Owen Horsley’s ventive productn sheds ltle light on what means to be gay, but highlights Wil’s bejewelled text
Contents:
- GLAD TO BE GAY: LEADG FIGUR ON 50 YEARS OF LIBERATN
- BETIFUL THG, GROUNDBREAKG GAY PLAY, TO ENJOY WT END REVIVAL
- TENNYSON'S GAY GREAT-GRANDSON KNIFED TO DEATH
- GAY BRISH ACTORS ....
- EXCLUSIVE: MEET THE SUPER CUTE STAR OF THE NEW GAY ROMEO + JULIET DRAMA!
GLAD TO BE GAY: LEADG FIGUR ON 50 YEARS OF LIBERATN
How has life changed for gay men the UK sce homosexualy was crimalised 1967? From actor Antony Sher to novelist Alan Hollghurst, men of different generatns om across arts and polics share their stori<br> * matthew tennyson gay *
It was not until the 1960s that the MP Leo Abse and Lord Arran proposed a bill to liberalise male homosexualy, drawg on the remendatns of the 1957 Wolfenn report. 30am on 5 July 1967, the Sexual Offenc Act was passed, crimalisg private homosexual acts between men over 21 England and Wal (Stland eventually ught up 1980, Northern Ireland 1982).
In the UK, the landspe has been transformed wh civil partnership (2004), gay marriage (2013) and fai head by gay upl – every reason for gay pri. Events clu the Brish Mm’s show, Dire, Love, Inty: explorg LGBTQ histori, the Natnal Theatre’s Queer seri (6-10 July), which offers rehearsed readgs chartg the LGBT experience, and the Natnal Tst’s programme explorg genr diversy through the history of s ho, Prejudice and is Queerama, a new film openg Sheffield’s documentary ftival (9-14 June), that offers the most alarmg sight to homosexual life pre-1967. In the 1950s and 60s, gay men were seen as a medil and social problem.
The film clus extraordary black-and-whe footage om the 1964 ITV documentary This Week: Homosexuals. He explas: “One 20 of both sex is homosexual…” He elaborat – a stab at enlightenment – that “ntrary to popular opn, they don’t look any different om anyone else” although they “stand acced of pravy and vice” and “disturb nformist valu”. Photograph: Graham Turner/The GuardianAcrdg to Queerama director Daisy Asquh, was “easier to go unr the radar the 19th century than the 50s when Churchill enuraged prosecutns of gay men, which ma life very ighteng for them”.
BETIFUL THG, GROUNDBREAKG GAY PLAY, TO ENJOY WT END REVIVAL
* matthew tennyson gay *
She was repeatedly “floored”, she said, makg the film, by the “urage of the gay men, bisexuals and lbians and anyone transgenr or non-bary who me out the first two-thirds of the 20th century”.
She shows the endls subterfuge volved beg gay, even though was never actually illegal to be a lbian.
In 1988, Margaret Thatcher add a vic new twist, Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act, which stated that lol thori mt avoid “promotg homosexualy” or the “acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship”.
TENNYSON'S GAY GREAT-GRANDSON KNIFED TO DEATH
In 1994 the age of nsent was lowered to 18, and 2001 to 16, but was not until 2003 that sectn 28 was repealed and not until 2009 that David Cameron apologised for do this mean gay legislatn is now plete? How much homophobia is still lurkg beneath the surface?
And is hard-won happs the homosexual muny jtified – or placent? Photograph: Si Dhanda/The ObserverThe poet Andrew McMillan was born South Yorkshire 1988, the year Alan Hollghurst’s but novel, The Swimmg-Pool Library, was published, a book that ma a huge splash – a chlorated wave – as an unually sexually explic narrative, set 80s London, about a sctive, privileged and promiscuo gay hero, volved wh a young, workg-class black man.
GAY BRISH ACTORS ....
It was only when other kids at school would go: “Are you gay? I stayed on to do a graduate this about gay wrers, which was a way of makg a formal statement I was still shy about makg person.
I always felt shy of talkg about my gayns wh my parents.
AH: I did at a school dance get a girl a rner but I don’t thk eher of was I had a girliend for a month but already knew that I was gay so wasn’t fair on her. I took her to see a very bad Halle Berry film and kissed her the beg gay had any effect on your wrg reers? People have asked me a thoand tim: how do you react to beg lled a gay wrer?
EXCLUSIVE: MEET THE SUPER CUTE STAR OF THE NEW GAY ROMEO + JULIET DRAMA!
The book me out 21 years later, 1988, and part of s tert was that there still hadn’t been a ank pictn of gay sexual behavur the English lerary novel. There was all the bs about Clse 28 gog on, which aimed to prohib lol thori om “promotg” homosexualy, and my book was ught up the discsn: was this the sort of tle that might be banned om public librari? In the 1980s and 90s, the Aids crisis stimulated a send wave of out gay wrg, though I feel that, as a genre, gay l is now rather losg fn, and the polil and cultural urgency for s existence feels ls.
Do book shops still have gay sectns?
AM: I was at first really unfortable wh the gay wrer label and wanted to rist .