UK Radio Station Fined After Branding Gay People Evil

A community radio station in the English city of Leeds has been fined £4000 ($6412) after one of its homophobic advocated homophobic violence and branded gay people as “evil” and “shameful”.

The Fever 107.3 FM, a small local station dedicated to the Asian community, presenter Rubina Nasir, sometimes known as ‘Sister Ruby‘ made the revolting homophobic comments during August 2011.

The bigoted Nasir opened her Sister Ruby Ramadan Special 2011 show with a verse from the Quran (Sura Al-Nisa, verse 16) and then spouted her own interpretation of the verse, as being highly critical of mixed-faith marriages and also of same-sex relationships. She went on to discuss various historical events portrayed in the Quran in the context of her main focus on homosexuality.

At one point during the programme she said: “What should be done if they do [practise homosexuality]? If there are two such persons among you, that do this evil, the shameful act, what do you have to do? Torture them; punish them; beat them and give them mental torture.”

During the investigation by the UK’s broadcasting watchdogs OfCom, they found that Nasir comments were “likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime”. Accordingly they fined the small fine of £4,000. However they stopped short of revoking the stations broadcasting licence saying it “would not be appropriate to shorten, suspend or revoke Radio Asian Fever’s licence”.

Two London Universities Facing Student Backlash

Students at one of London’s premier universities ‘King’s College London’ are actively campaigning to have the photo of the former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey removed from a display of famous alumni, due to his deeply homophobic attitudes and statements.

King’s College London

King’s College London

The former Archbishop of Canterbury studied at the college and graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) 2:1 degree after which he was ordained.

According to various local media reports, the King’s College Student Union have described Lord Carey’s recent comments against equal marriage as “outdated, hurtful and offensive”.

Carey is no stranger to criticism, just a few weeks ago in October many equality campaigners were appalled after he invoked memories of the Holocaust during a speech concerning the religious opponents of same-sex marriage at a Conservative Party Conference fringe event. He said: “Same-sex relationships are not the same as heterosexual relationships and should not be put on the same level. Why does it feel to us that our cultural homeland and identity is being plundered?”

The former leader of the Church of England also warned that equal marriage would pave the way for traditional Mormon-style polygamous relationships, pointing to an application in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a man to enter into a civil union with two women, “That is getting into a Mormon-style relationship,” Lord Carey said after the event. “It’s a slippery slope.”

“For more than two decades, Dr Carey has opposed gay equality and supported the legal discrimination against gay people, suggesting that same-sex love is inferior and a scandal.” stated veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell recently, adding “If Dr Carey said these things about black or Jewish people his display would almost certainly be removed. The stance of the King’s College administration looks hypocritical. They seem to have double standards on racism and homophobia.”

The university board has repeatedly stated it has no intention of removing Lord Carey’s image, thereby pledging support for his views and outspoken attacks on equality and gay people.
Meanwhile another London university is attracting media attention and condemnation for allowing a deeply offensive and homophobic hate preacher to make a speech on campus.

Brunel University in Uxbridge, west London confirms that hate preacher Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is due to make a speech to Brunel’s Islamic Society on Tuesday 27 November.

Thahabi is well known for his homophobic views and has previously urged that gay people should be punished with death. “Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain,” Thahabi stated on camera during a national TV programme. “If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech, isn’t it?” The controversial preacher was caught on camera addressing worshippers at Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham.

He has repeatedly mocked Western attitudes, especially those towards women and verbally attacked both Christians and Jews. However the university authorities are allowing this man to speak – “The talk is going ahead as we have a legal duty to protect freedom of speech and we have asked for assurances from the Union of Brunel Students that this person will not breach the policies of the university, such as those on equality and diversity. However, if we are concerned that these policies will be breached, the event will not be allowed to take place.” claims its statement.

The question that arises for the university is where the lines are actually drawn between free speech and hate speech both in terms of legally and morally. Earlier this year, Thahabi was prevented from speaking at the University of Warwick’s Islamic Society, following a backlash by students.

New UK Anti-Gay Marriage Archbishop Announced.

The Bishop of Durham Justin Welby has been named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England. The Eaton and Cambridge University educated man is a former oil trader and has only been the Bishop of Durham for a year will take of from the current archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams towards the end of the year.

Only last month, Dr Williams, admitted the Church of England’s attitude to gay relationships had often been harmful to gay people he had also said that while his leadership was “wrong” not to have advocated gay equality, David Cameron was wrong to have embarrassed the church over the issue of equal marriage.

