On paper, the nitenite hotel in Birmingham looks like an attractive offer. For under 50 quid per night, two of you get to stay in the heart of Birmingham, near all the attractions and entertainments in Japanese inspired simplicity – but that’s where the attractive offer stops. ★★
As a person that does a fair bit of travelling, I like to think I know most hotel chains, and what they have to offer, yes even the budget brands! So I was surprised to learn about a new chain hopeful – nitenite, just off Broad Street in central Birmingham. Based on Japanese design – the rooms are compact and supposedly complete. The hotel crams over one hundred of these rooms on one floor.
If you’re looking for your creature comforts – and I include a window within that category you’re out of luck. As no rooms in this hotel have windows, they don’t have phones, hairdryers, handtowels, wardrobes or anywhere to put your baggage. The total floor space is around the size of two double beds, side by side and that includes the WC and shower, complete with opaque door – which is never a welcome feature, especially if you’re sharing.
As a warning be careful when using the singular table surface as it has a deceptive curved edge. You run the risk of ruining your entire suitcase of clothing, if you place a cup of coffee near the edge and it simply falls on to your belongings. There’s simply no place to put your luggage anywhere. If you want a bedside shelf – or somewhere to put your glasses/water/book/ipad – then you’re also out of luck. There are no usable surfaces anywhere in the room.
So What! – You might say – ‘I’m just there to put my head down after a night on the razz.’ Well don’t expect a peaceful night’s sleep.
We stayed on a Saturday night, where on the hour every hour we were woken by the sounds of girls cackling, falling A over T, shouting, then screaming and then door slamming. Then came the noise of men- arguing and shouting. It was like some hideous campus experience, but without the education. I think around 3.49AM a rather burley sounding man, slammed his door so hard the entire floor seemed to shake, walked out into the corridor – said, ‘right I’m off to reception to complain about this… Let’s ‘**king ‘ave it…’
In the morning I complained to reception and asked why they didn’t do anything about the noise, he shrugged and told me that they usually have security to deal with wayward guests. Now I don’t know about you, but a hotel that employs someone specifically for security to deal with drunken hooligans certainly isn’t a place I would be seen in again. If you do stay, either get completely blotto and become one of the yobbos that clearly patronise this establishment or bring earplugs/Calms/Tramadol in order to get a good night’s kip.
A radical re-think is underway in the area of HIV, its prevention and its treatment.
While we are seeing what feels like an ever increasing reduction in support for LGBT across the world, and something of a religious backlash underway in so-called civilised societies, we are also seeing breakthroughs in treatments and therapies for HIV, provided the people who need it are given access to the treatments.
A consortium of groups including the European Aids Treatment Group (EATG), Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) and the National Aids Manual (NAMS) issued a joint statement on 27/12/2014 to encourage, almost demand the basic human rights of individuals to choose their treatment – especially in terms of preventative treatments.
Their statement calls for the choice to start treatment belonging to the individual concerned, and not the state, doctor or charity. This is so that treatment is seen as a benefit to the individual, and not to aid anyone else or further their agenda. HIV treatment has been proven to increase life expectancy and should be available to anyone who wants or needs it, without social stigma or fear of legal reprisals.
The above is true in certain regimes – Greece in 2012 introduced mandatory testing for some women, in 2013 it was re-introduced and gave the police the right to stop anyone they suspect of being HIV+ and forcibly testing them. Botswana is another country currently considering mandatory testing. Add these to the recent legislative changes in Russia and these measures can only serve to drive HIV underground and prevent those who need treatment from obtaining it.
Repressive regimes have shown time and time again that their stance against LGBT is linked to HIV, and as a result the most vulnerable in their societies are denied basic healthcare and endanger the global fight against HIV and its spread. Some of the worst regimes (Russia/Ukraine) have some of the lowest proportion of people on treatment, but the highest mortality rates.
Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has been shown to decrease the chances of passing the disease by 96%, as one of the biggest issues facing someone HIV+ is the risk of passing the disease to someone else. ART has been proven to effectively render the patient non-infectious. This doesn’t negate the need for standard prevention (condoms, etc) but goes a long way towards that day.
The recent statement release by this consortium is simply that – a statement that shows the common sense approach on offer there – but one that is constantly under threat from narrow minded legislation that will, inevitably, do more damage than good.
