Rainbow Flags: New Bombshell

My fuck doth not giveth one bit.

Trump: End

Republican National Convention-goers are in for a big surprise.

Planting Peace, the nonprofit organization behind The Equality House, a rainbow-colored house that sits across the street from Westboro Baptist Church, is calling out Donald Trump and the Republican Party in a massive billboard that went up on Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio, where the RNC will take place next week. The billboard, below, shows an illustration of Trump poised to kiss Ted Cruz beside a caption that reads “Love trumps Hate. End homophobia.” ...

Huff Post Queer Voices.

Christ, this is childish.

Ps Jeez, is there no end to this infantile crap?

'It's two dudes kissing - hur hur, hur hur.'

Boris Johnson: God Help Us If There's A War!

Ladies and gentlemen, your new Foreign Secretary!

World, prepared to be insulted by this posh buffoon.

PS An old piece about Boris on 'Gay rights and all the rest of it'.

Here's when Angela heard this wonderful news...

Boris Johnson: Drag Queen

Matthew Parris: How Did We Get Here?

Parody is now extinct. Boris Johnson has killed the distinction between reality and satire. Remember the Tory who as a wannabe MP called Labour’s repeal of Section 28 “appalling”, who joked about “tank-topped bum-boys”, who sneakily rowed back from homophobia by asking “what’s not to like?” about gays who leave the field of available women clear for straight men? He is now urging gay men to vote Leave because, he says, some Eastern European countries have legislation that represses them.

“It was us,” he burbles on a new Out & Proud video, “the British people, that created [an] environment of happiness and contentment for LGBT people.” It may well have been us. It ruddy well wasn’t him. But now, even into gay saunas creeps the smell of his damp tweed.

Look, this is a joke but this is not a joke. Somebody has to call a halt to the gathering pretence that if only you’re sufficiently comical in politics you can laugh everything off. Somebody has to remind us that it’s not enough for those who seek to govern us simply to be: they have to do. Incompetence is not funny. Policy vacuum is not funny. Administrative sloth is not funny. Breaking promises is not funny. A careless disregard for the truth is not funny. Advising old mates planning to beat somebody up is not funny. Abortions and gagging orders are not funny. Creeping ambition in a jester’s cap is not funny. Vacuity posing as merriment, cynicism posing as savviness, a wink and smile covering for betrayal . . . these things are not funny.

So I present you with a mystery. How did we get here, with Boris Johnson? ...

Matthew Parris' Times column.

LOL! etc.

Europe: Can You Tell I'm Reading This?

Boris seems to share a scriptwriter with Out & Proud's Adam Lake.

Out & Proud launched last night in London's Chinatown, which teeters on the edge of irony.

PS Why gay people like me shouldn't listen to Boris Johnson and his calls for us to vote to leave the EU, boring Independent retort highlighting the shocking revelation that neither Boris nor the Conservative Party have very good records on supporting LGBT rights.

Survivors UK: A Struggle To Survive

The rape and sexual abuse of men and boys is one of the least recognised, discussed or reported crimes in our society. Despite this stigma, more men in London are coming forward to report sexual assaults and taking the courageous step of asking for help:

In 2014, in London, 307 men reported being raped to the Metropolitan Police – an increase of 120% over 2012 figures

In 2014, in London, 518 men reported experiencing a serious sexual assault to the Metropolitan Police – an increase of 80% over 2012 figures

In 2014, in London, 20%+ of all reports of serious sexual crimes were against men

In London, in 2014, it is estimated that there are more than 300,000 adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse

In 2014, in London, The Mayor spent £1,292,666 providing specialist support services for victims of sexual assault in London.

Of that, £32,666 (2.5%) was spent on specialist services supporting men and boys...

In 2015, in London, funding to specialist male sexual violence services has been cut to £0.

Survivors UK.

Their petition to Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

I was raped by another man. And now the government wants to take away the one thing that saved my life, Independent Voices.

General Election 2015: Carry On Campaigning

While we’re on the subject of locker-room horseplay, though, could there please – in the name of all that is decent – be a moratorium on politicians making jokes about sexy time? In Hendon, Cameron was reiterating that to vote for Ukip is to “go to bed with Nigel Farage and wake up with Ed Miliband. I don’t know about you,” he twinkled suggestively to the audience, “but no part of that works for me”. Last week it was Ed Miliband referring to the idea of having to go into a “darkened room” with Nick Clegg, telling the Question Time audience: “I don’t like the sound of that,” he oo-erred, “for a whole range of reasons”.

