saibamais

Stonewall, the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual charity, is backing an  initiative by North Wales Police to remind everyone that Homophobic abuse is is a criminal offence.

The North Wales Police will not tolerate any form of Hate Crime, whether it be Homophobic, Racial, or aimed at someone’s Disability.

If you are a victim or witness such a crime, then call 101 and report it.

Thank you.

Rest In Peace, Washington Blade.

Aveva quarant’anni. Era il più vecchio degli Stati Uniti. Era il settimanale più influente nella comunità omosessuale dopo il Gay City News di New York. La rotativa si è interrotta ieri, lunedì, fermando il lavoro dei suoi 21 redattori. La Window Media, la società madre del settimanale LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual), è capitolata sotto il peso dei debiti, facendo affondare con sé lo storico giornale e alcune altre pubblicazioni del settore sparse per l’America. Chapter 7, alias bancarotta. Ma la cosa bella è che per martedì prossimo è prevista una riunione di redazione in cui si discuterà la possibilità che il Blade risorga, che dalle sue ceneri ancora calde nasca un giornale di proprietà dei 21 redattori. La forza tutta stelle e strisce di tirarsi su. Specie quando tirarsi su interessa a una buona fetta di comunità.

D’altronde non stiamo parlando di un giornale qualsiasi. Parliamo di un giornale che ha tirato fuori dal cassetto una sensibilità omosessuale nascosta, nel momento in cui i diritti dei gay erano tutto fuorché riconosciuti. Era il 1969. Un gruppetto di attivisti ha deciso di fondare il settimanale agli albori dell’orgoglio omosessuale: erano trascorsi pochi giorni dalle violenze dei poliziotti nei confronti dei gay allo Stonewall, il locale nel Greenwich Village di New York che ancora oggi resta il simbolo di una svolta epocale. Anche il Blade, forse, rappresentava una svolta epocale.

I tempi cambiano, e non solo perché quel giornale oggi viene triturato dalla crisi dell’informazione. Ma perché  uno dei suoi migliori redattori, Lou Chibbaro Jr., nel 1976 ha scritto il suo primo reportage per il Blade sotto pseudonimo. Quest’anno lo stesso Chibbaro, durante una conferenza stampa presidenziale in tema di riforma sanitaria, è stato invitato a sedersi in prima fila. La chiusura del giornale “è stata uno shock”, ha detto il giornalista.

Ieri mattina è calato il buio anche sul sito web, che raccoglieva una media di 250mila visitatori al mese. Un peccato.

Stonewall viene fondata nel 1989 da un piccolo gruppo di donne e uomini che si erano attivati nella lotta contro la Section 28 of the Local Government Act.
La Section 28 era una legislazione offensiva che mirava a prevenire la “promozione” dell’omossesulità nelle scuole, arrivando quindi a stigmatizzare la gente LGB e infervorare la comunità gay.
Lo scopo di questo primo passo era quello di creare un gruppo professionale di lobbying che prevenisse attacchi a lesbiche, gay, bisessuali. Stonewall ha così messo in evidenza la causa dell’eguaglianza nelle tematiche principali della politica ottenendo il supporto dei partiti politici ed ora ha sedi in Inghilterra, Scozia e Galles.

Stonewall è rinominata per le sue attività di campagne e lobbying. I maggiori successi includono infatti l’aiuto ad ottenere l’equità per la maggiore età, eliminando il divieto per lesbiche e gay a prestare servizio militare, seguendo la legislazione per permettere l’adozione alle coppie di stesso sesso e l’abrogazione della Section 28. Più recentemente, Stonewall ha aiutato ad assicurare l’istituzione delle unioni civili e controllato che il recente Equality Act proteggesse lesciche  e gay in termini di beni e servizi.

La campagna Education for All, lanciata nel 2005 aiuta a contrastare l’omofobia e il bullismo omofobico nelle scuole, e lavora in coalizione con grandi gruppi. Più recentemente, Stonewall ha stretto partnership con organizzazioni extra parlamentari per assicurare i diritti e i bisogni della comunità GLBT, estendendola poi alla comunità generale. Inoltre, ha accresciuto l’awereness pubblica in termini di unioni civili, attraverso la guida Get Hitched, e sui cambiamenti dei regolamenti d’impiego relativi all’orientamento sessuale attravaerso guide sia per i datori di lavoro che per i lavoratori stessi. Come se non bastasse, Stonewall promuove la ricerca su temi interessanti come i crimi d’odio, la salute per il pubblico delle lesbiche e la lotta al bullismo omofobico nelle scuole.
Lo staff altamente professionale col tempo è cresciuto, e continua a farlo grazie a un team di volontari e migliaia di indvidui sparsi in tutto il Regno Unito.

