Via @suttonnick #tomorrowspaperstoday
More in the morning, but brace yourself for an avalanche of tired and unfunny Queen/queens jokes.
Also, please bear in mind as this is the Mail the story may, just possibly, have been slightly distorted...
Update: BREAKING! Queen not joining OutRage shock!
To say the rather mundane MoS story doesn't match the hyperbolic/hyperbollocks headline would be almost as much of an overstatement as... well, as the Mail On Sunday's silly headline.
In fine, she's signing the new Commonwealth charter - a formality, she didn't write it FFS - which doesn't even explicitly mention LGBT people or gay rights.
It apprently reads; ‘We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds.’
But if "other grounds" is being used as a euphemism for sexuality, err, isn't that a bit discriminatory?
Update 2: Astounded by the over-excited comments about this from some gay men on blogs and Twitter etc, like it's the best thing since sliced cock.
Can't believe how grateful some people are for bum-all.
Update 3: This is getting ridiculous. Before long the Twittersphere will have turned this story into 'Queen to sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow with the Gay Men's Chorus...'
NB I could be wrong but as far as I'm thus far aware there is no evidence that references to "sexuality" were omitted so as not to offend Commonwealth countries with anti-gay laws, apart from an unattributed assertion made in the notoriously unreliable Mail - which others appear to have simply repeated.
It could have been taken out by a diplomat or civil servant who thought it might embarrass "her majesty", for example.
It's not something the Foreign & Commonwealth Office would comment on - so where is it from?
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In fact by leaving out sexual identity it tacitly condones discrimination against homosexuals up to and including the death penalty (Nigeria/Pakistan and soon Uganda). Once again we are seen as third class citizens.
ReplyDeleteFar from explicitly not mentioning gays it explicitly leaves them out. Sexuality is always included in this type of statement. That doesn't stop the Daily Mail lying about of course.
The quote from the Commonwealth Charter sounds like a rehash of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Neither of them specifically mentions sexuality.
ReplyDeleteMore interestingly, the Commonwealth Charter omits some things that are included in the Universal Declaration, eg discrimination on grounds of "social origin, property, birth".
That's hardly something Her Maj could sign up to, is it?
Hahaha!
DeleteThis awaits proper 'global south' response but I have heard positive reaction already from there, from LGBT activists.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course they couldn't get specific mention in for something all the countries have signed up to. Yes, obviously the Mail is hyperbolic.
Progress is slow but it is still progress ...