Complain to the BBC over its grotesque 'debate' on killing queers

UPDATE 3, 17th Dec: Sunny has details of the saga's conclusion:

today Peter Horrocks, director of BBC World Service, posted another blog on the BBC Editor’s blog, accepting they had gotten it wrong:

The original headline on our website was, in hindsight, too stark. We apologise for any offence it caused. But it’s important that this does not detract from what is a crucial debate for Africans and the international community.

Today the NUJ also issued a statement attacking the BBC for posing the question in such an inflammatory way.

Good.

Sunny also points out a further detail I had missed in my earlier, coverage on this story - namely that credit for drawing attention to the existence of the Have Your Say debate in the first place goes to Twitter's @thedancingflea.


UPDATE 2: Per PinkNews, the BBC is unrepentant, saying that it recognises that the question posed was 'challenging', whilst totally failing to get to grips with the fact that they have, in effect, suggested that there is a reasonable debate of two halves to be had on the question of whether Uganda should embark on a homophobic holocaust.  Utterly shameful.

UPDATE: Comments are now closed on the HYS page, and the title has been amended to 'Should Uganda debate gay execution?'  So the BBC now presents the thread as an innocuous call for a debate about whether there should be a debate.  That's all right, then...

ORIGINAL POST:

As many people are currently discussing on Twitter, the BBC website's Have Your Say page currently includes the topic 'Should Homosexuals face Execution?'  Readers are invited to give their views on whether or not Uganda, which is currently debating legislation that would see gays put to death, has 'gone too far'.

To the non-psychotic, it will be only too clear just how objectionable it is for the BBC to give house room to this 'debate'.  I have submitted a complaint on the BBC's Complaint Homepage, and encourage you to do the same, here.  Should you find it useful, in drafting your own response, copied below is what I said.  Feel free to use some or all of it if you find it helpful.

I would like to register, in the strongest possible terms, my objections to the decision to host a debate entitled 'Should Homosexuals Face Execution?' on the Have Your Say pages of the BBC website. That the BBC would invite readers to deliberate the merits of murdering gay people is not merely offensive: it is also profoundly irresponsible, insofar as it can only serve to normalise and legitimise hate-fuelled violence.

Clearly, if the topic for this debate had been the case for systematically murdering Jews, it would never have seen the light of day. Yet, the policy proposal at issue here – the state sponsored killing of gays - is just as morally grotesque. In proposing this debate, BBC unmistakeably implies that the belief that gays should be killed is a reasonable one for people to hold, and that it has a place in civilised discussion. That is frankly sick. Indeed, the actions of the BBC, in publishing this thread, betray a inexcusable disregard for the personal security of gay people around the country. The debate can only encourage people to believe that homophobic violence is justified.

I find it difficult to put into words just how disappointing it is, in a climate of increased hostility to gay people, to see the BBC play fast and loose with the safety of the LGBT community. This thread should be withdrawn immediately, and a full apology offered this appalling and dangerous error of judgement.