British schoolchildren will be taught that historical figures such as William Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale, Isaac Newton and Alexander the Great were gay or bisexual, The Guardian reported Jan. 18.

The course modules, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, are part of the government’s first gay history month, which will be launched Feb. 7 at the Houses of Parliament.

The lessons also will examine the early years of gays on British television and the history of Britain’s GLBT Muslim movement.

Schools can choose whether to participate in the program.

At a joint press conference in India Jan. 17, the Canadian and Indian prime ministers had vastly different takes on same-sex marriage.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said, “Well, I do not think it is proper for me to comment on internal Canadian affairs, but certainly, such a thing in our country would not have, I think, wide appreciation.”

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said: “This is now the law of the land in seven Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory. This is a decision taken by our courts based on our Charter of Rights. This is a question of equality.”

Just prior to Martin’s arrival, the spiritual leader of India’s Sikhs, Joginder Singh Vedanti, issued an edict urging his followers around the world to reject legalization of same-sex marriage.

“Same-sex marriage originates from a sick mind,” he said.

Fifty-four percent of Canadians support the federal government’s plan to legalize full same-sex marriage, according to an Environics Research Group poll published Jan. 13.

Forty-three percent oppose the idea.

Same-sex marriage already has been legalized by court order in all but five of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories.

Support is strongest, at 60 percent, in British Columbia and Quebec, two provinces where same-sex couples already can marry. It is weakest, at 37 percent, in Alberta, where Premier Ralph Klein has promised an all-out battle to protect Albertans from same-sex marriage.

Age also is a factor. Sixty-eight percent of people between ages 18 and 29 favor same-sex marriage. Fifty-six percent of people between 30 and 44 are supportive. Fifty-seven percent between ages 45 and 50 are supportive. But only 37 percent above age 60 approve of same-sex marriage.

Environics questioned 2,021 adults and said its results are accurate to within +/- 2.2 percent in 95 out of 100 samples.

Officials blame the climbing HIV rate in Norway on gay men having unsafe sex.

Fifty-seven men were infected in 2003 compared to about 30 in other recent years, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said Jan. 17.

Preliminary numbers for 2004 show 61 infections.

“The real number is probably much higher,” the institute’s Øivind Nilsen told Dagsavisen, a daily newspaper. “One of the most worrying reasons is that gays expose themselves to a risk of infection by having unsafe sex.”

In Oslo last year, one HIV-positive man transmitted the virus to eight other gay men, Nilsen said.

Norway has about 4.5 million residents.

A male heterosexual politician and the male editor of a gay website applied for a marriage license in Moscow, MosNews reported Jan. 18.

Bashkortostan Republic National Assembly deputy Eduard Murzin and Gay.ru Editor-in-Chief Eduard Mishin hope their action will advance the cause of gay equality by stimulating debate. They also will use the refusal document from the registration office to launch a Constitutional Court case.

“I do not belong to a sexual minority, but I am ready to stand up for the civil rights of gays and lesbians in Russia,” Murzin told the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily. “[This is] an action of protest against the discrimination of sexual minorities.”

The day after Murzin’s and Mishin’s attempt to marry, Gay.ru was evicted from its offices. Police declared that the premises were “being used not in accordance with their purpose,” said Gay.ru’s Nikita Ivanov.

The offices also housed Kvir magazine and the gay organization Together.

All three entities are urgently seeking new space.

Spain’s Roman Catholic Church broke with the Vatican Jan. 18 and said it’s OK to use condoms to protect against HIV transmission.

Rigid Vatican teaching forbids any sex act that cannot lead to pregnancy and prohibits all sex outside of heterosexual marriage. The church maintains that masturbation, oral sex and use of birth-control methods are mortal sins.

But, after meeting with Spain’s health minister, Spanish Bishops Conference spokesperson Juan Antonio Martínez Camino told reporters, “Condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS.”

A day later, however, the church seemed to backtrack. The Bishops Conference released a statement which said: “[Martínez Camino’s] statement must be understood in the context of Catholic doctrine which maintains the use of contraception is an immoral sexual conduct. The only truly recommendable practice is the responsible use of sexuality, in accordance with moral norms.”