Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may want people to think he's the most conservative candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, but Senator Sam Brownback thinks otherwise.

Speaking to Christian Broadcasting Network, Brownback insisted he's the only staunch pro-life candidate and said of Romney:

I think you have to look at where he stood on the issues and what he said publicly. At times he's said different things on these issues. I think that's all going to come out during a long campaign... [W]hen we get out on the campaign trail and when the campaign really gets fully engaged, there's going to be a lot of discussion about where do people actually stand on the issues and where have they been and where are they now and how reliable are they to stay that way.

As you may recall, poor Mitt's past pro-gay statements have come back to haunt him, leading many social conservatives to wonder if he's got the Biblically-proportioned balls to lead our country. Brownback, meanwhile, has the complete support of people like Focus on The Family. Sorry, Romney, but we don't think you're long for the running.

Related: Brownback Hopes To Be A Winner

• In Britain, tabloid The Sun apologized for yesterday's cover story showing Prince Harry grabbing a girl's breasts at club. Not only did the rag get the nightclub wrong, they got the date of the photos wrong: They were taken in August 2003, not August 2006. [Guardian]

• In Ohio, a gay rights group has abandoned its effort to have Cincinnati voters decide whether gay men and women should be protected under the city's anti-discrimination ordinance after many of its signatures were acknowledged to be forgeries. [AP]

• In Kansas, two boys have confessed to stealing the rainbow flag – yes, that rainbow flag – waving outside a Meade bed and breakfast. The boys' father last week brought them to the B&B to apologize to the owners. [Out Q News]

• In New Mexico, the beating an 18-year-old gay man in Edgewood last month is now being attributed to the attackers' wanting to "scare him straight" after he allegedly touch the butt of one of the suspects. [Out Q News]

• Marcia Cross is still fuming over Barbara Walters asking her whether she is a lesbian. The question came during a live The View segment — and beforehand backstage, Walters told Cross she would have to ask her about it. [Scoop]

• In Wisconsin, tourism officials are worried that the industry will take a hit if voters in November greenlight a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. [AP]

• In Estonia, police launch a formal investigation into the attacks on the gay pride parade held in the nation's capital Tallinn over the weekend. [Advocate]

• In Kansas, the rainbow flag flying at a local hotel in Meade is the site of vandals. Early Friday morning, a brick was tossed through one of the hotel's windows; it had the word "fag" written on it. A second brick found outside the hotel had "Get the fuck out of town" scrawled on it. [Hutchinson News]

• In Toronto, the 16th International AIDS Conference calls efforts to fight AIDS in Zambia a "success." The conference is also the gathering site between grandmothers in Canada and across Africa, who are coming together to cope with the pandemic. [NYT, NYT]

• In Manhattan, Boy George reports for community service duty. [1010 WINS]

• In Florida, police make an arrest in Ft. Lauderdale in a May sex assault case. A homeless man is accused of drugging, assaulting, and robbing another man he met at a gay bar. [Express Gay News]

• In Estonia, attacks on gay pride revelers in Tallinn, the country's capital, on Saturday surprised both police and participants. The violent attack was led by Estonian skinheads brandishing sticks and throwing stones; they left several people injured — the first time in the city's three year march history that protests turned violent. [Monsters and Critics]

• In Arizona, a superior court judge rebuffs an attempt by gay marriage advocates to block a proposed proposed state constitutional to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. [Advocate]

• In Israel, the skies are quiet — but for how long? [NYT]

• In an interesting series of events, a West Point senior writes a thesis paper on how the military's anti-gay policies actually hurt the the armed forces they're meant to proect — and the U.S. Military gives him an award. [AP]

• In Connecticut, incumbent Joe Lieberman loses the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate to newcomer Ned Lamont — though Lieberman promises to run for his seat anyhow, as an indepdendent. [NYT]

• In Philadelphia, a HIV awareness campaign ended abruptly when its message got mixed with one of stereotyping black violence. The ads urging young men to get tested for HIV – and feature "young African American men ... in the crosshairs of a gun with the tagline 'Have YOU been hit?'" – were pulled when the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council voiced concerns over the ads violent message. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

• In Iran, an underground gay magazine says "thank you" for the worldwide support of other GLBT organizations bringing attention to their push for equality. [Pink News]

• The rainbow flag waving outside a Kansas B&B comes back into the spotlight, with a local chapter of the Kansas Equality Coalition planning to gather at the hotel to give the local gay community a voice. [Hutchinson News]

• In Israel, Jerusalem police have banned a demonstration in the city's centre, claiming World Pride organizers failed to limit the number of participants, supposedly for safety concerns. Demonstrators, however, are reportedly still set on holding the event. [Jerusalem Post]

• In Washington, state Medicaid officials are pushing to stop publicly funded sex-change operations. There are still two operations in the queue, and those will go ahead, and the state will remain paying for "hormone treatment and psychotherapy for low-income people diagnosed with gender-identity disorders." [Advocate]

Last month we wrote about a heterosexual couple who fly the rainbow flag outside their Bed and Breakfast in rural Meade, Kansas. They say they did not raise it as a symbol of gay rights, but because their 12-year-old son sent it as a gift and they wanted to be reminded of him.

Yes, the story is bizarre, but it has caused an uproar in the small town, and someone cut the flag down over the weekend. J.R. Knight and his wife Robin (pictured), the owners, are determined to fly the flag, because if they took it down then it would "send the wrong message" to their son, so they have ordered two replacements for the one cut down.

We feel that we aren't getting all the facts in this story. A 12-year-old boy living in California most certainly knows what the rainbow flag means, though he is on the record as saying he bought it as a souvenir from "Dorothy's House," a Wizard of Oz theme park because it reminded him of the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

If any of you readers know more about this story, please email us. We're fascinated, but also confused and a bit suspicious.

Rainbow flag cut down [Washington Blade]
Earlier: The Only Rainbow Flag In Kansas

“To me it's just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood." -- Some asshole

This is one of the more baffling stories we have come across recently. A heterosexual married couple who own a bed- and-breakfast in Meade, Kansas are being persecuted and boycotted for flying a rainbow flag outside their establishment. The local radio station has pulled their advertising and they have even gotten a chastising visit from the pastor who compared the rainbow flag to a pair of womens panties.

The most puzzling aspect, however is the reason why they fly the flag. It's not because someone gay gave it to them, or because they even knew it was a gay symbol. Rather their 12-year-old (yes, that's right 12) gave it to them as a souvenir from "Dorothy's House," a museum about the Wizard of Oz, because he said it reminded him of the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Does that make the kid a "friend of Dorothy"? We certainly wouldn't want to imply that, but it would be a pretty sneaky way to get a subversive message across in a repressed little Kansas town. If only we had been so clever during puberty.

Whatever the reason, local townspeople, such as the dummy pictured above, will not be dining at the rainbow-flag-flying B&B, so the owners had better hope that gay tourism to Kansas picks up really soon.

Rainbow flag creates controversy [KBSD]

• The Princeton Review ranks the most gay-friendly and least gay-friendly schools in the country. Not surprisingly, Starbucks cup-banning Baylor University ranks pretty high in the "get those queers away from us" category.

• Lady Bunny has some makeover tips for Harriet Miers. We hope her suggestions help but we fear the only effective solution involves a face lift and lipo.

• Kansas sex offenders who commit gay acts on underage victims will no longer be more severely punished than their hetero counterparts. Fair is fair now, people, so stay away from juvie tail!

• Hellbent isn't the only gay horror movie out this Hallwoeen. There's hunky competition with the indie October Moon.

• Dr. Who's bi sidekick is getting his own show which we just know will be titled Dr. Q.