It has been a long time since I last did a Bad News Round
Up. They’re draining. Aside from the work of compiling, the litany is just damn
depressing and I’m not always in the headspace to handle them
But, with today being the International Day Against Homophobia
and Transphobia, I am venturing back to them because I do
think they’re important, for all the reasons I’ve said before. It’s
important to link the hatred to the violence. It is important to realise these
aren’t isolated incidents or that the bigotry is in the past.
In short, it is important to remember why we have to keep
fighting.
Religion
The Lithuanian
Bishops Conference wants us to know that laws against domestic violence lead to
people becoming gay and trans. It’s like they had a Madlibs contest to see
how offensive they could be
The church
of Ireland has decided to have a little panel on gay issues. Without any
GBLT people on it.
Ex-Archbishop of
Canterbury, Lord Carey, is still a bigot and is now trying a new track to end
marriage equality – this time by invoking the homophobia of minority
churches. Bishop
Davies would also like to remind us all that he’s still a nasty bigot. He’s
joined
by a coalition of London Vicars advocating ex-gay therapy. And no, the
new Archbishop of Canterbury is just as homophobic as the last and the Anglican
church will continue to be a font of bigotry under him.
Catholic Archbishops in the US
call treating gay people as full citizens an injustice – and threaten
straight folks who dare to attend our weddings.
Catholic
Cardinal Dolan is also all out with his bigotry – stomping that gay people
are part of “entitlement” culture for wanting the same human rights as straight
people. Catholic bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode
Island is joining in the holy hatred. Catholic Archbisop John Dew in
New Zealand also hates the idea of gay people being treated as full citizens.
Cardinal
Andre Wingt-Trois in France decided to
blame violence of gay people being treated as full citizens and not the
violent perpetrators. The violent should
be appeased and bowed to, of course. Cardinal
Napier in South Africa has a novel way of defending himself when his bigotry is
exposed – he claims he can’t be a homophobe because he doesn’t know any gay
people. Uh-huh because being a homophobe gives you ample chance to get gay
friends. Cardinal
Peter Turkson of Ghana has looked at the Uganda genocide bill and thinks it’s a
splendid idea. He
also thinks the child abuse scandal in the Catholic church is, of course,
the fault of gay people. In San Francisco, Archbishop
Cordileone has his own bigotry saying gay people make kids suffer.
Honestly, I could just have a section on the Catholic
church and I could fill it.
In a publicly funded school in Canada,
Imam Mustafa Khattab gave a speech to school children in which he compared
being gay to cancer.
Also in Canada,
religious groups in Manitoba are furious at anti-gay discrimination laws with
one Rabbi describing being unable to persecute gay people as the same as
introducing pork into Jewish schools.
Ofcom
has had to criticise (which means do nothing, of course) several Muslim TV
stations for broadcasting homophobia and even advocating torturing and
murdering gay people
Tooting Mosque
held an entire meeting dedicated to fighting the rights of gay people after
Muslim MPs voted for marriage equality
Hate Speech
The Illinois
Family Institute compares being gay to child sacrifice. Well, points for
originality I guess. They’ve also called
us a crime against nature.
In Rhode Island, Catholic
radio show headed by Drew Mariani has a guest who thinks gay people are going
to jail families, kill priests and cause vast extermination. Really? I
kinda wanted the weekend off and this sounds like a lot of work.
The Family
Research Council isn’t nearly as inventive – they’re sticking to the old
gay=paedophile bigotry. Repeatedly.
Breitbart is
still pushing Scott Lively’s bigoted claim that Hitler was gay. Scott
Lively himself is currently deciding meningitis is divine punishment for gay
people.
“Ex-gay” groups are
fighting a law in New York banning torturous reparity therapy by drawing
comparisons with Jerry Sandusky.
Peter Spriggs, renown
bigot, is given an unchallenged platform on CNN to claim Christians are a
persecuted minority.
Hate group NOM has no limits – to fight marriage equality they drag up and exploit the murder of a 4 year old from 2006. Because no straight person has ever ever harmed their children, right?
