Why there is nothing ‘natural’ about the life of Jan Moir
I was quite surprised this week. Ordinarily, when someone famous dies, it only takes about five minutes for the tabloid attack squad to move in, decide it was their fault and rip apart their life for no reason whatsoever. But Stephen Gately's death seemed to catch the hatemongers on the hop.
Until today. Here's Jan Moir:
Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death
...except that he died of natural causes, you mean? Jan, though, has recognised her tardiness in sticking the boot into the fresh corpse of Gateley; she's now doing it in advance to other celebrities who might die soon:
Robbie, Amy, Kate, Whitney, Britney; we all know who they are. And we are not being ghoulish to anticipate, or to be mentally braced for, their bad end: a long night, a mysterious stranger, an odd set of circumstances that herald a sudden death.
No, it's not ghoulish at all to expect someone else's death, Jan. You tell yourself that. You cackling witch.
A founder member of Ireland's first boy band, he was the group's co-lead singer, even though he could barely carry a tune in a Louis Vuitton trunk.
He was the Posh Spice of Boyzone, a popular but largely decorous addition.
Keep going, Jan, I don't think you've been unpleasant enough yet. How about turning into Quincy and deciding you know better than the coroner?
Even before the post-mortem and toxicology reports were released by the Spanish authorities, the Gatelys' lawyer reiterated that they believed his sudden death was due to natural causes.
But, hang on a minute. Something is terribly wrong with the way this incident has been shaped and spun into nothing more than an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend, like a broken teacup in the rented cottage.
What killed him then, Jan? Being gay?
Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one. Let us be absolutely clear about this. All that has been established so far is that Stephen Gately was not murdered.
Er, no, dying from fluid on the lungs is natural and unfortunately does happen to people with congenital heart conditions. It's rare, but it does happen all the time - just not to celebrities. That's probably why Moir doesn't know.
After a night of clubbing, Cowles and Gately took a young Bulgarian man back to their apartment. It is not disrespectful to assume that a game of canasta with 25-year-old Georgi Dochev was not what was on the cards.
Ah, I see. Yes, they were gay, therefore they obviously had sex with him. If that's what you think, Jan, don't be shy. If all gay people are by their very nature promiscuous then just pop up and say it, Jan. No-one will think the less of you. Because no-one could think any less of you.
Gately's family have always maintained that drugs were not involved in the singer's death, but it has just been revealed that he at least smoked cannabis on the night he died.
Nevertheless, his mother is still insisting that her son died from a previously undetected heart condition that has plagued the family.
BECAUSE HE DID, YOU FLAMING FUCKWIT. Tell you what, you do a few years of medical training, order a second postmortem, you carve up the corpse, then you come out with your half-baked "one spliff killed him" bullshit. Otherwise, maybe the people who do it for a living know that they might be talking about...?
For Jan, though, it's not about the one spliff which killed Gately. It's the fact he was gay.
Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael.
Of course, in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately's last night raise troubling questions about what happened.
What the fuck do you mean by that? Kevin McGee killed himself after battling with drug addiction - it wasn't anything to do with his civil partnership as that had long since broken up. Is Jan Moir really trying to link drug use with being gay? Or saying that civil partnerships will lead to death? Or what is she trying to do?
Whatever it is, it's more seedy and disgusting than what she claims is to blame for Stephen Gately's death. Someone as decent and ordinary as Gately dies, yet Jan Moir lives. It's just not fair.
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October 16th, 2009 - 09:16
A deplorable piece full of speculation and innuendo, I mean bullshit. At least the majority of the commenters disagree with every word, which is unusual for Fail readers.
October 16th, 2009 - 09:37
Nah what the wicked witch is trying to say is that being gay is more likely to make you die because being a gayer is wrong sordid and yucky. If god forbid Stephen Fry was to be killed in a traffic accident, ghouls like her would still find a way of blaming the accident on his sexuality.
October 16th, 2009 - 09:38
Thank you SO much for this! I was too angry to articulate it, I've just been muffling my screams of impotent rage…
October 16th, 2009 - 09:51
Why would someone write something like this? It's vile.
She may come to regret this article.
