service members and their families are victims of discrimination because of the Defense of Marriage Act, and asks a judge to find DOMA "is unconstitutional as applied to military spousal benefits." DOMA is a federal law enacted in 1996 and defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. In their latest court motion, the same-sex couples cite case law stating DOMA "fails to pass constitutional muster." They tell the court DOMA "is irrational in the context of military benefits" because when it was enacted, same sex marriage was prohibited in all 50 states. Last week's motion to the court notes the importance the military places on family, and suggests service members who fear their spouses won't be cared for if something happens to them "will be less likely to risk their lives on the battlefield." The couples tell the court that DOMA's application to military spousal benefits harms recruitment and retention, and "threatens uniformity, fairness and unit cohesion." And they allege Congress had no authority to enact DOMA in the first place because it exceeds the federal government's authority under the Constitution. Filed by attorney John Goodman of the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the suit was filed on behalf of "current and former active duty members of the United States Armed Forces seeking equal benefits for equal work." Goodman told the court Charlie and Karen Morgan have been together since 1997, and Charlie, a chief warrant officer, has served in Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq. In 2008, Charlie, 47, was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatment and a double mastectomy, according to the suit. On September 1, 2011, she was diagnosed with recurring cancer, so she and Karen "are especially concerned with obtaining all the death benefits and burial rights that opposite-sex couples receive," according to the litigation. The couple have been in a legally recognized civil union for 11 years, are the parents of a 4-year-old and were married October 24, 2011. Active and retired homosexual military personal from Boston, California, Arizona, Ohio, Wyoming, and Virginia are also named as plaintiffs in the suit. All of them applied for and were denied federal military benefits for their spouses in the wake of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on September 20 according to the suit. Charlie Morgan made national headlines when, hours after the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, she went on national television and declared, "I'm finally proud to announce that I'm a lesbian."

Weeks after Danny Vega was beaten in South Seattle, police say they have only a vague suspect description, no motive, and no strong leads on who killed the longtime hair stylist, according to The Seattle Post Intelligencer. Vega, 53, died Sunday morning after several days in a coma. Investigators say they need tips from the public. Vega was attacked about 7:45 pm November 15 as he walked along the 4200 block of South Othello Street in Seattle. When Officer Joe Hadley arrived on scene, he briefly talked to Vega as he was being strapped to a mobile stretcher by medics. Vega was wincing in pain and said his chest hurt. He was walking near the Swap Meet at 4200 S. Othello St. when three teens approached and punched him several times. Because of his injuries, Vega could only give a vague description. Vega "stated that at some point while he was being beaten he lost consciousness," Hadley wrote in an incident report. "The victim awoke with pain all over his face and chest." His cell phone was stolen, along with his house keys and black jacket. After Vega regained consciousness, he walked home and told his roommates he'd been beaten, police said. He was taken from his home to Harborview, where his condition worsened. Vega's niece, Melanie Galmiba, said that she believe Vega was targeted because he was gay and that his death is a hate crime. For weeks, the family and friends have been passing out fliers about the attack around South Seattle and the Filipino community. Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said Monday that police do not know the motive for the attack – and hope that help from the public gives them more information. "We do know that some things were taken, so possibly this started off as a robbery," Whitcomb said. "But we don't know what – the theft may have been incidental to the attack.”The facts that we know are that he was viciously beaten and left unconscious on the sidewalk."Vega, who owned Danny Vega's Hair Design, was the 16th homicide victim in Seattle this year and the first since the officer-involved shooting of murder suspect Eric Blaine Evans. "We have a very vague description of the suspects and we've made an appeal to anyone in the community who may have seen anything, may have heard anything or knows any detail – however insignificant it may seem – to please come forward or call our tip line," Whitcomb said. Police insist tipsters can remain anonymous by calling the department's tip line at 206-233-5000. "Now that he's gone," Galmiba said, "we need to fight hard as a family to find those people."

Glee is temporarily lifting its moratorium on stunt casting, and with good reason reports TV Line. The Fox series is in negotiations with Ricky Martin to guest star early next year, sources say. The smoking sexy Martin will play what a Glee insider is calling “the hottest Spanish teacher ever in the history of Ohio,” and a musically inclined one at that. Martin’s instructor will headline two big musical numbers in the episode, which is slated to air in late January.

Deborra-Lee Furness, the wife of Hugh Jackman, dismisses speculation that Jackman is gay, telling The New York Post’s Page Six, “The line I heard was, ‘Wolverine? Who would have thought?’ Hugh and I don’t pay much heed. It’s kind of tragic that these people have nothing better to do than gossip about people they don’t know.”

The New York Post asks, “Which younger brother of an infamous socialite appears in a hardcore gay sex tape that’s making the rounds in the male modeling world?” If your answer is Barron Hilton, you are correct.

Joe Jonas is still in Mexico with a cadre of male friends, still shirtless, but now with an adorable puppy, and a kind of creepy moustache.

Zachary Quinto was among those in attendance Monday at the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Religious Leaders Demand Meeting Of African Gay Lobby Ahead Of AIDS Conference In Ethiopia Be Cancelled Saying Group “Dirties Our Culture,” Less Than 30-Percent Of Americans Living With HIV Receive Optimal Care, Illinois Allows Gay Couples In Civil Unions To File State Joint Taxes, Daniel Radcliffe To Play Allen Ginsburg In Gay-Themed Thriller, Lady Gaga On Marriage And Relationships

A meeting organized by an African gay lobby group ahead of an AIDS conference in Ethiopia has sparked a rare fight between the government and religious groups. Reuters Africa reports that religious leaders demand the cancellation of the gathering scheduled for Saturday, organized by African Men for Sexual Health and Rights, saying it would violate the country's conservative culture. State officials, however, are unwilling to budge having lobbied hard to win hosting rights for the influential 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa due to start a day later. On Tuesday, Abune Paulos, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, joined the Muslim mufti and the heads of the Catholic and Protestant churches for a meeting before delivering scathing remarks about homosexuals to the media. Young church activists handed out dossiers railing against the weekend meeting on "men who have sex with men (MSM) in Africa and HIV", which is scheduled to feature presentations from 15 experts. "We were prompted to sound this alarm after this group launched immoral activities that would tarnish and dirty our culture," read part of the dossier. Health Minister Tedros Adhanom met the religious leaders but made no denunciation of the gay group's gathering. Abune Paulos afterwards told reporters, "We will continue to pray." Homosexuality is taboo in many African nations. It is illegal in 37 countries on the continent, including Ethiopia, and activists say few Africans are openly gay, fearing imprisonment, violence and loss of jobs.

