THEGAYUK

Day: 22 November 2017

  • COLUMN | The media needs to stop reporting on historic homophobic Tweets

    Sticks and Stones… may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Somehow this just does not ring true anymore.

    I find myself wanting to tell the media to “grow up” and stop reporting these menial items. If I had run to my school teacher about another child being racist or homophobic I would have heard either the words above or been asked: “Did he just say this to you now?” What a killer of a question.

    “Erm, well no, not exactly sir, not to me personally, it was a general comment, and I don’t have perspective on it to give context. In the sense of time being forever, it was recent. It was two years ago, five years ago, 10 and even fifteen years ago!”

    How pathetic does that sound?

    People who become celebrities have a life outside of their public image, or at least they should be entitled to have one and to have had one. What a petty minded, snivelling, crawling group of people reporters must be to go searching for this dirt. They disgust me, I feel ashamed for them and for the organisations who react to the information that is shared with them.

    When there are so many more newsworthy items occurring all around the globe, someone has nothing better to do than to retrospectively stalk a celeb via the Internet! All this from the comfort of their office chair. At least the paparazzi had to camp out looking for news and maybe even dig through some bins.

    What a shameful statement of our time that celebrity has created a new lower status of life, whose sole purpose is to feed on it and destroy it. Not a symbiotic existence the way some parasites have a benefit to its host, more of a cancer that kills what it has to feed on.

    The Romans sacrificed Christians in the arena and used them as fodder for gladiators in sport. I think many a celebrity might know how those early Christians felt. What will history say about this behaviour, that is becoming a “Witch hunt in our time.”

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  • Stormzy apologises for “foul and offensive” tweets

    Hip-hop artist, Stormzy has Tweeted an apology for “foul and offensive” things written on his Twitter timeline.

    Stormzy has issued a full and complete apology for some of the tweets sent on his Twitter, dating back to 2011. In a statement, he wrote that the messages sent from his account were “unacceptable and disgusting”. He also said sorry and that he regretted sending the messages.

    The star, who has achieved a number 1 album in the UK charts, wrote,”The homophobic language I used was, embarrassingly, a part of my vocabulary when I was younger and ignorance made me feel comfortable to use them whilst not understanding the hate and the ramifications they carry.”

    THEGAYUK’s editor and chief Jake Hook said, “Stormzy’s apology is by far one of the most sincere apologies I’ve ever seen from a celebrity when they’ve been confronted with their past actions. It’s heartening to see that someone as important as Stormzy is can acknowledge the pain and upset that homophobia can inflict on members of the LGBTQ+ community and can offer a heartfelt apology so eloquently – and all within 24 hours.

    “If the last couple of months has taught us anything it’s that it’s an opportunity for people to start going over their own timelines and checking for comments that are just offensive and removing them. We have a whole dictionary of words to use. We don’t need to resort to homophobia, racism, sexism, ableism in order to get our points across.”

  • Could Aston Merrygold be replacing Jack Maynard in the Jungle?

    JLS singer and Strictly Come Dancing participant Aston Merrygold is Betway’s red hot 5/2 favourite to replace Jack Maynard in the I’m A Celebrity jungle.

    The Vlogger sensationally left the ITV show last night following allegations made against him, and having suffered a surprise early exit from Strictly Come Dancing last month, the leading online bookmaker thinks Merrygold could now be heading to the jungle as Maynard’s replacement.

    Geordie Shore star turned TV presenter Charlotte Crosby has long been linked with an I’m a Celebrity appearance and she can be backed at 11/2 to replace Maynard.

    Further down the list of Betway odds, singer Conor Maynard is 8/1 to join his younger brother’s former campmates in the coming days, while reality TV queen Gemma Collins is the same price to return to the jungle.

    Betway’s Alan Alger, said: “Aston Merrygold certainly has unfinished business on celebrity TV shows after his shock eviction from Strictly earlier this month and he’s been backed at 5/2 to replace the axed Maynard in the jungle.

