There is an article in the Daily Mail by Melanie Phillips, on the subject of “gay McCarthyism”, that I’ve found rather difficult to blog about. It contains so many offensive absurdities, I don’t quite know what to say about it.
I’ll settle for picking a few choice sections out, for your amusement. Go read it yourself.
What appears to have set Melanie Phillips off, is the “revelation” that a LGBT History Month is getting £35,000 worth of Government funding as a result of which, so the Mail says, “maths problems could be introduced that involve gay characters”, and kids taught about Turing and the Emperor Hadrian and so on. £35,000 seems like a pretty small amount. Given the prevalence of the use of the word “gay” as an insult by kids, I think it is money well spent. And I really can’t see the problem with having a gay character in a maths problem, for one month.
What is so upsetting Melanie Phillips today?
In science, they will be directed to animal species such as emperor penguins and sea horses, where the male takes a lead role in raising its young.
To be frank, I don’t think sea horses are generally considered that gay. They just like to help out.
As the old joke has it, what was once impermissible first becomes tolerated and then becomes mandatory.
It is pretty difficult to force men to become gay, you know. Typically, you have to start off by actually fancying members of your own sex. If you don’t, it becomes obvious pretty quickly, at least if you’re a man.
Catholic adoption agencies were forced to shut down after they refused to place children with same-sex couples. Marriage registrars were forced to step down for refusing to officiate at civil unions
I’m broadly in favour of anti-discrimination legislation. I’m happy to argue the toss over whether some or all private sector businesses should be subject to its full provisions. However, what possible argument is there for allowing public sector employees, or bodies in receipt of public funds, from discriminating unlawfully against any group of British citizens?
It seems that just about everything in Britain is now run according to the gay agenda.
Yeah, gay buses, gay computers, gay filing cabinets, gay dustbin collection services, gay gay gay gay gay. Honestly, grow up.
Other objections include the following:
And the Department for Transport issued a study looking at harassment and discrimination on ships and hovercraft against a range of groups, including transsexuals.
Is the argument that the Department of Transport shouldn’t issue a study looking at harassment and discrimination at all? Or is the argument that such a report should exclude transsexuals? Or that the inclusion of transsexuals vitiates the report? I can’t tell.
Melanie Phillips then turns her attention to a new member to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, including a GP called of Hans-Christian Raabe:
But as soon as his appointment was announced, Dr Raabe was targeted in an astonishing attack.
For he is also a leading member of the Manchester-based Maranatha Community, which is dedicated to re-establishing Christian values in society and which campaigns against gay rights.
It was the BBC’s Home Editor Mark Easton who led the charge. On his BBC News blog, he announced that Dr Raabe’s views on homosexuality were causing such fury among (anonymous) members of the Advisory Council that at least one member was threatening to step down.
Well may you rub your eyes at that. Just what have his views on homosexuality got to do with illegal drugs? Well, according to Easton, more than one member of the council is gay or lesbian.
How extraordinary. Just imagine if the boot were on the other foot and Dr Raabe had refused to serve on the drugs council because some of its members were gay. He would be out on his ear within the hour.
So, hang on a second. Melanie Phillips is seriously suggesting that it is improper to report the fact that a Government appointee apparently wants to deny rights to a section of the population? And that people whose rights are being denied shouldn’t object to it? And that those who object to others campaigning against their rights, are bigots?
I hate to do this, but can you really imagine Melanie Phillips taking the same tack in relation to the appointment of an activist with a homophobic and antisemitic Islamist group to a Government quango? Can you imagine her condemning a Jew or a gay who objected to that appointment?
What a silly article.
