Gay Today: World

Queen Invites Gay Employees
to 'No Kiss, No Dance'

Belgians Register Partnerships

Australian Youths Poll 6% Gay

By Rex Wockner
International News Report

Queen Invites Gay Employees
to 'No Kiss, No Dance'

Britain's Queen Elizabeth let it be known that gay employees' partners were welcome at her Windsor Castle Royal Household Christmas party this year as long as they didn't kiss, dance together, or otherwise display the nature of their relationship.

As usual, invites went to staff members "and guest," but this year, for the first time, senior employees spread the word that the guest could be a same-sex lover.

In other royal news, gay icon and AIDS diva Elizabeth Taylor was among those knighted on December 31. And the London Gay Men's Chorus performed on New Year's Eve before the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Millennium Dome.

Belgians Register Partnerships

Belgian gays began registering January 4 under the nation's new partnership law, which also extends to opposite-sex couples and platonic cohabitants.

The law is mostly symbolic as it does not extend much in the way of matrimonial rights.

Activist Alain Bossuyt, who registered with his partner Luc Legrand, told reporters, "It doesn't go as far as we would like, but even so it's the only official recognition of our union, our affection -- if not of our marriage."

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
Zimbabwe's President Brands UK's Government Queer

British Colonies Must Legalize Gay Sex

London: Private Group Sex Penalty Upheld

Related Sites:
Genx: Australian Gay Youth

GayToday does not endorse related sites.

Australian Youths Poll 6% Gay

More than 6 percent of Australian students in grades 10 to 12 are attracted to people of the same sex, a new survey from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society has found.

Another 2.3 percent are unsure of their sexual attractions.

Researchers questioned 3,500 students at 118 schools.

They also found that students who acknowledge same-sex attraction are up to four times more likely to binge drink or use illegal injectable drugs.

The study is published in the current issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.