Marti Pellow: Wet

Some say Marti Pellow sold a story to Murdoch about drugs, if they wouldn't out him.

Fagburn finds this very hard to believe.

PS Marti is now starring in a West End musical...

Football: You Boys Play Nice Now!

FA Cup winners Arsenal, Paddy Power, Stonewall and the Gay Football Supporters' Network have again teamed up to help tackle one of the toughest challenges in sport: homophobia in football.

Erm, not sure I get what this is saying.

'Be nice to the poofs, lads, cause - although being a bummer is a bit of a bummer, like being short or looking like a Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle - they can't help it, and they can't change.'

Still, great stuff guys; cause there's nothing so fucking fantastic as when a real man - an actual soccerball star no less! - says he quite likes the gays.

#sobrave

Good slaves are so grateful for just a smile from our masters.

PS The sports aren't Fagburn's strong point, but I think there are 28 players in the Arsenal squad. Are we to assume the other 23 are okay with homophobia?

Pink News - this patronising drivel is an actual article, and not a piss-take!

Oh Gloria, wait til Fagburn unveils his 'Wear Your Rainbow Loom Band With Pride!' campaign - it's gonna make homophobia disappear 4 EVAH!

The Guardian: Gay Hip Hop (Don't Stop!)

The Guardian has published yet another article about gay men and Hip-hop on their music blog.

As you can see ^^^ this is a source of endless fascination for them.

But why?

Because they think it's so incongruous?

Because they think black culture and gay culture are mutually exclusive?

Because they think black people hate gay people and vice versa?

Because they don't have a clue?

The Guardian are far from alone in this, of course.

An out rapper - no matter if he's not actually any good - is practically guaranteed to get coverage - and gushing with it - in the gay and straight media, patronised and paraded before us as an exotic, heroic curiosity, a modern day Elephant Man.

Cliff Richard: Just A Brief Message

Sir Cliff's Facebook page.

Needless to say Fagburn is #TeamCliff.

'When I see an actual flesh-and-blood Cliff Richard in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.” George Orwell.

Not The Book Of The Month: The Establishment

But you are the establishment, hun. x

Joan Rivers: 1933-2014

Fagburn remembers the Joan Rivers he never knew:

About ten years ago I went to see the recording of a pilot for a Channel 4 gameshow she was hosting.
It was awful, just completely the wrong format for her considerable comic talents, and she clearly hated doing it.
Thankfully there were endless technical hitches that halted filming.
During which Joan kept the audience amused by telling jokes about the then ongoing Michael Jackson kiddy-fiddling trial.
It was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.
Sadly, all wonderfully unbroadcastable.
So that's how I'd like to remember Joan.
And not as the racist Zionist bitch whose last public statement was saying Palestinian kids in the Gaza Strip 'deserve to be dead'.

PS Oops! Nearly forgot - she loved The Gays!

• The poster above is for Joan's Quick... Before They Close The Lid tour of the UK next month - some tickets still available.

Johann Hari: Brand Management

Eagle-eyed comrade Huw Lemmey has spotted Johann Hari's amazon.com bio for his book, Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days Of The War On Drugs.

Johann Hari became a columnist and reporter for The Independent at the age of 23, and he has also been a contributing editor at Slate. He has reported from dozens of countries, and has won several leading journalism awards, including, twice, the Newspaper Journalist of the Year award from Amnesty International UK, and the Stonewall Journalist of the Year. He currently produces Russell Brand's podcast and YouTube channel. Hari's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Slate, The New Republic, and The Nation.

Some things are screamingly noticeable by their absence here; like Hari leaving The Independent under a rather large cloud, and subsequently losing his Orwell Prize for Political Writing for bringing shame upon his profession.

Hari's fall from grace in 2011 came after he admitting plagiarism, harassment of other journalists and of committing the supreme crime of 'making lots of stuff up'.

One can only wonder why he hasn't been stripped of his other awards for journalism.

But what's this that Johann clearly considers one of his most notable achievements; 'He currently produces Russell Brand's podcast and YouTube channel.'

