Gay News

A state court in New Mexico has upheld a ruling against Jon and Elaine Huguenin. As owners of Elane Photography, they declined to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony in 2006 and were sued.

The court ruled the owners had violated a non-discrimination law.

Jordan Lorence, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), said it exposes the threat such laws pose to religious liberty: The court showed very little respect for that and said that this was no different than a caterer serving food and was liable to this same-sex couple.

Lorence points out New Mexico hasn't legalized same-sex unions. So, these couples are going through these ceremonies that have no legal significance to them. They're using these non-discrimination laws like 'blasphemy' laws, and they're going on witch hunts to root out the heretics and punish them.

ADF plans to appeal.

Mystiques Hotel & Restaurant, the former New County Hotel in Southgate Street, has welcomed its first guests.

According to the club's Facebook page, the venue is aimed at those with alternative sexual lifestyles . The club is offering both gay nights and swingers' nights.

A spokesman for Gloucester City Council confirmed the opening. He said: Mystique has opened. They have a drink, entertainment and late night refreshment license.

An application to create a lifestyle hotel on the site – with fantasy rooms and an adult-themed restaurant – was rejected by Gloucester City Council earlier this year. However, the company behind those plans, Mystique, has now opened the private members club at the hotel, believing planning permission is not a legal requirement for the project.

Gloucester city councillor Gordon Taylor (Con. Abbey), voted against the plans to turn the building into a sex hotel. He said the club was in the wrong place, adding: We are trying to redevelop that area and there are a lot of families walking by and we don't want a sex venue there. It is the sort of establishment that should be down Eastgate Street. I'm really disappointed that they have managed to get around the decision we made to turn it down. There may be a law change coming in within the next 12 months where there might be some scope to challenge it again.

Secular and libertarian groups have welcomed the Court of Appeal ruling that a council did not discriminate against a Christian registrar who refused to perform civil partnerships.

Lillian Ladele claimed that she could not officiate the ceremonies for gay couples because of her strict Christian beliefs.

She argued that Islington council's disciplinary action was discriminatory but the Court of Appeal ruled against her in the latest round of the case.

Gay organisation Stonewall said it was pleased the court had upheld the right of lesbian and gay people to receive public services from public servants .

Civil rights group Liberty had supported council in the case and described it as a common sense judgement .

Corinna Ferguson, Liberty's legal officer who specialises in religious freedom cases, said: Freedom of conscience is incredibly precious but other people have rights and freedoms too. Employers can't be expected to promote equal treatment under the law if they must also accommodate discrimination on the part of their employees.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said the ruling was important and definitive . He said: It establishes, we hope definitively, that because a person has strong religious views, it does not give them the right to discriminate against and deny services to others of whom they disapprove.

Parliament has decided that gay people are entitled to civil partnerships and that their right to such a service be protected in law, so there should therefore be no opt-outs on any grounds, religious or otherwise, for public servants from performing these ceremonies. Christian conscience should not be a blanket licence to discriminate against others.

Ladele and the Christian Institute, which is supporting her, were refused leave to appeal at the Supreme Court. However, they plan to go to the Supreme Court directly to attempt to overturn the ruling.

Update: Appeal Refused

12th March. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Lillian Ladele's situation does not raise legal points of general public importance , according to the highest court in the land.

She is now considering whether to try to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights, as she believes it shows that the right to religious conscience has been trampled by the rights of homosexuals.

With James Dobson retiring it is clear that the nutter group, Focus on the Family, is adrift and searching for a new mission. It may have found one in its blistering attack on the play Santa Claus is Coming Out.

The right wing organization is in a tizzy over this comedy that poses the serious question: What if Santa Claus were actually gay?

Unfortunately, Focus on the Family provides the answer by exploiting this issue for political gain and distorting the essence of the production. The Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Education Network (GLSEN) will also benefit from a charity performance of Santa Claus is Coming Out , giving Focus on the Family further reason to misrepresent the play.

