“I must say I was very pleased there was no allowance in this bill for homosexual couples to adopt a child,” she said.

Pratt, an MP for the Nanango district of Queensland, expressed her opposition to gay adoption and said that she believes a child should be raised by one mother and one father so it can have “a balanced view.”

“I feel very strongly about that particular thought that . . . I’m not saying they aren’t loving people, I’m not saying they wouldn’t be fabulous parents, but I am saying that in my opinion a child deserves a mother and a father if possible and that whether you regard homosexual activity as a normal part of life or not, I don’t,” she said.

Other Queensland parliament MPs, such as Christine Smith, spoke out in support for same-sex adoption.

“I acknowledge people have very strong and opposing views on the sensitive issue of same sex adoption,” said Smith. “I believe that same sex couples should be assessed by the same standards as any other couple on their suitability to adopt.”

Prior to the controversy surrounding Pratt, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced last week that he would not do away with the country’s anti-gay marriage laws.

Ramsay is the volatile star of U.S.-based reality television programs “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares” – ratings winners for Australia’s Nine Network. The network also broadcasts the popular “A Current Affair” television show, hosted by high-profile journalist Tracy Grimshaw.

After an uneventful appearance by Ramsey on Grimshaw’s show Friday night, the British chef and restaurateur attended a food and wine tasting event Saturday attended by about 3,000 people in the southern city of Melbourne.

Ramsay stunned the audience by unleashing a string of insults at Grimshaw in her absence, calling her a lesbian and likening her to a pig. Ramsay repeated the insults Sunday and Monday at the same food exposition. Later he said he was only joking.

Grimshaw, though, failed to see the humor and retaliated on her program Monday night, calling Ramsay an “arrogant narcissist” and a “bully.”

“Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn’t find him attractive must be gay,” Grimshaw said. “For the record, I don’t and I’m not.”

Grimshaw continued her attack Tuesday in a radio interview during which she said Ramsay would not be invited back on her program.

“I’m not interested in speaking to the bloke again,” Grimshaw told Fairfax Radio. “I can’t imagine any circumstances where I would want to interview him again.”

Ramsay’s publicist did not return The Associated Press’s telephone call on Tuesday.

Comic Dave Chappelle is right. Too much ink is wasted over the political yammering of the famous. If singing and dancing is your forte, that is what I require when you open your mouth. Your thoughts on the topic of the day not so much. Today that rule will be broken to announce that from now until I’m some slobbering dirty old man pinching the backside of an overworked nurse, I’ll be the first in line for any Hugh Jackman movie.

Rumors about the Aussie star’s sexuality have been up for public debate (please do me a favor: don’t leave notes about how your best friend’s third cousin is Jackman’s lovah or how your third cousin’s man saw him kissing someone at the Hangar). Why we care about his bed mate(s) is beyond me, but what do I know? Heck I even can’t stand Twitter.

But here is how Jackman responded when pressed to answer the gossip:

“I’d be happy to go and deny it, because I’m not,” Jackman said. “But by denying it, I’m saying there is something shameful about it, and there isn’t anything shameful. The questions about sexuality I find more here in America than anywhere else, because it’s a big hang-up and defines what people think about themselves and others. It’s not a big issue in Australia.”

While your third cousin’s mate will be annoyed by this, it made my day. Made me fall in love a little bit. In a purely platonic way. Wrecking homes is for nasty girls and my parents raised me to be a lady.

Jackman has a new movie coming out and although he doesn’t need my cash he’s getting it. I can’t think of a better guy to give it to (excluding me of course).

Jake Michael Della-Vedova, 25, will serve four months behind bars.  He pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of blackmail.

The name of the politician has been suppressed.  All that is known about him is he is married.

“You intentionally exploited an aspect of the victim’s sexuality which you knew made him vulnerable, especially in light of his position in our community,” Judge Lisa Hannan said in passing sentence.

“It is sad that this remains the sort of information that in our society is used for blackmail, but it is the reality,” she said.

Court in Melbourne was told that Della-Vedova met the politician last June on a gay chat site. Over the next month the pair exchanged test messages and agreed to meet at Della-Vedova’s home.

Prosecutor Simon Cooper told the court that after having sex Della-Vedova complained that he was short of money and the politician gave him $150 (Au) that he had at the time in his wallet.

During another visit the politician handed over another $250.

But what the politician did not know at the time was that Della-Vedova had secretly video taped the sexual encounters.

Della-Vedova later began threatening the man with exposure if he did not hand over more money.

The politician instead went to police.  Della-Vedova was arrested when he arranged to meet the politician to get the cash.

