Bradley Manning: Three Years And Five Days

Bradley Manning's court martial finally starts on Monday - it is now three years since he was arrested.

Bradley Manning Support Network.

The Onion: Baby Goes With Homosexuality

EDMOND, OK—Following weeks of deliberation during which he carefully considered what sort of life he wanted for himself, 4-month-old baby Nathan Reynolds announced Wednesday that he had decided to be homosexual.
“I thought about it for a long time,” said Reynolds, who took into account both how his peers would view him and how he would be treated by society at large before determining his sexual orientation. “I weighed the pros and cons of homosexuality, and ultimately I decided that it was the right thing for me...”

The Onion.
Warning: Ends up repeating the same joke to make a not very convincing point about The Gays being "Born This Way".

Telegraph: The Wrong Kind Of Marriage

Gay marriage has been an odd compromise, a peculiar fusion of liberal and conservative values. It has allowed the Prime Minister to reprise his marital theme, albeit with a new twist. Conservatives should not just tolerate same-sex weddings, he says, but insist upon them. Yet he has failed to do the obvious thing: accompany the gay-marriage legislation with measures to strengthen marriage in general. It would have given him political cover to implement a tricky manifesto pledge (to recognise marriage in the tax system), and helped to repair relations with his party. Yet he chose not to, for reasons that still baffle some of his closest allies...

Fraser Nelson - he's the editor of The Spectator who's on Question Time too much and who Tory matriarchs probably think is "rather dishy" - banging on again in the Daily Telegraph.
Odd that he seems to be saying the best argument for the holy institution of marriage is tax-breaks.
There's also a number of wonderfully barking letters in the Telegraph today explaining why Christians who opposed apartheid and slavery should also be opposed to gay marriage. 

PS The Marriage Bill will be debated in the Lords again on Monday - to be continued Tuesday if they won't shut up - or all nod off. 
George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury - who gets a free seat in the Lords for services to the Great Sky Pixie - is already gearing up by saying gay marriage will lead to sibling marriage and polygamy - like they have in the Bible.  

Elton John: It's A Little Bit Funny...

The Independent.

The small print according to HitFix, who broke the story, is that Rocketman is still only "in development" - ie it might not actually be made - and though apparently "the project is out to Tom Hardy. That doesn't mean they've made him a formal offer yet, or even that he's interested, but it's an intriguing possibility."
It certainly is. 
And a great way of generating a buzz, too...

PS Funny how you never hear about that Mickey Rourke/Gareth Thomas biopic anymore, eh?

PPS 20 of our favourite staight actors who've played gay roles - BuzzFeed/CNN.com. So brave etc etc.

Psychobitches: Post-Vicious Gay TV

Mark Gatiss stars as Joan Crawford and Frances Barber as Bette Davis in this clip from Sky Arts' new dark comedy Psychobitches, which features famous women from history in the therapist's chair (or, in this case, waiting room). Playhouse Presents… Psychobitches begins on 30 May at 9pm on Sky Arts 1 HD.

Warning: This could be brilliant!
Chances of just a load of wizened old gayers (like me) watching it - high.

Gay Marriage: The Root Cause Of Anarchy

Perhaps a (double) first today as the Daily Express celebrates France's first gay marriage with a photo of two fellas kissing!
But are the readers happy?
ARE THEY BUGGERY!

"It is right those in same-gender relationships are no longer victims of over-zealous law enforcement and blackmail; but are we ready for this in-your-face homo-eroticism, and desecration holy matrimony??? Politicians have become willing puppets in thumbing their noses at what is decent and respectable; and they are becoming bolder in their contempt. It is high time we started identifying the root causes of this anarchy" - Ekimwar.

Vous ne pourriez pas le faire jusqu'à etc etc.

Update: 'France is marching against markets, not homosexuality' - Financial Times. Worth reading, but concludes with l'anicinne "it's an out-of-touch political elite" line.

Thought For The Day: Kelly Osbourne

"I loved Gaga. I totally believed in everything she stood for, until I realised she's a great big hypocrite. Don't say, 'When you see bullying intervene.' While letting your fans send me death threats. If my fans did that I would not stand for it. You can say whatever you want with your millions of monsters. I know the truth. Your bells and whistles mean nothing to me. You're feeding on the freaks and geeks to further your career? Do you really care about the gay community? Because if you did , you'd stand up for it more than you do."

