And the gay-bashing continues

Some Taiwanese Christians, whom I suspect are not representative of the majority, recently decided to conduct an anti-gay parade on the grounds that homosexuality was a threat to the future of Taiwan.  No hyperbole there then.  Luckily, being Taiwan, it was a generally peaceful encounter.

I've been the red square in Ximending a few times and thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance and relaxed attitude of the patrons and business people and I've spent a few very nice afternoons at the gay pool in Taichung amongst men whose attention to their physiques put my own heterosexual form quite into the shade.  It must be agony for girls to see all the ripped tanned bods and know that they are nearly all reserved exclusively for the bros.  This said, I have never felt any tension whatsoever in public about homosexuality.  It is when homosexuality becomes a public debated issue that people squirm around looking to see what other people's positions will be, before deciding which moral framework won't alienate most of their friends or threaten their guanxi.   In public we are all moral upright citizens who care about democracy and lead law abiding honest lives of graft and responsibility.  In private .....

Then I check to see how the country where I was raised and whose culture I was conditioned in to see what's happening and I see this:

PC James Parkes was off duty and on a night out with friends when he was attacked outside a gay bar, Superstar Boudoir, shortly before 10pm on Sunday.
He sustained multiple "life-threatening" skull fractures and fractures of his eye-socket and cheekbone in the assault allegedly carried out by up to 20 teenagers.

The attack comes two weeks after the death of Ian Baynham, a 62-year-old civil servant who suffered severe head injuries in a homophobic attack in Trafalgar Square four weeks ago.

Baynham, from Beckenham, south-east London, was punched and kicked to the ground. His attackers also shouted homophobic abuse. Detectives have arrested two teenage girls and an 18-year-old man in connection with his murder.

For the life of me I can't understand why some teenagers in the UK get so much pleasure from mindlessly (I'm sure they haven't thought about why they hate gays, its just that they do) destroying someone's life.  It's not just gays.  But gays make an easy target.  If I was a societal doctor I would take this as a very serious symptom of sickness of the entire body of society and an indicator that the patient, in fear, is rejecting it's 'New Labour' heart (an old Tory heart revamped) and relapsing hard to the right.  Maybe its timely to remember the saying that evil prevails when good people stay silent.

At least one person with some fame is prepared to stand and be counted - Paul Haggis.