Maybe he should have said “nay” instead:
An ex-Balliol student fined by police for calling a horse ‘gay’ has been summoned to Oxford (in Great Britain) magistrates court after refusing to pay his fine. Sam Brown, who graduated last summer, was arrested in May this year after a drunken conversation with a pair of mounted policemen on Cornmarket Street. He will appear before magistrates on 16th December.
As reported in The Oxford Student last term, Brown had just left the Cellar Bar when he allegedly called out to the policemen “Mate, you know your horse is gay, I hope you don’t have a problem with that.� Warned by one officer not to repeat his comment, Brown reassured him that he was not insulting both horses, and said: “No, don’t worry. Your horse is fine, it’s his horse, his horse is gay.� He then proceeded to follow the policemen down the street, repeating his comments.
“Sam was adamant his equine gaydar was accurate,� eyewitness Daniel Cooper told The Oxford Student at the time. However, the officers considered the comments to be a breach of the Public Order Act, and took him into custody, calling on two squad cars and six policemen to make the arrest.
Why not? Call a horse a name and you require lots of security to arrest the violater. (This never would have happened if Michael Brown had been there..) MORE:
Among those present was ex-Balliol LGB Officer, Matthew Williams. “Aside from the hilariousness of the event there’s a serious question here,� he commented at the time.
“Isn’t it offensive to assume categorically the word ‘gay’ is insulting? I kept drunkenly shouting at the police that I was offended that they assumed ‘gay’ was being used as an insult.� Brown was released the following morning and issued with an £80 fine for, “causing harassment, alarm or distress.� After discussing the matter with his college solicitor Brown decided not to pay the fine, stating he would rather have the case heard in court.
Still, the fact is there are many who consider the word “gay” an insult — and harrassing a horse and making judgmental stands about its sexual preferences is a vital issue that should not be taken lightly.
Never insult a horse. It’s easier insulting an ass, because anyone serving in Congress is used to it.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.