Kelly Osbourne interviewed by Cosmopolitan, quoted in The Mirror.
Anyone who slates the one-woman idiotfest that is Lady Gaga is a friend of mine...

Update: Also do not miss the thoughtful thoughts of the gay one from Union J on gay marriage! Wow.

Update2: Peter Robinson on Pop Star Twitter wars - and how Zayn from One Direction's mum has waded into the fray! 

Update3: And Max from The Wanted says on TV Louis from 1D might be gay!!! 
Exciting times, dudes.

Behind The Candelabra: That's Gay!

This weekend viewers and critics fell head over heels for Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as make-believe lovers. But what if their gay romance had been portrayed by actual gay actors? Would it be a different, less-seen story?
Here's the deal: the ratings are in, and the much buzzed-about Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra is a big winner. The biopic nabbed 2.4 million viewers, HBO's highest ratings for an original movie in nearly a decade. It's not entirely surprising. You had A-list actors doing plenty of promo. You had a juicy story: a look at the loving but difficult relationship between a dramatic showman and his younger lover...
The success must have been vindicating for director Steven Soderbegh, who took his blockbuster-made cast to HBO after movie studios balked that the film was "too gay." The record-setting ratings (and even a cursory glance at social media) confirm that lots of straight eyeballs wanted to see the flick - so "too gay" it was not. But could it have been? 
Watching noted heterosexuals Michael Douglas and Matt Damon playact being a couple is one thing. But what if these gay roles were played by actors who are actually gay? Would 2 million people still be willing to watch them smooch? That seems worth asking, before we become too self-congratulatory about living in an age where a movie like Candelabra can be a success...

Interesting piece by Scott Kearman, Gay Lib(erace): Would "Behind the Candelabra" be a hit with out actors?
Conclusion: "I don't know. There are no major examples to look to. And maybe that void, in a way, answers the question."
Meanwhile Fagburn's still pitching his BTC-themed gay porn flick, 'Michael, Douglas, Matt, Damon'...

And here's (yet another) crap cartoon by the the hopelessly unfunny and graphically-challenged Andrew Birch in The Independent...

Update: Michael Douglas tells ShortList about actors who stay in the closet. Yes, apparently some do.

Le Sacre Du Printemps: Trop De Bruit

This evening marks the centenary of the Paris debut of Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nijinsky's ballet The Rite Of Spring.
On Radio 3 and BBC magazine Ivan Hewett asks if it really caused a riot.
Spoiler alert: Not really, no.
But did anyone still think that it did?*

*Oh, The Guardian seems to. For further centenial "revelations" about something no-one believes anymore, see all those Emily Davison didn't want to die a martyr under the king's horse stories.

Fagburn: Mao For Now!

There's bum-all in the papers etc worth commenting on today, so Fagburn will concentrate on refining his major work about the fusion of Mao-Wittgenstein thought with gay characteristics, while listening to Cornelius Cardew.
Fuck you.

"There's no point in having a revolution if we don't shoot the bastards afterwards" - Chairman Mo.

"I don't care about kings and their castles, I don't care about pieces of gold, all I know is that I'm in the middle. [There's a reader, a writer and a middle man], there's a winner and a loser and a middle man. A hammer and a sickle and a sick old man..." - Comrade Neon Neon Feltrinelli.

"This heaven gives me migraine" - Jiang Qing.  

"It is humiliating to have to appear like an empty tube which is simply inflated by a mind" - Senior Cadre Kenneth Williams [Revisionist].

"Oh, what's the bloody point?" - Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

Christians: Beyond Belief

Campaigners warned the decision by the European Court of Human Rights could see more cases where Christians lose their jobs because of their religion, following David Cameron’s gay marriage bill.

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali said he thought the decision by the court not to take the cases of Lillian Ladele, Shirley Chaplin and Gary McFarlane further, raised fears of a “systemic exclusion of people” from public roles because of their beliefs.

Marriage registrar Miss Ladele was disciplined by Islington council for refusing to conduct civil partnership ceremonies when they were legalised in 2004, and Mrs Chaplin, a former nurse, was transferred to desk duties after she refused to take off a crucifix. Mr McFarlane was dismissed as a relationship counsellor at charity Relate after he said he was prepared to counsel same sex couples but not to discuss sexual issues.

