| 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.
Comment: Is newspaper backlash aid to homophobia?
PinkNews.co.uks Dave McElhill ponders press reporting regarding EU enlargement and asks if the tones are helping the international gay community.
The recent headlines have been full of commentary regarding the likely influx of new immigrants when Bulgaria and Romania join the EU.
The right wing press though is aiming to keep levels of legal immigration down from countries which are openly anti-gay, as shown by the response to pride marches throughout former Soviet states, in particular Latvia.
Questions remain, though, as to whether or not the two new EU candidate countries are as openly homophobic.
If so this presents grounds for possible immigration to avoid discrimination.
Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, has not held a gay pride march in over 4 years.
Jerusalem Gay Pride Set for September 21
JERUSALEM, Israel, August 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) The International Gay Pride Parade has been rescheduled to take place in Jerusalem on September 21, Israel National News Arutz Sheva reported today. The weeklong homosexual celebration was originally planned for August, but was postponed due to the outbreak of violence in Lebanon. The homosexual activist organization Open House announced the date for the planned event in defiance of concerted international opposition from Jewish and Islamic religious leaders, and the Vatican. The event has been condemned as an affront to the millions of faithful worldwide who consider Jerusalem to be a holy city. The event is scheduled to take place literally days before the Jewish New Year, a time of deep spiritual introspection for all Jewish people, Rabbi Yehuda Levin, with the organization Jews for Morality, told LifeSiteNews.com.
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