For those of you from the US, Clare Balding is a BBC Sports Presenter, Journalist & Jockey. A very successful woman, who is also openly gay. She was recently in a programme called 'Britain by Bike'. AA Gill decided to review this in the Sunday Times, and this is what he had to say:

"Some time ago, I made a cheap and frankly unnecessary joke about Clare Balding looking like a big lesbian. And afterwards somebody tugged my sleeve to point out that she is a big lesbian, and I felt foolish and guilty. So I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise. Sorry. Now back to the dyke on a bike, puffing up the nooks and crannies at the bottom end of the nation. "
 

"In my view some members of the gay community need to stop regarding themselves as having a special victim status and behave like any other sensible group that is accepted by society. Not having a privileged status means, of course, one must accept occasionally being the butt of jokes . A person’’s sexuality should not give them a protected status. Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps the epitome of the heterosexual male, is constantly jeered at for his dress sense (lack of), adolescent mind-set and hair style. He puts up with it as a presenter’’s lot and in this context I hardly think that AA Gill’’s remarks were particularly “cruel”, especially as he ended by so warmly endorsing you as a presenter."

"When the day comes that people stop resigning from high office, being disowned by their families, getting beaten up and in some instances committing suicide because of their sexuality, you may have a point.

This is not about me putting up with having the piss taken out of me, something I have been quite able to withstand, it is about you legitimising name calling. ‘Dyke’ is not shouted out in school playgrounds (or as I’ve had it at an airport) as a compliment, believe me.

It may be your job to defend your writer and your editorial team but if you really think that homophobia does not exist and was not demonstrated beyond being ‘the butt of a joke’ then we have a problem."

I feel that we should all stand by Clare, and it is heart-warming to see her as the number 1 trending topic on twitter, closely followed by #GoClare. We need to stand by her because not only were these comments published in a well-respected national newspaper, but were then further endorsed by the editor's response.

This was not a programme about her sexuality, so I see no reason as to why it needed to be mentioned. If the reviewer did feel the need to acknowledge her sexuality, why on earth was the word 'dyke' used, and published?


No group deserves 'special victim status' but when something is obviously meant to be a direct insult to somebodies sexuality, race or gender, then it is abuse. This man clearly feels that gay people complain too much about about homophobia, but perhaps this will stop when people stop being homophobic, not because other people are sick of hearing about homophobia.