From an expert witness statement prepared by Stephen Green for Raj Bhachoo
in the Camberwell Green Magistrates Court 7th March 2012
3 STONEWALL INSULT THEIR OPPONENTS
The Stonewall Awards have been running since 2006. They purpose to honour people who have advanced Stonewall’s pro-homosexual agenda in some way. They include categories such as:
Publication of the Year, Politician of the Year, Writer of the Year, Journalist of the Year, Broadcast of the Year, Community Group of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and Hero of the Year.
At the first Stonewall Awards, the broadcaster Chris Moyles was insulted by ‘winning’ an award called ‘Bully of the Year’ for real or imagined slights against homosexuals.
In 2007, this anti-award was renamed ‘Bigot of the Year’ and a shortlist was presented to Stonewall members to vote upon. It was ‘won’ by the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis, Bishop of Hereford, for opposing the appointment of a homosexual man as a youth officer in his diocese.
In 2008, Northern Ireland politician Iris Robinson was called ‘Bigot of the Year’, whilst in 2009 the insult went to journalist Jan Moir for a piece critical of the lifestyle of the late singer Stephen Gateley.
Another politician ‘won’ the award in 2010, Chris Grayling MP, after he suggested that hoteliers should have the right to decide that a homosexual couple could not share a double bed in an establishment which was the hoteliers’ own home.
With ‘Bigot of the year’ Stonewall show the intent to insult, humiliate and browbeat people in public life, and to engender an atmosphere in which public figures are intimidated into keeping their reservations about homosexuality to themselves.
The ‘Bigot’ award often has a short-list and Stonewall supporters are invited to vote upon it. In 2008, the shortlist included the Earl of Devon, who decided not to allow weddings at Powderham Castle because he had a moral objection to civil partnership celebrations, the Heinz company, for withdrawing and advertisement in which two men were seen kissing, Lillian Ladele, an Islington registrar who refused to perform civil partnerships because of her conscientious objection to same-sex unions, and the Bishop of Motherwell, who said homosexuals use the Holocaust to get sympathy.
The 2010 shortlist included author Frederick Forsyth, A.A. Gill of The Sunday Times, Rt Rev Arthur Roche, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Leeds and hotelier Susanne Wilkinson.
In 2011, the ‘Bigot of the Year’ award shortlistincluded respected journalist Melanie Phillips, who was ‘awarded’ the title, Scottish entrepreneur Sir Brian Souter, Bishop Arthur Roche again, Bill Walker, MSP and myself. Naturally, none of those listed was invited to the Stonewall awards dinner, which was sponsored by the Nationwide Building Society.
Although I was offended to be insulted in such a way, the last thing I would have done was to report Stonewall to the police. I am grown-up enough to realise that people are allowed to hold contrary opinions to mine and that this nation safeguards the right to freedom of expression. Instead, I took the line that to be called a ‘bigot’ by Stonewall should be regarded as a badge of honour.