Only slightly more than one-quarter of Americans infected with the AIDS virus are getting the form of medical care that maximizes their life expectancy, according to a new estimate. The Washington Post reports that the goal of AIDS treatment is to suppress growth of HIV until the virus is no longer detectable in the bloodstream. Only 28-percent of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States have their “viral load” controlled to that optimal degree, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. “We have substantial work ahead to fully realize the benefit of treatment in the United States,” Thomas R. Frieden, CDC’s director, said in a press briefing two days before World AIDS Day, which is Thursday. “It is time to act even more aggressively,” said Jonathan Mermin, the agency’s director of HIV/AIDS prevention. The estimate encompasses the experience of the entire HIV-positive population, including people who don’t know they are infected and those who can’t get or don’t want medical care. For people enrolled in treatment, the fraction with a fully suppressed viral load is much higher and more encouraging — about 77-percent. The CDC is emphasizing the low overall percentage of people who have achieved the goal of full viral suppression as a way to emphasize how much remains to be done 30 years into the AIDS epidemic. The agency in recent years has endorsed universal HIV testing of Americans, and urged physicians and health departments to make sure that people found to be infected get treatment. About 80-percent of Americans with HIV know they are infected. About 20-percent are unaware — a situation that, studies have shown, makes it much more likely they will transmit the virus to others. Slightly more than 75-percent of people are “linked to care” within four months of receiving their diagnosis, but only 50-percent stay in care. The CDC analysis did not address why so many people with HIV infection stop treatment. However, many diseases have high rates of attrition from treatment, with reluctance to take pills, drug side effects, inconvenience, expense and denial all being reasons. Of people remaining in care, 89-percent were prescribed antiretroviral therapy, which consists of three or more drugs that prevent the virus from replicating. Of that group, 77-percent had a fully suppressed viral load the last time they were tested.

Illinois couples who have entered into civil unions will be able to jointly file their 2011 state tax returns, according to a state Revenue Department spokeswoman and Equality Illinois, a state-wide gay rights group. Since Illinois' civil union law went into effect in June, the tax status of couples in a civil union has been unclear. But The Chicago Tribune reports that in a news release late Monday, Equality Illinois said it had worked with the Department of Revenue and confirmed that same sex couples and others in civil unions will be able to file joint state tax returns just as married spouses do. Department of Revenue spokeswoman Susan Hofer confirmed that as requested by Governor Pat Quinn, the state has made arrangements to allow couples in civil unions to file jointly. Couples in civil unions still have no joint-filing tax status on the federal level. According to Equality Illinois, the new guidelines issued by the Department of Revenue say same sex couples in a civil union may elect to file state taxes as "married, filed jointly" or "married, filed separately." In a statement, Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov said, "In order to ensure that couples in a civil union were afforded the same rights as other spouses, we needed the leadership of Gov. Quinn and Revenue Director Brian Hamer, and we thank them for standing up for equality. We are grateful to them and their respective staffs for their commitment to equal treatment for same-sex couples."

Just last week Harry Potter and The Woman In Black star Daniel Radcliffe was quoted in the French press saying that he would very likely be playing a gay character in a film to release in 2012. And it would appear that gay character is no less than Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Twitch is reporting that once Radcliffe wraps up his Broadway run in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying he will move on to Kill Your Darlings with writer-director John Krokidas. A thriller based on actual events, Kill Your Darlings revolves around the relationship between Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr. Carr, for his part, is credited for connecting Ginsberg, Kerouac and William S Burroughs but, most notoriously, served time for the 1944 murder of his lover David Kammerer. Word of the film first broke in 2009 with Christine Vachon (Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig And The Angry Inch, and A Dirty Shame) producing while Chris Evans, Jesse Eisenberg and Ben Whishaw were attached to play Kerouac, Ginsberg and Carr, respectively. It's unknown if any of those three remain attached but Eisenberg, at least, is out with Radcliffe apparently taking his place. Radcliffe's UK based representatives have to date declined comment.

Lady Gaga, who graces the cover of the January issue of Vanity Fair, says, “I have never felt truly cherished by a lover. I have an inability to know what happiness feels like with a man. I say this honestly, and this is my new thing as of the past year: when I fight with someone I’m in a relationship with, I think, What would my fans think if they knew this was happening? How would they feel about my work and about me as a female if they knew I was allowing this to go on? And then I get out.”

Episcopal Church Clears South Carolina Bishops Of Charges He Abandoned Church Principles By Opposing Denomination Acceptance Of Gays

The national Episcopal Church cleared a South Carolina diocese bishop of accusations that he abandoned the church's principles by opposing the denomination's acceptance of homosexuality, according to a report by Reuters. Bishop Right Reverend Mark J. Lawrence was accused in October of abandonment of the church's doctrine, discipline and worship. Lawrence and many in the diocese that covers the lower and coastal parts of South Carolina disagree with the tolerance of the national denomination for gays in the church. In 2003, the Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay man as bishop in New Hampshire, prompting several churches in South Carolina to leave the national denomination and join Anglican organizations. Lawrence accused the national church of preaching a "false gospel of indiscriminate inclusivity ... that has suffocated the mission of the Church," according to the charges levelled against him. But in a statement on Monday, church leaders said the bishop's actions did not constitute abandonment. "Bishop Lawrence has repeatedly stated that he does not intend to lead the diocese out of the Episcopal Church -- that he only seeks a safe place within the church to live the Christian faith as that diocese perceives it," said the Right Reverend Dorsey Henderson Jr, president of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops. "I presently take the bishop at his word," Henderson said. The South Carolina diocese is one of the conservative Episcopal groups distancing themselves or leaving the national church. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled last week that an historic church building in Savannah belongs to the national Episcopal Church, not its breakaway congregation that voted to move under the leadership of an Anglican diocese in Uganda. The Episcopal Church is not the only Protestant denomination struggling with the issue of gays in the church. The Presbyterian Church ordained its first openly gay minister last month in Wisconsin, and an openly gay Methodist minister in the same state was sanctioned earlier this year for performing a same sex marriage.

