Harry Popper Condom

Studio stands up against Swiss manufacturer of ‘Harry Popper’ condoms for copyright infringement.
It’s the boy wizard as you’ve never seen him before. He has the trademark round spectacles and the regulation magic wand. But his tongue is extended in a lascivious manner and his thoughts are purely carnal. For good measure, he is in the guise of a pink, pimpled prophylactic.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone is amused. Warner Bros this week sued the Swiss manufacturer of the “Harry Popper” condoms for copyright infringement. “The image of my client is in danger,” a studio lawyer complained to the Swiss newspaper Bote. “This is clearly a reference to the film and fictional character of Harry Potter. Everyone who sees the condoms automatically thinks of Harry Potter.” The Harry Popper condoms have reportedly been on sale since 2006.
The Harry Potter brand is worth an estimated £15bn and lawyers for both Warner Bros and author JK Rowling have earned a reputation for protecting their product. In 2008, the studio launched a similar lawsuit against a Hindi-language Bollywood production, Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors. The suit was eventually thrown out by an Indian court.
For the time being, condom manufacturers Magic X are standing firm. “Our product has nothing to do with Harry Potter,” claimed a spokesperson for the company.
from The Guardian
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Right now in America there are over 2 million couples secretly struggling with homosexuality in their marriages.  Are you one of them? Are you having intimacy issues? Are you suspicious about your husband’s late night activities? Or are you oblivious to a problem that could be putting your health and the livelihood of your family at risk? Don’t tell yourself that you’re simply being paranoid without taking a closer look!
Homosexuality can pop up at any time during a long-term relationship. Your spouse may have been experimenting with the “gay” lifestyle even before you met. Maybe he’s just using you as unwitting cover as he seeks playmates in the heterosexual world. For these types, the shame of being “outed” is so great that they will go to extremes to hide their lustful activities, even tricking a woman to marry them to appear normal in society. Sometimes it’s the nervous family who has rushed a young man into marriage out of a fear that his secret will be exposed. For others, homosexuality can appear later in life when men crave some escape from the monotony of careers and home life. Same-sex experimentation is also connected to drug or alcohol abuse. Crystal meth and other narcotics are proven to lower inhibitions and to drive people to take incredible risks to feed their habits.
For the wife unsure about her husband’s proclivities, the most important thing is to first confirm your suspicions. Drawing on the expertise of spiritual and medical professionals, Christwire has put together a list of 15 commonly-accepted characteristics of men struggling with homosexuality within a marriage:
1) Secretive late night use of cellphones and computers
Porn addiction is closely associated with homosexuality and a secretive nature implies he’s trying to hide something from you. Be on the lookout for a man who doesn’t want to web surf or answer phone calls in your presence. Texting is another favorite trick used by adulterers. For the sake of trust, a married couple should share everything, including phone logs, email accounts, chat friends and website histories.
2) Looks at other men in a flirtatious way
When you’re out in public, does he spend too much time looking at other men? Is he fond of winking at people? Does he get visibly upset when someone does not return a compliment about his physical appearance?
3) Feigning attention in church and prayer groups
Have you noticed a lack of interest in spiritual issues? Does it ever seem as if he’s just using church as an excuse to spend time around young men? Does he volunteer to mentor in all-male groups?
4) Overly fastidious about his appearance and the home
Natural men have a certain amount of grit about them. They sweat and they smell. Homosexuals often abhor this sort of thing and will also be incredibly particular about the cleanliness of the home. Does your man tweeze his eyebrows, trim his pubic hairs or use face moisturizers? Is he picky about brand name shampoos? Does he spend more time getting ready for a night out than you do?
5) Gym membership but no interest in sports
Gay men use the gym as a place to socialize and to have secret liaisons in the bathrooms. They like to work out their bodies without the competition of sports play. Afterward, they use the showers and steam rooms to engage in sexual activity beyond the prying eyes of women. If your man returns from the gym too exhausted to talk or have sex, that is a worrisome sign.
6) Clothes that are too tight and too “trendy”
Gay men don’t need words to communicate their availability for sex “hook ups.” They silently broadcast the news by showing off their lean, hard bodies in designer clothing labels. If your husband owns skinny jeans and looks at his buttocks in the mirror or if he wears an inordinate number of small-sized t-shirts, it is probably worthwhile to pay more attention to his private activities.
7) Strange sexual demands
Fetishism is a sign that a man is seeking a harder thrill beyond the normal intimacy of heterosexual relations. The woman may not appeal to the deep desires that are coming to the surface as the marriage drags on. If there is a sudden interest in sodomy, sadomasochism, lubricants, role-play, sex toys or other non-traditional intercourse methods, this is clearly an indication of deep emotional abnormalities.
8 More interested in the men than the women in pornographic films
Pornography is a dangerous element in any marriage but there are many Christians who feel watching it does add something to their sexual lives. If you have gone down this road and find that your man perks up at the sight of the men in these sorts of videos, you should be concerned. If he selects films because of specific male actors, this is an obvious sign that he is suffering from a crisis of ego and desire.
9) Travels frequently to big cities or Asia
Some husbands will spend a great deal of money traveling far from home to hide their deplorable same-sex actions. Big cities offer indulgence of every kind. From gay bars and clubs to prostitutes and sex bathhouses, a man seeking encounters can find them easily if he’s so inclined. Is there ever really a good excuse for a husband to visit Thailand or San Francisco without his wife?
10) Too many friendly young male friends
Someone who makes an extra effort to surround themselves with younger men should raise concerns in any community. If this is the case with your husband, ask yourself if he prefers their company to that of women. Do they touch each other or embrace in long hugs? Do they exchange expensive, personal gifts like scarves or cologne?
11) Sassy, sarcastic and ironic around his friends
A man who is secretly engaged in homosexual activity with others may exhibit feminine qualities when they get together in a group. In a sense, he has “let his hair down” and this will be seen in excessive back talk and speaking with one’s hands.
12) Love of pop culture
It’s quite common for young men to enjoy the science fiction end of popular culture, but when your husband becomes overly obsessed with romantic and feminine shows, that is cause for alarm. Gossip websites, Glee and The Golden Girls are three well-documented icons of the gay movement that genuine heterosexual men avoid.
13) Extroverted about his bare chest in public
Does he go shirtless in the back yard or at picnics when other men are around? Does he wear a speedo at the beach? Does it seem like he’s purposely standing right in the middle of a crowd to show off his chest and arm muscles, peppering people with questions about how strong he looks? He may be craving physical affirmation from other men and desperately looking for hints of shared desires in those around him.
14) Sudden heavy drinking
Sometimes people dealing with an unbearable emotional issue like homosexuality will turn to alcohol to hide their distress. Does your man disappear on drinking binges for long hours without answering his cellphone? Is there a strange odor about him when he returns, some strange mix of cigarettes and gel? Does he cry frequently?
15) Ladies, have you dated men in the past who turned out to be gay?
This is an important question to ask yourself when your marriage starts to have problems. Statistics have shown that women who have encountered gay men romantically in the past are the most likely to repeat this mistake in future relationships. If you answered yes, you should ask yourself whether you’re honestly looking for a man or just a shopping companion. Is sharing gossip more important to you than raising children? Ultimately, it’s a question of getting your priorities straight!
from Christwire

