The 11-Year Old Homophobe

, Don Irvine, Leave a comment

An 11-year old boy in England was subjected to a homophobic crime investigation by the police because he called a classmate “gay” in an e-mail.

The parents of the boy who received the message complained to the police in Cheshire who then opened an investigation and sent two policemen to visit the alleged homophobe at his home.

When the parents of the 11-year old boy complained that the police were being heavy handed they told the father that they considered it a very serious matter.

The boy told his parents that he didn’t intend to be homophobic, and he had used the word “gay” instead of “stupid” which apparently the parents of the boy who received the e-mail and the police didn’t realize is something many school age children do without a second thought and with no homophobic intent.

If not for political correctness which has people walking on eggshells fearing that anything they say or do will offend someone, this incident would never have risen to the level of a police investigation.

I think the father of the accused put it best when he told The Daily Mail “This seemed like a huge waste of resources for something so trivial as a playground spat.”

Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media, Accuracy in Academia’s sister organization.