25th October, 2001 (# 3) News Clippings Digest.

1. GAY.COM U.K. Women Priests Discriminated Against By 'Closeted
Gay' Networks, Says Group
2. RAINBOW NETWORK (U.K. glbt) Gay rights activist is threatened by
Gibraltar government aides after meeting where Gibraltar's policy on
homosexuality was criticised
3. SYDNEY MORNING HERALD Sydney 2002 Gay Games answered its critics
by previewing a robust Cultural Festival, saying "We're ready, are
you?"
4. THE AGE (Australia) The influence of the British series "Bob and
Rose" about a love affair between a gay man and a straight woman has
gays in Manchester's gay village grousing about all the straight
women hanging around.

Gay.com U.K., 25 October 2001
http://uk.gay.com/news/4235
Women Priests Discriminated Against By 'Closeted Gay' Networks, Says
Group
The Church of England has failed to stamp out discrimination
against
women because it is misogynistic and attempting to protect "closeted
gay''
and "old boy" networks, a report by campaigners claimed today.
The Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod said life has become
hard
for women priests since the Church legislation - designed to defuse
the row
over the ordination of women priests - was passed in 1993.
Some dioceses are becoming "no go'' areas for women under the
terms
of the Act, which created "flying bishops'' to tour the country
attending to
traditionalist worshippers.
These bishops travel to 243 parishes out of approximately
15,000. The
Church of England's House of Bishops, which is chaired by the
Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr George Carey, is presiding over a conspiracy of
silence over
female discrimination, according to GRAS.
The Act does not fall under parliamentary law but it is
strongly
adhered to within the church because it has the will of the powerful
synod
who passed it.
The report says: "There are a number of reasons - fear of
conflict,
misogyny, the bishop's wish to present a united front to the world, a
devotion to the old boy network, or, in some cases, to a closeted gay
network, laziness, indifference and excessive concern about what Rome
thinks
and the habitual stance of not taking women seriously.''
Women have been denied promotion, ridiculed and abused by male
colleagues in a deliberate attempt to undermine them while the church
hides
behind the fact that it is exempt from the Sex Discrimination Act
1975, it
is claimed.
Dr Monica Furlong, a writer specialising in the Church of
England,
said: "It is a sort of open secret in the Church of England that a
lot of
people are hostile to the idea of women's ordination and some are also
hostile to women in general".
"One would be really blinding oneself if one did not recognise
that
within the church there is a group of gay men who feel incredibly
uncomfortable about women and seem to be setting up a world in which
women
do not exist.''
A copy of the report along with a seven-point plan to help
address
the situation has been delivered to each of the bishops. It is being
sent
along with an as yet unfulfilled request for a meeting.
The campaign is supported by Foreign Office Minister Ben
Bradshaw and
crime writer Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh.


Rainbow Network, 25 October 2001
http://www.rainbownetwork.com/content/NewsLife.asp?newsid=2275
Gay Activist Ejected by Gibraltar Minister's Aides
A gay rights activist was threatened by Gibraltar's chief
minister's
aides after a meeting in which Gibraltar's policy on homosexuality was
criticised.
Chief minister Peter Caruana invited Wendyl Harris, of gay
rights
group OutRage!, to a private meeting after a heated public debate at
the
London School of Economics.
During the meeting, Caruana claimed that Gibraltar has "some
of the
best gay rights laws in Europe", and that Gibraltar's laws on
homosexuality
"conform to European human rights law".
Caruana admitted that he did not know the gay age of consent in
Gibraltar, and was told by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell,
who was
also in the audience, "Gibraltar has a discriminatory age of consent
of 18
for gay men, compared to 16 for heterosexuals".
The chief minister responded by claiming that Gibraltar was
a "very
tolerant place for homosexuals", even implying there was no
discrimination
at all.
Harris replied: "If you are so tolerant towards gay people,
why do
you refuse to meet gay rights groups in Gibraltar?"
Caruana would not explain why he was unwilling to engage in
dialogue
with Gibraltar Gay Rights, which has repeatedly been refused meetings
with
the chief minister.
Caruana then invited Harris to meet him after the meeting to
discuss
her concerns. But when Harris turned up to meet the chief minister,
he was
"too busy" to talk to her. Harris' way was barred by security
staff. They
detained her in a corridor and called for reinforcements to have her
ejected
from the venue.
Harris said: "Mr Caruana personally invited me to join him for
a
discussion after the meeting. When I arrived I was confronted and
threatened by security guards. I never got to speak to Mr Caruana.
He was
clearly not interested in having a genuine dialogue. His behaviour
confirms
the complaint of gay rights groups in Gibraltar that he is unwilling
to sit
down and talk with them. He made an offer to me, then broke his
word."
Tatchell said that Caruana's claim that Gibraltar has "some of
the
best gay rights laws in Europe" was laughable. He added that the
country
has some of the harshest laws concerning homosexuality, and that the
country
was nowhere near implementing legislation that would bring it into
line with
the rest of Europe.


Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 2001,
GPO Box 506, Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
(Phone: +61/2/9282 2822) (E-Mail: letters@... )
( http://www.smh.com.au/ )
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0110/26/text/entertain7.html
Gay Games on track, and song
By Lenny Ann Low
The Sydney 2002 Gay Games answered its critics by previewing a
robust
Cultural Festival yesterday. "We're ready, are you?" declared Games
board
member Matt Vagulans.
In July a leaked memo from the international ruling body
raised the
possibility of relocating the sporting and arts event. This
uncertainty has
since been compounded by worldwide tourism jitters. But now
organisers are
confident that the festival will attract large numbers of
participants and
spectators to Sydney next year.
Sydney 2002 board members said they expect about 14,000
participants
to take part in the festival, the largest event in Sydney between the
Olympics and the rugby World Cup.
Board member Emma Young said the Games had met its first
participant
deadline with more than 4,000 paid registrations. "It's the first
time any
Gay Games has ever had this amount of registration at this point,"
she said.
Fellow board member Matt Vagulans was also confident regarding
sponsorship, citing in-kind government support and funding from major
sponsors such as Qantas and American Airlines. "We're tying up some
sponsorship at the moment but we have many major sponsors on board
now," he
said.
Vagulans said tourism interest from overseas was "very
positive" with
the majority of participants coming from the United States. "We were
a bit
concerned about the September events but it's something that hasn't
harmed
us at all," he said.
The two-week arts program which begins late in October features
opera, a symphony orchestra, mass choirs, physical theatre, visual
arts,
dance, and participatory forums and workshops. Headlining the arts
festival
is the world premiere of Opera Australia's production of Lindy, based
on the
story of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain. Written by Moya Henderson
and her
co-librettist, Judith Rodriguez, the opera features soprano Joanna
Cole in
the role of Lindy and tenor David Hobson as Michael.
More than 20 international choirs will join the Sydney Gay and
Lesbian Choir for a mass concert at the Sydney Opera House Concert
Hall in
November. Also featured is photographer William Yang, the Boomalli
Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, two dance works from choreographer
Dean
Walsh, a hangi at the Sydney Aquatic Centre and a 1930-40s ball at the
Sydney Town Hall.