Bishop Welby comes from a more conservative evangelical position who is strict on belief in the bible and is opposed to same-sex marriage as well as gay people serving as bishops. However during a speech in London on Friday he offered a little glimmer of hope that gay’s are not going to face a religious battering when he takes over, saying the Church of England must have “no truck with any form of homophobia”.

During the speech at Lambeth Palace Welby indicated he might be willing to talk to the gay community.

“It is absolutely right for the state to define the rights and status of people cohabiting in different forms of relationships, including civil partnerships.

“We must have no truck with any form of homophobia in any part of the church”.

He also said that he supported the House of Bishops’ statement in the summer in response to the government’s consultation on same-sex marriage, they strongly opposed the measure. Welby added, “But I also know I need to listen very attentively to the LGBT communities and examine my own thinking carefully and prayerfully,”

I’m not holding my breath for a more liberal Church of England and whilst I really do believe that before the 2015 elections, we will see marriage equality in the UK, the fight from the church will be particularly vicious and ferocious.

Legal Safeguards Possible For UK Church’s In Gay Marriage Bill

The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain is considering additional “locks” for its proposed equal marriage legislation in order to protect faith groups from the threat of legal action, if the legislation goes ahead, according to the Culture Secretary Maria Miller.

During an interview with serious British newspaper the Telegraph, Mrs Miller said: “I would not introduce a Bill that would in any way impinge on a church’s power to decide who it marries. Faith groups should have the ability to control that. There are already clear protections within European law. Marriage is all about creating some stability in society.” she told the paper.

The possible introduction of protections for religious bodies in the bill comes after months of warnings from back bench MP‘s that European law increases the risk of faith organisations facing potential legal action if they refuse to provide gay couples with same-sex marriages.

“It is all about helping people have long-term relationships together. I think more people should be married and I don’t think the state should stand in the way of people getting married unless there is a really good reason — and being gay isn’t one of them.”

There has never been a better time for marriage equality in the UK, with the leaders of all three of the major political parties supporting equality and earlier this year the government opened a marriage equality consultation. They are due to issue a formal response to that consultation before the end of this year.

 

Ed Miliband’s Out4Marriage video

Maria Miller’s Out4Marriage video here.

Stephen Fry’s Out4Marriage video here.

One In Four Young Gay People Assaulted

Shocking new researched finds that one in four young gay people in England have been assaulted simply because of their sexuality, whilst over half have self-harmed in some way.  Forty-seven per cent say they have received threats or intimidation as a result of being gay. These statistics are alarming and the research from Youth Chances, are a stark reminder of the difficulties faced by young lesbian, gay, bi and transgender people in the UK.

Youth Chances are undertaking the biggest social research project into young GLBT people across the UK. Eventually this three-year project will conducted research with some 15,000 young people, whilst the shocking figures released last week are based on initial findings from the first 3,500 responses.

Many experts and observers are very concerned by the statistics on self-harm, which, based on this initial research, are much higher than the national average of around one in 12 young people. Some researchers and commentators suggest this may be indicative of the mental turmoil many GLBT teenagers go though during their educational lives whilst coming to terms with and coming out about their sexuality.

According to this research young gay women were significantly more likely to self-harm, two-thirds said they had hurt themselves on purpose, compared to thirty-seven per cent of young men. However, the most vulnerable seemed to be the young Transgender people, nearly four out of five admitting they had deliberately self-harmed.

Youth Chances project manager, Dan Baker, said: “In 2012, despite improvements which entitle LGBT people to equality, it’s still a really challenging environment to grow up in. Self-harm jumped out as a really alarming statistic. Self-harm is a way of people expressing an internal issue that they might not be able to express. Maybe Britain is not as tolerant as we thought.”

The UK is sometimes considered to be well ahead of many other countries around the world in terms of GLBT equality and the fight against discrimination on the grounds of sexuality, yet this research shows there are still large swathes of prejudice where homophobic bullying presents a pressing and worrying problem. Youth Chances say that the research demonstrates that public attitudes have yet to catch up with the advancing legal situation. “There’s a lot of great equality now, such as allowing gay couples to adopt and have civil partnerships. But, despite the progress, there seem to be lots of cases of harassment and even assault. If people are being taunted or attacked because of who they are, it shows public opinion and behaviour hasn’t caught up with legislation.” Said Dan Baker.

Many believe part of the problem is that bullying about sexuality is not being adequately controlled or handled sufficiently in schools. According to recent research from gay rights and equality charity Stonewall, ninety per cent of secondary school teachers and around forty per cent of primary teachers had regularly witnessed homophobic bullying in schools.

