The quiet revolutn: why Bra has more gay MPs than anywhere else | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• LTLE BRA’S MATT LUS SAYS ‘ONLY GAY THE VILLAGE’ WAS MEANT TO BE A ‘CELEBRATN’ OF GAY PEOPLE
• FIRST OPENLY GAY MP SAYS G OUT 1980S WAS ‘ONE OF THE SRIT MOMENTS OF MY LIFE’
• THE TE STORY OF ‘A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL’ AND THE TRIALS OF A CLOSETED GAY POLICIAN
• HOW A LTLE-KNOWN WELSH POLICIAN HELPED GAY RIGHTS BRA
• THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE

LTLE BRA’S MATT LUS SAYS ‘ONLY GAY THE VILLAGE’ WAS MEANT TO BE A ‘CELEBRATN’ OF GAY PEOPLE

Matt says the character was meant to be a ‘celebratn’ of gay people (Picture: Rex Featur, BBC)Comedian and actor Matt Lus has spoken out about his ntroversial Ltle Bra character Dafydd Thomas, better known as ‘the only gay the village’. Matt said he knows the character has been ed as a tool to bully young gay people, but sists that was not the show’s tentn. ‘I have had people who had ‘you are the only gay the village’ said to them and to was meant to be a celebratn, ’ he told Richard Herrg’s RHLSTP podst.

FIRST OPENLY GAY MP SAYS G OUT 1980S WAS ‘ONE OF THE SRIT MOMENTS OF MY LIFE’

‘But people were labelled ‘the only gay the village’ at school. It was meant as entertament, not to make young gay people sad.

THE TE STORY OF ‘A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL’ AND THE TRIALS OF A CLOSETED GAY POLICIAN

Sce the show end 2005, the sketch has gaed a lot of cricism for s ls than plimentary portrayal of gay men. The character is emed offensive by many (Picture: BBC)‘I remember thkg there was a greeds to Ltle Bra and we jt wanted to show off as many characters as possible so we played black, whe, straight, gay, male, female, tall, short, whatever, ’ the 45-year-old told the podst.

HOW A LTLE-KNOWN WELSH POLICIAN HELPED GAY RIGHTS BRA

To be gay Bra durg that era meant puttg onelf nstant danger of arrt. “It was a very opprsive climate right up to and cludg the Margaret Thatcher years, ” says polil scientist David Raysi, the thor of On the Frge: Gays and Lbians Polics.

“In the 1970s and 80s, the overwhelmg majory Bra thought homosexual activy was morally wrong. Like many untri, Bra had a long history of anti-gay discrimatn.

Even then, was followed by dranian measur to prevent gay relatnships, cludg the Crimal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which ma “gross cency” between men—a purposely vague term—a crimal act. The panic over homosexualy ntued after World War II, wr historian Michael Bloch Closet Queens: Some 20th Century Brish Policians: “A fiercely homophobic Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, aid by an equally puranil Director of Public Prosecutns, Sir Theobold Matthew, was termed to ‘rid England of this plague.

THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE

That report remend public statut should avoid legislatg moraly, and that the ernment should remove nsensual homosexual liaisons om crimal law. The 1967 Sexual Offens Act crimalized homosexual acts between nsentg adults private, though didn’t remove the stigma attendant on such acts.