[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/edwardheath.jpg[/img2]A gay member of the London Assembly has claimed that former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath was warned to stop having sex with men in public.

Brian Coleman, a Conservative, claims that Sir Edward was warned by police to stop cruising for sex as part of a vetting process in 1955.

That year he became a Privy Councillor and Chief Whip under Prime Minister Anthony Eden.

"The late Ted Heath obtained the highest office of state after he was supposedly advised to cease his cottaging activities in the 1950s," Mr Coleman wrote on the New Statesman's website.

He claims that the police warning was common knowledge in the Tory party.

Senior Conservative MPs denied that Sir Edward was gay.

Sir Peter Tapsell, who became an MP in 1959, told The Mirror: "I knew him well and would be astonished if he was a practising homosexual."

Sir Edward's successor as MP for Bexley and Old Sidcup, Derek Conway, said:

"Ted was wedded to politics. He didn't have a great deal of companionship but there are people capable of getting on with their lives without companionship."

Sir Edward led the Conservative party from 1965 to 1975, and was Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974.

He never married and while many rumours about his sexuality circulated, it was generally thought he was married to his job.

If Mr Coleman's assertion is correct, it means that Britain has already had a gay Prime Minister.

Mr Coleman's article on the New Statesman's website condemned the practice out outing people, and said that voters do not care about the sexual preferences of politicians as long as they are good at their jobs.

"In my experience the only people fascinated as to who does what and to whom are other gay men," he wrote.

"The average voter could not care less if their Member of Parliament visits Hampstead Heath at midnight as long as they get the holes in the road mended."

Heath died in 2005 aged 89.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/littlebritain.jpg[/img2]Global research into attitudes towards minorities has found that a quarter of Australians do not want gay neighbours.

However, that figure still did not exceed the homophobia expressed in Italy and other conservative European nations.

The people of Northern Ireland were the most prejudiced against gay people, with 36% saying they did not want them moving in next door.

Ironically the research, entitled Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries? was co-authored by Professor Vani Borooah of the University of Ulster.

Nearly 32,000 people in 19 European countries as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA were asked the question: Would you like to have persons from this group as your neighbours?

The five groups were people of another race, immigrants or foreign workers, Muslims, Jews and gay people.

John Mangan, professor of economics at the University of Queensland, is the other author of the report.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that education is a key indicator of how prejudiced people are likely to be.

"Tolerance seems to rise with education more than anything else," Prof Mangan said.

"But you can have quite wealthy people who are older and probably have less formal education who tend to have more fixed beliefs."

Australians proved to be much more tolerant of people of a different race or immigrants - less than 5% would object to them as neighbours.

"The conclusion is the most prevalent form of bigotry is homophobia," said Professor Mangan told the Herald.

"It's everybody except Scandinavians, so it's not a particularly Australian thing."

Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of bigoted people in the western world, the report found.

Not only does the province have the highest proportion of bigots, but the bigots are on average more bigoted than those in other countries.

In Northern Ireland 44% of the 1,000 respondents did not want persons from at least one of the five groups as their neighbours.

The province was closely followed by Greece (43%).

The lowest proportion of bigots were found in Sweden (13%), Iceland (18%), Canada (22%) and Denmark (22%).

Homophobia was by far the main source of bigotry in most western countries: over 80% of bigoted persons in Northern Ireland and Canada and 75% of bigots in Austria, the USA, Great Britain, Ireland and Italy would not want homosexuals as neighbours.

The exceptions to this were the Scandinavian countries in which the main target of bigotry was Muslims: 74% of bigoted Danes, 68% of bigoted Swedes and 63% of bigoted Icelanders did not want Muslims as neighbours.

The corresponding proportions for homosexuals in these countries were, respectively 37%, 44% and 43%.

The study also explored who among the various countries’ populations were most likely to be bigots. It found:

· Women are less likely to be bigoted than men.

· The young (15-29 years) and middle-aged (30-49) were less likely to be bigoted than those aged over 50.

· People who were unhappy were more likely to be bigoted than those who were not unhappy.

· Some evidence that financial dissatisfaction might also be a source of bigotry.

· Right wingers, especially those who felt their government’s priority should be "maintaining order in the nation," were more likely to be bigots than those whose politics were middle-of-the-road or left-wing.

· Students were less likely to be bigots than non-students.

· Those in socio-economic classes A-B (upper and upper-middle class); C1 (middle class, non-manual) and C2 (middle, manual) were less likely to be bigoted than those in D-E (unskilled manual).