In a story headlined GLSEN Fundraiser Sexualizes Santa , the group claims that the comedy, perverts the innocence of Christmas and sexualizes the longtime, child-revered icon of Santa Claus. The group went on to claim that the goal of Santa Claus is Coming Out is to, desensitize kids and attack parents' God-given rights to protect their innocence.

The charges leveled against Santa Is Coming Out are ludicrous, if not libelous. In an interview with Instinct Magazine, Playwright Jeffrey Solomon rebutted Focus on the Family's bogus charges.

We have not marketed this play with sex, said Solomon. The play is not about sex. The play simply asks a hypothetical question: 'How would the world react, if Mrs. Claus were revealed to be a beard, and that Santa Claus was actually a gay man?' The very mention or the image of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people is not automatically sexual, unless you are viewing them with sex-tinted glasses.

Isn't it time that Focus on the Family take its huge budget of more that $125 million and help real families stay together? Has this group done anything substantive to address the divorce rate in America? Has it stopped child or spousal abuse? Has this wealthy organization increased living wages so families can afford to stay together?

Nope. Instead it wastes precious time and money on petty, media-friendly pet issues that play well to frothing fundamentalists who get worked into a lather and then donate what little money they have left over from their paychecks.

I applaud Jeffrey Solomon and director Joe Brancato for producing a play that will make people think, which is a heck of a lot more than Focus on the Family is asking of its followers.

Lithuania's parliament (the Seimas) should eliminate all discriminatory and repressive language in a new law designed to censor information available to children, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to a key lawmaker. It called on the Seimas to repeal an amendment forbidding public information encouraging homosexual and bisexual relations.

The letter to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Education, Science and Culture of the Seimas, Valentinas Stundys, addressed ongoing efforts by the parliament to revise the controversial law and make it consistent with Lithuania's human rights commitments. The law has been a subject of intense debate through much of 2009.

Depriving young people of information they need to decide about their lives and protect their health is a regressive move, said Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights program at Human Rights Watch. Instead of protecting children, Lithuania is condemning them to ignorance, danger, and fear.

The Seimas first passed the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information on June 16, 2009. Then President Valdas Adamkus vetoed the law, but parliament overruled the veto. The current president who took office in July, Dalia Grybauskaite., established a presidential committee to review the text of the law. This committee proposed amendments to delete all discriminatory language from the text of the law.

However, while the Seimas was discussing these amendments, one member introduced the new amendment, forbidding public information which encourages homosexual and bisexual relations, as well as polygamy. A majority of the Seimas voted in favor of this amendment. The Standing Committee on Education, Science and Culture must now propose a final text of the law to the full parliament.

A Canadian judge last week exonerated a former pastor who was charged of committing a hate crime for sending a letter to a local newspaper criticizing homosexuality. Related

Judge E.C. Wilson overturned a 2008 ruling by the Alberta Human Rights Commission that ordered former Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin to stop all public criticisms of homosexuality and to pay the plaintiff $5,000 in damages, according to The Canadian Press.

Wilson ruled on Friday that the 2002 letter, which carried the headline Homosexual agenda wicked, was not a hate crime but is permissible under freedom of speech.

The decision of Justice Earl Wilson of the Court of Queen's Bench in Boissoin v. Lund will have a significant long term positive impact on religious freedom in Canada, wrote Gerald Chipeur , Boissoin's attorney, in a summary analysis of the judgment, according to LifeSiteNews.com. Chipeur commented that the definition of what qualifies as hate speech was made clearer through the ruling. He also said the judge took away the tools of censorship and protected freedom of expression.

In 2002, Boissoin sent a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate newspaper criticizing the pro-gay rights curriculum in the province's education system. From kindergarten class on our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators, Pastor Stephen Boissoin wrote.

The letter caught the attention of a human rights activist who filed a complaint against the pastor for hate-mongering. The activist supported his case by pointing to a homosexual who was beaten up two weeks after the letter was published as evidence that such speech can incite violence.   While the decision did not strike down Alberta's 'hate speech' laws, it significantly limited the application of such laws, Chipeur said.