Guys, guys … Please. We get it. YOU’RE ALL STRAIGHT. You’re not mining some comic seam here – you’re doing the equivalent of going into the gents’ and writing “NIJEL FARRARGE DONE IT WITH NICK CLEG!!!!!” on the wall...

Marina Hyde, The Guardian's election diary.

Boris Johnson: Caged

I really, really, think that the focus of your indignation and your outrage should be on people who go out to join groups that throw gays off cliffs, that behead people who, don't subscribe to their version of Islam, that glorify in the execution of innocent journalists and aid workers. They should be the object of your wrath, not the security services who are trying to keep us safe.

Boris Johnson, speaking on LBC to Mohammed Emwazi, from CAGE, on LBC Radio.

Of course, the holy British state has never knowingly killed anyone, straight or gay.

Smoking: Still

Scarfolk.

Ban Boris Johnson in public places!

Fagburn says NO to dreary traffic wardens!

Boris Johnson: This Country!

'If we was smart we'd emigrate...'

Blame: Them!

Little bit of politics there...

Core: Still Rotten

Gay and lesbian rights activists are seeking to be the new “moral enforcers” and it is Christian religious conservatives who now need protection to be allowed to dissent against “the new orthodoxy”, it was claimed.

Core Issues Trust, a Christian charity, is challenging a ban on its London bus advertisement reading: “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!” It was a response to a bus poster campaign by gay rights group Stonewall carrying the message: “Some people are gay. Get over it!”

Paul Diamond, for the charity, told appeal judges that at the heart of the case was the “ironical” situation in modern British society where ancient Biblical scriptures, which played an important role in forming the nation’s morals, were now in danger of containing views which could no longer be expressed “in a land with a reputation for free speech”.

Mr Diamond said Christian scriptures only permitted sexual relationships between one man and one woman in marriage and people should be entitled to express that view. He said the case raised the question: “Is the belief that homosexuality is a sin worthy of respect in a democratic society?”

The charity accuses the Mayor of London Boris Johnson of unlawfully using his position as chairman of Transport for London (TfL) to obtain the ban in order to secure the gay vote and advance his 2012 re-election campaign...

Daily Telegraph.

Core is a non-profit Christian ministry supporting men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression. It respects the rights of individuals who identify as 'gay' who do not seek change, and supports dignity for LGBT persons. It does not support gay "marriage" - usually considered an "equality" issue, premised on the belief that being gay is "biological" and is therefore unchangeable.

PS Christians - The only people you can insult at Christmas  The Daily Mail's Jan Moir is fuming!

Boris Johnson: Cunt

“It would be wrong to persecute the rich, and madness to try and stifle wealth creation and futile to try to stamp out inequality.
“It is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85, while about 2% have an IQ above 130.
“The harder you shake the pack, the easier it will be for some cornflakes to get to the top."

Further über right-wing nuttiness, upper class ideological warfare, and bizarre metaphors in defence of inequality in the full text of Eton Rifles' Boris Johnson's Margaret Thatcher memorial lecture (!) here.
We need GUNS!

Steve Bell in Friday's Guardian.

Crispin Blunt: Some History

Crispin Blunt, the Conservative MP for Reigate, has been told to reapply for his parliamentary seat amid claims that local Tories want to oust him because he came out as a homosexual after the last election.

The former prisons minister has said he will “fight on” after the executive of his local Tory association told him that he would not be automatically selected as the Surrey constituency’s candidate for the 2015 election. He has held the safe Conservative seat since 1997.

Mr Blunt made headlines just months after the 2010 election when he announced that he had separated from his wife so that he could “come to terms with his homosexuality”.

Conservative sources on Thursday night said that his relationships with some local Tories were left “beyond repair” following the disclosures about his sexuality.

“Some people became reconciled to it and were understanding,” a source said. “But some people were not and were unhappy.”

Dr Ben Mearns, a former Tory councillor in Reigate, said: “The reason I believe the association would not reselect him was based on his sexuality.

“That is my clear view. Some members of the association have overtly made comments and some implied that they did not want a gay MP.” Dr Mearns said that making the decision on the basis of sexuality was “unacceptable”...

Daily Telegraph - who probably approve.

Oh dear, this doesn't sound like David Cameron's thoroughly modern gaymarrying Conservative Party, does it?

Though it could also be because some local activists just think Blunt's a lousy constituency MP.
This all has some history.

The Telegraph reported in August 2010; Senior Conservatives in Crispin Blunt's constituency turned on the Tory prisons minister yesterday after he left his wife and declared he was homosexual.

