Brokeback Mountain has been banned in the Bahamas because of “extreme homosexuality, nudity and profanity.”

StarPulse.com: The Bahamian film board said the film was of “no value for the Bahamian public.” Philip Burrows, a theatre director from the islands, responds, “You have a group of people who are telling grown men and women what they can and cannot watch. I cannot understand denying people the right to make their own choices.”

A kennel owner who refused to sell a woman a puppy after finding out the woman lives with her same-sex partner has been fined $2,600 by a Swedish court.

The kennel owner, who was not identified, had initially been willing to sell the woman a puppy but changed her mind when she found out the woman was living with a lesbian partner, according to Sweden’s discrimination ombudsman, a government watchdog who filed the lawsuit.

The Nacka District Court outside Stockholm issued the ruling on Thursday, the ombudsman’s office said.

“This is an important verdict,” said Hans Ytterberg, who heads the ombudsman’s office. “It is important that these incidents are tried in court.”

Gaylene Lamb died without a will in January, and now her partner of 13 years, Susan Martin, and her parents, Priscilla and Joe Lamb, are battling over who should inherit Gaylene’s estate. When Susan’s attorney, Jane Ross, points out that the fight over Gaylene’s assets would not be taking place had the couple been allowed to marry, Priscilla and Joe Lamb’s attorney, Brent Bryson, replies with “It is grossly inappropriate to make this a political case.”

A state law passed in 1996 bans same-sex marriages, and a challenge to the statute was turned away by the Arizona Supreme Court two years ago.

Meanwhile, a petition drive is under way in Arizona for an amendment to the Arizona Constitution that would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The amendment also would ban civil unions.

Lamb died on Jan. 2. A week later her parents started the legal process to be placed in control of their daughter’s estate.

One of the first steps attorney Bryson took was to get a judge’s order forbidding Martin from using any funds from Lamb’s estate. The application for the temporary restraining order accuses Martin of having “raided” three bank accounts of Lamb’s and hiding the money.

Martin said she did so to pay off the medical bills that were accruing.

This battle could’ve been prevented if Lamb had a will, but Martin said the subject never came up.

“We were young,” Martin said. “We didn’t think we’d need one.”

Bryson declined to make the Lambs available for comment.

Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu,

Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Today is Jen’s birthday. Shhhh. Don’t tell her I told you.

Sixteen-year-old Carissa McGee, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after her mother, Anita McGee, and sister, Marie McGee, were found on Monday morning with multiple stab wounds. Albuquerque’s KOB-TV reported the possibility that McGee stabbed her mother and sister because she was angry that they had been ridiculing her for being a lesbian; it remains an uncomfirmed motive.

Read “Lesbian teen athlete held in stabbings of mother, sister.”

CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC are refusing to air an ad for the United Church of Christ which shows “a gay couple, a single mother and a disabled man flying out of their pews as an unidentified hand pushed a red ‘ejector’ button” with text that reads “The United Church of Christ. No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”

United Church of Christ leader Ron Buford told AP Monday that the decision of the networks to decline the latest advertisement shows they have a narrow view of acceptable images of gays and lesbians.

“They are saying, ‘You can entertain on ‘Will & Grace’ and ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’, but when it comes to showing you as whole people with the church, that is going to far,” Buford said.

A spokeswoman for NBC explained the decision by saying the ad “violates our long-standing policy against airing commercials that deal with issues of public controversy.”

A spokeswoman for CBS offered a similar answer while spokespeople for ABC and FOX could not be reached by the Associated Press for comment.

CNN, USA, TNT, BET and eight other cable networks, along with three Spanish-language stations, will begin airing the ad on April 3. According to Buford, the church spent $1.5 million on the ads.

Back in December I posted about two students who filed suit against the California Lutheran High School Association after being expelled from California Lutheran High School because of their alleged lesbian relationship.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Gloria Connor Trask refused to dismiss the lawsuit. She dropped one count, the allegation that “the school blocked the teens’ chance for their pursuit of happiness,” of the seven included in the suit and denied a request of $25,000 in punitive damages, but the lawsuit will now continue on, still including allegations of “false imprisonment, violation of fair business practices, invasion of privacy and discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Attorneys for the Wildomar school told Superior Court Judge Gloria Connor Trask on Monday that the school is a private, religious organization and the suit should be thrown out. Trask allowed the suit to continue, although she did throw out one of the seven counts.

Plaintiffs attorneys Kirk Hanson and Mike Grace, who represent the girls in the lawsuit filed Dec. 15, said they want a jury trial.

“We think members of this community would be anxious to hear this kind of a case,” Hanson said outside the courtroom. “Parents, grandparents, and anyone involved in the life of a child would not want a school engaging in this type of behavior.”

School attorney John McKay was disappointed.

“This is clearly a First Amendment issue and my clients had the right to do what they did,” McKay said.

School principal Gregory Bork acted on suspicion when he suspended the juniors in September for having a lesbian relationship, court documents show. The school’s board of directors ultimately expelled them.

Bork wrote in a letter to the parents that he was upholding the school’s religious values and keeping the girls from sin, documents show.

The names of the girls and their parents weren’t disclosed. Attorneys would not say whether the girls are lesbians.

According to Amazon, Transgender Erotica: Trans Figures, edited by M. Christian, is being released on March 31, 2006 (which has to be wrong since they offer to deliver it by March 30, 2006). I just read about Transgender Erotica: Trans Figures today for the first time at QueerWriters.com: “Transgender Erotica: Trans Figures is an erotic anthology of fiction and personal account that explores the creative limits of human sexuality—the transgender experience. Long misunderstood and under-represented in literature, emotional and sexual transsexuality exposes what erotic experience can and should be—limitless.”

Laura Murphy, a senior at Villa Maria Academy in Buffalo, New York, wants to bring her girlfriend to her prom, but officials of the all-girl Catholic school say she only has two options: bring a male date or attend the prom alone.

A deputy legal director of the national Lambda Legal group says students have First Amendments rights of free expression to protect them in public schools. Villa Maria Academy is private.

Lambda Legal this year is publishing a prom season guide to inform same-sex couples of their legal rights.

Murphy and her girlfriend attended a semiformal dance at the school in December without incident.

Murphy says, quote, “It’s something special, and I want to share it with someone special. I don’t want to take a guy I don’t really care about.”

The Stonewall Chorale, “the nation’s first Lesbian and Gay chorus,” is auditioning for their June 10, 2006 concert.

Get the details at Viviane’s Sex Carnival. And for more info on the Stonewall Chorale, visit their website.