[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/edoakley.jpg[/img2]George Bush's heartland of Dallas looks set to become the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor.

Ed Oakley is considered the leading candidate in the city. Dallas, in Texas, where George Bush was governor, already has a number of elected gay people including the local lesbian sheriff, Lupe Valdez.

Mr Oakley has been backed by the Democrats over a former construction company CEO, Tom Leppert. Other candidates, already eliminated included another gay man and a transgendered woman.

"It has never been an issue," said Mr Oakley on his sexuality, "Nobody brings it up, it's a complete non-issue."

"Dallas is less and less the Dallas that people think it is,'' Cal Jillson, an American political expert told AP. "And Dallas is less and less the Dallas that it used to be.''

"I think some people don't realize that Dallas is very diverse: economically, ethnically, culturally,'' said Pete Webb, president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance.

Despite the improvements in Dallas, Texas two years ago passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage by a three to one margin.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/ghb.jpg[/img2]Four HIV positive men from Groeningen province in the north of the Netherlands, in a sensational case, have confessed to the police that they held sex parties where they drugged men with GHB and injected them with their own blood in an attempt to infect them.

Dutch HIV workers said that they were aware that at least 10 men who attended the sex parties had contracted HIV – which implies that considerably more men were victims of the assaults.

The accused are two 48-year old men from Slochteren and two men from Groeningen aged 33 and 34. Two have confessed to the sexual assault and deliberate infection attempts: the other two have so far only admitted to dealing in huge quantities of GHB. One does not define as gay.

Five victims between the ages of 25 and 50 have reported to the police so far and four of them have filed charges.

The Dutch public prosecutor has charged the men with premeditated grievous bodily harm, but said it could not charge them with attempted murder or manslaughter because "the life expectancy of the victims can be extended with medication." The offence carries a maximum penalty of 16 years in prison.

Speaking to Robert Witlox, Director of the Dutch HIV Association, who takes up the story.

"We became aware that something odd was going on in Groeningen about a year ago. Someone came to a support group for people newly diagnosed with HIV and gave us this story about having been drugged unconscious with GHB and raped, which was how he got the virus.

"At first we dismissed it – you hear many such stories in support groups – but several other people came forward with similar stories. One said he had come to to find a man still fucking him without a condom while another said that during the experience he had felt a sharp needle-like pain in his anus."

The suspects have confessed that they took syringes of blood missed from all four of them and injected them into their victims’ anuses.

Witlox continues: "The men would advertise small sex parties – 3-5 people - on the internet. It appears they were doing it on a frequent basis, and it continued right up till they were arrested in May.

"We alerted the public health department in Groeningen who said they had heard similar stories. They put out a press release warning gay men about attending sex parties and saying they had noticed a rise in local HIV infections.

"We finally persuaded the first victim – who does not publicly identify as gay – to make a formal complaint to the police in January."

Witlox commented that one of the features of the case was that the victims appeared largely to be non-gay-identified men seeking bisexual thrills on the internet.

The two who have made confessions to the police said that they were motivated by lust and because if they made other men positive they’d have the opportunity to have unprotected sex with them.

Witlox comments: "In many ways this is a straightforward case. The legal argument about HIV transmission has always been about reckless infection," (i.e. not meaning to infect, but not caring either), "whereas this is a clear case of rape and of attempted deliberate infection.

Judging by the confessions, the accused must have had psychiatric problems around having HIV.

"In talking to the media yesterday, not just myself but also representatives from the Dutch Health Ministry said that this behaviour was not typical of gay men or people with HIV."

Witlox added, however, that since then his organisation has been accused of fostering a culture of normalising unsafe sex.

"Journalists are now linking the case with the fact that we have a support group called Positive and Proud where subjects like serosorting" (i.e. consensual unprotected sex between HIV positive people) "are discussed. We’ve been asked if we have any norms.

"We’ve said: ‘Yes, we do; we’re saying it’s not alright to rape people and deliberately infect them with HIV!’"

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/nilescrane.jpg[/img2]Given his years of using the old 'I don’t talk about my personal life' line, it should come as no surprise that Frasier actor David Hyde Pierce’s first official declaration that he’s gay was not by press release or calculated announcement, but via a sly name drop that named the Emmy winning star's partner.

