Sam Smith: Even If This Isn't The Case

He should be bathing in Oscar glory right now, but instead Sam Smith has woken up to a huge backlash after suggesting he might be the first openly gay man to win an Academy Award.

He’s since followed that up by asserting – wrongly – that he is the second.

Picking up his Oscar for Best Original Song for Bond theme Writing’s On The Wall, Smith said: "I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellan and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar.

“If this is the case – even if it isn't the case – I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world."

What McKellen had actually said, in an interview in January, was that no openly gay man had ever won Best Actor.

While Smith’s heart might have been in the right place, social media is an unforgiving world.

The singer was quickly slapped down by those watching the awards on Twitter, who posted pictures of previous openly gay Oscar winners.

Among them was Dustin Lance Black, winner of Best Screenplay for Milk in 2009, who didn’t hold back.

The screenwriter, who is engaged to British diver Tom Daley, tweeted a clip his own Oscar acceptance speech, and said: “Hey @SamSmithWorld, if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé. Here's a start.” ...

Hey @SamSmithWorld, if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé. Here's a start: https://t.co/8hGTRtIaMK

— Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) February 29, 2016

Smith is not the first or second openly gay man to win an Oscar. He’s not even the first or second to win best original song.

Stephen Sondheim and Elton John both picked up the same award, in 1990 and 1994 respectively.

Disney lyricist Howard Ashman, who died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 40, won two – for Under The Sea from the Little Mermaid in 1989 and a posthumous honour for Beauty and The Beast.

If we’re talking about people and not just men, then singer songwriter Melissa Etheridge also won for Best Original Song in 2007 for I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth.

Outside of his own category, Linda Hunt, Sir John Gielgud, John Schlesinger, Scott Rudin, Bill Condon and Alan Ball are all Oscar recipients.

But the list is not exhaustive and it is perhaps unfortunate that the crux of what Smith was trying to say will get lost amid the outrage...

The Independent.

Love all the journalists getting on their high horses about this, when they clearly had to Google who are the other (out?) gay Academy Award winners.

New Day: Looking Old

Proudly aimed at the busy middle-aged working woman, but with less of the bad news and health scares of the Mail et al.

I, for one, am positively hooked!

Attitude: The The

Dear The Attitude,

Neither Pet Shop Boys or Sleaford Mods have a 'the'.

Thanks. x

PS Pet Shop Boys Symposium, Edinburgh College Of Art. 'Analysing pop music is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.' Discuss.

PPS Forthcoming 4-part Radio 2 documentary, Chart, celebrating PSB's 30 years in the business of show.

Donald Trump: Promises Promises

Mark Steel in The Independent.

Sounds about as attractive as I'd Bottom for Hillary.

Elliott Johnson: Bullied To Death?

The young Conservative activist whose suicide sparked the Tatler Tory bullying scandal had battled with depression for years, an official police report has concluded.

Elliott Johnson, 21, tried to kill himself three times in his teens, and had found it difficult that his parents struggled to accept his homosexuality, detectives found.

He killed himself on a railway line in September, leaving a suicide note accusing senior election aide Mark Clarke, 38, of bullying him...

Daily Mail.

No prizes for guessing the only journalist to wonder if Johnson was a gayer, and if that might be the backstory here.

PS His secret gay lover! (Alleged).

And from The Guardian March 3rd...

Last week, the police report to the coroner was leaked to the Daily Mail which then reported that Johnson had made three previous attempts to kill himself and had rowed with his parents about his sexuality.

The article alleged that in a note left, Johnson had said his parents had not come to terms with the fact that he was gay. The implications seemed obvious – that Elliott’s death was inevitable, and that the parents’ attitude had contributed. It has left them wretched.

“You yourself have seen the suicide note,” Ray says to me, “ and there is no mention of his sexuality. That really knocked us back. It upset us greatly. They obviously put it there to deflect responsibility for his death away from the people who are responsible and try to put the blame on us.”

Not my interpretation, but there you go.

TV: The Great British Sex Survey

Boring, joyless, prurient, badly done - I lost interest after about ten minutes.

Watch it here.

PS Only watched it as some pre-publicity suggested this was a 'Philippa Perry Presents...' thing.

Sadly, her insightful contributions seemed tacked on.

She's interviewed by Radio Times this week, who keep wanting to talk about Grayson.

Gays In The News: A Chihuahua

A man has been accused of stabbing his gay porn star boyfriend’s pet chihuahua to death while in a New York park.

Jose Luis Rodriguez, 39, of Manhattan, had been looking after boyfriend Randy Capehart’s dog Buddy, while the porn star went to Texas for his grandmother’s funeral.

However, the New York Post, reported that Randy, who is also known as Vin Nolan, awoke to calls on Saturday morning saying Buddy was dead.

