March For England: Not Wanted In Brighton

Bradley Manning: Please Give Generously

Over $11,100 of the needed $14,800 has already been pledged!
We have until 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern today (Saturday, April 21) to raise the last $4,000 needed to place twenty-one “Bradley Manning: Whistle-blower” ads in the DC Metro subway system, that will coincide with Bradley’s next hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, which begins April 24. Donations can be made via the EpicStep campaign site, or directly through the Bradley Manning Support Network.
There are two ways to support the campaign, either by making a donation on the EpicStep Ad Campaign website, or by donating directly to the Bradley Manning Defense Fund. 
Last day to raise $4000 to place 21 ads on the DC metro coinciding with Bradley’s next April 24th court appearance. Help bring Bradley's case to Washington.

PS You can watch the National Theatre of Wales play The Radicalisition Of Bradley Manning live onstream tomorrow here.

 Dunno why but this has made me quite tearful today.
If the US wasn't mad they'd've given Bradley a medal.
But if the US wasn't mad they wouldn't start so many stupid fucking wars.
What a world! What a world! 

Theresa May: Oh, Give Us Money

'Speaking at the Stonewall Workplace Conference in London today, the Home Secretray Theresa May said businesses could not afford to ignore the £70 billion-strong lesbian, gay and bisexual market, as she set out the 'business case for equality'. Ms May said the government would continue to strive for equality, saying top employers 'know that a company whose workforce better reflects their customers is better able to understand what their customers want and need - and that means greater sales and profits'.

Stonewall.
Christ, is anyone dumb enough to believe this £70 billion claim?
This comes from what?
Saying 10% of people are gay - basically you could halve this, at least - and it's nonsensical to say that all their income is disposable.
Please...
And what kind of an immoral agent does something, not because they think it's right, but because they think they can make a profit?
"We still don't like you, but give us your money, gayboy."
Tory thinking in a nutbag.

News Of The World: Keep On Digging

"Unbeknown to members of the Culture Committee, the NOTW established a team to investigate their private lives. For several days, as chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck would later tell Tom Watson, reporters searched for any secret lovers or extra-marital affairs that could be used as leverage against the MPs.
"Thurlbeck said: "All I know is that, when the DCMS [Department of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee] was formed or rather when it got onto all the hacking stuff, there was an edict came down from the editor and it was find out every single thing you can about every single member: who was gay, who had affairs, anything we can use.
"Each reporter was given two members and there were six reporters that went on for around 10 days. I don't know who looked at you. It fell by the wayside; I think even Ian Edmondson [the news editor] realised there was something quite horrible about doing this..."

"Although the committee wanted Brooks to give evidence, its members, whose private lives News International had pored over, capitulated and decided not to summon her. On the day the committee met to discuss the issue, two Labour MPs close to Tony Blair, Janet Anderson and Rosemary McKenna, were absent. The gay Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price – who in September unexpectedly announced that he would leave Parliament at the next general election to take up a Fulbright scholarship in the US – claimed that the committee's members had been warned that if they had called Brooks, their private lives would be raked over.
"Mr Price said later: "I was told by a senior Conservative member of the committee, who I knew was in direct contact with executives at News International, that if we went for her, they would go for us – effectively they would delve into our personal lives in order to punish [us]."
 
From The Independent who are serialising Tom Watson's book Dial M For Murder.
Nice work lads.

Was Jesus Gay?: Dunno Really

"Those last words of Jesus would not let me escape. "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman behold your son!' Then he said to the disciple. 'Behold your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.""That disciple was John whom Jesus, the gospels affirm, loved in a special way. All the other disciples had fled in fear. Three women but only one man had the courage to go with Jesus to his execution. That man clearly had a unique place in the affection of Jesus. In all classic depictions of the Last Supper, a favourite subject of Christian art, John is next to Jesus, very often his head resting on Jesus's breast. Dying, Jesus asks John to look after his mother and asks his mother to accept John as her son. John takes Mary home. John becomes unmistakably part of Jesus's family.
"Jesus was a Hebrew rabbi. Unusually, he was unmarried. The idea that he had a romantic relationship with Mary Magdalene is the stuff of fiction, based on no biblical evidence. The evidence, on the other hand, that he may have been what we today call gay is very strong. But even gay rights campaigners in the church have been reluctant to suggest it..."

Paul Oestreicher, a chaplain at the University Of Sussex, writing in The Guardian.
Not sure we should take anything in The Bible as gospel (fangyewverymuch I'm here all week) seeing as it says Mr Christ was born to a virgin, could walk on water, turn water into wine, talked to bushes, and bring back the dead - including himself - but anyway...
I've lost count of the number of things I've read saying Our Lord was a total gaylord.
May I suggest Paul visits a library or Googles "Was Jesus gay?" and reads one of the paltry 22,700 articles that brings up.
Still I like the idea of Fred and Shirley Phelps and Stephen Green choking on their spaghetti hoops on reading this.
Why not send them this article? info@christianvoice.org.uk.
The Westboro Baptist Church website is still down after being hacked by those naughty anarchists at Anonymous but you can reach Shirley Phelps at http://www.twitter.com/DearShirley.
Feel free to send them some really filthy hardcore gay porn, too.