October 16th, 2009 - 09:52
Nice work. I'm impressed you could find the words to disect the article. I was so astonished that words failed me. That was low, even for the Daily Fail
October 16th, 2009 - 09:58
Great post. Well said.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:02
She is a vile woman, excellent destruction of her vile little piece! Well done I feel better having read this ha ha
October 16th, 2009 - 10:03
Hear hear!! The only thing you didn't uncover from that article is why anyone still reads a newspaper that publishes this sort of rubbish.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:08
Some good points, though I do have to question one…
"It is not disrespectful to assume that a game of canasta with 25-year-old Georgi Dochev was not what was on the cards."
"Ah, I see. Yes, they were gay, therefore they obviously had sex with him. If that's what you think, Jan, don't be shy."
So you honestly think they took someone back to their place in the small hours after partying for innocent reasons?
And its nothing to do with being gay, if it was a straight couple and they took someone in for the night I would assume it was for some sexy time.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:09
Ugh!
What a horrible piece of vile, although sadly unsurprising from the newspaper that also serves up plenty of homophobia from Littlejohn and Phillips regularly.
I'm definately going to complain, although what good it will do given that the PCC is totally inneffective and far from independent (especially when Dacre is on its board).
October 16th, 2009 - 10:11
Surely she can't ACTUALLY think these things…can she?
Horrendous, horrible, disgusting witch.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:20
Well hopefully she didn't add a tear on the tale end of all that jibberish to try and validate her points like Glen Beck…
October 16th, 2009 - 10:34
"So you honestly think they took someone back to their place in the small hours after partying for innocent reasons?
And its nothing to do with being gay, if it was a straight couple and they took someone in for the night I would assume it was for some sexy time."
Would you? Perhaps I'm being naive, but I'd assume nothing of the sort. When I was single, occasionally I would stay over at the houses of couple-friends of mine after a night out, and never did any sex take place (well, not that included me, anyway!)
Not that it matters. What they did or didn't do with their friend behind the closed doors of their holiday home is of absolutely no relevance to Gately's death – and Moir's muck-raking innuendo doesn't change that.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:38
Brilliant, well said.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:39
Oh God. Even here, one of your commenters is speculating about whether or not they brought the other bloke back to their flat for sex. Who fucking cares?? The point is that it's completely, utterly irrelevant, has nothing to do with his cause of death, and we're only discussing it because that twisted fucking witch Moir has brought it up. So what if they had sex with him? I couldn't care less! The point is that Moir instantly assumes (a) that they did, and (b) that therefore this has some bearing on Gately dying of the gay plague known as fluid on the lungs.
Tabloid journalists like to presume that there's 'no smoke without fire'. When, however, there's no smoke either, the dictum can just as easily be reversed – no fire without smoke – that is, no story without a bit of sneering, sick, uninformed innuendo.
It's just column inches, she doesn't even care herself. She just hates gay people and knows that many of her readers do too.
Many years ago the Daily Mail published a personalised racist attack against my mother. This article is even more offensive to me than that one was: at least my mother was able to ring up the Daily Mail and say 'who cares what bloody colour I am?'. Gately's family have to watch as he's attacked by the same paper, knowing that he can't defend himself. Disgusting, cowardly and wrong.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:50
Famemonkey, believe it or not, it does happen. People go back to other peoples houses all the time without the intent of sex.
But does it matter?
Gately wasn't murdered, he didn't die in a freak accident, sex related or not. If they did have a threesome, it probably has less to do with his death than the spliff.
October 16th, 2009 - 10:53
Excellent post, you've managed to say what most people felt about this hideous article. I'm amazed that it doesn't fall foul of the law to be honest….(it is certainly foul)
October 16th, 2009 - 10:55
to famemonkey – I've often gone home with mates after a night out – and have never had sex with them!, it does happen!! Sometimes it's because they live closer to the bar and you want to crash somewhere…
October 16th, 2009 - 10:59
@famemonkey
"So you honestly think they took someone back to their place in the small hours after partying for innocent reasons? "
Well… yes. Nights out I have known, it would be perfectly normal to go "oh bollocks, the bar's closing, tell you what, there's a few bottles at our place and a couple of sleeping bags, shall we pick up a kebab on the way?"
Quite often followed by someone passing out on the sofa.
October 16th, 2009 - 11:00
Appalling Jan Moir.
Imagine:
How obnoxious would it be if, the day after Jan Moir finally pops her clogs, opinion columnists start pontificating about "the dangerous lifestyle" of eating too much and earning too much money for writing shit articles in tabloids?
