THEGAYUK

Category: News

  • Over 100,000 People Sign Petitions Calling For The Resignation Of Richard Littlejohn

    Over One Hundred Thousand People Call For The Sacking or Resignation Of The Daily Mail’s Richard Littlejohn, Over ‘He’s In The Wrong Body’ Article.

     Over 100,000 people have signed one of two e-petitions calling on the Daily Mail to fire one of its writers, Richard Littlejohn.
    The controversial writer was blasted by thousands of people after the Daily Mail published a piece, in December 2012, entitled “He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job”, about Lucy Meadows, a transgendered primary school teacher, who was found dead in her home last Tuesday.

    Creators of the SumOfUs petition said: “The vile article led to a witch hunt targeting Meadows. Newspapers offered to pay parents for a picture of her, and she complained of having to leave home by the back door and arrive early to school to avoid the packs of journalists.Sign our petition to the Daily Mail: sack Richard Littlejohn, issue an apology, and institute an editorial review to ensure that this never happens again.”

    The two online petitions are hosted by SumOfUs.org and Changes.org. They have received 91,619 and 18,886 signatures respectively.
    You can find the petitions here:
    http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-daily-mail-fire-richard-littlejohn-for-victimizing-lucy-meadows-leading-to-her-possible-suicide
    http://action.sumofus.org/a/daily-mail-littlejohn-lucy-meadows/1/1/?sub=homepage
    A vigil is due to take place outside the Daily Mail offices tomorrow on the 25th March 2013, in Memory of Miss Meadows.
    Details of the vigil:
    Monday 25th March at 6.30pm.
    Outside Daily Mail HQ,

    Northcliffe House,

    2 Derry Street,

    Kensington

    London

    W8 5TT
    Nearest Underground station: High Street Kensington (District and Circle)

    www.thetube.com

  • Scores Of Pro-Equality Turn Up To Anti-Gay Marriage Protest In London

    Scores Of Pro-Equality Turn Up To Anti-Gay Marriage Protest In London

    Hundreds of Pro-Gay Marriage Supporters Turn Out To Anti-gay Marriage Protest In London.

    La Manif Pour Tous in Londom
    CREDIT: TheGayUK

    The anti-gay marriage protest group, La Manif Pour Tous, which was granted permission to hold a rally in Trafalgar Square by the Mayor’s office, failed to attract large numbers this afternoon.

    The ‘static protest’ was launched at 2.00PM in central London, where scores of anti-gay marriage protesters were met with pro-equality supporters, who filled a large section of the crowd.

    Police on the ground estimated that there were around 1500 people in total, including those who were pro-equality. At times the pro-equality was so loud that their chants to “Shame On You” and “Go Home Bigots” drown-out the speakers for La Manif Pour Tous.

    There was no violence and the rally ended peacefully at 5.00PM.

    Damien Fournier Montgieux, the co-ordinator of the anti-gay marriage protest, explained: “Almost out of nowhere we are suddenly faced with a huge challenge to the future of marriage and the family in both France and the UK. There has been no warning or consultation with the people.”

    He and other protestors claimed that the future welfare of children will be put at risk from allowing same-sex couples to marry.

    Reports from Pinknews say that, pro marriage equality campaign, Out4Marriage said: “The scale of the counter protest shows that the public very much support equal marriage, regardless of what French and other protesters might try to make you believe.”

  • La Manif Pour Tous London Protest draws poor turn out

    La Manif Pour Tous London Protest draws poor turn out

    La Manif Pour Tous, the French anti same sex marriage and anti adoption for gay couples, organisation is taking its protests to the streets of other European cities including our very own Trafalgar Square.

    After the reported 340,000 protesters who turned up last month in Paris to march against same sex marriage, the French organisers have booked out Trafalgar Square for a UK protest, again expecting to bring in thousands of supporters.

    However it could be the great British weather or the fact that most UK citizens support same sex marriage, as the live web cam shows, it’s quite a poor turn out and not quite the scenes of Paris last month.

    The organisers state that they have 3 purposes to their demonstrations:

    La Manif Pour Tous in Londom
    CREDIT: TheGayUK

    – First, because defending children rights is not a French or an English matter, but a global matter- Secondly, because we share the same values around marriage and family; we need to be united

    – Finally, because it’s obviously a way to send a message to the UK government, even if the demonstation [sic] is initiated by the French.

