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Here's one you may not have heard before: If gay and lesbian couples' unions are fully recognized as legally valid, wily queers and others will use the new laws to avoid capital gains taxes. They'll also fraudulently marry to remain in rent-controlled apartments and to benefit from the pensions of others. Telegraph

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As recognizes same-sex civil marriage, 60 couples joined their lives in New York's Central Park, some in white, some in purple boas. The festivities were sponsored by the Wedding Party, a Manhattan-based nonprofit organization advocating for equal rights for same-sex couples. Nearly 300 onlookers attended the service, including Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), co-sponsor of a bill giving marriage rights to same-sex couples, and Leslie Miller and Alicia Salzer, who broke ground last year as the first same-sex couple to appear in The New York Times wedding section. Newsday

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The tale of the Monday Night transgender support group is sometimes as compelling as it is trite. "On the first Monday of every month Rita Cotterly's office fills up with men wearing wigs and dresses and calling themselves Cindy or Stacy, men who no longer consider themselves men - and are happier this way. Or hoping to be. Cotterly's lamp-lit Fort Worth office is one of the few places that many of them can feel absolutely secure and unjudged." Cotterly does sum it up pretty well herself: "Sex is between the legs, but gender is between the ears." Ft. Worth Star Telegram

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A new study out of Spain suggests that lesbians may be more likely to suffer from a common cause of infertility that is also linked with other health problems.
The study presented today at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology is the first to find evidence that polycystic ovarian syndrome is more prevalent among lesbians than heterosexual women.
Experts said more studies are needed to verify the findings. "Another, more remote possibility, could be that an imbalance of sex hormones might contribute to both the ovary disorder and sexual orientation," Hines said. Salon, thanks to Electrolicious.

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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Bush's top dog supports American same sex marriage ban. "I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between, what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined, as between a man and a woman," said Frist, of Tennessee. Frist said he feared that the ruling on the Texas sodomy law could lead to a situation "where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned." Yahoo

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A lesbian is to give birth to one of the first babies conceived in Britain using sperm provided by an Internet donor service. The baby of Jaime Saphier, 26, is due in January. She and her partner Sarah Watkinson, 31, who live in the northwest city of Liverpool paid the Web site www.mannotincluded.com 1,305 pounds ($2,156) to match them with a sperm donor and provide a full medical screening of the donor. ZDNet UK

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Israel - In a speech marking the start of Gay Pride celebrations in Tel Aviv Friday, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid called for equal rights for gays and lesbians.
Lapid told several thousand t is time for all of the country's parties to come together to provide basic human rights to the country's gaycommunity. Hundreds of marchers then set off under the watchful eyes of some 700
policemen and civil guards. The parade was condemned by the Yesha Council of Rabbis, who described it as "shameful, and bowing to the inferior culture of ancient Greece, as depicted in Plato's Symposium." 365Gay

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The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the city and county of Honolulu, Hawaii on Friday over a parade that excludes gay and lesbian groups. As co-sponsors of the Family Day Parade with the Hawaii Christian Coalition they've turned away interested participants based on sexual preference. Early publicity said "everyone is welcome to join this parade," the suit says. Garret Hashimoto, leader of the coalition, said he had the right to prevent groups from participating. Seattle PI

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A Salt Lake County man is not waiting on state lawmakers to repeal Utah's statute. D. Berg filed a lawsuit challenging Utah's anti-sodomy law - and
another that prohibits Utahns from having sex out of wedlock. Utah's consensual sodomy law forbids "any sexual act with a [unmarried] person who is 14 years of age or older involving the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person, regardless of the sex of either participant." The anti-fornication statute bans pre-marital sex, saying "any unmarried person who shall voluntarily engage in sexual intercourse with another is guilty of fornication."
Both crimes are class B misdemeanors punishable by up to six months
in jail and a $1,000 fine. Salt Lake Tribune