October 16th, 2009 - 11:05
Just what I wanted to say but couldnt get the words out. It rattles my cage when people like Jan 'Homophobe' Moir come out with all this shit. Makes me sad to think that people judge you by your sexuality. If a man and woman in a bar met another person and took them back to a hotel room no one would moan. Everyone has needs and desires and to blame a death on a spliff and being gay is a shoddy and embarrassing piece of journalism. Actually its not journalism its trash.
October 16th, 2009 - 11:13
@famemonkey Its contextual – the gutter press maintain a constant outraged prurient speculation about what gay people 'get up to in the bedroom' (errr, probably cuddles, reading, sex and sleeping much like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD). That makes comments like hers more vile…that and the underlying implication that if they hadn't invited someone back then SG wouldn't be dead.
If a straight couple had done the same thing, she would be moralistic about it but her opinions wouldn't come with the same baggage.
That's what I think, anyway…
October 16th, 2009 - 11:13
@famemonkey Its contextual – the gutter press maintain a constant outraged prurient speculation about what gay people 'get up to in the bedroom' (errr, probably cuddles, reading, sex and sleeping much like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD). That makes comments like hers more vile…that and the underlying implication that if they hadn't invited someone back then SG wouldn't be dead.
If a straight couple had done the same thing, she would be moralistic about it but her opinions wouldn't come with the same baggage.
That's what I think, anyway…
October 16th, 2009 - 11:18
This is the sort of thing that really should lead to a MASSIVE drop in Daily Mail numbers (oh, but it won't), or a boycott of their advertisers or… please, something that's actually negative.
Because, as it stands, I doubt that this has gone to print without full knowledge of what a nasty little piece of bullying it is.
By publishing these horrid, hateful articles, the Daily Mail is assured a massive press-storm.
Wouldn't it be marvellous if everyone just turned their back on them, like with a naughty puppy and said "No. This is not acceptable. Bad. Think about what you've done."
October 16th, 2009 - 11:18
Have published a post on my own blog that gives details of how to complain to the PCC: http://tinyurl.com/yk97wle
October 16th, 2009 - 11:19
@famemonkey WTF? have you *really* never come back post-pub/club with two friends who happen to be in a relationship with each other to have a few drinks, listen to some music [*], or even have a game of cards, without it turning into a kinky sex session? What aftershave do you use…?
[*] admittedly, even though I'm straight I'd probably still rather have sex with a member of Boyzone than listen to their music.
October 16th, 2009 - 11:29
So what if he took a guy back for sex. So what if he died of drugs and alcohol (even if there seems to be no proof of that). The issue here is that somehow Jan links his death with saying that Civil Partnerships don't work and the idea of happily married gay people is a myth we should never believe in.
October 16th, 2009 - 11:39
Whether you would or not, famemonkey, not everyone would – I certainly wouldn't. Is it out of the question that they'd just go back for a few drinks?
Regardless, you've covered it pretty much spot-on, Anton. There is not a tree in the land tall enough to hang this grave-robbing, contemptuous abortion of a woman from. What really troubles me is that she surely cannot believe that what she wrote is anything other than hurtful, tendentious pish whipped up to make people angry. She wrote that piece KNOWING the reaction it would get, intending that it would get that reaction, before he was even buried. She is, and I've been humming and hawing over the right word, but I fully believe she is a cunt.
October 16th, 2009 - 11:42
fmonkey: I thought that point was that what the three of them may or may not have done that night was as relevant to Gately's death as how their trousers were styled.
October 16th, 2009 - 11:58
Well bloody said!!! Vile disgusting article, hope she feels ashamed. Although, all this hatred the DM will probably promote her now just as they did Liz Jones.
@rachaelblogs
http://www.rachaelblogs.co.uk
October 16th, 2009 - 12:02
Thanks so much for this post. Jan Moir's article is reprehensible, although not unexpected from the DM.
@ famemonkey
"So you honestly think they took someone back to their place in the small hours after partying for innocent reasons?
And its nothing to do with being gay, if it was a straight couple and they took someone in for the night I would assume it was for some sexy time."
I think I agree with the sentiment, but I am not sure what "innocent reasons" is supposed to mean in this context. Whether they played canasta or had sex with him (or both) is totally irrelevant, it's a red herring.
Jan Moir writes: "As a gay rights champion, I am sure he would want to set an example to any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine.