Republican Judge In Rural New York Rules That Lawsuit Challenging State Same Sex Marriage Legislation Can Continue

A New York state Supreme Court judge in Livingston County has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the state’s same sex marriage law can proceed and raised questions about whether the June vote to legalize same sex marriage violated the state’s open meetings law. Politics on the Hudson reports that the decision, dated November 18, by Judge Robert Wiggins, took issue with a variety of procedural steps taken by the Senate and Governor Andrew Cuomo when the June 24 vote was taken. The measure passed 33-29, and Cuomo quickly signed it into law. Wiggins, a Republican judge in the rural county, said the Monroe County-based group New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms presented enough evidence that the open meetings law may have been violated to let the case continue. The state has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in late July. “The Court must consider allegations by plaintiff as true. Considering plaintiff’s allegations, and without deciding matter at this time, the court feels that is a justifiable issue presented whether there was a violation of the Open Meetings Law,” Wiggins wrote in his decision. New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a pro-life group, has vehemently fought the same sex marriage law. New York became the sixth and largest state to let gay couples marry. The law took effect July 24. The group alleges that Cuomo and Senate Republicans violated the open meetings law by holding closed-door conferences to discuss the bill. The lawsuit also contends that the Senate didn’t follow procedures that require a bill to be sent to appropriate committees before a vote on the Senate floor. Legislative conferences are always held behind closed doors, and state law exempts political caucuses, committees and conferences from the open meetings law. Also, governors have to ability to bypass a three-day waiting period for a new bill to be voted on by the Legislature by issuing “a message of necessity”—which was the case for the same sex marriage vote. Wiggins criticized the practices, which have long been knocked by good-governments groups. But Wiggins said it was not in his purview to rule on the legality of those procedures. “Logically and clearly this cite by the governor is disingenuous,” Wiggins wrote. “The review of such concept altering legislation for three days after generations of existing definitions would not so damage same-sex couples as to necessitate an avoidance of rules meant to ensure full review and discussion prior to any vote.” Rev. Jason J. McGuire, the group’s executive director who filed the lawsuit in his home county of Livingston, praised the judge’s ruling. There was no immediate comment from state officials. “I’m grateful that Judge Wiggins carefully weighed the arguments and agreed that this case has sufficient merit to move forward,” McGuire said in a statement. The complete statement is at the source.

Federal Appeals Court To Hear Arguments In Case Of Augusta State University Graduate Counselling Student Expelled For Her Extreme Religious Objections To Gays

A grad student at Augusta State University in Georgia who sued the school over a conflict between her grad program requirements and her religious beliefs on gay people is now asking a federal appeals court to block the university from expelling her. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that in 2010, Jennifer Keeton, 24, sued after the college required her to complete a remediation program or face expulsion for her anti-gay beliefs. Her lawsuit states that her views on gays were known to faculty at the university because of her “disagreement in several class discussions and in written assignments with the gay and lesbian ‘lifestyle.’” Backed by the non-profit Christian advocacy Alliance Defense Fund, Keeton maintains in her lawsuit: “[Augusta State University] faculty have promised to expel Miss Keeton from the graduate Counsellor Education Program not because of poor academic showing or demonstrated deficiencies in clinical performance, but simply because she has communicated both inside and outside the classroom that she holds to Christian ethical convictions on matters of human sexuality and gender identity. The faculty identifies Miss Keeton’s views as indicative of her improper professional disposition to persons of such populations.” The college counters that it must hold its counselling graduate students “to the core principles of the American Counselling Association and the American School Counsellor Association, which defines the roles and responsibilities of professional counsellors in its code of ethics. The code is included in the curriculum of the counselling education program, which states that counsellors in training have the same responsibility as professional counsellors to understand and follow the ACA Code of Ethics.” Keeton has already been rebuked by the courts. Earlier this year, a U.S. district judge ruled in the university’s favour. In supporting Augusta State in its actions, the judge wrote, “The record suggests, and the testimony at the hearing bolsters, the Plan was imposed because Plaintiff exhibited an inability to counsel in a professionally ethical manner – that is, an inability to resist imposing her moral viewpoint on counselees – in violation of the ACA Code of Ethics.” A classmate testified that Keeton said she would be compelled by her beliefs to tell gay or lesbian counselling clients that their behaviours were morally wrong and must be changed.

Nigeria Senate Passes Broad Bill Criminalizing Same Sex Marriage, Gay Advocacy Groups, And Same Sex Public Displays Of Affection; Senators Laugh While Debating Draconian Legislation

Nigeria’s Senate voted Tuesday to criminalize same sex marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection, the latest legislation targeting a minority already facing discrimination in Africa’s most populous nation. The Associated Press is reporting that the bill, now much more wide-ranging than its initial draft, must be passed by Nigeria’s House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before becoming law. However, public opinion and lawmakers’ calls Tuesday for even harsher penalties show the widespread support for the measure in the deeply religious nation. “Such elements in society should be killed,” said Senator Baba-Ahmed Yusuf Datti of the opposition party Congress for Progressive Change, drawing some murmurs of support from the gallery. Gay sex has been banned in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, since colonial rule by the British. Gays and lesbians face open discrimination and abuse in a country divided by Christians and Muslims who almost uniformly oppose homosexuality. In the areas in Nigeria’s north where Islamic Shariah law has been enforced for about a decade, gays and lesbians can face death by stoning. Under the proposed law, couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars. That’s an increase over the bill’s initial penalties, which lawmakers proposed during a debate Tuesday televised live from the National Assembly in Nigeria’s capital Abuja. Other additions to the bill include making it illegal to register gay clubs or organizations, as well as criminalizing the “public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly.” Those who violate those laws would face 10 years imprisonment as well. The increased penalties immediately drew criticism from human rights observers. “The bill will expand Nigeria’s already draconian punishments for consensual same-sex conduct and set a precedent that would threaten all Nigerians’ rights to privacy, equality, free expression, association and to be free from discrimination,” said Erwin van der Borght, the director of Amnesty International’s Africa program. Yet across the African continent, many countries already have made homosexuality punishable by jail sentences. Ugandan legislators introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty for some gays and lesbians, though it has not been passed into law two years later. Even in South Africa, the one country where gays can marry, lesbians have been brutally attacked and murdered. The Nigerian proposed law has drawn the interest of European Union countries, some of which already offer Nigeria’s sexual minorities asylum based on gender identity. The British government recently threatened to cut aid to African countries that violate the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. However, British aid remains quite small in oil-rich Nigeria, one of the top crude suppliers to the U.S. A spokesman for the British High Commission in Nigeria declined to immediately comment Tuesday, saying officials wanted to study the new version of the bill first. The bill also could target human rights and HIV-prevention programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Nigeria, which has the world’s third-largest population of people living with HIV and AIDS. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman declined to immediately comment. International opinion did not appear to trouble lawmakers, who at times laughed at each other during the debate. One senator worried the bill would hinder the tradition of Nigeria’s Igbo ethnic group in the southeast to have infertile wives “marry” other women to carry their husbands’ children. Senate President David Mark at one point started laughing when a senator proposed 40 years prison sentences for gay couples who marry. “Forty years, that is just too much,” he said. “He won’t come out alive now.” Before the vote, Mark did acknowledge the nation likely would face criticism. However, the lawmaker said Nigeria would not bow to international pressure on any legislation. “Anybody can write to us, but our values are our values,” Mark said. “If there is any country that does not want to give us aid or assistance, just because we hold on very firmly to our values, that country can (keep) their assistance. No country has a right to interfere in the way we make our own laws.”

