Thursday 8 July 2010

Exotically Coloured Cocktail Anyone?

OK, so I've seen Kylie live - twice. And my boyfriend does own every CD she has ever released and we have been known to spend Saturday night in with several bottles of wine and a collection of Kylie DVD's. But that's  not the point.

While everyone with any sense should welcome the Supreme Court's decision to grant asylum to gay men and lesbians who could be executed if deported, the words of Lord Rodger are slightly worrying. Or are they? Here is the quote in full:


"What is protected is the applicant's right to live freely and openly as a gay man. To illustrate the point with trivial stereotypical examples from British society: just as male heterosexuals are free to enjoy themselves playing rugby, drinking beer and talking about girls with their mates, so male homosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically coloured cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates"

Now guess what the Daily Mail and Express highlighted and omitted? If we rearrange the quote as "ASYLUM SEEKERS. Male homosexuals - free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically coloured cocktails and talking about boys". You get something close.

Lord Rodger was misguided in using "stereotypical examples". He left himself wide open to be misquoted. But what is just as worrying as the blatant manipulation of the story by the right wing gutter press, is the backlash from the gay community against the Supreme Court who have actually made a ruling in our favour. Bloody hell, even Theresa Grey-Face May agrees with the ruling!

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