All had their claims of religious discrimination rejected by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg earlier this year and judges have now rejected their request to take their appeal to the Grand Chamber of the Court...

The Telegraph.

Good - now shut up and do your job, you medieval loons. 

Take Your Child To Work: An Apology

Readers of Gay Star Pink News may have got the impression that many of our stories have been written by illiterate 9 year-olds who know felch all about anything - least of all anything about gay politics, culture or history - and are incapable even of re-writing a press release without getting it wrong, or of pasting a story from Google News without completely missing the point. 
It is true.
This was due to a bizarre social engineering experiment called 'Take Your Child To Work'.
We apologise unreservedly, and will continue to do so into the future, hoping you're as thick as we are and won't notice.

Joint statement, issued earlier. 

Lucy Meadows: Shame On All Of You

A coroner told the press "shame on all of you" as he ruled that a primary school teacher had killed herself after her gender reassignment became national news.
Michael Singleton, coroner for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Rossendale, singled out the Daily Mail as he accused the paper of "ridicule and humiliation" and a "character assassination" of Lucy Meadows, 32, who took her own life in March.
He urged the government to implement the recommendations of the Leveson report on press intrusion as he criticised the "sensational and salacious" press coverage. Delivering a verdict of suicide, he told the inquest into her death he was appalled at media reports about Meadows.
As he closed the inquest, he turned to the reporters present and said: "And to you the press, I say shame, shame on all of you."

The Guardian. 

Screengrab via The Media Blog

Although; "In a note she left, she made no mention of press intrusion, citing instead her debts, a number of bereavements including the death of her parents, and her stressful job as a primary school teacher" (ibid), Lucy Meadows had complained to the PCC in January.
Whatever, Richard Littlejohn and the Mail's coverage was disgusting - though tragically it seems to be pretty much the standard in reporting trans issues these days. 

The Independent: On The Banality Of Banality

The Independent continues its valiant quest to bore everyone to death with well-meaning trite liberal tripe, and the most piss-poor and patronising gay coverage in the known world.
As someone boring said; "This carries a very positive message."
Yay!

• Thankfully, Patrick Strudwick continues his Twitter campaign against banality, with thought-provoking and "inspirational" tweets like this.

The gay little people of the world say; thank you!

EDL: Supporting Our Lads

Thanks to JC (And Huw, below). x
[Edit: Some Twitter twits managed to turn this into how EDL held a "meeting" - or even regularly hold meetings - at Halfway 2 Heaven].

Update: And after a hard day's Nazi-ing what better way to unwind than getting shirtless with the lads, and sieg heiling at the Cenotaph?

Censorship: Ban This Filth!

The UK's main supermarkets could be exposed to legal challenges from employees and customers if they refuse to remove magazines and newspapers with naked [sic] women on their covers, a group of lawyers have claimed.
In a letter published in the Guardian, 14 equalities lawyers say supermarkets and other retailers are vulnerable to legal challenges under sexual discrimination law.
Experts from six legal sets, including Matrix Chambers, where members include Cherie Booth QC, wife of the former prime minister Tony Blair, say that displaying publications "in workplaces, and/or requiring staff to handle them in the course of their jobs may amount to sex discrimination and sexual harassment contrary to the Equality Act 2010"...

The Guardian. 

The people behind this ludicrous campaign also want gay magazines, like those purveyors of absolute filth and wreckers of civilisation, Attitude and GT, covered up or taken off the shelf, of course.
The human body is not obscene.
Sex is not bad.
"Pornography" is not evil.
You don't make the world a better place by banning everything you don't like.

• Feminists Against Censorship.

PS Putting "gay lifestyle" mags on the top shelf only serves stigma and shame.
If you see one there, why not move it?

Terror: Droning On

The Independent.

• Under The Shadow Of The Drone, Brighton. 

