Rainbow List: Where Will It End?

Independent On Sunday.

Welcome to the the LGBTIQABCXYZ non-existent 'community'!

The IoS clearly has no inkling how laughable all this is.

Why not include heterosexuals in your silly fixed tokenistic list and be done with it?

Or, I dunno... paedophiles?

Just a thought.

Rainbow List 2014: Under The Influence

Our judges debated long and hard, weighing several forms of "influence" in making their choices. We even invented a new rule, known as The Janet Jackson Rule: "What has s/he done for us lately?" The result honours those who have long and brave histories of standing up for equal rights, even when equality wasn't even legal, as well as youngsters whose openness in the past year shows children (and adults) that who they are and whom they love need not be a barrier to success in any walk of life...

Independent On Sunday.

It's hard to know where to start with this one.

Despite The IoS rebranding their annual Pink List of 101 LGBTs of note, the Rainbow List, it was reassuring to see this year's selection is as ridiculous as ever.

Michael Cashman is in with a bullet at number one - though strangely this highly influential gayer was not in the hot 100 last year.

It's hard to see what has changed, beyond the former EastEnders actor being elevated to the House of Lords for services to Blairite brown-nosing.

What has he done for us lately?

Erm, in February he cut up his Visa card in the European parliament cause, you know, Russia.

Take that, Putin!

Maybe Michael got the sympathy vote - his civil partner and 'researcher', Paul Cottingham, died last month.

Of course it would be churlish to speculate there was some 'Vote for Michael' campaign organised by Labour Party HQ.

There's another high entry at number three - Vicky Beeching, a lesbian Christian Country singer!

Erm...

If nothing else, I'm sure she's definitely the most influential lesbian Christian Country singer in the UK.

Does anyone seriously believe that anyone would have voted for Simon Topham (60), beyond maybe some of his adoring slaves at Millivres Prowler Group?

Luckily one of them, his loyal lieutenant Kim Watson, was on the judging panel.

Mind you, you can get on the Rainbow List with nominations in double figures.

As every year, the whole list is hampered by its tokenism; I'm sure Claire Harvey, the 'Team GB sitting-volleyball Paralympic captain' is a wonderful woman, but should she really be at number 38?

Thankfully there's no-one here nowhere near as record-breakingly pointless as last year's number 16, David Gwinnutt, the inventor of the Pink Jack flag!

But so many placings seem random and/or baffling.

The short blurbs describing people's achievements are so slapdash they must have been written by a particularly dim intern after a quick Google.

Separate lists for gay men, lesbians and trans people - put to a popular vote with no 'judges' tinkering - would be far more interesting and illuminating.

As it stands, this shit list is still Britain's biggest gay joke.

PS They say you can leave comments about the list, but you can't, oddly.

It's a shame because I wanted to thank all the people who voted repeatedly for themselves.

Headline Of The Day: The Independent's On Sunday

And to think only yesterday, Fagburn called The Independent 'ever illiterate'...

Good job this article isn't about good writing.

And to run a dull interview with the ever fascinating Douglas Coupland to boot!

'Slamming': 'Meteoric' Crap About Gay Men And Drugs By - Surprise! - The Independent

Three times as many gay and bisexual men in London inject drugs than in England as a whole, according to new analysis, which also found that four times as many use crystal meth in the capital than across the rest of the country.

The figures, compiled by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), reinforce experts’ warnings of a “meteoric” rise in the number of gay men injecting drugs such as mephedrone, GHB or crystal meth, in the capital. The trend – known as “slamming” – gives users a more intense high and commonly takes places at sex parties which can go on for several days, according to experts; they warn that the trend could be linked to a disturbing rise in HIV infection rates.

The number of men injecting in a sexual context quadrupled between 2011 and 2013, according to Antidote, the UK’s only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender drug and alcohol support service. More than 60 per cent of their clients injected drugs last year. This is double the number who injected in 2010. Nine years ago, fewer than 1 per cent were injecting drugs.

Antidote has been “overwhelmed” by men presenting with health conditions from the sexualised use of these drugs – which increase libido while decreasing sexual inhibition...

The Independent.

Apologies for not writing this earlier today.

Even though I've been writing this blog about coverage of gay men in the media for almost four years now, sometimes an article comes along that's so spectacularly shit and cranium-shatteringly stupid that I am - temporarily - literally lost for words.