I personally am appalled by the initial findings of this research, I really thought we had come a great distance from the kind of abuse I faced coming out in the early 80’s, yet it seems the same sort of prejudice and discrimination is still out there, in fact according to this report, it seems more vicious than it was in my youth. We as a society should really see this as a frightening wake up call, young people should not be having to cope with such prejudice and hatred. Every school has a duty to protect kids from all forms of bullying, including homophobic bullying and they should work so much harder to achieve an environment, not only of learning, but also of tolerance and acceptance free from hatred and abuse.

 

UK’s Most Influential GLBT Celebrities

A leading UK Sunday newspaper conducted a poll among its readers to find the gay great and good of the UK. Last weekend the Independent on Sunday published a comprehensive listing of in influential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who have in some way made Great Britain a safer, fairer, better and more entertaining society.

There were quite a few surprises in the informed list with a number of sports men and women entering the poll, which is perhaps unsurprisingly considering the capital hosting the Olympic games this summer.

Topping the list and a new entry for the poll was Nicola Adams who really did punched her way into the listing as well as into the history books when she become the first woman ever to win an Olympic medal in boxing. Since this constantly smiling 30-year-old athlete won gold at the Olympics, she has become an inspiring role model for young people throughout the UK and and around the world. Adams who is bisexual said “It’s amazing to be on top of a list of such inspiring and influential people,” Adding “Thanks to everyone for their continued support.”

Coming in a close second is television presenter, Clare Balding, whose unflappable enthusiastic style earned her an army of fans during the Olympics and it could be said this champion of women’s sport helped make horse racing sexy. A couple of years ago Clare took to task Murdoch’s Sunday Times newspaper over labelling her just a ‘Dyke on a bike’. Despite all expectations her complaint was upheld, the newspaper apologised and it was seen as a major achievement against the newspapers repeated attacks on lesbian and gay people.

The veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was awarded third place on the poll whilst the forth slot was awarded to multi medal winning Paralympics equestrian Lee Pearson. Fellow Olympic equestrian Carl Hester, one of the most established dressage riders in the UK took on firth place in the poll of influential gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people.

It wasn’t just sports personality that entered the poll, some politicians also ranked high according to the Independent on Sunday readers, Conservative MP and climate change minister Greg Barker was placed sixth, whilst placed ninth came the disgraced cabinet Minster David Laws, who was reinstated to Government in September this year after being forced to resign over his expenses in 2010, which he defrauded the tax payer out of tens of thousands of pounds.

Here’s the rest of the top 60 list

7 Heather Peace – Actress
8 Nick Grimshaw – Radio One DJ
9 David Laws – Politician (mentioned above)
10 Luke Anderson – Winner, Big Brother 13
11 Phyll Opoku-Gyimah – UK Black Pride Director
12 Evan Davis – TV and radio presenter
13 Sue Perkins – Comedian and TV presenter (won this years Stonewall entertainer of the year)
14 Stephen Twigg – Labour MP
15 Charlie Condou – Actor
16 Iain Dale – Publisher and blogger
17 Sir Paul Jenkins – Treasury Solicitor ( UK’s most senior openly gay civil servant)
18 Jessie J – Pop Star
19 Gareth Thomas – Retired International rugby player
20 James Wharton – Soldier (Served in Iraq, escorted the Queen during Will and Kate’s wedding, first openly gay man to appear on the cover of Soldier magazine.)
21 Chris Bryant – Labour MP
22 John Partridge – Actor
23 Henry Holland – Fashion designer
24 Nick Boles – Conservative MP
25 Carol Ann Duffy – Poet Laureate
26 Derren Brown – Illusionist/Hypnotist
27 Mary Portas – TV presenter
28 Pratibha Parmar – Film maker
29 Alan Carr – Comedian and chat show host
30 Sir Terence Etherton – Court of Appeal Judge
31 Simon Hughes – Lib Dem MP
32 Gok Wan – TV presenter
33 Antony Cotton – Actor
34 Sarah Brown – Councillor in Cambridge
35 Will Young – Musician, actor, memoirist
36 Steve Reed – Labour politician
37 John Barrowman – Actor, musician and writer
38 Val McDermid – Crime writer
39 Sir Nicholas Hytner – Theatre director
40 Jane Hill – Newsreader (One of the main BBC News anchors)
41 Stella Duffy – Novelist
42 Christine Burns – Transgender activist
43 Jonny Oates – Chief of staff to Nick Clegg
44 Dr Ashley Steel – Vice chairman, KPMG
45 ohn Amaechi – Retired UK basketball player
46 Sir Adrian Fulford – Judge
47 Jonathan Harvey – Writer
48 April Ashley MBE – Model and campaigner
49 Jennifer Fear – CEO, Step Forward charity
50 Casey Stoney – Footballler (She led Team GB during Olympics)
51 Dr Christian Jessen – Doctor and TV personality
52 Eddie Mair – Broadcaster
53 Mark Gatiss – Actor and writer
54 Guy Black – Media chief
55 Sue Sanders and Tony Fenwick – Co chair of SchoolsOUT/LGBT History Month
56 Russell T Davies – TV producer and writer
57 Alan Davey – CEO, Arts Council
58 David Allen Green -Lawyer
59 Michael Salter – Media Head for David Cameron
60 Anthony Watson – Chief information officer, Barclays