Da settembre 2003, ha ricevuto la certificazione di Charity, e porta avanti le sue attività senza ricevere sovvenzioni pubbliche, ma gestendo la parte economica autonomamente, tramite diverse attività come donazioni, sponsorizzazioni e eventi di fundraising.

E dal punto di vista abbabusiness, in particolare, che fa Stonewall? Un sacco di iniziative!

A cominciare dal Diversity Champions Programme, il good practice forum nel quale tutti i dipendenti possono entrare in contatto con la charity e assieme promuovere l’equità LGB nel posto di lavoro. Dal 2005 a oggi il programma è cresciuto da 100 a 500 membri, presentando un’opportunità unica per sostenersi a vicenda sulle tematiche dell’orientamento sessuale.
Da quest’esperienza, nasce The Workplace Equality Index 2010, che diventa così la guida dei top Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2009 dove, come dice il payoff, people perform better when they can be themeselves.

www.stonewall.org.uk

This man or otherwise MSM identifying gendered person is increasingly common.  While the newbie hag or uninformed hetero may assume that all gay men are interested in nothing more than fashion, musicals, and the latest shade of MAC lipglass, the Academic Gay will be interested in heterosexual normative identities, the social effect of Stonewall, and the political ramifications of anonymous sex.

The Academic Gay is especially handy when you are in the mood to see the latest Oscar-buzzing independent film (though the award and ceremony itself may be too mainstream for him to admit a fondness for) or biographical film.  To impress him and bring him into your fold of homo army, bring up your love for Paris is Burning.

In a statement to PinkNews.co.uk, David Cameron gave his support to Stonewall’s anti-bullying campaign, saying:

I’m pleased to support Stonewall’s Education for All campaign. November’s anti-bullying week gives us the opportunity to highlight the prevalence of homophobic bullying in our schools and the impact it has on young people’s lives.

More needs to be done to tackle bullying in all its forms and I fully support Stonewall’s campaigning to combat the problem.

He joins Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, in supporting the campaign, whose slogan is simply “Some people are gay.  Get over it!”

On top of this, the Tories just ran an out-lesbian in the Glasgow North East   by-election, and in July David Cameron apologised for the Tory role in passing and maintaining Section 28.  And true, not a single Tory voted to eliminate the House of Lords amendment to Clause 61 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, which read

For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conductor practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.

But, as a gay  man, I am proud the Tories stood up–not against gay people, but for freedom of speech.

The fact is, the Tories have changed.  They’re no longer the party they were 20, 10, or even 5 years ago.  LGBT Britons concerned with the economy, crime, Afghanistan, and corruption in Westminster should seriously consider voting Conservative at the next election.  Don’t buy into the old adage that Tories are homophobic.  This isn’t 1988.

No veo razón alguna como para sentirse orgulloso a causa de un dato de nuestra persona sobre el cual no tenemos absolutamente ninguna responsabilidad (nuestra condición sexual).

Los freakshow que marchan en los días del orgullo gay deberían recordar alguna vez un poco el espíritu de Stonewall.

[ Los disturbios de Stonewall consistieron en una serie de violentos conflictos entre la comunidad LGBT y la policía de Nueva York. Comenzaron durante una redada policial el 28 de junio de 1969, y duraron varios días. Se centraron en el pub conocido como Stonewall Inn, en el número 53 de la calle Cristopher, muy cerca de la plaza Sheridan, en el bohemio barrio de Greenwich Village, Nueva York. Frecuentemente se cita a estos disturbios como la primera ocasión en la historia de Estados Unidos en la que gays, lesbianasy transexuales lucharon contra un sistema que perseguía a los homosexuales con el beneplácito del gobierno, y son ampliamente reconocidos como el catalizador del movimiento moderno por los derechos LGBT en Estados Unidos y alrededor del mundo. ] es.wikipedia.org

Imagen = static.open.salon.com

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Two weeks ago on Friday I joined thousands of gay men and women and attended the vigil against homophobic violence in Trafalgar Square. It was an opportunity to remember Ian Baynham who had been brutally murdered just yards away. Equally importantly, it was a moment to reflect upon a gay community in crisis and to make a highly visible and defiant stand against all forms of hate.

