Fire crew face censure for refusing gay event

CALUM MACDONALD July 19 2006 Courtest of: 2006 Newsquest (Herald & Times) A group of firefighters are facing disciplinary action after refusing to man a fire-safety stall at a gay pride event in Glasgow. Ten firefighters disobeyed orders by refusing to attend and hand out leaflets. It is understood some were embarrassed about attending the event in uniform, while others objected on grounds of conscience. Fergus Ewing, the SNP MSP, said: "Firefighters are entitled to their private views. Since when was handing out leaflets at a gay event considered a firefighter's core duty?" The Fire Brigades Union is supporting the firefighters in their disciplinary action. Calum Irving, director of the gay rights group Stonewall Scotland, said: "If they had refused to engage with people because of their ethnicity or faith, they would face disciplinary action. Why should lesbian and gay Scots be treated as second-class citizens by public servants?" A spokesman for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said: "A number of firefighters are the subject of an investigation concerning the delivery of fire-safety advice at the recent Pride Scotia parade."

A group of firefighters are facing disciplinary action after refusing to man a fire-safety stall at a gay pride event in Glasgow. Ten firefighters disobeyed orders by refusing to attend and hand out leaflets. It is understood some were embarrassed about attending the event in uniform, while others objected on grounds of conscience. Fergus Ewing, the SNP MSP, said: "Firefighters are entitled to their private views. Since when was handing out leaflets at a gay event considered a firefighter's core duty?"

The Fire Brigades Union is supporting the firefighters in their disciplinary action. Calum Irving, director of the gay rights group Stonewall Scotland, said: "If they had refused to engage with people because of their ethnicity or faith, they would face disciplinary action. Why should lesbian and gay Scots be treated as second-class citizens by public servants?" Gay news for the Queer Australian

Tags: gay_news gay_firemen

Ricky Unplugged

rickymartinhaircut
Originally uploaded by TechniCool.

MTV Latin America announced today that Sony/BMG superstar Ricky Martin will tape the next edition of its MTV Unplugged franchise, which will be produced by MTV Latin America in collaboration with MTV Tr3s.

The special will tape in Miami in August 2006 and it will debut on MTV Latin America, MTV Tr3s and MTV Puerto Rico in November 2006.

It'll also air on more than 100 MTV channels around the world, as well as select broadcast networks. The show will also be released on CD and DVD and will be distributed worldwide in November 2006 by Sony BMG.

"Creating music that reaches millions of people through the magic of TV is an extraordinary opportunity. That is why this project with MTV Latin America is of interest to me and weÂ’re working on giving them a truly spectacular musical event that will showcase our music and the unique energy to every corner of the globe especially the Latin communities." commented Ricky Martin.

Gay Games - Swimmers

Get thee over to Chicago - or Montreal!

Tags: gay, gay_games

Gay Games Kick Off in Chicago

Heat and protesters fail to spoil Gay Games Opening Ceremonies CHICAGO, IL - Despite the intense heat wave in Chicago, the seventh Gay Games have officially begun with a festive opening ceremony at Soldier Field. Thousands of spectators filled Soldier Field to welcome nearly 12,000 GLBT athletes from over 65 countries. Lead by Team San Francisco the athletes entered in an Olympic-style procession and were greeted by generous applause and cheerleaders. Chicago’s delegation finished the procession. As the sun set on the stadium situated on Chicago’s lakefront, spectators were entertained by over 1,400 dancers, acrobats and musicians. The celebrity-packed entertainment included Erasure's Andy Bell, Margaret Cho, Frankie Knuckles, Jody Watley, Megan Mullally, Heather Small, Kate Clinton and more. The opening ceremonies ended with a spectacular final number and fireworks show lighting up Chicago’s skyline. Actress Megan Mullaly said of Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley, “he doesn’t bat for the team but he bats for gay rights.” As she introduced the mayor, the crowd jumped to their feet in applause. The mayor outlined his strong history of supporting Chicago’s GLBT community and promised to continue “as long as I’m mayor of this great city.” Nearly 100,000 spectators and visitors are expected to visit Chicago during the Games creating an estimated $80 million in local economic impact. Banners promoting the games are hanging on streets all over Chicago. Gay news for the Queer Australian

Church rebels split over gay priests

Andrew Fraser

THE Uniting Church is closer to a fundamentalist split after conservatives yesterday moved to set up a breakaway "church within the church" in protest at the failure to ban gay ministers.

About a quarter of the almost 600 delegates who attended last week's Uniting Church Assembly in Brisbane have moved to establish the Assembly of Confessing Congregations, which they claim represents the "true gospel".

