Stephen K Amos: ‘I should have stood up for the kid at school who was bullied for beg gay’

Contents:

• STEPHEN K AMOS: 'I DON'T WANT TO BE LABELLED "THE BLACK GAY IC"'
• ‘THERE WERE VERY, VERY FEW OPENLY QUEER KIDS MY YEAR GROUP’: JOE LYCETT, COLM TóIBíN AND MORE ON HOW GAY LIFE HAS CHANGED
• STEPHEN K AMOS: ‘I SHOULD HAVE STOOD UP FOR THE KID AT SCHOOL WHO WAS BULLIED FOR BEG GAY’
• IS STEPHEN K AMOS MARRIED? IS STEPHEN K AMOS GAY?
• GAY EDIAN STEPHEN K AMOS WAS PREPARED TO CHALLENGE POPE OVER HOMOSEXUALY
• AUDIENCE WH POPE MAK A NVERT OF GAY EDIAN
• POPE FRANCIS: ANYONE WHO DISRDS GAY PEOPLE ‘DON’T HAVE A HUMAN HEART’
• GAY EDIAN STEPHEN K AMOS WAS PREPARED TO CHALLENGE POPE OVER HOMOSEXUALY

STEPHEN K AMOS: 'I DON'T WANT TO BE LABELLED "THE BLACK GAY IC"'

Pope Francis says gay men should not jo the clergyStephen K Amos was one of eight celebri – cludg L Dennis, Lley Joseph and Greg Rutherford – who trekked a 1, 000km sectn of the pilgrim’s walk om Canterbury to Rome for a BBC documentary on TV personali pleted the Via Francigena walk jt 15 days last September, as part of Pilgrimage: The Road To Rome. ”‘As a gay man, I don’t feel accepted’Viewers will watch as Amos rais the issue of LGBT people feelg ostracised the relign, and explas: “As a gay man, I don’t feel accepted”. ”The Catholic Church’s stance on LGBT peoplePrevly, Pope Francis reportedly suggted parents should take children who they believe were gay to a told Italian publitn La Stampa: “I would say first of all to pray— then, to not nmn, to talk, to unrstand, to make space for the son or dghter.

”L Dennis meets Pope Francis (Photo: BBC)The Roman Catholic Church ems homosexualy a s, wh the Pope admtg there was “no room” for such acts the liv of prits and nuns. I know lots of ics who've left the untry and are tryg their hand Ameri bee they feel they're htg a glass ceilg 2006, your edy style changed when you did an Edburgh show which you spoke publicly for the first time about beg gay. And then I heard on the telly they'd found a body on Clapham Common, someone who'd been killed a homophobic attack, and saw the picture and was a iend of me.

This lad me up to me after one show, a whe kid, about 19, very street savvy, and said: "I've been stgglg wh the issu but I'm gog to tell my mum that I'm gay today.

‘THERE WERE VERY, VERY FEW OPENLY QUEER KIDS MY YEAR GROUP’: JOE LYCETT, COLM TóIBíN AND MORE ON HOW GAY LIFE HAS CHANGED

I've been asked to go on all sorts of programm to discs those issu and I've jt picked a few, bee I don't want to be labelled as "the black gay ic".

STEPHEN K AMOS: ‘I SHOULD HAVE STOOD UP FOR THE KID AT SCHOOL WHO WAS BULLIED FOR BEG GAY’

I didn't set out to be this role mol, but if 's all moratn and if you n spire and enurage younger people, then that's a great ma a documentary, Batty Man, for Channel 4 about homophobia the black muny. Joe Lycett, edianI spent most of my school years unr sectn 28 [a clse banng schools om “promotg homosexualy”] – somethg I only realised this year.

IS STEPHEN K AMOS MARRIED? IS STEPHEN K AMOS GAY?

So ’s no wonr homophobia was rife and there were very, very few openly queer kids my year group. As my 20s unfold, I felt thgs were unstoppably changg for the better, wh gay marriage and public attus alterg rapidly. ‘I’ve felt a profound loss of sual gay spac’Jake Shears, micianWe have gaed a lot of space culturally, but have lost so much of our physil space the real world.

GAY EDIAN STEPHEN K AMOS WAS PREPARED TO CHALLENGE POPE OVER HOMOSEXUALY

My move to London last year has been thrillg, but I’ve also felt a profound loss of sual gay spac.

Most bars I loved have gone, or bee gay-themed, equented by a straight majory.

AUDIENCE WH POPE MAK A NVERT OF GAY EDIAN

On a random Thursday night, I’m at a loss as to where to go to meet other gay guys. Acceptable discrimatn was g at me wh “gay abandon” based on my sexualy, my race and my culture, buoyed up by a hostile prs, legimised by a ernment unr Mrs Thatcher and ma worse by the HIV epimic and the outright hysteria surroundg Aids.

‘Bra then is barely regnisable today’Alan Hollghurst, wrer From the time I me out, aged 20, I knew beg gay was somethg I wanted to wre about: not jt my own experience but the longer history of gay life Bra, the challenge and adventure of . It appeared at an extremely difficult time, at the height of the Aids crisis, wh hostily to gay life enshred law by sectn 28 – a Bra barely regnisable today.

POPE FRANCIS: ANYONE WHO DISRDS GAY PEOPLE ‘DON’T HAVE A HUMAN HEART’

Over the followg s my personal experience of beg gay has evolved to near-total unselfnscns about .

Anti-gay feelg is licensed and exploed wh alarmg ease, and is easily exportable, even to the socially liberal cultur of the wt, where the eedoms of such mori have been protected for s.

I was gog to wre an angry piece about the way policians like Margaret Thatcher played dog-whistle polics and vilified gay people for beg themselv, cg vlence and hate.

GAY EDIAN STEPHEN K AMOS WAS PREPARED TO CHALLENGE POPE OVER HOMOSEXUALY

But even though Thatcher, the church lears of those tim, sectn 28, unequal ag of nsent, gross cency and other such laws have sce died or been rcd, and even though HIV/Aids has been regnised as jt another opportunist vis and not a “gay plague”, those policians, relig bigots and homophob are still prent has changed is that ( this untry at least) laws protect the equaly of the person, their age of nsent, their right to partner whom they love. What has changed for me is that the shame and guilt that, as a child, homophob would have foisted on me for beg myself, has changed to py for them that their sexualy is so agile, uld be threatened by me.

‘We were phg an open door’Colm Tóibín, wrerFor me, the biggt change beg gay my lifetime me wh the referendum on same-sex marriage Ireland 2015. Few on the “no” si felt ee to sult gay people or imply we were not equal cizens Ireland. And we ma clear, as homosexuals, that we were born to fai and we wished not to stroy the fay but to enrich .