| Poland spins a gay-friendly fable
Faced with raised eyebrows in Brussels, Polands prime minister is furiously back peddling and spinning a laughable fable of a gay-friendly Poland thats been an unfortunate victim of bad press. Jaroslaw Kaczynsky is the leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party and took over as prime minister last month. Hes caused understandable consternation in Brussels by inviting two fringe parties to join the government. One of the parties is anti-European, while the other, the League of Polish families is ultra homophobic, anti-Semitic and Catholic fundamentalist. Earlier this year, in reference to the gay pride march, the Leagues Wojciech Wierzejski, a front-bench member of Parliament stated; If the deviants will start demonstrating, they need to be bashed with a thick club. While allowing this years Warsaw gay march, city authorities also gave official approval to an anti-gay march staged by the League of Polish Families, and along the same route, as the Gay Pride March.
Tourism industry seeing a lot of green in pink
As the tourism industry in Canada struggles to maintain ground in the face of high gas prices and U.S. border issues, travel experts are looking to "pink dollars," or money spent by gay and lesbian travelers, as a sure thing. Recent U.S. research shows gay and lesbian travelers represent about 10 per of the overall travel market, but the annual amount spent is estimated at $700 million. This year was also the 20th anniversary of the Pride Week in Ottawa and it's estimated about 300,000 people attended events over the 10-day schedule. It's this combination of spending power and the growing perception of Canada as a gay-friendly country that is making pink dollars a hot commodity. "The numbers prove that the gay/lesbian consumers are one of the most loyal markets and overall less are traveling with children, so they have a larger discretionary income," says R.
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.
Church Backs Anti-Gay Firefighters
LONDON, UK - The Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow said on Friday that he is backing the nine firefighters who were disciplined for refusing to hand out fire safety leaflets during a gay pride rally.
Strathclyde fire service said it had taken action against the firefighters who refused to give out "community fire safety advice" at the Pride Scotia festival in June.
"All nine will undergo a further intensive course of diversity training," the force said in a statement. "Their refusal was a fundamental breach of one of their core responsibilities."
However, Archbishop Mario Conti said he was concerned about what had happened and expressed solidarity with their actions, adding neither the officers' competency and commitment had not been questioned.
| 
