THEGAYUK

Category: News

  • MILO YIANNOPOULOS “In a few months this will all be a distant memory”

    Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has told fans that he’ll be back and that in a few months the controversy surrounding child-sex comments he made, will be a “distant memory”.

    Milo Yiannopoulos

    Promising details of a new book deal, a “new media venture” and a new tour, Milo Yiannopoulos has told his fans that his comments on paedophilia will be a “distant memory” in the months to come.

    The embattled right-wing journalist and commentator resigned from his position at the Breitbart news outlet yesterday and had his forthcoming book with Simon and Schuster dropped following on from comments he made about underage sex during a number of interviews.

    There was outrage online after Milo talked about sex between “younger boys” and older men, which he made during an online live stream interview. The interview was edited and distributed on Twitter and YouTube.

    Milo responded that he used a “poor choice of words” and that he did not support child abuse, before pointing out that he was himself a victim of abuse.

    Yesterday, Milo told his fans that he has a new publisher in line to publish the book, which was dropped by a Simon and Schuster imprint, although did not go into details about who the new publisher was.

    Taking to Instagram Milo wrote,

    “This week, for political gain, the media and the Republican establishment accused a child abuse victim of enabling child abuse. It’s sick. But they have not killed me. They have only made me stronger.

    “Thank you for the support. You guys have kept me sane. In a few months, this will be a distant memory. I’ll be back with details of my new publisher, my new media venture and my new tour”.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BQyr6fFgDkK/?taken-by=milo.yiannopoulos&hl=en

  • “Reckless” Trump reverses Trans bathroom protections

    “Reckless” Trump reverses Trans bathroom protections

    Trump’s administration has reversed Obama’s bathroom guidelines which protected the rights of trans students.

    CREDIT: andykatz / bigstock

    The rights of trans Americans have been officially curtailed after President Donald Trump‘s administration rescinded the guidelines about trans people’s bathroom rights, which were put forward by Obama during his second term.

    The guidelines allowed for trans students to use bathrooms and changing rooms which match their current gender identity rather than the biological sex written on their birth certificates.

    The White House stated that the previous guidelines did not “contain extensive legal analysis or explain how the position is consistent with the express language of Title IX, nor did they undergo any formal public process.”

    Schools and the Supreme Court were told by letter on Wednesday that the guidance was changing.

    Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary said that Donald Trump was “a firm believer in states’ rights and that certain issues like this are not best dealt with on the federal level.”

    ALSO READ:

     

    A spokesperson for the Campaign for Southern Equality condemned the action saying that “no child should be denied access to basic facilities or subjected to discriminatory treatment” and called the current Trump administration “reckless”

    Despite the rollback, the letter will have no effect as the guidelines were blocked by the federal court after they were issued.

    Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality said,

    “The reality is that the protections of Title IX are still in effect for transgender students. We will fight every day to ensure that these protections remain in place”.

  • Nearly one third of Brits think that being gay is a choice

    Nearly one third of Brits think that being gay is a choice

    Staggering findings from a YouGov survey has found that nearly one-third of Britons think that being gay is a choice.

    CREDIT: Oneinchpunch-bigstock

    A survey has found that 31 per cent of British people think that being gay is a choice and not a naturally occurring phenomenon. YouGov who conducted the poll found that nearly half of people questioned (49%) thought gay people were born that way.

    Overall, three per cent of those questioned thought that someone’s sexuality was the result of a person’s upbringing.

    Men were more likely to think that homosexuality was a choice with 32 per cent believing homosexuality was a choice. A slim majority (54 per cent) of women believed that it was the way people were born. Those who are 18 to 24 were more likely to think it was how people were born.

    ALSO READ:

    When the stats were broken down into political persuasions, 41 per cent those of who voted UKIP thought that being gay was a choice while 39 per cent thought that it was naturally occurring. Those who vote Labour and Liberal Democrat were more likely to believe that it was the way that people were born, but still, a quarter believing that it is a choice.

    Data journalist Matthew Smith from YouGov said,

    “The survey finds that those who voted Labour or Lib Dem in 2015 are the most likely to say people are born gay (both 58%), and the least likely to believe it is a choice (25% and 26% respectively). Conservative voters are much less likely to believe people are born gay (43%), but are still more likely to do so than think people choose to be gay (35%).”