Thought For The Day: Frankie Boyle

I only have two reservations about gay marriage. Firstly, it’s against the holy teachings of our Lord. Secondly, it could fundamentally undermine ratios at wife-swapping parties.
Of course, the official Catholic position is against. As opposed to the unofficial Catholic position — bent over the font biting down hard on a hymn book.
Plans for gay marriage have been approved by MPs despite opposition from nearly half the Tories. They’re worried their rent boys will propose.
One chief opponent is Tory MP Peter Bone.
A little rich as I’m sure I saw his name on the credits of Dishonorable Members 2... I won’t go into details but let’s just say afterwards they had to take a nail brush to the mace.
Lord Tebbit says new legislation could allow him to marry his son to escape inheritance tax.
His son must be devastated that his dad only wants to marry him for his own money.
Tebbit made his anti-gay comments in an interview with homeless newspaper The Big Issue, a publication he actually helped start by being part of Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet.
I suspect his dislike is at a deeper level. He may have seen gay men stripped to the waist and glistening with sweat, and subconsciously thought they might be mining coal.
Tebbit insists he doesn’t necessarily object to seeing a gay couple together at the altar. So long as it’s in boxes following a shame-induced suicide pact.
He raised the possibility of a lesbian queen. She’d be a lot like the normal queen, but with fewer corgis and more cats.
Apparently, in private, Tebbit confesses he’d be happy to attend a gay church wedding. As he could cover his body in gold paint in order to leap down from the crucifix at the crucial moment and shout: “Not on my watch, ladymen!”

Frankie Boyle in The Sun.

PS Frankie Boyle - a huge Chomsky fan - has it written into his contract that they can't change a single word in his mighty column.

Daily Mail: Shock As Film About Fruity Young Lesbians Having Sex Wins Award!

The Daily Mail.

The Mail only managed to fit 12 photos of these young lovelies kissing and that online.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Warning: Contains adult content etc etc.

La France: A Bas Les Gays!

Aujourd'hui à Paris, ils ont un grand mars pour protester contre les homosexuels de se marier.
Bon!
Quelle suite noble et héroïque de l'esprit révolutionnaire de la France.
Si seulement les étudiants et les travailleurs participant à des événements de Mai 68 ont pris les rues pour dire qu'ils n'aimaient pas beaucoup les homosexuels.
Ou les Communards.
Quelle bande de connards stupides!
S'ils avaient été là quand les Nazis ont envahi je parie que ces connards auraient doublé dans les rues pour applaudir.
J'espère que les fantômes d'Albert Camus, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Daniel Guérin, Marcel Proust, Arthur Rimbaud et François Truffaut se révèlent cracher sur votre défilé de merde.
Liberté! Égalité! Fraternité!
"Nous disons NON!"

Footyball News: Silly Arse!

A Blackburn Rovers footballer has been summonsed to answer a charge of making a homophobic gesture to Brighton fans at a Championship match.

Sussex Police said Colin Kazim-Richards, 26, was charged under the Public Order Act over an alleged homophobic gesture on 12 February.
The alleged incident took place at Brighton and Hove Albion's Amex Stadium.
The player is due to appear before magistrates in Brighton on 22 August.

BBC News. 

Fagburn was fascinated by this story*, as it was covered by most news media, but none said what the "homophobic gesture" actually was.
Was it really too disgusting to be mentioned in a family newspaper?
But the thing is, there's only a few "homophobic gestures" I'm aware of.
That oldie but goodie, the limp wrist?
The classic mime, "I am pretending to fellate a gigantic penis?"
Pulling "a gay face" and going "Oooh!" in a high-pitched voice?
Or that old favourite when you pretend to be clutching a handbag close to your no doubtless manly chest?
The mind boggles!
So we asked Fagburn's resident soccerball commentator, "C" [He doesn't want to be named here in case this all goes a bit Sally Bercow].
"A Brighton forum says he 'kept on pointing to his arse', among making 'wanker gestures', after they mocked him for being fat," he told us, exclusively.
"That's the best part, him doing an ARE YOU SAYING I'M FAT??! Of course Brighton fans also pioneered the "you're too ugly to be gay" chant."
So, to clarify, he's been charged with pointing at his bum?
"Indeed. He's a nobody these days anyway. Fat waste of space."

*Kain used to play for Brighton - which may have increased the banter. Fagburn, of course, has also recently been subject to the long-arm of Sussex Police's somewhat heavy-handed approach to so-called "public order offences".

Sunday Times: How The World Sees Us

Some gays, pictured recently in The Sunday Times.

