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‘It’s not normal’: Ukraine footballer Besedin says gay people
shouldn’t exist in staggering homophobic remarks
2 Nov, 2021 14:07
Ukraine and Dynamo Kiev forward Artem Besedin has said there should be no people with “non-traditional” sexual orientation and says he can’t even look at gay couples in shocking comments on a YouTube channel.
Besedin, 25, has been capped 19 times for his country and was in action for Ukraine at Euro 2020 during the summer before his tournament was cut short with a serious knee injury.
Besedin spoke to YouTube channel 'From Soul to Soul' as he continues his recovery, but ended up embarking on a tirade when he was asked if he supported gay parades.
"Of course not," replied Besedin.
"First of all, it’s not normal… In principle, there shouldn’t be people with a non-traditional sexual orientation. There are boys and there are girls. That’s it."
The footballer added: "I was recovering [from my injury] in Spain. We have things [in moderation] in that regard, but there are lots of them [gay people] in Spain. Their clubs, their flags, walking around, holding hands. I can’t look at it…
"I have a son, I don’t want him to grow up and look at [gays]," said Besedin as he continued his homophobic rant.
The shocking comments come after former Ukraine player Bohdan Butko claimed the world was heading in an "incomprehensible" direction because of same-sex relationships, and that he "doesn’t accept gays".
It remains to be seen if Besedin is sanctioned for his comments, with UEFA taking a very public stance on respect for gay rights and minorities.
Besedin's comments come at a time when the topic of social equality is at the forefront of global football. For much of the past two years, several major football leagues have seen players take a knee prior to kick-off in a bid to highlight the dangers of discrimination and unequal rights.
It also comes just days after Australian footballer Josh Cavallo became the first-ever top flight professional male player to reveal that he was gay, earning plaudits from some of the sport's biggest names along the way.
And nor was Besedin's anti-gay stance met kindly from some sections of the social media masses.
"Phobia is fear," wrote one responder online.
Where is the phobia, or fear, in Besedin's remarks? It sounds like disliking or a feeling of disgust, but not fear! God is disgusted at these things, but certainly, He is not afraid of them.
"Why should someone be afraid of or detest people of a different orientation?" added another.
It could be because that is not how God made them!
"In general the entire football community has a huge problem with homophobia. I hope that will change soon," said a third, via translation.
Monty Python icon Terry Gilliam has new stage production
CANCELLED after staff uproar over ‘transphobic’ views
2 Nov, 2021 13:45
Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS. © AFP / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS; (inset) Terry Gilliam. © AFP / VALERY HACHE
A London theatre has been criticised for “pandering” to mob rule after cancelling a production by Monty Python star Terry Gilliam – reportedly due to staff unrest about his views on trans rights and the #MeToo movement.
80-year-old Gilliam was set to co-direct the musical ‘Into the Woods’ at the Old Vic next year, but the show was abruptly cancelled last week. While no reason was given, entertainment news outlet The Stage reported that there had been dissatisfaction among staff since May, when the production was originally announced.
Staff concerns apparently revolved around Gilliam’s previous comments in the press relating to transgender issues, race, and the #MeToo movement, which some felt were at odds with the theatre’s “culture and values.”
In 2018, Gilliam said during a BBC diversity debate that he tells “the world now I’m a black lesbian.” He repeated those remarks during an interview last year, telling The Independent that he should be able to identify as a “black lesbian in transition.” He also described the #MeToo movement as a “witch hunt” that allowed “decent people” to get “hammered” by “mob mentality,” and called some rape accusers “ambitious adults.”
Unfortunately, he is well off the mark there.
While at least one staff member reportedly resigned from the production, the “final straw” apparently came after Gilliam encouraged his social media followers to watch Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special, ‘The Closer’.
Describing Chappelle as the “greatest standup comedian alive today,” Gilliam noted in a Facebook post on October 14 that there was a “storm brewing” over the streaming service’s support for the show. The comedy special has been in the news after backlash over allegedly transphobic content – including Chappelle describing gender as a “fact” – with Netflix staff staging walkouts and facing off against the comedian’s supporters.
Two weeks later, the theatre announced on its website that it had “mutually agreed” with co-producers Scenario Two that the “production of ‘Into the Woods’ will not take place at the Old Vic.” The Central London theatre had apparently sold £300,000 worth of tickets for the production of Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 musical. The playwright is “furious” over the decision and is standing by Gilliam, according to iNews.
Users on social media have also expressed support for Gilliam, with many criticising the Old Vic management for “pandering to Cancel Culture” and letting the “mob dictate who is acceptable” and who is not. A number of commenters likened the cancellation to “puritanical” censorship – with some paying homage to iconic Monty Python sketches.
“Isn’t this all getting a bit dangerous??? Soon no one will share views at all for fear of being ruined. It takes 300 people to get an ad removed from TV, a lot less to cost a person their job,” British filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams tweeted.
Some defended the theatre’s decision, however, pointing out the “completely disproportionate” levels of “danger” between Gilliam’s inability to “put on a show” and daily life for trans people. Others referenced his comments to opine why they “wouldn’t want to work with anyone” who holds those views.
Rage over Bisexual Superman sees illustrators and producers
call for police protection
2 Nov, 2021 19:02
The latest reboot of DC Comics’ Superman, in which the quintessential superhero’s son comes out as bisexual, outraged some fans so much that the company has asked Los Angeles police to patrol its offices and some artists’ homes.
LAPD officers have been asked to patrol both the offices of DC Comics and the comics offices of Warner Brothers Studios, as well as the private homes of some DC artists, according to a Tuesday report from TMZ citing “threats” generated by fan outrage over the next-generation Superman’s revelation he is bisexual.
