UK: Arts Council wants to know grants applicants' sexual orientation

[ptyx]

Theatreland will have to give up its bedroom secrets in the quest for funding, under new Arts Council requirements. Organisations applying for grants are being asked to state how many board members are bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, lesbian or whose inclinations are “not known”.

o_O Unfuckingbelievable.

Comments

[whatistigerbalm]

Before everyone explodes with indignation, try to understand it in the light of PC gone mad in the UK. They probably have a quota that has to go to sexual minorities so that it wouldn't look like they're ignored, and their solution is as awkward as the article shows.

[ptyx]

Ahahaha, that may be the case, but it's funny (and wrong), anyway. (Some people may disagree, but I dislike any kind of quota politics.)

[whatistigerbalm]

Oh, I agree that it's all flavours of misdirected, but it's really not a case of identification for nefarious purposes.

[ptyx]

Their intentions might have been good, but the form can be used for nefarious purposes, too. I haven't seen any artists defending it so far. (I've googled for it and read another two or three articles.)

[whatistigerbalm]

Again, I agree, but the Arts Council just can't win. Don't ask, and somebody who gets overlooked for whatever reason might shout oppression. Ask, and somebody will shout oppression.

I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for either side in cases like these, because they're both making a political issue out of something that should be neutral in that respect.

[ptyx]

I understand when you say it's a politically neutral thing, but this requirement is so stupid (or 'misdirected', if you prefer a softer word) that I have no sympathy for it, and I believe its negative political aspects should be mentioned as they are being, because otherwise this may be used with nefarious purposes.

[nakeisha]

in the light of PC gone mad in the UK

And it most certainly has - and I'm just referring to this.