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MONTREAL, May 7 (UPI) — A saliva test could help speed up detection of human immmunodeficiency virus, or HIV, Canadian researchers say.

The McGill University Health Center study, published in PLoS Medicine, demonstrated the efficacy of rapid saliva tests for all subtypes of HIV-1 and HIV-2 and produced results in as little as 20 minutes.

The saliva test, based on a method called immunochromatography, was used on 1,222 mothers in a labor ward in India using both saliva and blood samples. The results from both types of tests corresponded.

The labor ward saliva tests helped identify several HIV infected women who were about to give birth.

“In such cases, it is vital to determine the HIV status of the mother very quickly to prevent transmission to the child during delivery. Many Indian women do not receive prenatal care and therefore do not get tested for HIV during pregnancy,” study leader Dr. Pant Pai says in statement.

“Testing in the labor ward is the last chance to prevent HIV transmission to the newborn baby. Also Indian patients often refuse blood collection, while saliva collection poses no problem.”

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Mich. High Court Rules Against Gay Benefit (BGN)
Column on purses hurtful to gays (Stratford City Gazette)
Va Elects First Gay African American (365Gay.com)
Lesbian Protection Order at Issue (Gay City News)
Lesbian Co-Mom Win in NC (Gay City News)
No criminal charges in water polo photos posted on gay website (Los Angeles Times)
Bishop prefers gays in Santa Cruzan than bold stars (ABS-CBNNEWS.com)
Gay hate crime bill passed by Parliament (pink News)
Logo Launches Online Library (MultiChannel News)
Religious groups gang up against Moscow Pride (Pink News)
Mich. court backs ban on benefits for gay partners (Baltimore Sun)
Madonna in new on-stage lesbian kiss (Daily Telegraph)
Gays lose ruling on benefits (The Toledo Blade)
Church split over gays OK’d (Orlando Sentinel)
Transgender killer torn with guilt, searching still for identity (Las Vegas Sun)
HRC Guide Helps Employers Create Fair Policies for Transgender Workers (Gay Wired)
Transgender teen says he has support at Brewster school (The Journal News)
‘Hate crimes’ target Jewish, LGBT students (California Aggie)
Colorado: Lesbian Couple Guilty of Trespassing for Sit-In (New York Times)
Excluding gays will not protect marriage (The Daily Item)

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LANSING, Mich., May 7 (UPI)

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that gay public employees are not entitled to healthcare and other benefits for their partners.

The state’s highest court, in a 5-2 decision, said the denial of benefits to same-sex partners of public employees was covered by a 2004 amendment to the state constitution that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The court said language in the amendment prohibiting recognition of other unions “for any purpose” includes providing of benefits to gay and lesbian partners of those who work for public employers, the newspaper said.

Ave Maria Law School Professor Patrick Gillen, who co-wrote the amendment, called the decision “a vindication of the will of people in enacting the marriage amendment.”

However, Jessie Olson, an attorney who for those seeking the benefits extension, called it a setback for civil rights.

“We are the worst of the worst of the worst when it comes to civil rights for same sex couples,” Olson said.

Olson said appealing to federal court carried the risk of affecting all states if proponents lose.

“The only alternative may be just leaving,” he told the Free Press, “joining the exodus of people who are just getting out of Michigan.”

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Gay bishop takes on sacred cows in a new book (MSNBC)
Mich. high court says gay partners can’t get health benefits (AP via Yahoo! News)
MTV Networks launches video hub for gay community (CNET)
British star urges Hollywood gays out of the closet (Pink News)
Ontario Christian group to appeal rights ruling (The Globe and Mail)
Lesbian denies boy trouble (The Courier Mail)
Apology for gay man detained for kissing boyfriend (Pink News)
Lesbian Couple On Trial In Trespassing Case (KMGH 7 Denver)
Same-sex marriages (News 10 NBC Rochester)
Gays seek equal rights (Courier-Post)
Commissioners pass EEO policy resolution (FOX Toledo)
Russian Gays Observe First Day of Silence (The Advocate)
Top Vet In Congress Calls For Repeal Of Ban On Gays In Military (365Gay.com)
English Mill Town Welcomes Lesbian Families (NPR)