From nightclubs to publishing, the decriminalization of gay sex in India is facilitating a new, multimillion dollar niche market.
As India’s gay community emerges from the closet following a court order lifting a ban on homosexual sex last year, a small group of pioneers is staking claim to the so-called pink economy that in the United States alone is worth $640 billion a year.
There are no estimates of the size of India’s gay economy, but a lucrative market for gay-focused ventures is not far from reach, given that global tourist hotspot India has 70 million homosexuals.
In New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, trailblazing entrepreneurs are chasing the gay business.
Since July over 15 bars across New Delhi have hosted gay events, up from just one event at one bar a week two years ago.
India’s first gay-products store, Azaad Bazaar in Mumbai, has seen a year of growth, penetrating mainstream stores across the country with its merchandise.
Queer-Ink.com, India’s first gay online bookshop, is exploring publishing titles in the next 6 to 8 months.
Manish Sharma, a gay events promoter from New Delhi, hosts regular parties attended by over 200, while Sanjay Malhotra runs India’s first gays-only travel agency, IndjaPink.
“In terms of business as well as inquiries, things have really gone up since the ruling,” said Malhotra, who spent six months interviewing the hotel managers and tour guides that his company uses to ensure all his holidays are “gay-friendly.”
But for those pioneers, a largely conservative society and ingrained social stigma presents a bigger barrier than legislation to luring gay business.
“We might be legal by law, but we’re not yet legal in the mindset,” Sharma admitted.
Aditya Bondyopadhay, a gay rights activist and lawyer who was integral to the decriminalization, is realistic about the public perception of homosexuality in India.
“Police harassment, though it has gone down drastically, is still prevalent, we have instances of male rape that still go unchallenged,” he said, adding families still pressurize gays.
For Abhijit Parua, manager of Kuki, a south Delhi bar that hosts one of Sharma’s weekly ‘BoyZone’ events, this means the current target audience is too small.
“For a week the attendance was very good. Now there is lots of competition, and people are heading elsewhere,” he said.
But gay businesses in India operate not only on the strength of the local economy but also on the goodwill and solidarity of global consumption by homosexuals.
“Every traveler that goes with IndjaPink, we want them to be able to be who they are,” said Malhotra, adding acceptance was a long way off.
“It’s in its infancy.”
from Reuters
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Elton John

