Royal family - anti safeguarding?

Seriously WTAF

Am I being dense, I've read that daily Mail article and it just says he went to a LGBT friendly restaurant? I don't think that is in any way related to Andrew, and tbh it's a weird connection to make.

He went to a queer friendly restaurant for comfort food? I’m struggling to see the issue tbh

He went to an LGBT restaurant. That's not anti-safeguarding. To suggest it is, is purely homophobic.

I have to say it's probably not the most politically neutral act though, and isn't terribly diplomatic given the political culture in Poland ATM.

Having said that, being anti-homophobic has broad consensus within the UK so isn't politically sensitive on a domestic level.

The Polish embassy is unlikely to put in a complaint anytime soon due to the situation with Ukraine though.

It's probably making a point that's fair in terms of British cultural values and isn't going to upset too many here though.

I really don't see what your problem is her OP other than to try and do a forced team bullshit homophobic crap that William must be bad like others in the family because he went to a LGBT restaurant. Really? Can't you do better than that?

The situation around gay rights etc is very very different in Poland. Also "queer" has become a catch-all international term for anything LGBT related. Of course there are issues with this but it is what it is. If this was an intentional move (rather than just going to a nice restaurant) it is more likely to be a stance in support of LGBT rights (as in the right not to be persecuted) than anything sinister.

And I agree that the royal family shouldn't be interfering with this sort of thing. Apart from anything else interference from outside can massively back-fire since most people don't like people coming from outside and telling them what to do. But merely attending a restaurant is very different to lobbying the PM/publically demanding Poles change their attitudes etc.

Translation: I'm homophobic. And trying to dress this non story up as pro queer theory because queer theory is bad and women on MN are fed up with queer theory even though there really is fuck all to do with queer theory in this story.

Homosexual doesn't automatically equal queer theory and you are clutching at straws OP.

This also has nothing to do with women's rights nor gender rights so I'm not sure why you are posting this in this section apart from to stir up homophobia quite deliberately.

Finally - Poland isn't being fined for not taking on queer theory. Its related to judicial changes that are seen as weakening the independence of EU courts.

edit "weakening the independence of Polish courts"

I think you are reaching a bit here op. Pow was photographed effectively breaking bread with gay people, which is an important statement. I think that turning this into an anti women and children safeguarding issue is offensive and homophones.

homophones 🤣 you know what I meant!

Unless the restaurant is famous for Foucault Fries and NAMBLA Nachos and PIE all capitalised, I don't see the issue here. It's obviously a way of making a statement in support of gay rights without actually making a statement. Gay doesn't mean queer theory, and a lot of LGB people are rightly pissed off about the current attempts to hitch them to the queering everything lobby.

I agree with everything RedToothBrush and Esma said.

PW has said he wants to highlight some of the causes his late mother was passionate about as part of his new role as Prince of Wales, which is a clever PR move (can’t be easy for Catherine to take on the Princess of Wales title so William talking about his mum deflects any Diana comparisons away from Kate and back onto him) and probably genuinely nice for him on a human level (must be a bit of a headfuck that the other woman in your parents’ marriage is about to be crowned Queen, even if he has real affection for his stepmum, it’s still going to be weird).

Some of Diana’s most memorable public-life moments were in relation to her charitable work around HIV & AIDS and I think she probably did make a sizeable contribution in shifting public opinion towards gay acceptance and equality.
It makes sense that her son would want to follow in her footsteps and as we’re constantly banging on about how Stonewall should’ve shifted their work towards LGB equality internationally (rather than take on the TQ cuckoo) it’s actually quite nice to see someone casually making a similar point in a super-soft-diplomacy way.

Plus, poke in the eye for his Woke Californian Brother who is probably kicking himself for not doing it first and ticks a box for ‘modernised monarchy’ in that he went out with his staff and ate a £7 dinner.

