Holding up 1 gay referee as an example would have the opposite effect you are claiming. The law is smarter than tokenism.

I think child isn't our best ref. I don't think he is in our top 2 or 3. But we can't have thaler Bentham and silverwood every single week. I think child is as good as the rest and has far more experience. I in no way whatsoever see his appointment as out of whack with the rest of the appointments.

yeah wit. Because rhino Phil didn't bring his sexuality in to it.

It's not though is it. It MIGHT not have a baring but for you to say it's definitely not a possibility that someone's sexuality/race/religion/gender can't possibly come into people's thinking (even sub-consciously whether bad OR good intentions) in the work place is the ludicrous idea.

So no problem with positive discrimination in this case?

Don't be a coward. At least have the strength to stand by what you said. Don't now hide behind indefinite articles as if you were only ever highlighting a hypothetical possibility. Don't pretend now that this is a discussion on whether such a thing is hypothetically possible. There is no ambiguity in what you said. No nuance. Don't try and weasel out of it now. Have the strength to either own your words or admit you were wrong and retract them.

Then I shall add disagreeing about Childs credibility as a ref to the list of other subjects I inherently disagree with your stand on; your standpoint of what is/isn't discrimination, wether positive discrimination exists in the workplace, and whether questioning if it does exist from a sexual preference perspective is homophobic....

Child is nowhere near 'as good as the rest' - he ruins games, has no rapport with players and has no respect from the players - all regardless of his sexuality..... The only question is whether there is potential that the RFL may be aware of and take into account his sexuality (and potential accusations or reprocutions) when managing his performance.... It's not homophobic to wonder if that is a factor.

The question on Child is simple is he one of the best 6 refs in the country - yes he is. So his getting a SL game every round has nothing to do with positive discrimination it is a simple numbers exercise. Gotcha and others might think he is rubbish but then the same people think Silverwood is rubbish or biased - as I said before Thaler can't ref every game.

Positive discrimination is not illegal in this country the justification just needs to laid out and transparent. A recent example was the Labour candidates to represent Halifax in the last general election were all female as only females could apply. This was all above board as labour were seeking to increase women in parliament to better represent the general population demographic.

It may not be homophobic, but IMO it's idiotic.

The idea that Jon Sharp and his predecessors sat around in a room somewhere and said "let's give James a TV game this week, never hurts to have a gay on the TV" is beyond laughable. Much as the RFL is run like the inmates have taken over the asylum at times, I don't think it's got to that level quite yet.

And that's the assertion that started off this whole shooting match, which the deliverer of is now trying to squirm out of no matter how many times it's quoted back to him.

If you're going to make that kind of allegation, either own it or retract it.

No its not but to suggest Hardaker's comments towards Child were OK because either Child is a rubbish ref or he has been positively discriminated against is nonsense. In any civilised society that kind of behaviour should not be tolerated - it is no different to a racial slur against Watkins or JJB. Perhaps you think it would be OK to racially abuse these players perhaps as Printer suggests society has become too PC? The fact that Gotcha and others think that it is OK because Hardaker is his pet favourite and Child happens not be his favourite referee shows that life-style prejudice is alive and kicking in West Yorkshire

I think you've failed to grasp that while someone's sexuality is (in this case) of clear significance to you, it isn't necessarily so for others. I'd often thought Child a crap ref but I'd completely forgotten he's gay - until you reminded me.

What is it with your obsession with Harkaker. We have had many pages here discussing Child, and you lump in about Hardaker, trying to rewrite history to suit your own agenda and bringing me into it.

Hardaker made no comment to Child, backed up by the player aimed at, and not dealt with by the referee in question. Hardaker is not relevant to the discussion on this thread. Why put crazy agendas out there? we already have one looney on this thread.

That's because whether he is gay or not shouldn't matter to anyone based on him having a bad game. However, questioning why he consistently is providing poor performances and not being dealt with, is a completely different scenario altogether. One where it is only right to question the reasons behind it not being dealt with.

The thing is his sexuality isn't significant to me, that's just lazy thinking and what leads to the likes of Smokey screaming homophobe at people. You can actually have a view on a homosexual issue without it meaning you have some homophobic issue.

And you can flip your statement around, just because you and Smokey and Andy Gilder etc. don't have an see his homosexuality when you look at him......it doesn't mean that his employers don't. Those on the other side of the argument are saying his employers wouldn't do that just because they themselves personally wouldn't do that.

I haven't altered anything. I still think it's a possibility, I never claimed it was fact.

The rfl aren't using his sexuality. I'm not using his sexuality. Clearwing Sal nor Andy Gilder are using his sexuality.

The only two people who want to link his position and his sexuality are the two people denigrating and demeaning him. You and Gotcha.

And again don't hide behind indefinite articles to weasel put of what you said. Which wasn't the hypothetical possibility of his employers justifying his selection because of his sexuality. It was