Public figures and gay acceptance

This was in production before the massacre in Orlando and has no connection to it:

Prince William appears on cover of gay magazine Attitude

Prince William has become the first member of the royal family to appear on the cover of a gay magazine.

The heir to the throne features in the July issue of Attitude magazine, discussing the mental health implications of homophobic, bi-phobic and transphobic bullyings.

Long way from the Wilde trials...

And Alan Turing

Canada's somewhat handsome premier made history joining the Pride in Toronto:



Trudeau joins thousands marching in Toronto's Pride Parade

Here's a nice bit of Queer history:

Bulldykes and lady lovers: the rumors about lesbian blues singers were all true

I always wondered whether the seemingly extraordinarily high occurrence of same-sex affairs and relationships in that group wasn't at least partly a testament to what shits the men were. When you look at the extreme misogyny reigning in blues and jazz, for instance, at how those men treat women etc.--partners and groupies, but also female musicians--it seems almost inevitable some would seek solace elsewhere.

Not that I want to obscure the role of actually queer women here! But I read a lot about this music (old old root blues and jazz is a fave) and a lot of female bonding going on seems to have been opportunistic, "second best" sort of thing.

The next British PM is bound to be a homophobe:

Britain's next PM is guaranteed to be anti-gay rights

Take a look at Theresa May who, in 1998, voted against equalising the age of consent for gay sex. That’s the same Theresa May who voted against repealing Section 28 - legislation that banned the “promotion” of homosexuality by local government and schools. She said no to same sex adoption, no to civil partnerships, and she didn’t once bother to turn up to vote on the Gender Recognition Act either.

In her time at the Home Office, policies have been put in place which forced LGBT asylum seekers to “prove” their sexuality, some allegedly through intimate photos and videos of same-sex sexual activity. Others were told that they couldn’t be gay simply because they had children. (...)

{Andrea Leadsom} clarified that she was “not happy” about the gay marriage law because of “hurt caused to many Christians”. Marriage, she continued, should have remained “as a Christian service that was for men and women who wanted to commit in the eyes of God”.

Her proudest supporter, Brexit blond bombshell Boris Johnson, has compared same sex marriage to men marrying dogs, and argued that the repealing of Section 28 would allow “left-wing local authorities to waste taxpayers’ money on idiotic and homosexual instruction”.

What a set.

>7 LolaWalser: And in The New Statesman "9 reasons you should be truly terrified of Andrea Leadsom becoming Prime Minister". Thing is, I don't see those extracts from her blog being a particular problem for many English Conservative Party members.

>7 LolaWalser:

Leadsom is even worse that you mention on LGBT rights, she has links to a group in Uganda which is partially run by YWAM which is strongly anti-gay and promotes 'gay-cures'. The only reason she didn't vote on all the same things that May did was that she wasn't in Parliament. Two of the candidates which were knocked out were also anti-LGBT too - Crabb and Fox. On this issue, and this issue alone, Gove was the only progressive.

This doesn't surprise me. There seems to be a big overlap in that part of the Conservative party that have always been against gay rights and that part which wanted out of Europe.

There are very few Conservative politicians who have a good history when it comes to gay rights. Some have come round to a degree and are now more supportive but their record isn't great.