Amazon managers found that an employee who happened to work in France had filled out a field incorrectly and more than 50,000 items got flipped over to be flagged as “adult,” the source said. (Technically, the flag for adult content was flipped from ‘false’ to ‘true.’)

“It’s no big policy change, just some field that’s been around forever filled out incorrectly,” the source said.

Amazon employees worked on the problem well past midnight, and then handed it over to an international team, he said.

Seattle-based Amazon.com sells millions of items, so the 57,000 affected represent just a tiny portion of the company’s selection. But Amazon’s perception problem was enormous, and aggravated by the company’s official description of the problem as a “glitch.”

(more)

(Ed note: I just checked over on Amazon.com my first novel “Pixiesticks” which is available over there (the others are exclusively on Lulu.com) and its searchability and sales-rank have been restored.

As for this latest, let’s call it Version 3.5 of Amazon’s response. I’m not so sure it holds water. Many other items didn’t get taken off that absolutely would have been tagged adult. The fact this has been happening since February is also bothersome. And finally, anonymous source? Haven’t we learned anything about Anonymous?)

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Amazon Spokesperson
Drew Herdener

via Seattlepi.com

(Ed note: Ah, the comments that come too late in this modern world. Amazon is an online only company and should have hauled Drew out -yesterday- Holiday or not.

As of today, you can now search for my own book, “Pixiesticks” on Amazon’s main page like you used to before this happened, but I as of right now, still do not have a sales-rank. I still wholeheartedly promote lulu.com FTW!)

The number one word being used over and over on Twitter at this moment is “AmazonFail.”

Why?

Users are angry about a perceived anti-gay policy that removes lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender books from appearing in sales rankings.

Author Mark Probst writes on his blog that two days ago, “mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: ‘Transgressions’ by Erastes and ‘False Colors’ by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book ‘The Filly.’”

Probst eventually got a response from Amazon.com Advantage member services, he says.

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

More than 800 people have signed a petition in strong protest of Amazon’s “adult policy” on thepetitionsite.com.

(more)

Update: There is now the phrase Amazon Rank that’s popped up in our lexicon for the moment.

Update: Here is a really great blog entry about Making Books Disappear.

Update: Here is an excellent article about Twitter’s impact on the news story really made a difference in just mere moments.

(Ed note: Indeed my own first novel, “Pixiesticks” has been de-ranked on Amazon — not that it was ranked very highly. More annoyingly if you try and search for it without specifically doing a search in the book category it no longer will show up. AmazonFail! LuluFTW!)

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote, the minimum needed, to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples and joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Tuesday morning’s legislative action came less than a day after Douglas issued a veto message saying the bill would not improve the lot of gay and lesbian couples because it still would not provide them rights under federal and other states’ laws.

Douglas called override “not unexpected.” He had called the issue of gay marriage a distraction during a time when economic and budget issues were more important.

“What really disappoints me is that we have spent some time on an issue during which another thousand Vermonters have lost their jobs,” the governor said Tuesday. “We need to turn out attention to balancing a budget without raising taxes, growing the economy, putting more people to work.”

House Speaker Shap Smith’s announcement of the vote brought an outburst of jubilation from some of the hundreds packed into the gallery and the lobby outside the House chamber, despite the speaker’s admonishment against such displays.

Among the celebrants in the lobby were former Rep. Robert Dostis, D-Waterbury, and his longtime partner, Chuck Kletecka. Dostis recalled efforts to expand gay rights dating to an anti-discrimination law passed in 1992.

“It’s been a very long battle. It’s been almost 20 years to get to this point,” Dostis said. “I think finally, most people in Vermont understand that we’re a couple like any other couple. We’re as good and as bad as any other group of people. And now I think we have a chance to prove ourselves here on forward that we’re good members of our community.”

Dostis said he and Kletecka will celebrate their 25th year together in September.

“Is that a proposal?” Kletecka asked.

“Yeah,” Dostis replied. “Twenty-five years together, I think it’s time we finally got married.”

Craig Bensen, a gay marriage opponent who had lobbied unsuccessfully for a nonbinding referendum on the question, said he was disappointed but believed gay marriage opponents were outspent by supporters by a 20-1 margin.

“The other side had a highly funded, extremely well-oiled machine with all the political leadership except the governor pushing to make this happen,” he said. “The fact that it came down to this tight a vote is really astounding.”

Also in the crowd was Michael Feiner, a farmer from Roxbury and gay marriage supporter, who took a break from collecting sap for maple syrup-making to come to the Statehouse.

“I’m taking a break to come and basically make sure that I was here to witness history,” he said.

The House had initially approved the bill last week with a 95-52 vote. Smith and his leadership team worked through the weekend to try to persuade some legislators to change their minds.

One who did was first-term Rep. Jeff Young, D-St. Albans. He said he continued to be philosophically opposed to gay marriage, but decided that voting with his fellow Democrats would help him be an effective legislator in the future.

“You realize that, you know, it’s a poker game in some ways,” Young said. “Chips on the table. I’m a freshman. I have no chips. If I … had 20 years of chips, I probably could play any card I want. I don’t have that option.”

He added, “It’s the way the political game is played.”

The Atlanta Pride Festival will move back to Piedmont Park after all.

But the largest gay pride festival in the Southeast will be held in the fall, not its traditional time in late June. The festival is now scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, city officials and festival organizers confirmed late Monday.

City officials had earlier reached an arrangement with organizers that the festival would be at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center and Central Park.

Pride organizers held last year’s festival at the center and said crowds and revenues were significantly less than in past years when it was held at Piedmont Park.

“We didn’t think that if we went back to the Civic Center that we would have a sound festival and we would be out of business,” said Atlanta Pride board chair Deirdre Heffernan.

The city has been reluctant to allow many large events in Piedmont Park since late 2007, when state officials announced drought restrictions. Atlanta officials have said they are worried it will take longer for the park’s grass to properly recover from major events during the drought.

In October, the city announced the Atlanta Dogwood Festival would be the only so-called “Class A” festival held at the park. The city helped find other sites for the Atlanta Pride Festival, Screen On The Green, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race.

Shortly afterward, Pride organizers told city officials they were worried they could not pay for any damages that might occur using the baseball fields at Central Park. Baseball fields, the commissioner said, are more expensive to maintain than the rolling grass at Piedmont Park.

Heffernan said Pride organizers met with Atlanta Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Director Dianne Harnell Cohen and City Council President Lisa Borders to come up with another solution.

The commissioner and her staff looked at moving the festival to the fall, thinking that would be enough time for the grounds to recover.

Heffernan said she is confident the festival will draw similar crowds to past years when it was held at Piedmont Park, despite the later date. She said the festival has had crowds estimated at about 250,000 during past parades.

Pride organizers will work with others to put together events in June to celebrate the region’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, Heffernan said.

(Ed note: Oh that’s fucking fantastic. Not only are they moving it out of June, which is Stonewall anniversary and all that, but they’re moving it to fucking Halloween? Are they fucking retarded? Oh, let’s have our political and social demonstration on the same weekend as Halloween!!!!! We’ll totally be taken seriously now right!? Goddamnit! And they’re sorely mistaken if they think they’ll get as big of a crowd that weekend.)

