August, 2010 - Volume 12, Issue 8

Click here to go to the PurpleRoofs.com Home Page

This Month's Newsletter

Welcome to the Purple Roofs August, 2010 newsletter. We now have a twitter account - follow us here. One of the changes has already happened - our newsletter articles are now published on our our gay travel blog, and will also repost other gay/lesbian travel news there on a regular basis.

Also check out our Gay Marriage Watch blog - all the news we can find about gay marriage, now published daily, on:

• Blogger
• Facebook
• Twitter

You can also join our daily news mailing for Gay Marriage Watch by sending a subscription request to info@purpleunions.com.

This month, we also have six great travel articles. Thanks to our contributors:

		TRAVELING IN OUR FABULOUS GAY WORLD: Florida Beaches Are Great By Donald Pile & Ray Williams, Gay Travelers With all the television, radio and newspaper media telling the whole world about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of tourists are thinking that the coasts of Florida are all oily. WRONG!!!! We have received dozens of emails from readers asking about the Florida coasts. The coast line of Florida is still as beautiful as ever! Forget what you have heard. We recently flew down for a visit to both coasts and everything is perfect and we do mean perfect! Click here to see the full article
		From Athens to Singapore Part 6 of 12: Middle East: Jordan by Mike Shaughnessy, Traveler The country of Jordan is kind of like an inverted pyramid with the town of Aqaba way down in the south at the tip of the upside down pyramid. Aqaba was taken from the Ottomans in 1917 by Arab forces headed by “Lawrence of Arabia” as told in the movie of this name. In 1965 the Brits secured Aqaba for Jordan. Aqaba is Jordan’s only seaport and the gateway to the awesome ancient site of Petra, home of enormous tombs carved right into the mountains. Click here to see the full article
		A Hidden Gem – Escape to Waterloo County in Ontario Canada by Don Mader, Colonial Creekside Grand Guest House Located just one hour northeast of Toronto, Waterloo County attracts a multitude of travelers annually. Originally settled by Pennsylvanian Mennonites in the early 1800?s, the area is steeped in history. Making their way north from Pennsylvania in primitive Conestoga wagons, early pioneers battled dense forests, treacherous waterways and intense swampland, eventually settling along the banks of the Grand River. Silver coins hidden in barrels of flour survived the trek and served as payment to Chief Joseph Brant in exchange for 94,012 acres of land. Click here to see the full article
		Bisbee, Arizona - Our Own Little Corner of the World by Steve Arndt, The Sleepy Tortoise Guesthouse, Bisbee, Arizona The best vacation spots are those corners of the world that you just can’t get out of your mind. Places so special, or just plain weird, that they take on their own personalities. Welcome to Bisbee, Arizona. Many of our 6,500 or so residents found our community serendipitously, were smitten, and suddenly changed their life plans to relocate here. Others have roots that run deep into our local history, back to when copper was discovered and a mining camp exploded into “The Queen of the Copper Mines”. Click here to see the full article
		New Zealand’s Third Island: Visiting Stewart Island by Bruce Morrison, Christchurch Gaystay, Christchurch, New Zealand New Zealand is generally thought of as two islands , the North and the South , but there are many more . The third biggest island, Stewart , is to the south of the South Island. A Tahitian friend and I recently flew to Stewart Island, just a 10 minute flight in a 6-seater aircraft from Invercargill, the most southerly city on the South Island. Click here to see the full article
		TRAVELING IN OUR FABULOUS GAY WORLD: The FABULOUS "Frank Marino: Divas Las Vegas" By Donald Pile & Ray Williams, Gay Travelers First of all we have to admit that we have been fans of Frank Marino’s entertaining for over 25 years in Las Vegas and his show just gets better all the time. Frank is one of the hardest working entertainers in Las Vegas. Many entertainers come and go in Las Vegas however Frank Marino has been playing every week, and we mean week after week after week. No other entertainer in Las Vegas has been entertaining that long all the time! Click here to see the full article

Innkeepers - write us an article about your area, and we'll include it in a future issue of this newsletter with credit and links to your website and email addresses. Contact wheretostay@purpleroofs.com for more details.

