28 January

Saturday 28 January, 2012

Gay bar Blu Bar and Basement in Middlesbrough has been given a later licence. It can now open until 4am from Friday to Sunday and until 3am from Monday to Thursday with last entry allowed at 2.30pm. Normally your activist would not bother with this story, but the comments by the club’s director are of interest:

“Blu Bar and Basement director Simon Hatfield argued that due to its clientele the extended hours wouldn’t bring more people through the doors but instead allow those already in the venue to enjoy it for longer. He said there would not be a flood of people arriving at 2.30pm for a last drink. “There is almost a stigma attached to gay venues,” he said. “People don’t want to come in who are not accepting.” “

It seems nothing has changed in nearly 40 years.

BBC

Amal Fashanu (pictured) writes: “My late uncle, Justin Fashanu remains the only professional footballer in Britain ever to come out publicly as gay…. In his autobiography, Clough recounts the confrontation he had with Justin over rumours about frequenting gay clubs in Nottingham: “‘Where do you go if you want a loaf of bread?’ I asked him. ‘A baker’s, I suppose.’ ‘Where do you go if you want a leg of lamb?’ ‘A butcher’s.’ ‘So why do you keep going to that bloody poofs’ club?’” Those were the typical attitudes Justin faced in his profession, and very little had changed by the time he took the momentous decision to come out publicly a decade later in 1990.”

Justin Fashanu. Public Domain

CNN have investigated a clinic in Ecuador which ‘cures’ gays. This one allegedly uses abuse to achieve its ends.

Paola Concha told CNN: “On December 8 of 2006, they stormed into my house, overpowered me, they put me inside a van and took me to a so-called ‘therapeutic’ center. By the time I got there, I was already handcuffed and beat up,” Concha said. The clinic was called Puente a la Vida, or Bridge to Life. In December, CNN was granted limited access to the clinic. It looked like a mid-level tourist resort with buildings, houses and meeting rooms where patients were treated. The facility is located on the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador’s capital. Concha says she endured all kinds of demeaning and abusive treatment during the 18 months she was held there. “I was kept in handcuffs for more than three months. I would be left without food for more than three or four days. They would handcuff me in a bathroom to a toilet bowl facing a toilet that was used by 60 people at the center,” Concha said.

Disgusting.

SP

January 27

Friday, 27th January 2012

Getty

Gay Activist congratulates Jim Ready (l) and Barney Frank (r) on their forthcoming wedding.

Meanwhile, back in the real world:

“I should have been flying from Jamaica my country of birth and, until very recently, my home. After the ceremony I should be returning there to celebrate with fellow activists. But this time there’s no going home. In August last year I married Tom, a former police officer and a pastor in the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. Media reports of my marriage, in Jamaica, have led to an increase in the threats against my life and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has written to the Jamaican government for the second time in a year inquiring what measures it will take to guarantee my safety. So far, the government has failed to respond. Threats are nothing new for me. It’s only the intensity that’s changed. I’m a lawyer and activist in Jamaica, which has the distinction of being regarded as one of the most violently homophobic countries in the world.”

So writes Jamaican gay activist Maurice Tomlinson in the Guardian. He is off to collect an award for his work but he cannot go home again.

“In a recent survey 82% of Jamaican people said they were prejudiced against gay people. Vigilante attacks against gay men are common – at least 35 people have been murdered because of their sexuality since 1997. Last year, two men were hacked to death because they were gay. The latest victim was a 16-year-old youth chopped to death in his home by early morning invaders because of his “questionable relations” with another man.”

Lance Corporal James Wharton was one of the first openly gay men in the Army, a trooper in the Household Cavalry Regiment. Recently he spent three days touring schools in Ayrshire and East Lothian and hopes to take his crusade into more schools across the country after he was given a hero’s welcome by hundreds of pupils. “Simply to have 250 teenagers listening and discussing the subject of sexuality through my own experiences is remarkable. I do still think there is a problem in schools, especially with the all too common use of homophobic language in playgrounds. My hope is that visits like mine will bring an end to this problem and young lesbian, gay and bisexual people won’t have to feel that their sexuality is something people can use against them.”

