Peter Tatchell Watch: Question

Kill pious cunts like you?

Peter Tatchell: Happy Birthday

Happy birthday Peter!

Here's to many more years of standing outside foreign embassies holding up crappy placards, serving imperialism, patronising LGBT people in the developing world, transphobia, Islamophobia, left-bashing, hijacking meetings and movements, fictionalising your own biography, perpetually presenting 'alternative facts', harassing young women and anyone who dares to criticise you, and sending out press releases about your fantastic self.

Mr Vain even sent out a press release telling the media it's his birthday today.

Here's the self-congratulatory, self-mythologising press release.

Unbelievable.

PS Here he is, acting like a right-wing stooge as per, interrupting a speech by Jeremy Corbyn last month.

And here's another hilarious 'Peter Tatchell's postcard from fantasy island' piece from Pink News; 'I first met George in about 1980, when he was still a teenager and long before he was famous. It was a chance meeting in a small gay disco above a pub by Manor House tube station in north London.'

Of course you did, Pete, and were Freddie Mercury and Princess Diana there too? And your good friend Whitney Houston?

Can't believe anyone falls for this baloney.

You're 65 now, Peter - pick up your bus pass and go.

Peter Tatchell: The Case For The Defence

LOL!

It's actually planned as a defence of Saint Peter against his critics in the media etc.

Though I can't recall one critical piece written about this 'national treasure' in all the years I've been doing Fagburn.

It tends to be ordinary gay men - especially those on the left and/or who've tried to work with his mad vanity and ego - that think he's become a joke.

But please give generously.

Peter Tatchell Watch: Africa

'In aid of the African human rights work of the Peter Tatchell Foundation...'

LOL!

Erm, apart from being denounced by LGBT activists in Africa as being patronising, neo-colonialist and counter productive, I'm not sure what this could possibly mean.

Still, tickets are only £75, so why not pop along?

His last published accounts showed Saint Peter was raking in £119,000 a year - which must have paid for emailing press releases about himself a few times over.

PS Thanks to Nick. x

Keith Vaz: Saint Peter Speaks

Independent.

'Who shall we get to talk about this?'

'Well, it's a gay story, so... Peter Tatchell!'

'But I don't think he knows much about it.'

'Prfft. He's the go-to guy on any gay story.'

'But he'll just say his usual boring sanctimonious banalities.'

'Yeah, I know. But we usually get away with it.'

'OK. Pub?'

'Pub.'

Eddie Izzard: Pink Beret Theft

This world never ceases to baffle me.

PS 'If I stand next to Eddie Izzard I might get my photo in the paper...'

Peter Tatchell: Useful Idiot

Western Left used to fight fascism. Now it ignores the crimes of neo-fascist Assad, Putin, Iran & Hezbollah in Syria pic.twitter.com/fSGfeGW2Sb

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) August 19, 2016

And to think some people believe Peter Tatchell is a CIA stooge...

Saint Peter - fearless defender of American imperialism!

Orlando: Julia

Because I am a straight woman (and white and middle class to boot – oh, the shame of it!) that means I am simply not qualified to speak on anything affecting gay people. Or so I was informed by Owen Jones on Sky News when we were reviewing the newspapers late on Sunday night.

Owen, a Guardian columnist and political commentator who also happens to be gay, was, understandably, very upset and angry about the news from Orlando when he arrived in the green room.

We arrived on set chatting about how Owen had been badly scratched by his cat and then, just 12 minutes and six seconds later, Owen stormed off the set “in disgust”.

I have now watched the full exchange three times and I am still at a loss as to what Owen Jones found so disgusting. And, no, that’s not because I am ignorant or stupid or a bigoted homophobe, as Owen’s delightful Twitter followers seem to think, but because nothing was said that could remotely have caused such a scene...

Telegraph.

Yes, Julia, the real reason Owen was angry was because he'd been scratched by his cat.

