S.C. School Board Bans Gay Clubs


(Salisbury, North Carolina) Without discussion the Rowan-Salisbury School System has banned the formation of a Gay Straight Alliance at South Rowan High School.

The Board of Education voted unanimously to bar what it called sex-based clubs at the school and to declare the Alliance fit that criterion.

The move followed a April decision by the board to block the club pending an examination of the issue by the board's attorney.  The recommendation to amend the policy and define the GSA as a sex club was based on the school district's existing mandate for abstinence-only sex education.

This week the board members voted to forgo the usual two readings of a policy change before taking a final vote to have the new policy in place for the fall term.


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Uganda: Gay Rights Commission Condemns Uganda's Gay Policy


THE International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have condemned the decision by President Yoweri Museveni to ban same-sex marriage.

According to the commission, the new law is the most recent in a series of attacks designed to silence Uganda's increasingly vocal lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and sanction anti-gay violence.

The Minister of ethics and integrity, Dr Nsaba Butuuro, said the law does not allow same-sex marriages. He said this cannot be legalised because it is sexually abnormal and unacceptable. He said it is stipulated in the Penal Code and the Constitution that the only marriage recognised is between woman and man.

Butuuro said the Ugandan law does not discriminate against gay people but at the same time does not encourage. IGLHRC's Senior Specialist Mr Cary Alan Johnson, said, "Uganda is engaged in an active campaign of legislative overkill and coercion to silence an emerging community for Africa."