Oh those canny Catholics. For some time authorities at a Catholic establishment in Canada have been considering what to do about a request to set up a Gay-Straight Alliance. Cannot do that, to Catholics, gays are The Devil. They finally worked out what to do. They have set up a “Respecting Difference Club”.

By their prejudice, ignorance and homophobia shall ye know them. Stay away.

SP

26 January: Remembering David Kato killed a year ago today

Thursday January 26, 2012

Suffolk Police

The dissected body of Bernard Oliver, 17, from Muswell Hill, north London, was found dumped in two suitcases on farmland in Tattingstone, near Ipswich, on 16 January 1967. No one was ever charged over the inquiry. Two doctors, both now dead, were prime suspects. Now Police have been contacted by a man with new information about the murder. He is believed to have reported seeing two unattended suitcases and a man wearing medical gloves in the Ipswich docks area in the days before the teenager’s body was found.

Tony Oliver

Tony Oliver (left) was 13 when his brother Bernard (r) was murdered. The investigation was reopened in 1977 but little progress was made. The crime remains one of the most brutal ever investigated by Suffolk police. Local newspapers this morning reported suspicions that young Bernard had been picked up by a gang, taken to a remote house, held against his will and forced to take part in male orgies.

Whatever the truth, Bernard has been denied justice for too long.

Eva Mulumba (left), David Kato’s sister, speaks at a memorial service today. AFP, Michele Sibiloni

Ugandan gay rights activists braved hostility and stigma Thursday as they gathered to commemorate the first anniversary of the murder of their fellow campaigner David Kato. “We are here to celebrate and thank God for our beloved friend and human rights activist David Kato,” former Anglican bishop and gay rights campaigner Christopher Senyonjo told a crowd of around 100 activists and family members. Kato, former advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was found bludgeoned to death at his home outside Kampala on January 26, 2011.

Pink News has been to Tunisia to find out how gays are faring after the revolution there.

“Stoufa, a 54 year-old gay hairdresser and designer, said that there was a time in Tunisia when people had enough exposure to gays that they were not taken aback by it. However, he says that attitudes towards gays have changed considerably over the years. “People these days speak more openly about homosexuality, and claim to be tolerant. However, in reality they are not,” he stated. According to Stoufa, who was raised in downtown Tunis, his community was small and everyone knew each other. “In such a small community, sexual orientation was not a secret. However, there was no shame associated with it. People just respected it then – more than they do now,” said Stoufa. Nevertheless, there have been recent signs that a public dialogue is beginning that was not possible before. Tunisia’s Gay Day Magazine, launched in March 2011 as the first online magazine for the country’s LGBT community. A blog, Facebook page and Twitter account have been established for the magazine in an effort to interact with LGBT Tunisians through social networking and media.”

Some good journalism there, Pink News, well done.

Bruno Domingos

More good news from Australia for their gay citizens. The government will help Australian same-sex couples marry in other countries where gay marriage is legal by issuing them with documents that are currently only available to heterosexual couples. In several nations that allow gay marriage, including Portugal, Spain, Norway and South Africa, a person must produce a so-called Certificate of No Impediment, which proves that they are at least 18 years old, not already married and that there is no other barrier to the marriage. Attorney-General Nicola Roxon will today announce that from February 1, same-sex couples will be able to apply for the certificates.

SP

25 January

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Steven, not Lily. Thame Today

Aylesbury Vale District Council faces allegations of homophobia after police were called to investigate claims that Lib Dem boss Steven Lambert had been verbally abused. Four Conservative councillors have been reported to police for calling him Lily at May’s election count in the Waterside Theatre, and three times at group meetings at AVDC’s Gatehouse Road headquarters in July. All four have strenuously denied making the comments.

President Obama. On Top

President Barack Obama included the contributions of gay troops in his State of the Union address delivered Tuesday evening. “When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; Asian or Latino; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. … When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one nation, leaving no one behind.”

Are you a gay city and not ready to admit it? Maybe you have more gay couples living in you than you’re willing to concede? Or maybe you’re a gay city that passes for a straight one because you don’t use hair products and have anti-gay legislation? asks South Florida Gay News. They then out six closeted gay cities. They are: Long Beach, Portland, Little Rock, Knoxville, Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale.