She also says he was 'tired and emotional' - a journalist's euphemism for drunk - and this caused his 'childish tantrum'.

Oh do piss off, you mad posh cow!

By a cruel irony the Telegraph is also running this comment piece today.

Update: You shouldn't have to be gay to have an opinion about the Orlando shooting, Jacob Furedi, Telegraph blog. On Owen's line; 'You just don't understand this because you're not gay.'

PS Fagburn wonders if any eagle-eyed viewers have seen any other gayers of note apart from Owen, commenting on Orlando in the last 24 hours.

The publicity-shy Peter Tatchell shamelessly tried to gatecrash his party yesterday.

He must be FEWMING it's not all about him for a change.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Peter Tatchell Watch: Knighty Knight

Over the last decade, I’ve had three separate phone calls asking if I would be “minded” to accept an OBE, knighthood or a peerage. The caller had a cut-glass accent. He declined to identify himself, saying it was just a “preliminary” inquiry. It could have been genuine or possibly a tabloid sting. I have no idea who the man was or in what capacity he phoned me. In all three cases, I said no...

Peter Tatchell, The Guardian Cif.

So there's no written record of any of this, Pete?

Funny, as you claim you're barred from receptions at 10 Downing Street, this seems a little strange.

I really do worry about you, Lady Bonkers.

PS Love this tragic attempt to get a free holiday...

Check out Turtle Cove, the fab gay beach resort north of Cairns Australia: https://t.co/NtYE6dSSdY The holiday in my dreams @turtlecoversrt

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 5, 2016

USA: This Is Fascism

The Week.

A truly backwards, barbarian nation.

Doubtless Saint Peter Tatchell and Stephen Fry will be calling for a boycott and protesting outside the American embassy.

All together now; 'THIS IS HOW HITLER STARTED!'

Stop buying Coca Cola!

Joe My God.

Peter Tatchell: Survivor

Guardian online.

As hilarious a piece of self-serving self-mythologising as Saint Peter's Wikipedia page.

Free Speech: Oh Do Shut Up!

Yet another right-wing shitbag leaps to the defence of Bindel and Tatchell - here, Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times - completely missing the point in the process.

Fagburn preferred it when Liddle was pointing out what a pointless wanker Saint Peter has become.

Joke Of The Week: Peter Tatchell

Is this man a prat?

Let’s stick with the Tatchell business. I know this is meant to be, sort of, a politics-free zone, but the personal is political and I’m taking the backlash against Tatchell a bit personally. I met him once, at a party, many years ago, at the height of his renown. I wasn’t talking to anyone and for a moment he wasn’t, either, so we fell into conversation.

I think I was a bit worried that he might militantly denounce me for not being gay, or disdain me, the way some celebrities do when you are of considerably less note than they are (hello, Stephen Fry), but he was utterly, utterly charming and I came away with the impression, which has not diminished over the years, that here was a thoroughly decent human being, modest, intelligent, honest and brave.

What the hell has happened to my friend ——’s brains, and heart, that she can put her name to a screed that implies he is a wicked bigot? ...

Nicholas Lezard, New Statesman.

You lost me after 'honest' and 'modest', love...

PS Saint Peter's reply to the open letter, On Tatchell, Censorship And Criticism, is - somewhat predictably - first class horse shit.

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.

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

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.

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

Peter Tatchell: You Don't Understand, It's All About Me

First they came for Peter Tatchell...

Many people have been talking about this for years, can Saint Peter explain why he only thought it became an issue this weekend?

Though presumably you'll now do your usual trick of claiming you started it?

Oh, and why did you sell this to the Telegraph?

Why did you take money for serving their left-bashing right-wing agenda?

PS For someone claiming to have been 'no-platformed', he's sure getting heard a heck of a lot right now - also on BBC News, Newsnight...

Edit: The open letter PT signed last year was, of course, about 'no platforming'. Apologies.

Peter Tatchell: Ignorance

Yeah, how ignorant would you have to be wonder if Saint Peter might be a bit racist?