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Nevada legislators silently but unanimously passed a law this session that extends hospital visitation rights to partners of gays and other unmarried people. Under the new law, any Nevada adult can designate who can visit them in a medical facility regardless of legal family status. The law also permits individuals to decide who can take possession and decide the fate of their remains, catapulting the designee to the top of the priority list ahead of any blood relatives. Gay.com UK

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Around 35 gay activists, some of them wearing earrings and bright lipstick, walked in silence through the streets of Kolkata holding a single multi-coloured flag they said represented the gays rights movement in India, as passers-by gawked at them. Homosexuality inhabits a grey area in India, which mandates punishment of people for indulging in sexual relations "against the order of nature". Gay and lesbian groups exist across the country, but their members rarely come into the open. Newindpress


On a sort of related note, the inspiring words of Ricky Martin: "I transform when I'm in India. I wear a robe and turban and let my hair grow, and I forget about things like wearing underwear" - as quoted in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Page 6, thanks to Gawker.

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Lady Uffish shares her thoughts on the special pride Queer Issue of the Village Voice: "Back when I was a long-haired liberal Kansas hippie type, just starting to poke my nose out of the closet, I was a subscriber to the Village Voice. I loved reading about the sheer amount of stuff going on in New York, though at the time I never dreamed I'd end up living here. And I loved how queer-friendly it was. [...] Has Pat Buchanan taken over the editorial department over there? Did nobody LOOK at the cover before sending it to print? What the fuck are they thinking?! The Voice should issue a big, fat, homo-ass-kissing apology, pronto. Uffish Thoughts

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In the light of a Pride weekend marked with mainstream sponsorship and media celebration, Jeffrey Barbose sheds some light on the need for radicals and chaos: "The presence of radicals is an ironically-eternal thing, so it seems. Radicals are always vilified by some, always praised by some, always recognized by everyone. But when radicals become somehow the norm, are they still radical? If a radical fell in the forest, would s/he make a protest? While the presence of radicals in society—indeed, the need for them—is a given, what happens when radicals become common instead of rare? God of Biscuits

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Tony Blair's administration in England announced plans today to give gays and lesbians new legal rights as couples, plans that are also under fire for not doing anything to help all unmarried couples. Campaigners representing unmarried heterosexual couples said they would be frozen out of the plans which give next of kin access rights to gays in hospitals, allow them to benefit from a dead partner's pension and exempt them from inheritance tax on their partner's home. What they can't seem to remember is that queer couples can't get married, and they could and have chosen not to. Manchester Online

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The British government announced plans today to create a register of same-sex partnerships that would give homosexual couples most of the same legal rights as married couples, including social security benefits and the right to inherit property tax-free, but failed to provide an actual equivalent. Jacqui Smith, minister for women and equality in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, said that homosexual couples would be able to enter into legal partnerships through registry offices, which handle civil marriages in the U.K. In addition, a framework would be set up for dissolution of such partnerships, including "fair arrangement for property division" and "appropriate contact with children." We here at queer day wonder if they expect queer couples to have divorce proceedings, why England won't be granting actual marriages? Cybercast

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In an appearance Sunday on ABC, Senate Majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., criticized the sodomy decision and endorsed a proposed constitutional ban on homosexual unions. "I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between — what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined — as between a man and a woman," he said. "So I would support the amendment."
CBS News

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Actor Hugh Grant and a mystery businessman were yesterday reported to have together paid £390,000 for the pleasure of having a dinner party hosted by Sir Elton John and his partner, David Furnish. The huge fee, it was reported yesterday, was the end-product of a night of frenzied auctioneering at John’s now famous annual White Tie and Tiara ball, held at his Windsor mansion. All the cash will go towards John’s Aids Foundation charity. Malta Independant

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America is apparently celebrating a new holiday, National Blonde Day, in honor of the July 2 opening of like what's set to be one of the summer's hottest movies, “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White And Blonde." As if like that wasn't enough, if you are a blonde, it is your day! Hair-care experts at Vidal Sassoon salons across North America are giving free “Flash of Blonde” hair color treatments. CBS News