Rodriguez, who has been partners with Capehart for 13 years, was arrested at 10.30am that day close to John Jay Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the incident was said to have taken place.

Capehart paid tribute to his beloved pet on Facebook the same day, writing: ‘It’s with a heavy heart I have to announce the passing of my beautiful sweet innocent Buddy.'

Metro.

Stephen Fry: Save Our Children

Saw a huge poster for this at Brighton Station.

How bold of Save A Child to get the notorious cradle-snatcher Stephen Fry to front this campaign, I thought.

Fagburn: Absence

I'm going away for a bit cause it's my mum's funeral.

x

Hockney: Portrait Of An Artist

Tate Britain is to stage one of the biggest shows it has ever organised – an extensive retrospective of the work of David Hockney, one of the most recognisable and popular artists active today.

Details of the show, which will cover six decades of Hockney’s work, will be announced on Monday. It will open in London in 2017 before travelling to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York...

Hockney said he had enjoyed revisiting works he made decades ago. “Many of them seem like old friends to me now.

“We’re looking over a lifetime with this exhibition, and I hope, like me, people will enjoy seeing how the roots of my new and recent work can be seen in the developments over the years.”

The show will offer a full overview of his career from very early work, such as the proudly homoerotic Love paintings of 1960-61; to his many portraits of family, friends and himself; his love affair with the boys and swimming pools of Los Angeles; to the Yorkshire Wolds landscapes of the 2000s and the work he has been making since he returned to California in 2013...

Guardian.

Valentino: Pink Powder Puff

It began with an editorial in the Chicago Tribune, a spiteful piece of writing that manages to be both racist and homophobic. The writer declares himself outraged to find a face-powder dispenser in a men’s bathroom, and places the blame on a movie star. Valentino had turned America’s women on to sex, and now, allegedly, he had turned America’s men on to male grooming. “Homo Americanus! Why didn’t someone quietly drown Rudolph Guglielmo, alias Valentino, years ago? … Hollywood is a national school of masculinity. Rudy, the beautiful gardener’s boy, is the prototype of the American male. Hell’s bells. Oh, sugar.”

Valentino responded with an angry letter to a rival paper “You cast doubt upon my manhood … I defy you to meet me in the boxing … arena.” He saw the “pink powder puff” attack as racist in its motivation, because he was a foreigner working in the US. When the writer, who it turned out was sick with TB, failed to respond, Valentino flexed his muscles by decking a couple of stooges in exhibition matches in New York and Chicago instead. Ken Russell’s version of events is naturally far more dramatic, with Nureyev squaring up to a beefy hack played by Peter Vaughan and tackling a drinking contest as a sequel to the bout...

The Guardian.

Hollywood: World Centre Of Homophobia

A new report has condemned Hollywood film and television studios for not giving enough screen time to the LGBT community and other minorities.

Just days before the Oscars, the study produced by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern Cali­for­nia found that across ten major outlets, everyone of them failed to be diverse.

“We don’t have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis,” said Professor Stacy L. Smith – one of the reports authors.

The study examined 109 films and 305 first run TV shows between 2014 and 2015 and found that after analysing more than 11,000 speaking roles, less than two percent identified as LGBT.

Of this, only seven were transgender and four of them from the same TV show.

The report also condemned the fact that women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented and accused Hollywood of “whitewashing”.When we start to step back to see this larger ecology, I think we see a picture of exclusion," added Professor Smith. "And it doesn't match the norms of the population of the United States." ...

Pink News.

This really is first class nonsense.

LOL! etc.

This is the kind of junk GLAAD do with their annual surveys of LGBT representation in the media - sit and watch a film, stopwatch in hand.

• Hollywood still 'straight, white, boys club' finds major diversity survey, Guardian.

Brighton Festival: Stella

As per, there is only one thing Fagburn is looking forward to at this year's Brighton Festival; Neil Bartlett's new work Stella, about Ernest Boulton of Fanny and Stella infamy.

Other gay-related stuff is available.

Peter Tatchell Watch: In The Realm Of The Censor

Independent.

Oh for the love of Chomsky, Tatchell hasn't been censored, so crap off.

He does however have a long history of trying to censor others.

An Open Letter On Peter Tatchell, Censorship And Criticism.

Tim Cook: Bad Apple

Cycling home in Alabama one day on his new 10-speed bike, an adolescent Tim Cook saw a large cross in front of a house he knew belonged to a black family. Gathered around the cross were members of the Ku Klux Klan in conical hoods and white cloaks. Cook heard the sound of breaking glass — perhaps a stone hitting a window — and instinctively yelled: “Stop!” One of the Klansmen raised his hood and Cook recognised him as the deacon of a local church.