Atlanta? Fort Lauderdale? Gay? Blimey.

Reuters reports that a Kansas state law banning sex between people of the same gender was left off statutes Governor Sam Brownback wants to repeal, even though the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 ruled such a Texas law unconstitutional. Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Montana are the only states that still have anti-sodomy laws on the books, according to the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.

The Queensland, Australia government has announced it will make the changes necessary to ensure ‘gay panic’ cannot be raised as a partial defence to murder. Recommendations to amend the Criminal Code have been made after a petition by a Catholic priest garnered more than 25,000 signatures and international support.

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24 January

Tuesday 24 January, 2012

Michael Ball. Chris Barry/Telegraph

Leicester City player Michael Ball has been fined £6,000 by the FA for anti-gay comments he made on Twitter. Ball admitted the charge of bringing the game into disrepute with his expletive-peppered tweet. The left-back, who has played for England once in a friendly against Spain, was let go by his club last night after joining on a one-year contract. The club tweeted: “Leicester City have today reached a mutual agreement with Michael Ball for the cancellation of his contract.”

President Zuma (left) and King Swelithini (right). AFP

South Africa’s Human Rights Commission is investigating reports that Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini called gay people “rotten” during a speech. The Commission says it has obtained transcripts of the speech to look into the matter. The royal household has denied that the king made any homophobic comments and says he was misquoted.

John Baird. Chris Wattie/Reuters

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, speaking at the Royal Commonwealth Society, London, yesterday urged Commonwealth countries to protect the rights of homosexuals, singling out African and Caribbean countries for criminalizing homosexuality and failing to protect gays from homophobic attacks. Baird called laws criminalizing homosexuality a “hangover” from a bygone era. “Dozens of Commonwealth countries currently have regressive and punitive laws on the books that criminalize homosexuality … Throughout most of the Commonwealth Caribbean, colonial-era laws remain on the books that could impose draconian punishments on gay people simply for being gay. This contributes to social stigma and violence against gay people.”

Baird called on Commonwealth governments to follow the example of “progressive countries” like Canada and the United Kingdom, and not “wilfully ignore” their obligations to protect the rights of citizens regardless of sexual orientation. “We will continue to press countries in the Commonwealth to live up to their international obligations, and uphold the basic contract any government should have with its people,” he said. “The criminalization of homosexuality is incompatible with the fundamental Commonwealth value of human rights.”

Amen.

Wappingers Falls Mayor Matt Alexander with Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Barney Frank at a January 19 fundraiser. Photo: Chelsea Now/Gay City News

Its a year of decision in the US, as you all are aware, and Matt Alexander, the openly gay mayor of upstate Wappingers Falls, is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Congresswoman Nan Hayworth in the November election. Two Democratic House veterans, East Side Representative Carolyn Maloney and Barney Frank, the out gay Massachusetts representative who recently announced his retirement after 16 terms, attended his fundraising event last week.

Noting the swing nature of New York’s 19th congressional district that Hayworth represents, Frank said the November contest “will be one of the most watched races of the year. If Matt doesn’t win, we won’t retake the House.” Democrats need to gain 25 seats to get back the majority they lost in 2010.

Simon Doonan. Getty Images

The Independent profiles Simon Doonan, an Englishman in New York, whose “books of wry, bitchy social observation are bestsellers. He writes a column for Slate.com. He delivers caustic one-liners on sheeny TV shows like Gossip Girl and America’s Next Top Model. Madonna is a fan. So is Joan Rivers. And Malcolm Gladwell, the wiggy genius author of The Tipping Point. Simon has a day job at Barneys New York, the ritzy department store, of which more later. Run his name on Google Images and you’ll find snaps of him sharing jokes with the cream of Manhattan’s exhibitionists, in a seemingly inexhaustible succession of explosive floral chemises. Not bad, on the whole, for a British window dresser from Reading.”

Mr Doonan has published another book.

“The book’s 18 essays cover many aspects of the gay world – fag hags, liposuction, “bears” – and gay aspects of the world that you hadn’t realised were gay. Like food.”

Pardon?