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San Francisco supervisor and Mayoral Candidate Gavin Newsome received more evidence of "his love from the gay community" during the San Francisco Pride parade yesterday when six activists approached the car he was waving to the crowd from. What's being labeled as an "attack", according to news sources, apparently wasn't. "They allegedly shouted threats and tried to approach his car." Leave it to Newsome to turn simple activism into numerous charges of criminal conspiracy. KGO

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Sussex County (N.J.) Democratic Committee Chairman Charlie Cart said he doesn't care that state Senate candidate Jim Morrison displayed his penis in a college contest (oh, the irony), or even that Morrison is gay. He says he was misquoted in a story about his suggestion that Morrison leave the race in the wake of the publicity, and denies publicizing Morrison's participation in the "pretty penis contest." Cart said Morrison is "looking to sensationalize the story and get some sympathy." Morrison has said that many people do "impractical" things in college, and that the contest, which he did not appear to win, is irrelevant to his campaign. New Jersey Herald

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Australian Roz Houston is the first transgender person to win sexual harassment damages before her region's Anti-Discrimination Tribunal. She's also the first to win against a neighbor. Houston's former neighbor called her names for years and physically assaulted her on one occasion. He also assaulted an elderly neighbor who was with Houston. Houston, who said the decision should act as a warning to everyone: "There is no excuse for ignorance," won a judgment of $4,000 Australian, which we're hoping is a lot more money than it sounds like. Herald Sun

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Former major-league outfielder Billy Bean waved to the crowd as the special guest of Chicago's Pride parade Sunday. Bean, 39, came out in 1999, four years after his playing days with the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Padres. He says he only wishes he had been strong enough and the world open enough to have allowed him to come out years before. He leaves out the part where he came out by accident and yelled at the reporter who merely wrote it all down. Chicago Sun Times

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"What does it mean that God's love is for everyone?" preached divinity student and Eileen Campbell-Reed at Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn. "What will happen when we move from the center to the margins, and make friends ... with those that our society smugly thinks of as the disinherited and marginalized? What will happen when they become our heroes and heroines of friendship and faithfulness, forgiveness and grace?" What will happen first is that the Southern Baptist Convention and the Tennessee Baptist Convention will cut off all support from your congregation, as Glendale found out when it employed April Baker, its lesbian associate pastor. A church spokesman says the congregation wasn't looking for controversy; it merely chose the best candidate for the job. The State

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San Francisco's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade rollicked through the heart of the city Sunday, propelled by bare-chested Tinkerbells, grinning politicians and fresh optimism born of a landmark legal triumph just days ago. And for the first time in a long time, they could crow about major victories. A domestic-partners bill is coursing through the California Legislature, on June 10 a Canadian court legalized gay marriage, and last week the U.S. Supreme Court struck down criminal prohibitions on sodomy. SF Gate

Unprecedented hundreds of parents pushing strollers joined San Francisco's celebration. Grand marshal was 15-year-old Marina Gatto, who has two moms. "She's beautiful, articulate and wise," says mom Ramona Gatto. "All people used to see 10 years ago was the flamboyant gays and women without tops. But now we're a community with families, and that's who we are, too. It's these amazing kids who are the products of our lives." Tri-Valley Herald


In New York, the city where it all began, parade grand marshals and Broadway stars actress Cherry Jones and playwright Terrence McNally embraced the political nature of the event, with Jones holding aloft a copy of Friday's New York Times, which carried a banner headline on the Supreme Court decision, drawing cheers from the crowds. Boston.com


In Berlin, 400,000 people turned out for the city's 11th annual parade, under the motto "Acceptance Instead of Tolerance." The German capital's celebration is called Christopher Street Day, in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, marking the start of gay rights in the United States. CNN

A few brave men turned out to march under a rainbow flag in Kolkata for India's first Gay Pride celebration. The gay community remains hidden because of social taboos. "We are trying to prove that we are not alone in this world," said one participant. NDTV.com


In contrast, fear of SARS and threats of bad weather didn't keep 12,000 people and dozens of floats from making their way from Church Street, in Toronto's gay neighborhood, into downtown. Near the front of the pack were a bunch of white limousines, carrying newlywed same-sex couples who tied the knot earlier this month. CTV.ca


