Posted on 11/10/2007 5:05:07 AM PST by fweingart
(The only gay in the village: Matt Lucas)
The right to crack jokes or be rude about homosexuals could fall victim to new government laws to stamp out "homophobic" behaviour, Rowan Atkinson, the Blackadder star warned yesterday.
Atkinson, who mounted a successful campaign in 2004 to water down legislation aimed at criminalising expressions of religious hatred, has returned to the fray to defend the art of gay leg-pulling.
His concern is that Labour ministers are so obsessed with creating laws to stop people being rude about each other that they are putting in danger the right to free speech and, equally dear to his heart, the comedian's craft.
In a letter to a newspaper he accused ministers of filling their legislative programme with measures that have "serious implications for freedom of speech, humour and creative expression".
Atkinson was referring to measures in the Criminal Justice Bill, currently passing through Parliament, which could mean people who stir up hatred against homosexuals being put in prison for up to seven years.
He said the Government measures, which could be expanded to cover hatred against disabled or transgendered people, seemed to be "infinitely extendable".
"Witness the fact that the Government has invited two additional groups - the disabled and transsexuals - to 'make the case' for the proposed legislation to be extended to them.
"I am sure that they could make a very good case, as indeed could all those who can claim that they cannot help being the way they are. Men, for example, or women. Or people with big ears."
Atkinson added: "The devil, as always, will be in the detail but the casual ease which some people move from finding something offensive to wishing to declare it criminal - and are then able to find factions within government to aid their ambitions - is truly depressing."
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has told MPs that such fears are unfounded because he will shortly introduce an amendment to the Bill ensuring that cases can be pursued only when the offending words are specifically intended to pose a threat and are not merely humorous, mocking or abusive.
As with an eventual compromise deal struck over the Religious Hatred Bill, there will also be a specific clause to protect the right to freedom of speech.
Ministers have firmly dismissed as unfounded claims that playground insults or jokes about gays could be caught by the new offence.
Last night Chris Bryant, the openly gay Labour MP, said Mr Atkinson should relax because the right to make jokes about gays would remain. "I think it is perfectly possible to create a distinction in law between incitement to hatred and having a laugh," he said.
Lord Lester, the Liberal Democrat peer who helped draft the compromise wording on the religious hatred law, said it was clear that "politically incorrect jokes at the expense of gay people" should not be banned.
What Gay Joke?
“They all get it in the end.”
Monitor is now wet...LOL.
Hmph. Sounds like me.
Oh. I didn’t think that pic could be real.
The more troubling question might be, ‘What GUY would have him’?
“Although he DOES kind of look like Hillary...so maybe Bill would hit him.”
Hahahaha...maybe.
‘What GUY would have him’?
See post 77.
GAY = got aid’s yet?
What’s so funny about “pervert”??? “queer”????
No, and I rather doubt the Don Gay I knew was either. He was a somewhat heavy-set desk bound engineering manager.
GAY = got aid’s yet?
__________________
Excellent...pretty well sums it up.
Pretty much the same things that are funny about the rest of us...
Long past time to slash our own government consisting of pompous, leftist, pansy asses!
One wonders who did the banning.
Good grief - the second pic was taken in Israel!
Several years ago one of our excellent generals, who is now retired, gave an address to the American Legion mainly to inform them of his stance on homosexuals in the military.
He stated that most people don't understand relations between homosexuals and what they do.
He stated that the spread of AIDs shouldn't amaze anyone as part of their filthy sexual methods of achieving jollies is shoving their faces up the other's fanny. He said how anyone could consider placing one's penis up another's anus and then shoving their face in the nasty place a great lifestyle has to be insane.
The article appeared in the American Legion magazine and is dead right. He went on to say that the majority of serial killers are, in fact, homosexuals. Now, he concluded, how could any self-respecting soldier want to share the shower or his foxhole with such a pervert.
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