THEGAYUK

Author: News Desk

  • TODAY IN GAY | The Admiral Duncan Bombing

    TODAY IN GAY | The Admiral Duncan Bombing

    In 1999 a nail bomb went off in the popular gay pub The Admiral Duncan, killing three people.

    Three people were killed and dozens injured when a bomb, left in an unattended bag, placed by David Copeland, exploded on the 30th April 1999.

    Andrea Dykes 27, Nik Moore 31 and John Light, 32 were killed. Andrea was four months pregnant at the time. Around 70 people were injured.

    David Copeland was captured that same evening. He had terrorised Londoners with two other bombings, one in Brixton on the 17th and one in White Chapel on the 24th. His two other bombs, fortunately, did not kill anyone. It was thought that Copeland was trying to stir up race and homophobic tensions.

    Copeland was convicted of three murders and three offences of planting bombs on 30 June 2000 and given six life sentences. The minimum time he’ll spend behind bars is 50 years.

    Read more about the attack here and to see pictures from the attack click here.

  • Here’s what Theresa May thinks about gay sex

    Theresa May has been asked whether she thinks “gay sex” is a sin and it appears as though she doesn’t.

    Theresa May was asked point blank whether she thought sex between two men or two women was a sin on this morning’s Andrew Marr Show on the BBC. The Prime Minister was quick to answer “no”.

    The question comes after the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron was initially unable to answer repeated questions on what he thought about the sinfulness of being gay and gay sex.

    Andrew Marr alluded to the previous questioning of Mr Farron and asked, “You’re also a Christian. Do you think that gay sex is a sin?”

    Ms May was quick to answer “No”.

    She went on to say, that anybody,

    “…who is a leader of a political party who is putting themselves up for election and is asking the public to trust them is bound to get a whole range of questions from a whole range of different groups”.

    However, the decisive answer that she gave does seemingly go against Ms May’s previous stance on LGBT matters having previously voted against the equalising the age of consent in 1998 and allowing gay couples to adopt children in 2002. She was absent from a number of key votes such as the repeal of Section 28 in 2003 and discrimination on the grounds of sexuality in 2007.

    She has voted positively on a number of views such as civil partnership and same-sex marriage.

     

     

  • Jack Monroe thanks Katie Hopkins for funding her election campaign

    Activist and writer Jack Monroe thanked Katie Hopkins for funding her forthcoming election campaign after announcing that will stand for the National Health Action (NHA) party.

    Jack Monroe has announced she will run in the Southend West constituency and will stand for the NHA party.

    On Twitter, the writer thanked Katie Hopkins for funding her campaign.

    Jake Monroe successfully sued Katie Hopkins earlier in the year and was awarded £24,000 in damages.

    On hearing the news some Twitter used suggested that she’d lose her deposit but Ms Monroe wrote,

    “I may well do, but you should be directing your glee to my campaign sponsor, Katie.

    “Because nothing feels more right than using money earned through division and hate, to instead promote unity, community, and care.

    “So from the bottom of my heart, thank you Katie for your generous – if unwitting – contribution to saving the National Health Service.”

    WHO ARE THE NATIONAL HEALTH ACTION PARTY?

    The NHA does not consider itself a single issue party, on their website, they write:

    The NHA is not a single issue, although as single issues go the NHS is huge. But the NHS doesn’t function in a vacuum. Housing, education, support for the unemployed, unwell and disabled, good employment opportunities – all of our domestic policy issues which are the business of government – combine to promote good health or make us ill. These are the ‘social determinants of health’, and are also key party policies.

    Their core principles include:

    Restore the NHS to public ownership

    Halt unnecessary hospital downgrades + closures

    Prioritise mental health

    Renegotiate Private Finance Initiative (PFI)

    Fight EU-USA trade deal TTIP

    Safe maternity care

  • GREEN PARTY | Isle of Wight MP “unfit to represent”

    Speaking out against, MP Andrew Turn, who stepped down after alleged homophobic comments were made to a sixth form class, the Green Party has called the Conservative MP “unfit” and says only the Green party can offer protection to LGBTs.

    MP Andrew Turner who has represented the Isle of Wight for 16 years has resigned after reports emerged that he said he thought it was “wrong” to be gay, and that he thought that it was “dangerous for society”. He allegedly made the comments to sixth form students at the Christ The King College in Newport.

