Don’t feel too sorry for the Daily Record

As job losses were announced, The Herald posed the question, does Scotland need the Daily Record?

This was the newspaper which in 2000 leapt on Stagecoach boss, Brian Souter‘s, bigoted bandwagon to campaign in favour of Section 28 (or 2A as it was known in Scotland).

That’s the clause that banned the ‘promotion of homosexuality in schools’, but was used by local authorities to ban any discussion of same sex relationships in a positive context. Damning the Scottish Parliament as ‘Barmyrood’ for voting through repeal, it even published a lengthy article titled:

If this is prejudice, I’m proud

Subtitled, ‘Gay way can never be happy,’ commentator Tom Brown went on to be more offensive than Jan Moir could ever hope for, happily calling his piece the:

CONFESSIONS of a Gaybasher

But, it didn’t stop there, with the Record going onto slam the right of gay men to even kiss in public.

And while the editor-ship has moved on and the general plight of newspapers is indeed worrying, the Record’s previous makes it difficult to be too upset.

See the “media monitor” sections of the ScotsGay archive to get a flavour of the debate the Record/Souter ignited and funded, such as this issue (it’s a work safe link).

For those who have read my brief biography, you’ll know my own interest in this campaign!