In Spokane Washington a gay and lesbian group is trying to establish a "gay district".
Businesses would be owned by gay people, employing gay people, gay housing etc.
This amounts to discrimination of all others. Isn't this against the law?

It's only against the law if it favors a white, heterosexual, Christian, conservative male. Everybody else is protected by the ACLU.

This has been going on for quite some time with many groups. BET television for instance. Start a network called White Entertainment and see how far you get. Doesn't spike lee insist on only Black technicians, makeup people etc. on his films? I believe I read this, but I could be wrong. Dont think that I am though.

I think our freedoms is going beserk............

I think that what's happened is, in our bid to try to correct past injustice, we cut our own b***s off.
There now exists a double standard in that the people that once only wanted equality, now want,no, make that DEMAND, preferential treatment. They don't see it as that of course. Everyone is entitled to more of everything, based on their ethnic or religious backgrounds and sexual preference, except for straight European Americans with a religious background based on Christianity.
We are supposed to hang our heads in shame for things that we never did, our families never did, and had no hand in.

Where have I seen this topic before??

As this is the only place that I have seen it, it does not matter, to me at least, where it was first.

Don't you worry your multiple ID's about where this came from...there will be many more. Run along

My feeling is that no group should be accorded special treatment. I also feel that all groups should have the same rights as any other group.

Do your Gay thing in your bedroom or some other place where folks dont have to see this stuff.

What GAY BLADE came up with this monumental idea ??????????????????????????

How about " The Unified White Scholorship Fund". I bet that would go over like a lead baloon. Or what about "The White Entertainment Network" and it could be advertised in " HONKEY" a all-white magazine!!!

Is that soemthing like BET ????

he he he he he he HOMZ NETWORK

Don't you worry your multiple ID's about where this came from...there will be many more. Run along
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1. Not worried at all. . .I know where it came from.

2. Multiple IDs? I confess. There's me. . .myself. . .and I.

3. I'll run along when I'm ready.

Hey Marty..go talk tough to the punk....I ain't impressed. No one cares where it comes from. And..I plan to continue as I see fit.

Now. on the subject of the gay district..sort of...what do think about the Harvey Milk school in New YOrk...all gay all the time..and paid for by your taxes ?? I think it stinks.

Hey Marty..go talk tough to the punk....I ain't impressed.
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Hey Mikey..whether or not you're impressed makes no difference to me. I'm a member here. . .I have been for a long time. . .as such, I have a right to post. . .and I am not about to be told to "run along" by anyone here other than the moderator.

Spokane activists plan gay neighborhood

Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gay activists in this staid Washington city are planning to create a neighborhood of gay-oriented homes, businesses and nightlife - a development religious conservatives contend would clash with Spokane's family-centered culture.

"A gay mecca is not what we'd like to see Spokane marketed as," said Penny Lancaster, director of Community Impact Spokane, a network of evangelical Christians. "I'd rather see us promoted as a conservative, family-oriented community without any reference to sexual orientation."

But proponents of the plan say a gay district would signal that Spokane is tolerant and progressive.

"There is a very large gay population here," said Bonnie Aspen, a business owner who arrived with her partner two years ago to escape the congestion of the San Francisco Bay area.

Spokane - which in trendy Seattle is shorthand for tragically unhip - has long been dominated by conservative politics that stem from its history as a mining and farming center. But it also has a large core of Democrats and libertarians who share the West's live-and-let-live philosophy.

Most of all, the city identifies itself as a good place to raise a family - and opponents contend that's at odds with the image of a gay district.

The idea for the district has roots in the theories of Richard Florida, an economist whose 2002 book "The Rise of the Creative Class" contends the economy of the future will be created by the 38 million workers who toil in creative industries.

Florida, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, said members of the creative class consider recreation, culture and ethnic diversity, including a large population of gays, as central to where they live. Places like New York, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle have those qualities. Places like Spokane generally do not.

Even though they face little discrimination, gays stay under the radar in Spokane, said Aspen, a member of the Inland Northwest Business Alliance, an association of gay and gay-friendly businesses that is pushing the idea.

"Visibility equals freedom," Aspen said. "Invisibility we have dealt with all our life."

She predicted a gay district will exist within the next year or two.

With about 200,000 residents, Spokane has little history of gay activism, other than an effort a few years ago that added homosexuals as a protected class to its human rights ordinance.

Tom Reese, an economic development officer for Spokane, said city government is not exactly pushing the notion of a gay district, but they don't oppose it either.

"It is our desire to create an environment where diversity and different interests and lifestyles of all types can flourish," Reese said.

No public funds will be used to create the district, which is dependent on developers, Aspen said. No location has been announced.

Spokane already has a gay newspaper, Stonewall News Northwest, and some businesses that cater to gay residents. It has had an openly gay member of the City Council.

But creating a district is still important, said Marvin Reguindin, owner of a Spokane graphic design firm.

"It would help youth struggling with their sexuality to realize they don't have to go away to a big city to be gay. You can be gay right here in Spokane," he said.