Hugo Chavez: ¡Y Venceremos!

Fagburn doesn't think anyone should put so much faith in one person, but I hope you're okay...

Pink News: Straight Tory News

The Tory-loving shitstorm of an excuse for a gay news outlet that is Pink News - written by a thick straight person - has just come out in support of another right wing goon.
What a surprise.
'Ken Livingstone’s an old retread, says gay deputy London mayor'
I bet he said "retard", you big "retread".
AAARGH!!!

Update: More Tory-loving crap from Pink News here!

Matthew Parris Watch: A Cold Hand On David Cameron's Reception

"Gossip spread about who had been invited but was unable to come; who had absolutely not been invited and (worth a scandalised giggle, this) who, not having been invited, had telephoned the Downing Street switchboard to get the oversight rectified. Snorts of queeny delight greeted a story of more than one who had done so — to be told that they would be put on a standby list in case anyone dropped out. Eyes darted round the room in search of notable inclusions or omissions; brains compiled mental lists. Imaginations ranged over who might or might not be invited next time..."

Matthew Parris in The Times on David Cameron's No 10 reception for The Gays, which now seems an annual event.

Bradley Manning: Let's Go London!

Queer Friends Of Bradley Manning are here.

Current Listening: Mysterious Skin

Just got this.
Like the film it makes me cry like a baby - sorry.

Louis Walsh: Free

"A man (24) has been charged with falsely accusing music industry manager judge Louis Walsh of indecent assault at a Dublin nightclub.
"Leonard Watters, who was granted bail on condition he does not contact Walsh or anyone from the Westlife band, is charged with making a false report to gardaí. He appeared at a brief sitting of the Dublin District Court just before 1pm.
"Walsh has described the investigation over the last week as hugely distressing.
"Mr Watters was charged under sectiuis wal;on 12 of the Criminal Law Act, and penalties for the offence range from a €500 fine to five years in prison..."

Irish Times.
Always good to hear a millionaire winning over a homeless man...
The Sun says; "LOUIS Walsh was given a standing ovation at X Factor auditions yesterday - 24 hours after he was cleared of a gay sex attack.
"The talent show judge looked close to tears as a 5,000-strong audience clapped, cheered and chanted his name..."
That's nice - I still hope Louis Walsh sues The Sun.
As ever, Fagburn's thoughts are with Mr Walsh and his wife at this difficult time.

The Footyball News: A Footyball Player Is A Homophobe

"The party had a pink theme to it and therefore everyone was wearing something pink and everyone was wearing pink.
"I walked out of the club with my friend Ben, and Kim was sat on some steps outside a building I know has a media company inside it.
"I had been there for five or 10 minutes when I saw three or four lads.
"I heard one of them say 'Is it sloppy seconds then boys?'
"I cannot recall who said this, Ben and I just shrugged it off.
"Then one of the lads said the words 'Is it the poof brigade?' and made comments about us wearing pink.
"I suddenly became aware it had erupted as I saw one of the males grab Ben by the lapels of his jacket and was invading his personal space."

'ENGLAND midfielder Jack Wilshere was part of a group which hurled homophobic insults at revellers before a fight began outside a nightclub, a court heard.' The Sun
Pity she's so pretty.

Strike: Strike!

Fagburn stands in solidarity with all the brave workers standing up for our public services today.

Bradley Manning: Gay Hero

Wow!
At San Francisco Gay Pride.
Let's do this in London and Brighton.

The Daily Mail: Lesbian!

'God's Holy Law never recognises a gay marriage': Mennonite community defend helping former lesbian kidnap her daughter and flee country'

Yes, it's the Daily Mail.
The Mail is currently the UK's most seen website - partly cause they work words like "lesbian" into things like this.
Even if the article says someone is a "former lesbian".
Oh and she is quite nuts;
"She broke up with her partner Janet Jenkins, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian before disappearing in 2009 with their daughter."
The whole "gay kiss ban" crapola came about cause the Mail just wanted to print a picture of some young lesbians kissing.
No-oe noticd this, except Fagburn - fact!