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/feetscales.jpg[/img2]A new study claims that gay or bisexual men are three times more likely to suffer from an eating disorder than heterosexual men.

The report, which was published in the April 2007 issue of International Journal of Eating Disorders, suggests that gay and bisexual men and women may generally be at far higher risk for conditions like bulimia.

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health brings to light a population-based study for the first time, which provides evidence of formal diagnoses based on established psychiatric criteria rather than just surveying those who have had some symptoms.

The study results showed that more than 15% of gay or bisexual men had at some time suffered anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating disorder, or at least certain symptoms of those disorders compared with less than five percent of heterosexual men.

Although the findings in women reported no differences in rates of eating disorders between lesbian/bisexual women and heterosexual women, rates of eating disorders of lesbian/bisexual women did not differ significantly from gay/bisexual men.

This information suggests that gay women are not less likely to suffer from eating disorders as some previous researchers have suggested.

"It is not clear why gay men have high rates of eating disorders," says Dr. Ilan Meyer an associate professor of clinical Socio-medical Sciences at the school who was the principle investigator in the study.

"One theory is that the values and norms in the gay men's community promote a body-centred focus and high expectations about physical appearance, so that, similar to what has been theorised about heterosexual women, they may feel pressure to maintain an ideal body image."

However after focusing on this theory Dr. Meyer and his team seemed to disprove the idea that the "gay image" was a reason behind the heightened rate of eating disorders.

"Even gay and bisexual men who participate in gay gyms, where body-focus and community values regarding attractiveness would be heightened, did not have higher rates of eating disorders than those gay and bisexual men who participated in non-gay gyms or who did not participate in a gym at all," observes Dr. Meyer.

"This suggests that factors other than values and norms in the gay community are related to the higher rates of eating disorder among these men."

"This shows that there needs to be greater awareness of these problems among gay and bisexual men and women alike, as well as specific interventions to address the issues in this population," the researchers conclude.

Are we safe to live our lives in America anymore? Can we walk out of our houses and even make it to the end of the block? These are some of the questions I ask myself now... Horrible shootings are rippling across our country like ripples in a pond.

It was nearly 16 years ago that Killeen made national headlines when, in October 1991, George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

In 1966 at the University of Texas in Austin, Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

In 1999 at Columbine High School, two seniors went on a killing spree of their own.

Need I remind you of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

Now we have this...

By Sharon Cohen
The Associated Press

BLACKSBURG, Va. – The first crackle of gunfire shattered the Monday morning calm. It was 7:15 a.m. on the campus of Virginia Tech and an epic killing spree had just begun.

Snow was swirling on the windy April day and classes had not yet started when a murderous rampage that would shake the nation started in a coed dormitory, West Ambler Johnston, home to 895 people.

The first reports of trouble were tragic, but small in scope, no hint of the massacre about to unfold in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia: One person was dead, another injured.

The official word to students apparently did not come right away.

In a mass e-mail, Virginia Tech officials announced a shooting had occurred at the dorm, police were on the scene and urged anyone in the university community to "be cautious" and contact police if they saw anything suspicious or had information on the case.

The e-mail was signed off at 9:26 a.m.

Police would later say they thought the two had been shot in a domestic dispute. They thought the gunman had fled the campus.

"We secured the building, we secured the crime scene," Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said. For a long while, there were no new reports of anything suspicious.

Classes on the Blacksburg, Va., campus had gone ahead as scheduled; the first period began at 8 a.m. The doors of the buildings remained open. And the heavily armed gunman with a motive yet unknown had set his sights elsewhere, at Norris Hall, an engineering building nearly a half-mile away on the 2,600-acre campus.

Police believe the shooting at Norris began around 9:45 a.m. The building's doors had been chained shut, possibly by the gunman, authorities said.

Brittany Zachar, an 18-year-old freshman who lives at West Ambler Johnston, decided to attend an economics class even though she saw a handwritten sign on pink paper posted in the dorm bathroom saying something had happened and going to class was optional.

As she walked on campus, she heard the pop of gunshots coming from the direction of Norris Hall. She saw police running.

"I heard the gunshots and just sprinted," she says, adding that she took cover in another school building. "It was probably one of the scariest things in my life."

At 9:55 a.m, the school sent out a second e-mail.

"Please stay put," it warned. "A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows."

The university also began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to get the word out, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said at a news conference.

