They report,Superintendent Julie Carbajal said the district won’t approve the proposed Gay-Straight Alliance, but she will make sure all other school clubs are following the district’s policy. The district already has asked the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to meet off campus while officials meet with attorneys.

Paul Rodriguez, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said the district is alienating other groups to disallow the creation of a club proposed by senior Bianca “Nikki” Peet, 17.

He called on members of other student groups now restricted from meeting on campus to join him in protest against what he called the district’s discriminatory practices.

“It is unfortunate that the district is punishing those clubs that were already meeting on campus and creating a hostile environment where Nikki and her supporters could be potential targets of taunting, abuse and hate slurs — the very thing that the (Gay-Straight Alliance) is committed to ending,” he wrote in a statement.

School will continue that day as usual, and students will be taking the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, a state standardized exam, spokeswoman Lynn Kaylor said.

The protests won’t change the district’s decision to adhere to a policy approved in 2005 disallowing student clubs not tied to curriculum to meet on campus, the district said in a statement.

“If there is a protest, even after the district has pledged to solve this issue according to the law and ensuring Flour Bluff ISD policies will be followed, our concern will continue to be for our students,” Carbajal said in a statement.

The federal Equal Access Act mandates schools to offer equal opportunities for all students to organize. In disallowing the Gay-Straight Alliance, the district said it didn’t have to follow the act because its policy didn’t allow any non-curriculum student groups to meet on campus. Since Rodriguez called for the approval of Peet’s club, the district has asked all student groups not tied to school-based curriculum to meet off campus.

Rodriguez has said that disallowing all non-curricular clubs on campus takes away his group’s argument. However, he said because such groups were meeting on campus when Peet petitioned to form a Gay-Straight Alliance, the district set a precedent allowing such clubs. That precedent trumps the district’s 2005 policy, so the district should allow Peet’s club, Rodriguez said.

Full article  -Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Last November in Minsk, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko suggested to German Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle that he should cease being gay.

Lukashenko recently acknowledged the incident, telling reporters that he dislikes “faggots” and confirming he told Westerwelle “it is necessary to live a normal life.”

Russian gay activist Nikolai Alekseev expressed surprise that there was little reaction to the incident from German gay activists or the German government.

“To leave without reaction what Lukashenko said is nothing else than setting a dangerous precedent,” Alekseev said. “If he can bash verbally a German minister on his sexual orientation, then why he would not do it with all Belarusian LGBT people.
“People have to understand that their absence of reaction can have some negative side effects to others.”

“I’m very surprised that there was not widespread condemnation of the remarks,  the utter hostility and homophobia of one countries envoy to another.”   Said Jason Shaw, gay writer, blogger and activist. “I’m very disheartened by the lack of action by our German brothers and sisters, in our global fight against homophobia and for acceptance and equality.  They rather seem to have accepted his kind of insult and homophobia from a close by nation as normal and understandable -  which is not!  he said today.

PinkPaper.com

According to TPM, our ‘creep of the week’ award goes to Duncan Hunter:

Gay servicemembers aren’t in the clear quite yet.

As the Pentagon begins its work to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a process that is expected to take several months, a Republican congressman from California has introduced legislation that would likely delay the process.

More on this at: TPM!

But even with the growing acceptance and inclusion, anti-gay and homophobic sentiment still exist and sometimes, we find it in places where we may not think we would…including the library at Harvard University.

According to a post on The Washington Post:

Police at Harvard University say they are investigating vandalism to about 40 books about lesbian and gay issues at a school library as a hate crime.

Security staff at Lamont Library said in a report filed with campus police on Friday that it appeared someone poured urine on the books on Nov. 24. An empty bottle was found nearby.

More here!

According to a post at: Steve Charing Outspoken -

While waiting for their orders, the couple engaged in what Marchetto characterized as “casual kissing.” Almost immediately a security guard and a supervisor told the women to “stop making a scene.”

Find out what happened next by reading more here!

From Focus On The Rainbow:

In case you hadn’t heard about this, Hall of Fame defensive lineman Dan Hampton who is doing analysis (if you can call it that) for the MSG Network threw a homophobic zing at the Dallas Cowboys when he said “The Cowboys think they’re Clint Eastwood, they’re more of the Brokeback variety if you know what I’m talking about.”

Read more and here the audio clip here!

According to the post:

I would see a hospital where the bodies of gay men had been dumped, their anuses closed shut from a heavy glue used to torture them. I would visit a safe house, chatting with gay men and transgender Iraqis who hid for safety, yet at the same time were welcoming and life-affirming, teaching me gay Arabic slang and joking about sex with gay Saddam-look-alikes.

More here!

According to a post at Metro Weekly Wale stated:

”One thing I stand for is hip hop music. And hip hop music knows no race, no color, no age, no gender, no sexual orientation — none of that. So, the most important thing about it is the music, and if it makes the people feel happy, that’s what we hear. I will say, sometimes in this business you get aligned with people that don’t understand that, or don’t necessarily have the same beliefs that you do. And I apologize for not, you know, having my best foot forward to understand the people I’m in business with. And I’m going to do better. As we all do. People we — everyday we got to get better. So, I apologize on behalf of my team, for not being the way they’re supposed to be.”

Read more and watch the interview at: Metro Weekly!

For many athletes coming out is difficult, there is fear of repercussions within the sports community and the very real possibility that being out will affect their careers.

Find out what one group is doing about it at: Xtra.ca!

According to the post:

Intolerance is not genetically encoded – it is taught. It is learned at home. It is learned in the classrooms and it is learned anywhere else we gather as a group. But it is usually learned early and added onto from there. If there is nothing to feared, there is nothing to hate. If there is nothing to hate there is no pain.

I am so proud of celebrities who make good use of their fame by speaking out about homophobia. Colins words give me chills because everything he says rings true. We learn discrimination, we are not taught it. If parents educated their kids from a young age about the LGBT community, then hatred in school, bullying and suicide would greatly decrease.

More at: The Queer Mirror!