As the statement says, ART itself will not end the epidemic, but it is an essential component. I am no expert in this field, and more than willing to listen to anyone who is – I grew up alongside this disease, have lost friends and lovers to it and the prospect of it getting hold of newer generations when we have, within our grasp, the tools to help eradicate it, is nonsensical and abhorrent.
Go over to the site and add your voice. If you have questions, ask them, get this topic back on the agenda and up for discussion, alongside the erosion of LGBT rights worldwide. But don’t forget, HIV is a virus that hits people, not sexualities!
I catch up with Dr Christian about his new documentary for Channel 4 Undercover Doctor: Cure Me I’m Gay where he tries a number of historical and still practiced cures for homosexuality both here in the UK and the US to see why they still exist and of course try to answer the big question… Do they work?
CREDIT: Channel 4
Am I now talking with a straight Dr Christian?
Yes exactly, the “cured” Dr Christian. I don’t think anyone for a moment believed I’d be cured.
Was there any worry from the boyfriend that you might have been converted and suddenly no longer love him?
This is a funny question. I keep getting asked this. I’ll be completely honest with you, between the two of us we never once for a moment thought there’d be any remote possibility that I’d come home and tell him I had a girlfriend and he’d have to leave.
What made you want to investigate these gay- cures in the first place?
It was genuinely because I had a young gay patient come to see me and ask for help to make himself straight. I pride myself on being able to deal with most things and not look terribly shocked but this really rattled me personally. I didn’t show him, but inside I was slightly offended because someone saying they dislike being gay is almost an indirect attack on your own sexuality. I thought this doesn’t go on in this day and age when actually of course it does. This is what really sparked off the documentary of looking into these gay cures and there are lots of them going on, lots of open practitioners taking people on to try to cure them of their homosexuality. I thought is there any medical basis for this? There were two main questions. One, do they exist are they still going on and two, do they work?
Did you at any point throughout the making of the programme feel ashamed to be gay?
Honestly not once. I think the person who affirmed it for me, in the most beautiful way, was my father. I came back from America having heard all horrible things and I face my father who said, ‘we’re absolutely fine you’re gay, It’s not a problem.’ It’s a wonderful affirming moment in the documentary and for me, if there were any doubts from America they were completely blown away by the simplicity of my father’s comments. I think it’s important for people to see that and he wasn’t briefed or scripted or paid!
One of the cures looks at what you wear. Is thereany scientific proof that wearing hideous clothes makes you straight?
Ha ha, you know what was funny? Of all the things that we filmed that was the worst bit for me. I literally had these little strops with my director saying ‘I’m not wearing this. I’m not going out in this. I won’t do it’. It really is stripping you of who you are and forcing you to be someone else. It’s kind of what all the therapies do, sort of putting you in the costume of a straight man which was just so trite but also so unpleasant so dehumanising.
Are these therapies in some way actually ‘Heterophobic’ as they suggest straight men and women only listen to certain music or wear certain clothes?
Totally. They’re both homophobic and heterophobic and pander to these ridiculous stereotypes. I go to see a chap called John Smid who used to run a famous camp called Love In Action, [American camp set up to cure homosexuality] He has since turned his back on this and is now happily gay, living with a man. I turn up at his house and he goes through my bag and removes all my ‘gay’ clothes. Of course, It’s entirely dependant on culture. In America anything European is gay, so my Abercrombie tops, which in the UK we’d all consider pretty gay, were absolutely fine but my Italian brogues, of course, those effeminate Italians, not. It was just utter nonsense but what was so sad is they built a whole camp and therapeutic system around this process in which young people, teenage boys would be sent by their parents to go through this and were literally stripped of their dignity, of who they were. Although there are lighter sides when you think actually about the sinister intentions behind it, it becomes a lot more chilling.
Apart from same-sex attraction, is the gay brain any different to a heterosexual brain?
I think it’s very interesting. There will be subtle differences that may not be anatomically measurable, but certainly we function and behave differently. Sexual orientation is a spectrum and all of us fit somewhere along that spectrum. I go to investigate at the Cornell University with the test of sexual orientation to see where I lie. Having your sexuality, something that you’ve always known, proven by a machine is incredibly satisfying, that you got it right, that you’ve been sleeping with the right people all this time.
