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The most common form of biased language in elementary schools, heard regularly by both students and teachers, is the use of the word “gay” in a negative way.

That’s the finding of a new study from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. GLSEN released the study “Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States” on Jan. 18, the same day it released a safe-schools tool kit for elementary school educators.

The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing at 11 a.m. (EST) on Jan. 24 on the newly introduced marriage equality bill.

The hearing will take place at the State House in Trenton.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO reported at about 2:30 p.m. today that more than a million signatures were collected to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

The petitions were to be handed in to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board this afternoon for validation.

The outgoing German soccer federation president says it’s time for gay players to come out.

Theo Zwanziger called on gay players “to have the courage to declare themselves,” the AP reported. He pointed to the example of Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who came out years ago.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King, observing the Australian Open matches and controversy from California, said on Jan. 17 that she opposed former Australian tennis star Margaret Court’s views on same-sex marriage.

Republican Kip Smith, a state representative from Georgia who sponsored a bill that would have submitted welfare recipients to random drug testing, was arrested in Atlanta the night of Jan. 13 for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The right-wing political leader was pulled over in the city’s Buckhead neighborhood after running a red light on his way home from a restaurant, reported Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights and Broadway Impact on Jan. 17 announced a set of at least 40 nationwide productions of “8,” a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8. Academy Award-winning screenwriter and AFER Founding board member Dustin Lance Black wrote “8.”

The play is an account of the U.S. District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), AFER’s case to overturn Proposition 8, which barred same-sex marriage in California.

At a press conference following his best actor win at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, George Clooney once again spoke out for LGBT equality.

Clooney, who took home a statue for his performance in “The Descendents,” is starring as attorney David Boies in an upcoming one-night-only reading of Dustin Lance Black’s play “8.” The play is based on courtroom transcripts from the historic trial that found California’s Proposition 8 illegal.

The Iliff School of Theology, a Denver graduate school, will host a Stop the Hate Train the Trainer Conference Feb. 22-24.

Co-sponsors of the event include Colorado State University, the University of Denver’s Women’s College and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Cuba’s first daughter says island lawmakers will consider legalizing same-sex civil unions this year, according to an AP report.

Mariela Castro is the daughter of President Raul Castro and a prominent LGBT civil rights activist. She says a preliminary proposal to modify the country’s Family Code is undergoing legal study and is on the legislative schedule for 2012.

Kuwaiti police have tortured and sexually abused transgender women using a discriminatory law, passed in 2007, which arbitrarily criminalizes “imitating the opposite sex,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The government of Kuwait  should repeal the law, article 198 as amended in 2007, and hold police officers accountable for misconduct, according to HRW.

Three lesbian couples plan to apply for marriage licenses in Greenville, S.C., on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, part of a continuing campaign for equality across the South.

The Campaign for Southern Equality is organizing the We Do civil rights initiative seeking to promote equality at the state and federal level.