Why does LGBT history month matter?

03/03/2017

Why does LGBT history month matter? One simple answer is that stories drive change. Whether it’s within families, friendship circles, in the community or wider society, we know that sharing stories educates. It challenges misconceptions and creates empathy.
Tim Farron: Keep calm and carry on

19/04/2017

Travelling back from Glasgow to Edinburgh yesterday evening I found myself cheek by jowl with a couple of guys having a drink. Quite a lot of a drink in fact. There was so much whisky involved that I felt quite intoxicated. It was a curious predicament towards the end of a curious day. And then […]
Late call: married at last

31/05/2017

In Angus Wilson’s 1964 novel, Late Call, Ray, the grandson of its hero, Sylvia Calvert, is a gay man. Wilson was one of Britain’s first openly gay writers. I was 14 when the novel was serialised on television in 1975.
Same sex relationships: a very modern morality tale

28/06/2017

The publication of the 34th British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey report today chronicles another chapter in the remarkable liberalisation of attitudes to homosexuality during the last 25 years. In this very modern morality tale we are increasingly choosing liberalism over conservatism and the pace at which we are doing so shows no sign of abating. […]
Why Tim Farron’s experience of intolerance cuts both ways

20/07/2017

If I had a pound for every one of the column inches that have been written on the Farron affair I’d have a nice little windfall. Notwithstanding the fact that I’ve thrown my tuppence halfpenny worth in a couple of times too. In fact, on the first occasion I had initially been reluctant to contribute […]
Realising the potential of Wolfenden

27/07/2017

Against the Law, shown on BBC1 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England and Wales, left me momentarily lost for words. That doesn’t happen too often. But as is more usually the case it is by getting some words down on a page that I can best make […]
What next after post-truth?

24/08/2017

Back in the 1980s, I used to spend a lot of time with a journalist. My friend Tim, who sadly died more than 20 years ago, was a local hack. He was a sub and he loved to collect improbable headlines.
Colin Jackson: homophobia’s remaining hurdles

29/08/2017

What does the news that Colin Jackson is gay and our response to it say about attitudes to sexuality in 2017 Britain? It tells us quite a lot has changed but that we can do better too.