A little controversy has been stirred up around the 2012 Stonewall Awards, which are due to be held on Thursday evening. Two of the event’s sponsors – Barclays and Coutts – are threatening to pull out.
The banks are unhappy about the inclusion of a Bigot of the Year award category. This year’s nominees include Cardinal O’Brien, who called same sex marriage a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”, and former councillor Alan Craig, who likened gay rights campaigners to Nazis.
Given the above, it seems a bit odd that Barclays’ diversity chief Mark McLane is upset at Stonewall for labelling people “subjectively and pejoratively”.
One commenter on the above Pink News article puts it very well:-
Corporations want to get in bed with gay rights organisations for the street cred it gives them with a certain demographic, but their PR guys get jittery when they discover that the fight for equal rights isn’t all about shaking hands and cozying up to people.
This is a timely reminder that, far from being settled, gay rights is still a very active issue in the political arena, and sometimes it’s necessary to make a stand and take a side.
If Coutts cave in and drop their support, I’ll have no choice but to cancel my account with them.