This Friday I was having a drink just yards from the square at Halfway to Heaven, when I myself became the victim of homophobia. I couldn’t quite believe what was happening when a group of four or five young, black males walked past and started shouting abuse at me.

Their leering stances were challenging me to confront them. Somehow I resisted. Yet in doing so I became consumed with anger. I wasn’t so much furious about what had happened to me (trust me, I have taken my share of knocks over the years), but was enraged that this was happening in the same place that Ian Baynham had been killed, the same place that our community had made a united stand just a week previously. This shameless insult to Ian’s memory wounded me to the depths of my soul.

Aided by a few stiff Jack Daniels my mind began to somersault. Did these youths know what had happened in this spot back in September to Ian Baynham? Were they aware of the vigil the previous week? May be they even knew the perpetrators of the heinous crime? Had they come back with the intention of taunting us, pouring scorn on Ian Baynham’s memory and our brave attempts to confront and admonish homophobic cowardice? Perhaps my thoughts were irrational, then again perhaps not.

This event, however, made one thing certain in my mind:- the root of the homophobic violence we have been seeing lies at school level. Education is the key to changing attitudes, promoting tolerance and stamping out ignorance that maims, kills and distorts individuals and a civilised society.

Since the repeal of Section 28 there is no excuse for any teacher to ignore homophobia within the confines of a school. Yet homophobic bullying remains widespread. Inaccurate stereotypes proliferate and the use of the word ‘gay’ as a pejorative term remains largely unchallenged.

Homophobia in schools is as much the last taboo as it is in football. It is rife, accepted and ‘goes with the territory.’ It feeds off perceptions of normal heterosexual male behaviour, outmoded concepts of masculinity and twisted presumptions.

The attitudes themselves are passed down to pupils from teachers and parents who often subscribe on varying levels, perhaps unconsciously, to the same precepts of heteronormativity. The list is endless: Open displays of affection and sensitivity are not considered macho, pink is a girl’s colour, boys have to be good at sport.

In many ways it is like going to a football match – you have to join in the chanting, the boozing and the butch swaggering in order to fit in. If you don’t you risk being singled out and victimised yourself. In this way straight male behaviour is as much inflected by mask wearing as gay behaviour is. If your heterosexual male lets his mask slip for just a second he is accused of being unmanly, feminine, or heaven forbid ‘a poof.’

It is too easy to get swept along by the group mentality. Under the right conditions, the need to belong and to fit in can make a person do untypical things. Is it not inconceivable to imagine even the most right on metrosexual male joining in with a few ‘harmless’ gay taunts at a football match because he is paranoid about fitting the mould? He might know it is the wrong thing to do. He may even be a little frightened about what it says about him, but he is more than likely more terrified of what the raucous group around him will think if he turns around and says ‘ no that is wrong.’

It is not dissimilar to a classroom situation. Faced with a pack of braying brats it is going to take courage to rebuke them for homophobia. ‘Are you gay then sir?’ is the dreaded response. ‘Do I really need the hassle of dealing with this?’ is likely to be the internal dialogue. ‘If I pull the kid up on it isn’t it going to cast doubt on my masculinity?’

From year dot boys are taught to behave in a certain way. You only have to look at the way a father plays with a toddler. It’s a time honoured performance inflected by notions of bravery, strength and undemonstrative behaviour. Kids carry this into the classroom, where the language of homophobia inevitably creeps in.

It is at this stage that teachers are in a unique position to alter attitudes. If we substitute one of the members of that gang that shouted at me on Friday night for a teacher we can perhaps see how powerful an educator’s response can be. Is there really that much difference between the teacher who ignores the casual homophobic slur at school and the gang member who knows he or she shouldn’t join in with the anti-gay taunts but does so anyway?

I made this myself:

Go Pick on someone you own IQ (or lack of)!