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) – One man and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday as they searched for a fourth suspect.

Officers arrested Humberto Hernandez Salvador at his Richmond home Wednesday night, Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. The 31-year-old is being held without bail on gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking charges.

Police on Wednesday also arrested a 15-year-old Richmond boy and a 16-year-old Hercules boy, who were being held at a juvenile detention center on similar charges. Their names were not released.

Police would not detail each person’s alleged involvement in the attack but said tips from local residents led to the arrests.

Investigators are still seeking 21-year-old Josue Gonzalez, who had prior addresses in San Rafael and Richmond, on a $1 million arrest warrant for gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking, police said. Gonzalez was called by the nickname “Pato” during the attack and is considered armed and dangerous, Gagan said.

Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked on Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The alleged attackers made comments indicating they knew she was a lesbian, police said.

Authorities have characterized the case as a hate crime. Police said the victim lives openly with a female partner.

The 45-minute attack started when one of the men approached the woman in the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her with the help of the others, according to detectives.

When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building. She was raped again inside and outside the vehicle and left naked outside the building while the alleged assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car, police said.

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict said Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

The Church “should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed,” the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration.

“The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less.”

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality “a deviation, an irregularity, a wound.”

The pope said humanity needed to “listen to the language of creation” to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as “a destruction of God’s work.”

SAN FRANCISCO — A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.

Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.

“It just pushes it beyond fathomable,” he said. “The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme.”

Authorities are characterizing the attack as a hate crime but declined to reveal why they think the woman was singled out because of her sexual orientation. Gagan would say only that the victim lived openly with a female partner and had a rainbow flag sticker on her car.

The 45-minute attack began when one of the men approached the woman as she crossed the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her on the spot with the help of the other men.

When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building, where she was raped again inside and outside the vehicle. The assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car. Officers found the car abandoned two days later.

The woman sought help from a nearby resident, and she was examined at a hospital. Although the victim said she did not know her attackers, detectives hope someone in the community knows them. One of the men went by the nickname “Blue” and another was called “Pato,” according to authorities.

Richmond police are offering a $10,000 award for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.

Gay rights advocates note that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased nationwide as of late. There were 1,415 such crimes in 2006 and 1,460 in 2007, both times making up about 16 percent of the total, according to the FBI.

Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than heterosexual victims to contact police.

“Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault,” he said. “Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience.”

Skolnik said the group plans to analyze hate crime data to see whether fluctuations may be related to the gay marriage bans that appeared on ballots this year in California, Arizona and Florida.

“Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks,” he said. “People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice.”

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly split over the issue of gay rights on Thursday after a European-drafted statement calling for decriminalization of homosexuality prompted an Arab-backed one opposing it.

Diplomats said a joint statement initiated by France and the Netherlands gathered 66 signatures in the 192-nation assembly after it was read out by Argentina at a plenary session. A rival statement, read out by Syria, gathered some 60.

The two statements remained open for further signatures, the diplomats said. No resolution was drafted on the issue and there was no voting, they added.

The division in the General Assembly reflected conflicting laws in the world at large. According to sponsors of the Franco-Dutch text, homosexuality is illegal in 77 countries, seven of which punish it by death.

The European Union-backed document, noting that the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was marked this month, said those rights applied equally to all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

It urged states “to take all the necessary measures, in particular legislative or administrative, to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention.”

But the opposing document said the statement “delves into matters which fall essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of states” and could lead to “the social normalization, and possibly the legitimization, of many deplorable acts including pedophilia.”

“We note with concern the attempts to create ‘new rights’ or ‘new standards,’ by misinterpreting the Universal Declaration and international treaties to include such notions that were never articulated nor agreed by the general membership,” it added.

This, it said, could “seriously jeopardize the entire international human rights framework.”

Muslim countries have for years opposed international attempts to legalize homosexuality.

U.S. officials said the United States had not signed either document. They said the broad framing of the language in the statement supporting decriminalization created conflicts with U.S. law, but gave no further details.

But Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told reporters it was a “very special day at the U.N.”

“For the first time in history a large group of member states speaks out in the General Assembly against discrimination based on sexual orientation,” he said. “With today’s statement, this is no longer a taboo within the U.N.”

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters sponsors of the statement had “cornered” other members by springing the declaration on them.

(Ed note: Normally I don’t share Funny or Die videos, but this one features such a star studded cast and is about proposition 8, I thought it was worth your time.)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California’s highest court agreed Wednesday to hear several legal challenges to the state’s new ban on same-sex marriage but refused to allow gay couples to resume marrying before it rules.
The California Supreme Court accepted three lawsuits seeking to nullify Proposition 8, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that overruled the court’s decision in May that legalized gay marriage.

All three cases claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

As is its custom when it takes up cases, the court elaborated little. However, the justices did say they want to address what effect, if any, a ruling upholding the amendment would have on the estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that were sanctioned in California before Election Day.

Gay rights groups and local governments petitioning to overturn the ban were joined by the measure’s sponsors and Attorney General Jerry Brown in urging the Supreme Court to consider whether Proposition 8 passes legal muster.

The initiative’s opponents had also asked the court to grant a stay of the measure, which would have allowed gay marriages to begin again while the justices considered the cases. The court denied that request.

The justices directed Brown and lawyers for the Yes on 8 campaign to submit arguments by Dec. 19 on why the ballot initiative should not be nullified. It said lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include same-sex couples who did not wed before the election, must respond before Jan. 5.

Oral arguments could be scheduled as early as March, according to court spokeswoman Lynn Holton.

“This is welcome news. The matter of Proposition 8 should be resolved thoughtfully and without delay,” Brown said in a statement.

Both opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 expressed confidence Wednesday that their arguments would prevail. But they also agreed that the cases present the court’s seven justices—six of whom voted to review the challenges—with complex questions that have few precedents in state case law.

Although more than two dozen states have similar amendments, some of which have survived similar lawsuits, none were approved by voters in a place where gay marriage already was legal.

Neither were any approved in a state where the high court had put sexual orientation in the same protected legal class as race and religion, which the California Supreme Court did when it rendered its 4-3 decision that made same-sex marriage legal in May.

Opponents of the ban argue that voters improperly abrogated the judiciary’s authority by stripping same-sex couples of the right to wed after the high court earlier ruled it was discriminatory to prohibit gay men and lesbians from marrying.

“If given effect, Proposition 8 would work a dramatic, substantive change to our Constitution’s ‘underlying principles’ of individual equality on a scale and scope never previously condoned by this court,” lawyers for the same-sex couples stated in their petition.

The measure represents such a sweeping change that it constitutes a constitutional revision as opposed to an amendment, the documents say. The distinction would have required the ban’s backers to obtain approval from two-thirds of both houses of the California Legislature before submitting it to voters.

Over the past century, the California Supreme Court has heard nine cases challenging legislative acts or ballot initiatives as improper revisions. The court eventually invalidated three of the measures, according to the gay rights group Lambda Legal.

Andrew Pugno, legal counsel for the Yes on 8 campaign, said he doubts the court will buy the revision argument in the case of the gay marriage ban because the plaintiffs would have to prove the measure alters the state’s basic governmental framework.