Matt Barber is a renown bigot –
but this vile picture suggesting gay Boy Scout leaders are paedophiles was
retweeted all through the net.
Linda Harvey would like you to know that gay rights = slavery. Hate groups don’t have to make sense.
Pete LaBarbera is an
awful person yet still give air time – despite thing STDs and ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE
are god’s punishment.
Alan
Keyes thinks gay boy scouts will turn other scouts gay of course through
lots of sexual advances the bigots are never tired of the “gay sex predator”
meme. Realising how boring this is, he
also went with gay marriage causing a communist regime that will lead to
genocide also, supporting
marriage equality is a crime against humanity. There you go, full on la-la
land has been achieved!
Do you know who’s to blame for the financial crisis? It’s
the pro-sodomy gestapo! According to Bryan Fischer anyway. We’re
going to treat Christians the way the Nazis treated Jews apparently (and
gay people – but the hate groups always forget that)
Newt Gingrich
thinks debating gay rights and our humanity is anti-Catholic. Because their
“right” to treat us as scum under their shoes is being violated.
Of course,
over in Britain, marriage equality has got the hate groups up and vocal. And given spots on the news. But usually the
churches do our hating – just ask Lord Carey, I don’t think he’s had a
conversation without mentioning gay people in the last 10 years. Though
this woman from C4M keeps on going and going like a Nazi duracelle bunny.
And of course, Christian Concern thinks the end of the world is nigh
A teacher in London is screaming victim after he was sacked for telling classes of kids that gay people were disgusting and evil
Celebrities and
Sports People
Professional Wrestler
Jay Briscoe tweets death threats for anyone who tells his kids gay marriage
is ok. I dearly hope none of his children are gay
American Football Player Mike
Wallace just had to hit twitter with his ignorance about Jason Collins
coming out
ESPN sportscaster
Chris Broussard, also decides to drop in his homophobic view on Jason Collins.
There are 8
footballers, at least, who are gay but are afraid to come out because of
homophobia in sports.
Wrestler Bully Ray throws out some
slurs
Football player Alan Gordon also
drops some anti-gay slurs complete with follow up fauxpology
Harvard Professor and TV historian Niall Fergusson has spouted
several kinds of homophobic shit about Keynes. He apologised
– but this isn’t his first time suggesting it’s a PR move.
Azaelia Banks is still
a nasty bigot with utter contempt for gay men.
Busta Rhymes is driven
to homophobia over ketchup.
Jeremy Irons
has an ignorant, highly offensive ramble about the evils of marriage
equality
For all UEFA
likes to make noises about homophobia, the chances of Mourinho facing real consequences
for his slurs are slim
Louis Farrakhan is… still Louis Farrakhan. Expect no different.
Michelle Shocked loses her ever loving mind with an on-stage homophobic rant.
Homophobic abuse from football fans are becoming and
increasing problem – including
over 100 Crystal Palace fans screaming abuse in Brighton; something that is
a repeated
problem to Brighton and Hove football clubs.
Government/
State
In Zambia, a
gay couple has been tortured and jailed without food and water. Also in
Zambia, gay activist Paul
Kasonkomona has been arrested and denied his HIV medication
In Ethiopia,
religious groups say the government is planning on introducing the death
penalty for gay people.
In Indonesia,
a proposed new bylaw would make being gay punishable by flogging
In Morocco,
2 gay men have been arrested for “sodomy”.
Moscow is, yet
again, refusing to allow a gay pride parade.
Also in
Russia, author of virulent homophobic legislation, Vitaly Milonov says gay
teens make up being bullied.
Ukraine has dropped
a bill that would have banned anti-gay discrimination.
In Minnesota
Rep Peggy Scott is absolutely heartbroken that gay people are treated like
full human beings
Rick Perry
thinks supporting the scouts in being homophobes is like opposing slavery.
In Washington,
the office of law maker Mike Hewitt, who wants to make discrimination against
GBLT people legal, thinks GBLT people can just grow our own food if we’re
discriminated against Kentucky also loves anti-gay
discrimination and is getting their own version.
In Texas, they
state government has heard about universities preventing their students being
bigoted towards GBLT people and has decided that this is awful – so are
protecting bigotry by law.
