AK Souffle: Desperate times

Queer Say is a fascinating week-on-week part of my life. Trawling the web for global stories that relate to LGBT+ issues is a murky business, murky because on the whole the picture is still pretty grim. It’s 2018 and we have come so far, we have rights that once we could only dream of here in the UK. But at the same time we seem to be heading through darker times, in part here and most definitely across the rest of the globe. Homophobia is alive and not just kicking but fighting tooth and nail, and behind it are some strange motivators.

Last week we had a story of donor organs being rejected by a doctor in New Zealand, a 12-year-old boy committing suicide after homophobic bullying from his class mates, and here in the UK a TV quiz person – I am refusing to name her or call her a star – making a transphobic jibe on day time television. I mean really, really? Someone needs to have a word!

But these are only the tip of an iceberg of hate, hate and lunacy. The vilest story was not necessarily related to LGBT+ issues but to the tyranny of beauty and the beauty industry.

Real horror struck my heart but also real anger – did I read right, was this a state-funded school?

It related to the production of a new facial serum that is made from the foreskins of Korean boys. I think that fact that they are Korean comes from the fact there is a surplus of boy foreskins there due to the continued fashion for circumcision. But that is of no matter, the horror lies in the concept that by using them, or dare I say harvesting them, certain people think they can ward off the ravages of old age. Really? Desperate or what? Get a life, we all get old, get used to it.

Finally though my heart sank at the story that a state-funded Jewish School, Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ school in Stamford Hill, has admitted to blacking out all references to homosexuality in its schoolbooks. In one such instance, a history book about Nazi persecution now reads: “They persecuted any group that they thought challenged Nazi ideas: [redacted] were a threat to Nazi ideals on traditional family life.”

So we move on from Holocaust denial to homo-sex denial. Real horror struck my heart but also real anger – did I read right, was this a state-funded school? If so, surely this is criminal vandalism? So who will charge the people behind this act of vandalism, is this a hate crime too?

We love the good news stories but by shouting out about the bad news perhaps we can do more good. Shout out! Get your voice heard.