Alan Bennett: How Can You?

'The lies on the front page of the Mail are so vulgar and glaring. Occasionally people say they like my work and then I see they have a copy of the Mail, and you think, ‘Well, how can you?’'

Alan Bennett is profiled in The Guardian.

One wonders how Alan's Daily Mail-reading fans will cope with the news that one of your actual 'national treasures' is a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn?

This travels over rather familar terrain, though there are some new insights into his not coming out ('I didn’t want to be in anybody’s pocket, that’s why I didn’t want to be thought to be gay, particularly. Pigeonholed. And then as you get older it just ceases to matter.'), and Rupert Thomas ('his partner of 23 years'); 'I’m chary of saying to people that I’m very happy or even that I’m happy. You tell people that you’re happy and they are bored by that. But we are.'

Apparently, he's got a new film coming out soon.

Nigel Owens: My Struggle

Daily Telegraph.

There are also celebrations of our Nigel in the Mail, the Mirror, The Sun, and The Times.

Verily, this is a 'breakthrough moment' and the world will never be quite the same again.

All bemoan rugby union's homophobia, without pointing out the obvious; in England it's played by posh Hooray Henrys.

Most of the articles relying on this interview, 'Nigel Owens on the pressure of refereeing the Rugby World Cup - and his struggle with his sexuality', with Radio Times, and an old interview with WalesOnline.

Like many, Sport 24 give us a list of The Best Quips - And Put-downs - Of Nigel Owens; 'Shut that door!', 'What a gay day!', 'Look at the muck in here', 'A handbag!' etc.

Too many cliches in this Independent article to count...

Fashanu: Keep It In The Family

John Fashanu has shamefully revealed how he responded to his brother becoming the first British football star to come out as gay – by paying him £75,000 to keep quiet.

The former Wimbledon striker made the shock admission a week after it emerged two top footballers – including an England star – plan to come out.

In his first in-depth interview about brother Justin since his tragic suicide in 1998, he said: “I begged him, I threatened him, I did everything I could possibly do to try and stop him coming out.

“I gave him the money because I didn’t want the embarrassment for me or my family. Had he come out now, it would be a different ball game.

“There wouldn’t be an issue, but there was then. Things are different now. Now he’d be hailed a hero.”

John, 53, said: “I’ll never forget when Justin first told me. He called me in the evening time and said to me: ‘I’m gay’.

"Then he said to me: ‘I’m planning to go to a newspaper’. I said to him: ‘Oh heavens forbid... oh my God. We don’t need that. You’re mad’.

“He promised when I gave him the money he would not go out and say that. Two days later... bang... headlines in a newspaper. I looked like a sucker.

“For me and my family it was like Hiroshima or Nagasaki on our lives. It knocked us dead, it was a total shock.

“People might not like it, but I was trying to protect my family.

“You’ve got to remember the public’s perception of homosexuality at that time was that it was an abomination . It was taboo. Street boys were beating up gays in nightclubs.

“I give him credit for having the courage to come out and say it. But it caused a lot of confusion and animosity towards him, me, and my family.

“During matches, 30, 40, sometimes 45,000 supporters sang at me: ‘You’re big... you’re black... your a*** is up for grabs... Fashanu... Fashanu’.

“As a result of him saying what he said, my mother died because of the stress. She actually died a year later on the day of his birthday.

"She was already old, very fragile and suffering cancer.

“Then to be told her second eldest son was a homosexual was too much.”

The Gladiators presenter said of the two football stars preparing to come out as gay , which the Daily Mirror revealed last week: “If these young men feel it is the right time to come out and announce they are homosexual, please don’t anybody victimise them.

“Please be careful with words, don’t let it lead to the destruction of two men in their prime. I didn’t have that wisdom 20 years ago and it led to the destruction of my late brother Justin.

“We must accept them. I beg everybody not to make the same mistakes I made. Give them as much understanding as possible.”

Mirror.
 

Not sure what to say about this story, apart from stating the obvious; it's completely grim.

John has made the hush-money claim before, in the Independent in 2011.

See also My brother Justin WASN'T gay he just wanted attention, says John Fashanu, the Mirror, March 2012.

But his assertion that Justin invented stories for money is true.

His tabloid tryst was a Faustian pact.

In 1998, a then debt-ridden Justin was paid handsomely by The Sun for his coming out story - involving an unnamed Tory MP - though years later he admitted it was made-up to up the fee.

He'd previously tried to sue The Sunday People, the Mirror's sister paper, after they ran a front page story; 'I am not gay'.