Other Gay Travel News This Month:

• Can Gay & Lesbian Couples Travel to Argentina to Marry? - On July 15, the Argentinean senate legalized same-sex marriage. It is the first country in Latin America to protect equal rights for homosexual citizens. According to an Associated Press news release, 33 lawmakers voted for, 27 against, and three abstained from the vote.
• Italy: Tuscany Becoming Gay Vacation Magnet - Tuscany was recently declared one of the top destinations for gay tourism in the world. As a result, regional officials announced on July 7 that it will dedicate an entire portal of the province’s tourism website, www.intoscana.turismo.it, to the homosexual community who want to visit Tuscany as well as to the initiatives of Friendly Versilia, a consortium comprising 49 gay and gay-friendly firms, located between Torre del Lago and Forte dei Marmi.
• CO: Crested Butte to Host Matthew Shepard Gay Ski Week - StraightOut Media & Marketing, the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) have announced the launch of Butte 11: Matthew Shepard Foundation Gay Ski Week. The event will take place at the Colorado ski and snowboard resort from March 19–26, 2011 with additional activities in the towns of Mt. Crested Butte and Crested Butte.
• Researchers Rank Top 20 Gayest Cities in the United States - From the obvious (San Francisco) to the surprising (Columbus), Richard Florida and Gary Gates crunched the numbers to rank the top gay cities in the country. The U.S. metropolitan region with the largest concentration of gay and lesbian people is San Francisco. That’s not exactly news, but there are more than a few surprises in the Gay/Lesbian Index’s metro-area rankings.
• Argentina: Gay Tourism Set to Boom - Argentina is set to see an increase in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tourists who accounted for 17.8 percent of visitors in 2008, thanks to the same-sex marriage bill that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed into law yesterday evening.
• Israel: Tel Aviv Becoming a Gay Travel Destination - Tel Aviv’s Tourism Association has begun a drive to rebrand the Israeli city as a popular gay destination. The association launched a six-month initiative this week called Tel Aviv Gay Vibe, which aims to encourage gay people from all over the world to visit the city, although it will primarily target gays and lesbians in France and Germany.
• Mexico City Aims to Become Gay Travel Mecca - Mexico City’s gay community has in recent decades turned the capital into a relative oasis in a strongly Catholic country reknowned for its conservatism and machismo. The authorities in the Mexican capital are now seeking to attract gay tourism, even though there is still widespread discrimination against them.
• Gay Friendly Getaways on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast - Vancouver will be full of revellers for the annual Pride festival and parade, which take place every B.C. Day weekend. But what are your options if you’re a gay introvert and you want to get away from all that big-city noise and partying without facing any small-town judgments because of whom you sleep with?
• Nepal Plans First Gay Pride, in August - Nepal is to hold its first gay pride parade, the country’s only out MP said this week. Sunil Pant said that the parade would be incorporated into a traditional Nepalese festival to be held in the country’s capital, Kathmandu, in August.
• Five Great Gay Marriage Travel Destinations - Same-sex couples tired of waiting for California to get over its issues with homophobia should be encouraged by the number of great places where same-sex marriage isn’t just legal, it’s welcomed – in a few cases for years. (If you guessed “Utah,” please move to the back of the line.)
• Puerto Vallarta: The San Francisco of Mexico - Our neighbor to the south has been making great gay gains of late: Mexico City allows same-sex marriage, and there is talk of extending the law all across Mexico. And nowhere is Mexico’s new gay vitality on show than in Puerto Vallarta.

Our dear friend, Bella (Dolly Goolsby) is on an extended adventure in Italy. She has graciously agreed to let us republish her travel logs. She's using a new iPad, and had a bit of trouble getting us pictures at first, but as her story progresses, we'll have some great pics to share with the Purple Roofs readers too. Enjoy!