Of course, one can have nothing but respect for the thoughts of a journalist who bills themselves 'Human Rights Correspondent' - as does Sarah Morrison.

So when she warns of 'a “meteoric” rise in the number of gay men injecting drugs' it's hard not to believe her - even though the number of gay men we are talking about here is so small it's almost statistically insignificant - and not think it's easier to file a news story based on hyperbole and scare-mongering.

And I am sure Sarah has an intimate knowledge of the gay chem-sex parties ("which can go on for several days, according to experts") of which she writes.

One can only admire a journalist who writes an expose that hinges on the word "anecdotally", cites tiny subject-specific self-selecting surveys as "proof", and backs it all up by quoting someone called "Jason (not his real name)".

Likewise, Antidote are a great organisation - and it would be cynical to suggest they have here invented a problem - "Slamming" WTF? - that doesn't really exist as that's how they can get even more funding.

It's not like they have any history of that sort of thing. 

Oh no.

Boys, The Independent On Sunday has discovered we are all fucking and drugging ourselves to death.

Although there is absolutely no evidence for that.

PS Interesting you can't leave comments after this feature. Shame - as every gay man I've communicated with thinks it's a piece of utter shit. I've asked Sarah Morrison and the IoS to get them to turn it on.

PPS The straight - and sometimes sadly gay - press love these kind of unfounded scare stories. See also: "bug chasing", and the imminent invasion of crystal meth - now regularly predicted for 20 years!

Independent On Sunday: Letter Of The Week

I was disappointed by the name the "Pink" List. As a gay man myself, I see no positive connection between the colour pink and the LGBT community. The flag of the global LGBT community is, after all, a rainbow – representing diversity and equality in equal measure.

I applaud the list, and those responsible for its publication. But perhaps next year we could see it rechristened the Rainbow List?

Simon King

Fareham, Hampshire

The editor writes: We are grateful for all the feedback following publication of this year's Pink List. Next year we might ask readers to vote on what we should call it.

Independent On Sunday.

No idea. Anyone?

Pink List 2013: The Mourning After...

Now that the near palpable excitement has abated a little here are some elementary remarks on The Independent On Sunday's Pink List 2013...

1. This list of 101 LGBT people in the UK who have "made a difference" looks completely random, ridiculous and silly.

2. Newspapers and magazines love lists.
They fill space with hardly any effort; you get the readers to vote, just possibly massage the results a little bit, then get an intern to fill in the gaps via Google and/or Wikipedia.
Unfortunately, if you do it like this you usually end up with a shit list.
QED.

3. Lists - of top gayers or top albums or top pizza toppings or whatever - are guaranteed to "start a conversation".
Or better generate controversy.
Fagburn lives in a rarified world admittedly, but all I've heard people saying (okay, technically, tweeting) is that this Pink List is a complete joke.

4. Just looking at the top ten, whilst all the people listed have done good work, do they all warrant a placing over others?
The only two choices that sound solid and uncontroversial are Paris Lees and Peter Tatchell.

5. An illustrative example; Owen Jones is a very good journalist, he's out and proud, and an all round good egg of the left, but, as I'm sure he'll readily admit, he hardly ever writes about gay issues (as is his perfect right), so should he be here over other writers?
Mind you, by coincidence, Owen is the Indy's hot star columnist.

Similarly, why Out4Marriage not Coalition For Equal Marriage etc etc...

6. Filleting out almost all older people with more established reputations into a quick list of 40something "National Treasures" (BARF! Last year there were Lifetime Achievement Awards) only makes the actual Pink List 2013 look even more random and inconsequential.
Galloping through them and dismissing them with often just a one-word summary ("Writer", "Musician") is, again, insulting.

7. To repeat: The most telling entry is number 16 - the man who thought of dying a Union Jack flag pink, and selling them FFS! - and he got in there with 62 votes!

8. If the IoS don't ditch this list next year, I hope people will realise it'll be easy to rig it and nominate themselves - and why not, you deserve it as much as anyone, ordinary gay person - or propose spoiler/joke candidates.
Fagburn would love to see Dennis Nilsen at number one.

9. There is no gentle or polite way of putting this but many inclusions and placings in the Pink List seem based on tokenism.
This is insulting and patronising to both them and us.
Several entries read like a particularly cruel Private Eye pastiche/pisstake of a painfully "worthy"poll such as this.

10. Take a look at the judges - including a panel from the Independent itself - and see if you can detect any possible "conflict of interest"/favouritism in the Pink List 2013.
No, me neither...