He later sold a story claiming an affair with Julie Goodyear, who played Bette Lynch in Coronation Street, and a lesbian.

In 1994 he tried to sell the People yet more stories about 'romps' with Conservative MPs, but after being questioned by police, he admitted these were fictions

Hmm...

One wonders if John was paid for this?

Loving the supercool pay-off line; 'John, who still believes his brother was not actually gay, is a practising Christian.'

Oh, and though the Mirror hook this story on their front page last week about two premier league footballers coming out, they leave that there.

PS There's an excellent essay by Juliet Jacques, Justin Fashanu And The Politics Of Memory, on the myths that have evolved about his life and death.

Sir Ian McKellen: I, An Actor

“I’m one of those actors who went into acting in part because it was an escape from life,” he says, and describes growing up in a pious, non-conformist Christian Lancashire family. “There were areas of the real world I couldn’t quite cope with. I was a nervous child. A gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay. So there was a wonderful freeing feeling at being able to indulge your emotions in a way you weren’t encouraged to in real life.” 

Profile in The Times.

Sorry, but isn't this old chestnut a bit like comics always saying they started telling jokes to avoid getting bullied at school?

He goes on to talk about never really being 'in' before he came out in 1988...

“I was just what I was,” he says. “I lived openly with my partners, went everywhere with them, went to award ceremonies with them. There’s never been much problem with being gay in the British theatre, so I was living a fairly easy life. I didn’t notice the Stonewall riots. I didn’t notice that there was a gay rights movement. I was never a part of it because I didn’t feel a need to be.” 

PS Sireena is in The Dresser on BBC2 tonight, queening it up as the titular Norman alongside noted heterosexual thespian, Anthony Hopkins.

News: Man Makes Joke

THE VOICE newcomer Boy George had TV bosses pressing the panic button after he said he had slept with American singer-songwriter Prince.

He made the outrageous claim during live auditions for the BBC1 singing show.

It sent the audience “absolutely wild” and forced producers to stop filming in a bid to restore calm.

Boy George made his comment about the legendary Purple Rain singer in an exchange with fellow judge Paloma Faith...

The Karma Chameleon hitmaker started it, saying: “I have duetted with some of the greatest soul singers in history including Luther Vandross and Smokey Robinson.”

Paloma replied: “Well OK, if we’re throwing big soul names out there I’ve performed with Prince.”

To which George retorted: “Forget that, darling, I’ve slept with Prince.” ...

The Sun.

Oh sod this for a game of soldiers, I'm going to the beach!

PS Lest we forget...

He pointed to a Bible. “But there’s the problem of interpretation, and you’ve got some churches, some people, basically doing things and saying it comes from here, but it doesn’t. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum you’ve got blue, you’ve got the Democrats, and they’re, like, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ Gay marriage, whatever. But neither of them is right.” 

When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’” 

Prince, lapsed ambisexual, current Jehovah's Witness, The New Yorker, 2008.

Gay: So It Goes

Frank Kameny archive.

Reclaiming words, when done effectively, is all about power, Thorne [Tony, curator of the Slang And New Language Archive] tells me. “Reappropriation of ethnic and sexual slurs starts as an act of bravado by a few of the oppressed, then may become an empowering mechanism for a much wider community. It’s pleasingly ironic that those discriminated against have learned the Orwellian trick employed by the state and the establishment of hijacking everyday language (as in ‘doublespeak’) for their own nefarious purposes. Alternative discourse ousts and replaces the discourses of power.”

Paul Baker, professor of English Language at Lancaster University, agrees. “Control language and you control the society,” he says...

Reclaiming words is not a new phenomenon. Thorne points out: “Reversing pejoratives has a long history going back to cavalier, sans-culotte, Tory and Whig.” [Or Christian or communist - FB]. 

Modern reclaiming has had mixed success. He says: “Recently such terms as slut, gay and ginger (and to some extent nerd and geek) have been rebranded – perhaps with a tinge of irony.” As someone who has been all five of those things, I can safely say that some have been better reclaimed than others.

Paul Baker says; “Queer was reclaimed by academics and activists in the early 1990s. There was a shouty defiance about queer too – it wasn’t just pride, it was political activism and opposition to homophobic government policy like section 28. It was a disruptive and anarchic response to conservative forces at that time. But in reality very few people actually engaged with this wider ‘anything against the normal’ meaning of queer.
 
