Florida's young gays can breathe a little easier.

The state's Senate yesterday passed unanimously a comprehensive, queer inclusive anti-bullying bill, which has been either years in the making. And you can be sure gay group Equality Florida's leading lady, Nadine Smith, celebrated in epistolary style:

Thanks to the thousands of messages you sent to the Florida Senate and a last minute lobbying effort in Tallahassee, Senators heard our call and brought the long overdue Anti-Bullying bill up for a vote and passed it. Governor Crist has expressed support for the bill many times in the past and it now awaits his signature.

Equality Florida's goal has always been to provide the strongest protections possible for Florida's students, including LGBT students. Because of your commitment and persistence over the years, all of Florida's students will be protected under this bill. In passing the bill the sponsors repeated again and again that this law protects LGBT students.

And they all lived happily ever after…

Some gays are so easily swayed! BBC's version of The Apprentice won over the lavender set after casting two fetching contestants this season:

The Apprentice host Sir Alan Sugar has become a gay hero after featuring some male "eye candy" in the new series.

Amstrad boss Sir Alan has been applauded by gay men for including "hot" candidates Alex Wotherspoon and Michael Sophocles, a former male escort, in the business talent show.

One gay man wrote on an internet forum: "'The Apprentice' didn't used to float my boat but that's all changed this year."

Those of you boys lusting for Sophocles (pictured), may want to save your energy: he only hooked for vagina.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee popped into The Tyra Banks Show for some girl talk last week.

We can't watch the exchange until this Friday, but a very helpful Banks staffer sent over the transcript of Banks and the Huckster talking about the gays. Because, as Tyra declares, "I love the gays and the gays love me. And I know I cannot walk down the street here in New York City if I didn't press that issue and truly ask you that." Girl, you know it's true.

So, what does Huckabee have to say for himself? Nothing new, really, except his language seems to be softer. We aren't the necrophiliacs we once were; we're just missing the mark:

TYRA BANKS: I know that you are a preacher; do you believe that homosexuality is immoral?

GOVERNOR HUCKABEE: Well, I think a lot of things in our lives are missing the mark. The word sin means missing the mark. It doesn't mean that a person has committed murder… So I think sometimes if you say is it a sin or immoral and people think you're making these terrible statements about somebody. I've had people who are gay that worked on my staff. It's not like I'm some homophobe. If you ask me is it the normal pathway? I don't think so. But, you know, I respect that people have different views about that.

Well, good. We're glad you "respect" that we don't think gay folk are freaks. That's very kind of you, Schmuckabee.

Read the rest of the ladies' exchange, after the jump:

CONTINUED »

An Ohioan Democrat doesn't seem to understand that justice is blind. Judge James D. Piergies questions whether his queer colleague Mary Wiseman's lesbianism will tip the scales.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman, who is openly gay, should excuse herself from cases involving the state constitutional ban on gay marriage and Dayton's new law banning discrimination against gays, her Democratic primary opponent says.

Montgomery County Area Court Judge James D. Piergies cited Wiseman's role in writing an earlier, failed version of the anti-discrimination law when she was a Dayton city commissioner in 1999. He said it would create an ethical problem as well if she were to consider cases involving the Ohio constitutional amendment that passed in 2004.

Wiseman shrugged of Piergies' suspicions, saying that if personal characteristics influenced one's decision, then Thurgood Marshall should never have presided over civil rights cases.

Princeton student Francisco Nava makes Britney seem sane.

The conservative fool fabricated death threats and an assault because he felt his views weren't respected on the university's campus.

A Princeton University student who claimed he was beaten unconscious by two assailants after receiving death threats for his morally conservative views admitted yesterday to fabricating the attack and sending the e-mail death threats to himself, other students, and a prominent conservative professor, police officials said.

Nava claimed that his op-ed against condom distribution had garnered the death threats. He's also part of an anti-gay marriage group called Anscombe Society. We can't confirm, but we suspect he's also a virgin.

University officials have yet to punish Nava, but do say they're concerned about his mental state. Obviously.

HRC's recent ENDA poll has a lot of people scratching their heads. For example, who were the 500 people tallied for their astounding statistics - 70% of the participants supported a non-inclusive ENDA. Those results happened to support HRC's flip-flop of a decision to actively support HR 3685, which they vowed not to support.

Considering all the inconsistencies, Bay Area Reporter asked HRC's Brad Luna for an explanation. For the record, we also left a message for Luna, but were not granted a reply. Queer. From BAR:

We immediately asked who these [poll subjects] were – HRC members or subscribers of the Advocate? (The magazine was first out of the box to post the story about the survey, leaving some to wonder if the two were joined at the hip on this one.) Minutes later, we received a call from spokesman Brad Luna, who assured us that the 500 folks were "randomly" selected "from across the country" and were "not HRC members and not Advocate readers."

He declined to name the polling company that conducted the survey, which he said was done by telephone.

Blogger Michael Petrelis highlights another part of the excerpt, "[Luna] declined to name the polling company that conducted the survey, which he said was done by telephone." He also implores HRC give up the secret of their survey success.

Former Speaker of The House and Mark Foley enabler Dennis "Hasturd" Hastert will leave his post earlier than expected:

The Illinois Republican had announced in August he would not seek re-election in 2008, but said he planned to finish his current term, which ends in January 2009. Republican aides, speaking on background only because Hastert had not yet publicly announced his new plans, said he now intends to leave office late this year or early next year.

