RICHARD GRAY AND ARTHUR MACMILLAN

AT least three gay "weddings" have been held in Scotland every day since new laws allowing homosexual couples to legally register their relationships came into force less than two months ago.

Another 385 homosexual couples have booked registrations to take place over the next three months.

Gay rights campaigners expressed welcome surprise at the rush for registrations, but critics of the new legislation say civil registrations are eroding the sanctity of marriage.

Edinburgh boasts the most, with 67 civil partnerships registered and another 178 booked. At the other end of the M8, there were 44 carried out in Glasgow and another 81 booked. But the figures are still dwarfed by traditional marriages, with each city holding 300 a month.

Further analysis of the figures for Edinburgh also suggest its higher number of homosexual registrations may be fuelled by couples from outside the city seeking to take advantage of its gay friendly environment. Around 30% of the registrations in Edinburgh were by couples living elsewhere.

According to the figures, more than twice as many male couples have so far sought to enshrine their relationships in law than female couples since the first civil partnerships on December 20 last year.

Rather than the garish, flamboyant affairs displayed in celebrity unions such as Elton John's partnership with David Furnish, most ceremonies in Scotland have been quiet and discreet.

Gretna, a favourite destination for heterosexual marriages, saw four immaculately turned out gay couples dressed in morning suits and highland outfits on the steps of its famous registry office. Staff also reported receiving more than 50 enquiries from couples interested in having a ceremony conducted.

Jane Chandler, senior registrar at Gretna, said: "All the couples we have had wanted low key and discreet ceremonies with a few friends and family around them.

"There is nothing to tell them apart from the other marriages we conduct except the couples are the same sex.

"The first couple we had been together for 29 years, so it was an emotional moment for them."

The figures also reveal an intriguing east-west split in the proportion of ceremonies being carried out.

East coast council areas have seen a higher uptake of the legislation, with eight all male registrations in Fife and another 16 booked. Aberdeen and East Lothian have both held six registrations.

In comparison East Ayrshire has carried out none so far, but has five booked for the future in Kilmarnock. South Lanarkshire has had one lesbian "wedding".

Professor Lynn Jamieson, a sociologist from Edinburgh University, said: "In rural areas it will be difficult for couples to have a ceremony without everyone finding out, so if they are looking to have a discreet registration they may look to go somewhere they are not known."

Only two areas have experienced no demand for civil partnerships, Midlothian and the Western Isles. In December Scotland on Sunday revealed the Western Isles as the only place in the UK to ban homosexual ceremonies.

Four council areas, Stirling, Moray, Highlands, Scottish Borders and Argyll and Bute, refused to respond to requests for the figures.

John Murray, 27, and Chris Kolm, 27, both from Glasgow, are one couple now planning to take advantage of the new law by having a registration ceremony in April after being together for five years.

Murray said: "We can see ourselves being together for quite some time and a civil partnership does bring benefits for more practical, legal reasons, but we wanted to do it for more romantic reasons.

"Both our families are going to be there to help us celebrate our relationship."

Calum Irving, director of gay rights group Stonewall, said he hoped the number of couples registering would help encourage a culture change in the way homosexual relationships are viewed. He said: "It proves there was pent up demand for legal recognition for same sex relationships."

But senior figures in the Catholic Church in Scotland have attacked the legislation. Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow said:

"This new law has created a fiction of marriage by implicitly basing such publicly recognised partnerships on a sexual engagement. This can only diminish the special status of marriage."

I feel emotional
   I am on some kind of trip that I can't seem
   to get off of.
   My mind wanders and searches for truth.
   For answers

I feel that I don't know
    What I am doing and how I should be doing it.
     I take the first step of prevention and always get caught in the cross fire
     It burns down my soul and makes me vulernable
     Taking me away from what I thought that I knew

I try to be
    the best that I can be but there seems to be 
    always that one thing that I forget to do or to cover
    Or I am always feeling like I am in the wrong
    And I try to be the best that I can be to achieve my dream
            but people stand in the way of what I want to do
            and I can't help but wonder what it is that I need to do to be on top
            to achieve what I want and to do better than I have been and be
            Someone that achieved more than the average something 
            that the rest of the world will have to learn to accept and believe.