Startled, Cook rode off, but he says he has never forgotten that scene. The incident goes some way to explaining his obsession with “doing things right” and his distrust of authority figures. The Apple chief executive, now 55, is the first head of a Fortune 500 company to come out as gay and has bluntly told investors who fear the company’s environmental policy may adversely affect its profits to “get out of this stock”.

Now he is embroiled in a stand-off with the American government. A federal court has ordered Apple to help the FBI break into an iPhone used by one of the pair who launched an Isis-inspired gun attack in San Bernardino, California, in December, killing 14... 

Little was known about Cook’s private life, so it was a surprise when he outed himself in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek in 2014. He said if someone struggling to come to terms with their sexuality was helped by hearing the chief executive of Apple was gay, it would be a fair trade-off for his privacy.

“Part of social progress is understanding that a person is not defined only by one’s sexuality or race or gender,” he wrote. “I’m an engineer, an uncle, a nature lover, a fitness nut, a son of the South, a sports fanatic and many other things.”

Apple, under his stewardship, was taking a lead on equality and human rights, he said. Tell that to the FBI: the fight over privacy isn’t finished yet. 

Sunday Times.

A positively glowing profile that elevates Mr Cook to near god-like status, glossing over any bad stuff Apple's done.

I love how the gay media will report on almost anything Apple does because CEO TIM COOK IS OPENLY GAY, even if it has nothing really to do with him, never mind with him being OPENLY GAY, but all their well-documented evil business practices are dropped down the memory hole.

Gay MPs: Stiff Members

LGBT History Month is celebrated in February – and this photograph of 28 MPs and peers is a bit of history in itself, as it is the largest number of publicly out parliamentarians pictured together at one time, from a parliament with more gay members than any in the world...

Independent On Sunday, apropos of fuck all.

We've got the highest number of out gay crooks and liars in the world!

Wooh! etc.

The IoS provide a handy Who's Who guide.

Remember their names, come the revolution these motherfuckers will be the first against the wall.

PS There's also a collection of glib platitudes by Chris Bryant and David Mundell, Secretary Of State for Scotland, who came out a few weeks ago and is now an expert on all things gay.

Cliff Richard: Move It

A police chief has ­dramatically weighed into the Cliff Richard ­investigation – telling detectives on the case to “put up or shut up”.

Antony Stansfield, Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, also blasted the infamous raid on the star’s home which took place on his patch.

He revealed he had no prior warning South Yorkshire officers planned to turn up – a decision that left him appalled.

And Mr Stansfield says the length of time Sir Cliff has been left in the dark is unacceptable. The star has never been arrested or charged.;;

The police chief’s attack comes just two weeks after we revealed the Crown Prosecution Service had still not received a police file over allegations of historical sex abuse.

Mr Stansfield, 70, said: “You either put up or shut up, and this clearly has not happened in this case.  

“He’s never been charged. But two years later I would have thought something should have happened.”

A former Army major, he said he was shocked when South Yorkshire Police turned up for the raid on the star’s £3.5million Berkshire home in August 2014 with a BBC helicopter camera crew in tow while the singer was in Portugal.

“I thought that was the most extraordinary behaviour. I certainly didn’t know it was happening", said Mr Stansfield.

His remarks – made in an interview with new Sunday Mirror columnist Anne Diamond on her BBC Berkshire radio show – come as Sir Cliff, 75, remains “shocked and strained” by the inquiry and continues to dismiss sex abuse claims as “completely false”...

Sunday Mirror.

And meanwhile in their sister paper, the Sunday People.

This is breathtaking.

The People has been the main peddler of the ludicrous boy rape and murder fantasies of 'Nick', fed to them by the liars at Exaro News!

Boxing News: On The Ropes

NIKE has announced it will no longer sponsor Manny Pacquiao after he called homosexuals “worse than animals”.

“It’s common sense,” Pacquiao raved. “Do you see animals mating with the same sex?”

Perhaps not mating, Manny, but my dog Stan has an unusually close relationship with a Mini Schnauzer called Max. They can’t pass each other without a quick sniff of their butts.

Pacquiao issued a feeble apology for his homophobic ravings but the damage is done.

The fighter, who has been a proud champion for the Filipino people, has tarred himself as a small-minded bigot.

What is it with boxing and gay people? First Tyson Fury and now Pacquiao.

Both should be lauded as brave, skilful boxers.

But both are now widely thought of as small-minded idiots who share the prejudices of the Islamic State bigots who throw gays from rooftops.

It is weird that boxing should have this problem – the only sport where half-naked men routinely embrace at the end of a competition.

But the problem is not boxing. The problem is religion.

Both of the boxers who have ranted against homosexuality are committed Christians.

