THEGAYUK

Category: News

  • LGBT+ Conservatives backtrack over c*nt Tweet

    The LGBT+ Conservatives have issued a statement on suggesting that MP David Davies was a c*nt.

    The LGBT+ Conservatives have backtracked on a message about the MP, David Davies, after he tweeted that “Somebody possessing a penis & pair of testicles is definitely not a woman”.

    In their initial response, the group Tweeted, “It’s clear that the T in his name stands for transphobe. It’s equally clear what the C stands for.”

    The MP hit back saying that the group were being misogynistic and that he would report them to the party’s chairman, Brandon Lewis.

    The LGBT+ Conservatives issued statement on Twitter saying that the first response was meant to be “light-hearted” and that it might have caused offence,

    “On reflection, yesterday’s tweet at which was meant to be light-hearted, may have inadvertently caused offence. This wasn’t our intention. We’ll continue to express disagreements with David on issues, but will hold ourselves to higher standards in future”.

  • Tory MP slammed for ‘transphobic’ message about trans women’s genitalia

    “Somebody possessing a penis & pair of testicles is definitely not a woman”

    David Davies, the MP for Monmouth has been slammed by trans advocates and his party’s own LGBT+ group for being a transphobe after he Tweeted a shocking message, which suggested that trans women who still have a penis and testicles are not women.

    Taking to Twitter he wrote,

    “Somebody possessing a penis & pair of testicles is definitely not a woman. This should be a biological fact not a matter for political debate. At least we can agree on something.”

    It wasn’t long before the party’s own LGBT+ group, LGBT+ Conservatives, commented, “David TC Davies’ transphobic views are abhorrent and out of kilter with Conservative Party policy.

    “It’s clear that the T in his name stands for transphobe. It’s equally clear what the C stands for.”

    The MP hit out at the group calling them a “disgrace” questioning whether the group was fit to stand for equality saying, “It is appalling that a Conservative group which purports to stand for equality is willing to allude to the word “c*nt” to describe MPs it doesn’t like. You are a disgrace.”

    LGBT+ voting record

    David Davies has, according to TheyWorkForYou.com, consistently voted against gay rights. During his time in office, he has voted five times against and been absent five times on LGBT+ equality laws. He also voted against same-sex marriage.

    Victim of abuse

    The MP went on to Tweet about the abuse that MPs face on social media.

    “Abuse on social media is par for the course as an MP – but it’s a sad day when it comes from a group based in the HQ of the party which I have actively supported for over 30 years.”

    He then called out the LGBT+ Conservatives for being misogynistic before suggesting that he would report the group for online abuse to the party Chairman, Brandon Lewis.

    Targetting the perpetrators of online abuse, cyberbullying and trolling have been in the sights of the Conservatives in recent years. Those found guilty of online maltreatment could face prosecution in England and Wales.

  • ‘Gay Tests’ for Refugees in Europe Should Be Banned: EU

    A top European court has rejected a decision to reject an African asylum seeker after he failed a test designed to prove whether he was gay. The Nigerian, whose name has not been disclosed, applied for refugee status in Hungary during the 2015 migrant crisis, when hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants made their way to Europe from the Middle East and Africa. (more…)

  • FBI now investigating Joel Taylor’s death and drug use on board cruise

    The death of TV star, Joel Taylor has sparked an FBI investigation.

    The 38-year-old TV star, Joel Taylor was found dead in his cabin onboard the cruise ship, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Harmony of the Seas. According to TMZ, Taylor became so “out of it” on the party drug GHB, that he fell unconscious on the ship’s dance floor. He was taken to his cabin to recover.

    When the ship was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico when his body was discovered. A spokesperson for the cruise confirmed that a body had been discovered.

    The FBI is now investigating his death and who supplied them and how they got onboard.

    TMZ reports that they’ve been told there was a huge amount of drugs onboard the ship, including cocaine, ecstasy and GHB.  The ship’s owners, Royal Caribbean, have a strict zero tolerance on illegal drugs.

    Source told TMZ that several people were arrested when the ship left Fort Lauderdale.

  • “Storm Chasers” TV star found dead on gay cruise

    Storm Chasers TV star, Joel Taylor has died at the age of 38.

    A 38-year-old TV star has been found dead in his cabin onboard the cruise ship, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Harmony of the Seas. The ship was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico when his body was discovered. A spokesperson for the cruise confirmed that a body had been discovered.

    An autopsy is underway to determine the cause of his death.

    Gossip site, TMZ has reported that a police official said the death “could be an overdose”. The spokesperson also said that Taylor was “consuming controlled substances”.

    According to some passengers onboard, recreational drugs were “plentiful”.