    “I’m a Celeb producers will be scrambling for a replacement after losing Maynard so early on and a host of names have been mentioned. Gemma Collins, who so famously left the show after 72 hours, leads the pack of 8/1 fancies, with Karl Pilkington and Conor Maynard the same price.

    “Meanwhile, Philip Hammond is a long shot at 100/1 to switch Budget briefings for bushtucker trials in the coming days.

  • Thug jailed after slashing face of man holding his boyfriend’s hand

    A man has been jailed for two years following an attack on a man – who was holding his boyfriend’s hand – in which he glassed the victim’s face and cornea.

    In an unprovoked attack, Anjungi Lam, 35 (28.4.82) of Addington Road, Croydon glassed a man in the face, after seeing him holding his male partner’s hand at a pub in Peckham, London.

    Lam admitted grievous bodily harm at Inner London Crown Court on Friday, 23 June and was sentenced on Friday, 17 November.

    On Sunday, 5 March at around 22:30hrs the victim and his 20-year-old boyfriend arrived holding hands at the Kentish Drovers pub in Peckham High Street, Southwark SE15.

    They went to the bar and were deciding what drinks to buy when suddenly, Lam then raced towards the victim and smashed a pint glass against the right side of his face, cutting his nose, lip and neck, chipping his tooth and injuring his cornea. Flying glass also hit his boyfriend in the eye.

    Lam then ran out of the pub. Lam was quickly identified via CCTV; he had worked for the pub for three months before being sacked for lateness.

    He was arrested on Friday, 19 May and subsequently charged.

    Investigating officer PC Lance Sharrock, from Southwark’s Community Safety Unit, said: “This was an entirely unprovoked incident. Lam did not know the victim or his partner, they had not spoken nor had any disagreement to provoke such a violent attack.

    “The victims felt Lam must have been motivated by homophobia as they entered the pub holding hands and we began a hate crime investigation.

    “Lam was quickly identified and I am pleased at his sentence which shows that incidents of this nature will not be tolerated.”

    + Lam was jailed for an additional year for a number of separate offences not linked to the GBH; actual bodily harm, assault by beating, theft and having an offensive weapon.

  • Nearly 20 homophobic Tweets found on Stormzy’s Twitter timeline

    Nearly 20 homophobic tweets have been found on the Hip Hop artist, Stormzy’s twitter account.

    The tweets, some of which date back to 2011 use homophobic slurs, like “no homo” and “faggot” to blast critics on his social media account. At least one was aimed at an actor for dancing on an advert.

    Tweets sent from the MOBO-award winning artist’s account used insults like “faggot” and “gay” as a pejorative term.

    The tweets were sent from his account before he achieved chart success in 2017 and before he was named on the BBC Influential Sound of 2015 list. The artist has had a number 1 album in the UK, selling at least 100,000 records – achieving a Gold disk.

    At least 19 tweets were found using homophobic language. The tweets, which were dated between 2011 and 2014 have now all, seemingly, been deleted.

    STORMZY/TWITTER

    Tweets sent from his official account suggested that men who use straighteners or curling tongs are “fags” whilst another tweet blasted an actor in a Lucozade advert as a “big faggot” for dancing.

    The tweets, discovered by PinkNews have now been deleted, but we managed to find some of them before they were pulled from Twitter.

     

    Another Tweet suggests that being gay was a slur and asked his critics whether they were gay. Another message questioned whether being mature was also “gay”.

    STORMZY/TWITTER
    STORMZY/TWITTER

    STORMZY/TWITTER
    STORMZY/TWITTER

    Stormzy is the latest high profile person with homophobic content discovered on their social media feeds. Last week Josh Rivers, the former editor of Gay Times was fired after a series of offensive tweets were discovered in his timeline. This week I’m A Celebrity Star, Jack Maynard was forced to leave the jungle to confront and defend tweets sent from his Twitter account.

    Last month new Labour MP, Jared O’Mara was suspended after homophobic messages were found on forums.

    THEGAYUK.com reached out to Stormzy’s record label, Warner / ADA for comment.