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Gay Couple Named Yale Dorm Masters (BGN)
Guilty Verdict in Royal Blackmail Case (BGN)
Gay Students Claim Principal Outed Them (BGN)
Gay former N.J. gov’s divorce trial begins in closed court (AP via Yahoo! News)
Surrogates fulfil gays’ dreams (News 24 South Africa)
Russian extremists call for recriminalisation of homosexuality (Pink News)
Lesbian pupils face high rape risk (The Star)
Munich’s gay-themed maypole attacked by vandals (Pink News)
Gays defend participation in Santacruzan parade (GMA News)
Moldovan Gay Activists Hope Pride March Won’t Be Banned (Gayapolis)
Disabled gays suffer double discrimination (The Lantern)
Transsexual Took Own Life In Prison (RainbowNetwork.com)
Nostalgia, romance shape Gay and Lesbian film fest (Boston Globe)
Philippine cleric objects to gays playing female saints (AFP via Yahoo! News)
University suspends staffer over view of homosexuality (WorldNet Daily)

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MEMPHIS, May 2 (UPI)

Students at a Memphis high school said their principal outed several gay students when she compiled a list of couples at the school and posted it publicly.

The students claim Principal Daphne Beasley of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School compiled a list of all couples at the school, homosexual and heterosexual alike, after receiving complaints about public displays of affection in school hallways, ABC News reported Friday.

“I really feel that my personal privacy was invaded,” said a student who gave his first name, Nicholas. He said his sexual orientation was exposed when the principal’s list revealed him to be in a relationship with another male student. He said Beasley invaded his privacy. “I mean, Principal Beasley called my mother and outed me to my mother!” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union has threatened legal action against the school.

“I really couldn’t believe that a principal would have done something like this,” said Christine Sun, an ACLU attorney handling the case.

“The Constitution provides all of us with the right to privacy and the right to associate whomever we want to associate with,” said Sun. “And by creating this list and intruding upon these students’ privacy without any reason to, she violated their constitutional rights.”

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LONDON, May 2 (UPI)

Two men were sentenced to five years in prison Friday for attempting to blackmail a member of the British royal family with a videotape that alleged he is gay.

Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan were convicted of demanding money with menaces, the BBC reported. Prosecutors said the defendants demanded 50,000 pounds ($100,000) from their unnamed victim after trying to sell the videotape to tabloid newspapers.

The judge, who described the victim as “particularly susceptible,” said the crime demanded a prison term.

“Although they claimed to be acting in the interests of the victim, the jury rejected this story and agreed with the prosecution that they were simply interested in the money,” Mark Carroll of the Crown Prosecution Service said after the verdict.

Strachan and McGuigan were arrested after meeting with a police officer posing as a representative of the victim.

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NEW HAVEN, Conn., May 4 (UPI)

An openly gay faculty couple have been named dormitory masters at Yale University, a first for the Ivy League school, school officials say.

Richard Lalli, an adjunct music professor, is set to become the residential master of Yale’s Jonathan Edwards College, while his partner, Yale University Health Services Medical Director Michael Rigsby, was named the college’s assistant residential master.

According to Yale’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Program’s Web site, it is the first time in the university’s history an openly gay faculty member has been named a residential master.

Yale is comprised of 12 residential colleges. The residential master’s job is to co-ordinate the dorms’ social events, meet with parents, organize intramural sports teams and provide counseling to students. Yale follows Harvard University in naming an openly gay couple to a high-profile dorm master role, according to The Hartford Courant.

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Principal Accused of Outing Gay Students (BGN)
Gay Bar Ruled Discriminatory to Women (BGN)
Minister Cleared on Same-Sex Marriages (BGN)
Lawyer: Royal Blackmail Case a ‘Farce’ (BGN)
Equality Forum: Gay Icons (NBC 5 Chicago)
Island Of Lesbos Takes Gays To Court Over Term Lesbian (365Gay.com)
Gay formal ban endorsed (The Courier Mail)

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LONDON, May 1 (UPI)

The case against two men charged with trying to blackmail a minor British royal is “insubstantial, insignificant and incomplete,” a lawyer said Thursday.