Johann Hari: Oops!

"As an amusing aside from our usual ruthless criticism of everything existing, here’s a little insight into the workings of the mainstream media. We’ve long found this piece of super-liberal journalism rather lulzy- it’s an attempted take-down of Italian communist and every ultra-leftist’s favourite “psychopath”, Toni Negri, by Orwell Prize winner Johann Hari from The Independent in 2004. Hari interviews him at the ICA in London, and carefully tries to balance his horror at the Gulag with his horror of Negri’s flagrant disregard of a no smoking sign, heavily implying throughout that Negri is a murderous terror-monger. It was a poor interview, failing to even attempt to engage with his writings on the grounds that it’s too impenetrable, although he paints a vivid picture of Negri as a personally rude and rather objectionable man.
"A great introduction to this formidable “old terrorist” is the book “Negri on Negri”, published in 2003, where Anne Dufourmentelle produces an in-depth interview, based around a lexicon of his thought, and forming a much more cohesive and thorough look at the man’s ideas and life. But reading through it, a strange sense of deja-vu settled over us. Where have we read that before? This week, it was bought to our attention.
"Hari’s “interview”, vivid and lifelike and seemingly full of conflict between the two great minds, seems to contain whole passages lifted from Dufourmentelle’s much lengthier interview. Compare and contrast… [Go here]

Deterritorial Support Grouppppp.

Hari fesses up to making stuff up here.
Cue shitstorm.
Today Johann Hari blogs;
"Yesterday on Twitter I was accused of plagiarism. This accusation is totally false – but I have reflected seriously on this and do have something to apologize for.
"When you interview a writer – especially but not only when English isn’t their first language – they will sometimes make a point that sounds clear when you hear it, but turns out to be incomprehensible or confusing on the page. In those instances, I have sometimes substituted a passage they have written or said more clearly elsewhere on the same subject for what they said to me so the reader understands their point as clearly as possible..."

The non-apology is as bad as the original accusation.
For more on Mr Hari's dodgy journalism see Fagburn - passim, but here and here
Mr Hari is perhaps best known for telling lies about Iraq in the run-up to war.
Have a look at various critiques of Hari on MediaLens, as a frequent servant of power.
Fagburn's favourite article by Johannna is when he - overnight! - became an expert on late-19th century Anarchists here.
I wonder where she got all that from?
Silly moo.

Update: Andd he's now been accused of ripping stuff off from Attitude, too.

Glee: Smashing

I loved this cover so much
and thought it was such a great sign of the times
I got one sent from America.

I spent ages looking for the right frame.
Found this amazing faux antique one
Just trod on it and smashed it.
Luckily it wasn't real glass
and came from Poundland.

Israel/Palestine: This Pinkwash Will Continue Til You Choke

You can watch this hate-filled goon talking shit if you want.
It's gone viral.
But... Oops!
It looks like every word is a lie.
"A YouTube video casting a flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip as anti-gay has been shown to be professionally made, and may be part of an orchestrated campaign with ties to the Israeli government.
"In the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the latest weapon — in public relations — is a video...."
Whodathunkit?
I guess the gay media are too busy enjoying their Israeli-government paid trips to Tel Aviv to even notice this.

Julie Bindel: Not A Bitch

'The dog that looks like Princess Diana - Can my dog Maisie, a Diana lookalike, become Pride London's prize pooch?'

Who gives a flying fuck?
Fagburn has literally no idea why The Guardian keeps running crap like this from this stupid reactionary homophobic, transphobic witch.

Louis Walsh: Bollocks

"I have been informed by An Garda Síochána [The Irish police] that I am now no longer under investigation. I have robustly maintained from the outset that this alleged incident did not occur.
"While I obviously welcome today’s confirmation from the Garda that the matter has been dropped I remain outraged that this story ran in the first place in The Sun and I have instructed my libel lawyer to vigorously pursue legal action against the paper.
"I have no intention of letting this matter rest until I have received total and absolute vindication. This has been a hugely distressing time for me but I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues for their support and I am now just looking forward to getting back to work."

