Debate On Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill Delayed In Committee, Coalition Of Opponents To Proposed Constitutional Amendment Banning Same Sex Marriage In North Carolina Announce Strategy, Gay Marriage Proponents In Iowa Intend To Garner Public Support, Report Details Prevalence Of Anti-Gay Name-Calling In Elementary Schools, Nick Jonas, Matt Bomer, Glee Announces Rachel’s Gay Fathers Have Been Casted

The sponsor of a measure that seeks to ban Tennessee public schools from teaching about gay issues says he plans to delay a vote on the proposal. The legislation, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, is sponsored by Republican Representative Joey Hensley of Hohenwald and was scheduled to be heard Wednesday in the House Education Subcommittee. But Hensley said two Republicans on the panel "weren't very familiar with it" and wanted more time to review the proposal. The companion bill passed the Senate last year. It limits all sexually related instruction to "natural human reproduction science" in kindergarten through eighth grade. Hensley said he plans to amend the House version to say the same, and believes it will pass. Opponents of the legislation fear it would prevent teachers and others from speaking out against the bullying of gay teens.

Opponents of a proposed North Carolina constitutional amendment on same sex marriage are joining forces, and want to have 1 million conversations with people before the May primary. The Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families met at 11:00 am on Jones St. in downtown Raleigh to hold a news conference on the proposed Amendment One that will be on the ballot May 8, the date of the North Carolina primary. The coalition is made up of state and national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and human rights groups, faith organizations, communities of color, nonpartisan organizations, and business and community leaders. These opponents say the change could have dangerous implications on domestic violence laws, threats to domestic partner benefits for public employees, harm to the state's most vulnerable populations, including the working class, disabled, elderly and children. North Carolina's state law currently defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, but supporters of a constitutional amendment say it doesn't go far enough. "What the amendment does is lets the citizens of North Carolina to determine what constitutes a marriage," said Representative Nelson Dollar, co-sponsor of the amendment. Dollar said it will have no effect on private companies that pay for partner benefits. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that doesn't have an amendment banning gay marriage in its constitution. The North Carolina Senate voted 30-16 and the House 75-42 in September to take the issue to voters. According to an Elon University poll done in September, 56-percent of North Carolinians oppose a ban on gay marriage. Elon surveyed 594 North Carolina residents, including both landlines and cellular phones. South Carolina voters approved an amendment to the state constitution in November 2006 that defined marriage as "between one man and one woman." The measure was approved by 78-percent of South Carolina voters. That was later ratified by the legislature. However, the issue continues to be in the news in the Palmetto State. On Tuesday, for example, several gay couples in Greenville, South Carolina, applied for a marriage license, and were rejected, according to the Greenville News. Gay marriage is currently sanctioned in seven states (none in the South) and the District of Columbia.

In Iowa, gay marriage proponents don't use that term. They just call it marriage. And they want most Iowans to think of it the same way. With an anti-gay-marriage amendment seemingly a dead issue at the state Legislature this year, same-sex marriage supporters are shifting gears from winning over politicians to winning the hearts and minds of Iowa's general public. Last year the Iowa House passed an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. The amendment was blocked by Senator Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs), who has vowed not to allow the issue to go up for a vote. As the 2012 session has begun, House Speaker Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha), said he has no plans to revisit the issue. That means any constitutional amendment would be at least three years out, giving same sex marriage supporters a chance to capitalize on polling numbers that show Iowa and the nation becoming more accepting of the issue. "We want to put the issue to bed," said One Iowa Executive Director Troy Price. " We want to make sure Iowans support marriage. Over the next two years our goal is to get majority support of marriage." Last summer Public Policy Polling in August released a poll that showed 46-percent of Iowans believe same sex marriage should be legal, with 45-percent opposed to it. The numbers had been moving in favour of same sex marriage over the past several years. One Iowa is teaming with Freedom To Marry, a national campaign supporting same sex marriage. Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry, said honest conversation about marriage brings people around to support it. He thinks people need to know that gay people marry for the same reasons as straight people --- out of love and commitment. "What moves those people is to connect to why gay people want the freedom to marry. Why does marriage matter? When you ask them why they get married the answer is simple, 'I love my husband' or 'I love my wife,'" Wolfson said. "Then we ask them why gay people get married and they literally will say, 'I don't know.' When pressed for an answer they will say health coverage, because that's what they've heard about." Brenda Fite of Cedar Falls knows a little about opening hearts and minds to gay marriage. She painfully recalls a time years ago when her mother told Jennifer Waldron, now Fite's spouse, how she wished their relationship didn't exist. Years later, Fite's mother was the first person to call when the Iowa Supreme Court made gay marriage legal in Iowa in Varnum v. Brien. She simply asked when they were getting married; She now gives the couple full support, and is a proud grandmother to their 1-year-old son.