“That’s one of the problems with reclaiming concepts: not only do you have a set of people who don’t understand that the word has been reclaimed in the first place, so they continue to use it in the older negative way, but you can also have different understandings of what the reclaiming actually means. And even if you’re in on it, you still may not want to participate.” We are seeing a similar thing play out now with the word “gay”...

Gary Nunn, in his monthly Guardian blog, Mind Your Language.

Note the irony of how quickly 'queer' became re-reclaimed; it's now usually used as an empty signifier of 'radicalism' by homosexualists who are about as radical as a wobbly pink blancmange.

Fagburn wonders if the word 'gay' - which has been reclaimed as a pejorative - will eventually go the same way as 'sod' and 'bugger', and become completely detatched from its homosexual meaning.

PS The UK release of the documentary Do I Sound Gay? 'inspired' a discussion on Woman's Hour today, Is there a gay dialect? (!), where Lucy Jones, an assistant professor of sociolinguistics, made the incredibly silly claim that polari was used as a code - no, it was just slang. If  'academic experts' just repeat nonsense they Googled and don't get picked up on it, no wonder we are doomed...

Roy Scroggins: 1940-2015

Goodbye my friend. 

I'll miss your camp faux grumpiness, your dread of 'Tourists!', the way you always gave me discounts, and your little shrine to Audrey Hepburn.

Every time I turn on my wireless, I'll think of you.

xxx

Discrimination: Gesture Politics

'Tim' mimics a 'gay' gesture for a BBC News item.

A gay man has been awarded £7,500 in a landmark case after a member of shop staff made homophobic gestures at him.

Southend County Court heard the man had been subjected to months of gesturing by a staff member at Taylor Edwards locksmith in Shoeburyness.

The man, named only as "Tim", brought an action against the shop and won.

It is thought to be the first time a business has been ordered to pay damages for discrimination that was entirely "non-verbal".

Solicitors from Unity Law said the victim had first been abused when he went to ask for a refund on some locks.

Peter Edwards - it's always the pretty ones.

When Tim left the shop, the man serving him - Peter Edwards - blew a sarcastic kiss at him.

This was followed by about 20 similar mocking gestures when Tim was passing the shop and Mr Edwards was on a cigarette break, Unity Law said.

Tim went on to bring an action against Taylor Edwards, alleging discrimination under the Equality Act, which prevents anyone supplying goods or services from discriminating against customers on a variety of grounds, including race, religion, disability and sexual orientation...

BBC News. 

Have to say Fagburn is conflicted over this.

Part of me thinks the fine is a tad excessive, and Mr Edwards should be personally liable.

Part of me thinks 'Tim' should have manned up and smashed the twat's fugly fucking face into the lathe.

Is being a persistently annoying bigoted twat enshrined as 'freedom of speech'?

But mainly I'm just going HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

PS Why not call Taylor Edwards on 01702 297480 and ask to speak to Peter?

That's if the cunt hasn't been sacked yet.

Gilbert & George: Against Nature

The messages appear deliberately provocative, but Gilbert and George suggest they are both honest and positive. Burn that Book, for instance, symbolises being liberated from the regimen of organised religion and schools, while Fuck the Planet is inspired by the writings of Prof James Lovelock, which Gilbert and George first read more than 20 years ago.

“We need to just leave nature alone,” says George. “Human beings should only be in the city because it makes them freer and more tolerant than the ones isolated on top of the mountain. Nature breeds intolerance and excessive love of nature always leads to totalitarianism. Love of soil is the worst.”

Gilbert nods, adding: “It’s the same as the love of God, who is just another dictator.” ...

Those lovable septuagenarian juvenile art school pranksters, Gilbert & George, are winding up Guardian readers again today.

Their new exhibition, The Banners, is at London's White Cube Gallery from Wednesday November 25th.

Cuffs: Hand Job

Nothing going on so I watched BBC 1's new Brighton-based cop show, Cuffs starring Jacob Ifan as a hot rookie bent copper.

Talk about 'Fuck/ing Tha Police' and the blind fetishisation of state power etc.

Phwoar!

I tweeted about it here.

You can watch it here.

Evenin' all.

PS One thing I didn't mention that's notable is that PC Jake doesn't have yer standard tortuous 'secret gay' storyline ending with an EXPLOSIVE coming out scene/expose, on his first day on the job he just goes to his colleague; 'I'm gay, 22, single...'

Oh, and the plot was about as non-sensical as some cows tap-dancing on the moon.

Stephen Fry: Take That World Leaders!

