Attitude: 'One Loves One's Gay Fans'

And no one is a moral authority just because they dropped out of a royal vagina.

I don't care what the brain dead in-bred 'think' about anything.

Sake.

PS This is Matthew Todd's last issue as editor.

Stonewall: No Offence

Stonewall, the lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality charity, releases new research by YouGov today that shows offensive comments are frequently made about lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, but that very few people step in to challenge these slurs. The research comes ahead of Anti-Bullying Week.

In the past year, one in five (19 per cent) admitted to making offensive remarks about LGBT people. Almost a third (30 per cent) have heard offensive comments, or language like ‘poof’ or ‘dyke’, in the past month and half (49 per cent) have heard this sort of abuse in the past year.

Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of those who witnessed this abuse didn’t intervene, almost a third (31 per cent) said they did intervene but just three per cent said they offered support or assistance to the person targeted. The research also shows that women are twice as likely to confront someone they hear making offensive comments (27 per cent of women compared to 13 per cent of men).

Stonewall is asking people to sign up to its No Bystander pledge, and commit to calling out abuse when they hear it and to be brave, be heard and be kind. So far more than 16,500 people have signed up...

Stonewall. 

Not sure what we can deduce from this.

Does it include crap gags?

Calling someone a silly old queen?

Even if they are silly and an old queen (and you're their boyfriend)?

Going 'Whoops-a-daisy! 'in a 'comedy' camp voice?

Saying something's 'gay'?

Saying someone's gay?

Surprised it isn't higher tbh.

But hey! Why question a survey from an LGBT advocacy group who benefit from talking up a problem?

That'd be like questioning one of those endless 'surveys' from LGBT marketing groups saying we're all loaded.

Remember: 100% of surveys are 100% reliable!

PS Ben Goldacre points out some holes in a Stonewall survey about coming out.

Schools: The War Against Cissies

 

The days of boys and girls cheerfully baiting each other in the playground with terms such as “sissy” and “cupcake” or issuing orders to “man up” or “go make me a sandwich” may be brought to an end.

New guidelines being sent to all schools in England this week at the government’s request will urge head teachers to ensure that sexist phrases become as unacceptable as racist language.

Some schools are already creating volunteer squads of girls to police sexist language and behaviour and report back to teachers...

Sunday Times.

How about, instead of policing the language of the playground - which by definition is always going to be a bit 'childish' - we encouraged boys to be and/or admire cissies?

Just a thought.

Update: Glad to see Richard Littlejohn agrees with me, sort of.

Pink News: Genuflection Or Journalism?

Pink News.

Surely it's only surprising it's taken the inbred leech so long.

What did you expect him to say?

We should all be hunted to death and eaten by hounds?

Sam Smith: Bullied

FOUR-time Grammy Award-winner Sam Smith tells today how he was verbally and physically abused by homophobes — and is now vowing to stand up for gay kids.

Sam came out at school aged 11 and was accepted by his loving family and supportive group of friends.

But he vividly remembers the darker side of growing up gay.

He was bullied, branded a “faggot” and punched by a stranger in the street.

And Sam warns that despite increased tolerance homophobia is still a major problem.

He says: “This is what angers me — especially in the UK, we think that everything is OK now. Not just in terms of homophobia, but racism too.

“But it’s so far from OK. There’s such a long way to go.”

At just 22, the Stay With Me star is one of the world’s most high-profile gay role models, proudly singing about his relationships with other men.

But he has waited until now — after four Grammys and two Brits — to speak publicly about growing up gay.

Sam — who we can also reveal will sing this year’s Comic Relief single with John Legend — explains: “At the beginning of last year I wasn’t talking about my sexuality as much. But I’ve sold loads of records now and I have a voice.

“I can speak about this from a position of power, compared to two years ago where it would have been p***ing in the wind. It wouldn’t have gone anywhere.” ...

The Sun.

An exclusive by Bizarre editor Dan Wooton - who appeared to enjoy bullying Joe McElderry when he was in the closet.

Sam Smith and John Legend perform this year's Comic Relief single, Lay Me Down, money raised will go to Metro, who offer support to young gay people. 

Or you could just give them some money.

Sorry, can't be arsed to link to the 'whacky' video.

BuzzFeed

Bullying: An Incredibly High Number

Exclusive: One in five gay teenagers claim they have suffered homophobic bullying from teachers and other adults in school

The Independent.

Really?

The question, as always, with surveys on gay youth in schools is how were the sample recruited http://t.co/0hfnIlg3Vy
— Mark McCormack (@_MarkMcCormack) March 8, 2015

Mark is a gay academic, senior lecture in sociology at Durham University, and author of The Declining Significance Of Homophobia.

“It’s an incredibly high number,” said Deborah Gold, the chief executive of the National Aids Trust...

Quite.

Update: The research is by the National Aids Trust.

You can read the report, Boys Who Like Boys, here.

It was a self-selecting online survey - ie not very scientific and not very reliable.

Oh well, let's hope the media reprint this wonky horror story without question, as per.

Bullying: Our Stories

A new campaign has been launched to tackle homophobic and transphobic abuse in schools.

The Crown Prosecution Service has created the resource pack for teachers, which includes lesson plans and a DVD.

School staff will be encouraged to download the pack but won't be forced to make use of it.

It has been welcomed by 19-year-old Joshua and 21-year-old Rhys, who were both bulled at school because of their sexuality.

They gave Newsbeat their reaction at an LGBT support group in central London.

BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat.

Archbishop Of Canterbury: I Vow To Thee...

The Independent (and i, obvs).

Good for you.
Well done.
And not a century too soon.