What's really funny is that Hastert's the 13th Republican to announce his resignation in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Congressional outcast Larry Craig refuses to quit. More proof that the GOP's backwards.

Despite hundreds and thousands of outraged cries, the House Committee on Education and Labor voted 27-21 to pass a non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The bill, which tosses trans folks on their asses, will now head to the House of Representatives.

As PageOneQ points out, four Democrats voted to stop the bill from going forward: New York's Yvette Clark, Loretta Sanchez of California, New Jersey's Rush Holt and Ohio's tiny presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich.

National Coming Out Day's less than 48 hours away, but TR Knight's so psyched that he's filmed a PSA for GLAAD. The Grey's Anatomy actor wants the world to know: "Gay and transgendered people are part of every community. We are your neighbors, your coworkers, your family…"

Ain't no getting rid of us, so might as well learn to love us!

CONTINUED »

The American Library Association received 546 requests to ban books last year. ALA deputy director Deborah Caldwell-Stone, however, estimated that the unofficial challenges - that is, unregistered - may be closer to 2000. Many of these controversial books are queer. Chicago Free Press' Paul Vernell offers some suggestions on how to save gay reads:

For one thing, simply be alert to news reports of book challenges and be prepared to speak up and offer support to the library and its mission of providing books for readers with a variety of interests.

Second, we can check out and read (and then return) a gay-themed book. Libraries live by circulation: It is proof that they are doing their job. Caldwell-Stone points out that one of the ways librarians can justify retaining a book is that the book is popular—that there is a clear patron constituency for the book. Don’t be reluctant to check out young adult books. Many are well written and have intriguing plots. And the children’s picture books are usually clever and, well, cute.

Third, we can issue our own challenges—not to ban a book we might not like (that would make us as bad as the homophobes) but a “challenge” or request for the library to acquire a gay book or two that it does not currently have. Or challenge it to replace a book that has been missing for a long time. Libraries—at least in Chicago—don’t seem to keep a list of the books that are missing or were taken out and never returned. So if you notice one, ask for it to be replaced.

This sounds like there's a lot of reading involved. Can we get this on video?

Jodie Foster's an open book. Except when it comes to a certain Out magazine article questioning her sexuality.

So says Entertainment Weekly journo Karen Valby:

Over the next two hours, there's only one subject that she firmly swats away. A recent Out magazine cover featured two models holding up pictures of her and Anderson Cooper's faces in front of their own, under the headline "The Glass Closet: Why the Stars Won't Come Out and Play." When asked if she has any response, Foster says, "Was that the one with the Popsicle sticks?" Her thin lips tighten into a calm half smile of reproach: "No, I have no response."

We can just imagine her sitting there, simmering and cursing the Out staff.

Roman homos claimed a slice of the historic city yesterday. Led by gay group Aricay, several hundred men and women gathered at Via San Giovani in Laterno and renamed it "Gay Street". Sodomy Street simple didn't have the same ring and now gay street will be "point of reference for the gay and lesbian community."

The move comes as activists continue to protest last week's arrest of two men kissing outside The Colosseum. The couple claims they only kissed, but Roman police insist their action went further than a simple lip lock. Hundreds of gays staged a kiss-in last week and plan to do the same this weekend.

See? Activism can be sexy…

Fred Phelps loses again. The anti-gay pastor recently raised another bid to erect a monument celebrating Matthew Shepard's grizzly 1998 murder.

Phelps had his eye on Casper, Wyoming's monument plaza, which includes granite engravings of the Constitution, Magna Carta and other documents dedicated to freedom - something Phelps knows nothing about. Rejecting Phelps' claim, Casper Mayor Kate Sarosy wrote:

Your monument is simply religious in character, based on your personal religious beliefs regarding Matthew Shepard, and bears no historical significance to the foundation of the law for our country. As such, the city cannot place your monument on city property without violating the establishment clause of the United States Constitution.

Phelps, meanwhile, comforted himself with delusions of Casper's sulfur and brimstone end: "The end is coming, and it will be cataclysmic. I don't expect to save Casper." We're sure Casper and its citizens are heart broken…

Lawyers can be the sleaziest of sleazy bastards - even while in the legislative womb. And would-be lawyer Stephen Dunne takes the cake. He's chalking his failed bar exam up to his bigotry. From Law.com and Pam Spaulding:

A Massachusetts bar examination applicant who claims he failed the test because he didn't answer a question about homosexual marriage and parenting is suing the test administration agency, the state Supreme Judicial Court and four individual justices for constitutional violations.

[Stephen] Dunne claims his score of 268.866 on the November 2006 bar exam just missed the passing score of 270 points because he didn't follow the proscribed format for an unlawful question about gay marriage. Dunne said the question required applicants to "affirmatively accept, support and promote homosexual marriage and homosexual parenting." Dunne claims the defendants violated his First Amendment right to exercise his religion and violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution. He also claims their actions impose illegal state regulations on interstate commerce.

Same-sex marriage, meanwhile, remains legal in Massachusetts.

Dunne's now asking the state bar to overlook that "mistake" and grant him his license. He also wants a jury trial and "unspecified compensatory and punitive damages". They always do.