Know Your Enemy 3: Ann Coulter

"I was GOProud's
first speaker.* I talked them into dropping the gay marriange plank. But it's extremely important - the liberals keep destroying us in groups, destroying the family. They have destroyed the black family. Now it's the gays. It has nothing to do with them [the liberals] liking gays - they like to pal around with their muslim friends - it's all about a cat's paw to destroy the family. Because if you destroy the family, then you have loyalty directly to the state!
"I am as born again, evangelical christian as it comes. And I'm a friend of the gays! Why do people act like they are without sin, like they don't participate in pre-marital sex or don't tithe to churches, but then they attack the gays. But they also don't then go and attend CPAC with a group called 'republicans against tithing' or 'republicans for pre-marital sex'. For now, I'd just like gays to be part of conservatives, just like blacks and women are, without having a special designation.
"There is plenty to being gay that is apart from the sodomy. Gays without the sodomy... There is a lot for us to get along about, music, books, sometimes we like the same men... haha. I can't tell you that I'm without sin, none of us are. The left is trying to co-opt gays and we shouldn't let them. Gays are natural conservatives."

Ann Coulter, US conservative contraversialist polemicist and poster girl of right-wing "free-thinking" fruitloops.
Coulter was speaking during a Q&A at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
I know it's wrong to, but Fagburn has always quite liked the rumour than Ann Coulter is trans.

* GoProud is a group of American gay conservatives. They split from Log Cabin Republicans who they thought had become "too centrist". Be afraid...

No Homo: Dear BBC...

Dear BBC,

Throughout today on BBC Radio 4 News - in the items about civil partnerships and same-sex marriage - you have used the word homosexual or homosexuals.
Why doesn't someone in the BBC newsroom ask some of their colleagues or friends who are lesbian or gay how they feel about being called "homosexual"?
It is at best outdated, at worst highly offensive.
Of the British newspapers only the Daily Telegraph still regularly uses it as the preferred term for lesbians and gay men.
When did you last hear "homosexual" being used by anyone in conversation?

yours

Fagburn

I've complained to the BBC about this before, and got nowhere - I think I may be on some BBC list; "Serial complainer, nutter..."
I'll let you know how I get on this time...

Gay Marriage: Promises Promises

The Sunday Times have quite a scoop splashed on its front page - that's if it's true;
'Gays will get right to marry - Church of England to come under pressure as new marriage law reforms give homosexual couples the same right to marry as heterosexuals'
"Gay men and lesbians are to be given the same right to marry as heterosexual couples under marriage law reforms expected to be announced this week.
"The historic change will end the legal definition of marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. A gay man would be entitled to call his spouse his husband, while married lesbians would be able to describe themselves as wives."
But they only back this up with a quote from an anonymous "Whitehall source" - who's actually a bit more vague.
"This is not just about gay rights but about religious freedom. Quakers and liberal Judaism want to do this. Attitudes have changed to gay marriage. We are going to look at what legislative steps we could begin to make gay marriage possible.”
So the government are just "going to look at" it?
Big deal - and various key Tories and Lib Dems have already said they're prepared to "think about it".
A pledge the Conservatives also made in their Equalities Manifesto launched during the election campaign; "We will also consider the case for changing the law to allow civil partnerships to be called and classified as marriage."
Other papers, like The Observer today, are only saying that civil partnership ceremonies are likely to be allowed to be conducted in churches.
"The Coalition government is considering a change in the law to allow gay people to have marriage-style ceremonies in places of worship.
"Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone is expected to announce later this week that a ban on civil partnerships being conducted in religious venues is to be lifted."
The Observer adds; "It was not clear to what extent the change in law would allow civil partnership ceremonies to be brought into line with traditional weddings between heterosexual partners, or whether the term "marriage" would be officially used."
The Sunday Telegraph are also writing of (warning about?); 'Same-Sex Church Weddings', which they've put as the lead story on today's frot page, and have bizarrely called it an "exclusive".*
As the exact same headline 'Churches 'could host civil unions' appears in countless local papers websites, Fagburn assumes this is the official line/press release from The Equalities Office (It's not on their website, though).
The Independent On Sunday take a different angle; 'Resistance Mounts To Gay Couples Being Allowed To Marry In Church'.
But the IOS actually mean, not gay marriage but; "allowing same-sex couples to have their civil partnership ceremonies in religious buildings".
Interesting to note how common it is becoming to call civil partnerships "marriage", something that Fagburn believes is bringing gay marriage ever closer.
Hmm...
The government's Equalities Office is expected to make their announcement in a week or so.

