WE DO not tolerate homophobia in our society. That was the clear message given to the Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man when he arrived at Heathrow in June to find police waiting to question him, and his gig at the Ocean nightclub cancelled. Man’s offence was recording songs such as
Damn, which includes the line “I’m dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the queers.” This was the latest in a long line of confrontations between Jamaican artists and British gay-rights groups which goes back as far as Buju Banton’s infamous track
Boom Bye Bye (which told how he liked to shoot gay men) and the equally infamous defence of that record mounted on Channel 4’s
The Word by the ragga superstar Shabba Ranks.
This week, Man finally issued an apology. He said: “I do not write them (the lyrics)with the intent of purposefully hurting or maligning others.” Was this a victory for gay-rights campaigners? Certainly. Was it a victory for the consensus of British opinion? Almost certainly not.
I’m guessing here, but bear with me. While I would swear it’s true that most British people don’t believe in attacking homosexuals, I would also swear that a huge number (perhaps even a majority) are more or less homophobic. For starters, there’s no point denying that black British people are more often than not raised to believe that homosexuality is wrong. Indeed, it’s arguable that Beenie Man may even be an ambassador for a Jamaican society which can still punish male gay sex with up to 10 years’ hard labour.
What’s more, many Christians and Muslims of all hues find homosexuality unacceptable. I’m a practising Catholic and I’ve certainly heard sermons describing homosexual practices as sinful. Of course priests don’t advocate immediate retribution; they’ve got the man upstairs to take care of that, haven’t they? Most of all though, as someone who frequently works with kids, I know that taunts like poof, fag and queer are still riding high in the playground top ten.
So am I trying to defend homophobia? No. But I am intrigued by yet another example of the way a perceived consensus may not be majority opinion at all but that of a cabal of successful pressure groups, politicians and the media. Of course this is nothing new (see 50 years of polls about the death penalty) but it does raise an interesting question. If, as a society, we say one thing but actually believe another, are we not hypocrites?
At this point, I suppose I should establish my own view of homophobia: as far as I’m concerned, anything that attacks, marginalises or stereotypes gay people is unacceptable, which is why I don’t own a Beenie Man record and I’ll never watch Queer Eye for a Straight Guy. Consenting adults are surely allowed to do whatever they like in the privacy of their own bedroom. Maybe that’s the consensus opinion. Maybe not. Let’s ask Sven. Oops . . .
Now that we’re too lazy to vote, so it seems we’re too lazy to question the opinions proffered in our name. So we champion cultural diversity as long as we all dress, sound and believe the same. We champion democracy although members of a political party with elected representation in our democratic institutions are now banned from serving in our police force. We champion personal freedom so long as it’s non-smoking, healthy-eating and monogamous.
And it’s come to a pretty pass when I find myself sympathising with Beenie Man/Abu Hamza, Nick Griffin/the BNP and Ronald McDonald/Sven. And meanwhile a Leicester teenager, obsessed with a super-violent video game available on any high street, murders another kid video game style.
I suppose at this point I should bemoan our lack of moral certainties. But actually I think lack of moral certainty is a fundamentally mature position: life is complicated and it’s often very tricky to work out what to do for the best. Instead, therefore, what I bemoan is that lack masquerading as certainty and the one person I blame for this, or at least regard as its most obvious and depressing symptom, is the Prime Minister.
In the hoopla of 1997, the criticisms of Tony Blair focused on the fact that he was a pragmatist or, worse, an opportunist. I remember thinking that these were positive attributes: finally we had a Labour candidate who understood the nature of modern politics and could weigh up problems on their individual merits. What I didn’t realise of course was that Tony would come to mistake opportunism for an ideology. No wonder as a society we are dancing ourselves morally dizzy. You can’t have moral debate when the cornerstone of that debate believes in nothing but his own ineffable rightness. And so we’ve become a nation of hypocrites, professing one thing and then doing the opposite. Jamaicans have a good word for a society like this: they call it Babylon.
IMPERIAL HINTS
AS GEOFF HOON travels to Gibraltar for the celebrations of 300 years of British rule, a Spanish politician accuses our government of behaving “like a 17th century colonial power” and Gibraltar’s first minister, Peter Caruana, ever the diplomat, responds by describing the Spanish reaction as “impertinent”. From back in Blighty it doesn’t half look like making a mountain out of, well, a small rock. After all, it’s not our fault that the 27,000 inhabitants of Gibraltar want to remain British, is it? And as for the celebrations being some kind of symbol of British imperialism? You must be joking.
But hold on. If this isn’t about imperialism, then why on earth did the ceremony begin with a 21-gun salute from the Royal Navy frigate HMS Grafton? Doesn’t that make us seem like the school bully who may have stopped extorting dinner money but still likes to flex his muscles every now and then just to remind everyone who’s boss? Oh well, at least we know it won’t happen again. Even if Gibraltar’s still British at the next major anniversary, Hoon ’s proposed defence cuts should ensure we don’t have a ship to spare on such shameful nonsense.
Patrick Neate’s second novel, Twelve Bar Blues (Grove Press), won the Whitbread novel award in 2002. His latest book is Where You’re At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet (Bloomsbury)
Jane Shilling is away