    Joel, who lived in Oklahoma, starred in Storm Chasers in 2008 on the Discovery Channel. The show ended in 2012

  • Man jailed for multiple, non-recent sexual offences on six boys

    A man has been jailed for 16 years for multiple sexual offences against boys in 1970s.

    Retired musician, Neil Duncan, 74 from Southend-On-Sea, was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment on Wednesday. Along with his prison sentence, Duncan will be made to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.

    He previously pleaded guilty, in December 2017 to 39 offences:

    One count of attempted buggery with a victim aged under 16;
    – Seven counts of buggery with a victim aged under 16;
    – One count of incitement to commit buggery;
    – 13 counts of indecency with a child under the age of 14 years;
    – 15 counts of indecent assault on a male under the age of 16 years; and,
    – Two counts of making indecent images.

    Detective Constable Amy Dobner, from the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences (CASO) Command, said, “Duncan is a prolific offender who spent the 1970s abusing young children. I am grateful that they have since come forward so that we could take the necessary action to bring him before the courts.

    “I would like to take this opportunity to praise their bravery and resolve, and hope that today will further help them move on with their lives, knowing that Duncan has been punished for his crimes.”

    Showing boys pornography

    Police were first contacted by one of Duncan’s victims in March 2016. Three other victims subsequently came forward towards the end of 2016 and early 2017. They all told officers that they had been assaulted by Duncan as young boys in the 1970s.

    Duncan would show the boys pornographic material before forcing them to perform sex acts.

    Officers quickly established that he had offended across west London and the Home Counties.

    Duncan was arrested on 4 August 2016. A number of computers were seized and found to contain indecent images.

    Officers also discovered several diaries that were kept by Duncan which corroborated the allegations.

    He was charged in mid-August 2017.

    Detective Chief Inspector John Foulkes of CASO said, “Given the number of victims and offences that Duncan has admitted to, it cannot be ruled out that there are other victims who have yet to contact police.

    “I would urge anyone who has been abused by Neil Duncan to come forward and speak to police where you will be supported by specially trained officers.”

    Anyone with information is asked to contact the Barnet Child Abuse and Sexual Offences team on 020 8733 5139.

  • An LGBT+ person killed every 19 hours in Brazil

    Nearly 450 LGBT+ people were killed in violence in Brazil in 2017.

    New research has suggested that nearly 450 LGBT people were killed at the hands of homophobes and transphobes in Brazil in 2017. Brazil also has the highest number of murders in the world. A record 62,000 murders were recorded in 2016.

    Grupo Gay De Bahia an LGBT+ watchdog, recorded a 30 percent increase from the 327 victims killed during 2016. The new figures equate to nearly one violent death every 19 hours. There were 387 murders and 58 suicides linked to homophobia.

    Last year being gay was ruled a disease in the country, when a court in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, ruled that homosexuality was a disease and that so-called “gay cure” therapy was legal.

    Despite the country hosting one of the world’ biggest LGBT+ prides, Brazil has the highest number of violent deaths linked to homophobia.

    This is despite same-sex marriage being legal in the country and Rio De Janeiro hosting one of the world’s largest LGBT+ pride events. The country also has discrimination protections for its LGBT+ community enshrined in law.

    Luiz Mott, president of Grupo Gay de Bahia told The Guardian that ultra-conservative politicians could have contributed towards the rise in homophobia in the country. He said, “It’s a discourse that destroys solidarity and equates LGBT people to animals,”

  • Is there now a K in LGBTQQICAPF2K+?

    Is there now a K in LGBTQQICAPF2K+?

    This is a new one for us…

    There is now a K to add to the ever-growing LGBT+ acronym – and apparently, it stands for “kink”. The acronym which has grown since the 90s, out of a need to move away from the limiting “gay community” adds letters to encompass any community that defines itself as anything but heterosexual or cisgender.

    The LGBT initialism was coined in the late 80s / early 90s.

    So what do all the letters mean?

    L – lesbian

    G – gay

    B – bisexual

    T – transgender

    Q – queer

    Q – questioning

    I – intersex

    A – asexual

    A – agender

    A – ally

    C – curious

    P – pansexual

    P – polysexual

    F – friends and family

    2 – two-spirit

    K – kink

    However, the addition of the K has been met with some reservation from many on the question website, Quora. Users were quick to dismiss Kink as part of the LGBT+ community.

    Sarah remarked, “Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t believe that fetishes belong in the same acronym as sexualities and gender identity”.

    While Caitlin added, “However, I and others believe that it shouldn’t be included in the acronym. Kink is not inherently non-cis or non-straight, and including it can feed into the stereotype of queer people being “sexual deviants”. BDSM is fine in a community of its own but it’s strange and unnecessary to include it with sexual orientations and gender identities”.

