My friend Neil posted this the other night on Facebook in response to media coverage of the two men that recently got married in France.

Warning serious post with no Nick Cage in sight.
Just been on the news that two gay men have been married in Paris. I find this disgusting. Not the act but the fact in this day and age it needs to be reported in a news story. They then go on to discuss if they should be allowed to have kids.
To be honest if two people who love each other want to spend the rest of their lives together and raise children in a loving environment it should be sung about from the roof tops.
Lets be honest the amount of failed marriages and broken homes in the world they probably can’t do any worse than most. And if your against it, grow up.

Now, ignoring the fact that Neil has serious issues surrounding Nicolas Cage, he is 100% right. The main problem I have, and the reason I chose to add to this, is that media coverage seems to thrive on the separation and categorisation of people.

A few years ago, 2002 to be exact, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won Academy Awards for their roles in Training Day and Monster’s Ball respectively. Obviously, as soon as someone black does anything good, the media are all over it. The main headline and also the main phrase being used that night and following day in both video and print media was “Big night for black actors”. Following this there were countless conversations with ‘industry experts’ who were being asked what this meant for ‘black actors’ and if it was going to help break down the level of racism.

How about, right, instead of doing all that, we just call them actors. The colour of their skin has no effect on their ability to do their job.

I’m a right handed shop assistant. You’re right, that first piece of information wasn’t needed.

In much the same way as the whole gay marriage thing, it becomes a lot easier when people stop referring to them as gay couples. They’re a couple. They’re two people. They don’t need to be categorised for the sake of reporting on what they’re doing. They are two people getting married. Me and my wife were two people getting married. No one felt the need to report on that.

Me, Denzel and Halle are just people. People with three Academy Awards between them.

People. Not gay people. Not black people. Just people.