Here’s a Petition to World Leaders to prevent catastrophic climate change & commit to CO2 reductions @MoveOn https://t.co/FApsaKBXyG

— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) October 28, 2015

It is touching that Stephen Fry - who we are endlessly assured is very, very clever - thinks 'World Leaders' (?) will wise up and stop destroying the planet because some people have clicked on an online petition.

Bless!

Gay Footballers: Place Your Bets

Here's the full list.

Not sure about the ethics of this, tbh...

PS The Telegraph asks; 'Is there no depths to which bookmakers will not sink to gain some cheap publicity?' 

And, hilariously, won't name the players, or even the 'bookmakers'!

Gus Kenworthy: All American Hero

Towleroad.

1. He's gay!

2. He's hot!

3. He's cute!

4. He's a proud American boy!!!

5. He plays sport, just like a real man. GRRR!!!*

6. We can run lots of pictures of the dude shirtless!

USA! GAY USA! USA!!!

Towleroad, also today.

* Even though this 'freeskiing' thing he does, like the only other 'sports' The Gays are any good at (ice skating, diving, gymnastics, boxing etc), sounds more like dancing than anything tbh.

GT: The Next Chapter

New feel!!???

PS Gay celebrity vloggers - woo!

PPS Doesn't look like they interview Kyle Kittleson, 'the gay Youtube star', who's just come out as a Donald Trump supporter.

The Catholic Church: Who Knew!!???

A senior Vatican priest, stripped of his post after admitting being in a gay relationship, has launched a scathing attack on the Roman Catholic Church.

In a letter to Pope Francis this month, Krzysztof Charamsa accused the Church of making the lives of millions of gay Catholics globally "a hell". 

He criticised what he called the Vatican's hypocrisy in banning gay priests, even though he said the clergy was "full of homosexuals".

Pope Francis has yet to respond...

BBC News.

File under: 'Does the pope shit in the woods?'

Tweet Of The Day: The Modern Parent

The Onion never let's you down. https://t.co/9FmKxmm2oc

— Danny Baker (@prodnose) October 28, 2015

Peak Independent Voices.

PS If you have an issue with this tweet, please take it up with Danny.

Thank you.

Do I Sound Gay?: (Yes)

Self-conscious about the way he speaks, David Thorpe has explored why some people in his community ‘sound gay’ and others don’t in a new documentary... 

“The film is a moment in my life where I don’t have confidence for a number of reasons,” Thorpe says. “Growing up, I was always told that what was wrong with me was that I was gay, so it’s not hard to understand that in a moment of vulnerability I might also feel insecure about my sexuality. And my voice is probably the biggest signifier of that.”

As for talking "normally”, Thorpe has given up the exercises now and has embraced his voice. As Dan Savage, the activist who founded the It Gets Better campaign, says in the film: “What’s wrong with sounding like you are who you are – a gay man?”

Gillian Orr, The Independent.

A good article about gay stuff in the Indy, and Dan Savage saying something Fagburn likes a lot - will wonders never cease?

Here are the UK screenings, at last, starting Friday.

Sir John Gielgud: Trouser Enthusiast

Sir John Gielgud was one of our best-loved actors, but the Oscar-winner has become involved in a highly controversial production from beyond the grave.

A gay porn film for which the celebrated Shakespearean actor secretly wrote the screenplay has been made.

Trouser Bar, which is set in a menswear shop, features unlikely roles for Eighties heart-throb Nigel Havers, 63, camp comedian Julian Clary, 56, and veteran comic Barry Cryer, 80. ‘It’s very light-hearted,’ Havers tells me.

However, the film has caused an outcry from The Sir John Gielgud Charitable Trust, which administers the affairs of the actor, who died in 2000 aged 96.

‘Earlier this year, the trustees decided not to give their permission for it to be produced because they didn’t think it was appropriate,’ one member, Ian Bradshaw, tells me.

‘They didn’t have to go into detail because they own the copyright.’

Gielgud, perhaps best known as Dudley Moore’s butler in the Hollywood comedy Arthur [!!!], was arrested in 1953 and fined for cruising [sic] in a public lavatory.

According to Trouser Bar’s producer, David McGillivray, Sir John was a keen viewer of such material.

‘Pornography is still a stigma in this country, but Sir John loved porn and, in his letters, he talks about visiting gay cinemas,’ says McGillivray.

Daily Mail.

News of this exciting project was first revealed last year.

Fagburn is ever so pleased they've pulled it off, and hopes this can be resolved amicably.

