Minister criticises broadcasters' 'gay slurs'

A government minister has criticised broadcasters' acceptance of homophobic language.

Minister Kevin Brennan, a former teacher, who was speaking at Stonewall's 'Education for All' conference earlier this week, said that use of words like 'gay' and 'poof' on radio and TV are unacceptable.

"Just as it took several years for racial equality laws to feed into real culture change where racist language became unacceptable – so now we need to achieve the same with homophobic language. Just one example is the casual use of homophobic language by mainstream radio DJs," Brennan said.

Last year the BBC defended Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles for using the word 'gay' on his show. BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson was also reprimanded for using rhyming slag to call a car 'queer' and presenter Patrick Kielty was told off for calling a reality show contestant a 'gayer.'

Channel 4 is currently in the spotlight for the use of the word 'poof' by contestants in this series of Big Brother.

"This is too often seen as harmless banter instead of the offensive insult that it really represents. To ignore this problem is to collude in it. The blind eye to casual name-calling, looking the other way because it is the easy option, is simply intolerable," Brennan added.

New guidance for schools on tackling all bullying, including gay abuse, will be published in September. Brennan went on to say: "We need to create a culture where homophobic bullying is as unthinkable as racist bullying."