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  • INTERVIEW | The Overtones – We don’t all live together!

    The Overtones are genuinely pop’s sweethearts. Easy going, easy on the eye and easy on the ear. Since their breakthrough in 2009 after a residency on Dancing On Ice, the band have sold over 750,000 records in the UK over 3 albums. In an industry that is notorious for dropping acts before they really get time to develop, it seems like Warner Music is prepared to play the longer game with this band.

    Although nothing was really made of it at the time, 3 of the band’s men are out and proudly flying the flag for gay men in what some may say is a bit of sea change in terms of acceptance for gay men in music. The fact that nothing was said at the time was probably the beginnings of this sea change. We’re here, we’re queer – it’s not a marketing ploy. In Kensington at Warner’s new offices, which occupy where the now defunct EMI once resided, we get down to the nitty gritty.

    So what more is there for The Overtones to do? What is there that you haven’t achieved yet, but really want to?
    MIKE: It’s a difficult one, because I feel like we’re kind of living our dream, to keep on doing what we’re doing. We talk about our fourth album and it’s something that a lot of acts in this day and age, in this ever-changing music industry don’t get the opportunity to do. So we do feel very lucky. For us, immediately, it’s about continuing this dream, continuing this career that we’ve worked hard at over the last five-years to build. We talk about fan base and stuff; that fan base, it grew slowly and solidly. There’s a solid foundation in there. So we’re going to keep on doing what we do, hopefully we’re going to spread our wings to other countries. Anywhere where people are willing to hear us and enjoy what we do. We’ll get there…

    Is it important for bands to crack the all-important, if somewhat elusive, US market?
    DARREN: If they have a strong desire to then I guess it is. But, you know, people have perfectly good, great careers without ever going to America. If you’re asking if we’d like to go and have a crack of course we would, we’re ambitious boys, but we’re also very happy with our career now and how we’re doing.

    Arguably what you’re doing, in terms of style and essence has its birthplace in America. Do you think they’d enjoy what you’d have to offer?
    DARREN: I think so…
    MARK: Yeah! For sure, but it’s just a massive nut to crack. It takes a lot of time and at the moment we’re enjoying being in the UK promoting our album here. Hopefully in the future we’d be up for it.
    TIMMY: I’d go to Timbuktu and do a gig if they enjoy our music. That’s the value of what you do. You work hard on music and create great albums and you work hard to do that.

    In the music biz they talk about the three major markets: the US, the UK and Germany – which you are doing very well in… Why is that?
    TIMMY: (Laughing) We did an RTL campaign out there.
    LACHIE: It’s a big TV station out there.
    TIMMY: They got behind “Gambling Man” (the band’s very first single, which ended up charting at number 16 in Germany) and they used it to advertise this new station and used us as part of it. It was a great introduction to Germany. We have gained some amazing fan base out there. So loyal. They come over whether we’re doing a gig in Germany, Ireland or anywhere in the UK, and they come over and we; I, really appreciate that kind of support. We’re looking at doing a few gigs, a small tour there, which is great. I think for us doing live gigs – that’s where we get to crossover and bring this album to life. We’ve got the moves, we’re looking sharp…

    You are quite polished in terms of your look and your marketing, compared to say, Adele or Sam Smith, who can be a little more ‘take me as you find me…’
    LACHIE: Did you find Adele was like that on 21? Come on now. Come on…
    TIMMY: In our downtime we’re wearing trackies… But I think everyone’s polished up their act actually. Even Sam Smith, he’s always wearing jackets, but even in their downtime I’m sure they’re wearing trackies and onesies!
    LACHIE: But with the style of music we do, I don’t think you could rock in wearing jeans and flips flops saying, “yeah we enjoy singing 50’s and 60’s music in a vocal harmony style.” This is doffing the hat. When we sat down on the couch (today), I said, “Oh look at us wearing all the same thing”… It’s good fun.

