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.
Category: sexuality
Tim Farron: Keep calm and carry on
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 […]
Why does LGBT history month matter?
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.
A love by any other name
This is how it was. In the early 1980s, a whole generation of gay men who had scarcely known the ability to live and love openly was besieged by an epidemic. Because it turned sex into something dangerous, it was an epidemic which for more than a decade scarred love and relationships. It framed our […]
The truth about gross indecency
In 1978 I had sex with a man for the first time. I was 17 and the encounter took place in a public toilet. Not something to shout about perhaps. But it’s a moment I was reminded of by John Nicolson’s Bill to pardon gay and bisexual men historically convicted of sexual offences that are […]
We have changed normal
We haven’t changed the world but we have changed normal. And Justine Greening’s appointment as Education Secretary today is a remarkable indicator of that progress. Achieved in just one generation.
Je suis Orlando, Je suis LGBT
I went to George Square tonight. Just like any other night on my way from the office to get the train back through to Edinburgh. Except it wasn’t like any other night. Because rather than scuttle by to reach my train home, I stopped for an hour at a vigil for Orlando organised by Free […]
The road less traveled by
“I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” The final two lines of Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, take me back to a turning point in my life that I had cause to reflect on at the recent Stonewall Scotland Equal at Work conference. I had been […]
Rainbow Laces comes to Scottish athletics
One of the big sports stories of the last week has been the decision of rugby league star Keegan Hirst to come out. People have rightly praised his bravery. But others will be probably be thinking surely it doesn’t matter, it’s nobody’s business but his own. However, the very fact that it’s such an uncommon […]
Ten fault lines at the heart of the Farron affair
Much has been written and spoken about Tim Farron’s views on homosexuality. Initially, I hadn’t intended to add my voice to the mix. But the more I’ve explored the coverage, the more I’ve been struck by a series of tensions and contradictions in the commentary. This piece is in part about Farron but also about […]