Milo Watch: The Ultimate Troll

At 6’2, punctuated by a tall poof of bleached hair, Yiannopoulos’ real life presence feels as big as his online one. In person, his friends will tell you, he is always “on,” whether he’s railing against the matriarchy, bragging about his own fabulousness or discussing his love of “black dick.” He is a fearsome conversational opponent, quick to dispense the same sharp-tongued, irony-tinged wit that he does in writing whether the topic is Mariah Carey, of who he is a devoted fan, or feminism. Often you find yourself in a sparring match with Yiannopoulos without ever meaning to engage in one. For Yiannopoulos, any interaction is the opportunity for an audience...

Fusion.

Presented without comment.

Owen Jones: The Master

Started saving up for this.

PS £49 x 100... you do the math/s!

Thierry Henry: OK, Bye Now

Thierry Henry Backs Players Coming Out As Gay

The Arsenal legend says he wouldn't have any problem playing alongside a gay teammate and would treat them like everyone else.
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry says it should be "OK by now" for gay footballers to feel comfortable being open about their sexuality.

Speaking on Sky News, Henry said: "We’re living in a different time, a different world, and people should accept that."  ...

Henry, who is a Sky Academy ambassador, said he would have no problems playing alongside a team who was gay.

"It’s not a problem, we’re ultimately there to do a job. Whatever you believe in, whatever you do," he said.

"If I was in a dressing room, that guy would still have been my teammate and I would still give him the ball, and I would still see him the same way, still go out with him.

"We're all human beings at the end of the day, so it doesn't really bother me." ...

Sky News.

You'd pass the ball to a gayer!!!

How fantastically magnanimous of you, Thierry!

Well done.

PS Clearly gay wasn't quite so OK when TH sneered at faggotry in his Va Va Voom ad for Renault.

GLAAD: Numbers

The US pressure group Glaad (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has released its 20th annual report, which tracks the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters on scripted, primetime television.

The study found that while there is increasing LGBT representation on broadcast, cable and streaming television, the characters are overwhelmingly white.

On broadcast networks, 69% of gay characters are white, 19% are black, 7% are Latino and 6% Asian. On cable and streaming platforms respectively, 71% and 73% of gay characters are white.

The success of more racially diverse TV shows including Empire, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder has had some effect, with a 6% rise in gay characters of colour from the year before...

Glaad found that 4% of all regular characters on primetime, scripted television on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW are LGBT, up 1% from the previous year and roughly on a par with the percentage of gay men and lesbians in the US population.

Fewer than half of these LGBT characters were women: 43%, up 3% from the year before but, said the organisation, underrepresenting women in the US population... 

Guardian. 

Forgive me, but apart from Latinos, it sounds like this pretty much reflects estimates of America's LGBT populations, with if anything blacks being over-represented, as are lesbians.

Anyway, well done to the multi-million dollar pink bean counters at GLAAD!

Quantity over quality - fuck yeah!

* US Census 2010 Black 13%, Latino 17%, Asians 5%. Surveys consistently show more men than women identifying as gay or lesbian, often by a figure of two-to-one. There may well be other factors at play, but as we have no idea what makes people homosexual, there is no reason why the numbers should be equal.

Gay Priests: The Virtual Vs The Real

Trailer Documentário Amores Santos from denergiovanini on Vimeo.

After the Polish priest Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa came out as gay, the Vatican is about to suffer another heavy blow. The documentary ‘Amores Santos’ (Sacred Loves), due out in January 2016, tells the story of the priests who lead double-lives, condemning homosexuality from the pulpit but then enjoying virtual gay sex as soon as they get home. The trailer of the film, by Brazilian director Dener Giovanini, shows a handsome young actor who attracts up to 150 priests from 30 different countries on social networks. The director filmed 500 minutes of explicit conversations, in which some priests take part in virtual sex on Skype and Facebook. According to the director, the priests involved were Anglicans, evangelicals and, above all, Catholic.

WEST.

Picked up by most gay media with the usual; 'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! All homophobes are secretly gay!'

But is this legit?

I mean, how does one find just one (1) closeted gay priest on social networks and get them to fess up about their love of cock, never mind 150?

Are there certain keywords you search for?

And getting it on in their robes!!!

Anyway, I'm sure this confusing small paradox will be cleared up in good time.

Sam Smith: Rejoice In That News!

RumorFix.

The Gay Agenda: First They Came For The Sodomy Laws...

Christian friend, if you think this battle was simply about gay marriage you would be sadly mistaken. This battle that has been actively and publicly waged since the mid 90’s for gay rights has always had its goal as the total acceptance of homosexuality in our culture...