Do you believe there is a main factor that pushes homosexuals into these therapies?
Yes. One main factor is the rampant homophobia that still exists all around the world and I think one of the driving forces behind that is religion. I go to the bible belt of America to see the worst of it. Outside one church there are these 14-15-year-olds saying, ‘oh yeah homosexuality is caused by demons, they need to be expunged. All gay people need treatment’. It’s quite easy to see why if you’re living in a community like that you might feel dirty and in need of treatment. You go to Uganda, go to Iran where your two choices are death or an enforced sex change and you think: hmmm I can see why people might seek out these therapies.
You were clearly quite upset from hearing the views of the young religious kids, do you feel they are being brainwashed into these opinions or were they born homophobic?
Of course, they haven’t come up with that idea themselves. They’ve been indoctrinated. Kids don’t come up with the idea that sexuality is caused by demons themselves, kids aren’t that ridiculous. I think in the UK our younger generations are growing up far more comfortable that people come in all different shapes and sizes, colours and sexual orientations. You talk to young people and they don’t bat an eyelid if someone’s gay or not, but in America, the same young people in that area were coming out with really quite vile statements but saying it perfectly pleasantly with big smiles on their faces.
Was it hard to control yourself at times because you only swore twice during the whole programme?
I can tell you now there were a lot more tears and a lot more swearing that didn’t make the final cut. I mean how could you not, but I don’t think people want to see their doctor swearing and crying for an hour on the telly.
What do you think motivates these so called ‘doctors’ or pastors to hold these therapy sessions in the first place?
I think they genuinely believe, either nicely or nastily, that if you are homosexual you cannot lead a life that is acceptable to God. Some of them clearly were very well meaning people who were very concerned for some of their flock who were gay. One scene that doesn’t make it, because we ran out of time, is where I go to a church with a gay young man who is undergoing therapies. He introduces me to his pastor who I have a bit of a fight with over the theological terms but he wasn’t a nasty man at all he just believed this rhetoric. I think others are just rampantly homophobic. It’s a fear of what you don’t know exaggerated by these ideas that homosexuality is equivalent to paedophilia, it’s catching, we pray on you, we recruit you, all these other nonsenses that we’ve all heard and we know are absolute rubbish.
Do you believe you’ll ever win a scientific and medical argument against a religious one?
I do. I win several. If it comes down to ‘this is just what I believe’, you can’t win that and of course there’s that great PC thing that we’re not allowed to criticise people’s beliefs. Well, I think that’s absolute nonsense. If those beliefs encroach on me or my life and make my lifeless easy, more unpleasant, then, of course, you can criticise a belief. A great example was chatting to someone who really wants to introduce therapies back here in the UK. He says in the bible it says ‘homosexuality is wrong’ and this is a scientist. So I say to him ‘right so you’re going by the bible as evidence that it’s wrong, so tell me as a scientist… Creationism or evolution which do you subscribe to?’ and he refuses to answer the question. He squirms and hums and gets cross but he can’t answer the question so for me that does kind of win the argument. He cherry picks what he chooses to believe and what he chooses to ignore.
What would you like to see being done in the future regarding these so called cures?
What is nice to see, is more and more professional bodies are saying we do not condone these therapies, they should not be done and the therapists who are controlled by us the professional body should not be offering these therapies to their patients.
From all of the tests you took which did you find the most difficult?
I think it would have to be the inversion therapy which was particularly unpleasant, the one where I’m vomiting because it was so shameful and I’m so upset. I was recreating it I admit that, but one of the reasons I was so upset was because I was thinking of the people who had volunteered to put themselves through this and not just for a few hours but for days and days of this sort of reinforced shaming. This is with a background where homosexuality in England was still illegal and someone like me, a doctor, would prescribe this to people and that was horrific. The chap who ran the test with me, used to actually perform these tests and he agreed to come forward and do it with us that day, which I think was brilliant of him because he’s completely remorseful about what he used to do, but he was a junior nurse, following the orders his senior doctors told him. He says when I interview him he never ever saw a single example of it working.
One therapist could tell why your homosexual by a piece of paper you’d colour in. Will you be taking up the practice of having your patients colour in the human body on a sheet of paper so you can diagnose what’s wrong with them?