“According to Doonan, there aren’t four food groups, as popularly supposed: just gay food and straight food. Slabs of wild boar are straight. Fillets of sole meunière are gay. Mexican burritos are straight as Tarzan, while sushi is the gayest food on earth. And, he points out, the gayest dishes are invariably prepared by the toughest heteros. “Scratch a butch chef and you’ll find a bitch,” says Doonan in his typically swishy way.”

Back to the 1950s chaps. Give it a rest.

Plans to hold a gay festival on Clapham Common during the Olympics this summer have caused controversy.

Lambeth councillor Christopher Wellbelove blasted the Friends of Clapham Common for claiming that Pride House would bring “undesirable elements” to the area, and questioned whether the group should now be involved in overseeing park events in the future. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender festival is due to run for 18 days during this summer’s Olympics and include live music, art and screenings of the Games. Up to 20,000 people a day might attend.

A Lambeth council report quoted the Friends’ objections. In it, the group said: “The Pride House event, taking place in the same month as Gay Pride, is highly likely to become a magnet for undesirable elements of that community. The event is unlikely to raise a decent income for Lambeth since much of it will be for charitable purposes benefiting LGBT causes.”

Cllr Wellbelove, who is openly gay and was borough mayor in 2009-10, told the South London Press: “To be quite so blatantly homophobic is beyond belief. Reference to ‘undesirables’ is incredibly offensive.” The friends group is also opposed because of the size of the event and claims organisers have no way of telling how many people will attend.”

SP

23 January

Monday 23 January 2012

Metro Weekly

Oh no not another. 14 year old Phillip Parker took his own life on Friday after bullying at Gordonsville High School in Tennessee. His parents Gena and Phillip Parker said that their son had been treated badly because he was gay. His mother told cameras at a vigil on Saturday, “That was his choice, and nobody else liked it.” His grandmother, Ruby Harris, indicated that young Phillip felt he like he “had a rock on his chest,” and he wanted to take it off so he could breathe.

Gay Activist sends condolences to Phillip’s parents and friends.

Ilya Pitalev/RAI Novosti

Oops. A nationalist rally for a healthy lifestyle in the Kaliningrad Region of Russia was stopped by police who mistook it for a gay pride parade. Some two dozen activists, many underage, took to the streets of Sovetsk on Saturday to promote jogging, carrying a black, yellow and white banner of imperial Russia, favored by nationalists, which was adorned with the slogan, “Russians choose sport.”

Police dispatched a patrol to detain them for questioning. Officers were acting on an anonymous telephone tip, which reported the event to be an unsanctioned rally for gay rights. They also mistook the flag for a banner of some religious sect, said the organizer, Anton Uskov.

Natty outfit, King: King Goodwill Zwelithini. Photo: South African Times

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has hit back at Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini who was quoted as saying that homosexuals are “rotten”. “Traditionally, there were no people who engaged in same sex relationships. There was nothing like that and if you do it, you must know that you are rotten,” he is alleged to have said at a ceremony on Sunday. “I don’t care how you feel about it. If you do it, you must know that it is wrong and you are rotten. Same sex is not acceptable.”

President Zuma said at the same ceremony that the country must end discrimination against gays and lesbians. “Today, we are faced with different challenges… challenges of reconciliation and of building a nation that does not discriminate against other people because of their colour or sexual orientation.”

Bruce Harris. Photo: Philly.com

The Advocate reports that Bruce Harris, a gay Republican mayor in New Jersey, has been nominated to the state supreme court. Steven Goldstein of Garden State Equality said “You could have picked me up off the floor…. Harris will become the first openly LGBT person in history, and the third African-American person in history, to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court. Most importantly, Bruce is eminently qualified to be a Supreme Court justice.”

Congratulations from Gay Activist to Mr Harris.

Towleroad

Pekka Haavisto (left), an out gay member of Finland’s Green Party, is in a run-off election against Sauli Niinisto (right) to serve as Finland’s next President, but is not expected to succeed. The conservative favorite easily won the first round of Finland’s presidential election Sunday, setting up a runoff against an environmentalist leader who is the first openly gay candidate to run for head of state in the Nordic country. Sauli Niinisto, a former finance minister, won 37 percent of the vote, well ahead of the other candidates but short of the majority needed to avoid a second round, official preliminary results showed. With all votes counted, Pekka Haavisto, of the Greens party, was second with 18.8 percent, securing his place in the Feb. 5 runoff.

