Dr. Doug Douglass

On this day, 16 July 1993, British right-wing tabloid the Daily Mail published an article titled "Abortion hope after 'gay genes' findings" saying that "definite evidence of a genetic link to homosexuality" had been found so "it could soon be possible to predict whether a baby will be gay and give the mother the option of an abortion." It also predicted that the people likely to be upset about prospect were "radical gay… groups". In 2020 the Mail was the most popular newspaper in the UK. It previously supported fascist politicians like Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy and Oswald Mosley in Britain. Today it continues to direct hate against groups like transgender people, Muslims, disabled people and others, and articles by its columnists like Melanie Phillips have been cited in manifestoes produced by neo-Nazi terrorists like Anders Breivik. Learn more about homophobia in Britain around that time period in our podcast episodes 27-29 about LGBT+ people during the miners' strike: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/06/10/e23-25-lesbians-gays-support-the-miners/