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| In January 2006, the journalist and ] member ] wrote an article for the ] in which he satarised gay weddings writing that "''They'll be shagg*ng the neighbours before they even cut the cake''". Following complaints, Yosef issued a statement retracting his remarks and claiming they had been mis-interpreted. The following month, Yosef's column identified Peter Tatchell, ] leader ] and and ] of ] as the top three "hate filled bigots", saying that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face". | In January 2006, the journalist and ] member ] wrote an article for the ] in which he satarised gay weddings writing that "''They'll be shagg*ng the neighbours before they even cut the cake''". Following complaints, Yosef issued a statement retracting his remarks and claiming they had been mis-interpreted. The following month, Yosef's column identified Peter Tatchell, ] leader ] and and ] of ] as the top three "hate filled bigots", saying that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face". | ||
| Tatchell denounced the article as "a naked appeal to homophobia and xenophobia" and pointed to Yosef's remark that Tatchell and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia" as echoing "the racist, xenophobic language of the BNP" . Yosef |
Tatchell denounced the article as "a naked appeal to homophobia and xenophobia" and pointed to Yosef's remark that Tatchell and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia" as echoing "the racist, xenophobic language of the BNP" . Yosef issued another statement, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech", and asserted that he did not hold a racist view of Tatchell, and that the "pack their bent bags" referred to statments made by Tatchell concerning Muslims during the recent ]. | ||
| Tatchell used Bruce Perry's biography of ] as a kick-off point to a '']'' article in July 2005 calling for black gay role models. The book and article claim that the ] American campaigner had male lovers. While Tatchell considers Malcolm X a hero, the claim was described as "shocking" and "inappropriate" by Peter Akinti, the editor of Black In Britain. | Tatchell used Bruce Perry's biography of ] as a kick-off point to a '']'' article in July 2005 calling for black gay role models. The book and article claim that the ] American campaigner had male lovers. While Tatchell maintains that he considers Malcolm X a hero, the claim was described as "shocking" and "inappropriate" by Peter Akinti, the editor of Black In Britain. | ||
| == External links == | == External links == | ||
Revision as of 15:28, 8 March 2006
Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January, 1952) is a sometimes controversial human rights activist based in Britain. He first came to prominence in the early 1980s, when he was selected as Labour Party candidate for Bermondsey and was denounced (later reinstated) by party leader Michael Foot for supporting extra-parliamentary action. When he ran in the Bermondsey byelection in February 1983 he was strongly attacked by tabloid newspapers and by graffiti in the constituency.
In the 1990s he was a prominent campaigner for gay rights through the direct action group OutRage! which he co-founded, and was identified as a supporter of outing, memorably being denounced as a 'homosexual terrorist' in the Daily Mail of March 14, 1995. Later that decade he twice attempted a citizen's arrest on Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe for human rights violations. His willingness to take on such targets has led to him becoming popular with some of the newspapers which have previously denounced him.
Early life
Tatchell was born in Seddon (an inner-city, industrial suburb of Melbourne, Australia) and brought up in a religious household by his mother and stepfather. His father was a lathe operator in an engineering factory; while his mother, a housewife, was a chronic asthmatic, and the family's finances were strained by medical bills. As a result he was unable to continue his formal education beyond a basic level, and in 1968, at age sixteen, Tatchell started work as a window-dresser in Melbourne's principal department store. He worked all-year round to develop attractive window displays for the Christmas period.
While in Australia he began a lifelong interest in outdoor adventurous activities such as remote climbing, which he has recently explained as helping him develop the courage to be a political risk-taker in adult life. (He was speaking on BBC One's Question Time, in the context of insurance and legal risks preventing British teachers from being willing to take their pupils on outdoor adventures)
Political awakening
He discovered his homosexuality in 1969. His political activity, begun in 1967 with the Australian campaign against the death penalty (prompted by the hanging of Ronald Ryan), was focussed the following year on Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. Impending conscription led him to move to London in 1971. Four days after arriving he spotted a sticker on a lamp-post in Oxford Street advertising a meeting of the Gay Liberation Front. He quickly became a leading member of the group until it disintegrated in 1974.
Tatchell continued his education at the Polytechnic of North London, and he later became a freelance journalist specialising in foreign stories. He joined the Labour Party in 1978, shortly before moving to a hard-to-let flat on the Rockingham Estate in Bermondsey. In 1980 he was part of a group of left-wing members who won control of Bermondsey Labour Party. When the sitting Labour MP, Bob Mellish, announced his retirement, Tatchell was selected as his successor in November 1981.
Bermondsey by-election
As a result of Tatchell's advocacy of direct action political campaigning, in December 1981 the Labour Party leader Michael Foot denounced him in the House of Commons, and endorsement for his candidature was refused. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party supported him strongly. When Mellish resigned from Parliament and triggered a by-election, Tatchell was eventually endorsed as the Labour Party candidate.
Tatchell's far-Left views and homosexuality were used against him by many opponents in an election campaign which was widely regarded as one of the dirtiest in modern British history. Although the Bermondsey seat had long been a Labour stronghold, the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes (who revealed his own bisexuality in 2006), won the ballot. Tatchell subsequently forgave him for the "dirty tricks", to the extent of supporting his candidacy for the leadership of the Lib Dems in 2006.