I’m quite indifferent to the royals, used to be anti but post Trump I can see the diplomatic benefits in having a set of non-political national figureheads.
The individual people do need to behave themselves if the tradition is to continue though - they aren’t celebrities and can’t behave as though they are - Andrew is lucky he’s just getting a massive downgrade in house and status and that the 2023 public are unlikely to get away with introducing him to Mime Guillotine.

If William and Kate take their kids to Drag Queen Story Time or Caba Baba Rave come back and we can talk about safeguarding failures, but a 40 year old man going to a gay pub with work colleagues, as part of work trip away, eating a sandwich and leaving relatively early?

That’s fine 🤷‍♀️

I used to go to lesbian only bars and gay clubs way back. I'm impressed there's an LGBT restaurant.
Being LGB is not and never has been a safeguarding risk.

Just a couple of thoughts...

It's hardly likely that William chose the place himself, that would have been one of his staff who booked, who may, or may not have known that it's LGBT,Q+friendly, not that that would matter anyway, generally speaking.

It may have been the only place open, or that had sufficient tables free for his entourage at that time.
Maybe it had a house speciality that William was particularly partial to.

He is not his stupid brother, nor his stupid uncle. Whatever they do, or don't do, is nothing to do with him. I'm sure he finds them to be as much of an embarrassment as the rest of us.

It may have been the best place security wise, with easily watched doors, windows or other places of exit.

This is exactly the problem with the forced teaming of lesbian and gay rights with so-called trans rights and “queer” politics. It’s now very difficult to make a clear distinction between supporting lesbian and gay rights and supporting “LGBT” rights as the latter is now mainstream, despite the increasing objection to the demands of the trans lobby.

So it’s not surprising that William would want to signal his support for the rights of gay women and men. It’s just now, it’s a difficult line to tread and there is no way he can easily do it without risking offending someone.

There's absolutely no way he ended up in there by mistake! If he did thrn ehoever does his planning needs to be sacked because in theory they could have ended up in a Far Right pub too. These trips are planned to the T and mistakes like visiting an LGBTQ restaurant in a country with strong anti-LGBT sentiments don't happen.

OP I know what your concern is but I think here it's misplaced. The social and political culture in Poland is very different to here. If he went to a Stonewall event here or took his kids to "pat the puppies" at Pride it would be a safeguarding issue. In a country with little rights for LGB people, having dinner in a restaurant for adults from that community is different.

Why are you posting videos of Piers Morgan though, I'm confused about that!

I absolutely agree with you.

I think you are over reaching to find something to be offended by

This is just about Butero and William's visit; I'm not up to speed about what's going on with Harry or Andrew.

Butero is a cool new(ish) place in Warsaw, somewhat under the radar (until now - I'm sure they're happy for the publicity from PW, although they may struggle a little with an upswing as it's a small venue with local seasonal food prepared from scratch). The name, "butero", is a clue to their focus and ethos - it's the Esperanto word for butter. Their cuisine - which tries to strike a balance among vegetarian, carnivore/omnivore, and vegan (that'd be the plant-based butters) is butter-themed, and the name is a nod to Ludwig Zamenhof, a Pole who championed Esperanto (and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for doing so) as a way for people to communicate in Eastern Poland in the mid-19th century when there were equal and minor claims for Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, and Lithuanian languages, among others.

I'd consider that all of these things might've appealed to William (perhaps suggested by whomever on his staff scout and book for him): good food ethically and locally-sourced, Polish AND pan-European (chimes with a representative of the British State visiting and supporting Poland, and with NATO - I don't say EU, but some would), multicultural, and LGBT+ friendly. I can't much fault him/them for any of these, under the circumstances of his visit or in general.

Also, for anyone confused by the menu: the fries aren't served with actual amber (what a deal at the price if they were!) but with golden-brown mustard. And for any animal rights activists, the "green hooves" are spinach and potato dumplings.

If Kate posted that her DH had been to a gay bar on a business trip, I'm not sure safeguarding would be the thing most posters would be thinking.