Like Fury before him, Pacquiao reminds us that few human beings are improved by deeply held religious beliefs. 

Tony Parsons, The Sun On Sunday. 

Glad someone pointed out Pacquiao and Fury's homophobia comes from their christianity, and this isn't a boxing thing.

How could it be?

Boxing's almost as gay as diving.

PS Great to see the free speech-hating Pink News has started one of their hysterical, relentless campaigns to have the infidel Pacquiao burnt at the stake (currently filing two (non) stories a day!)

Queerty: Holes

Queerty has gone back to running the most ludicrous stories they can find on Reddit.

Both these stories - 'heart-warming', 'adorable' sentimental vomit, natch - have more holes in them than a can of spaghetti hoops.

I'm really not sure if the journalists are completely thick, will run any old nonsense to fill a space. or if they have nothing but contempt for their readers.

Probably a bit of all three, eh?

Further proof that the only 'qualifications' you really need to be a gay journalist are to be easily pleased and easily deceived.

PS See also Gullible Star News.

Peter Tatchell: Poor Me

The Guardian.

Peter might want to think about why so many 'attacks' - meaning criticisms - now come from people on the left.

Wet wanky liberals adore him * - and this profile is a wonderful/woeful example of that.

Nothing he says is challenged, not one difficult question is asked, no critical observation is made.

And, as seems usual in these things, the rather 'imaginative' account of Tatchell's biography - oh great hero, oh brave martyr - could have come straight from a press release from Saint Peter himself.

This belongs in a fanzine, not The Guardian.

* See the readers' comments for more hilarious examples; 'Unsung hero' (!), 'So brave', 'deserves a knighthood' etc etc

George Michael: I Knew You Were Waiting

GEORGE Michael is plotting a sensational return to the music industry.

The Sun can reveal the troubled star, 52, has been in touch with insurance companies about touring again.

A source said: “This is a big step for George. There was a time when it seemed he might never make another public appearance.

“Friends said he was scared and had lost his confidence. But if he’s asking about the logistics of getting back on the road it shows he must be improving.

“It’s not clear if he’d be planning a major tour but festival slots and one-off appearances look extremely likely.

“Demand for him as a live act has never wavered.” His last stage appearance was in September 2012 and George is since believed to have spent much of his time in rehab.

The Sun on Sunday told last year how the former Wham! star’s friends feared he had become a “total recluse”...

The Sun. 

I'm sure he'll tour again eventually, but if he was planning anything, The Sun would be the last to know.

Henry James: Portrait Of A Lady

Even though they worked hard at sanitising the letters, the family still worried that too much had been revealed. A year after the edition appeared Alice wrote to her son Harry: “People are putting a vile interpretation on his silly letters to young men. Poor dear Uncle Henry.” Later, Harry regretted giving permission to EF Benson to publish a volume of James’s letters to him. They included passages such as “Why aren’t you here to take a good Devonshire walk with me? I hang over a green garden and a blue sea from a big balcony… There would be room on the balcony even for your inches or cigarettes, even for Apollo’s lips” or “I am divided between 2 sensations – panting for to-morrow pm and blushing for all the hours of the past days.” ...

Colm Tóibín, The Guardian.

Couldn't happen now, of course.*

* Sarcasm.

Kenneth Williams: On The Radio

Marking the 90th anniversary of the birth of a legend of entertainment, actor Robin Sebastian exposes his inner Kenneth Williams to introduce a collection of the Carry-On star's radio highlights.

Including contributions from biographer Christopher Stevens and broadcaster Russell Davies, explore Williams' popular characters like Ramblin' Syd Rumpo and look back with laughter at classic episodes. Discover Kenneth in a darker mood in a radio adaption of a Gogol story...

Williams On The Wireless, BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Three hours-worth - bona.

Please don't let there be too much of Robin Sebastian doing his annoyingly OTT 'impressions'.

Update: A strange collection, eg an episode of Just A Minute with Kenny as the host, not a contestant. More over, he was at his best and his funniest telling stories, the BBC must have so much of this archived, but we heard not one.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Behind The Spandex

One of the original Power Rangers stars quit because he was the victim of homophobic bullying.

David Yost played the original Blue Ranger/Billy Cranston in the 1990s TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and became a fan favourite.

In a 2010 interview that has resurfaced online this week, Yost opened up about his reasons for quitting the show in 1996 – and the reasons might ruin your childhood memories.

Speaking at the Anime Festival Orlando 2010, he said he fell out with the show’s production team and creators because of his sexuality.

He said that his co-stars were repeatedly quizzed about what they knew about his sexuality, and he was also the victim of vile homophobic abuse.

He said: “I walked off set one day during the middle of lunch – I had made a decision, I had been thinking about it for a good week, and the reason I walked off was because I was called faggot one too many times.

