Part 26. One more gay death.
In the midst of this religious-inspired moral crusade, The Record’s agony aunt, Joan Burnie harked back to her wedding day. “Don’t tell the teachers – especially the Union, the Educational Institute of Scotland”, she snapped, “but I was once m*****d. Yes, now it can be told, although I don’t wish to corrupt any vulnerable or impressionable young person by writing that filthy ‘M’ word in full. Even I am not that depraved… I know, I am thoroughly ashamed of myself and realise that such irresponsible behaviour must have irreparably damaged the lives of my son and daughter… Better yet, I should have gone the whole hog and turned homosexual just to provide them with something of which Ms Nicol’s pals, (Margaret Nicol, Convenor of EIS Equality Committee), could wholeheartedly approve. Or maybe shoved them into care, less they might, in the EIS’s words, ‘alienate friends from different backgrounds’. Of course, this is the most ridiculous claptrap which we have yet heard from the teachers’ representatives… Marriage, as far as I am aware, is still considered an honourable state”.
Ms Burnie was a divorcee.
A letter also appeared in The Record on Joan Burnie’s ‘Just Joan’ page, saying: “I have a real fear of homosexuals. I worry they will grab me and rape me. This is stopping me from going out at night, as I live in an area where there are a great number of so-called gays. They have taken over the local pubs and you cannot move for them. I have seen them looking at me in the street as well. Someone once told me that I was just the type they go for, being into sports and looking very manly. It is terrible that, in this day and age, someone shouldn’t feel safe in their own neighbourhood because of these militant gay groups”. Without doubting the authenticity of the letter, Burnie went on to reassure him: “I’m sure you are a very good-looking guy, but just as you could never fancy a gay man, I doubt any of them would want a straight one”. On the subject of rape, she added: “When a man is raped, he is likely to be gay and his attacker straight and not the other way round”.
The Daily Record felt drawn to challenge charges of prudery by promoting a guide called Marriage Matters. Written by 52-year-old Linet Smith, the tabloid reported: “A vicar’s wife has penned a sex guide so parishioners can sizzle between the sheets… (Mrs Smith) says wives should wear flimsy lingerie to greet their husbands when they come home from work. And she recommends a lock on the bedroom door so couples with kids can conoodle in peace”.
Pro-Section 28 newspapers continued to produce appalling examples of homophobia, not just in their reports, but also, without balance, in their letters’ pages. Mrs Anne Walker wrote to The Scottish Mail to register a complaint: “Although most children in my daughter’s class come from ‘normal homes’ with mums and dads who work hard, pay their bills and taxes, who receive no benefits and try to bring their children up to learn respect and manners, the head teacher says it’s the minority who must not be upset”.
Following the Ayrshire by-election, the European parliament voted in favour of a resolution that homosexual relationships should have equal status across the European Union. The Vatican issued a warning to Catholic politicians that they must not support any legislation that gave gay relationships equal status in law with marriage. In a communiqué of the Pontifical Council for the Family, of which Cardinal Winning was a member, it said: “Legislators and especially Catholic parliamentarians must not favour with their vote this type of legislation since it runs contrary to the common good”. MSP Nora Radcliffe retorted: “You would think that the Catholic Church, which was persecuted for centuries, would not want other people to be persecuted”. Cardinal Winning told The Mail: “This alarms all families in Scotland. The marriage-based family is the foundation stone on which this nation has been built. People are not prepared to stand idly by and watch these foundations being undermined”. The paper dismissed critics of his message by suggesting they’d missed the point.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer promised to deliver a “Budget for a fairer, stronger Britain. The Record snapped at the opportunity to carp: “His Budget theme of ‘for the many, not the few’ is one that some of Labour’s Scottish representatives would do well to remember. Fighting for the few against the will of the many went a long way to getting them into a mess in the first place”.
The Record called Tory leader Brian Monteith over a story about a new gay supporters club for Hibernean Football Club. Monteith claimed he ‘smelt a rat’ and clicked on the club’s website to read the exchanges between fans. His suspicions were confirmed. “It’s riddled with homophobic jokes and I suspect a Hearts supporter with a sad sense of humour”. On The Record’s sports’ pages a few days later, under the bold headline: “GAY PRIDE” was Colin Duncan’s report: “Fans have last laugh as Hibs come from behind”. He wrote: “Hibs latest and most unusual supporters club, The Gay Gordons, must have relished the mince along Leith Walk after this pulsating Edinburgh derby… Thoughout the 90 minutes the Hearts fans mercilessly taunted their rivals about their new-found backers. However, it was the Gay Gordons, who came out of the closet last week to pronounce their undying love for the Hibees, who had the last laugh. Apparently young Kenny Miller, who sported a new haircut for the occasion, is their icon but surely they could not have failed to have been attracted to the Gallic flair of Franck Sauzee. Indeed they would be well advised to start a pressure group aimed at persuading the Frenchman not to up sticks and quit at the end of the season… The smile on Yogi’s face at the end of the match and the clenched-fist salute of boss Alex McLeish told you how much this victory meant to Hibs…” Craig Halkett’s full-page photograph with the caption “Yogi bare” showed Hibernean footballer Yogi Hughes flashing his bum at the crowd.
