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US Radio host: Gay news websites are covered with porn that is turning teens gay
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Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather tells Catholic newspaper 'I never went into politics to tackle equal marriage'
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Robert in S. Kensington 717
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It is so easy to be racist in Rainbow nation of London no matter what color you are. I was called “vanilla ” once. No one licked me thou so I was offended.
As a gay rights activist, I repeatedly find myself confronted with racism in the mainstream gay scene… And such comments, I’m afraid, are all too common. I just hope gay people, having been through a lot themselves, will rise above such prejudices…
It’s quite common
In every country.
Definitely an unwise comment …
Barnes is experienced enough and robust enough a politician to know what is appropriate and what is not.
Unwise? Given his position and the fact that he’s a Hillingdon councillor (a very diverse community) the comment wasn’t just unwise. It was idiotic.
That is quite funny. Sorry if you can say homophobic joke and be in the public eye or even a “recording artist” and have lyrics that will insight homophobic hatered then you can have racist jokes
in other words: they do it so we should too?
There’s NO excuse for racism and NO excuse for homophobia.
What a simple way of looking at things.
I am sure many of us tell self deprecating jokes that can be regarded as homophobic … but I am sure most of us do so only with an audience we consider will understand that it is in jest and not intended with hatred etc.
I think this may be Barnes error in this instance – either not judging the audience or having other people who could overhear at the time he said the “joke”
Or alternatively, perhaps those people offended by things other people say should not be so rude as to listen to other peoples’ private conversations in the first place?
So if no one heard it would be ok?
Or perhaps his voice was either so loud or so resonant, one could not help but overhear it …
When in a public high profile position such as deputy mayor of London, maintaining an awareness of what could lead to adverse publicity is a required skill … that includes thinking before speaking
and here’s me thinking it was Aerial
fak off
My best mate tells me some racist jokes and i tell him some, and he’s jamaican.
Now if i had a mate who found them offensive i’m sure i’d never recieve any jokes from him/her and wouldn’t ever want to offend someone.
And to be fair to the deputy mayor, while i’m not condoning racism he has a point as almost every rioter shown in West Brom was black.
If you have 3 black rioters, it’s not racist to say they’re black.
If you say all blacks are rioters then that’s a different thing.
HOnestly you racists can’t even admit it to your selves
thats just it, different people have different reactions. my straight friend’s use of ironic homophobia helps me deal with actual homophobia. tigra shares these jokes with a friend, and im guessing the jokes came later in the relationship. the same can be said for my friend, he would never make those jokes with another gay man because either he does not know them or he knows they have a different sense of humor to me.
… anyway my point is that we dont share these jokes with newspapers. you cant use the irony excuse in this case. this isnt a parody of racism, its racism.
….and then i read tigra’s second paragraph, almost is never all. thats a rather selective way to look at statistics, it was a very different story in manchester. if i looked at manchester alone then i could say its white kids to blame. looking at the whole picture its obvious that you cant blame it on race or culture.
Well he sent the first joke not me, i just replied with another and it went from there.
Im still young but it’s obvious that some people just dont have a sense of humor and will always play the victim, others will be genuinely offended.
This kind of thing is a battlefield (think back to the golly dollies)
At the end of the day i think rhis guy was just telling a joke to a friend and got overheard by someone who clearly didn’t like it.
He doesnt even deny saying it, just that he dint mean it in a racist way and isn’t racist.
Everyone’s different, everyone likes some things and not others.
Even the theory of evolution is ofensive to some…
to be fair i read the article fast, with tired eyes. i know i’m making excuses but i”m not proud of the fatal errors i made. i even got the wrong paper in my second post. theres nothing better than being ignorant and massively opinionated at the same time is there? so a coalitionesque u-turn for me!
Sounds like what makes some thing racist (or homophobic) is the context, not necessarlity the words used.
As I understand the statement, the Deputy Mayor states that he was recalling the joke with disapproval. No doubt the investigation will ascertain the facts.
I.e. The context.
he is trying too hard to be funny at the expense of others
No he’s a racist pig
No, you are just being an over-reactionary twat.
His comment was politically incorrect, but hardly malicious.
Well if i heard it i would strike him!
Spander you are wank er tou hate everyone including yourself
the quoting with disaproval, hmm thats always the first excuse. sadly i dont read the daily mail so i will have to do some digging, imagine going through darth vadar’s bins.
i’m pretty liberal when it comes to jokes, its all about context and where the laughs are aimed. but on the other hand i could name thousands of jokes that are very offensive to various different creeds and cultures. do you want to hear any? no ofc you don’t… they are offensive to various different creeds and cultures.
Would Dave Allen be banned these days I wonder.
THese racists and bigots , take there harrassment and defamations , lightly , but no one else should , they need to get major things done in overhauling the racism and bigotry out of the political arenas and other places, richard barnes should be fired and reprimanded and another deputy should be moved up or into that positions, like a gay deputy woman in london , because you dont have enough gay or women deputies and that needs to be corrected in london, and the next president of london should be that gay individual that is running for president down there or a gay woman would even be better, they need people who are fair and family oreinted people who dont go around starting hate crimes and kao amond citizens like the bigoted polliticians, without their agrivations, many children who learn hate are connected to bad parents apart of these hate groups the gay politicians are apart and feed into the hate religions and even writte the sermons for some of their hate churches
Wow.
That was a brain dump…………
Well, it was a dump, if nothing else.
The trouble with “overhearing” and not actually being there is that only some of the converstaion is reported. Having said that, that is what the media want of course. I am slightly disappointed that PinkNews have picked this up without checking the facts. Facts indeed. What a laugh.
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Mr Barnes was actually quoting about a number of emails he’d recieved that had been in his mind racist or otherwise equally offensive, using this “overheard” comment as an example adding how disapproving and angry he was about recieving them.
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In short this is a non story that the media have chosen to highlight for clearly their own personal gain. It is somewhat shameful reporting and I have to say PinkNews, again, I am very disappointed.
This could be just some propaganda from people who hate gays, like some Christians to make a gay man look bad and loose his job and position. Some Christians seem to be taught by the CIA in the use of Psychological Warfare which can be used to make up stories about people that the enemy want to destroy, if you destroy a persons reputation they can loose their job and friends and be left out in the cold. This is an American trick to destroy people with out shooting them and leaving a bloddy mess that can get the person who does it arrested and put in prison. Seems the Christians are using Psychological Warfare more and more against the LGBT people and anyone they do not like and want to get rid of. The only way to find out if the rumor is true is to find out for yourself if what the evil ones say is true. That means going to the source or person who the rumor is about and finding out if what is being said is true.
A credible comment Will. Nothing would surprise me at all with ‘that’ lot!
For someone with such responsibilities (eg equalities in London) it’s foolish and inexcusable. Why would you repeat the “joke” if you thought it was distasteful? He’s and idiot and should be punished accordingly, but Boris got away with it and so will this guy.
Surely on that basis we should never in the context of any private conversation be able to repeat with disapproval something that we condemn.
Even as a gay, it is all to easy to be racist, particularly with the anti-gay sentiments of much of the Muslim community and the rampant homophobia of African countries and Jamaica where the population is black. Commenting on the recent riots gay historian Dr. David Starkey had an ‘Enoch Powell’ moment. The gay communty should show the world how good we are by rejecting all racism, even if it directed towards those groups who disagree with us.