Fighting Homophobia. But apparently the wrong way…

In response to the appalling front page of the Daily Express last week, which managed a heady cocktail of anti-immigration and homophobia, a group of activists, foremost among them some friends and comrades of mine, organised first a facebook group and then a demonstration. As I write this they are demonstrating outside the Daily Express offices. In the course of organising this they have put together a very impressive list of supporters and signatories. Three MPs, scores of trade unionists, including general secretaries, and many activists from around the country. Even more important, there are formal affiliations from union branches and union LGBT sections, which mean actual people took votes at actual meetings. In other words, they’ve done exactly what we should all be doing in our different ways, building links and networks capable of fighting the multi-faceted nastiness we face. So, unless you’re Richard Desmond or Ann Widdicombe, what’s not to like?

Well, for some reason, Paul Canning at the Guardian disagrees. Or at least, I think he does, it’s not entirely clear. He begins with the claim that “any protest against the Express gets two thumbs up from me”, but then proceeds to offer some rather sniffy criticisms. His most substantive criticism seems to be the following:

It doesn’t appear to have been drawn up in discussion with anyone working with actual gay asylum seekers, but they have got the National Union of Journalists on board.

Well, this criticism may well be true. Knowing the activists involved, prominently the author of The Red in the Rainbow: Sexuality, Socialism and LGBT Liberation, they are far more likely to have begun with the labour movement networks they are familiar with. Having people who work with gay asylum seekers would have been a good idea. But it’s hardly reason enough to condemn the event.

Another criticism is that they should instead be protesting outside of Talkback Thames, a company who allegedly leaked the name of a gay asylum seeker who was an X-Factor contestant to the press, placing him at severe risk. This is a bit wierd. It’s like a parody of the arguments that say ‘why are you protesting here, it’s worse in Iran’; ‘don’t protest these bigots, protest these other, more subtle but clumsy bigots’. He also takes the protesters to task for asking people to complain to the Press Complaints Commission. Apparently this doesn’t work. Well no shit, of course it doesn’t work on its own. That’s why they are also demonstrating, and more importantly attempting to build a broader coalition to continue to fight homophobia and bigotry. There is also a clumsy nod to free speech, and a wierd claim about the “vengeful tendency in the gay community”. None of this seems to be a good reason not to support demonstrating against homophobia in the media, and celebrating the breadth of support this action has.

So, here’s my appeal: Can someone please read Canning’s article and explain to me what his point is, and why he’s being so sniffy about the demonstration. Cos I’d hate to think it was just about territorial disputes within the LGBT movement and a holier than thou attitude to people actually doing something…