50 Years 50 Weeks: 1978, Glad to be Gay :: Bay Area Reporter

Contents:

• GLAD TO BE GAY: THE STORY OF THE FILMG OF DAVID IS HOMOSEXUAL
• GLAD TO BE GAYTOM ROBSON BANDTRACK 13 ON POWER THE DARKNS “(SG IF YOU’RE) GLAD TO BE GAY,” ORIGALLY RELEASED 1978 AS PART OF THE BUT EP OF THE GROUP TOM ROBSON BAND IS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE MOST FG SONGS OF THE BAND… READ MORE 1 VIEWER23.3K VIEWS12 CONTRIBUTORSGLAD TO BE GAY LYRICS[SPOKEN WORD INTRO]THIS SONG IS DITED TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATN, ’S A MEDIL SONG AND NCERNS A DISEASE WHOSE CLASSIFITN ACRDG TO THE INTERNATNAL CLASSIFITN OF DISEAS IS 302.0[VERSE 1]THE BRISH POLICE ARE THE BT THE WORLDI DON'T BELIEVE ONE OF THE STORI I'VE HEARD'BOUT THEM RAIDG OUR PUBS FOR NO REASON AT ALLLG THE CTOMERS UP BY THE WALLPICKG OUT PEOPLE AND KNOCKG THEM DOWNRISTG ARRT AS THEY'RE KICKED ON THE GROUNDSEARCHG THEIR HO AND LLG THEM QUEERI DON'T BELIEVE THAT SORT OF THG HAPPENS HERE[CHOS]SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY[VERSE 2]PICTUR OF NAKED YOUNG WOMEN ARE FUNIN TBS AND PLAYBOY, PAGE THREE OF THE SUNTHERE'S NO NUS GAY NEWS, OUR ONE MAGAZEBUT THEY STILL FD EXC TO LL OBSCENEREAD HOW DISGTG WE ARE THE PRSTHE TELEGRAPH, PEOPLE AND SUNDAY EXPRSMOLTERS OF CHILDREN, RPTORS OF YOUTHIT'S THERE THE PAPER, MT BE THE TTHYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE[CHOS](TRY AND) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY[VERSE 3]DON'T TRY TO KID THAT IF YOU'RE DISCREETYOU'RE PERFECTLY SAFE AS YOU WALK DOWN THE STREETYOU DON'T HAVE TO MCE OR MAKE BCHY REMARKSTO GET BEATEN UNNSC AND LEFT THE DARKI HAD A IEND WHO WAS GENTLE AND SHORTHE WAS LONELY ONE EVENG AND WENT FOR A WALKQUEERBASHERS UGHT HIM, KICKED HIS TEETHHE WAS ONLY HOSPALISED FOR A WEEK(AND HE STILL BEARS THE SRS)[CHOS]SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY[VERSE 4]AND S BACK AND WATCH AS THEY CLOSE DOWN OUR CLUBSARRT FOR MEETG AND RAID ALL OUR PUBSMAKE SURE YOUR BOYIEND'S AT LEAST 21SO ONLY YOUR IENDS AND YOUR BROTHERS GET DONELIE TO YOUR WORKMAT, LIE TO YOUR FOLKSPUT DOWN THE QUEENS, TELL ANTI-QUEER JOKGAY LIB'S RIDICULO, JO THEIR LGHTER'THE BUGGERS ARE LEGAL NOW, WHAT MORE ARE THEY AFTER?'(TELL THEM!)[CHOS]SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAYSG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THIS WAY3EMBEDCANCELHOW TO FORMAT LYRICS:TYPE OUT ALL LYRICS, EVEN REPEATG SONG PARTS LIKE THE CHOSLYRICS SHOULD BE BROKEN DOWN TO DIVIDUAL LUSE SECTN HEARS ABOVE DIFFERENT SONG PARTS LIKE [VERSE], [CHOS], ETC.USE ALICS (<I>LYRIC</I>) AND BOLD (<B>LYRIC</B>) TO DISTGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT VOLISTS THE SAME SONG PARTIF YOU DON’T UNRSTAND A LYRIC, E [?]TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT OUR TRANSCRIPTN GUI OR VIS OUR TRANSCRIBERS FOMABOUT
• 50 YEARS 50 WEEKS: 1978, GLAD TO BE GAY
• GLAD TO BE GAY

GLAD TO BE GAY: THE STORY OF THE FILMG OF DAVID IS HOMOSEXUAL

Their unn was illegal for a year before the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy 1967. The bluffly and arrtgly tled David Is Homosexual was ma for the Lewisham branch of the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly (CHE), a social and polil group Ray had persuad Wilf to jo. His activist fire was igned after beg volved the se for the dismissal of John Warburton, the schoolteacher at London’s Holland Park prehensive sacked for beg gay the early 70s.