11. The Ones To Watch list appears to resemble many other publications' Ones To Watch lists; how many are chums - or crushes - of someone at The Independent or of a judge?

12. Regular viewers may know that as a general rule Fagburn thinks politicians should be taken out and shot, but the Politicians' Pink Sublist is unbelievably slapdash, and looks like it was thrown together and written by a spectacularly ignorant intern in a panic.

13: Tilda fucking Swinton?????!!!

That is all for now on this IoS Shit List.

Fagburn could rave about some people that I think were glaring omissions.
Or rant about some people who really should not have been included.
But this would be pointless when the Pink List 2013 is so debased, and has now completely negated itself as being any meaningful marker of British LGBT people who have "made a difference".

And finally...
There is an accompanying article to all this pink palaver by Will "Nice-But-Dim" Young; Note to society: We're not G*Y – we're GAY!
I've been struggling with what to say about it, but it's even beyond satire.
Young Tom put it best; "Will Young writes like a 15 year-old school newspaper editor."

Independent On Sunday: The Unfunnies

Yet another pathetic cartoon in the IoS from the eternally abysmal The Luvvies by Andrew Birch.
With its apparent allusion to a mythical, hypocritical "Hollywood liberal elite" it could have been scripted by Rush Limbaugh or Richard Littlejohn. 
Is this the best you can do?

IoS Pink List 2012: Fatuous Thought For The Day

We said when we published The IoS Pink List last week that we hoped it would surprise, amuse, inspire or challenge you. Well, it did that! Plunging into social media on Sunday was to overhear a huge debate about what was great and what was wrong with the list. You didn't hold back...*
If one school bully is influenced by discovering that someone they've grown to know and admire is gay or transgender, we say that the list has succeeded.

Katy Guest in The Independent On Sunday.

So how does this work exactly?
A homophobic bully, while perusing his Independent On Sunday Pink List, discovers that Alan Carr, of all people, is A Big Gay.
"This is a bombshell! I must change my ways forthwith..."
Oh, I despair.

* Code for everyone thought it was shit.

And here's a letter to the editor published today...

The much-maligned Pink List returns, like the gay community's least-favourite stepchild (4 November). It's not the content which irks – if Nicola Adams is pleased to be perched atop the list, I'm happy for her – it's the way the list is presented. We've no idea how the list of random people, sharing only a sexual predilection, was drawn up. Show us your motivations, calculations and deliberations. Don't just bark that it's important; tell me "how" and "why".

The Guyliner (blogger)

Pink List 2012: Randoms

To the Independent On Sunday who publish their ever ludicrous and tokenistic Pink List 2012 of "influential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who, you feel, make Britain safer, fairer, better and more entertaining."
These things are like reading out requests on a radio show - thrilling if you're mentioned, but baffling/boring to everyone else.
Anyway, I'm just bitter - straight in at number one, who else could it be, but... Nicola Adams.
Who?
Only a bisexual Olympic boxer, no less!
Wow.
Ever since she boxed bisexually at the Olympics Fagburn has felt the world has changed forever. 
The top-rated chap is, but of course, Peter Tatchell - "legend".
So legendary that the IoS forgot to include him in last year's list.
(There's a separate list of "national treasures" - barf).*
At least it's obvious La Tatchell does stuff for The Gays, but how the bumbum did that awful right-wing closet case David Laws make the top 10?
Answers on a fiddled expenses form...

* There's also a top ten of journalists which - remarkably - includes those joyless, reactionary Uncle Toms, Julie Bindel and Andrew Pierce. Presumably for services to homophobia.
(Ironically all the potted bios of these supposed exemplars of good journalism are so badly written, they read like the sorry result of 'Take your child to work day').

• There is a companion piece claiming one in two young LGBT people self-harm. This is hysterical junk, and completely unscientific, so I'm not sure it's even worth dignifying with a critique.
When will people realise some gay groups and individuals have a vested financial interest in making out things are far worse for LGBTs than they actually are?
Still, let's keep those grants coming...

Update: And here's an amusing demolition job by my close personal showbiz pal, The Guyliner.

Independent On Sunday: Question

 By going to see his new film?

