More to Me Than HIV

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More to Me Than HIV

First published in Gscene July 2020 For last years World AIDS Day I put together a public project of work joining other people living with an HIV+ diagnoses at Jubilee library.For last years World AIDS Day I put together a public project of work joining other people living with an HIV+ diagnoses at Jubilee library. For the project I spoke openly about my journey having being           Read more

More to Me Than HIV: GScene post Aug 2020

More to Me Than HIV is a project that aims to breakdown the stigma that has historically been attached to this virus.  When I saw my piece in last months Gscene to promote the More to Me Than HIV project, I was extremely proud, but a small part of me was filled with anxiety; but why should I feel this way? I have been on effective antiretroviral therapy since the Read more

More to Me Than HIV: first published in GScene July 2020

For last years World AIDS Day I put together a public project of work joining other people living with an HIV+ diagnoses at Jubilee library. For the project I spoke openly about my journey having being             diagnosed HIV+ 32 years previous. Back then there was no treatment and a lot of fear and misinformation concerning how HIV was transmitted. As such stigma was rife, Read more

Homophobia

The Power of a Kiss

thSince time began the emotive power of a kiss has been well documented, from Judas’s betrayal kiss to Jesus, to the emotional pull of Rodin’s world famous sculpture, The Kiss. This simple show of affection continues to be extremely powerful when shared with the wider public, particularly if the kiss is between a couple of the same sex and even more so if the same sex are male. One just has to take a look at the furore caused by the chaste kiss between the two Eastender characters, Colin (Michael Cashman) and Barry (Gary Hailes). This gay kiss was a first for any UK soap opera and caused equal amounts of praise and homophobic abuse from fans of the show. The red top tabloids went into meltdown with headlines like Eastbenders. Since then all the major soaps have included gay characters, reflecting the majority of the public opinion that being gay and showing affection through a kiss is not something to be ashamed of. However, there is still a section of the community who are literally repulsed by the sight of two men kissing; rather predictably two lesbians kissing receives a more titillating response from the tabloids and the majority of those (mostly male) homophobic complainers. Most recently Eastenders introduced a new gay character’s, Danny Pennant and Johnny Carter (played by Gary Lucy and Sam Strike) and once again complaints from viewers came in, however, the amount of complaints was dramatically smaller to those received back in the 1980’s. What is interesting to note is there has apparently been no complaints from viewers of Hollyoaks when they aired there own gay storylines. This has been put down to Hollyoaks having a younger, and perhaps a more enlightened audience fan base. Away from the soaps, John Barrowman’s man on man kiss at the opening of the Commonwealth Games got many of the social media sites buzzing with many people congratulating organisers for including the kiss, which helped highlight the fact that gay marriage is illegal in 42 of the 53 commonwealth counties taking part in the games. Even The Mirror congratulated the games with their online page showing “14 more amazing gay and lesbian snogs” Of course there was the usual backlash from others who were so disgusted that they had turn the television off and go and sit in their shed and fume. Living in Brighton it is easy to forget that there is still so much prevalent homophobia across the UK, and worse anti-gay legisation in the other countries across the world. For this reason alone it is all the more important that high profile, out gay men like Barrowman, show the world the power of the kiss, giving hope to all those who fear to share this simple act of love. John Barrowman’s Commonwealth Kiss

 

 

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What Do the BrightonWriter and Miley Cyrus Have in Common?

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Read this months Gscene column from the

BrightonWriter to find out…

http://issuu.com/gscene/docs/gscene_jan14 (page 49)

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Russia’s LGBTQ Comminity, You Are Not Forgotten!

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Although it is still frustrating that the big news corporations still hold the capital on what they decided to be newsworthy, Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like have paved the way for all of us to exchange a much wider selection of  news, views and the occasional skateboarding cat. Despite the numerous chances for any of the main channels to show the brutality many of Russian’s LGBTQ community are facing. For the last few weeks there has been no reports on the draconian law Putin passed, stating that it is against the law to promote homosexuality in  any form. It seems only that the major news channels are only giving a small snapshot of this problem, referring to the Human Rights Act, when the brutality the LGBTQ Russian community is facing is not being fully addressed. Read more

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Russian LGBT Commuinty, You Are Not Forgotten!

russia-gay-pride[1]