Half Of Those Diagnosed With HIV In The United Kingdom Identified Late, Champion Of Same Sex Marriage Sworn In As Vermont Supreme Court’s First Openly Gay Justice, Once An Opponent Of Same Sex Marriage New Jersey Senator Beck Now Proponent Who Intends To Co-Sponsor New Marriage Equality Bill, Adam Lambert, Patrick Schwarzenegger Bike Rider, Zac Efron

In the United Kingdom, half of people diagnosed with HIV are identified late and could have benefited from earlier treatment, according to a new report. An estimated 91,500 people in the UK were living with the disease in 2010, with a quarter of those unaware they had it, Health Protection Agency (HPA) data showed. The figure is up on the 86,500 living with the condition in 2009. Of the 6,660 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2010, half came forward for testing after a time when treatment should ideally have started, according to the UKPA. In 2010, more than 3,000 gay men were diagnosed with HIV - the highest ever annual figure. One in 20 gay men are now infected with HIV nationally, rising to one in 11 in London. But heterosexual men remain the most likely group to be diagnosed late, at 63-percent compared with 39-percent of gay men and 58-percent of heterosexual women. The data also showed that one in five people visiting a sexually-transmitted infection clinic in 2010 did not accept an HIV test. The HPA is recommending that, in areas where prevalence of HIV is high, testing should be offered in places where it is not currently the norm. Testing should be offered to all people signing up with a GP and those admitted to hospital, but only with the patient's permission. Dr Valerie Delpech, consultant epidemiologist and head of HIV surveillance at the HPA, said, "HIV is an infection which can nowadays be treated and those diagnosed promptly can expect to experience similar life expectancy as an individual without the infection. However, we are very concerned that a large number of people in the UK are unaware of their HIV status and are diagnosed late. We want to see increased access to HIV testing routinely offered in clinical settings such as new registrants at GPs and hospital general admissions, in areas of the country where rates of HIV infection are high." Sir Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said, "HIV rates in the UK remain dangerously high and to bring them down we all have to take responsibility for our sexual health. We can't just rely on partners, or chance, to keep sex safe."

A woman who pushed for Vermont’s ground-breaking civil union and gay marriage laws has been sworn in as the first openly gay member of the state Supreme Court, reports The Associated Press. Beth Robinson took the oath Monday afternoon. Governor Peter Shumlin said her story represented striking progress toward equality of gay and lesbian citizens. The 46-year-old Robinson was one of the lawyers who represented three couples in a landmark 1999 state Supreme Court decision that prompted the Legislature in 2000 to make Vermont the first state to offer marriage-like rights and benefits to same sex couples. She later led Vermont Freedom to Marry, which pushed for and won passage in 2009 of the country’s first gay-marriage law that was not directly prompted by a court decision.

Two years ago, New Jersey state Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) voted against same sex marriage. It is well-known that Beck has reversed her stance on the issue, but according to the Star-Ledger’s The Auditor, not only is she now a solid "yes" vote for same sex marriage, but that she plans to co-sponsor the bill when it is introduced. "She said she would vote to override if the governor vetoes," said state Senator Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who, with Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), is a prime sponsor of the legislation. The case for same sex marriage is currently in state Superior Court. But Lesniak would like to press ahead. If the Senate could pass the bill and override Christie’s almost inevitable veto with a two-thirds majority, same sex marriage advocates would not need to win in court. The Assembly also would have to approve the measure and be able to override a veto. Lesniak did not say when he would introduce the bill or when he hoped to see it up for a vote.

Adam Lambert talks about marriage and making music with Pharrell Williams.

Patrick Schwarzenegger and father spotted onboard bikes Sunday in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California.

Zac Efron spotted at LAX Monday, looking edible as always.

Representative Barney Frank Announces He Will Not Seek Se-Election, Once An Opponent Of Repealing United States Policy Prohibiting Openly Gay Service Personal General Amos Now Vocal Advocate Of Its Demise, Conservative Rabbis Struggle To Accurately Articulate Same Sex Marriage Vows, First Look At Archie Comics Gay Interracial Marriage, Andrew Garfield