In an interview with CNN.com to promote his Tony-nominated turn in the Broadway musical Curtains, the journalist makes reference to Pierce’s partner Brian Hargrove, an actor-writer-producer he relocated to Los Angeles with when Hargrove wanted to give writing for television a shot.

The mention is buried a good twelve paragraphs into the story—in fact, it’s so casual, editors at AfterElton.com contacted Pierce’s representation to confirm it wasn’t just a misprint.

A spokesperson for Pierce confirmed that Hargrove is indeed Pierce’s life partner.

Pierce rose to fame as the snippy, uptight Niles, brother to Dr. Fraiser Crane on the hugely successful Cheers spin-off.

For his work on the show, Pierce was awarded an astounding four Emmy’s and nominated each of the 11 years the show was on the year.

Since the show left television in 2004, Pierce has found a second home on the stage, including a run in Spamalot and his current Tony nominated performance.

In a recent Out Magazine article questioning the need for obviously gay actors to live their lives in a glass closet, Pierce was essentially outed by Village Voice columnist Michael Musto.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/georgemichael.jpg[/img2](London) George Michael, who has pleaded guilty to driving while unfit, had several drugs in his system when he was arrested, a court heard Wednesday.

Tests showed the 43-year-old singer had taken a therapeutic quantity of an antidepressant as well as gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, Prosecutor Andrew Torrington told Brent Magistrates' Court in London.

GHB is often called the "date-rape drug" because it leaves people groggy and powerless.

Michael, who wasn't in court Wednesday, pleaded guilty May 8 to driving while unfit due to drugs. He said his condition was caused by "tiredness and prescribed drugs."
The former Wham! singer, whose real name is George Panayiotou, was arrested in the early hours of Oct. 2 after police responded to complaints that a car was blocking an intersection in North London. Police said Michael was found slumped over the wheel of the car.

His lawyer, Michael Grieve, told the court a prescription sleeping drug was the most likely explanation for Michael's condition.

Michael said in a TV interview earlier this month that he is addicted to prescription drugs and believes the world would be a better place if more people smoked marijuana.

He blamed his erratic behavior to an attention-seeking and "self-destructive" impulse brought on by the death of his mother a decade ago.

The case was adjourned until June 8 for sentencing, the day before Michael performs at Wembley Stadium as part of his European tour.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/ranchsalad.jpg[/img2](Wheaton, Illinois) A judge has ordered a 17-year-old to pay a $750 fine and perform 120 hours of community service for contaminating salad dressing with semen and returning it to a suburban Chicago high school's cafeteria.

DuPage County Judge Terence Sheen also placed Marco Castro on two years probation and ordered him to write a letter of apology to Wheaton North High School officials. Castro must complete his community service work for an agency that works with AIDS patients.

Sheen called the prank "beyond stupid." "If you prove to me you're worthy of another chance, in two years, then I will give it to you," Sheen said.

Castro pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in connection with the Dec. 6 incident. He admitted taking a bottle of ranch salad dressing from the school cafeteria to the bathroom and ejaculating into it, and then returning it to the cafeteria where juniors and seniors eat lunch.



Students reported Castro, and the senior was expelled from Wheaton North. There were no reported cases of illness following the incident.

Castro told police he thought of the prank after watching a movie filled with crude stunts.

"I have no explanation for what I did," Castro said in court. "I felt bad after I did it."

Harry Smith, Castro's attorney, noted that the teen already had been punished, including missing the end of his senior year and humiliating himself and his family.

"It has not been without consequences," Smith said.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/carlosfernando.jpg[/img2]This story is a few days old but still thought it was cute! mile:

Carlos and Fernando, a same-sex flamingo couple famed for appropriating other birds' nests in a desire to become parents, have been rewarded for their tenacity with a chick of their own.

Keepers at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, near Bristol, thought of Carlos and Fernando when another flamingo abandoned its nest with an egg still in it.

When the egg hatched in an incubator before the pair could take over, the keepers carefully taped the new chick into a discarded eggshell before delivering it chez Carlos and Fernando.

