Joke Of The Day: Michael Winner

'Hymie meets Mrs Cohen in the street. “Noo? What’s going on?” he asks. “Vell,” says Mrs Cohen, “I’ve got good news and bad news.” “What’s bad?” asks Hymie. “My son Jacob, he just told us he’s gay. My boy, suddenly he’s a gay.” “That’s not serious,” says Hymie. “Lots of talented people are gay. Nothing to worry about. What’s the good news?” “He’s marrying a doctor,” says Mrs Cohen.'

Michael Winner, apropos of nothing in his Sunday Times column.

Thought For The Day 3: John Strafford

"In welcoming 'gays' into the party we should not ignore our existing members. Many of them will be offended, not because they are Conservative but because they are of an age that were brought up to believe that homosexuals were 'poofters'. They reflect the population at large of a similar age. We should show some understanding."

John Strafford, chair of the Conservative Yes To AV Campaign.
Strafford posted this on his website in 2002 after Alan Duncan MP came out - there are calls for Strafford to resign over this and other comments found after trawling through his website.

Thought For The Day 2: Michael Stipe

"For a time I was conflicted by how I was represented, and then Aids came, and that's an era that has still to be spoken about in depth by people of my age. It was a very difficult time to be honest and frank about one's sexuality. And a very scary time for people like myself, who were not able to be tested anonymously without some concern. I mean, under Reagan, lest we forget, there was a time when they were talking about internment camps for people who were HIV positive. To this day I can't give blood to the Red Cross because I have sex with a man...
"On a sliding scale of sexuality I'd place myself around 80-20, but I definitely prefer men to women. I had sex with, and enjoyed sex with, women until I met someone that I fell in love with, and who is now my boyfriend. That's the only real news in the last 12 years, but when it's a slow news day I get dragged out of some closet again."

Michael Stipe, interviewed by Sean O'Hagan for The Observer.
For the record Fagburn should point out Stipe may hold the record for the number of times a star has "come out". First - arguably - in 2001 in Time magazine. I think the last time was in 2008 in Spin magazine.
Slow news days? It might help if your press officer didn't announce you've come out - again!? - when REM have a new album coming out. Just sayin'...

Thought For The Day: Suzanne Moore

"We desperately need foster parents, but what drives Christians to go to court to prove they can legally discriminate against homosexuals? Don’t they have better things to do?
"Bishops say this is not a secular country. Judges say it is. I agree. Canon Dr Chris Sugden made me laugh complaining that the Christian faith is treated as if it were ‘on a parallel with Melanesian frog worship’. This is not a faith I am familiar with, but one for the census definitely."

Suzanne Moore, The Mail On Sunday - Fagburn reads it so you don't have to...
For an alternative view see Nick "Hello, I'm bobbins!" Ferrari in his Sunday Express column, 'The Stench Of Real Prejudice' - as Fagburn predicted he's used David Starkey's "new tyranny" trope.

• Image 'Zuerst die Füsse' by Martin Kippenberger - "Banned by the Pope"

Patrick Moore: He's Never Married

"'I think I am the only person alive who has met the first man in space, the first man on the moon, the first man who flew, and then Albert Einstein,' says Sir Patrick.
"Sir Patrick never had a formal education because he was ill as a child and schooled at home; when it was time to go to Cambridge the war broke out and that was that. Nor has he ever married. His fiancee was killed by a German bomb, and after that he never wanted another woman.
"Sir Patrick was exceptionally close to his mother, who lived with him until her death in 1981..."

Sir Patrick Moore, profiled in The Daily Telegraph to mark the 700th edition of The Sky At Night.
The story may be apocraphyl, but Fagburn was told Mr Moore was once interviewed on the radio and told the sad story about how his beloved fiancee had died in the war.
"And what was her name?"
"I don't remember."

Galliarseholegate: With Friends Like These

Today's front page of The Guardian tests the limits of censorship by featuring a photograph of a giant prick.
"A man outside the Rodin museum in Paris disagrees with the departure of John Galliano, fired by Dior for alleged [sic] antisemitic remarks..."
Oh do fuck off.