But plaintiff Darren Lund responded to the ruling saying, I really think this is a step backwards for our province, in an e-mail to The Canadian Press: In my view, the judge's ruling sets such strict standards for hate speech that this section is rendered all but unenforceable.

Gay couples are furious after being banned from studio recordings of Top Gear

They are prevented from joining the TV audience under a bizarre rule that stipulates bookings must be 50% male and 50% female .

But the policy was slammed as discrimination . Simon Reeves who was turned down when he and his partner applied for tickets to the BBC2 show, said: I couldn't believe it. Top Gear is the blokiest show on telly but we weren't allowed unless we took a couple of female friends. It seems unfair that a married heterosexual couple are the 'ideal' applicants but same sex couples have no chance whatsoever.

All applications to attend the five-hour recording in an aircraft hangar in Dunsfold, Surrey, must be for groups of up to four, made up equally of males and females. The website which handles the allocation says : Each booking requires equal amounts of men to women, so please ensure that you have a 50/50 split of guys and gals in your party.

A BBC spokeswoman said same sex couples were welcome. The 50/50 split was simply to avoid the entire audience being made up of men . Viewers don't want to just look at a load of ugly men, she explained.

A relationship counsellor who refused to offer sex therapy to gay couples has lost his unfair dismissal appeal.

Gary MacFarlane was sacked by marriage guidance service Relate after he said he could not do anything to promote gay sex.

He alleged Relate had refused to accommodate his Christian beliefs.

The service's chief executive Claire Tyler said: The appeal judgement validates Relate's commitment to equality of access to our services. Relate's trusted service, both in Avon and across the country, relies on making sure that all members of society, regardless of their gender, age, race, religion, sexual orientation or relationship status, are able to access respectful and professional counselling and sex therapy.

Relate is committed to supporting all religious beliefs working within Relate. However, our primary consideration is to our clients who often need complex advice and assistance. We cannot allow anything to damage our clients, or to undermine the principle of trust that underpins our work.

MacFarlane, a former church elder, was appealing on the grounds of religious discrimination at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Bristol.

The tribunal, chaired by employment judge Toomer, dismissed MacFarlane's claims of harassment.

Xtra.com is reporting that Canada Border Services Agency customs officers have seized three gay-themed films en route to Ottawa's three-day Inside Out gay film festival, which ends on Nov. 22.

No explanation was given for the seizure — which, of course, is exactly what you'd expect to happen in a true democracy. The films are supposed to remain in custody until they're watched in full by some border censor or other.

The three films in question are Adrian Shergold's made-for-TV Clapham Junction , which follows a group of gay men in Clapham, South London, and which has some nudity; Shamim Sarif's I Can't Think Straight , a Middle East-set lesbian love story starring Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth; and Ella Lemhagen's PG-rated Patrik Age. 1.5 , the story of a gay couple who mistakenly end up adopting a teen thug. All three films have already been screened elsewhere in Canada. All three are Here! releases, a US-based distributor of gay-themed movies.

In the past, Canadian border officials have been accused of harassing gays, and of arbitrarily confiscating gay literature and movies. Despite the country's reputation of being more liberal than its southern neighbor, its border cops, obsessed with obscenity, are known as anything but — especially when it comes to homosexuality. In 2000, the Vancouver-based bookstore Little Sister's sued the CBSA, taking the matter all the way to Canada's Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the bookstore. Clearly, the ruling hasn't prevented the agency from going after other gay-oriented venues.

Update: Simple Ignorance

27th November 2009. From xtra.ca

A spokesperson for Canada's border guards says that three gay films were flagged by border officials because of simple unfamiliarity with the titles.

On Nov 20, officials from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) refused to let three films into the country that were destined for the Inside Out film festival in Ottawa.

When Jason St-Laurent, the director of programming for Inside Out, found out that the films had been stopped at the border, he tried frantically to get hold of staff at the CBSA. No one was able to help him, he says.

He managed to get a shipment of replacements, he says, although barely under the wire. If St-Laurent hadn't found alternate prints, the festival could have lost up to $12,000.