Ha ha. Well if it makes $250 a pop it’s worth thinking about it. It’s people like that, that give the medical profession a really bad name and I’m very pleased that we have exposed that kind of nonsense and if it makes even one gay man go well, I’m certainly not going there having seen that nonsense, then I’ll be pleased.
On a sunny afternoon in January, we caught up with identical twins Mat and Jon Price to find out why they posted an online video saying they were Proud2Be gay and set up the Proud2Be project to spread the positive message that whatever your sexuality and wherever you live, you should be proud of who you are within your community. The project has attracted support from such celebrities as Sir Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry, who posted his own Proud2Be video.
CREDIT: Proud 2 Be
Thank you for joining us guys. Firstly can I just say you’re the first identical twins I’ve ever interviewed. Jon: Yeah. And the last hopefully. (evil laughter). So tell us a little interesting fact about
yourselves. Mat: Oh, well, I’m the oldest brother by a whole 2 minutes. I’ve been backpacking around New Zealand and Australia working on organic farms and I play the guitar. Jon: I play the keyboard and have travelled around South-East Asia. Oh and we’ve both travelled to San Francisco where we visited Harvey Milk’s old camera shop for a cocktail party! It was this trip that inspired the Proud2Be project.
Where were you raised? Jon: Well we were raised In the West Midlands in a little village called Knowle, quite rural, surrounded by plenty of countryside. We spent the majority of our twenties living separate lives in different cities. It was only in the past 3 years that we really came together.
So how did you end up in South Devon? Mat: It was quite a random move. We’d got back from our trip to San Francisco and we were thinking of going travelling again, but Proud2be was just starting to form and we wanted to commit to that for a while. It was completely random but we decided to go on a weekend away. Megabus were doing a deal so we came to Torquay and thought ‘well we don’t really want to live here’, so we got on a bus to Totnes and as soon as we got off the bus we thought right this is where we wanted to be. It was out the blue and people thought we were crazy just moving to somewhere we didn’t know, or have any friends, but actually it was moving back to a very similar set up.
Did it take long to settle into the small village life? Jon: For the first 6 months we were without a car and so we really faced quite a lot of isolation and realised that exists not just for us but for lots of LGBT people in rural areas where they can’t access their community, they feel invisible, so that really inspired us to create opportunities for people to meet each other and to not be invisible anymore and feel that they’re valuable members of society.
Most brothers couldn’t live together but you both seem very happy. Have you always had a close bond? Jon: We were very close growing up because we were very different to a lot of the other boys in our school. I think we were different to everyone and faced the same kind of rejection, so that brought us together a lot.
Did you both know each other was gay or did one of you come out to the other first? Jon: I always knew Mat was gay and we both knew individually that we were gay from a really young age. Mat: It’s hard when your younger, especially not being educated about anything other than what society considered, at that time, as normal. So we’re scrabbling around trying to find out why we’re different. In terms of being out, neither one of us came out until we were eighteen. Jon: While I was living away I came back home and Mat had said to me, ‘Oh I went out to the Nightingale’ which is a big gay club in Birmingham, (Find your way there with TheGayUK free bar finder App). We hadn’t come out to each other at this point but that was kinda Mat’s way of coming out to me. He was like, ‘have you been to the Nightingale too?’ I would have been shocked if Mat had said, ‘I have a girlfriend’.
It must have been a relief coming out? Jon: We were very much aware that once we’d said it out loud to each other that we would have to talk about telling our Mum and Dad. We were really afraid of telling our dad because we had grown up with lots of LGBT phobic messages from him and that side of the family… Mat: Maybe this wasn’t true but our perception of it was that his part of our family would prefer us to be drug dealers. So we grew up with really blatant negative messages about being gay. Even the subtle messages, where homophobia in the family isn’t challenged or when there’s nothing in the children’s books about gay people or same-sex couples or trans people. All of those messages together, I think, would be very difficult for any child or young person to grow up and not internalise. Without really knowing it, we grew up into young adults that hated ourselves for being gay. It was a natural part of who we were yet it was something to apologise for, something to be ashamed of. Obviously Proud2Be, the name, is our campaign, our statement to say actually we’re not ashamed anymore and we were for a long time.
