What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • 10 Things Gay People Still Need

    Once the law changes and we have access to marriage, is that it? Will equality have been achieved? Will we suddenly have become full citizens? Will the job be done?

    Here’s my run down of what we still need.

    • We need it to be impossible for the authorities to accept a plea less than murder in a suspected homophobic killing where the defendants admit killing the deceased with a hammer in his own home. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24122514. I guess that means a review of hate crime legislation at least in Northern Ireland.
    • We need to be safe when we travel – that means building on the good work that this country has done in terms of foreign policy, but a review here wouldn’t do any harm either. Oh, and trade deals do need to be linked to human rights. (Yes, LGBT rights are human rights, where have you been?)
    • We need to keep working for marriage equality. We’re getting a step towards it – a massive step towards it, but it ain’t equality and equality is what we are after, right? Interesting question for the various gay rights organisations this – will they still work towards equal marriage once this legislation has gone though. They know this is a pragmatic compromise – will they keep up the fight? – and no, I’m not talking about mixed-sex civil partnerships.
    • We need an urgent comprehensive review of all religious exemptions from legislation.
    • We need better age appropriate sex education in schools.
    • We need access to education free from prejudice.
    • We need further work done by companies and institutions on supporting gay folk at work especially in order to develop access to leadership positions where LGBT people have not found these easy to access.
    • We need appropriate representation in the media.
    • We need the Archbishop of Canterbury to commit to supporting his senior gay clergy and work to undermine the systems which keep so many of them in lacy but impeccable closets.
    • We need Hollywood to understand that we don’t all end up dead or heartbroken – Brokeback Mountain, I’m talking about you.

    Have I missed anything?

    ,

11 responses to “Predictions for 2014”

  1. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    I am struggling with nine – I mean, Lord Carey, being unhelpful, oh no, beyond imagination …. 😉

    Reply
  2. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    In what way is 9. a ‘prediction’. Next it’ll be ‘mystic sage thurible predicts continued arising of the sun’. Also tricky to imagine that there’s much more dirty washing in O’Brien’s washing basket unless he also has a wife and three children. 6, interesting. 7, I am merely a passing English person who has to read Scottish government press releases for work, but on this basis I can’t for the life of me think why you wouldn’t want to separate yourselves from England – just about everything is better – whether it’s some interest and care for soil fertility and the land, an enlightened approach to the arts or a First Minister actually prepared to turn up at a Food Bank. If it wasn’t a bit chilly up there, Id be taking Gaelic lessons now.

    Reply
  3. Kelvin Avatar
    Kelvin

    9 – might just have had a touch of sarcasm about it.
    4 – there *is* more dirty linen to be washed
    6 – surprised other people haven’t seen how clever Pilling was
    7 – I don’t think so. We neither speak Gaelic here nor want separation. It might be suggested that reading SNP press releases might not actually be the most balanced way to grasp what is happening in Scotland. #bettertogether

    Reply
    1. Kate Avatar
      Kate

      4 – crumbs, and probably ‘oh dear’
      6 – When the Faith and Order commission’s last gutless report on marriage came out, we still weren’t short of people (Giles Fraser among others) who thought there was all a secret coded message in their somewhere that was altogether more positive. Pilling seems to me like another not-very-brave dog’s breakfast where you can see pretty much anything you like, if you squint. That doesn’t mean to say that nothing positive will come of it, in the sense that whatever he’d written, the C of E is going to be overtaken by events – and the sheer statistics of the whole of their youth turning against them. And the Evangelicals are quietly fracturing down exactly the same generational fault line too. But I’m not seeing the artful contrivance in Pilling that you clearly are….
      7. Here, my tongue was a bit in my cheek too. But I do read UK government press releases too, and honestly, if I was immigrating, I’d totally head for Scotland.

      Reply
      1. Kelvin Holdsworth Avatar
        Kelvin Holdsworth

        7 – I think that Scotland is the best part of the UK to be in.

        Reply
      2. Beth Routledge Avatar
        Beth Routledge

        7. I too think that Scotland is the best part of the UK to be in, and I am pleased that various things are devolved. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

        Reply
  4. robert Avatar
    robert

    It seems (to me!) that Carey is now filling the same place that David Jenkins took when Carey was ABC and is sought out by journalists at Christmas/Easter wanting something to write about.

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Well, if they just ring me, I’ll be happen to take the burden out of his hands…

      Reply
  5. Zebadee Avatar
    Zebadee

    [7] Yes Yes Yes– in my all too humble opinion Scotland is the best part of the UK live in. This opinion has not changed over many many years.

    Reply
  6. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    7. I want to throw the baby out, but having once sung in a Gaelic choir (phonetic renderings of words) have no desire – nay, no need, even in Argyll – to learn Gaelic. Just saying.

    Reply
  7. Craig Nelson Avatar
    Craig Nelson

    I agree Pilling is not meant for us but it is a mechanism that allows for the smallest change possible. If that change doesn’t happen, none will, if it does then eventually the change will perforce continue. It’s a kind of fulcrum around which change will/can happen.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Daily Service

    Don’t forget that St Mary’s choir is on the Daily Service on Monday morning. You have from now until then to work out how to tune in on 198 Long Wave.

  • What are these tardises?

    [Is tardises the correct plural of tardis?] Anyone know what the strange tardis-like aluminium things are that are appearing on the streets of Glasgow? There is one not far from here and another on St George’s Road. I keep expecting the Doctor to appear from one of them. Mind, I’ve never been a Dr Who…

  • What am I reading?

    Oh, thank you for asking to be sure. I’ve just finished re-reading Wise Blood by Flannery O’Conner, one of her two novels, each so devastating. I started it yesterday when my weekend began. So very dark. She captures faith based mauvaise foi so very precisely.

  • Delights

    Watching the cat doing her morning yoga Swimming in an otherwise empty pool The river at the Botanics An Icelandic Carol An “aha” moment causing someone’s face to melt so unexpectedly