Gscene Magazine - December 2020 | WWW.GSCENE.COM

Page 53

Gscene 53 populace to wedge his lying ass into the seat of power. What a foreseeable, avoidable, years, decades in the making from all denominations, mess. Who will save us from the international horrors of our collective doom? Who?

Craig’s Thoughts

This, Mary, is just the beginning... By Craig Hanlon-Smith @craigscontinuum ) And lo it came to pass that so embedded into our collective psyche was the miracle of the Christmas story, that not even the unexpected shenanigans of 2020 could put a stop to the impending arrival of baby Jesus. And so arrive he will to save mankind. I mean humankind of course. Silly me. ‘Man’ is, after all, cancelled. And before anyone gets their knickers or other non-gender specific underwear in a twist, don’t. Cancel culture is, after all, quite selective. We have not, for example, cancelled religious texts such as that on which this festive ditty is about to be based, and in which we witness the rape of 12-year-old girls, public stoning of women and the mass murder of babies. It is also a text that advocates, nay encourages, the practice of homosexuality and I quote: “Jesus said to Simon and Peter (nb: good Middle Eastern names) ‘cast aside your nets, come with me and let us fish for men’.” You can make this nonsense mean whatever you want it to, many do all over the world and most of them are exceedingly dangerous people. So pick your chin up off the floor or stuff a nutmeg flavoured Chupa Chups in the hole until I’ve finished. And cheer up, it’ll soon be Christmas. Our Mary had been having a time of it recently. Some months ago now she had awoken in the early hours to find a nongender specific individual in her room named Gabriel – don’t judge, this was pre-lockdown. Gabriel rabbited on for much of the night about the son of man or some such that we would never dare say now. Mary became so hot and flustered she feared she had contracted coronavirus, but it turns out she was now with child. This means pregnant in today’s language. Had Mary’s condition been discovered by her neighbours she would have been stoned to death in the market. While I’m sure you’ve seen many a stoned Mary at Christmas, that is not what we speak of here. Stoned to death. Amen. Joseph and his Mary were perturbed by much of this and insisted Mary had not yet been known to a man. In today’s language – she

hadn’t had sex with a biological man with a virile penis that works on demand. And don’t give me any diversity fertility clinic or alternative methods nonsense, it’s approx 200BC in Judea and it’s really hot. This Mary’s having a meltdown. Let us not judge our Mary for lying about the penetrative sex that she had clearly been having at least every other Tuesday. We’ve all been to that clinic. And guess what? They know you’re lying. And so they set out on their epic adventure to take part in a now legendary census. They could have saved themselves the 70 miles to Bethlehem on a donkey by using the postal system, but King Herod had spent months discrediting the service and stated repeatedly and without merit that it was not to be trusted. He even demanded that some postal boxes were closed and removed to stop the fraud. Of course, in this green and pleasant land we don’t remove postal boxes, we paint them gold if a local person wins something. Have you ever tried looking for one of these gold post boxes? Don’t. You can’t see them. There’s a reason they were red. And so off they set on their 70 miles. Seventy miles. Is it me, or in primary school did they make out it was so much longer than that? I’m certain Mary was up and down that school hall so many times we had to stick two extra verses on the end of Little Donkey. It’s no further than starting off in Southampton and winding up in Saltdean. It’s not that big a deal. Although best of… looking for wise men on those cliffs. Despite their desperation, Joseph and his Mary could not find suitable lodgings in which to lay their weary heads. It wasn’t so much a matter of ‘no room at the inn’ but that the inns were in lockdown by decree of another erratic honey monster who had managed to hoodwink enough of the

Cue abdominal agony from the fruit of thy womb, Lord Jesus. Technically Mary’s womb but let’s not argue with religion. Furthermore, the only reason this was going to hurt is because Eve ate the apple when God told her not to, so technically it is the fault of woman. These are not my words; they are from the Bible and religious text must be interpreted as a literal instruction or historical fact. See also Father Christmas. Look, let’s cut to the chase – the baby is in the manger, in modern language ‘trough’, and if you never went to that club in London Bridge, trust me it’s grim. This is not the start the angel Gabriel had predicted for baby Jesus, but you know what? Did you predict any of this when you were crawling on your hands and knees nursing a cheap prosecco hangover on January 1? No. That’s life. Jesus will cope, after all he’s about to get his very own musical and how many of you can say that about your lives? Picture the scene. The stable is empty bar a few pigs, sheep and chickens. There may be a horse and don’t forget the donkey but that’s knackered and is about to be shot. It feels like the UK will after a no/poor-deal Brexit on December 31 and anyone who hasn’t left doesn’t want to be here anyway, even Mary was dragged into that stable screaming. It’s horrid. The host of angels might as well not bother proclaiming any of it as they’re wearing facemasks and we can’t hear what they’re saying. Not to mention the socially distanced shepherds who are arguing over who can or can’t visit baby Jesus, and whether or not the rule of six applies in Bethlehem and is that different in Jerusalem? And will King Herod’s advisor be able to do what the trucking nora he wants despite a total lack of clarity he himself penned? Imagine Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (good traditional Middle Eastern names) having to write all that down. And as the close of another fine year approaches, should you find yourself despairing at the rise of the dogmatic sociopathic leader stamping his insistent foot like a troubled child who should know better, fear not. This is familiar territory. In response to the birth of baby Jesus, King Herod demanded that his soldiers kill all of the babies. Imagine that. “Go out and kill all of the babies.” This, Mary, is just the beginning. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