Louis Walsh. I hope he does.
Here is The Sun's first story;
'Louis Walsh probed over ‘sex attack on man in loo'.
My thoughts are with Louis and his wife at this difficult time.

Marriage Equality: The Last Word?

Stonewall Riots: Riot Grrls!

Today is the anniversary of the first Stonewall Riots in New York.
Please don't stop rioting, girls.

The Independent: Daily News

"Gay marriage has become a defining issue in the past few years in what are often called America's "culture wars", which pit socially liberal, secular Democrats against hard-right, often highly religious Republicans. But the outcome of the gay marriage battle in New York is a reminder that America's internal splits are not as clear-cut as some believe.
"Two years after a Democrat-controlled state senate rejected gay marriage, a Republican-controlled senate has legalised it. Moreover, some of the bitterest opponents of gay marriage in New York were Latino Democrats, some espousing the kind of views that one would normally expect to hear coming from conservative Republicans. No doubt, Barack Obama's awareness of the growing voting strength of the Latino community informed his studiedly non-committal attitude towards gay marriage. To the dismay of his gay supporters, the President's most recent Delphic utterance merely noted that his views on the subject were "evolving".
"Gay rights supporters, meanwhile, celebrate a key victory. New York is a catch. Its population of 19 million outnumbers the combined populations of the five other US states plus the District of Columbia that previously voted to allow gay marriage, a process that started with Massachusetts in 2004.
"But whether America will follow New York, or whether gay marriage remains a New England exception, is a moot point. The first caveat is the narrowness of the vote in New York: 33 for; 29 against. This was no landslide, and if that is the breakdown in the city of Sex and the City, one has to wonder if a gay marriage bill could ever make it through the senate of a rural state such as West Virginia.
"Then there is the backlash. Thirty US states have taken pre-emptive action since the Massachusetts vote in 2004, passing constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. Far from backing down after last Friday's vote in Albany, their resistance to same-sex unions may increase, principled hostility to the idea combining with an instinctive distaste for the mores of the Empire State. Clearly, it too early to say whether gay marriage is ceasing to divide America."

The Independent, "Leading Article", ie an editorial.
Can't happen here?
Interestingly, the only UK newspaper that really went to town on this story was The Independent.
Interesting, cause The Independent's gay coverage is usually piss-poor.
Sad as they keep saying it's "a viewspaper"
We only hear Johann Hari's.
Nice front page of New York's Daily News, whatever.

The Daily Mail: Lesbian!

Devastated nurse committed suicide after she accidentally gave baby fatal overdose
"Lesbian Kimberly Hiatt, a nurse at Seattle Children's Hospital with an unblemished 24-year career, was said to be devastated at getting fired after her error led to the death of baby Kaia Zautner..."

Is "Lesbian Kimberly Hiatt" her full-name?
From the Mail online.

Marriage Equality: Why It Means God Will Destroy America

Pat Robertson, noted Evangelical nutcase.
You have to concede he makes some very good points.

Bradley Manning: I Am Bradley Manning

"I stand for due process. I stand for a nation of fair and just laws. I believe the public deserves to know the truth.
"I am Bradley Manning.
"If I showed you the truth, would you have me imprisoned?"

Sign up.
"I am Bradley Manning".

Current Listening: Elvis - Peace In The Valley The Complete Gospel Recordings

"Enough to make you convert", Greil Marcus, Mystery Train.

Marriage Equality: Photo Opportunity

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't think the gay marriage ruling was a good thing.
The Daily Mail were ecstatic; 'It's absolutely a betrayal': The four Republicans who crossed party line on gay marriage face fury from conservatives'
Well...
Fagburn is pretty sure the Mail's original headline talked only about "joy", but there you go.*
Guess the subs came in and kicked the younglings off.
Well done to the Mail for managing to find a photo of some good-looking young fillies kissing.
It must have been very hard.

* Trying to find it...

