Shame on the BBC. Should homosexuals face execution poll. I'm kind of in shock

[gsdx]

Well, it's the fact that it's on the BBC which is so worrying.

The BBC is funded by the British tax-payer and is supposed to be neutral.

It seems to me that you're the one being neutral.

The BBC took an important issue, stated the facts, and then asked for opinions. It's no different than stating the facts about the price of a barrel of oil and asking opinions.

You, on the other hand, have selected the comments you posted very carefully without showing the other side of the coin.

These are 4 of the first 6 comments I read when I opened the link above:

Homosexuality is pretty repulsive in my view and unnatural, but who are we to judge if these practices deserve execution?

This is obscene, hypocritical, prejudiced nonsense. It is something from the Dark Ages.

What a barbaric and ignorant proposition. If Africa wants help from the west then I see no reason why we should not attatch some cultural conditions to that aid.

I believe if you asked most "straight" men they would tell you they find homosexual acts abhorrent but you would find few that would advocated executing homosexuals.

Yes. I think you are the one who isn't being neutral.

 

[Seasoned]

The fact that a supposedly sane and respected entity as the BBC would post such a question gives credence to the idea that there are two equal opinions. Come on. We are talking death here. What's next, the question asking if thieves should lose their hands? How much violence is this question going to cause?

 

[gsdx]

Of course I'm not neutral. But then 40 million people a year don't pay me to be neutral.

The BBC neither advocates nor condones the actions in Uganda. They are merely asking public opinion. As rancid as some of the comments are, others are equally uplifting and encouraging. It's not like the BBC is spelt with 3 K's and is standing on the street corner telling people what they should be thinking and doing.

I'm sure the BBC has published controversial polls before and received equally abhorrent responses. I don't know. I don't subscribe to it.

And this isn't even a poll. No options were given. Only facts. It's the public which is responding to the facts. Blame the public, not the BBC.

 

[gsdx]

I blame both. it’s the sensationalist syntax that was the provocation for all those backward loonie fucks

Better, then, to ignore the issue and pretend it wasn't happening. That would be biased reporting.

I don't particularly like what's going on in Uganda, and I'm sure you don't, either, but to accuse the BBC of being less than neutral in bringing the events to the general public?

Sorry, but I'm not seeing this the way you are seeing it, and I never will - even if I were paying the BBC £142.50 per year.

It's news. It's current. And it's worth discussing.

 

[tigahben]

You might want to say that the BBC is being neutral by giving people the option to give their views.... but the point is that one set of views are quite obviously going to be homophobic, and given that they say they remove offensive comments, they just should not have opened this up for comment.

This is the kind of behaviour I'd expect from a tabloid, not a respected news outlet.

 

[rareboy]

I have to agree with the OP here.

The BBC is not in the business of asking people what they think in on-line polls.

As noted, the fact that they even imply there are two equal sides to the issue makes all similar polls okay.

Some possibilities.

- Do you think that all Ugandans are atavistic tribal goons?

- Do you think that all British people should be attacked wherever they are in the world because of their government policies of the last 300 years?

- Do you think that racial and cultural minorities should have rights removed?

- Do you think that women who have abortions should be stoned to death?

And the list will be endless.

Who the fuck cares what fringe whackheads think about the issue? The fact is, the BBC should make it clear that murder of any sort is not an option. Then they'd be doing the world a service.

Cynical moral relativism is the greatest curse of the past century.

 

[tigahben]

I agree. but like i say, i take issue with the way they're reporting it, that's all.

Exactly. You don't invite the homophobes to take part in discussion about gay rights just as you wouldn't invite... say, neo-nazis to talk about building a holocaust memorial.

 

[SoulSearcher]

I'm not offended at all, in fact, I think such polls actually make people be honest and say things that they otherwise wouldn't on your face. I want some think tank or newsagency to poll people in the American South and see how many of them would like Jim Crow laws and segregation back. I think results would be amazing. BBCs poll is not promoting homophobia, its revealing it.

 

[tigahben]

I'm not offended at all, in fact, I think such polls actually make people be honest and say things that they otherwise wouldn't on your face. I want some think tank or newsagency to poll people in the American South and see how many of them would like Jim Crow laws and segregation back. I think results would be amazing. BBCs poll is not promoting homophobia, its revealing it.

But if homophobes are given an outlet to talk about it, and are even asked about it, by legitimate organisations, then it risks being seen as ok. It is not ok. Not at all.

 

[PabloZed]

This is disgusting because if the BBC were honest they would have to admit that they are not actually seeking an opinion of whether the UK should execute its homosexuals but instead are trying to draw attention to the Ugandan law being debated.

So I don't think this kind of poll tells us anything except that there are a lot of assholes out there - but I already knew that!