"Parents usually first bond with their chicks as they're hatching and calling from inside the egg," trust officials wrote on their Web site.

"So to help Carlos and Fernando bond with their new chick, WWT staff took an old eggshell, carefully popped the newborn chick inside, taped it up and returned it to Carlos and Fernando's empty nest. The pair were soon seen "talking" to the chick inside the egg and a little while later the chick hatched for a second time -- but this time to be greeted by its loving foster parents."

The new family lives at the trust's headquarters in Slimbridge, in an estuary of the River Severn that happens to be the world's only home to all six flamingo species. The site provides birds to zoos in lieu of captives from wild populations, which are severely stressed by urbanisation and climate change.

Experts there say gay flamingos are not uncommon. "If there aren't enough females or they don't hit it off with them, they will pair off with other males," WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn told Agence France-Presse. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/cock.jpg[/img2](Calcutta, India) A chicken has gone through a rare, spontaneous sex change in eastern India, a veterinarian said Thursday.

The bird laid eggs six months ago - and some hatched - but it later began to grow a rooster's comb, said Partha Sarathi Ghose, a veterinarian at West Bengal state's Animal Husbandry Department, quoting the bird's owner.

Earlier this week Ghose and a team of experts visited the village of Kamat-Chengrabanda where the incident occurred.

Ghose said the bird had undergone a process of natural sex change.
"Sure, it's rare,'' the veterinarian said, adding that owner Haziruddin Mohammad has called the incident a miracle and refused to hand over the bird to the Animal Husbandry Department.

"Every once in a while you hear a story about a hen that changed into a cock. Such stories are often met with skepticism, but sex reversals do, in fact, occur, although not very frequently,'' says a 2000 report published by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The study said spontaneous sex reversals can result from damage to one ovary.

It said that there are reports of some such birds fathering offspring, but that most never do.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/teletubies.jpg[/img2](Warsaw) The Polish government has reportedly begun an investigation to determine if Tinky Winky and other Teletubbies are promoting homosexuality to children.

The Reuters news service reported Monday that the government's watchdog for children's rights has asked a panel of psychologists to investigate the popular children's television series.

Ewa Sowinska said she was concerned the popular show promoted homosexuality to unsuspecting minors.

Her remarks were immediately likened to those several years ago of the late US evangelist Jerry Falwell who accused Tinky Winky of being gay because he carried a purse.

Falwell's remarks were largely dismissed at the time by even most of his evangelical supporters, but Poland's actions are the latest in a series of anti-gay moves that have European civil rights advocates concerned about a potential pogrom.

Earlier this month Education Minister Roman Giertych unveiled draft legislation that would make it a criminal offence to "promote homosexual propaganda" in schools.

If passed the measure would essentially censor all discussion of homosexuality in schools and other academic institutions. LGBT organizations would be barred from schools and "teachers who reveal their homosexuality will be fired from work."

Giertych's draft bill, however, does not say exactly would constitute promoting homosexuality.

Giertych defined it as "every action that is dependent on the public presentation of a certain belief with the intention of convincing others to that viewpoint." But critics say it is so vague it could lead to witch hunts.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski supports the bill.

Last year, the State Prosecutor's office issued a letter to prosecutors in the municipalities of Legnica, Wroclaw, Walbryzch, Opole and Jelenia Gora ordering in sweeping terms investigations into the conduct of "homosexuals" on unspecified allegations of "pedophilia."

Before being elected the the presidency, Kaczynski as mayor of Warsaw banned gay pride celebrations in the capitol from 2004 to 2006. The action prompted an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights that found Kaczynski acted illegally and discriminatory.

Current Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz Walz has approved this year's pride parade based on the ruling.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/googlesearch.jpg[/img2](New York City) At least 25 countries around the world block Web sites for political, social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a network meant to be borderless, according to a study out Friday.

The actual number may be higher, but the OpenNet Initiative had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than they had initially expected, a sign that the Internet has matured to the point that governments are taking notice.

"This is very much the revenge of geography," said Rafal Rohozinski, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge in England.

China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.
In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance, tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North Korea.
Yet researchers found no filtering at all in Russia, Israel or the Palestinian territories despite political conflicts there.