Elton John didn’t mince words in slamming his fellow musicians for boycotting Arizona over the controversial SB 1070 immigration law. From the stage at his sold-out Tucson Arena concert Thursday night, John savored a few choice, not-so-family-friendly words:
“We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won’t come here. They are (expletive)wits! Let’s face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what’s the (expletive) with these people?”
John has never been one to cave into political pressure from his musical colleagues. He ignored an artist boycott of Israel in June over the flotilla fiasco and played a show in Tel Aviv. He also played Rush Limbaugh’s latest wedding reception in early June, which drew the ire of gays and lesbians. Limbaugh is vehemently anti-gay marriage; John is married to his longtime partner David Furnish.
from The Arizona Daily Star

Gay and bisexual men who were victims of sexual abuse and social shaming as children are more likely to have psychosocial health problems that could put them at greater risk for HIV infection, a new study suggests.
A second study found that most older gay and bisexual men report a low use of illegal drugs.
he first study included more than 1,000 HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay and bisexual men enrolled in the U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, which began in 1983.
Almost 10 percent of the participants had been victims of childhood abuse and nearly 30 percent had been the targets of gay-related victimization between the ages of 12 and 14, including verbal insults, bullying, threats of physical violence, and actual physical assaults.
The University of Pittsburgh researchers found that men who experienced childhood sexual abuse and a sense of masculinity failure were more likely to use illegal drugs and to engage in risky sexual behaviors in adulthood, both of which heighten the risk of HIV infection.
They added that those health issues have led to a “syndemic,” or shared epidemic.
“Our study shows that the early socialization experiences of gay men can be deeply stigmatizing and increase their risks for syndemic [linked epidemic] conditions in adulthood,” study author Sin How Lim, of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, said in a university news release. “Given the long-lasting impacts, effective interventions should address multiple interrelated social issues early on rather than focusing on each problem in isolation.”
The second study examined illicit drug use (poppers, crack, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy) over a 10-year period among 1,378 HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay and bisexual men, aged 44 to 63, enrolled in one section of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study.
About 79 percent of the participants were infrequent drug users, nearly 6 percent reported consistently high levels of drug use, more than 7 percent said they’d increased their use of drugs, and 7 percent said they’d decreased their use of drugs.
“Although a majority of participants reported infrequent drug use, three subgroups of men displayed distinct patterns of use over 10 years of midlife,” study author Jessica G. Burke, an assistant professor in the department of behavioral and community health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, said in a university news release.
Understanding those subgroups and the factors that lead to drug use “will give us a better understanding of how we can address this behavior among similar individuals,” she said.
The studies were presented this week at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna.
from US News & World Report