  • Vigil Outside Daily Mail Offices Following Death Of Transgender Teacher Lucy Meadows

    In memory of Lucy Meadows: Vigil Against Monstering.

    Following the tragic death of popular primary school teacher Lucy Meadows last Tuesday, a ‘vigil against monstering’, in Lucy’s memory, has been planned to take place tomorrow evening, (25th March 2013) outside the Daily Mail offices in Kensington.

    Online anger has being growing after the emergence of an article written by Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn.

    The piece entitled: ‘He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job’ was first published on December 20th 2012. Littlejohn, who referred to Meadows as ‘he’ throughout, claimed her decision was due to ‘personal problems’ and inferred that by proceeding with gender reassignment surgery showed she didn’t care for the children she taught.
    The original article, which was removed after the announcement of Meadows’ death, can be read here:http://web.archive.org/web/20121221195332/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2251347/Nathan-Uptons-wrong-body–hes-wrong-job.html.
    It’s claimed that following Littlejohn’s column, Meadows, who was transitioning at the time, was routinely hounded by the press. In a New Year’s Day email to a friend, reported by the Guardian, Meadows complained that the media had published one of her wedding photos, and had lifted other photos from her siblings’ Facebook pages. She described the lengths she had taken to avoid being photographed. “I became pretty good at avoiding the press before Christmas. I live about a three-minute walk from school so they were parked outside my house as well as school. I’m just glad they didn’t realise I also have a back door. I was usually in school before the press arrived and stayed until latest I could avoid them going home.”

    Two online petitions calling for Littlejohn to be fired and issue a formal apology have received huge support over the weekend. The tally of signatures, combining the Change.org and Sum of Us petitions stands at almost 90,000 today.
    http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-daily-mail-fire-richard-littlejohn-for-victimizing-lucy-meadows-leading-to-her-possible-suicide

    http://action.sumofus.org/a/daily-mail-littlejohn-lucy-meadows/1/1/?sub=homepage

    The Daily Mail have vehemently defended Littlejohn. A spokesman said: “It is regrettable that this tragic death should now be the subject of an orchestrated Twitterstorm, fanned by individuals – including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell – with agendas to pursue.”
    Campbell had previously tweeted: “I hope journalists are doorstepping Dacre Murdoch and Littlejohn for their reaction to Lucy Meadows suicide. The Mail really is scum.”

    David Allen Green, legal advisor to Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight: “There is no public interest in the story whatsoever. The only part of the story which seems significant is that there is a gender reassignment, what used to be called a sex change.”

    “What makes it especially easy for tabloids is that transgendered people are very unlikely to fight back. They are usually members of the public and have no experience of dealing with media and all they want to do is to make it go away.

    “In a way, tabloids treat transgendered people the way they would treat anybody if they could get away with it.”

    “There is a sense that transgendered people are fair game for sensationalist reporting. These are people who are going through the most traumatic experiences you can imagine and they are suddenly humiliated by these stories in the tabloids.”

    We at TheGayUK stand strongly against any forms of discrimination. The T in LGBT needs to be supported as strongly the LGB. We must all stand together to change attitudes.

    Details of the vigil:
    Monday 25th March at 6.30pm.
    Outside Daily Mail HQ,

    Northcliffe House,

    2Derry Street,

    Kensington

    London

    W8 5TT
    Nearest Underground station: High Street Kensington (District and Circle)

    www.thetube.com

  • Christian B&B Owners Can Turn Away Gay Couples Legally

    Christian B&B owners who turned away gay customers, can now legally turn away homosexual couples.

    Peter and Hazelmary Bull were subject to an international media storm when they refused to let civilly partnered Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy share a room at their B&B, the Chymorvah Hotel, in Marazion in 2008, citing their religious beliefs as a reason for their decision.

    Mr Hall and Mr Preddy successfully sued the hotel owners for £3600 in 2011, in a landmark case which found that Mr. & Mrs. Bull had discriminated against the gay couple, on the grounds of sexual orientation under the Equalities Act.

    The hotel couple took their case to the Court of Appeal, where it was dismissed and are now waiting to have it heard in England’s highest court, the Supreme Court.

    The Independent now reports that the Chymorvah Hotel has been turned in to a respite care centre for Christians and will be run as a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation which means anyone staying under the Bull’s roof will have to abide by their rules, as long as those rules are set out in the company’s articles.

