Funnily enough, says Rod Liddle in The Spectator, amid all the coverage about how every British institution from the Metropolitan Police to the English Cricket Board is “institutionally racist”, the BBC has completely missed “my favourite story of the year”. It’s about the city of Hamtramck in Michigan, where white left-wingers are “terribly upset”. They weren’t upset at first, you understand: “they were delighted”. Hamtramck was the first US city to elect an all-Muslim council, and Michigan progressives were naturally smug about this “symbolic act against, y’know, oppression”. Imagine their chagrin when this council later banned the flying of the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag from any public building, and some Muslims – “cheering this decision to the rafters” – tweeted their jubilation about living in a “fagless” city.
Only now are these white liberals realising that a city council previously hailed for its “beautiful gender diversity” has become one in which every member is a straight male (“called Mohammed, most likely”). The former mayor summed up the “edgy” mood: “There’s a sense of betrayal… our rights are threatened… We all deserve respect.” “You sad sap” – you don’t deserve respect, you deserve to be laughed at for failing to realise any “self-respecting Muslim council” was always going to fight against progressive sexuality. That’s the problem with “intersectional politics” – the entire ideology is based on the falsehood that all “oppressed” people have the same over-arching liberal goals. “I’m with Allah on this one”: that flag has been “getting on my goat for a long while”. Public buildings should be politically neutral.