S
o on the 23rd of July our very own President Mr Michael D Higgins was described as an ‘acknowledged Homosexual’, shock horror!!! He’s not by the way, but then we know that.
Well what followed in the Media was very interesting indeed. Firstly it made front page news in several newspapers and then the writer of the comment almost fell over himself to apologise to Mr Higgins, his family, the Irish people, and well basically anyone who had ever drawn a breath. The writer in question was David Monagan an American, Cork based journalist with Forbes Magazine. "I have written millions of words about Ireland and this is the worst mistake I have ever made," he said. ‘The worst mistake he ever made’Jaysus relax! You’d swear he called Higgins a murder the way he responded to the fairly minor error. But he didn’t leave it there, he went even further to make himself seem like an ass understood; "I made a terrible mistake and I apologise to Michael D Higgins who I have respect for”. I see but if he didn’t have respect for him calling him a homosexual would be fitting I guess. Ok well at least that was it and he left it there...... "I feel horrible. The story is that I made a mistake, for which I apologise from my heart. It was under deadline pressure and is inexcusable.” Christ, ENOUGH ALREADY!!! So let’s recap on the language used in this case; ‘Mistake’, ‘horrible’, ‘Inexcusable’ charming! The writer’s reaction and the Media’s reaction to his error are, unfortunately, not isolated incidents. How many times have we seen headlines like ‘Gotcha!’ or ones that use terms like ‘admitted’ or ‘confessed’ with regards to celebrities coming out? Coming out is hard, no question but coming out in the Media appears to be a minefield. The Media often pretend to take a liberal view or at the very least an unbiased one but is that really the case? I’m starting to think that the only thing worse than a homophobe is someone who doesn’t know they are a homophobe. I read a gentleman’s comment on an internet link this week that read ‘I have nothing against homosexuals’ (so far so good) ‘I just feel sorry for them, they clearly have a mental illness’ ah and he started so well! So what is it we Gay people want now? If we get ignored, we get mad, if we get acknowledged, we get mad. How confusing, so let me try and explain. What we want is equality, that’s a tough word so I’ll