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As gay couples race to the altar in California this week, scientists may have found an answer to the so-called gay paradox. Studies suggest that homosexuality is at least partly genetic. And although homosexuals have far fewer children than heterosexuals, so-called gay genes apparently survive in the population. A new study bolsters support for an intriguing idea: These same genes may increase fertility in women. Despite some tantalizing leads over the past 2 decades, researchers have yet to isolate any genes directly linked to homosexuality. Nevertheless, a number of studies have shown that male homosexuals have more gay male relatives...

An appeals court has ruled that a gay couple's marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York. The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Friday reversed a judge's ruling in 2006 that Monroe Community College did not have to extend health benefits to an employee's lesbian partner. Patricia Martinez, a word processing supervisor, sued the school in 2005, arguing that it granted benefits to heterosexual married couples but denied them to Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden. The couple formalized their relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001 and were married in Canada in...

Gay rights advocates expect Congress will soon move closer to approving a federal ban on job discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender workers. Rep. Barney Frank, a leading proponent, predicts the ban will win House approval in coming weeks. But he and other gay rights supporters are less optimistic about the fight ahead in the narrowly divided Senate, where they would need 60 votes — rather than a simple majority — to overcome anticipated GOP stall tactics, such as a filibuster. "You don't know if anything can pass the Senate," said Frank, D-Mass., one of two openly gay members of...

A gay-rights group is demanding an apology from Newark School Superintendent Marion Bolden for ordering her staff to black out a picture of a gay couple kissing be fore distributing copies of the yearbook to students at East Side High School. Calling the directive homophobic and unlawful, Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, said yesterday the school also should redistribute a new batch of uncensored yearbooks at the district's expense. "This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out," Goldstein said. "Her (Bolden) trying to erase a...

MASS. | Repeal of 1913 law would let out-of-state couples wed, too BOSTON -- Fresh off the success of defending gay marriage from its latest attack, advocates say they have one more fight in Massachusetts: repealing a 1913 law that bars same-sex couples in most other states from coming here to get married. Some say the law -- which says couples cannot be married here unless their unions would be legal in their home states -- has its roots in the effort to block interracial marriage, and plan to try to get it repealed. » Click to enlarge image Supporters...

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Philadelphia City Council voted yesterday to end a nearly 80-year-old lease held by the Boy Scouts local branch over the group's adherence to a national policy banning actively homosexual leaders. The ongoing dispute pitted the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council against homosexual activists over the organization's refusal to adopt an official policy welcoming homosexuals into leadership. The City, under pressure by activist groups, wants the Scouts to either alter the organization's policy or start paying market rent for the use of the historical Beaux Arts building, where the Scout headquarters has been...

A German brother and sister who live as a couple and have four children are going to Germany's highest court to try to legalise their relationship. The pair are currently drawing up an appeal to take before Germany's constitutional court. They argue they are being denied the right to sexual freedom.

Will Poland face its homophobic demons? Stewart Who?, GAY.COM Wednesday 17 January, 2007 13:39 | More from this date | There are hopes for a monument in the centre of Poland’s capital city to commemorate the ‘Pink Triangle’ gays who were slaughtered in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. More gays were excecuted in Nazi concentration camps in Poland than in any other country invaded by Hitler during the Second World War. Between 20,000 and 40,000 died in the horrific Auschwitz camp in south west Poland. “We have to build this monument so that the people will not...

In a major new development confirming our theory that radical gay activists were behind the Mark Foley scandal, the mysterious source responsible for exposing Foley's behavior has been identified as an employee of the Human Rights Campaign. This is the radical homosexual organization that functions as an adjunct of the national Democratic Party...

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery. Under the rule being considered by the city’s Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and...

WASHINGTON — Gerry Studds, the nation's first openly gay congressman, pushed the country to another landmark development when he died Saturday — the federal government, for perhaps the first time, will deny death benefits to a congressman's gay spouse. The federal government does not recognize the 2004 marriage between Studds and Dean Hara, providing a high-profile demonstration of the limitations of Massachusetts' gay marriage law — while highlighting maneuvering in Washington that has neutralized it and similar state laws. "A gay spouse will not receive any sort of pension or annuity or anything like that," said Chad Cowan, a spokesman...