Marriage Equality: Richard & John - About Time Too

Richard Dorr, 84, and John Mace, 91, who have been "going out" for 61 years, are - finally - going to get married.
Even an old cynic like me has to wipe away a few tears.
Mace says he hopes gay marriage won't be an issue for the next generation of Americans.
“They deserve better than what we had. I mean, it was very difficult. It’s terrible to be looked down upon and be considered a second-class citizen."
Awesome!

Sirens: Warning Sign

Channel 4 tonight.
New comedy about ambulance workers - the cabin crew of the lay-by.
The one on the left is the gay one.
But he doesn't like all the gays.
How modern!
I'll be watching it cause Rhys Thomas - dude on the right - is a comedy genius and he makes me broody.
Could be great, might be not be, who can say!?
Review later...

New Orleans

I was listening
to an old Black guy
aged 75
on the radio last night
he was talking about how in the 50s
he couldn't get served
on some food counters in New Orleans.

I keep thinking about
what just happened in New York
and how
in the future -
"Can you believe they weren't allowed to do that?" -
how stupid we'll all seem.

Gareth Williams Murder: Follow The Money

Can it really be six whole months since the Mail has run a story about Gareth Williams?
You remember - the "murdered MI6 spy"/"body in the bag" guy.
I used to enjoy the regualar updates on "the spy who knew too much" from the newspaper that knew fuck-all.
Poor Mr Williams is back in The Mail On Sunday today.
Trust me - you really only need to read the headline;
'Did Russian mafia kill the body-in-a-bag spy? MI6 man found dead in holdall in London, was developing secret technology to track gangsters' laundered cash'
And guess where this is from?
That's right! "A source".
"Neither GCHQ nor the Metropolitan police would discuss the new information."
That's probably cause they know a newspaper quoting an anonymous source is about as reliable as quoting a bottle of tomato sauce.
The MoS tell us that;
"His family reject claims that their fitness-fanatic son was gay and have been angered at the way the police allowed his private life to dominate their inquiry.
"The inquest into Mr Williams’ death – which sparked several outlandish conspiracy theories – will resume in September..."
Oh you mean like the "several outlandish conspiracy theories" IN THE DAILY MAIL AND THE MAIL ON SUNDAY???
Like this one today?

Marriage Equality: Wherever Next?

Australia?

• Some more Australian gay marriage video "AWWWWWW!-ness"

Morrissey: Political Animal

It looks like only The Daily Express took notice of Morrissey's onstage tirade at Glastonbury last night.
"The former The Smiths frontman" - for it is she - "blasted Prime Minister DAVID CAMERON during his performance at the Glastonbury festival on Friday night".
Excellent!!! What she said?
"I was very pleased to see today a bill was passed to stop animals being used in circuses. But, as I'm sure you know, David Cameron tried to stop the bill being passed. What a silly twit."
Oh.
Always with the animals, Mozz.
Does she never get angry about anything else?
Okay - apart from immigration...
Well, yes Morrissey does.
Here he is talking to NME in 2007, but about a pressing issue of today; taxation and government spending cuts.
"Can we help but be annoyed? Certainly in England, everyone is taxed for everything under the guise of saving the planet. Which is pathetic, because unless cutbacks happen on an industrial level then the world will always be a mess."
Oops.
It was wonderful to see ArtUncut protest at Glastonbury last night over U2 moving their commercial operations to the Netherlands to dodge tax.
But why did no-one fling a pork pie or four at the moping millionaire tax exile Morrissey as well?
What a silly twit.

The Daily Mail: In Defence Of The Penis In Public

"It's been around for 500 years but now the manhood on Michelangelo's David has upset the sensitivities of Leicestershire council.
"When a couple put up a replica of the nude statue outside their home a killjoy council told them to move it - because it was causing offence.
"Although thousands see the 16th century artwork in Florence, Italy, every year, officials in Stamford swooped within days when Clive and Joan Burgess put their replica up.
"The couple, who live in a warden-controlled sheltered accommodation complex, were told their neighbours had complained.
"Now they have hidden the statue, behind a shrub and a patio set in the garden of neighbour Sue Cullen.
"They said they are shocked the statue has created such a stir...
"[A] neighbour who did not want to be named, said: 'Who wants to look at a man's private parts every time they go out the house...'"

