Once gay ndidat were monised – or forced to hi the closet. Now Wtmster boasts 32 LGB MPs, more than any other untry. But, as gay policians past and prent nfirm, the battle is not over yet
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
The edian and actor says the 'only gay the village' character Dafydd Thomas was meant as entertament, not as a tool for bullyg. * little britain gay mp *
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. ‘But people were labelled ‘the only gay the village’ at school. It was meant as entertament, not to make young gay people sad.
FIRST OPENLY GAY MP SAYS G OUT 1980S WAS ‘ONE OF THE SRIT MOMENTS OF MY LIFE’
Lord Chris Smh beme the UK's first openly gay MP 1984. * little britain gay mp *
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. 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 TE STORY OF ‘A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL’ AND THE TRIALS OF A CLOSETED GAY POLICIAN
Listen to I'm Gay - Sgle by Ltle Bra on Apple Mic. Stream songs cludg "I'm Gay". * little britain gay mp *
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.
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.
In some ways, gay dividuals were jt as vulnerable as before. “The police were still entirely willg to heavily police those venu where was thought that homosexual activy occurred.
HOW A LTLE-KNOWN WELSH POLICIAN HELPED GAY RIGHTS BRA
That’s not to say all policians fought actively agast gay rights. But the two domant parti of the era, the Labour and Conservative parti, were nowhere near as terted aligng themselv wh the gay rights movement.
“Labour as a whole was very unfortable associatg self wh what ntued to terpret as a bourgeois and dangero issue, ” wr historian Lucy Robson Gay Men and the Left Post-War Bra.
Those class tensns were a major ponent of the homosexualy issue Bra. ” In one episo, Lord Grantham exc the homosexual behavr of his footman, Thomas, sayg such cints happened regular when Lord Grantham attend Eton, a private school. Regardls of how historilly accurate the earl’s reactn to his servant’s behavr was, is te that gay experimentatn flourished upper-class, sex-segregated is like boardg school, the ary, and the clergy.
THE QUIET REVOLUTN: WHY BRA HAS MORE GAY MPS THAN ANYWHERE ELSE
His exposure slowed the progrs of the LGBTQ movement; wasn’t until 1984 that Brish polician Chris Smh beme the first to e out as gay. Gay Rights,.
At last Big Ben, that parliamentary alarm clock, stck ten, and was Abse’s bill, prted on the green pag each MP clutched, was pla enough: that, England and Wal, “a homosexual act private shall not be an offence provid that the parti nsent thereto and have attaed the age of twenty-one years”.
To them, gay sex remaed “the abomable crime”; legalisg after 434 years would be yet more damng evince that England was beg not a civilised society but a permissive one. They had awaed eagerly s bate 1958 on the Wolfenn Report, an official review that remend nixg the ban on gay sex that had held sce the Buggery Act of 1533. As Abse worked on his bill, John Wells, a 27-year-old phoician at Universy College London, began attendg weekly psychotherapy ssns to al wh the “problem” of his homosexualy.