 

 

Full list available on Independent On Sunday

London Gay Sauna Deaths

Mystery still surrounds the death of two men at a London gay sauna last weekend. The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation after one man aged 39 died at the sauna, a second 46 year old man later died in hospital and a third that had been treated in hospital has now been discharged.

This incident took place at the Pleasuredrome sauna on Cornwall Road in the Waterloo area of the UK‘s capital. Several other people were taken unwell at around the same time. Paramedics were dispatched to the sauna at 8.15am last Saturday after the three men had collapsed.

A Met Police spokeswoman told us the cause of death had yet to be confirmed. However, some preliminary reports suggest the incident was drug-related, with one source telling gay media the men became ill after been given a substance.

The Met Police have also launched an appeal for information following the incident and are keen to trace the whereabouts of a man seen entering the venue with the 39-year-old man. He is described as white, aged 25-35 with brown hair and a goatee beard around 6ft tall with a slim build, the police are concerned for his welfare.

Stonewall Awards

The United Kingdom’s gay rights and equality campaigning charity ‘Stonewall’ held their annual awards ceremony in London this week amid controversy over one sponsor – Barclays Bank pulling out after pressure from a right wing Christian group, despite a number of religious figures nominated for awards.

The international bank, itself currently subject to numerous investigations and accusations of corrupt practices, fraudulent behaviour and misspelling millions of insurances tried to blackmail the charity – warning they would pull sponsorship of the awards and end support of the charity and gay rights unless they removed one of the awards entitled Bigot Of The Year. Mark McLane, Barclays head of diversity said “I have recently been made aware of the inclusion of a ‘Bigot of the Year’ category in the awards. Let me be absolutely clear that Barclays does not support that award category either financially, or in principle and have informed Stonewall that should they decide to continue with this category we will not support this event in the future.”

Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill hit back “We have never called anyone a bigot just because they disagreed with us. All the nominees have gone well beyond what anyone normal would call a decent level of public discourse”. The affable and friendly Mr Summerskill added “We welcome sponsorship from anyone who shares our core values, but we have an obligation to the 3.6 million gay people to do what is right, and highlighting extreme examples of bigotry when we know how harmful this unpleasantness is to the self-esteem of young people is right.”
The Bigot of the Year award remained in place in the ceremony and was won by UK’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal Keith O’Brien. The cardinal has been a staunch and prominent opponent of marriage equality, his repeated comments have been deeply offensive claiming same-sex relationships are “harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing” and compared equal marriage to slavery and child abuse. He describes marriage equality as “grotesque,” and under his leadership, the Catholic Church in Scotland did ‘declare war’ on marriage equality, giving over £100,000 to fight it.

Whilst it may not be very nice to call someone a bigot, in cases like this, when our opponents attack us with such virulent hatred and lies on a regular basis, such a name called is wholly justified and completely accurate.

Top TV presenter and comedian Sue Perkins took home the entertainer of the year award in front of the 450 people resent at the award ceremony at the Victorian and Albert museum in London. The host of ratings surprise hit The Great British Bake Off, Perkins dedicated her award to her comedy and presenting partner Mel Giedroyc.

Almost 10,000 Stonewall supporters voted for Reverend Giles Fraser to receive the Hero of the Year accolade as an inspirational faith leader who supports gay people. Collecting his award, he congratulated Stonewall for standing up to bigotry. Fraser said: ‘I’m ashamed that I share the same profession as so many of the people that were nominated and received the Bigot of the Year Award. Why I’m proud of Stonewall, and why I’m proud and delighted to have received this award, is because what you seek to attack, and what you seek to challenge, is fear.’