Appologies to stonewall (the company with their logo on the origional poster).

http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/2009/11/traitors-gate-beckons-for-jan-moir.html

“ACERBIC Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir has been recognised for her weekly effusions with a last minute nomination in the Bigot of the Year category at tomorrow’s Stonewall awards ceremony.

The gay rights charity has even invited Moir to the event but is unsure whether she will attend.

In her column the day before Stephen Gately’s funeral, Moir said there were unanswered questions about his death which had occurred in “sleazy” circumstances. She wrote the death “strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.”

Moir was forced publicly to apologise to Stephen Gately’s family and friends for the timing of a column last month about the death of the Boyzone singer, which prompted a record 25,000 complaints to the press watchdog, but also defended it, saying she did not hold “poisonous” homophobic views.

Guests at the Stonewall bash include Gok Wan, Mary Portas, Sue Perkins, Russell Tovey, John Bercow and Ben Bradshaw.

Moir might be wise to give the event a wide berth.”

Well-deserved this is and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer person.

Please note that she did, indeed, ONLY apologise for the timing of her article, not its contents, so it actually was a very crafty and disingenuous “apology”, probably very carefully conceived by her and her editor. Such is the calibre of these people.

Sometimes you just need to say what you need to say, like the Stonewall campaign.  Such was the success of this campaign, the billboard re-ran not once but twice.

Trainee trapeze artists on Pier 40

Jesse McDonough is a man who loves New York in a way that I’ve only ever seen people love London. Studying American History in Maryland, where colonial-era studies rule, he chanced on a professor whose speciality was New York and the bug stuck. Cycling being his other passion, his final project considered how bicycles literally paved the way for the coming of the automobile to America. Now he runs Bike The Big Apple, leading tourist posses on pushbikes round the city, cycling along streets that are normally intimidating enough just to cross. His outrider Wendy brings up the rear, sitting in front of SUVs and issuing admonishments to their drivers: as hardcore an urban cyclist on a fixed-wheel bike as you’d ever hope to meet.

Cycling across Manhattan and through the West Village, we see where some of the richest homes in Manhattan have been (the focal point of desirability has moved steadily up Fifth Avenue throughout history, but always sticks to the spine, the street furthest from the filthy water’s edge), now greedily absorbed by NYU’s property acquisition programme; Christopher Square, with its monument to the Stonewall riots; and Manhattan’s thinnest house. We stop at Pier 40 and climb to the top to see a trapeze school (learners are held from falling by bungees) and football being played on the rooftops: Jesse says he plays in a league whose games sometimes kick off at one in the morning.

Rounding the southern tip of the island to catch the sun setting over New Jersey, we cycle through Battery Park City, a westward extension of the island built in the 1970s on the rubble excavated from the site of the World Trade Centre when it was built (there’s still no sign of a replacement). New York’s ability to hold tight skyscrapers comes from its bedrock, Manhattan schist: they rise highest downtown and in midtown because this is where the rock is firmest and closest to the surface.

We cross the Brooklyn Bridge (a good boardwalk, but a squeeze when only a quarter of it is yours: half the cycle lane going one way). The Manhattan Bridge back is better: barely a soul walking and gorgeous views back over the Brooklyn Bridge and downtown Manhattan, flying fifty feet over the Lower East Side. On a small stretch of street where an apartment block now stands, Jesse stops and shows us the place where his great-great-grandfather, an Italian immigrant, opened a barber shop. This is how it isn’t for Londoners, whose passport is their Oyster card: returning to New York is coming home.

*

Along 125th Street, in murals and on badges and posters, the parade of heroes: Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, Barack Obama. Revolutionary, tragedy, politician: all, somehow, part of the same story.

