Poll Shocks Italian Catholic Magazine

Italy's biggest Roman Catholic magazine polled Catholics in hopes of finding they disapprove of gay-partnership laws but learned that 72 percent of Italian Catholics believe non-married couples deserve spousal rights.

The magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, was less than enthralled with the result. "We are facing a very real breakdown of reason," the editors wrote. "There are not and cannot be couples, and consequently families, that are real and proper outside the marriage between a man and a woman."

The national gay group Arcigay called the findings "revolutionary" and demanded a referendum to enact a spousal- rights law for non-married couples.

The survey was conducted by the SWG polling agency and questioned 800 people.

Activists Mount Laser Show on Big Ben

Members of London's YouthSpeak group used lasers to project a large pink "16" on Big Ben the evening of Aug. 10.

They were protesting the government's refusal to call a moratorium on prosecution of men who have sex with 16- or 17- year-old males. The House of Commons recently reduced the gay- male age of consent to 16 but the unelected House of Lords vetoed it and there will now be a delay of more than one year before the government can circumvent the Lords and enact the measure against their will.

The laser show lasted 20 minutes before the protesters were surrounded by police and forced to disband.

"The age of consent is more than a mere symbol of oppression, it is a law that is regularly used to prosecute gay teenagers," said YouthSpeak Chairman Chris Morris. "YouthSpeak is calling for a public statement that makes it clear such prosecutions would not be in the public interest nor in the interests of justice."