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Miguel Washington was surrendered to authorities by relatives in Pennsylvania and returned to the home of his uncle, Paul Washington, Jr., and Timothy Forrester.

—Right now he’s really happy to be home,” Washington Jr. said. —We’re absolutely elated. Our family is united again.”

An attorney for Paul Washington Sr. and Sandra Washington, Miguel’s grandparents and Washington Jr.’s parents, said his clients intend to pursue custody.

—My clients don’t feel that’s the best home for him,” said attorney Bill Hence, Jr. —I’m very disappointed in the agencies that were supposed to be protecting the rights of the child.”

Miguel was born to Angelena Washington, the younger Washington’s mentally disabled sister, who was impregnated while living in an assisted-care facility, family members said. At the time, family members informally agreed to have him raised by Washington, Jr., a hardware store salesman, and Forrester, a teacher.

Advertising wars

OMAHA, Neb.—Opponents of a constitutional ban on gay marriages or civil unions tried to use some emotional symbolism in their campaign.

But Nebraska television stations wouldn’t let them.

Their television ads were rejected by three stations because the message used a swastika.

Advertising time was purchased on three ABC affiliates for airing during a Nebraska-Oklahoma football game.

The ad opened with the state motto, —Equality Before the Law” in big letters on the screen. The slogan then changed to —Equality for some Before the Law” as a swirling swastika slowly became visible in the background. The advertisement ended with a voiceover saying, —Things like 416 have happened before. Let’s make sure they don’t happen in Nebraska.”

Opponents of Initiative 416, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, said they were being censored.

—While controversial we do not believe it is offensive,” Michael Jones, treasurer of the Vote No on DOMA Committee said.

He said gays as well as Jews were persecuted in Nazi Germany and laws are now being enacted against gays as they were in pre-World War II Germany.

Time for the advertisement was bought on stations KETV in Omaha, KHGI in Kearney, and KLKN in Lincoln. After seeing the advertisement, station officials all said it was inappropriate and would not be aired.

The proposal passed in November.

Journalists’ benefits

COLUMBUS, Ohio—A professional group for journalists is urging the news industry to offer domestic partnership benefits to its gay and lesbian employees.

The Society of Professional Journalists approved a resolution at its annual meeting calling for such benefits.

The measure, approved 85 to 36, was opposed by some members who said the professional organization should not be involved in employment matters such as benefits.

—It’s not about employment from our perspective,” said SPJ diversity chairwoman Sally Lehrman. —It’s about fairness and accuracy in content, which emerges in part from fairness in the newsroom.”

Gay initiatives

Four states had initiatives on their ballots last month affecting the rights of gay and lesbian citizens.

Voters in Maine, Oregon, Nebraska and Nevada all had initiatives before them.

In Maine, voters narrowly refused to adopt a gay rights measure that has been a political football in that state for years.

Oregon defeated a proposal that would have barred classroom instruction —encouraging, promoting, sanctioning” homosexuality or bisexuality, and would have applied to public schools from kindergarten to community colleges.

—This is an incredible victory for gay youth; Oregon voters have sent a message that you can’t choose which students are legitimate and which students are not,” said Jim Anderson, a spokesman for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Also on Election Day, Nebraska and Nevada adopted proposals to amend their constitutions to say only marriage between a man and woman is valid.

Since 1995, 34 states have enacted a ban on recognizing same-sex marriages, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Clinton-gay vote

WASHINGTON—President Clinton found a warm reception among gay audiences, and it’s one of the Democratic constituencies that he continued to court for Vice President Al Gore in the closing days of the campaign.

The Gore campaign tried to distance itself from the president in many battleground states.

But Clinton was a headliner at a gay and lesbian event where he said Gore as president would continue many of the gay-friendly policies he had implemented.

—The vice president supported everything I did for this community,” Clinton told about 50 gay and lesbian leaders. —I hope, for what it’s worth, 100 percent of your community will know that on Election Day.”

Speaking at a fund-raiser organized by the Democratic National Committee and the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, Clinton said a Gore administration would be much better for homosexuals than one headed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee.

About 50 gay and lesbian leaders were at the $10,000-minimum fund-raiser, which administration spokesmen said took in more than $1 million for the DNC.

Nun disciplined

BOSTON—A Roman Catholic nun has been disciplined for helping to perform baptism rites on the adoptive babies of two gay couples.

Sister Jeannette Normandin was fired from Boston’s Jesuit Urban Center, and presentation of an award she was to receive, the annual Imago Deo —in the image of God” award, was postponed.

Her punishment sparked a furor in the community. That prompted the center to postpone the dinner until next spring.

—It’s simply to have the event in a peaceful time,” the Rev. Thomas Carroll, director of the center, said.

