2007 Gay Grand Pride Rapid
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Marketplace finds lesbians an attractive, but elusive, niche
The list of hubs of gay male culture is familiar: the Castro in San Francisco, Chelsea and Fire Island in New York, and West Hollywood and Palm Springs in Southern California, among others. Those places have high concentrations of both gay men and businesses that cater to them. For lesbians, no equally high-profile neighborhoods exist, and the businesses that do are disappearing. In Alameda County, where Oakland has more lesbian couples per capita than any other major city in the United States, two bookstores that catered to women and lesbians have shut their doors in the past few years. This spring, two lesbian magazines headquartered in San Francisco ceased publication; the final sale of their assets was announced last week. There are only two bars in the city that cater to lesbian clientele.
Cleric wades into gay pride row
The Catholic Archbishop of Glagow has controversially defended the nine firemen who have been disciplined for refusing to distribute fire safety leaflets at a gay pride event. One officer was demoted, eight others were given warnings, and all were required to attend diversity training after they disobeyed orders to attend the Pride Scotia event in Glasgow. But Mario Conti, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, issued a statement today saying that the disciplinary action was 'dismaying'. Archbishop Conti said that 'the duty to obey one's conscience is a higher duty than that of obeying orders.' While some of the firemen had said that they were refusing to give fire prevention advice at the event in June because they had religious objections, other refused to do so simply because they said it would be embarrassing.
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