*

At the Nuyorican Poets Café on 3^rd and B, they signal their appreciation of a poem mid-flow with finger clicks, elegant and insect-like micro-applause. Host Jive Poetic, a Brooklyn schoolteacher, does the borough shout-outs; if you’re from out of town, he advises, say you’re from Queens. It’s a proper slam: three judges from the audience hold up Olympic-style score cards at the end of each poem and get cheered and booed in equal measure if the rest of the audience disagree. The styles are more varied than you might expect: stand-outs include the softly urgent ‘Ode to my junk’, a paean to the variety of vaginal pleasure; and an anti-evangelical rant by a poet left sitting at the roadside after a crash by a man wearing a ‘What would Jesus Do’ bracelet. There’s a dominant mode of verse, though: strongly rhythmic, laden with rhymes and assonance (only in this part of the world could you rhyme ‘think’ and ‘bank’); and subject matter revolves around personal identity, trauma, and social injustice. Fair dos: there are more poets here who’ve seen the inside of a prison cell than you’d get at an average reading above a pub in London, but all five finalists are men, all wearing streetwear (t-shirts over long sleeves, hoodies), all talking rhymes with a heavy hip-hop influence. The best for my money is Hasan Salaam, but there’s a good Christian poet whose name escapes me; his stuff circles round to refrains, and he removes his baseball cap and holds it in his hand as though to beg halfway through each poem. The night’s winner, Tre G. finishes with a horribly sentimental poem imploring a woman (‘baby girl’) not to have an abortion (her heart must be ‘cold as ice’), which leaves the evening’s end  itself more than a little cold.

*

18 miles of books at the Strand. Books seen on prominent display in more than one place: The Coming Insurrection, Huey Newton’s Revolutionary Suicide, and The Works: Anatomy of a City. Closest match to the ICA bookshop: The New Museum bookshop.

*

The punters with the audio guides know which paintings are important: they cluster round them like flies on a favourite turd. At the MoMA, two floors of the History of Modern remain as absurd and tedious as ever: the galleries below remain dedicated to whatever comes after Modernism; the best of which might be the exhibition of art-punk artefacts in Looking at Music: Side 2, though there’s something equally irritating about seeing the, you know, actual Marquee Moon cover (the same one you have at home) stuck to a wall, and watching the Rapture video on a big square gallery video box with headphones. These were artists who eschewed galleries, says the interp. That’s because album covers look stupid in an art gallery, and the same goes for Jonathan Monk’s collection of Smiths 12” covers.

The Whitney persists with a thematic hang of its collection, though far more minimally: the gallery invigilator laughs when he sees the little start I give as I notice I’m standing on a Carl Andre: he suggests I walk backwards along it. The Guggenheim hang is, of course, spiral: we learn that the best way to appreciate Kandinsky is to play word association games with the paintings, and that the later paintings have pleasing geometry. The Met surprises with a retrospective of Robert Frank’s The Americans, contextualised with social history and contact sheets from which the final selections were made (in a similar manner to the Barbican’s Capa show). Roxy Paine’s maelstrom of metal branches entangle the rooftop garden, and Argentino-brit Pablo Bronstein’s subtle pisstake in painstaking architects’ drawings of the neoclassical pomposity of the Met itself is quietly outstanding.

A lightning visit to the New Museum to see a retrospective of Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas’ art in posters and on paper. The Panthers’ combination of revolutionary attitude community politics is immanent in the work: women both carry guns and demanding the means to feed their families. One curious thing: for art that is first and foremost good and honest propaganda, the words of the slogans themselves are very small.

It would be a cliché to say that New York’s best art is on the streets; besides, subway cars remain resolutely silver these days. Nevertheless, Art in Odd Places, taking place this year from one end of 14th Street to the other is a far better game of hide-and-seek than spotting signature styles in an uptown gallery. Water-poems by fire hydrants, cut-up installations in shop windows, a campaign for Monty Burns for Mayor, and most beautiful of all, string crochet wrapped around razor wire protecting a vacant lot.

*

In Williamsburg, an earnest exposition of the roots of the current economic crisis is pasted on yellow paper to the wall. Across it someone has scrawled in pencil: Fuck Hipsters. The disease daydreams that it’s the cure.

*

In successive waves of immigration, each new ethnicity displaces its predecessor as they move out to better suburbs: this is the Lower East Side on the Tenement Museum’s Immigrant Soles walking tour, tracing paths through what was once a German neighbourhood replete with beer gardens, then Jewish, with shtiebels in houses until the Eldridge Street synagogue was built, now Chinese, with Buddhist house-temples much the same. ‘Little Italy’ is now merely a tourist island in Chinatown: profitable restaurants sitting under Chinese-owned, Chinese-occupied apartment blocks. When the Chinese move out, someone else will be here to replace them, says Nick, our ruddy-faced & enthusiastic ‘educator’ from Williamsburg.

