2007 Atlanta Gay Pride
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Rich Scot fights against gay ‘sin’
A Christian millionaire is taking on a Scottish fire department for disciplining firemen for refusing to hand out information at a gay Pride parade.
George Hargreaves, made his fortune with a string of 1980s hit songs, including Yazz and Five Star, and used his royalties to launch the Scottish Christian party, which preaches that homosexuality is a sin.
Hargreaves is threatening to take the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue service to court, after they were disciplined for refusing to distribute safety leaflets at a Pride parade. One officer was demoted and took a 5,000 pay cut. Hargreaves claims the men were forced to undergo diversity training as part of their punishment, and says their human rights have been breached.
Who sets the bounds of acceptable diversity? Should it be employers, the state, the individual or the highly organised minority whose practices deviate so much from the mainstream that acceptance of their diversity needs to be forced by edict on the majority? he said.
Transsexual politician demands louder Japanese gay pride
Japans gay community must make itself known in the country, the countrys only transsexual politician announced last week.
Aya Kamikawa addressed around 4,000 people at last weekends Tokyo Gay Pride, proclaiming, If we do not raise our voices, nobody will know of our existence.
If we do not make other people think of us, nothing will change. Let's raise our voices together to make a better future.
Kanako Otsuji , Japan 's first openly lesbian politician said: I was so encouraged by all of the smiles on everyone's faces. I think that society begins to change when so many people can share in an experience of self-affirmation.
The parade toured around the fashionable Harajuku area-the same place Gwen Stefani sang about in Harajuku Girls.
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