Daily Mail Writer Blasted Over Stephen Gately Slur.

Stephen Gately's family is said to be "very disappointed" by a
Daily Mail column on the subject of their son's death that has provoked
a surge of complaints to the press watchdog.

Writer Jan Moir's opinion piece was dedicated to the untimely demise of the gay singer, in circumstances she described as being "more than a little sleazy".

It led to over 1,000 reports to the Press Complaints Commission, causing their website to crash, and has been widely condemned on social networking sites.

Meanwhile, major firms rushed to tie connections with the piece,
with a Marks and Spencer spokesperson saying: "We have asked the Daily
Mail to move our advertisement away from the article. This is a matter
for The Daily Mail."

In her piece on Gately's death, Moir wrote: "The sugar coating on
this fatality is so saccharine-thick that it obscures whatever bitter
truth lies
beneath."...I think if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that
the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy."
Moir's column, which goes on to discuss the "happy-ever-after myth of
civil marriages" has provoked accusations of homophobia and forced the
journalist to issue a statement.

Reporting from Dublin, Sky's Enda Brady said Gately's family were not planning to read the column.

"I know his family are aware of the article, they have not read it,
they will not read it, but they know what is contained in it and they
know the sentiment," he said.

"They are just very, very disappointed."

Meanwhile, the editor of the UK's best-selling gay magazine
Attitude, said Moir's decision to link Gately's death with that of Matt
Lucas' former civil partner seemed to be an "excuse to stick the boot
in the gay population."

"If that's not homophobic, what is homophobia?" he told Sky News.

In a statement, Moir rubbished suggestions of homophobia and blamed the backlash on a plot by social networkers.

"...The point of my column-which, I wonder how many of the people
complaining have fully read - was to suggest that, in my honest
opinion, his death raises many unanswered questions," she said.

"In what is clearly a heavily orchestrated internet campaign I think
it is mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has
homophobic and bigoted undertones."

I think the reporter is in the wrong here on some points....

It has already been proved through autopsy that SG died from natural
causes, from a condition that has already proved fatal within his own
family previously.

Had he not been in the public eye nothing more would have been said of
the situation, this happens to hundreds of normal people every year in
the UK alone, gay or straight, good and bad lifestyles, so why should
it be any different for a pop star? What difference does it make? The
man's dead.....or was it to cash in on some juicy gossip being spread?

The saccharine thick part to it in my eyes is all the fawning over him, the very public announcement of the band members vigil, the devastation of so many people, the airtime given to the funeral........

Yes he's young, yes it's tragic but at the end of the day........he's no bloody different to any of us, he wasn't even really in the public eye for the last few years!!!!

He just went out and had a few stiff ones as far as i know

The sleaze, refers to Stephen going out to a GAY BAR. SHOCK! With his partner and a couple of friends. He then returned from said GAY BAR , SHOCK! with one of the friends.

All I can say is SHOCK! Stephen's GAY and, that is what they obviously don't do, Gays don't frequent GAY BARS. SHOCK! The Reporter is a PILLOCK! That reporter has got one helluva maelstrom on his hands now, for his potty mouth.


Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, is not that rare. It is the same condition as Cot Death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Would be nice to know more on what causes this or who is more at risk, to at least be more prepared for something like this. Not that you can ever be prepared for something like this.


Very sad for his death, out of the group he was the one I liked the best. At least he could sing and had the balls to come out of the closet, when it was not politically sound to do so.. Flaming Ronan gets my goat and can't sing.

The reporter was a Woman, not a man.

He died of a Pulmonary Oedema ( fluid on the lungs ) not S.A.D.S.

Ronan gets on my tits too, as do the friggin rest of em, and he did, and Westlife do too......

Its the bestowing of Sainthood on a mildly talented person just because they died that gets me, everyone didnt love him, everyone wont miss him, the only people who mentioned his name before he died were his boyfriend, Louis Walsh and his family.....

Theres my 2 penneth.....

Oh Well