A NIGHTCLUB where police uncovered a mass orgy has used a legal loophole to stay open.

Glasgow’s Arches venue was ordered to close for six weeks as punishment after shocked cops found some 30 men in sexual clinches at a gay night.

Some of them mistook two uniformed coppers for strippers – and carried on regardless.

The venue, part funded by public cash, feared a cash crisis and battled the suspension.

But despite losing TWO appeals at the sheriff court and the Court of Session, the club will stay open – because Scotland’s old licensing laws were abolished in September.

The loophole has saved a string of venues, including the Honours Three pub in Glasgow’s south side, where a barman was charged with attempted murder after a mass brawl.

Glasgow lap-dancing clubs Spearmint Rhino and Seventh Heaven – where dancers went too far with customers – also escaped punishment.

An insider said: “It’s fair to say the Arches were advised that if they dragged out the appeal, they would never have to serve it. They’ve got off scot-free.”

Police licensing head Chief Inspector Stuart Neill said: “Unfortunately, the transition between Acts did not allow for suspensions to be carried over.”

The club refused to comment.

Source: www.dailyrecord.co.uk

A NIGHTCLUB where police uncovered a mass orgy has used a legal loophole to stay open. Glasgow’s Arches venue was ordered to close for six weeks as punishment after shocked cops found some 30 men in sexual clinches at a gay night. Some of them mistook two uniformed coppers for strippers – and carried on regardless. [...]

City of Dali

BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters Life!) – A Chinese city with one of the nation’s highest rates of AIDS has opened a government-funded gay bar in an outreach effort that has stirred debate over the use of taxpayers’ money.

The health department in Dali, a picturesque city on a lake in southwestern Yunnan province, funded the bar to reach out to China’s increasingly open gay community. Dali is one of the 10 cities in China most affected by AIDS.

Same-sex transmission accounts for about one-third of new HIV infections in China, the minister of health said this month.

“Some readers think that it’s a waste of taxpayer money, or an indirect endorsement of homosexual behaviour,” the Beijing News said in an opinion piece on Monday, citing letters to the editor after it ran an article on the bar over the weekend.

“They think if there were another way to reach out to the gay community, it wouldn’t be necessary to open a bar.”

Founder Zhang Jianbo hopes that the bar will be a public gathering place for gay men, especially from rural villages, who used to gather in a patch of woods near the historic town.

The bar offers sex education and free condoms, in addition to companionship, Zhang said in an interview with the newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »

BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters Life!) – A Chinese city with one of the nation’s highest rates of AIDS has opened a government-funded gay bar in an outreach effort that has stirred debate over the use of taxpayers’ money. The health department in Dali, a picturesque city on a lake in southwestern Yunnan province, funded the [...]