(no subject)

[sebastienne]

Wednesday, 8pm, Wadham JCR - Stonewall, a gay and lesbian rights campaign and lobbying group, presenting a paper on 'Media Representations of Homosexuality'.

Thursday, 8pm, Holywell Music Room - Peter Tatchell, gay and human rights campaigner for over fourty years, has been both an admired and controversial figure, most notoriously as one of the founding members of 'Outrage!', a direct action group working for gay rights and liberation.

In conjunction with Oxford University Amnesty International, speaking on 'The Global Battle For Queer Freedom'.

Wadham Queer Week! You KNOW you want to come to these, because a) they'll be interesting b) they'll be inspiring and c) without decent attendance Wadham SU will not do it again.

Queer Bop is the least Queer thing I've ever seen bear the name; I don't want it to be the only "queer" thing my college does.

Comments

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

I'm there. Well, currently I'm here, but I WILL be there, if you see what I'm saying. Or something. Oh dear...

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I've gotta say, Peter Tatchell makes my skin crawl.

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

Why? (apart from being a bit fishy-eyed)

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

See my reply to skibbley below. But the fishy-eyedness is a contributory factor.

[skibbley.livejournal.com]

Have you met him and seen him speak or is this from his media presence?
I like and respect him and do recommend hearing him speak rather than just reading press releases.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

This is from seeing him speak on TV, so somewhere between the two. It didn't help that he was arguing for the age of consent to be reduced to 14, because that's (according to him) the average age of "first sex" (horrible phrase). To which I say (a) so what? and (b) that's not the point of the age of consent, the point is to protect people less than AoC from predatory elders. Two people less than AoC having sex (the typical case, I imagine) is not, IIRC, illegal. It was that combination of "I'm being really reasonable and rational" delivery (though actually, he was being pretty creepy) and fallacious arguments that really pissed me off. Plus, y'know, the whole child sex thing. I'm sure you'll tell me that no, he's really not that creepy in person and he's not at all interested in having sex with fifteen-year-olds, but the skin-crawling I felt (and feel now, thinking about it) is real.

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

He's actually a very decent guy, I respect him a great deal as a journalist. He's done a great deal for queer rights and also works on asylum issues.

He's not really creepy, and certainly not a paedo. Maybe his arguments about age of consent should have been more qualified - i.e as you're saying, two people less than AoC having sex is a different case to predatory-elder syndrome; what we'd need, then, is different legislation rather than changing an existing law. All the same, don't judge the guy based on one tv appearance!

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday. Am actually going to be wearing a DRESS. *shock, horror* and not a tux as is my usual formal get-up.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Maybe his arguments about age of consent should have been more qualified
There's this thing that some people do (Richard Stallman's especially bad for it) of talking utter bollocks in a very persuasive, reasonable-sounding tone. They present complex issues as if they're actually very simple, and how could you be so stupid as to not see it their way? And how could you disagree with me, when I'm so eminently reasonable? Listen to this voice. Doesn't it just ooze calm rationality?

This is a rhetorical technique - not qualifying your arguments is part of the point. This invariably raises my hackles. And it's what Tatchell was doing. And I'm prepared to accept that I've formed my judgement of him based on a small and unrepresentative sample, but I'm sticking to my "creepy and irritating" assessment until I see some evidence to the contrary :-)

[Greatly looking forward to seeing you too. Must get a mask sorted out.]

[r-e-mercia.livejournal.com]

FYI, it is illegal, for two people under the age of consent to have sex, but the police have a non-prosecution policy, depending on the circumstances.

[otterylexa.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can make it to either. Don't forget to ask why it seems to be impossible for the media to mention bisexuality.

[r-e-mercia.livejournal.com]

Ah, because bisexual people don't really exist. They're all either confused/in denial, or they're just attention-seeking, immature wannabe-gays.

*sigh*