Today was my day off. It was so relaxing. I did a lot of stuff that needed to be done. While helping a friend with something that she needed help with. I remember the time when I was in high school and trying to figure out where I wanted to go to school. It was great to help them out with their questions. It was sad going through the mess with the bank that we had to deal with. It was really annoying.

+ Caught up on my cable/internet/phone bill
+ Paid my electric bill
+ Found out that I had to go to Radio Shack to get a tripod for my satellite
+ My lappy is working for a bit.

Overall feeling accomplished. Still wishing I was going to class. Anyway, night night.

(Shenzhen Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-08 09:38

China's first survey on gay men entitled "Chinese MSM (men who have sex with men): survey on sex and the state of self-identity" was completed in Beijing recently.

This 650,000-character report, supported by the Ford Foundation in the United States and published by Beijing Gender Consultation Center not only presents a comprehensive and in-depth view of China's MSM behavior and current status, but also reveals the covert social existence of China's gay groups and the cultural state of mind little known to the public.

This report, compiled by famous scholar and writer Tong Ge includes over 400 gay couples and their personal experiences in sexual intercourse. The report depicts the real status of China's gay couples and their emotions.

According to the introduction written by Pan Suiming, head of the Institute of Sexuality and Gender of Renmin University of China, this report depicts the way that Chinese MSM interact with their families and social environment.

New Voice Message From Mariah // 4:47 PM EST Updated by Liron

by Lauren Neergaard, Associated Press

(Washington) A particularly bad strain of chlamydia not usually seen in the United States appears to be slowly spreading among gay and bisexual men, an infection that can increase their chances of getting or spreading the AIDS virus.

Called LGV chlamydia, this sexually transmitted disease has caused a worrisome outbreak in Europe, where some countries have confirmed dozens of cases. Diagnoses confirmed by U.S. health officials still are low, just 27 since they warned a year ago that the strain was headed here.

In Canada as of Nov. 3, 38 cases had been reported, with 23 confirmed and another 15 probable, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

But specialists say the number of U.S. cases is undoubtedly a fraction of the infections, because this illness is incredibly hard to diagnose: Few U.S. clinics and laboratories can test for it. Painful symptoms can be mistaken for other illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome.

And because LGV chlamydia doesn't always cause noticeable symptoms _ right away, at least _ an unknown number of people may silently harbour and spread it, along with an increased risk of HIV transmission.

``My feeling is that what we're seeing now is still the tip of the iceberg,'' says Dr. Philippe Chiliade of the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., which diagnosed its first few cases of LGV last month and is beginning to push for asymptomatic men to be screened.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already was counting an eight per cent increase in HIV among gay and bisexual men between 2003 and 2004, before LGV's arrival was recognized.

``We are really concerned about this,'' says Dr. Catherine McLean of CDC's HIV and STD prevention program.

Increasing the ability to test for LGV is ``what's really critically important,'' she adds. ``The prevalence of the disease is probably quite a bit higher than the reported cases indicate, either here or in Europe, but we don't yet know that.''

Three weeks of the antibiotic doxycycline effectively treats LGV. But patients have to know they're at risk, and then find a test.

Chlamydia, caused by bacteria, is among the most common sexually transmitted diseases. As many as three million Americans a year may become infected with common strains, best known for causing infertility in women if left untreated.

This more virulent strain is called ``lymphogranuloma venereum,'' or LGV. It's not a new form, but one rarely seen outside of Africa or Southeast Asia. So STD specialists were stunned in late 2004, when the Netherlands announced an outbreak that reached over 100 cases; last summer, one clinic there reported seeing one to two new patients a week. Cases also have surfaced in much of western Europe and Britain. As with the U.S. cases, many also have HIV.