“I had heard that several times while working on the show from creators, producers, writers, directors.

“It’s not that people can’t talk about me, and have their opinion about me – but continuing to work in an environment like that is really difficult."

He added: “That’s the vibe I was getting. I know my co-stars were getting called in a couple times to different producers’ offices to be questioned about my sexuality, which is a humiliating experience.

“There were a lot of issues – it felt like a bad marriage. I could either stay and finish six more months, or just go – and I was worried about my life. “I was worried I might take my own life, and in order to get a handle in what was going on, I needed to leave when I left. That’s why I left the show.” ...

Pink News. 

When two notoriously homophobic worlds - Hollywood and kids' TV - collide!

I am convinced this happened exactly as described!

LGBT Charities: Under Pressure

In recent months, an alarming number LGBT charities have been forced to shut their doors, with many others looking set to follow suit. Last month, Pace, a London-based charityworking on LGBT mental health unexpectedly shut up shop. Just last week, the UK's only LGBT domestic violence charity, Broken Rainbow, announced that it is once again facing closure. Now Mosaic Youth, a North London charity supporting young LGBT people with counselling, mentoring and a youth club will become the next victim.

As ever, the picture is even bleaker outside the confines of London. Since 2010, the number of LGBT youth groups in the North West run by local councils has dropped by a staggering 58%. Of the 35 charities once providing invaluable support to struggling queers, only 15 remain.

LGBT service providers aren't just comforting yet irrelevant safety nets now that #LoveWins. They're the ones supporting the trans kids driven to suicide by brutal, state-sanctioned hatred. They're the ones who are helping queers cope with the stigma of HIV as the pandemic rages on. They're the ones rescuing people of all genders and sexualities from life-threatening domestic abuse. They aren't a privilege, or a relic of a bygone era. They're saving lives on a daily basis...
Michael Segalov and Edward Siddons, Vice.

Seth Bogart: Post Hunx

Seth Bogart releases his eponymous kinda debut solo album today.

Enjoy your weekend.
x

Harper Lee: 1926-2016

Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill A Mockingbird, which her childhood friend, Truman Capote had to rewrite, though in turn her contribution to In Cold Blood was also unacknowledged, let's forget about that 'sequel', lesbian of note, devoted mother of Bruce and Christopher.

No-Platforming: A Golden Age

Bindel and Tatchell as activists for feminism and gay rights have recognised the truth about free speech: free speech is in the eye of the beholder. It is the frequent defence of the oppressor who knows that minorities lack the same power to exercise their own free speech in approved ways.

Bindel and Tatchell sought to express their politics and defend against powerful majorities using whatever tactics they could to rectify an imbalance of power in society in favour of women and gay people. How strange that now they scorn this in students and trans people.

No-platforming is as valid a means to exercise free speech as any other. We are not in a declining era of free speech - but we appear to be in a golden age of entitled hypocrisy.

Sean Faye, Independent Voices.

Best thing I've read all week.

Though the list of Tatchell's long-standing and passionate opposition to free speech is far, far longer than indicated here.

For the record, I should stress I'm against no-platforming.

PS Statement Of Solidarity With Fran Cowling, Solidarity For Students.

We are appalled at Peter Tatchell’s actions in dragging a dedicated, hard-working and passionate activist through an appalling media circus which has led to them receiving a torrent of vile abuse with no other apparent purpose than to salve his own ego.

Gay Christians: Articles I'll Never Read Part 279

Spectator.

Oscars: Straight Acting

The Advocate.

RTUK: Presents Britain's Funniest Gay Comedian

I actually feel rather sorry for Peter right now.

It can't be much fun knowing everyone's talking about what a hypocrite, bully and deranged egomaniac you are.

Was sent this by RTUK - I asked if they could film Saint Pater making an apology to Fran Cowling...

PS The desperate reverse ferret continues. Has it taken you six days to clarify this?

@JonWarner9 I was not no-platformed. I wish people (not you) would stop saying I was. Fran had every right to not share a platform with me.

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) February 19, 2016

Grayson Perry: Man Made

Pretty slim pickings in today's papers but The Guardian has published a selection from Grayson Perry's sketchbooks.

Laters, I've got important things to do. x

• Sketchbooks by Grayson Perry is published by Particular next week. Grayson Perry: All Man begins on Channel 4 'in the spring'.

Ted Heath: Police Wasting Their Own Time

Residents of Wiltshire would be well advised to invest in new safety locks, high-tech alarms and alsatian dogs. Their constables are busy elsewhere.

