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SINGAPORE (AP) — Thousands of gay rights activists gathered in downtown Singapore on Saturday for an annual rally that came under unprecedented criticism from religious conservatives, with one influential Christian pastor calling on the government to ban the event.

Previous Pink Dot rallies have been held without much opposition. But as they grew in numbers from less than 3,000 people when the first event was held in 2009 to more than 20,000 last year, so did their disapproval. Organizers said a record 26,000 people showed up Saturday.

On paper, gay sex remains a criminal offence in the wealthy, multi-cultural city-state of 5.4 million, although authorities rarely enforce the British colonial-era legislation, known as Section 377A.

Lawrence Khong, the founder and pastor of the 10,000-member Faith Community Baptist Church, has been the most vocal critic of homosexuality and the Pink Dot rally.

In a statement, he said he could not understand why authorities were allowing the rally to take place.

"I find it even more disconcerting that the event is being used as a platform of public persuasion to push their alternative lifestyle," he said. "I would like to see our government leaders draw a clear line on where they now stand with regard to this moral issue."

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said he believed Singaporean society should be one "where you don't go pushing your own beliefs and preferences, but at the same time everyone else keeps the balance in society and avoids creating conflict."

Former lawmaker Siew Kum Hong, who tried to get Parliament to repeal Section 377A unsuccessfully, said he believed that the legislation will be overturned eventually.

"I've always maintained that the government's position is untenable. When presented with a chance to repeal 377A, it decided to avoid making a principled decision and instead opted to kick the can down the road."

Other opposition came from an Islamic teacher who encouraged Muslims to wear white Saturday on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which was interpreted as a response to a Pink Dot video showing a Singaporean Muslim declaring his support for the LGBT community.

The LGBT supporters wore pink in the rally, whose highlights include large crowds standing together with pink torchlights at night, creating a spectacular aerial view.

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market drifted lower in light trading Friday, putting major indexes on track for their second weekly loss this month. Reports of sluggish economic growth have weighed on the market this week.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 71 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,775 as of 1:57 p.m. EST. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell four points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,953, while the Nasdaq composite slipped one point, less than 0.1 percent, to 4,379.

LOOK BACK: After dropping three days this week, the S&P 500, the most widely used benchmark for stock funds, is on course for a weekly loss of 0.5 percent. Many investors have been waiting for the market to take a break from its long climb. The S&P 500 has gained 5.8 percent in three months and reached its latest all-time high on June 20, one week ago.

WHAT, NO WORRIES? "The fact is, it's the summer, and there isn't much happening," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

Turmoil in the Middle East, however, could easily rattle U.S. markets, especially if the fighting in Iraq drives oil prices up too high, Ablin said. Rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia remain a concern.

"The risk in the summer typically isn't financial, it's political," he said. "This summer it's geopolitical: Iraq and Ukraine."

FORECAST CUT: DuPont dropped $3.22, or 5 percent, to $64.48, the biggest decline among the 30 big companies in the Dow. The company cut its profit forecast because of weaker sales of corn seeds.

THE BUSINESS OF SPORT: Nike gained $1.05, or 1 percent, to $77.91 after reporting earnings late Thursday that beat Wall Street's expectations. Stronger worldwide sales offset marketing costs for the World Cup soccer tournament. Nike provided the outfits for 10 national teams, including Team USA, for the World Cup in Brazil.

YOU AGAIN: Micheals Companies made a slight gain in its return to the stock market. Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, two private equity firms, bought the operator of arts and crafts stores in 2006 and returned it to investors in a $472 million initial public offering. Much of the money raised in the IPO will be used to pay down debt. The company's stock rose 19 cents, or 1 percent, to $17.19.

HOW CONFIDENT: The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan reading of consumer confidence edged up to 82.5 in June, a slight increase over the previous month and better than economists had predicted.

WORLD MARKETS: Asian indexes closed lower. In Europe, France's CAC 40 slipped 0.1 percent while Germany's DAX edged up 0.1 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British companies rose 0.3 percent.