This was the progression gay rights advocates have used to try and accomplish their goal of total acceptance of homosexuality:

1. First they argued against Sodomy laws(laws criminalized homosexual sex) as an invasion of privacy and they won with the Supreme Court overturning all Sodomy laws in the United States in 2003(Lawrence v. Texas).

2. At the same time they wage a public relations campaign by pushing Hollywood producers to produce more films and TV shows with gay couples to subtly change public opinion about homosexuality.

3. They then began to push for gay marriage as civil right, as right of equal protection through the Federal appellate courts. They picked the most liberal appellate courts first – and thus forced States where the will of the people had banned gay marriage – to go against their people and allow gay marriage.

4. With most appellate courts coming down in favor of gay marriage – this pressured the swing vote of the Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy, to feel that he had to vote with the other 4 liberal justices to create a new civil right to Gay marriage.

5. Shut down all public condemnation of homosexuality, all “gay to straight” conversion programs, and all Christian businesses that refuse to service gay weddings or events that honor homosexual relationships.

From the fun-packed Christian website Biblical Gender Roles - motto; 'Peace comes through living the way our creator designed us to'.

Wise words.

They're in the news today after the Mail noted some of their tip-top tips; Christian website sparks fury for advising husbands to avoid wives' faces during sex if their spouses don't want intercourse - after saying there's no such thing as marital rape.

Close your eyes and think of JAYSUS!!!

Ben Whishaw: The Spy Who Loved D

London Spy is the story of a chance romance between two people from very different worlds, one from the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, the other from a world of clubbing and youthful excess.

Whishaw plays Danny – gregarious, hedonistic, romantic and adrift, who falls for the anti-social enigmatic and brilliant Alex (played by [Edward] Holcroft). Just as the two of them realise that they're perfect for each other, Alex is found dead. Danny, utterly ill-equipped to take on the complex and codified world of British espionage, must decide whether he's prepared to fight for the truth...

BBC blurb.

The first screenplay by acclaimed thriller writer Tom Rob Smith, London Spy stars Whishaw as Danny, an openly gay drifter who falls in love with the enigmatic Alex, a closeted investment banker (or so he claims). It would be wrong of me to give too much away, suffice to say that the story would seem to be inspired in part by the real-life case of Gareth Williams, the M16 agent whose corpse was found locked in a holdall in 2010.

For Whishaw, who has played so many vacillating characters over the years – from Shakespeare’s ultimate ditherer, Hamlet, to the bisexual John in Mike Bartlett’s Royal Court play Cock – Danny’s unambiguous sexuality makes a welcome change. “That’s one thing he’s very clear about and very strongly embodies and no problem,” says Whishaw, who himself came out as a gay man in 2013, after the Daily Mail started digging around in his private life...

While Whishaw delved into the history of M16 for his role in Spectre, he says he deliberately avoided research for London Spy. “Because Danny is not from the world that he finds himself thrust into, it was very important to that he doesn’t know he’s in a spy drama,” he says of a character that reminds him of many people he knows. “He has never found a path really, I suppose… lots of potential that’s never been realised or properly tapped into. Yeah, he’s lost in a way that’s so easy to happen in London.”

Independent, October 23rd.

PS It looks like the Freddie Mercury biopic, somewhat inexplicably set to star gentle Ben, is 'trapped in development hell'.

Marc Jacobs: Sometimes Enjoys Sex Non-Shocker

‘Yup. I’m gay. Sometimes I enjoy sex. Sometimes! #stillonlyhuman #callmemarc #yourstotry…maybe.’

Marc Jacobs' Instagram.

Posted after reports online such as; 'the single designer hosted an orgy over the weekend with up to 10 people, whom he invited via Grindr.'

Marc also posted; 'If you were a real writer and not the parasite feeding off of the successes and failures of others I wouldn’t bother writing my thoughts here. I do feel sorry for you. Please know you are in my prayers. I hope you will someday find something, somewhere that gives you pleasure…and not at another’s expense. Should that moment happen for you, please don’t thank me. I only wish the best for everyone. Even you. Sincerely and disrespectfully, Marc (Jacobs). #lethimwhoiswithoutsincastthefirststone #youwannacomeforme'

Funny, even most Mail Online readers think this is no biggy.

Of course, the nuns and nerds who write for the gay media queued up to say they thought MJ's response was SPECTACULAR, INCREDIBLE, PRETTY EPIC, HILARIOUS!!! etc.

Even though this is about one of those ('alleged') chemsex parties they're usually demonising and shaming.