Ronald Thwaites, in his closing argument, said his client, Sean McGuigan, was “unwise in his friendships,” especially in his friendship with his co-defendant, Ian Strachan, The Guardian reported. He described Strachan as someone with “Walter Mitty” dreams.

Strachan and McGuigan are charged with trying to shake down an unnamed member of the royal family, demanding 50,000 pounds ($100,000) for a tape of an employee describing the man as a homosexual. They were arrested after a meeting at a hotel with a police officer posing as a royal aide.

Thwaites said the prosecution case is a “farce” and a “joke.”

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LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 30 (UPI)

The Presbyterian Church USA has cleared a minister of performing same-sex marriages on the grounds that the unions she blessed aren’t marriages.

The church’s permanent judicial commission, in a ruling released Tuesday, reversed a ruling by a lower church panel that found the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr of San Rafael, Calif., guilty of misconduct, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The commission, the church’s highest court, which is based in Louisville, Ky., said that unions between two women are not marriages. Therefore, it said, the lower court “found Spahr guilty of doing that which by definition cannot be done.”

Spahr, who has been an open lesbian for 30 years, recently retired as head of That All May Freely Serve, a group that advocates for gay ministers. She said that she had mixed feelings about the decision.

“In not seeing same-gender marriages as marriages, the commission holds

to the idea that we are separate and unequal,” Spahr told the Times in a telephone interview. “And that causes me great pain.”

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MONTREAL, April 30 (UPI)

The Quebec Human Rights Commission ruled a Montreal gay bar discriminated against a woman last May by asking her to leave.

Audrey Vachon complained to the commission when she entered Le Stud bar in Montreal’s Gay Village last year, she was asked to leave. Tuesday, the commission announced a settlement had been reached, but details weren’t released, The Gazette newspaper reported.

In a statement, commission spokesman Robert Sylvestre said the bar, which has only one public washroom, had agreed to adhere to regulations.

“The only way they can bar access to someone is if they can demonstrate that person will threaten the bar’s other patrons,” Sylvestre said.

When the case was first brought against Le Stud, gay activist Rick Matthews lodged a counter-complaint against a women’s health club called Curves that doesn’t allow men entry, but the status of that action hasn’t been resolved, the report said.

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MEMPHIS, April 30 (UPI)

The principal of a Memphis school is accused of violating students’ right to privacy by publicly posting the names of those dating each other, attorneys said.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union claim Daphne Beasley, principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School, asked fellow employees to identify students who were dating as part of her effort to reduce public affection, WPTY-TV in Memphis reported.

Beasley allegedly publicized the names of several students, two of whom were boys who had recently become romantically involved with one another. After Beasley’s posting, the boys’ peers, parents and teachers learned of their involvement, the report said.

The union claims Beasley went against the students’ rights to equal protection, freedom of expression and association, due process and privacy.

“We take all allegations of invasion of privacy and discrimination seriously. At this time, we have not completed our internal investigation of this matter,” said Van Davis Turner Jr., associate general counsel for the Memphis City Schools Board of Education.

© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
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Gay formal ban endorsed (The Courier Mail)
Obama ally defends HIV comments (Pink News)
Health Care Workshop To Focus On GLBT Community (KYW News Radio)
ACLU says gay students mistreated at Memphis school (Eyewitness News)
Church court clears lesbian weddings’ minister (San Diego Union-Tribune)
No marriage in government’s gay reforms (AAP via Yahoo!7 News)
Backers, foes of gay marriage collide at Capitol (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Williams criticised by gay bishop (BBC News)
Transgender discrimination lawsuit settled (Planet Out via Yahoo! News)
Ronaldo in transvestite prostitute confusion (Pink News)
Annual Gay Pride parade cancelled (BBC News)
McGreevey, Wife Argue Over Alleged Trysts (NBC 10 Philadelphia)
Kip Williams: Daytime TV and the Homosexual Agenda (HuffingtonPost)