David Starkey: Getting Into Bed With The Enemy

The Christian Institute has got a new BFF!
Hallelujah!
It's David Starkey, of making endless unwatchable TV programmes about the Royal Family fame.
Funny, I bet you're thinking, isn't he an atheist and a gayer and "the rudest man in Britain"?
Yes, but he's just come out very publicly in defence of anti-gay Christians.
''Gay Historian David Starkey Defends Christians', The Christian Institute hosannas on its website.
Mrs Mr Starkey was on Question Time yet again on Thursday, being rude and spitting feathers about this awful modern world.
They got onto discussing those new equality laws that Christian bigots keeping fall foul of.
David Starkey offered a stark warning; “I am gay and I am atheist but I have profound doubts about this case.
"It seems to me that what we are doing is producing a tyrannous new morality that is every bit as oppressive as the old.”
You better get used to these words - you're going to hear them hurled at us endlessly by The Daily Mail et al.
He explained that when he grew up being gay was "very difficult..." [Makes sad face]
"But I am very, very concerned that a new sort of liberal morality is coming in which is as intolerant, is as oppressive, is as intrusive into family life.”
Remember that nice Christian couple that got fined because they discriminated against a gay couple?
David thought that was madness, and made a modest proposal; “It is for them simply to put up what seems to me to be a quite proper notice in a small privately-run hotel which says we are Christians and this is what we believe.
“Otherwise, we are as I said, we're producing a new tyranny,” a line so good he's said it thrice.
"And can I also tell you something else?"
I fear you're going to anyway.
It's not going to be an Andrew Pierce-style "I, as a gay man, hate this gayery", is it David?
"Speaking as somebody who is gay and had a mother who was a Christian and passionately hated and opposed it, the hatred and the opposition made me what I am.
"Being nice and sweet about gays isn't wholly a good thing. It really isn't.
"We live in a world of intense difficulty and plurality, and just having a hand-me-down, reach-me-down, off-the-hanger imposed morality is a very bad idea."
What a silly old sod.
Surprised? You shouldn't be.
David Starkey is a gay Tory, so squaring circles and embracing contradictions come as easy to him as farting.
He used to be chairman of TORCHE, the Conservative Campaign For Homosexual Equality, who despite their name were never really known for campaigning for equality.
A gay Uncle Tom?
David's more of an Aunty Tom.
Getting into bed with the enemy - when the enemy won't let us sleep in the same room.
Praise be!

The Daily Star: Tabloid Exposé

Richard Peppiatt, a journalist on The Daily Star, announced his resignation this evening - saying he can no longer write for the paper because of its gutter-low journalistic standards, its Islamophobia and tacit endorsement of the English Defence League.
This is something Charlie Brooker attacked brilliantly and savagely in The Guardian last month.
You can read Peppiatt's J'Accuse resignation letter to owner Richard Desmond here.
Peppiatt tells us of such lows as being told to go out wearing a burkha in public for a story, and having to write a story about how the Daily Star had stopped some "tax-payer funded Muslim-only loos" - which had never existed outside of another Star journalist's imagination.
"Not that my involvement in stirring up a bit of light-hearted Islamophobia stopped there. Many a morning I've hit my speed dial button to Muslim rent-a-rant Anjem Choudary to see if he fancied pulling together a few lines about whipping drunks or stoning homosexuals."
This is how the Daily Star works; invent stories, incite homophobia, whip up Islamophobia, and fuck the consequences.
Peppiatt tells Desmond; "You may have heard the phrase, 'The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas.' Well, try this: The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved in down an alley in Bradford."

Festival News 2: Lovebox

Now I don't care about you, but the only UK music festival that tempts Fagburn is Lovebox in July.
As with last year, Sunday is Bummers' Day (unofficial) - with a line-up specially tailored to please The Gays.
Scissor Sisters are headlining.
Yup, I've got really tired of them and their One Big Office Party live schtick, too.
But there's also 2 Many DJs, Marc Almond, Robyn, the gals from Horse Meat Disco, and loads of gayers running around mashed on drugs.
Yay!
But why oh why oh why have Lovebox booked The Drums to play, not on Bummers' Sunday, but on the painfully straight Saturday with Snoop fucking Dogg???
FFS!

