Contents:
- GAY? NOT GAY? SO WHAT! WHY SHOULD BE A MATTER FOR THE LIBEL LAWYERS?
- PHILLIP SCHOFIELD GAY? PRINTIAL NTENR GAY? AND WHO R?
- IS JASON DONOVAN GAY
GAY? NOT GAY? SO WHAT! WHY SHOULD BE A MATTER FOR THE LIBEL LAWYERS?
” Jason’s dg-takg spiralled out of ntrol 1992 after he beme a hate figure when he succsfully sued The Face magaze for wrongly claimg he was gay and hidg the fact. For the first time more than a , a star had gone to urt to clare that he was not homosexual - and sought damag om a newspaper (and two magaz) which had suggted to rewd. " In April 2001, he told Top of the Pops viewers: "Tomorrow I will be g out as homosexual, so get while you n, girls.
" And to make the pot even more licly unclear, he was playg the game on the very day he won his libel damag last week - tellg Atralian TV: "I'm not gay Atralia.
PHILLIP SCHOFIELD GAY? PRINTIAL NTENR GAY? AND WHO R?
I'm gay a lot of plac, but not there for some reason.
In the 21st century, is famatory to wrongly suggt someone is gay? Do a mistaken attributn of homosexualy really e someone to "be shunned or avoid" or exposed to "hatred, ridicule or ntempt", as the libel law mands? "I am not Jewish, but if someone said I were, I would not dream of sug, " says gay rights mpaigner Peter Tatchell.
Gog to urt over an allegatn of homosexualy "impli there is somethg shameful about beg gay" how wise is to sue such a se? Which urse of actn is likely to lose a sger more rerd sal - allowg a false claim of homosexualy to rema unchallenged, or shg to urt to set the rerd straight? Liberace persuad a jury that he was not a homosexual (as he claimed had been suggted), and soped £120, 000 - today's money - 1992, another sger, Jason Donovan, went to urt after The Face magaze prted a piece on the "outg" of gay entertaers.
IS JASON DONOVAN GAY
The article said soberly that Donovan was beg plagued by people seekg to expose him as gay, even though there was no evince that he was. Donovan sued for libel and won - claimg, like Williams, that he had been ma to look a liar about his sexualy - after his barrister had scribed the wrongful allegatn of homosexualy a "poisono slur" piece was wrten by Ben Summerskill, who 13 years on ns the gay rights anisatn Stonewall. "Media lawyer Mark Stephens says that, spe Donovan's w, "the wheels me off gay claims at that pot.
The public reactn ma clear to all lawyers practisg the field that you uld never sue on the allegatn that someone was gay. " Law firms are forced to prent any claim differently: we are not sug bee the newspaper prented my client as gay, my lord, but bee he was ma out to be a liar, given his prev public proclamatns of heterosexualy.
And by accg him of beg a liar, my client has been "lowered the timatn of right-thkg members of society", as the law has what if a sger uld prove that a false claim of homosexualy had damaged his CD sal?