International Day Against Homophobia

Today is the second International Day Against Homophobia. People are still beaten up or persecuted because of their sexual orientation.

A few weeks ago I was taken to task by someone on a message board when I argued against endemic BBC "homophobia". I was told, that describing it as homophobia was "a crime because it desensitizes us to true homophobia which ruins innocent lives and reinforces ignorant prejudice." But I think that we need to challenge homophobia at all levels - a policy of zero tolerance. And as Stonewall has noticed, low level homophobia is endemic in the BBC.

Why has Newsround failed to report on homophobic bullying and efforts to stamp it out? Why didn't it report the Football Association's work to combat homophobia in the sport or Spurs' initiative to stop homophobic chanting? Why was there no mention of civil partnerships? Why is all lgbt news filtered out? Why is "gay" a four letter word on CBBC message boards? Why did a BBC DJ big up a homophobic hate musician last month?

The BBC has a lot of questions to answer.