    It’s very classic. At the moment music has had that 50’s/60’s feeling for quite a while now, probably one the longest rebirth of styles. Is there a worry that it might pop and if it does, will The Overtones restyle? Will we see you in lime green jump suits and disco get up?
    DARREN: You know what, it goes back to the live shows again. We’ve been doing it for four years now and we’re very lucky that we’ve got a lot of fan base with touring. No matter what the fashion is in music, we’ve got a fan base that loves this style of music. So we’re very lucky boys.

    Since we last spoke Sam Smith has become unquestionably the world’s biggest artist, with an album written about his relationships with men. Are we past the point of people caring about the whole “gay” thing?
    DARREN: I’d like to think so, I saw the speech where he won one of his four Grammy’s and I think it was the last one and he thanked his ex-boyfriend for giving him the material to write about and I just thought that was really cool and refreshing to hear.
    TIMMY: I think he’s flying the flag in a very classy way. I think there’s a very aggressive approach sometimes saying, “I’m doing this for…” But he’s happy to say that he was in a relationship with a guy. I liked the way that he said people wouldn’t sign him because he was big or whatever, and I think whether you’re gay, straight, man, woman, black, white everyone can kind of like feel that in that album. It’s still quite universal, but he’s still okay to talk about that. Yes that is a change. But Freddie Mercury… All these people… It’s been going on for years. I think it’s lovely for him to be really comfortable to talk about it. I think he’s holding himself in a really classy way as a gay man.

    You’re now four albums in… Does it get easier?
    DARREN: From what point of view?

    Your personal point of view…
    LACHIE: I think from a recording perspective, it’s tighter; it’s a bit more professional. I just remember album one, we were like, “We’re in a recording studio, and there are producers and people from the record label and I feel like I’ve got to be a good boy”, but now I feel more free to say, “I think it could be that… or this harmony, or maybe, not that song, but this song.” This is album four and we’ve shown in our last three that people who listen to our albums really enjoy it. Really enjoy it. All of that has come directly through us. So there’s comfort that comes from that, but you don’t want to let anyone down, to keep it exciting and fresh and new and come up with new stuff, so there’s still an element of crossing your fingers.
    TIMMY: You don’t know what’s going to happen…

    Did you imagine you’d get to album four?
    DARREN: Yep. I did, I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve always believed in us.
    MARK: I think we’ve also always taken it album by album as well. Obviously we’re in this for the long run. People always say, “What are your plans for the future”, but we’re really excited about here and now and this new album and promoting this Sweet Soul Music – out March the 2nd…
    DARREN: Thank you!!

    Tell me a little about the sweet soul music…
    MARK: Well, the title says it all really. It’s all the soul classics and we’re keen songwriters as well so there are three originals on there… It’s songs like: “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, “Give Me Just A Little More Time”,
    DARREN: “Let’s Stay Together”
    TIMMY: “River Deep Mountain High”
    MARK: With Sam Bailey….
    TGUK: Tell us about Sam Bailey, how did that go down?
    DARREN: She’s cool man; she’s a really cool girl. Really down to earth, loves a chat… We just sat there for two hours and we’re like, “We should probably do some singing now…” It was really cool to see her and Lachie go in, they had a mic each when they were doing their leads. It was like one big sing off. It was really cool. She was heavily pregnant and we were a bit like, as she was hitting them high notes, “I hope she doesn’t pop!”

    Do you think she deserves a bit more of a shake of the tree, a bit more run of the rad than she’s been given?
    LACHIE: I never get the feeling from Sam that she’s wandering round saying, “Make me famous, make me famous!”. I think she’s grafted from a very early age. She has an extraordinary voice, she’s got her feet on the ground and her head screwed on. She’s got a beautiful family and a lovely fella, and I think Sam will just carve her way. Do you know what I mean? She can sing. Does she want to be on the cover of the teen mags? I don’t know… I just have real faith that she has an astonishing talent and she will have a really lovely career and have a lovely time, doing whatever she wants to do. Doing it how she wants to do it.
    TIMMY: She keeps it really real. She has her fan base and there’s no reason why she can’t have a career and go on tour… When you’ve got a voice like that…