  • Marine Le Pen pledges to end gay marriage

    Marine Le Pen pledges to end gay marriage

    France’s far-right presidential hopeful, Marine Le Pen says she’ll end gay marriage in a quiet pledge buried pages deep into Manifesto.

    Marine Le Pen
    Foto-AG Gymnasium Melle [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
    Marine Le Pen has pledged that she’ll end same-sex marriage retroactively should she become France’s next president. The far-right politician, who heads the National Front is proposing to revert the law back to the 2013 system which only extended civil partnership to gay couples.

    She writes,

    Créer une union civile (PACS amélioré) qui viendra remplacer les dispositions de la loi Taubira, sans e et rétroactif.

    Translation: To create a civil union (PACS ameliore) which will replace the provisions of the Taubira law without retroactive effect (thanks to @Hamfan4)

    The pledge was buried deep within her manifesto at number 87. There were 144 pledges.

    It seems she is proposing a change to the law that would not affect same-sex couple who are already married, but would be retroactive, meaning that there would be no new marriage licenses issued for gay couples. They would be offered civil partnerships instead according to legal experts.

    READ MORE:

     

    France was the 14th nation to legalised same-sex marriage in 2013. In the vote, 331 members of parliament voted in favour while 225 voted against it. Following the law changed hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Paris against the new law.

  • Activists take over London’s landmarks to reclaim LGBT+ history

    Activists take over London’s landmarks to reclaim LGBT+ history

    A number of LGBT+ activists have taken to the streets of London to reclaim LGBT history.

    Sexual Avengers
    CREDIT: Sexual Avengers

    Activists from the campaign group Sexual Avengers have taken to the streets of London to mark various landmarks with special blue plaques to “reclaim radical” LGBT+ history.

    The Sexual Avengers have taken over often ignored sites of LGBT history including, The House Of Lords, The Admiral Duncan and the home of Black Pride.

    Security guards at the House of Lords were “baffled” as four lesbians scaled the outside wall to affix a specially designed blue plaque with the words “Queer Heritage” emblazoned on it. The move mirror the actions of four lesbians who climbed the building in 1988 during the Section 28 debate.

    Sexual Avengers
    CREDIT: Sexual Avengers
    Sexual Avengers
    CREDIT: Sexual Avengers

    Speaking about the stunt, Sexual Avenger Lucy Warin said,

    “For us, the personal is political. I’ve grown up queer in a straight world that tells me I’m allowed to be gay, but not ‘too gay’.

    “As a community we don’t get to celebrate our personal history much – straight people can’t identify the place they ‘come out’, they didn’t lose their virginity ‘in the closet’ and they probably can’t name one of the multiple places on public transport where I’ve lowered my voice or degendered my partner when telling a friend about a relationship.

    “There should be no shame attached to these sites. We have to uncover our history to celebrate and learn from it.”

    Sexual Avengers
    CREDIT: Sexual Avengers

    Sexual Avenger Ariana Jordão, 33, attached the plaque to the House of Lords.

    She said,

    “We did this to celebrate collective acts of queer resistance. The House of Lords represents the powerful who ignore the interests of the few, so this is about visibility, creating something that’s impossible to ignore – a rupture in the impenetrable powerhouse. It felt awesome standing on the shoulders of giants, and of my friends.” Ariana is a biologist, artist and gardener.

    Sexual Avenger Dan Glass said,

    “Radical queer history is full of hope, full of hard fought campaigns by committed groups and individuals that have won us the rights we now enjoy today. London is unique as a ‘gay friendly’ city with no permanent LGBTQIA+ museum or cultural space: comparable cities such as Berlin, San Francisco or New York all have such a space. We demand a queer cultural space to understand where we’ve come from, and how far we still have to go to achieve equality, especially for the most vulnerable members of our community.”

    The activists plan to target a number of spaces in London, including:

    The House of Lords, where four lesbian activists abseiled into a debate to protest queerphobic Section 28 legislation, 2 February 1988

    The Admiral Duncan gay pub, where three people were killed and 70 injured by a Neo-Nazi nail bomber, 30 April 1999

    Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the current site of the UK’s only pride event organised by and run for people of colour, 2005 to present

    and a number of LGBT clubs that have closed in recent years.