Levon Helm: 1940-2012

The Band were such a great band...

Matthew Mitcham: The Colour Of His Hair

"I certainly don't see [being gay] as a burden, I never did, especially with how much attention the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] cause has been getting lately with marriage equality … and with how few openly gay sports stars there are around at the moment. ''I don't mind attention being put on it.
''Ideally I would like one day for sexuality to be as unimportant and uninteresting as hair colour, or eye colour or even just gender in general. One day it will get to that.
''But until it is easy for sports people to come out without fear of persecution or fear of lost sponsorship income and stuff like that, or fear of being comfortable in the team environment, I don't mind attention being brought to my sexuality in the hope that it might make other people feel more comfortable … in being comfortable enough about who they are in their sporting environment.''

Matthew Mitcham interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald. 
I wonder if any other divers in this year's Olympics is gay?
Can't think of one.

FCKH8: It Doesn't Get Better...

For homophobes.
http://FCKH8.com

Private Eye: Get Over It!

From Private Eye.

Out: Oops!

The editorial staff of the influential gay lifestyle magazine Out is being laid off with one month's severance as of Friday, Capital has learned.But according to Out editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin, it's more complicated than that.
Hicklin said he will hire back an unspecified number of editors on a contract basis into a new company he is founding called Grand Editorial. It will operate the magazine as a contractor for Here Media, sister company of Regent Entertainment Inc., which acquired Out in 2008.

Capital.
Hi, you're fired.
That's how the gay press works...

The Daily Telegraph: Come Again?

Boris Johnson: Still Bonkers

'Boris Johnson has said that he feared that there would have been an "intense backlash" if he had allowed a Christian advertising campaign promoting the idea that gay people can be converted to heterosexuality to be plastered on London's buses.
'The Conservative mayor, who is standing for re-election in May, talked about his decision to block the posters days before they were due to appear on buses in the capital as he took part in a mayoral debate jointly organised by London Church Leaders, Faith to Engage, and the Evangelical Alliance.
'He said that he made his decision not only because he thought an advert which suggested that gay people could be cured was likely to cause "great offence", but also because of the possible reverberations for London's Christian community.
"The job of mayor is to unite, the job is to stop prejudice, and actually the backlash would be so intense it would not have been in the interest of Christian people in this city," he said.'

The Guardian.
Well, heaven forfend the Christian community would be getting beaten up by gay vigilantes!

The Sun: And On That Bombshell...

In 1997 The Sun said it wasn't going to out people anymore...

Chris Birch: I Woke Up Gay

Watch this total mentalist here.
An article on BBC News magazine online has his boyfriend and a medical expert saying the stroke probably didn't "turn him gay", it was more likely this was dormant, maybe through closetry or bisexuality or something...

Cardinal Keith O'Brien: An Official Statement

I am not mad.
No sirree.
And let this be an end to this Ecclesiastical matter!

Brighton & Hove Gay Mens' Chorus: Another win for Fagburn here

"A 30-strong choir of gay men from Brighton has signed a £1m record deal."

BBC News.
Fuck do you really believe that?

"Round numbers are always false" - Samuel Johnson.

I think you might have to strike off a few noughts.
Still, looks good on a press release.
If you've been given a million quid - which only a retard would believe - why not give £100,000 to charity?
The music indusrty is virtually broke - does anyone really believe they'd throw a million pounds at an unknown entity who would probably have signed for £100?
"John Hamilton, who co-founded the group with Jason Pimblett, said: "Rather than being a gay chorus, we're a chorus of men that happen to be gay."
So you're the Brighton & Hove Gay Men That Happen to Be Gay Chorus?
Aren't stupid, banal clichés lovely?

Update: Yes, this was BOLLOCKS.

Daily Mail: "Homosexuality IS a departure from the norm"

Oops!
Delete! Delete!!!

Bruce Springsteen: We Take Care Of Own

My favourite song right now.

Hobsbawm: A Life In Politics

The great Eric Hobsbawn interviewed on Radio 4 by Simon Schama.

Fagburn: London Calling

Nothing happening.
I am listening to London Calling by The Clash and remembering being 12 and the last communist in Chalfont St Peter.

Daily Telegraph: From The Early Editions

"Lord Carey accuses courts of persecuting believers and driving them underground..."

Well, it's nice to keep things in perspective, isn't it?
A communique from the underground resistance leader, Lord Carey, smuggled out of his secret priest hole hidden in the House Of Lords and printed in the British samizdat publication, The Daily Telegraph. 
I thought Christians weren't, say, banned from getting married, or regularly beaten up or murdered just because they believe in a God, but this just goes to show what little I know.
So think on, think on.

Letter Of The Week: Y Viva España

When I read stories like "Gay marriage: the fight is on" I am reminded how grateful I am to live in Spain. I am English and married my partner, who is Welsh, five years ago in a state registry office in Sitges, near Barcelona.
When the Spanish government, then Socialist, was introducing same-sex marriage legislation, the Catholic Church in Madrid was outraged and protested strongly. Fortunately the then president told the bishops that the government ruled Spain and not the Church, and they had no right to try to force their views on everybody else.
I wonder if those amateurs in the UK Government will have the courage to do the same?