Joel Franklin, a constitutional law professor at Monterey College of Law, said that even though the court rejected similar procedural arguments when it upheld amendments reinstating the death penalty and limiting property taxes, those cases do not represent as much of a fundamental change as Proposition 8.

“Those amendments applied universally to all Californians,” Franklin said. “This is a situation where you are removing rights from a particular group of citizens, a class of individuals the court has said is entitled to constitutional protection. That is a structural change.”

The trio of cases the court accepted were filed by six same-sex couples who have not yet wed, a Los Angeles lesbian couple who were among the first to tie the knot on June 16 and 11 cities and counties, led by the city of San Francisco.

Don’t see it at a Cinemark theatre.
Here’s why!

I’ll be at 10th and Piedmont tonight at 5pm for the second of our two rallies here in Atlanta, Georgia. Come on out and Join the Impact. How can a government deny, then give, then re-deny equal rights?

LOS ANGELES (AP) – In an election otherwise full of liberal triumphs, the gay rights movement suffered a stunning defeat as California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriages that overrides a recent court decision legalizing them.
The constitutional amendment—widely seen as the most momentous of the nation’s 153 ballot measures—will limit marriage to heterosexual couples, the first time such a vote has taken place in a state where gay unions are legal.

Gay-rights activists had a rough election elsewhere as well. Ban-gay-marriage amendments were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Supporters made clear that gays and lesbians were their main target.

In California, with 95 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday, the ban had 5,125,752 votes, or 52 percent, while there were 4,725,313 votes, or 48 percent, opposed.

Similar bans had prevailed in 27 states before Tuesday’s elections, but none were in California’s situation—with about 18,000 gay couples married since a state Supreme Court ruling in May. The state attorney general, Jerry Brown, has said those marriages will remain valid, although legal challenges are possible.

Spending for and against the amendment reached $74 million, making it the most expensive social-issues campaign in U.S. history and the most expensive campaign this year outside the race for the White House.

(Ed note: I knew things were fishy when voting yes meant no, you don’t approve of gay marriage, and voting no meant yes you do approve of it. What a terrible kick in the teeth on this historic night.)

(Ed note: I think it’s backwards that in order to support same-sex marriage continuing in the great state of California, you have to vote “no” on something. You’d think you’d need to vote “yes.” I think it’s a conspiracy. But regardless if you live in California, you gotta help get out the vote. Keep the love going!)

NEW YORK (CNN) — The Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford ruled Friday that the state must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

The decision makes this the third state, after Massachusetts and California, where a state court has decided its constitution mandates a state treat citizens equally when applying for marriage licenses, regardless of their sexual orientation.”Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” said the decision, ” the ruling said.

“To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others. The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.”

Sure, I admit having one drink too many and finding myself out on the dance floor when “I Kissed A Girl” is remixed and laid out on the turntables. That doesn’t mean I don’t completely loathe the song.

And now with the debut single entitled “Ur So Gay” getting remixes hitting the dancefloor, my RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE can continue. In the song she laments and completely trashes a boy she’s been seeing who does all the stereotypically gay man things.

It’s trash.
Terrible poppy trash.

Please don’t encourage her.

SUDBURY — Police are investigating whether an independent federal candidate committed a hate crime by telling high school students homosexuals should be executed.

David Popescu was invited to participate in a federal candidates’ discussion at Sudbury Secondary School yesterday. He made the comment after a student asked his opinion of gay marriage.

Within hours, the Greater Sudbury Police Service said they were investigating.

“We are actively conducting a criminal investigation in this matter,” deputy police chief Frank Elsner said.

The police service plans to share its evidence with the provincial Attorney General’s office, which will provide direction on whether or not a criminal charge is warranted. More than 200 students gathered in the school’s auditorium to hear candidates from the NDP, Liberal Party and the First Peoples National Party.

Popescu introduced himself with a public prayer, blaming environmental damage and economic unrest on the wickedness of society. His comments were met with silence as some students grimaced and shifted in their seats.

Near the end of the more than two-hour event, students were invited to ask the candidates questions. As a long line of pupils waited to speak, Popescu told a young female student who asked about stem cell research that, “God would hurt” those who had an abortion.

The crowd jeered and many rose to their feet in protest after Popescu answered another teenager’s question on gay marriage.

During a telephone interview later in the day, Popescu reasserted his view.

“A young man asked me what I think of homosexual marriages and I said I think homosexuals should be executed,” he said. “My whole reason for running is the Bible and the Bible couldn’t be more clear on that point.” Candidates and teachers looked on in silence as students called for him to be “cut off.” Despite their outrage, the discussion moved to other topics.

Paul Camillo, principal of Sudbury Secondary, emphasized the school’s inclusiveness in his closing remarks but did not condemn the statement.

“We’re here today to hear what the candidates have to say,” he said in an interview. “As an inclusive school, we respect all other opinion although we may not agree with them — and I know there were definitely some things said today that we don’t agree with.” When Sun Media-owned Sudbury Star later requested a comment on the controversy from the Rainbow District School Board, the board directed Camillo to provide its response, rather than the board’s chair or director of education.

Camillo said he could not state whether Popescu would be welcomed back to Sudbury Secondary, as a candidate in a future political debate.

An advocate for the Sudbury Gay and Lesbian community said while Popescu’s extreme views are well known, he has never said something “so extreme.” “He’s not simply saying that lesbians or gay men are mentally ill or somehow deviant or criminals. He’s saying we should be subject to the death penalty,” said Gary Kinsman.

“I think sometimes violence and hatred towards gays and lesbians gets dressed up in sort of a religious guise and is somehow tolerated. I just don’t think it should be tolerated at all.” Kinsman was particularly concerned the comments were made before a group of young people.

“There are lots of young people in high schools in Sudbury who are struggling with their sexualities. Often times, it’s pretty hard time for them,” he said. “To say something to young people is pretty terrible.”

DALLAS — Three girls were disciplined for playing a suggestive song at a North Texas high school pep rally, school administrators said.

The girls, who are on the twirl team, were disciplined after playing Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed A Girl” at a pep rally at Van High School in Van Zandt County.

The song’s lyrics, which are performed by a woman, say, “I kissed a girl, and I liked it.”

Jordan Downey, one of the girls who was disciplined, said she didn’t think the school would care about the song.

“They told us that it probably won’t be a very good a idea, and then we decided, like, it’s not a big deal, we’ll just run for it, no one’s going to care,” she said.

School officials said the girls broke the student code of conduct.

“We did have rules in place, and rules were broken and discipline followed,” said Van Independent School District spokesman Suzie McWilliams.

Downey said she thinks she and the other two girls were disciplined because the song is about a girl kissing another girl.

“It’s a song,” she said. “It’s just like any other song.”

School administrators told NBC 5 the twirlers will not be allowed to attend two football games and one pep rally.

“The pep rally is OK. I could deal with that one,” Downey said. “But the game — I really like to perform, especially since it’s a home game.”

Downey, a senior, has been a member of the twirl team for the last four years.

Taylor Lewis, a senior at Van High, said band members wore stickers that said, “no twirlers, no band” and that the drum line is saying it will not play at the games.