Although it is still frustrating that the big news corporations still hold the capital on what they decided to be newsworthy, Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like have paved the way for all of us to exchange a much wider selection of  news, views and the occasional skateboarding cat. Despite the numerous chances for any of the main channels to show the brutality many of Russian’s LGBTQ community are facing. For the last few weeks there has been no reports on the draconian law Putin passed, stating that it is against the law to promote homosexuality in  any form. It seems only that the major news channels are only giving a small snapshot of this problem, referring to the Human Rights Act, when the brutality the LGBTQ Russian community is facing is not being fully addressed

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There could be an argument made that the fact the Russian Government are not the only country in the world to have such draconian laws passed against people who do not identify as heterosexual, when so many other countries have used homosexuals as scapegoats. In the past anti-homosexual legislation has been used as a smoke screen to try and appease the masses about their countries catalogue of economic failings. ‘ In the UK, we only have to look back to 1988 and see just how backward thinking our own Conservative Government was with their introduction of Clause 28 as a way of trying to divert the general public from the disastrous economic situation at the time.  Back then, with no internet to help, it took a team of feisty lesbians to invade the BBC newsroom to make the dissatisfied voices of the LGBTQ community to be heard.

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What is really exciting here and now is the way many of people are taking to the internet to help the Russian LGBTQ community, who are being silenced through a mixture of legislation, intimidation and force a loud and clear voice.

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It is without doubt that President Putin and his team of advisors truly believed that they could carry on attacking a minority group and no one outside of their jurisdiction would much care and in turn make a little fuss. After all, for the last few years they have allowed the Neo-Nazi faction within Russia to thrive and commit random acts of brutality on anyone who tried to hold a peaceful Pride March through the city. More recently there have been widespread reports of similar right-wing groups luring young gay men to a meeting place. Once captured, these groups then record themselves sexually torturing and humiliating these young men. The recordings are then posted on the internet along with the young men’s personal details and contact address. This has led to one of the victim taking his own life. Another report to come out of Russia was about a gay man who was raped with a beer bottle and had his head smashed in with a rock. Apart from the outraged reports in the LGBTQ press, such acts of violence have had little impact on the main news channels and so the brutality continues, thrives and now it has reached the point where the torture and murder of someone over their sexuality is practically sanctioned by law.

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What the Russian bureaucrats hadn’t quite banked on was the backlash from Russia passing these anti-gay laws, while also preparing to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. This has been were the online community has come into its own. Not a day passes without another thread being uploaded detailing the rise and rise of online petitions against the Winter Olympics being held in Sochi.

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Stephen Fry is well known to have thousands of followers on twitter, so when he posted an open letter to the Olympic Committee, comparing Putin to Hitler. The  news of the plight of the LGBTQ community in Russia reached a mass audience which the main news corporations could not ignore. On Friday there was a small mention on the main news channels about the growing dissent, mainly focusing on the safety of LGBT athletes and their supporters competing in Russia Winter Olympics.

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This in turn forced the Russian Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko to public say, “Calm down.” (who does he think he is, Michel Winner?) He went on to say that no LGBT athlete would come to harm while visiting Russia. A u-turn of what has been previously said from Russian officials. What the news channels have also conveniently left out of their report is the comment made by Alexander Mikhailov from Siberia’s Zabaikalsk region.

“I want to call on people to get a healthy perspective of this disgrace (homosexuality). Our district needs a law that would give troops the right to grab gays on the street and drag them to the city square, where Cossacks would whip them,”

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A few years ago, none of us would have hoped to believe that we the LGBTQ community would have the equality rules being passed through government. Positive change is happening in the UK, with the public opinion turning against the views of the dinosaurs still roaming around the back passages of Parliament and the House of Lords. Thanks to social media the homophobes views are being exposed and in turn the voice of the dissident is gathering memento.  As a community we can pull together and help combated the hate and ensure the Russian LGBTQ community can in turn make a difference. At the time of writing this, the BBC lunch time news has mentioned the human rights laws being broken in Russia; our voice of protest is getting louder, let’s insure it becomes too loud to ignore. Post a message of support to the LGBTQ Russian Community. Comment and repost news reports about the brutality the LGBTQ Russian community are facing. sign the petition below. together we will bring a positive change and stamp out homophobia.

http://chn.ge/13jhR37

– See more at: http://www.thebrightonwriter.co.uk/?p=2008&preview=true#sthash.Y6EzClwq.dpuf

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Equality Tidal Wave

Zachary QuintoA couple of weeks ago, I found myself watching the Jonathan Ross show, (not a regular habit as I find Ross’ style of interviewing a bit crass and a very self-absorbed). However, on this occasions I was pleasantly surprised to listen to the actor Zachary Quinto, (Star Trek, Heroes, American Horror Story) talking about being a successful actor in Hollywood, while being open and proud about being a gay man. Quinto spoke most eloquently about his need to come out two years ago, after hearing about a rash of young American teenagers had committed suicide because they were bullied for being gay. Read more

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LGBT Sports: A Blog of Two Halves.

