THEGAYUK

Tag: Homophobia

The latest news about homophobia across the UK and the globe.

  • COMMENT | Homophobic Abuse Or A Simple Excuse To Hurl Abuse?

    Aren’t we trying to get straight people to accept us, not continue to hate us but worry about opening their gob for fear of being sent to prison?

    Please make sure if you read this, you read the last paragraph. It explains that this is not directed at individuals, but at a specific topic recently highlighted in the news.

    The most common type of homophobia today is uneducated people, who see us as an easy target to hurl some abuse at. How many times have us gays verbally abused someone because they’re overweight? How many times have we called someone a tramp because of how they dress where they live? AND ALSO, how many times have we verbally abused a gay lad because he was super camp? Surely the latter makes you just as homophobic?

    I am all for fighting for our rights, and I respect the people who have worked very hard to make living as a homosexual as easy as it is today. Recent events in the news annoy me and not for the same reason most of you are annoyed. I am annoyed because some members of the public want a guy sent to prison for being mouthy in public. I agree justice should be served when an offence is committed, like physical abuse or life-threatening bullying; but all he was doing is taking the piss out of someone for being a poof!

    We want to be equal, correct? We want straight people to accept us and not think we are annoying drama queens right? THEN STOP GIVING THEM REASON TO HATE US! When a guy calls me a queer, I laugh at them and sometimes offer them more time to think of a better insult. Do you think a straight person would even consider sending a gay to prison for heterophobic abuse? I refer to them as breeders all the time, not once has a heterosexual been offended.

    I always remember my mum telling me, if you show that it gets to you when people wind you up; they are going to continue doing it. People should all take a leaf out of her book and brush off pathetic verbal abuse!

    Next time you receive homophobic abuse, just walk on as all that was said was a cheap immature shot to get to you.

    Surely we can’t justify convicting someone for a type of verbal abuse, when nearly all of us judge and take the piss out of others for reasons equally offensive to them.

     

    HYPOCRISY

    Noun: The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behaviour does not conform; pretence.

    I just want to say that this is no way targeted at the two lads involved in the recent event, one of whom I know more than the other and know he is a very nice, caring guy; I know they weren’t expecting this to be such a viral cause.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • NoHomophobes.com Launches Hard Hitting Television Ad

    Brand new Public Service Announcement for NoHomophobes.com aims to get viewers to question whether anti-gay slurs are still acceptable.

    The University of Alberta in Canada, the institute behind the website NoHomophobes.com, has released its first public service announcement to draw attention to the language we use in day to day life.

    Words like faggot, dyke, and homo are just a few slandering words still casually used in everyday speech. In response, a new television commercial has just hit the airwaves asking why we continue to tolerate homophobic language. The commercial is the next phase of a “No Homophobes” campaign developed by the University of Albertaʼs Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (iSMSS).

    In a statement Dr. Kristopher Wells from NoHomophobes.com said,

    “We no longer tolerate racist language, weʼre getting better at dealing with sexist language, but sadly we still see and hear homophobic and transphobic language in our society,” says Dr. Kristopher Wells, the Instituteʼs Associate Director. “While this language might not always be meant to be hurtful, we must not forget that words like “faggot” contribute greatly to the continued alienation and isolation of sexual and gender (LGBTQ) people, especially our youth.”

    The commercial also directs viewers to www.nohomophobes.com, the iSMSS site that tracks homophobic words on Twitter. The site, which shows actual live tweets, has tracked over 6 million tweets containing “faggot” since July 2012. Nohomophobes.com itself has had remarkable worldwide attention since launching in September 2012, with media coverage coming from Western Canada to the UK and Italy to Cambodia.

    The commercial was produced with generous support from Global Television.

    “We are proud to be part of this campaign,” says Tim Spelliscy, Senior Regional Director Global News Edmonton and Prairie Region. “This is a pressing social issue that has been swept under the surface for far too long.”

    Nohomophobes.com was honoured in this year’s New Year’s Recognition list by TheGayUK for its services to LGBT activism, awareness and politics.

  • Channel 4 Allows The Word “Faggot” To Be Broadcast

    A documentary series following young Brits over a summer in Kavos, Corfu, allows viewers a glimpse of what really happens in the hedonistic party town away from parents and surrounded by temptation, broadcasts the potentially offensive word Faggot.

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  • American Rapper Azealia Banks In “Faggot” Row With Perez Hilton

    The ‘BBD’ singer reacted to criticism from the gay blogger by calling him a ‘messy faggot’.

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  • COLUMN: Pride Rage

    So the pope is now on Twitter.

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  • Top Homophobic Celebrity Tweets

    Some celebrities just don’t know when to quit, do they? We’ve been searching high and low for those Celebs who have tweeted something homophobic.

