Stating the Obvious
I was just reading a new article on Pink News about comedian and TV presenter Paul O’Grady possibly moving to ITV from Channel 4 due to issues about the budget for his show. I was not entirely surprised to see that the very first two words in this article were ‘openly gay.’
A link at the bottom of the page to an old article about Graham Norton possibly taking over O’Grady’s Channel 4 slot begins with the same two words ‘openly gay’.
A few days ago the same two words ‘openly gay’ opened the first paragraph of the report on the tragic death of singer Stephen Gately.
On the same day an article about Stephen Fry’s TV series Kingdom being axed began with the words ‘gay broadcaster’.
Two weeks ago, there was an
article about John Barrowman that spawned all kinds of criticisms
and comments. The headline of the article was ‘Gay Dr Who and
Torchwood Star…” And in the links below was another article about
John that opened with “Gay actor…”At this point let me quote John Barrowman in a Times article marking the anniversary of the Stonewall riots which makes the same point.
“If there’s one thing that annoys me it’s the media that calls me “gay” as a prefix to everything….”
See, even he’s noticed.
Looking further back in the Pink pages I came across further examples of this lazy journalism. These three were one after the other.
“Gay comedian Matt Lucas….”
“Openly gay fashion designer Tom Ford….”
“Gay illusionist Derren Brown….”
And then Graham Norton and John Barrowman popped up again, both still openly gay. As if we didn’t know that. If you took a poll in any high street and asked people to name two gay celebrities chances are those two would be mentioned. Nomad tribes deep in the Sahara who don’t even have a word for gay know that John Barrowman and Graham Norton are gay. Ok, I exaggerate. But you get the point. They’re gay. We don’t need to be told they are every time their names are mentioned in the press.
And it’s the same for the women.
“Lesbian rock icon Melissa Etheridge…”
“Bisexual singer Lady Gaga…”
“Bisexual actress Megan Fox….”
Has anyone ever seen an article that refers to “openly heterosexual actor Brad Pitt” or “completely straight singer, Beyonce” or “pathologically non-gay politician’s wife, Iris Robinson…”
Heterosexual people are not defined by their sexual preferences. Why are gay people?
Why, especially on a website specifically for the LGBT community, is it necessary to keep using phrases like ‘openly gay’ to describe the subjects of the article?
Even if the article is about the fact that the person is gay, such as the recent one about John Barrowman that we all had such fun with, ‘openly gay’ don’t need to be the first two words in the sentence. They don’t need to be in the title. The subject matter speaks for itself.
It is even less necessary when the article is nothing to do with the subject’s sexuality. Paul O’Grady is not moving to ITV because it is a more gay friendly channel. Graham Norton isn’t going to Channel 4 for that reason, either. Kingdom was axed because ITV has budget problems, not because Stephen Fry is gay. And Stephen Gately, bless his poor soul, didn’t die at the terribly young age of 33 because he was gay. The lazy journalism that pigeon-holes people so conveniently seemed all the more annoying in the articles that covered that tragedy.
If gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals are to have a truly equal place in society with everyone who doesn’t fit into one of those categories, then we all have to stop using easy labels, and it ought to start with the people who write the news, especially those who write the Pink News.
Two trans women
FRAR
My hart gos out to moTyli’a 'NaNa Boo' Macks mother
Beverlyn
And to all the parents of transsexuals that have been KILLED.
WHY,,,,,, WHY have we been shot, stabbed, bludgeon, bunt ,drowned, beaten to death with baseball bats or anything these men can lay there hands on..
Going back to the man,,, issue ,,,,well not even men these,,,, do not even deserve to be called men ,,, they are just ,,,,, they have no category, and they should not have one they are just,,, evil….
What have we ever done to them, to deserve this much hatred? Nothing that is what we have done.
We live our life’s,, well we try to live them,
We life in fear,
Fear that we will be picked in the street and called vile names, like pervert nonce freaks,, we are not
Fear that we will be called Mr. or sir, laughed at in shops when we go shopping
Or just hold the line while I look at your account, and just before you are put on hold you hear them laughing
Fear when walking down a road and a group of teenagers start calling you vile names
Spiting at you, throwing things at you,
Fear when we are in our own homes and our houses get stoned or what ever they can throw at your windows , putting things through a letter box like petrol and a match(I do not have a letter box for this reason ) burning down your shed in the garden (I have had this done 2 times)
Fear that when you are out in your car and some yobs smash it up,( I was still in my car when this happened .)
Fear that when you answer your door that some yobs are there to mock you and throw stuff at you, (I now have a doorbell camera so I can see who is at my door be for I open it )
Fear that when yobs are outside your house throwing bricks at it and saying that they will brake in to my house rape me and then burn the house down with me in it. (I have had this said to me)
Fear when Iam walking down the street and I hear footsteps behind me.
I live in fear.
Some people ask WHY live this way, why not go back to being a man
When will that lot get it there heads WE ARE NOT MEN
What man would do this the themselves?????? None
When I have had to call the police out a few times,
And when the local beat bobby calls to get a statement, and I tell him what happened, he asks about my feelings about the whole thing. The first couple times he asked me how I felt about the incidents I told him that I was hurt in side.
The time he came out when they were shouting that they were going to rape me and burn me, he asked me how did it make me feel, I broke down and cried saying that I was scared, freighted, some times I would stay in and not go out .
Paranoid, I am for ever checking that my doors and windows are locked and the keys are not in the doors, sleeping on the sofa and with every little noise I am up checking, if I am going out my front door and I hear voices in the street like kids I go back in to my house and wait till they are gone. This is no way to live. How do I feel sick to my stomach, that in this day age we hurt people because they are different?
When I walk out of my house to go anywhere, even up to my corner shop I have a pepper spray in my hand, when I shop in town and iam walking round the shops I have my pepper spray in my hands.
And if ( touch wood I hope it never happens) I was attacked and I used my pepper spray, it would be me in the dock and not the yobs that kicked shit out of me or if I was killed I would still be one who was in the wrong
WHY DO WE HAVE TO LIVE IN FEAR WHEN WILL ALL THIS HATRED STOP
rememberourdead.com
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