    John wrote, “I’m gay, and I do not and will not use this silly LGBTQLAPK sh*t. They keep adding a silly letter for inclusion. You are just labelling yourselves, and that is a silly thing to do.”

    *This article has been updated. We have become aware that this article has been used to undermine and denigrate the LGBT+ community.

    Although Kink can form a part of someone’s sexual identity, is not limited to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual or transgender (or gender non-conforming) experience.
     

  • Isn’t it time UK law considered gay sex equal to straight sex?

    For those who continue to call same-sex marriage “marriage equality,” you might be interested to know that the UK government doesn’t consider your sexual activity equal.

    So when same-sex marriage came into law, it didn’t automatically spell marriage equality – it’s one of the reasons why THEGAYUK.com doesn’t use the term.

    One of those things that stopped us from fully embracing the marriage equality slogan was that in UK law gay sex and straight sex are not equal.

    How do we know this? Well, straight couples can get divorced because of adultery. Gay couples cannot. Effectively treating same-sex sexual relations differently from heterosexual sexual relations.

    Adultery is defined by UK law “voluntary sexual relations between an individual who is married and someone who is not the individual’s spouse”, but it only counts if the person is of the opposite sex. A spouse cannot commit adultery if the person they are cheating with is the same sex.

    Grounds for divorce, in this case, would have to be petitioned under “unreasonable behaviour”.

    This is also true of civil partnerships. Speaking to THEGAYUK.com last year, Andrew Smith, Associate Solicitor for Blacks Solicitors’ Family Law team told us,

    “…the definition of adultery is sexual intercourse with someone of the opposite sex outside marriage. Instead, civil partners have to use ‘unfaithfulness’ as one of a number of examples of Unreasonable Behaviour.”

    “Where is the equality?”

    Jodene Murphy is petitioning the UK government for change. Writing on the petition Murphy explains, “When the UK Government welcomed same-sex marriage and updated the Marriage Act accordingly, they neglected to sufficiently update the divorce law. We are now living in a country where same-sex couples cannot divorce under the grounds of adultery. Where is the equality? Equal rights for all.”

    The petition needs to garner over 10,000 signatures in order for the government to answer. At 100,000 signatures, the petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.

  • Facebook’s new newsfeed algorithm could be a disaster for gay media

    The changes to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm could spell disaster for LGBT+ media.

    In case you hadn’t heard Facebook is planning to change its newsfeed to make sure the time you spend on its platform is more “meaningful”. Mark Zuckerberg suggested that he wanted users’ time on the site to be “time well spent”. Facebook wants to give you more family and friends and fewer page updates. The problem is that many smaller news publishers, such as LGBT+ media could find themselves unduly penalised by the new update.

    Many LGBT+ news sites rely heavily on traffic from social media sites like Facebook. A quick analysis of unverified traffic data from SimiliarWeb shows that PinkNews, GayTimes and Attitude had over 40 percent of their traffic driven by social media, including Facebook, in December, GayStarNews had 39 percent.

    Part of the update will also rely on a trust score from users, which Facebook will use to determine how often content from a particular publisher will show up in your timeline. For more established, huge brands such as the BBC, Guardian or CNN this could prove to be an advantageous policy. However, many LGBT+ news sites have been the target of hate trolls and could find their trust score unfairly compromised by homophobes and transphobes.

    If Facebook was to take these negative reviews into consideration, this new update could negatively impact LGBT+ media.

    Speaking out against the changes, PinkNews CEO, Benjamin Cohen asked, Facebook’s VP of news Adam Mosseri, “How will Facebook ensure that homophobes don’t label LGBTQ media as untrustworthy, anti-Semites label Jewish media as untrustworthy and at the same time trust the sources that spread hate?”

    Mosseri, wrote on Facebook, “We’re not looking to vet people. We are looking to make sure that our samples are as representative of the population as possible.”

    Scott Gatz, the founder of Q.Digital, which owns and operates Queerty, asked: “We’ve specifically had to deal with page followers who are anti-gay commenting/flagging posts/etc, we’ve even had to escalate to your management. Now I fear that this will be a quiet way for them to make us go away.”

    Mosseri added: “People can’t volunteer to weigh in on how trustworthy a page is, we pick a random sample of people to survey. Second, we only ask people who recognise a page if they trust it, so if you’re a small page we won’t have enough people and therefore this change won’t effect you.

    The changes will see the amount of news displayed in your newsfeed reduced from five percent to four percent.

  • Watch Meryl Streep talking about Katherine Graham in The Post

    Meryl Streep talks about the former Washington Post publisher Katherine “Kay” Graham for her film, The Post.

    Read our review