Traditionally, sectarianism, racism and violence were more prolific in Scottish football than homosexuality which remained hidden. Indeed, after this match, an incident was reported to police after Heart’s fullback, Gary Naysmith, was hit just below the eye with a missile midway through the second half.
In an attempt to set the record straight, the children’s charity ChildLine organised a conference in Edinburgh for one hundred teenagers from all over Scotland to give them a say in the Section 28 debate. Thousands more children were able to add their voice in the debate during a live Internet link-up with secondary schools. They summed up the state of sex education in Scottish schools as a ‘shambles’. Director of ChildLine Scotland, Anne Houston said that the overwhelming message from young people was that Section 28 should be repealed. Sadly, for one young person, it was already too late. Dr Roger Lambert from Aberdeen wrote to The Herald with a disturbing story: “My brother is headteacher of a Catholic comprehensive school in a rural area and though of liberal views himself, he has found Section 28 a barrier to sensible informed debate in school about homosexuality. This was highlighted last Sunday when a very bright, sensitive 16-year-old boy from his school committed suicide. The reason was because he was gay and it would appear that he felt unable to approach anyone to talk about his sexuality… It is totally irresponsible for some sections of the media to attempt to influence public opinion with ill-informed campaigns on a subject as sensitive as this. Perhaps they should attend the inquest into the boy’s tragic and needless death!”
Ethan, a highly sensitive, intelligent, young 16-year-old, attended a Catholic co-educational Grammar school where any support for young gays was non-existent and where he would learn to know of himself as a sinner, unnatural, immoral and an inferior human being. His diaries contained evidence of his lack of interest in girls, his dislike of sports and incidents of bullying. He had hung himself. If Ethan had struggled to vanquish evidence of his emerging sexuality in life; death only concurred with the enforced repression. The court session enquiring into the circumstances of his untimely death was held in private, closed to the public and press. No mention was made of Ethan’s sexual orientation and a death by misadventure was recorded.
At a Scottish Executive enquiry on Monday, 20 March, it looked as though ‘Keep the Clause’ were ready to throw in the towel. Brian Souter and Jack Irvine stayed away, leaving a minister’s wife, Mrs Anne Stewart and ‘concerned father’ Patrick Rowlink, a school board member from Airdrie, to face the Scottish Executive enquiry to say: “We have accepted that Section 2a will be repealed”. Not yet ready to move out of his £1m Perthshire mansion into a council house, as promised, behind the scenes, Brian Souter was already planning to snare the Government with a major referendum on the issue. The next day, The Scottish Mail announced an “unprecedented warning” as: “Churches unite against Dewar over Section 28”. Even though the Church of Scotland had no official line on the matter, Mrs Ann Allen signed the letter on its behalf. The others signing the letter to First Minister Donald Dewar were Gordon Murray of CARE, Bashir Maan of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, David Anderson of the Evangelical Alliance, Rev John Fulton of the United Free Church of Scotland, Rev Kenneth MacLeod of the Free Church, Rev Angus Morrison of the Associated Presbyterian Church, Canon Mike Parker of the Scottish Episcopal Evangelical Fellowship, Parminder Singh Purba of the Central Gurdwara Singh Saba, Imam TH Shah of the UK Islamic Mission, Mr MT Shaheen, MBE of Glasgow’s Islamic Centre, Rev William Slack of the Baptist Union, Armrik Singh Uppal of the Glasgow Gurdwara Council and Mr SL Gajree, President of the Hindu Temple in Glasgow. The Scottish Sun reported: “They also want to know whether the Scottish Executive – which wants to repeal Section 28 and allow gay lessons in schools – will move toward civil recognition for same-sex unions”. The Record’s Carlos Alba reported their demands of the First Minister: “…They urged him to halt moves to give gay relationships the same legal status as heterosexuals”. The letter stated: “We sincerely believe that nothing less than the soul of Scotland is at stake… We genuinely fear that the current debate over Section 28 reveals a very real hostility on the part of some powerful lobby groups to the marriage-based family”. Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens the pop singer, added his voice by claiming the Government’s bid to scrap the clause was a further decline in morality. A 26,000-name petition organised by pensioner Vera Cowey and her husband Jim from Broughty Ferry, near Dundee was handed in to the Scottish Executive expressing “horror” at the planned repeal. They were joined by a 20-strong delegation handing in a petition signed by 320 Church of Scotland ministers.
