I don’t care if it shows my age, I am willing to admit that I have been on the internet since way back when images took forever to load on the screen and the only way to find porn was to check out all the link lists and directories. Anyone else remember the world B.G (before Google)?

I really don’t need to tell you that the internet has come a long way since then, but with the good always comes the bad. This is one of those posts all about what happens when the bad get their hands on technology and use it for evil.

No, I’m not talking about some kind of mysterious Bond villain in a hollow mountain threatening to end the world unless he’s given “one million dollars” (how many of you just did the pinkie to lip gesture then? Sad people! lol), nor am I talking about pirates who stamp their feet about getting things for free and then complain that their favorite bands aren’t touring anymore or their fave porn site shut down (useless idiots living in their moms basement).

I’m talking about lowlifes like Hunter Moore – the people who abuse the freedom the internet brings and use it to cash in on other peoples misery.

Yes, the lovely Hunter Moore will be the subject of this bile-infused post.

If you don’t know who I’m talking about, he’s the guy who created the site IsAnyoneUp.com, a disgusting place where people sent in images and videos of their ex boyfriends and girlfriends (or presumably just people they wanted to attack and had the ammunition to do so) and which then linked the media to their various profiles out on the internet. It was stalking, quite blatantly.

Victims had their intimate moments broadcast for all to see, with the information about them easily accessible. Many of those who were victims of this disgusting waste of skin then had abuse from others for daring to have their content stolen and distributed by someone else without their permission.

Now, I know some of the more liberal minded amongst you would be thinking “they should have expected something, who makes a pic or video and gives it out to others?” And I would agree with you to a point. But why is this any different to someone posting an email or personal letter on the internet for all to read? Would that be acceptable to you?

So, back to the story…

The disgusting Hunter Moore eventually gave up his little hellhole of a site and sold it to an anti-bullying charity, and some might have thought that would be the end of it.

Personally, I would have enjoyed seeing him sued, repeatedly, over and over again until he was having to sell organs in exchange for clothing. And it would have been nice to have all of his personal humiliation recorded and shared around the internet for all his little freaky fans to enjoy and wallow in too. But alas, that didn’t happen.

Instead, he got away with it, and he made some money through the sale of the site and the estimated $20,000 a month through advertising – yeah, being a sick little pervert obviously is profitable for some.

But now, with the revelation that he’s not happy with the money he’s made humiliating others (presumably he wasted it all on pot, lube and tissues) and intends to start a new project where he plans to “introduce the mapping stuff so you can stalk people”.

Yeah, that sounds like wholesome family fun, right?

No one knows how this might play out just yet. There are suggestions and discussions out there mentioning that he plans to add cell phone numbers, email addresses, employment details, home address and family details to his content in the future. Basically, it seems like he plans to do it all over again, but with even more information to allow others to attack and assault and generally humiliate people all around the world.

It’s hard to know for sure how real that is, but Anonymous is taking it seriously, and has issued their own threat.

Yes, that lovely hacktivist collective famous for publicly trolling the cult of $cientology, taking down a paedophile ring that Interpol couldn’t touch, exposing abusive NYPD officers macing girls in the street and – their lesser known – bitching about the Pirate Bay being taken down, have issued a direct threat to Hunter Moore.

Not happy with cyber-battling dictatorial regimes and supporting the freedom of the internet all around the world (I don’t think any Anon’s have full time jobs) they have picked up on the suggestion that Hunter Moore is about to be back in business and threatened war.

In a recent statement by the masked superheroes of the internet, the Anon collective made their intentions clear:

“We will protect anyone who is victimized by abuse of our internet, we will prevent the stalking, rape, and possible murders as by-product of his [Hunter Moore] sites.

It added: “Operation anti-bully. Operation hunt Hunter engaged. We are Anonymous, we are legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget, Hunter Moore, expect us.”

To prove that the group is not one to make false threats, the Anonymous collective then published Hunter’s address, and detailed numerous family members also.

So you wanna bully and attack innocent people Hunter? Looks like you’re about to get a massive dose of your own medicine.

