Thanks to a combination of Lady Gaga lyrics, deodorant strong enough for men but made just for us, and pole dancing classes, women are now more equal with men than ever. We're out-enrolling men in college, we're installing tampon machines in executive suite bathrooms, and we still enjoy a commanding lead in the overall …

Do female athletes with "unusually" high levels of male hormones have an unfair advantage on the field? The International Association of Athletics Federations thinks so: the organization recently decided that a woman cannot compete in track and field sports if she has too much testosterone in her apparently confusing…

Or at least that's what she says in her first interview since being cleared to run as a female. Though she was reportedly "shattered" by the controversy, she insists, "I'm not ashamed of being myself. I know who I am."

Caster Semenya won the 800 meters at the Notturna di Milano meet in Milan yesterday. She finished in 1 minute, 58.16 seconds, her best time since being cleared to run after everyone could finally agree that she's female.

After suffering through last year's humiliating "scandal" over her biological sex, Semenya has returned to the track. However, some of her competitors (we won't name names, but...Diane Cummins and Jemma Simpson) are bitching: "We are literally running against a man."

South African runner Caster Semenya made her triumphant return to running last night at a small athletics meeting in Finland, which she easily won. "I was a little bit nervous because it's been a long time not competing," she said.

[Pretoria, July 8. South African track and field athlete Caster Semenya attends a training session in South Africa]

• Gov. Linda Lingle announced yesterday that she has vetoed Hawaii's same-sex civil unions bill. Lingle's action came on the final day she had to either sign or veto the bill, which the Hawaii Legislature had approved in late April.

• The Department of Education has spoken out against a tradition at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School of posting "Crush Lists" in the school hallway. The list of lust-worthy students appears under the heading "I'd Tap That."

• Caster Semenya could return to races in less than a month, according to South Africa's sports minister. Last September, Makhenkesi Stofile declared there would be a "third World War" if Semenya was kept from competing because of her sex.