The Daily Mail.
If you read down to the last two paragraphs of the article you find out that the "killjoy council" didn't really "tell them to move it" - "We didn't deem it to be offensive however we did explain that several residents had expressed that they were upset by it..." - but what the hey?
I bet the quote from the "neighbour who didn't want to be named" is made up, too.
I wish the Mail would make up its mind if it's the house journal of the prudish or not...

Vito Russo: How To Go To The Movies

'"Well, it's about fuckin' time!" This was the late playwright Doric Wilson's reaction when he was approached by Michael Schiavi to be interviewed for The Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo, just published by the University of Wisconsin Press last month.
'A serious study of Russo's life was long overdue. In 1981, he wrote The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, a groundbreaking look at how Hollywood had long depicted gay characters as either sex-crazed predators or helpless victims. (It was later made into a documentary featuring stars such as Lily Tomlin and Tom Hanks.) He also co-founded ACT UP and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; GLAAD now presents an annual award named after Russo (last year’s recipient was Ricky Martin).
'Russo died in 1990 at the age of 44. I had known him for only four or five years, but I was referred to Schiavi by a mutual friend. I sent him an email with my reminiscences of Vito, which I’ve included below, slightly edited. Some of these episodes were expanded in Vito's biography. (I thoroughly recommend that you read it!) Though this doesn't begin to enumerate Vito's accomplishments or his charms—and he had plenty of both — I'm presenting it here as a brief personal footnote to a very big public life...'

Tim J Luddy, The Man Who Outed Hollywood, Mother Jones.
The Celluloid Closet on YouTube. (Ssh!)

Simon Hoggart: "I Fear Change!"

"Language changes at a dizzying rate. This week the prime minister and home secretary gave public support to a campaign to "kick homophobia and transphobia out of sport". There was a reception at No 10.
""Transphobia", it turns out, is not "fear of change", as you might imagine, but hatred of and violence towards people who have "changed their gender assignations". I don't think that's too much of a problem in professional sport here – I have not heard of any Premier League footballers who were born female – though it may have been in the old East Germany, if for chemical rather than psychological reasons.
"But when you have a term for one group of people, you need a word for the rest, and the one they've come up with is "cisgender". So the huge majority of us are now, "members of the cisgender community".
"I am puzzled about who invents these words and how they become accepted."

Simon Hoggart, in his Guardian column - yes, The Guardian.
Oh do piss off!

Thought For The Day: Ian McKellen

“I wasn’t one of those closeted actors who lied about it, but I avoided talking about it. It was easy. Nobody ever asked me. If I had told someone I was gay in an interview, the lawyer would have taken it out anyway because it was considered a terrible thing to say about anyone. Simon Callow would talk about being gay in interviews but it would never be reported. In the end he had to write a book to come out!”

Sir Ian McKellen, interviewed in The Times.
He was promoting the Albert Kennedy Trust video he's appeared in highlighting homelessness amongst LGBT youth.
I'm still waking up and at first I read that he said; "Simon Cowell would talk about being gay in interviews but it would never be reported."
Eh?

Will Young: Double Gay!

"WILL Young says his mum told him he must be gay when he put Michael Bolton posters on his bedroom wall as a boy.
The gay Pop Idol winner, 32, was "obsessed" with the mullet-haired singer.
He tells the panel on ITV1's The Marriage Ref tonight: "I had his posters up, my mother went 'gay'.
"I said, 'but I love his hair'. 'Double gay!'.""

The Sun.
Sadly only one reader's comment at the time of typing; "Well done Will !!! You must have a good taste for music. Michael Bolton is the best singer on this planet. if he was your roll model, it's no wonder you have done well in the music business. Keep up the good work Will XXX" Sylvia.
It's like a special Pop Gays edition of The Sun today or something.
'ERASURE'S Andy Bell has advised fellow Popstar to Operastar contestant Joe McElderry how to survive as a gay pop singer.'
"Andy said: "He needs to keep touring and build up a real fan base from the bottom upwards.""
And 'Elton and George end 7-year bitch'
"FEUDING stars GEORGE MICHAEL and ELTON JOHN have ended their rift - by performing together.
"The pair, who fell out seven years ago, got a standing ovation at Elton's Aids fundraising White Tie and Tiara Ball."
A reader comments; "With all that feuding and misery why do they call themselves 'gay'?"
Good call!