* Note The Telegraph uses the word "Same-sex" not "gay" in its headline. Because of the economy of page layouts headlines normally use as short words as possible, and often invent abbreviations.
The Telegraph is the only UK newspaper that in its style guide advises journalists to use the word "homosexual".
The Daily Telegraph Style Books states; "gay: permissible in headlines if essential but use homosexual in text."
So Fagburn presumes in this instance they decided they didn't want the dreaded g-word screaming out on the front page...

News Of The World: Prince Harry Comes Out...

There's clearly fuck all happening in News Of The World's world today - they've gone big with a non-story about Prince Harry being seen coming out of a gay bar in Soho, The Box Bar.*
The copy is but-of-course full of schoolboy innuendo;
"BOY oh boy - party animal Prince Harry is up to his old tricks again... but this time at a GAY BAR.
"The royal man-about-town staggered out of the Soho nightspot at 3.30am yesterday - with his shirt lifting out of his jeans.
"Then, with muscly armed policemen in tow, he strolled past sex shops in London's red light district before being driven home.
"Harry, 26, usually leaves nightclubs by the back door to avoid being photographed. But early yesterday morning he proudly came out... of the main entrance of Box Bar..."
They've also added captions to a photo that are worthy of Jeremy Clarkson.
And the headline? 'Mince Harry'.
Grow up, boys!

*Update: In fact, Prince Harry was not seen coming out of The Box Bar, the GAY BAR on Monmouth Street, Soho but was seen coming out of The Box on Walker's Court, Soho - which is not a gay bar.
Apart from that - great story NOTW!

Aids: 30 Years On

A fascinating - and chilling - documentary on BBC Radio 4, Aids - A Mystery In The Village, written and presented by Simon Garfield.
Garfield - author of The End Of Innocence - Britain In The Time Of Aids - looks at the response of the media, poiticians, and the gay community in the UK and US in the early years of the Aids epidemic.
The irony is that one thing Garfield looks at is how the media were painfully slow in acknowledging there was a problem.
Many pretended nothing was happening, then switched to homophobic scaremongering.
This year is the 30th anniversary of Aids - or rather its appearance in peoples' conscience, so why have there been so few articles and programmes marking this?
In January The Mirror used the anniversary to interview Lord Chris Smith.
The Guardian to run an interview with Jonathan Grishaw - one of the first people in Britain to be diagnosed with HIV and a co-founder of Body Positive - and Rupert Whitaker, a co-founder of Terrence Higgins Trust.
The Jonathan Grimshaw interview was written by Simon Garfield, incidentally.
These are the only three features that Fagburn has seen in the British press marking Aids thirtieth anniversary.
I wonder if this figure will increase during 2011?
Admittedly, for almost all papers, looking back at how they covered HIV/Aids in the 80s would be highly embarrassing.

Stonewall: Working For Inequality & Injustice...

• Sack Theresa May Campaign.

