What’s in the name The Straight Choice
We’ve chosen the name The Straight Choice in memory of the infamous campaign leaflet used during the 1983 Bermondsey by-election in a contest between Simon Hughes, standing for the Liberal Party, and Peter Tatchell — the gay rights campaigner — standing for the Labour Party.
The Wikipedia article about the by-election is highly recommended because it gives an idea of just what a different political era it is now from what it was then 25 years ago — partly due to the hard work of people like Peter Tatchell.
From a 2006 article by Andrew Grice in The Independent:
After Mr Hughes resolved to say nothing about his own sexuality, his party issued a leaflet entitled “The Straight Choice”. Mr Tatchell said: “Some of their male canvassers went around the constituency wearing lapel stickers emblazoned with the words ‘I’ve been kissed by Peter Tatchell’, in a blatant bid to win the homophobic vote.
“On the doorsteps, they spread false rumours that I was chair of the local gay society; no such society existed.”
Mr Tatchell said one Liberal member admitted to him that the party was behind the anonymous and illegal campaign leaflet “Which Queen Will You Vote For?”, which ridiculed his sexuality and “invited local voters to have a go at me by listing my home address and phone number”.
Mr Tatchell, now a member of the Green Party, said it was “ironic” that Mr Hughes had admitted he was gay. He received “information” to that effect at the time of the by-election but Labour took a decision not to retaliate.
In 1993 Peter Tatchell wrote:
I was deluged with thousands of abusive telephone calls and hate letters, more than 30 death threats, and over a hundred violent assaults. My flat had to be boarded up against threatened gun and arson attacks. I lived in permanent fear of my life. Indeed, police officers later told me that I was lucky not to have been seriously injured or even killed.
There are dangerous forces out there in society. All politicians are tempted to play with fire when they scent victory. Like any human being, they can be caught up in the madness and do things that go against everything they stand for — if that’s what it takes to win.
Electioneering is a high-stakes game.
We, at The Straight Choice, believe that it’s time for this game to become a spectator sport.
Er, surely the leaflet reads “a straight choice” i.e. between two leading contenders, rather than “the straight choice” i.e. one ['our'] candidate is straight, the other is …..
This is not in any way to excuse or condone anything else which may (or may not) have gone on during that byelection, but to identify some sort of homophobia in the use of “a straight choice” as an election campaigning slogan seems to be a tad flimsy?
Cough cough.
You seem to have fallen for Labour propaganda missed the difference between ‘a straight choice’ – which is still routinely used by all political parties as a way to frame a political choice, rather than ‘the straight voice’, which has rather different implications.
The very leaflet you quote on this page actually says ‘a straight choice’ – it’s only the media misreporting it as ‘the straight choice’.
‘A straight choice’ – as seen in this leaflet – has recently been used by MPs such as Michael Howard:
http://www.libdemvoice.org/why-isnt-alan-duncan-mp-calling-for-michael-howard-to-be-expelled-1100.html
http://www.libdemvoice.org/paging-mr-duncan-paging-mr-duncan-another-expulsion-demand-is-required-1101.html
Incidentally you’ll also find that much of the local Labour party in the Bermondsey campaign were campaigning for an independent Labour candidate – and it was from them that a lot of the bile came.
“It’s a Straight Choice” has been a campaigning slogan for decades, this was just Tatchell throwing his toys out of the pram.
“We’ve chosen the name The Straight Choice in memory of the infamous campaign leaflet…”
But that leaflet carries no such phrase. There is a big difference between “A straight choice” and “The straight choice”.
So why choose to title this blog after something that isn’t on the leaflet?
The clue is the word “memory” — which is something that may or may not be contradicted by the hard evidence.
I think, however, that trying to protest that this only-preserved leaflet is a fair representation of what happened in the by-election, and then explaining how benign it seems to be will get you nowhere. There are reports of other ephemora — which we unfortunately don’t have — that would settle the issue.
Whatever. It’s a famous slogan, like “Play it again Sam”, or “Crisis? What crisis?”, that’s more poetic than the real thing. At least the contradiction is right there to see.
Any suggestions for a better name?
I think you’re missing the point: the line “A Straight Choice” has an entirely different meaning in this context. There is absolutely no way Hughes et al were not aware of its connotations.
I agree that there’s a big difference between “A” straight choice, and “The” straight choice, but come on! The line is in bold, with the words “STRAIGHT CHOICE” capitalised! Firstly, it’s a positively terrible slogan if it DOESN’T carry with it homophobic connotations, and secondly, people are directed towards two words in the entire pamphlet: “STRAIGHT CHOICE”. That’s the largest part of the pamphlet’s text, which the reader is immediately directed to: the preceding words which form the sentence are not read.