BONDS AND COMMODITIES: Bond prices rose, pushing Treasury yields lower. The yield on the 10-year note slipped to 2.52 percent from 2.53 percent on Thursday. The price of oil fell 10 cents to $105.73 a barrel.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — When Rachel Martinez-Regan graduated from Corvallis High School this month, her diploma had a little something extra — an embossed seal certifying that she is bilingual.

She is one of more than a dozen students at the Oregon high school who earned the distinction based on their proficiency in English and Spanish. The honor is part of a pilot project led by several school districts in the state with dual-language programs, and the Oregon Department of Education plans to make the bilingual seals available statewide next year.

California, New Mexico, Washington, Illinois and Louisiana are among the other states that are recognizing and rewarding bilingual education.

Martinez-Regan said the bilingual program was academically challenging but she's certain it will give her career plans a boost.

"I'm thinking of becoming a lawyer, to give the Spanish-speaking community a voice," said Martinez-Regan, who is half Latina but did not speak Spanish before enrolling in the program. She will attend Yale University this fall.

Dual-language programs have gained in popularity across the country as employers seek bilingual, bicultural workers, and more parents view bilingualism as necessary for their children's success in a globalized world.

Such programs are offered in Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Russian, among other languages, and many have waiting lists. Enrolled students take literacy and academic subjects in a foreign language for at least part of the school day.

Experts say dual programs and the languages they teach also reflect the nation's growing diversity and the fact that students who speak a language other than English at home are among America's fastest-growing populations.

Congress first mandated bilingual education in 1968 to keep non-English-speaking students from falling behind their peers, by teaching them academic subjects in their native language while they also learned English. Bilingual programs were put in place throughout the United States and flourished for several decades.

But as the number of immigrants, especially Asians and Latinos, exploded in the 1980s and 1990s and continued to grow, there was a backlash to ensure English did not lose its primacy. More than 20 states made English their official language.

Critics, including some immigrant parents, said bilingual education was costly and ineffective for English-language learners. Several states, including California and Arizona, banned bilingual education outright.

In recent years, though, bilingual education has regained its popularity and is increasingly attracting native English speakers. The number of dual-language programs, which bring together native English students and English learners in one classroom, ballooned from about 260 nationwide in 2000 to about 3,000 today, according to the Maryland-based National Association for Bilingual Education.

"American parents are coming to the conclusion that the lives and the economic opportunities of their children are tied to being bilingual," said the group's executive director, Santiago Wood.

At Corvallis High School, bilingual seals were awarded on the basis of coursework, bicultural knowledge, and a bilingual exit interview and assessment, said Amanda Filloy Sharp, who teaches Spanish-language courses in literature, history and geography at the school.

"These students are not just able to speak academically in both Spanish and English, they also have a deeper understanding of and connection to the local Spanish-speaking community," Filloy Sharp said.

California, the first state to adopt a biliteracy seal two years ago, has granted more than 30,000 diplomas with seals to students. State records show the seals recognize more than 40 different languages. The California Legislature, meanwhile, is considering a bill that would overturn the bilingual education ban.

Critics such as Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz, whose organization English for the Children helped dismantle bilingual education in California and elsewhere, say the push for bilingual classrooms remains misguided.

In dual-language programs, Unz said, immigrant children may be "used as unpaid tutors" and "English-speaking children who come from affluent families will benefit much more than English learners."

But in Oregon, a group of educators, university and state officials says the programs help close the achievement gap for English learners. Several districts with dual-language programs that extend from elementary to high school are working with area universities to help evaluate the students.

Graduates with the seals could get college credit or advanced placement in college courses, said David Bautista, assistant superintendent in the Oregon Department of Education Equity Unit.

"A world class education needs to teach fluency in more than one language. In other countries that's already embedded," Bautista said, adding that there are about 70 dual-language programs in Oregon and the state's goal is to expand their numbers.

Corvallis High School graduates who earned the seal this year have the same level of language proficiency as Spanish majors who have earned a bachelor's degree in a university Spanish program, said Ron Mize, a professor in the School of Language, Culture, and Society at Oregon State University.

Most of the students started learning Spanish in elementary school. "The seal is something students can do to stand out from their peers," Mize said. "That's the kind of commitment colleges are looking for."

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Online:

National Association for Bilingual Education: http://www.nabe.org