UK: Race chief blasts homophobia

Guardian ^ | 04/25/04 | Kamal Ahmed

[Pikamax]

Race chief blasts homophobia

Trevor Phillips warns of more multicultural failures

Kamal Ahmed, political editor Sunday April 25, 2004 The Observer

One of the country's leading black figures is backing a national holiday in England to mark St George's Day as a way of reconnecting Britain's diverse community with national history. In a controversial speech tomorrow Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, will say that being British is nothing to do with being white and that it is time for sections of the black community to admit failures on serious issues such as Aids and HIV.

He will say that homophobia among some sections of the African community in Britain is hampering the fight against the disease.

Organisations often turn a 'cultural blind eye' to controversial issues in an effort to respect 'multiculturalism', Phillips will argue.

He will also say that because of an over-sensitive approach to some communities, important issues are suffering from 'benign neglect'.

'In the past one of the unspoken qualifications was that being British and being English meant being white,' Phillips will say. 'That is no longer the case.'

Phillips will attack plans being developed by Manchester Education Authority to open a school in Bangladesh to cater for immigrant parents who often take their children to their home country for extended periods of time.

'The reason given is that these trips are part of the children learning about their heritage and culture,' Phillips will say.

'Rubbish. What better way to say to those children - we don't care where you are born - you are brown, you are still foreigners, and we'll treat you as such?'

He said such 'misguided' multiculturalism was in dan ger of poisoning the debate about equality.

'Today the fastest rising rate of new HIV infection in Britain is among heterosexuals, and the majority of [those] infections are within African communities.

'We need to avoid a backlash against Africans. 'In Britain, expertise in fighting HIV rests in the gay community, but African men in particular are wary of being associated with anything gay.

'The CRE will not show any tolerance of arguments that such attitudes are culturally founded. They hamper attempts to tackle the spread of HIV.

'[The] argument that we should be sensitive to the culture of this community only makes sense if you are ready to put the right for African men to hold their homophobic views about sexuality ahead of the right of British African women to equal protection.'

[farmfriend]

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[Semper Paratus]

Is a "Race Chief" kinda like, lets say, an "Energy Czar"?

When I was growing up I would thought a Race Chief would be the one that got the Indianapolis 500 organized.

[Tacis]

A far worse problem is the normalphobia frequently exhibited by those faggots who hate non-deviants and non-perverts!