The Guardian: Blind Love

Life is full - full - of surprises!
This is in today's Guardian;
"Blind date: Will it be sweet music for web editor and DJ Stewart Who [sic etc], 41, and journalist Dan Slipper, 37?"
Would you meet again?
Dan: "We had lots to talk about and a lot in common, so yes."
Stewart: "Probably not."
Adorable!

• Fortuitously Mr Who? has a new record out, the brilliant 'Bitch'.

Marriage Equality: New York, New York

Just woke up to this; "BREAKING NEWS: In a historic vote with far-reaching implications, the New York state Senate passed the marriage equality bill on Friday, making New York the sixth and most populous state in addition to Washington, D.C. to offer civil marriage for same-sex couples..."
Advocate.com.
That's nice, dear.
It must be true cause it was the second item on the News on BBC Radio 4 just now - and they said "gay" not "homosexual".*
Another victory.
La lucha sigue!
Happy Pride weekend, New York.

* And one "same-sex", for variety.

Bradley Manning: UK Friends/Queer Friends

UK Friends Of Bradley Manning are now holding weekly meetings in London, every Thursday at 7pm.
Princess Louise, Upstairs, near Front Windows area, 208 High Holborn, WC1V 7BW.
Nearest tube Holborn.
And don't forget Queer Friends Of Bradley Manning are organising a walking group in support of Bradley at Pride London on July 2nd. Please let them know if you want to be involved, or want to help making a banner this Sunday.
Other events are being planned - hopefully there will be something at Brighton Pride Parade on Saturday August 13th.

Stonewall & Gay Marriage: And Finally...

Stonewall has issued an official statement on where they stand on marriage equality.
And guess what? They're in favour.
I know! Whodathunkit???
And it's a mere ten months since the colossal fuck-up when the "Working for equality" guys refused to come out in its favour and just 22 years since they were founded...

Louis Walsh: Tragedy Turned Into Tabloid Gold

The Daily Star, The Daily Mirror and The Sun all give over their front pages to the Louis Walsh "gay sex attack" allegations.
Any X Factor story is always tabloid gold, but this one is actually (grimly) newsworthy.
Unfortunately there's not much substance to their stories today.
All had quotes from Louis saying much the same thing;
"I’m devastated by the completely unfounded and malicious allegations. Anyone who knows me knows this is all a pack of lies. It’s hurtful someone can do this and think they can get away with it," appeared in both the Mirror and the Sun, as did many others.
The Sun front page read; "Cowell: I back Louis 100%."
Inside we learnt Cowell said; "Like all of his close friends I will support him 100 per cent."
Thrillingly The Sun also told us; "Jedward refused to comment on the allegations yesterday as they attended a charity competition at a school in Dublin."
The Mirror, The Star and The Sun were all united in thinking Louis was innocent - so much so you began to wonder why the police were bothering to investigate.
One thing we didn't learn is what Louis Walsh's wife feels about all this.

Update: "LOUIS Walsh is “highly unlikely” to face any charges, according to Irish police sources.
"But because the young dad who accused him of sexual assault – which the X Factor judge categorically denies – is pursuing the complaint, officers will still have to interview Louis.
"Last night the Mirror learned that the “victim” changed his story when an analysis of CCTV revealed nothing..." Mirror Online.

Update 2: "POLICE last night said the probe into claims Louis Walsh indecently assaulted a man in a club toilet could take months..." The Sun, Saturday.

