I have added my own smart comments in red to the existing article - The Blogger

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/6322075.stm
 

A hotelier who runs a gay-only guest house has said the government's anti-discrimination bill would be a step backward for gay rights.

The Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs), which are due to come into effect in April, outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Mark Hurst, 47, said the proposed legislation would force him to open his doors to heterosexual guests.

He said that may put off many of his gay guests and put him out of business.

Mr Hurst, who runs Guyz hotel in Blackpool (ooh, sounds *classy*!) with his partner Steve, said: "Rather than improve gay rights, it will make things much worse. We run a gay hotel exclusively for men.

"We feel if we were forced to a situation where we had to accept heterosexual people into our hotel, our gay clientele will not behave as naturally as they would now. I suppose it depends on what these gay guests intend to do among each other!

"Many of them would feel more self-conscious. Many of our guests like to just sit on the settee in the lounge and cuddle up to watch a film.

"They can hold hands and have a little kiss and would behave in a way they may not if they were in a mixed crowd," he said. They can handle a "mixed crowd" of queens and leathermen, but not gay and straights? I've made out with my lover in the company of straights many times. It's no different. Folks peek at each other a little, and folks love to show their passion for their partners to the world.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said Mr Hurst was making a fuss over nothing.

He said: "I think this is a bit of storm in a teacup.

"Just as there aren't going to be hundreds of gay couples descending on Catholic adoption agencies, I think it's very unlikely there are going to be hundreds of heterosexuals banging on the doors of gay hotels demanding to be let in."

The regulations have applied in Northern Ireland since 1 January and are due to be implemented in England, Wales and Scotland by April.

A community patrol taking back Castro
Report of 2 rapes spurred group to action

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, November 18, 2006

...

Anti-crime volunteers will wear orange uniforms as they patrol the area armed with whistles and flashlights. Castro residents organized the community patrol after two men reported to police that they were raped on the neighborhood's streets, one in July and one in September.

...

Firm's anti-gay e-mail sparks online fury

NEW YORK, Nov 8 - A U.S. landscaping firm has been inundated with hate mail after an e-mail it sent rejecting a client because he was gay was made public.

Houston-based firm Garden Guy sent an e-mail on October 18 turning down a prospective customer by saying: "I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals."

The recipient, Michael Lord, forwarded the e-mail to dozens of friends and it spread across the Internet.

Garden Guy's Web site (---.garden-guy.---) makes no secret of the firm's outlook. "The God-ordained institution of marriage is under attack," it says at the bottom of a page offering patios and organic pest control, and asks browsers to go to www.nogaymarriage.com.

The forum on Garden Guy's Web site has received 26 pages of postings since the e-mail was made public, many of them criticizing the owners' stance and urging a boycott. One accused the company of "hate and discrimination."

Garden Guy co-owner Sabrina Farber said her family had also received verbal attacks and murder threats.

"When we sent (the e-mail) we intended it for the client. We did not intend it to be some sweeping political statement for the world. That's it," she said. "We are humbly sorry for the hurt that it caused. We meant no hate."

Farber said she had not anticipated the impact that the e-mail would have. "We felt that it was our right as an American small business to choose who we do business with," she said in a telephone interview.

"Do I want to say that before you send an e-mail you might think about the fact the whole world can see it? I guess I do," she added.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, said those who send business e-mails should not normally be entitled to expect them to remain private.

He said exceptions that would stand up before communication privacy laws were communications between doctors and patients or lawyers and clients, where confidentiality was expected.

OMFG, he was always so adorable, even though he had a mullet and looked like jailbait...

I think he's still attractive as an adult.  

Anyone who says he looks like Sting must die!

Actor Neil Patrick Harris Says He Is Gay
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2628231&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Actor Neil Patrick Harris Discloses His Sexuality, Says He Is 'A Very Content Gay Man'

LOS ANGELES Nov 4, 2006 (AP)— Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumors to the contrary. "(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris tells People magazine's Web site.

The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexuality because of recent "speculation and interest in my private life and relationships."

Harris stars on the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother." He started on TV as a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series "Doogie Howser, M.D."

EXCLUSIVE: Neil Patrick Harris Tells PEOPLE He Is Gay
http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1554852,00.html
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 03, 2006 06:55PM EST

Neil Patrick Harris is gay – and wants to quell recent reports that he had denied it. The actor tells PEOPLE exclusively:

"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships.

"So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

Harris, 33, currently stars in the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. He shot to fame in 1989 at age 16 when he played a teen-prodigy doctor on the hit Doogie Howser, M.D. "It was a very fast but wonderful education," he told PEOPLE in 1998.

After the show went off the air in 1993, he shook off his teen image with roles in the musicals Rent and Assassins and a wild turn as an unhinged version himself in the 2004 movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

"I'm enjoying my 30s," he told PEOPLE in 2004. "I feel like I know where I'm going. And I like where I'm going."