A study of 2000 Brits has revealed that the UK has a bit of a love affair with some very conservative politicians, including Thatcher, Trump, Putin and Palin.
By work provided by Chris Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation – Margaret Thatcher Foundation, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5185418
The research conducted by CamRate, found that Brits found Margaret Thatcher to be the most popular female politician followed by Theresa May. The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon was voted in third place, while Germany’s Angela Merkel came fourth. Angela Merkel is against same-sex marriage equality, having already outlined that she regards marriage as “marriage is the coexistence between a man and a woman”.
Margaret Thatcher, who died in 2013, led the Conservatives from 1979 to 1990 and was instrumental in enforcing Section 28 in schools.
Worryingly Brits seemed to love Republican Sarah Palin (9), whose stance on LGBT rights is horrifying. Former PM hopeful Andrea Leadsom, Priti Patel, and Nicky Morgan also appear in the top 20 all of whom have a less than perfect score when it comes to gay equality votes.
Brits also voted Vladamir Putin in 14th place ahead of Nick Clegg (15) and Tony Blair (16). Tony Blair’s government played a key part in the introduction of Civil Partnerships for gay people in 2004.
It wasn’t all bad news from an LGBT perspective when it came to nation’s favourite politicians, Barack Obama won the vote, with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn taking second and third place.
CREDIT: By Michael Vadon [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsUS President-Elect Donald Trump came fourth, ahead of ex-UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
Here are the top 20 male politicians
1. Barack Obama
2. Boris Johnson
3. Jeremy Corbyn
4. Donald Trump
5. David Cameron
6. Sadiq Khan
7. Bernie Sanders
8. Bill Clinton
9. Gordon Brown
10. Alex Salmond
11. Andy Burnham
12. Ian Duncan Smith
13. Ed Miliband
14. Vladimir Putin
15. Nick Clegg
16. Tony Blair
17. Chuka Umunna
18. Mitt Romney
19. Paul Ryan
20. Zac Goldsmith And the top 20 female politicians.
1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Theresa May
3. Nicola Sturgeon
4. Angela Merkel
5. Caroline Lucas
6. Hilary Clinton
7. Ruth Davidson
8. Harriet Harman
9. Sarah Palin
10. Mhairi Black
11. Angela Eagle
12. Priti Patel
13. Andrea Leadsom
14. Diane Abbott
15. Justine Greening
16. Natalie Bennett
17. Theresa Villers
18. Nicky Morgan
19. Amber Rudd
20. Elizabeth Truss
Interestingly, those who were polled preferred their male candidates to be of a Liberal persuasion, with 12 politicians affiliated with liberal or left-wing parties, to eight who are either Republican or Conservative. Voters showed that they preferred the exact opposite with female politicians, with 12 being of a right-wing or Conservative ideology, with eight being part of liberal or left-wing parties.
Prime Minister Theresa May has attracted criticism after accepting dinner invites with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
The problem is that in all of these nations being gay is illegal and in fact, in no less than two of those nations, the death penalty could be handed down to those convicted of conducting homosexual relationships. Many of the nations also have incredibly poor woman’s rights records as well as severely curtailed freedoms of speech for its citizens.
The Prime Minister is there to attend a dinner before she meets with the Gulf Cooperation Council. She is due to announce a new working group to combat the financing of terrorists. Britain is also unveiling a permanent British defence staff in Dubai and will also provide three specialist cyber experts whose goals will be to detect and deal with extremism, according to the Independent.
Critics have taken to social media to vent their disgust at the decision to meet and eat with the leaders of these countries with appalling human rights history.
So if you’re planning to book Milo Yiannopoulos for conservative chat you’d better be ready to go on a shopping expedition in order to get him in the mood to perform.
CREDIT: Milo Yiannopoulos / Instagram
The Tab revealed what’s on the journalist and the Internet’s super villain’s rider.
So it starts off pretty legit. Bottles of champagne, trainer approved snacks and fruit, a full-length mirror, cough drops and humidifier, WiFi and then it gets weird. Really weird.
He wants his peaches defuzzed, an 8×10 framed signed photo of himself, non-fair trade coffee, a bowl and a half of green M&Ms (approx 1400) and a fruit platter prepared to form an M shape. Oh and he also wants a snow cone machine.