It’s kind of ironic that the Boys Scouts of America motto happens to be “Be Prepared”, because the way these freaks are teaching these kids those “troops” are gonna be anything but prepared for the realities of the world when they eventually go to college or otherwise manage to escape Shitsville USA (Population: 1000 Christian fundamentalists).

Here, let me explain…

The Boy Scouts of America is probably one of the largest organizations working with children on a voluntary basis in the U.S. and they’ve been at it for over 100 years. Everybody has heard of them and most people will know someone who is involved in one way or another. The organization is well supported with Barack Obama as its honorary president and ExonMobil and AT&T being major financial sponsors. Intel also donate to some of its ‘troops’.

The Boy Scouts of America proudly declares on its website that they ‘provide a program for young people that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship and develops personal fitness.’ They pride themselves on ‘helping to build the Leaders of the country through combining educational activities and lifelong values with fun’. They also claim that over 100 years of experience gives them the belief that ‘helping youth is a key to building a more conscientious, responsible and productive society.’

While this all looks good on the face of it, what are the principles the Boy Scout association actually stand by? Respect? Equality? Acceptance of others? You would be forgiven for thinking this is the case, but sadly there are troops within the organization that think the best way to teach the children of America to be a civilized and responsible member of society is to enforce the discriminatory rule which excludes anyone from the LGBT community from taking part in scouting activity, and this includes as a leader or volunteer.

The Boy Scouts of America seem to think that raising children in a segregated environment, away from people who are deemed different, is the way towards a more tolerant and accepting society.
Is this because the Boy Scout movement is based on Christian beliefs or is the government partly responsible? Considering the Military now accepts LBGT applicants I struggle to blame the government entirely.

There has been a case in Iowa, where a young gay man has been turned away by the Scout movement because of his sexual orientation and because of the fact that he was raised by a Lesbian couple. A committee set up by the Scouting organization was convened to make a decision as to whether or not this ruling would still stand.  They voted in favor of continuing a ban on the LBGT community, the supreme court also ruled in favor of the ban in 2000.

The Boy Scouts of America say that the subject of sexual orientation and adult relationships should be discussed as a family and within the family setting, they have a point (of sorts). Of course an open and honest discussion within the family is important, but how many parents are going to have the conversation with their kids and say ‘It’s ok to be gay’. I think that most parents wouldn’t even consider this as an issue and some wouldn’t necessarily accept it if it was. I don’t see how having someone who is gay within a Scout troop would cause any problems with this anyway, not unless they are going to start handing out labels along with their badges for homophobia.

In a multicultural and diverse society this should not be allowed to continue, it is morally and ethically wrong on so many levels. How can the Scouting movement teach children to be a responsible member of society, when they are clearly saying that anyone within the LBGT community is a second rate citizen?

They claim that being gay goes against the Scout Law, it doesn’t. Discrimination and bigotry goes against the Scout Law, and American law, and this needs to change. In England the discrimination laws are there for everybody and no organization is exempt from this.

The Boy Scouts of America should be at risk of losing their support from sponsors until they change their stance on this and it looks like it might happen. Intel currently support individual troops of Scouts where their employees volunteer but, due to their policy on equality they refuse to support any troop which upholds the anti gay rule. While this may be just a small step towards progress, the CEO of AT&T is also against the rule and is reportedly due to take over as president of AT&T in 2014, this could mean they withdraw funding at that time unless things change.

Although this might make a difference in a small way, I think the only way any major change is going to happen is if everybody joins hands and says this is not acceptable.

If you have a motivated bone in your body, contact any one of the number of sponsors and inform them of your opinion. If you’re a customer, you might want to tell those supporting the Boy Scouts of America that you prefer not to support a company facilitating homophobia. There are plenty of competitors out there, can AT&T really afford to lose customers because they support an intolerant organization?

Sit down, listen up and pay attention. You might want to find something to bite down hard on too, especially if you’re a Gwen Stefani/No Doubt fan.

Hands up all those who loved the first noises from No Doubt way back in the 1990′s. I know, I’m showing my age.

Okay, I’m guessing that’s quite a few of you. This was probably due to their biggest hit ‘Don’t Speak’ right? Good, that was a great track that really set them on course to be one of the sounds of the decade.

