CHRIS MORRIS - GAY ACTIVIST AND WRITER
This page is no longer updated
because Chris is no longer involved in gay youth
activism or the age of consent campaign
For his
homepage, click here
I’m leaving my favourite article of his below
NOW MEET THE REAL GAY MAFIA
Gay Taxis, gay funeral directors: people making money out of keeping homosexuals in a ghetto. By Chris Morris
(1998)
From the New Statesman
I believe that there is
an explanation for the gay lobby's lack of political progress. The responsibility
lies with a small group of businessmen who have a major financial interest in
keeping lesbian and gay people on the fringes of society - where they are most
profitable. Welcome to the real gay Mafia.
Gay business, or the 'Pink Pound' as it has crudely become
known, is big business. Richard Branson owns Britain's largest gay nightclub,
and hundreds of other investors are opening gay shops, restaurants and bars in
the knowledge that fortunes have already been made by tapping into the gay
market.
Many people
believe that these companies provide powerful examples of how integrated
society has become; how successful and accepted gay people are in Tony Blair's
A
significant number of gay businessmen are trying to stall the progress of gay
rights campaigners for as long as possible. A handful of companies are using
their financial muscle to penetrate campaigning groups and subtly ensure that
all their resources are focused on legal reforms so that social prejudice is
left unchallenged. With prejudice left intact, segregation continues and gay
businesses thrive and make money.
Stonewall,
the leading gay rights organisation, has an annual budget approaching £1
million, much of which is raised through the business community. Sponsorship,
advertising and corporate fund-raising deals bring in enough revenue to fund a
slick campaign, a spacious suite of offices in
In return
for their generosity, major donors are often rewarded with a place on Stonewall's board of directors and, because the
organisation has supporters rather than members, these key
positions are the only official way to influence Stonewall policy. A quick
glance through the organisation's literature will show that yesterday's
sponsors are today's decision-makers; and most key players have ongoing
financial interests in lucrative gay businesses.
By giving
financial donors the only voice in setting the agenda, gay right organisations
have left themselves open to a serious charge of having a conflict of
interests. Can it really just be coincidence that most groups are fighting
exclusively for legal reforms and ignoring calls to tackle social prejudice,
while accepting money from a business community which thrives because of social
inequality?
In a survey
by YouthSpeak, the gay rights youth group which I
chaired for a while, it was found that 84 per cent of young people valued
social changes over legal reforms, and that over 70 per cent thought that most
gay rights organisations put too much emphasis on trying to change laws. This
reflected a growing trend in the gay community which recently provoked the
formation of several new organisations to focus on social campaigns. Existing
campaigners have famously clashed with these new groups, and maintain that
their own, unsuccessful, attempts to lobby Parliament have been the single
greatest contribution to the gay rights cause to date.
One
Stonewall volunteer, who has asked not to be named, said "You have to bear
in mind that gay businesses only exist because of the niche market which is
created by gay people being a socially excluded group", she said. "If
we managed to get ourselves accepted, the gay pubs and shops would probably
fold, and Stonewall would lose a large proportion of its funding."
The Pink
Paper, the leading free gay newspaper, is funded entirely by advertising. One
former editor, Andrew Saxton, remembers a series of occasions when advertisers'
interests were items for discussion at editorial meetings. He said,
"Although our news coverage was never substantially censored, I think
there's a fine line between censorship and honest journalism, and I had to
fight hard to keep us on the right side of that line."
This will
not surprise those whose actions provide the gay press with regular stories.
Duncan Hothersall is a pivotal figure in Scottish gay
politics but has found the gay press to be generally reluctant to cover events
north of the border unless there is a commercial link. "One example was
the first Gay Pride march in
Gay Times is
widely acknowledged to have far higher editorial standards than its rivals
because the £2.50 cover price enables journalists to remain independent from
advertisers. The editor, David Smith, believes that his magazine gives a more
balanced view than any of the free gay newspapers, but cynics have pointed out
that the publisher, Chris Graham Bell, also chairs the Gay Business
Association. While Smith insists there is no conflict of interest here, it is
surely no coincidence that the magazine presents gushing tributes to gay
businesses as news, while barely finding space for campaigns targeting
homophobia in schools or regional groups involved in the gay rights movement.
Perhaps it
is naive to talk about a gay rights movement at all; a gay rights industry
seems the far more accurate description. While ordinary gay people yearn for a
day when they can live without fear of violence and discrimination, the gay
mafia seems to be profiting, in all senses of the word, from continued
inequality.
The tragedy
of modern gay politics is that those who sit on the gay rights platform are,
for whatever reason, allowing their agenda to be dictated by a handful of people
who have a vested interest in delaying progress. While political parties must
adapt to win the widest support, the role of pressure groups is to maintain an
ideological stance and fight the opposition. This is simply not possible when
the oppressed and the oppressors become entangled.
The ultimate
irony of the gay struggle is that true victory demands that gays surrender
their gay identity, and with it the gay taxis and funeral directors that
provide them with temporary shelter from homophobia.
While gay
companies continue to insidiously govern the policies of gay rights campaigners
and the press, a temporary shelter is all it is possible to achieve.
Designed
by Joe Martin, last changed
|