Dominic & Roger Crouch: Connections

How School Bullies Ripped This Happy Family Apart
'Just days after kissing another boy for a dare, 15-year-old Dominic Crouch jumped off a six-storey building. His suicide prompted his devastated parents to campaign against homophobic bullying. But, as Patrick Strudwick reports, there was further tragedy to follow...'

This is in the Mail On Sunday today - I'm really glad they've run it.
It's a powerful piece, and you couldn't think of a more harrowing example of where homophobic bullying can lead.
Dominic's father, Roger Crouch, began campaigning against school bullying, but took his own life at the end of last year.
The Mail has run a lot of sympathetic stories about the suicides of gay teenagers in the last few years - far, far more than any other British newspaper.
It's far from scientific, but typing "gay suicide" into their search engine brings up 459 mentions, there are 46 just for Tyler Clementi, the most notorious case.
Again, good for them. 
I've written about the Mail's strange pro-gay/anti-gay duality a few times on here before, it may surprise many but they often run gay human interest stories such as this, and the showbiz pages are as gay-loving as anyone else's.
But you have to wonder how their editorial staff can square a story like this with their relentless attacks on gay equality elsewhere in their papers.
There are 1815 mentions of "gay marriage" in the Mail, for example, and I bet almost all of them are negative.
Most toxic of all is surely the Mail's homophobic attacks on attempts to tackle homophobia in schools.
Do they ever stop and wonder if there might be a link?

The Onion: It's Not Funny Cause It's True

Various people have commented that this new video from The Onion - Gay 12-Year-Old: 'I Like Eating Lunch Here By Myself' - isn't funny.
Erm, it's not meant to be...

Jonah Mowry: "I'm Tired Of Being Torn Down"

PS This went viral after Perez Hilton posted it.
There was some bitchtalk that it was in some way "fake" - that Jonah was acting up and putting it on for the camera. It appears it's real - here's Jonah's mom.

Spirit Day: Purple Lame

Yesterday every celebrity and queer person in the universe wore purple to show how much they support LGBT youth. Meanwhile, two Senate bills that would have actually helped stop bullying died quietly without much fanfare. Sorta ironic.
On Thursday the Senate Health, Education, Education & Pensions (HELP) Committee passed a massive education bill known as Elementary & Secondary Education Act with a bi-partisan vote of 15-7. However, the committee did not vote on whether to include Senator Al Franken’s Student Non-Discrimination Act nor Senator Bob Casey’s Safe Schools Improvement Act.

The Student Non-Discrimination Act would have been a comprehensive federal prohibition of discrimination in public schools against any students regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or any instance of bullying. The Safe Schools Improvement Act would have implemented nationwide strategies to help schools identify, prevent, promptly address, and keep stats on bullying.

The bills could have gotten out of committee with the twelve votes necessary. But both men left their sponsored acts out of the bill when they realized that neither would get the 60 bipartisan votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Makes you wonder if all that purple spirit would have been better expended shaming Republicans into preventing the next wave of teen bullycides.

Great piece by Daniel Villarreal on Queerty.

Schools: Great Lies Of Our Time 2

Last Sunday Fagburn wrote about a particularly odious story in The Sunday Times;
"It involves a monumental, acrobatic act of shittiness to look at a sensitive study about the difficulties of negotiating how to ask bullied schoolchildren if they'd been picked on because they were gay, and to write it up as a stupid story headlined; '11 Year-olds Asked: Are You Gay?'
"The title of the paper might have given even an idiot a clue about its real intention; 'Researching and Monitoring Adolescence and Sexual Orientation: Asking the Right Questions, at the Right Time'"
The Daily Express loved this sick twist on the truth and shamelessly, shamefully lifted it on Monday; 'FURY erupted yesterday at “sinister” plans to quiz 11-year-old children to see if they are straight, gay or bisexual'
On Wednesday Express columinist Ann Widdecombe waded in; 'HOMOSEXUAL QUIZ FOR 11-YEAR-OLDS'
"A REPORT for the loony Equality and Human Rights Commission recommends that children should be asked if they are homosexual from the age of 11 and that a record should be kept of any children “questioning” their sexuality..."
In today's Sunday Express, columnist Nick Ferrari is predictably frothing at the mouth; 'SEX SURVEY IS PERVERSE'
"...in the eyes of the Government it could soon be acceptable to ask every child as young as 11 if they are gay."
In fact the report recommended conducting more research into a difficult and understudied subject.
This is fucking scary - and reminded Fagburn of the sort of homophobic misreporting about schools and sexuality that helped usher in Section 28 in the 1980s.
Some clearly would prefer that gay kids continue being literally bullied to death.
You'd imagine the gay media would be up in arms about this.
But no - they just lifted and repeated the distortion.
'UK equality watchdog recommends that children as young as 11 could be quizzed on their sexuality' - James Park, Pink News.
The Pink Paper's Jonny Payne even foregrounded their story with a quote from a Tory MP lifted from The Daily Mail; 'Questioning of 11-year-olds on sexuality condemned by senior MP - A government-funded report that backs the prospect of children as young as 11 being questioned on their sexuality has been branded as “sinister and threatening” by a senior politician'
Did either the piss-poor Pink News or Pinkpaper.com ask School's Out or the EHRC or Stonewall if the story was accurate?
Of course not.
In the age of the internet they could have looked up what the report actually said in five seconds.
What is the point of the gay press if the people writing for it are not just literally incapable of noticing, questioning and challenging homophobic lies in the mainstream media, but cut-and-paste the exact same homophobic bollocks as the worst of the straight press and present it to their readers as news?
Is this the best we can do?

Stand Up! Don't Stand For Homophobic Bullying

Belongto Youth Service have made this video for Ireland's Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week.
It's brilliant.