But then things get a little outrageous…
He doesn’t want gingers – but he does want four topless Abercrombie models and his preference is black models. Anyone who identifies as lesbian must remain 100 feet away from him. They are not permitted to wear khakis, flannel, Birkenstocks, or plaid. All female staff are required to wear brassieres or other supportive undergarments.
And if you get things wrong expect huge fines.
He doesn’t want phone calls in his dressing room – any disturbance will find a venue being fined $5000 and he hears Adele playing the venue will be fined $7,500.
And for on stage? He requests a fog machine and bear spray.
Milo confirmed to The Tab that the rider was authentic.
Last week Milo had a scheduled talk at his old school, The Langton Grammar School for Boys, cancelled amid security concerns. Activists were planning a protest outside the school, which caused the Department for Education’s counter extremism unit to reach out to the school.
Read the full rider below:
1. DRESSING ROOM
6 x Bottles San Pellegrino, chilled
2 x Laurent-Perrier Brut NV Methuselah
3 dozen poppy bagels, seeds removed
5 x good quality Sancerre
6 packs Newport shorts
Trainer-approved snack, fruits
Fresh fruit platter, prepared in shape of capital ‘M’
4 x Japanese square watermelon
Snow cone machine
2 buckets KFC Extra Crispy thighs should be ready upon arrival; skin removed & set aside in third bucket
Bacon
Hot and cold meal options – Gordon Ramsay recipes.
Preferred meats: Veal, suckling pig
Use only French fleur-du-sel, Northwest coast preferred source
8 dozen double-stuff Oreos, halved & spliced together to make 4 dozen double-double stuff Oreos
Cave-aged Gruyere
A bowl and a half of green M&M’s (approx 1400)
2 x tin petrossian royal ossetra caviar
30 x peaches, defuzzed
Advil/Tylenol
Hot water (filtered), fresh honey and lemon
Coffee: Hawaiian, grown in volcanic foothills; or any non-fair-trade source/country
Cough drops
Humidifier
WiFi (2 dedicated networks, high-speed)
Central air-conditioning
Full-length mirror
Working outlets/ power strips, extension cords
2 dozen white roses, de-thorned, cut to 8-9 inches
3 pack x Scented markers
Framed,signed 8×10 photo of artist, next to roses;
NB: attendant rotate frame hourly to maintain sun aspect
Room with east & west views
Framed 8×10 portrait of Daddy; frame must be gilded/gold-leaf; placed adjacent to artist’s
Hand lotion; any South Korean brand containing horse oil banned in the USA & EU
On-call registered nurse for B-12 injections
3 Siberian Husky puppies
4 topless Abercrombie models, BLACK PREFERRED — NO gingers
Tahitian Vanilla candles, minimum 12 hour burning time
10 ‘torchiere-style’ floor lamps
Assorted ceramic tableware
Hot & cold towels (Ralph Lauren)
Framed 8×10 black-and-white photo of Princess Di, placed on windowsill
Tiara
Johnson’s baby oil (slightly heated)
Star Wars Top Trumps
Assistant to read my speech on repeat to artist
Selection of minimum 12 world capital major newspapers, ironed
20 x international phone lines
75 x $1 bills
Registered on-call acupuncturist
Strictly Non-Smoking Rooms
Carpet & upholstery deodorized
Framed 8×10 of Mariah Carey, always placed facing the doorway, set next to the white roses
Framed 5×7 photo of J.Lo (ideally Jenny From the Block era)
Politics is Gay – Why Being Gay Makes Voting Impossible
As I have gotten older and educated myself, my politics has changed dramatically. When I was 19, I wrote an article arguing that gay marriages should not be allowed in churches because it wasn’t fair to the religious beliefs of others. I was, quite rightly, schooled by my peers on how ridiculous that was. I also received an email from a gay couple who, as Catholics, always felt marginalised by their faith and that they hoped to get married in a Church one day. So my viewpoint evolved.
The recent US Election has led to pro-Trump people arguing that Trump is better for LGBT people because he’s always been pro-marriage and correctly pointed out that President Obama and Secretary Clinton were against gay marriage for some time. That got me thinking about how my politics has changed and how it’s difficult to always get it right. I wondered then, is politics lose-lose for gay people?
I would describe my politics as ‘warped’. I don’t believe that immigration should be uncapped, I don’t believe in free movement of people and I believe the welfare state should be reformed. However, I also don’t believe in allowing people to suffer, I do believe in skilled workers emigrating to the UK and I also don’t believe that those in need should be left below the poverty line. A friend of mine annoyed at my viewpoint, told me that ‘liberalism isn’t pick and mix. You must pick a side’.
