The ‘fa
r right’ continue to use whatever methods work for them, and there is little reason to believe that an appeal on moralistic grounds will work, remember, they believe they are on the moral high ground. If we need to beat them then we need to adopt strong tactics within the law, but we have to be as smart if not smarter than them.
‘Conservative Candidates Promoted Petitions That Sent Personal Data to European Far-Right Group’
In an article by Philip Baldwin, in the Gay Times [now no longer a print-based magazine, I am sorry to say] he said that
…the British Government is increasingly moving towards an agenda which, in his view, is profoundly lesbophobic, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic…
[Are LGBTQ+ people under siege in the UK?] (dated
Then we have William Koenig who claimed that the LGBTQ people are prepping children to be”groomed and sexualized” and that COVID is God’s “judgement” for U.S. being “so pro-LGBT”
You, no matter where you turn you can see what appears to be a backlash against the LGBTQ+ community and the affirmation of our rights.
Tonight EMMA POWYS MAURICE , has reported in the Pink Paper ‘ Police are investigating after three people were reportedly whipped with belts by a group of men in a suspected homophobic attack.‘, and before this ‘The Independent‘ reported that attacks on LGBT people have surged by almost an 80% increase in the UK over last four years.
For so many in the LGBTQ+ community we have been living through what appears to have been an enlighten ‘rosy’ period; we have been legally recognised [though at different times in the various parts of the UK], different sectors have recognised us within the working world [i.e Gay and lesbian citizens have been allowed to serve openly in the Her Majesty’s Armed Forces since 2000], same-sex marriage has been recognised and performed in England and Wales since March 2014, in Scotland since December 2014, and in Northern Ireland since January 2020.
And because of these wins, we in the LGBTQ+ community have become complacent. We go on our Pride Parades, and forget that these were originally Marches to fight for our rights! IN the past we also had local magazines and Gay News was a fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), this ran until 1983.
We don’t have these resources anymore, we depend on social media outlets, but remember in the main these are written by ordinary people and not journalists. It also means that we are limited often in the in-depth research articles that we need.
Protection of our community is down to you the community, you need to report things of consequence to our community, to take a stance against things that are wrong (and let others know about your stance), and lastly, yes enjoy Gay Pride when it comes around, but remember this is to show everyone that we are not going away and that we have a right live as equal people.
Links:
- The Linenhall Library – bask issues of Gay News and local LGBTQ magazines Gay Star, update, upstart, NIGRA News
- Homophobia and Terrorism are not limited to Muslims.
Kinderkill brings into print the subject of “snuff” movies, and the related topics of child sex fanatics. The characters whether cops or child molesters are stereotypes, of no real depth or interest. The story development is progressive, with one or two hiccups due to the author’s attempts to assign qualities to his characters that are not necessary to the story. Indeed the author’s preoccupation with having clear black and white characters gives the book an unreal quality.
In the Court proceedings against Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960, the jury was invited by the prosecution to consider whether “It is a book that you wish your wife or servants to read?”
It is all very well for them to think along these lines, but the fact remains that the advocacy of repressive measures aimed at depriving people of the right to the reading of material of their choice could all too easily result in the targeting of the ‘gay’ community as purveyors of “material likely to deprave and corrupt”. It is not long since HM Customs used their draconian powers to seize material from gay book shops (
The Portsmouth Defence – every solicitor and barrister knows the traditional defence to utilize when defending a client accused of murdering a gay man when there is no other legitimate defence available. Its name indicates that it originated in medieval times in seaports when mariners were caught on rolling/robbing their homosexual clients or victims.
Who Lies Inside by Timothy Ireland, deals with a young man’s struggle to come to terms with his sexual attraction to other men. Martin Conway comes from a typical English working-class family in which any manifestation of emotion meets with rental disapproval. Martin or “Jumbo”, is a rugby player, and a wimp, and an 18 year old sixth former. He becomes increasingly alienated from his parents and from his straight friends, and, despite his initial unwillingness to confront the ‘stranger’ inside him he eventually decides that the ‘stranger’, i.e. his gayness, must ‘step out into the light and be seen’, if he is to be truly happy.
‘Jack Robinson’ is a pseudonym, I assume, though given the sweep fo ‘Teardrops On My Drum’, anything is likely, parts of it are so unlikely they must be true! It chronicles the life of a Liverpool slummie from 5 to 15, when he joins the Army. The BA in the 20s seems to have been very gay.
discussion of them. the journal exudes a ‘Glad to be Gay’ tone which is to be applauded; equally necessary is a facility for self-criticism and a questioning approach to many aspects of current gay lifestyles. 
Parallel Lives by Peter Burton, is a memoir that falls into three unequal parts: the first section sees PB (Peter Burton) coming to terms with his adolescent self. this is very gracefully written as is the very end of the book describing the last few years.