TV shows with gay characters could lose Florida tax credits

Television shows and films with gay characters could miss on tax credits in Florida for not being “family-friendly”.

Shows and films which are shot in Florida can get tax credits as a means of encouraging job creation in the state.

But a new bill being considered by lawmakers could remove the benefits for productions which include “non-traditional family values”.

The bill does not explicitly cite gay characters as an example of non-traditional family values and many legislators have refused to be drawn into a “word game”.

However, Republican representative and bill sponsor Stephen Precourt told the Palm Beach Post that shows with gay characters were not “the kind of thing I’d say that we want to invest public dollars in”.

Mr Precourt’s district includes Disney World.

Florida Family Policy Council president John Stemberger added that the phrase “non-traditional family values” could include anything from “drug abuse to excessive drunkenness to homosexual families.”

Scottish Lib Dems call for gay marriage

The Lib Dem Scottish spring conference passed a motion yesterday calling on the Scottish government to legalise gay marriage.

Party activists said the current system was “discrimination that needs to end”, Press Association reports. The motion also called for straight couples to be given the option of civil partnership ceremonies.

Edinburgh West MSP Margaret Smith told the debate she was in a civil partnership but had been “denied the right to be married in church”.

Ms Smith, who is religious, told the conference in Perth that there was “no true equality” while gay couples were barred from marriage.

Priest sorry for ‘Adam and Steve’ joke

A Catholic priest has apologised after joking that marriage is not for “Adam and Steve” in a sermon. Reverend Frank Wainwright, 48, a deacon at St Gregory’s Church in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, made the quip at a Sunday service when discussing commitment. Five of his 200-strong congregation complained and and a local gay group criticised his choice of words. Rev Wainwright said during the sermon: “Sometimes within the church we have to hold our heads above the parapet and say what we believe as Catholics and sometimes in saying that we will be marginalised and put down.

”For example, in adoption a child has a right to want a mother and father.

”That marriage is between a man and a woman and it’s a life-long commitment and usually only ended by death, as it was in the beginning and ever shall be.

Will & Grace star Sean Hayes confirms he’s gay

Will & Grace actor Sean Hayes has confirmed he is gay – adding that he was “never in” the closet.

The star, who played gay character Jack McFarland in the sitcom, has been criticised in the past for not declaring his sexual orientation.

In an interview with Advocate, he said: “I never have had a problem saying who I am. I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never.”

The magazine had criticised him for giving media interviews in which he skirted around the topic of his sexuality, despite it being an open secret in Hollywood.

Hayes said: “Nobody owes anything to anybody. You are your authentic self to whom and when you choose to be. And if you don’t know somebody, then why would you explain to them how you live your life?

Gay magazine back on WHSmith shelves

Gay magazine Attitude has returned to the shelves of WHSmith after commercial negotiations were concluded.

The magazine was missing from the high street stores for two weeks after what was thought to be a dispute over stocking fees.

Editor Matthew Todd said: “We’re happy to announce that Attitude is back in branches of WHSmiths on your high street from today.

‘Conscientious objection’ amendments to gay rights withdrawn

Two amendments to the Equality Bill giving the right to “conscientious objections” to gay equality measures were withdrawn in the House of Lords last night.

They were tabled by Baroness Butler-Sloss, who supported Lord Alli’s amendment to allow faiths the right to hold civil partnership ceremonies.

The amendments related to allowing employees the right not to be “complicit with an action or circumstance” which went against their beliefs on homosexuality and giving Catholic adoption agencies an exemption from the 2007 Sexual Orientation regulations.

The last Catholic adoption agency in the UK is fighting for the right to bar gay couples at the High Court this week, while the first amendment was concerned mainly with giving registrars the right not to conduct civil partnerships if they feel it is against their religious beliefs.

Baroness Butler-Sloss said last night: “All sorts of minorities need protection, not only the minorities who are in same-sex relationships. . . We should be able to accommodate various religions and various cultural beliefs. We are a broadminded society, and the Equality Bill should recognise that too.”

Three men assaulted in Cornwall ‘homophobic’ attack

Police are treating an attack on three men in Padstow, Cornwall, as a hate crime because one of the men was trans.

The friends, who were on holiday from the Plymouth area, had gone out on Saturday night and were attacked as they returned to an address on Broad Street.

It is thought they were followed into the house by two men, one of whom attacked them.

Police were called to the property at just after midnight on Sunday morning and two of the victims required hospital treatment for cuts. One of the two, a man in his fifties, was knocked unconscious.

A police spokesman told the Cornish Guardian: “We have recorded this incident as a hate crime after one of the victims made a claim that the assault could have been a homophobic attack because one of the party was a transsexual.

“We are following all lines of inquiry including checking the local pub’s CCTV camera footage.

Cameron promises equal parental leave for gay couples

Tory leader David Cameron has promised that gay couples in civil partnerships will receive the same maternity and paternity leave as their straight counterparts.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties have announced new proposals for parental leave. Labour plans to introduce a year of maternity leave with an option after the first 26 weeks for either parent to take the remaining time off.

The Tories would allow both parents to take up to 26 weeks off together and this would apply to couples who adopt or use artificial insemination.

Mr Cameron told Attitude magazine: “All our plans for full flexibility over maternity and paternity leave would be available for adoptive homosexual couples as well as heterosexual couples.”

10-year-old on hate register for calling a fellow pupil ‘gay boy’

A ten-year-old boy has been placed on a hate register for calling a fellow pupil a ‘gay boy.’

It is one of the first publicised examples of how the government’s required hate registers are being used in schools. From this September, children as young as five risk being placed on a hate register if they make homophobic playground taunts.

The details of how hate registers are being used emerged after the mother of a ten-year-old boy in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was told that her son’s name would be placed on a register and permanent school record following an alleged homophobic comment to a fellow pupil. Last December, PinkNews.co.uk reported that the government has asked all schools to record incidents of homophobic bullying.

It has been alleged that ten-year-old Peter Drury called another pupil a “gay boy” outside of school, but the mother of another child reported the incident to the head teacher of Ashcombe Primary School.

Penny Drury told the Daily Mail: “He doesn’t even understand about the birds and the bees, so how can he be homophobic?

“Peter is a very naive boy who didn’t know what he was doing and is now very upset as he is now in trouble. It doesn’t mean he is going to turn into a homophobic attacker when he is older.

“He must have picked up the word from somewhere and thought it to mean stupid.

“If I heard it I would have been the first to correct him and tell him not to use it, but putting him on a register seems way over the top.”

One third of gays and lesbians in Edinburgh physically attacked

A third of LGBT people in Edinburgh have been physically assaulted but only 15 per cent reported incidents to police, a small survey has suggested.

The Stonewall Scotland research of just over 70 LGBT people found that 66 per cent had been verbally abused while 53 per cent did not feel safe in their neighbourhoods.

The results were published yesterday, with the full findings of a survey of 300 people across Scotland to be released in the coming weeks.

Edinburgh city council and the Community Safety Partnership are backing a new scheme to prevent homophobic attacks which uses the slogan ‘Some people are gay. Get over it’.

Stonewall Scotland director Carl Watt said: “There are too many homophobic and transphobic hate-crime attacks across Scotland. These incidents range from extreme verbal assaults all the way through to violent attacks.