Elementary school students regularly hear and use negative comments such as “retard” or “you’re so gay” in their schools, posing additional challenges to administrators who are increasingly trying to combat name-calling and bullying, even in the youngest grades. "Elementary principals are painfully aware of the impact that name-calling, bullying and bias have not only on an individual student's development, but also in disrupting a positive school culture that nurtures the whole child," said Gail Connelly, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. A report, “Playground and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States,” released Wednesday, detailed the prevalence of biased remarks and name-calling in elementary schools, based on a national sample of 1,065 students in third to sixth grade and an online survey of 1,099 teachers of kindergarten to sixth grade. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, comes as school districts across the country grapple with how to deal with anti-gay bullying and harassment. The issue has gotten the most attention among the middle- and high-school grades, in part because of a spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay harassment. In October 2010, the suicide death of two teen boys prompted U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to issue a call for action. Their deaths followed at least three other suicides that year linked to “the trauma of being bullied and harassed for their actual or perceived sexual orientation was too much to bear,” Duncan said at the time. “This is a moment where every one of us -- parents, teachers, students, elected officials, and all people of conscience -- needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms,” he said. But the study released Wednesday appears to show that the problems of bullying start early, with three out of four elementary students reporting name-calling and bullying with at least some regularity. At the same time, nearly half of the elementary school teachers said they believed that bullying, name-calling or harassment is a “very serious or somewhat serious problem at their school.” Among those surveyed, two-thirds of the students (67-percent) attributed the bullying and name-calling that they witness at school to students’ appearance or body size. Students are next most likely to attribute the bullying and name-calling to not being good at sports (37-percent), how well they do at schoolwork (26-percent) and being a boy who acts or looks “too much like a girl” or a girl who acts or looks “too much like a boy” (23-percent). "Our latest research on bias-based remarks and bullying in America’s elementary schools provides new understanding of the experiences facing our youngest students," said Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. To help counter negative language and behaviours, Byard’s organization has partnered with the National Association of Elementary School Principals to develop new lesson plans to increase awareness of bias, family diversity and gender roles. The goal is to give teachers the tools to deal with those issues in the classroom, said Andy Marra, a spokeswoman for the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. “It’s about building understanding,” she said.

In an interview with The Advocate, Nick Jonas, who is returning to Broadway appearing in a revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and to television with a guest appearance on NBC’s Smash, talks about gays – a lot.

Matt Bomer profiled in Paper magazine talks about the upcoming season of White Collar, preparing for his role in Magic Mike, and co-star’s Channing Tatum’s dancing moves, which Bomer says “defies the laws of physics.”

Glee has finally cast Rachel’s gay fathers, TVLine revealing which musically-inclined actors landed the plum parts. A show insider confirms to TVLine exclusively that onetime Law & Order: Criminal Intent detective Jeff Goldblum and Broadway veteran Brian Stokes Mitchell have been tapped to play Hiram and LeRoy Berry, the adoptive parents of Lea Michele’s character. The two will first appear in the show’s Valentine’s Day episode — which as luck would have it will actually air on February 14, and is titled Heart. And yes, they will sing. Although Goldblum is best known for his movie and TV work, he’s also an accomplished jazz pianist who made his Broadway debut back in 1971 in the Tony-winning musical Two Gentleman in Verona. Mitchell, meanwhile, is something of a Broadway legend, having appeared in dozens of high-profile productions including Jelly’s Last Jam, Ragtime, Man of La Macha and Kiss Me Kate (for which he won a 2000 Tony Award for Best Actor.) His TV credits include playing Kelsey Grammer’s onscreen nemesis on Frasier and a love interest for Vanessa Williams’ Wilhelmina on Ugly Betty.