    This issue is about food, so let’s get foodie… Are any of you good cooks?
    DARREN: I’m getting better, yeah. I need to broaden my horizons, I just focus on spaghetti bolognaise and some boring chicken dishes, but Lachie and Timmy kind of cook stews and roasts. I’m not there yet.
    MARK: I went round to Timmy’s the other day and he did a lovely… well it was meant to be a Red Thai curry…
    TIMMY: I thought it was Red Thai, but it was Tikka Masala,
    DARREN: He makes really small portions…
    MIKE: Yeah, really small, he’s really tight…
    TIMMY: I’m more a of “eat little and often” type guy. Like a bird… I see pictures that Lachie puts up on twitter…
    LACHIE: I love cooking…

    Lachie are you like a food porn baron on Twitter?
    LACHIE: oh no no no no no. If you go to a restaurant and you see people get their phones I feel like wiping the plates away. Don’t bother…
    TIMMY: (whispering) I do that…
    LACHIE: No! Do you?
    DARREN: I did that at TGI’s the other day…
    TIMMY: My mum might present the plate… (Demonstrates a pose showing off a plate)
    LACHIE: Well that’s nice… I’m talking about the people who when the plate goes down show people, “How interesting I am that I have chicken stuffed with Gruyère cheese…”
    TIMMY: I did it with scrambled eggs, bacon and black pudding…
    LACHIE: Go away you people. Okay that’s a bit harsh.
    TIMMY: I’m loving stews and casseroles. Comforting food, I’m good at that.

    Do you think that’s a lot to do with the climate we live in?
    DARREN: I reckon it is, (to Timmy) you love in the winter cooking all those wintry dishes, but I eat the same food all the year round.
    TIMMY: In those times, I think I go back to childhood. Things like Irish Stew, beef stews with red wine gravy. I love all that. I think it is to do with the climate. Lachie is from Australia and when you go out there, it’s all salads and no carbs… I was like “I’m starving all the time…”
    DARREN: Mike cooks a disgusting macaroni cheese. (Laughs)
    TIMMY: Has it got tomatoes?
    MIKE: Yeah, its got tomatoes and breadcrumbs… I get a bad rap for my macaroni cheese. Timmy’s the only one who’s tasted it.
    TIMMY: It’s really good.
    DARREN: No wait, he said behind your back…
    TIMMY: No I didn’t…
    MIKE: That breaks my heart a little… (they hug)
    MARK: Timmy will tell you that I cook a lovely kedgeree.
    TIMMY: Mark invited me over. I was really looking forward to it, you know bring a bottle of wine the whole lot… I sit down… I don’t like oily fish, or mackerel I don’t like egg and he cooked kedgeree which has all of those ingredients so I basically had rice. We still giggle about it.
    MARK: It’s got better now. You need to come around again and I’ll cook it for you again…
    TIMMY: Maybe with Salmon? can you do a kedgeree with Salmon? I’m up for that.

    Do you all live separately?
    ALL: Yes!
    TIMMY: No we don’t have an Overtones house.

    Is it difficult when you’re on tour to eat well?
    ALL: Yeah…
    TIMMY: It has been in the past.
    DARREN: No it’s not now…
    MIKE: I really tried… The hard thing on tour, we’ve got catering now which is great, great cooks, beautiful food, but when you finish a show at ten o’clock you’re starving, so it’s invariably “There’s a burger bar at the end of the road”, or granola bar for Darren… It’s really hard, I struggle as well.
    MARK: The good thing is we have an amazing catering team that come on the road with us and they always bring that big juicer.
    DARREN: But they also do nice desserts, which is hard to get away from.
    MIKE: That’s a killer!
    TIMMY: It’s Dillon and Pauline; we have to give them a shout out… They’re like mums and dads on
    tour. We never had that at the start… it makes it home from home.

    Is it important for you all to keep slim and fit?
    MARK: We do a two-hour show every night that’s fairly energetic – with our finger clicking… That burns of a few calories, we do go to the gym as well.
    DARREN: Yes, personally I eat healthy and go to the gym a lot and then at the weekends I chill out.
    TIMMY: Darren is very disciplined. I do have to say that! I’m a bit of a sugar fiend. So I’m trying to cut down on that, and I’m finding it very hard.