    The Hoist, 1995 to 2016
    The Black Cap, 1965 to 2015
    The George & Dragon, 2002 to 2015
    Barcode, 1996 to 2015
    The Joiner’s Arms, 1997 to 2015
    Candy Bar, 1996 to 2014
    First Out Café, 1986 to 2011
    London Astoria, 1976 to 2009
    Ghetto, 2001 to 2008

  • Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from right-wing news site Breitbart

    Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from right-wing news site Breitbart

    Right-wing commentator, Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from his editor job at Breitbart following the fall out from child abuse comments.

    Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from his editor job at Breitbart, just hours after book publisher, Simon and Schuster announced that they were cancelling his book, Dangerous.

    In a statement to the press, Milo said,

    “I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone.

    “To repeat: I do not support child abuse,

    “I am sorry to other abuse victims who may have interpreted my statements as flippant.”

    There was outrage online after Milo talked about sex between “younger boys” and older men, which he made during an online live stream interview. The interview was edited and distributed on Twitter and YouTube.

    According to The Guardian Milo said the age of consent was “not this black and white thing” and that relationships “between younger boys and older men … can be hugely positive experiences”.

    In another video, which is available to see on YouTube, Milo said that at the age of 14 he was the predator and “aggressively seeking out sexual company of adults” to have “power” over them.

    Milo took to his Facebook to say he was disgusted by the video and that he was a “child abuse victim” and that he is “horrified by paedophilia”. He made the claim that videos of him were edited “deceptively”.

    In a statement Breitbart said that Milo had provided much needed debate on topics surrounding the LGBT+ community. They said,

    “Milo Yiannopoulos’s bold voice has sparked much-needed debate on important cultural topics confronting universities, the LGBTQ community, the press, and the tech industry.

    “Milo notified us this morning of his decision to resign as editor of Breitbart Tech and we accepted his resignation.”

     

  • People love the way Caroline Lucas just dealt with Katie Hopkins

    People love the way Caroline Lucas just dealt with Katie Hopkins

    It’s probably fair to say that there’s no love lost between MP Caroline Lucas and Katie Hopkins.

    Caroline Lucas took a swipe at Katie Hopkins that even Mariah Carey would be proud of.  Taking to Twitter, Caroline swiftly put Katie in her place after a Tweet which insinuated that Caroline only wanted to deny President Donald Trump entry from the UK because, “he’s straight and likes cheeseburgers”.

    Katie told her Twitter followers that Caroline spoke for “vegan lesbians of Brighton” during a Common’s debate yesterday on whether an invitation to President Donald Trump to visit the UK should go ahead.

    https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/833781795934048259

    Caroline was quick to correct Katie by saying,

    “Lesbians. Vegans. Bi people. Gay people. Trans people. People of colour + everyone else! It’s Modern Britain @KTHopkins, get over it.”

    Katie couldn’t resist reiterating,

    “You wanted to deny Trump a state visit because he is straight and likes cheeseburgers? Get a grip”

    https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/834070798205874177

    Caroline, who the MP for Brighton, simply answered,

    “U OK hun?”

    Which people of Twitter basically loved… They responded like this:

    https://twitter.com/GreenBenali/status/834084585336078337

    https://twitter.com/N_Distractions/status/834081910230020096

    https://twitter.com/mac_shivers/status/834092218394738688

    https://twitter.com/JoeW_P/status/834092379888037888

    https://twitter.com/BoyAndPen/status/834082353773436930

    https://twitter.com/RowsieBell/status/834079864340742144

     

     

     

  • UK court rules that heterosexual couples still cannot get civilly partnered

    A blow has been struck to heterosexual couples who wish to get civilly partnered rather than married after a UK court dismisses a challenge.

    The Court of Appeal has dismissed a case which would have allowed opposite-sex couples the option to get a civil partnership instead of getting married. As it stands only same-sex couples are able to get a civil partnership.

    Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan wanted for the law to recognise their six-year relationship via a civil partnership, however, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 states that only same-sex couples are eligible. They have been campaigning to allow heterosexual couples’ rights for civil partnership for three years.

    The couple challenged a High Court ruling in November and have not ruled out take their case to the Supreme court to overturn the decision.

    Three judges who heard their case, Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Briggs and Lord Justice Beatson agreed that the discrimination against opposite-sex couples could not continue and that the Government should be given more time to consider the issue.

    ALSO READ:

     

    They argued that the Court’s decision was discriminatory and at odds with the law.