But who stuck around for the release of their fifth album ‘Rock Steady’ in 2001? I’ll bet some of you did, and I’ll bet that a lot of those adoring fans of Gwen Stefani had no clue that while they were listening to ‘Hey Baby’ from that album and jumping around like loons on a dance floor they were also listening to perhaps the most violently homophobic Jamaican “artist” ever to walk the Earth.

Yep, that song was a collaboration with Bounty Killer, a singer/songwriter who actively calls for the assault and murder of gay people.

You’ll love these lyrics (translated into actual English from the native Bullshit) “Bun a fire pon a puff and mister fagoty” (“Burn a fire on puffs and faggots”)

Gwen’s not exactly looking so hot now, is she?

I was checking this out when researching a general story on the rise of Jamaican culture in the USA, and this aspect of the piece came to light pretty early on. As we’re now waiting for the return of No Doubt with the hotly anticipated new album ‘Push and Shove’  to be released next month, it’s a great time to talk about it.

Even though there are now plenty of places you could go to see reports of the current homophobia protests in the USA (a certain foul fast food chain immediately springs to mind) little seems to have been said about No Doubt and their seemingly disinterested attitudes to working with dubious artists with homophobic opinions.

Now that mention of their slight against their own gay fans is out there in the open, lets move on to how things are going with the band right now, as they prepare their latest offering (one that I won’t be buying) and Ms. Stefani presumably returns to squeezing into tiny vests to show off her perfect abs (how does she do that!?)

Jamaican culture is one of the most violent in the world. Far from being the paradise it is often portrayed to be, Jamaica has rolling street violence on a daily basis – this was explained to me by a Jamaican native who grew up under instructions to stay within ten feet of her family home and NEVER EVER go into town. The murder rate in Jamaica is high, with gay hate crimes carried out in broad daylight and Police refusing to intervene. The corruption between Police and the gangs controlling the neighborhoods is pandemic, and any crime against a gay person is likely to be buried, covered-up or excused.

Of course, the musical culture of Jamaica is homophobic as a result of the society in general. Many artists incorporate hate-speech into their lyrics and promote violence towards the LGBT community.

Why is this a problem for us? Because Jamaican culture is being accepted and promoted, and it starts with bands like No Doubt back in 2001 accepting – and some would say promoting – the violent hatred of characters like Bounty Killer.

Lets make one thing perfectly clear – there is no excuse. I don’t give a damn if Gwen Stefani claims that she’d never heard those lyrics calling for gay people to be burned alive (what artist invites another artist to work on their album without being completely familiar with their work?) Ms. Stefani can tour gay clubs and pride events until her heels bleed and it wouldn’t delete the fact that she worked with a disgusting homophobic asshole. She could create entire fashion lines for Target promoting tolerance and acceptance, sewing every stitch herself, and it would not change the fact that she – her band – works with homophobic artists and helps to spread their disgusting views.

T-Shirt designed by Gwen Stefani for Target

Acceptance of it is support of it, and fair-weather homophobia should not be tolerated in any form.

At the very LEAST their collaboration with Bounty Killer deserved a statement to the many millions of gay fans No Doubt had/have to explain their position. Yet the band was seemingly silent on the issue. Bounty Killer himself wasn’t silent on it, mentioning Gwen Stefani in a follow-up track to their little collab and mixing in some other hate-speech with it too. This seems to further associate Ms. Stefani with his own homophobia:

“Whateva dem a talk bout inna different scene, Phat Gwen Stefani a she was my queen, Mi ready fi go wipe out di faggot wid pure laser beam”

So perhaps we might have thought No Doubt would have learned from their error and viewed their collaboration with a violent homophobic hate-monger as something to be ashamed of and never to repeat again…

Well, sadly you’d be wrong.

No Doubt is set to release a new album next month labelled ‘Push And Shove’, and who do we have collaborating on that..?

Major Lazer make an appearance, and they seem to enjoy adding lines to their tracks like “me a zombie and me don’t eat gays, cos me don’t like the HIV”. They claim that such statements are intended to be “tongue in cheek”, but that really only works if you’re a gay man saying it. Personally I don’t imagine there are many gay men who would ever make a comment to belittle the millions of deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS all around the world (gay or straight, mother or child, white or black). To make this a little more clear, what they are suggesting is the equivalent of a white punk act making statements about black slaves and expecting it to be viewed as a joke. It doesn’t work that way!