This narrative of the endless racial recycling of the reserve army of labour is familiar from tours of London’s East End: the parade of immigration, the normalisation of new communities. It only falls apart a little when Nick points out a ventilation hose poking from a building window. An indicator of a sweatshop, he says; this particular ‘sweatshop’, which supplied stores in the city, was closed by the city after 9-11 when the neighbourhood was more-or-less shut down for a while. Pushed, he doesn’t seem to be able to say quite why; someone else on the tour explains that in fact this was a unionised garment factory (the kind of US-based labour force that American Apparel boasts about), and it closed because in the wake of the towers’ collapse, city stores outsourced the tailoring, and the factories never reopened.

It highlights something insidious about the story of foreign people redeemed through their immigration… when will rich countries run out of poor people to import as workers? What happens if they organise and refuse to accept their natural position at the bottom of the pile? Market-based arguments for multiculturalism are no arguments at all.

*

The Cyclone is closed for the winter and there are only two things left to do on a cold October day at Coney Island: eat a Nathan’s hotdog and shoot the freak. Five dollars for fifteen paintballs that splash harmlessly on the Freak’s shield, and a two dollar tip for the Freak’s college fund.

*

At the Hotel Chelsea, the central staircase used to look down on reception: they built a floor above it because residents used to throw bottles down. Residents still live there, leaving bikes in the hallways and taking dogs in the lift. But changes are afoot: mysteriously appearing on the streets around are flyers taped to lampposts and shop windows declaring that for the avoidance of confusion, Stanley Bard is no longer running the show. Someone has taped the word BARD large and then some other words in their first floor window. The front desk staff won’t be drawn on the situation.

Though David Combs’ famous painting of the Chelsea itself is under lock and key, the rest of the place drips with art: along corridors, in rooms, alongside every flight of stairs along the central stairwell. A sheet banner strung along a whole flight declares undying love for and devotion to the photographer Marcia Resnick. It’s hard to tell if she made it herself. The lobby is adorned with an erect dog. Heritage plaques on the outside say that this is the place where Dylan Thomas sailed out to die. Outside Sid and Nancy’s room there’s a picture of Nancy and a needle.

*

Tastes of the city: pancakes piled high in a lumberjack breakfast; cheese melted over a classic Reuben; fat, thick-rind bacon and grits at Sylvia’s soul food restaurant; a bowl of chilli at Katz’s deli; thin black coffee refills and ice water before you order; hand-pounded hot guacamole at Dos Caminos; nearly-liquid Kobe beef in delectable cubes at Joel Robuchon’s concession at the Four Seasons

*

A night at Jonas Mekas’ Anthology Film Archives with the short films of Pawel Wojtasik. They’re contemplative, with a touch of Brakhage-ish tension between the world represented and flat light falling on the screen. There’s something human about the porcine routine of Pigs: wake, squeal, piss, eat; but also something aestheticised in the rippling piggy hides, and the final money shot of a wall of pigs at war in the direction of a single trough is both hypnotic and repulsive. The Aquarium contrasts wild Alaskan waters with the Exxon-funded aquarium built in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill: neurotic sea-creatures engaged in repetitive swimming routines. Nascentes Morimur is a film of an autopsy, from first incision to the removal of the brain. It approaches coyness with a digital apertures opening and closing on the work of the scalpel and saw through human flesh, hinting, but also taking something away. Afterwards, Pawel is in conversation; someone asks about filming the autopsy. He shot several autopsies, but used the first: the element of surprise and discovery was present for him as well for the audience. Even a dead person still looks like a person, he says, until they peel away the face.

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Posted via email from Jacques Nel

Stonewall is a UK pressure group that has done lots of work to promote equality between people who experience same sex sexual attraction and then designate their sexual ideality in the Gay, Lesbian or Bi-sexual category, and those that don’t either designate themselves that way, or are not attracted to their own sex or both sexes. It was set up in 1989 to fight the Conservative Parties Section 28, which was designed to prevent the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Wikipedia has a  good overview of issues surrounding the legislation and subsequent changes that have taken place in the UK here. Those changes include the leveling of the age of consent for homosexual sexual acts from 18 to 16. These and other measures are not welcomed by some parts of the church for various reasons, however that does not mean that Christians should not support aspects of Stonewall’s work. Unfortunately Stonewall, while condemning homophobic bullying, something worth supporting, also uses bullying tactics to promote their agenda. This is hypocrisy.