    Mrs Bull, 69, told the Daily Mail:

    “We are not fanatics. We have often been portrayed as being bigoted.

    “I am not homophobic. I have no problem with them – I have always thought of them as people and enjoy their company. It is just that we thought it would be wrong for here.

    “All we wanted was to be able to support marriage, to say no here.

    “This (the result of the trial) is the men’s human rights and they come into a collision with our human rights.”

    Mr Hall and Mr Preddy said:

    “The judge has confirmed what we already know – our civil partnership has the same status in law as a marriage between a man and a woman, and that, regardless of each person’s religious beliefs, no one is above the law.”

    Following the Hearing’s conclusion the Chymorvah found difficulties in attracting guests and was stripped of its Visit England status because of its policies and was not featured in many tourist guides.

    On the hotel’s website, customers are given a special note before booking a double bed which reads: ‘Here at Chymorvah we have few rules, but please note that as Christians we have a deep regard for marriage(being the union of one man to one woman for life to the exclusion of all others).
    Therefore, although we extend to all a warm welcome to our home, our double bedded accommodation is not available to unmarried couples. Thank you’

  • NEWS: Transgender Teacher Lucy Meadows Found Dead

    A transgender teacher who started the new year as Miss Meadows at her school, St. Mary Magdalen’s C or E Primary School in Accrington, has been found dead at her home.

    (more…)

  • There’s an app that shows you where gay bashings have taken place

    There’s an App for everything these days and now there’s one to highlight where a gay person has been beaten called, Bashing.

    After a series of what is commonly known as ‘queer bashing’ happened in 2011, the Belgium LGBT movement decided it was time to act.

    Described by the app developers as ‘for (the) gay community, supported by Outrage! and developed by FAMOUS’ the app is available for free, to download from the Google Android Market Place and the iTunes store and has already had over 1,000 downloads since it was launched last year.

    According to the app there are over 250 reports of ‘bashings’ in Brussels with 53 reports of abuse from the Grand-Place de Bruxelles Grote Market Van Brusselalone.

    The developers say, ‘One of the biggest issues with homophobia is that very little statistic information exists. With this app a user can easily and quickly indicate where he was assaulted and describe what just happened.’
    Download now from Google or Apple
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.famous.bashing&feature=also_installed#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwNCwiYmUuZmFtb3VzLmJhc2hpbmciXQhttps://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/bashing/id484868875?mt=8

  • Somalian Teen Allegedly Stoned To Death For Being Gay

    An eighteen year old gay man was allegedly stoned to death as a punishment for homosexual acts, a gay Muslim group as said, in a horrifying story that was originally published by Identity Kenya.

    According to Somali Gay Community, Mohamed Ali Basshi was buried in a hole up to his chest while rocks were hurled at him by members of Al Qaeda linked group Al Shabaab on Friday, March 15, in Barawe, about 50 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.

    The group have published these pictures via its Facebook group from the alleged stoning. (Warning Pictures are graphic.)

    The pictures could not be independently verified by identity Kenya for authenticity.

    The pictures come with the following statement: ‘Mohamed Ali Baashi ,18 years old gay boy, was buried in a hole up to his chest and then pelted with rocks by fighters from the rebel ALQAEDA Link group…

    ‘In a scene straight out of the Dark Ages, this Somali young man accused of Sodomy was stoned to death by Islamic thugs while horrified villagers were forced to watch.’

    A rebel judge announced that Baashi, along with an accused murderer, had confessed to their crimes but the murderer received a more lenient punishment. According to the judge, “the one that kill some’one [sic] will be shot because homosexuality is more punishable in Islam.”

    The African country of Somalia is one of over 76 countries where Homosexuality is illegal and is punishable by up to three years in prison.

  • Dad’s Acceptance Letter To Gay Son Is Beautiful

    After just two days on the internet, this father’s letter to his gay son, goes viral.

    (more…)

  • Men In Same-Sex Marriages Live Longer

    Men who are married to men live longer than those who are divorced or unmarried. In a brand new report that two researchers from Copenhagen have published their findings on why tying the knot might be the secret to a longer life.

    (more…)

  • La Manif Pour Tous Plans Demonstration In UKs Capital

    The French anti-same sex marriage organisers of La Manif Pour Tous (Demo For All) are allegedly planning a demonstration in London on the 24th March 2013.

    (more…)