Many would agree with him, argue that I’m wishy-washy but it’s hard for me.
I wrote recently about my Diabetes diagnosis in March 2016. I was sick for six weeks prior to diagnosis and struggled to get a doctor’s appointment. I had a meeting with the lead GP who told me that the surgery was struggling due to an influx of Eastern European patients moving in the area. It was argued to me by some friends that the result of this influx should be more money into the NHS rather than blaming those who come here. However, I come from a small Cheshire town which is equal distance to Liverpool and Manchester that, due to a housing crisis in cities, has had most of its green belt land sold for housing to be build. There has been zero infrastructural investment in assisting with the influx of people to the town so now there are issues with traffic and public transport. For me, something has to give.
But then there’s the gay problem. LGBT people tend to be liberal and progressive. We have fought for years for equality, fairness and respect. We tend to align ourselves with other marginalised groups that are also currently facing prejudice, hate and violence. It is, therefore, for me, a strong consideration in my politics. I am not middle class yet I am not working class. According to the BBC Great British Class Calculator, I am part of the ‘Emergent Services Workers’ class. I do, however, do better financially under a Conservative Government’s policy than a Labour Government’s policy. I live from wage to wage with little savings, little hope of owning my own house and a high rent bill. Yet, I also know that the Conservative Party has a sketchy history with LGBT rights. They are known as the party that brought in Marriage Equality but, actually, it was the work of the Lib Dems that helped usher that in.
Interestingly, 126 Conservatives voted for marriage equality yet a total 134 voted against it.
There were 35 Conservatives including current Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond who didn’t vote at all. However, it was recently revealed Justine Greening, Education Secretary, may be considering teaching inclusive sex and relationship education in schools which would, of course, be a major step after the dark days of Section 28.
The Brexit vote was also difficult. As a gay man who was concerned about the economic implications of our future in the EU as well as the UK Sovereignty issue, I was also well aware of the EU’s role (especially in regards to Human Rights) in enshrining gay rights in the UK. So the real question here is how far do you let your gayness eschew your political view?
Should it be the leading factor in making your mind up?
I am not affiliated with any political party but, as I get older, I become increasingly political. The election of Donald Trump worries me less than the ascension of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Pence is staunchly anti-Gay and believes in gay conversion therapy. He also thinks LGBT people should be allowed to be discriminated against based on people’s religions. So, you can imagine my horror when Boris Johnson recently doubled down on how much he’s looking forward to working with him.
The future of LGBT rights in the UK is also something little discussed as we head further to the March deadline for triggering Article 50. Whilst it’s comforting having an LGBT person as Equality Minister (Justine Greening, who is also Education Secretary as noted above) it is vitally important that the UK continues to ensure LGBT rights are protected and make a commitment to that prior to us leaving the EU.
I am a man divided. I am conservative (with a small ‘c’) when it comes to many things (I am even for the Buckingham Palace refurb!) but I’m also widely liberal. I am concerned by levels of immigration but even more concerned for those who are persecuted in their own countries to the point of violence.
I stare in abject horror of images of gay men being thrown from buildings. My heart breaks to hear of disabled people dying due to poverty caused by welfare cuts. I feel unrepresented by modern politics and every election seems to offer me a rock and a hard place.
Do I vote as a citizen or do I vote as a gay man? Either way, to me, it’s always lose-lose.
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.
Given we’ve all become political pundits over the last few weeks, let’s try a little thought experiment. Take a moment to imagine you’re running for election. 10 million LGBT votes up for grabs. What policies do you think would be vote winners?
You’ll be forgiven if gay conversion therapy is low down on your list. Likewise, any policies that allow shops to refuse LGBT customers. And I doubt you’ve written down that companies should be able to fire people because of who they have sex with, rather than competency in the job.
So it’s not unreasonable that all three – just for starters – would be a complete turn-off. What then are we to make of the 14 percent of LGBT voters who plumped for Trump?
Take a look at what they voted for: 1) Opposing a ban on electrocution therapies to ‘shock away the gay’ 2) Attacking same-sex adoption and parenting 3) Repeal of equal marriage – he’s now claimed the law is settled, but do we really believe anything he says? 4) A new law that would allow rampant religious discrimination of LGBT people, in the workplace, as consumers, when they’re ill
Almost a million LGBT people looked at this platform and gave it a thumbs up. Or at best, a dismissive shrug. That’s a lot of turkeys voting for Christmas.
