Canadian Gay Rights Group To File Complaint Over Announcers Homophobic Johnny Weir On-Air Banter, Australian Announcer Makes Awkward Amends With Johnny Weir, New Opposition To Delhi India’s De-Criminalization Of Homosexuality, Christian Group Attacks Gareth Thomas For Promoting Sodomy, Irish Homosexuality Cure Conference Protested, Closeted Charlie Crist Continues To Punish Gays, Complaint Filed Against California Police Department For Harassment Of Gay Officers

A Quebec based gay rights group intends to file a formal complaint Monday with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council over comments made by two veteran announcers – Alain Goldberg and Claude Mailhot - on the French-language sports channel RDS. During a performance by American figure skater Johnny Weir, who was wearing a sheer black and pink outfit of Weir’s own design, Mailhot said “this may not be politically correct, but do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?” Goldberg answered that Weir’s effeminate style reflects badly on other male figure skates and is detrimental to the sport. “They thing all the boys who skate will end up like him,” Goldberg replied,” It sets a bad example.” At one point, the two brought up South African runner Caster Semenya, the subject of gender speculation, Goldberg suggesting “we should make him (Weir) pass a gender test at this point” to which Mailhot joked Weir should compete on the woman’s side. The duo later offered an on-air apology.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Channel Nine announcer Eddie McGuire, who made grotesque homophobic comments regarding Johnny Weir, attempted to make amends, interviewing Weir, and extending an invitation to stay with McGuire in Australia and aid in the renovation of his guest room, encouraging Weir to paint it a “happy yellow.” Weir was surprisingly non-confrontational, suggesting that “for me, I take everything as a game. I am very laid-back as far as that goes, I like to pole fun at people, there’s no harm with that. It’s all in good fun.”

A historic ruling in July, 2009, that decriminalised gay sex between consenting adults in the capital city of India, appears to be facing another round of opposition, religious leaders prepared to pressure the courts to reverse the decision. The verdict in July by the Deli High Court was non-binding outside the capital, but anti-gay opponents fear that courts throughout the country will follow Deli’s lead, and they are appealing to the Supreme Court. Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1860, a statute introduced by colonial Britain banning “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”

Christian Voice, an evangelical extremist group based in Carmarthenshire, has aggressively attacked Gareth Thomas, the openly gay Welsh rugby icon, calling him “wicked” and accusing him of “promoting sodomy to children.” Thomas was named the patron of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month – February- and Christian Voice director Stephen Green said “pro-sodomy teaching in secondary school can easily turn an adolescent phase of same-sex attraction, which many girls and boys go through, into a fixed orientation. Gareth Thomas is urging such children to identify themselves as homosexual, and to inhibit their normal development in heterosexuality.” Green also argued that Thomas could be cured of his homosexual attraction. Thomas responded, saying “I appreciate not everyone will have the same viewpoint as me and I have no problem with that.”

A three day Christian conference in Ballynahinch, Ireland, that claims to offer a cure for homosexuality is expected to draw peacful protests. The weekend conference, sponsored by CORE Issues, a Northern Ireland based organization that “supports men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression.” The conference is organized around the work of Reverend Mario Bergner, who is the headline speaker, and who claims that that his faith cured both his sexuality and his HIV infection. Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce plans to protest peacefully.

Self-hating, closeted Charlie Crist, Florida’s governor, continues to deny gay couple the right to adopt, employing the Department of Children and Family Services to fight recent rulings in the state that found Florida’s gay adoption ban unconstitutional.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Roseville, California alleged that the Department of Police cultivated a hostile work climate, targeting gay officers and those perceived to be gay. Two current officers and one former officer filed the civil rights lawsuit that seeks unspecified financial damages from the city and the department. The filing contends that the Police Chief Mike Blair failed to stop harassment, and in most instances retaliated against those who reported harassment claims.