As The Times discloses today, the county’s finest are going to be occupied for the next year or so working their way through 4,500 crates of the late Edward Heath’s private papers. This will be in an attempt to shed light on sexual offences allegedly committed by the former prime minister. The officers are determined to leave no stone (or piece of paper) unturned. Not only will they be embarking on industrial levels of research in the Bodleian Library, they will also be questioning people who crewed on his yacht, housekeepers, drivers, musicians and political aides.

One by one, claims against Heath have fallen apart as soon as they have been subjected to minimal scrutiny. Other forces have been tugged into this increasingly grotesque case. An allegation that Heath moored Morning Cloud off Jersey to use the yacht to abuse and murder local care home boys was quickly exposed as nonsense. It was a racing vessel that needed a three-man crew and had no private space.

It could of course be that the police have found a credible victim who can give substance to the many extravagant claims. They have, however, made no such public pronouncement. Most of the allegations, notably those stemming from testimony made by the informant “Nick”, seem to be built on foundations of fantasy. Instead the investigation is an opportunity for police grandstanding. Superintendent Sean Memory of Wiltshire police set the tone last year by addressing the public outside Heath’s former home.

Some forces seem to have suspended their power of judgment, such is their fear in the post-Savile era of being accused of a cover-up. It’s time they recovered a sense of proportion.

Times editorial. 

What the fuck is this meant to achieve?

Do you really think he would have donated some secret diaries about child rape and murder to Oxford?

Unfuckingbelievable.

Nick Grimshaw: Do Fear The Reaper

This is terrible news - the man's career is in tatters.

He'll be back on North Norfolk Digital by June, mark my words.

Bentcousin: Advertisement

Fagburn's close personal showbiz pals, Bentcousin, release their debut album today.

Here's their website.

x

Norfolk Police Firearms Unit: Rainbow Laces

Norfolk Constabulary’s firearms unit can ‘string a rainbow’ after they joined Stonewall’s national Rainbow Laces campaign against homophobia.

The constabulary’s firearms unit have joined the campaign as another gesture of support for Norfolk’s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) communities during LGBT History Month.

The Rainbow Laces campaign originated as a means of removing homophobia from sports, playing fields, terraces and stadiums across the country, with the campaign now having extended to organisations and public services to fight homophobic stigma and abuse.

Norfolk Police have already displayed the rainbow flag – a universally recognised symbol in support of LGBT pride – outside their headquarters in Wymondham during February and are continuing to promote initiatives throughout the month.

Inspector Lou Provart, Co-Chair of the National LGBT Network, said: "Norfolk Constabulary has a long history of supporting our LGBT staff and wider LGBT communities, as well as challenging stereotypes in all forms.

"It has been fantastic to work with our Firearms Training Department as well as the Norfolk Fire Urban Search and Rescue Team to clearly demonstrate just that." ...

Norfolk Constabulary.

Via How Upsetting.

The Economist: Corporate Irresponsibilty

LGBT people should not wait for business to help them, argues @HumanDignityT. #LGBTbusiness https://t.co/jRGgF98IcT pic.twitter.com/aQoAtrw7YH

— The Economist (@EconBritain) February 18, 2016

There will never be a way to hold businesses to account for standing by and not using their financial muscle to the utmost to fight for LGBT rights. However, governments can be held to account for violating their obligations under international law. The UN and other such organisations give us a mechanism. Governments have rules they are bound to follow, and the criminalisation of homosexuality violates all of them...

Big business has a role to play and I am grateful when it chooses to use its influence. But it is just that: a choice, dependent on the whims of those at the top. We can see already that the energy and efforts behind this cause vary by company, as some business leaders choose to make this their area of interest and others do not. It is a hobby for some and, although that is welcome, a voluntary hobby is not akin to the obligation that weighs upon states. Furthermore, states must be considered the duty-bearer in this case because they are the reason that these criminalising laws continue to exist...

Jonathan Cooper, chief executive of the Human Dignity Trust, contributing to The Economist's online conference, LGBT Rights And Business.

Most of it is completely baffling.

They're doing this next.

Wooh etc.

North Korea: Totally Weird

By North Korean standards Jang Yeong-jin had a normal start in life: he joined the military at 19, completed 10 years of national service and married soon after.

But trapped in his country, which he has called “one huge prison without bars”, problems with his marriage led him to defect to South Korea.

It was only when he crossed the border and spent time in a more open society did it become clear to him that he was homosexual, something he had never previously had a name for. The 55-year-old is now the only openly gay North Korean defector living in the South.

“I was too embarrassed [at first] to confess that I [defected] because I felt no sexual attraction to my wife... I couldn’t explain what it was that bothered me so much,” he told the New York Times in June.

“I didn’t know until after I arrived here that I was a gay, or even what homosexuality was.”

