Chess row over gay rights T-shirt

Chess chief claims he was barred from presenting prizes at British championships because of his Stonewall T-shirt The president of the English Chess Federation has said he was barred from presenting prizes at the British chess championships in Sheffield because he was wearing a gay rights T-shirt. The red shirt bore the slogan “Some people are gay, get over it”, used by the gay rights group Stonewall in its educational literature. CJ de Mooi, an actor and a regular on the BBC quiz show Eggheads, claimed on Twitter that he had been prevented from presenting prizes to young winners because of the T-shirt, and said the decision was “disgusting”. He said: “I’ve worn this T-shirt regularly. There’s no dress code so do what you want – I thought chess was supposed to be educational and inclusive. “I’ll make an official statement when play is over. I stress this was not an ECF board (the members here were supportive) or venue decision.” Laura Doughty, deputy chief executive of Stonewall UK, said she was puzzled by the apparent ban. “We think our T-shirts are lovely and don’t see why anyone would object to anyone wearing one, least of all chess players.” Leonard Barden, the Guardian’s chess correspondent, said: “There has never been a dress code before. Its not something that happens in chess, its supposed to be non-discriminatory.” No one from the ECF or the Sheffield venue was available for comment. Gay rights Chess Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.