"The worst discrimination has come from closeted gay men"

To the Guardian, Mark Harold wrote a letter and said, "The worst discrimination has come from closeted gay men." Following an interview with Lord Browne, the Guardian (@guardian) asked readers to share their stories about coming out as LGBT in the workplace. Here's what Mark Harold said in full:

"I am a senior executive of a FTSE 100 company in my early 50s, and have been out at work since my mid-30s. The worst discrimination I’ve come across has come from closeted gay men. They live with insidious lies, and are often ruthless in protecting those lies. It’s important that gay men support each other, so the more who come out of the closet in business, the better."

The story of Sam “Skelly” McCrory is remarkable. This is a racist, sectarian, homophobic skin-head turned open and activist homosexual. He said to Henry McDonald in the Guardian:

"Even before I joined the UDA, I used to pretend I was homophobic. I went along with the crowd who were then close to the National Front. I hated Catholics, blacks, Jews and gays - even though I was gay myself. I was hiding my true self. I used to lie to the rest of C Company that I was having a relationship with a policewoman. Only Johnny knew it was a man. The lads used to ask me "Who's that policewoman you are shagging?" I couldn't tell them it was a man, it was such a macho, homophobic culture."

Paul Berry of DUP was a similar character. A religious loud-mouth and virulent homophobic... who was caught with a rent boy. Wikipedia reports it like this:

"Just days before the [2005] election, the Sunday World newspaper claimed that [Paul] Berry had met a man for a massage, with whom he had made initial contact via a gay chatroom, in a Belfast hotel room booked by Berry under a false name. Berry claimed that he was seeking treatment for a sports injury, and said he was considering legal action against the paper. He was not elected and was the only DUP candidate to experience a fall in their share of the vote in favour of the Ulster Unionist Party. 

Weeks later the DUP who, since 1977 have maintained a Christian fundamentalist stance on gay rights, and launched a campaign known as Save Ulster from Sodomy, suspended Berry from membership and commenced disciplinary proceedings. Berry launched a legal challenge but in February 2006 dropped these proceedings and resigned from the party."

Polygamy is doublespeak and irrelevant to the equal marriage debate

Lord Wilson of the UK Supreme Court said:

"The introduction of same sex marriage is largely designed to avoid discrimination against gay people, whereas the introduction of polygamy would create discrimination against women even if some of them felt driven to escape poverty by marrying men on that basis."

The irony is that it takes religion and the religious to bring in polygamy. Where in the world can a man hold multiple wives, but in religious communities. Point in hand: Kenya has just legalised polygamy and you can thank the religious for that. Arit John reported in the Wire:

"The argument for legalizing polygamy is that the practice is part of Kenya's pre-colonial heritage, as well as sanctioned by the Bible. "Solomon never notified anyone," as one male member of parliament said while the bill was debated. "It is in the Old Testament."

Further, German Lopez explained here how the institution of marriage has long evolved and changed.

 

Lord Wilson - La Verite est en marche et rien ne l'arretera, Ctd

Lord Wilson on how concept of marriage has changed over time, in lecture for Northern Ireland Medico-Legal Society http://t.co/ZOYDNCA2SR
— UK Supreme Court (@UKSupremeCourt) February 19, 2014

Lord Wilson of the UK Supreme Court invited his listeners to consider the changing rules about who has been able to enter into marriage and the emergence of rules for easy exit from marriage. Changes which have altered the whole concept of marriage. He concluded by asking, almost rhetorically:

"I wonder whether Northern Ireland will for long be able to hold back the tide in favour of same sex marriages which laps against all Western shores."

His talk included a few highlights that gave weight to the irresistible inevitability of same-sex marriage.

Firstly, on who marriage was available to. One:

"Up until 1863, here in Ireland, a marriage between a Protestant and a Roman Catholic was void."