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the longest serving openly gay member of Congress, said Monday he will not seek re-election in 2012 in a move he said was triggered by redistricting that left him with too many new constituents to serve as a “lame-duck” legislator. “There are too many constraints,” Frank said about his life as a politician and the energy it would take to meet new voters so late in his tenure. “People are sceptical about incumbents,” he added. “There was also this — I don’t like raising money.” According to The Boston Herald, he called his redrawn 4th Congressional District packed with too many new faces — 325,000 more voters, he said — more than he could serve in two years. Frank said he also has had a “busy and stressful” four years dealing with financial reform after the recession, and added the “anger” in the country and the “inside work” he did best “won’t be constructive” as he prepared to retire from office. So, he said, he’s leaving the political arena — but stressed he would not be a stranger. “I will miss this job and I will have some twinges of regret ... but one of the advantages is I don’t have to pretend to be nice to people I don’t like,” Frank said, adding he won’t be a “historian nor a lobbyist,” but will write. Frank, 71, has served in Congress since 1980. He took questions about his decision to relinquish his seat at Newton City Hall. He said he intends to remain active in public policy issues, including defending the so-called Dodd-Frank bill that he co-authored in the wake of the financial collapse of 2008. “I think I will find my motives less impugned and I will be able to talk more about the merits,” he said. Frank’s district was redrawn this fall as part of a series of redistricting changes prompted by the state’s relatively slow population growth. Frank’s 2010 campaign manager, Kevin Sowyrda, said a key factor in the congressman’s decision was that the newly drawn up congressional district strips away New Bedford from Frank. The South Coast, heavily Democratic, pro-union fishing city has long been a prime power base for Frank, but his new district now includes several more moderate suburban towns, such as Walpole, rather than New Bedford. “It’s a tougher district,” said Sowyrda, who was recently hired as a consultant by Frank to analyze the new district. “Barney was not thrilled at all with the map when he saw it. New Bedford, where his vote was huge, was sliced. His exact words to me were, ‘They didn’t do me any favours.’ ” Sowyrda also said Frank’s “brutal” 2010 battle with Republican Sean Bielat was a factor in his decision. The race marked Frank’s toughest re-election fight in years and was highlighted by scathing criticism of the congressman’s role in the nation’s housing collapse, as well as a Herald video that went viral that showed Frank’s longtime boyfriend, Jim Ready, taunting Bielat on the campaign trail. “I think the guy was struggling with the decision,” Sowyrda said. “I think he said to himself, ‘I just had this brutal fight in 2010. I don’t know if I’m up for it again.’ He’s 71. It’s time to move on and do other things.” Among the pool of potential candidates to run for the rare open congressional seat are Newton Mayor Setti Warren, who recently dropped out of the Democratic primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Scott Brown; Brookline selectwomen Jesse Mermell and Deb Goldberg; state Rep. Dan Winslow, a Norfolk Republican and former judge; and state Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton). Bielat said the changes made during the redistricting process likely made re-election more difficult for Frank. In a statement released Monday by The White House, President Barack Obama called Frank "a fierce advocate for the people of Massachusetts and Americans everywhere who needed a voice," and added, "He has worked tirelessly on behalf of families and businesses and helped make housing more affordable. He has stood up for the rights of LGBT Americans and fought to end discrimination against them."

Since the lifting two months ago of a longstanding U.S. ban on gays serving openly in the military, U.S. Marines across the globe have adapted smoothly and embraced the change, says their top officer, Gen. James F. Amos, who previously had argued against repealing the ban during wartime. "I'm very pleased with how it has gone," Amos said in an Associated Press interview during a week-long trip that included four days in Afghanistan, where he held more than a dozen town hall-style meetings with Marines of virtually every rank. He was asked about a wide range of issues, from his view of the Marine Corps' future to more mundane matters such as why he recently decided to stop allowing Marines to wear their uniform with the sleeves rolled up. Not once was he asked in Afghanistan about the repeal of the gay ban. Nor did it come up when he fielded questions from Marines on board the USS Bataan warship in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday. On his final stop, in Bahrain on Sunday, one Marine broached the topic gently. He asked Amos whether he planned to change the Marines' current policy of leaving it to the discretion of local commanders to determine how to handle complaints about derogatory "homosexual remarks or actions." Amos said no. The apparent absence of angst about gays serving openly in the Marines seemed to confirm Amos' view that the change has been taken in stride, without hurting the war effort. In the AP interview, he offered an anecdote to make his point. He said that at the annual ball in Washington earlier this month celebrating the birth of the Marine Corps, a female Marine approached Amos's wife, Bonnie, and introduced herself and her lesbian partner. "Bonnie just looked at them and said, 'Happy birthday ball. This is great. Nice to meet you,'" Amos said. "That is happening throughout the Marine Corps." Amos said he is aware of only one reported incident in Afghanistan thus far, and that turned out to be a false alarm. He said a blogger had written of a gay Marine being harassed by fellow Marines for his sexual orientation. In an ensuing investigation, the gay Marine denied he had been harassed. A Defense Department spokeswoman, Cynthia O. Smith, said implementation of the repeal of the gay ban is proceeding smoothly across the military. "We attribute this success to our comprehensive pre-repeal training program, combined with the continued close monitoring and enforcement of standards by our military leaders at all levels," Smith said. In the months leading up to Congress's repeal, which took effect in September, there were indications that the change might not be embraced so readily. During a visit to a Marine combat outpost in southern Afghanistan in June, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates was confronted by an enlisted Marine who clearly objected to the repeal. He told Gates that the Marine Corps has "a set of standards and values that is better than that of the civilian sector," and that repeal of the gay ban has "changed those values." He asked Gates whether Marines who object to serving with gays would be allowed to opt out of their enlistment. Gates said no and predicted that if pre-repeal training was done right, "nothing will change" with regard to rules of behaviour and discipline.

Having recognized gay rights with their 2006 acceptance of gay unions, Conservative rabbis are now wrestling with the issue of gay rites, The Jewish Daily Forward reporting that the recent efforts of three leading rabbis to construct a kosher wedding ceremony for same- ex couples hews closely to the traditional Jewish heterosexual ceremony, in an effort, they say, to ensure that same sex couples suffer no inequality in the sacred standards governing their vows. But these efforts, ironically, are now drawing criticism from some activists for replicating aspects of the Jewish wedding rite that they consider sexist. “In a way it’s a shame, there is an opportunity for a less problematic, more contemporary liturgy,” said Jay Michaelson, founding director of Nehirim, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jewish group. (Michaelson is also a Forward contributing editor.) What is more important than parity between same-sex and heterosexual ceremonies, critics say, is equality between partners. While traditional Jewish marital rites — or kiddushin — describe the man as the owner of his wife, some gay and lesbian Jews say they want to avoid this hierarchical language in favour of an egalitarian template. The trio of rabbis leading the effort to devise a sacred structure for same-sex wedding vows that will meet the threshold as kiddushin are Elliot Dorff, a professor of Jewish theology at American Jewish University; Daniel Nevins, Dean of the rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary; and Avram Reisner, head of the Chevrei Tzedek Congregation in Baltimore. The same three rabbis also authored an influential ruling in 2006 that welcomed gays into the Movement. At a meeting on November 16, the rabbis presented their proposal for same-sex marriage and divorce rites to the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, Conservative Judaism’s official rabbinical association. Because the document is still in draft form — it will likely be voted on in June 2012 — the rabbis declined to share it with the Forward. But the rabbis, describing the marriage template in broad terms, said that it was modeled on the traditional ceremony, taking place under a canopy, with an exchange of rings and a recitation of the traditional seven blessings, among other rites. The main discrepancy is that the gendered language has been changed. According to Reisner, the rabbis felt that if they strayed too far from traditional marriage in their proposal to the committee, they would be seen as offering gay and lesbian Jews a ceremony that was both separate and unequal. “The community would not feel warmly if they felt they were being offered some radically different thing,” he said.