For once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see."
With that she seems to imply that there is culpability, that he has brought on his death himself (or perhaps the husband, or the Bulgarian guy). That's why I am troubled by "innocent reasons", because that seems to play along with that theme.
October 16th, 2009 - 12:11
Yes, all those people my wife and I have offered a bed for the night. WE FUCKED THEM ALL!
Apart from the ones we didn't.
Which is all of them.
(my verification word was "blacrabl" – I can only imagine this would be more appropriate on a BNP story)
October 16th, 2009 - 12:23
Hmm, at a quick skim I reckon it breaches at least the following press Codes of Practice points:
1) Accuracy
5) Intrusion into grief or shock
12) Discrimination
Complain to the PCC here:
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html
October 16th, 2009 - 12:25
Great piece on a shocking and shockingly bad article.
October 16th, 2009 - 12:52
stephen fry sums it up well:
I gather a repulsive nobody writing in a paper no one of any decency would be seen dead with has written something loathesome and inhumane.
but anyway i have complained to the PCC and i have posted my letter onto my blog so if you want to complain as well then please feel free to use my letter if you agree with its sentiments and if you haven't got time to write your own.
http://sianandcrookedrib.blogspot.com/2009/10/jan-moir-and-stephen-gately.html
October 16th, 2009 - 12:57
Brilliant blog post. Well done.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:04
Three cute young men share a joint and some sex play. One dies later.
I am not prepared to condemn this gentle gay swinging which many gay men do do.
And I am sad Stephen Gately died.
But someone needs to stand up and say that Gay liberation is not all about becoming just like straight people.
Some some of us, being gay means a marriage with someone we love, where the loved develops into friendship, and one soul lives in two bodies.
For many of us, being gay means serial monogamy (as with many straight people)
And for many of us, being gay means a mix of many things, one being that we appreciate and celebrate the sheer joy of sexual pleasure, sometimes taking place in groups, and seeing in that a joy of union and fellowship which is it's own justification.
As for me, I wish I were cuter!
October 16th, 2009 - 13:09
Great article. Glad to see Moir's filth getting the backlash it deserves. The Press Complaints Commission should be informed about this bullshit.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:34
you've just been fryed
(great article by the way and well spotted. Reading the thing makes me feel a bit grubby.)
October 16th, 2009 - 13:35
Absolutely hit the nail on the head with your replies to her
She is a nasty vile piece of crap.
x
October 16th, 2009 - 13:36
Surely the dole office beckons now for Moir .. and hopefully Dacre for allowing it to appear
October 16th, 2009 - 13:37
Hi, Could you please ask your readers to make a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission about Jan Moir's vile article? It breaches several of their codes.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:37
FANTASTIC…
October 16th, 2009 - 13:38
Really well put. She will regret this.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:39
People die unexpectedly and it's tragic and there's nothing we can do about it. People buy the Daily Mail, and corporations advertise in it, it's inexplicable and depressing, but surely we can do something about that.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:41
excellent dissection of an insidious, hateful piece of writing (and I use the term 'writing' in the loosest possible sense) that sinks the Daily Mail to a new low.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:42
Lemme get this straight (no pun intended):
Singer and SO are on holiday, pick up someone, go back to the room. Next day, singer is dead.
*shrug*
And what's the ish?
Pardon me for being a clueless Yank, but it doesn't matter how Jay Gately lived. It's a matter of whether he, his SO, and whomever were with 'em were engaged in anything that could make his death a homicide. The minute you Continentals start harping about the fluff like you're Americans, you're gonna lose sight of the facts.
Find out what killed this kid, whether it was simply his genetics or some unfortunate (or possibly caused) issue based on his chemical indulgence of choice. He was gay. OH FUCKING WELL. Get over it.
Now he's a dead gay singer. *shrug* What killed him, is anyone to blame, if not… let his family bury the lad in peace. JEEBUS.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:42
Wonderful writing!
You know, what worries me is how much I am now seeing such spurious guesses repeated in the comments on the DM aricle and elsewhere.
I really hope she tried to make amends somehow.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:43
Jan Moir should get a diet and exercise plan and sort out her hair and make-up. Then she might find some real friends, get some substance and fulfilment in her own life and no longer need to attack other people in this way.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:45
Wonderful post, thank you for expressing what I could not.