Brandon McInerney & Larry King

Lawyers representing teen murder suspect Brandon McInerney want a judge to step down from presiding over the boy’s trial because they feel the judge can’t be fair to him or his defense lawyers.
The motion to recuse Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell comes after the judge refused to allow McInerney’s lawyers more time to prepare for the trial. The judge had told lawyers he would hear pretrial motions Monday, and begin the jury selection process today.
McInerney is accused of killing a 15-year-old classmate in February of 2008.
The motion to get Campbell disqualified immediately stops the case from going to trial until the recusal issue is resolved.
Campbell has five days to respond to the defense’s allegations. Another judge will be appointed to hear the legal arguments.
In court, prosecutor Maeve Fox criticized the filing of the recusal motion, describing it as a legal “ploy.” Fox said this was the defense attorneys’ obvious “end run” to Campbell’s ruling to delay the trial.
“It’s really a travesty upon the court system and the rule of law. … This is ridiculous and disgraceful,” she told the judge.
Last week, prosecutors told Campbell that they were ready to present testimony and evidence. Defense attorneys told the judge Wednesday they needed more time to investigate the case and interview witnesses. Without a delay in the start of the trial, they said they would not put on a defense for McInerney or respond to any of Fox’s pretrial motions.
In an interview, McInerney’s lawyer, Scott Wippert, said the motion to disqualify Campbell was made as a result of some of his rulings and comments he made last week. He declined to elaborate.
“It is clear in our minds that Brandon will not be able to get a fair trial in this courtroom,” Wippert said. “It is perfectly within our legal obligation, and ethical obligation to do so on Brandon’s behalf.”
McInerney’s case was recently sent to Campbell’s court. He was appointed the presiding judge for McInerney’s trial and last week was the first time Campbell heard legal and other matters pertaining to the case. Up until that time, McInerney’s case has gone from one judge for a preliminary hearing, then to others as other legal matters arose.
McInerney is accused of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting of 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green School in Oxnard in February 2008.
He is facing a murder charge, along with the special allegation of lying in wait and other charges in connection with the fatal shooting of King. The shooting is being charged as a hate crime; King had told people he was gay.
The shooting occurred in front of 25 to 30 students, prosecutors said. McInerney had just turned 14 when he allegedly pulled the trigger.
McInerney appeared in court, for the first time, wearing a white shirt, tie and black pants. He normally appears at court proceedings in blue juvenile detention garb.
from The Ventura County Star

Even if you’re past your prime and have a hard time getting an erection, you might still need to worry about unprotected sex, according to U.S. doctors.
In fact, they report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in older men taking erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra is twice as high as in their non-medicated peers.
In both groups, however, the numbers are swelling. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than six new cases of STDs per 10,000 men over 40 in 2008, up almost 50 percent since 1996.
“Younger adults have far more STDs than older adults, but the rates are growing at far higher rates in older adults,” said Dr. Anupam B. Jena of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the study.
While the reasons for this development aren’t well understood, he said more divorces and better health might have conspired to boost sexual prowess and activity among graying heads.
The problem, however, is that older adults appear to flaunt safe sex practices. For instance, the researchers note, 50-year-olds are six times less likely to use a condom than men in their 20s.
“We are typically unaccustomed to practice safe sex over the age of 50, because the risk of pregnancy is eliminated,” Jena told Reuters Health.
To test whether the introduction of Viagra in 1998 might explain some of the STD surge, Jena and colleagues examined insurance records for more than 1.4 million U.S. men over 40. The average age in the study was about 60 years.
The most commonly found STD was HIV, followed by chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea.
Among the few percent of men who had filled prescriptions for erectile dysfunction drugs, more than two in a thousand had been treated for an STD in the year before they got the drug.
A year later, the number dropped to half that, suggesting that Viagra and its chemical cousins didn’t fuel STDs.
However, the risk of contracting an STD turned out to be more than twice as high in men taking erectile dysfunction drugs compared with those who didn’t.
“These users have a different sexual risk profile than non-users,” said Jena, adding that the data didn’t reveal any good explanation.
In an editorial, Dr. Thomas Fekete, of Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, noted that it would have been valuable to know more about the frequency of sexual encounters, sexual partners and orientation.
He added that prevention strategies should still be directed at younger age groups, whose STD risk is at least 10 times higher than in middle-aged and older adults.
Still, he said, the authors remind us “that men older than 40 years remain sexually active, even if they need chemical assistance to do so. This study also serves as a reminder that sex after age 40 years is not necessarily safe.”
Jena recommended that doctors take a few minutes to discuss safe sex with older men when they prescribe Viagra.
His advice? “Look, just realize that you are at higher risk for STDs, and try to be careful like you used to be 30 years ago.”
from Reuters
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Gangrenous Penis