For anyone working on equality and human rights issues, this is the loudest of wake up calls. The hard-won progress achieved by western countries over the last few decades always seemed irreversible, even if we knew better in the back of our minds. Plus, we had our opponents pegged. We knew the far right and fundamentalist Christians wanted to push the LGBT community back in the closet and lock the door, but they were on the fringes.
Turns out we didn’t spot the danger of those much closer to home. Before this election, who would have thoughts there were LGBT people who were willing to overlook policies that would fundamentally attack their human rights. Not only that, but they would also support a candidate who has fanned the flames of the far right, empowering those very groups that have attacked the LGBT community so viciously for all those years.
What’s going on? Ask LGBT people who voted Republican at this election and they’ll claim that Trump is actually a friend of the gays, proving that Facebook isn’t the only one with a strange definition of that term. Strict controls on immigration will protect the LGBT community from anti-gay foreigners, they say. Have they not noticed the huge elephant in the room? The one with the white pointy hat and robes? It’s like jumping into the jaws of a crocodile to hide from a wolf howling in the distance; I guess ‘they’re homophobes, but at least they’re our homophobes’.
Then there are the voters who claim that there are ‘bigger issues to solve’. It’s hard to disagree with that sentiment when American fascism is on the rise. But I guess that’s not what they mean. They’re primarily talking jobs and wages. In short, for the sake of a decent pay cheque each month they’re not too fussed with outright racism, they’re fine with a Muslim registry, and if women are caught in the cross-hairs too, well so be it.
As a group LGBT people have suffered the very worst forms of discrimination and prejudice. Although many now live under almost full legal equality, none of us should be blind to how hard it was to get here, or the ongoing struggles of minority groups within our community. LGBT people of all stripes should be defending equality and human rights like our lives depended on it, because at one time, that was exactly the case. And for others it still is. Yet there are those who seem content to vote us all back into the political closet. It makes you wonder just how bad it would have to be before groups like Gays for Trump prioritised equality? A Uganda-style ‘kills the gays’ bill and maybe they’ll pause for thought?
We need to find answers to why people are so willing to give this administration the benefit of the doubt. And urgently, because you’d probably find similar constituencies across the Western world right now. Fascists and the far-right are on the march, in America of all places. If the dream of progress is about to turn into a nightmare for many LGBT people, it’s time we all woke up.
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.
Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was supposed to host a lecture at his former school, The Langton Grammar School for Boys, however, it has been cancelled due to “safety concerns” after the school was contacted by the Department for Education’s (DfE) “counter-extremism unit”.
CREDIT: LeWeb14 / Flickr
Milo Yiannopoulos, the self-proclaimed, super villain of the internet has had a scheduled talk cancelled after the school was contacted by the Department for Education’s (DfE) “counter-extremism unit” after concerns about safety were called into question.
Around 220 students had signed up to hear Milo speak. A spokesperson for the school noted that, “the staff and students of the school were overwhelmingly in favour”, of Milo’s visit.
Concerns for the security of the school site and the school’s community were raised after activists planned to demonstrate during the event.
The school’s spokesperson said,
“This decision was taken following contact from the DfE counter-extremism unit, the threat of demonstrations at the school by organised groups and members of the public and our overall concerns for the security of the school site and the safety of our community.
“We note that, within 24 hours of advertising the event, 220 Langton sixth formers had, with parental consent, signed up for the event and that objection to our hosting Yiannopoulos came almost entirely from people with no direct connection to The Langton. The staff and students of the school were overwhelmingly in favour.
“Whilst disappointed that both the pastoral care and intellectual preparation we offer to our students has been called into question, we at The Langton remain committed to the principle of free speech and open debate and will resist, where possible, all forms of censorship.”
Writing on his Facebook page on Monday, Milo said,
“My old high school has been bullied into canceling my talk on Tuesday by the “counter-extremism” unit at the U.K. Department of Education.
Who even knew the DoE had a counter-extremism unit? And that it wasn’t set up to combat terrorism but rather to punish gays with the wrong opinions? Perhaps if I’d called the speech “MUSLIMS ARE AWESOME!” they’d have left us alone. Disgusted.
Amy Lamé is under pressure to put her political leanings to one side after a number of Tweets she sent before her appointment as London’s “Night Tzar” criticise Tory politicians.