    The Green Party has called the minister “unfit” and said that his comments were abhorrent. Reaching out to the LGBT community,

    Vix Lowthion, Green Party candidate for the Isle of Wight, said,

    “Andrew Turner was unfit to represent the Isle of Wight and his recent, abhorrent comments left his place in Parliament completely untenable. People here deserves someone who will stand up for them. Today the Green Party announced radical plans to protect LGBTIQA+ refugees, provide decent HIV protection and promote rights for intersex and trans people – that is the kind of politics people in the Isle of Wight need and only the Green Party can offer.”

    In their latest manifesto aimed at the LGBT community, the Greens are keen to bring in a raft of new policies which would secure rights for non-binary, trans, asexual and aromantic people.  The word bisexual is mentioned once, lesbian and gay are mentioned four times, intersex 10 times, non-binary 12 times and the word trans is written 19 times.

    However, they did use language such as “men who have sex with men” which has largely been disapproved of by the gay and bisexual male community. The manifesto also does not mention changing current divorce law to equalise it with opposite-sex marriage. They also failed to make policy on how to tackle LGBT+ homelessness.

    It is, however, the first political party to present its LGBT+ manifesto.

     

  • Channel 4 announces season of programming for the 50th year of gay decriminalisation

    Channel 4 will be marking the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK by broadcasting a raft of programming to celebrate LGBT life in the UK.

    A number of landmark productions are set to be broadcast on Channel 4 as it marks 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales.

    Not Guilty charts the stories of some of the 15,000 British men criminalised for offences under long-defunct anti-homosexuality laws. Epidemic (working title w/t) reveals how an unlikely coalition of gay campaigners Tory politicians, and pioneering doctors came together to fight AIDS in the 1980s – and changed Britain forever in the process. In 50 Shades of Gay (w/t) Rupert Everett, in a series of surprising encounters with gay people of all ages, delivers his own personal take on the changes in gay life and culture that have happened in Britain in the past 50 years. And Coming Out (w/t) reveals how while campaigners were battling Parliament for legal reforms,  the real frontline in the fight to win acceptance for gay culture was the arena of pop music.

    Rob Coldstream, Commissioning Editor, Special Factual said,

    “History can tell us as much about the present day as it does about the past and I’m thrilled to announce this slate of programmes – its incredibly wide ranging but at its heart is brilliant new journalism, and a fresh lens onto the past that offers new insights into our own times.”  

  • TV | Coming Out, Channel 4

    Coming Out

    Broadcaster: Channel 4

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Production Company: Alley Cats TV

    After homosexuality was legalised 50 years ago, this is the story of how it was pop music that won the battle for hearts and minds, and made it OK to be gay.

    While politicians and protestors focused on legal reform, another struggle was going on – the battle for hearts and minds. The fight to win mainstream status for queer culture was waged, and won, by a group of pioneers who used popular music as the stage for a revolution. Put simply: it was pop music that made it OK to be gay. Channel 4 marks this momentous anniversary with the story of the fearless & flamboyant artists– from global icons to hidden heroes – who used pop music as gay culture’s Trojan Horse, seducing us all with a soundtrack to die for.

  • TV | 50 Shades of Gay, Channel 4

    Fifty Shades Of Gay

    Broadcaster: Channel 4

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Production Company: Swan Films

    Rupert Everett charts the changes in gay life and culture over the last fifty years, from men in their eighties who cottaged with palace guards, to young transgender people coming out as the ‘only trans in the village’ in rural Britain.  Since 1967 much has been achieved in terms of openness and acceptance, but have some of the things that Rupert most wants to celebrate about gay culture – its rebelliousness and outsiderness, for example – faded in the process of assimilation into the mainstream?

  • TV | Epidemic, Channel 4

    Epidemic

    Broadcaster: Channel 4

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Production Company: Blast Films

    Epidemic (w/t) This landmark film tells the uplifting story of how an unlikely coalition of Tory politicians, pioneering doctors and gay men came together to fight a deadly disease with no cure – and how Britain was changed forever by the battle against AIDS in the 1980s.  Together they overcame a homophobic press, the ignorance of the medical establishment, and the outright hostility of Margaret Thatcher, in order to create a campaign that would change hearts and minds about AIDS – and gay men.  Not only did their effort stem the tide of the AIDS plague – but by making us talk publicly about sex in a new way, they helped to create a more liberal Britain – that has lasted until today.

