Clarifying My James Kirchick Post

Some have asked why the cross post for “James Kirchick Takes On Russia Today” was removed from Harry’s Place. As my clarification comments are no longer visible I thought would summarise them here.

I was amazed how people jumped to conclusions about the post – and indeed my own sexuality or attitudes. Simply stating if he had stuck to two minutes, and talked about specifics of what is happening in Russia it would have been better – seemed to be misconstrued as a personal homophobic or alternatively “queen V queen” assault.

That people had two polar responses to my post suggests it was never going to have the fair hearing of what was actually said.

Shame some had not read this post of mine tackling homophobia.

Or this one praising James Kirchick defending Christopher Hitchens.

Or others like challenging Mehdi Hasan on Gay rights and attitudes for Muslims.

People filled in the gaps about motivation, who I am as a person, and in some cases wrong impression what the post was about. Still, that happens when blogging.

Having shown “Russia Today” coverage in the post, and agreed serious issues in Russia because of government attitudes to gay people – and issues in some UK schools too that must not be forgotten – seems incredible some thought I was disagreeing or belittling him.

Someone mentored by Hitchens should have done better. He would have quoted government officials like the sports minister, he would have said the names of journalists murdered in Russia.

Above all Hitch would not have hijacked the show with a non stop rant because that would be the story – not what he said.

Laws are not the only thing that need changing. Attitudes on the street too. That was my problem – I think this made people feel good. My post was trying to prick that bubble of euphoria – much to be done still.

So please, if you were moved by Kirchick’s stand then get involved in showing solidarity with gay, lesbian, bi sexual and transgender people not just in Russia.

EDIT: Section 28

I have been reminded some were claiming I was comparing Russia’s anti-gay legislation with section 28.

Absolutely not – where I mention it I make very clear a journalist in the second featured video (on Russia Today) and quote Peter Tatchell making, to a lesser extent than the journalist, the comparison. As you can see in the extract below:

In the second video above what is happening in Russia is compared to Section 28 in the UK about banning the promotion of homosexuality in school. In 2003 it was repealed by a Labour Government.

However, only yesterday The Independent reported:

Campaigners have identified more than 40 schools across the country that stress in their sex-education guidelines that governors will not allow teachers to “promote” homosexuality, or are ambiguous on the issue.

…

The campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “This is spookily similar to Section 28 in Britain and the new anti-gay law in Russia. These schools are abusing their new freedoms to pressure teachers to teach gay issues in a way that will discourage them from saying anything positive that could be construed as ‘promotion’.”

UPDATE: Mic Wright: Russia might not be the worst place to be gay, but that shouldn’t mean ignoring Putin’s bigotry is spot on with the details of what is happening in Russia.

Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog

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James Kirchick Takes On Russia Today On Gay Rights

James Kirchick with his rainbow braces has gone viral as he hijacked an assembled panel to talk about gay rights in Russia rather than what he was presumably paid to, the sentencing of Brad Manning:

I thought it might be worth seeing some Russia Today coverage as well:

Covering Stephen Fry call for a boycott of Olympic event:

In an article on their website they quoted the Russian Sports Minister:

[Mutko] also accused the Western media of overplaying the anti-gay issue, while saying that Russia wanted to protect its children from the propaganda of “drug addiction, alcohol abuse and non-traditional sexual orientation.”

Media coverage of the Athletics Championships, which closed Sunday in Moscow, has been overshadowed in the West by comments over Russia’s “gay propaganda law.”

Clearly that deserved condemning to a Russian audience that comparison. He was given more than the two minutes he wanted to talk about anti-gay legislation. Then he continued to refuse to talk about what he had been invited to discuss. In his rant featured above he made no such direct points on legislation instead critiquing Russia Today (hope he did later but I doubt it). Open opportunity given to him by the programme to discuss and frankly he blew it. Sorry, he made himself the story here not what is happening in Russia.

The story being that homosexuality is like being a drug user or an alcoholic according to the Russian Government – a social scourge to be discouraged. That needed articulating.

In the second video above what is happening in Russia is compared to Section 28 in the UK about banning the promotion of homosexuality in school. In 2003 it was repealed by a Labour Government.

However, only yesterday The Independent reported:

Campaigners have identified more than 40 schools across the country that stress in their sex-education guidelines that governors will not allow teachers to “promote” homosexuality, or are ambiguous on the issue.

…

The campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “This is spookily similar to Section 28 in Britain and the new anti-gay law in Russia. These schools are abusing their new freedoms to pressure teachers to teach gay issues in a way that will discourage them from saying anything positive that could be construed as ‘promotion’.”

Any mention of this by Jamie Kirchick on Twitter? Er, no at time of publishing this post.

Only a matter of time I am sure. Brace yourself.

Follow Up Post: Clarifying My James Kirchick Post

Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog

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My Huffington Post Blog

“Unhitched” biography shoots and misses

Christopher Hitchens knew how to put the final boot into a corpse; he said of Jerry Falwell being so full of bullshit “if you gave him an enema you could burry him in a matchbox” as a parting shot on Fox News. Hitch mentioned that if you spoke ill of someone during their life time why stop when they are six feet under?

A year since the world lost this most prosaic of contrarians comes a biography: “Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens” by Richard Seymour. It has a lot to say – accusing him of plagiarism, and being the pamphleteer of the Dubbya administration having prior to which Hitch had already moved to the right. “Amanuensis” is the actual accusation of propaganda. With this book be prepared to find new words to casually drop into everyday conversation to be considered an ostentatious nitwit.

However:

Undergirding all of these accusations is the assertion that Hitchens was an opportunist, and that his supposed transformation from a radical into a “left-wing defector with a soft spot for empire” was a conscious rebranding assumed for reasons of self-promotion. Seymour claims that the narrative of a left-to-right shift, however, was wildly overstated, particularly by Hitchens himself, and that “not only was Hitchens a man of the right in his last years, but his predilections for a certain kind of right-wing radicalism … pre-dated his apostasy.”

My advice would be, if you have not already, read “Hitch22” for what Hitchens had to say about his detractors, and to read James Kirchick’s review of “Unhitched” where the above quote comes from. He points out that being against a right wing military junta invading a British Territory is not a matter of left or right, that the sources used in the book disprove the author’s conclusions, and that being against militant Islamification – which is killing three thousand people in two office towers is in stark contrast to militant atheism which at it’s best was Hitchens talking.

James Kirchick’s review can be found here.

Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog

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