A parent, who did not want to be identified, said she feels the song is inappropriate for school and should not have been played at a pep rally.

Jordon Downey’s mother, Jane, said the situation wasn’t a big deal. She also said the punishment was fair.

She said her daughter isn’t a bad person. The school district agreed and said the matter is closed.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Most states don’t recognize gay marriage — but now Hallmark does.

The nation’s largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards — featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. “Two hearts. One promise,” one says.

Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal gay marriage. A handful of other states have recognized same-sex civil unions.

The language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political pressure.

“It’s our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can,” Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said.

Hallmark’s largest competitor, American Greetings Corp., has no plans to enter the market, saying its current offerings are general enough to speak to a lot of different relationships.

Hallmark started offering “coming out” cards last year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next year. No sales figures were available yet.

“When I have shopped for situations like babies or weddings for gay friends I have good luck in quirky stores,” said Kathryn Hamm, president of the Web site gayweddings.com.

“But if you are just in a generic store … the bride and groom symbol or words are in most cards,” she said. “It becomes difficult to find some that are neutral but have some style.”

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimates that more than 85,000 same-sex couples in the United States have entered into a legal relationship since 1997, when Hawaii started offering some legal benefits to same-sex partners.

It estimates nearly 120,000 more couples will marry in California during the next three years — and that means millions of potential dollars for all sorts of wedding-industry businesses.

Hallmark, known more for its Midwest mores than progressive greetings, has added a wider variety lately. It now offers cards for difficulty getting pregnant or going through rehab.

It pulled a controversial card that featured the word “queer” in the punch line after it was criticized by some customers and gay magazine The Advocate last year. At any given time, Hallmark has 200 different wedding cards on the market, including some catering to interracial or inter-religious marriages and blended families.

The Greeting Card Association, a trade group, says it does not track how many companies provide same-sex cards but believes the number is expanding.

“The fact that you have someone like Hallmark going into that niche shows it’s growing and signals a trend,” said Barbara Miller, a spokeswoman for the association.

Rob Fortier, an independent card maker who runs his company, Paper Words, out of New York, added same-sex wedding cards to his mix after thinking about what he would want to receive.

“A lot of people think a gay greeting card needs a rainbow on it,” Fortier said. “I don’t want that.”

But for some time, it was difficult to even find the words for what anyone wanted to say, he said.

His first card poked fun at the challenge. On the outside it featured lines that had been scratched out: “Congratulations on being committed!”, “Congratulations on being unionized!” and, finally, “Congratulations on being domestically partnered!” The inside wished the couple congratulations on choosing to be together forever.

“It really comes down to language,” he said.

John Stark, one of the three founders of Three Way Design in Boston, which makes gay-themed cards for occasions from adoption to weddings, has several new designs sketched out and ready.

But he has hesitated adding more wedding cards to his mix until after the November election, when California voters will decide a constitutional amendment that would again limit marriage to a man and a woman in the state.

“What is scary is to produce a marriage line and then November comes and it’s recalled, then we have thousands of dollars of inventory waiting,” he said.

The gay-friendly business can be challenging, companies said.

Hamm said although she has found many vendors willing to work with her company, some have asked to be removed from the Web site because of hate mail or some other backlash.

Hallmark says all of its stores can choose whether they want to add the latest offerings.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — There was much dancing: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are married, according to reports.

In the biggest celebrity union since California legalized same-sex marriage, DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, wed Saturday night in an intimate ceremony at their Beverly Hills home, People and Us Magazine reported.

A publicist for DeGeneres didn’t immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press on Saturday.

After the California Supreme Court’s ruling in May, the talk-show host announced that she and de Rossi would wed after four years together.

The ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including DeGeneres’s mom Betty and de Rossi’s mother Margaret Rogers, who flew in from Australia for the occasion, People.com reported Saturday night.

DeGeneres said after winning her fourth consecutive Daytime Emmy for talk show host in June that a date had not been set, and that she would show “a tiny bit” of the nuptials on her show.

While opponents in California have gathered signatures to put a measure on the November ballot for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, Hollywood was throwing it support behind the newlyweds.

“One of my favorite people of all time is Ms. Ellen DeGeneres,” Katherine Heigel told AP Television at a Hollywood charity event on Saturday night. “So I wish all the best, all the happiness, all the joy that comes with that certificate … just the joy of being able to stand up and say that. In front of everyone you love and care about in front of each other and to walk away legal is huge.”

It’s nearing midnight on Saturday, and a gaggle of women in trendy dresses snake their way through Mary’s bar in a cloud of perfume and make-up.

The women walk past a transgender woman waiting to sing Elton John at karaoke. They push through a throng of white and black gay men deep in conversation about the presidential election. They sidestep an East Atlanta local who walks down in a baseball cap to grab a beer.

“We’re not here for the men, and they’re not interested in us,” one woman says, explaining why she and her friends — all straight — headed out to a gay bar in the East Atlanta Village for the night. “We’re just out to have a good time.”

The word about good times at Mary’s has apparently gotten out. Logo, a cable channel geared to the gay community, last month named Mary’s the best gay bar in the country.

The best gay bar in the country? As in, better than the swank spots in L.A. with guest lists and lines of wannabes at the door. Better than the New York clubs where Lindsay Lohan was known to jump on stage and sing (pre-breakdown, of course).

Mary’s, named for the campy term of endearment among some gay men, is a self-described dive bar known mostly for its karaoke. It’s where kitschy theme nights feature the likes of a Double-Dutch jump rope battle or dressing up as your favorite Frenchie for Bastille Day.

“At Mary’s you never know who is sitting next to you or what will happen next,” said John Polly, the editor with Logo Online who collected a national panel of travel writers, journalists, party promoters and gay celebrities to decide what rose to the top. “People are charmed by that.”

Put another way, anything can happen at Mary’s. It often does.

Co-owner Mike Dover remembers the time a giant RV lumbered into the back parking lot. A lesbian couple decked out in tie-dye were on their way home to Florida from the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee when they called around to bars in Atlanta. Mary’s had the nicest person answer the phone, so they decided to stop there.

Meanwhile, a limo dropped off a bachelorette party at the front door. Tipsy and celebrating, they wanted to have another toast to the soon-to-be bride.

On most nights, Mary’s is a mix of gay and neighborhood patrons. But everyone is welcome in the two-story bar, where the ceiling drips white Christmas lights and ’60s and ’70s paintings adorn the walls.

“All the things that are right about Atlanta get reflected in this bar,” said co-owner Bill Overall. “It’s the mix of people in a place where it all just comes together.”

Adds Dover, “We’re neighborhood people, gay people, straight people, black people, white people. Why can’t we all go to the same place?”

That attitude of a gay Cheers — only not too gay — strikes a chord with regulars and newbies alike.

Tara O’Bryan had just moved to Georgia last year when a friend took her to Mary’s. A transgender singer, O’Bryan was expecting a cookie cutter gay bar, where she would feel isolated by not fitting the mold.

Instead, her regular table in the corner became known as the Diva Section by other regulars and staffers. It was where, two weeks ago, her boyfriend got down on one knee and proposed.

