National news briefs

Gay Catholics speak out against sacking
The sacking of Father Peter Kennedy from St Mary’s Catholic Church in South Brisbane last week was just one part of a campaign of retaliation against its gay and lesbian members.
Vince Knauth, the gay and lesbian representative on the Community Council at St Mary’s, spoke to Queer Radio on 4ZZZ saying Archbishop John Battersby had gone as far as to remove the Sunday 5pm Mass service that was well attended by gays.
It’s been a very difficult weekend. We are afraid, there’s no question about that, he said.
Where our concern lies is that gays and lesbians who come are people who have been abused or felt abused by the Catholic Church in the past. They have now found the Catholic faith again. They feel loved again, they feel welcome.
He said doctors and psychologists around Brisbane had St Mary’s in their resource books for people with sexuality problems.
Last Sunday evening’s Mass is expected to be the last for the Gay and Lesbian Choir who would perform on Sundays and train at the church on Tuesdays.
Knauth said the Community Council would ask the incoming administrator, appointed by the Archbishop, how he intended to address the needs of gay and lesbian parishioners.
We’d like to maintain this connection to these people. We’re considering a direct approach to the proposed new administrator. How he’s going to address it, we don’t know. We still have to look out for and on behalf of the gay and lesbian choir.
Direct appeals to the Archbishop would fail, he said. He has been very adamant he will not talk.
Attendees estimated as many as 13,000 people attended the three Masses held the weekend after the announcement, showing the inclusive services were popular beyond gay and lesbian parishioners.
We definitely hope it won’t be the last one, Knauth said. There are a lot of people who need us. It’s not just a safe place, it’s a home. The interesting thing about St Mary’s is that you have younger people attending, younger people being active.

Perez denies Thorpe link
Gossip guru Perez Hilton (pictured) has lashed out at claims, made by The Daily Telegraph, that he supplied the images which once again led to claims that Ian Thorpe was secretly gay.
The Telegraph had alleged that Hilton had supplied images of Ian Thorpe on a beach with Daniel Mendes. The LA-based blogger claims to have only ever reported on what the Australian media said.
Mainstream outlets don’t like to out people, and that’s pretty much what they did. They were hoping to distract people by saying that I was the one who did it, Perez told ninemsn. He added that, in his opinion, no one’s career in the past ten years had ever been hurt by coming out.