Tim Macavoy's "Brit Bits:" Stonewall UK on Gay Representation, Will Young Speaks Out and More!

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson who was nominated for Stonewall's Bigot of the Year award in 2007 for refusing to apologize for derogatory gay jibes he uttered on his primetime TV show, has done it again. An exchange with former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, which was cut from the broadcast version of the show, has come to light after Campbell blogged about the experience.

Jeremy Clarkson

"I cannot remember how the subject of homosexuality came up, but I said at one point that he wasn't very sound on gay rights … Oh yes I am, he said, adding, to more laughter from the largely adoring crowd 'I demand the right not to be bummed.'

"I had the immediate thought that this was unlikely to be broadcast at 8 PM on a Sunday, with "Songs of Praise" still ringing in some ears, but nonetheless chipped in that I suspected he was worried that he might like it. He seemed to enjoy that, and recalled his public school education, though without any detail."

Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill told the Daily Star: “Surely the reason Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t want to get bummed is that he needs somewhere to speak out of.”

Summerskill has been busy, because meanwhile, Stonewall has been conducting its own review into GLBT representation across the main UK TV channels. A survey conducted for the gay equality charity monitored more than 120 hours of programmes watched by the young.

It found gay people were mainly portrayed as promiscuous, predatory, or figures of fun. The report, called "Unseen on Screen," says ordinary gay people are almost invisible on the 20 programs most watched by younger viewers. It says just 46 minutes out of 126 hours' output showed gay people positively and realistically.

Said the Stonewall Chief Executive: ‘Of course it’s welcome that some of the most obnoxious unpleasantness of people such as Jeremy Clarkson is now being edited out before transmission. However, it’s hardly surprising that there’s still almost endemic homophobic bullying in Britain’s secondary schools when, even if gay people do appear on TV shows watched by young people, they’re depicted in a derogatory or demeaning way. It’s tragic that in 2010 broadcasters are still underserving young people in this way, particularly when young people themselves say they want to see real gay people’s lives on TV.’

Seventy one per cent of secondary school teachers polled by YouGov (Teacher’s Report, 2009) said that anti-gay language in the broadcast media affects the levels of homophobic bullying in schools.

Almost as if they were pre-empting the report, long running BBC sitcom My Family outed its youngest family member Michael (Gabriel Thomson) in an episode called "The Son'll Come Out."

In a plot that could really only have been pulled off in a cheesy family sitcom that needs an injection of new characters, Michael gets drunk, comes out to his dad, goes through not being accepted, then accepted, changing his outlook on life, then inviting his new boyfriend to come and live in the Harper family abode after the father Ben, outed his son’s new boyfriend Scott (Nathan Brine) to his own father while giving him a dental procedure.

Ben, Scott and Michael

Um, right. At least they're cute.