“It doesn’t really surprise me that this is the best gay bar in the entire nation,” said the 27-year-old O’Bryan. “I’m just glad they got it right.”

A few minutes later, O’Bryan pierced the bar sounds with her take on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” the Elton John song. “I can’t light no more of your darkness,” she sang.

The crowd cheered while others waited for their turn at the karaoke mic. The next wave of songs would feature tunes from the ’80s, Motown and even some country.

At Mary’s, there’s something for everybody.

Considering I go out pretty much every weekend, Pride Weekend for me was just more. More nights. More people. More everything. Including more nothing, as in, I still managed to not get any.

I was offered, but the guy who did was none to my liking despite us having some things in common. He just didn’t have the looks I’d need to appreciate making the beast with two backs with.

As for my own pursuits, I managed to drive a guy that I’ve known for a few months home, and nothing happened there either. He’s taller than I, short short blond cropped hair, and is a few years older, yet looks a few years younger. And though we’re kissing friends, that’s where we still remain.

Still, the extended weekend wasn’t too bad of a bust. I spent just shy of what I expected thanks partially to Kaze and Tat being so generous as well as managing to sweet talk my way on The Bodyshop’s guest list. To bad DJ Duo Yoshi Mac put on a marginal set. In fact, all the DJs seemed to be taking no chances with their oversized crowds.

I have one more day off, tomorrow, before I go back to work bright and early Tuesday morning. And I think that’s just fine. I need to get my finances boosted back to smoother levels anyway.

As for updates on the site: Provided thunderstorms don’t strike yet again tomorrow, I’ll be back to posting a handful of shotalicious goodies then.

Ah yes, one more bit of information: Elf’s housewarming party on Thursday went down as actually one of the highlights of the whole weekend. While I was surrounded by breeders, this fag actually took it in stride and had a good time even when I wasn’t following my favorite trap around like a lost puppy.

Happy Pride to you all whenever your area celebrates such. And honestly, be proud year round!

SAN FRANCISCO — Dozens of gay couples were married Monday after a landmark ruling making California the second state to allow same-sex nuptials went into effect.

At least five county clerks around the state extended their hours to issue marriage licenses, and many same-sex couples got married on the spot.

The May 15 California Supreme Court ruling overturning bans on same-sex marriage took effect at 8:01 p.m. Eastern time.

The really big rush to the altar was not expected to take place until Tuesday, which is when most counties planned to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of couples from around the country are expected to seize the opportunity to make their unions official in the eyes of the law.

In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who helped launch the series of lawsuits that led the court to strike down California’s one-man-one-woman marriage laws, presided at the wedding of Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84.

Newsom picked the couple for the only ceremony in City Hall Monday in recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement. More than 600 same-sex couples have made appointments to get marriage licenses in San Francisco over the next 10 days.

In February 2004, Newsom decided to challenge California’s marriage laws by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In the month that followed, more than 4,000 same-sex couples were married before a judge acting on petitions brought by gay marriage opponents halted the city’s spree. The state Supreme Court ultimately voided those unions, but two dozen couples sued and those lawsuits led the same court last month to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage.

Among the plaintiffs in those lawsuits was a couple married Monday in a Jewish ceremony in front of the Beverly Hills courthouse.

The ceremony between Robin Tyler and Diane Olson was broadcast live on three newscasts in Los Angeles.

The couple wept and pressed their foreheads together, and onlookers whooped as the marriage became valid.

Rabbi Denise Eger saluted the couple for “these many years of coming to this very place and standing on these courthouse steps year after year of being denied this right, this civil right.”

Ellen DeGeneres is putting the California Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage into action — she and Portia de Rossi plan to wed, DeGeneres announced during a taping of her talk show.

DeGeneres was taping the episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Thursday, the day the state’s high court struck down California laws against gay marriage, and it was to air Friday, a person close to the production said.

The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Citing the court’s ruling, DeGeneres said she and girlfriend de Rossi (“Ally McBeal,” “Nip/Tuck”) would be getting married.

De Rossi, 35, who was in the studio, and DeGeneres, 50, were applauded by audience members, the person close to the production said.

Calls and e-mails late Thursday to DeGeneres’ publicist were not immediately returned.

The court ruling means same-sex couples could tie the knot in as little as a month. However, religious and social conservatives are seeking to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the Supreme Court ruling and ban gay marriage.

California’s supreme court ruled that a ban on gay marriage was unlawful Thursday, effectively leaving same-sex couples in America’s most populous state free to tie the knot in a landmark ruling.

In an opinion that analysts say could have nationwide implications for the issue, the seven-member panel voted 4-3 in favor of plaintiffs who argued that restricting marriage to men and women was discriminatory.

“… limiting the designation of marriage to a union ‘between a man and a woman’ is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute,” California Chief Justice Ron George said in the written opinion.

Before Thursday only one US state — Massachusetts — allowed gay marriage, although California, New Jersey and Vermont have legislation which grants same-sex partners many of the same legal rights as married couples.

Thursday’s ruling came after a long-running legal battle that erupted in 2000 when California voters approved a law declaring that only marriages between men and women could be legally recognized.

In February 2004, the City of San Francisco defied state law by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that existing laws were illegal because they violated equal rights legislation.

A court later halted the issuance of licenses and declared that same-sex marriages that took place during this period were void.

However San Francisco and civil rights activists waged a legal case arguing that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples was unconstitutional and that the law should be struck down.

In 2005 the San Francisco Superior Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that there was no justification for refusing to allow marriages on gender grounds.

But the decision was overturned in 2006 by the California Court of Appeal, which ruled in a 2-1 decision that the state’s desire to “carry out the expressed wishes of a majority” was sufficient to preserve the existing law.

California lawmakers have also voted in favor of gay marriage but the bill was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has said that the matter is for the state’s court system to decide on.

Dutch council officials will permit gay sex in public areas but fine dog owners who let their pets off the leash in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark.

Paul van Grieken, an Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of the city, has startled many Amsterdammers, despite their famously liberal attitudes, with plans to allow public sex as part of this summer’s new rules of conduct for the country’s best-known park.

“Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?”, he said.

Amsterdam’s beautiful Vondelpark in the centre of city draws hordes of summer visitors, families, skaters and joggers.

But the park’s rose garden has become famous as a trysting spot for gay men looking for uncomplicated sexual encounters.

Mr van Grieken stresses that tolerance to “cruising” gays, aimed at protecting homosexuals from violence, will have “strict rules attached”.

“Thus, condoms must always be cleared away, it must never take place in the neighbourhood of children’s playgrounds and the sex must be restricted to the evening and night-time,” he said.

The new park rules have the blessing of the Dutch police, who have urged all Dutch parks to follow Amsterdam’s lead.

But Amsterdam’s dog owners are less impressed. The new park code of conduct will set out stiff fines for dogs that are allowed to run around the Vondelpark off the leash.

“Research showed that many people find this disturbing,” said Mr van Grieken.

One dog owner protested: “As long as the park has existed, we’ve been allowed to let our dogs run freely. It’s outrageous that we will be punished from now on but public sex won’t. If they can drop their trousers, why can’t I let my dog loose?”