Egypt & Iran: Gay Rights & The Gay Right

Everyone's pleased about the fall of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, right?
Wrong.
Adocate columnist, porn "entrepreneur" and gay NeoCon, Michael Lucas, is gonna be really pissed off.
In his latest column, Democracy In Egypt A Myth?, Lucas writes;
"Hope, freedom, and democracy — these are three words that have little or nothing to do with what’s happening in Egypt at the moment. Yet utterly ignorant newscasters and liberal bloggers seem to equate the situation there to Tiananmen Square — where protesters two decades ago risked life and limb in a face-off with China’s authoritarian leaders. Of course, in China they lost.
"The frightening thing is that the protesters in Egypt are looking more and more likely to topple Egypt’s regime and replace it with something far worse. We, as gay people and Americans, shouldn’t be surprised by the horrors likely to come. We shouldn’t buy into the false and ignorant hopes of those on the left who falsely frame the events unfolding in Cairo and other cities in Egypt as a fight for human rights."
Something that no informed analyst of the situation in Egypt thinks, but there you go.
Indeed Khalid Zaid, a gay Egyptian man who's been granted asylum in the US, has written in reply on Gay.com;
"In 2001, after many years in Egypt I was granted asylum by the US following an arrest for suspicion of being gay. In Egypt, there simply are no human rights. Whoever thinks that there are such freedoms should actually move there rather than remotely label the aspirations of protesters as false or ignorant hopes! There is nothing frightening about an awakening that is long overdue.
"It will not be easy to predict the upcoming leadership in Egypt. Due to the complexity of the situation, it is presumptuous to assume that it will fall into the hands of radical Islamists...
"It's true that the first thing they [The Muslim Brotherhood] have promised to do is hold a referendum on Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. Regardless of what anyone tells you, they are not part of a master plan to impose Sharia law on the entire Arab world."
"Inciting baseless panic about the creation of an Islamic, anti-gay, anti-Western regime is a reckless act stemming from fears over Israel's security and stability."
Michael Lucas has form on this sort of far-right scaremongering - he bends over backwards to defend every Zionist crime and has baldly stated;
"I hate Muslims... They have not contributed to civilization in any way, in any field — political thought, science, music, architecture, nothing for century after century. What do they produce? Carpets."
The gay right's championing of gay rights in the Middle East is a sadly familiar saw these days - seemingly unaware that right-wing politicians have always been the most vociferous opponents of gay rights in any country in the world.
The flipside are all those gushing "Don't mention the occupation" travel features about Israel in the gay media - Pinkwash, about trips paid for by the Israeli government.
In January New York's Gay City News ran a bizarre feature; 'Sanctions Must Respond to Iran’s Anti-Gay Genocide' by one Benjamin Weinthal.
(Gay City News regularly publishes nutty rants about Iran by Doug Ireland - who Weinthal quotes approvingly. He also joins in Ireland's attacks on Human Rights Watch - who he believes “continues to be driven by an anti-Israel bias").
Weinthal is a regular contributor to The Weekly Standard, known as "The Neo-Con Bible", and a fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neo-conservative think tank.
Their policy on Iran? "Pursuit of even “tougher” sanctions, including measures intended to terminate non-U.S. purchases of Iranian oil. And, when that doesn’t work, we’ll give war another chance."
Presumably cause the last two have worked out so well.
It's shameful that the gay press regularly publishes such crude far Right propaganda.

Lady Gaga: Still Born

Lady Gaga finally released audio of her embarrassing and patronising barely literate "gay anthem" Born This Way today.
At the time of typing the number of articles saying it sounds like Madonna's Express Yourself - 746.
So who are you calling unoriginal?

Update: Jon Savage writes about 'Lady Gaga's New Gay Anthem' in The Guardian on February 14th; "The point always has to be restated. While gay teens face extraordinary levels of bullying, records such as Born This Way will remain as necessary as they are generous in spirit."
Hear hear.