Gay Marriage: A Teaching Guide

The Guardian online has a handy cut-and-out keep guide to "News and teaching resources to help you teach your students about same-sex marriage".
Teaching about gay issues in schools and colleges is still a controversial subject for some, so thankfully The Guardian offer a word of warning... 

PS If you teach media studies, you might also like to ask students why they think even The Guardian always illustrate stories about gay marriage with photos of disembodied hands or frigging cake toppers, like the crappy one above.

Marriage Bill: Democracy In Action

Peers expect the Upper’s House debate over same sex weddings will go through the night or even into a second day, with a key vote that could scupper the policy regarded as “too close to call”.

The former head of the British army Lord Dannatt and Lord Lothian, a former Conservative Party chairman better known as Michael Ancram, are amongst those set to criticise the draft legislation in next Monday’s session.

Other opponents will include Lord Waddington, a former Home Secretary, Lord Luce, who served as a minister in Baroness Thatcher’s government, and Lord Singh of Wimbledon, a respected figure in the Sikh community.

The Sunday Telegraph has also established that the senior Tory Baroness Warsi, a practising Muslim, refused to lead the bill through the House of Lords when asked to do so by David Cameron, the Prime Minister.

Some peers believe dozens Lords who rarely attend Parliament will flock to Westminster to make their position on homosexual marriage clear...

Sunday Telegraph.  

Think that's all we need to know, thanks.

PS You might also enjoy this gloriously barking piece from The Telegraph by Christopher Booker which EXPOSES gay marriage as a colossal fraud foisted on the nation by the Bilderberg Group and some shape-shifting reptiles. Or something. 

• Screengrab of the Lords last week by Martin Rossiter.

Richard Coles: "The Atheist's Favourite Priest"

I was rather weirdly chaste and nervous, while Jimmy [Somerville] was anything but. Our relationship was not…" He frowns. "Do you know, I can't remember whether we ever had sex." If he was chaste, then presumably they didn't? He laughs. "Yes, well, but you know, the occasional slip…" Would Somerville remember whether they ever had sex? "No, certainly not. Anyway, whether we did or we didn't do was immaterial to our friendship. We were young gay men in the 1980s, a very political time, and we had a common purpose: to bring Margaret Thatcher down with pop music."

Rev Richard Coles is profiled in The Independent On Sunday - note the journalist's presumption that all gay men must be fucking.
Former Communard and wild child, current vicar and broadcaster, and - eek - "trembling on the brink of national treasuredom."
"I just hope I don't fuck it all up," he says, "I suppose I could do so at any moment, couldn't I? It could happen here, now, with you."

The Sun Sunday: A Handbag?

The Sun Sunday sees the funny side of anti-gay violence, as a pride rally in Moscow gets attacked by Putinists, neo-Fascists and/or Orthodox Christians.
Fagburn can only assume this was a "joke" that wasn't meant to be published.
Oh hahahaha!

Update: And this month's award for gay fuckwittery goes to some neo-colonialist twat from Stockholm Pride who has started a "campaign" (ie a crappy clicktivist website) telling LGBT Russians to - literally - Go West.
In no way is this publicity stunt likely to harm the very people it pretends to help!
Yay, let's boost our tourism industry and succour Putin - you've really thought this one through, guys!

Caitlin Moran: It's Patronising Clichés O'Clock!

Caitlan Moran in The Times.
Did you know she really, really loves The Gays?
Well, they're such fun, aren't they?
Amazing! etc etc.

PS Moran is actually outdone in the "Excuse me while I barf" stakes by this, also in today's Times.

Yvette Cooper, the rather serious Shadow Home Secretary, indeed some would say the Hermione Granger of politics, was in unusually high spirits [Code for drunk?] last week over gay marriage. She noted that, in New Zealand, MPs celebrated their gay marriage legislation in “fabulous” style by singing a Maori love song [They didn't, it was people in the public gallery, btw]. “We can only wonder what would happen if the Minister and I leapt up and started leading a Eurovision-style chorus of Congratulations or perhaps Abba-style — probably not One Man, One Woman but certainly, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do." 

HURL!

Liberace: The Flamboyant Pianist Who Forced The Gay Marriage Issue

"In making the film, the socio-political aspect of it was not really in my mind but I was focused on... trying to make this relationship as believable and realistic as we could.
"When this issue comes up, of equal rights for gays, I am hoping 50 years from now we will look back on this and wonder why this was even a debate and why it took so long."

