Right Wing protesters rally against a non-existent drag event

[T_i_B]

Yet more absolute stupidity from far right "culture warriors". Really not sure what they think they are achieving with this nonsense.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64913587

Protesters stood outside an empty pub on Friday morning to rally against a non-existent drag event.

Turning Point UK had organised a demonstration at The Great Exhibition pub in East Dulwich for 11:00 GMT.

A counter protest was organised by Stand up to Racism South London, with local people and pro LGBT+ activists meeting at 10:00 GMT.

The protest was organised in response to an out of date event listing on the pub's website.

A spokesperson for CLIP, which hosted a Drag Storytime event at the venue in July 2022, told BBC London that the venue's website was still showing the event as running monthly because the listings had not been updated.
A spokesperson for The Great Exhibition pub confirmed that there had never been a Drag Storytime event booked for today.

[louis-t]

1. Once again, MAGA solves a problem that doesn't exist.

They're batting 1,000.

[T_i_B]

2. I'm waiting for the anti-trans obsessives to go after Pantomime

It's only a matter of time before their anti-drag campaign extends to Pantomime Dames. And I don't see how they can ban drag queen story time without banning panto.

[kimbutgar]

3. Is this the same turning point organization we have in the US!

If so, sick that they spread their hate to other countries.

[T_i_B]

4. Yep

They did a lot of negative advertising against Jeremy Corbyn on Facebook during the last general election.

Supposed to be a youth movement, but it seems like their protests against drag queens are very middle aged and vastly outnumbered by counter protesters, who are generally much younger.

Oh, and they don't like it when their actions have real world consequences either. This from one of their ringleaders.

Link to tweet

?t=u7V4OgqaVn9XQKygEERYQw&s=19

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Oh, it's the guy and church everyone is taking the piss out of, in Private Eye

He has a programme on GB News, in which he spreads antivax views, and general bigotry (pro-Enoch Powell, despite having mixed heritage).

Robinson undertook a two year course of theological studies at St Stephen's House, Oxford from 2020 to 2022, with the hope of being ordained deacon in the Church of England. However, he failed to be appointed to a curacy within the Diocese of London and so was not ordained deacon in the Church of England.[25]

Robinson subsequently submitted a subject access request to the Church to understand the decision. This revealed email conversations between Jonathan Baker, the Bishop of Fulham, and Rob Wickham, the Bishop of Edmonton, raising concerns about Robinson's "libertarian anti-woke, anti-identity politics, Covid-skeptical" political views and his use of social media, particularly Twitter, to disseminate them. The Diocese of London later issued a statement highlighting the "limited number of curacies available", emphasised that vacancies were carefully "considered on a case-by-case basis" and that "in this instance, it is felt that there is no suitable" curacy available that the diocese could offer.[25]

The decision to deny ordination to Robinson attracted criticism from conservative elements of the media, and within the Church, notably Angela Tilby, the canon emerita of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.[26] Robinson described it as a "very narrow minded" decision that was a result of his “anti-woke” views and criticism of “bleeding-heart liberal vicars”.[25]

Robinson left the Church of England for the Free Church of England where he was ordained as a deacon on 25 June 2022 by Bishop Paul Hunt, and appointed Minister-in-Charge at Christ Church, Harlesden.[1] The Free Church of England is a member the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans network of conservative episcopal churches.[27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Robinson

So basically, everyone in the CofE thought he is a wanker who they don't want to work with. Understandable. The punchline in Private Eye is that the "Free Church of England" website has, as a background to "About Our Church", a picture of a grand interior of a Victorian Gothic building, implying that's them. It is in fact the Natural History Museum, and their church actually looks like a council storage building: https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x487611bedd75d4f9%3A0x64fcdac41dad5a2c!3m1!7e115!4s%2Fmaps%2Fplace%2F%2522free%2Bchurch%2Bof%2Bengland%2522%2B%2B%2522harlesden%2522%2F%4051.5390511%2C-0.2542714%2C3a%2C75y%2C220.93h%2C90t%2Fdata%3D*213m4*211e1*213m2*211s8jC541bFecOUuDS4RyBQ7Q*212e0*214m2*213m1*211s0x487611bedd75d4f9%3A0x64fcdac41dad5a2c%3Fsa%3DX!5s%22free%20church%20of%20england%22%20%20%22harlesden%22%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e2!2s8jC541bFecOUuDS4RyBQ7Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQuPPsreH9AhVeVaQEHca-DM0Qpx96BQiEARAF

[T_i_B]

6. Personally I have no issue with post WWII churches...

But then I'm quite "low church" myself, and Mr Robinson does seem to hanker after bigger, older and grander premises. How else can you explain such a bizarre thing to do on a church website?

An even dafter thing is this. Were it not for him and his repellent politics, would I have found out that his denomination has a church in a village nearby where I live? Although the Free Church of England seems to be sharing those premises with a Pentecostal church, who appear to be much more active and would probably appeal more to Mr Robinson's target audience of theological conservatives..

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I wonder if it was the GAFCON connection of the Free Church that attracted him

He'd like to have the establishment influence and respect the CofE gets. GAFCON sees itself as the "true" Anglican church, just unaccountably not in charge right now; once they've persuaded people to see the error of uppity women priests, any form of LGBT tolerance, etc., then they can get back to the good old days of the 1950s or so.