SP

January 22

Sunday January 22

STV

Gay groups and others in Scotland urged Edinburgh’s Lord Provost to use the city’s ‘twinning arrangement’ with St Petersburg to urge Russian authorities to abandon a bill that would fuel discrimination against the gay community. Amnesty International Scotland, Equality Network, Scottish Youth Parliament and NUS Scotland LGBT warned that the proposed law would allow the authorities to impose fines of up to the equivalent of £1,000 for “public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors”.

Amnesty International’s Programme Director in Scotland, Shabnum Mustapha, said: ‘Throughout Russia, we have witnessed a clampdown on freedom of expression of LGBTI individuals, NGOs and activists. “There has been harassment, intimidation and interference with gay prides and other public events; as well physical violence and the detention of peaceful demonstrators by the police. To seek to ‘legitimise’ this discrimination and oppression of the LGBTI community through legislation is appalling.”

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is under way with a number of gay films in the programme. One highlights the latent homophobia in country music.

Chely Wright. Napa Valley Film Fest

In the new film “Wish Me Away,” the story of country singer Chely Wright’s 2010 announcement to the world that she’s gay, is told. “Everyone seemed profoundly touched by the courage and willingness of Wright to potentially destroy her career in order to be true to herself. Throughout the documentary, Chely, a devout Christian, showed great concern for young gay kids who face the difficult reality that they are perceived as “an abomination” and not even worthy of being alive. These kids are the motivating factor of why she may have committed career suicide. Her last CD sold less than any previous album she had ever released.”

When asked about the acceptance of gays in Nashville’s country music industry, (co-producer of the film) Bobbie Birleffi said: “You have to distinguish between the industry, the market image and the people who work in the industry. It’s a hip industry, and there are tons of gay people working in Nashville. But as far as high-profile artists go, we couldn’t get one to step forward to support Chely … not a single one, and she’s friends with a lot of those people because the audience that these people rely on for their paycheck is an audience that is Christian-based and conservative.”

SP

21 January

Saturday 21 January 2012

Photo of Jack Frew: BBC Scotland

Craig Roy, accused of killing gay teenager Jack Frew, may have been blackmailed by Frew and they may have slept together. Roy’s defence counsel says there is no question that he stabbed Frew, but Roy has denied murdering Frew. Mr Roy’s sister Robyn said her brother admitted to her he had “slit Jack’s throat. … I asked him why he done it and he said ‘He’s being blackmailing me. It was only meant to be a threat.’ “He said Jack had been pestering and annoying him for over a year. He said he had slept with Jack once and that Jack kept asking for sex ever since and was blackmailing him.”. Frew is also alleged to have been sending Roy text messages asking to have sex with him again.

Frew died in 2010. There were a number of stab wounds to his back and neck and his windpipe had been severed. The trial continues.

Protesters scamper for safety as police disperse a crowd protesting over the presence of alleged gays in the Kenya port town of Mombasa. Undated Photo: Africa Review

Your Activist previously reported that Leroy “Ponpon” Archie and Abraham Kamara narrowly escaped death at the University of Liberia on January 13th where they had gone to launch a membership drive for their gay rights group. They escaped the wrath of an irate mob of university students on the Capitol Hill and Fendell campuses of the University of Liberia and were saved by police officers. They are understood to have gone into hiding.

They are undaunted. They say they need five thousand members to qualify them to push for law reform. They have $4 million in overseas donations, says the Africa Review. While the Liberian Constitution criminalises gay and lesbian activities, the duo have vowed that they will not bow to any pressure until the ‘Movement in Defence of Gay and Lesbian Rights’ is legally recognized in the West African nation. They would use the available funds to attain the required number of signatures to petition Liberian legislators to pass a Gay Rights Bill.

It will not be easy though. The Speaker of the House of Representatives in Liberia, Alex Tyler told reporters that his colleagues have already denounced the very idea. “I am a Methodist and traditionalist, I will never support a gay bill because it is damaging to the survival of the country,” he said, and warned that any bill introduced in the House in favour of protecting gay and lesbian rights “will be thrown in the ‘Du or Montserrado River”.

