ACLU Sues School For Anti-Gay Harassment


LOS ANGELES, CA—According to a lawsuit filed Thursday by a prominent civil-liberties group, teachers and staff at a California high school not only tolerated, but perpetrated harassment against gay and lesbian students, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union alleged employees of Los Angeles’ Washington Preparatory High School referred to LGTB students in pejorative terms and derided homosexuality as “wrong” and “unholy.” Two 17-year-old plaintiffs in the case, who were not named, reported being openly mocked by school deans and suspended for kissing on another on campus.


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Activists to march for gay equality


Reaction to recently passed same-sex marriage bans in 11 states has spurred local gay-rights groups to start what they call their own "civil rights movement."

Activists for Gay Equality (AGE), a newly formed group on Florida State University's campus, has organized a march on the Capitol to petition officials to repeal a state law that bans gay marriages in Florida.

About 100 supporters are expected to march tomorrow from FSU's campus to the Capitol and then pair up and perform a mass same-sex marriage ceremony.

Local leaders of the movement argue that preventing couples from creating a legally binding bond infringes on the rights of homosexuals and heterosexuals alike.


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GOP Moderates Frozen Out
by Marc Humbert, Associated Press


(Albany, New York) A normally media-shy veteran Republican consultant has told an Israeli newspaper that President Bush's re-election victory demonstrates the power of evangelical Christians and spells trouble for GOP moderates.

"The political center has disappeared, and the Republican Party has become the party of the Christian right more so than in any other period in modern history," Arthur Finkelstein told the Hebrew-language Maariv, according to a report in Thursday editions of The New York Times.



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Activists consider whether to challenge N.D. marriage ban


A group of advocates for gay and lesbian rights says it is still weighing how to respond to a new North Dakota constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Supporters of the ban say they expect it to withstand any challenge.

Larry Peterson, a spokesman for Equality North Dakota, which opposed the measure approved by 73% of voters in this month's election, said a court challenge is an option but that the group has no immediate plans for a lawsuit. "There's been a lot of e-mail discussions about where we might go from here," he said. "At the moment there has not been any decision. It's definitely a long-term project."


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Peru gives green light for gays in military to have sex


LIMA (AFP)- Peru's constitutional court has granted gays in the military the freedom to have sex, declaring that a rule which had deemed such relations illegal was unconstitutional.

The army's rule had stipulated that military personnel could not engage in sexual relations with persons of the same sex either within or outside their barracks.