Maryland Senator Don Dwyer
decided to go boating while drunk. Naturally, being all about personal
responsibility he knows no-one’s to blame for this but himself. HA! No, of
course not! It’s gay people getting rights that caused it! If the US passes
ENDA do you think he’ll drink himself into a coma?
The president elect of Paraguay,
Horacio Cartes is a nasty, homophobic bigot who thinks we’ll bring about
the end of the world among other, even less pleasant things.
In Northern
Ireland, 80% of homophobic crime is unreported.
In the
UK, Ex-police Chief Lord Deer has decided gay people shouldn’t get marriage
equality for our own good – in case there’s a bigoted backlash. This man
was a police chief and he’s willing to appease violent criminals? I call
bullshit. Of course, when he was police chief it’s not like homophobic hate
crime was considered important (nor is it still).
Welsh secretary
David Jones thinks gay parents are unsafe for children.
In Scotland, UKIP’s
new energy chief has spouted all kinds of homophobic bullshit about the
“selfishness” of gay people
In case there
was any doubt (which there really shouldn’t be) UKIP is a party of
homophobes.
Homophobic Tory
MP David Barrowes openly admits he’s pushing for a referendum on marriage
equality as another cynical plot to destroy or delay equal rights for gay
people.
Manchester University
student union is investigating a meeting on campus where an invited speaker
talked about killing gay people. Reading university
is also inviting speakers who think gay people should be murdered
Italy’s equalities
minister is a homophobe who thinks gay people “ghettoise themselves.” I’d
ask what country would put a homophobe in charge of equalities – but then with
Theresa May and Mary Miller, I’m going to refrain from launching stones from my
glass house.
In Canada,
Liberal Candidate Mary Polak’s campaign manager has quit because he thinks
the base who are voting for her are homophobes who have no respect for him as a
person.
In Poland, Nobel
Peace Prize winner and ex-president of Poland, Lech Walesa wants gay people in
Parliament to be put behind a fence or moved to the back of the room
Discrimination
In Texas, a
gay man has been evicted from his home and separated from his partner of 34 years
because they can’t legally marry and when his partner fell prey to Alzheimers,
his homophobic family were able to take control.
In California
a gay couple was kicked out of a mall for kissing.
In Missouri, a
couple was split up in a horrific act of homophobic discrimination. One man was
committed into hospital by his brother, despite his husband having the legal
paperwork to make decisions for him. When the man went to the hospital to
see his husband and demand his rights, the hospital and family called the
police, had him handcuffed and removed from his husband’s bedside, assaulting
him when he refused to go. The police insisted on using gloves to handle him
because they assumed he’d have AIDS.
On the
Isle of Man a lesbian couple has been denied a flat because their landlord
is a homophobe. And, yes, it’s legal.
A Bar in Brighton refused entry to a gay man because he was wearing a “disgusting” pride sticker. In Brighton? Can we have no centres at all?
In New
Zealand, a bed and breakfast refuses to allow a lesbian couple share a bed,
being denied the Kingsized bed they’d booked.
Glee has
been edited to fit an earlier time slot – that means editing out implied
gay sex scenes and keeping in the straight ones
A Catholic
school in Wisconsin is so homophobic, they denied a straight man a job over
rumours he was gay.
A Catholic school in Ohio shows all the compassion of a crocodile by firing a lesbian teacher when they discover she is a lesbian by reading her mother’s obituary. “Sorry you’re mother’s dead – and you’re fired.” Feel that Christian love.
In New
Zealand, a McDonalds worker was disciplined for being “too gay” and was
threatened with the sack if he turned any of his colleagues gay.
Violence
In Russia,
a gay man was tortured, raped with beer bottles and beaten to death.
Also in Russia, in Syktyvkar the organiser
of a banned gay pride parade has been badly beaten and no action has been
taken against his attackers.
In France
a gay man in Nice was beaten unconscious. Another gay
couple has been brutally beaten in Paris.