Festival News 1: Brighton Festival

Fagburn has just been leafing through the programme for this year's Brighton Festival.
Usually Fagburn is lucky if he finds one event he wants to see - and they've usually been not so much "art" as watching someone talking; Edward W Said, Mark E Smith, Neil Tennant, Brian Eno...
This year's no different - just the one event has grabbed me by the gonads, and it's most definitely your actual gay culture!
So, here is Fagburn's Pick of the Brighton Festival 2011...

For Alfonso: A Wilde Evening at the Royal
by Neil Bartlett, with Bette Bourne and guests.
World Premiere

Saturday May 21st, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Blurb! "In 1888, Oscar Wilde published a children's story called The Remarkable Rocket, about a firework who fails to understand the true nature of love.
On 27 September 1894, he took a boy called Alfonso Conway (whom he'd picked up on Worthing Pier) back to a hotel room in Brighton. Six months later, Alfonso was in a solicitor's office, being forced to give evidence against the man who'd treated him to a very special night out.
"Witty, provocative - and for one night only - For Alfonso imagines the words first spun for Oscar's children in their Chelsea nursery being whispered in the ear of a very different kind of boy..."

Obviously this will be beyond amazing.
Can I have a free ticket, please?

Fosters Ad: Australian For Queer

"Complaints of homophobia are brewing over the latest TV ad for Foster’s lager," claims a writer on the ever-hopeless Pink News.
"In the ad, Dean seeks advice from Australian duo, Brad and Dan, on how to deal with his friend, who has just asked him 'to rub sun cream on his back'.
"Dean is visibly uncomfortable about his friend’s request, as is one of the Australian pair, who proceed to give Dean advice on how to avoid looking gay during this 'delicate situation”.
Pink News' headline poses the titular question; 'Is The New Foster’s Ad Homophobic?'
Check out the readers comments - no-one thinks it's homophobic, many point out it satirises a straight man's fear of being thought gay.
How out-of-touch is Pink News!?

Update: Seeing as Pink News broke this story - which would be a world first for those dumbwits - I wonder if Fosters fed them it?
See also no-one thinking it's homophobic on Queerty's comments.

East End Gay Pride: Not An EDL Free Zone

Blogger Latte Labour has been keeping watch on English Defence League support for East End Gay Pride - and how organisers of the event are happy to allow EDL supporters to join their Facebook group.
Oh dear...
We still don't know who is behind the "Gay Free Zone - Fear Allah" posters that have appeared in parts of London this year; Fagburn thinks it could just as easily be some of the gay cunts who support the English Defence League, or some hate-filled homophobic Islamist cunts.
But it's interesting to note how EDLeaguers are getting behind East End Gay Pride.
Time for East End Gay Pride to declare their event an EDL free zone.

• Johann Hari has added a correction after the online version of his article, 'Can We Talk About Muslim Homophobia Now?' "This article originally said Tower Hamlets had the single highest rise in homophobic violence in the UK, when in fact it merely had one of the highest rises over the past decade. Credit to Peter Lilley for emailing to point this out..."
This is a somewhat mendacious non-apology, if you read Lilley's letter again - it's posted in Comments here.
And Hari may have to print a Correction to this Correction: It was PATRICK Lilley who pointed this out.
Facts really aren't Hari's strong point.

Karl Lagerfeld: A Horrible Image For Fashion

Now I don't care about you, but me and the rest of the entire world have been waiting with bad breath to find out what Karl Lagerfeld has to say about John Galliarsehole's racist outburst.
Good news! M. Lagerfeld is quoted on WWD.com;
“I’m furious, if you want to know. I’m furious that it could happen, because the question is no longer even whether he really said it. The image has gone around the world. It’s a horrible image for fashion, because they think that every designer and everything in fashion is like this. This is what makes me crazy in that story..."
Thanks for clearing that up.
Fashion fact! Karl Lagerfeld is the only man in the world who dresses even worse than John Galliarsehole.

