I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Pope Francis is an amazing agent of PR. He makes pretty speeches, throws in some dramatic (but ultimately unhelpful) gestures and people crawl over themselves to praise him as some kind of living saint. It’s remarkable - he continues to maintain policies that are the very height of vicious bigotry but ( Read more... )

 Bigot Baroness Warsi, who published pamphlets warning people of the terrible dangers of gay people preying on school children, has let us know she's on a "journey" when it comes to the equality of gay people.

Homophobic journalist Mehdi Hasan (he who thinks gay people worried about the World Cup being held in Qatar where gay people are flogged are ( Read more... )

 The closet and coming out is something I have spoken about a lot and I’d like to take the opportunity in this day to bring many of these thoughts together.

Firstly, the closet itself. Too many ignorant straight, cis people consider the closet to be an asset to us - that the fact we can hide makes homophobia and transphobia a “lesser prejudice” ( Read more... )

 So, Dan Savage (he of many problems) is helping start a new video campaign in the mould of “It Gets Better”. This one is called “we’re not all like that.”

It’s basically a place where religious people can make videos assuring GBLT people that they’re not raging bigots.

Uh-huh. My eyes are rolling so much they’re getting friction burns.

( Read more... )

 I have to admire Pope Francis - he is a man of incredible skill and talent.

In PR.

This man is one of the best spin doctors I’ve ever come across.

Take his latest stunt. He releases a speech in which he thinks that Catholics shouldn’t focus so much on all the homophobia and misogyny.

And the crowd goes wild! Look at all the people rushing in to ( Read more... )

 So this dishonest article in the Advocate is the latest in a long line of Christian bigotry apologists calling for there to “peace” and a “middle ground” between GBLT people and Christians - and how both sides are as bad as each other.

Why is it dishonest? Because it completely misses the context of this “war”. And, I’ll agree, there is a war being ( Read more... )

 One of the constant attacks from anti-gay-family folk is the idea that all kids need role models of each gender, especially of the same-sex. So all boys need to have a father to teach them how to be a man. All girls need a mother to teach them how to be a woman. This is known.

It’s also one of the points that a lot of straight, cis supporters have ( Read more... )

Russia WILL be enforcing their homophobic persecution law during the Sochi Olympics

Frankly, the idea that it'd all be find if Russia took a little break in grinding gay people's heads into the dirt so straight people could enjoy their sport without having to worry their little heads at pesky persecution never struck me as something laudable.

As ( Read more... )

Russia WILL be enforcing their homophobic persecution law during the Sochi Olympics

Frankly, the idea that it'd all be find if Russia took a little break in grinding gay people's heads into the dirt so straight people could enjoy their sport without having to worry their little heads at pesky persecution never struck me as something laudable.

As to ( Read more... )

 No doubt you have come across the great gay Russian vodka boycott (which means you’ve actually only got a tenth of the story because it’s actually the Russian boycott, but the vodka gets the most attention for the booze and for reasons I will go into). And there has been much mocking and deflecting. Oh boy has there been deflecting.

“The company’s ( Read more... )