Archie Comics earlier this year revealed the recently introduced the openly gay character Kevin Keller, (who is wildly popular) would not only be the series first same sex marriage, but also its first interracial union. And now, Archie Comics unveils the cover of the historic issue of Life With Archie, Bleeding Cool has the first look.

Andrew Garfield, spotted arriving at LAX, continues the charade that he and Spiderman co-star Emma Stone are not a couple.

Gay Softball League Settles Suit With Three Players And Team Disqualified For Being Straight

A gay softball organization has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to three players who were disqualified from its 2008 Gay Softball World Series because of their perceived heterosexuality. And as part of the settlement announced Monday, their team will be awarded the second-place trophy it was denied at the time, reports The Associated Press. The men — Stephen Apilado, Laron Charles and John Russ — filed the federal lawsuit against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance last year, claiming they had been discriminated against because they were bisexual, not gay. They had played for years on a San Francisco-based team called D2. Rumours had persisted that the team was stacked with straight ringers, and when they made it all the way to the finals of the 2008 tournament in the Seattle area, others filed a protest, accusing D2 of exceeding the limit of two heterosexual players per team. Tournament officials convened a protest committee and brought in five D2 members for questioning. In a conference room filled with about 25 people, many of them strangers, the players were asked questions about their sexuality and private lives. The protest committee then voted on whether the men were gay. Two were determined to be gay, but the committee found Apilado, Charles and Russ to be straight. The organization said the men were evasive or refused to answer questions about their sexuality. Minutes of the hearing say that Charles claimed to be gay but acknowledged being married to a woman, and Apilado initially said he was both gay and straight but then acknowledged being more attracted to women. The men said they weren't given the option of stating outright that they were bisexual, even though the organization considered bisexual players to be gay for roster purposes. They and their team were disqualified. One official involved in the decision commented, "This is not a bisexual world series. This is a gay world series." Last summer, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled that the organization had a constitutional right to limit the number of straight players; much the way the Boy Scouts have a right to exclude gays. But he said the case could proceed to trial because questions remained about the way the softball association applied its rule, including whether the questions asked at the hearing were unnecessarily intrusive. The trial was set for next month. Since the lawsuit was filed, NAGAAA has added language to its rules clarifying that bisexual and transgender players are fully welcomed participants in its events. As part of the settlement, the organization said disqualifying D2 was not consistent with its goal of welcoming bisexual players. "NAGAAA regrets the impacts the 2008 protest hearing had on plaintiffs and their team," the settlement reads. The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represented the men, welcomed the changes but said they should go even further. The group wants NAGAAA to delete its roster limits on straight players altogether, on the grounds that it encompasses gay players who are in the closet or who choose not to put a label on their sexuality. Charles said he's looking forward to playing more softball. "It means a lot to me that NAGAAA is going to recognize our second place finish in 2008," Charles said in a statement. "I look forward to continuing to play ball with my friends, teammates and community in NAGAAA's tournaments."

56-Year-Old Vancouver Man Found Guilty Of Sexual Assault On 15-Year-Old Teen Who Lied About Age Despite Fact Sex Was Consensual, Endemic Homophobic Crime Plagues United Kingdom Prisons, 24-Year-Old Edinburgh Gay Male Jaw Is Broken In Homophobic Attack, 26-Year-Old Sentenced To Life After Fatally Stabbing Gay Friend Then Trying To Burn Body

A 56-year-old Vancouver, British Columbia man will serve two years probation and be placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years after having sex with a 15 year-old North Vancouver boy he found through the online networking app Grindr. The North Shore News reports that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gregory Bowden handed Gordon Brent Tynan a suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault of the boy in 2010. Tynan met the teen for sex three times between August 2009 and April 2010, after the two arranged a rendezvous using the iPhone application Grindr. Users are supposed to be at least 17 to sign up for Grindr, but the teen lied about his age when he registered. However, he told Tynan his real age before their last sexual encounter. The incidents were discovered when the teen invited Tynan back to his North Vancouver home and the teen's mother walked in to find Tynan naked in a bathroom. Both Crown counsel Mike Mahoney and Tynan's defence lawyer agreed the sex was consensual, but because the boy was only 15, he could not legally consent. The government raised the age of consent to 16 from 14 in 2009. When Tynan was arrested in April 2010, police issued a warning to parents to be aware of whom their kids are talking to online.

Homophobic crime is endemic in Britain's prisons, but often ignored by the authorities, according to an investigation that has revealed allegations of verbal, physical and sexual assaults. According to The Independent,the report by the Howard League for Penal Reform shines a light on the last taboo in Britain's prison system, and the fact that homophobic incidents are not nationally monitored. The targeting of gay men for sexual favours is also widespread, according to victims who say they are too scared to report abuse in case they are mocked or ignored by staff. The Howard League found that sending prisoners to vulnerable persons' units for their "own protection", along with child abusers and informants, fuelled dangerous, false stereotypes about homosexuality. One bisexual man told the League, "I've been put in segregation and slashed down my back with a razor. They say if I go into the shower they will beat me up and some ask for sexual favours. We can't report it, as we're then labelled as a grass and that leads to abuse." The research comes as the prison service takes steps to stamp out hate crimes related to race, religion and disability to comply with equality laws that come into force next April. The Howard League found some examples of good local practice and individual prison officers who tried to ensure that all vulnerable prisoners were protected from discrimination. But inspectors this year highlighted the lack of policies and support available to protect gay and bisexual inmates at several prisons. The Warren Hill young offenders' institute in Suffolk, Wayland category C prison in Norfolk, and Askham Grange women's prison in Yorkshire are among those that must urgently improve support for gay inmates, according to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons. Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, said an unofficial "don't ask, don't tell" policy made it impossible to establish the true extent of homophobic assaults. "Anecdotally, we know there is endemic homophobia directed at gay prisoners from staff and other inmates," she said. "We have been told that the weak and vulnerable are targeted for the purchase of sexual favours or [their] exchange for canteen items, drugs or protection. The charity has been told that gay prisoners are advised by officers to 'act less gay' as a survival strategy. The prison population is 88,115 in England and Wales, with 5,000 gay and bisexual inmates, charity Stonewall estimates.