    Is there jealously between you all?
    MIKE: I’m jealous of these biceps (squeezes Darren’s arm)
    DARREN: Do that again!
    MIKE: Oh God it’s unbelievable.
    DARREN: You’re doing well
    MIKE: I’m doing all right; I’m getting there…
    TIMMY: Mark has the kind of hairy chest that I can only dream of really…
    MIKE: You’ve got that little wispy bit there…
    TIMMY: and Lachie, they are representing on that hairy chest front.
    MARK: I’m thinking of shaving it off.
    TIMMY: Are you? You could lay it down and I could just glue it on…

    Fan questions:
    Is there going to be a video of the tour?
    TIMMY: Let’s be honest, we’re asked about it many a time and we’d love to do it in the future, but the thing is with doing it, it does end up costing a lot of money so we’re hoping to do that in future…
    DARREN: There’ll be some nice iPhone footage on YouTube!

    Which is your favourite original song:
    MARK: I’m going to go with, on our second album we had a song called “Love Song”,
    DARREN: I’m going to say “Give Me Soul” from our new album. Maybe something you wouldn’t expect from us.
    MIKE: “Something Good”, it’s an Overtone song, It’s not specific to a relationship. It could be about anything that’s making you feel good at the time.
    TIMMY: I’m going to go back…Anytime we go on tour it always surprises me how much our fans connected with this song and it was the first original we ever performed on telly. “Gambling Man”.
    LACHIE: I’m going to say “Loving The Sound”. It’s really weird turning on the radio and hearing your voice every time. It really catches me. That song had so much support from so many radio stations…

  • Gay Refusal Pizza Parlour Makes $50,000 In GoFund Me Page

    The Memories Pizza restaurant that made headlines after becoming one of the first businesses in Indiana to say they would actively discriminate against gay couples has earned nearly $50,000 in support on the GoFundMe crowdfunder site.

    The crowdfunder, which was set up by Lawrence Billy Jones III, “To relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors’ stand for faith.” has received over 1300 donations to the owners of Memories Pizza. The owners have said that they have gone into hiding since they said they would refuse to send pizzas to a gay wedding.

    Kevin O’Connor, co-owner of the restaurant, who supports Indiana’s Religious Freedoms law said, “That lifestyle is something they choose. I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they choose?”

    Funders have donated as little as $5, but one anonymous donor made a $5,000 pledge. Many of the pledgers have used the comment space to make outrageous homophobic statements.

    Brett Jeffreyes who donated $250 said, “Sadly this is the first wave. We are seeing the rise of GAY SHARIA. They will go to any length to destroy people of conscience and good will. I expect to see Gay Sharia violence supported by both Social and mainstream Media in my lifetime.”

    Whilst one gay supporter of the pizzeria, known only as BG said, “Not all gays are part of this pathetic, progressive, oppressive maffia [sic]. I am gay and I support your religious beliefs. I hope your business survives and thrives.”

    Brennan Doherty who donated $10 said, “God bless them for not agreeing to support the farce of gay marriage.”

    The original target for the funding page was $45,000.

    Republican Governor Mike Pence has said that he wants to ‘fix’ the law so that it does not discriminate against the LGBT community. He has insisted however, that the law isn’t the problem, but how it is being perceived is.

  • US Pizza Parlour Will Refuse Gay Wedding Orders

    The controversial Religious Freedom law in Indiana has already started to show how the business community can and will discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people, by refusing to serve them.

    One Pizzeria has gone the extra mile in its bigotry by announcing it will NEVER deliver pizza to a gay wedding.

    The family who owns the Memories Pizzeria in Walkerton, Indiana told WBND that they would never serve gay people because of their Christian beliefs.

    If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide them pizzas for a wedding, we would have to say no”. Crystal O’Connor told the News crew.

    ‘That’s a lifestyle that you choose,’ said her father Kevin O’Connor,

    ‘I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head because they choose that lifestyle?’ he continued.

    First term Republican Governor Mike Pence has said that he wants to ‘fix’ the law so that it does not discriminate against the LGBT community. He has insisted however, that the law isn’t the problem, but how it is being perceived is.

