Jersey to lower gay age of consent
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


Jersey is set to lower its age of consent which, despite the changes across the UK, still stands at 18.

Legislation is currently being drawn up that will see the age of consent for gay sex lowered to 16, a move that was made in the UK in 2000.

According to the Jersey Evening Post, the draft law will be sent to the island's Legislation Committee and could enter its parliament, the State's of Jersey, this autumn.

But the right wing issues heard in Westminster during the UK's debate could also be heard in the States.


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Group offers gay youths chance to find acceptance
Virginia de Leon
Staff writer


The phone rang in the middle of the night, and the voice on the line shook with desperation.

Ryan Oelrich – who recently started a support group for gay and bisexual male youths – didn't know the caller, but he was familiar with his story.

The caller's parents had found out he was gay and had thrown him out of the house, he told Oelrich. His church pastor had told him he was possessed by a demon. His friends didn't want to have anything to do with him.

"Give me one reason to live," the caller said after threatening to kill himself.


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Gay Protesters Angry over 'Insulting' Muslim Cleric
By Helen William, PA News


Controversial Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was set to walk into a storm of protest today at his latest public appearance.

Gay rights campaigners branded his appearance, alongside London mayor Ken Livingstone, at a conference on an Islamic woman’s right to wear the hijab head-dress as an “insult to all men and women”.

Watched by police, they were waiting outside London’s City Hall, holding banners claiming “Qaradawi Endorses Stoning of Gays” and “Defend Muslims, Fight Muslim Homophobia”.

Dr al-Qaradawi, who has been heavily criticised after describing suicide bombers as “martyrs”, is now set to face flak from gay rights groups and divert attention away from the controversial hijab ban in France


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The Battle Over Same-Sex Marriage
'Wedge issue' isn't grabbing conservatives
Senate vote on constitutional amendment set for Wednesday; ban appears doomed
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau


Washington -- Despite a ferocious campaign by gay activists and religious conservatives alike -- from Midwestern ad blitzes accusing Republican senators of being anti-family to "outings" of allegedly lesbian and gay members of Congress and their staffs -- the same-sex marriage debate is hardly proving the election-year culture war widely forecast just a few months ago.

As the Senate moves toward a Wednesday procedural vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, even its sponsor, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., conceded he would at best eke out a bare majority, far short of the 67 votes needed to get the proposed amendment out of the Senate and short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

"I think the relentless flow of homosexual propaganda in television and movies has taken a toll, so that people feel even defending marriage is an act of intolerance," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, in explaining the lack of enthusiasm for the amendment the group supports.

"It's dead as a doornail," declared Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "The Federal Marriage Amendment has just not caught fire with the right. There's no other way to explain it."




Same-Sex Amendment Vote Near
WASHINGTON
Same Sex Marriage Ban

(CBS/AP) The Senate on Monday resumes debate on a proposed constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage.

The measure defines marriage as a union of a man and woman.

Supporters acknowledge the proposal has the backing of only about half the Senate. That would be far short of the two-thirds needed to approve a change.

But the vote, likely to be held Wednesday, would put lawmakers on the spot in an election year as they seek to balance backing traditional marriage and same-sex rights.