Israel/Palestine: More Pinkwash

Peter Tatchell released a statement on Monday condemning the decision of the International LGBTQ Youth and Student Organisation (IGLYO) to hold its General Assembly in Tel Aviv this December as "divisive, exclusionist, mistaken and regrettable..."
"Since human rights are universal, we cannot divorce LGBTI rights from the national rights of the Palestinian people. These are two aspects of the same struggle for universal human rights.
"It is true that on LGBTI rights Israel is, by far, the most progressive nation in the region. However, human rights should not be viewed from a gayist perspective. LGBTI rights do not trump all other human rights."
Admirable sentiments, of course.
There's a predictably silly piece in The Jewish Chronicle; 'Peter Tatchell under fire for gay meeting attack'.
The only gay media that have covered this appear to be some blogs and Midlands Zone.
Pink News and Pink Paper usually reprint any statement from Peter Tatchell pretty much verbatim.
How strange they have both decided to ignore this one...

• See also Que(e)rying the Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com: a statement by Arab queers

The Daily Star: On Not Going Gay

The actual story?
"RYAN Giggs’s sister-in-law lover has been driven into the arms of a gay drag queen by the cheating soccer star.
"Natasha Giggs, 28, flew to the Costa del Sol to help get over her split from Ryan Giggs and his brother Rhodri, 34.
"The dark-haired beauty, who went with a girl pal, hooked up with a popular gay drag queen and spent more than an hour locked in conversation in an open-air lounge..."
Yup, she has apparently been seen talking to someone who has worn drag.
Hopeless.
If you think you can hear the distinct sound of the bottom of a barrel being scraped, please note the Star has run 14 consecutive front pages about Ryan Giggs already this month.

David Cameron: A Joke

“It’s great to have this reception here today. Sir Ian McKellen is here tonight, I think, and we had the Queen and Prince Phillip here for lunch yesterday.
"Who can say they’ve had two of Britain’s most prominent queens over in 48 hours?”

David Cameron, noted wit, Devil-worshipper, queer cutter and Tory sleazeball, at a reception for LGBT people involved in sport at 10 Downing Street last night.
It's a wonder no-one has made a joke a gay man being "a queen" and the UK's head of state being "the Queen" before, really.
Please see Russell T Davies on the "evil" David Cameron below - thank you.

Update: Despite being widely reported as being a reception for LGBT people involved it sport it was actually a - what now seems annual - LGBT reception hosted by Cameron, where he said he made a point of inviting out sports personalities.
Yup, both of them.

Russell T Davies: Queer Resistance To The Cuts

"Don't start me on the Coalition goverment... You know their greatest trick is to appear as buffoons - and make everyone think they're funny. That Clegg and Cameron photo opportunity, at the bed, 'Oh, we’re all laughing'* – they're savage and evil people underneath it all.
"There is a great intelligence behind the Tory party that says 'let’s appear slightly bumbling and slightly buffoonish', while they're lethal as a laser underneath it all.
"I mean how marvellous was is it to launch those cuts on the licence fee on the day of all their austerity measures? So when I always presumed that when massive cuts cames to the BBC we'd all be storming the barricades, except if you do that when everyone's concerned about cuts to children and schools and health and roads it's very easy for people to put the BBC at the bottom of the list.
"[The BBC] can take cuts. There are cuts. But I don’t imagine these are the last of the cuts. This a precedent for cuts. Can you ever imagine it going back up again? No.
"And that is truly something of great cultural value. It's always very easy to say that a school is more important than a play, that a hospital is more important than a drama and that’s because we are talking a totally false language in which these things are comparable and one reduces the other. That's the language of economics, it simply doesn’t fit cultural life."

Russell T Davies, who can do no wrong etc etc, on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.
Russell also says the BBC watershed "is more stringent than ever" after Brandgate.

• The new series of Torchwood begins on BBC1 next month.
John Barrowman says; "I'm naked in one episode - I am full-on naked.
"I am bumping and grinding in this one. I am having man sex. The true die-hard fans know Jack is omnisexual - he likes men and women.
"People who tune into this series will just think Jack is gay, because he just has full-on man sex."
"It was really fun. One day, I get to shoot a helicopter and save the world, and a couple of days later, I get to have sex with a 24-year-old. [It's the most] perfect job in the world."
Good to hear.

* I guess RTD means this one.