     

  • New, Free 24-Hour Sexual Health Service With Results By Text Is Now Live

    A unique new online sexual health service allows people to test themselves for STIs in the privacy of their own home and get results by text message within seven days.

    (more…)

  • FILM REVIEW | Blind

    Blond thirty-something year old Ingrid has lost her sight abruptly to an undiagnosed condition and now, depressed and unsettled, she just whiles away in the stark white high-rise apartment in Oslo that she shares with Morton her architect husband.

    ★★

    She refuses to ever venture outside at all and actually suspects that Morton actually sneaks back in the middle of the day and just spies on her silently. In the deliberate and slow pace at the start of this story we see Ingrid sitting with her laptop on the window sill peering out into the void and we are not sure what she is up to as we hear her thoughts in the voice-over.

    Turns out that she is actually writing a piece of fiction that she vividly imagines as she sits there in her darkness.  At the centre of her story is Elin a single mother who has recently moved to the city from Sweden and lives in an apartment building opposite the one that Einar lives in and spies on her all the time when he is not engrossed watching pornography on his computer. And then Ingrid writes her husband into the piece, and that’s when the movie goes in a totally different direction mixing imagination with reality.

    Saying it gets complicated is a gross understatement especially when the pace steps up with Ingrid’s imagination running wild and Elin, also blond and not physically dissimilar, starts dating Morton and goes blind too. For once I had no idea what to make of this all when I viewed it at Sundance last year, but people around me were quick to compare it to a Charlie Kaufman movie (Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Adapation + Being John Malkovitch) which I guess makes a lot of sense.

    The reason that it was on my ‘watchlist’ in the first place is its because it’s the directing debut of writer Eskil Vogt who was responsible for one of my favourite movies of 2013 Oslo, August 31st.

     

  • Six In Ten Of Us Are Embarrassed By Our Homes

    Six In Ten Of Us Are Embarrassed By Our Homes

    Six in ten Brits admit to being embarrassed about the state of their home, a study has revealed.

    (more…)

  • Gay Brits Can Now Marry In 24 New Countries

    The Foreign office has confirmed that LGBT brits can now marry at 24 British consulates in 24 countries around the world.

    (C) TheGayUK
    (C) TheGayUK

    Gay Brits who wish to get married aboard will now have the choice to do so in 24 countries including, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, and Vietnam.

    The FOC said the number of countries where same-sex couples could wed was limited to 24 because “British missions are only able to provide a same sex marriage service in countries where it is not possible for British nationals to have such a marriage under local law and where the local authorities have given permission for the missions to conduct consular marriages of same sex couples.”

    Same-sex couples will now be able to marry at the British consulates in Russia, despite its archaic anti-gay law and Azerbaijan, which currently carries one of the lowest ILGA ratings for LGBT equality in Europe.

  • BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival wrap up

    The BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival has unfortunately come to a close after a highly successful nine days of films and events. It was perhaps the best festival in a long time. Tim Baros takes us through the highlights:

    – Dior and I: An exquisite (and nail biting) documentary of Raf Simon’s first eight weeks as artistic director of Christian Dior, in which time he has to put together a collection. Director Frederic Tcheng uniquely blends voiceovers of an actor speaking excepts from Dior’s memoir intertwined with the pressure Simons and his staff are under. Dior and I is one of the better fashion documentaries ever made. It is now in wide release.
    Read our review of Dior And I

    – Portrait of a Serial Monogamist: Canadian Directors Christina Zeidler and John Mitchell’s tale of 40-something year old Lesbian Elsie (a perfectly cast Diane Flacks) who breaks up with her girlfriend but is not so sure that she’s done the right thing, especially after meeting another woman right away who appears to be ‘the perfect one.’ Portrait is funny and clever and will leave you laughing out loud of its portrayal of Lesbian relationships amongst friends.

    – Drunktown’s Finest: 34-year old Native American Director Sydney Freeland’s well done portrait of three Navajo Indian characters all coming of age and exploring not only their identities but also their relationships with their families and their culture. An amazing job by Freeland, who also wrote the script.