CREDIT: HM Treasury
Earlier this month the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan appointed Amy Lamé as a figurehead in supporting London’s 24-hour economy. However, she has come under pressure to put her politics to one side after a number of offensive Tweets to numerous Tory politicians were unearthed.
Leaders of Conservative-run boroughs in London are calling on Amy Lamé to show bipartisanship after she described Conservative MSP Ruth Davidson as ” Tory scum” during the Stonewall Awards, and called former Chancellor, George Osbourne a “c**t”.
CREDIT: Twitter
In a Tweet sent in 2015, Amy said,
“I could say that @George_Osborne is a c***. but he has neither the warmth not the depth. #tampontax”
In a letter to Amy, leaders of six boroughs, Westminster, Wandsworth, Bexley, Kensington & Chelsea, Hillingdon and Kingston councils, which are all Conservative-led, pointed out that the new Night Czar had made her political leanings “very clear”.
They wrote:
“We are therefore writing to seek reassurance that you will approach your important new role in a bipartisan way and work constructively with Conservative councils.
“We ask that you put your political bias to one side and set out how you will work with all councils to promote and protect Greater London’s night time economy.”
The picture uploaded to his Instagram has already attracted nearly 21,000 likes and nearly 300 comments haven’t impressed his fans with some question WTF was he thinking.
Joey has been filming in the States up in a programme called Living The American Reem on ITV2 exploring the political divisions in the US.
Gay rights, such as same-sex marriage could be under threat now that Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States. It all depends on who he chooses to appoint as a new Supreme Court Justice. There is currently one vacancy on the bench after the extremely conservative Antonin Scalia died in February.
The Supreme Court, which makes rulings on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, has nine judges and they are appointed by the President. They are only replaced when they die, decide to retire or a impeached for wrong-doing.
As it stands the judges are balanced between liberal and conservative politics. However, two liberal judges, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83, and Stephen Breyer, 78, may choose to retire soon which would leave Donald Trump able to replace those with more conservative judges meaning that the political skew of the Supreme Court would be conservative rather than liberal.
When same-sex marriage was legalised across all 50 states the vote was made 5 to 4. The four Justices who voted against the decision (Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito) were all conservative leaning judges.
Democrats do have the ability to block a judge’s appointment using a filibuster in the Senate.
The world is still stunned by the dramatic results of the US Presidential election which saw Donald J Trump become President-elect of the USA. However, despite his win, only 25.5 percent of the votes cast were actually for Donald. Hillary actually managed to scrape an extra 0.1% of the vote. Which is just under 200,000 votes.
In the US voting system, candidates compete to obtain the most electoral votes rather than the popular vote. Each state has a number of electoral votes depending on its size. Some states like California have 55, while others like Alaska, despite its massive size, have just three. It depends on the state’s population.
Whoever gets the most votes in a state wins all the state’s electoral votes. We have something similar in the UK – and it’s called “First Past The Post”. A candidate must reach 270 electoral votes to win.
Just over half of all eligible voters took to the polls in the US elections.
According to the United States Election Project, 46.9 percent of around 231,556,622 eligible Americans (that’s 108,600,055 people) did not make it to the voting booth. The turnout was much lower than the two previous elections of 2008 and 2012.
By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America
And if you’re wondering how many votes were cast for each candidate:
25.6% voted for Clinton
25.5% voted for Trump
1.7% voted for Johnson
So people, remember when there’s an election get out and vote.
The internet just handed Azealia’s ass on a plate to her.
Largely ignored rapper Azealia Bankshas taken to Facebook (because she was banned from Twitter) to talk about how President Donald Trump is her hero, whilst calling Clinton a “cow” and insisting that she is elated by the election outcome, which has stunned the world.
Azealia who has in the past been blasted for her homophobia told her fans that America deserved a.
“WAAAAAAAY better first female president then trash ass Hilary (sic).”
She then went on to put Katy Perry and Lady Gaga on blast for thinking that their “dry ass celebrity power” would sway the voting Americans to plump for Clinton.
“they said Katy and Gaga was backstage crying I would have laughed real hard and loud right in their faces LMFAOOO”
She finished her rant with the following message, in all caps:
“TRUMP BEAT THE MEDIA.
THIS IS DEEPER THAN POLITICS.
HE BEAT THE F***ING MEDIA
HE IS MY F***ING HERO RIGHT NOW.
I AM ELATED.”
Many of her followers replied to the rant calling her out on how “ridiculous” she was.