SP

20 January: Guilty

Friday, 20 January

PA

Ihjaz Ali, 42, Kabir Ahmed, 28 and Razwan Javed, 27, all pictured, were found guilty of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. Sentencing was adjourned until 10 February. Two other men were cleared of the same charge.

Taxi driver Ali, of Fairfax Road, who the prosecution said was believed to be the main organiser and supplier of the leaflets, was found guilty of four counts of distribution on 2 July and 4 July 2010. Ahmed, of Madeley Street, and Javed, of Wilfred Street, were convicted of distribution in the area of the mosque on 2 July. Taxi driver Mehboob Hussain, of Rosehill Street, and Razwan’s brother Umar Javed, of Whittaker Street, were both cleared of distribution relating to posting the leaflets through the letterboxes of homes on 4 July.

Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch. Photo: David Levenson/Getty Images

Gay Activist does not normally follow the Church of England’s 40 year long debate over gay rights, (a) because we are bored stiff by it, and (b) so are you. However: today, a leading historian has called for the Church of England to accept gay partnerships among its clergy, instead of encouraging them to hide their sexuality or remain celibate. (While there has been a revolution in attitudes towards gay people in the UK,) “the church has just stuck its fingers in its ears and chanted la-la-la”. He asks: “When will the Church of England wake up to what has become apparent to the rest of the nation?”

Your Activist recommends: switch off now, nothing will happen for at least another ten years.

Your Activist follows the alleged back-bench rebellion over gay marriage in the Commons with a liberal pinch of salt at the ready. However, writing in The Independent, Musa Okwonga considers their attempt to snuff out gay rights is actually worse than homophobia.

“….This is not about fear. The MPs who would deny marriage to gay people are not, I think, afraid of gay people. I think that they fundamentally believe that gay people are vastly inferior to heterosexuals: and I fear that what underlies this belief is not a transient misunderstanding, still less a passionate commitment to Scripture, but a firm, unyielding contempt.”

We could not agree more.

SP

January 19th

Thursday 19 January

ILGA Photo

Newsday looks at being gay in Liberia. “Though there is no exact data to say how many people are homosexuals, many people interviewed believe the number is expected to rise if same-sex marriage is legislated in Liberia. A man who spoke to this paper on condition of anonymity, but a self-confessed homosexual, said many Liberians were involved in the practice both at home and abroad, including former and current public officials, who could not wait to see the legalisation of same sex marriage introduced…. Though gay and lesbian practices are forbidden according to the Constitution of Liberia, particularly in the commission of the crime of sodomy, it is silent on public debate on the issue. However, the source expressed optimism that when introduced in the House, a Bill seeking the protection of the rights of homosexuals will not face any obstacle.”

The jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of five Muslim men from Derby accused of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation after they distributed a leaflet said to be threatening to homosexuals. Ihjaz Ali, 42, Kabir Ahmed, 28, Mehboob Hussain, 45, and brothers Umar Javed, 38, and 28-year-old Razwan Javed are charged with distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation after they handed out a leaflet called ‘Death Penalty?’ In the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010, Derby Crown Court heard how the men handed out the leaflet outside and near the Jamia Mosque in Derby’s Rosehill Street and in streets around the local neighbourhood in July 2010. During their trial the jury of seven men and five women heard the men admitted distributing the leaflet, which showed a mannequin hanging by the neck from a noose and referenced what Islam says about homosexuality being historically punished by execution, but said they were simply quoting and following what their religion teaches about homosexuality and did not intend to threaten anyone.

JFS School, London. Photo: Frank Baron/Guardian

A Jewish faith school in London has said claims it suggested a ‘gay cure’ group as an alternative for students who thought they might be gay are “false”. students allege that a sixth-form discussion on homosexuality at JFS ended with a slide displaying the logo of a ‘gay cure’ group and implicitly portrayed it as something they should explore if they thought they might be gay. JONAH – Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (formerly Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) – teaches that homosexuality can be “mitigated and potentially eliminated”. But the headteacher of the school denies the group was being promoted to students. The school says it has been using the same material in lessons for years. It is understood that the JFS school is taxpayer funded around £14,000,000.

SP