Perverse Reasoning

The basic rule of any philosophy is that, if it leads one to absurd and impossible conclusion, something in the premise must be wrong, or an error made in the line of reasoning.

It seems some anti-homosexual posters were found in Shoreditch, Stoke Newington and broader East London, and the local LGBTQ activists wanted to organize a gay pride parade to show they are not intimidated by the hateful posters. Out There is a homosexual activist group, but opposes the parade, worried that the far right would use the pro-gay parade as an opportunity to stir up hatred against the Mohammedans.

Here is the link to the Open Letter by Out East:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/03/14/open-letter-to-the-organisers-of-east-end-gay-pride/

Jessica Geen writing in the same newspaper, presents the opposing point of view, and argues that the parade should not be canceled:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/03/14/east-end-pride-should-be-cancelled-gay-campaigners-say/

I heard about this news from Big Hollywood website, a somewhat sneering article by Greg Gutfield:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2011/03/16/concerned-with-muslims-gay-activists-cancel-parade-in-england/

Let me quote two paragraphs from the Open Letter by Out East:

Out East believes that our response to homophobia must be political because homophobia is a system which is present everywhere and not only a hate feeling from particular groups or individuals. Homophobia is not caused only by one particular group but is part of broader society and has political roots. It is easy to portray other minorities (even unintentionally) as the cause of homophobia rather than, for example, questioning the lack of means to fight discrimination in a period of cuts in public services. Instead, we want to highlight the intersection between sexuality, gender, race and class oppression. Homophobia is fed by political practices and ideologies which in turn encourage individuals to commit discriminatory acts.

And:

We want both homophobia and islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories. We will refuse any attempt to divide our communities or take the risk that an LGBTQ event is used to oppress other marginalised groups, in particular LGBTQ Muslims who will be the most affected by this rising antagonism.

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