Zoink!

Here is said YouTube channel, The Trews.

Welcome to my channel and my daily show 'The Trews' where I give you the true news so you don't have to invest any money in buying newspapers that charge you for the privilege of keeping your consciousness imprisoned in a tiny box of ignorance and lies.

Probably not a good idea then, dear Russell, to collaborate on it with a journalist who is now best-known for being outed as a serial liar.

Nor is it a good idea, dear Johann, to collaborate with a man who is quite clearly a political idiot.

It has been rumoured that Hari was ghostwriting Brand's new book, called - no irony here - Revolution.

Some suspect that Hari has assisted Brand with his political tracts/rants, such as his New Statesman essay, Russell Brand On Revolution, though they are so incoherent - literally and politically - it's hard to believe this (apparently the person who subbed his Guardian piece on the 2011 riots 'still breaks out in a cold sweat whenever the original copy is mentioned').

Conversely and perversely, some of Morrissey's recent public statements on True To You and his lyrics about the state of the world are so garbled and politically puerile they seem to bear the influence of his new BFF Russell Brand.

Brand also gave a puff quote for Owen Jones' The Establishment - presumably the publisher thinks the 39 year-old appeals to ver kids - though this appears to have been removed from the front cover.

[Edit: The quote in full reads; “Owen may have the face of a baby and the voice of George Formby, but he is our generation’s Orwell”].

Presumably the publisher realised many potential readers think Brand is a bit of a joke.

Jones, of course, replaced Hari as the youngish, leftish and gayish columnist on The Independent. Though Owen left for The Guardian of his own freewill.

I've wondered before how often Hari has helped Elton John with his articles on gay issues and HIV/Aids (they have co-authored at least one piece).

Soon after waving goodbye to The Independent, Johann visited Elton at his house in the south of France, who he may have met when Elton 'guest-edited' The Independent.

By serendipity, Hari's new opus comes with a puff quote from Sir Elton; 'An absolutely stunning book. It will blow people away.'

In 2012 Milo Yiannopoulos asked; 'Who is bankrolling Johann Hari?'

Though as Chasing The Scream - which has taken three years of globetrotting, researching and writing - is published by Bloomsbury, the answer is most likely to be 'Harry Potter'.

This is all sounding like an incestuous circle jerk, isn't it?

The sort of thing Mr Hari writes gay porn stories about, in fact.

Holly Johnson: In And Out Of Love

This is the first single from Europa, Holly Johnson's first album in 15 years.
He made the record with Mark Ralph from The 2 Bears.
It also features contributions from the late Frankie Knuckles, Phil Manzarena, Vini Reilly, and Vangelis.
That's all I know for now, sorry.
Anyway, it's very jolly, Holly.
I also like the video.
x

Mental Health: Unwell

Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are more likely to have long-standing mental health problems and are twice as likely to have had bad experiences with their GP.

In one of the biggest surveys of homosexuals in England, researchers from Cambridge University found that 12 per cent of lesbian women and almost 19 per cent of bisexual women reported mental health problems, compared with six per cent of heterosexual women.

Meanwhile 11 per cent of gay men and 15 per cent of bisexual men reported problems, compared to five per cent of heterosexual men.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women were 50 per cent more likely than heterosexuals to report negative experiences with primary care services, according to the study which was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine...

The Independent.

For a change here's an LGBT survey that seems fairly reliable; it wasn't commissioned or conducted by anyone with a vested (financial) interest in talking up a problem (as far as I know), and it used previous data from 27,000 self-identified gay people who took part in the 2010 English General Practice Patient Survey. 

ie They didn't just throw a thing on Twitter or the internet saying; 'We're doing a survey about [insert name of thing]...', thinking those who'd respond to a survey about said thing would be in anyway representative. 

Oh, and congratulations to whoever at the Indy chose to illustrate this story with a rainbow flag a-fluttering - a choice every bit as original as it was inspired!

