Don’t go cross dressing in Dubai. They don’t like it

In Dubai, where homosexuality is illegal, there has been a clamp down on transvestism, cross dressing and gay sex according to The Guardian.

‘On Wednesday police detained 40 “cross-dressing tourists”, the Gulf News reported, quoting the local police chief as complaining that transvestites were frequently being spotted.

“This is against the UAE’s traditions and social values,” said General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim. Any man or woman who behaved like the opposite gender in public would be questioned and action would be taken, he added.’

Dubai: More than half the population are expatriates, thousands wear bikinis on public beaches, wear shorts and drink alcohol which is freely available in bars and restaurants. In 2006 more than a million British visitors travelled to the UAE and 100,000 British nationals live there. Openly gay behaviour is banned.

Here in the UK we are in no position really to criticise Dubai for its crackdown on cross dressing; after all, just days ago there was a furure when a cross dressing Turner prize winner was featured on the BBC’s long-running radio programme, Question Time.

Bullying manager allegedly used the company website to bully gay man

Mark Rowan was called a gay boy and ‘one of the girls’ by his boss on the companys public website, an employment tribunal heard today.

“Mr Rowan claimed his employer had bragged to a colleague about not having “poofs” work at his company and claimed he would find a way to sack him. Mr Rowan said: “The staff were all sickened but the general feeling was that I was the one going to be sacked. “He would refer to me as ‘gay boy’ and told my colleagues he didn’t want ‘poofs’ working for his company.”

The hearing continues.

Gay and proud - and serving

The Manchester Evening News has been to see the exhibition of gay and lesbian forces personnel at the Imperial War Museum North.

“The interesting thing is not so much about the legislation that took place to allow LGBT people into the military legally,” she continues, “but to see how the attitudes slow change over time.

“We have heard heartbreaking stories from men who had not been able to come out and could therefore not get time out of the army to arrange the funeral of a loved one.

“Likewise, we have had stories that have usurped our expectations of the attitude you might expect in such a strong male environment. Like I said, it’s a real eye-opener,” says exhibition organiser Catherine Roberts.

America’s need to catch up

Gays and lesbians in America used to enjoy an enviable position having some of the best protection anywhere for gays and lesbians, but they have got left behind, despite recent moves to allow gay marriage in some states. There are two stories today which reveal just how far behind their brothers and sisters in Europe our American friends have become.

Orlando, Florida, is known as a gay destination but it is hardly gay-friendly to the gays and lesbians who live in it. In Orlando in one development at least the homeowners society discriminates against gay men and lesbians by not allowing them to rent a home. Perfectly legally, they preserve their development for straight married couples only.

‘”The Homeowner’s Association is totally out of control,” Suzane Musashe, who leases homes in the subdivision for investors, told WFTV, reports 365 Gay News.

“I feel like I am back in the 60’s because there is such discrimination going on,” Musashe told the station.’

Over in Washington DC, Kent Snyder, a 49-year-old gay political operative in the Republican Party died of pneumonia on June 26 after being hospitalized for about two months and after running up medical bills exceeding $400,000, according to friends and family members, who said he did not have health insurance.

‘Gay staffers from the Ron Paul presidential campaign, some speaking on condition that they not be identified, said they learned about Snyder’s unpaid medical bills from a web site created by his friends that calls on Paul supporters to contribute to a special fund to help Snyder’s family pay the bills.

“I can’t believe he didn’t have health insurance,” said one political activist who read about Snyder’s unpaid medical bills in a story published last month in the Wall Street Journal. “I can’t believe that Ron Paul didn’t give him health insurance,” said the activist, who asked not to be identified.

The Journal story did not identify Snyder as gay; a Washington Post obituary reported Snyder died of viral pneumonia but did not mention his sexual orientation,’ reports the Washington Blade.

Gay Activist sends condolences to Mr Snyder’s family and friends.

Lillian Adele: Council to appeal

Registrar Lillian Adele, who just days ago was found to have been bullied by her employer because she refused to officiate at the civil partnership registrations of gay and lesbian couples as her job required, will have to face an appeals court, says The Daily Mail.