Carroll wouldn’t comment on the baptism.

—We reflect on many things in weekly staff meetings,” he said. —I’m sure we will talk about these things.”

Church officials believe Normandin was making a political statement when she helped baptize the adoptive sons of two gay couples Oct. 22. Under church law, baptisms can only be performed by ordained ministers, except in an emergency. Normandin has said women should be ordained as priests.

Normandin and the Rev. George Winchester, who watched as she performed the baptisms, were both fired and were ordered to move out of the Jesuit center.

Korean coming out

SEOUL, South Korea—Coming out in Korea can be a difficult thing.

Just ask Hong Suk-chon, a 29-year-old actor who became the first Korean celebrity to reveal that he is gay.

Hong’s coming out is a sensation in South Korea, a deeply Confucian society with a strong Catholic church. Here, homosexuality has been treated as if it’s a disease and exists only in the West.

At a loss for an indigenous term to describe Hong’s deed, local media resorted to borrowing the English term —coming out.”

—I at least have gotten people talking about homosexuality. I dream of a day when parents tell their kids that homosexuals are no freaks,” said Hong, who rose to celebrity playing an effeminate male designer in a television sitcom.

He also was a regular latenight talk show guest and appeared on South Korea’s leading children’s program.

His coming out was costly. MBC TV banished Hong from the children’s program. A radio station canceled his sitcom contract. His distraught parents, who are 65 and live in a conservative rural town, begged him to tell the media that he was mistaken when he said he was gay.

Hong, best known for his shaved head and often hyperactive and flamboyant TV roles, said he lost 90 percent of his jobs virtually overnight.

Gay family

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—A new tax ruling in California recognizes that one partner in a same-sex partnership can be recognized as the head of the household.

Such a designation is significant for tax purposes.

The state Board of Equalization on Wednesday upheld an earlier ruling that Helmi Hisserich could file as head of household, a tax classification mainly used by unmarried taxpayers supporting family members.

Hisserich, a 37-year-old economic development consultant from Los Angeles, pursued the issue for three years after she was denied the filing status by the Franchise Tax Board.

She and her partner, Tori Patterson, have been together 14 years. Patterson gave birth to a daughter, conceived by artificial insemination, in 1997 and has stayed home to raise the child since then.

The ruling will save Hisserich about $1,000 a year in state taxes.

—This sounds corny, but I’m really a good citizen who contributes to society, and I felt I was really being wronged by the tax system,” Hisserich said.

The board said it could not estimate how many couples might benefit from the new ruling.

French novelist dies

PARIS—A French novelist who authored a classic among gay literature has died.

Roger Peyrefitte, a prolific writer whose novel about male friendship in a religious school won France’s prestigious Renaudot prize in 1945, died at the age of 93.

Peyrefitte, who died in Paris, made his reputation with Amities Particulieres, or Special Friendships, which dealt with bonds among young teen-age boys in a strict Roman Catholic boarding school.

The book, which has been hailed as a classic of gay literature, was followed by several other novels, as well as plays and essays on Voltaire, Alexander the Great, and Charles de Gaulle.

Peyrefitte was born in Casters, in southwestern France. He attended private religious schools and went on to earn a degree in diplomacy from the elite Institute of Political Science in Paris.

A diplomat in the 1930s, Peyrefitte was an administrator during the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. He was dismissed after World War II and reinstated in 1960, but never returned to government service.

Gay shooting

ROANOKE, Va.—A man who’s charged with shooting up a gay bar has been indicted for first-degree murder and firearms violations.

Ronald Gay, 54, is charged with killing Danny Lee Overstreet, 43, and wounding six others at the Backstreet Cafe on Sept. 22.

Gay reportedly was upset because he was harassed over his last name. He told police he was upset that his three sons had changed their last names, and family members have said he was also upset because his ex-wife had once experimented with lesbianism.

Family members also said that Gay suffered from post-traumatic stress from his service in Vietnam and that he had other mental problems.

Gay ‘s lawyer has said he may seek a psychiatric evaluation for his client, who remains jailed without bond.

The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 22.

Voter fraud

DES MOINES, Iowa—A gay columnist has pleaded guilty to fraudulently voting in the Iowa caucuses.

Dan Savage, 36, had been charged with two counts of voter fraud for casting a ballot using a Des Moines hotel address.

By pleading guilty, Savage was spared a trial on a felony voter fraud count. He could have faced up to six years in prison.

He was sentenced instead to a year’s probation, 50 hours’ community service and a $750 fine.

Savage wrote an article for the online magazine Salon.com recounting how he had infiltrated Republican Gary Bauer’s campaign to protest the candidate’s anti- gay platform.