Then we have the lovely Busy Signal making an appearance on the album too, perhaps famous for lines like “No batty boy nuh inna mi crew lu lu lu lu” (Batty Boy being a derogatory term for gay men).

So why does any of this matter? Well, for a start we’re still fighting for equality. There are still places all over the world where gay people are attacked, abused, criminalized, marginalized or murdered. If we’re pissed that we can’t get married in a Church we should count ourselves lucky! Laws are still being passed in “modern” countries criminalizing our lives, and while we might have it relatively easy ourselves, it doesn’t help when so-called artists are being accepted by the acts influencing our own society.

It’s actually pretty insulting when you have an artist like Gwen Stefani promoting tolerance on the one hand while STILL working with homophobes on the other – perhaps hoping that none of us would notice?

I’m sorry to break it to you, but while Gwen Stefani is signing up to support whatever gay rights issue is fashionable right now she’s also accepting violence and intolerance against many of her own fans. While people are screaming about a fast food chain being homophobic, what will be said about a much-loved American pop-princess like Ms. Stefani working with artists known for being homophobic?

I’m betting it’ll be overlooked, and that nothing will be said about it, just as nothing was said about No Doubt working with someone who calls for gay men to be burned or beaten to death.

Far from this being an attack on No Doubt, this is an attack on the acceptance of homophobia. It’s “homophobia by association”. It’s still just as dirty, just as nasty, and perhaps more insidious.

So tell me, will you be buying ‘Push and Shove’ when it drops next month? I won’t be.

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It’s somewhat hard to believe that it has been 13 years already since the bombing of the Admiral Duncan Pub in Soho, London. As a London boy who left when a child, I try to get back there as often as possible, and whenever I do Soho and Camden are the two places I cannot miss out on.

I actually attended the Admiral Duncan pub shortly after it reopened a few months after the bombing, while the London Gay Pride march was being held. I was stunned by the crowds of people there, all eager to go inside and buy a pint in support of the venue and those who had been maimed and killed in the blast. It was an amazing sight to see the entire street packed with people drinking out of plastic cups, all there for one reason – to show solidarity with the community in London and those hurt in the atrocity.

April 30th is the day it happened, the third nail bomb to explode in London, with Brixton attacked on the 17th of April, Brick Lane on the 24th, and finally Soho on the 30th.

At the time no one really knew what it was all about. This was a city which had seen its fair share of terrorism already, with the IRA constantly threatening the people of the capital, but this was the first time it was seemingly targeted at specific groups of people. Black, Asian and Gay people were the focus, leading to a lot of speculation.

Of course, after this third explosion it was soon asserted that the perpetrator of these crimes was a neo-Nazi.

David Copeland was the name of that coward. He was the one who was responsible for walking in, leaving an explosive device hidden in a bag, and then running away like the vermin he is to escape the destruction he had planned.

Four died minutes later when his nail bomb tore through the pub. Andrea Dykes, 27 and her unborn child, John Light, 32 and Nik Moore all passed away, with more than 80 people injured.

As we remember that event, we have to also ask ourselves where we are now as a society. I remember that back then, as I watched it unfolding on the news, the local community rallied around, that many more were likely saved by the fast response of the police, the ambulance staff, the neighbors of the venue and passing pedestrians. The support the community displayed after that attack was one of the most uplifting things I think I have seen.

There is no doubt that we are in a better place now than we have ever been when it comes to social cohesion. But, we should also use caution. In France, the National Front party (traditionally a racist and homophobic organization) has reached third place in the first stage of their national elections.
In Norway, the far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik is currently on trial for the racially and religiously motivated mass murder of 77 innocent people. In St Petersberg, Russia, new laws recently came into effect banning discussion of GLBT issues and comparing them to the promotion of pedophilia.

While we should certainly mourn and spend some time contemplating those lost on April 30th 1999 in the Admiral Duncan bombing, we should also consider that, while society may be moving forward in many respects, extremism has not declined.

