GAY TRUTH

Oxford Street 's rainbow crossing could be ripped up as soon as Tuesday night, at a cost to ratepayers of $30,000, despite a last ditch-appeal for the O'Farrell government to change its mind. Roads Minister Duncan Gay insists the crossing poses a ''horrendous'' safety risk , by encouraging pedestrians to pose for photographs in the way of traffic. But the City of Sydney council, which commissioned the audit Mr Gay cites as evidence of that risk, has a different interpretation of its data. Lord mayor Clover Moore said any safety risk could be managed by having either police or security staff monitoring the crossing at night. For its part, the audit report by Bitzios Consulting offers some support to both positions. The report showed the only accident during the month the Taylor Square crossing has been in place was when someone on drugs ran in front of a motorcycle, in an incident unrelated to the crossing. But it did say that, with a large number of

THE hand-flapping hysteria generated by the planned removal of the rainbow-coloured Taylor Square crosswalk is symptomatic of a politically correct push by the noisy end of the homosexual lobby to inflict its narrow agenda on the broader community. Roads Minister Duncan Gay may have thought he was doing the right thing when he gave Sydney City Council permission to install the gaily painted rainbow crossing at a cost of $95,000 but, as these gestures so often tend to do, his well-meaning act has boomeranged. As with all other gifts to noisy protest movements, the rainbow crosswalk has again demonstrated the failure of appeasement. Too much is never enough for minority activists. Forget the fact idiots want to have photographs of themselves lying on the crosswalk on Oxford St, one of the city's busiest thoroughfares, risking their lives. The minority lobby sees the opportunity to again inflict itself upon the majority. The minister's gesture of a painted crosswalk for the mo