Soon after, horrifying sounds and images flooded TV screens and Internet sites across America. SWAT teams in flak jackets swarmed the campus. Students helped faculty members carry out the wounded, as ambulances streamed to the site.

CNN showed a jerky video provided by a student's cell phone that showed what seemed to be police outside Norris Hall accompanied by a chilling soundtrack – the crackle of gunshots.

What had happened inside? Reports were fragmentary.

One student told the Washington Post that the gunman, said to be about 19 years old, burst into the room and fired about 30 shots in just a minute and a half – first blasting a professor in the head, then shooting the students.

Planet Blacksburg – a local, student-run Web site – quoted Ruiqi Zhang, identified as a computer engineering student who said he was on the second floor of Norris.

"A student rushed in and told everybody to get down," Zhang said. "We put a table against the door and when the gunman tried to shoulder his way in and when he saw that he couldn't, he put two shots through the door. It was the scariest moment of my life."

The Web site also quoted Gene Cole, a building worker, as saying the shooter wore a hat and carried an automatic weapon. "He loaded his gun at me," Cole said. "I ran down the steps to get out of there."

It was eerily reminiscent of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago this very week. And something else recalled some of the most shocking images of Sept. 11, 2001: Students jumping from windows to escape.

Virginia Tech sent out a third e-mail at 10:17 a.m. announcing classes were canceled and repeating the warning for everyone to lock their doors and stay away from windows.

By then, the magnitude of this bloody day was becoming increasingly clear.

Grim-faced TV anchors reported the rising death toll: 21, 31, then 33, including the shooter himself, not immediately identified. He put a bullet to his head. Two of the dead were shot at the dorm, the remainder at Norris Hall. Authorities also reported that 15 people were wounded, some seriously.

At 10:53 a.m. – more than three-and-half hours after the terror began – the announcement of the end of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history came in a fourth e-mail from the school.

It read:

"Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody

"In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.

"Police and EMS are on the scene.

"Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter.

"All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice.

"All entrances to campus are closed."

As the wind whipped through the campus on Monday night, a steady stream of students from West Ambler Johnston carried suitcases, backpacks and other personal items – one held a large stuffed dog nicknamed Hokie after the school mascot – to find someplace else in sleep.

They said they couldn't bear to spend the night in the dorm.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/testube.jpg[/img2]Researchers at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne have discovered how to grow human sperm cells from bone marrow.

The scientists have already cultivated sperm cells from a male's bone marrow and are now seeking permission to replicate their experiment with female marrow.

If successful, the breakthrough could lead to a female couple being able to impregnate one partner's eggs with sperm grown from the other's bone marrow.

The Daily Mail reports that: "if the technology were abused, men could be completely sidelined."

However, Professor Karim Nayernia, of Newcastle University's North-East England Stem Cell Institute, emphasises that his research could be of most use to infertile men.

Creating a child using "female" sperm sperm would only produce daughters as the Y chromosome needed to result in a male foetus can only come from male sperm.

The concept of a child conceived by two women is possible, said Professor Nayernia.

"The problem is whether the sperm cells are functional or not. I don't think there is an ethical barrier, so long as it's safe," he said, according to the [I]Belfast Telegraph.

"We are in the process of applying for ethical approval. We are preparing now to apply to use the existing bone marrow stem cell bank here in Newcastle.

"We need permission from the patient who supplied the bone marrow, the ethics committee and the hospital itself."

The government might ban the use of artificial sperm and eggs as part of an ongoing review of Britain's fertility laws.

A ban is supported by the BMA amid fears that sub-standard sperm or eggs might produce children with serious health problems.

Experiments on rats with artificially created sperm led to successful births but the resulting children had shortened lifespans and health deficiencies.[/I]

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/pink1.jpg[/img2]Singer Pink has spoken on American TV about her new song Dear Mr President, which has been unofficially banned from radio stations across the US.

Appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, Pink said that the song, which attacks President Bush for his stance on gay rights and other policies, cannot even be discussed on air in many radio stations.

Pink, 27, thanked the talk show host for being not afraid to let her perform Dear Mr President, and claimed it was one of her most intelligent lyrical accomplishments.

"These are my questions, they're not theoretical. I think they're questions that a lot of people have and we could probably use some answers," she told Kimmel, according to contactmusic.com

The lyrics to her musical letter to the President include the lines:

"What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
"And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
"I can only imagine what the first lady has to say.
"You've come a long way from whisky and cocaine."