Unspared from the woke reimagining that has swept across classic comics, the latest incarnation of Superman – actually his son, Jon Kent – ‘came out’ as bisexual three weeks ago when a panel depicted the 17-year-old smooching a purple-haired “hacktivist” reporter named Jay Nakamura. It’s not clear why the alleged threats are only becoming a problem now; TMZ’s law enforcement sources merely said cops were “recently” dispatched to keep the illustrators’ and production staffers’ homes safe.
“I hope this kind of thing will not be seen as a big deal in the future,” DC artist John Timms told video game and media news outlet IGN last month when the superhero’s sexuality was unveiled, a big ask given the character’s iconic status within the DC Comics universe and American pop culture as a whole. The younger Superman is the protagonist of the series’ latest storyline, “Superman: Son of Kal-El,” and his love interest idolizes his journalist mother, Lois Lane.
Kent’s sexuality is not the only potential woke angle the new Superman may pry open in future issues. DC writer Tom Taylor suggested the caped icon could hardly “battle robots while ignoring the climate crisis,” nor could “someone with super sight and super hearing ignore injustices beyond his borders [like] the plight of asylum seekers.”
But, yet, he ignores the greatest atrocity in the world, child sexual abuse. Millions of children being sexually abused every day fail to get even a thought! Our children don't need to be exposed to this PCMadness, they need to be rescued from real perverts and paedophiles.
One can almost hear the fans of the classic DC version groaning.
While the situation regarding angry fan threats to artists and producers has reportedly “settled down” and “nothing legitimate came from the threats,” according to TMZ, that doesn’t mean everyone is pleased with the Superman franchise’s “bold new direction.”
Dean Cain, the actor who played Superman in the TV series ‘Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman’ from 1993 to 1997, dismissed the move as “bandwagoning.” Certainly, the new “out” Superman is far from the only superhero to fly the rainbow flag – Batwoman, Robin (of Batman-and-Robin), and a spinoff version of Captain America have all gathered under the LGBTQ umbrella in recent years as their parent companies insist fans are clamoring for ‘inclusivity.’ Indeed, as of late 2019, LGBTQ representation on TV was judged to be at an all-time high by advocacy group GLAAD.
I suspect GLAAD is on an all-time high!
That hasn’t stopped showrunners from amping up the rainbow element still further, even when it means messing with fan favorites or classic characters like the Man of Steel. Already stripped of his catchphrase “Truth, Justice and the American Way” back in July (it’s now “Truth, Justice, and a Better World,” which is arguably more realistic), many fans have wondered why DC is pandering to a woke crowd that doesn’t actually read or buy comic books.
The company is already reportedly working on a race-swapped Superman film with racial activist Ta-Nehisi Coates involved, a choice which has also come in for heavy mockery from fans, and there’s no evidence that die-hard Superman followers wanted their hero to expand his sexual boundaries.
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Twelve trans sex offenders moved to women’s prisons
in Scotland over past 18 months
This policy is somewhere between sheer madness and spectacular stupidity,
or maybe both!
3 Nov, 2021 14:33
A dozen trans inmates sentenced for violent and sexual crimes have been serving time in women’s jails in Scotland, according to official data. One has completed gender transition, and the rest merely identify as female.
The figures, which show the 12 prisoners have been moved into the women’s jails over the past 18 months, were made public under the Freedom of Information Act. Another person, who is transitioning from female to male, is being accommodated in a men’s prison.
The revelation comes in the wake of a much-anticipated review of policy regarding transgender prisoners by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS). It was scheduled to begin in early 2021, but has been postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Under current rules, which have been in place since 2014, an inmate needs simply to declare themselves a trans woman to apply for a transfer from a male to a female institution.
A spokesperson for the SPS assured The Times that “any decisions about the location of transgender prisoners are only made after an individual risk assessment has taken place,” and that this process “considers the risks potentially presented both to and by the individuals.”
“We take very seriously our duty of care towards all in our custody,” he said, adding that SPS policies re informed by regular prison surveys focusing on the experiences and needs of inmates.
However, activists have long been pushing for the Scottish prison authorities to abolish the policy, which allows prisoners to self-identify without the need for a gender-recognition certificate. They claim it is both illegal and potentially harmful to biological females behind bars.
“The evidence clearly indicates that where prisoners of the male sex, no matter how they identify, are held in women’s prisons, women in prison are negatively impacted,” Dr Kate Coleman, director of Keep Prisons Single Sex, told The Times.
Negatively impacted may include rape!
One of the more vocal supporters of keeping trans women out of female jails has been the former governor of Stirling’s Cornton Vale women’s prison, Rhona Hotchkiss.
“The female prison estate is no place for male bodies, even if they are in the process of transitioning,” Hotchkiss told The Scotsman earlier this year.
SPS’s current risk assessment for transferring trans inmates doesn’t consider the impact of their presence in the same space on vulnerable female prisoners, many of whom had been victims of male violence, she argued.
In July, London’s High Court ruled that it was lawful for transwomen to be held in female jails in England and Wales, as doing their right to live as their chosen gender would otherwise be infringed.
They are in prison, why do they have rights?
Scotland does not fall within its jurisdiction, however. The Ministry of Justice policy had been challenged last year by a female former prisoner who claimed she had been sexually assaulted behind bars by a trans woman.
However, the court acknowledged in its judgement that the proportion of trans prisoners convicted of sexual offences had been “substantially higher” than among non-trans inmates. It also provided statistics, according to which at least 7 out of 97 sexual assaults in English and Welsh jails between 2016 and 2017 had been perpetrated by trans persons.
At the time, Hotchkiss responded to the High Court ruling by saying that it shouldn’t affect the review of the transgender policies by the Scottish prison authorities in any way. “The SPS needs to find another solution for transgender prisoners” and do it swiftly, she insisted.
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