The second time they sent the films, they arrived without any hassle. That time they were sent it to SAW Gallery in Ottawa, rather than the Inside Out film festival.

American Idol star Adam Lambert's performance at Sunday's American Music Awards has prompted more than 1,500 complaints by viewers.

During the closing act, the openly gay singer simulated sex on stage with a back-up dancer and kissed a male musician on the mouth.

Lambert told US network CNN that the kiss was in the moment .

ABC said the number of complaints was moderate .

Lambert, who performed his debut single For Your Entertainment , said that if people had been upset by his performance that it is a form of discrimination and it's too bad . He added: I had fun, my dancers had fun, the audience that was in the Nokia [Theatre] had fun. Anybody else who was watching it and enjoying it, thank you for being entertained.

The Parents Television Council (PTC), a media pressure group which campaigns against indecent content on US television, posted a statement on its website calling the show tasteless and vulgar . President Timothy Winter said members were outraged . He added: They just can't believe the nature of the content, the explicit nature, and how much graphic content there was.

Xtra.com is reporting that Canada Border Services Agency customs officers have seized three gay-themed films en route to Ottawa's three-day Inside Out gay film festival, which ends on Nov. 22.

No explanation was given for the seizure — which, of course, is exactly what you'd expect to happen in a true democracy. The films are supposed to remain in custody until they're watched in full by some border censor or other.

The three films in question are Adrian Shergold's made-for-TV Clapham Junction , which follows a group of gay men in Clapham, South London, and which has some nudity; Shamim Sarif's I Can't Think Straight , a Middle East-set lesbian love story starring Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth; and Ella Lemhagen's PG-rated Patrik Age. 1.5 , the story of a gay couple who mistakenly end up adopting a teen thug. All three films have already been screened elsewhere in Canada. All three are Here! releases, a US-based distributor of gay-themed movies.

In the past, Canadian border officials have been accused of harassing gays, and of arbitrarily confiscating gay literature and movies. Despite the country's reputation of being more liberal than its southern neighbor, its border cops, obsessed with obscenity, are known as anything but — especially when it comes to homosexuality. In 2000, the Vancouver-based bookstore Little Sister's sued the CBSA, taking the matter all the way to Canada's Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the bookstore. Clearly, the ruling hasn't prevented the agency from going after other gay-oriented venues.

The British Museum, that prestigious bastion of archaeology and things historical, is to devote a day next month promoting perversion to school children.

On 19th November, the Museum, home to such famous artifacts as the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles, is hosting a whole day programme to advance next February's LGBT History month .

The LGBT History Month website says smugly: The year 2010 will bring us The Equality Act with its greater legislative demands of schools and all public institutions thereby increasing the relevance of LGBT History Month.

According to the website, the day will begin with a morning session in which local school pupils will learn about objects in the Museum with relevant LGBT themes .

The afternoon session is called Exploring Best Practice (or worst, depending on one's point of view). It is for teachers, youth workers and other practitioners and will provide inspiration and practical suggestions as to how your school, educational institution, pupils, students and service users can share in LGBT History Month . We are told that 12 practioners (sic) of the primary, secondary, and university sectors as well as members of a youth group, a singer who works in schools, and a Connexions worker will be at hand , who come from all over the country, both urban and rural .

Next, a Teachers surgery from 5 - 6pm will offer a relaxed and informal session for teachers who want to begin LGBT celebrations in their school to come and discuss with teachers who have already had successful results. The panel will consist of representatives from primary and secondary schools who have tried and tested ideas to help kick start your celebrations for February 2010.

The day will conclude with a Formal pre-launch from 6.15 - 9pm. Highlighting art, history and culture, the evening will be an opportunity for networking, and to hear from prominent speakers including Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Rt. Hon. Ben Bradshaw MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Michael Cashman MEP and Cllr Keith Moffit, Leader of Camden Council.

Interestingly, Trevor Phillips is on record for his concern that Muslims should be able, even under equalities legislation, to express themselves on the matter of homosexuality. We shall be looking for Phillips to spell that out to the gays and to extend those provisions to Christians, Jews and indeed anyone who cannot see how sodomy benefits a nation.