The last line is a reference to the President's drug and alcohol abuse as a younger man, before he became a born-again Christian.

The unofficial ban allegedly in place against Pink is reminiscent of the boycott the Dixie Chicks suffered after they expressed their opposition to the Iraq war.

Is it me or has the fact that the British news reporter that has been taken hostage in Gaza received so little news attention.

I'm watching a thing at the minute saying that they are having an "International day of action" to get him released but it seems to of been fogotten seeing as he has been gone a month now!

I know that us Brits have had other people taken hostage but surely he's still a British citizen and deserves the same efforts as all those sailors?!!?

Might just be me tho!

Ed x

Hello peps,

Just been to see "Sunshine" at the cinema. Danny Boyle's new film, sci-fi movie about the end of the planet and humans effort to"re-start" the sun.

Hmm, what to say. It was ok. Cillan Murphy (or however you pronounce his name) is still a sex god and puts in a good performance. Generally though it is an ok film. Nothing to write home about but its worth a go if you are a cinema junky!!! :confused:

Anyone else seen it?

Ed x

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/boybutter.jpg[/img2]A cheeky advert modelled on one of the most memorable campaigns of the 1990s has been approved for broadcast in two American cities.

Boybutter uses the iconic I Can't Believe It's Not ..... format to market itself. It will be the first time a gay sex lubricant will be advertised on TV.

Broadcasters in LA and New York have OKed the commercial, but San Francisco gays will be condemned to continued chafing.

“The agents from Comcast in San Francisco declined to air our “You Won’t Believe It’s Not Boy Butter” spot because it was deemed to controversial,” says Boy Butter creator Eyal Feldman, according to Rainbow Network.

[img2=left]http://www.gayspeak.com/forum/images/news/scissors.jpg[/img2]Two studies which circumcised adult men in Africa as a way of preventing HIV have been stopped early because the results were so good that it was decided it was unethical not to offer circumcision to everyone.

The news was greeted with an unusually high-powered joint statement from the UN AIDS programme UNAIDS, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, the UN Population Fund and UNICEF saying that they note the results with "considerable interest".

They add: "It is anticipated that these results will heighten interest in male circumcision from governments, non-governmental institutions and the general public in a number of countries."

The UN agencies said they would rapidly convene a consultation to look at the practicability of mounting widespread circumcision programmes in countries with high rates of HIV.

They also hinted that they’d like to see a study conducted among gay men.

A WHO team have already travelled to Jerusalem to get Israeli advice on safe circumcision programmes in adults, because many Jewish immigrants who were not circumcised in their home country get the operation when they settle in Israel.

The two trials took place in an urban population of 3000 men aged 15-24 in Kisumu, Kenya and in a rural population of 5000 men in Rakai Province, Uganda. They compared HIV infection rates in men who were circumcised and ones who were not.

In Kisumu there was a 53% reduction in HIV infection among the circumcised men – 22 got HIV compared with 42 who were uncircumcised – and in Rakai the reduction was 48%.

These results are not quite as good as a South African study which in 2005 found a reduction of 65% among circumcised men – but they are still impressive.

The UN statement notes that there is an ongoing study in Rakai to see if circumcision also reduces the risk to the female partner, with results due in 2008. Earlier population surveys found that it might reduce the risk to women of acquiring HIV by 30%.

They add: "The effect of male circumcision on reducing the risk of HIV transmission among men who have sex with men has not been studied in a randomised controlled tria" – a clear hint that they’d like to see one done.

The UN press statement warns that circumcision does not provide complete protection against HIV infection, and that "it should always be considered part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package" which includes condoms, fewer partners, delaying the date of first sex, and HIV testing programmes.

They warn that if circumcised men develop a "false sense of security" and start taking up high-risk behaviour again, it could "negate the effect of…circumcision."

However the Kisumu researchers recently released another paper in which they found no evidence that circumcised men had more high-risk sex than uncircumcised ones for up to a year after the operation.

The UN is also concerned about the cultural acceptability of circumcision, and in making sure the operation is performed safely. They are developing detailed policy guidelines on making sure circumcision isn’t forced on people, that the risk of complications is properly researched and explained, and that there is ongoing research to find if it alters sexual behaviour.

"This is very exciting news", Daniel Halperin of the Harvard Center for Population and Development told the New York Times.

"I have no doubt that as word of this gets around, millions of African men will want to get circumcised, and that will save many lives."