And, talking of tabloid journalists being basically [word I can't say in case my mum ever reads this], this article has appeared in the Daily Mail today, written by Jan Moir.
Headed "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death", it is essentially a very long, very libellous insinuation that Stephen Gately died because of his "dark appetites" and "private vice".
AND I QUOTE (somewhat angrily):
"The sugar coating on this fatality is so saccharine-thick that it obscures whatever bitter truth lies beneath."
"And I think if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy."
The circumstances of his death are (as far as we, a bunch of people who didn't know him, are aware): he went out drinking, might have smoked a joint (according to the article this has "just been revealved", as if it were the most shocking thing since Hitler), and they brought another man back to their flat. If a straight couple had gone out for a drink and wound up taking a friend home (to lend them a copy of Top Gun or whatever) no one would bat an eyelid, least of all the Daily Mail.
Possibly the most horrific part of this article (although it's a close call) is this: "Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships." WHY does it? Seriously, WHY?!??!? And I haven't just whipped that quotation out of the article and refused to contextualise it - if you read the whole thing through, you'll see how baffling it is and how this statement goes entirely unexplained.
There's nothing new about Britain's right-wing press being homophobic (shock horror, Daily Mail doesn't like the gays). But this is stooping to new lows: it accuses a dead man of leading a seedy lifestyle, but it also expresses and legitimises everything the Daily Mail's readers were probably already thinking about gay people: if they can't lead a 'natural' life, they certainly can't have a 'natural' death.
It's this kind of thing that reinforces my belief that there is no God. If there were, it would be people like Jan Moir who ended up choking on their own bile, not Stephen Gately.
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Update: Following the inevitable and amazing uproar this article has created, the Daily Mail has changed the headline and removed all the advertising that surrounded it.
In other news, the Daily Quail has done a fantastic and hilarious parody, Charlie Brooker has added his own beautifully sane voice to the throng (and made the same bile reference as I did - great minds and all that), and the Press Complaints Commission website has been flooded. This makes me proud to be human.
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2 comments:
That Daily Quail article is genius. I wish to administer hugs to its author.
I know - it's utterly brilliant. Favourite bit: "Some might say the death and the fact that the deathee was gay are unconnected. To them, I say: 'no'. Look at the facts - he died, and he was gay. Therefore he died of gay."
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