Attleboro, Mass -- A lesbian couple from Rhode Island who won the right to marry in Massachusetts held their ceremony Sunday. After being denied a marriage license in Massachusetts, Wendy Becker and Mary Norton challenged a 1913 state law that prohibits out-of-state residents from marrying if the union would not be permitted in their home state. They argued that same-sex marriage was not specifically banned in Rhode Island. Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly agreed last month, saying he saw no evidence of a "constitutional amendment, statute, or controlling appellate decision" making same-sex marriage illegal in Rhode Island. Rhode Island Gov....

In London, sex scandals come along every other week. You name it, British parliamentarians do it: three-in-a-bed, auto-erotic asphyxiation, gay teen flagellation, getting your toes sucked while wearing the soccer kit of Chelsea Football Club. But at least at Westminster, sex scandals require actual sex. That the governing party of the world's only superpower could be felled by one creepy pervert's masturbatory e-mails and IMs is an event historians will marvel at. Granted that the Roman Empire in its death throes got hung up on gay sex, the American hyperpower seems set to be the first to collapse over gay...

Gay community analyzes Foley resignation Originally posted on October 01, 2006 MIAMI — "He was a homophobe who needed to be exposed," said journalist Michael Rogers, whose Web site, www.blogactive.com/, reported on Florida Rep. Mark Foley for three years. "I first started to report on Foley in March 2003," said Rogers, who is gay. "The reason why — he's anti-gay. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and has not renounced that vote. He refused to acknowledge that he supported the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell.' He would not sign on as a co-sponsor. He should be held...

In Swaziland they are called "lishendes" -- multiple concurrent sexual partners -- and they are the driving factor behind the HIV epidemic in southern Africa, said researchers on Monday at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Instead of casual sexual encounters with multiple partners, established partnerships outside of marriage are fueling a generalized epidemic in southern African countries. These partnerships often involve inconsistent condom use and occur in the context of low rates of male circumcision. At the conference in a presentation titled "Prevention Works: What's The Evidence," researchers put forward evidence for various HIV prevention programs aimed at...

Street's Ousting Of The Boy Scouts An Act Of Political Cowardicehttp://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16997240 http://tinyurl.com/qhhrm 08/02/2006 By: GREGORY J. SULLIVAN, Special To The Evening Bulletin The decision by Mayor John Street and supported by the Fairmount Park Commission to punish the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America for its adherence to the organization's long-standing prohibition on openly homosexual members and leaders is the triumph of political correctness over sound policy. What is more, it is a betrayal of an organization and, most especially, the young boys who desperately need the moral instruction of the Scouts more than ever. Since...

Athletically speaking, Gay Games VII was a joke. Everybody knows true competition shouldn't include hefty figure skaters, any kind of line dancing or games best played with a beer in your hand. More than winning medals and breaking records, Gay Games participants talked of the importance of participating, having fun, being "out and proud," making strides toward a more accepting America and all that jazz. All around Chicagoland, guys kissed guys in the on-deck circle. Girls kissed girls between billiard matches. They didn't feel afraid or scared or judged. And in those eight days of reprieve -- something special happened...

India Government AIDS Body Urges Legalization of Sodomy NEW DELHI, India, July 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) has joined the efforts of activist organizations to decriminalize homosexual behaviour, saying the ban on homosexual activity is driving HIV/AIDS infections underground. NACO, the regulatory government body responsible for efforts to control the spread of the infection, filed a statement in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday in support of a petition put forth by a local AIDS group that asks that the law against homosexual activity be lifted. UNAID and other non-governmental organizations are also backing the...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=396762&in_page_id=1773 War of the Worlds star Dakota, 12, has signed up to appear in Hounddog. The screenplay calls for Fanning's character to be raped in one explicit scene and to appear naked or clad only in "underpants" in several other horrifying moments. A source close to the film said: "The two taboos in Hollywood are child abuse and the killing of animals. "In this movie, both things happen." Fanning's mother, Joy, and her Hollywood agent, Cindy Osbrink, see the movie, written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier, as a possible Oscar vehicle for the pint-size star.

Public display of affection was inappropriate Thursday, July 13, 2006 My family enjoyed our first visit to your clean and beautiful city on June 24 and 25, as we arrived to deliver our daughter to a summer camp. After a much longer than anticipated drive, we arrived at our destination at 10:30 p.m., unloading our bags at the only possible spot at the hotel: curbside at the Courtyard Marriott on Spring Street. My three children were treated to an eyeful of amorous behavior by the lesbians seated on a public bench, not 10 feet away from us and directly in...