SOUTH AFRICA – Three Transkei boys have been admitted to Mthatha’s Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital with gangrenous penises following illegal circumcisions, says yhe Eastern Cape health department.
The health department’s spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the boys, from the Ngqeleni area, would receive specialist care in a bid to avoid amputation.
They were part of a group of six originally taken to Libode’s St Barnabas Hospital.
Kupelo said a 20-year-old man was arrested in the Libode area on Wednesday morning after he circumcised six other under-age youths.
Health department officials were on Wednesday afternoon preparing to rescue eight youths from an illegal circumcision school in the Ngqeleni area following information that they were ill.
Kupelo said it had emerged that a 14-year-old arrested last week for performing illegal circumcisions on his age-mates, was responsible for previous botched operations that had already resulted in nine penis amputations.
The youth, who had been released from custody, was being dealt with under the newly-implemented Child Care Act.
He is scheduled to appear before a traditional council on Thursday.
from Times Live

In a famous episode of “Seinfeld,” Jerry complains that people constantly assume he’s gay because he’s single, obsessively neat — and thin. As it turns out, at least part of that punchline may be anchored in fact.
A new study shows that gay men really are leaner than straight men. And conversely, it also found that gay women tend to be heavier than their heterosexual counterparts.
Boston researchers determined that gay women were more than twice as likely as straight women to be obese, while gay men were 50 percent less likely to be obese compared to their heterosexual counterparts, according to a report published in the American Journal of Public Health.
After scrutinizing a health survey of more than 67,000 Massachusetts residents between the ages of 18 and 64, the researchers found that 14 percent of gay men were obese versus 21 percent of straight men. The opposite was true of gay women: 26 percent were found to be obese, as compared with 17 percent of the straight women.
The researchers also found that both gay men and gay women were more likely to be current smokers compared to their heterosexual counterparts. And gay women were more likely to have multiple heart disease risk factors than straight women.
Earlier studies that looked at health in the gay community focused mostly on sexually transmitted diseases and mental health, rather than on chronic illnesses like obesity and heart disease, says the study’s lead author Kerith Conron, an associate research scientist at Northeastern University and a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. “This may mean that we in the public health community need to come up with more tailored messages to reach these groups, just as car dealers do when they want to reach a specific target audience,” she said.
Conron suspects that cultural differences might at least partly explain the weight divide. It may be more acceptable in the lesbian community for women to be full-sized, she said.
That explanation makes sense to Esther Rothblum, a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University. “People in sexual relationships with men — heterosexual women and gay men — get more pressure to look thin and to otherwise conform to attractiveness norms than do people in sexual relationships with women — lesbians and heterosexual men,” Rothblum said.
The best evidence for that comes from an older study of bisexual women, Rothblum adds. When the bisexual women were asked to describe their experiences with women and men, the differences were dramatic: they often reported that they got more pressure to be thin when they were with men.
Other researchers have found further evidence of this male effect while studying personal ads and dating sites like Match.com, Rothblum explains. “Men will say they are looking for a partner who is not above 35 years old and not above 135 pounds,” she said. “Women don’t typically do that. They say they are looking for someone with good sense of humor, intelligence, and creativity, or someone who is not an alcoholic.”
from MSMBC

