GXR GAY NEW

The Israeli Government has been brought to the brink of collapse by a string of criminal investigations, sex scandals and a failed war in Lebanon.

Next week it will face its most unusual challenge yet: a vote of no confidence over a controversial advertising campaign aimed at bringing gay tourists to the Holy Land.

Dozens of MPs have vowed to bring down the Government over the campaign, saying that it offends Israeli religious sensibilities. Published on the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest-circulation Israeli daily, the adverts feature affectionate gay couples at some of the most famous tourist sites.

One shows two young men in kippahs about to kiss near Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Another shows a gay couple embracing on a camel. Another features a group of men smeared in mud and poised to take a dip in the Dead Sea.

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THE Gossip singer Beth Ditto says gay men in the fashion industry are to blame for the worrying size zero trend.

Plus-sized Beth, who has posed naked for this month’s cover of NME magazine, slammed homosexual designers for putting unrealistic pressure on women to be skinny.

Beth told the music publication: “If there’s anyone to blame for size zero, it’s not women. Blame gay men who work in the fashion industry and want these women as dolls.

“Men don’t know what it feels like to be a woman and be expected to look a particular way. The Beckhams are part of the machine, Paris Hilton is part of the machine.

“There’s that thing Paris Hilton said about Lindsay Lohan, ‘You’re poor, ugly and fat.’ It’s always women who are victims.”

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Given his years of using the old ‘I don’t talk about my personal life’ line, it should come as no surprise that Frasier alum David Hyde Pierce’s first official declaration that he’s gay was not by press release or calculated announcement, but via a sly name drop that named the Emmy winning star’s partner.

In an interview with CNN.com to promote his Tony nominated turn in the Broadway musical Curtains, the writer makes reference to Pierce’s partner Brian Hargrove, an actor-writer-producer he relocated to Los Angeles with when Hargrove wanted to give writing for television a shot.

The mention is buried a good twelve paragraphs into the story—in fact, it’s so casual, editors at AfterElton.com contacted Pierce’s representation to confirm it wasn’t just a misprint.

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(Riga) Members of a broad spectrum of groups on the far right in Latvia staged a noisy demonstration in front of the Parliament on Wednesday demanding that lawmakers ban a gay pride parade scheduled for June 3.

The groups included skinheads, extreme nationalists, neo-Nazis and churchgoers.

More than 100 protestors shouted homophobic slogans and handed out T-shirts to passersby bearing anti-gay messages.

It is the latest in ongoing battles between liberals and conservatives in Latvia.

Last year the capital city of Riga refused to grant a parade permit citing security reasons following a recommendation from Latvian Interior Minister Dzintars Jaundzeikars.

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The Tourism Ministry released a statement Tuesday announcing that Israel isn’t seeking out gay travelers over other potential visitors – not, of course, that there’s anything wrong with that.

“The Tourism Ministry regards all segments of the population as equals, and therefore each group… receives the same treatment,” the press release said.

The release followed the publication Tuesday of a nearly two-page spread in Yediot Aharonot outlining efforts by the ministry to promote gay and lesbian tourism to Israel – a spread promoted on the newspaper’s front page with a large color photo and a magenta headline about the government’s campaign for a “Pink Jerusalem.”

Inside the paper, readers were greeted with another pink headline, as well as government-sponsored photos of gay couples and travel groups enjoying themselves in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and at the Dead Sea.

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MELBOURNE, Australia — A gay bar has won the right to turn away heterosexuals and even lesbians to provide a non-threatening atmosphere for the men partying inside.

A tribunal in Australia’s southern Victoria state granted Melbourne’s Peel Hotel an exemption to equal rights laws, saying it was needed to prevent “sexually based insults and violence” aimed at the pub’s patrons.

In her findings, the tribunal’s deputy president, Cate McKenzie, said Monday that to allow large numbers of straight men and women and lesbians into the bar could “undermine or destroy” the convivial atmosphere that the Peel Hotel sought to create for gay men.

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Businesses are seeing green because Gay Days is in full swing. Tuesday marks the start of the 16th annual event and more than 200,000 people are expected to spend millions of dollars this year.

They arrive with bags packed for a week of fun and excitement, and wallets ready to be emptied.

Gay Days is underway all across Central Florida.  At the Parliament House hotel on Orange Blossom Trail, the decorations are already in place for this weekend’s concerts.

“It’s tremendous, 100,000 to 150,000 that come into Orlando, fill hotels. We’re already at capacity for the weekend,

Poland’s conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda to the small screen, taking aim at Tinky Winky and the other Teletubbies.

Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday she was concerned the popular BBC children’s show promoted homosexuality.

She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.

In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late US evangelist Jerry Falwell, she was quoted as saying: “I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady’s purse, but I didn’t realize he’s a boy.”

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Right Said Fred isn’t too sexy to be punched in the face by Russian anti-gay activists.

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A GAY bar run by a Scottish hotelier has won the right to ban heterosexuals.

In what is believed to be a first for Australia, a tribunal has ruled that Melbourne’s Peel Hotel can exclude people based on their sexuality. The move is intended to stop heterosexuals from insulting and intimidating the venue’s regular customers.

Tom McFeely, the hotel’s owner, who emigrated to Australia from Scotland 17 years ago because of homophobia, said the ruling was necessary to provide gay men with a non-threatening atmosphere.

“We’ve always welcomed everyone at the Peel,” he said. “But when it got to the stage where a gay person could feel intimidated or unsafe at a gay venue, that’s when I felt I had to take action. If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance.”

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