"Tony Collinson, the former association chairman, who was on the selection panel when Mr Blunt was first chosen for the seat in 1997, said he would never have been picked if the truth had been known at the time.
"One of the reasons [he was selected] was because he had a nice, compact, family unit. He made quite a bit of it," said Mr Collinson, who gave up the chairmanship six years ago.
"I'm a little disappointed with the news because I don't think he would necessarily have been chosen had he come out then."
Brian Cowle, a Conservative councillor in Reigate and Banstead borough, added: "It is one of those things which we would have liked to be known before the general election, that it's been a problem for all this time. 
"We all have problems and nuances in our lives; we don't go splashing it over the papers. It could add to a slight discomfort about things."

Though this time the problem may lie higher up.

Only yesterday the Telegraph reported on rumours Blunt was being removed so his safe Tory seat could be given to Boris Johnson.
Hmm...

And lest we forget...

Anthony Blunt - no relation - largin' it at the Hacienda

"I believe it right that our law should discriminate in that limited way between homosexual and heterosexual practice. While I accept that, in law, we should tolerate people's choices to follow a homosexual life style and practice, I maintain that those are not equivalent to heterosexuality - nor should we pretend that they are. It is also clear that there a much greater strand of homosexuality than of heterosexuality which depends for its gratification on the exploitation of youth.
"I am sorry if Labour members do not like the truth, but I do not intend to run away from difficult issues."

Crispin Blunt MP speaking in parliament as a presumed heterosexual in 1998.
Oops!
Perhaps then, Mr Blunt would have backed deselecting an MP who'd come out?
Gay Tories, dontcha just love 'em?

Gay Tory Watch: Poor Richard

Former deputy mayor of London Richard Barnes claimed his Facebook account was hacked after naked self-portraits appeared. The 65-year-old Conservative councillor for Hillingdon said he had not even seen the photos, which show the nude lower body of a naked man clutching an iPhone in front of a bedroom mirror.
The snaps appear to have been uploaded to his personal Facebook page before being swiftly deleted.
Websites including trendingcentral.com speculated the images may have been automatically uploaded using the iPhone’s iOS Facebook app.
But Mr Barnes told Metro: ‘[It was] utterly and totally a mistake. I’ve been hacked into. I’ve no idea [what happened]. I’m annoyed and shaking with anger.’
‘I’m a 65-year-old gay man on his own… It’s not the sort of thing I do. Do you really think I would be that f****** stupid after 30 years in politics?’*
He said he had a ‘lot of friends on Facebook’ and would not be quitting the website.
Mr Barnes, who served as Boris Johnson’s deputy between 2008 and 2012, said he was alerted to the images by a friend in the US and that it had all been ‘sorted out’.

London's Metro.

Another day, another scandal - is there no end to gay Tory misery?
The Daily Mail is tying up itself in knots over what can be said here; are the photos of Barnes, did he upload them by mistake, was his account hacked?
The Daily Star has some - sadly pixilated - "dick pics".
Amusingly, Fagburn understands Richard is known in City Hall as "Dick".

Comment: Even if it is Dicky, it's not illegal, and wanting sex isn't wrong. Basically, who cares?

* Fucking, probably. Hard to be sure.

• Interview with Tony Grew for Pink News in 2008, when Barnes was appointed Deputy Mayor of London.

PS Don't forget to book your tickets for the fun-packed Conservative Party Pride Conference Dinner (Supper, surely?) at Harvey Nicks in Manchester next week!

"Cost: £35 each Evening includes 3 course dinner with wine also enjoy shopping time with 10% discount!

"Guest Speaker: LBC Radio Host, Blogfather and West Ham fanatic, Iain Dale."  

Let's just hope Mrs Dale behaves herself and doesn't start beating up any pensioners again, eh?
Then it's on to G-A-Y - but don't worry, LGBTory have their own private entrance and dancefloor, so you don't have to mingle with the riff-raff.
Or risk getting beaten up by one of them.

Pride London: Fury As Tory Joke Makes Gay Joke

Buffoon Boris Johnson sparked fury at a gay rights event by making a crude joke about same-sex marriage.
Angry guests walked out in disgust after the Tory toff said during his speech: “I’m delighted that as of this autumn any young man will be able to take his chum up the Arsenal... and marry him.”
The London Mayor’s offensive gaffe was slammed by MPs last night as “crass and tasteless”.
Labour MP Chris Bryant said the joke “would be funny from Julian Clary or Christopher Biggins, but from Boris it just sounded nasty and brutish”.
The gag – a reference to plans to legalise same-sex marriage in England and Wales – provoked jeers and some nervous laughter at the Pride of London gala dinner.