LGBT and Sport: A Story of Two Halves.

I really look forward to the day when words like, brave, shocked or courageous are no longer used when sportsperson tells the public that their sexuality isn’t heterosexual. Having watched the Channel Four programme, Britain’s Gay footballers (a misleading title as apparently there aren’t any) saw Amal Fashanu, niece of  Justin Fashanu, go out on the field to find out why there hasn’t been any ‘out’ gay footballer’s before or after her uncle.

Over the last twenty years this same question has been asked time and time again, with the same reason being reeled out that it is either fear of the fans chanting homophobic abuse, or that it is the footballer’s managers keeping the idea alive that an ‘out’ gay footballer would be less bankable. Of course this belief is only kept true while premier league footballers are discouraged from ‘coming out’; and as for the chanting? Well to a degree that is part and parcel of the game, something Amal witnessed when she went to a home game at Brighton football stadium. Here the chants were more tongue in cheek, with the Brighton football team hearing cries of “We can see you holding hands” and “Does your boyfriend know you’re out”. Neither of these battle cries were directed at a particular football player, and in reality, not homophobic. However, when Sol Campbell (a heterosexual footballer) defected from Tottenham to their bitter rivals, Arsenal United back in 2001, he found himself the target of an extremely vile chant from the Tottenham supporters: “Sol, Sol, wherever you may be, you’re on the verge of lunacy and we won’t give a fuck when you’re hanging from a tree, you Judas c**t with HIV. Campbell rightfully complained and said if this was shouted out on the street then that group would be arrested. At first the police said it would be impossible to make any arrests due to the vast number of the crowd, however, video footage was later used with several Tottenham fans receiving a fine and a three-year ban from all matches. With arrests now being made against fans who chant homophobic abuse from the terreaces, along with Premier footballers being slapped with huge fines for sending homophobic tweets, we can at last see gay hate within football being taken seriously.

Of course, chanting is all part of the game, it’s what makes football special, but there is no room for racial or homophobic abuse in sport in the Twenty-first Century. There has been a drive to bring up the issue of homophobia in football with Red Card Homophobia in a similar way that the  Kick it Out campaign tackles racism in football, but no high-profile (straight) football player has been willing to back the Red Card Homophobia campaign for fear of being thought of as gay. Although the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) are taking some notice of tackling Homophobia in football with a new poster campaign, but they seem to still be dragging their feet saying it will take many years for all those involved in football to change their views on there being an out footballer playing for a premier league.

This idea that all those involved in premiership football can keep saying the time isn’t right, maybe in five, ten fifteen years time we will see an ‘out’ footballer player is just allowing homophobia to continue to thrive. The majority of other sports people who have decided to stop hiding their sexuality and have ‘come out’ have said it’s the best thing they have ever done, simply because they can be themselves. Let’s hope that we don’t have to wait another twenty years for a footballer to come out. Who knows, a forward thinking manager may take the reins soon and see that a promising gay footballer player can be out and proud about his sexuality and when he does his sexuality will be secondary to his ability to play a great game of football.  

Second Half.

February 2012 is LGBT history month and to coincide with the upcoming Olympics for the second year running the focus is on sport. With only another 161 days to go, the world will be focused on London and the opening event. Even those who hardly give sports the time of day will surely have a sense of pride as we all come together and root for our UK sports men and women to gain as many gold medals as possible.

Of course there will be many LGBT people, myself included, who will be reminded that sometimes sport can make us feel excluded. I can still remember standing in the freezing rain on the school sport field, knowing that I will be last to be picked for the football team. A humiliation made all the worse as I watch Adrian Scarf being picked before me, even though he had chronic asthma and no sense of direction. But then I discovered I was rather good at other sports like hurdles, relay, discus and javelin. By achieving in these areas I was able to dismiss the idea that I didn’t like sports, I just didn’t like being singled out as being rubbish at contact sports.