Derrick Smith
Barcelona, Spain

There are three letters about gay marriage in today's Independent - including a bigot for "balance", natch - but I rather liked this one. 
And I quite like the idea of David Cameron telling the Church to fuck right off out of it cause he's running this gaff now.
Metaphorically.

Stupid Poll Watch: You And Me Both

"A FIFTH of gay Brits are planning to become civil ­partners this year and almost half would like to marry in a church.

"Nearly two-thirds of grooms-to-be want to wear an engagement ring, a poll by dating site Gaydar.co.uk found..."

The Daily Star. 
Regular viewers will know nothing - nothing - gladdens Fagburn's heart more than a press release about a stupid poll turned into news FACT!
Sure beats journalism. 
Okay, let's do the maths on this one...
The number of male civil partnerships over the last few years averages out at 3,000 a year - that's 6,000 gay men getting hitched.
Let's be generous and say we have three-quarters of 2012 left - so we might expect 4,500 gay men in the UK to get civilly partnered this year.
So if "a fifth of gay Brits are planning to become civil ­partners this year" that means there are only 20,250 gay men in the UK.
That's less than one in a thousand adult males. 
Admittedly this is somewhat lower than previous estimates about how many gay men there are, but you can't argue with science, can you?
The survey also begs the obvious question of what exactly all these soon to be happily "married" men are doing on Gaydar? 
Fagburn's mind is positively BOGGLED!

On The Buses: All Aboard

Right, I'll be adding stories about Busgate - as no-one is calling it - as I find them.
That's if I don't die of boredom and/or smashing my head against the wall, first.
The Guardian alone has run seven already.
Typical, you wait ages for a story about mad Christians running adverts on London buses, then loads come along at once etc etc...
Does seem strange the way this of all gay news stories has blown up so big, though ironically I think it lends weight to those of us who think much of the equal marriage debate is a phoney war.

Update: There's much wailing and gnashing of Twitter teeth about a piece on The Guardian online - Anti-gay bus ads took their cue from Stonewall's misguided campaign.
I think the author, David Shariatmadari, is right to question the efficacy of Stonewall's "Some people are gay. Get over it!" campaign, which seems rather simplistic and self-serving; they were basically just adverts for Stonewall.
But he goes on to lapse into reactionary rhetoric of blaming the victims, and saying gay men have only got themselves to blame for any "backlash", a point (over) emphasised by how his blog has been headlined.
A relatively measured piece on the Telegraph online by Tom Chivers, published before the ads were pulled, also seemed to blame Stonewall for being "provocative", and warned against kicking up too much of a fuss and a ban lest it encourage the evangelical bigots. 
This week's Brendan O'Neill Mary Mary Quite Contrary Bobbins Award goes - once more - to Spiked's Brendan O'Neill also writing on The Telegraph online for 'The ‘bus advert storm’ confirms that Christians are now more progressive than gay rights activists'.
Yes dear.
The Red Tops and the pro-gay marriage Times and anti Mail only ran quite brief news stories [Update: Mail Comment pieces went up online later this afternoon, which I'll deal with tomorrow].
The Readers' Comments after the Mail's story soon dissolved into a massive bunfight -most entertaining if you've got a spare hour or three.
Few (progressive) voices have raised the issue of freedom of speech.
I've only seen comments from Melon Farmers, New Humanist and Index On Censorship.
[Update: Oops! "Neither Chris Bryant, the prominent gay Labour MP, nor Ben Summerskill, the director of the gay rights group Stonewall, wanted the advert to be pulled, both citing freedom of speech" The Guardian].
Though I can't see how paid-for advertising counts as "free" speech, and the point here is not that it's offensive, but that it makes a false claim.
And if you're going to hijack our public spaces for cash, is it too much to ask that you show some basic courtesy?
Padraig Reidy of Index on Censorship told The Independent;
“There is an increasing rush at the moment by people demanding anything which they find unpleasant should be immediately banned, deleted or removed. We’re closing down any trace of controversy or debate within public discourse and that is extremely dangerous.”
I agree with that.
Perhaps it's time for a new campaign? "Some people are homophobic. Get over it!"

PS Enjoyed this demolition job explaining why the ad was "technically" a lousy ad from ABC Copywriting.

PPS In an act of monumental apolitical fuckwittery Pink Paper have headlined their piece 'Thanks Boris!' Sorry?! Thanks for what?

PPS And finally... the piece on all this I read last today was the most interesting, 'Conservative Christians are becoming more confident in the political arena - The anti-gay bus ads are the latest move by Christian groups hoping to replicate US politics, where religion is centre stage' Robert Booth, The Guardian.

John Golding: 1929-2012

Obituary in The Guardian.
Artist, art historian. teacher, and lover for 40 years of James Joll.
Strange, I never knew until today that the brilliant James Joll - author of The Anarchists and various books on Gramsci - was gay.
You live and learn...

• Illustration From London, James Joll and John Golding by RB Kitaj.