In Paris, the thousands of Pride celebrants were joined for the first time by a representative of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party. "I have been a militant for gay rights for a long time, so it was natural that I be the first person to represent the UMP at this march," said Jean-Luc Romero, the party's gay national secretary. With him was the city's gay mayor, Bertrand Delanoe. Sky News


Orlando's parade was led by comedian and writer Bruce Vilanch. Rainy weather didn't dampen anyone's spirits. "We are legal," read a simple sign on white posterboard in black marker. Orlando Sentinel

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Screen and stage legend Katharine Hepburn died Sunday in her Connecticut home. The 96-year-old actress, whose career spanned seven decades, had been in failing health for a number of years. Hepburn transformed herself from a key film actress of her generation into thespian - and some say lesbian - royalty, though no one denies that actor Spencer Tracy was the love of her life. Hepburn's career sometimes suffered because she refused to play Hollywood's games - she hated doing interviews, refused to sign autographs and in an era when studios pressured actresses to always maintain an aura of glamour, she often left the house casually dressed and without makeup, quelle horror! CNN

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George Howland Jr. writes: "Since puberty, my own sexual life has had three distinct periods. In my teens, sex was solitary and theoretical. I read about sex a lot, thought about it constantly, and became an accomplished soloist. ... My 20s were all about being active—and activist—in regard to my sexuality. It was a stimulating decade, both sexually and politically, but rather emotionally exhausting. By the mid-'80s, I had decided that monogamy was the lifestyle for me. ... I had also learned in the course of my 20s that while it was easier to hook up with men (we are sluts, after all), it was easier for me to form deep romantic attachments to women. For the last 16 years, I have been with a woman in a monogamous relationship that has grown into a wonderful marriage." So there. Seattle Weekly

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As congressional elections near in Mexico, Amaranta Gomez's candidacy turns a spotlight on the controversial role the powerful Catholic Church plays in politics. While an opposing candidate campaigned holding a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the nation's patron saint, church leaders attacked Gomez. The of Queretaro, Mario de Gasperín, went so far as to issue a pastoral paper titled "Catholics Vote Like This," aimed at Gomez. It said Catholics "cannot vote for a party or a candidate who does not respect the dignity of the human being, such as those who defend or promote prostitution, homosexual unions or lesbians." At that point, Gomez's party, Mexico Posible, filed a complaint with the government. But as they say, all publicity is good publicity. There are those who say Gomez will pick up votes from people tired of the church's meddling in politics. Voters go to the polls July 6. SignOnSanDiego.com

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Should you have to be queer to win a contest called Gay Pride Idol? Marianne Kooken, who is straight, thought maybe she shouldn't enter the first-ever contest organized for this year's San Francisco Pride. But Kooken, who has impersonated female impersonators at Finocchio's for years, was encouraged by gay friends to enter. She disclosed her orientation at every level of the competition, and although some members of the audience booed, the judges loved her. Since winning, she has thrown herself into her new role, volunteering at the AIDS Memorial Grove and making plans to take part in breast cancer charity events. Pride parade director Teddy Witherington called the dissent "sour grapes." SF Gate

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The effects of the U.S. Supreme Court's Texas sodomy law ruling are widespread, in fact they're being felt all the way in India where activists are challenging their own anti-sodomy law in the Delhi High Court. "Judges read papers, lawyers read papers, people read papers," Vikram says. "The steady
drip-drip of tolerance on gay issues will end up making a difference." India's controversial sodomy law makes sodomy or any kind of "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Pacific News

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The happy couple wore black leather pants with matching vests and when the two men walked out of church, Ernie Lacasse, 67, of Toronto, and Ric Reed, 30, of Concord, California were legally married in the eyes of God and the
government. Yet few couples took advantage of what was expected to be a Pride celebration marriage rush in Toronto. In fact, it was downright underwhelming. Toronto Star

