Fight Standard Bigotry!
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-10-20Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 15 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 15
ANTI-GAY prejudice is nothing new for readers of the Standard, London's evening newspaper.
The Bermondsey by-election, Islington council's anti-discrimination policy, the GLC's grants to gay groups, and the new London Lesbian and Gay Centre, have all produced anti-gay articles from the paper.
On Friday October 6, a cartoon by Jak got back at those of us who had been laughing at Cecil Parkinson's lack of concer for Thatcher's family policy. It showed a man going into MI5 saying, "You can cross Cecil Parkinson off the queer list"
Several members of the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights produced a leaflet in response, calling on Standard journalists to dissociate themselves from their editor's anti-gay stance; and on the following Monday about a dozen people, members of LCGR, the 'Outrage!' magazine collective, and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, went to Fleet Street to give the leaflets to Standard journalists.
The protesters got into the newsroom at the Standard, and were giving out their leaflets and trying to contact the National Union of Journalists chapel officials before security realised what had happened.
About eight security men came down, dragged two of the protesters away, and persuaded the rest to leave with promises that the editor or his deputy would come to the foyer to hear their complaints. (They didn't, of course).
What did this action achieve? Directly, not much. The NUJ chapel officials all said that what went in the paper was up to the editor.
But it lets the Standard know that we aren't prepared to accept their gratuitous bigotry. And it shows the NUJ members that they'll have support if they start to oppose the editor:
_CGR