Freedom Of Speech: A Bad Ad For God

Below is the Westboro Baptist Church's predictably charming statement marking the Supreme Court holding up their first amendment right to freedom of speech.
Fagburn agrees with the ruling - that freedom of speech also means freedom of hate speech.
I kinda agree with much in this piece in the LA Times; The Right To Be Vile.
One thing it doesn't cover is when does something like this - serial picketing of funerals with offensive placards and chants - become harrassment; if a work colleague or neighbour calls me "fucking faggot" every day that's not protected as a freedom in the UK or the US, surely?
Whatever, the God Hates Fags guys and gals are such a bad ad for the anti-gay Christian Right, I say let them do some more damage to themselves.
Talking of ads and god... The British Humanist Association has just started an ad campaign running on buses and billboards across the UK; "Not religious? Say so on this year's census form."
It's been banned outright by CBS Outdoors - the company that owns advertising space in UK railway stations.
The BHA poster will still run elsewhere, but this one is also a censored version.
The Committee of Advertising Practice told them the original had the potential to cause "widespread" and "serious offence".
The offending slogan? "If you're not religious, for god's sake say so."
Which surely means they found the word "god" offensive.

Julie Burchill: Change The Record, Love

Julie Burchill's weekly column really has become a stuck record.
Today we get her two centimes on racist scumbag John Galliano;
"If John Galliano had confined himself to insulting the Jews, he could probably have got away with it after a period of contrition. Mel Gibson, after all, had his defenders when he said that Jews start all the wars in the world, such as the writer Andrew O'Hagan. But then Gibson had to throw the N-word into the mix, as Galliano did with Asians; their gooses were cooked when they contravened the PCP rules on who it's ok to hate these days."
This is errant nonsense. Galliano's goose was cooked when that video emerged of his anti-semitic tirade. And he was already good and stuffed.
As she's got another few hundred words to file she then moves briskly onto gay marriage (a week or so late, natch);
"So the Archbishop of Canterbury has drawn a line in the sand, and sworn that Adam and Steve will never become husband and husband in one of "his" buildings. Still sucking up to Islam, are we, Ro-Wi?"
To which the only possible response is... Eh?
Both these choices of subject today are of course mere springboards to enable Ms Burchill to bellyflop into two of her favourite subjects; Israel is wonderful, Islam is evil.
Two subjects that she returns to in The Independent week after week after week ad nauseum.
Pass the sickbag, Julie.

Ann Widdecombe: In Praise Of Man-Boy Love

"I recently watched the old black-and-white movie How Green Was My Valley, which I had not seen in years. It was not the scenes of pit disasters, poverty and paralysis which lingered with me afterwards but instead one which would have appeared in no way extraordinary when the film was first released: the preacher takes a young boy on a walk, sits with him under a tree on a spot overlooking the valley, puts his arm round him and tries to give him some philosophy for coping with life’s twists and turns. It is an innocent, avuncular moment.
"Today every vicar, priest, teacher and youth worker is warned against such companionship, however innocent. To be deliberately alone with a child at all would give rise to hysterical or busybody reactions let alone to be found in isolated surroundings with an arm around the lad’s shoulders. Yet such relationships between the generations are natural and the overwhelming majority of them conceal no dark agenda..."

Ann Widdecombe, The Daily Express

• Ms Widdecombe will be appearing in panto later this year - Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford.

Newsflash: US Files 22 New Charges Against Bradley Manning

"The US Army has charged a soldier held in connection with the leak of US government documents published by the Wikileaks website with 22 extra counts.
"The new charges against Private First Class Bradley Manning include aiding the enemy, a capital offence, but prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty.
"The intelligence analyst is being held at a military jail in Virginia..."