We are urging Christians to apply for tickets to any of the events. Make your protest felt inside the event, and when you are thrown out, join us in witnessing and leafleting outside!

With leaflets; outside the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG from 9am to 9pm. Whatever hours you can give to the Lord's work on this day will be valuable time spent. Please let us know when you expect to be there.

Pray that our witness will convict someone of sin and the grace of God, that he or she will turn to Jesus Christ and be saved. Pray that many parents will join this campaign.

The Black Pink Triangle Association in Izmir, Turkey, has become the latest Turkish GLBT organization to face a closure threat from the government.

The Izmir governor's office filed suit against the group, calling it illegal, immoral and anti-family. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 19, 2010.

The prosecutor's demand for closure of our association is clearly a violation of civil rights, the group said in a statement. Establishing an organization is a constitutional right and they want to take that right from us.

A PE teacher whose naked pictures turned up on gay porn sites has resigned from his job.

Sam Handley had been suspended from his job at Harvey Grammar School in Folkstone in Kent since the story first hit the media (and images were circulated on the internet) last month. Handley has now resigned prior to an investigation into his conduct.

In a statement released to local media, the school said:

The school fully accepts Mr Handley's assurances that the events in question took place prior to him being offered and taking employment at the school, and that he has not engaged in anything similar while employed at the school.

On this latest South Park episode, called The F-Word, the kids decide that they will change the meaning of the word fag so that it will be used as a slur against burly, inconsiderate motorcyclists who ride loud Harley-Davidson bikes instead of against gay people.

The children's casual and frequent use of the word, which was broadcast unbleeped, offends adults and several gay characters on the show. But after the town learns the etymology of the word faggot (which began use as a derisive term for old women) and gains the approval of a dictionary official, their new meaning for the word is accepted.

But the episode did not sit easy with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an advocacy group that monitors issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in the media. In a news release issued on Thursday night, the group asks for Comedy Central and the South Park staff to apologize for what it calls a slur-filled episode.

In a statement, GLAAD officials said they recognized that the episode was attempting to use edgy humor to provide commentary on current issues. They added: Yet despite what the South Park writers may believe, the definition of the F-word remains one that is harmful and derogatory to the LGBT community.

The statement says that the epithet remains a hateful slur that is often part of the harassment, bullying and violence that gay people, and gay youth in particular, experience on a daily basis in this country. It is an epithet that has real consequences for real people's lives.

Plans to transform a Gloucester hotel into a sex club are to go ahead - despite having had planning permission denied last month.

The proposals will see the New County Hotel in Southgate Street become Club Mystique.

The club will offer both gay nights and swingers' nights, and will include themed playrooms on the first floor. The ground floor of the hotel will become a restaurant specialising in vegetarian food.

Planning permission for the project was denied controversially at Gloucester City Council's planning committee last month. Councillors voted against the plans, claiming the hotel was not suitable for a city centre location.

However, the company behind the plans has taken legal advice on the matter, and say they are now pressing ahead with the transformation. A spokesman for Mystique's said; We have taken legal advice, and as it turns out, we did not require any planning consent for change of use and it was a complete waste of time causing unnecessary delays.

Councillor Mary Smith (Labour), had slammed the decision to deny planning permission to the club, saying she felt the committee had voted on moral grounds rather than on planning grounds. She said: If that is the law, fine, we will keep a close eye on the hotel and I am sure it will not prove as problematical as some have suggested it will be.

A Ugandan MP has proposed creating an offence of aggravated homosexuality to be punishable by death.

Ruling party MP David Bahati wants the death penalty for those having gay sex with disabled people, under-18s or when the accused is HIV-positive.

Homosexual acts are already illegal, but the Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposes new offences and urges the toughening of existing penalties.

Gay activists have long alleged persecution in Uganda and existing laws already allow large fines and life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.

Members of parliament are overwhelmingly supporting this bill because homosexuality is illegal John Otekat Emile Independent MP Bahati's bill proposes widening the definition of homosexual acts and wants to fine or imprison anyone found to be promoting homosexuality. The bill states that its provisions are intended to protect the traditional family by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex .

