The Final Section

I think last night we all had what I would call a collective moment of clarity. We’ve cleared a few things up. We’ve confirmed that giving Nick Griffin public pulpit only serves to do himself and his party the true disservice we knew it would as he confirmed he hangs out with members of the Ku Klux Klan, albeit non-violent ones. We’ve confirmed that the BNP only has its support through dissatisfaction with mainstream politics and because Jack Straw looks like the Demon Headmaster. And we’ve confirmed that Bonnie Greer’s got the sexiest voice in the world ever. So that’s everything cleared up then? Or not.

One of the sidelines to the wonderful freak show that was Question Time last night came towards the end when David Dimbleby suggested we lay off Nick for a bit and talk about actual real life stuff. A young lady queried whether The Daily Mail should or should not have published Jan Moir’s horrendous conjecture piece on the supposedly unnatural nature of Stephen Gateley’s death. Nick’s nadir came when he suggested that gays can do what they want at home, but he doesn’t want them teaching homophobia in schools.

And this is where our clarity becomes opaque again, because I’m not entirely sure how one goes about teaching homosexuality. Would we have Double Maths followed by Double Homo on the timetable? Instead of assembly, would we just have a bitchy chat about what Miss Jenkins, the New Zealand supply teacher, wore yesterday? Would rugby matches in PE just turn into a load of posh boys all rolling around in the mud and touching each other’s willies?

This all stems from Section 28, a piece of local government legislation from 1988 that outlaws the promotion of homophobia to the public. This means that any council funding of any literature, film or theatre that tries to promote homosexuality as ‘normal’ is to be outlawed, with a special subsection making sure that schools aren’t privy to the peddling of homosexuality.

The irony is no-one’s ever been prosecuted under the Section because as gays are so bloody promiscuous and they’re constantly getting AIDS, there’s a cheeky loophole which means that anything promoting the prevention of disease is exempt. And all gays get AIDS. So that’s lucky for the gays. Isn’t it? But while there’s plenty of homosexual literature about, the sentiment remains the same; that gays ain’t normal and we shouldn’t be promoting that shit.

The thing is, surely Section 28 is now a bit anachronistic. Homos are bloody everywhere now, mincing all over the shop. Will, from Will and Grace. There’s one. A gay in power, Peter Mandelson. There’s another. Robbie Williams, when he finally admits it. There’s even two in Sex and the City for Christ’s sake. Hell, when I was younger, I used to be the Gay Best Mate to get girls. I mean, I didn't work, but the sentiment's there.

The most resounding evidence to prove it is that gays are now allowed to get married. If there’s anything which promotes a relationship as normal, surely it’s walking down the aisle as wife and wife? Civil partnerships are proof that gay is good, it’s ubiquitous and it’s here to stay.

So while Nick Griffin took all the flak last night, Baroness Warsi, the Tory peer who had earlier defended Islam with distinction and provided some of the most eloquent retorts to his intolerant views, intimated, albeit more tactfully, that she might share the same homophobic views as Griffin. And she’s got previous as well. When she stood for election in 2005, some of her campaign leaflets could have been mistaken for BNP filth.

Quotes from Nick’s racist past got brought up, and rightfully so, but Warsi’s odd views got glossed over. How she can share a platform with a man and denigrate and latently support him all at once, and get away with it, I will never know.

I know Question Time is just a fun way of watching politicians squirm (did you see Nick shaking? And Dimbleby made sure the Demon Headmaster didn’t have it all his own way), but sometimes they are allowed to circumnavigate questions too easily and they conceal their actual views, and Warsi proper blagged it last night. Gays might mince about all over the shop, but she was proof that we still have a way to go when it comes to getting everybody on board the Toleration Train.

So things may still be a little ambivalent but one thing is for certain; in an unprecedented week for liberals everywhere, with 22,000 complaining against Moir's article to the PCC and bare people storming Wood Lane, we have proved that intolerance will be met with intolerance and I’m proud of you freakin’ honkys.