THEGAYUK

Category: News

  • MSNBC suspends Alec Baldwin’s late night show

    MSNBC suspends Alec Baldwin’s late night show

    MSNBC has yanked Alec Baldwin’s show off the air for 2 weeks following an incident earlier in the week

    Yesterday GLAAD accused 30 Rock Actor, Alec Baldwin of ‘Degrading Gay People’ after video footage emerged which showed him using an F word. The actor insists the word he used was ‘Fathead’.

    In the video the 30 Rock actor is heard calling a photographer a ‘cksucker’ although a media storm has been created after it was suggested that Baldwin actually called a photographer a ‘Cksucking F*g head’. Baldwin is insisting that he said ‘Fathead’ and has threatened to sue TMZ for suggesting that he used a homophobic word.

    Baldwin said that acoustic analysis of the recording proves the word said was ‘fathead.’

    However MSNBC have pulled his new show Up Late With Alec Baldwin for 2 weeks, in a post on MSNBC.com the network shared a personal statement from Baldwin, in which he addresses the comments he made in the week.

    ‘I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have – and for that I am deeply sorry. Words are important. I understand that, and will choose mine with great care going forward. What I said and did this week, as I was trying to protect my family, was offensive and unacceptable. Behavior like this undermines hard-fought rights that I vigorously support. I understand “Up Late” will be taken off the schedule for tonight and next week.

    I want to apologize to my loyal fans and to my colleagues at msnbc – both for my actions and for distracting from their good work. Again, please accept my apology.’

    MSNBC has not given any reason to why it has suspended the show – nor has responded to requests for comment.

  • Apple’s and Oxford University Press dictionary defines gay as “foolish” and “stupid”

    Apple’s dictionary lists the word ‘gay’ to mean Foolish and Stupid in software found on its computer operating systems.

    The computer and Smartphone giant has landed itself in hot water after it was discovered that the word gay is described in its dictionary as Foolish and Stupid.

    The description was found after a 15 year-old student in Massachusetts in the US discovered the pejorative use of the word gay during an assignment for school. The student, Becca Gorman has started a campaign to ask Apple to remove the offensive definition reports the MetroWest Daily News.

    In a letter to the company, Becca Gorman, whose parents are lesbians, asked Apple’s CEO Tim Cook to remove the informal explanation.

    “I assume that you are a pro-gay company, and would never intend for any one of your products to be as offensive as this definition was.’ Gorman wrote.

    “Even with your addition of the word informal, this definition normalises the terrible derogatory twist that many people put on the word ‘gay’.”

    Within an hour a representative called Ms Gorman:

    “They told me it’s so hard to track the dictionaries they’re getting sources from, and that they were also shocked themselves.”

    Apparently, Apple sources its Dictionary’s from four different sources.

    Speaking to TheGayUK a spokesperson for the company said:

    “We license our content from the Oxford University Press, which is acknowledged in our preferences panel within the app.”

    In June this year a petition drew attention to an app available on Apple’s app store, Setting Captives Free, which offered users a ‘gay cure’. The app was removed from the app store within 24 hours after 50,000 people signed the petition.

    The Oxford University Press (OUP) Dictionary also defines the word gay as foolish, stupid, or unimpressive, however the OUP uses the caveat: ‘informal, often offensive’

    The British English Dictionary within the Dictionary App does not contain the Stupid or Foolish definition.

  • Christmas carol de gayed on “Fun” sweater

    One of the largest greeting card companies in the world, Hallmark, has landed itself in some mess after a photo of a Christmas jumper, with edited lyrics was discovered.

    Public outcry has ensued after people took to their Twitters and Facebooks to declare war on the company after it changed the lyrics of ‘Deck The Halls’ on a miniature jumper it plans to sell.

    Where the lyrics should have read ‘Don we now our gay apparel’ the red, yellow, green and blue sweater read, ‘Don we now our fun apparel’.

    Yahoo News reports that a statement released by the company said:

    ‘We’ve been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we’re sorry to have caused so much concern,

    ‘We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products and in hindsight, we realize we shouldn’t have changed the lyrics on the ornament.’

    Oooo er.

    Our issue isn’t so much the lyric change, but that it looks to be made of polyester. Shudder.

  • Can Twitter predict the X Factor 2013 winner?

    Last year we ran a piece where we predicted the winners of X Factor 2012 by the number of Twitter followers they had, we call it the T.W.A.T.S system.

    It’s not an exact science, but by using the number of Twitter fans each contestant had as a barometer (science word) of potential success we managed to get quite an actuate picture of who was going to win.

