THEGAYUK

Category: Front Page

  • NHS Will Cover The Cost Of PEP But Will It Stretch To PrEP

    NHS England have confirmed responsibility for funding post exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a treatment that can prevent HIV infection after the virus has entered a person’s body.

    (C) marcbruxel Depositphotos
    (C) marcbruxel Depositphotos

    However, the battle continues to see NHS England accept the same responsibility for funding PrEP – a game-changing treatment that is taken before exposure to HIV. Earlier this year NHS England shelved structured plans for PrEP availability on the NHS, but then last week said they “will carefully consider its position on commissioning PrEP”.

    Ian Green, Chief Executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, said:

    “We are pleased that NHS England has finally been clear on their responsibility for reimbursing local authorities for antiretroviral drugs used to prevent HIV infection after exposure to the virus.

    “What remains to be seen is whether they will accept the same responsibility for funding PrEP, a pill taken once a day by HIV negative people who are at high risk to prevent transmission.

    “Every day that access to PrEP is delayed, seven men who have sex with men are infected with HIV, despite advances in HIV prevention. We need answers from NHS England on if and when access to PrEP will be available to those who are at highest risk. Only then can NHS England make a full commitment to HIV prevention.”

  • Homophobia Is Still A Major Issue On Twitter

    Homophobia Is Still A Major Issue On Twitter

    Anti-gay or homophobic slurs are still a big issue on social media.

    Homophobic words like faggot, “no homo”, “so gay” and Dyke are used being used over 13,000 times a day or 541 insults an hour, on Twitter alone.

    Nohomophobes.com a website set up in September 2012 to log all uses of the words faggot, “no homo”, “so gay” and Dyke on Twitter in real-time, is reporting that those words have been used nearly 61,000,000 times in 3 and a half years.

    ALSO READ: Celebrity Big Brother’s Most Shocking Homophobic Moments.

    ALSO READ: Homophobic crimes up 20 per cent in London, year on year.

    The word faggot accounts for over half of all of the homophobic language that is Tweeted on Twitter.

    Although the trend has been downward since January 2014, alarmingly the use of the word faggot is used thousands of times a day on the social media platform.

    Since around June 2015, the levels at which the anti-gay slurs are tweeted have levelled out but still remain shockingly high.

    When the site was launched in September 2012, Dr. Kristopher Wells from NoHomophobes.com told us,

    “We no longer tolerate racist language, weʼre getting better at dealing with sexist language, but sadly we still see and hear homophobic and transphobic language in our society,

    “While this language might not always be meant to be hurtful, we must not forget that words like “faggot” contribute greatly to the continued alienation and isolation of sexual and gender (LGBTQ) people, especially our youth.”

  • Boyfriends Suffer Brutal “Homophobic” Attack Leaving One Of Them Fearing For His Sight

    Boyfriends Suffer Brutal “Homophobic” Attack Leaving One Of Them Fearing For His Sight

    A gay man in Brighton has opened up about a vicious assault to him and his boyfriend in Brighton, he says left him battered and fearing for the sight in his left side.

    (more…)

  • Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Video Suggests Gays Can Be Changed

    Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Video Suggests Gays Can Be Changed

    A video from the Jehovah’s Witnesses has suggested that gay people can be changed, by simply quoting bible verses and talking about the paradise that awaits them.

    UPDATED: 20:02PM

    CREDIT: Jehovah-s-Witnesses photo.ua
    CREDIT: Jehovah-s-Witnesses photo.ua

    The Jehovah’s Witnesses have released a video entitled: Lesson 22: One Man, One Woman, in which a school child is told that gay people can be made to change if you preach bible verses to them, along with telling them about the paradise that awaits them if they stop being gay.

    In the video, which looks like it’s been produced as an educational tool for children, a parent tells her daughter that, “people have their own ideas about what is right and what is wrong, but what matters is what Jehovah feels”, after she shares that a fellow classmate drew a picture of her family, with two mums.

    The mother goes on to say that,

    “He wants us to be happiest and that’s why he invented marriage the way he did.”

    The video then goes on to liken homosexuality to taking a forbidden item on to a plane – but in order to gain access to the plane (or paradise) we all have to follow Jehovah’s standards.

    The mother then goes on to suggest that people can change – which is why Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘spread his message’.

    The video which has been made available to download for free on the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ website, was produced by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc.

  • PETER WHITTLE | I Have Never Come Across Homophobia In UKIP

    PETER WHITTLE | I Have Never Come Across Homophobia In UKIP

    London’s only gay mayoral candidate has said that he has never come across homophobic in his party, UKIP.