In the mid- and late-1980s, Tatchell wrote books including The Battle for Bermondsey (the story of the by-election), Democratic Defence and an early guide to surviving with HIV and AIDS.
OutRage!
- See also: OutRage!.
Increasingly Tatchell took part in gay rights campaigning over issues such as Section 28. Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell became one of thirty founding members of the radical gay-rights group OutRage! and has remained a leading member. The group fuses theatrical performance styles with queer political protest.
Some of the activities of OutRage! have been highly controversial. In 1994 it unveiled placards naming ten Church of England bishops as gay. Shortly afterwards the group wrote to twenty UK MPs, urging them to reveal their supposed homosexuality. One of those in receipt of such a letter died of a sudden heart attack, and Tatchell was denounced as a "homosexual terrorist" by the Daily Mail.
Some in the gay press have dubbed him "Saint Peter Tatchell" following further OutRage! campaigns involving religion. OutRage! protested on the occasion of the puported marriage between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, and Tatchell was questioned briefly by police under the Terrorism Act after displaying a banner reading "Charles can marry twice! Gays can't marry once."
Tatchell has long been involved in human rights more generally. He has twice attempted to place Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe under citizen's arrest on charges of torture. This has drawn praise from many of the newspapers that had previously denounced him.
Political Party Membership and Elections
In 2000 he resigned his membership of the Labour Party, citing its treatment of Ken Livingstone, and in support of Livingstone he fought unsuccessfully for a seat on the London Assembly as an Independent Green Left candidate.
On 7 April 2004, Tatchell announced that he had joined the Green Party but that he did not envisage standing as a candidate in any future election.
Establishment recognition
In January 2005 Who's Who announced that he was to be included in that publication for the first time.
Critics
During the 2004 campaign by OutRage! to stop the incitement of violence against gay people by Jamaican reggae artists such as Beenie Man (see ), Tatchell received death threats and was labelled a racist. However, Tatchell has campaigned all his life against racism, and his statements on Jamaica were in support of terrorised black groups within Jamaica.
In December 2005, UK singer Robbie Williams won £200,000 damages from The People newspaper and the magazines Star and Hot Stars after they published false and defamatory claims that he was secretly homosexual. Tatchell commented publicly that " legal action has created the impression he thinks it is shameful to be gay" (see ).
Tatchell is unpaid for his human rights work; he earns £8,000 a year from occasional freelance journalism, media appearances and guest lecturing.
Tatchell has drawn great criticsm from many quarters for his dislike to the concept of an age of consent. In 1996 he led an OutRage! campaign to reduce the age of consent to 14, with an agreement that there should be no prosecution at all if the difference between the ages of the sexual partners was three years. He was quoted in the OutRage! press release as saying "Young people have a right to accept or reject sex, according to what they feel is appropriate for them".
Relations with Muslims
In July 2004 Tatchell attacked Mayor of London Ken Livingstone for inviting Yusuf al-Qaradawi to London, because Tatchell regards Qaradawi's analysis of homosexuality as homophobic. Livingstone explained the context of the conference on the wearing of the hijab and defended his position here He later criticised Tatchell for writing about this conference in the New Statesman without having attended it; Tatchell asserted that speakers at the City Hall conference had not spoken up for the right of Muslim women to choose not to wear the hijab, whereas Livingstone claimed that they had. Livingstone also accused him of having a ""Muslim-fundamentalist-plot-to-take-over-the-world" conspiracy theory"
Tatchell has criticised Unite Against Fascism for inviting the Muslim Council of Britain to speak, despite the religious opposition of its leader, Iqbal Sacranie, to homosexuality. Recently Tatchell has called Iran an "Islamo-fascist state" in the wake of the hangings of two teenage boys.
In January 2006, the journalist and RESPECT The Unity Coalition member Adam Yosef wrote an article for the Desi Xpress in which he satarised gay weddings writing that "They'll be shagg*ng the neighbours before they even cut the cake". Following complaints, Yosef issued a statement retracting his remarks and claiming they had been mis-interpreted. The following month, Yosef's column identified Peter Tatchell, British National Party leader Nick Griffin and and Omar Bakri Mohammed of Al-Muhajiroun as the top three "hate filled bigots", saying that Tatchell needed "a good slap in the face".
Tatchell denounced the article as "a naked appeal to homophobia and xenophobia" and pointed to Yosef's remark that Tatchell and his "queer campaign army" should "pack their bent bags and head back to Australia" as echoing "the racist, xenophobic language of the BNP" . Yosef issued another statement, claiming the "slap in the face" remark was a "figure of speech", and asserted that he did not hold a racist view of Tatchell, and that the "pack their bent bags" referred to statments made by Tatchell concerning Muslims during the recent Sydney riots.
Tatchell used Bruce Perry's biography of Malcolm X as a kick-off point to a Guardian article in July 2005 calling for black gay role models. The book and article claim that the Black Muslim American campaigner had male lovers. While Tatchell maintains that he considers Malcolm X a hero, the claim was described as "shocking" and "inappropriate" by Peter Akinti, the editor of Black In Britain.