    – 54: The Director’s Cut: A highlight of the festival – this is the film that gay director Mark Christopher shot and intended to release in 1998 but was not able to due to pressure from the studio to ‘degay’ it. Literal cutting room floor and lost footage has been incorporated into the original version of this story of a young man (Ryan Phillippe) being accepted into the historic NYC club’s inner circle, and includes the gay scenes originally taken out. This film still takes us back to a time when it was all about the music and the dancing.
    Read our review of 54

    – Tiger Orange: A sweet tale of two gay brothers, one – Chet (Mark Strano) who looks after the family hardware store in a small town in California while younger brother rebel Todd (porn star Johnny Hazard – real name Frank Valenti) comes back home because nothing’s happening for him in Los Angeles. Chet and Todd are opposites in every way – Chet is very subdued and simple and plain looking, while Todd is hot and sexy with a body to die for and a naughty personality to match. Valenti is the true star of this film – not only does he light up the screen when he’s one, but he can act as well.

    – Match: Sir Patrick Stewart is an older dance teacher (Toby Powell) whose life is shaken up when a straight couple show up one day on his doorstep to supposedly interview him about his life as a dance teacher. But what they really want from his is to find out if he’s the father of the husband. Stewart has never been better in a film that’s stretched a bit too long and with a cast that can’t quite match Stewart in the acting department.

    – The Last One: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt: A film, half about the AIDS quilt and the other half about statistics and other AID’s organisations, it would’ve worked better if it stuck to its main subject – the quilt. We’ve seen so many documentaries about AIDS and statistics, as well as the quilt, and this documentary gives us nothing new.

    – The Golden Age of the American Male: This film is just a series of images and videos from the archives of the Athletic Model’s Guild, which was created by Bob Mizer. The Golden Age is pretty much 65 minutes of soft porn, if that’s your thing.

    – Frangipani: The first LGBT Sri Lankan film, it tells the tale of two men (very good Dasun Pathirana and Jehan Sri Kanth) who fall in love with each other in spite of one of them getting married to a woman. Beautifully shot and easy to identify with – Director, Writer and Producer Visakesa Chandrasekaram) has made a lush film that is highly recommended.

    – Everlasting Love: A strange, eerie Spanish film that can be best described as Stranger on a Lake (without the Lake) meets Twilight. Throw in some flesh eating and many boring moments and what you have is a film that should be missed.

    – Fulboy: A documentary about the unseen world of football, Director Martin Farina was given full access to a professional Argentinean football team. He speaks to them in their hotel rooms and in their locker room, when, lucky for us, they are not shy about displaying their athletic bodies, from head to toe, for the camera. Not much a narrative on this one, but it’s worth watching as you feel like a fly on the wall in a very straight male environment.

    There was an excellent selection of shorts, and a few stand out:
    – Hole: Gay disabled actor Ken Harrower plays a man who frequents video booths but gets frustrated when he’s unable to receive sexual pleasure, so he enlists the help of his male carer to get it.

    – Limanakia: The strangest yet sexiest short film I have ever seen. Gay men frolic on the rocks of a beach somewhere in Greece, all naked and all having sex, shot in motion-moving imagery with the sun providing a hint of gold on the bodies and on the rocks.

    – been too long at the FAIR: Who would’ve guessed that there is a gay cinema in Queens, New York? This short documentary exposes the FAIR Theater in Jackson Heights as one of the oldest continuing running gay establishments in New York City.

    All in all, it was a great festival and we’re looking forward to next year. Well done FLARE gang!

  • Anti-Gay Marriage MP Tells Gay Voter Never To Contact Him Again

    The former MP and now Conservative hopeful for Peterborough, Stewart Jackson, who voted against the same-sex marriage act, has allegedly sent a response to a constituent, asking her to never bother him again after learning that she is in a same-sex marriage.

    Laura O’Sullivan was shocked to find an official communication from her then local MP Stewart Jackson, that stated that she should never “bother” him again. Mr. Jackson was a key figure in the Coalition for Marriage, a campaign which claimed to have attracted over 600,000 signatures against the redefining of marriage and he was one of 175 MPs who voted against same-sex marriage in 2013.

