Wednesday, 19 January 2011

The Daily Mail and the Homophobic B&B

Recently there has been a bit of a furore about two Christian runners of a B&B that refused to give a double bed to a gay couple. The gay couple then took them to court on discrimination grounds. They won, unsurprisingly. The B&B owners have been ordered to pay £3600 to the couple. Now, with the background out of the way, let's push on to the mocking - this post will deal with comments made by the hotelliers and the coverage found in the Daily Mail, so there should be plenty to see...

Following the Judge's decision, Hazelmary Bull (of the B&B) made a statement saying that Christianity had been pushed to the margins of society and that 'some people are more equal than others'. Well, I'm sorry but these days the number of Christians in the UK is falling. You are not far away from holding a minority view, depending on the survey, so you'll just have to learn to live in this (gloriously) secular society. Also, you've broken the law. Discrimination on any grounds is illegal. You claim that this is what you do to all unmarried couples, fine, but they were married (well, a civil partnership but there is no difference in the eyes of the law) so, as the Judge said:
The only conclusion which can be drawn is that the refusal to allow [the claimants] to occupy the double room which they had booked was because of their sexual orientation and that this is direct discrimination 
They also made some other stupid comments, but I'm too eager to start the next bit to go into detail...

The Daily Mail has covered this story, and leaving aside the general tone of the-hotel-owners-are-right and the-gays-are-evil that pervades the whole story, there was something that really stands out. Here it is:
Thanks Daily Mail. I do so hope that you get some heavy fines for this...

I advise you to click on the image to enlarge it, and look at the chap on the left's right wrist. Did you see it? Yup. That's a swastika. Because we all know that being gay makes you a neo-nazi. What? You mean neo-nazi's hate gays? But the Daily Mail is suggesting otherwise! Here, for comparison, are the real gay couple:
Oh, that cartoonist is really good. I can't tell the difference... Oh, you'll be unsurprised to learn that when I was getting the cartoon, not one person on the Mail's comments section for it had complained in any way. Quite the contrary in fact...

Ah, the Daily Mail inciting hatred against one section of society, just a normal day...

2 comments:

  1. Ben, how you could have misread this kind piece of artwork so far? Obviously, the couple are two multi-cultured young gents - look at their tribal tattoos and body piercings. Obviously, they picked these up while they toured the world, meeting indigenous peoples and doing charity work.
    The "Swastika" obviously symbolises their devotion to Brahma, the Hindu creator-god. Obviously, the Mail was trying to show its opposition to bigoted hoteliers - we see the shocked expressions of the staff, and realise that only the most foolish of people could be made ill-at-ease by two such gentle, kind men.

    Seriously though, why do they have a toolbox on the ground between them, and such skinny legs?

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  2. Maybe gays always carry a toolbox to hit straight hotelliers with? That's a point, if they're holding hands, how could they carry that toolbox?

    And the skinny legs must be because gay men spend all their time in bed with random men... In Bed and Breakfasts...

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