• Alone in Florence - All my “ducklings” have gone back home now. The first day I was totally alone was yesterday. I decided that I should systematically cover Florence, so I started with a plan… one must always have a plan or you have nothing to deviate from… an old saying but very true in my case.
• At Last, a Sunny Day In Florence - When I first opened my eyes, I thought: is that really sunlight peeking through the shutters? I quickly got up, opened the windows, and could hardly believe my good luck. Yes, sunlight was shining brightly, therefore, it did not take me long to shower, and get outdoors to enjoy it.
• Orvieto, Bagnoregio and Civita - I just returned from a wonderful 2 days in Orvieto. Orvieto is a hill town, about half way between Florence and Rome. It has been on my “must see” list for some time, and I finally got to go there. I arrived by train into the lower city, from there I took a bus to the upper, old city. This old city perches on a hill that is about one mile wide and maybe 1-1/2 miles long. I would call it a plateau, but it definitely is not flat. It is a lovely medieval city.
• Siena - Good morning, everyone, I have not written for a week or so, therefore, thought I had better let everyone know that I am alive and well. I have been staying in Florence, for the most part, except for a day trip to Siena last Wednesday. I will start with that trip. Siena is a lovely hill town, about an hour drive south of Florence. Twice a year, On July 2 and August 16, Siena has this big event, called the Palio.
• Sciopero - Sciopero. I learned this word in "Italians for Travelers". It means "strike" and it happens all the time in Italia, but today, I was personally inconvenienced, and I had to wonder, why do they do this? I had a paid reservation to go on a wine tasting tour out of Siena. But today there was a strike, a "sciopero", and I could not get to Siena...
• Weekend at the Seacoast - Friday night, after an absolutely miserable day for me… (remember the sciopero?) The heat was intense. and no air moving at all. I had done some sightseeing in the afternoon, but it was too hot to do too much. I ended up spending an hour in a bookstore, and another hour in an air conditioned cafe, having a cool drink and reading my new book.
• Florence This Week - To say it has been hot in Florence is such an understatement, that I will not even say that. it has been miserable. Therefore, I have been doing things around town that will help me stay cool. I have not gone to the San Ambrogio Market lately, as it has been too hot to cook, even for me.
• Vienna, Austria - Hi everyone, Guess I cannot say “buon giorno”, as I am in German speaking country now. Guten tag, for Good Day, is about the best I can do. I arrived in Vienna Thursday night. The heat here was just as bad as it was in Florence. I finally found my hotel at about 10:00 p.m., and when I checked in, my room was like a sauna, small, cramped, no air conditioning, no fan, no help from the desk clerk.
• Salzburg, Austria - I left Vienna the morning of July 26. Of course, it was raining. After a two hour train trip, I arrived in Salzburg - the sky was overcast, but not raining. I was happy, as the weather report had indicated that Salzburg would have nice sunny skies.

Special Offer Accommodation Notices

As always, we also have our Late Availability & Special Offer notices (172 offers in 22 countries/regions) all at http://www.purpleroofs.com/lateavailability.html, or just check your favorite destination page - these notices are also right there on the regular listings.

Travelers - Try a Home Trade Membership for Just $75 for 5 Years...

...and stay for free with other gay, lesbian, and gay friendly travelers around the world. More details on our Mi Casa Su Casa site at: http://www.gayhometrade.com.

We've redesigned our mainstream accommodations directory - Altraverse.com

Now with over 4,300 accommodations listed worldwide - see it at:

http://www.altraverse.com

Visit our Gayapolis.com website - news, personals, much more

Some time ago, we took over the management of a new site, Gayapolis.com. We'll be moving the site to our own server soon and integrating it more closely with our other sites. You'll find personals, daily news, and a great reworked gay and lesbian directory, all at:

http://www.gayapolis.com

That's it for this issue - see you next time! :)

Mark & Scott, PURPLE ROOFS