An Oklahoma state representative has received thousands of hostile e-mail messages after she said that homosexuality is a bigger threat to national security than terrorism.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is investigating more than 17,000 mostly hostile e-mails that were sent to State Rep. Sally Kern after parts of a speech she gave to a Republican organization earlier this year were posted on YouTube, said bureau spokeswoman Jessica Brown.

During the speech, Kern said that “the homosexual agenda is just destroying this nation” and that homosexuality poses a bigger threat to the United States than terrorism. “According to God’s word, that is not the right kind of lifestyle,” she said.

“Studies show no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than a few decades,” Kern, a former teacher who sits on the education committee, added.

Her speech, first posted online earlier this week by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, has generated national attention. The recording has been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube. Since then, Kern’s office has been bombarded by angry phone calls and e-mails. Several gay rights organizations have called for her to resign and local newspapers have criticized her.

“Her comments are so inappropriate and beyond the pale that she’s demonstrated that she’s not fit for service in public office,” said Patrick Sammon, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national association of gay and lesbian Republicans. “For someone to compare gay people to terrorists is really difficult to comprehend. She should be ashamed.”

Brown, the spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said the agency was reviewing the growing number of e-mails sent to Kern to determine if any of them could be considered legally threatening.

“If I say I’m going to kill you, that’s a threat. If I say I hope you die, that’s not,” she said.

She said the agency may contact some of the people who sent the e-mails.

Kern did not respond to e-mails and messages left at her office and home in Oklahoma City. Her husband, a Baptist minister, also did not return a message. A spokesman for the state House of Representatives, speaking on Kern’s behalf, said Kern would not be available for an interview.

Her son, Jessie, said he stood by his mother. “I’m grateful that she has the passion to stand up for what she believes in,” he said.

Kern has declined to apologize, telling local newspapers that her speech was edited when it was posted online and that her comments were taken out of context. She said she was referring only to activists who support gay candidates and what she called the “homosexual agenda.” She said she had no problem with gay individuals.

She told the Tulsa World newspaper that she received a standing ovation during a private meeting of Republican lawmakers on Monday. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Chris Benge said there were no plans to censure Kern for her comments.

NEW YORK — The love affair between two young men on the venerable CBS soap opera “As the World Turns” has triggered a protest campaign by angry viewers.

It’s just not the sort of protest you’d expect.

Fans of the fictional romance between Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer are baffled about why the two characters haven’t kissed on-screen since September, wondering whether it’s a sign of squeamishness by CBS or show sponsors Procter & Gamble Co.

The fans have started a letter-writing campaign, posted an online petition and even have a Web site that counts the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Luke and Noah last locked lips.

“We totally support this show and applaud the show for doing this story line,” said Roger Newcomb, a computer worker from New York’s northern suburbs and the man behind the campaign. “We just don’t understand why they have to be censored or treated differently.”

“As the World Turns,” which premiered in 1956, had the first gay male character in daytime drama in 1988. Last August was another milestone — believed to be the first time two gay men kissed on a soap — when Luke surprised Noah with the sign of affection.

They kissed again in September, at a time Noah was still coming to grips with being gay. But since officially becoming a couple, their lips have been sealed.

Fans first sensed the new attitude around Christmas, during a tender scene where the two men proclaimed their love for one another. It was clear they were about to kiss, but the camera instead panned up and focused on some mistletoe.

“I’ve been watching soaps for decades,” Newcomb said, “and that doesn’t happen.”

Valentine’s Day featured fantasy sequences involving several of the show’s couples. All the stories ended in a kiss, except for Luke and Noah’s. They hugged.

That’s when the campaign started.

“There are some people who want to see sex between Luke and Noah,” said 34-year-old Theresa Webber, who lives north of Boston. “I’ve been watching soaps long enough to know that they’re a teenage couple, so it’s not going to happen anyway. But for them to not kiss at all, it’s a little extreme.”

The soap is owned, produced and written by Procter & Gamble Productions Inc., a subsidiary of the consumer giant that makes Bounty, Crest, Pampers, Mr. Clean and Ivory soap. CBS executives consult on the series, but the creative direction is set by P&G.

There’s no kissing ban, said Jeannie Tharrington, spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble Productions, although she wouldn’t say what will happen in future shows. She explained the mistletoe shot as a “creative decision.”

“It’s always hard to please a diverse audience,” Tharrington said, “and we have a diverse audience.”

Webber recalls reading a handful of letters in soap opera publications after last summer’s first kiss along the lines of “I don’t care if Luke is gay, but I don’t want to see it.”

Barbara Bloom, CBS senior vice president for daytime, said there was a “minimal” negative reaction from viewers about the story line, although she couldn’t define what that meant. There was apparently no organized campaign by conservative or parent advocacy groups that monitor television content.

“It’s entirely new to me,” said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council. “I hadn’t heard anything about it.”

The American Family Association Web site has a “take-action alert” against Procter & Gamble, calling the company the “top pro-homosexual sponsor on television.” The group bases its determination on the number of P&G products advertised on prime-time TV shows with gay or lesbian characters.

“As the World Turns” isn’t even mentioned.

Webber and Newcomb said they’ve been more bothered by other things they have seen on the soap, like when a 14-year-old boy shot a man who was attacking his mother. One character is so desperate for a baby that she slept with her ex-brother-in-law, and was nearly caught having sex in an elevator. Another woman led her children and ex-husband into believing she had a brain tumor, just to get him back.

All are more offensive to her than two men kissing, Webber said.

“It’s 2008,” she said. “It’s something that’s real. If they were not going to follow through with it, they shouldn’t have started it.”

The story’s popularity complicates matters. Some 140 scenes featuring the two actors, Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann, are posted online. The message board on Vanhansis.net gets posts from around the world. While competitors “One Life to Live” and “Days of Our Lives” have seen double-digit drops in viewership over the past year, “As the World Turns” is down only 2 percent.

The soap’s producers seem to want it both ways, to get credit for having a gay couple but no backlash from long-term viewers for showing intimacy, said Carolyn Hinsey, editor of Soap Opera Weekly.

CBS’ Bloom said she would like to see Luke and Noah’s romance continue. “If that means there is a natural progression to the physical relationship, I would be in support of it,” she said.

Tharrington laughed when asked about any behind-the-scenes debates over showing intimacy between the two men. “You wouldn’t even believe,” she said.

Producers are committed to telling the story of the romance, she said, adding she hoped the audience would recognize what “As the World Turns” is showing, instead of just what it isn’t.

“We feel like we’re doing so much right here,” she said. “We’re telling a story that no one else is doing. We’re telling a story that has really engaged our audience.”

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Republican presidential hopeful and former Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee linked gay sex to bestiality and abortion to slavery in an interview Thursday, explaining why, if elected, he would try to amend the constitution.

“Marriage has … as long as there’s been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life. Once we change that definition, then where does it go from there?” he asked in an interview with online “Beliefnet” magazine.

“Well, I don’t think that’s a radical view, to say we’re going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal,” he added.

“The Bible was not written to be amended. The Constitution was,” he said, announcing his intention to amend the document if he were to be elected president in November to ban abortion and establish that life begins at the moment of conception.

Leaving it up to individual states to outlaw abortion within their own borders is not enough, he said.