Irony, stupidity or hypocrisy?

I'll let you, dear reader, decide. 

Free Speech: Transgressions

With gay marriage now legal in America, there is also the sense among online social justice communities that trans rights are “the new civil rights frontier” (as Time magazine wrote next to a photo of Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox). Social media has acted like an accelerant on this fire: sites like Buzzfeed and Huffington Post’s LGBT section offer uplifting tales of transgender children’s achievements and famous adults coming out, alternating with occasional three-minute hates for “TERFs” (trans exclusionary radical feminists), a group who are said to be inciting violence against trans women by refusing to accept them as women. Sharing such articles has become a badge of progressive correctness. The word “TERF” is sprayed around like confetti, with very little understanding of what it means. I’ve been called a TERF, even though I think trans women are women and absolutely have a place in feminism. I think it’s become a politer way of saying “witch”...

Helen Lewis, New Statesman.

The censorship movement thrives off a sense of victimhood, the idea there are powerful forces denying them their room to speak. When journalists or debate organisers actively seek out their opinions, it is interpreted as aggression because it must be filtered through the required prism of conspiracy and suspicion.

That sense of victimhood is combined with a constant demand for political purity, whipped into a tribal frenzy by social media. Any deviation from the moral lines of the tribe is treated as harshly as possible, typically with Twitter users encouraging their followers to pile on the transgressor. The storms they create are man-made. They are not just the result of many individual decisions. Usually, they are whipped up and encouraged by a small number of prominent social media users...

Ian Dunt, Free Speech Isn't All About You, Politics.co.uk

See also Zoe Williams, Silencing Germaine Greer Will Let Prejudice Against Trans People Flourish, and Hugo Rifkind in The Times today, on l'affaire Greer, Right-on Bigots Are Their Own Worst Enemy. 

And Roger Scruton's A Point Of View: Why We Should Demand The Right To Be Offensive.

Yes, he's a right-wing shitbag, but often they seem to be the only people daring to speak out about this pitchfork-waving Victim Olympics nonsense.

The above quotes and citations also should not be seen as an endorsement of anything else they've written neither, obvs.

And nobody's defending Germaine Greer's odious comments, so don't be silly.

Hysteria Watch: Ban The Banger!

Did the World Health Organization (WHO) say that processed meat is as likely to cause cancer as smoking? No.

If something is unlikely, and then its chances of happening go up by 20%, it’s probably still quite unlikely.

Full Fact.

Amazing how so many journalists will happily whip up hysteria about a statistically insignificant 'problem' by pushing junk science and dodgy data.

Did someone say 'chemsex'?

Anyone for 'slamming'?

James Bond: 'The Name's Moron, Piers Moron...'

If James Bond’s gay, then the whole tone of the franchise has to go gay too.

His lovers would be gay men, Bond Girls would become Bond Boys.

‘What’s the problem with that?’ I hear the PC brigade howl (they always howl, FYI.)

Well, nothing. Except I wouldn’t want to watch that, and nor I suspect would the vast majority of Bond movie fans.

So the film would tank, and the franchise would die.

This is not homophobia – I think I proved my anti-homophobia chops on air at CNN and regularly on social media - it’s simple commercial reality.

Bond’s 50-year brand has been built on a clear, definable platform of him being a ruthless, womanising assassin.

And it’s been one of the most enduring, successful brands in the history of cinema.

 For an example of what can go wrong if you dupe an audience, take the case of George Michael.

He had a brilliant pop career, right up to the moment where he came out as gay.

Then his record sales fell off a cliff. *

It wasn’t his sexuality that was the problem. It was the fact that he’d misled millions of adoring female fans for years into thinking he was a straight guy who wanted to bed them.

George’s brand was the great romantic seducer of, and crooner to, women – and when his closet sprang gloriously open, many of those women ran for the hills of Justin Timberlake.

So no, James Bond can’t be gay. It just wouldn’t work.

(I doubt even the gay community really wants Bond to be gay – right now, he surely remains the ultimate unobtainable challenge?) ...

Daily Mail.

Piers Morgan weighs in on one of the most pressing issues of the day.

Ironically sounding like one of James Bond's biggest fans, Alan Partridge.

Once more... James Bond is a fictional character.

* Possibly Freudian choice of words here.

PS Here's an interview with Mark O'Connell author of the acclaimed Catching Bullets: Memoirs Of A [Gay] Bond Fan. 

@Fagburn Hey. Oh that old one. He isn't but is easily able to pretend otherwise if the mission needs it. He likes to help out at weekends!