Daily Mirror.

Obviously, come the revolution this cunt will be first against the wall, but how dull and divorced from reality would you have to be to get angry about a crap gag about bumsex?
Leading lesbore, Angela Eagle MP, told the Mirror; “His crass and tasteless remarks only serve to undermine all the hard work and progress made by the gay community.”
Uh-huh...

According to Pink News, Mr Johnson actually said "Up the Areclor".

Mr Johnson jokingly suggested in his speech that they should get married at “the absolutely beautiful ArcelorMittal Orbit.”
He then added to much laughter: “It will be the perfect ceremony, you can take your partner up the …[Arcelor]. I think I can get away with that...”
"The ArcelorMittal Orbit, the structure that towers over the London 2012 Olympics Park will reopen this autumn and will be licensed for weddings and civil partnerships."

Thanks for clearing that up.

PS Gay Star News - never one to avoid turning the most fatuous press release into a story - reports on the London diner selling burgers in a rainbow bun for pride! Astounding.

Eddie Mair: Mo Of The Moment

Never mind all the stuff about what the interview revealed. The photos revealed something very shocking to me.
What in my mind was my discreet but manageable bald spot is in fact the size of a dinner plate.
Only the over-the-shoulder TV camera angle could tell me this and, what's worse, it was then relayed in every newspaper in the land.
As for all the hullabaloo... For the record, I don't want Jeremy's job. Or John's. Or Andrew's. I like mine.
Though my contract is up soon and I haven't heard anything, so if you run a radio or TV station and you think there's a future for a 47-year-old in a bad wig - call my agent.

Eddie Mair writing in his Radio Times column, and quoted in the Daily Mail.
How great it would be to see our Eddie isn't afflicted by the modern sickness of ambition. 

Some highlights from the Mail message board.

"In a political job in the BBC, get the better of a top Tory and does not take long to get to the top" - Mick, East Midlands.

"Another mad Marxist we have to pay for" - Scott, Sunderland.

"Did the aforesaid Mr Mair have a private agenda against Boris that was his real reason for the vitriol ?????? Advert on the side of a bus ring any bells ?????????????????? I just wonder !!" - Jolly Roger, Wales.

Well, it's certainly something to think about...

Boris Johnson: Checkmate With Queen

Here's the full Eddie Mair interview with Boris Johnson from Sunday's The Andrew Marr Show.
Wonderfully woeful stuff.
More importantly than all that guffy stuff about politics and Boris being a complete shit and serial liar, Fagburn is loving our Eddie's new look; the glasses, the hint of a tan, the bona riah, she's lost a few stone etc etc.
Can TV superstardom be far away?

Update: The Daily Mail asks 'Just who is Eddie Mair?' Unfortunately they got leading gay Uncle Tom Andrew Pierce to answer it. A swine on pearls.

Update 2: The subtext to this Guardian profile by Leo Benedictus appears to be "Is he too camp?" 

Breaking!: Bigot Bollocks Bus Ban Upheld!

A ban on a Christian group's proposed bus advert suggesting gay people could be helped to change their sexuality has been ruled as not unlawful.

The High Court ruled Transport for London's process in introducing the ban "was procedurally unfair".
But it ruled TfL was right to ban the Core Issues Trust's advert because it would "cause grave offence" to those who were gay.
The ad posters read: "Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!"
A judge ruled Boris Johnson did not abuse his position as chairman of TfL when he imposed the ban.
'Widespread offence' Mrs Justice Lang, sitting at London's High Court, ruled TfL's process in introducing the ban "was procedurally unfair, in breach of its own procedures and demonstrated a failure to consider the relevant issues".
But that was outweighed by factors against allowing the ad, including that it would "cause grave offence" to those who were gay and was perceived as homophobic, "thus increasing the risk of prejudice and homophobic attacks", said the judge...

BBC News. 

Hahaha!
The Core Issues Trust "denied that it was attempting to offer a 'gay cure'", but judging from their website they don't seem to advocate or work on anything else. 
I haven't seen the full ruling by the judge yet, but surely the real reason these ads shouldn't have been allowed is because they promote junk science and voodoo "cures"?
Next stop a ban on all commercial advertising in public spaces?

PS And don't forget, despite it making a false claim, the ever hopeless Advertising Standards Authority okayed this campaign. Astonishing.