2007 Gay Portland Pride
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Pride at Work Convention Ramps Up Call for Change
San Diego -- Nearly 200 members and allies of Pride at Work, AFL-CIO (PAW) met for its national convention this past weekend. In a pre-convention interview, PAW Executive Director Jeremy Bishop described the main purpose of this convention, titled No Turning Back in 2006, as both educational and a moment to relax before the election season struggles.
The convention was a time, Bishop remarked, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) union members and their allies "to come together and just relax and recharge their batteries with people who understand the struggle and understand what they go through."
California State Assemblyperson John Laird (D-Monterey), one of six openly gay state assemblypersons, described PAW as an important bridge between labor and the LGBT communities.
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.
Atlanta Black Pride board member points fingers at AIDS groups
A week before Atlanta's Black Gay Pride is set to begin, a pride board member blasted city AIDS groups for not doing enough to curb infection among African-American gay men. In an angry e-mail to the Southern Voice newspaper, gay pride board member Greg Smith accused Atlanta AIDS organizations of not spending enough money to combat the disease. "The African-American AIDS issue is so trendy now," Smith wrote. AIDS groups, he said "talk HIV case data, advocate for funds, then get the money and do nothing...." Organizations "that give $50 or have millions and give $1,000 should be ashamed of themselves," he added. Smith, who didn't name specific AIDS organization in his e-mail, also blasted the groups for not financially assisting In the Life Atlanta, the organizer of Black Gay Pride, in putting the pride event together.
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