    CREDIT: LondonLive

    Openly gay London mayoral candidate Peter Whittle has told London Live that he’s never heard homophobia in UKIP – despite Councillor David Silvester infamously suggesting that bad weather in the UK was being caused by gay marriage and candidate for cabinet Alan Craig calling LGBT activists the ‘Gaystapo’.

    London Live, the capital’s TV channel, interviewed, Peter Whittle last night for its new weeknight London Mayoral election show, London Votes. Daisy McAndrew, spoke to the UKIP candidate for Mayor of London who suggested he had never heard any homophobia in UKIP.

    Peter also thinks that there is nothing homophobic about his party, even when presented with the controversial remarks from UKIP south west candidate for cabinet, Alan Craig.

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    Alan Craig referred to LGBT activists as the ‘Gaystapo’ in a blog post published in 2011. He said,

    Their gay-rights storm troopers take no prisoners as they annex our wider culture, and hotel owners (here) and (here), registrars (here), magistrates (here), doctors (here), counsellors (here) and (here), foster parents (here), grandparents (here), adoption agencies (here) and traditional street preachers (here) and (here) find themselves crushed under the pink jack-boot.

    CREDIT: LondonLive

    When asked to comment on Mr. Craig’s comments, Mr. Whittle denied that there was homophobia in UKIP saying and said that Mr. Craig was ‘entitled to his own view’.

     “It tends to prove that in fact there is nothing homophobic about my party. I am the only gay candidate standing for mayor.”

    “Ok, I have shared a platform with this guy. I don’t necessarily agree with his remarks, I for example believe in gay marriage. I’m fine with gay marriage. There are people in my party who are not.

    “I am the Mayoral candidate, I’m number one on the list, I have never come across homophobia in UKIP. There are lots of gay people in UKIP, we have our own LGBT section in UKIP.”

    “The guy is entitled to his view.”

    “The party absolutely accepts what the law is now, it’s not even an issue anymore – the reason for that opposition, was never against civil partnerships, ever. They were worried that basically the EU – remember my party  is based on an opposition to the EU, would force churches or what have you through the European Court of Justice to hold ceremonies, it’s actually something more to do with Europe.”

    London Votes, weeknights at 6pm – Freeview 8, YouView 8, Sky 117 and Virgin 159

     

  • THE 60 SECOND FILM REVIEW | The Huntsman : Winter’s War

    THE 60 SECOND FILM REVIEW | The Huntsman : Winter’s War

    Two Hours of Chris Hemsworth wielding his very big chopper and chasing some very big men with it.

    CREDIT: Universal Pictures

    Nutshell / Hollywood pitch – Let’s make a prequel/sequel to the successful 2014 film where Snow White means Game Of Thrones. All other sequels go darker and moodier but here we go lighter and up the comedy and the action beats too boot. Evil Queen has even more evil Sister who has watched too much Frozen as like Elsa she can control snow and ice but here without bursting into ‘Let It Go’ at regular intervals. Chris Hemsworth has to save the day in the land where love has been banned yet he can’t help feeling the need to breed so he sets off on adventures to avenge a death…  It has a decent midway twist and Charlize Theron hamming it up superbly in two important sections in the secondary villain roll and you won’t be able to take your eyes off her when she is on screen.

    Time – 114 mins of swashbuckling action with slow parts.

    Certificate – 12A so the fights are very user friendly.

    Tagline – None – Preferring to go with “From The Makers of Maleficent” and ” From The Makers Of Alice In Wonderland”.

    THE GAY UK FACTOR – A full length feature in the company of the ultimate muscled man of the countryside Chris Hemsworth The Huntsman himself who can hunt us anytime – You can virtually smell his pits and testosterone through the screen this is one serious big Alpha male guy, unfortunately with one of the worst haircuts in movie history this time out. On the upside he does briefly decide to get into the bath naked which stills have already flooded across the internet on every gay blog and wank site.

    Cast – The Aussie Hunk Thor Chris Hemsworth and the South African beauty and Oscar winner for Monster Charlize Theron. Another Oscar worrying actress from The Help and Zero Dark Thirty Jessica Chastain plays the love interest and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) round out the very heavy girlie cast which may be the reason for it’s average Box Office success. The supporting cast is Nick Frost (Shaun Of The Dead), Sheridan Smith from the superb TV Drama Cilla and Rob Brydon from BBC’s Would I Lie To You?, Gavin and Stacey and even Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

    Key Player – Mirror mirror on the wall who is… you know the drill. Charlize Theron does not have a huge screen time here but like the first film she dominates and steals it from everyone else and she seems to be having such fun maybe she should do a lot more villainess roles. We could all do with her evil mirror if it makes us this attractive.