More Rainbow-twattery: Totnes, Devon gets a rainbow crossing! Rainbow Playstation auctioned! Copenhagen renames a square Rainbow Square! Englishman plants rainbow flag on Russian mountain! Take that Putin!

Porridge: 70s 'Comedy Gay' Gold

I can't believe it's 40 years since the first episode. Even now I'm stopped in the street by people eager to talk about Porridge. It was great family entertainment and remains as popular as ever.

I was just 25 when I was invited to meet Syd Lotterby, the producer and director, at Television Centre to discuss a new sitcom. Being a young actor I was terribly starstruck and had no idea that the series had been written for my all-time favourite comedy actor Ronnie Barker, who was to play old lag Norman Stanley Fletcher. So when my agent told me I'd got the part of Lukewarm I was over the moon. I immediately rang my parents who were thrilled.

When Syd discussed the character he asked if I minded playing an "iron hoof" which is a wonderful rhyming slang term for "poof". I didn't mind at all but was determined not to make him outrageous. Back then it was still unusual for a gay character to appear in a sitcom.

I ended up playing him a bit like me. I used to like knitting so I suggested Lukewarm - who got his nickname from working in the prison kitchen and always preparing tepid food - should knit. The problem was he wasn't very good at it and never finished anything. The public loved it and I received letters from people asking what Lukewarm would be knitting in the next series.

In 2003 the BBC screened Life Beyond The Box, revealing how the inmates had fared 25 years after the show. My character was married to Trevor, his boyfriend in the original series, and had copious knitted sweaters and bobble hats around the house. It was so funny.

Christopher Biggins remembers his groundbreaking role in Porridge, 30 years on, in the Express.

James Dawson: This Writer Is Gay

The reason I am constantly harping on about sexuality is in the hope that some of those young people who are in hiding, can see and hear me – a vaguely successful and very happy gay man being successful and happy. My role model, Russell T Davies, was visible for me back in 1998 with Queer As Folk, so I'm happy to take a turn. I hope people will read This Book Is Gay with pride, because while we are as normal as the day is long, the rest of the world doesn't always see us that way.

James Dawson, YA (Young Adult, granddad) author.

In July, James was voted Queen of Teen books by readers, the first male author to win.

He is launching and talking about This Book Is Gay - a book about being gay for teh young gays - at Gay's The Word bookshop in London this evening. 

If you go, please give him my love. x

Betty White: The Curse Of The Golden Girls Doesn't Strike Again!

JustJared.com

At last some good news...

Strangely, there seems to have been a mass deleting of tweets and posts about this hoax, but here's a moving discussion by the gays on RealJock.com.

Femail: Can You Forgive Her?

Daily Mail.

NB: 'Her story echoes that of married BBC presenter Paul Ross, who this week confessed to a gay affair.'

PS Mail Online readers slating her ex-husband, Peter, seem blissfully unaware of how homophobic attitudes like theirs may have pushed him into a sham marriage.

Daily Mail: Family Values

This front-page has been edited by #tomorrowspaperstoday.

The man's family have requested that his identity is not revealed, but I'm sure the Mail knows best.

Daniel Ashley Pierce: Enough!

Thank you to everyone from around America and all over the world for your support in the past several days. This has been a rough time for me and I never imagined that so many people would show such overwhelming compassion and generosity.

It’s important for all of you to know that right now, what I need most is time to think and work through the next steps in my life. I have been working closely with Atlanta-based Lost-n-Found Youth to help figure out what’s next for me. Right now, I’m safe and definitely feel your love all around me. Thank you!

I’ve asked my friends to discontinue donations to the GoFundMe page, but if you would still like to give money and help the LGBTQ youth homeless crisis, please visit the Lost-n-Found Youth website at www.Lost-n-Found.org for more information on how you can make a difference for the many other kids in the world like me...

From Daniel's GoFundMe page.

Fagburn still has questions about that video - which seems a bit 'constructed reality' - but this shows he's a pretty decent chap.

In this survey, 30% of young homeless people in the US identified as gay or lesbian (But regular viewers will know how Fagburn feels about gay surveys).

