Our new columnist Bernard Moffatt is well known for his work in the trade union and Manx nationalist movements. He pulls no punches in his views about Manx life.
Recently Chief Minister Allan Bell announced that he would look at introducing legislation to legalise same sex marriage.
As usual, the Isle of Man finds itself ‘in the back of the bus’ on the issue, with such curious bedfellows as the government of Northern Ireland. Now there’s an indictment!
The Chief Minister is to consult the Bishop.
Well, that’s only right. After all the Church took such a leading role when the Isle of Man was dragged screaming and kicking, via the court of public opinion, and legalised homosexuality.
Yes, the Church was so far out in front they were invisible.
The events of the early 1990s in the Isle of Man, when gay rights and human rights were to the fore, were a sad indictment of this community.
Gay people were persecuted mercilessly, driven to extremes. Reputedly one individual took his life.
The State stood by and indeed the institutions of the State, like the police, joined in.
Yes, the cops were like a latter day ‘Stasi’, staking out public toilets.
These days when the Chief Minister makes a statement, such as he has, no-one, with the exception of perhaps a few amongst the radical fundamentalist religious brigade lift an eyebrow.
This is a community at peace with itself. Gays and lesbians are accepted.
Human rights are respected. The birch has gone. Hanging has gone.
The Right of Individual Petition (shamefully taken away from Manx people by their own government in the 1970s) has been restored.
But scratch the surface and you will find that old prejudices have been replaced by newer versions.
We live in the internet age. Everyone is connected. People ‘hang out’ on Facebook or tweet to each other, social media forums abound. It’s the era of free speech!
However, mind you don’t speak too freely and be careful of what you say. Because if you do challenge the accepted norms, if for example instead of saying ‘TT Good’ you say ‘TT Bad’, or if your idea of fun is not running around in military fatigues or indulging other ‘saddos’ who get their kicks that way, you will pretty soon find an internet lynch mob on hand.
Hidden in their anonymity and secure behind their keyboard they coalesce with similar ‘internet pond life’ and launch the attack.
Their vitriol knows no bounds although in many instances it descends into incoherence.
Occasionally, and bizarrely, sometimes these keyboard warriors, when they find themselves on the receiving end, cry foul.
Recently I was astonished, being a great believer in free speech, to see that a prominent Manx Facebook news site which can be acerbic, but which is always factual, was suspended for a number of days because of complaints.
This then IS NOT a community at peace with itself at all.
The old prejudices are still there, the same intolerance exists. It just manifests itself in a different form.
Persecution of gay people, the birching of children the desire to retain hanging, the support of government moves to deny petitions under the ECHR, were all sustained by a silent hidden element of society.
The same petty vindictiveness is still amongst us.
A hidden element are still here, albeit a new generation of bigots clicking away at their keyboards and hoping against hope no one will discover there identity.
Don’t worry! If anyone ‘finds out’ your identity and his ‘horrible’ to you can report them to Facebook!