    Taking to Facebook, Ms. O’Sullivan said,

    “I got a letter through the post, addressed to Laura Hawes, asking me to vote for Stewart Jackson, Peterborough MP.

    As he voted against gay marriage and had kindly left his email address at the bottom for responses I sent him the following message:

    Dear Stewart Jackson,
    You sent me a letter, I wish to inform you that it was sent to the wrong name, Hawes is my maiden name. As of last October I am happy to say I am married, And have therefore changed my surname to O’Sullivan.

    And as my Wife and I enjoying our rights to an equal marriage, something that you did not support we will not, in no un certain terms, be voting for you.
    Please never write to me again.
    Mrs Laura O’sullivan

    She received the following response a few hours later:

    The feeling’s fully mutual.
    Please feel free to never bother me again.
    Yours
    Stewart Jackson”

    THEGAYUK reached out to Mr. Jackson’s office to ask if his response was standard practice for communicating with his constituents. His office replied, “It is the regular practice of Stewart Jackson and his office not to comment on any private correspondence between his office and his former constituents.”

    The post, on Facebook, has now attracted nearly 1,200 shares and a number of comments.

    As the UK Parliament has been dissolved until after the General Election on May 7th, Mr. Jackson is no longer the MP for Peterborough. In a statement on his website he wrote, “It is my honour and privilege to have been elected in May 2005 and re-elected in May 2010 to represent the Peterborough constituency in the House of Commons. He is now fighting for re-election in Peterborough.

    “I have made it my duty to work for Peterborough in Westminster and not for Westminster in Peterborough. I am working for your interests, not self-interests. Above all, I will always put my constituents’ interests above my political career.”

  • Nine-Year-Old Pupil Reacts Perfectly To Her Teacher Coming Out As Gay

    A nine-year-old apparently wrote an acceptance letter to her “great, amazing, brilliant and brave” teacher who shared with his class that he was getting married to a man.

    The teacher told his class about his sexuality to demonstrate issues that could be brought up during anti-bullying week. Speaking to PinkNews the unidentified teacher said, “I’d asked who’d heard ‘gay’ being used as an insult. Almost every one of my class put their hands up. I was stunned,

    “Then I asked who thought that people who were gay or lesbian were bad or wrong in some way, again almost every hand went up.”

    The teacher then asked the Head teacher of the school, whether he could share the news about his fiancé, to show that when people used gay as a pejorative term, they were actually talking about someone like him.

    He continued, “The reaction was fantastic – there were a lot of gasps and shocked looks and some basic questions – do you have a boyfriend, etc – but after a couple of minutes they were over it and we moved on to the rest of the lesson.”

    The amazing letter sent by one of his pupils, known only as “A”, was given to him shortly after the lesson – and it “brought tears” to the teacher’s eyes.

    Dear Mr R

    “Even though you’re gay, I will always treat you the same way as I do now. I still think about you the same way as I used to. You’re a great teacher and these are just some of the word’s [sic] that I would describe you as: great, amazing, fantastic, brilliant, awesome and brave.

    “The reason why I say brave is because you shared a personal secret which was very brave.

    “You don’t have to feel scared because I know that everone [sic] in the class feels the same way as I do.

    “From A x x

    PS. We are all proud of you”

  • X FACTOR Johnny Robinson Drops New Single – As A Woman

    You won’t quite believe the new look, but X FACTOR legend Johnny Robinson has just debuted his new music video.

    X FACTOR Johnny Robinson, 45, who won the nation’s hearts with his renditions of Hung Up and Unchained Melody and his outrageous costumes on the 2011 series of the show, has unveiled an altogether new look, complete with heavy eye makeup and massive hair. The sort even Bonnie Tyler would be proud of.

    His new, high energy single is called Eaten Alive. and even stars a Michael Jackson tribute. Check out the new look and video here.

    The former X FACTOR star, isn’t just famous for his singing stint on Simon Cowell’s flagship show, when he was 24, Robinson starred as Boy George on Stars In Their Eyes.

     

     

     

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