Steven Soderbergh speaking at a Cannes press conference for Behind The Candelabra, quoted by Reuters et al.
Steven surely deserves some kind of award for not choking on his vol-au-vent when a thick hack asked what this story of Liberace and Scott Thorson says about the great gay marriage debate.
What a ridickerless question!
Also note, SS's endlessly repeated line about the fillum being "too gay" for Hollywood - which we only had his word for - has now been downgraded to how The Man thought it might not break out of a niche gay audience. 
Which doesn't look quite so good in a hysterical "THAT'S HOMOPHOBIA!" headline.
As it's Saturday, there's an "The Liberace I barely knew" piece in the Telegraph today.
Here's something on Guardian Film, arguing - unpersuasively - that the best onscreen romances are now gay.
The best piece I've read on Lee in the British press this time round comes from Simon Edge in... The Daily Express!
Behind The Candelabra airs on HBO in the States tomorrow - Fagburn can't wait to see it.
 
PS Scott Thorson's memoir, Behind The Candelabra, has just been republished in the States. In this excerpt he shares his intimate memories of Liberace in the 50s, ten years before he met him.  

Update: And The Observer has a (syndicated) interview with Scott from Washoe county jail. Poor bugger.

Lunch With The FT: "I Hate This Hotel!"

"It’s grotesque! I hate this hotel!” says Sir John Richardson as I enter a fourth-floor suite giving on to a sweeping vista of the Thames and the London Eye. “I’m in my 90th year but this place makes me feel 100.”
Dressed in a grey jacket with dashing crimson border, cream shirt, black slacks and bright red slippers, the writer shuffles disconsolately around the huge living room. He can work neither the light switches nor the telephone at the five-star Corinthia Hotel, which means he has not been able to order breakfast. His boyfriend, a former footman at Buckingham Palace and “a hero”, normally looks after these things but he has gone out...

FT Weekend continues its bold quest to have lunch - here, technically, breakfast - with every gay man in the world by dining with 89 year-old art historian, John Richardson - the thinking queen's Brian Sewell. 

John Grant: Queen Of Denmark

"I wanted to change the world,
But I could not even change my underwear..."

Have a miserable bank holiday weekend!
I hate your ex-boyfriend, too. 

xxx

David Sedaris: Freak Out!

I don’t feel I tailor to the crowd. If I write about Hugh, for instance, I write in the sense of trying to make a life with someone in a way everyone can relate to it. I’m not hiding anything. Sex just isn’t my subject. I remember I was in Paris and Edmund White did a reading at this place called the Village Voice Bookshop. The audience was maybe 10% gay people, and when he read you could see people were like, “He just talked about sucking somebody’s dick; I didn’t sign up for this.” I don’t think it’s fair that they freaked out. When a straight couple kisses in a movie you don’t see us go, “ewww.” So, on the one hand, it only seems fair. But I just don’t write that way. In that story, [“A Guy Walks Into a Bar Car”] I felt like anybody could relate. It’s just a story about an opportunity that you didn’t take, and for the rest of your life when things get bad you think, “If only I would’ve picked that person up.” When you’re brooding over an alcoholic straight guy, that’s when you’ve hit bottom.

David Sedaris in an entertaining interview with Lambda Literary.
Much interesting stuff also about his fagcent, his fans and his father.

Scouts: Morally Straight

Brothers Lucien and Pascal Tessier are proud members of the Boy Scouts of America. They are also gay.
Following in the footsteps of their dad Oliver, a Life Scout, and mother Tracie, a former scout committee chair, the two brothers have spent the bulk of their young lives committed to the values of the scout tradition: loyalty, honesty and personal accountability.
Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has long held a unique position in American society. But the organisation's struggle over whether or not to accept openly gay members and troop leaders has left the Tessier brothers frustrated.
Lucien, 20, and Pascal, 16, from Kensington in the US state of Maryland, have both been supported by their local troop since coming out when they were in high school.
Today at the Boy Scouts of America's annual meeting in Texas the organisation delayed a vote on whether to lift an official ban until May. Many faith-based groups which charter scout troops have warned of a mass exodus if the rules are changed.
But only full acceptance of gay scouts, the brothers say, would faithfully continue the Scout tradition.
"I think that by proposing this sort of policy where local troops decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts or not, they're not living up to their responsibility to accept everyone," Lucien told the BBC.