From the BBC News website.
Full statement and chargesheet from US Army.
I'm trying to find out what weight, if any, the prosecutors saying they will not seek the death penalty has (Edit: "The prosecution has told Manning's lawyers that it will not recommend capital punishment, although the presiding military judge has the authority to override the prosecution's recommendation and impose the death penalty" Oh fuck!).

• Bradley Manning Support Network, UK Friends Of Bradley Manning.
Read some disturbing updates on Manning's treatment and prosecution from his defense attorney David E Coombs.
Archive of Fagburn stories about Bradley Manning. Number of stories about Manning on Pink News and Pink Paper to date: Zero.

• Who Will Save Private Braldey Manning? by Sophie Elmhirst is in this week's New Statesman. Bradley gets a coverline, but it's not available online. One person who has visited him in prison several times recently says he has appeared "catatonic"...

Queer Resistance: UK Queers & Allies Against The Cuts

"A collective of queers and allies across the UK coming together to fight the cuts - including lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer folk. We come from all communities, backgrounds and walks of life and we share one common objective.
"These cuts are going to hit the most vulnerable in our society with minorities directly on the front line, including the lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer communities. We are not all in this together as some may say.
"Now is the time to resist these needless cuts and fight for our community, society and values. Get involved now, however you can...."

There are already groups in Manchester, London and Brighton - find out more and get in touch via their Facebook page or email queerresistance@lists.riseup.net

The Pink Paper: Shameful, Dangerous, Alarming

I could fill Fagburn on a daily basis with examples of how piss-poor Pink News and PinkPaper.com are.
The main reason I don't is that I hope it must be obvious - and I'd just end up boring myself and you, dear reader.
But occasionally one of them prints a story so outrageous and noxious it really needs a comment.
'Actor Welcomes LGBT Centre's U-turn On 'Anti-semitic' Event' 'Gay actor and Advocate.com columnist, Michael Lucas, has welcomed news that a US LGBT Centre will no longer host an event by a so-called anti-semitic organisation.'
This "story" - dated February 28th 2011 and "written" by Peter Lloyd - is a textbook example of so much that is wrong with the UK's Pink media.
They get sent a press release - or pull a story off the internet - and cut and paste it, printing it pretty much verbatim, without checking its validity or bias, and without adding a word of comment or balance.
This is something not seen in the gay press alone.
It has a name "Churnalism"; a new website has just gone live where you can check "news stories" for how closely they resemble press releases - churnalism.com (It's early days yet and there's next-to-no gay content yet...)
Back to Pink Paper's story; "Gay actor and Advocate.com columnist, Michael Lucas, has welcomed news that a US LGBT Centre will no longer host an event by a so-called anti-semitic organisation."
"Last weekend, Lucas called on New York's LGBT Center to cancel a party by Israeli Apartheid Week, scheduled for 5 March."
How about telling us something about who Lucas actually is - the "actor" is a gay porn star and porn producer.
How about spending two minutes looking on the internet to find out something about his politics - and if he has form on this issue?
Surely if a journalist is sent a press release about anything related to Israel/Palestine alarm bells must go off?
Peter Lloyd is not some poor kid on work experience learning the ropes - he is News Editor of The Pink Paper.
Does he not know that Lucas is - to put it politely - somewhat controversial?
I don't have to pretend to be impartial and will happily say that I think Michael Lucas is fucking evil.
Lucas is a right-wing Republican - yup, a gay Neo-Con!!!
He's also an extreme Zionist, with a long history of defending any actions committed by the Israeli thug state.
He's also written a number of articles about Muslims that have been slammed as racist.
Lloyd is literally incapable of doing any of this - or more tragically of actually knowing any of this.
Instead he thinks it's acceptable to cut-and-paste some quotes from Lucas, without even a word of comment, or checking for validation from anyone from the New York LGBT Center or Israeli Apartheid Week.
Or how about explaining what Israeli Apartheid Week stand for? Their statement on the ban is here.
Have a read of Lloyd's piece and compare it to how New York's Gay City News covered the story; 'Firestorm Over LGBT Center Jettisoning Critics of Israel'
"The February 22 decision by New York’s LGBT Community Center to cancel a party planned to mark Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), an annual international mobilization by critics of the Jewish state’s treatment of the Palestinians who live in the territory it controls, has sparked outraged response from many LGBT New Yorkers, including a good number of prominent Jewish lesbian and gay activists — but has also won support from other progressive Jewish gay leaders and journalists.
"At the center of the controversy, however, is someone who has never been shy about voicing his disconnect from Western progressive circles — gay adult film producer Michael Lucas, a self-described atheist Jew who is also an unabashed booster of Israel.
"It was Lucas’ letter to the Center’s executive director, Glennda Testone — accompanied by a threat to organize a boycott of major donors — that within a day resulted in the Siege Busters, a group working to raise funds for a new flotilla to challenge the Israeli navy’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, learning that its March 5 Party to End Apartheid! could not be held at the Community Center, and that, in fact, it could no longer meet there as it had been doing since last summer..."
The GCN story continues, but how much is in the first few opening paragraphs that is absent from the Pink Paper's story?
Why are the UK's two main gay news sources written almost entirely by lazy, ignorant, apolitical, hopeless fuckwits?
Whenever a journalist is writing a story, his instinct should always be to ask; "Is this true?"
These people just go; "This will do."
I find it shameful, dangerous and alarming.