    So going via the same formula we predict that this is how the X Factor Finals 2013 might look:

    1st Sam Callahan 175,185
    2nd Nicholas McDonald 138, 629
    3rd Kingsland Road 119,352
    4th Tamera Foster 114,081
    5th Luke Friend 113, 314
    6th Rough Copy 107,509
    7th Sam Bailey 89,811
    8th Abi Alton 66,422
    9th Hannah Barrett 58,239
    10th Miss Dynamix 37,001
    11th Shelley Smith 30,023
    12th Lorna Simpson 9,592

    Now as we said earlier we’re not scientists, and this barely constitutes as news, but if we were Hannah or Abi, we’d be shaping up our act – or at least faking some Twitter numbers!

  • Union J’s Jaymi Hensley Will Challenge Twitter Homophobia

    Speaking in today’s Metro Union J boyband member Jaymi Hensley said he actively challenges homophobic language on social media.

    He may only be 23, but Union J boyband member certainly knows where he stands on dealing with homophobia in a move that puts many other gay celebrities to shame.

    Speaking to Metro, he said:

    ‘If someone calls me a derogatory name on Twitter, I challenge it. If I let people call me a ‘fag’, how am I helping fans feel empowered?

    ‘When I was younger, I used to be called ‘poof’ and ‘fag’ and it made me feel awful – it’s not nice to have abusive words used against you.

    ‘I’m now in a place where you can call me whatever, it doesn’t annoy me but I will stick up for people. Don’t let people give you s*** – that’s what I stand for. Don’t let people bully you.’

    We love you a little bit more Mr Hensley.

    Last week Jaymi said he and his partner Olly Marmon were planning to marry in 2015.

    Last year during the 2012 X Factor Live Shows THEGAYUK asked Twitter to comment on the homophobia that Rylan Clark was receiving, and asked what they were doing about the on-going anti-gay slurs that happening.

    A Spokesperson for Twitter said: ‘We can’t comment on individual accounts, however we have a clear policy on our site and a process for users who want to report abuse.’

    Last week alone the word ‘Faggot’ was used 237,907 times on Twitter, in a worrying upward trend as seen on Nohomophobes.com

  • Nottingham Pride Faces Closure After Racking Up Debts

    The charity that runs Nottingham Pride has announced plans to close the pride, unless a generous benefactor helps raise the cash needed to continue.

    The annual pride event which was created in 2003 has announced that it is to close its doors after failing to raise enough money to keep it going.

    The BBC report that the acting chairman Ben Holmes said that ‘the charity has been in financial trouble for the last three years but tried scaling down the event to save money.’

    ‘I have invested many years of my life into making sure the event happened and unfortunately it has come to a point where we have to look at where it is going in the future,’ said Mr Holmes.

    ‘We are losing sponsors and we lost an awful lot of money from companies that are no longer going. We are not generating enough funds.

    ‘We hope something can happen. The charity could be saved if money comes in but unfortunately that doesn’t look likely.’

    The Pride event which was in its 10th year costs £30,000 to host and they asked each visitor to donate just £1, however this year only one third of the estimated 14,000 attendees made a contribution.

    On a statement on their website Nottingham Pride said,

    ‘We have now had time to count the donations received from the community who attended Nottinghamshire Pride and can announce that we raised a total of £4279.86 on the day.

    ‘We would like to say thank to those who donated, but regret to inform that this is somewhat short of the £12,000 we needed to raise on the day.

    ‘This means that unless an anonymous benefactor would like to make up the difference, we will have no choice but to explore options for charging at next year’s event. This is not a move we as a committee want to make, but following feedback from the community last year, we made 2013 donation entry and haven’t raised enough – this has somewhat forced our hand.’

    The charity has amassed £17,000 worth of debt.

  • The 6 Weirdest Things You Looked For On TheGayUK Last Week

    We love searching through our analytical pages to see what you lovely lot are searching for on THEGAYUK, so here’s this week’s 6 weirdest things you searched for…

    Who is Rylan? Uk

    Well exactly dear… Who isssssss heeeeee? Oh no wait that’s Nikki Grahame’s line.

    How to give the taste of sperm to our gay boyfriend

    Wonderful English, but we get the picture – I think you’re looking for 10 ways to make your man mayo taste better… here you go!

    Gary Barlow naked

    dear god why…
    But perhaps you were looking for our 8 Naked Boyband photos?

    What is adversarial procedure?

    That has flummoxed us. Checking dictionary… Not sure why you ended up on a gay website dear… All things bright and fluffy here.

    Who is gay today

    Who me dear, gay dear, How very dare you.

    131 separate search items for Sam Callahan most of them involving nude, penis or ass…

    So if you wanna see Sam Callahan from X Factor naked click here.

    If you want read our exclusive interview with him click here.

    Wonder which link will be more popular.

  • Westboro gets vine

    Now if only these people spend their time doing their hair, makeup or generally keeping fit, the WBC would be a much nicer place to hang out for gays.