But they have stopped short of turning their back completely on the Uniting Church, saying they would wait until the movement was ordained in October to determine their next move. Sources within the church and on the rebels' side said it seemed to be a strategic move to determine how many people they could attract to the new movement.

The trigger for the movement is the Uniting Church's failure to ban homosexuals from the ministry, and over the past few days the conservatives have been discussing their future after last week's conference failed to definitively oppose the ordination of gay priests. Reverend Stephen Estherby, the national spokesman for the Evangelical Members Union - which, along with the Reforming Alliance, forms the basis of the new movement - said the breakaway body would be ordained in October.

"At that point, we will decide what happens. There is a very big difference between having 10 congregations and 400 congregations," he said. "But we have been trying to reform the movement from within for several years, but it's just not happening, so we're going to do it ourselves outside the church." Uniting Church president Gregor Henderson said he wanted to meet the leadership of EMU and the Reforming Alliance next week to clarify the proposal.

"On face value this proposal seems to suggest establishing a series of parallel structures within the Uniting Church," he said. "The church's Basis of Union provides for members of the church to work within the established councils of our presbyteries, synods and the assembly, and the proposed charter appears to be in breach of this."

Reverend Estherby said "there will be confrontation in this - they've said to us, 'You can't do this', but we just have". He said the new movement would not only try to attract existing congregations but also those who did not feel comfortable with the direction of the Uniting Church. "That's not to get up the nose of the Uniting Church - we see it as missionary work," he said. "We see ourselves as forming a sort of government-in-exile within the church because the assembly does not perform the function for which it was formed." He claimed that his movement had the support of 80 per cent of the "people in the pews" of the Uniting Church, but the "other side" had 80 per cent of the numbers at assembly. "Evangelical people haven't been interested in politics, but what we're frantically trying to do now is claw back our fair share of the power in the church," he said. But he stressed that even though his group was opposed to the ordination of gay priests, its members were not homophobic. Gay news for the Queer Australian

Tags: gay_priests gay_clery church_homophobia

Sexy Sawyer (Josh Holloway) LOST

you "Lost" fans.  Yes, that is Sawyer himself in all of his glory!

(Courtesy of hunkvideo.com)

Gay news for the Queer Australian

Final Two Soccer World Cup Eye Candy Shots

Just couldnt help myself', being totally fascinated by the Soccer Male Bonding experience. As for Ronaldino in this last one??? Gay news for the Queer Australian

D&G GOES LOCKER ROOM

Locker rooms are very trendy places, and we will not complain about Dolce & Gabanna using some of those hot Italians soccer players as models, including the very sexy Fabio Cannavaro ! Now you have to decide between Black or White ... or both ;-)

Credit OhlalaParis.com

Stop, theres more: Dolce and Gabbana do it again -this time a blow job ad. Gay news for the Queer Australian

Tags: dolce_and_gabbana, gay_ad, homoerotic

Final 2006 FIFA WORLD CUP HOTTIE REVIEW

Sebastian Kehl lies on his own ... while the party goes on for the Italians. VIVA ITALIA ! That's all we can say, those guys knows how to celebrate!

Alessandro Del Piero and Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on top of defender Fabio Grosso !

Per Mertesacker behind Luca Toni, and Francesco Totti and Michael Ballack fighting for the "ball"

KLOSE Miroslav and Zambrotta Gianluca trying to put his hand on the ball ! and the Hot Fabio Cannavaro jumping into the hot tattooed arms of Marco Materazzi !

We have saif goodby for another four years, especially to the very sexy German team and to the sexy Lukas Podolski!

Gay news for the Queer Australian

Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie the Most Played Song in Pop History

According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, the hit “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean became the most played song in pop radio history last week. Shakira’s song’s total of 9,657 times played on the radio, broke Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” previous record of 9,582. The pop celebrity Shakira also recently became the first artist in the history of the charts to earn the coveted No.1 Top 40 Mainstream song and No.1 Latin song in the same week and still holds the No.1 spot on the Latin chart. Meanwhile, the song continues to rule the European singles chart for the third week running.

In other celebrity news, Shakira will be performing the special version of her latest hit ‘Hips Don'’t Lie’ at the Berlin Olympiastadion on July 9, before the FIFA 2006 final, being a combination of the most played song in pop radio history last week and the World Cup official melody Bamboo. According to the Sun, pop celebrity recently flew to Germany to meet and to gave salsa tips to soccer stars Beckham, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Iker Casillas. Gay news for the Queer Australian