Keeping up with his scandal-a-month rate, bent British musician Boy George has been charged with "false imprisonment" of his Norwegian escort Auden Carlsen, whom BG allegedly kidnapped earlier this year.

…Carlsen, 28, claims he was grabbed and chained to a wall by George and another man after the singer invited him back to his London flat to pose for photographs.

Scotland Yard said today that the 47-year-old singer, who was first arrested in April, had now been charged over an incident in his flat.

The singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was released on bail and ordered to attend Thames Magistrates Court next week.

Police said: "George O’Dowd, 47, a musician of Ravey Street, EC2, is charged with the false imprisonment of a 28-year-old in Ravey Street on April 28. He has been bailed to return before Thames Magistrates Court on November 22."

Poor Boy…

New Zealand's legal system may be getting a gay-friendly overhaul. The nation's Law Commission hopes to repeal the sixties-era gay panic defense, which allows people to say gay sexual advances drove them to violence. Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer told his peers:

Section 169 of the Crimes Act 1961 must be repealed. ‘Gay Panic Defense' is a shorthand label, not an accurate legal description. But as the Law Commission recognizes, it is one of the main ways that the provocation defence operates. Of the four known cases in the past five years when the provocation defense has been pleaded successfully, two have involved the ‘Gay Panic Defense'.

We do not believe that such circumstances offer a valid excuse for murder… More broadly, and more importantly, intentional killing in anger in any circumstances is inexcusable.

Ain't that the truth.

Palmer's now asking the Minister of Justice to end this unjust legal loop hole. Cross your pretty little fingers!

Some gay legal drama came to a close yesterday when prestigious law firm Sullivan & Cromwell settled a discrimination suit. Former employee Aaron Charney filed the complaint earlier this year and accused his colleagues of not only discriminating against him, but ignoring repeated complaints:

In his lawsuit, Mr. Charney accused members of the firm of demanding he be terminated for carrying on an “unnatural” gay relationship with another Sullivan & Cromwell associate; Mr. Charney denied the relationship. The suit also contended that after he filed a formal internal complaint, members of the firm suggested that he move to a foreign office and then fabricated reviews to accuse him of overbilling clients, among other things

Sullivan, which denied his allegations, responded in February with a suit of its own accusing Mr. Charney of repeatedly and deliberately revealing confidential information about the firm and its clients as part of his legal fight.

Rather than drag through a trial, the parties agreed to settle. Those terms, of course, remain confidential. We're thinking a few million probably did the trick.

A Turkish judge postponed the trial against Lambda Istanbul. The legal brouhaha began when Governor Muammer Güler accused the gay group of violating the nation's constitutional, familial "morality". Lawyer Firat Söyle calls Güler's assessment garbage:

The association is the expression of an organisation, an institution which has been formed in order to make people's voices heard. The governor's 'moral' justification can be interpreted very widely, and it is unacceptable in Turkish law and international conventions that a legally formed association could be closed for that reason.

The trial, which was meant to start yesterday, has been pushed back to January 31st.

As Singapore's gay activists rally and rap against Section 377A, a conservative group's fighting for the law, which bans anal and oral sex. in an open letter on their website, the sinister sounding "Majority" wrote:

Section 377A is a reflection of the sentiments of the majority of society. Most Singaporeans hold conservative family values and do not accept homosexuality as the norm.

Repealing Section 377A is a vehicle to force homosexuality on a conservative population that is not ready for homosexuality.

Would the "Majority" rather everyone have heterosexual missionary sex? If so, they've got no carnal imaginations!

• John Aravosis chats with CNN's resident tool Rick Sanchez about Larry Craig. Moral of the story: Craig's coincidence defies reality. Meanwhile Aravosis wrote this piece about ENDA. A reader suggested we add him to our list of 20 Most Frightful Anti-Gay Activists…

• GLAAD gets into the news business.

• Queer Iraqi situation worse than imagined:

Up to 25 gay men will next month have to ‘take their chances’ in Iraq where religious militia regularly seek out gays and execute them. Two ‘safe houses’ for gays will be forced to close at the end month – due to lack of cash, it was learned last night.

Make potentially life saving donation here. Or continue being apathetic. It's up to you.

CONTINUED »

In addition to being a total flip-flopper, Senator Larry Craig has a selective constitutional vocabulary. In a statement regarding his new guilty plea appeal, the Idahoan toilet troll says:

It is my right to do what I’m doing. I’ve already provided for Idaho certainty that Idaho needed — I’m not running for re-election. I’m no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights.

Craig, of course, won't let gays pursue their constitutionally protected right to get married. God, Republicans can be so stoopid.

Republican sex scandal? Must be Monday.

Brown County Wisconsin GOP chair Donald Fleischman stands accused of molesting at least one teenage runaway.

