Monthly Archives: October 2009

Jan Moir – you dick.

Posted by cmfawcett on

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death–.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/16/stephen-gately-jan-moir

Firstly, R.I.P. Steven Gately. I didn’t know you, or like your music, but no-one deserves to die at such an early age.

Jan Moir, in the linked article above, has today walked into the biggest media shitstorm since Sachs-gate. Or, rather than walked into, maybe she has just started to drown in the bullshit she has been spouting. If she lasts this scandal with her career intact, then feel free to Nazi-salute the next Jew you meet. The offence, and hurt, Moir has caused is that bad.

It is worth bearing in mind, as mentioned in Charlie Brooker’s spot on tirade, that Gately is yet to be laid to rest. Rather than re-opening an old scar that had time to heal, Moir has poured salt, vinegar, and sheer ignorance into a still raw wound. I would say Gately would be turning in his grave if he could read the dirge that was published, surprise surprise, by the Daily Bigot Mail. But he isn’t even in his grave yet!

There isn’t much that I would feel compelled to start a new blog about, but I feel like objecting, and expressing how sick I find Moir’s article. To suggest that Gately’s demise was in some way down to him being gay is just absurd. Plus, ignoring an official, medically based verdict on the cause of death barely classes as journalism. This is the drunken, hate-filled spew of a backwater pub, published for all, including Gately’s loved ones, to see.

Gately died of an accumulation of fluid on the lungs.  This is fact. There is conjecture that this was caused by a drinking binge. So what if it was? Gately was an adult, and free to make his own decisions. Many, many thousands of people take risks each year in our country by drinking too much, myself included. Who are we to judge him, or like Moir, suggest that this kind of untimely death is due to his sexual preference? Gately died not of the natural cause of old age, but (possibly) of the natural cause of human nature. He (possibly) went to excess. But, even if you could find a receipt stating he’d bought 3000 pints of Stella, that would be nothing to do with his sexuality. Bringing his sexuality into the matter is simply vile.

As is bringing Matt Lucas’ ex-husband into the equation. Related only by the fact that they were gay, Gately and Kevin McGee have both had their names dragged through mud by a bigot. Just read this:

“Another real sadness about Gately’s death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.

Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages.

Of course, in many cases this may be true.”

They are the same. Not in many cases, in all. Gay marriages may be idyllic, or fucked-up. They are based on love, like heterosexual marriages, and Moir seems to have forgotten this, and the fact that one half of a loving relationship has been taken far too early, leaving a void for his husband, family and friends.

Moir, if she had any decency would apologise and step down. Instead, she issued a statement to try to defend herself. Please, if you feel the same as I do, visit www.pcc.org.uk, and make it known that bigotry and homophobia are wrong. Moir needs to be taken out of the spotlight, and never allowed to return.