Know Your Enemy 2: Matthew Parris

"But, as with any totem, as [Margaret Thatcher's] reputation has spread, so it has simplified, becoming more two-dimensional and losing shading, doubt and ambiguity. More and more people know, as it were, less and less about her. There’s the hair and the handbag — and what else?
"Key words are “iron”, “lady”, “miners”, “Falklands” and “love her or loathe her, you knew where she stood”. On her personal qualities those who admire and those who detract are surprisingly agreed. Defined by battle — heroine, dominatrix or monster — she’s seen as someone with guts, stamina and direction.
"And style. Wherever two or three gay men are gathered together, somebody can do a Thatcher impression: a weird amalgam of Good Fairy and pantomime dame, of command and camp."

Matthew Parris in The Times.
Eh?
Fagburn thanks fuck he moves in very different circles to Parris.

Know Your Enemy: Patrick Cox

"My bulldog Caesar dominates my weekends. I got him nearly three years ago when I walked out of my shoe business, Patrick Cox – I now own a bakery on Brewer Street in Soho – and moved to Maida Vale. I wanted to be woken up in the mornings and pushed out of the door and I knew that for a gay man having a dog would be like having a baby...
"I’d say that my partying days are now 90 per cent behind me. The maddest partying I do is when Caesar and I go on weekend shoots – gun shoots, not fashion shoots. My friends always ask why I’m shooting birds with a gun rather than a camera, but I absolutely love it. It all started when the Duke and Duchess of Rutland gave Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar, a weekend shoot as a wedding present. Elizabeth and I are good friends so she invited me along. I was just meant to be one of the girls – I’ve never held a gun in my life – but Elizabeth hurt her shoulder and said: 'Here, you shoot.' So I went bang and got a bird. Poor bird, but I thought 'this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done'. Now I shoot three times a season."

Patrick Cox, making a bid for the title of world's poshest gay man in The Daily Telegraph.
In his favour his bakery is called Cox, Cookies & Cake.

David Kato: An Open Letter

We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner. We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. It is a biological given. Homosexuals are human beings like everybody else. Scientific research has been helpful in clearing the fog of ignorance entrenched by some religious texts in regards to homosexuality. Our opinions of homosexuality must change for the better, just as our opinion of slavery has changed, even though it was endorsed by those same religious texts. All violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa must cease forthwith.
We call on the government of Uganda to find and prosecute all those involved in the murder of Mr Kato, including the newspaper that called for the hanging of gays. We also call on African governments to learn from the South African example by expunging from their laws all provisions that criminalise homosexuality or treat homosexuals as unworthy of the same rights and entitlements as other citizens. African states must protect the rights of their citizens to freedom and dignity. Homosexuals must not be denied these rights.

An open letter which has appeared in several newspapers around the world.
For a complete list of signatories - gratifyingly too long to post here - see comments.
A documentary about Uganda - The World's Worst Place To Be Gay? - will be shown by BBC3 on Monday February 14th.

Out: Are All Robots Gay?

Fagburn liked this video "montage" on Out magazine online today.
'The Gayest Robots - Why do robots always talk in such "gay" voices? Is the future gay? Is it meant to be a slur? Are all robots gay?'
Featuring all your favourites; Robbie in Forbidden Plant, HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, C-3PO from Star Wars...
The list is quite literally seventeen endless.

Daphnegate: Those Meddling Adults!

"My blog post was calling out the actions of a few people that said some unkind things in front of my son. I asked for love and tolerance. Was I angry? Yes. I feel I had a right to be. Did I bear false witness? No. I spoke out against bullying. Now I am getting bullied from church...."

Blogger Cop's Wife.
A moving post she wrote last year went viral, My Son Is Gay, about why she decided to let her five year-old son dress up as Daphne from Scooby Doo for Halloween.
She's now being hounded by her own church who say she needs "spritual care".
Coulda told you so...

Michael Buerk: Buerk By Name...

"If you've been hired because you are young and pretty, because you are mincingly camp, because you've ticked a particular ethnic box and then you are no younger young and pretty or the fashions have moved on and you suddenly don't have a job - get over it. It's showbusiness.
"The problem is that at the other extreme of the argument [of "political correctness"], the idea of putting people on television - which is a non-job which is terribly well paid, where you don't have to think too much, or work too hard - and giving people these jobs purely on the grounds that we need another six Asians, or we need another six lesbians, or we need another six pensioners, is to my mind almost worse."