  • TV | Not Guilty, Channel 4

    Not Guilty

    Broadcaster: Channel 4

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Production Company: Testimony Films


    Not Guilty tells the stories of some of the 15,000 British men living with criminal records for offences committed under long-defunct anti-homosexuality laws. On 1    st February 2017 the government passed a new ‘Alan Turing law’ granting pardons for those convicted – but some are refusing to accept a pardon, demanding instead a full apology.  At the heart of the film are emotional testimonies of persecution long after the 1967 Act first began to decriminalise homosexuality in Britain.

  • Milo reckons he has $12 million investment for new media venture

    Milo Yiannopoulos has revealed that he raised $12 million (£9.2 million) in investment for a new media business.

    The outspoken commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has revealed that he’s managed to secure over £9 million in investment for a new media venture, which will include books, tours and TV shows.

    In a statement released on Instagram, the former Breitbart writer said that he had formed a new media company, called MILO inc, and said that the venture had attracted $12 million in investment. The funding has come from undisclosed investors.

    The new company will employ 30 people including a “seasoned media exec” who will lead the company from its Miami base.

    Speaking about the venture, Milo said,

    “This isn’t some vanity nameplate on a personal blog. This is a fully tooled-up talent factory and management company dedicated to the destruction of political correctness and the progressive left.

    “I will spend every waking moment of the rest of my life making the lives of journalists, professors, politicians, feminists, Black Lives Matter activists and other professional victims a living hell.

    “Free speech is back — and it is fabulous.”

    Earlier in the year, Milo was at the centre of a controversy when a video emerged of him allegedly talking about men having sex with underage boys. The following fallout saw the writer resigning from Breitbart and his book deal with Simon Schuster fell through.

    Speaking at the time he said,

    “I do not advocate for illegal behavior. I explicitly say on the tapes that I think the current age of consent is ‘about right’.”

    “I do not believe sex with 13-year-olds is okay. When I mentioned the number 13, I was talking about the age I lost my own virginity.

    “I shouldn’t have used the word “boy” — which gay men often do to describe young men of consenting age — instead of “young man.” That was an error.”

    A short while he stated that he thought, after a few months that the controversy would be a “distant memory”.

    Another publisher is reportedly ready to publish his book, Dangerous.

     

     

     

  • Tory MP quits after saying being gay was “dangerous” to society

    The Isle Of Wight’s MP, Andrew Turner, has quit it is alleged he told a Sixth Form class that he thought that being gay was wrong and “dangerous” for society.

    Embed from Getty Images

    MP Andrew Turner who has represented the Isle of Wight for 16 years has resigned after reports emerged that he said he thought it was “wrong” to be gay, and that he thought that it was “dangerous for society”. He allegedly made the comments to sixth form students at the Christ The King College in Newport.

    The outburst happened after Mr Turner was asked if he’d be involved with the annual Isle of Wight pride festival. Turner allegedly revealed that he had been invited but would not attend.

    A student at the Sixth Form, Esther Poucher wrote on on Facebook,

    “He told us that he’d been invited, but wasn’t intending to go. This is because (and this is a direct quote) he thinks that homosexuality is ‘wrong’ and ‘dangerous to society.

    “It’s terrifying that in this age and point in our development as a society, there are still people that can’t care enough about a person’s wellbeing to just accept who they are.

    “And the most terrifying thing is that we as an island consistently vote him in to represent us. Well f*ck that. HE DOES NOT REPRESENT ME.”

    She added,

    “If there is anything I can give to you from this, it is that we need change.

    “We can’t wait, and we can’t just nod politely and respect and opinion like that.

    “Yes, we all believe different things, and that’s wonderful. But when that belief treats a group as sub-human, and attempts to take away their fundamental rights, we can’t respect it.”

    The candidate was due to attend a meeting on Friday morning to re-select him to stand as the Tory candidate in the forthcoming election. The meeting was postponed. Shortly after it was announced that he was stepping down and his decision to do so had nothing to do with the allegations.

    The MP, according to TheyWorkForYou.com has almost consistently voted against gay and LGBT+ rights. In 2003 he voted to keep Section 28, in 2004 he voted no on Civil Partnerships and voted against same-sex marriage in 2013.

    The MP said it had been his “privilege to serve the people of the Isle of Wight” but said that it was time for a “new generation” to take the mantle and represent the constituents of the Isle Of Wight.