Homosexuals

Having one or more older brothers boosts the likelihood of a boy growing up to be gay - an effect not of social factors, but of biological events that occur in their mother's womb, according to a study published today. In an analysis of 905 men and their siblings, Canadian psychologist Anthony Bogaert found no evidence that social interactions among family members play any role in determining whether a man is gay or straight. The only significant factor was the number of times a mother had previously given birth to boys, according to the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

June 5 1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel. Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested. 1981: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia that later became known as AIDS.

The new Vatican ruling that men with "deeply rooted homosexual tendencies" should not be considered for the priesthood will likely have little impact on the church here, according to local Catholic leaders. St. Mary's Seminary and University was already in compliance with the long-anticipated "Instruction" issued yesterday by the Congregation for Catholic Education, its rector said, and the Archdiocese of Baltimore has long required men to have been celibate for at least three years before they may enter the seminary.

Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals William Wright St. Martin's Press / 294 pages One spring night 85 years ago, a Harvard student named Cyril Wilcox lay in bed, breathing deeply. Gas flowed from an open jet in his room. By morning, he was dead. Thanks to some incriminating letters, Wilcox's older brother, Lester, thought he knew exactly whom to blame for the apparent suicide: a circle of homosexual Harvard students, who, he believed, had seduced his innocent brother into a life of debauchery and perversion.

Tackling an issue that threatens to splinter many mainline Protestant churches in America, the chief legislative body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will decide this week on whether to ordain homosexuals in committed relationships and to continue allowing clergy to bless same-sex unions. Although embracing diversity has been a priority in the church in recent years, leaders say they will be more focused on preserving unity as they answer the question of whether homosexuality is a sin according to Scripture or a natural condition.

In a move that could reverberate throughout the already divided United Methodist Church, a church committee reinstated yesterday a lesbian pastor who was defrocked in December after she told her Philadelphia congregation of her relationship with another woman. In an 8-1 vote, the panel set aside the earlier verdict stripping the credentials of the Rev. Irene Elizabeth "Beth" Stroud, associate pastor at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, for violating the United Methodist Church's prohibition on openly gay clergy.

The Rev. Irene Elizabeth "Beth" Stroud isn't sorry she did what she did that Sunday morning two years ago this week. She also isn't sorry she stood in front of the congregation of the Philadelphia church where she was associate pastor and told them the secret she had been keeping from them for years. "I know that, by telling the truth about myself, I risk losing my credentials as an ordained United Methodist minister," she told them. "And that would be a huge loss for me. But I have realized that not telling the whole truth about myself has been holding me back in my faith."

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - As gay rights activists prayed and held hands in the chamber's balcony, the Illinois House approved a bill yesterday guaranteeing equal rights for gays and lesbians, prompting the Legislature's sole openly gay lawmaker to tearfully proclaim his colleagues had chosen to be on "the right side of history." The surprisingly strong 65-51 vote came after a chorus of appeals from several black lawmakers, who compared the import of the moment to the civil rights era and called upon other representatives to end modern-day discrimination.

WASHINGTON - In a setback for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court refused yesterday to hear a challenge to a unique Florida law that bars gays and lesbians from adopting children. Lawyers said it is the only state law that flatly prohibits gays and lesbians from adopting children, although Mississippi bans adoptions by same-sex couples. It was enacted in 1977 when singer Anita Bryant led a statewide campaign against homosexuals. Florida does not prohibit gays and lesbians from caring for foster children, and its ban on formal adoptions was challenged as irrational and unconstitutional by several gay men who cared for foster children.

TEMPE, Ariz. - A legal confrontation is playing out here as a student organization seeks official recognition and money from a state-run university even though the students plan to exclude non-Christians and gays. A group of Christian students at Arizona State University's law school formed a chapter of the Christian Legal Society, a national organization that unites Christian lawyers and law students for fellowship, mutual legal support, meetings and Bible readings. After the university refused to recognize the group, the society's national headquarters in Washington, D.C., drafted a lawsuit challenging the university over its anti-discrimination policies, a move that echoes similar and sometimes successful efforts across the country.