John Otekat Emile, an independent MP, said he believed the bill had a 99% chance of being passed. Members of parliament are overwhelmingly supporting this bill because homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, and we have that clearly in the penal code, he told the BBC.

Update: More Nastiness

29th October 2009. Based on article from guardian.co.uk

Any person in authority aware of an offence under the new law who did not report it to the authorities could face three years' imprisonment, including anyone who exercises religious, political, economic or social authority . So a pastor who found out that someone in his congregation or community was gay or lesbian would be required to betray that person to possible imprisonment or death, or risk his own freedom. The bill would not only destroy LGBT people but also undermine others' integrity and humanity.

The law would apply not only within Uganda but also to Ugandans abroad. Some commentators believe it is being used to divert attention from ongoing social problems and intensify repression in the run-up to the next elections.

Russian gay rights activists are denouncing the planned closure of Moscow's oldest gay club. The city has ordered the club shut down by Nov. 15 for reasons of immorality.

Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of Russia's gay rights movement, describes the decision as a crude attempt at populism and a violation of human rights.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has blocked attempts to hold a gay pride march in Moscow and has labeled gays weapons of mass destruction.

Dannii Minogue has apologised for a quip about a finalist's sexuality live on X Factor as fans called for her to be fired.

The judge sparked 'outrage' with a comment about contestant Danyl Johnson. The teacher had finished a version of Whitney Houston's I Am Telling You when Dannii referred to reports that Danyl is bisexual.

Talking about the lyrics, she said: No need to change the gender references, if we're to believe everything we read in the press.

The comment on Saturday's show 'stunned' Johnson and 'incensed' Simon Cowell.

Thousands of fans logged on to the X Factor forum to vent their 'anger' while a survey showed more than 80% of fans wanted her kicked off the show.

One fan said: Forget the Strictly row, Dannii is the one that needs to be sacked. She was live on air and set an extremely awful example to our children.

Many said they had complained to media watchdog Ofcom.

Dannii said on her Twitter blog she meant no offence and said she was happy to apologise publicly. In a statement, she said: I want to clear up exactly what happened on Saturday night's X Factor show and post my sincere apologies to anyone who took offence. It was meant to be a humorous moment about the fact he had an opportunity to have fun with his song. An openly bi-sexual guy singing a song that is lyrically a girl's song. Danyl and I were joking about the very same thing in rehearsals on Friday, so it carried on to the show. I'd like to apologise to anyone that was offended by my comments, it was never my intention.

Danyl said he was not offended: We're completely cool about it and chatted after the show. I wasn't upse t.

Update: I'm Telling You, 4000 Complaints

15th October 2009. Based on article from guardian.co.uk

The TV censor Ofcom has now received almost 3,885 complaints from members of the public about The X Factor judge Dannii Minogue's comment about contestant Danyl Johnson's sexuality on Saturday night.

Johnson changed the lyrics of Jennifer Hudson's song I'm Telling You , in which the lyrics refer to a male, so that the song from the point of view of a man singing to a woman. Minogue subsequently made a joke with Johnson, who has been the subject of tabloid stories suggesting he is bisexual, saying that there was no need to switch the gender reference in that song .

The regulator has not yet decided whether it will launch a formal investigation into whether Minogue's comment represented a breach of its broadcasting code.

A soccer club was permanently banned from the French amateur league after refusing to play a match against a gay team.

Last week, Paris Foot Gay said its members were victims of homophobia when Creteil Bebel, a team of Muslim players, refused to play them this month.

The French amateur league said it excluded Creteil for refusing the match on discriminatory grounds. It's a permanent exclusion, they will never be reinstated, league president Jacques Stouvenel said.

A long-debated bill to broaden US federal hate-crime law to cover violence against gays has been approved by the Democratic-controlled House in what would be the first major expansion of the law in more than 40 years.

The measure, which is expected to go before the Senate within days, had faced a veto threat from President George W. Bush, but enjoys President Obama's support.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said: As the president said back in April, the hate-crimes bill takes on an important civil rights issue to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association, he said.

