It's baffling me how some people are making out that Biggins got evicted for our sins or something. There's free speech and there's hate speech, thank god BB realised Biggins was doing the latter.

As a homosexual man I was massively offended by what he said. He displayed a warped prejudice towards bisexuality, whist perpetuating destructive (and incorrect) beliefs regarding HIV/AIDS. For a gay man to stand there and let Renee call it "GRID" is disgraceful, and what's worst is he will have lived through the adverts and propaganda on TV in the 80's, he'll have seen how the disease was used as a weapon by the media to isolate and prejudice the gay community. A huge prejudice which evidently still exists some three decades later.

On top of that what he said made no sense. So in his mind some cult of bisexuals went over to Africa, porked the monkeys, then came back over to commit incest? He said "spread to their families families" which to me highlighted his ignorance even further, since the virus can't be spread through saliva etc, only blood and sexual fluids. So either he thinks bisexuals are all incestuous/druggies who share each others needles, or he hasn't even been bothered to research the most damaging thing to happen to the LGBT community in history.

Given the context of what he said about "gay people being appreciated" or something before the epidemic, he sounded more inconvenienced for his career than the thousands of deaths of gay and bisexual men alike. To be honest there was a thread here speculating if Bear is a psychopath, but youwere all looking in the wrong place.

"Free speech" only goes so far. The things he's said have been proven to be wrong and outdated, the only thing to be gained from him saying those things is more damaging prejudice. So anyone who thinks Biggins shouldn't have been evicted, do kindly evict yourself from this forum as well.

BIB - I was not familiar with this term, so I looked it up. Did she really say that?

I don't agree with anything Biggins said with regard to bisexuals.

However Biggins wasn't inciting violence which is where free speech generally ends, nor has any influence to deny opportunities to bisexual people.
The only options are to either enter into discussion with him over his comments, and/or tolerate the fact he has opposing views.

He'll either change his mind (though I doubt it, as his views date back decades), or he'll eventually die and the world will be hopefully a little less prejudiced.

Porked the monkeys?? really?? I find THAT highly offensive.

Um, what is GRID?

As in actual monkeys....that's what they're saying....not sure if you've misinterpreted what they meant...

Biggins actually said bisexual people had sex with monkeys in Africa??

I was just transcribing it... and I'm reasonably confident Frankie said it, but i might be wrong. In the context it was being discussed in though he was just pointing out the label that was originally given to it - ie that it was initially seen as a gay disease.

So why weren't Frankie and Renee given formal warnings as they were all talking about it?

Thanks, KT.

GRID is what the US medical profession called AIDS when the disease first emerged in the early 80s and they thought it was specific to gay men only as no het cases had manifested themselves. It stands for Gay Related Immune Deficiency.

It stands for 'gay-related immune disorder'. Apparently, it's what some people called AIDS in the past.

Oh. How awful. Thanks for the explanation.

No. He never mentioned monkeys.

I'm really sorry when anyone Is offended but offence is not a reason to shut down conversations in the house IMO, I've been offended many times by actions and words in the house but that's what real life is like in that environment. More we let them edit it out or remove people further from real life we get and this show is supposed to be real.

No, he said they had sex with 'these people', the Africans the CIA were supposedly trying to kill off.

The OP is referring to a theory that the virus came from chimps (hunted for food) in W. Africa and was passed on to humans via blood contact when preparing the meat.

It is good to see that you can think logically despite being enraged...

Apart from a few things that you seem to have warped along the way.
He didn't say anything about porking monkeys. He stated that bisexuals went to Africa and contracted AIDS which they then brought back to their families.
Meaning (in his youth) gay men would form relationships with women due to the lack of acceptance of homosexuals by society (and law) at the time. So, the closet gay men went to Africa to explore their actual desires.
Nothing related to incest was implied.

It is also a fact that anal sex without protection is more likely to spread disease than vaginal penetration (18 times more likely according to some sources - quick google).

I was also under the impression that he was saying that gays are now appreciated in society, but that was not the case when he was young, rather than the other way around.

Personally I don't care for Biggins, but I do believe that he is entitled to his views and opinions. What he said is far from a hate speech.

I rewound it several times & I'm pretty sure he didn't say anything about monkeys.

But, I do think he's wrong for what he said - I'm actually shocked at the amount of people who are saying his comments were perfectly acceptable!!

"He Can't Be Homophobic Cos He's Gay" (WRONG.)
"He's Just A Cranky Old Man" (So age excuses bigotry???)
"Well, You Don't Need His Approval Do You?" (No, but I don't need him to disrespect/stereotype me either thanks!!)

And so on & so on...
I am a bisexual woman, but even if I wasn't - I'd still have the opinion that declaring a whole section of society is negative based on their sexual preferences is plain wrong, simple as that.

You don't have to view what he says as acceptable, you just don't have to shut down and censor everybody that says something you don't agree with. We've got a brain and can tell what's complete nonsense.

Every year we have HMs who say things that are racist, homophobic, etc., and they are excused because they're "old school" or some other crap.

What a load of tosh! They know full well what is and isn't acceptable ffs. Even my 86 year old mother would have more awareness. Either these celebs think that they are above the rules or are too stupid to remember that they are on camera.

Yes I agree with this.

Also, who do you think you are OP, ordering others to leave the forum if they don't agree with your opinion

While I agree with that, the problem is, in the context of the current desperately low-brow C/BB, if no one challenges 'contentious' remarks - and as far as we're aware, no one did - then it looks like BB is condoning them. They also have to be seen to abide by broadcasting rules.

In a better BB, Biggins' remarks could have been used in a useful way - where BB eg. turned them into a discussion point - but, as it is, no one in there seems bothered and/or can be arsed to take his views on because they're all too self-involved and/or busy looking out for themselves or, in the case of a few of them, too stupid to even understand why his remarks are problematic.

Hate speech is supposed to cover the situations where individuals try to incite other people to commit violent acts against a certain group of people.

It's not about offending people.
But it appears to be sliding into that right now.

Great post!!