Justin Fashanu: Outing The Facts

Steven Davies' coming out this week inevitably leads many to remember the sad story of Justin Fashanu.
It's often held up as a morality tale, or parable - this is what happens when a footballer comes out...
Alan Duffy of The Justin Campaign writes on Goal.com; "Fashanu’s career never went on to reach the heights it should have, with his sexuality and the reaction to it no doubt playing a major part in his very sad downfall.
"His public declaration of his sexuality in 1990 and his death in 1998 could and should have been moments when football started to confront the issue of homophobia in the game, but nothing happened."
A few points are often gloosed over in the Justin Fashanu story, some of the facts are outed in a surprisingly good piece in The Daily Mail today by Martin Samuel;
"It is commonly stated that football failed him, that homophobia and years of living a lie contributed to the fragile mental state that took his life. And perhaps it did.
"Yet, equally, Fashanu's decision to embrace the evangelical Christian faith, which disapproved of his sexual orientation, was also harmful to his well-being, as was the generally negative reaction of the black community and members of his family to his announcement in 1990.
"People remember Fashanu coming out after his retirement, yet his career continued for several years as a gay man, albeit one who often seemed to be in denial."
Indeed Fashanu once announced he was dating Coronation Street actress Julie Goodyear, a lesbian.
He was also out as a Tory.
Allan Hall who wrote his coming out interview in The Sun said Fashanu had no noble motivation; "He was only interested in the money".
This was "a five-figure sum". Many wondered why he decided to come out in a paper as homophobic as The Sun. Fashanu explained it was because it was the paper most football fans read.
(I've wondered if he came out as he'd been threatened with being outed, as has often happened with the UK tabloids. This seems unlikely as they paid him).
In 1994 Fashanu went to both The People and The News Of The World claiming to have slept with two Tory cabinet ministers, and asking for £300,000 for the story. Both thought he was lying (Profile, The Independent, February 12th 1994).
And his tragic suicide was spurred by a factor unrelated to football;
"At the time of his death, Fashanu believed he was to be charged with the sexual assault of a 17-year-old male in Maryland, USA. His suicide note protested his innocence but said he did not want further embarrassment for his family and friends."
Martin Samuel concludes; "So it is far too glib to say attitudes within football alone killed him. There were all manner of wrong turns along the way."
However Samuel, like so many journalists, omits one important part of the Justin Fashanu story - the media's own role in his breakdown, downfall and untimely demise.

The Wizard of Oz: The Lion Queen

"...David Ganly notches up a first by making the Cowardly Lion explicitly gay and announcing 'I'm proud to be a friend of Dorothy.'"