Gay Marriage: Dammit Janet

Back in the heady days of April, it seemed like every week every Sunday broadsheet star columnist felt duty-bound to vomit up their quarter-baked opinion on gay marriage.
Today, perhaps tellingly, I can find but one, and as that's by Janet Street-Porter - the Independent On Sunday's "Editor-At-Large" no less - I'm not sure it really counts.
Her columns appearing in the IoS are the boardroom version of a paper publishing some fluff by an intern on their last day.  
Bless.
Today, La Porter is on top "Will this do?" form.
She begins by making what has to be the most hand-eatingly over-used "observation" on marriage equality - the only people still enthusiastic about marriage these days are The Gays!
She mentions our mad old friend the Archbishop of York's comments last week - I guess this is the article's "hook".
Apparently, he is "entitled to his opinions".
She makes the obligatory reference to her gay friends - though in Janet's case the cliche rings less hollow.
She only has gay friends.
She makes a completely baffling "comparison" to some mass Islamic (straight) wedding ceremony in Nigeria; "Without being judgemental about Islamic law – sharia – who is to say that mass weddings are any less valid than a Church of England service with a vicar and a load of clapped-out hymns?"
She drops in something about those vouchers for parenting classes - just to keep things contemporary, like.
Approaching the home strait, she switches into full-on waffle-mode, throwing both caution and sense to the wind; "Getting married should involve the same counselling as faiths provide before they allow couples to tie the knot."
Eh?
Then - and only then - Janet boldly states her conclusion; "Marriage must be available to all."
Textbook stuff.

Thought For The Day: Father Bernard Lynch

"I can go into confession and say I have been in every sauna and bath-house and sex club in London 10 times a week and I can get absolved from my sins, but if I go in and say, 'I have been in love with a man for 19 years, married for 14,' there's no absolution. That's the sickness in my Church."

Father Bernard Lynch interviewed by the Independent On Sunday.
"He claims that half of all Catholic priests are gay – and has himself been married to his husband for 14 years. He believes celibacy is to blame for many of the Church's problems – and that the Vatican must take responsibility for the paedophilia in its midst. Is it any wonder so many people want rid of Father Bernard Lynch?"
That's the funny thing about religion - good men tend to get crucified. 
 

Cameron: Backlash

If you're interested in how this "Cameron and his out-of-touch liberal metropolitan modernising elite" argument has been panning out over the last week, and how it's being linked by the right-wing papers to the anti-gay marriage debate see here...

(This is just an early front page scan - no idea if the poll actually asks directly about The Gays yet...)

PS Nope, they don't. See you in the morning. 

Football: Crazy

The broadsheets and articles about "gay men and sport", they go together like a horse and dog food.
Today, it's The Independent On Sunday's turn.
'Gay Footballers Should Feel Free To Come Out, Say Fans'
Which is most generous of them, I'm sure you'll agree.
This is another one extrapolated from some ongoing research conducted at the University of Staffordshire.
Its bulletpoint finding - "More than 90 per cent of fans would approve of a gay player and say there is no place for homophobia in football" - was released last year.
(Fagburn doesn't want to trivialise this, but if you conduct a self-selecting online survey asking how fans feel about homophobia in football, you might just possibly get a pro-gay bias...)
Professor Ellis Cashmore has now written up a more detailed analysis for the Journal of Sport & Social Issues.
Tradition dictates I now reduce these to bulletpoints.

• The taboo surrounding gay players in football is a myth.

• Despite overwhelming support for homosexual [sic] players, many fans said they viewed homophobic abuse – frequently cited as a major reason dissuading players from coming out – as good-humoured banter.

• While football itself is ready to accept gay players, anyone coming out would face media intrusion of "titanic proportions", warned Clarke Carlisle, chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association.

• Clubs and agents are cited as the main obstacles to players coming out by more than 40 per cent of fans. "Brand damage" was how one fan put it.

No, I can't quite square all these circles, either.
But at least the IoS didn't include the near obligatory quote from Max Clifford... this time.
He told the IoS two years ago; "It would take a very courageous Premier League footballer to come out because fans are so vociferous in football in a way they aren't in any other sport. There are also barriers to a player coming out from some clubs, firstly because the players are commercial assets and the clubs don't want those assets damaged, and secondly because a player coming out would cause disruption."
Which doesn't sound too wide of the goalmouth to be honest.
Though I do get the feeling here, that everyone seems to be blaming everyone else.

The IoS Pink List 2011: It's Just A Bit Of Fun, But Please Write In...