The Scottish Tory leader, Brian Monteith sought to have a clause inserted into the Scottish Bill which would give the school boards a role in drawing up and monitoring sex education classes in schools and a legal right for parents to withdraw their children from classes they thought were inappropriate. Lawyers working for ‘Keep the Clause’ had argued that because parents in Scotland had no legal right to withdraw their children from sex education lessons, the Executive was in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Scottish Mail astutely called it on 22 March a “plan for parent power on school sex lessons”. SSBA treasurer, Alan Smith called it an “excellent idea”. Ministers refused to budge and said they had no plans to change the wording of guidelines set to replace Section 28.
Far from being an ‘excellent idea’, Scots parents have been shown to be the shyest in Britain when it comes to talking to children about sex. A study by Norwich Union Healthcare found more than a third of parents with children aged between ten and 15 admitted they had not discussed issues surrounding puberty with them. The study also found 27 per cent of parents admitting sex was the most difficult subject to discuss with their child compared to 11 per cent in the south-east of England. Three quarters of parents assumed their children found out about puberty at school.
The Liberal Democrats were described by The Scottish Mail as “split over gay law ‘obsession’” when Gordon Macdonald, a member of the party’s Scottish executive “attacked his own party” two days before the Lib-Dem annual conference. He was reported being concerned that motions in support of repeal were swamping the conference. The report by their Scottish Political Reporter, Ian Smith cuttingly added: “The militant gay rights organisation Stonewall is also hosting a reception at the conference to thank the party for supporting gay rights”. Smith claimed Macdonald was part of a “growing band” of Lib-Dem defectors. Macdonald was, in fact, a member of the evangelical Christian group; CARE (Christian Action Research Education).
At the beginning of March 2000 a deal had been struck in England and Wales between Church leaders and the then education minister David Blunkett. The Church of England and the Catholic Church had agreed to accept the repeal of Section 28 if a clause was inserted in the Learning and Skills Bill promoting ‘marriage’ and ‘traditional family relationships’ during sex education lessons. The Record had already heralded this as a victory with their headline on 3 March: “ENGLISH WIN TOUGHER GAY SAFEGUARDS”. But the government were about to be double-crossed by religious militants. On Friday, 24 March, Baroness Young and her supporters blocked its passage through the unelected House of Lords. The Daily Mail dutifully reported Labour’s failure to win approval for the bill by just 15 votes: “SEX LESSONS LAW IN CHAOS… Lords revolt boosts campaign against the repeal of Section 28… Tony Blair’s bid to scrap the ban on gay propaganda in schools failed last night after peers rejected an attempt to buy them off”. Souter was reported to have been “delighted”. Baroness Young said: “I know I speak for the overwhelming majority of the population which does not want the promotion of homosexuality in schools”. It was a disaster for pro-repeal groups. Not only would Section 28 remain on the statute books in England and Wales, but new guidelines on promoting marriage in sex education had now been added! With temporary amnesia blocking memory of their own obsession for the subject, The Daily Mail commented: “Ministers have failed to convince their core supporters that their obsession with gay issues is in line with the mood of the nation… With every defeat and setback, new doubts are raised over its judgement… New Labour hasn’t anything better to do with its time”.
The Daily Record groaned: “Blair is said to be so angry over his tenth defeat by the new-look Lords in just four months that he will risk another ‘Tony’s cronies row’ to strike back”. The Record had been studying the Prime Minister’s “devilishly simple plan to get round the Lords’ rebellion over Section 28 repeal in England…” Blair had asked his Cabinet members to look around party members and sympathisers for life peers to serve in the House of Lords. 19 were already recruited but Blair still needed a further 31 new peers for another opportunity, at least six months away, to defeat the inbuilt majority against repeal. Even after the Lords reform which abolished all but 92 hereditary peers, the Tories still had 232 peers in the Upper House to Labour’s 182. Only a maximum of 50 could be introduced at a time. Under the heading: “Souter attacks Blair bid to pack the Lords”, he claimed Labour were “obsessed with political correctness… They must be completely beholden to minority pressure groups to consider such a desperate course of action”. A spokesman for the Catholics weighed in to declare the Lords were effectively being “silenced”. And Tory leader David McLetchie added: “The Lords have defied him and hell hath no fury like Tony Blair scorned. Now he intends to bring them to heel by packing the house with Labour placements”. The Record’s editorial sounded off in a fury: “Unfortunately that still leaves Mr Blair with the small matter of a general public who are adamantly OPPOSED to repeal on both sides of the border. And no amount of foot-stomping, steamrollering or gerrymandering seems capable of helping him out there. But - as has become so very obvious since this row started - when did what YOU think ever matter anyway?” Tom Brown put his name to a piece claiming the Lords had been “bastardised”.