    The word “Faggot” has been used million times of times. According to nohomophobes.com, it’s been used over 34,000,000 times on Twitter since 2012. It shows just how far we’ve yet to go. However what is more distressing is that the celeb world has also had its fair share of anti-gay Tweeting action. We’ve done some digging and here are our top celebrity twitter gaffes.

    First up is Burnley footballer Andre Gray who posted a number of homophobic and offensive tweets in 2012. He was fined £25,000 and banned from four games.

    One tweet read,

    ‘Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #Makesmesick.’

    NEXT: Liam Gallagher

  • Fever FM Fined £4000 For Violent Threats Against Gay People

    A UK based radio station was fined £4000 after one of its presenters said that gay people were ‘evil’ and should be ‘punished, rebuked, beaten and humiliated.’ (more…)

  • X Factor Homophobia Towards Rylan Clark Continues

    Sunday night’s episode saw Lucy Spraggan, Jade Ellis and Rylan Clark make history on ITV’s flagship show X FACTOR.

    The openly gay singers battled 10,000s of hopefuls to be one of the twelve contestants to make it through to the live show.

    Lucy Spraggan and Jade Ellis are the first openly gay women to appear on the show. Lucy, 21 from Canterbury took to Twitter last night to say:

     

    ‘That was intense… It begins here.”

     

    However there was a dark cloud over Rylan’s camp as an outpouring of homophobic messages flooded social networks, after his trademark larger than life reaction to the news that Nicole Scherzinger was taking him through to the live shows.

     

    ‘Is this a wind-up? Are you having me on?’ he questioned.

    Rylan later added:

    ‘We’re going to have a right laugh.’

     

    Despite his outrageous reaction to the news Rylan insisted that he isn’t the joke finalist of this year’s competition.

     

    He said:

    ‘I think at the beginning of this process everyone looked at me as a bit of a joker and then people couldn’t be more wrong. I had to go in there and show that I can be serious and be a singer.

    ‘I haven’t really got that much back home, I want to turn that around I want to be achieving something rather than keep being a let-down. I have got nothing to go back to now. I’ve got too much riding on this.’

     

    Last week we reported that some users had issued death threats to the Essex singer and reality star.

     

    Rylan hit back on twitter saying:

    ‘I’ve ben [sic] told not to react to all the shit on here but I’m sorry, I’m a mouthy bastard so I’m gonna… I’ve EARNED my place at judges houses just like every other person in this comp, not everyone is going to like me, I know that, but don’t … Judge me for doing something I’ve always wanted to do, for those who are supportive thank you so much, it means the world…..’

     

    He continued:

     

    ‘I understand I’m going to be the one you either love or hate and that’s fine, you can’t please everyone. I have a thick skin and have had to deal with things in the past. But it’s horrible when you have 250,000 people giving you abuse.

    ‘I’ve had death threats and I’ve been told I’m going to get bottled when I go to clubs. I’ve been told I’m going to have my face sliced open. I’m getting a lot of homophobic gay-bashing abuse which, I’m sad to say, is expected.

    ‘Some people are tweeting me like I’m a murderer. It’s absolutely disgusting.’

     

    An alarming number of Twitter followers took to the micro social network to call for the death of the singer.

     

    User @annabelphelan tweeted:

    Rylan Clarke needs to die in a fire.

     

    @elliscarr

    I’m gonna kill Rylan Clarke [sic] !! Anyone fancy joining me?

     

    Whilst other users were openly homophobic:

     

    @Niall_Breen98

    that rylan fella needs a kick in the stones… queer.

     

    @Mariyah1993

    I really dislike gay people. especially this rylan person. His gayness makes me want to stab him. Imagine that was your son? #Astagfirullah.

     

    So far the police have not been involved and no official complaints have been lodged.

     

    A spokesperson for XFACTOR said:

     

    ‘The welfare of our contestants is always our key priority and we work with them to provide what support is needed.’

    All contestants are given briefings on social media and are encouraged to block abusive messages – or to engaged in any negative comments. Any abuse on social networks is reported to platform – and to the police if ‘deemed to be serious’

     

     

    A Spokesperson for Twitter said:

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

     

    The live shows start next Saturday night at 8.10PM.

  • Rylan Faces Homophobic Tweets

    The judges of the X Factor caused controversy and a social media meltdown yesterday when they announced that contestant Rylan Clark would be going through to the next round – the all important judges’ houses; causing the Essex wannabe’s name to trend worldwide last night.

     

    Many users took to micro-social media site Twitter to vent their outrage.
    Reality Starlet Mille Mackintosh from Made In Chelsea wrote:

    ‘just had to turn the tv down #xfactor #rylan’

    User @jaymeatsix said:

    ‘Absolutely dreadful decision to put that Rylan Clark through!!’

    And @hannthewanted Tweeted:

    ‘Yeah but Rylan is a novelty act compared to everybody else talent.’

