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Saturday, 17 October 2009

Journo’s Gately slur

A Daily Mail columnist has really put the right-wing, reactionary, bigoted cat among the gay pigeons with her suggestion that there was something sleazy and unnatural about the death of the gay Boyzone singer Stephen Gately.

The whole story is in Pink News, and the Daily Mail writer, Jan Moir, has blamed an “orchestrated campaign” for the backlash of complaints against her.

Something approaching a record number have been lodged with the Press Complaints Commission, but such are not in its remit to investigate. If Gately’s family lodge a complaint, the PCC may enter the fray.

However Pink News tells us that some big brands, such as Marks & Spencer, have asked for advertising to be removed from the offending online page.

Nestlé also said it did not share the views expressed in the article and had asked for its advertisement to be removed.

Moir’s comments provoked a wave of anger on the internet as the news of her comment piece spread around Twitter and Facebook today [Friday].

She apparently suggested that Boyzone singer Stephen Gately died because he was gay and said his “sleazy” death struck “another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships”.

In a statement released this afternoon, Moir refused to apologise and denied her article had been homophobic.

Well, she would, wouldn’t she?
Posted

1 comment:

  1. Stuart HartillSat Oct 17, 02:54:00 pm BST

    Perhaps the gay press should start a tongue-in-cheek camapign to get heterosexual marriage banned. After all, I think murder and domestic violence stats show you're far more in danger of being done in by your spouse than a stranger, and women are at most risk of violence from hubby. On that basis, the gay community would be doing us all a favour by trying to show us hetties the error of our ways!
    More seriously, my gut feeling is the more hurdles you have to jump to be with someone the stronger the relationship and better the chance you grit your teeth and get through rough bits. Considering what we know about (hetero) divorce rates, surely there's some useful research to be done on the percentage of civil partnerships still going after, say, five years. I think the hetero rate of marital break-up within 5 years is quite high, diminishing as partners are older or trying 2nd time round. Evidence of comparable or lesser gay rates of break-up could end a lot of tabloid hate-mongering.

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