Police later searched Della-Vedova’s home and found the taped sexual encounters on a computer.  Under questioning Della-Vedova confessed.

Della-Vedova could have received up to 15 years behind bars.

The name of the politician has been suppressed.  All that is known about him is he is married.

Jake Michael Della-Vedova, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of blackmail.

Court in Melbourne was told that Della-Vedova met the politician last June on a gay chat site. Over the next month, the pair exchanged test messages and agreed to meet at Della-Vedova’s home.

Prosecutor Simon Cooper told the court that after having sex, Della-Vedova complained that he was short of money and the politician gave him $150 (Au) that he had at the time in his wallet.

During another visit the politician handed over another $250.

But what the politician did not know at the time was that Della-Vedova had secretly taped the sexual encounters.

Della-Vedova later began threatening the man with exposure if he did not hand over more money.

The politician instead went to police.  Della-Vedova was arrested when he arranged to meet the politician to get the cash.

Police later searched Della-Vedova’s home and found the taped sexual encounters on a computer.  Under questioning Della-Vedova confessed.

When he is sentenced, Della-Vedova could receive up to 15 years behind bars.

Hobart City Council has passed a resolution officially telling gays it is sorry for the police action.

In 1988, when homosexuality was still illegal, members of the LGBT community set up a stall in the public Salamanca market to lobby for a change in the law.

When someone complained to the city that the stall was promoting immoral and illegal activity, City Council voted to ban the group from operating at the market.

LGBT activists ignored the ban and the city sent in the police to shut down the stall. Gays and police clashed and when the dust cleared 130 gays and their allies were arrested.

It took another nine years for the laws against homosexuality to be repealed.

“We are sorry for the pain and trauma to all involved,” Rob Valentine, the Lord Mayor of Hobart, told Australia’s ABC television network. “We are also sorry that the actions we took may have encouraged ill-will and discrimination.”

The vote to issue the apology was not unanimous. Council member John Freeman said he was not sorry.

“Because what we did at the time was legal. They knew that. We knew that. I find no need at all to apologize for legal behavior [by police] he said.

Freeman also called the apology ” fatuous.”

“I don’t believe you can apologize for something that you weren’t involved in and only two of us were there at the time – neither of us think it is appropriate to apologize,” he said.

Nevertheless, Tasmanian LGBT rights activist Richard Hale said the apology will still be accepted.

“We have a lot more supporters in the states than we have detractors; so things have moved on quite a lot, and it is a bit sad that some people haven’t moved along with that,” he told ABC.

The omnibus bill mounted its final hurdle Monday, winning approval in the Senate. The legislation passed the House in September.  It still requires the signature of the Governor General, a formality, before going into effect.

The Same-Sex Entitlements Bill removes discrimination against same-sex partners in areas such as immigration, taxation, veterans’ pensions and aged care. It also abolishes discrimination against children of same-sex couples by granting equal rights to both parents.

In total, it amends 68 Commonwealth laws.

“They deliver on a very important election commitment on an important day for us,” Labor senator Penny Wong, who is openly gay, told the Senate during Monday’s debate.

“They will deliver the sort of equality before the law that same-sex couples have never previously experienced.”

Green Party Leader Bob Brown, who also is openly gay and a long-time campaigner for same-sex rights, called passage of the bill a major step forward.

“This is, indeed, historic legislation and the government is to be congratulated for putting the legislation to this parliament within 12 months of it’s election, to remove a great sway of discrimination laws against same sex couples,” Brown said

But he added that discrimination against same-sex couples would only end when they were legally able to wed.

Passage of the legislation was a campaign promise of the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, although Rudd refused to repeal a law passed in 2004 by the former Liberal government that bars gay marriage

Prior to losing the last federal election, Prime Minister John Howard used the law to overturn a civil unions bill passed by the Australian Capital Territory.

Howard’s action resulted in the federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission launching a national investigation into inequities faced by same-sex couples. The commission held hearings across the country.

Commissioners heard from dozens of gay couples in hearings across the country of how partners have been cut out of wills because they have not legal status, how children in same-sex relationships are harmed, and how federal pension law hurts one partner when the other dies.

In its report to the government last year, the Commission made more than 50 recommendations and urged the passing laws guaranteeing rights for same-sex couples.

After Rudd’s government was elected, the Australian Capital Territory reintroduced its civil unions bill.  After amending it to prevent public ceremonies to be held in government facilities it passed, making the ACT the first area in the country to allow civil partnerships.

A third of Australia’s eight states and territories have varying laws providing some benefits to same-sex couples.