Religionists and moral conservatives soon found another rich seam of support for their cause. The Daily Mail cleared a page for Labour peer Lord Paul. “We British Asians look with sorrow at the spread of divorce…” he sighed, “…and what might be taught about homosexuality… Jack Straw’s wise words about the strength and resilience of the traditional Asian family will be welcomed by the millions of British subjects whose origins are in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh… We desperately needed the backing of our wives and children in those early days. Quite simply, we would not have survived and prospered without the support provided by marriage - proper, traditional marriage… We would certainly not have found the strength and the stability needed to build up mighty businesses and to plan for our domestic futures in our new homeland… That is why… the Government must… pay less attention to those trendy liberals…” Lord Paul had come to Britain in 1966 to be with his daughter who had been dying of Leukaemia. “My wife and I were so heartbroken that we were determined to stay on to be near her. That is why I founded my business here instead of going back home to join the family firm”. His remonstrations were contradictory. He voted with the Government and claimed single parents and families who had chosen to live together without marrying could do well for their children. “Who ever thought otherwise?” he begged. But, in support of marriage, he added: “Our instinctive feeling for marriage is strengthened by academic research which shows that children desperately need stability and continuity - and that those values are most likely to be found in God-fearing families built around proper marriages”. Lord Paul begged: “Why does marriage not bring with it fiscal rewards - as it does in France and Germany?” In fact, the French believed they delivered a better system of sex education by keeping religion out of schools and their Pacte Civil de Solidarite permitted gays to financially benefit from civil unions. Lord Paul did not enjoy unanimous support. Ms Anvar Khan, a columnist in The Herald scorned: “We are small-town. Asking Scotland to talk reasonably on the global issue of homosexuality is like asking the characters in High Road (a Scottish television soap) to re-enact Jarman’s Caravaggio… While Scotland stockpiles sandbags and corned beef in the war against homosexuality, the rest of the world accepts that the disco gene cannot stop dancing”. Her remarks were made without the benefit of hindsight. Within four years, on the back of ‘moral’ issues like ‘gay marriage’, religionists would be rallying to support evangelical Christian George W Bush’s election for presidency of the US.
The newly formed Multi-Faith Coalition, formed to do battle with the Executive over the repeal of Section 28, claimed to include members of the Islamic, Chinese, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities. The group threatened to oust Labour MSPs such as Mohammed Sarwar, George Galloway and Ian Davidson who all had a high proportion of ethnic communities in their Glasgow constituencies. Ayub Khan, chairman of the coalition told The Sunday Post that MSPs “are not listening to what we want. We do not want Section 28 in our schools (sic) and don’t want to see it repealed and homosexual liaisons placed on the same moral footing as traditional family marriage. One of the apparent reasons for teaching homosexuality in schools is to stop bullying and homophobia but we don’t accept that. I was bullied at school because of my colour, and I don’t believe any amount of teaching will ever stop bullying”.
The gentle overtures played to ethnic minorities by right-wing newspapers like The Daily Mail were never likely to last long enough for an encore, demonstrated when “the floodgates (were) thrown open” and refugees given temporary homes in Glasgow. “Taxpayers pick up the bills”, the paper stormed. The Daily Record reported “a new influx of asylum seekers…”, and warned of a “second wave of refugees set to arrive in Glasgow…” The right-wing British National Party needed little encouragement to begin leafleting the empty, hard-to-let houses at Sighthill in Glasgow.
Amongst the collection of testimonials compiled for Stonewall’s Caused by the Clause a lesbian parent and teacher from West Lothian wrote: “The implication on the posters that I am the threat/danger from which children need to be protected was awful. I felt angry and fearful. I felt that being visible and defending myself was a big risk… I was particularly affected by the very concerted drive to enlist ethnic minority communities in the ‘Keep the Clause’ campaign. I felt I was being divided from allies in work against discrimination and commitment to Equal Ops. I began to feel unsure of my welcome and suspected – and even expected - opposition and intolerance from ethnic minority communities. I now feel cautious about being ‘out’. I feel that lots of fear has been stirred up in Scotland, including my own”.
Part 27 – Shang-A-Lang!
garry@garryotton.com