Police are treating an attack in Edinburgh which left a man with a broken jaw as a homophobic assault. STV reports that the 24-year-old victim was one of a group of friends who were confronted by three men on Waverley Bridge just after midnight on Sunday morning. The men shouted homophobic abuse at the group before punching the victim in the face, knocking him to the ground, and running off towards Princes Street. Lothian and Borders Police said the assault was "cowardly and vicious" and appealed for witnesses to come forward. A spokesperson for the force said, "Due to the comments made prior to the attack, officers are treating this as homophobic. Lothian and Borders Police will not tolerate hate crime in any form and will robustly deal with anyone found to be responsible." One of the suspects is described as black, in his early twenties, 5ft 6ins tall and of medium build. He was wearing a black hooded top, black and yellow scarf and black trousers. The other two men were both white and in their early twenties. One had dark blond hair and wore a red top, while the other was about 5ft 7ins tall, of average build and wearing a dark hooded top.

Last week, a 26-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a gay friend in Edinburgh. David Nairne, originally from Inverness, was told he must spend a minimum of 20 years in prison before being considered for parole, according to the BBC. He carried out a "vicious and sustained attack" on Alan Ross stabbing him 11 times in the face and neck in February. A jury at the High Court in Livingston unanimously found him guilty of murdering Mr Ross in his Pilton home. The fatal wound was so deep it severed the jugular veins on both sides of the victim's neck. The jury returned a majority verdict of guilty to a charge that he attempted to defeat the ends of justice by setting fire to the dead man's clothing, making a microwave "bomb" and disposing of evidence, including blood-soaked clothing and two knives. Firemen who were called to Ross's flat in Pilton Road North after neighbours smelled smoke told how they found the victim's badly charred corpse on the floor of his bedroom with the walls and bed soaked in blood. Nairne was given a concurrent six-year prison sentence for the secondary charge and both sentences were backdated to March 1 when he was first remanded in custody. During the trial several witnesses gave evidence that Ross had previously told friends that he had "slept" with Nairne. Nairne had claimed in his defence that he was heterosexual and had never had sex with a man, and said he had been "provoked" into attacking Mr Ross after he woke up to find his victim performing a sex act on him. Advocate depute Stephen O'Rourke, who during the trial described the knife attack as "frenzied", revealed Nairne had an extensive criminal record which ran to four pages of convictions, and added that the accused, who was unemployed and lived in Edinburgh at the time of the murder, had a long history of alcohol and substance problems. Defence counsel Robert Anthony QC told the court: "Clearly he is a man with alcohol problems. He never denied taking the life of Mr Ross and he offered a plea of guilty to culpable homicide in March." Temporary Judge John Beckett told Nairne, "The infliction of a large number of stabbing injuries to the head and neck of the deceased demonstrates that you carried out a vicious and sustained attack on Alan Ross, a well-liked, kind gentleman who showed only kindness to you. You were armed with a knife when you arrived at Alan Ross's flat. You killed him by stabbing him through the neck, causing an injury which almost extended out the other side of his neck."

United Airlines Investigate After Gay Couple Manager At Denver International Airport Called Them “Faggots”

United Airlines is investigating a complaint from a passenger that he and his partner were called a gay slur by an agent at Denver International Airport. "We were completely shocked. We were shaking,” Billy Canu told 7NEWS on Sunday. Canu said he and his partner were waiting for their flight home Saturday evening at DIA when they got confused about access to United’s Gold Lounge on Concourse B. Canu said the incident happened when the two men approached nearby United gate agents. Canu said the agents gave the couple “a very condescending, sort of rude answer. They were trying to figure out who was going to help us.” When Canu and his partner complained about the handling of their question, a manager approached them and escorted them away from the area. Canu claimed the manager then escalated the situation. “As we were walking away he goes ‘idiots,’” recounted Canu. “So, my partner turned around and started walking up to him and said, 'I'm sorry. What did you say?'" "He [the manager] said, ‘What faggots,’” according to Canu. Canu said the manager even threatened to kick the couple off their flight to San Diego if they continued to complain. The couple returned to their gate, where they began posting what happened on Twitter and Facebook. “I started fearing the fact that we wouldn’t be able to get home if we continued fighting him on it,” Canu said. 7NEWS contacted United about the complaint. “United does not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” said airline spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "We have received this complaint and are reviewing, and we will reach out to the customer directly." Canu and his partner said they just want an apology from the airline. “No one wants to be handled in a derogatory way," he said. "We understand things can get heated, but I think their customer service could’ve handled it much better."

Gay Seattle Hairdresser Beaten By Three Teens Dies, Fell Into Coma And Taken Off Life Support After Twelve Days; Police Not Investigating Incident As Hate Crime Citing Lack Of Evidence

Danny Vega, the Seattle, Washington salon owner who was brutally attacked by a group of teenagers almost two weeks ago, died Sunday afternoon after 12 days on life support, according to KING-5. "It's very painful for me to see him in that kind of situation," said Eli Ferrer, who knew Vega for decades. "It's really so hard to lose a friend." Ferrer was one of about 30 people who gathered to pray for Vega Sunday night at his home, which also served as his salon most his life. On November 15, Vega, a prominent figure in the city's Filipino American community, was taking an evening walk nearby in Seattle's Rainier Valley neighbourhood when three teens attacked him from behind, said police. They beat Vega unconscious and took his cell phone and keys. The attack occurred about four blocks from Vega’s home, where he also operates Danny Vega’s Hair Design, according to public records. Vega was able to walk home and call 911, according to Seattle police. He told officers he lost consciousness during the attack. He was later taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, police said. Vega was hospitalized with severe injuries to his kidneys, liver and brain. He fell into a coma and was later put on life-support. James Saarenas, who along with some international students lived in Vega's house, said they were not just praying for peace, but for justice. "The prayers and vigil will continue while those three people have not been caught,” Saarenas said. "We just want to make sure that this will not happen to anybody else." Family, friends and neighbours also held a vigil for Vega Saturday night at Othello and Martin Luther King Way in the Rainier Valley. Although police were not investigating the attack as a hate crime, his family believes Vega was targeted. He was openly gay and not afraid to show it.