Kylie Minogue

NEW YORK – Kylie Minouge stunned revellers at a gay club in New York on Friday night (04Jun10) when she debuted tracks from her upcoming album more than a month before its release.
The Aussie superstar made a surprise appearance at the Big Apple’s Splash nightclub and shocked fans by taking to the stage.
The 41-year-old gay icon whipped the crowd into a frenzy, performing with semi-naked male dancers and singing her new single All the Lovers and the title track of her upcoming album, Aphrodite, which hits stores next month (Jul10).
During the gig, she told the audience, “Thank you so much. It means so much to me that you are here and the support (sic) you’ve given me for such a long time – I love you!”
from Contact Music

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY – Americans’ support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. At the same time, the percentage calling these relations “morally wrong” dropped to 43%, the lowest in Gallup’s decade-long trend.

Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted each May, documents a gradual increase in public acceptance of gay relations since about 2006. However, the change is seen almost exclusively among men, and particularly men younger than 50.

Additionally, Gallup finds greater movement toward acceptance among independents and Democrats than among Republicans, and a big jump in acceptance among moderates. Liberals were already widely accepting of gay relations in 2006, and have remained that way, while conservatives’ acceptance continues to run low.

Notably, there has been a 16-point jump in acceptance among Catholics, nearly three times the increase seen among Protestants. Acceptance among Americans with no religious identity has expanded as well.

The same May 3-6 Gallup poll finds the slight majority of Americans still against legalizing gay marriage; however, at 53%, the extent of that opposition is down slightly this year.

Acceptance for the legality of gay and lesbian relations has varied over the past decade, but, at 58% today, it is near the highest Gallup has measured (60% in 2003).

Americans remain closely divided over the factors contributing to being gay. Currently, 37% say being gay is due to upbringing and environment while 36% say it is a trait one is born with.

The division on this question has been the norm for most of the past decade, although the plurality response has fluctuated. Longer term, however, there has been a major change in Americans’ views on this question, with far fewer today than in the 1970s and 1980s believing that being gay or lesbian is the result of upbringing and other life experiences.

Bottom Line

There is a gradual cultural shift under way in Americans’ views toward gay individuals and gay rights. While public attitudes haven’t moved consistently in gays’ and lesbians’ favor every year, the general trend is clearly in that direction. This year, the shift is apparent in a record-high level of the public seeing gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable. Meanwhile, support for legalizing gay marriage, and for the legality of gay and lesbian relations more generally, is near record highs.

