Claire Black: [Commonwealth] Games makes stand for gay rights

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.scotsman.com/news/claire-black-games-makes-stand-for-gay-rights-1-3490102
The Scotsman
27 July, 2104
Claire Black: Games makes stand for gay rights

...I was in a cab on the way back from the airport, so it was Twitter that gave me a beamer when Subo fluffed her lines and made me wish I could have a shot of wearing a giant Tunnock’s teacake. And it made me guffaw. “Reports in that Lulu has been spotted backstage rehearsing her Scottish accent,” tweeted one wag. “I’ve cringed myself inside out. Send help,” said another. And then there was the contingent wondering when Mogwai were coming on. But it wasn’t a post-rock kind of a night. No, this was about tartan and teacakes and those amazing wee dugs.

More than that, it was about a new kind of Glasgow kiss. Not Mary Doll nuttin’ some bird from the job centre, but Scotland waving a huge, sparkly rainbow flag in the face of the 42 out of 53 countries in the Commonwealth in which same-sex relationships are a crime. The fact that it was provided by the bi-dialectical panto aficionado that is John never-knowingly-underacted Barrowman in a tartan-ish suit? Let’s not be churlish. I’m just glad it wasn’t Jimmy Krankie in chaps and a gimp mask.

Scotland is showing its commitment to LGBT rights – the rainbow flag is flying at St Andrew’s House for the duration of the Games. In Glasgow, Pride House, a pop-up cafe and LGBT support space, has been funded by the Scottish Government. And these actions mean so much more than the recent barrage of beating gums emanating from politicians south of the Border. They lament the parlous state of LGBT rights in the vast majority of Commonwealth countries but they don’t do much about it. It’s “unacceptable”, complained Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, that almost 80 per cent of the countries involved practise some form of discrimination against LGBT people. You don’t say. Action is what is needed, not empty rhetoric written up by Spads and regurgitated by perennially “outraged” politicians.

That’s why the John Barrowman smacker matters. No, it wasn’t as human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell claimed, “subtle”, but let’s face it: when you’re trying to keep up with Rod Stewart in a silver suit and a cast of dancers dressed as oversized confectionary, subtlety probably isn’t the tack you’re after. In certain Commonwealth countries – Uganda, Brunei and Nigeria to name three – gay rights are moving backwards at a frightening pace. In Nigeria, those caught in same-sex relationships could face up to 14 years in prison. The homophobia and transphobia in the vast majority of Commonwealth countries is extreme and it is a stain on these Games. Subtle? No way.... MORE