On the 30th April 2012, there will be a ceremony held to remember all those killed and injured in the three attacks. More information can be found on the Facebook group – Facebook group 17-24-30, and an event page too.

I’m a kid of the 80′s. I remember the first time I watched Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the song 99 Red Balloons, and the popularity of some truly awful songs by Bon Jovi. I don’t think I’m the only one who links music to a decade am I?

But I also remember the news scenes of the protests, over everything from the Poll Tax and Thatcher’s destruction of the Unions and industry, to the Gay Rights movement and Peter Tatchell.

By the time I was ready to come out of the closet and dance to I Am What I Am (I didn’t, I don’t live by stereotypes! lol) the dust had settled and we had clubs and bars all over the place. We had a community that, while still open to attack, was less threatened with the collusion of government and police. If we did experience hatred and violence we could actually report something and feel that we had a voice. We had pressure groups and charities on our side, standing up for us if we needed it.

If you haven’t really been paying much attention recently, you might think that us Queer folk are only fighting for the right to get Married, and nothing else. I can understand that perception, because what I’m about to discuss in this post isn’t being discussed on your local news, and probably not on your national news either. But it should be discussed, because it’s serious.

Earlier this month the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, adopted a new law which bans “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and pedophilia to minors.”

Did you catch that? Yes, read it again. The law-makers in St. Petersburg equate all of us with pedophiles. And through the creation of this law, the city has banned the discussion and public display of all LGBT issues in their entirety. The wording of the law is so deliberately vague that it could apply to someone handing out flyers discussing the law itself, to rainbow flags, or even wearing T-Shirts which could be construed as being related to LGBT issues.

The city of St. Petersburg is now facing international condemnation from Human Rights organizations for deliberately taking a step backward, and this is expected to worsen later this year as Pride parades kick off all over the world while the Gay people of St. Petersburg are denied one, and potentially have to witness a hate parade instead – yeah, the city refused a gay pride parade last year, and approved a far-right parade in its place!

While you might simply be able to avoid St. Petersburg (which is entirely possible, I haven’t tripped over it yet), and while the Queer folk of the city evacuate for more pleasant cities, this is by no means all there is to be concerned about.

Of course, we all know about the extremism being displayed across the American political system right now. We’ve seen some of the worrying comments from men like Santorum, suggesting he would destroy some basic freedoms in order to change America and make it more “Christian” (funny how their style of Christianity almost always seems completely at odds with traditional Christian values such as love, kindness, acceptance and peace.)

In France, the far-right Marine Le Pen (daughter of the founder of the National Front) is gaining popularity. In Germany, the authorities are on the hunt for neo-Nazis they now accept are greater in number and more dangerous than they had previously assumed (one previous member claims that they are heavily armed and capable of starting a civil war). In Belgium, on Saturday March 31st, the English Defense League (an off-shoot of the now vaguely acceptable British National Party) is planning a Europe-wide protest in an effort to create an anti-Islam movement – perfectly timed after the murderous spree by an Islamic extremist recently in France.

I remember the 80′s. But I also know of history prior to my existence. I remember that that a certain dictator arose on the back of a nationalist fever, after an economic collapse that decimated much of the world. I know that the first target might have been the Communists, but it was soon the Unionists, and the Jews, the intellectuals, and the Queers too…

Hatred and intolerance is the same in any form, whoever is the target, and we have to do everything we can to pull together and fight for the rights of all. Just as a neo-Nazi has the right to express their twisted opinions about the world and society, we have the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone who demands equality and freedom, and the basic Human rights that we all enjoy, and refuse to allow history to repeat itself.

The risks of doing nothing because we don’t believe it could happen again are gigantic. We must never forget our history, and we must never fool ourselves into thinking that it couldn’t happen. People never believed it could happen before, and it did.

Are you prepared to actually stand up when the hatred and ignorance is marching through your street?

Don’t you just love a good rumble?

Although, I have to confess that I was really considering not adding this post about One Million Moms at all, it feels somehow wrong to even recognize their existence, as if I’m somehow validating their right to be… well… a group of hate-filled religious extremists, I guess!