Michael Bronski: A Queer History Of The United States

Great to see Johann Hari and The Independent give over so much space to such an enthusiastic review of A Queer History Of the United States by the great Michael Bronski*.
Brava!
Though maybe the reason much of this history is "hidden" is because the straight press don't usually write about it much?

* And a Fagburn fan too incidentally...

Fagburn: A Short Break

Sorry, I've been unwell this week - and today I went to Charleston with my Mum.
Back tomorrow...

The Daily Mail: Erm...

"Two hotel workers repeatedly called gay by their boss – even though they weren't – have been awarded more than £50,000.
Andrew Roberts-Evans and Martin Owen shared a twin bedroom at the hotel as separate staff quarters were unavailable.
But they claimed owner Simon Buckley regularly quipped that they were a gay couple, leaving them feeling 'hurt and rubbished'."

The Daily Mail.
That's a photo of Andrew Robert-Evans above - who is clearly in no way gay.

Steve Bell: On NATO In Libya

Steve Bell in The Guardian.

David Laws: "So How Did He Get Himself Into This Mess?"

The Financial Times tries to find out.
"To say that he kept his sexuality under wraps is something of an understatement. He never discussed it with anyone until he started his relationship with James Lundie “10 years ago, or whenever it was”. Lundie is sometimes described in the media as the Most Handsome Liberal Democrat – a ­curiously uncoveted title. Veteran journalist Lynn Barber called the lobbyist “dazzlingly handsome, nay gorgeous”. Was this Laws’s first serious relationship? “Yes – the first. Full stop.”
"But Britain in the 1980s was hardly Uganda; he was growing up in one of the west’s most tolerant societies and had political leanings towards a party that openly embraced diversity of every kind. Even if he felt unable to come out at school, surely it would have been possible at Cambridge University (where he secured a double first in economics with some of the highest marks recorded in the past 30 years)? “At university none of my friends were gay,” he says. It was just easier to say nothing."
Good piece by George Parker.
Can't stick his politics but I do feel sorry for the silly bugger.

The Weakest Link: Uncut

"CATTY TV host Anne Robinson has been blasted for telling a vicar his tunic looked "gay" on The Weakest Link.
Rev Peter Hayler, 45, appeared on Wednesday's show in a colourful shirt specially made to fit with his dog collar.
"During filming, cruel Anne, 66, asked him "was the shirt gay?". She then said: "I thought you had come from a vicars and tarts party."
"Her comments were cut from the episode aired on BBC1 - and Rev Hayler had the last laugh when he went on to win...
Bewildered Rev Hayler, of Cambridge University's Great St Mary's Church, said: "I was accused of tactically voting and she called me a liar five times.
"She said 'was the shirt gay?'. I should have said 'yes, it's brightly coloured'."

The Sun.

Patrick Wolf: Camp? Moi?

"There's no getting around the fact that Wolf's career to date has been marked by a certain huffiness. In recent years, he has variously announced his retirement from the music business on his website; threatened to emigrate from Britain because he was misunderstood not merely by the public but also by journalists – who appear to have incurred his wrath largely by showering him with praise of the Britain's-most-radical-innovative-and-creative-pop-star variety – and complained of homophobia on the part of both his former record label, which apparently wanted to market him as a "gay artist", and the media in general. He protested that the latter invariably append the adjective "flamboyant" to him, to which the outside observer might reasonably respond that, whether straight or gay, if you don't want to be called flamboyant, it's probably best not to appear on your album sleeve straddling a cartoon deer on a children's roundabout, dressed in a pair of scarlet culottes and metallic winklepickers, or indeed emerging from a patchwork tent into a dry-ice-laden woodland with one enormous gold epaulette and a balalaika..."

Alexis Petridis reviews Patrick Wolf's new album, Lupercalia, in The Guardian.

Brian Haw: 1949-2011

Thanks for everything, Brian.

in love and peace
x

Clarence Clemons: 1942-2011

Wittgenstein: Adele And Me

Hi,
Sorry got lost in the intellectual K-hole that is Ludwig.
And the emotionial storm that is Adele.
And being haunted by Mysterious Skin.
Back in a bit...