“What a foreseeable, avoidable, years, decades in the making from all denominations, mess. Who will save us from the international horrors of our collective doom? Who?”


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The Ledward Centre, Brighton's first LGBTQ+ community centre, close to opening

4min
page 3

LAURIE'S ALLOTMENT by Laurie Lavender

2min
page 57

SCENE & DONE IT by Michael Steinhage

2min
page 56

HYDES' HOPES by Rev Michael Hydes

3min
page 56

RAE'S REFLECTIONS by Rachel Badham

5min
page 55

STUFF & THINGS by Jon Taylor

2min
page 54

GOLDEN HOUR by Billie Gold

2min
page 54

CRAIG'S THOUGHTS by Craig Hanlon-Smith

5min
page 53

GAY SOCRATES

2min
page 52

WALL'S WORDS by Roger Wheeler

2min
page 52

Joining MindOut's peer support services

4min
page 51

TWISTED GILDED GHETTO by Eric Page

3min
page 50

JAQ ON THE BOX with Jaq Bayles

4min
page 50

SHOPPING with Michael Hootman

3min
page 49

CHARITY SHOPPING

1min
page 48

ALL THAT JAZZ by Simon Adams

2min
page 47

ART MATTERS by Enzo Marra

2min
page 47

CLASSICAL NOTES BY NICK BOSTON

5min
page 46

(A)sex(ual) education: the need for an ace-inclusive curriculum

5min
page 35

Ian Elmslie:Literary Life,  Cabaret & Lockdown

4min
page 45

PAGE'S PAGES - Book Reviews by Eric Page

6min
pages 42-43

Wear your mask with Pride!

2min
page 38

Historical Holidays & Gay Getaways

7min
pages 30-31

ARXX and answered

4min
page 44

My Kinda Christmas

3min
page 23

Rainbow Chorus sends message of solidarity to mark TDoR

1min
page 15

OBITUARY: Jan Morris: 02/10/1926-20/11/2020

2min
page 15

TDoR marked in Brighton & Hove

1min
page 15

Sussex Police say domestic abuse still a priority during Covid-19

2min
page 13

Queer in Brighton LGBTQ+ History Club

1min
page 12

THT launches HIV remembrance hub

1min
page 12

Rainbow Chorus announce exciting Xmas plans

1min
page 12

Allsorts of Wellbeing podcast

1min
page 12

New wall art with a punk twist on St James's Street

1min
page 12

Covert: a new literary magazine showcasing Black, Asian and ethnically diverse writers and artists

1min
page 12

English gov axes anti-bullying project

3min
page 11

Sam Thomas launches #SeeTheBiggerPicture petition

1min
page 10

Galop launches guide for LGBTQ+ survivors of domestic abuse

1min
page 10

LGBTQ+ bar owners to donate Xmas gifts to families

1min
page 10

OBITUARY: Ian Allsup-Burge: 21/06/1970 - 26/10/2020

1min
page 10

Brighton Bear merch for Brighton `Rainbow Fund

2min
page 9

Last orders at much-loved LGBTQ+ bar

1min
page 9

Older life care for LGBTQ+ gets national attention

3min
page 8

#DoTheTimeWarp for the Sussex Beacon!

1min
page 7

Accessing PrEP in Brighton & Hove

2min
page 7

Marking WAD in Brighton & Hove

2min
page 6

Creative Christina raises over £350 for Sussex Beacon

1min
page 5

Keep Switchboard switched on!

1min
page 5

New bus carries tribute to James Ledward

1min
page 4

Early responses to LGBTQ+ Community Input Survey

3min
page 4

The Ledward Centre close to opening

4min
page 3

ARXX and answered

1hr
pages 44-59

A Matter of Identity

6min
pages 40-41

Leave It All Behind

7min
pages 24-27

Amazing Amazin

4min
page 39

Spice Up YOUR Life

4min
pages 28-29

A Safer Haven?

4min
page 34

Meet the Team

12min
pages 18-21

Picture This

2min
page 17

Hello Sailor!

3min
pages 22-23

A Light in the Dark

4min
page 16
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