Yes, the American Family Associations nastiest splinter group is back in the spotlight again, and from the people who brought you the attack on Home Depot for supporting Gay Pride, the scatter-brained attack against GLEE, and their “boycott” of almost every brand seen in any ad break for any program they think is “Trashy”, they’re now ‘going after’ Toys ‘R’ Us!

Aside from pointing out that they watch far too much TV (that’s those right-wing Christian stay-at-home moms for you. If they’re not out in the woods shooting Deer they’re sat on their ass eating cookies, getting fat and finding anything they can to scream at the world about) I thought it would be fun to show you how the most vociferous people who claim to be “freedom-loving” and “Christian” are often anything but.

Let me tell you about this latest battle in their imagined “culture war” (yes, that’s what they think they’re taking part in, bless them).

So we’ll start back when they decided to attack JC Penny for bringing Ellen Degeneres in to represent their brand.

Of course, as shoppers – and right-wing Christian religious extremists – they love shopping, ironically that’s something they have in common with us! So when JC Penny asked the gorgeous, funny, smart and well adjusted Ellen Degeneres to become their spokeswoman (can you tell I’m a fan?) the One Million Moms crazies realized that they had nothing in common with this personality. I think that’s what it comes down to really. It seems that all the people they attack are actually intelligent, well-rounded, mentally stable modern people, and that’s totally the opposite of what OMM is about!

So, the OMM extremists demanded that JC Penny remove Ellen as their spokesperson, and they issued their demand with the threat that JC Penny would loose customers if they did not comply with their demands. Of course, OMM didn’t consider that they are actually running far short of being one million, they’re more like 20,000 (and even that is a very generous guess). In reality the OMM group is likely no larger than your average knitting club in Texas.

They often make claims that their “pressure” on companies has resulted in success, when in fact they neglect that advertising across all industries has become extremely limited due to the financial crisis. It’s actually quite funny to see companies complying with their demands on the face of it, just to placate them. But I do wish these companies would be honest and say “we couldn’t give a crap about your unreasonable demands, we cut the ads for budget reasons and not because you threatened us!”

What this fanatical group also underestimated, is that you need to have public support for a boycott of any large company, and the numbers supporting Ellen and JC Penny far outweighs the number of fanatics demanding this change. One look at their little social network shows that they barely have 2000 members – I have more people following me on another blog. Maybe that’s why thousands of FaceBook pages sprang up within hours of the demand being made public, all supporting Ellen and JC Penny, and all heaping insult on the OMM mentalists. Perhaps that’s also why the One Million Moms own FaceBook page is constantly under attack from others who would like to stop their hate for good?

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The lady here has quite the British accent (or some may say Australian) which can surely turn some guys on. They may go south on this woman and not notice any differences but this is not your ordinary female. She claims she had a sex change and used to be a man but wants everyone to start understanding she should not be classified as another sex but as a female. Speaking with the Sun the former male says that one should not be considered gay if they sleep with him as a straight male because she is not gay and does not have any man parts. Although this is the Sun who is airing this video who is not exactly the “news” I would be speaking to if I wanted to be taken seriously. She did admit she had slept with over 1,000 straight males. I would say Condragulations to her but I guess she is not in drag she is a woman now.
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If you’re in the UK, there’s a chance that there are some really annoying TV shows that you just can’t get away from – in fact that’s probably true wherever you are! I swear, if I have to see an advert for Desperate Scousewives one more time my TV is going to suffer a fatal incident involving a cup of hot coffee dribbled down the back and a quick flight out of an open window!

But although I find a whole lot of those reality TV shows to be pretty repugnant, the upcoming Playing It Straight has to be one of those that really makes my blood boil.

Now, I have absolutely no doubt that there will be hoards of gay guys watching the show, mainly because it contains a whole lot of camp double entendre’s and a lot of barely clothed young men who are mostly gay but don’t act it. I have no problem with those little aspects of it, it’s the game show style of it that really annoys me.

