20 Mar 2009
Atkinson's Gay Hate Law Attack
Mr Bean star, Rowan Atkinson, beloved across the world for taking the piss out of odd people, has lashed out at hate speech legislation in the UK in an attempt to influence the House of Lords to vote against the British government's attempt to remove a free speech clause in a homophobic hatred offence.
He addressed the House of Lords saying, "Do you think I would risk prosecution because of jokes or drama about sexual orientation with which I might be involved if we don't have the free speech clause?"
In a time the world hardly remembers, comedians joked about racial stereotypes with impunity. Black men were all called Samba and behaved like monkeys, chinese people were yellow and slitty-eyed and took orders for 'flied lice', and so on and on. Nowadays such stereotyping of people who were born into one race or another (other than Caucasian) for laughs would be unthinkable.
Would Rowan Atkinson have lashed out at the laws that eradicated such base racism? Laws that effectively changed the mindset about race, and made it safer to be a other than Caucasian in Britain?
Gay stereotypes in comedy not only offend - they harm. They encourage schoolchildren to bully other childen by imitating them in a 'gay' fashion, leading some of those children to commit suicide.
Gay stereotypes in comedy encourage would-be gay bashers to go out and beat up and sometimes kill gay men because they are perceived to be 'less than' and an easy, valid target for vitriol and violence.
In defending the right to create comedy about sexual orientation, Atkinson is defending the right to victimise people who were born gay.
Underneath the bluster, he obviously believes that we choose our sexual orientation.