Spencer Livermore: Where Have You Been?

Ed Miliband's first big speech of 2014 promised; "Only if we take on powerful vested interests, from energy to banking, and reform broken markets, can we make the long-term changes Britain needs."

And who is heading Red Ed's election campaign? Step forward Spencer Livermore, who was until recently serving precisely those, er, vested interests.

Livermore was a  Gordon Brown adviser until 2008, when he moved into PR and advertisng. At PR firm Blue Rubiconbhe was in charge of "brand positioning" for firms including Centrica (owner of British gas), Lloyds Banking Group, and other cuddly corporates such as Shell, Coca-Cola and McDonald's. In other words, he shored up big corporate reputations while the likes of British Gas gaily went on raising prices to customers, and Miliband's, chagrin. Just the man to guide Labour back into office!

Private Eye.

In 2007, Pink News declared Spencer "The most powerful gay man in British politics". 
In 2008, he resigned as Gordon Brown's senior strategist when he refused to hold a snap general election.
He then joined Saatchi & Saatchi, but rather fell off the gay politics radar.

Paul O'Grady: Just A Minute

Paul, your challenge today is to talk about Russia for one minute without making a totally hysterical comparison to Nazi Germany...

“I just find it very disturbing that in Russia, in a so called civilised country, gay men and women are being beaten to death in the street [Sic} and it’s perfectly acceptable. And that gay men and women are afraid to leave their homes because they are going to be abused and they are going to be beaten up and imprisoned… they are going to be killed [Sic].

“What does that smack of? It smacks of the Jews in Nazi Germany and it has got to be stopped now..."

BZZT!

Paul O'Grady, bravely speaking outside Downing Street - the seat of Russian power - via Pink News.
Shame someone so smart can say something so silly. 

Villagers: Occupy Your Mind

It's about Russia or something, apparently.

Russia: When Will This Misery End?

Cathy Newman is in a gay bar in Soho for a "From Russia With Love" event and we speak to Lord Coe about gay rights at the Olympics.

Just beyond surreal, presented by a silly posh woman - they seem to care a lot about this - and featuring, of course, Saint Peter.

Channel 4: Rebranded

I give up!

Here's their ad - I'd maybe find it funny if this torrent of crap didn't make me want to punch a pony.



Oh capital, please leave my gay bones alone!

PS On the plus side, it's worth noting this is a representation of a gay man in the mainstream meeja which is not a twink, a muscleboy or a theatrical old queen. Brava!

PPS 'On Friday evening, Greek-yogurt maker Chobani released on Twitter an image of stacked yogurt cups representing the colors of the rainbow with the tagline “Naturally Empowering Everyone.” Huffington Post. 

You really could not make this shit up!
Go Team USA!
Huff Post seem to run rather a lot of posts about the wonders of this Greek yogurt. #innocentface.

Update: B Smeaton in A Thousand Flowers at this patronising PR as "PRotest". Thanks to Eurovicious. x
See also Another Angry Woman blog; "And for fuck's sake, no I'm not going to sign your fucking petition."

The Guardian: Snore!

The Guardian.

Boring out-of-touch writers take a stand against a boring out-of-touch law!
Wooh!

Most prominent signatory - Gunter Grass of "I used to be in the Nazi Waffen SS" fame, and thus a great moral compass.

Russia: A Lost Chapter From Orwell

In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.

George Orwell, 1984.

Can't happen here!

Russia: Uh-Huh

Always good to be reminded it's not just the gay media that's written by a bunch of hysterical mentalists.

Russia: The Sun Says

THE first action is about to get underway at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — if the entire city has not been blown up by berserk Muslim terrorists, or gay-rights activists.

There will be people competing in something called a “luge”.

I haven’t a clue what a luge is.

And probably there’ll be those strange Scottish women running up and down the ice with brushes, in the always-exciting curling event.

And then the organ donor competition, otherwise known as skiing.

Call me a killjoy but winter sports don’t really do it for me.

Best left to those countries which struggle through the season in perpetual darkness, drunk out of their skulls and perpetually on the verge of topping themselves.

The Scandinavians, then.

This time, though, there have been calls to boycott the Games because of the manner in which Russia treats its gay and lesbian people.

The, uh, entertainer Paul O’Grady led a protest in Whitehall last night and Stephen Fry has stamped his little feet and demanded everyone tell the Ruskies how horrid they are.

Lots of Western politicians have declined to attend the opening ceremony.

They don’t want to be photographed with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has been fingered as a homophobe.

I don’t like the way Putin behaves towards gay people, either.

Though I have to say, he’s very camp for a supposed homophobe — never happier than when stripping off for the cameras in some rugged outdoor pursuit.

You just know he’s got all the Pet Shop Boys’ albums.

But if we boycott Russia, who don’t we boycott?

This is the point that the gay activists are missing and the point lost on the Western politicians who won’t go to Sochi for the opening ceremony.

