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

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