Burchill, Bindel and Moore.

What happens now, asks Polari’s editor, in the wake of the controversy over Julie Burchill’s unhinged tirade against trans women?

“Instead of getting worked up over free speech, perhaps these writers should try showing some basic humanity, and recognising that this vile outburst is just not acceptable.”

The last days of the PCC.

Paul Baker welcomes the shut down of the Press Complaints Commission on the grounds that it didn’t do much in the way of good

“To my mind, getting journalists and editors to govern themselves is a bit like putting bullies in charge of the playground, and so the closure of the PCC is a hopeful step in the right direction.”

The Gay Rights Movement – A New BBC Archive

The latest collection on the BBC archive website charts the corporation’s coverage of gay rights issues. There are thirty segments from both radio and television that range from news reports to discussion programmes and documentaries.

It is fun to watch the Conservative MP Ray Mawby out of his depth and spouting off the sort of nonsense that the Daily Mail likes to scare its readership with: the dangers of promoting homosexuality, the need to protect children from homosexual predators, and the idea that if you allow homosexuality you may as well endorse incest.

Jan Moir, the bigoted, and ill-informed Daily Mail columnist, gets off lightly.

The PCC make decision on Jan Moir’s controversial and offensive column following the death of Stephen Gately.

Jan Moir is the Mr Magoo of 21st century moralism. Reading her column is rather like reading a comedian’s take on a small village know-it-all who thinks of herself as a moral compass.

Gay journalists are starting to shout more and think less.

It seems that high-pitch indignation has ruled, and calmer heads have not prevailed, in response to gay-related stories. And that’s just the gay Facebookers and media pundits.

It’s ok, though, the virtual-world commentariat are claiming that this “open secret” is not news. In other words, if you can’t react hysterically to a situation, why not be superior instead?

What exactly was Christmas before Christians co-opted it?

The Christmas story is the result of a cynical exercise by Christian apologists, and is a cornerstone in The Greatest Spin Ever Spun.

“It was not established until 375 AD that the birth of Christ occurred on December 25. It was through the Church of Antioch that Christianity was organised as a religion. The Roman Constantine inaugurated this change by adopting Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.”

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On the effects of the bully on children and adults.

The bully never goes away. The schoolyard bully, the celebrity bully, the political bully: from the street to the television their influence in insidious. Rebel Scum looks at what can be done about it.

The bully is a staple in the life of every school kid. And being bullied is an experience everyone goes through in one form or another – from run-ins with the boy who has status issues in the schoolyard through to the mainstream gay press telling you just what it means to be a ‘proper gay’.

Maurice, the book that helped me to understand my sexuality

How the book, following on from the film, changed the life of William Summers.

Maurice is not a great film. It is not even as great a book as Forster’s others. Yet at the age of sixteen I found it to be revolutionary.

Committed Christian who worked in a registry office sues!

Lillian Ladele, former registry office employee in the borough of Islington, and – gasp, horror – Mother of Child Outside Wedlock, claims she believes civil partnerships are wrong because she follows what the bible teaches. Apparently.

The portrayal of Ladele as an innocent victim who simply followed the rule of the Bible is a narrative device that is, in the end, irrelevant. The Daily Mail gets lost in it, failing to make any real analysis of the story to hand, but the issue is simple: a registrar is employed in a secular institution to enact the law of the land.

A personal take on civil partnerships

It is not in the end about weddings but about the right to have one.

Even at my best friend’s wedding I had to ward off the evil-eye of the mother-in-law, who thought of me as a second-class citizen as well as other things I will not commit to this page. The Daily Mail had done its work on her.