Karen Golinski And Her Partner Amy Cunninghis At Centre Of Challenge To Federal Defense Of Marriage Act, Rick Welts Wants To Engender Conversation On Gays In Men’s Team Sports, T.I. Calls Uppity Gay Activists “Un-American,” Joshua Jackson Shirtless Cabo Time, Patrick Schwarzenegger

"In late August 2008, Karen Golinski and her partner of 18 years, Amy Cunninghis, gathered with family and friends in the rotunda of San Francisco's city hall and exchanged wedding vows, their young son serving as ring-bearer. But as one of the 18,000 same-sex couples who married before voters approved Proposition 8 that fall, Golinski and Cunninghis now find themselves in the midst of a legal firestorm over same-sex marriage that may be one of several to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their marriage license, it turns out, was just the beginning of the fight, not the end. The San Jose Mercury News reports that with a simple bid to add Cunninghis to her health insurance plan, Golinski has triggered one of six constitutional challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a 15-year-old law that restricts the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman and therefore forbids federal government recognition of same-sex marriages. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is set to hear Golinski's case in mid-December, pushing it near the front of the line in lawsuits around the country challenging DOMA. And, significantly, the Obama administration, which has abandoned defense of the law, will appear in court to side with Golinski. The legal challenges to DOMA, a federal law, pose different issues than the ongoing conflict over California's Proposition 8, which tests the broader question of whether states can outlaw same-sex marriage altogether. But with both cases barrelling toward the Supreme Court, legal experts say they are likely to shape the law around gay marriage within the next few years. Golinski and Cunninghis rushed to the altar to beat Proposition 8 to the punch, gaining their marriage rights just before voters restored California's ban on gay nuptials. Those marriages remain legal across the state. But during a recent interview in their San Francisco home, the couple appears almost astounded their marriage rights have spawned such a high stakes legal battle. "Our joke has always been that we didn't want to make a federal case out of it," Golinski said. "I don't think either one of us anticipated what this has developed into." Golinski spurred the case by seeking to add her spouse to her health plan as a longtime staff attorney for the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is likely to be asked to rule on her lawsuit. But as a federal government employee, her request was rejected by federal agencies, which cited DOMA -- even though her boss, 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, concluded she was entitled to the benefits. Backed by gay rights groups, Golinski sued the government, arguing that DOMA discriminates against legally married same-sex couples by depriving them of the same rights, from health benefits to tax status, as heterosexual couples. Her lawsuit notes that fellow 9th Circuit married heterosexual employees can add their spouses to health plans, but she cannot, despite California's recognition of her marriage. House Republicans have jumped into the fray, defending DOMA as constitutional in the Golinski case and others around the country, including one out of Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same sex marriage, that has reached a federal appeals court. Paul Clement, a former U.S. Solicitor General during the Bush administration and lead lawyer for the Republicans, did not return a message seeking comment. But same sex marriage foes argue Congress has a right to define marriage and restrict federal benefits to same-sex couples, citing the historical underpinnings of heterosexual marriage and its purpose to procreate. "(The case) has the potential to settle this question this country wants to know: Is it constitutional for Congress to define marriage as between a man and a woman?" said Dale Schowengerdt, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, another group defending DOMA. "It's a race to the Supreme Court." Legal experts say challenges to the federal law could in fact reach the Supreme Court before the legal battle over Proposition 8 is resolved. Steve Sanders, a University of Michigan law professor, said DOMA appears more vulnerable, while the Proposition 8 showdown is a tougher road for gay rights advocates. "Requiring all states to license same-sex marriages, which is the goal of (the Proposition 8) plaintiffs, is more ambitious and far-reaching," he said. "For supporters of equal marriage, the wisest strategy would be to get a DOMA case up to the Supreme Court first." Experts say the Golinski case could be the test, and all sides are preparing for that possibility. That includes Golinski and Cunninghis, who've had to explain all the excitement surrounding their cause to their now 8-year-old son. "It's challenging to do this in the public eye," Cunninghis said, tearing up as she looks across the kitchen table to Golinski. "We have a kid. And kids are all about what's fair. And he thinks this is really unfair."

The new Golden Gate Warriors’ president, Rick Welts, is profiled by The San Francisco Chronicle. Welt, formerly with the Phoenix Suns, came out in May, the first executive in American professional sports to do so, says he wants to champion a conversation about homosexuality in men’s team athletics. "There was a great unknown about how my announcement would be received and how it would affect my professional life, but I wanted to help others in the future," Welts said. "I hoped it would resonate with young people who might be wondering if they could succeed professionally in any field because of who they are. The response has been overwhelmingly humbling in every possible way."

Speaking to Vibe Magazine in a December-issue cover story titled "T.I. Wants You Back," recently paroled rapper and MTV reality star Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (aka T.I.) proved once again he has a strange way of launching a charm offensive. The Wrap reports that T.I. told Vibe that gay activists were overly sensitive when they censored a June performance by Tracy Morgan, during which the comedian -- among other controversial comments -- said he’d kill his son if he found out he were gay. “Man, I will say this, the funniest joke I ever heard Tracy say during a stand-up was, ‘C’mon man, I think gay people are too sensitive,’” T.I. told the magazine. “'If you can take a dick, you can take a joke’ That shit was funny to me. And it’s kind of true.” The rapper -- who was released from a prison stay related to gun charges in September, and subject of rumours that he is, in fact, gay -- then ratcheted up his argument to include the First Amendment. “They’re like, ‘If you have an opinion against us, we’re gonna shut you down,” he said, referring to groups like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which led June’s public outcry against Morgan. “That’s not American,” T.I. added. “If you’re gay you should have the right to be gay in peace, and if you’re against it you should have the right to be against it in peace.”

A shirtless Joshua Jackson spotted in Cabo, Mexico Saturday.

Patrick Schwarzenegger joins his father Arnold and younger brother Christopher Saturday for a family outing to a salon.