It is clear that there will be disagreements about what should and should not be promoted as a natural lifestyle by Governments. But it is still a matter of freedom of speech whether or not somebody agrees with the principles behind Section 28 or not, particularly because we are talking about school age children. This is why I have a problem with the term homophobia (lit. fear of self, or fear of man) and how it has been defined by Stonewall and others, especially in relation to the Church. As far as I can tell, if somebody believes that Section 28 may have been a good idea, they are deemed in Stonewalls eyes as being homophobic. However, if an act of parliament would mean religion (whether Christian or other sorts) could not be promoted in school, it would be welcomed by many friends of Stonewall as progressive and supporters of the motion would not be called haters of religion. Of course, sexual orientation and religious belief are different categories, but they are being treated by Government as protected equality strands and so I will also.

Having made that point we should not forget that there is significant common ground between those that would see Section 28 as homophobic and those that would not. So what ever you think about Governments’ relationship to homosexuality, or indeed what you think about the morality of homosexuality from your faith perspective, I think you will agree with me that it is wrong to throw faeces (even if it is in plastic bags) at lesbian and gay people as it was reported happened at the Riga Pride festival in years past. Freedom of assembly, whether for Gay Pride events or for Church marches protesting pride events, provided that they are not violent or threatening is, and should be, a part of our country’s tradition and law. It’s a mark of a healthy democracy, even if you think same sex sexual acts are immoral.

Beating gays and lesbians, or even killing them in vigilante exercises of justice (though by definition not just) is absolutely wrong. For a full overview of experiences gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people have in the EU you can read this report prepared by the FRA (EU Quango on human rights). Look for page 80. While I don’t necessarily agree with the slant of the language in the report, if it was you or your son or daughter that had to experience some of this stuff (even if they were living in sin as the religious language goes) I think you would be legitimately angry. Stonewall is fighting this sort of behaviour for which I would like to applaud them and I think the Church, in many cases, but not all, should be equally involved in condemning nastiness. This means that the church should seek to protect those that are being persecuted and this can and should be done in such a way as not to contradict God’s commands. Jesus did so when he protected the woman who was about to be stoned, for whoever would throw the first stone would have to throw it at him.

One place the Church can support Stonewall’s initiatives is in relation to homophobic bullying in schools, which is one of their most recent campaigns. Such homophobic bullying is no doubt very painful and can lead to severe confusion, anger, fear and depression, even in the mildest instances and especially during the teenage years. Bullying has been the cause, in the most harsh instances, of suicide by some young people. Homophobic bullying is up there with other sorts as being particularly horrible. We should teach our children that bullying in any form is wrong. We should also stand up against bullying in our adult society because it is unreasonable, intolerant and unloving.

That is why it is so very confusing and somewhat disappointing to me that Stonewall employs bullying tactics in the public arena to try and change policy and to change peoples minds and hearts about homosexuality. The ‘Some people are gay, get over it’ campaign is an example of this. So are the T-shirts. Now of course there is a level of difference between bullying in school and shame campaigning, nevertheless these tactics are in the same category and smell of hypocrisy.

Stonewall also run an annual fundraiser where they give a prize to the person who they think has made the most progress for the promotion of LGBT rights in the UK. However, along with this prize they also hand out the ‘Bigot of the year award‘. In the last three years the award has gone more often than not to somebody who is a Christian, and this year the nominees include a number of Christians. Well, the Phelps family is among the nominees… If any Christian deserves the title it might be them, but you understand my point anyway.

Stonewall should stop their shame campaign, even if they think they are only giving out what other people deserve a whiff of. The Church should be more vocal about inappropriate behavior towards all people, including people who we might deem to be living in sin.

On his side again. What a moving speech. No international news channel broadcast this (except for a tiny bit in BBC International). They should have really. This message of change should’ve gotten across to the world because it’s not just an American issue, it’s an international issue. When the world listen to one of the most loved public figures the world over say such things they might realize that this is a issue of concern and look around them. Hate, in any form, should never be accepted. One’s beliefs shouldn’t curtail another person’s road to happiness. Anyway, getting too preachy here. But, you get the point. Click below for the rest of the speech.

Posted via email from Jacques Nel