If there’s a hot topic, I’m just not satisfied until I get my two cents worth. So there is no way I could let Jan Moir pass under my radar without making my opinion known.
If you don’t have a Facebook account, and don’t read the Daily Mail (I’m going to assume you don’t or you probably wouldn’t be reading this), Jan Moir’s article on the death of Boyzone star Stephen Gately entitled “A strange, lonely and troubling death...” got the gays and liberals a’ buzzing with technological rage. Roughly, the article says that Gately died because of his gay hedonistic lifestyle and that all civil partnerships are doomed to fail. Well, maybe that’s not exactly what she said, but it’s your basic run-of-the-mill conservative drivel.
What really fascinated me, however, wasn’t the epic staleness of Moir’s opinion, but the swift repercussions it sparked. Facebook and Twitter immediately went insane, with groups forming and links posting all day long. So much so that the Daily Mail website crashed because it couldn’t cope with the number of visitors. Prominent celebs and journalists were tweeting replies and comments, encouraging people to lay formal complaints against the article. The same evening as the Mail went to press, Moir had already sent out a formal release defending herself and trying to explain away her thinly veiled bigotry.
All in all, for those us in the gays tired of having prejudice shoved down our throats through the conservative press, dear Jan has given us the chance to make a point:
If yee dareth to publicly offend us, oh how the gays shall smite thee with the Sword of Facebook, and strike thee down with the staff of Twitter!
Honestly, I’m impressed. For one, I've gotten used to conservative groups making noise about gay issues and harping on about it in the media, but the time has clearly passed to sit and shake our heads tisk tisking. This time it's our turn to fight back, making some noise about conservative issues and harping right on back about it in the media. It’s fun to be one of the loud indignant people for a change; these moments don't happen often for me, so I have to savour them.
More importantly though, is that the strength of any group or movement can be judged by its ability to mobilise into action, both in numbers and with speed. Today the homos and friends were out both quick and plenty. On these occasions where someone does something stupid enough to get our backs up, it’s good to know that we can bitch about it with one voice online.
Yes, you may say, it’s not like we took to marching in the streets and waving banners, but a lot of us have to work during the day, and I personally used all my banner paint for London Pride. So we have to take advantage of the easiest means available, and since most of us were logged into Facebook anyway, social networking was rather effective.
So thanks Jan for teaching us an important lesson, I think you learned one yourself along the way.
To quote Tyler Durden in Fight Club “Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... fuck with us”
Well, not exactly, but you get the point.
A pleasure as always,
Katka xx
Kathryn Schneider (a.k.a Katka-Kapenaar) is a Cape Town Lesbian abroad, immersing herself in the ups and downs of lesbian life in London and attempting to navigate the fabulous and treachourous gay scene to the soundtrack of electro-synth pop. See how she copes with more gay girls than she can count on her two hands at www.katka-k.blogspot.com
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