Do gay people have no sense of humour or an ability to laugh at themselves ?

If you're gay and offended fair do's, demand an apology, i support that.

If you're straight and offended just love off and stop being trendy and PC and be offended just for the sake of looking like you're in the inclusive and having the 'hey look i'm better than you i don't live in the dark ages i'm a modern man' attitude
In fact i'm more offended by people telling me what i can and can't say.

I'm more than sure his intention wasn't to offend anyone in the gay community, it's just a small lack of awareness at worst.

I have gay friends tell me gay jokes, should i report them for being homophobic ?
My best friend is black and i hear some great 'black' jokes that are funny, is he a racist ?
Humour and sarcasm are subjective, like Leyther Matt said it's not as if he's going out to physically hurt anyone.

Racism and homophobia are about INTENT not some off the cuff thoughtless attempt at humour on twitter

Perspective people!

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... -slur.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... -slur.html

Brown is clearly not the brightest star in the sky but do we really want to see him go through the trauma of breaking down in a press conference, losing sponsorship deals and having the fearsome Ian Roberts on his case..?

Chuffing heck, if he'd put 'as happy as a Yorkshireman in a woolshop' or something this thread would have lasted about 3 posts, nae, it never would have even been mentioned.

If you're so offended stop following him on twitter then. END OF. Either that or grow thicker skins.

Is it wrong to laugh at the wrestling picture at the bottom of that report? You've got to love the irony considering the subject of the news report.

I sank my fork into a couple of faggots yesterday. Can't say I enjoyed them much.


Can I say that?

My two-pennies worth:

The joke made me laugh. And I'll probably use it. But Kevin Brown is an idiot.
Kevin Brown is a public figure. I am not. He gets paid lots of money to be a role model and a face for the sport in Huddersfield (and now he's an England player, nationally). It's not meant to offend. He wasn't being homophobic. But he was being extremely unprofessional. He can make comments like that in his private life, but to do it on one of the most public areas of all is plain stupidity. He wouldn't say something like that in a press conference, would he? I wouldn't say that at work (work in a school). It's dumb.

And to add to the matters, the RFL have set a precedent about homophobic behaviour (not necessarily about its presence, but about how clubs handle it). It's not a major thing he's done, but he (and the club) need to show that they aren't allowing this sort of thing to happen (in public). That's professional sport for you.

There are a few "oh, it wasn't bad, stop being PC" amongst us, and I tend to agree with a lot of what they say. But there's a line, and when you're in this line of work, everything you say can potentially harm you and your business. This is definitely one of them. For all we know, a sponsor could have seen that (however big or small) and pulled out, totally on the quiet. So yes, it is necessary to monitor your own behaviour. Especially in this industry.

Exactly Wellsy.

Like it or not, Kevin Brown, as a rugby league player, represents the game of rugby league. When he expresses homophopbia (through lack of sensitivity rather than malice i think it can be agreed in this case) he expresses it not as an individual but as a representative of RL.

The RFL have a duty to make sure that Browns attitude isnt indicative of the game.

Then you thought wrong. He's more than just a rugby player. If that was the case, then off-field issues wouldn't matter. No professional sports person is just a performer.


Why does it matter if your a manager to three staff or not? If people know where you work, and these people are potential customers/investors, and you act like an idiot, then does it affect your business? Would your employers be happy? Whether you think it's right or wrong is irrelevant. There ARE people that think that this kind of behaviour is wrong, and if it's the people you are trying to do business with then it's stupid. The behaviour wouldn't stop me watching him as a player, but it does bother me because there are people that it will bother as it will affect our business. It's called being professional.


Exactly. Even though I did find it funny. He (and I) are not homophobes. It's a light hearted joke. So are a lot of the racist/sexist/ageist/etc. jokes you hear and laugh at. But you shouldn't say them in public to people you don't know that are potential customers when you are in "uniform" (which he always will be as he's a public figure).


There's a difference between the people that think it's not appropriate to say these things at certain times (like myself) and the people that think it's not acceptable full stop (the PC brigade). You'll also get the PC brigade having a pop at my view-point on this saying that I'm bad because I found it funny. It's not black and white. You're not PC or anti-PC. There's a grey bit in the middle. There are boundaries, and people need to know what they are if they like this kind of humour. The "anti-PC brigade" are just as bad as the PC brigade IMO.

It's not all of one or none of one. There's a time and a place.

I sense a tongue in cheek remark but yeah, as an example only, people from Yorkshire get quips about them on here most days and if you tell people you're from there someone will have some gag about it. All absolutely throw away remarks that no one cares about and no one in their right mind could be offended by, but that's the same as this remark and gag Kevin Brown made.

I'm not suggesting that being gay/coming out etc and the attitude some have isn't worse than being from Yorkshire, obviously. But these types of things happen all day and everyday all over and are just little jokes which shouldn't offend anyone, and if it does, let them stick up for themselves.

Kevin Brown's done nothing wrong. He told a joke. Telling jokes is hardly setting a bad example.

No offence, but that's rubbish.

Some remarks are more offensive than others. It's not a case of "this is offensive, this isn't offensive". Some offend a few, some offend none, some offend some but not others, etc. If you think saying that someone from Yorkshire likes to buy wool is as offensive as basically saying that "puffs" are happy to stick anything up their *rse then you're being a bit daft. Brown won't have meant it maliciously in the slightest, don't get me wrong. But not everyone sees it that way, and it can harm the image of the game and our custom.

You don't always hear people's complaints, and some people aren't always in a position to stick up for themselves, so that's not really an appropriate response either. What if he'd have said a joke about severely disabled people?

It's not a massive deal. But it does need addressing. Especially after the RFL have made a deal about homophobia already. It just needs a a warning IMO.