Cambodian authorities evict HIV-affected families

(Phnom Penh, Cambodia) Cambodian authorities last week evicted 20 families afflicted with HIV from their homes in the capital, forcing them to move to a tiny settlement on its outskirts in an action critics called discriminatory.

The evictions from the Borei Keila community came after several months of strong protests by …

New map finds HIV rates are highest in the South

(Atlanta) A new Internet data map offers a first-of-its-kind, county-level look at HIV cases in the U.S. and finds the infection rates tend to be highest in the South.

The highest numbers of HIV cases are in population centers like New York and California. However, many of the areas with the …

Ore. AG clears Portland mayor over relationship

(Salem, Ore.) There’s no credible evidence that Portland Mayor Sam Adams broke the law in his 2005 relationship with a teenager, Oregon’s attorney general said Monday.

Adams, who is openly gay, has admitted that while campaigning for mayor, he lied about his relationship with Beau Breedlove, but he denies they were …

Poll: More New Yorkers support gay marriage

(Albany) A poll finds growing support for same-sex marriage in New York as a bill languishing in the state Senate is scheduled for a special session.

The Quinnipiac University poll finds 51 percent of New Yorkers support the legalization of same-sex marriage. Forty-one percent oppose it.

This is the first time the …

Petitioners to Mormons: Soften gay marriage stance

(Salt Lake City) A group of current and former Mormons at odds with the church’s position on gay marriage and its political activism to ban it has launched a Web site asking the faith to soften its stance.

The site, http://www.ldsapology.org , includes a petition for reconciliation that calls on leaders …

House members send Obama letter asking for repeal of DADT

(Washington) In an effort to change how Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is implemented within the Department of Defense, seventy-seven members of Congress sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to stop the investigation of DADT violations, the Advocate reports.

The Congressional members, led by Democratic Representative Alcee Hastings of …

60,000 inmates sexually abused every year

(Washington) A federal commission on prison rape has concluded that the risk of being attacked depends greatly on the type of prisoner, and where the inmate is locked up.

More than 60,000 inmates are sexually abused every year, according to a report being made public Tuesday by the National Prison Rape …

Perez Hilton accuses member of Black Eyed Peas of assault

(Toronto) Celebrity blogger and open gay man Perez Hilton alleges that he was assaulted Sunday night by a manager for the hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas after the Much Music Video awards in Toronto.

Toronto police have made an arrest in response to an assault that happened at 3 a.m. …

We’re Not Alone: Anti-Gay Groups Also Target Jews

Anti-gay religious groups promote their intolerance of GLBT individuals and families, but a less prominent aspect of some such groups is antipathy toward certain religions, and even races and ethnicities.

Once example is the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas. Headed by the Rev. Fred Phelps, Westboro-which is made up mostly of Phelps’ extended family-has generated headlines for picketing the funerals of gay people as well as the funerals of fallen military servicemembers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Phelps clan claim that “God hates America” because this country does not, in their view, aggressively persecute its GLBT See

We’re Not Alone: Anti-Gay Groups Also Target Jews

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Lesbian albatrosses and bisexual bonobos have last laugh on Darwin

Charles Darwin argued that sexual preferences can shape the progress of evolution, creating displays, such as the peacock’s tail, that are inexplicable by natural selection alone.

It’s safe to say, however, that he did not anticipate the lesbian albatrosses of Hawaii. Nor bisexual bonobos. Let alone sadomasochistic bat bugs or the gay penguins of New York.

Homosexuality is so widespread among some animal species that it can reshape their social dynamics and even change their DNA, according to the first peer-reviewed survey of research on the subject.

From mammals to snails, and even nematode worms, homosexual behaviour is almost universal across the animal kingdom, and Californian scientists argue that it should be considered a selective force in its own right.

“The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive — many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes,” write Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk of the University of California, Riverside.

Animals engage in same-sex activity for a variety of reasons, ranging from the need for an alternative child-rearing strategy to mistaken identity. “Male fruit flies may court other males because they are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes,” Dr Bailey said.

“But that is different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan albatrosses that can remain pair-bonded for life and co-operatively rear young.”

See