    Budget – A not cheap $115 million. It hasn’t opened in the States yet but only garnering $44 million Internationally it maybe the first flop of the Summer blockbuster season. The previous film in the series made $396 million let’s put it simply, this one won’t. 

    Best Bit – 1.02 mins; The central fight scene in the woods and over a rope bridge with some very nasty creatures is the high point here. It is tense, well directed and the monsters are very good indeed and pretty unstoppable.

    Worst Bit – 1.18 mins; The big spectacular action sequence where Hemsworth has to climb a mountain and assail the villains castle roof tops should be a thrilling stunt fest with hands over your eyes moments and fingernails dug into your armrest’s but it just isn’t – Diehard With A Vengeance this is not.

    Little Secret – Charlize Theron was reportedly offered a lot less money to reprise her role in this film than Chris Hemsworth and she refused to sign on. Later the producers agreed that she was a big star and an International draw in her own right and raised her money up to $10 million for the movie exactly the same as what Chris got.

    Movie Mistake – Normally we would point out the bloopers and continuation errors but there is something bigger here. He is great to look at but Hemsworth’s accent here hits like a badly cast BBC 70’s comedy. When they move North the characters go all Scottish and when they go West they go Welsh – no problem for Rob Brydon but his three side kicks come over more like Bonnie Tyler, Charlotte Church and Gareth Thomas with bad head colds.

    Awards – Charlize and Jessica are massive award magnets but Chris is pure action man who will never get any gongs. The last film won nothing and nor will this except some Golden Rasberries for those accents.

    Further Viewing – Game Of Thrones, Snow White & The Huntsman, Maleficent, Alice In Wonderland and all Disney’s revamped darker versions of former cartoon fairytales, Thor, The Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit trilogies and a million fantasy sword and dragon movies.

    Any Good – Well you will certainly get your monies worth as a lot of that hundred mill is up there on the screen. It’s a decent Friday night out which won’t change your life. We just wonder if more Theron and some other male leads would have helped somewhat.

    Rating – 76/100 (76th out of the last 100 films reviewed with 1 being Gay UK filmatic ejaculatery heaven and 100 being as much fun as a long haul International flight next to a screaming baby whilst you are trying to concentrate on Thor The dark world.

  • Ben Mitchell’s Gay Lover Quits EastEnders

    As Johnny Carter comes back to the soap Paul Coker is about to leave Walford Square.

    CREDIT: (C) BBC - Photographer: Nicky Johnston
    CREDIT: (C) BBC – Photographer: Nicky Johnston

    EastEnders it seems has a one in and one out policy for gay characters as Johnny Carter makes a return to the square and Paul Coker, Ben Mitchell’s gay love interest is set to leave.

    The star who plays Paul, Jonny Labey took to twitter to announce his departure saying,

    “WOW Thank you for your support but there’s still SO MUCH to happen for Paul so don’t lose hope, this is JUST THE START.”

     

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    (C) BBC – Photographer: Jack Barnes

     

    Last year Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker caused controversy with some viewers after the pair had a raunchy gay sex scene in a funeral parlour. The scene prompted numerous complaints to OFCOM.

    SPOILER ALERT

    Ben Mitchell And Paul Coker kiss
    CREDIT: (C) BBC Kieron McCarron

     

    Ben, who is the son of hard man Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) has been trying to keep his love affair under wraps from the rest of the square. However all is revealed next week when the pair share a full on smooch in the Queen Vic.

    The kiss, it seems, is too much for alcoholic Phil, who storms out of the pub in disgust.

    Speaking about the actor’s impending departure a spokesperson for the soap said,

     ‘We can confirm Jonny will be leaving the show later this year. We wish him all the best for the future.’

     

  • The Hottest Musical You’ll See This Spring

    The Hottest Musical You’ll See This Spring

    Now we don’t usually run much theatre preview content here at THEGAYUK, but when this little promo hit our desks we only thought of you…

    Devilish photo 1

    Dear Reader… Just feast your eyes on this promo for a brand new show called Devilish. It’s a new British musical with music by BB Cooper, and book and lyrics by Chris Burgess starring Alex Green (the guy in the photo) as Angel.

    Once Angel has savoured the delights of Clapham North, London, he decides he wants to become a human. And thus starts his odyssey through a metropolitan mire of corruption.