GLAD TO BE GAYTOM ROBSON BANDTRACK 13 ON POWER THE DARKNS “(SG IF YOU’RE) GLAD TO BE GAY,” ORIGALLY RELEASED 1978 AS PART OF THE BUT EP OF THE GROUP TOM ROBSON BAND IS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE MOST FG SONGS OF THE BAND… READ MORE 1 VIEWER23.3K VIEWS12 CONTRIBUTORSGLAD TO BE GAY LYRICS[SPOKEN WORD INTRO]THIS SONG IS DITED TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATN, ’S A MEDIL SONG AND NCERNS A DISEASE WHOSE CLASSIFITN ACRDG TO THE INTERNATNAL CLASSIFITN OF DISEAS IS 302.0[VERSE 1]THE BRISH POLICE ARE THE BT THE WORLDI DON'T BELIEVE ONE OF THE STORI I'VE HEARD'BOUT THEM RAIDG OUR PUBS FOR NO REASON AT ALLLG THE CTOMERS UP BY THE WALLPICKG OUT PEOPLE AND KNOCKG THEM DOWNRISTG ARRT AS THEY'RE KICKED ON THE GROUNDSEARCHG THEIR HO AND LLG THEM QUEERI DON'T BELIEVE THAT SORT OF THG HAPPENS HERE[CHOS]SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY[VERSE 2]PICTUR OF NAKED YOUNG WOMEN ARE FUNIN TBS AND PLAYBOY, PAGE THREE OF THE SUNTHERE'S NO NUS GAY NEWS, OUR ONE MAGAZEBUT THEY STILL FD EXC TO LL OBSCENEREAD HOW DISGTG WE ARE THE PRSTHE TELEGRAPH, PEOPLE AND SUNDAY EXPRSMOLTERS OF CHILDREN, RPTORS OF YOUTHIT'S THERE THE PAPER, MT BE THE TTHYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE[CHOS](TRY AND) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY[VERSE 3]DON'T TRY TO KID THAT IF YOU'RE DISCREETYOU'RE PERFECTLY SAFE AS YOU WALK DOWN THE STREETYOU DON'T HAVE TO MCE OR MAKE BCHY REMARKSTO GET BEATEN UNNSC AND LEFT THE DARKI HAD A IEND WHO WAS GENTLE AND SHORTHE WAS LONELY ONE EVENG AND WENT FOR A WALKQUEERBASHERS UGHT HIM, KICKED HIS TEETHHE WAS ONLY HOSPALISED FOR A WEEK(AND HE STILL BEARS THE SRS)[CHOS]SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY[VERSE 4]AND S BACK AND WATCH AS THEY CLOSE DOWN OUR CLUBSARRT FOR MEETG AND RAID ALL OUR PUBSMAKE SURE YOUR BOYIEND'S AT LEAST 21SO ONLY YOUR IENDS AND YOUR BROTHERS GET DONELIE TO YOUR WORKMAT, LIE TO YOUR FOLKSPUT DOWN THE QUEENS, TELL ANTI-QUEER JOKGAY LIB'S RIDICULO, JO THEIR LGHTER'THE BUGGERS ARE LEGAL NOW, WHAT MORE ARE THEY AFTER?'(TELL THEM!)[CHOS]SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAYSG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THAT WAY(HEY!) SG IF YOU'RE GLAD TO BE GAYSG IF YOU'RE HAPPY THIS WAY3EMBEDCANCELHOW TO FORMAT LYRICS:TYPE OUT ALL LYRICS, EVEN REPEATG SONG PARTS LIKE THE CHOSLYRICS SHOULD BE BROKEN DOWN TO DIVIDUAL LUSE SECTN HEARS ABOVE DIFFERENT SONG PARTS LIKE [VERSE], [CHOS], ETC.USE ALICS (<I>LYRIC</I>) AND BOLD (<B>LYRIC</B>) TO DISTGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT VOLISTS THE SAME SONG PARTIF YOU DON’T UNRSTAND A LYRIC, E [?]TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT OUR TRANSCRIPTN GUI OR VIS OUR TRANSCRIBERS FOMABOUT

”John Warburton, like Ray, featur as a meo David Is Homosexual, at the 1976 Gay Pri event Hy Park. The Lewisham branch of CHE are seen wh their heads on one another’s laps, drkg beer unr plards, enjoyg what is believed to have been the only rerd footage of Glad To Be Gay sger Tom Robson’s low-key stage appearance that year.

‘Our fai were wonrful’: Ray (left) and Wiled wh Ray’s dad their back garn the 70sDavid Is Homosexual was shot on weekends the blisterg Brish summer of 1976. Funds were tight and film was pricey, but momentum was high among the active gay and lbian brethren of southeast London.

It tells the g-out story of the tular David, a reprsed office worker whose mum and dad scream abe at the telly when gay rights march appear on the go to the office party and ss alone as tipsy straight upl kiss over spilt sweet whe we on the dancefloor.

50 YEARS 50 WEEKS: 1978, GLAD TO BE GAY

The sign of the tim fairytale reach s happy a portra of suburban Bra the middle of the 70s and a portal to the gay mdset of the time, is rivetg. The motache unt the film, for both gay and straight men, is evably high.

David Is Homosexual had an unually long lifpan, tourg the untry until 1979. The film beme a ver story for the magaze Gay director Ron Peck saw and told Wiled how imprsive he found .

Not long after, Peck began work on the bona fi gay classic Night Hawks, a bleak look at same-sex matg ruals om a time when Freddie Mercury and the Village People were assumed to be straight.

GLAD TO BE GAY

” The project was tim: on the set of David Is HomosexualDave, now 71, had popped his head round the door at the Salisbury his time, too. “I didn’t really like the gay scene back then, ” Dave says now. I jt wanted to meet someone gay to talk to.

” He would sometim go to the Castle Lewisham: “Down a rridor, past the straight bar the ont and to the gay bar the back. My mum knew I was gay, but didn’t want to know. ”Like the David David Is Homosexual, Dave found his social world improved on disverg the CHE.