Councillor John Gilbert said: ‘We believe an important question is at stake. Islington, like all councils and employers, needs to know whether we can expect employees to provide services to all sections of the community.’

Miss Ladele’s solicitor, Mark Jones, said: ‘Employment tribunal decisions help to persuade panels in other similar cases, but are not binding.

‘But if an appeal tribunal upholds the employment tribunal’s ruling, other hearings would be bound and could not, on similar facts, come to a different decision.’

Yes; and gay men and lesbians have a right not to be discriminated when they are dealt with by the public services, enshrined in law. If that law turns out not to stand up in court, then Parliament have got some explaining - and redrafting - to do.

HIV and drug use knock an average 20 years off our lives, say insurers

Insure.com, which provides quotes from more than 200 insurers to people across the USA, finds research shows that gay men have a life expectancy 20 years shorter than heterosexual men. AIDS, gay lifestyles in the gay scene and stress account for the difference.

“There is also a significant amount of drug use involved in many parts of gay culture, as well as increased incidence of psychological illness, family instability and suicide.”

The research also suggests gay men are at a higher risk of dying than smokers or the obese.

Church did discriminate against gay worker, says tribunal

An employment tribunal ruled today that a gay 25-year-old was discriminated against because of his sexuality by a female manager who called him a “poof” and gave him an Oscar Wilde birthday card, and a novelty toilet roll, covered in pictures of fairies, for his birthday.

The bullying started shortly after he started work at Coleg Trefaca, a conference centre and retreat, in December 2006. Mr Price, from Clydach, near Abergavenny, alleged the Presbyterian Church of Wales, which owns the centre, was guilty of sexual discrimination and constructive dismissal. All of his claims were upheld today.

Employment Judge Dr Rachel Davies said: “We accept Mr Price’s evidence … in its entirety.”

Catholic frolics in NY exposed

Gabriel De Jesus, 41, Principal of Sacred Heart School for the Arts, a Catholic elementary school at 71 Sharpe Blvd. in Mount Vernon, New York, was arrested for allegedly going on a naked sexual romp with two other men in the backyard of a vacant home in the Orchard Hill section of town on Sunday.

‘Authorities say DeJesus, Francesco Autera, 31, of Thornwood and another man met online. The trio allegedly picked the backyard of a vacant Abbeyville Lane home to conduct their group sex. An alert neighbor called 911 after noticing something suspicious.

“Two men got out and met a third person on the side of my house and they went on that property and that’s when I called 911,” neighbor Rich Pacheco said.

Police found DeJesus and Autera naked and arrested both. They are charged with misdemeanor trespassing, public lewdness and disorderly conduct. The third man ran naked down the street before he could be apprehended, according to police,’ writes WCBS Television.

Writer pleads guilty of sex offence in Ireland

The Irish writer Desmond Hogan, 57, yesterday pleaded guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy, at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee, Ireland, reports the Irish Times.

‘… Sgt Michael McCarthy said the injured party was one of three boys in the accused’s chalet on the date in question. Hogan was showing them sketches and etchings and various photographs of naked people. The material was not modern but Renaissance art… The assault took place when the injured party’s friends left to go a local shop, beginning in the kitchen with the accused removing all the boy’s clothes and then his own clothes… Hogan proceeded to kiss the boy.

At this point, Hogan rose to his feet and walked towards the bench saying “I do not subscribe to this. It is not true, it is not true.”

When he resumed his evidence, Sgt McCarthy said Desmond Hogan retreated to the bedroom and placed the boy on the bed face downwards and sexually abused him. The assault continued in the bedroom for some time…’

Hogan has pleaded guilty. Once again, someone who should know better has let the whole community down.

By their volume shall you know them

The people who make the most noise about gays and lesbians always turn out to have a skeleton in their wardrobe that they’d rather keep quiet about, don’t they. Troy King, the Alabama Attorney General was reportedly caught by his wife in bed with male assistant, reports The Edge Boston.

You’d think that by now politicians leading double lives would have realised that the game was up, wouldn’t you, but still they carry on.