    Cute and innocent, he is lured into appearing on a ‘Freak Idol’ TV show and is lusted after by fans everywhere. 

    We can’t imagine why <insert horny devil face>

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    It was inspired by John Ruskin’s comment that an angel appearing on earth would be shot on sight. H.G Wells wrote a novel called ‘The Wonderful Visit’ based on this observation, but now a new team of writers offer their musical take on this premise.

    ALSO READ: Patrick Stewart dragged up and it’s slightly amazing…

    ALSO READ: David Gandy’s Instagram is giving us some serious feels.

     

    The show begins on May 10th at the Landor Theatre

  • NHS Will Now Reconsider PrEP After Legal Threat From AIDs Charity

    The NHS in England has said it will now reconsider its position on PrEP prescription for gay men and other high risk groups after a legal threat from leading AIDs charity, the National AIDS Trust (NAT).

    (more…)

  • Homophobic Crimes Up Nearly 20 Per Cent In London

    Homophobic Crimes Up Nearly 20 Per Cent In London

    Statistics from the Metropolitan Police show that homophobic crime has soared nearly 20 per cent in one year.

    CREDIT: ©-ronfromyork-Depositphotos
    CREDIT: ©-ronfromyork-Depositphotos

    Homophobic or anti-LGBT crimes in London have risen nearly 20 per cent from March 2015 to March 2016 a report out from the Metropolitan Police shows today.

    In total 1861 crimes were reported in London 2015 to 2016 compared with 1559 the year before.

    The rise accounts for a 19.4 per cent increase.

    Whilst some boroughs have managed to decrease the number of homophobic crimes by up to 20 per cent like Merton, some boroughs like Haringey have seen a 259 per cent rise in anti-LGBT crime.

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    The Met believes these increases are down to a range of factors, including improvements in crime recording, willingness of victims to report hate crime, world events, improved awareness of Met staff to identify these offences and support provided by more than 900 specialist hate crime investigators and our work with partners to support victims. 

    Assistant Commissioner Helen King, Territorial Policing said,

     “London is a major, much visited, vibrant and growing capital city with diverse policing needs and is one of the safest global cities in the world. It is for this reason that people from other countries invest millions of pounds in London. There are not many capital cities in the world with such low rates of serious crime, such as murder and gun crime. 

    “The Met is continuing to work with partners, businesses and the public to reduce the number of offences taking place. Our officers have spent the last year conducting both pro active operations and preventative work in order to reduce crime, better support victims and build more engagement with communities. 

    “We will continue to keep up our intensified focus on areas such as violence where we have seen a rise in recorded offences. We must not lose sight of the reductions we have achieved over the last five years.” 

  • Gay Flight Attendants Worried About Facing Death Penalty In Iran

    Gay Flight Attendants Worried About Facing Death Penalty In Iran

    Gay Air France flight attendants are concerned over flying into Iran after the airline reinstated flights to the country.

    CREDIT: AirFrance
    CREDIT: AirFrance

    Air France is due to recommence flights to Tehran in Iran which has left many of its gay flight attendants fearing for their lives and what might happen to them after landing.

    A petition has been created by a concerned employee of France’s largest airline who called for the airline to re-look at its ethics.

    The petition has reached over 13,000 signatures.

    Mr. Laurent who created the petition called upon Air France/KLM to reconsider its ethical stance on sending gay flight attendants to Iran

    “It is time again to show that Air France believes in ethics, not only for his public image. [But to] grant gay crew the right to refuse to go to a country where they could be killed for who they are.”

     

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    Homosexuality is illegal in Iran and those found guilty can face 74 lashes or the death penalty.

    In 2008 Air France suspended flights to Iran. The airline is resuming the service after international sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme were lifted.

    Speaking about Air France’s decision to resume flights to Iran,  Mr. Laurent commented,

    “If the economic decision to open flights to Tehran is understandable, the moral issue is different. Human Rights in this country are almost non-existent.”

    Air France has already said it will allow female flight attendants the right to refuse travel to Iran. The petition is asking the company to consider the same option for those who identify as openly gay.

     

    ALSO READ: Where In The World Is Homosexuality Punishable By The Death Penalty

     

    Mr Laurent continued,

    “Fortunately, the unions intervened, the feminist cause is often seen, the media seized the debate, the hostess got (which would have seemed logical from the start) the right to refuse travel.”

    TheGayUK reached out to Air France for comment, the airline has yet to comment on the petition or answer questions about the safety of LGBT staff members.