Since when does Guido Fawkes care so much about LGBTQ equality?
When Guido Fawkes, the Sun and the Express club together to defend LGBTQ rights, it’s best to be suspicious.
Yesterday, they all carried stories about Jeremy Corbyn’s comments at a Labour event celebrating LGBT History Month, when he misspoke and suggested that people ‘choose’ to be gay or lesbian.
WATCH Corbyn: People Choose to Be Gay [VIDEO] https://t.co/D9ZxaxF3yu pic.twitter.com/vBtBTPJiyR
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) February 2, 2017
Without question, it was an embarrassing gaffe and his team very quickly walked it back, pointing out that ‘Jeremy clearly doesn’t believe that being gay is a choice.’
And it is clear. Corbyn’s voting record on LGBTQ rights is impeccable. He voted in favour of equalising the age of consent, yes to equal adoption rights, yes to civil partnerships, yes to same-sex marriage (unlike more than 100 Tories) and yes to the Equality Act. And in Wednesday’s speech, he spoke about how, as a councillor in the 1970s, he defended a gay community centre in Islington from National Front fascists.
Where were the right-wing press when all of that was going on? Where was the condemnation of the Tories who stood in the way of equality at every turn?
Like everyone else, the Labour leader has plenty of room to improve on LGBTQ rights. But if the right-wing press really want to advance the cause of equality they should focus on the serious threats facing communities in Britain, the US and around the world, rather than an unfortunate 30-second video clip of a long-time ally.
Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin is editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
See: Tories filibuster ‘Turing Bill’ – denying pardons to 50,000 living gay men
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6 Responses to “Say what you like about Jeremy Corbyn, he’s no homophobe”
Guido Fawkes
No one said he was a homophobe, we said Corbyn gaffed. Which you say too.
Our record on standing up for queers is not in doubt. We are at the forefront of defending gay political activists. Only this morning we defended our old friend Milo.
George Nimmo
No fool like an old fool, yes it was an embarrasing gaffe and that’s all it was. Just a pity that the people who usually say it is a ‘choice’ to be gay are the religious nutjobs, Christian, Muslim whatever, that’s why it’s such an unfortunate slip of the tongue. You really don’t want to be mistakenly aligning yourself with that sort.
Anyway next week, I ‘choose’ to be intersex – I might try straight for a change the week after.
Adam Barnett
Guido Fawkes – would this be the same Milo who said, “If I could choose, I wouldn’t be a homosexual”?
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/10/02/gay-columnist-claims-he-would-cure-his-homosexuality-if-he-could/
Cole
You’d expect Guido to be an fan of the vile far right provocateur Milo.
David Lindsay
The convictions of men whose homosexual acts would not be criminal offences today ought to be annulled by primary legislation. But only if the same clause of the same Bill also annulled all convictions and other adverse court decisions arising out of Clay Cross, Shrewsbury, Wapping, and the three Miners’ Strikes since 1970.