In his recently published memoir, A Mark of Red Honour now translated into English, Jang describes how it felt to be thrust in to the limelight living his life as a double alien: “an alien North Korean escapee in South Korean society and an alien sexual minority in a heterosexual society.” ...

A brief Q&A follows...

Guardian online - from their shady North Korea Network section.

Traitor!

PS Kim Jong-un's brother, Jong-chul,is as gay as a daffodil, btw.

Nike: Paragon Of Ethical Business Practices And Noted Defender Of Human Rights!

NIKE is ending its business deal with Manny Pacquiao after the legendary boxer labelled gay couples "worse than animals" in an interview to promote himself as a politician.

The 37-year-old's comments have sparked outrage across the world.

Approaching the end of his lucrative career, Pacquiao is preparing for a career in politics in his homeland Philippines.

Asked for his views on gay marriage, he said: "It's common sense. Do you see animals that go male to male or female to female? So the animals are even better.

"Because they know how to distinguish from male to male or female to female. Right? Now if we allow male to male or female to female, then that makes us worse than animals."

But despite Pacqulao's apology Nike has pulled the plug on its lucrative business deal with the boxer.

"We find Manny Pacquiao’s comments abhorrent," the company said in a statement released Wednesday, ESPN reports.

"Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community.

"We no longer have a relationship with Manny Pacquiao." ...

Daily Star.

Well done for dumping this man who's made many anti-gay comments in the past now he's basically retired!

PS CounterPunch on the child labour loving megacorp.

British LGBT Awards: Winners & Losers

Christ on a tricycle, where do you even start?

Categories include; Corporate Rising Star, Corporate Straight Ally, Inspirational Role Model, Celebrity Straight Ally, Global Icon and Brand/Marketing Campaign!

Sponsors include the Royal Air Force and the Telegraph!

Their 'main beneficiary' is the Peter Tatchell Foundation - an odd choice as their (his) accounts show they have a substantial cash surplus.

Still, I'm sure Saint Peter will redistribute the money to the needy of the parish.

You may recall the star guest at last year's event was... Katie Hopkins!

And hey, Meet The Judging Panel!

It doesn't tell you how much it costs to book a table, but safe to assume it's several thousands.

To attend a lavish exercise in LGBT utter pointlessness!

Well, obviously it has a point - to make lots of money for Square Peg Media.

PS The Independent reports on people being somewhat flummoxed and/or pissed off by the likes of Zayn and Zoella - whose contribution to gay life is close to fuck-all - being shortlisted... the Z list?

EastEnders: Young Gay Man's Head Transplant Declared A Success

EastEnders are bringing back Danny Dyer's on-screen son Johnny Carter with hunky new actor Ted Reilly playing the role.

Johnny Carter, played by Sam Strike, came out as gay on the soap before leaving to “go travelling” with his boyfriend and made his last appearance in December 2014.

Now Johnny will return back on screen next month, only this time he will be played by Ted.

Ted is a rising star, having appeared in a number of London theatre productions as well as TV dramas including Call The Midwife, Casualty and Grantchester...

Mirror. 

Preferred the older - ie younger - one.

Is there anyone, apart from journalists, who actually uses the word 'hunky'?

PS It's pretty obvious Sam Strike quit the role as he thought the plotlines for the young gay character, post his coming out, were beyond lame.

Homophobia: My Funny Valentine

20-year-old Degas Sikorski is openly gay – and has spent three years working at the Party City in Edmonton [Canada].

However, the retail worker spoke out after he was the victim of a homophobic ‘prank’ at the store on Valentine’s Day.

On the Saturday Valentine’s Day shift, a supervisor had put up the Valentine’s cards left for all the employees in the break room.

However, one for Mr Sikorski had been defaced with the words “Faggot – you are not getting shifts for a reason”.

Mr Sikorski had not been assigned a shift for six weeks.

The worker told Global News he has never had issues with staff or management over his sexual orientation – and is in the dark about the nasty message.

He said: “My jaw hit the floor. [I thought] Oh my God, I’m not safe here.”

“Suddenly I can’t be myself. Suddenly I can’t accept myself and be who I am at Party City for fear of retaliation from somebody in the staff." ...

Pink News.

Seeing as so many of these cases where someone has gone public claiming to be the victim of homophobia have turned out to be hoaxes, you'd think the gay media would have learnt to treat them with some caution.

Alan Turing: Oh No He Didn't

Alan Turing could not have cracked the Enigma Code without the help of Polish mathematicians and it is time to "right the wrong" and acknowledge their contribution, the Polish government has said.

Deciphering the German system is believed to have shortened World War Two by two years and saved countless lives. 

But few people realise that early Enigma codes had already been broken by the Poles who then passed on the knowledge to Britain shortly before the outbreak of war.