Jeanette Winterson was named Writer of the Year for her bestselling memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. The Rugby Football League received the sports award for its fight against homophobia, ‘This is a fantastic honour for rugby league. We’re proud to stand up and say there’s no place for homophobia in sport.’ said Sarah Williams, their equality and diversity manager

Other notable winners included newspaper columnists Owen Jones and Hugo Rifkind, who shared award for Journalist of the Year. Stonewall’s Ben Summerskill said: ‘As ever, I’m humbled by the dedication with which this year’s Award winners have been advancing equality for millions of people. Their efforts have never been more valuable and we will never be deterred from celebrating their contribution – or from highlighting the bigotry and malice expressed by some public figures towards gay people in this country.’

Full list of the winners:

Hero of the Year (supported by PwC) – Reverend Giles Fraser

Broadcast of the Year (supported by London Women’s Clinic) – Britain’s Got Talent

Entertainer of the Year – Sue Perkins

Journalist of the Year – Hugo Rifkind (The Times) and Owen Jones (The Independent)

Politician of the Year – Ruth Davidson MSP

Publication of the Year – GayStarNews.com

Sports Award of the Year – Rugby Football League

Writer of the Year – Jeanette Winterson (Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?)

Community Group of the Year (supported by Square Peg Media and the Inclusive Foundation) – East London Out Project

Bigot of the Year – Cardinal Keith O’Brien

Archbishop – Church Harmful To Gays

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, claimed in one of his last major public lectures before he steps down toward the end of this year, that the Church of England’s attitude towards gay relationships has often been harmful to people.

Only last month Dr Williams said that while the Church of England was “wrong” not to have advocated for gay equality, the Prime Minister David Cameron was also wrong to embarrass the church over the issue.

During the lecture to the religious theologian think tank ‘Theos’ earlier this week the Archbishop also suggested the church could and should learn some lessons from its passed mistakes.

“We are trying to catch up with a reality which for a long time we didn’t handle at all well,” he said. “I think the church has in recent years tried quite hard to say we are not condemning a person as such for their sexual orientation and that is a serious commitment. Nonetheless there is a hang-over from the feeling that you are condemned in your entirety for what you are doing, for what you are.”

Dr Williams continued: “If people are getting the message that they are condemned for what they are then of course there is a serious mental health impact, I hope this is not what the church is doing and I certainly don’t think it is what the church should be doing.

“It is not just the church it is also a climate of homophobia which still exists in our society, we still have work to do.”

His lecture came as a hunt for his successor reaches a critical moment as the committee seems increasingly divided on the issue and has warned it may take months to reach a decision.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu the who is strongly against marriage equality, gay clergy and gay rights in general seems to be the current front runner and many see his being the second most senior bishop in the church as a natural choice. However there is a fear that if he is promoted the rift between the church and the wider community will widen dramatically, further illustrating the church to be an outdated historical organisation incompatible to modern life and harmful to society.

Miliband Supports Gay Marriage.

The UK’s Labour Party leader Ed Miliband thinks  ‘Churches and other religious institutions should be free to stage gay weddings’.  The opposition leader said when backing the UK’s Government plans to legislate for same-sex marriages is a sign that Britain is a “modern country”.

However, he has taken a step further than all the ministers of the government in calling for the right to hold same-sex marriages to be extended to faith groups as well.   Miliband recorded a  video for the Out4Marriage campaign, in which he said: “I think, whether you are gay or straight, you should be able to signify your commitment, your love with the term ‘marriage’, and so the Labour Party provides its wholehearted support for this campaign.
“We will be pushing the Government to get on with the process for legislating for equal marriage, and we’ll also be saying to them, where faith groups want to provide that opportunity for gay couples as well as straight couples, they should be able to do so.

“We’ve come a long way on gay and lesbian rights in the last two decades – civil partnerships, age of consent, a range of other things – but I know there’s further to go.

“I know that equal marriage is a very, very important part of ensuring equality before the law, the equality in our culture which is so important, and such a sign of us being a modern country and the kind of country I believe in.”
The UK Government is currently consulting on proposals for civil marriages for same-sex couples in England and Wales, with legislation promised before the next general election in 2015.  The UK already has a same sex civil partnership law which allows same sex couples to register and have legal civil ceremonies,  which to many people are seen as a marriage in all but name.

The Scottish Government, meanwhile, has said it intends to legislate for both civil and religious marriages for same-sex couples in Scotland.

Benjamin Cohen, of Out4Marriage, welcomed Mr Miliband’s support for extending the legislation in England and Wales to cover religious ceremonies as well,  “We need full marriage equality, not a half-step that continues to deny gay couples to right to marry in churches, synagogues and meeting houses that are happy to accommodate them. We hope and trust that the Government will come to the same conclusion as the Labour Party,” he said.

This is the latest swing toward a more positive mood in the UK for marriage equality seen from the political leaders and parties, which have in the past been fractious over the issue.