From Michael Billington's Guardian three-star review of Andrew Lloyd Webber's new stage production of The Wizard Of Oz.
First the world of cricket, now stage musicals. Who new?
So brave etc etc...

PCC: "Discrimination Against Homosexual People" Fine By Us

Here is the Press Complaints Commission's stock official response to complaints about the Daily Mail's infamous gay swastika cartoon in January;

"The Commission received over one hundred complaints about the cartoon. Virtually all the complainants considered that the portrayal of the couple in the cartoon discriminated against homosexual people. Many complainants also considered that the article was in breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) on the grounds that it was inaccurate to depict a gay man with a swastika tattoo. The vast majority of complainants found the article to be highly offensive...
"In regard to the concern that it was inaccurate to depict a gay man displaying a swastika tattoo, the Commission emphasised that the cartoon was depicting figurative characters and not specific individuals...
"Virtually all of the complainants considered that the portrayal of the couple in the cartoon, and especially the depiction of a swastika, was in breach of Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Code. The terms of this clause state that the press must avoid making a prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s sexual orientation. However, the clause does not cover general concerns over the discrimination of groups or categories of people. Given that the majority of complainants considered that the cartoon discriminated against homosexual people in general, the Commission could not establish a breach of Clause 12 of the Editors’ Code of Practice." [Full ruling posted in comments]

This is the PCC's default position; you can say shitty things about a group, they're only concerned if an individual is attacked - and further, that someone involved personally complained.
Oh, except they rejected a complaint from Stephen Gately's civil partner, Andrew Cowles, over Jan Moir's awful piece about his death in The Daily Mail.
See also the PCC "ruling" on Richard Littlejohn last year saying all gay men are paedophiles, or their non-reply to a complaint from Fagburn about The Sun outing a trans person.
Complaining to the PCC or any offending media may seem pointless - and I'm not in favour of calls for censorship, or actually sure what people think they'll achieve by it - but Fagburn believes it makes others aware of our anger and disgust, and that they can't get away with writing - or drawing - homophobic trash.

Elton John's Babywatch: A Right Tit

The arrival of Zacahry John has inspired Irish artist Kevin Sharkey to create a work called 'Father And Son'.
The Daily Mail says it's "thought provoking".
Is it too terribly philistine to say it looks like it took two minutes in Photoshop?
"Insisting he didn't mean to offend the pop legend, Sharkey admits he was inspired by the media hype surrounding Elton and civil partner David Furnish becoming parents in December.
"Explaining his provoking creation, Sharkey, 48, said: 'I was inspired by all the hype surrounding Elton's baby.'"
You can say that again.

Adoption: A Sad Day For Bigotry

'Christian Beliefs DO Lose Out To Gay Rights: Judges' ruling against devout foster couple'
"A Christian couple facing a foster parenting ban because of their views on homosexuality were told by a court yesterday that gay rights ‘should take precedence’ over their religious beliefs."

Eunice Johns commented; "This is a sad day for Christianity. The judges have suggested that our views might harm children. We do not believe that this is so. We are prepared to love and accept any child.
"All we were not willing to do was to tell a small child that the practice of homosexuality was a good thing."

This is from the Daily Mail, of course - a dream story for them, of course.
Fagburn applauds Derby Council and the High Court for acting to prevent child abuse.
For more on The Daily Mail's creepy obsession with adoption, see; Michael Gove: I'll scrap 'harmful' restrictions on adoption process that gave me a second chance'
Und! One of Fagburn's all-time favourite pieces; 'Slurred By The Adoption Nazis: Critics of gay parenting are branded 'retarded homophobes''

Update: This has set Telegraph readers off on their letters' page on Wednesday. The Telegraph also has a sympatico interview with these two nutters - while an editorial compares the High Court ruling to the Spanish Inquisition. FFS!

Jane Russell: 1921-2011

Mark Cousins has written a nice obituary in The Guardian - "Her song Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?, performed in a gymnasium against a backdrop of dancing athletes, gained her a large gay following..."
Reductive but good to see us as part of her story.