Story and video from BBC News, February 2013.  
Regular viewers may know I'm generally opposed to sentimental crap about gay kids, but I do think the above photo's adorable.

Boy Scouts Of America yesterday voted to allow gay members - as long as they don't do nook.
Gay scout leaders are still banned - cause we're all filthy perverts.
Unlike Baden-Powell. 

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

US Boy Scout Oath.
(In the UK one they also pledge allegiance to the queen - which, if you've got a lot of time on your hands, you might want to work up into a joke).

And here's some scouts with good moral values - and really lovely parents, I guess...

Pink News: What A Card!

“I can’t believe that this company would sell a card with this design and offensive writing which is obviously inciting homophobia and condoning the use of the word ‘fag’, which is highly derogatory. The image of two men out in the woods with the above writing ‘popped out for a fag’ just reinforces negative and sordid stereotypes about the habits of gay men. It’s as though it’s ok to have a laugh about homophobia, or that insulting gay men is something funny. It’s not what you expect to see when shopping for a birthday card.
“As a proud mother of a son who is gay, I found it very hurtful to see the disgusted and saddening look on my son’s face when we encountered this disgusting card. I can’t believe products like this are allowed to be sold.”

A concerned mother and Pink News reader.
The story's possibly an Edna Welthorpe (Mrs) type hoax, maybe by the queen that made the card.
But if not, could you be more boring? 

Fagburn: In Place Of News

A press release has been sent out today, Fagburn can reveal.
The press release exclusively revealed to Fagburn that it had been sent.
It was about something no-one really cares about, like someone putting up a stupid fucking rainbow flag.
According to a survey carried out by WeSendPressReleases.com 78% of people find press releases fascinating and "an important source of information".
Today has thus been designated Slow Gay News Day, in honour of gay icon, Harvey Milk, who was openly gay, the press release revealed.
A publicity-seeking homophobe in America who you've never heard of before has condemned the move, blaming it for something.
Maybe tornadoes.
(Read our exclusive exposé, 'Silly homophobes who have said something silly and homophobic').
He has been SLAMMED as a "homophobe" by a Fagburn reader, who has started a pointless petition on allout.org.
Fagburn organised a gay flashmob at the Elephant & Castle shopping centre, but only three people turned up.
The video has now not gone VIRAL!
To pad out this news story here's something about press releases we cut-and-pasted from Wikipedia; "A press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, or television networks."

"Not boring"

In another press release we have been sent, his fourth today, the publicity-shy Peter Tatchell denied he was boring and vain.
"I am not boring and vain," he said. "READ".
Our editor said; "We look forward to entering a new business partnership with WeSendPressReleases.com, and, in the hope they'll book some ads, have put their founder, Larry O'Toole, in our prestigious Gay Power Bottoms List 2013."

George Michael Crash: Latest

The Sun says this. The Mirror says that. The Sun says this. The Mirror says that. The Sun says this. The Mirror says that. The Sun says this. The Mirror says that. The Sun says this. The Mirror says that. The Sun says this. The Mirror says that. The Sun says this. The Mirror says that....

The Sun, and their late unlamented sister paper News Of The World, hate George Michael.
The feeling's mutual. 
When the NOTW closed down he declared it "a fantastic day for Britain", and went out to get pissed on Old Compton Street.
But they know you can print pretty much anything about George because he's known on Fleet Street for not suing.
The Mirror is George's pet paper, where he's always done his big interviews etc.
During this latest saga, stories in The Sun have been swiftly contradicted by ones in the Mirror quoting his PR, Connie Filippello.
Obviously, they can't both be right.
Maybe they could both be wrong. 
The new twist comes from someone claiming to have witnessed the accident.
Katherine Fox has some glamour photos of herself posing by the Mini she was driving in the Daily Mail.
Which is what you'd do, right?
Remember when George was hospitalised last last Christmas - the papers contradicted themselves every day. 
I think it's safe to assume we won't know what's really happened here for a while. 
If you read anything in the tabloids about George Michael, please bear in mind it's probably balls.

Gay Marriage: The Last Last Word?