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With gay and lesbian couples getting married legally in parts of , many same-sex New York City couples may be disappointed to return home, finding that little has changed. The New York City clerk's office said yesterday that the most returning gay newlyweds can hope for here is domestic partner status - which is already available. "I think anyone can say with certainty that a gay marriage won't be recognized as a marriage here in New York," said Patrick Synmoie, counsel to the city clerk. "It's against the law." NY Daily News

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Richard Chapman from the Lion "Red Blooded" beer ad series after Lion Brewery claimed that Mr Chapman's role as a gay character in TV3's The Strip "contradicted" his image in the beer commercials. As someone asks: "Would your Lion Red drinker even make an association between Chapman and his gay role? This may be good for his career and so Lion Red may have done him a favour." NZ Herald

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A Colorado straight columnist was apprehensive about his first trip to the local gay bar, but after paying the place a visit he found it to be as boring as everything else in town. "What better way to take a person out of his comfort zone than to face a longtime fear? My only experience with gay bars was through seedy detective novels and equally bad movies. In reality, though, Greeley’s gay bar, Big Daddy’s, was nothing like that." Greeley Tribune

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The Traditional Values Coalition calls the Supreme Courts ruling on privacy rights a catastrophe of September 11th proportions. "It is even more important to fight back," said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman, "This is a 9/11, major wake-up call that the enemy is at our doorsteps." CSN

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Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah announced today the appointment of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to the Saudi Permanent Council for Scientific Research and Legal Opinions (CRLO), Saudi Arabia's equivalent of the US Supreme Court. The announcement followed Scalia's scathing dissent in the US Supreme Court declaring sodomy laws unconstitutional. In an attack on the Court majority, Scalia declared: "Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children's schools or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive." What that had to do with consenting adults participating in sexual behavior in the privacy of their own homes though, nobody can really say. Muslim Wake-Up

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When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 23 that Congress can force libraries to install software filters to block obscene or pornographic material or lose federal funding, most people thought, well, it's a public library, right? What's that got to do with me? What happened was the Justices passed the buck into the hands of, well, nothing personal, but librarians. Would those without home computers or traveling be able to access Queer Day in a public library? The odds are, probably not. Online Journalism Review

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Washington D.C. - "This is a giant leap forward to a day where we are no longer branded as criminals," said Ruth Harlow, lead attorney in the case. "The ruling is magnificent. It's clear. It's very powerful." Of course, not everyone was pleased by the ruling. "Shame on them," said Cathie Adams, president of Texas Eagle Forum. "When the Supreme Court recognizes an entity that is unnatural, and certainly an unhealthy lifestyle, then they are undermining the cornerstone of our culture." You can't please everybody. Daytona Beach News-Journal


Kansas - Supreme Court To Kansas, Take This Sodomy Case Back Now: The U.S. Supreme Court has returned to Kansas appellate courts a case that challenged the state's differing treatment of sex offenders whose acts involve gay sex and those whose do not. The case the nation's highest court returned involves Matthew Limon, who is appealing his sentence of more than 17 years under the state's "Romeo and Juliet" law. Kansas law makes sex with a child under 16 illegal, no matter what the context. The "Romeo and Juliet" statute lessens the penalties when the partners are four years or less apart in age -- but it specifically does not apply to same-sex couples. Had Limon or his partner been female, the maximum sentence would have been one year and three months, according to the ACLU. Topeka Journal


Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson deplored the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling decriminalizing sodomy. "I don't know that any society which has legalized sodomy and has embraced sodomy has ever survived. And the United States won't be any different. Now, after they come along and say that sodomy is a constitutional right, and they overturn the laws of about 10 other states, they will have gone one more step into taking us down into a moral sewer," Robertson said. Daily Press