Why is the Proud2Be project so important to you both? Jon: We love what we do with Proud2Be because we’re really able to empower other individuals, but actually Proud2Be first and foremost was for us and we used it to not feel invisible anymore. When we first started the project in 2011 our video was the only one up there for a good while and it was really confronting to make. A lot of people go through a real process of deciding to make the video and talking honestly from the heart, coming to a real place of pride for who they are. A lot of people never say that they’re proud to be gay or proud to be LGBT. It’s almost I’m gay but I’m normal or I’m gay but I’m straight acting or… Mat: I’m sorry but I’m gay. Jon: There isn’t much opportunity to say it’s actually something I’m really proud of or is something to celebrate. Mat: We’re not saying it’s easy to make a Proud2Be video and we really see the value in it as a journey for people. It’s a really bold statement to say ‘I’m proud to be gay’ even though you may have been told otherwise.
What are your hopes for the Proud2Be project? Jon: First and foremost we aim to help build confidence and self-worth in a proactive, positive way. The project as a whole is about moving forward but also about recognising what’s going on for people in their lives, what messages they’re receiving. It’s about cutting through all the superficial stuff and getting people to think about things like shame and the damaging messages they’ve received, then moving forward building strong LGBTQI communities in rural areas and all around the world by breaking down those ideas that we have to be separate or we cant be a strong community. Mat: Or that lesbians can’t talk to gay men because they won’t get on or trust each other, or that trans people aren’t actually part of our community. That’s really essential for us, to have a strong community because that’s where, personally, we’ve received support and affirmation. If you’re dealing with a homophobic boss or a transphobic parent you have access to a community or family that accepts you for who you are and are there for you and can listen to you.
Was it a shock to have celebrities like Stephen Fry become part of the project? Jon: It was, but it’s funny because relatively early on in the project Mat had a radio interview and was asked, ‘who would you like on the campaign’ and Mat was like, ‘oh we’d really like Stephen Fry, we really respect him, he’s really honest’ and the interviewer was like, ‘yeah good luck with that’. Mat: Anything like that is like reversed psychology and I was like right sod this I’m going to show you. It’s one of my traits. I later sent him the Stephen Fry proud to be video. We don’t want to be just a celebrity campaign though because we feel everyone can make a Proud2Be video but in terms of getting endorsements from high profile people to get the message out there and to have Stephen Fry endorse the campaign by making his own video, it was a really defining moment for us.
How can people get involved or seek help from the Proud2Be project? Jon: We welcome Proud2Be videos and photos from people and we’re always happy to hear from people over email. We talk a lot with people over the internet. A lot of our face to face work is located in Devon, but we are looking to roll out more services to other parts of the country. Mat: Our vision is to empower all LGBTQI people, not just LGBTQI people in South Devon. We really want to be adding things to the website like a forum so people in different parts of the country or abroad can feel part of the Proud2Be message.
The lads have also been working hard in their local community and launched the first ever Proud2Be Totnes Pride in 2013. If you’d like to attend this year’s pride and meet the guys then Proud2Be Totnes Pride will be on the 6th September 2014. Peter Tatchell shall also be there showing his support. Check out other UK pride dates and information at: www.PrideGuideUK.com ∎
So tell us what is Major – A) Tom Daley’s Tan, B) Joey Essex’s Teeth C) Ann Widdecombe’s Hair.
Elsa: a) Tom Daley’s Tan! Bless him, he seems like a sweet boy. It must have been a tough decision for him to come out through the media, I really wish him all the best.
Irene: b) Joey Essex’s Teeth (the teeth of the whole cast of TOWIE are Major, ha ha ha! Seems like they all had it done at the same place. They probably had a great discount as a group – lol). I’ve lived in Essex so the bigger the better. Life as CHAV as ever INIT?
8/10 Well done, gurls, Tom Daley’s tan is Major as well as accepting the Chav within scores you high points. There is no prize…
Finish this powerful gay message…
I’m spinning around/ Move outta my way/ I know you’re…
Elsa & Irene: I know you’re feeling me cause you like it like this… Elsa: Love Kylie, she is a great Icon Irene: Anything for Kylie, I take my hat off to her… so so inspiring and stunning… she is forever young.