Several MPs opposed to gay marriage asked, “Where will this lead next?” They should have a competition to see who can go the furthest, with Edward Leigh yelling: “Then we’ll be allowed to marry a stick of rock, which will get jealous if it suspects the man has chewed a liquorice allsort, then the man will notice the rock has ‘I want a divorce’ written all through it, and it will move out to live in a tin on housing benefit which the taxpayer pays for, and if we refuse we’ll be taken to the European Court of Confectionary Rights.”

Mark Steel, The Independent. 

Fagburn's a bit burnt out with gaymarriage stuff at the moment - other things suddenly seemed more important.
And there's a limit to how many press releases from MPs and Sir Peter Tatchell telling us how wonderful they are you can read in one day.  
But Mark's wonderful demolition job on the antis made me honk like a clown's horn.

• Cake toppers model's own. etc etc etc etc

PS Anyone remember The Independent's Equal Partners "campaign"? Nope, nor me. But we signed a petition...

PS Please also read Frank Furedi on terrorism as media spectacle.

Baby: Love

There's no news as wonderful as hearing a baby's been born.

x

David Cameron: I've Been Waiting For You

“There will be young boys in schools today who are gay, who are worried about being bullied, who are worried about what society thinks of them, who can see that the highest Parliament in the land has said that their love is worth the same as anyone else’s love and that we believe in equality. And I think they’ll stand that bit taller today and I’m proud of the fact that has happened."

David Cameron, Today programme, May 22nd, 2013.

Almost hate to say it, but this did move me this morning.
Really.
But that's having speechwriters like Julian Glover feeding your lines to you.
You've come a long way, dude.
Wished you could have been there when it mattered. 

"The Blair government continues to be obsessed with their fringe agenda, including deeply unpopular moves like repealing Section 28 and allowing the promotion of homosexuality in schools".

David Cameron, electioneering in 2000.

Back to the class war...

Brendan O'Neill: In His Own Illogical Words

Congratulations, gay marriage campaigners – you have completely destroyed the meaning of social progress 

Far be it from me to say something so ludicrous that I sound like a right-wing Dave Spart, but everyone who supports gay marriage has now completely destroyed the meaning of social progress.
For ever.
Literally. 
Single-handedly.
Think about it!
Now let's get on with creating my usual quiche lorrainne of convoluted cuntery, controversy and non sequiturs...
Throughout modern history, big, democratic, civil rights leaps forward have had two things in common. First, they were demanded by very large and often very angry sections of the public; and second, it took ages and ages for the political classes to concede to them. And when they did eventually cave in and legislate for the new liberty or opportunity being demanded by the hordes, they tended to do so begrudgingly, often while wearing a sneer.
Born from mass, passionate demands from below and later instituted very reluctantly by those up above – that is the history of socially progressive developments.  
Like the Suffragettes, a bit.
Or the Civil Rights Movement, I didn't like them at the time - sell outs - but AT LEAST WOMEN AND BLACK PEOPLE DIDN'T WANT TO GET MARRIED.
And it was a bit like gay liberation, now I come to think about it. 
Which I haven't. 
This bloody gay marriage, though. 
I can't stop writing about it.
See what I did there? 
I've shrunk decades of popular struggle and queer dissent down to what the Tories have done in the last few years. 
Anyway, only the metropolitan elite support gay marriage, basically.
"Elites who hate ordinary people" - oh, sorry that laughable cliche was stuck in a Telegraph laptop, I borrowed off one of the leader writers.  
Anyway, they hate people who hate people that contradict themselves in every other sentence, and whose arguments stand up about as well as a baby giraffe.
Not like all the freethinkers here at the Daily Telegraph, like me and Jeremy and Ollie.
Or maybe I do support it, I've never said.

Looks just like him, eh?

Now, quicker than you can say; "Why do I look nothing like the pics in my byline?", the gay marriage bandwagon has literally shat in the face of every single human being in the world.
Well done, The Gays!

PS Can I get paid now, please? It's got the required number of comments.

Brendan O'Neill - who holds the record for any journalist writing articles against marriage equality.
He blogs for that well-known samizdat leftist propaganda sheet, The Daily Telegraph.
Brendan is the editor of Spiked - funding "unknown"...

* Actual quotes in bold.