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Indiewire recently took a look, in an internet based chatroom featuring B. Ruby Rich, Jenni Olson, Ray Murray, Marcus Hu, Stephen Gutwillig, Kirsten Schaffer, Kristian Salinas, Michael Lumpkin, Jennifer Morris, and Desi del Valle. They started with a conversation about the birth of the New Queer Cinema movement more than 10 years ago, and it rolls on from there. "Queer cinema as I remember it was when renegade filmmakers such as Todd Haynes, Gregg Araki, Chris Munch, Rose Troche and Jennie Livingston were creating edgy, interesting, often darker works that the gay and lesbian community was hungering to see," said Marcus Hu, co-president of Strand Releasing, "The community was eager to see any kind of imagery back then." Indiewire

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Can't get around as well as you used to? Don't worry. The city of New York has decided to link "safe erotical for shut-ins" as part of its directory of GLBT services. Included on one site are pictorials such as "Jimmy Losing His Briefs!" "Jeff Helps Sandy into a Suit" (a Speedo) and "How to Seduce a Preppie," which features a comely "college freshman" named Paul. The erotic sites are a very small part of the overall offerings, says a spokesman for the city controller. It is "entirely appropriate" for the controller to produce a directory of services for gays and lesbians, said City Councilman Andrew Lanza, although he wasn't so sure about facilitating "the distribution of pornographic material - especially in times like these, where you ought to be more careful with money." He lost us at the part about the money. NY Daily News

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Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism Director John McKellar says it is "selfish and rude" for the gay community to push for same-sex marriage legislation and "redefine society's traditions and conventions simply for our self-indulgence." Although recently opened civil marriage to same-sex couples, Alberta Justice Minister David Hancock warned this week that any gay couple seeking a marriage licence in Alberta will be in line for a court battle. And the HOPE guys and gals are right there with him. On the opposite side are the members of another gay-rights group, EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere), who suggest that maybe the HOPE folks just aren't ready for a commitment. "Yes, there are a significant number who don't want to be engaged and be married because they see it as mimicking heterosexual standards. Fine. They don't need to be married," says Regional Director Stephen Lock. Calgary .com

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Degeneres Comes Clean on HBO: 'I blame the microwave oven for most of our problems," Ellen DeGeneres says in her latest HBO concert, taped last month before an adoring crowd at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre. "Anything that gets that hot without fire, that's from the devil." There are people in this country who believe she's from the devil, too. NY Newsday


TV producer Robert Greenblatt is not only out of the closet, he's also moving from Fox to Showtime. His Greenblatt Janollari Studio has been behind some major series landmarks including Six Feet Under, whereas at Fox he was behind the scenes on such stapes as The X-Files, Melrose Place, Party of Five, and Ally McBeal. Zap2it

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Texas - Attorneys, Clients in Sodomy Case Thrilled: The historic U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down Texas’ so-called “homosexual conduct” law sent ripples of joy throughout the country, but nowhere was the excitement more palpable than in Houston, where the case originated. “At first we knew we had won but we didn’t know what we had won on,” Katine said. “Quite frankly, I could not imagine that the court would actually overrule Bowers v. Hardwick. Sovo


You might be asking yourself who, besides Texas, still has sodomy laws on their books in this day and age anyway? Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four - Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri - prohibited oral and anal sex between same-sex couples specifically. The other nine banned consensual sodomy for everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. Yesterday's ruling invalidates all of those laws, lawyers said, and here we go:


Missouri - Missouri Anti-Sodomy Law Similar To Texas: A U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Texas' anti-sodomy law raises questions about the legality of a similar Missouri law, Attorney General Jay Nixon said. "Missouri's law on sexual misconduct in the first degree ... does contain similar language to the Texas law struck down today by the court,'' Nixon said in a statement Thursday. "Today's ruling appears to call into question Missouri's law prohibiting consensual same-sex sexual activity.'' In Jefferson County last year six men were charged with violating the law at an adult video store. St. Louis Dispatch

Louisiana - Sodomy Ruling Ends Fight in Louisiana: A U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a ban on gay sex wipes out a 198-year-old Louisiana sodomy law that applied to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, an attorney who has been fighting the law said Thursday.2TheAdvocate


South Carolina - South Carolina's law prohibiting sodomy was struck down, though rarely enforced - a felony punishable by five years in prison or a $500 fine. The State