Symptoms differ from regular chlamydia: swollen lymph nodes in the groin; genital or rectal ulcers; and painful bowel movements and other gastrointestinal symptoms that may mimic inflammatory bowel disease. Such symptoms leave patients particularly susceptible to HIV infection if they also encounter that virus.

LGV can infect both sexes, although new cases diagnosed so far are among men having sex with men.

Screening requires nucleic acid testing, a complex type of genetic testing not yet commercially available for rectal use. The CDC then uses even more sophisticated testing to confirm the diagnosis.

Because testing is difficult, no one knows how prevalent LGV truly is. In a surprise finding last fall, Dutch scientists tested some tissue samples stored in San Francisco since the 1980s, and found evidence that today's LGV strain had gone unrecognized at the time. So has it been simmering here all along, or is it on the rise?

Regardless of how that question turns out, LGV is one more sexually transmitted illness that plays a role in HIV.

Thus, the CDC is encouraging doctors who spot LGV symptoms to contact their local health department for help in finding a nearby testing lab, or in shipping samples to CDC for testing there.

``But I don't want people to think you have to have severe pain,'' cautions Chiliade, whose clinic recently became authorized to offer the NAT rectal screening _ and who recommends it for gay men who have had unprotected sex even if they feel no symptoms.

©365Gay.com 2006

+ Irene wrote:

hi patrick! i havent talked to you in a while, but yeah, i actually heard about this debate and i own the doc "beyond the gates of splendor" its pretty good. at my bible study there is this debate whether to watch it or not, but actually al mohler doesnt condemn the movie. yeah. have you watched it?

+ My reply:

Hi Irene. I know it's been the longest time. I hope everything is going good in your life. Mine has been going up and down as you can read.. hehe.

Anyway, thanks for commenting on the article. I actually posted it because it was really interesting. I have just recently started to getting back into exploring my religious/spirtual side, if you know what I mean. I haven't really got into yet. I am just slowly working my way into it. I would love if you could share the document "Beyond the Gates of Splendor." I am always up for learning new things.

I have not seen the movie yet, I just found the article very interesting. Be sure to inform me of all that you know about the debate. I'd love to learn more and read that document as well.

Yeah school without financial aid isn't cool. I need to clean my credit and apply for a loan that I can get on my own.. without needing a cosigner. So.. just work and searching for a higher paying job until I can get myself back into school.

(Los Angeles, California) The writers of "Brokeback Mountain," the sweeping tale about the longtime forbidden romance between rugged ranch hands, won best adapted screenplay Saturday night at the 58th annual Writers Guild Awards.

The screenplay was written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana and based on a short story by Annie Proulx. The film stars actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and received a leading eight Oscar nominations.

The writers of the ensemble drama "Crash," which follows the lives of a cast of characters over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, won for best original screenplay. The screenplay was written by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco based on a Haggis story.

In other awards, the ABC television show "Grey's Anatomy" won the writing award for a new series.

Larry David, the writer and star of the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm," won for best writing in a comedy series.

The crew of writers for the hit ABC show "Lost" were honored in the dramatic series category.

In the television animation category, Michael Price won for "Mommie Beerest" an episode on the long-running Fox show "The Simpsons."

Winners were announced in ceremonies held in Los Angeles and New York.

Other television winners announced Saturday:

Episodic Drama: "Autopsy" ("House"), Lawrence Kaplow, Fox.

Episodic Comedy: "You Can't Miss the Bear" ("Weeds"), Jenji Kohan, Showtime.

Long Form-Original: "Warm Springs," Margaret Nagle, HBO.

Long-Form Adapted: "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, based on the book by Roger Lewis, HBO.

Comedy/Variety Series: "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Mike Sweeney, Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Dan Goor, Michael Gordon, Tim Harrod, Berkley Johnson, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg, NBC.

©365Gay.com 2006