7/10 Yes she is “forever young” We pause and think to wonder why…
Kylie’s next move should be? Elsa: I have always wished that Kylie and Dannii record an album together.
I’m sure it would work – it’d be completely unexpected, and it’d be a hit. When 2 sisters are put together on something, nothing can’t stop them:) Come on it’s all about sister, MAJOR!
Irene: That’s right sis… so Major… Kylie’s next move could be a duet with Major perhaps? Why not, Kylie please call us! I think she is fantastic. I love the way she constantly reinvents herself. Just divine. (This is supposed to be a secret but we are working at the moment with the legendary Pete Hammond creating hits and recreating some that you guys are already familiar with.)
11/10 Amazing concept and extra point for the shameless Sister plug (these two are sisters – don’t you know…)
Have you heard of Poppers? Ever tried them?
Elsa: Sure I know poppers. Never tried but I’ve heard of their incredible ability to relax certain muscles 😉 ha ha
Irene: No … but I will find out!
8/10 Loving the knowledge and the readiness to try new things – We’re going to go far…
What 3 things do you have to take everywhere with you?
Elsa: Lipstick, my Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses and my phone to listen to music. Irene: A) My handbag – inseparable – it’s ready to travel and always got everything I need to refresh myself. The French call it “un baise en ville”… Still don’t know why… 😉
B) My car keys (I like to feel independent and not to worry about transport if no taxis around).
C) My sunglasses. It’s all about mystery again. (One should always protect their eyes. I can’t remember the last time I went out without them.)
4/10 Bags, Keys and Lippy- are all expected – we were thinking Adopted children, Your macrobiotic nutritionist and your yogi/life guru… but we loved the surprise flinging of French, so have four points…
What are people surprised to learn about you? Elsa: Expect the unexpected lol… Irene: That with this figure, I don’t exercise… “You are what you eat”, in a way right? I stick with that and I never buy a dress that is a bigger size than what I want to be.
3/10 Pluuuurlease, we hate/are jealous of anyone with a “I can eat anything figure…”
Your greatest guilty pleasure? Elsa: Music; I wouldn’t live without music. It really has a great effect on me. Music is a form of self expression and of course has a great positive effect on wellbeing.
Irene: Red lipstick 6/10 Keep it ruby red baby…
Complete this sentence… (best line gets 10 points) I need to finish this glass of champers otherwise…. Elsa: I need to finish this glass of champers otherwise it’s a SIN. Irene: …There will be no refill.
11/10 Irene you and I are going to be the best of friends, I can tell. It’s uncanny the way we think alike.
The secret to Majors’ hearts is…. Elsa: It wouldn’t be a secret anymore if I tell you 😉 I like to be surprising.
Irene: Yes Major sisters are full of mysteries. Guys it’s for you to find out!
7/10 Cue Aretha Song…
What’s next ladies? Irene: The only way is UP! For Major, we are children of the world. Two sisters having FUN. With Big hair don’t care. We have Big Dreams and Big Ambitions but most importantly Big Hearts. We cannot wait to see Major growing from a humble start into an Empire.
Elsa: We love to entertain and we are proud to connect with the world through our music. Our journey so far has been such a blessing. Being role models means so much to us. We can only be grateful. Thank you!
7/10 Stirring Very Stirring.
Go witness greatness visit their website www.majormajor.com
Mr Gay UK says ‘ello, Cleo Rocos, Tara McDonald, Lisa Stansfield, Cheryl Baker and much more… PLUS: 50 things to do before you die, the BEST running shoes, news, reviews, lifestyle and advice. TheGayUK’s second outing. Relive the ride today. Enjoy.
I’ve watched in total bewilderment as the recent situation in Arizona unfolded. In the past few weeks, we’ve some draconian measures come into force in terms of gay rights and archaic laws adopted in countries around the world but also some breaking down of barriers as gay marriage is accepted in others.
We seem to win some ground in some parts of the world, and lose it in others – but the recent registration in Arizona beggars belief.
Let me give you a layman’s view of this legislation:
Senate bill 1062 was passed by the Republican controlled Arizona legislature last week and would have given Arizona business owners with “sincerely held” religious beliefs the legal right to refuse service to anyone if it would conflict with those beliefs.