• Albert Kennedy Trust supports young LGBT people in the UK who have been made homeless or are living in crisis.

People's March For The NHS: A Day Out

Our Alan is supporting The People's March For The NHS.

It culminates with a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday September 6th.

See if you can guess who they've booked as the headline speaker?

PS Whilst in Oxford recently, Fagburn saw the fountain pen Alan wrote with til The Madness of George III, stood outside TE Lawrence's old house, and played a theremin. This bucket list is getting ever shorter!

Naked Men: Most Viewed

Daily Telegraph.

Only a very, very, very straight man - the writer is a former editor of Loaded - could make such a hilariously clueless and naive statement.

The fact that this is currently the most viewed story on the Telegraph online suggests there is quite a lot of demand and desire for this.

There are endless websites dedicated to running pictures of Famous Males in various states of undress.

(Though a quick peek at their comments sections shows they are far more popular with gay men, than straight women).

It takes literally seconds to find some celebrity shlong on the internet.

Let's see how I do - gimme five...

Oops!

Update: Queerty give their top 10 leaked male celeb nuddy pix.

Foreign Affairs: Barbarism Begins At Home

Michael Rosen.

Legs akimbo for teh gays.

Gay Star News.

The Guardian. *

In an age where every US/UK imperial war is justified as a 'humanitarian intervention', a good guide to who are our current bogeymen is when the media suddenly start writing about their human rights abuses.

These days, that often means saying; 'THESE MONSTERS DON'T LIKE THE GAYS!'

'SEND IN THE DRONES! SEND IN NATO!'

Ten years ago it was all about telling fairy stories about horror stories in Iran, last year it was those evil Russians.

This is the flipside of Pinkwashing, where we are expected to look kindly on Israel's persecution of the Palestinian people because Tel Aviv is a super-duper sexy place for a gay holiday. 

Shall we call it Pinkblooding?

"Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate." Edward Said.

See also David Cameron And The Cynicism Of Comparing Putin To Hitler, Owen Jones for Guardian online today. 

Hardly an original thought but that's Owen for you.

You may recall in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics it became a commonplace to read hysterical comparisons of Putin to Hitler, and to say what was happening to gay people in Russia was just like what happened to Jewish people in Nazi Germany. You may have noticed things didn't turn out to be quite so bad for gay people in Russia. Fagburn has still not seen one revocation of this textbook gay hysteria.

* Note that the English language source for this is Radio Free Europe, the US government-funded radio station, Cold War relic and propaganda machine. I'm not saying that means Aksyonov didn't say this, just that RFE will be more than aware of this story's uses.

Sam Smith: Phew!

Digital Spy.

Isn't it funny how the gay celebs who say; 'I don't want to be a spokesperson/role model', are always the last people anyone would want to be one?

PS Sam Smith reveals the man who inspired his hit album was straight. The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable?

Austerity: Staying Alive

A new report published today  – commissioned by the TUC from London Metropolitan University – exposes the impact on LGBT services of the government’s austerity measures.

Staying Alive: The Impact of Austerity Cuts on the LGBT Voluntary and Community Sector in England and Wales is the first major investigation into the impact of spending cuts on the sector, which relies on central and local government sources for around half its funding.

The research found that the direct effects of austerity include the running down of financial reserves, reductions in services and to service levels, staff cuts, casualisation of the workforce and a greater reliance on volunteers. This has led to reduced employee morale, high staff turnover, loss of expertise and difficulties finding alterative funding sources.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “LGBT services were already coping on a shoestring, receiving just 4p in every £100 of voluntary sector income. Some LGBT service providers now say they’re barely ‘staying alive’ and only a minority are optimistic that their future situation will improve.

“We are on the brink of a crisis with the financial reserves of many services running down and government plans for further rounds of austerity in danger of pushing them over the edge." ...

TUC release.

Patrick Strudwick writes about the report in today's Guardian, 'LGBT voluntary and community organisations suffer disproportionately from coalition cuts, TUC report shows'. 

Well, sort of...