“That’s again the logic of the Civil War — that slavery could be okay in Georgia but not okay in Massachusetts. Obviously we’d today say, ‘Well, that’s nonsense. Slavery is wrong, period. It can’t be right somewhere and wrong somewhere else.’ Same with abortion,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucuses earlier this month, the first contest in the race for each party’s nomination to run for the White House. He is in second place behind Arizona Senator John McCain in opinion polls for Saturday’s primaries in South Carolina.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.

Craig, of Idaho, is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.

The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms “have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

That means the state cannot prove Craig was inviting an undercover officer to have sex in public, the ACLU wrote.

The Republican senator was arrested June 11 by an undercover officer who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. Craig has denied that, saying his actions were misconstrued.

The ACLU argued that even if Craig was inviting the officer to have sex, his actions wouldn’t be illegal.

“The government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom,” the ACLU wrote in its brief.

The ACLU also noted that Craig was originally charged with interference with privacy, which it said was an admission by the state that people in the bathroom stall expect privacy.

Craig at one point said he would resign but now says he will finish his term, which ends in January 2009.

Rain-starved Piedmont Park is off-limits this spring and summer for some of Atlanta’s biggest annual events, the city announced Friday morning.

The Atlanta Dogwood Festival, the Atlanta Pride Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Peachtree Road Race will not be staged on the 185-acre Midtown park’s grounds, the toll the grounds would take and the city’s outdoor watering ban.

Said Greg Pridgeon, chief of staff for Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office, “I know that it is uncomfortable for our festivals and the people who like to attend them, but we don’t have another alternative other than to allow the parks to be damaged severely.”

The announcement impacts festivals that draw as many as 300,000 visitors all the way down to gatherings of just 75 people.

The decision has left event organizers scrambling for alternatives and new dates:

• Atlanta Pride executive director Donna Narducci said her organization hopes to move its three-day event to the Atlanta Civic Center. The date would be moved from June to July 4, Narducci said Friday.

• Atlanta Track Club executive director Tracey Russell, organizer of the 38-year-old Peachtree Road Race, said the world’s largest 10-kilometer road race will “look a little different” this year but “the race will still go on.”

• Brian Hill, executive director of the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, said this is only the second time the event will take place away from Piedmont park since it started 72 years ago. That was when it was cancelled during World War II.

Hill said the city informed him Wednesday the event, set for April 4-6, would likely have to be moved out of the park. Festival organizers quickly submitted plans for a scaled-down version that would be held only on the park’s hard scape —mainly sidewalks and parking areas. The city denied the new plan and said the event would not be held in the park.

The festival will go on at another location. Hill said “a handful” of alternate sites were being considered, but would not name them.

The festival, one of Atlanta’s oldest, attracts tens of thousands of people to the park each spring to take in hundreds of booths featuring art, food, music — and of course dogwood trees.

“We think we can pull this off,” Hill said shortly after Friday morning’s announcement. “After all, they went around the world in 80 days — and that’s exactly how long we have.”

• Sarah Schmitz, a spokeswoman for Turner Classic Movies, sponsor of the popular film series, said in an e-mail that, “We are aware of the announcement and are evaluating options for SOTG (Screen on The Green).”

• Organizers for the Jazz Festival, which is operated by the city, could not be reached immediately.

The city itself provided organizers of the four major events with a list of options, including the Atlanta Civic Center, Atlanta Underground, HiFi Buys Amphitheatre and Turner Field, among others.

Singapore on Tuesday legalised oral and anal sex between heterosexual couples but retained a law which criminalises intercourse between gay men.

In the city-state’s first major penal code amendments in 22 years, parliament repealed a section criminalising “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”

Parliament however kept the penal code’s section 377A, which makes sex between men a criminal offence, rejecting a petition by gay-rights activists and their non-homosexual supporters to abolish the law as well.

Opponents of the law say it is a relic of British colonial rule. The law punishes offenders with up to two years in jail, although it has rarely been enforced.

Under the just-approved amendments, new offences were enacted to tackle child prostitution and sex tourism as well as cover crimes committed with the use of technology such as the Internet and mobile phone text messaging.

But a rare petition read in parliament to abolish the law banning sex between men sparked the most passionate debates in the normally staid legislature dominated by the ruling People’s Action Party.

Legislators supporting the law’s retention centred their arguments on the need to maintain family and moral values in the conservative Asian society, while proponents appealed for equal treatment of minorities guaranteed by the constitution.

Member of parliament Siew Kum Hong, who supported the petition, said legalising sexual acts between two consenting heterosexual adults while refusing to decriminalise the same acts between homosexual men was discriminatory.

But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong weighed in for the retention of the law, saying that Singapore remains a conservative society — with the traditional family as its main building bloc — and homosexuals cannot set the tone for the mainstream.

Abolishing the law could “send the wrong signal” and push gay activists to ask for more concessions, such as same-sex marriage and parenting, Lee said.

Gays “are free to lead their lives and pursue their social activities,” the prime minister said, citing the existence of gay websites and gay bars.

“But there are restraints, and we do not approve of them setting the tone of mainstream society,” he said.

“They live their lives, that’s their personal space. But the tone of the overall society, I think, it remains conventional, it remains straight and we want it to remain so.”

Lee said keeping the statute unchanged while not aggressively enforcing it remained the best option.

Singapore would adapt to global economic changes in order to stay competitive, but must take a more cautious approach when it comes to moral values, Lee said.

“We were right to uphold the family unit when Western countries went for experimental lifestyles in the 1960s — the hippies, free love,” he said.

“But I’m glad we did that because today if you look at Western Europe, the marriage as an institution is dead, families have broken down, the majority of children are born out of wedlock and live in families where the father and the mother are not husband and wife living together bringing them up.”

Gay rights activists say the law against homosexual sex affects about 200,000 people in the wealthy island-republic of more than four million.

(LA Times) — The Potter-verse was thrown for a loop when author J.K. Rowling announced she had always imagined one of the main characters in the “Harry Potter” series — Albus Dumbledore — to be gay.

Even the most diligent “Harry Potter” scholars found themselves caught unaware. But could anyone have seen this coming? Did Rowling leave any clues in the book?

To find out we called Andrew Slack, head of the Harry Potter Alliance, an organization that uses online organizing to mobilize more than 100,000 Harry Potter fans around social justice issues, drawing on parallels from the book. Slack is incredibly fluent in “Potter” textual analysis, and we knew that if anyone could predict Rowling’s curveball, it would be him.

Speaking from his home in Boston, Slack said he hadn’t guessed that Dumbledore was gay, but in hindsight, he was able to point to specific character traits of the Hogwarts headmaster that might have indicated his sexual orientation.

Below he tells us seven textual clues that Dumbledore was gay.

1. His pet. Fawkes, the many-colored phoenix, is “flaming.”

2. His name. While the anagram to “Tom Marvolo Riddle” is “I am Lord Voldemort,” as my good friend pointed out, “Albus Dumbledore” becomes “Male bods rule, bud!”