Savage said one of his goals had been to reveal the vulnerability of the caucus process, used as an early test of a candidate’s strength.

—The process is so open to abuse,” he said.

Kissing virus

BOSTON—There’s some new scientific evidence that draws a link between kissing and contracting AIDS.

A form of the herpes virus that causes an AIDS-related skin cancer appears to spread through kissing.

Herpes virus 8 was discovered six years ago and causes a skin cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma. In the United States, the cancer occurs almost exclusively in people with AIDS.

Some had suspected that the virus was transmitted through sexual intercourse, but the new research from the University of Washington, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, contradicts that idea.

Dr. John Pauk and others tested 39 gay men who were infected with the virus but did not have Kaposi’s sarcoma. They found the virus in 30 percent of their saliva samples and mouth swabs, compared with 1 percent of anal and genital samples. When present, the virus levels were also much higher in saliva than in semen.

—The important thing is it suggests that oral-oral contact plays some role in transmission, although more study is needed to confirm that,” said Pauk.

The study also found that homosexual men who engaged in —deep kissing”—kissing that involves a lot of contact with saliva—appeared to be at substantially higher risk of catching the virus.

German couples

BERLIN—German lawmakers have taken a first step toward giving legal recognition to gay couples.

Lawmakers from the governing Social Democrats and Greens used their majority in the lower house to push through legal changes expected to give gays and lesbians the right to sign —life partnerships” by the middle of next year.

The changes would allow gay couples to exchange vows at local government offices and require a court decision for divorce. Same-sex couples would also receive rights given heterosexual spouses in inheritance and health insurance.

—The long years of discrimination are over,” declared Greens leader Kerstin Mueller, whose party led the push for the changes. —Lesbians and gays today get their rights.”

Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin said the aim was to support lasting relationships between people regardless of their sexual orientation.

But conservatives, who have denounced the plan as —Marriage Light,” could scuttle parts of the bill when it reaches the upper house of parliament, and are weighing whether to ask the country’s highest court to rule the plan unlawful.

Gay reservist

PHOENIX—A state representative who disclosed he’s gay during legislative debate won’t be permitted to stay in the Army Reserves.

Major Gen. John L. Scott, the commanding general of Rep. Steve May’s unit, backed a military panel’s recommendation that the lieutenant be honorably discharged for violating the military’s —don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

In a letter, Scott said he based his decision on a review of the separation board’s records and an analysis by military lawyers. He said he also took into consideration the arguments in May’s appeal, which included a letter signed by 108 members of Congress who opposed the dismissal.

—My review of that document found no grounds to disapprove or alter the findings and recommendations of the board as submitted,” Scott wrote.

May, a Republican who was re-elected last week, had been open about his homosexuality since his first campaign for elected office in 1996.

He acknowledged his sexuality during legislative debate in February, 1999, while arguing for extending health benefits to same-sex partners. He was an honorably discharged civilian at the time but was called back to the Army a few weeks later, during the Kosovo crisis.

Anti-gay Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Britain plans to scrap its anti-gay laws in its Caribbean territories, even though local politicians and residents oppose the move.

—There is nothing we can do about it,” said Orlando Smith, a legislator in the British Virgin Islands.

London has tried for years to cajole the territories—Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos—into changing the anti- gay laws themselves. But facing opposition from residents of the islands, the British government has decided to go ahead and make the change itself, officials say.

Roger Cousins, the deputy British governor in Anguilla, said he expects the British Parliament to change the territorial laws around the end of the year. And the British Broadcasting Corp. reported this week that London is preparing to make the move before Christmas. It quoted from a letter written by Overseas Territory Minister Patricia Scotland to a member of Parliament.

The laws in question make homosexual intercourse illegal, and the punishments vary from territory to territory. The laws are rarely enforced, though the Cayman Islands turned away a cruise liner chartered by gays last year.

Britain’s government says the anti- gay laws violate international human rights agreements it has signed. It has the power to unilaterally revoke the statutes, but had avoided doing so in an effort to be diplomatic with its territories.

Gay midshipman

ANNAPOLIS, Md.—A former midshipman will not have to repay his tuition at the U.S. Naval Academy after disclosing he’s gay.

The decision means that Tommie Watkins, 25, will not have to reimburse the Navy the $86,000 that covered his training and tuition, plus interest.

Watkins, president of his class and an aspiring Navy pilot, said he was pressured to resign and did so because he feared homophobia would prevent him from receiving a fair trial. After leaving, he acknowledged being gay.

Officer trainees who drop out or are expelled during their junior or senior years are required by Pentagon policy to repay the government for their education, either in cash or through enlisted service.

The Navy’s Board of Correction of Naval Records said last year that he was a victim of —error and injustice,” and recommended the academy waive the payment.