The ramifications of these austerity cuts is particularly pronounced for the voluntary and charity sector given that public/statutory funding provides such a large and important proportion of overall income. Given the historical reliance of LGBT VCS bodies’ reliance on this form of funding they and their already more than averagely impacted service users are particularly vulnerable. 

Staying Alive, Section 1.4.

Strudwick doesn't ask what is being cut by certain LGBT organisations; frontline services over executive salaries?

Nor if some organisations have been overfunded; Brighton LGBT Switchboard gets £70,000 a year from the council and takes 2.5 calls a day.

Is this a good allocation of resources?

Update: A more informed and politicised comment in Pink News by Peter Purton, TUC policy officer for disability and LGBT rights.

Exacerbating the austerity impact on LGBT VCS organisations is the austerity impact on the economic well being of their service users. Austerity in Britain is hitting everyone apart from the already rich, so even LGBT people in professional positions may find themselves hit by public sector pay freezes and higher inflation. And if someone loses their job, perhaps as a result of funding cuts, they’ll struggle to survive the unprecedented scale of benefit cuts and the dismantling of social security protection under the veil of ‘welfare reform’.

Those most hit are those with the least voice at work: people with a precarious job, perhaps a zero-hours contract, agency work, self-employed or unable to find work at all. Young LGBT people without a secure income may find themselves without a roof because they’ve been thrown out of the parental home and can’t afford to rent.

It is no wonder then that a disproportionate number of young LGBT people are being treated for mental health problems...

Attitude: Remembering The Miners' Strike With Louis Vuitton

Our @AttitudeMag cover star #AndrewScott is looking great in @LouisVuitton_UK at @PrideMovieUK #pridemovie premier pic.twitter.com/B4rUvujjJy
— Joseph Kocharian (@JosephKocharian) September 2, 2014

There was also a star-studded launch event #applestorepride - that'll be the anti-union, worker-crushing Apple Stores, then?

PS Mercifully brief Metro interview with boring Andrew Scott; 'Being gay doesn't harm your acting career.'

Gosh, really!? Is it true they stopped burning witches now, too?

Fagburn: Oxford Revisited

Fagburn has just returned from a brief sojourn in Oxford, where I have been researching my new book, Owen Jones: How He Learned To Stop Worrying And Join The Establishment.
I shall now begin going through the last few days' papers and online media, and - providing I don't get overcome with a sense of overwhelming despair - should blog some posts a bit later.
x

PS For reasons of continuity, stories will appear below this one on the day they broke.

Daily Express: Playing The Gay Card

Playing the gay card!!??

Whoever uses this silly phrase is inevitably going to play the anti-gay bigot card.

Yes, it could only be the Daily Express.

And their readers sure ain't happy...

It's interesting to speculate whether he would have so strenuously resisted deportation if it was either that or the death penalty. I think he's have been clamouring to go back. Borderer1951

During my time in the Forces (left in 1972), there were two Court Martials for two sets of 'gay' men, and I use this term lightly. Many former squaddies of my generation would now be classed as 'homophobic', but we are not allowed to have an opinion any more, are we. retired voter.

THERE MUST BE MORE MURDERERS, PEODOS,TERRORISTS WALKING OUR STREETS THAN THERE IS POLICE. THIS COUNTRY IS AN ABSOLUTE EMBARRASMENT Truthwillout.

Theres an easy test for people who find others attractive. Shown this supposedly gay man a picture of a very attractive naked man.If his pupils get bigger he's gay if they don't he's not. You cannot fake that! Brian The Hedgehog.

How quickly they forgot that NOW ASYLUM IF YOU'RE GAY.

Police Worker: Slapped Gay Man's Bottom

Daily Express.

David Hockney: Mother's Ruin

The late Henry Geldzahler, a friend, once said to his mother: “Goodness me, you must be very proud of your son,” to which she replied, “Oh yes. To be mayor of Bradford!” Paul, Hockney’s eldest brother, was appointed to that position in 1977.

From a piece about David Hockney: The Biography, Volume 2, Pilgrim's Progress, in The Times.