3. His fashion sense. Whether it’s his “purple cloak and high-heeled boots,” a “flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet,” a flowered bonnet at Christmas or his fascination with knitting patterns, Dumbledore defies the fashion standards of normative masculinity and, of course, this gives him a flair like no other. It’s no wonder that even the uppity portrait of former headmaster Phineas Nigellus announced, “You cannot deny he’s got style.”

4. His sensitivity. Leaders like Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour and Dolores Umbridge (yes, even a woman) who are limited by the standards of normative masculinity could not fully embrace where Voldemort was weakest: in his capacity to love. Dumbledore understood that it’s tougher to be vulnerable, to express one’s feelings, and that one’s undying love for friends and for life itself is a more powerful weapon than fear. Even his most selfish moments in pursuing the Deathly Hallows were motivated either by his feelings for Grindelwald or his wish to apologize to his late sister.

5. His openness. After she outed Dumbledore, Rowling said that she viewed the whole series as a prolonged treatise on tolerance. Dumbledore is the personification of this. Like the LGBT community that has time and again used its own oppression to fight for the equality of others, Dumbledore was a champion for the rights of werewolves, giants, house elves, muggle-borns, centaurs, merpeople — even alternative marriage. When it came time to decide whether the marriage between Lupin the werewolf and Tonks the full-blooded witch could be considered natural, Professor Minerva McGonagall said, “Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world.”

6. His historical parallel. If Dumbledore were like any one in history, it would have to be Leonardo DaVinci. They both were considered eccentric geniuses (“He’s a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes”); both added a great deal to our body of knowledge (after all, Dumbledore did discover the 12 uses of dragon’s blood!); both were solitary, both were considered warm, loving and incredibly calm; both dwelt in mysterious mystical realms; both spent a lot of time with their journals (Leonardo wrote his backwards while Dumbledore was constantly diving into his pensieve); both even had long hair! And, of course, a popular thought among many scholars is that the maestro Leonardo was gay.

7. The fact that so few of us realized he was gay. No matter how many “clues” I can put down that Dumbledore was gay, no matter how many millions of people have read these books again and again, Rowling surprised even the most die-hard fans with the announcement that Dumbledore was gay. And in the end, the fact that we never would have guessed is what makes Dumbledore being gay so real. So many times I have encountered friends who are gay that I never would have predicted. It has shown me that one’s sexual orientation is not some obvious “lifestyle choice,” it’s a precious facet of our multi-faceted personalities. And in the end whatever the differences between our personalities are, it is time that our world heeds Dumbledore’s advice: “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” Today as I write this, I believe that it’s time for our aims to be loyal to what the greatest wizard in the world would have wanted them to be: love.

NEW YORK – Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

After reading briefly from the final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds “true love.”

“Dumbledore is gay,” the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. “Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” Rowling said of Dumbledore’s feelings, adding that Dumbledore was “horribly, terribly let down.”

Dumbledore’s love, she observed, was his “great tragedy.”

“Oh, my god,” Rowling concluded with a laugh, “the fan fiction.”

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

Rowling, finishing a brief “Open Book Tour” of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a “prolonged argument for tolerance” and urged her fans to “question authority.”

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.

Belfast, Ireland — An Ulster father yesterday called for a video Scrabble game to be recalled after discovering the slang word “lesbo” in its anagram section.

Zachary McAdam, from Co Down, was shocked to find the term, which he considers homophobic, included in the Nintendo DS console Junior Scrabble 2007 game.

Mr McAdam, an IT project manager from Holywood, was playing the game with his seven-year-old daughter Ellen, but was forced to stop when the word appeared.

He said: “We were stuck trying to find the last five-letter anagram so I hit the give-up option and the term ‘lesbo’ appeared on the screen. I nearly fell off my chair.

“The term ‘lesbo’ is a slang name intentionally meant to cause offence. I looked it up on the website dictionary.com just to make sure I wasn’t over- reacting and it described the word as a noun, slang, disparaging and offensive.”

Scrabble 2007 is manufactured by French software giant Ubisoft and uses words listed in the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary. A Chambers definition for ‘lesbo’ reads: “Derogatory slang short form of lesbian. Although lesbo did not become current until 1940s: previously used by heterosexuals as derisive insults to gay women, though it seems that gay women are now using the words to describe themselves in positive terms.”

In a statement, Ubisoft apologised for any offence caused to Mr McAdam.

It read: “We are sorry if Scrabble 2007 for the DS has caused concern to any of our customers. Ubisoft develops games for entertainment, with the goal of bringing enjoyment to the players, and it is of course never our intention to upset them.

“In the case of Scrabble 2007, the game uses a word list based on the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary and all approved words contained in this dictionary are playable in the game. There are over 277,000 approved words in the dictionary.

“The dictionary includes words used in the English language, but that may be considered unusual or offensive. It is for this reason that the game includes a ‘junior’ option which will prevent the player and computer using these ‘unusual’ or ‘offensive’ words in playing. However, ‘lesbo’ is not considered as offensive by the official dictionary and therefore is playable in both options.”

Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association spokesman PA MagLochlainn said: ” I would never use the word. The correct term is lesbian. I am not in the least bit surprised it is included because the young men who design these games are not taught by schools that these words can be used as a form of homophobic bullying.”

(Ed note: Oh lookie, another case where a gay rights group is being over reactionary and stupid.)

(Because we kill them.)

The police officers who patrol the world’s busiest airport have a few words for U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and former MARTA Chairman Ed Wall — thank you.

Those two high-profile cases, in which prominent men were busted for sex-related crimes in public airport bathrooms, have apparently quelled the practice at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in recent months.

“We’re averaging one public indecency arrest per month since June,” said Atlanta Police Maj. Darryl Tolleson, who commands police operations at Hartsfield-Jackson. “It’s really tapered off since, and I think all the publicity has helped.”

Hartsfield-Jackson, and other airports around the nation, are frequently mentioned as meeting places on internet sites where men solicit other men for anonymous sexual rendezvous.

Wall was arrested in March by an undercover police officer at Hartsfield-Jackson who said he observed Wall, 43, having sex in a handicapped stall with a 25-year-old man Wall met over the internet. Wall, who resigned as MARTA chairman, has contested the public indecency charges.

“As far as I am aware, the case is still pending,” said Wall’s attorney, Steve Sadow. “At this point in time, there has been no resolution.”

Craig was busted in June in a men’s room at the Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport. He initially pleaded guilty, but has since moved to withdraw his plea.

Both cases created nationwide headlines, and Tolleson thinks that has had an impact at Hartsfield-Jackson.

“We still monitor all the internet sites where people want to meet and hookup, and so often we find people posting, ‘Don’t post on this site, the APD is monitoring and running sting operations,”‘ Tolleson said.

Police at Hartsfield-Jackson busted 11 men for public indecency in January, 8 in February, 12 in March, 1 in April 10 in May, 1 in June, 1 in July and 1 in August.

Tolleson said he plans to talk with Minneapolis police about their operations at that airport.

“The publicity has certainly played a big role in reducing it out here,” Tolleson said.

Police at Hartsfield-Jackson don’t specifically patrol for indecency cases.

However, they do have groups of undercover officers who look for luggage thieves, who often use bathroom stalls to rifle through stolen bags. It is those patrols, Tolleson said, that usually turn up the indecency cases.