Also in France a gay bar was attacked in a homophobic attack in Lille
In fact, in France
there has been a huge spike in the number of anti-gay assaults and there
have been violent demonstrations from the supposedly moral forces of bigotry. Including
one gay mayor being sent bullets in the mail and the
head of the French Parliament being sent gunpowder and threats
In Lancashire,
3 lesbians were attacked by men on a train using homophobic language
In Leicester, a man has been sentenced for setting 2 gay man on fire outside a pub.
In Huddersfield
a gay man was attacked for being gay – actually in a gay bar. There are no
safe spaces
In Devon a 20 year
old has been jailed for attacking a man he thought was gay and stamping on
his head. For 12 months.
In South
Yorkshire, a man who killed a gay, disabled man by setting his genitals on
fire has been sentenced to 3 and a half years.
In Ireland,
a gay couple was attacked in a grocery store by the security guard.
In Ohio, a
trans woman has been murdered. A man has been arrested. But
the media coverage has been revolting.
In Davis, California, a gay man was beaten
into unconsciousness by a man using anti-gay slurs
Also in
California, a bisexual man was beaten by men using anti-gay slurs. The
police decide this isn’t a hate crime
In New York, 2
gay men were murdered in separate attacks within 3 days of each other
Also In New York City, 2 gay
men were attacked by a gang in broad daylight, both of whom suffered broken
bones.
And again in New York City, a gay couple were attacked on the subway and a crowd looked on
Guess what, also in New
York City, 2 gay men were attacked and beaten by a gang of 5 men. One of
them required eye surgery. That’s 2 attacks in one week.
In, yes, NYC again, there has
been another attack on a gay man.
Yet again in NYC, a
woman was attacked by a man yelling slurs who smashed her in the face with
a ketchup bottle. I’m assuming the glass kind.
In
Brooklyn, a gay man was beaten by people he said were the police who
subsequently harassed him when he planned to sue.
In Oklahoma, a
gay man and former politician was attacked by 3 men using homophobic language
outside a bar. Despite homophobic abuse, the police decide it isn’t a hate
crime because… reasons.
In Texas, a
woman beat her 15 year old son bloody with an electrical cord for being
gay.
Also in Texas, a lesbian was beaten and hospitalised after she tried to speak to other parents about their children bullying her 4 year old. When the man found out she was a lesbian he attacked her yelling anti-gay slurs. Of course, the police don’t think it’s a hate crime.
In Louisiana
2 gay men were attacked by another group of men using anti-gay slurs
In Seattle,
a lesbian suffered a broken jaw in a homophobic attack.
In Wisconsin a
gay man is beaten into unconsciousness by a man wielding a piece of lumber and
using anti-gay slurs. Of course the police aren’t treating it as a hate
crime. As an added bonus, the Applebees where the victim worked sacked him for
the bad publicity. But kept on the wife of the attacker who instigated the
attack
In Portland, 2
gay men were attacked by a man using anti-gay slurs and wielding a wrench
In
Mississippi, the murder of a gay mayoral candidate already has spectres of
the gay panic defence
In Calgary,
Canada, a lesbian teenager was attacked by a group of other teenagers using
anti-gay slurs.
In Cyprus
a gay couple was dragged from a car and beaten by a gang of 8.
In Greece, 2 gay men have been attacked by a gang of black clad men shouting anti-gay slurs.
In Israel, a
lesbian teenager was attacked by a gang throwing rocks.
In South Africa, gay
men in a camp to turn them into “men” were beaten, starved, tortured,
forced to eat their own faeces and killed.
In
South Africa, 9 gay men have been murdered by a gang of serial killers.
In Senegal,
a gay couple have been brutally beaten by their own parents – fully
supported by the media that has demonised the men.
In Peru, a
man set his gay son on fire.
In Argentina a
gay couple were attacked by men invoking the pope.
In 2012,
one Brazillian GBLT person was murdered every 26 hours.
In Oregan, another gay
teenager has been driven to suicide.
In Lancashire,
UK, a bisexual teenaged father committed suicide after unrelenting
homophobic bullying
A trans
woman in Britain has committed suicide after being hounded by the
transphobic (and generally bigoted) Daily Mail.