Governments generally had no mechanism for citizens to complain about any erroneous blocking, with Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates being among the exceptions.

The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto, has previously published reports detailing censorship in specific countries. The latest study was its attempt to compare filtering worldwide.
The study did not attempt to chronicle the effectiveness of the efforts. Some technical approaches are better than others in blocking sites, but all can be bypassed with enough technical know-how to use "proxy" techniques or special software.

The organization said the regions chosen for review should not be considered comprehensive. It didn't include any countries in North America or Western Europe on grounds that filtering practices there have been better known than elsewhere. It also excluded North Korea and Cuba for fear of risks to collaborators it would need in those countries.
The group supplied software to volunteers in each of the countries tested. Web sites checked include those for gambling, pornography and human-rights abuses.

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford, said filtering appeared to occur most widely in countries where Internet penetration is higher, possibly explaining the lack of any censorship efforts in Russia and Egypt.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/downingst.jpg[/img2]A statement on the Prime Minister's website claims some gay men flout blood donation guidelines and reveals that 40 donations a year are infected with HIV.

A petition on the site calls for an end to discrimination against gay and bisexual men by the National Blood Service.

HIV is now at its fast growing rate in the heterosexual community but the NBS regard all men who have sex with men as too high-risk to accept blood from.

A statement on the No 10 website responding to the petition says the government has a duty to ensure a balance between risk reduction and security of supply.

The petition, signed by over 500 people, said: "The polices of the NBS are outdated, making decisions as to whether or not your allowed to give blood on how honest you are."

The official government response on the No 10 site reads:

"The self-exclusion criterion concerning gay men has been reached through a close analysis of the epidemiology of confirmed HIV and Hepatitis B positive tests among blood samples from people donating blood at United Kingdom Blood Service sessions.

"The Government has been advised that every year from the analysis of nearly three million donations collected by the United Kingdom and Irish Blood Services, about 40 donations are confirmed to be positive for HIV.

"Of these, a third to a half are given by men who, following further enquiries by the NBS, reveal that they are gay men.

"These figures indicate that some gay men are still giving blood in spite of the current rules.

"Although safer sex campaigns have had an impact, it is still considered that the risk of gay men being infected with HIV remains sufficiently high to include the criterion that they should not donate blood.

"Unfortunately, this means there will be healthy gay men who would be suitable for giving blood but who are excluded by the rule.

"However, it is not practical to expect donor session staff to be able to differentiate between gay men with lower or with higher risk lifestyles, so all gay men have to be excluded."

The ban on gay and bisexual men has been removed in many countries, among them Italy, Sweden, South Africa, Portugal and Spain.

Currently, student groups and others are protesting the blanket ban, arguing that it is a person's behaviour rather than the fact of their sexual orientation that should be used to calculate risk factors.

The Sexual Orientation Regulations, which became law at the start of this month, granted an opt-out for blood donation clinics.

Regulation 28 says that it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on grounds of their sexual orientation when he offers to donate blood, unless there is reasonable basis from clinical and epidemiological data to do so.

The Department of Communities and Local Government said that this regulation was added on the advice of the Department of Health.

It appears to allow the National Blood Service to continue to discriminate against all gay and bisexual men.

However, it also leaves the NBS open to a legal challenge as to the efficacy of their clinical evidence that all bi and gay men are at a higher risk of passing on the HIV virus through a blood transfusion.

"It will enable the National Blood Service to maintain its policy on excluding donations by certain groups, including gay men, where this is tied to close and regular monitoring of blood samples from people donating blood in the UK," a DCLG spokeswoman said about Regulation 28 in March.

Many gay activists were surprised that a regulation was devised specifically to protect the ban on gay blood as it is highly unlikely that giving blood constitutes receipt of a service.

Stonewall, the gay equality organisation, said:

"We listen to medical advice on this issue but we are reviewing our policy to consider whether a blanket ban is necessary.

"We would always want to make sure that the most recent developments in medical technology and research are taken into account.

"Some gay men who are turned away are treated badly and even if this ban has to be held up, we would urge that bisexual and gay men should be treated with respect by blood donation staff."