For those who don’t get it, the set up is that there’s a relatively empty-headed young woman with far too much makeup and a love of all things expensive, trying to work out which of the guys she’s shacked up with is straight. As I understand it, there are eleven guys and Cara, some of the guys are gay, and some are straight (although you have to wonder just how many of those straight guys either lied to get on the show, or are actually bi)

Cara has to work out who is straight and who isn’t, through the use of some very humorous and humiliating games. She votes guys out, and if she picks a straight guy at the end they both win 25k. If she picks a gay guy who managed to “Play it Straight” convincingly enough, he walks away with the whole 50k.

Does all that sound like fun to you?

To me, it reeks of stereotyping, and is actually pretty offensive. The message seems to be that it is better for gay men to conform to masculine stereotypes. If you think I’m overreacting, imagine it in reverse. What if it were called “Playing it Gay” and the straight guys had to convince someone (and the audience) they they are actually gay. Cue camp walks and limp wrists, hours debating Kylie and moments of hasty simulated man sex in random places. Would we accept that as being okay?

I’m gonna climb up on my soapbox here and suggest that this kind of BS is not what people protested for. We’re doing a disservice to people who had absolutely no rights and fought for some semblance of equality by turning our lifestyles into a commodity that can be sold for the sake of some cheap laughs. These guys might have noble thoughts about what they’re taking part in, but in reality they’re selling out. Instead of making sexuality a non-issue (which is how things should be) they’re voluntarily allowing themselves to be bought as entertainment for a largely straight audience to mock and laugh at.

Now, I already have some pretty strong views on the likes of the X-Factor and all the other talent shows that are really nothing more than the public humiliating people who should probably be under the care of some psychology professionals, so it’s possibly not surprising that I find this to be not my cup of tea. But it does surprise me that there is an audience for such rubbish.

Instead of gaining equality for ourselves and getting the respect we deserve in society, some of us are happy to remain the subjects of ridicule, reminding everyone just how “different” gay people are from the rest.

I’ll step down from my soapbox now, and wish you a very Happy New Year! ;)

I love Christmas, and loathe it in equal measure simultaneously. I’m one of those guys from a large family, and every year we have those get-togethers where all the expected happens; someone has a blazing row with their partner about their teenager being given a thimble of wine, uncle George has a lengthy discussion with aunt Doris about the destruction of their local pub during the Blitz and whether it happened on a Tuesday or Saturday, and everyone has a very uncomfortable moment when a secret is revealed and you find out that back in 1942 a long passed-on relative was caught in a compromising position with a sailor… all the while I’m thinking up an excuse to get out to have a drink with a friend.

But, there are things I really love about Christmas too, like seeing some of the friends I’ve missed all year through my lack of FaceBook dedication, the look of joy on a persons face when they open that present and find that first edition book you found for them and they’ve wanted since they were a spotty teenager with greasy hair nodding along to Nirvana in your bedroom, and the rowdy parties where there is bound to be a really hot guy just desperate for someone to date for just a couple of weeks so he won’t have to rely on a previous shag buddy on New Year.

I know you might think I must be really good a buying presents for others now I’ve mentioned that first edition book, right? Well, that’s a rare occurrence, and I maybe get that reaction once over the holiday. Normally I end up buying my friends something pretty predictable and boring.

It’s not my fault I cant stand the shopping trips and increasingly buy everything on the internet. I have a phobia of adults dressed as Santa’s helpers, and all that cheesy Christmas music playing in all the shops really could lead to a strangling spree with tinsel being the weapon of choice!

So, this year, I think I have decided that all of my friends are getting adult gifts, toys, from one place. That way I can guarantee to shock everyone, and please them all at the same time. I know that although they might go red and make assertions that they would “never use such a thing”, they’ll be at home that night getting it on with their inanimate object (or, in the case of battery powered devices, very animated!)

I can’t really loose with some adult toys, can I?

For Sally, the almost virginal religious and conservative ex-colleague – a Rampant Rabbit.

For Geoff, the straight gym jock who we all have doubts about – an Aneros with some lube.

For Carl, the party animal who gets far too much sex already (and we’re all secretly jealous of) – some “Delay” cream.

And for Steven, the handsome college boy just exploring his gay side – a years supply of assorted flavored condoms.

Bring on Christmas, and may it be extremely merry for all! ;)