from Gallup

Harvey Milk

KERN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA – A Kern High School District trustee wants to say no to Harvey Milk and yes to Ronald Reagan.
Trustee Ken Mettler, who is also running in the 32nd Assembly District Republican primary, will ask his board colleagues at a Monday meeting to adopt a policy discouraging schools from celebrating Harvey Milk Day May 22, which honors one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in California.
He will also ask trustees to support a state Senate bill establishing Ronald Reagan Day, which would fall on Feb. 6.
“This is something I truly believe in, and the timing makes sense,” Mettler said Thursday. “Harvey Milk does not rise to that level of recognition. These days should be reserved for those who have had a major impact.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Harvey Milk Day into law last Oct. 12. Milk served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before being assassinated in 1978. Harvey Milk Day this year falls on a Saturday.
The Reagan bill has cleared the state Senate; it now sits in the Assembly.
Under the legislation, schools are “encouraged” — not required — to conduct exercises commemorating both men. Mettler’s proposal says KHSD will encourage schools and staff to commemorate Reagan. But with Milk, KHSD “will not conduct such exercises, nor encourage or require its schools or their staffs to conduct such exercises.”
Mettler argued that Milk served less than a year as a supervisor and did not sponsor any meaningful ordinances while on the job.
Whitney Weddell, a local gay-rights activist and high school teacher, said Mettler is “looking for a way to solidify conservative credentials.”
“It’s an election stunt,” she said.
Educators have a difficult time fitting in celebrations or holidays in the school year because of curriculum standards that must be met, she said. And with May being a busy time of year on campuses with testing and graduation preparation, assemblies for Milk would be unlikely. Discussions, she said, would only take place if students had questions.
“I think they’re making a mountain out of a molehill,” Weddell said. “There’s already a million different days we’re supposed to commemorate. We’re worried about math and English and history.”
Introducing the proposals to the board, Mettler said, is not a political move. Mettler said he is encouraging school districts throughout Kern County to support Ronald Reagan Day legislation.
Trustee Bill Perry said he has no objection to supporting the Reagan bill. He said he would abstain from voting on the Milk issue.
“(Reagan) was a president. You want to honor him, go ahead and honor him,” Perry said. “The other one is controversial and I think I want to leave it alone. That one I would rather not waste our time on.”
School board President Joel Heinrichs and Trustee Bryan Batey could not be reached for comment. A KHSD spokesman did not wish to comment.
Board members can ask the superintendent to introduce policy to school board agendas. It must go through an open meeting “first reading,” as is the case here, where discussion can take place. They could address both items again, and possibly vote on them, at a May 12 meeting, Mettler said.
The KHSD board is no stranger to controversial proposals. In 2007 it agreed to put the phrase “In God We Trust” in every district classroom, with much debate. The then-board President Bob Hampton said spirituality should remain in the home and church and out of the public education system.
Trustee Chad Vegas said Mettler discussed the Milk proposal last year when discussions were taking place statewide. Both said they should prevent Milk from being celebrated in KHSD schools.
California, Vegas said, should not be “cramming” this celebration “down our throats.”
“I don’t want to bring the homosexual agenda into our schools,” Vegas said. “I don’t believe Harvey Milk is someone that should be celebrated.”
As for Ronald Reagan Day: “He was a very good president at a time of national and worldwide crisis.”
Vegas said if Mettler did not introduce the Milk proposal, he would have.
Another resolution on Monday’s agenda that probably won’t receive as much attention: proclaiming May 12 “Day of the Teacher.”
from Bakersfield .com

UNITED KINGDOM – David Cameron was urged to sack one of his frontbench team who said the age of consent for homosexuals should not have been lowered to 16 because it put teenage boys at “serious physical risk” and in danger of catching HIV.
Julian Lewis, the shadow minister for Defence and Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Hampshire seat of New Forest East, wrote to a constituent last week saying he had been “very strongly against” lowering the age of consent for gays from 18 to 16 because of the “seriously increased risk of HIV”. He appeared to compare it with the decision to prevent service personnel aged under 18 from fighting on frontlines. Last night, Dr Lewis reiterated his view, telling The Independent that anyone aged 16 to 18 who had unprotected gay sex was “at risk, and potentially at risk of their lives”.
His outspoken views have reopened debate about the party’s stance on gay and lesbian rights. Two weeks ago, the shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, suggested that owners of bed-and-breakfast hotels should have the right to turn away gay couples
.
On Tuesday, Mr Cameron attempted to draw a line under the row by declaring the matter was “all sorted” following an apology from Mr Grayling.
The age of consent for gay men was lowered from 18 to 16 in 2000. Dr Lewis wrote last week: “There is a seriously increased risk of HIV infection from male homosexual activity. When it comes to legalising practices that involve serious risk, I believe the higher limit should apply. This is the reason we no longer allow 16- and 17-year-olds into frontline situations in the armed forces, for example.”
Dr Lewis, 58, has a history of voting against legislation enshrining gay rights. He opposed adoptions by gay couples and also battled against the repeal of Section 28 – a law enacted by Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government in 1988 to prevent schools from “promoting” homosexuality. Dr Lewis, does, however, back civil partnerships.
“One of the criticisms commonly made of gay relationships
is that very often they do not last,” he explained in his letter. “It therefore seems obvious to me that, when a gay couple wish to commit to each other, by forming a permanent relationships, they should be encouraged and assisted in every way.”
He added: “I wish to avoid the cliché which begins ‘some of my best friends are… ‘ but it happens to be true that my partner, Fiona, and I do indeed have gay friends.” Defending his comments last night, Dr Lewis said he would have supported keeping the age of consent for gay men at 18. He said he had not intended to make the “preposterous suggestion” that gay sex was as dangerous as fighting on the frontline.
However, he went on to say that engaging in unprotected gay sex put teenagers “at risk, and potentially at risk of their lives”. Dr Lewis added: “It is nevertheless true that someone is just as much dead if they are among one of the much smaller percentage of people who would be unfortunate enough to contract a deadly disease through a form of sexual activity as they are if they are in the frontline and they find themselves being injured or killed.”
Challenged about his views on the dangers of homosexual sex, he said: “I do not hold myself up as any kind of expert in this and I am willing to be shown I’m wrong if I am wrong, but I honestly don’t think I am wrong.”
The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, urged the Conservative leader to sack Dr Lewis from his shadow cabinet. He said: “[Mr Cameron has] been seeking the votes of gay people … but [his] frontbench team includes people who are against any notion of homosexual equality. [He needs] to show some leadership and sack Mr Lewis.”
Last night, the Conservative leadership distanced itself from Dr Lewis’ remarks, but allowed him to keep his job as shadow defence minister. “These are Dr Lewis’ long held and personal views,” a spokesman said. “They are not the view of the Conservative Party and the terms in which he expressed them is wrong. Under this Labour government we have seen a massive increase in HIV infections and STDs across all the population – straight and gay.”
from The Independent UK