Michael Buerk - pictured above with the "mincingly camp" Louie Spence - interviewed on ITV Tonight tonight, quoted in - but of course - The Daily Mail - 'Presenters should not be recruited to fill lesbian or pensioner quotas': BBC's Michael Buerk hits out at television's political correctness'
Buerk's a hero at the Mail for attacking their hated BBC.
See also; 'Left-wing bias? It's written through the BBC's very DNA, says Peter Sissons'
Erm, by the way... can anyone name six lesbian presenters on the BBC?

Gay Press: Killing Bad Stories About Advertisers

"The news editor and former editor in chief of the Florida Agenda both quit last week when their newspaper management told them they would refuse to print an expose they were writing about ongoing thefts occurring at a nightclub that is one of the company’s prominent advertisers..."
"[Former editor Jeremy] Jones stated the ‘censorship’ did not comport with his vision of what a newspaper should be. He added, “Your principles are part of your character. And if you give up your principles, you give up your character.” Both Jones and Rashnitsov resigned from the newspaper last week.

Great to hear about gay journalists with principles, and rebelling against a culture of advertorial.
Read all about it at SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Books: Selling Out

"I have absolutely no doubt that a lot of gay writers now find it impossible to get published. A handful of established authors are very successful, and that gives the illusion that gay writers have cracked the mainstream, but it's entirely untrue. Big publishers are only interested in books that will sell by the sackload, and for a lot of new talents that's not the case. Fiction is a high-risk activity for any publisher, and gay content is seen as increasing that risk.”

Peter Burton, "the godfather of gay publishing", interviewed by Frontiers about the decline of gay publishing houses.

Joan Rivers: She's Got Her Own Problems

Brilliant!

Egypt: Less Than Human

'"The issue of human rights has become a global language," he said. "Although each country has its own particulars, respect of human rights is now a concern for all peoples" – though he specifically excluded gay rights.'

Muslim Brotherhood leader - and Class A religious nutter - Essam el-Erian interviewed in The Guardian by Jack Shenker and the great Brian Whitaker

• The photo is of a statue of Akhenaten, Egyptian pharoah and almost certainly gayer than you.

Malcolm: Improving The World Around Him

Call me a sentimental old fool, but Fagburn loved this story.
Malcolm, a seven year-old boy from California, has donated $140 to gay rights groups.
His mom explains;
"To teach the importance of improving the world around him, Malcolm was given $140 to give away to the charity of his choice. After hearing a story on the radio about the mistreatment of gays and lesbians, Malcolm became both upset and curious about the issue… to help, he chose to split his money between the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation."
Blub!
As Fagburn keeps saying, I'm looking forward to the day when people don't find things like this surprising.
¡Venceremos!

AfterElton: Ignorance Is Stength

Fagburn quite likes a lot of the stuff on AfterElton and AfterEllen, mainly the content that's reader generated.
Here's 'AfterElton.com's Top 50 Gay Male Musicians'by Davis Mallory.
"Our countdown of modern popular music's most influential and intriguing openly gay or bisexual male artists."
Even by the standards of the gay media this article is littered with errors.
Just take a look at the last page and check AfterElton's Top 4 Gay Male Musicians.
Village People have become "The Village People" - and gay gay gay construction worker Village Person David Hodo is pronounced straight.
Freddie Mercury is misspelt "Freddy Mercury".
Elton John is at number one.
"He was knighted in 1995 for his charitable work by Queen Elizabeth and wed his husband, David Furnish, in 2005..."
No, he wasn't.
I could go on...

