Sydney, Australia’s bankrupt and cancelled Mardi Gras celebration has been rescued and will continue. Four gay groups took over the organization that produced the huge, famous gay extravaganza and will sell its assets to pay off debt. Volunteers will do what paid staff used to. The new owners of the blowout are the AIDS Council of New South Wales, the Sydney Pride Center, the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and Queer Screen. GAY HEALTH CENTER TORCHED Arsonists torched the Gay Men’s Health Center in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 30 Firefighters doused the flames quickly but patient records and computers were destroyed and there was extensive smoke and water damage. “The whole room looks like a volcano has erupted,” said Bruce Fraser, the center’s chief executive. GAYS PICKET MUSIC AWARDS Gays picketed London’s Music of Black Origin Awards Oct. 1 because Best Reggae Act nominees Capelton, Elephant Man and TOK have recorded songs that urge that homosexuals be shot, burned or beaten to death. None of the three won. The protesters, from the group OutRage!, said they were attacked by a “screaming, homophobic mob” of teenage reggae fans. “Yelling ‘Kill the batty boy’ and ‘Kill chi chi men’ [Jamaican for ‘faggots’], 25 mostly black teenage music fans kicked, punched, spat on and hurled beer cans, coins and cigarette lighters at gay human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell after he held up a placard with the words ‘MOBO rewards anti-gay hate,'” OutRage reported in a press release. Fearing for their safety, the protesters abandoned their demonstration and were escorted away by police, they said. “The collective homophobic hysteria was absolutely terrifying,” Tatchell said. “It was like what white racists did to the black civil rights marchers in the Deep South during the 1960s. For a moment, I was in fear of my life. The hatred in those young people’s eyes was frightening. Some of them looked like they would kill me if they had the chance.” TEL AVIV EXTENDS RIGHTS Tel Aviv, Israel, extended various spousal benefits to gay couples Oct. 3, the daily newspaper Ha’aretz reported. Same-sex couples will have access to discounts and benefits at cultural facilities, libraries, swimming pools and city events, the newspaper said. “The municipality will treat couples known to the public, including single-sex couples, as couples in every sense, and will confer to them the same discounts and benefits in public services which are provided to married couples,” the new regulations state. The benefits are available to couples who live together and submit an affidavit of their relationship. COPS DENOUNCE PANIC DEFENSE The Canadian Association of Police Boards is supporting a resolution calling for elimination of the homosexual-panic defense, in which an anti-gay attacker is acquitted or receives a lesser sentence after claiming the person he attacked made a pass at him. The police boards also have called for gays to be added to the list of groups protected from hate speech and propaganda, according to a report in Vancouver’s Xtra! West. A bill on that matter is pending in Parliament. “What we are trying to do is get people to stop making remarks about homosexuals,” said Vancouver Police Inspector Dave Jones, who authored the panic-defense resolution and is lobbying for the hate-speech bill as well.