Ana Paula Oliveira going Nude this July Over Deal with Playboy

A well-known Brazilian soccer lineswoman, already in trouble over a mistake she made during a match last month, has raised eyebrows with her decision to pose nude for Playboy magazine.
Ana Paula Oliveira, a 29-year-old brunette who also campaigns for women's rights, signed a contract with the magazine this week and will appear in its July edition without her usual sports attire.
The Brazilian Soccer Confederation said it was not considering any sanctions against Oliveira, one of a handful of female referee assistants in Brazil, but indicated it may be bad for her career.
"If she took that decision, it's because she must have other career thoughts," Lance! a sports daily, quoted the president of the confederation's refereeing commission, Edson Rezende, as saying through a spokesman. Oliveira was banned for three games for mistakenly disallowing at least one goal during a Copa Brasil match in May, and has not been called up for any top league matches since. The mistake contributed to debate in Brazil about the presence of female officials at top games.
Fellow lineswoman Aline Lambert told the same Friday edition of the paper that posing nude "is incompatible with the profession".
Columnist and former World Cup referee Jose Wright said it would now be difficult for Oliveira to become a referee.
But Oliveira said in an Internet chat on Futebol no Interior (Football in the Outback) Web site she was still hoping to be a referee in future World Cup tournaments. She said her mother had told her to accept the Playboy deal. Local media estimate the deal would earn her nearly $250,000.

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Peruvian teens Can Now Have Sex At 14

Despite the fact that President Alan Garcia has said that he doesn't agree with the age of consent reform, he has agreed to take a closer look at the proposal that Congress has approved before giving his final word.
"I am the father of four girls, I don't believe that at the age of 14 they are in a state where they can approve and weigh the consequences, rationally and responsibly, of an adult's proposal," explained the Chief of State.
President Garcia has stated that the proposed reform has not reached the Government Palace yet.
He has said that he will study his arguments before he presents his observations and that under no circumstances will he let minors be unprotected or abused. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions, when the law arrives then I'll be able to give further information," he declared.
"No mother or father born in Peru will agree with this, it's possible that there are some older single men who like little girls and think this law will open the doors for them to do what they want, personally I don't agree." These were the President's statements when asked for his opinion by reporters.
The President also declared, "I will not let anything happen to the boys and girls of Peru that I wouldn't let happen to my daughters."
Congress ruled in favor (70-10) of an age of consent reform, written by a member of President Alan Garcia's center-left Aprista party, on Thursday June 21.

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Gay Politician Ken Togo Makes Appeal On Politics, Freedom, And Sex

Ryann Connell

Japan's leading sexual minority politician tells Spa! that his path from "pillow biter" to "freedom fighter" shows there's no love in Japanese politics.

Japanese society has long prided itself on being homogenous, but has for a long time bordered on homophobic. Now it's slowly embracing sexual minorities, and there is a growing number of openly transsexual and homosexual politicians; but it wasn't always this way.

Ken Togo ran in 14 elections from 1971 through to 1995, openly and aggressively campaigning as a gay during an era when homosexuality remained well and truly in the closet.

"I was the only one in the political world at the time who ever openly disclosed being an okama," Togo tells Spa!, using to describe his preference the somewhat derogatory Japanese term for gay that is roughly akin to the English "faggot."

It's common for Japanese politicians to campaign by riding around the streets in a loudspeaker van with a policy message (or more likely the candidate's name) shouted out repeatedly. In his early campaigns, Togo's catchcry was "I'm the faggot. Ken Togo the faggot." Spa! notes Togo's other policy slogans included "I love cocks" and "Slip one in for Ken Togo," a message that could suggest voting for the gay campaigner or, well, something a little different.

Perhaps not surprisingly given the full frontal approach of his campaigning, many people saw Togo was a weirdo, or, more alarming in conformist Japan, a henjin, or "different person." Though now recognized as a harbinger of better fortunes, even large sectors of the gay community once hated Togo because they believed his approach further alienated them from mainstream society, which tended -- and sometimes still tends -- to view all political homosexuals as militant.

Togo was unrepentant, though, and in 1977 formed the Zatsuminto -- the Crude People's Party.

"Gays weren't the only people discriminated against. Lesbians, the disabled, entertainment industry workers, they're all discriminated against," Togo says. "Until all discrimination and segregation are eliminated, there's no true liberty of equality."

Togo struggled to find much support throughout his political career, a fate that seems to have baffled him but one he has come to terms with.

"What's wrong with a man loving a man? I think it's far more shameful to live a life while lying to yourself. What's truly shameful is not ever being loved," the 74-year-old says. tells Spa! "I'm too old for politics now. If I ever get the chance now, I wouldn't mind talking about what love is, and what discrimination is. I've got my bar now (in Shinjuku's Golden Gai). I've had it since January. This is the stage where I'll play out the last few acts of my life."

Togo sees current Japanese politics as a heartless wasteland.

"There's no love in Japanese politics. There's nothing shameful about standing around holding each other's cocks," the veteran gay rights campaigner tells Spa! "A society that criticizes people for loving people isn't much of a society. We need more love. It's clearly far more important to have sexual politics with love than it is to just have plain politics."

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