North Carolina - The state's sodomy law, enacted in 1837 and often criticized as a tool of discrimination against gays and lesbians, appears to have fallen. Supporters of the statute and those charged with enforcing it are investigating the ruling's impact. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said he plans to confer with the state's Conference of District Attorneys. Until then, he said, charges and prosecutions under the law are unlikely. "Most of the DAs I know don't want to be filing cases under an unconstitutional statute," he said.News Observer

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As CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen, 44, has been the public face and voice in the industry's battle against digital piracy. This year, Rosen left her post this week to spend more time with the two children she shares with her partner, Elizabeth Birch of the Human Rights Campaign. "It's been an extremely rigorous job, as it needed to be, because of what the industry is going through," Rosen says. "But I really feel we're poised for a recovery in the next 18 months. I'm optimistic." You'll be seeing more of Rosen. In August she'll begin working for CNBC as an on-air commentator. USA Today

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On a recent night in a D.C. coffee shop, the speaker was activist Frank Kameny, perhaps best known for a bold letter to members of Congress in 1962 demanding equal treatment for gays serving in the government. Boys and Books has been meeting for about four years now, with 75 members, some of whom attend every month, others who turn up "once in a blue moon." Although Moderator Greg Faber loves the exchange of ideas, he says it isn't always easy to find a book everyone can agree on. The choices are expanding, says Jane Troxel, who manages the city's venerable bookstore Lambda Rising. "The definition of gay and lesbian is expanding." Today's gay and lesbian literature features themes and explores territory unheard of in the not-so-distant past. Lesbians who sleep with men, gay men and their straight girlfriends -- no topic is off-limits. "The literature is reflecting our real lives," Troxel says. MetroWeekly

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The Philadelphia Boy didn't admit openly gay kids or leaders. Then they did. Then the national Boy Scout organization stepped in and threatened to pull their charter if the Cradle of Liberty Council didn't toe the line on the private organization's no-gays policy. Since expelling openly gay teenager Greg Lattera, the council faces some harsh funding realities. The Pew Charitable Trusts, which had pledged $100,000, withdrew its funding saying it prefers to support organizations "that share our values and ideals of inclusiveness and tolerance." And the local United Way may pull its $400,000 annual grant as well. Beaufort Gazette

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In Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods — My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine, author Noelle Howey talks about her struggles with her father's transformation from emotionally distant dad to an affectionate transgendered woman. She chats with moderators from ABCNews.com, who ask at one point how she thought her family's story would have been different if set in the last 10 years. "there are so many more resources now for people who are transgendered and there are so many more discussions about what it means to be guy or a women. If my dad were a teenager now, he could join a transgender youth group and march in transgender parades. That could never have happened in the 1950s — or the '80s for that matter. This is a very recent phenomenon." ABCNews.com

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The pilot for a new gay-theme reality show will be shot this summer in Wilton Manors, Fla., which has a large gay population as well as a majority-gay city council. So far, there's no network commitment to air the show, but producers are hopeful. Executive Producer Sal Anthony said the show's creators liked Wilton Manors' everyday gay life, as opposed to the party town to the South, Miami Beach. The pilot will be shot at nightspots Georgi's Alibi and Boom. Sun-Sentinel

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There is disenchantment in New Mexico. A new law, effective July 1, expands the states Human Rights Act to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation - heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality - as well as on gender identity. But the Legislature sent Gov. Bill Richardson the wrong version of the bill, and he signed a different one containing language that exempts businesses with fewer than 15 full-time employees from having to comply. Current Argus

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A Middletown, Connecticut police department officer and William C. Martin, Cynthia Martin and their son William Martin are being sued for violating David Boganski's rights through alleged prolonged harassment and "gay bashing". When Boganski was locked in Officer Flaherty's cop car the Martins stood outside shouting and harassing him and falsely accusing him of being a drug dealer, the lawsuit said. Flaherty and another officer allegedly searched Boganski’s house without cause or a warrant. Boganski was taken to police headquarters where he was not read his Miranda rights and not allowed to make a phone call. Middletown Press

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