The proposed poll about the Holocaust would be interesting because I believe its against the law in Britian to deny the holocaust. So what happens when people say all those jews committed suicide?

Finally, since all politics is local, Foxnews asks crazy poll questions all the time and the only thing it accomplishes is show how nutty Fox and the right wing are.

So shame on the BBC for following Fox's lead.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I think the good-old-fashioned BBC have just discovered internet trolling.

 

[rareboy]

I'm pleased to see that sane voices are drowning out the homophobes.

 

[haberfuckingdashery]

you got this thread with all the queers going nuts about hetros that want to see queers dead, with all these comments about death and violence and putting the worlds queers on an island to die out


then a bit down the page you have a thread about Oral Roberts the Christian minister and you open that and find cheers that this 91 year old guy has died, and someone posts the song 'Celebration' and others post how they are eagerly awaiting the death of these other Xian figures. It's jubilation in there.


It's the same thing over and over. One group of humans wants another group of humans dead.

 

[tigahben]

I'm pleased to see that sane voices are drowning out the homophobes.

Still, you don't want *them* to think they're being persecuted!
Inviting them to be homophobic when you know they'll get shouted down isn't really productive...

 

[Spiff]

"Respectable family values"? Like the notion of a genocide of the entire gay community just because of their sexual orientation? If that is a family value, then we already are living a hell on earth.

 

[Swellegant]

I think I might feel much the same about this poll if we in the US had much media that was funded by taxpayers. All we have is Public Television, which is only partially funded by one government agency, but is only one tiny peep in the overall scream of media.

It's very disturbing to feel your public institutions turn against you. However, I can also imagine the same thing beind said by the homophobes who see so much gay-friendly programming on the BBC which they also pay for.

I think that poll shows us gays and our "liberal" supporters that there is still a long way to go. Just because we're right doesn't mean the people who are wrong are going to change their minds. We still have all this hate, masquerading as "family values," and sometimes we forget those people exist and that there are so many of them. A poll like this, allowing those kinds of comments to stand, is a rude awakening... but it's better to be awake when you're attacked, don't you think?

On the other hand, I do wonder how the BBC is justifying itself in letting hateful comments stand on its site when it already has strict policies against such comments. Did they not think of that when they decided to post the poll? Or are they perhaps keeping that bit on the downlow until they get enough ammunition to hang the haters by their own illogical petards? Time will tell.

 

[dpnice]

Rape, murder, child abuse and violent crimes all result in years of mental, emotional and physical pain for the victims and their families.

I have yet to hear a justification of how my being gay inflicts others with such suffering. I have yet to hear an acceptable argument of how my being gay affects the traditional married lives of heterosexuals. If we could turn straights gay then there are many members here who would no longer be begging for help over how to deal with the crushes they have on their best friends.

But as I have frequently said in the past if someone's opinion is made then you cannot change it. No amount of reasoning will make a homophobe see the ridiculous logic behind his beliefs.

The only thing we can do is reduce the influence they bear on society as a whole.

Until every single gay person stands up to be counted this will never happen. We need to be out there in the open showing family, friends and neighbours that we are no different, have the same needs and ambitions in life and deserve the same rights as they do.

As for the influence we can have on other countries with differing cultures to our western lives I don't believe their is a great deal to be done. I am certain this bill will pass in Uganda as the pressure that we can put on our governments to intervene is not sufficient to overcome all the financial aspects involved in our links with Africa.

Unfortunately all the beauty and wonder found in the world to day is equally matched by all the hatred and ugliness inherent in human nature.

 

[Salemite]

I suggest all gays are put on a remote island somewhere and left for a generation - afterwhich, theoretically there shoild be none left !

Chris, Guildford

What a dumbass. This guy should be strung up by his balls and lashed with extension cords.

 

[bluedragon4]

Wow, Chris really has it figured out.

OMG!! LOL!!! Where does he think gays come from? HA HA!! That one made me laugh. I wish someone would put us all on an island. Can you imagine?!!! They just would have to keep adding all the hot young guys that came out daily. And than straights can see we were born this way and not made by some creepy older man. All the creepy older men would be on the island already. lol What would we call this island? The lesbians have Lesbos. We would call it..........Pucker island maybe?

 

[Royal Heart]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Homophobia, specifically against men who love men, is SIGNIFICANTLY worse now than it was a decade ago, despite the strides in same-sex marriage and all the "look how far we've come" talk.

I'm not completely certain about that. Is it actually worse, or are we just hearing more about it? I think it's the latter, to be honest. This phenomeon is known to happen with crime, too. Crime rates in my country have been dropping, but reporting of it has been skyrocketing, so people tend to form the idea that crime is getting worse. It's not.

News media is generally sensationalist, a reality-derived form of entertainment. Keep that in mind.