Gay Penguins Raise Chick

(NEWSER) - A Polish lawmaker is incensed over a local zoo's acquisition of an elephant that might be gay, Reuters reports. “We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?” the flustered lawmaker said. Zoo officials said the 10-year-old elephant is still in an exploratory phase, and his species doesn’t reach sexual maturity until 14. More»

Group wants students expelled by 'secret court' in 1920 recognized

(NEWSER) - In 1920, seven students were expelled from Harvard University because they were gay or thought to be gay—and now a group of students and faculty wants the school to award the seven with posthumous degrees. The group also wants Harvard to formally abolish its "secret court," the group of administrators who investigated possibly homosexual students in 1920, which only became public in 2002 when a student reporter discovered the "court" and its expulsion of the seven students. More»

It's definitely over for Toronto Zoo's Buddy and Pedro

(NEWSER) - The penguin love affair dubbed "Brokeback Iceberg" by Jimmy Kimmel is now definitely over. Pedro and Buddy, the "gay" African penguins the Toronto Zoo decided to split up last month , are now both more interested in females, the BBC reports. Buddy, who shared a nest with Pedro for a year, paired with a female within 72 hours of the split, zookeepers say. Pedro, meanwhile, has been pursuing a female for weeks without success. More»

Despite Supreme Court ruling, anti-sodomy law remains on books

(NEWSER) - According to the Texas state penal code, "homosexual conduct" is still a criminal offense—even though the Supreme Court deemed the state's anti-sodomy law unconstitutional eight years ago. Though the state stopped enforcing the law after the Supreme Court's decision, it's still on the books—and will likely remain so, even though a pair of bills introduced in the Texas House recently would finally remove it. The problem? The legislature's Republican supermajority might never allow the bills to come to a vote, Mother Jones reports. In their party platform last year, the Republicans made it clear they wanted homosexuality to remain outlawed. More»

...they have to have abstained from sex with other men for 10 years

(NEWSER) - In Britain, gay men will be allowed to donate blood for the first time, with just one catch: They can only donate if they haven’t had sex with another man in a decade. It was determined that the ban on gay men donating blood could be discriminatory, and the public health minister is expected to announce that it will be lifted within weeks. But homosexual men who have been sexually active within the past 10 years will still be barred from donating, the Telegraph reports. More»