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."

Brutal Gay Bashing Sparked By Suspected Butt Touch Documents Show 


(Santa Fe, New Mexico) The kidnapping and repeated beating of a gay Santa Fe man to "scare him straight" was sparked by the belief he had touched the behind of one of the accused assailants court documents show.

William York, 21, Leroy Segura, 19, and two minors - a boy and a girl - are charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery causing great bodily injury, false imprisonment and conspiracy.

The 18-year old victim and a female friend - their names have not been released for their own security - had gone to a party at a local home but when they tried to leave the four became verbally abusive.  When they managed to get outside the group jumped them.


They were held and the gay man was beaten by the suspects who said that they were going to beat him straight. The beatings continued throughout the night and into the next morning.

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Calif. GOP lawmakers snub gay honorees


Several California GOP lawmakers stormed off the Assembly floor in the state Capitol Monday during a ceremony to honor the achievements of six high-profile gay Californians, Sacramento television station KXTV reported.

The Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus sponsored the first Pride Recognition Awards, a program members say is designed to recognize the accomplishments of people in various fields who happen to be gay. But approximately 10 Republicans either walked out or boycotted the event altogether.

Police, marchers 'surprised' by violence at Estonian gay parade


Tallinn - A violent attack on a gay-pride parade in the Estonian capital Tallinn took police and organizers by surprise, parade organizers said on Monday.

'The police acted appropriately, but you can't do much with two police against thirty attackers. We're surprised and ashamed how violent the attack was,' parade spokeswoman Maali Kabin told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Saturday's attack by around two dozen Estonian skinheads wielding stones and sticks left several marchers injured, including one Spanish man with head wounds. It is the first time in Tallinn Pride's three-year history that protests have turned violent.
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Gov't-backed gay forum makes cautious debut
(China Daily)

Beijing's first government-backed Internet forum for homosexuals has slowly begun to take off, despite initial reluctance by authorities to give it too much publicity.

Fu Qingyuan, an official with the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of Chaoyang District, said the centre created the forum two months ago but did not publicize it until Sunday because they did not want to cause unnecessary public debate.


The forum was created to promote HIV/AIDS prevention awareness among China's homosexuals and offer professional assistance to the group, Fu said.

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Mo. Army Base Leader in Gays Discharged


WASHINGTON -- An Army base in Missouri used the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to kick out more soldiers than any other military installation last year, followed by an Army base on the Kentucky-Tennessee border and a naval base in Virginia.

Sixty people were dismissed last year from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., according to Defense Department documents shared with The Associated Press by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. That was up from 40 discharges under the policy from the training facility in 2004.