Admittedly, when I left school and discovered the gay pubs and clubs I left all interest of sports behind me and would only mention the Adrian Scarf story, dismissing sports altogether, (let’s face it, a camp story will usually overide a converstaion about school sports!). I’m sure many other LGBT people have told simular tales, which have helped feed into the myth  that LGBT people have little or no interest in sport. However, over the last couple of decades this view has been challenged in a variety of ways. Back in 1982, San Francisco saw the start of the now hugely successful Gay Games, while here in the UK there are now  gay rugby teams including , the Kings Cross Steelers, Bristol Bisons RFC  football teams, London Romans Football Club, London Lesbian Kickabout and trans swimming group, Marlin Swimming Group  and more locally the LGBT sports organisation, BLAGS, showing  that there is a thriving LGBT sports community. Another important element in changing the perception that sport and LGBT people don’t mix is having high-profile sports men and women publicly ‘coming out’.

Away from the football stadium, it would seem that such rampant homophobia is not as prevalent in other sports, there are at least one LGBT sportsperson who is openly gay in their chosen sport. In the UK the most recognisable out sportspeople to recently come out include, International Rugby Referee, Nigel Owens, BBC sports presenter, journalist and jockey, Clare Balding, Welsh Rugby player Gareth Thomas, Power-lifter Chris Morgan and England’s cricket wicket keeper, Steven Davies. Premier footballers should take note; Rugby didn’t fall into disrepute, Cricket wasn’t swallowed into a pit of despair and most importantly, sports fans continue to love, praise and support their chosen game and sportsperson regardless of the players sexuality.

It may take a very long time for some people in sport and supporters, particularly football, to pull their knuckles off the floor, and raise their eyes to the light and see we are no longer living in the dark ages and that there are some fantastic sports people out there who just happen to kick, throw, lift, dive or even bat for the other team.

Posted on by Glenn Stevens in Brighton & Hove, LGBT, Zhoosh 8 Comments

Stupid Tweet.

The way we can now all communicate via social networks, like Facebook, Twitter etc has opened the world to some great debates as well as some really banal tweets. I’m still puzzled why Stephen Fry’s tweet that he was stuck in a lift a few years back made the Six O Clock news, I guess it must have been a slow day for news reports, but come on, who really cared?

 

Since the social network phenomenon started, there have been a fair number of celebrities and people becoming infamous for airing their views; particularly those who have pressed the wrong button and found there comments going worldwide. Last week we had labour MP Diane Abbott back tracking on a tweet that had her in hot water with her boss Ed Miliband, while the latest public sports figure, Oxford City striker Lee Steele has found to his detriment that casual homophobia is not acceptable.

 

While watching Celerbity Big Brother Steele tweeted about former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas, (a contestant on the show) saying: “Wouldn’t fancy the bed next to Gareth Thomas #padlock my arse”. Apart from the homophobia, there is this tired presumption from straight men that they would be found sexually attractive in the first place, (personally, Steele looks like Rickie Gervais’ less attractive sibling).   Thankfully Steele has found that in the Twenty-First Century to public express such remarks are no longer acceptable. Although not surprising, the message boards have been flooded with comments from people supporting Steele’s words with many of them making more direct homophobic comments, including:  These freaks of nature are all terribly sensitive­ aren’t they!

 

It would seem that there is still a long way to go to stamp out homophobia, particularly within football. Part of the problem may lay in the fact that gay hate is rife not only on the terraces, but by the players as well. Thankfully Oxford City management team have been swift to act and have sacked Steele from the team:

 “The Oxford City board have decided to release Lee Steele in view of his recent comment via social media which is considered seriously contrary to the ethos of the club.”

I think it’s brilliant that we have these social networks that allow all of us to express our feelings, but to band about words that can incite hatred must be stamped out in exactly the same way as sexism and racial hatred has been tackled.  

Posted on by Glenn Stevens in Brighton & Hove, Human Rights, Zhoosh 4 Comments

Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! Out! Out! Out!

“Politicians, ugly buildings and whores, they all get respectable if they last long enough.” These words from actor john Huston in the film Chinatown, feel rather appropriate when considering the release of The Iron Lady, starring the scarily convincing Meryl Streep, as Maggie Thatcher.