Truth is, Russia’s attitude towards gay and lesbian people is a damn sight more enlightened than the attitude in most of the rest of Asia — and pretty much all of Africa, plus large swathes of the Caribbean.

All Putin has done is ban the “promotion” of homosexuality, in much the same way as the UK did in the 1990s with the infamous Section 28 law.

In other words, he’s sort of where we were 20 years ago.

Homosexuality is still legal, just about, in Russia. There are 83 countries in the world where it is illegal. Should we boycott all of them as well, have nothing to do with them? That’s almost half of the entire globe you’re talking about.

Should we refuse to play Iran, or Uganda, at football?

Should we refuse to trade with Egypt and Morocco?

It’s just a difference of opinion.

We think we’re right, Russia thinks that it is right.

And boycotting the games won’t make the slightest difference.

Rod Liddle, The Sun.

Yes, The Sun gets it more than gay fuckwits.

Noam Chomsky: The Life Of...

Michael Cashman MEP: The Moronification Of Gay Politics Is Now Complete!

Ex-Eastenders actor cuts up his Visa card live on film!
Take that Putin!

Sochi: Don't You Want Me?

Fagburn quite likes this.

And here's another "Hahaha! Putin looks gay!" thing...

Thanks to Roy. x

Hunted: Mentioned In Dispatches

Emotionally potent over-simplifications, devoid of cultural and political context, make great TV!
This Dispatches programme was basically pornography.
Hope you had a good emotional/literal wank.
These attacks preceded the new "propaganda" law.
Those who carry them out are hunted and then prosecuted - here's one from Monday.
Obviously no gay man in the USA has recently been killed in a hate crime - which is a bit worse than being pissed on.
Though it's usually about 25-30 men a year.
Why not make a shocking Channel 4 documentary about that?

The Truth Behind The Gay Torture Images From Russia - Scott Long.

Russia: At Last Some Sense About This Cavalcade Of Absolute Nonsense!

The ferocious row over the Kremlin's notorious anti-gay law in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics has sparked a bout of Russia-bashing that is not only often unfair, but also counter-productive. Russia's vaguely worded law, approved by Vladimir Putin last summer, bans the promotion of homosexuality to minors. It is an unnecessary, clumsy piece of legislation, in many respects similar to the Thatcher-era Section 28, and is designed solely to boost support for Putin in Russia's conservative heartland. It has also triggered a spike in homophobic violence, the subject of worldwide protests today in support of Russia's LGBT community, and a Dispatches documentary on Channel 4.

But while western opponents of the Kremlin's law may have noble intentions, their criticism has far too often been both hysterical and hypocritical. Condemnation has also at times resembled hate speech, as in Hugh Laurie's recent suggestion that Russians have nothing whatsoever of value to offer the world. Laurie's outburst was mild, however, compared to statements by Stephen Fry and Jay Leno, who have both likened the Kremlin's law to Nazi persecution of Jews.

You can say that again, Queer Nationalists.

I have no wish to defend Putin or the hateful anti-gay comments being made by Russian politicians and celebrities. Life in Russia for LGBT people is often deeply unpleasant, and they deserve the support of the international community. But a sense of perspective is in order, especially if critics want to claim the moral high ground. Otherwise they play straight into the hands of the Kremlin-run media, whose raison d'etre is increasingly founded on its gleeful willingness to highlight western inconsistencies. The new legislation is certainly not, as US-based gay rights activists have claimed, "one of the most draconian anti-gay laws on the planet".

Amid the furore, it's easy to overlook some simple facts. Homosexuality in Russia – unlike more than 40 countries in the Commonwealth and 70 worldwide – is not illegal. To date, over six months since the law came into force, fewer than a dozen people have been fined for "gay propaganda". Not a single person has been jailed. Russian police do not have powers to detain people they suspect of simply being gay or lesbian, as a New York Times leader erroneously stated last year. If this were so, then how do we explain the fact that gay clubs are able to advertise and operate in Moscow and other big cities?

And, no, gay people are not, as Fry claims, being beaten to death "while police stand idly by". If this were the case, would police in Volgograd have arrested and charged three men with murder last year over what investigators called a homophobic hate crime? Would the men who carried out a brutal homophobic killing in the east of Russia this month have been sent to penal colonies? Would the thug who attacked a gay rights activist for unfurling a rainbow flag during an Olympic torch relay in central Russia have been sentenced to corrective labour? The authorities should and must be far more vigilant in punishing perpetrators of hate crimes, but these are hardly the hallmarks of a campaign of state-sponsored terror.

"Let's bomb Russia!"

If Putin is indeed waging war on Russia's LGBT community, then why has he not followed the example of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, which has just introduced a new law that stipulates jail sentences of up to 14 years for gay people? Or India, the world's largest democracy, where the supreme court recently reinstated a colonial-era ban on gay sex? If he wants to get really harsh, of course, Putin could look to Saudi Arabia, whose habit of executing homosexuals has done little to break up what Barack Obama has called the "long history of friendship" between Washington and Riyadh. This, of course, is the same Obama who has"no patience" for Russia's gay propaganda law.