— Mark O'Connell (@Mark0Connell) October 29, 2015

Media Studies: The First Rule Of Gay Journalism

Gay Star News, obvs.

Is to be easily pleased.

Owen Jones Watch: Well Deserved

Very sweet of @stonewalluk to nominate me for Journalist of the Decade. Nice just to be shortlisted. So thanks.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) October 26, 2015

Yes, very sweet, but a bit odd when the number of articles you've written on LGBT issues in the last ten years barely makes it into double figures.

Poland: Solidarity!

Poland's opposition Law and Justice party - conservative and Eurosceptic - has won parliamentary elections.

The party is expected to have enough seats to govern alone - something unprecedented in 26 years. Exit polls suggest it got 39% of the vote.

Its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski [left] claimed victory, and the outgoing Prime Minister, Ewa Kopacz of the centrist Civic Platform, admitted defeat...

BBC News.

Many congrats to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a notorious homosexual with an interesting sideline in far right homophobic rhetoric.

Great to have you back on top!

Joke Of The Day: David Cameron

Guardian.

Oh do fuck off.

Football: Shaw Thing

But why did you have to clarify? And why is it headline news that two footballers are gay? Blah blah blah... Role models are important... To have two openly gay footballers in the Premier League would send a powerful message.... Blah blah blah...

Ruth Hunt, head honcho at Stonewall, Independent Voices.

If loads of people are tweeting that he's gay, what's wrong with him gently pointing out that he's not?

With a peace sign and a smiley face!

The article ends with a plug for Stonewall's 'campaign to combat homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in sport'. 

'Over the last two years we’ve sent a pair of Rainbow Laces to every professional footballer in the country and encouraged them to lace up and tackle the problem once and for all.'

Take that homophobia in sport!

Ah well, at least she didn't say 'IT'S THE LAST TABOO!!!'

PS 'My only concern is that this doesn’t cause a bit of a witch-hunt. On social media, people are already starting to guess who they think it is. 

'I can’t help but feel this is testing the water to see what the media and public reaction is to this story, which may inform the players whether or not they think coming out is a good idea at this time.' 

Ed Connell, chair of GFSN [Gay Football Supporters Network], quoted in The Telegraph.

Yup.

Local News: Central Somerset Gazette

Via Danny Dutch.

Warning: This becomes far less amusing very quickly.

Art News: Toy Boys

The Huffington Post: How did you begin using action figures to depict different aspects of gay culture? How did your work evolve? 
 
William Giancursio: When I grew up, if boys played with dolls they were considered sissies. When Ken, G.I. Joe and all of the rest of the action figures came along, I was too old to play with toys, but the appeal of playing with these toys and all of their clothes and accoutrements remained. What better way to secretly embrace childhood once again? As children, life was so enchanting in our imaginary world of playful escapism. And so the idea of using toys to represent gay men was born, and evolved from simple and carefree, to serious and thought-provoking. The toys, once considered elements of carefree play, took on different meanings when faced with the reality of life's complexity. The ambiguity of a grown up reality disguised as carefree play became the impetus for my work for many years to come.

Huffpost Gay Voices - where else?

LOL!

Showbusiness: In The Absence Of News

Roger Moore, who please bear in mind is 88, says that James Bond, who please bear in mind is an entirely fictional character, can not be gay or 'a lady Bond' * A 'really adorable gay couple' (barf!) didn't make it to the X Factor final * Sir Tim Rice makes a completely unconvincing case that the 'baffling lyrics' to Bohemian Rhapsody was 'Freddie's coming out song'; '"I see a little silhouetto of a man” – that’s him, still being haunted by what he’s done, and what he is.'" An interpretation of the next line 'Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?' is sadly omitted * Will 'Nice But Dim' Young says in 2012 he checked into a clinic and was told he had post-fame PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). 'I must admit I am baffled. I thought PTSD was linked to single events — a bomb explosion in Iraq, say, or a car crash,' notes The Times' journalist wrily * Mark Feehily, he was the gay one in Westlife you may just recall, has made his first solo album. He has written some songs about his ex-boyfriends. Expected sales: 27 * Everybody loves 'impish star' Ben Whishaw, 'the delicate frame and gentle voice of... MI6’s resident geek, Q...' * Vincent Price might have been bisexual * Casey Conway, another retired rugby player you've never heard of before is gay, he's now pushing over-priced swimwear * Nobody has a clue who those two gay footballers could be, or indeed if they exist * More boring showiz gossip when we hear it...