Eight hundred gays and lesbians and 200 "family values" protesters clashed in downtown Vancouver's Robson Square June 7, according to Xtra! West.

The occasion was a rally by the anti-gay Citizens' Research Institute (CRI) to protest against gay-positive curriculum in public schools.

For two hours, the two groups chanted slogans at each other, blocked each other's picket signs, and pushed and shoved for control of CRI's podium. CRI speakers never did get to speak from the dais.

Later, as CRI head Kari Simpson spoke to reporters, gays pelted her with dirt clods.

The confrontation was part of an ongoing battle between pro and anti-gay forces over school curriculum.

On one side, members of the BC Teachers Federation are funding development of workshops, policies and curriculum recommendations that battle anti-gay bias.

On the other side, the school board in Surrey, a Vancouver municipality, has banned three gay children's books -- "Asha's Moms," "Belinda's Bouquet," and "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads" -- and the British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, in a non-binding resolution, voted 165-158 to ban from schools all material related to homosexuality.

Provincial Premier Glen Clark has weighed in on the side of gays, saying: "Burning books is no solution. What we have to do surely in the '90s is preach tolerance. ... School boards are democratically elected; we try to respect that even when they make stupid decisions."

A recent McIntyre and Mustel Research poll found that 68 percent of British Columbians think students should be taught to accept homosexuals. Only 20 percent of 500 respondents polled across the province said students should be told that homosexuality is unnatural. Among parents, 73 percent favor gay-friendly curriculum.

25% OF BRITISH GAY MALES HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

One in four gay men who attended last year's London gay-pride events has been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult according to a Sigma Research survey conducted for the government's Economic and Social Research Council.

According to The Pink Paper, 1,143 men answered an anonymous questionnaire during pride events.

"Given the numbers of men that completed the questionnaire, and given that it was anonymous, we are satisfied that the responses are largely honest and the final figures can be relied upon as accurate," said Ford Hickson, a Sigma senior research fellow.

Police in Zimbabwe have given prosecutors a docket of nine sodomy and homosexuality charges against former President Canaan Banana who is accused of forcing sex on male associates during his presidency in the 1980s and at the university where he teaches.

Reports of Banana's alleged activities came to light in February during the trial of one of his ex-bodyguards, a policeman who murdered a fellow cop who had teased him by calling him "Banana's wife." The bodyguard claimed Banana raped him repeatedly during a three-year period while Banana was president.

A Methodist minister and chair of the University of Zimbabwe Religion Department, Banana is married and has four kids. He was president from 1980 to 1987 while current President Robert Mugabe -- who is virulently anti-gay -- was prime minister.

Mugabe has called homosexuals "repugnant to my human conscience... immoral and repulsive." He has declared gay sex "an abomination" and "sub-animal behavior" and urged citizens to "hand [gays] over to the police. ... I don't believe they have any rights at all," he stated in 1995.