Some schools in New Zealand are allowing students to bring same-sex dates to balls, but with a bit of a caveat: they have to sign a gay pledge.

Pupils are being prevented from taking same-sex partners to school balls unless they sign contracts confirming they are homosexual, a gay support group says.
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Rainbow [Youth] education officer Serafin Dillon knows of four Auckland colleges that do not allow same-gender ball partners unless pupils sign contracts stating their sexual orientation.

She would not name the schools but said their policies were discriminatory and breached the Bill of Rights.

"If this was in the workplace it would be discrimination and it would be unheard of. But because it's a school they think they can somehow get away with it."

Bad education, indeed.

We just stumbled across this video, entitled "Gay Education."

It's fairly informative and covers a lot of ground, like possible biological explanations for the world's homosexuals and the negative impact of the ex-gay movement.

Today's Friday. Indulge yourself…

Some Massachusetts children will get trans education this fall when custodian Brian Bonin makes his debut as Brianna Bonin.

After fifty-four years living as a man, the father of two has started transitioning into his new life as a woman. And, understandably, he's pretty psyched, and, surprisingly, so are school officials.

Principal Norman P. Yvon and superintendent Ernest L. Boss will soon send out a supportive note, which reads:

Our night custodian has informed us of his decision to change his gender and, as we begin the school year, he will begin living and working as a woman. He has been a valued employee of the Oxford Public Schools for many years, and we expect his exemplary performance to continue as he changes gender roles.

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Ten New York Republican Senators made some serious gay headway when they introduced a queer inclusive anti-bullying bill last week. The move surprised many, especially considering that Senatorial Republicans have for six years dismissed a similar bill, the Dignity Bill. It's not that oppositional Senators support bullying, but many objected to the bills' explicit inclusion of gender identity and expression, ananathema for right-leaning lawmakers.

Entitled the "Safe Schools for All Children Bill," this latest measure looks a lot like the Dignity Bill, including trans protections, but there are subtle differences. Perhaps most importantly, "Safe Schools" leaves no room for litigation. That is, students and parents aren't granted the right to sue, a subject the Dignity Bill didn't address. Safe Schools also includes the pragmatic cyber-bullying stipulation, another piece left out of Dignity.

Legislative differences aside, an examination of Safe Schools' success over the oft-dismissed Dignity Bill provides some lessons in political persistence, timing and a bit of post-9/11 geography.

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An Israeli professor may be learning a judicial lesson.

Hillel Weiss, who helped found his nation's religious peace movement, has been indicted on two charges of inciting violence and intimidation after two very crude outbursts, including one about the abominable gays:

Two weeks before the 2005 Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, Weiss said in an interview that "this abomination should be expelled from the Holy City by any means necessary."

Violent protests then erupted at the site the parade, during which one marcher was stabbed.

In another incident, Weiss was last year filmed verbally abusing Israel Defense Forces Hebron Division commander Colonel Yehuda Fuchs during the forced evacuation of settlers in the local market.

Weiss was filmed telling him: "We will bring you to justice just like in Nuremberg. We will kill you and hang you from a high tree for everyone to see. I hope your mother will be bereaved, your wife a widow and your children orphans."

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Children are wiser, smarter and more mature than Bill O'Reilly.

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Fifteen-year old Lawrence King's murder last February at school shocked the nation. It also pointed to timely, troubling questions: Newsweek's current cover story highlights some lingering, troubling questions:

What you might call "the shrinking closet" is arguably a major factor in Larry's death. Even as homosexuality has become more accepted, the prospect of being openly gay in middle school raises a troubling set of issues. Kids may want to express who they are, but they are playing grown-up without fully knowing what that means. At the same time, teachers and parents are often uncomfortable dealing with sexual issues in children so young. Schools are caught in between. How do you protect legitimate, personal expression while preventing inappropriate, sometimes harmful, behavior?

Very carefully?!

North Carolina's gay guppies won't be included in a new anti-bullying law. Nor will anyone else, because the state's Senate failed to approve the legislation…

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Right wing journo Robert Knight sure knows how to misread!

Knight, a regular contributor to OneNewsNow, uses his most recent column to blast the Washington Post, which yesterday featured an article on the trials and tribulations of gay teenagers in America. All in all, it's a fairly straight forward look into how younger generations benefit from the gay rights movement and can come out at a younger age. Since school kids are notoriously nasty, these kids often face harassment and, as the piece points out, schools are often powerless to stop it. Or simply don't care. That was our reading, but we're sure Knight would disagree.

He seems to think the Washington Post's proselytizing for the proverbial gay agenda…

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"Concerned" citizens are already bitching about Uncle Bobby's Wedding, a children's book about gay marriage:

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, the children’s book about a young guinea pig named Chloe and her uncle who marries his boyfriend, has received its first challenge.

A patron at Douglas County Libraries in Colorado asked that the book either be removed from the shelves, placed in a special area, or labeled “some material may be inappropriate for young children.”

It's a children's book! How bad could it be?!

Meanwhile, Library honcho James LaRue isn't taking the right-wing bait, telling the complainer that it's a library "job" to have contentious books.

Libraries, he points out, don't endorse books. They allow "access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life." Word.

[PS: We still think the "guinea pigs" look like gerbils.]