The Age, 26 October 2001
250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000. Australia
(Fax: + 61-3-9601-2414 ) (E-mail: letters@... )
(http://www.theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/)
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/2001/10/26/FFX9KEHG7TC.html
No way out
By Decca Aitkenhead
"He wants me! He does, I swear. He was talking about
threesomes the
other night. Would I do it? Ab-so-lutely! I'm telling you, some of
the
men in here, they're absolutely gorgeous."
With an arm draped around her young gay friend, Irene Kyme
widens her
smoky eyes, pouts her ruby lips, and adjusts her silver halter-neck
top.
"Straight men, they all just go out in Ben Sherman shirts. In here
it's so
exciting."
"In here" is Via Fossa, one of the biggest bars in Canal
Street, in
the heart of Manchester's gay village. The bar made regular
appearances in
"Bob and Rose," the hit TV series about a straight woman and a gay man
falling in love, much of which was filmed in the village. Finishing
last
week, it was the second gay drama by Russell T. Davies to feature
Canal
Street and, like his first, Queer As Folk, it was a critical and
commercial
success.
For many gay men in the village, however, "Bob and Rose" has
been a
social catastrophe. "These women come clattering in here like herds
of
wildebeest, shouting: 'Oi! I think you're f---ing sexy'," complains
Mark
Blake, a Via Fossa regular. "They're always fat and bawdy, and I
really
don't know where they get their clothes from.
"They dance around, and bosoms hit the floor and the ceiling,
and the
other night we couldn't even get in because there were so many of
them.
It's like the fat ladies' Ritzy now. What they think they're going
to get
out if it, I just don't know."
The impact of "Bob and Rose" on the village is apparent. By
10pm on
Saturday, Canal Street looks less like the old gay capital of the
north and
more like a traditional English seaside resort, crowded with raucous
hen
parties in sequins and heels.
Flashing red devils' horns are a popular accessory and the drag
queens are facing unfamiliar competition, their reign as the gaudiest
girls
on the street now under serious threat.
Why have the women come? The answers are always the
same: "great
atmosphere", "like a holiday resort", "no trouble".
"I'd always known it was here," says Jane, a solicitor from
nearby
Bolton. "But it was always 'that gay place'. Now we know we can
come too,
I think we make it more cosmopolitan, more stylish."
This is not the view of many gay men and women. "They don't
know the
rules!" complains a gay clubber in Spirit. "Like, they get really
offended
when you go into the women's toilets. They just don't understand how
gay
bars work, they get really shocked."
A lesbian couple he knows are still fuming about being turned
away
from their regular pub recently for wearing tracksuits. "They're
bloody
lesbians. They don't wear sequined boob tubes."
Outside Spirit, a 21-year-old gay student called Dickon
Hempsall has
just been knocked back by doormen. "The trouble with "Bob and Rose"
is that
it's made boys feel confident about coming out younger," he
complains. So
now they're in the village at 16, and bringing their mum and all her
mates.
You look every gang of women, they've always got one stick-thin 16-
year-old
in tow, like he's their passport or something. And straights go out
early
they've got the baby-sitter booked for seven, so by the time your
average
gay man has chosen his outfit, everywhere's full."
Canal Street has always attracted a small contingent of
straight
women known as fag hags, these are women who seek out the company of
gay
men. The village as general freak-show entertainment, however, is
quite
new. "We've had a dabble in the gay bit," giggles one member of a
hen party
setting off up Sackville Street, "and had a look at the funny
business. Now
we're going to Yates Wine Lodge. It was a laugh here but I'll warn
you,
there's no ladies and gents in them bars, they just go into
whatever. It's
weird."
A group of students outside Manto admit the attraction is
ogling the
men. "Yeah," says one, "it is true, we do fancy them". Her friend
chips
in, "Especially the young ones. They're better looking than the guys
in the
student union bar. And they dress better, and dance better."
"There's just something about camp I love," enthuses Irene
Kyme, back
in Via Fossa. A 20-year-old student, she is also a lap dancer, and
doesn't
mind a bit of hostility from gay men, because they are so good
looking. She
is here every weekend with her gay friend, Edward, and a big group of
student girls, all fans of "Bob and Rose." "A couple of weeks ago, I
was
looking at this guy. My friend knew him, and she said 'yeah, he's
gay'.
But when I went to the loo she asked if he fancied me, and he said
yes!
That's a double trophy."
Not long ago, straights didn't automatically expect to be
allowed
into gay venues. Those turned away on Saturday night, though, are
hopping
mad. "It really winds me up," shouts a woman in a miniskirt. "We
love
everybody, whether they're gay or straight. If we haven't got a
problem
with them, why should they have one with us? I told that bloody
bouncer,
it's bang out of order."
The right of gay bars to exercise a door policy appears to have
become a largely incomprehensible concept, and few doormen bother
trying to
explain; if they want to turn away straights, the excuse is "members
only".
But the number of bars along the narrow cobbled strip of Canal Street
has
shot up in recent years from half a dozen to more than 20, and there
simply
aren't enough gay customers to support them all.
Babylon, the Friday-night event at a club called Essential, now
advertises itself as "Babylon from Bob and Rose", and Spirit has
relaxed its
door policy to: "We let nice people in. If they look nice, they can
come
in."
A sign in Via Fossa reads "Homos, lesbos, heteros, anything
goes.
This is a non-discriminatory zone." The manager admits, "We do get
complaints from gay customers. But ... we are trying to run a
business. If
I was going to say we were gay only, we'd be empty by midnight,
because all
the gays go off clubbing."
Some Canal Street regulars are happy about the "Bob and Rose"
effect.
"I think the women are vile," says Shane MacRory. "But I prefer it
like
this. We can't be asking for tolerance and an open society and then
have
some haven where we're going to be equally bigoted. I'd much rather
have a
scally lad come down to the village with his girlfriend and
experience what
goes on than stay in his homophobic surburb, beating up anyone in
pink."
- GUARDIAN