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OutRage!

The Knitting Circle: Movement

Biography,bibliography,press cuttings.

It was set up in direct response to the queerbashing of actor Michael Boothe, and the lack police action in similar cases.

The group has particularly directed its attention at the Church of England for what is seen as hypocrisy.

SeeOutRage! contact details.

• Ian Lucas, (1998), "e;OutRage!: an oral history"e;, London and New York: Cassell, 244 pages, ISBN 0304333573 (hardback)/0304333581 (paperback)
  A review by Diesel Balaam inGay and Lesbian Humanist, Spring 1999, Vol. 18, No. 3, pages 18-19. "e;Stylish , audacious, and with a shrewd idea of how the media operate, they have always known when to seize the moment, shaming the rest of us for our sluggishness, apathy and inactivity. Nonetheless, it's probably still too soon to assess the true impact of OutRage! on gay politics and wider society, so Ian Lucas's decision to assemble an oral history of this many-headed queer phenomenon seems particularly astute."e;

  "e;Judging by this book, many actions fell short of expectations, while others appear cheap and puerile (the 'bend over for your member' protest is a case in point, when a line of gay men pulled down their trousers outside the Houses of Parliament). However, most were well-researched, displaying imagination, daring, and panache - the famous 'kiss-in' around the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus, to highlight discriminatory laws against public displays of affection being an obvious example, together with the 'Turn-Yourself-In' demo at Bow Street Police Station, and the 'Queer Weddings' in Trafalgar Square. They were also present at the near riot outside the Houses of Parliament in 1994, when the House of Commons refused an equal age of consent, despite reformers 'winning all the arguments'. WhileStonewallrepresentatives appealed for calm (no doubt anxious that their Labour Party junketings were about to disappear down the pan). OutRage! recognised instantly that at this particular juncture, a riot was the only dignified and appropriate response."e;

  "e;But perhaps the most famous and controversial actions of OutRage! involved the 'outing' of allegedly closeted homosexuals. Picking on the harmless Jason Donovan does seem unfair in retrospect, but only the lily-livered could object to the exposing of hypocritical Tories, bishops and Christian pop singers."e;

  "e;Admittedly, a disproportionate amount of time and energy has been devoted to the increasingly irrelevant Church of England, but as the books makes clear, it is a simple and effective strategy for grabbing publicity, and taking the piss out of Christians is always enormous fun."e;

  "e;Terror groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir are quite upfront about their intention to seize power and kill homosexuals, yet the response of some OutRage! members in the face of this threat seems like political correctness gone mad. Take, for example, this limp-wristed response, from one Simon Edge: 'Hizb-ut-Tahrir were being vilified in the Press. I thought it was a bit dodgy to say 'Yeah, yeah, we hate them too,' because we're gay'."e;

• LABOUR BRINGS IN OUTRAGE!inthud, 8th. January, 1998, No. 160B, page 21. "e;Home Secretary Mike O'Brien is having meetings with Outrage! leader Peter Tatchell to discuss further amendments to theCrime and Disorder Bill, which include stronger sentences for homophobic-motivated crimes. What the ammendments suggested by Tatchell amount to is equal protection to victims of crime due to race, religion, sexual orientation, transsexuality, national or social origin, disability and political opinion."e;

Biography,bibliography,press cuttings.

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The Knitting Circle

Last altered 21st. July, 1999