You'd have to be really ignorant to even suspect Peter Tatchell might possibly be racist!

What madness that would be! 

PS I really don't think you could say Saint Peter is "racist", cause this...

MT @alextomo: At Canterbury @PeterTatchell with African LGBTIs outside #Anglican Primates news conference pic.twitter.com/Xlbi4iu3zI @LGCM @hrw

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) January 17, 2016

Note how Miss Modesty stands in front of the camera.

Oh Peter, you wild colonial child, and tireless defender of Empire!!!

It is politically banal and mendacious to talk about 'no-platforming', when Saint Peter of Tatchell is hogging the platform.

Peter Tatchell Watch: I'm Free

The emails from the officer of the National Union of Students were unequivocal. Fran Cowling, the union’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representative, said that she would not share a stage with a man whom she regarded as having been racist and “transphobic”.

That the man in question is Peter Tatchell – one of the country’s best-known gay rights campaigners, who next year celebrates his 50th year as an activist – is perhaps a mark of how fractured the debate on free speech and sexual politics has become.

In the emails, sent to the organisers of a talk at Canterbury Christ Church University on Monday on the topic of “re-radicalising queers”, Cowling refuses an invitation to speak unless Tatchell, who has also been invited, does not attend. In the emails she cites Tatchell’s signing of an open letter in the Observer last year in support of free speech and against the growing trend of universities to “no-platform” people, such as Germaine Greer, for holding views with which they disagree.

Cowling claims the letter supports the incitement of violence against transgender people. She also made an allegation against him of racism or of using racist language. Tatchell told the Observer that the incident was yet another example of “a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere” symptomatic of a decline in “open debate on some university campuses”...

The Observer.

A predictably disingeneous piece about Peter Tatchell.

As the article states this isn't about 'no-platforming', Peter here is just piggy-backing on a current hot topic to serve himself, something he's made an art of for the last 30 years.

Nor, rather obviously, has he been denied of freedom of speech or been censored.

One (1!) student panellist, Fran Cowling, said she wouldn't be attending as she thinks Tatchell's been racist and transphobic.

Perhaps, quite understandably, she just didn't want to be near this awful man?

It's surely more remarkable that other people are still willing to enter into serious discussion with this increasingly silly, erratic and ridiculous self publicist.

It is predictably hypocritical of Saint Peter to wibble on about free speech when, for example, he has argued for no-platforming of Islamic 'hate preachers' at the East London Mosque and the Muslim scholar, Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

He's even had a book withdrawn for commiting the supreme crime; criticising Peter Tatchell!

He's tried to hound other people out of their jobs.

He supported the prosecution of a Northern Ireland bakers who didn't want to make a cake with a pro-gay marriage message on (until two weeks ago!).

He's even tried to have music and musicians banned.

Going crying to The Observer to complain about a young female student who'd dared to criticise him seems part of his infamous arrogant and bullying behaviour.

He must have known this would lead to her being harrassed online - presumably this was his intention?

It's hardly the action of some self-proclaimed champion of free speech.

But observers of Peter Tatchell will know all Peter Tatchell is interested in now is Peter Tatchell.

With his tireless and tiresome yet successful campaign of self-promotion in the media, by reducing a movement to himself, it is hard to think of anyone who has done more damage to furthering the cause of gay activism in this country.

Whilst most many gay men on the left now think he has become a liability, the likes of The Daily Mail declare him a 'national treasure'.

One would hope Peter will apologise for his disgusting behaviour - but when has Mr Vain ever done that before?

In the interests of 'free speech', if nothing else, can this odious mentalist 70s gay dinosaur now shut the fuck up and retire?

• Help I'm Being Persecuted: Hypocrisy and free speech, Scott Long 2015.

PS The second half of The Observer feature; a potted biography of Tatchell, where Saint Peter is credited for every advance in gay rights over the last 50 years, is so fawning, ridiculous and uncritical it could have been written by him.