They even taught Turing how to build electro-mechanical devices which simulated the workings of the Enigma machine and enabled operators to cycle through one possible setting after another.
By the time war broke out the Germans had increased the sophistication of the machine and the Poles were struggling to make more headway. But based on the Polish knowledge, Turing managed to build a huge computer that would finally crack the cipher.

However, despite their help, history and Hollywood has largely ignored their role. The most recent film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, barely mentioned the Poles.

Now the Polish government has launched a touring exhibition entitled "Enigma – Decipher Victory” to remind the world of their crucial contribution. They have already taken the exhibition to Canada and Brussels...

Poland’s main codebreakers were Jerzy Rozycki, Henryk Zygalski and Marian Rejewski who joined the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau in Warsaw... 

Telegraph.

Seems to be the gay media who are keenest on the lie that 'Alan Turing cracked the  Enigma code', partly as so many of them seem to revel in ignorance, and partly to push the myth of Turing as The Great Gay Martyr - even though it's far from certain he committed suicide.

Star Wars: A New Hope

John Boyega and Daisy Ridley may play the main charcters of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it's his relationship with Oscar Isaac that keeps us talking.

While many fans have been shipping Finn and Poe together ever since the seventh film in the franchise premiered in December, we were heartbroken when John came forward saying a gay romance was probably not going to happen.

However it sounds like he's changed his mind!
 
John spoke to reporters about his character's potential love interes afer winning big at the Baftas on Sunday, saying:

“What’s so funny, I posted a video the other day of myself working out, skipping, and in the background Oscar is just like, ‘Yeah baby go on!’ and people just went crazy.

“But as far as I’m concerned, when JJ [Abrams] sat us down to go through the script, it was a bromance,” he continued. “But now I’m learning what Mark Hamill said before when he didn’t know that Darth Vader was Luke’s father: you never know what they’re going to pull. I’m looking at the director Rian [Johnson] closely so he can get me involved early, so I can prepare myself. So who knows?”

This needs to happen.

Perez Hilton.

Wouldn't be the first gay couple in Star Wars, of course.

Gay Misogyny: No Problem

Telegraph.

This is too crass for words.

Yes, Chas - Charles - Newkey-Burden actually argues that 'fag hags' and drag - never mind Stephen Fry's 'baglady' joke - are signs of gay men's misogyny!

He claims gay men call women 'fish'.

I've never heard this in 20 years, but then we must move in very different circles.

And that is the case for the prosecution!

Whilst there are certainly sexist gay men, to say this is a massive 'problem', or that we excel at it, is utter bollocks.

It's obvious most gay men adore women; from their friends, to their family, to their idols.

Some women are homophobic, but does this tell us anything about an entire sex?

The real issue here is Newkey-Burden's hatred and snobby contempt of ordinary gay men.

This is self-loathing masquerading as critique.

Charles was an 'anti-gay' gay journalist for OutCast magazine.

He's also, you may not be surprised to hear, posh as fuck, extremely right-wing and a Zionist.

He now writes shitty pulp biographies of the likes of One Direction and Justin Bieber.

The cunt.

PS Fry defended by Brendan O'Neill!

Daily Mail: Our Kinda Gays

They're soldiers and they're married!

Is it any wonder the Mail loves them?

PS Obviously the gay media are spunking in their overpriced underpants over this heteronormative hokum, too. 

Give me conformity or give me death!

Stephen Fry Watch: Bagladygate

LOL.

Bye then.

Are You Being Served?: Shop Soiled

Are You Being Served? is to be rebooted with an 'all-star cast'.

The sitcom had been rumoured to be in line for a makeover as part of the BBC's landmark comedy season later this year. Now it has been confirmed that the Corporation will return to Grace Brothers with a studio audience recording confirmed for March 5.

The BBC says the one-off episode will 'pick up where Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's much loved comedy left off,' and promises to 'bring some of the nation's all-time favourite sitcom characters including Mrs Slocombe, Captain Peacock, Miss Brahms, and Mr Humphries back to life with an all star cast'.

The original sitcom ran for 69 episodes over ten series from 1972 to 1985 on BBC One and made stars of the likes of Mollie Sudden, John Inm and and Wendy Richard.

The BBC are also reportedly planning reboots of Porridge, The Good Life, Up Pompeii!, and Keeping Up Appearances as part of the landmark sitcom series, marking 60 years since Hancock's Half Hour first made the transition to TV.

However Christopher Biggins, who played Lukewarm in Porridge, has expressed the views of many when he said: 'I wish they would leave these things alone. I wish they would go and find new ideas.'

Visit the BBC website for to enter into a draw for free tickets to be in the recording of Are You Being Served?

Chortle.

Sake.

What next?

Love Thy Neighbour?