On Monday the BBC’s flagship arts programme, Front Row, marked the 40th anniversary of the release of The Age of Consent, Bronski Beat’s debut album, on 15th October 1984. Presenter Samira Ahmed talked to Laurie Belgrave, founder and director of the south London queer bar and performance collective, The Chateau, and novelist, Matt Cain, formerly editor of Attitude. How far […]
Tag: LGBT
Can we transcend identity liberalism?
I wrote recently about the challenge to identity liberalism in the wake of a tumultuous political year. The post was a response to arguments from the American writer Sohrab Ahmari that identity liberals need to be less tribal, and the American academic Mark Lilla that we need a post-identity liberalism which concentrates on broadening its […]
Identity liberalism in the dock
‘Recently I forgot I was gay because I was too busy doing something else.’ The words of Colm Toibin, the Irish novelist resonated for me because reading them 35 years after I had first come out I realised that I was lucky enough to forget that I was gay most days. Something which had been […]
Equal Marriage: A big step closer to One Scotland
Scotland awoke to historic change this morning. Equal Marriage is legal. It’s splashed across the headlines. From today couples already in Civil Partnerships will be able to convert them to marriages and from 31st December those not already in Civil Partnerships will be able to marry. These changes received broad support from across the political […]
LGBT rights and the Commonwealth Games: Equality begins at home
The recent LGBTI Human Rights in the Commonwealth conference in Glasgow provided a welcome and vital focus on the plight of sexual minorities in across the Commonwealth. It’s right and timely to highlight the abuses facing those in many of the countries who will be attending the games. Not to do so would be more […]
Equal Marriage: The real vote of conscience today
Today was a historic day for LBGT equality in Scotland and I for one shed a tear as the final vote came. Years of campaigning have led to this change, not just for equal marriage but for the rights, acceptance and inclusion of LGBT people in all spheres of life. And so equal marriage is […]