Comparisons with the antisemitic laws of the Nazis are both insulting and inappropriate. How insulting? Well, Nikolai Alexeyev, a prominent LGBT activist who earlier this year became the first person to be fined £70 under the federal gay propaganda law, has hit out at western reporting of the issue as biased and hypocritical.

Any attempt to highlight such contradictions is, of course, routinely dismissed as "whataboutism". But this is an increasingly unsatisfactory comeback. The Kremlin clearly has no intention of ignoring such double standards. Just look at the pleasure Putin took in pointing out that more than 10 US states still have sodomy laws on the books.

Had he been aware of it, he would also undoubtedly have seized upon a 2013 report by Stonewall, which revealed that one in six lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the UK had been the victim of a homophobic hate crime or incident in the previous three years. "Gay people still suffer abuse in all areas of their life – from strangers, neighbours, workmates and even family," the report read. "Many of those who engage with the criminal justice system come away dissatisfied as so many crimes and incidents are reported but not followed up."

We are the goon squad and we're coming to town beep beep!

No country likes being lectured to, especially when that criticism is so often seen as disproportionate and ill-informed. Russians are no exception, and the all too common anti-Russia rhetoric coming from the west over issues from gay rights to Syria and Pussy Riot has fostered a sense of national persecution. It also allows Putin to position himself as Russia's sole protector in the face of a vicious "information war" against Mother Russia. Little wonder that the ex-KGB officer's electoral ratings have just shot up to their highest level for nearly 10 years.

In reality, there is little the west can do to influence Russia, on gay rights or anything else. But to stand even a chance, criticism needs to be measured, accurate and, above all, consistent. There are enough reasons to disapprove of Putin's authoritarian regime without resorting to hyperbole and falsehoods.

Marc Bennetts, Guardian online.

Marc is a British journalist living in Moscow.

He is the author of Kicking The Kremlin: Russia's New Dissidents And The Battle To Topple Putin.

Thank you, Marc.
I have never seen such an outburst of collective insanity in 25 years of journalism as this on-going spectacle of hysterical, hypocritical stupidity.
Sadly, we know the movie will keep moving as planned...

Fagburn: Life

100

Had Old Bill's number.

Never called him.

A great regret.

x

BBC News: A Less Meaningless Map Of The World

BBC News.

'The map and key show legal status only and do not reflect day-to-day experiences.'

At last...

Slowly rational debate wins over hysteria.

PS Interesting timeline on de/criminalisation of homosexuality which I don't have the time to pick holes in state by state. But, for example, technically Napoleonic France and Soviet Russia didn't decriminalise homosexuality, it happened by default as they erased every law on the old statute books. Technically murder was legal in Russia for years. 

Russia: Advertorial

Another silly posh straight intern writes about The Gays for The Independent.
Could you be more patronised?

A PRESS RELEASE IS NOT A PROTEST, FFS, YOU INTERNIDIOT!

James Booker: The Best

Dr John called Booker “the best black, gay, one-eyed, junkie, piano genius New Orleans has ever produced."

He said he was "the Black Liberace, babe".

Hear a documentary here - wonderful!

My Little Pony: This Is The World We've Created

Mirror.

What a world, what a world...

William Burroughs: 100

No book has ever done you justice, Bill.

The Telegraph pays tribute.

Unhappy abysmal so-called birthday, you miserable old asshole!

We need guns. x

Scotland: Oh FFS!

Pink News.

"You're living in a land of make believe, with elves and fairies and little frogs with funny green hats!"

Homer Simpson.

Daily Mail: Remember!

Daily Mail.

Remember! The Daily Mail really cares about you and your gay rights!

Remember! There is no sinister right-wing agenda behind this anti-Russian pro-USA propaganda!

Remember!

QX: A Fan Letter To David Stuart

David Stuart is widely regarded as one of the foremost drugs and sexual health experts for the LGBT community in London and the UK. QX spoke to him last summer about the events surrounding gay men’s drug use and health issues, and here we present our conversation...

QX magazine.

Hahaha!

This is the man behind the crystal meth myths.

And also about GHB.

Such a fawning, unquestioning interview a cynic might think David wrote it himself. 

Oh, hang on...

Note how the longest section is about getting more funding for Antidote.

#innocentface

Update: David tweeted to inform me he is no longer with Antidote, and is now with 56 Dean Street. 

Fagburn: On Stupidity

Think it's time I took one of my breaks.
I literally can't believe the avalanche of nonsense being written right now.
Gramsci and Orwell and Chomsky's brains have now - officially - exploded.
The right-wing gay idiots have won.
Hegemony is... hegemonic.
Maybe wake me when Sochi's over?

Fagburn: Pray For The End Of America

Please.