Police went to 37-year old Fleischman's house on November 19, 2006 and found a 16-year old boy huddled in his closet. The boy wore only a t-shirt and underpants. Police also found a pot pipe.

Less than one month later, the police returned to Fleischman's house again and, shocker, found the same boy, a runaway from a local shelter.

The teen, now 17, told authorities Fleischman took him to a hotel in Appleton during that time and then to a cabin near Florence for several days before returning to Fleischman's Allouez home. The boy said Fleischman provided him with beer and marijuana, the complaint said.

The boy told police that when he would go to bed, Fleischman would fondle him and that on one occasion he awoke to find Fleischman at the foot of his bed masturbating.

The boy also tested positive for marijuana.

If convicted of his charges - two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child - Fleischman faces 52 years in prison.

The Republican maintains his innocence.

The Daily Page has a complete chronology of events. Also, download the September 7th complaint against Fleischman here.

There's some gay drama in the small European nation of Moldova, where authorities stopped a gay pride event in 2006. Claiming such an event would cause a public disruption, officials sent coppers to break up the queer fun, which included laying flowers at the Monument to the Victims of Repression.

Gay rights activists brought the government to court, but lost. Now, after reviewing the facts, the Parliamentary Assembly of of the Council of Europe resolved that the government must "ensure full respect of the fundamental rights of all minorities".

CONTINUED »

The already ugly custody battle between Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards just got even nastier

In an effort to win her kids, actress Richards handed a judge some less-than-flattering Sheen emails, including one in which Sheen calls Richards a "sad, jobless pig". In addition to the emails, Richards alleges that Sheen's seemingly endless sexual appetite led him to gay porn sites:

Richards says Sheen even visited gay pornography sites - "which I found even more disturbing because I felt that the boys looked underage," the documents state.

CONTINUED »

Four British firemen were admonished after dousing a gay foursome:

The firemen shone their torches from their engine into bushes on the Downs - an area of parkland in Bristol said to be popular with people engaging in late-night outdoor sex known as "dogging" - interrupting the four as they were involved in a gay sex act.

One of the group later contacted the AIDS charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, who advised him to make a formal complaint.

Under gay fire, the Avonmouth fire department fined the apparently offensive firemen and moved them to a new station.

CONTINUED »

Prestigious Yale University recently lost a fight to keep military recruiters off its sprawling campus. Determined to make their case, however, about forty Yale Law School students came out yesterday to silently protest Don't Ask, Don't Tell: the discriminatory law barring openly gay soldiers from fighting for our nation.

Though Yale never barred the military from its campus, it objected to recruiters attending the employer interview program for students. The government, however, threatened to withhold $350 million in funds unless the school gave them access. Unable to fight back, the school agreed. The students, however, refuse to back down.

Who says all Yalies are assholes?

Dr. Kevin Ronan's got a lot of explaining to do. The Navy commander currently faces a number of charges stemming from videos he allegedly made of cadets having sex. And, as part of the trial, the prosecutors have successfully submitted gay porn as evidence.

Gay pornography found on the computer of a Navy doctor can be submitted as evidence in his trial on charges that he made secret video recordings of Naval Academy midshipmen having sex in his Annapolis home, a military judge ruled yesterday in a decision that could put the physician's career in jeopardy.

Ronan's defense lawyer attempted to thwart the move by claiming that one of Ronan's charges may have downloaded the porn. Prosecutors, however, also pointed to what appears to be Ronan's account with gay sex star Brent Everett's website. Ronan claims someone stole his identity and started the account, which may be the worst defense in history.

CONTINUED »

There's more trouble for New York's finest. Less than a week after coppers filed a sexual harassment suit against their gay superior, another gay officer's entering the judicial arena.

30-year old William Harrington alleges that the NYPD and its staffers discriminated against him after he came out. Of the drama, Harrington laments:

I always wanted to be a police officer, and I want to stay a police officer, but it's very difficult to cope with what's going on… "It's a very difficult time.

Among the complaints, Harrington says a coworker suggested he wear a woman's purse, while another regularly called him a "fucking faggot". Another Greenwich Village-based flat foot reportedly said all gays should be shot.

Foul mouthed and homicidal? Yeah, that sounds like the NYPD.

A 17-year old boy made history in Argentina. After a lengthy court battle, the boy, Natalie, won the right to change his gender. It's the first time in Argentine history a minor has been given a sex change.

Of the landmark case, gay activist Cesar Cigliutti said:

What's important and unusual about this case is that Natalie is a minor - she is not yet 18 years old - and this has become an emblematic case for people who have a gender identity different to their biological one.

To ensure a smooth transition, the judge ruled that Natalie must see a shrink post-op.