Now that Thatcher no longer has the ability to breathe fire of fear into anyone, there will no doubt be those who will watch this film, championing the girl of a grocer, who came to power and promised her voters to make the world a better place…

Of course there are many who benefitted from Thatcher’s breaking up of the unions, selling off our utilities, and giving many people the opportunity to buy their council homes; but all to quickly the dream turned sour, with a generation now paying for a decade of excess and greed. But there is also a more sickening legacy from Thatcher’s era that the film makers have glossed over. These include; the introduction of Clause 28 and the lack of care or understanding regarding the devastating effect the AIDS crises would have on the UK’s gay community.

At the beginning of the AIDs epidemic in 1981 when large groups of gay men, drug users and hemophiliacs, began getting rapidly ill and dying, both Thatcher and Ronald Regan decided to ignore the impact this new disease was having. The national press was quick to flame the fire calling AIDS a ‘Gay Plague’. Those diagnosed with HIV found themselves treated with fear by the general public as well as the health professionals. For example in the early days of the disease, those seeking treatment would find health professionals using the  barrier method, wearing gloves, masks, gowns and hats; making those already feeling alienated even worse. However, there was a huge response from the LGBT community, with support groups springing up, doing much of the work that was lacking from the Conservative Government.

Six years into the epidemic, the Conservative Government brought us the Don’t Die of Ignorance campaign, which basically said ‘Abstain from sex and you’ll be fine.’ The campaign failed to address the real issues and year on year those diagnosed HIV+ has continued to rise.

In 1994 a new AIDS campaign was produced at the cost of £2 million pounds including a pocket guide “Your Pocket Guide to Sex” aimed at educating 16 – 25 year olds on safer sex. However, the Conservative Government got all hot under the collar and had the whole project deleted from existence, much to the disgust of its author, Nick Fisher.

“I don’t believe this government has teenagers’ interests at heart, it has become a political exercise to be seen to be stamping on things that are considered rude. Have they actually thought about how many teenagers are getting pregnant, how many are screwed up because they don’t know whether they are gay or straight, how many are not using condoms because they don’t know where to buy them or how to use them properly? If people are so messed up about sex that they deny its existence on such a massive scale, then there really is something wrong.”                             Nick Fisher.

Fast forward to present day and we find that once again Thatcher’s legacy living on, with the Conservative Government unwilling to provide funding for HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

With funding for HIV treatment costing the NHS 1bn per annum, there seems little reason to celebrate the mass destruction Thatcher has caused in her lifetime; and then there’s section 28.

Things first kicked off with the Daily Mail newspaper ranting that there was a campaign by the liberal left to pursued children to be homosexual, feeding the public with the idea that homosexuality was a choice which people could be persuaded to make. Books like Jenny lives with Eric and Martin were used in the propaganda war, with suggestions that such books were being used to undermine the heterosexual family.

Although no school was prosecuted, Clause 28 stopped many schools from teaching or talking about alternative sexualities, which without doubt had an effect on many young people growing up as either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender with feelings that they are in some way wrong to have these feelings. It is all too easy to think there are many support groups like the brilliant Diversity Role Models for young LGBT teenagers to get in contact with, but back then there was no internet and just a couple of gay magazines which were only marketed at the older LGBT groups.

One of the best things to come from Section 28 was the way the LGBT community pulled together, stood united and fought back. Lesbians assailed into parliament, while others stormed onto the live set of the BBC’s Six O Clock News, with one woman managed to chain herself to Sue Lawley’s chair. From here, MP’s and famous actors like Sir Ian McKellen came out, as did film director, Derrick Jarman about being HIV positive. These high-profile people added their voices of support and helped form LGBT action support groups including Stonewall and OutRage and even a couple of protest songs

When the Labour Government came to power, they began to pave the way for the Clause to be removed from the statutory books. It is worth noting that those unelected people in power in the House of Lords tried time and time again to keep Clause 28 in place, however, the Clause was eventually scrapped by the Labour Government pushed through the abolishment of the clause on the 18th November, 2003.

Interestingly, when David Cameron was an unelected Conservative member, he spoke out against a repeal of Clause 28 and accused Tony Blair of being ‘anti family’. Although he has since apologized and said equality should be taught in schools, the new legislation, Sex and Relationship Education (SRE), guide mentions that schools are obliged as a minimum to talk on issues of HIV and AIDS, but there is still no legal requirement for schools to talk about LGBT relationships. This may certainly leave many young people believing the way they feel is wrong and unacceptable, showing just how Thatcher’s legacy continues to do more harm than good.