    We love a bit of Westboro shenanigans; we find their updates and interest in our sexuality most heartening. That’s why when we found that they had discovered Vine we just had to watch. And predictably, like a hideous car crash or Liza Minnelli on stage, it’s utterly captivating.

     

    https://vine.co/v/hwQM9ewrmeW

  • 1 In 10 Male Callers To Samaritans Are Worried About Their Sexuality

    Suicide is the number 1 killer of young men in the UK and gay, bisexual and questioning men are disproportionally effected, as the Samaritans releases worrying statistics that show 26% of calls from men, talk about issues surrounding their sexuality.

    More than one in ten calls for help to the Samaritans (10.9%) from men talked about issues surrounding their sexual orientation.This compares with only one in forty similar calls from women (2.4 percent) according to the latest snapshot survey of branches in the UK and ROI.

    Tragically there were 4639 male suicides in the UK last year, making it the single biggest killer of men under 35.

    A petition has been created on the HMGovernment.gov.uk website which calls on Jeremy Hunt MP the Secretary of State for Health, to further fund research on male suicide and to implement a ‘mechanism for those impacted by suicide’.

    You can read and sign the petition here.

    A survey by Stonewall in 2012 revealed that 3% of gay men and 5% of bisexual men had attempted to take their own life, compared to only 0.4% of men in general. In the 16- to 24-year-old age group, 6% of gay and bisexual men had attempted to take their own life compared to less than 1% of men in general.

    There are similar findings for self-harming. 7% of gay and bisexual men had deliberately harmed themselves compared to only 3% of men in general, and in the 16- to 24-year-old age group, 15% of gay and bisexual men had harmed themselves compared to 7% of men in general.

    Lucy Rolfe from the Lesbian and Gay Foundation based in Manchester said:

    “Around half of the people who’ve accessed The Lesbian & Gay Foundation’s counselling service have had at least one previous suicide attempt and many are experiencing current suicidal thoughts. It’s important we continue to provide these much needed services to the community”.

    If you’d like support Please call 08457 90 90 90 (UK) 1850 60 90 90 (ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org to find details of the nearest branch.

    Or phone the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard on 0330 330 0630

  • Teen to lose virginity for art class

    Student Clayton Pettet has decided to lose his virginity in front of an audience as part of an art project for his degree at Central Saint Martins Arts School in London.

    The student in his second year, is to lose his gay virginity in front of a crowd of around 50-100 in an undisclosed location in Hackney in January as part of his art degree, the Huffington Post has revealed.

    Speaking to the online newspaper, Pettet said,

    ‘I’ve held on to my virginity for 19 years, and I’m not throwing it away lightly. Basically, it’s like I am losing the stigma around virginity.

    ‘I want the audience to see if anything has changed between me and my partner.

    ‘Since culturally we do hold quite a lot of value to the idea of virginity I have decided to use mine and the loss of it to create a piece that I think will stimulate interesting debate and questions regarding the subject.’

     

    We’ve spoken to the art department here at THEGAYUK (a position that simply doesn’t exist) to ask their opinion on the artistic expression of this young man.

    They said,

    ‘Make sure the cheque clears before committing to any stunt…’

    The art student hasn’t yet told his parents, but it’s safe to assume they’ll have heard by now.

    What do you think? Do you call this art?

  • Gay activists picket former Prime Minster of Jamaica

    A Dozen Activists from Jamaica protested a speech by the country’s former Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, on Tuesday night in New York.

    The gay rights activists shouted ‘Bruce, you’re wanted! Unrepentant murder!’ and ‘Gay rights are human rights!’

    The protesters lined the pavement outside the Harlem Institution for over an hour and received comments from supportive and non-supportive bystanders.

    A statement from the National Anti-Discrimination Alliance (NADA) said that Golding is symbolic of Jamaica’s homophobic culture. He publicly announced his opposition to gays serving in his Cabinet on BBC Hard Talk in 2008 and has since made other homophobic statements.

    This year there have been a number of anti-gay crimes in Jamaica, including the brutal murders of 16-year-old Dwayne Jones and 41-year-old Dean Moriah. Dwayne was murdered in July this year; he was dressed as a woman. His gender identity and sexuality are unconfirmed at this time.

    In September, two men escaped a ‘mob’ of men, who became violent towards them, after a car accident in the small town of Old Harbour. The crowd assumed that the two were gay.

    Dwayne Brown, organiser of the demonstration and a gay Jamaican who fled to the USA because of death threats, said he would not go inside for Golding’s speech because he feared a violent response from the audience.

    The press release from NADA continued with:

    ‘The Jamaica Anti-Homophobia stand feels strongly that Bruce Golding must be held accountable for the human rights offenses he oversaw during his tenure, including the Tivoli Gardens Massacre and the perpetuation of anti-gay attacks.’

    Watch video from the protest here