Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn attacks Tom Daley, gay parents: ‘Pass the sick bag’
Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn has hit out at same-sex parents after Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black announced they are expecting a baby.
Daley, 23, revealed this week that his expecting a baby with his Oscar-winning husband Dustin Lance Black, 43.
It is believed that the pair are having the child via surrogate, posting a selfie with an ultrasound scan.
The high-profile gay couple’s decision to start a family has led to a tidal wave of homophobic comments – not least from the Daily Mail’s reliable anti-LGBT columnist Richard Littlejohn.
Littlejohn published a column today insisting that gay parenting is “not normal”, including the line “pass the sick bag”.
He wrote: “Before the usual suspects start bouncing up and down, squealing ‘homophobia’, don’t bother.”
(You’re not the boss of us, Richard.)
He continued: “Despite the fact that countless single parents do a fantastic job, I still cling to the belief that children benefit most from being brought up by a man and a woman.
“Which is precisely what worries me most about the Daley publicity stunt. Here we have two men drawing attention to the fact that ‘they’ are having a baby.
“But where’s the mum, the possessor of the womb which features in this photograph? She appears to have been written out of the script entirely.”
It is likely that the pair’s surrogate has chosen anonymity because of nasty tabloid intrusion, well, this.
The columnist proceeded to claim the announcement made him want to vomit.
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He wrote: “What makes diver Tom Daley and his husband think we want to look at the ultrasound of their yet-to-be-born baby?
“For a start, one foetus looks pretty much like all the others, just as all babies look like Winston Churchill.
“Yet there they were this week, all over the newspapers and on social media, posing proudly with the grainy image taken inside a womb. Daley posted it on Instagram on Valentine’s Day, complete with emojis of two men, a child and love hearts.
“As John Junor, late of this parish, used to remark: Pass the sick bag, Alice.”
He added: “What I also find slightly disconcerting is that this story was reported virtually everywhere without so much as a raised eyebrow, as if it would be impolite even to ask any questions about the parentage.
“For instance, is Daley or his husband the father? Was it Bill, or was it Ben? Or neither of them? More pertinently, never mind Who’s The Daddy? Who’s The Mummy?
“Which brings me to the Number One ‘Oi, Doris!’ news story of the week, headlined: ‘Woman born a man is first to breastfeed’.”
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Littlejohn then linked the pair to another story about a transgender woman breastfeeding.
He ‘joked’: “Still, I’m looking forward to the photos of Tom Daley breastfeeding his new baby.”
The columnist very much has form when it comes to harassing LGBT people.
In 2012, Littlejohn wrote a column for the Mail ‘outing’ a transgender school teacher, Lucy Meadows, insisting that trans people should not be permitted in classrooms.
Meadows – who complained to the press watchdog about Littlejohn’s column – took her own life just months later.
The coroner in the case was critical of the press coverage of Meadows, though he was later rebuked by the Office for Judicial Complaints after a legal complaint was lodged.
Littlejohn last year published smears aimed at a serving military officer.
He took aim at the Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces, Rear Admiral Alex J. Burton, when he criticised Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops.
Transgender people have served in the UK armed forces for years, but Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn wrote a 1500-word piece attacking Burton, peppered with old-school homophobic jibes.
He wrote: “Rear Admiral Burton’s official photograph makes him look like one of those gay Dutch policemen played by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.
“Sorry, but I couldn’t help thinking of Julian and Sandy, the alter egos of Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick in Round The Horne. ‘Oooo, ’ello, I’m Julian and this is my friend Rear Admiral Burton. Isn’t he bona?’
“Hello, sailor. Or was that The Navy Lark?”
He laments: “These days, the military takes diversity so seriously that even Dick Emery’s camp character, Clarence — catchphrase ‘Hello, Honky Tonks’ — would have no difficulty signing up.”
In one of the most disgusting homophobic smears in the piece, Littlejohn appears to allude to the homophobic slur ‘pillow biter’, quipping: “There’s also mention of a boat called ‘HMS Biter’.”
Attacking the approach to LGBT diversity within the Armed Forces, Littlejohn claims: “It’s nobody’s business. We didn’t ask the soldiers at Dunkirk how many of them were wearing silk cami-knickers under their khakis.”
Barton, incidentally, has two children with his wife, according to his official MoD profile.