Instead of spending money on seeing Meryl do an impersonation of Thatcher, I have invested my money in the Chumbawamba single, a celebration of Thatcher’s demise to be released on the day she pops her steely clogs.

Posted on by Glenn Stevens in film, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, LGBT, Zhoosh 4 Comments

Speak Out Against Homophobia.

Here in the UK, the LGBT community can celebrate the many rights we have all fought for and won over the last few decades, from having homosexuality abolished as a criminal offence, the equal age of consent and most recently the right for same sex couples to have their union together acknowledged in the form of civil partnerships. Looking at such ground breaking achievements it would be easy to think that we can sit back and relax because all the big battles have been won; but this really is not the case.

For every outdated piece of legislation that has been overturned there are still those who see homosexuality as second class to their straight counterparts and this is passed down to the next generation through a variety of ways. Last week it immerged that Google had rolled out a new app giving mums the opportunity to answer twenty cliché questions to determine if their son is gay.

Some of the ridiculous questions that the makers claimed would determine the outcome of their son’s sexuality included,

  • Is he a fan of divas (Madonna, Britney Spears)?
  • Does he spend time getting ready before being seen in public?
  • Does he like musical comedies?

So what if someone, gay or straight, takes a while to get dressed up to see Madonna in a musical comedy, but the way these questions are backed up by,

  • Does he like football?
  • Does he read the sports page in the newspaper?
  • Has he ever been in a fight?

It become perfectly clear that the people who put the app together are suggesting that if someone’s son doesn’t conform to the outdated gender norms, they are less of a man and as such are seen as inferior to others in society. Of course the people behind the app would say that such questions should not be taken so seriously and they are just a bit of fun; but it is these same outdated views that bullies use to undermine their peers from the playground to the workplace and keep many people from declaring proudly that they are gay.

A prime example can be seen in football. At present there is a campaign DVD due to be launched, titled; Homophobia: Let’s Tackle It! with the makers hoping to follow the success of, ‘Show Racism the Red Card’. The makers had wanted a gay footballer to front the DVD, but have been greeted by a brick wall. Not since Justin Fashanu, (who committed suicide in1998) has there been another professional footballer ‘come out’ as gay. They also found it impossible to get a straight footballer to speak out against homophobia, for fear of a backlash from the terraces and in the press.

It is without doubt that the main reason for such an absence of ‘out’ footballers speaking out on the issue isn’t down to gay men, as the app questions would suggest, not being any good at sport but more to do with homophobia still being rive within the ‘beautiful game’.

In the same week there was a conference for the Orlando Republican presidential debate. During the session Stephen Hill, a US soldier serving in Iraq, spoke via video link saying he was pleased he was able to be open about his homosexuality now President Obama had abolished the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that had meant gay and lesbian service men and women would be fired from their post if their sexuality was exposed. The response from the chair came that should the Republican Party take office again, the ban on homosexuals in the forces would be put firmly back in place. The people behind such thinking are fully aware that there are hundreds of gay and lesbian people working in the arm forces, but to show that gay men and women are working in environments outside the clichéd stereotypes would show that the only thing different between sexualities is the gender we decided to sleep with.

These are just a few examples of how a part of society believes that to be gay is something that must be ridiculed, hated and stamped out. We may have won some big battles, but we must keep our voices heard loud, expose gay hate in all its forms, and stamp out the hatred so the next generation will only find homophobia in the history books.

Posted on by Glenn Stevens in Human Rights, Leisure, Zhoosh 1 Comment

Homophobic Hate Contiunes…

When I wrote about Jamie Rodemeyer taking his own life after years of being bullied at school for being bisexual, in the back of my head I really believed that the children who had targeted him would wake up to their words of hate and realise that they had been the cause of a 14 year old boy taking his life. Astonishingly this has not been the case. Instead the bullies have started a new campaign of hate and are now picking on Jamie’s sister, yelling at her that they are pleased her brother took his own life. I believe that it is up to all of us to stand up against bullying in all its forms and to make people of all ages face up to their actions and understand the full consequences. Please take a moment to follow the link to Jamie’s school and ask the adults to help stamp out bullying in their school.http://www.williamsvillek12.org/contact.cfm Let’s hope the message gets through to other schools that just because someone shouts out words of hate they can still kill. https://www.facebook.com/RIPJameyslaw
http://youtu.be/vTu9XBt6SPI

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