    Speaking outside the court, Rebecca Steinfeld said,

    “We are deeply disappointed by the ruling and very sorry not be able to share good news but there’s so much in the decision that gives us reason to be positive and keep going.”

    Peter Tatchell, who has campaigned on this issue said,

    “I’m hugely disappointed with the ruling since the judges agreed with 90% if Charles and Rebecca’s case,”

    “They accepted the points if law but believed the government should have extra time. Millions of different sex couples will feel that their rights have not been upheld by the court.

  • Commonwealth country, Tanzania is to publish “list of gay people”

    Commonwealth country, Tanzania is to publish “list of gay people”

    In its continued crackdown on gay people, the Tanzania government has said it could publish a “list of gay people”.

    gay rainbow,
    CREDIT: ©-nito103-Depositphotos

    Homosexuality is illegal in the African country with offenders facing up to 30 years in prison and this new policy is aimed at people who promote same-sex sexual activity online. Tanzania’s deputy health minister Hamisi Kigwangalla said the country had boundaries when it came to sexuality and told critics of the proposed plans to “respect our culture” and called homosexuality “unnatural”.

    ALSO READ:

     

     

  • Simon and Schuster cancel Milo’s book

    Book publisher Simon and Schuster have dropped Milo Yiannopoulos forthcoming book, Dangerous after a huge online protest.

    Milo Yiannopoulos

    Taking to his Facebook account yesterday, controversial right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos confirmed that the publisher of his book, an imprint of Simon And Schuster, has dropped it. It reportedly paid him $250,000 for the rights to his book.

    The decision was made after comments over child abuse caused outrage online.

    A statement from the publisher said, “After careful consideration, Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos.”

    ALSO READ:

     

    The book was due to be released in June after been pushed back from a March drop date and had topped the Amazon book chart after its release was announced.

    There was outrage online after Milo seemingly endorsed sex between “younger boys” and older men, which he made during an online live stream interview. The interview was edited and distributed on Twitter and YouTube.

    According to The Guardian Milo said the age of consent was “not this black and white thing” and that relationships “between younger boys and older men … can be hugely positive experiences”.

    In another video, which is available to see on YouTube, Milo said that at the age of 14 he was the predator and “aggressively seeking out sexual company of adults” to have “power” over them.

    Milo took to his Facebook to say he was disgusted by the video and that he was a “child abuse victim” and that he is “horrified by paedophilia”. He made the claim that videos of him were edited “deceptively”.

    He wrote,

    “I’m partly to blame.

    “My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous.

    “But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, “advocacy.” I deeply regret that. People deal with things from their past in different ways.”

    He told his fans that he was “implacably opposed” to the normalisation of paedophilia and would continue to speak out against it.

     

     

  • Jeremy Hunt is being urged to save HIV charity from closure after theatening funding cuts

    Jeremy Hunt is being urged to save HIV charity from closure after theatening funding cuts

    The Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt is being urged to take action after an HIV charity in England signalled it could close due to crippling funding cuts.

    Sussex Beacon
    CREDIT: Sussex Beacon

    HIV charity, Sussex Beacon says it could be forced close by June due to funding cuts from the NHS. The charity which was formed in 1992 faces a “very real risk” of being shuttered after its core funding was reduced by the NHS. The charity currently costs £2 million a year to run. Trustees from the charity say they cannot continue to absorb these cuts.

    The charity, which is based in Brighton, serves around 500 people per year who are living with HIV and AIDS related illnesses. It has already announced it is to close its psychological services due to lack of funding.

    ALSO READ:

     

    A petition has been launched urging Jeremy Hunt to save the charity. Since it went live over 10,000 people have signed it.

    The closure of the vital service has been called devastating by Brighton’s MP, Caroline Lucas who called on the government to make an “urgent intervention” to stop the charity from closing.

    Caroline Lucas said,

    “The closure of the Sussex Beacon would be devastating for service users, staff and volunteers. The importance of the work being done by this vital service for people with HIV cannot be overstated – and I have written to the government asking for an urgent intervention to prevent any closure. I know that those involved with the Sussex Beacon will not let this service be slashed without a fight, and I’ll be continuing to be closely in touch with them and standing with them every step of the way.”

    In 2016 the LGBT+ mental health charity PACE was forced to close after funding cuts were made to local authority budgets. It had been in operation for 31 years before its closure.

    THEGAYUK.com reached out to Jeremy Hunt’s office for comment.