Thats it in a nutshell – it gives a business downer carte blanche to refuse service to anyone the owner believes to contravene their ‘sincere’ religious views. The widely held view is that this is aimed at gays and lesbians and the whole marriage question. Cake shops can refuse to deal with the LGBT community on religious grounds, not personal feelings – but who can differentiate between the two? And how do you prove this?
This comes hot on the heels of several high profile law suits in America when services were refused to LGBT couples wishing to purchase goods or services, based mainly on the business owners religious beliefs.
With the new and growing area of LGBT marriage, some businesses are embracing it, as it is a money-spinner in these tough economic times – others seem happy to turn away the business.
Now, once this bill had been passed, and highly advertised through social media with everyone and his tanning salon having an opinion (and quite rightly), we then come to the next amazing turn of events. I swear to god (pun intended) if this turns out to be an ad campaign for Arizona Tourism, it should win awards.
My favourite piece on Facebook this week about this actually quotes one Arizonan as saying that they hadn’t realised that “gays spent money” and the whole issue of it being bad for business hadn’t occurred to them. They actually went on to blame the “gays” for this as we (the gays) should have brought it to their attention before they agreed the legislation!
In what must be a most embarrassing turn of events, the governor for Arizona, a seemingly sensible woman named Jan Brewer has vetoed this bill. The state senators even came out (pardon the pun) against it, stating it would be catastrophic for the state in terms of business, commerce and tourism.
Even big business came out (yes, I did do it again!) against it, with Apple, American Airlines and Marriott trying to tell the state what a mistake it was making! The NFL was said to be investigating shifting the agreed Superbowl away from the state as it feared a backlash.
Even Obama’s regime waded in, stating it trusted in the integrity of the state governor – but also doubted the ability of the bill to hold up in the supreme court!
On behalf of my fellow gays, I apologise for not making the entire state of Arizona aware that we have money and like to spend it. Please be aware that our pink pounds, dollars, euros do actually get used to buy products and services – but not in places that feel they have the right to judge us for what we are. We vote with our very well shod feet honey and go where we are welcomed!
I feel 2014 is going to be an interested and challenging year for human rights everywhere – watch this space!
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, it’s management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
What happens if you take Andy Bell, lead singer of legendary synth pop band Erasure and Dave Audé legendary remixer (and producer) of songs? A good dance song is your answer!
It’s out on March 18th and you can pre-order the song from iTunes (link below) where you can also hear a 90 second snippet as a little treat.
The Ugandan government has signed into law a bill that will see gay people serving lengthy jail sentences for gay sex.
In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Zain Verjee, Ugandan President Museveni stated that he found homosexuality ‘disgusting’ and ‘abnormal’.
Museveni told Verjee that his message to human rights groups and US President Obama was that they should ‘respect African societies and their values, just the way we don’t interfere with yours. If you don’t agree you just keep quiet. Let us manage our society if we are wrong we will find out by ourselves, just the way we don’t interfere with yours.’
When asked if he personally disliked homosexuals, he commented that ’they are disgusting. What sort of people are they?’ He added: ‘I never knew what they were doing I was told recently. It’s terrible, disgusting but I was ready to ignore that if there was proof that that’s he’s been born abnormal but now the proof is not there.’
Last week US President, Obama Barack, warned Uganda about their ‘odious’ views and that international relations could be strained if they signed the law into power.
The new law proposes that anyone engaging in homosexual acts could face life imprisonment and that anyone who does not report the crime would also fall foul of the law. Even talking about homosexuality without condemning would be a crime under the new bill.
For the first time the new bill also covers lesbian relationships.
The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister has said that the new Ugandan anti-gay law is an ‘abhorrent backwards step’.
The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, is joining the number of world leaders that are openly speaking out against Uganda’s newly signed law which could see gay people jailed.
The new law proposes that anyone engaging in homosexual acts could face life imprisonment and that anyone who does not report the crime would also fall foul of the law. Even talking about homosexuality without condemning would be a crime under the new bill.
For the first time the new bill also covers lesbian relationships.
Taking to Twitter the Liberal Democrat leader said:
‘The Ugandan anti-gay law is an abhorrent backwards step for human rights. It should never be a crime to be LGBT.’
In an interview with CNN Uganda’s President said that gay people were ‘Disgusting’ and ‘Abnormal’
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