THE songwriter behind one of the most famous gay anthems has promised £50,000 to a group of firemen disciplined for refusing to hand out leaflets at a Gay Pride march.

The Rev George Hargreaves, a former music mogul who is now a Pentecostal minister, still earns an estimated £10,000 a month in royalties from the 1985 pop song So Macho.

The single was recorded by Sinitta, with an even camper B-side called Cruisin’, and became an instant hit in gay clubs across Britain, thanks to its catchy disco tune and cheesy lyrics, which included the line: “He’s gotta be big and strong, enough to turn me on.”

More than 20 years later, its proceeds are to be used to help to fund a legal appeal by nine officers from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue who were punished for refusing to attend a gay parade. Mr Hargreaves, who believes that homosexuality is a sin, said he believed that the human rights of the firefighters were violated after they refused to attend a Pride Scotia event in Glasgow in June.

The officers at the Cowcaddens station, led by watch manager Brian Herbert, claimed that they acted on moral grounds when they disobeyed an order to hand out fire safety literature at an event billed as a “gay, bisexual and transgender festival”.

They said that they also feared that they would be kissed by excited revellers.

Their stand was supported by the Fire Brigades Union, but the officers were sent written warnings and ordered to attend “diversity training” courses. Mr Herbert, who is just two years from retirement, was demoted to crew manager, resulting in a salary loss of £5,000 per year.

At an internal hearing in Glasgow yesterday the firemen appealed against the punishments, arguing that they were entitled to object on grounds of conscience and that the public relations exercise was not a core part of their duties.

The result is expected to be made public later this week. The men are likely to take the case to court if they are not exonerated formally. Their stance has attracted condemnation from gay rights groups, but was supported by the Roman Catholic Church, which said that obeying one’s own conscience was “a higher duty than that of obeying orders”.

Mr Hargreaves says that he owes his life to a firefighter who rescued him from a house fire when he was a boy. He is now pastor of the Hephzibah Christian Centre in Hackney, East London. He has homes in London and Scotland and plans to stand for Scottish Parliament next May.

In an election broadcast on behalf of his party, the Christian Party, he said: “Consider the influence of minority interests, such as the homosexual lobby, on all aspects of society, simply because they’ve made their presence felt. The ancient city of Sodom could have been saved if only righteous people could be found.”

Last night he said: “I am not homophobic. In my music days I had many friends who were heterosexual playboys and many who were gay playboys. As we say in the Church, we love the sinner, whilst hating the sin.”

SINS AND HYMNS

• George Hargreaves wrote So Macho, released by Sinitta in 1985
  
  
• It was intended for “women to dance round their handbags to and for the gay scene to go mad to on poppers”
  
  
• It sold two million copies and reached No 2 in the charts
  
  
• He also wrote songs for Yazz and Five Star during what he calls his years of “spiritual wilderness”
  
  
• He turned to God after realising he was a “hedonistic sinner”
  
  
• Now a pastor, he plans to stand for the Scottish Parliament next May with the Christian Party

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