I heard from an 'insider' working in the NHS that the individual was told that gay Brightonians could access a better quality of care and service in terms of counselling and rehabilitation than the average man or woman with substance or alcohol misuse problems. I found that piece of information really quite telling. I have long suspected that access to a wide range of services such as housing might be improved in this town if one declares one's sexual orientation to be gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/transgendered. Of course, there's nothing wrong with offering an improved and higher standard of care and treatment to addicts. I just think this improved and higher standard of care should be offered universally. Call me old fashioned if you want, I just think that it is grossly unfair on those with alcohol and substance misuse problems on the waiting list or who receive inadequate levels of care that some are given preferential treatment. The gay 'community' are always playing the 'race card', aren't they? This sounds like something of an inversion of it. Discrimination is bad...unless it is absurdly disproportionate positive discrimination.
Where's the kudos in offering preferential treatment to ex-Forces addicts? They are perceived as mainly white; mainly British; mainly hetero - and class traitors to boot.
ReplyDeleteSo a hear-say comment passed to you by someone who, as a friend of yours, is undoubtedly also a nutjob, now translates into "disproportionate positive discrimination", and that this discrimination, which if it exists at all is at the hands of the government health services, is somehow the fault of homosexuals. What difference does it make? Sin is sin, and choosing a life of dereliction and substance abuse at the expense of one's family is hardly less culpable a state of affairs. Unless of course you're a gay man who tries to hide it by talking incessantly about gays in the most absurdly illogical ways
ReplyDeleteI'm only pointing out injustice where I see it. It is an insult to other who need help. I fail to see how you can't see that.
ReplyDeleteBut it's the same injustice every time with you. Why not point out that you have a nice warm flat while some poor bugger sleeps on the street? That isn't fair as such, you have no more right to a roof over your head than anyone else. Or why someone who happens to be born straight in Iran can have a partner while someone who happens to be gay is stoned to death. Or why some people earn lots and others earn little. Money is spent on services for homosexuals, yes. But the government spends far more on other things. It's not as if that money would automatically go to the homeless, or that it is an either/or choice in funding terms ('we can either give houses to the homeless, or provide essential health-care advice to prevent an outbreak of STDs that will overburden the NHS'). There is enough money in the UK to provide a nice mansion for each homeless person, the problem is one of political will (or even a sense of 'justice' that differs from yours - that those who do not work or who take drugs/drink to excess regularly ought not to have a mansion).
ReplyDeleteHomosexuality is always the sine qua non of your comparisons, surely YOU can see that
I am ever happy to read your blog, Laurence; and ever reluctant to 'weigh-in' with an opinion.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this is a case of "allocation of resources" in light of vulnerable/ higher-risk groups. I think we see a similar thing with sexual health screening services in Brighton.
God bless!
To: Blog "That the Bones You have Crushed May Thrill"
ReplyDeleteFor RC electronic media guidelines on ethical content SEE
The Pope's message for the 45th World Day for Social Communications presented at the Holy See's Press Office.
http://youtu.be/nYNoFo3kbLA
Thank you.
Just in passing -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pinkuk.com/events/news/
brighton_hiv_cases_on_the_rise.aspx
Laurence, why do you chose to live there?
ReplyDelete"Dr Martin Fisher, a consultant at the Elton John Centre, part of the Royal Sussex County Hospital, said Brighton was historically disproportionately affected by HIV because it had a large gay population.
The Elton John Centre has recorded a four-fold increase in Aids patient numbers since 1995, from about 350 to 1,300."
"...someone who, as a friend of yours, is undoubtedly also a nutjob..."
ReplyDeleteThat would make a good name for a new movement - Nutjobs for Jesus. I'd join.