The votes are in!
The people have spoken!
The judges have ignored them!
This year's Independent On Sunday Pink List is as bafflingly random as ever.
A leader column acknowledges this; "It was never supposed to be a rival to the Nobel prizes. Its purpose was always to entertain, to inform and to celebrate the contribution to national life made by gay and lesbian citizens."
This year it has the veneer of democracy; they asked "readers to nominate the unsung heroes and heroines who make life as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person better – as well as the celebrities who make the world a more entertaining place."
It was good to see Elly Barnes (above), a teacher at Stoke Newington School, at number one.
Though the claim of her "eradicating homophobia in her school" by teaching about LGBT history sounds like ever such a slight exaggeration.
(And is nicked from a hyperbolic line in The Guardian).
But where were the other "unsung" community activists?
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, MD of UK Black Pride (64), Paul Martin, chief executive of Manchester's Lesbian & Gay Foundation (74), Nick Partridge of the THT (81), and Jackie Crozier of Manchester Pride (87).
Is that it?
Quite bafflingly - particularly if this was put to a (kind of) popular vote - Peter Tatchell is not featured at all.
The disgraced Independent contributor Johann Hari was also noticable by his absence - I wonder why...
Most offensive inclusion? Lord John Browne.
Former boss at BP when they were polluting the Gulf of Mexico and killing their workers.
Walked into a lordship, told the government to lift the cap on tuition fees.
And being forced out the closet cause you lied to a court about how you met your boyfriend might be sad, but hardly makes someone a queer hero or (barf) "national treasure".
This year was the first Pink List to include bisexual and trans people.
An admirable move, of course, but it makes the list rather wonky.
Just as it's well-meaning that the list tries to get an equal number of lesbians and gay men, but as there are markedly less out lesbians with a public profile you end up with some inclusions that just look tokenistic and silly.
Like the "night editor of The Times in Scotland" (94) and "Britain's only Goth, lesbian, transsexual stand-up comedian" (96).
Well, good for them, but does anyone think they should be in this 101?
And does anyone really think Scott "Nice But Dim" Mills deserves to be in the top ten?
And what on Jupiter has Jessie J ever done to warrant being placed at number three?
And where the fuck was Bradley Manning - a British citizen and truly heroic and influential (gay) man.
Oh well, same time next year...

Independent On Sunday: From The Message Boards

"Britain in the pink?
"What total rubbish, and who, exactly did your poll talk to - probably the guilt-ridden loony left who are all over these pages espousing their 'minority rules' ideas.
"Try a poll of a month ago in the UK that was much clearer: Over 70% are against gay marriages and this incessant push from a loudmouthed minority. The vast majority are conservative (with a small c), family orientated heterosexual.
"No we don't support your ideas or their cause. Marriage is between a man and a woman, aimed to grow the human race. The disgusting, depraved lifestyles of gays should be put back in their closet.
"Don't employ them, don't invite them into your home (I don't and wouldn't) - and make sure they know they are in the minority and wrong, and out of step with 'normal' lifestyles.
"Don't like the comment, you gay lovers? It's called freedom of speech, and no, thankfully I don't live in p**f loving london, or UK, circa 2011."

"Pedrowe" - writing in response to an IoS editorial, Britain Is In The Pink, accompanying the Pink List 2011.
"The poll of a month ago" he cites was a Daily Mail fiction.
Strange a moderator let this comment through - though I kind of like seeing the thoughts of homophobes who are utterly nutty and hateful published.
Probably helps us and "the cause".
And acts as a reminder that everything in the gay garden isn't rosy.

Pink List 2011: Independent's Gay Day

Just got this scan of the front page courtesy of #tomorrowsnewspaperstoday on Twitter.
Golly, this is so exciting!
Does this mean Derren Brown is very influential cause he's got a new series on the tellybox to plug?
Fagburn is dieing to find out what they've done with J***** H***.
Manana!

J Edgar: Hoover

Looks like it's Bring Your Kid To Work Day over at The Independent On Sunday.
They got a breathless six year-old to write about Clint Eastwood/Dustin Lance Black's new biopic J Edgar.
Someone called Guy Adams asks titularly;
'Is Clint Eastwood intent on outing John Edgar Hoover?'
Bit late for that.
"There are growing signs that the film will focus intently on suggestions that its supposedly conservative subject was in fact a closet gay."
Little signs like scriptwriter Lance Black saying; "It’s a suspense-filled cautionary tale of a closet case with supreme political power", perchance?
Snore!