    Rylan who appeared in last night’s show in ‘Spikes and Sparkles’ sang his own club version of Pussycat Dolls’ song ‘Don’t Cha’.


    Gary Barlow who is an outspoken critic of Rylan was not moved by the blonde turned brunette, when the openly gay hunk said:

    “This is my only chance to show you guys what I’m all about… I’m not a Whitney wannabe’

    A fair amount of homophobic abuse was hurled at him via the site, with user ‏@KyleHankins tweeting:

    ‘That f**king rylan only got through because he’s gay and louis fancies him #queerc**ts’

    And @DaleRawlings7

    ‘People wonder why were sometimes harsh to gay ppl [sic] then idiots like rylan clarke [sic] come on TV’

    Whilst @craigmaiden22

    XFactor is Corrupt I’m hearing Rylan (fake made up gay homo name) got through, who wants to find him and kill him ?!

    Rylan has tweeted in the past that he had be dealing with death threats since appearing on ITV’s flagship show – but said:

    ‘It’s all part of the fun.’

    An X Factor spokesperson said:

    ‘We are looking into the matter.’

    X Factor continues next Saturday at 8.10PM

  • PARIS HILTON Gay Guys “They’re Disgusting… Most Of Them Probably Have AIDS”

    Radoronline.com are reporting that Paris Hilton has been caught on tape making homophobic remarks about homosexual men who use the mobile phone App Grindr.

    The site has the recording currently available for streaming of a conversation that reportedly takes place between Paris and a gay friend in a cab ride.

    The male friend said:

    “Say I log into Grindr, someone that’s on Grindr can be in that building and it tells you all the locations of where they are and you can be like, ‘Yo, you wanna f**k?’ and he might be on like, the sixth floor,”

    “Ewww. Eww. To get f**ked? Gay guys are the horniest people in the world,” Paris is heard saying.

    “They’re disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS.”

    The cab driver who recorded the conversation between the male model and the heiress said:

    “I couldn’t believe what was coming out of Paris’ mouth and the way she was talking about gay men.”

    During the 50 second clip, Paris is also heard to say:

    “I would be so scared if I were a gay guy,” Paris says.

    “You’ll like, die of AIDS.”

    When RadarOnline.com asked Paris Hilton’s spokesperson for a comment tell were told:

    “Paris Hilton’s comments were to express that it is dangerous for anyone to have unprotected sex that could lead to a life threatening disease. The conversation became heated, after a close gay friend told her in a cab ride, a story about a gay man who has AIDS and is knowingly having unprotected sex. He also discussed a website that encourages random sex by gay men with strangers. As she was being shown the website her comments were in reference to those people promoting themselves on the site. The cab driver who recorded this, only provided a portion of the conversation. It was not her intent to make any derogatory comments about all gays. Paris Hilton is a huge supporter of the gay community and would never purposefully make any negative statements about anyone’s sexual orientation.”

     

    You can hear the audio at http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/09/paris-hilton-blasts-gay-men-aids-audio-recordings

    UPDATE:

    Perez Hilton has waded into the conversation – and has taken to his blog site to state that: ‘Paris reached out to us to EXCLUSIVELY share her side of the story.”

    The report goes on to say:

    “Our insider explained to us that this convo was recorded while Paris and her GAY friends were taking a cab during Fashion’s Night Out. While the source concedes that she and her pals were “obviously wasted,” the source explains that Paris’ friends were actually just concerned about a friend of theirs in Spain who knowingly has AIDS, but still has unprotected sex with people and doesn’t tell them! When Paris’ pals went on to share that this Spanish friend was also actively seeking sexual partners online for unprotected sex, that’s when the comments of these types of actions being “gross” and “disgusting” came into play. According to our insider, Paris’ comments were directed towards one reckless individual, not the community at large.

    In regards to the recording, we’re told the cab driver “tampered with the tape, cut up conversation and only used small part of the conversation.” Obviously, leaving out the initial part about the irresponsible friend of her friend makes Paris seem equally as ignorant, but such is just not the case. We’ve been assured that not only is Paris beside herself over this whole ordeal, but considering that 80% of her friends are gay, she feels this is “beyond lame.”

    Yeah, it really kind of is. Disregarding the complete invasion of privacy and the blatant exploitation of a celeb to make $$$, this is the wrong kind of catalyst to get people talking about the gay community. We can only imagine how many people are going to run with this story and make a big production about gays spreading AIDS, rather than get conversations going on what we can do, as a human community, to find a cure or better educate those who are infected.” –

    Read the full story at www.perezhilton.com

  • Tom Daley Sent Anti-Gay Tweet

    An anti-gay Tweet featured on Daniel Thomas’ Twitter stream yesterday after Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield narrowly missed out on a medal at the London Olympics.

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