Bradley Manning: Detention May Be Unconstitutional

There may be some good news - at last - on queer hero Bradley Manning.
The Independent reports today; "Lawyers acting for Bradley Manning, the US intelligence analyst accused of stealing classified diplomatic cables later made public by WikiLeaks, may file for the charges against him to be dismissed on the grounds that the nine months he has been held in solitary confinement breach his constitutional rights."
This comes after calls in January from UK Friends of Bradley Manning - later taken up by Amnesty International in The Guardian ;
'Government asked to intervene on behalf of alleged WikiLeaks source on grounds that he is UK citizen'
The Independent's Kim Sengupta adds drily; "While Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, attended an extradition hearing in London yesterday accompanied by his court of celebrity backers and 100 journalists, 23-year-old Manning spent another day in solitary confinement in his tiny, bare prison cell under conditions which have been described as inhumane and tantamount to psychological torture."
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich - one of the few American politicians who won't be shot come the revolution - has requested a meeting with Manning.
Kucinich told US TV news networks he is concerned about Manning's "cruel and unusual punishment" in his one-man Guantanamo Boy, and how this is affecting Bradley's mental health.
Fagburn agrees with many that this is all a deliberate attempent to break Bradley Manning.

Christian Nutter Watch: Dr Hans-Christian Raabe

"I have been discriminated against because of my opinions and beliefs which are in keeping with the teaching of the major Churches. This sets a dangerous precedent: Are we saying that being a Christian is now a bar to public office?’
"My appointment has been revoked based on the wrong perception that I could potentially discriminate against gay people – something I have never done; neither in my private nor professional life. Even the Home Office has not questioned my knowledge and expertise in matters relating to substance misuse and drug policy.

Dr Hans-Christian Raabe, The Daily Mail.

"A Christian GP claimed last night that he had been ‘sacrificed on the altar of political correctness’ after being sacked as a government drugs adviser."
A familiar Daily Mail trope...
Dr Hans-Christian Raabe was appointed to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in January.
He has stood in the European elections as a Christian Party candidate, and takes a "Just say no" line on drugs.
He was quoted in The Observer as saying; "While the majority of homosexuals are not involved in paedophilia, it is of grave concern that there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles and an overlap between the gay movement and the movement to make paedophilia acceptable."
Home Office officials said he failed to disclose being co-author of a study suggesting a link between homosexuality and paedophilia.
From The Daily Telegraph; "It is understood that during the interview process he was expressly asked if he had anything about his professional or personal history that might cause embarrassment to the government or the advisory panel."
Oops!

The Super Bowl 2: Spot The Difference

Seeing as it's the Super Bowl tonight - and as I so pumped about this important sporting contest - Fagburn thought he'd drop this one in.
Advocate.com, January 24th 2011: 'Going Gay for Super Bowl A bag of Doritos brings two nearly naked men in a sauna closer together in one of two gay-themed ads the company may air during the Super Bowl".
"In a second ad a man gazes across the fence at his two gay neighbors, who are sunning themselves and eating Doritos by the pool."
Really?
No, not really.
Advocate.com, January 25th 2011: 'Update: Gay Doritos Ads Won't Air'
"The pair of gay-themed Doritos ads that made the rounds on the web Monday won’t air during the Super Bowl, according to a spokesman for Frito Lay.
"Frito-Lay director of public relations Chris Kuechenmeister told the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation the ads were two out of 5,600 that were submitted to the company for its 'Crash the Super Bowl' contest."
Oops!

The Super Bowl: Is Gay!

Sing-Alongs Channel
Tags: Atom.com | Funny Videos | Tournament | Upload

Here's why.
Hope you're not watching it.
An amazing song by The Punk Group here, Tight End Wide Receiver.
"Sports are really just gay porn in disguise..."
Punk fucking rock!

Things We Learned Today: Banged Up

"Last year boys aged between 15 and 17 at a young offenders’ institute in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, were handed 1,728 free ­condoms and 75 sachets of lubricant.
"A Freedom of Information request ­revealed that the condoms cost £105.32 and the lube £15.60."

The Daily Star.