Among Australia’s population of 21 million people, more than 40,000 are in same-sex relationships, a government report found last year.

The country’s newest political party is also serious about a number of other issues: quashing a government proposal for a national Internet filter that would block 10,000 Web sites; instituting a new national sex education curriculum; and pushing for the legalization of gay marriage.

The party – launched Thursday at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne – has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to register with the electoral commission next week.

“We’re concerned about the Australian government becoming a nanny state, and about this conservative creep in politics,” party convener and Eros head Fiona Patten told The Associated Press by phone.

Patten called the federal government’s proposal for an Internet filter “the last straw.”

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told Parliament earlier this month that his mandatory Internet filter would block 10,000 Web sites on a government blacklist of “unwanted content,” including sites showing child pornography, excessive violence, drug use or instructions in criminal or terrorist acts.

But Patten said the filter targets a far wider range of sites.

“If they were aiming to block child pornography, no problem,” she said. “But they’ve identified any adult site, things like playboy.com, a site that shows material that you can buy in a news agency or rent or buy in an adult video shop. It was an incredible shift back 30 years.”

The Australian Christian Lobby has already condemned the Sex Party.

“Pornography and prostitution do enormous damage to women and children, and the idea of mainstream political parties giving this trade seats in our nation’s parliaments … would offend the sensibilities of most Australians who believe women should be respected,” the lobby’s Managing Director Jim Wallace said in a statement.

The party, whose slogan is “We’re serious about sex,” plans to run candidates in Senate and state upper house elections.

The study, by scientists at Monash University in Melbourne and the University of California, Los Angeles, involved DNA samples from 112 male-to-female transsexuals and 258 non-transsexual males. The researchers said it was the largest scientific study ever conducted on transsexuality.

The results appear in the scientific journal Biological Psychiatry. The research was jointly funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health.

The researchers said that they found the male-to-female transsexuals were more likely to have a longer version of the AR gene, by a 55.4 to 47.6 percent ratio.

They also said that the longer AR gene may have resulted in a weakening in the brain to detect testosterone which the scientists said “masculinizes” the brain during early development.

“We think these genetic differences might reduce testosterone action and under-masculinize the brain during fetal development,” Prince Henry’s Institute researcher Lauren Hare told the Australian Associated Press.

Trudy Kennedy, director of the Monash Gender Dysphoria Clinic, said the study supported other evidence that genetics and brain gender were important in transsexuality.

“This is something that people are born with and it’s certainly not a lifestyle choice as some have suggested,” she told the AAP.

But an Australian medical ethicist Dr Leslie Cannold warned that labeling transsexuality biological could result in it being turned into a pathology for which “treatment” should be sought.

“Such treatments could include preventative strategies like pre-natal screening and the discarding of `affected’ embryos and fetuses,” Dr Leslie Cannold warned.

Hare and other researchers in the study said that additional research into transsexuality is needed.

The Same-Sex Entitlements Bill will remove discrimination against same-sex partners in areas such as immigration, taxation, veterans’ pensions and aged care. It also abolishes discrimination against children of same-sex couples by granting equal rights to both parents.

In total it amends 68 Commonwealth laws.

The bill now goes to the upper house where its future is uncertain.

During debate in the lower house the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd thwarted an opposition Liberal move to include language affirming marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

Australia already has a law denying marriage to same-sex couples.

The opposition argued the reforms undermine the institution of marriage.

“With respect to those members they are simply wrong,” Attorney General Robert McClelland told the House.

Both McClelland and Rudd maintained they will not introduce a bill to repeal Australia’s ban on same-sex marriage passed in 2004 by the former Liberal government of then-Prime Minister John Howard.

Prior to losing the last federal election Howard used the law to overturn a civil unions bill passed by the Australian Capital Territory.

Howard’s action resulted in the federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission launching a national investigation into inequities faced by same-sex couples. The commission held hearings across the country.

Commissioners heard from dozens of gay couples in hearings across the country of how partners have been cut out of wills because they have not legal status, how children in same-sex relationships are harmed, and how federal pension law hurts one partner when the other dies.

In its report to the government last year the Commission made more than 50 recommendations and urged the passing laws guaranteeing rights for same-sex couples.

Many of those recommendations are contained McClelland’s bill.

After Rudd’s government was elected the Australian Capital Territory reintroduced its civil unions bill.  After amending it to prevent public ceremonies to be held in government facilities it passed, making the ACT the first area in the country to allow civil partnerships.

A third of Australia’s eight states and territories have varying laws providing some benefits to same-sex couples.

Among Australia’s population of 21 million people, more than 40,000 are in same-sex relationships, a government report found last year.