The measure passed by a vote of 281 to 146.

The hate-crime legislation would expand the law to cover acts of violence motivated by a victim's sexual orientation, gender, disability or gender identity. Existing federal law defines hate crimes as those motivated by bias based on religion, race, national origin or color.

The measure also would give federal authorities more leeway to help state and local law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes. It also makes grants available to states and communities to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles and to train law enforcement officers in investigating, prosecuting and preventing hate crimes.

The bill also creates a new federal crime for attacking members of the military because of their service.

A number of Republicans assailed the measure as thought crimes legislation, contending that it could lead to the prosecution of a pastor delivering sermons against homosexuality if one of his church members committed a hate crime. They have hinted at a constitutional challenge.

Congress should protect all Americans equally and not provide special protections to a few politically favored groups, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said in a statement. It violates the principle of equal justice under the law and also threatens to infringe on the free speech rights of the American people.

The bill's supporters, however, say that they added language to the measure to protect freedom of religious expression.

The weekly independent newspaper, Al Balagh Al Gadid , has been banned after reporting that three prominent Egyptian actors were caught in a prostitution network for homosexuals.

In a story published last week, the paper reported that the actors were questioned by police for being part of a homosexuals' network, which was allegedly discovered last month at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel in Cairo.

While police sources denied the story, the newspaper said the actors were investigated by authorities before they bribed officers and the hotel management to disregard the whole incident and keep it quiet. The actors were outraged by the report, saying the newspaper's story was groundless. They filed lawsuits against the publication's chief editor, executive chief editor and one of its reporters.

In a statement, the Egyptian Higher Council for Journalism said it decided to ban the broadsheet after considering the reports forwarded to the general prosecutor by the actors, who stressed that Al Balagh Al Gadid was aiming to damage their reputations.

Most public figures in Egypt want to avoid being connected to homosexuality, which could damage their popularity among Muslim fans.

Turkey's two largest gay and lesbian Internet communities, hadigayri.com and gabile.com, have been shut down by the Telecommunication Directorate, or TI.B.

The Web sites have more than 200,000 members combined. According to its administrators and members, the sites do not contain any pornographic or criminal content. The directorate blocked the sites without providing any information to the owners or issuing a demand to take down certain content, site mangers said, calling the action unlawful and arbitrary.

The judiciary previously refused the demand to close down Lambda I.stanbul and Kaos GL, the city's two main gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations. Site managers said the new decision came after previous attempts to close down the online networks of members of these organizations.

Dutch religious schools will be able to continue refusing to employ homosexual teachers, despite home affairs ministry plans to amend discrimination laws.

The government is to scrap a clause which bans discrimination against people simply on the grounds of sex, race, sexual orientation or nationality because it is confusing , home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst told MPs.

And schools will still be able to refuse to employ gay teachers who practise homosexuality because it conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Gay rights groups said they are very disappointed at the decision. There is a real chance that certain schools will feel their anti-gay stand is now legitimate, Wouter Neerings, of the COC lobby group told Nos tv.

MPs are due to debate the issue on Wednesday.

A 14-year-old boy and a 43-year-old man have had their convictions for shouting homophobic abuse at former Portsmouth and England defender Sol Campbell overturned.

Ian Trow and the 14-year-old, who cannot be named, were found guilty of shouting abuse at the player during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth at Fratton Park on 28 September last year.

Trow was fined £500 and banned from attending football matches for three years. The teenage boy was also banned from football matches for three years, and fined £400 costs with an additional £15 to go to a victim surcharge fund. But the convictions have been overturned after the pair launched a successful appeal.

The appeal judge said it was not possible to determine whether Trow or the teenager were personally responsible for shouting abusive words, according to the Milton Keynes Citizen.

Judge Richard Price said: We can hear the crowd, we can hear the words 'gay boy'. We can't be sure those words came from Mr Trow's mouth. We can't be sure those words came from the boy's mouth.

He overturned the convictions and quashed both sentences.