:: A vote by the school board on Pride Campus, a proposed gay high school in Chicago, has been delayed until Nov. 19. Local ministers blasted the plan last week during a meeting with schools CEO Arne Duncan, but he denied the delay was the result of the meeting.
:: Filmmaker Beverly Seckinger, who grew up in Laramie, Wyo. was compelled to return to her hometown in 2004 to see how the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998 had altered the site of her own closeted adolescence. From that visit, Seckinger created the independent film Laramie: Inside Out that discusses the social and cultural effects that Shepard's murder had on Laramie, home of the University of Wyoming. The film is available on DVD, but Seckinger also shows it to audiences as she did last week at the University of Denver as the starting point to discussions about homophobia. DU's Queer Straight Alliance handed out green shirts with the message "I am" on the front and "I will" on the back. Under each text were blank boxes that could be filled in to complete the phrases.
:: A 33-year-old gay Palestinian man asked an Israeli court on Sunday to grant him permanent residency in Israel so that he can live with his partner in the central Israeli city of Bat Yam. The man said that his family on the West Bank has threatened to kill him "to save face" if he doesn't "reform". He's lived secretly in Israel with his partner for several years, but has been arrested by Israeli security for not having the proper papers.
:: Former model and current Bollywood superstar John Abraham shows off his hot, taught bod in a soon-to-be-released flick, called Dostana, in which he plays a gay man. The role played by the much-publicized ladies man might be enough to make him a gay icon in India, but his iconic status is heightened because his super-buff character in the movie is usually seen wearing nothing more than very brief yellow trunks. He says he appreciates both his male and female fans, "I know a lot of my fans belong to the gay community. All power to them. I have always maintained that respect for this section of my fan base."