Facebook Rainbows: Take Down Your Flags

It’s now easy, popular and politically expedient to raise the rainbow flag for marriage equality, since 60 percent of Americans support it. But being an LGBT person is still difficult. In some states, it’s still legal to be fired or evicted for being gay. And the gay marriage ruling won’t end the crises of homelessness, harassment and suicide suffered by LGBT people. A record number of LGBT people, especially trans women of color, are being killed and HIV rates are still astronomically high among gay and bisexual men.

Covering your profile picture in rainbow colors doesn’t change any of those truths. Some have argued that this kind of “slacktivism” promotes awareness, motivates people to take action and could subtly persuade opponents of same-sex marriage to change their views. But a 2014 study suggested that people who make these token displays of support often do it simply to boost their own public images without making any real sacrifice to benefit the cause...

The co-opting of symbols and movements is not unique to Facebook’s rainbow-flag campaign. Throughout history, the powerful have taken credit for social progress they did not participate in, or, in some cases, actively fought against...

Facebook did not invent co-opting, but it allowed it to happen en masse this week. It gave an unprecedented number of people the power to claim understanding of a struggle they do not actually know. When millions of people cloak themselves in a symbol without understanding what it means, they dilute that symbol’s power.

Peter Moskowitz, Washington Post.

Bit pious, but kinda yeah.

PS The 26 million people who've put up a rainbow flag online will be thrilled to know Facebook is using them to spy on you.

PPS Radical Faeries and trans activists against Facebook's ban on adopted names.

Conchita: Tell Me What's Wrong...

The Advocate.

Who gives any credence to a stupid online petition?

I might start one now calling for you to be banned.

Oh, hang on, I just have!

It was a piece of piss - and quite utterly meaningless.

Gayness: Another Victory!

A huge international corporation, NewLookOrangeFuckYouMcSlaves™, has suddenly decided to become a moral agent, Fagburn can exclusively reveal.
Following a campaign by almost 6,000 gay idiots clicking on another stupid petition on AllOut, the company has now done a spectacular volte-face, and will now pretend to care about The Gays.
This was supported by Pink Star News, who filed endless stories about how something bad is bad.
Celebrities who signed up to the campaign included Christopher Biggins, Su Pollard, and Dave Nobody, Conservative local councillor for East Twittery (West).
The company will now no longer be doing something that they weren't actually doing before, a spokeslady has said.
"We shall now try harder to pretend to be nice," she told us.
All the other bad things they do, like using 12 year-old children to work 12-hour days in sweatshops, will however continue.
So everything is now alright for ever.
Because only corporate whores can save us now.
Well done, The Gays!

Russia: The Modern Face Of Queer Protest

360,000 people click on a pointless All Out e-petition!
Only 200 turn up to Downing Street protest!
Was the low turnout because Stephen Fry wasn't there - or because Peter Tatchell was there?
Picture shows the publicity-shy Saint Peter straining to get his photo taken.

PS Fagburn has asked AllOut.org if they publish their accounts. No word yet...

The Economist: Exports And Imports

There's an interesting overview in The Economist about how American evangelical Christians are exporting, funding and fermenting homophobia in Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, and - ironically - particularly in Africa "campaigners adopt the language of anti-colonialism, portraying gay rights, and even homosexuality itself, as Western impositions; [even though their] opponents counter that the criminalisation of gay sex is itself largely a legacy of empire."
Further; "Anti-discrimination laws and other liberalising reforms are evidence of a worldwide secular conspiracy, against which Africa, or eastern Europe, or the Caribbean must fortify themselves. Occasional rebukes by the American government about persecution of gays abroad only prove the conspiracy’s power."
In fine, criticism that comes from those in the West - even signing some silly e-petition - can prove counter-productive and harmful.
Christ, this world is fucked.

Fagburn: I Will No Longer Allow This To Happen!

No longer content to stand idly by and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune I has decided to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them, and so I has started one of those incredibly effective e-petitions on change.org.
Let's stop this kind of thing once and for all!
Remember - unheard clicks from a mouse can cause tidal waves on shore.

Alan Turing: Pardon?

• Like the Guardian (Editorial, 3 February), I support a pardon for Alan Turing's conviction for a homosexual offence. However, I do not think he should be pardoned because, as you imply, he was a great intellectual whose contribution to our victory over Nazism saved countless lives. For this achievement, he deserves the highest honour. But he should be pardoned because the illegality of homosexual acts was a clear breach of his human rights. This principle applies to all those similarly convicted. What is needed is a short act of parliament granting pardon to all such individuals.
Eric Deakins
London

Letter to The Guardian.

It looks like the government will reject the calls to pardon Alan Turing, using something called "the precedent test".
Lord McNally told the Lords on Monday night; "The question of granting a posthumous pardon to Mr Turing was considered by the previous Government in 2009.
"As a result of the previous campaign, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal posthumous apology to Mr Turing on behalf of the Government, describing his treatment as "horrifying" and "utterly unfair". Mr Brown said the country owed him a huge debt. This apology was also shown at the end of the Channel 4 documentary celebrating Mr Turing's life and achievements which was broadcast on 21 November 2011.
"A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted..."
The Guardian quotes American mathematician Dennis Hejhal, who echoes the sentiments in the letter above; "i see that the House of Lords rejected the pardon Feb 6 on what are formal grounds.
"if law is X on date D, and you knowingly break law X on date D, then you cannot be pardoned (no matter how wrong or flawed law X is).
"the real reason is OBVIOUS. they do not want thousands of old men saying pardon us too.
"i hope there is an appropriate hullabaloo in the UK."
It's so satisfying to see there are so many events organised around the world to mark Alan Turing Year, but I've never been quite sure what pardoning Turing would achieve, beyond being "nice" - but maybe that's just me.
The e-petition is still open - here it is, clicktivists.