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – Minority Republican lawmakers sponsored a resolution this week honoring the 100-year anniversary of the Boy Scouts. This being California, the political equivalent of a school-yard brawl broke out.
Democrats ultimately killed the resolution after criticizing the Boy Scouts for excluding homosexuals. Predictably, Republicans became indignant and accused Democrats of defaming a cherished American institution.
It didn’t end there.
Democrats had introduced a resolution of their own honoring the Girl Scouts and included language that noted the organization does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
That drew yet more indignation from Republicans, with one GOP lawmaker accusing Democrats of improperly introducing sexuality into what should have been innocent proclamations of support for the two iconic youth groups.
“I would love to honor the Girl Scouts,” said Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Laguna Niguel. “I just don’t understand why this chamber wants to sexualize children.”
The Boy Scout brouhaha started in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. After Republicans introduced the anniversary resolution, some Democratic lawmakers equated the Boy Scouts’ policy of excluding gays with racism.
“Were the policy of the Boy Scouts to be that we exclude all African-Americans or Asian-Americans or Latinos, or any minority group, I don’t think there would be a single member of the Legislature that would commend them,” the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Los Angeles Democrat Mike Feuer, said in an interview later.
The resolution died in committee, wounding Republicans.
The Republicans say they were further incensed when they asked the Democrats to remove the line in the Girl Scouts resolution that honored the organization’s acceptance of any girl regardless of her sexual orientation. But the Girl Scouts resolution passed out of the committee unchanged.
“Equality for gays and lesbians shouldn’t have to be an issue that’s brought down to our children’s level,” said Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Diamond Bar, an Eagle Scout and author of the Boy Scouts resolution. “Political agendas at the Capitol got in the way of this.”
Feuer said he was never asked to amend the Girl Scouts resolution, calling the Republican claims “utterly false.”
The Girl Scouts resolution advanced Thursday to the Assembly floor, where the partisan sniping continued.
When it was time for the Assembly to vote, Assembly Majority Leader Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, asked members for a simple voice vote, the typical way to approve resolutions.
But after it passed on the voice vote, Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, a San Diego Democrat who authored the Girl Scouts resolution, asked for an additional roll call vote. That meant each lawmaker’s vote would be a matter of record.
Republicans, of course, objected. Hagman said GOP lawmakers wanted to commend the Girl Scouts but did not want be on the record condoning their stance on sexual orientation. The resolution passed the 80-member house 48-4, with most Republicans abstaining.
Girl Scouts of America spokeswoman Michelle Tompkins said the organization was pleased with the honor given by California lawmakers and proud of its long tradition of including anyone.
In the end, California honored the Girl Scouts but not the Boy Scouts – which issued a statement saying it appreciated the effort.
“This is a long-standing societal issue,” Boy Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said regarding the group’s membership policies.
The Girl Scouts resolution will now be taken up in the Senate.
from The Associated Press