More Brons than ever before intify as lbian, gay or bisexual | Rters

Contents:

• MORE BRONS THAN EVER BEFORE INTIFY AS LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• GAY UNED KGDOM

MORE BRONS THAN EVER BEFORE INTIFY AS LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL

LONDON (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - More Brons than ever before intify as lbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), meang the natn’s gay and bi muny grew by more than 15% a year to reach 1. “People aged 16 to 24 ntue to be the most likely to intify as LGB, however the proportn of olr adults intifyg as LGB, while much smaller, is also creasg, ” McClure add a were almost twice as likely as women to scribe themselv as gay, the ONS found. You n also e this list of notable gay Brs to start your own people Freebase / Public domaFreddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a Brish sger, songwrer, rerd producer, and lead volist of the rock band Queen.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

Speakg at a meetg of Commonwealth Heads of Government on April 17, Brish Prime Mister Thera May exprsed “regret” at the Brish Empire’s long legacy of homophobic legislatn. Enze Han, thor of “Brish Colonialism and the Crimalizatn of Homosexualy, ” said the laws were partly the product of a strict Victorian moral , which fed any sexual activy not for procreatn as taboo.

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

Indian LGBT activist Dhbo Jyoti, who helped lead the mpaign for the crimalizatn of gay sex India, told CNN that same-sex muni loathed the law not jt bee was “wrong, ” but also bee was “alien.

Two gay women were ned Malaysia early September for attemptg to have sex a parked r, the first time the punishment had been open to the public, while 20 men were charged after a gay club was raid Kuala Lumpur Augt. But when I heard people ravg about the show, wrten by Rsell T Davi, I was stck by how many of them admted to knowg ltle about the epimic – and the stctn wreaked among the gay muny. For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged, " says thor Crystal Jeans.

It's about a lonely, socially awkward and secretly gay postman livg a fictnal town the north of England who hs retirement, realisg he wants to turn his life around and fally be happy – but to do this, he needs to fd the love of his life, a man he hasn’t seen for nearly 50 years. That same year, the so-lled "Alan Turg law" offered pardons to 49, 000 Brish gay men who’d been nvicted of homosexual acts – followg a mpaign arguably bolstered by the greater awarens brought about by The Imatn Game, the h film that picted the nvictn and chemil stratn of the Enigma-breakg puter scientist.

MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

You’d not tch many queer al mers jottg down their memoirs – Crystal JeansHowever, 's fictn that’s very much drivg the phenomenon of brgg "lost" stori of gay life om the past to light.

Over the last five years, a tr of Irish wrers have livered stunng gay-themed novels set predomantly perds of history that didn't wele them – John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furi), Graham Norton (Home Stretch), and Sebastian Barry (the Costa Award-wng Days Whout End).

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

In the theatre, Matthew Lopez's exploratn of gay male history The Inherance triumphed London before transferrg to New York, where opened the year after a well-received revival of Mart Crowley's semal 1968 play Boys the Band. Most recently, the ter explod wh behd-the-scen photos of Harry Styl om the shoot of new film My Policeman, an adaptatn of Bethan Roberts's 2012 novel starrg the pop superstar as a closeted gay man the 1950s. However, as a way of explag the mystery surroundg why Harry left behd everythg he knew, Gale imaged a suatn which he was forced to leave as a rult of a gay affair beg exposed.

This was another reason I wrote The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle; I wanted to tell the story of one ordary young gay man tryg to exprs his love for another at a time when this would not have been accepted. But I also wanted to ntrast this disturbg, sometim horrifyg picture wh what life n be like for a gay man wh today’s much more acceptg society the UK – and celebrate how much progrs we’ve ma.

My spiratn was a seri of terviews I nducted wh olr gay men whilst I was Edor--Chief of Attu magaze, as part of our celebratn of the 50th anniversary of the start of crimalisatn. Pop star Harry Styl is starrg new film My Policeman as a closeted gay officer the 1950s (Cred: Getty Imag)"What we see all through history is that people are nied their past as part of a way to ntrol them, " says Hornby. This may e as a surprise om a untry where male homosexualy was illegal until as recently as 1967, and where gay marriage ntu to ffle right-wgers, swivel-eyed or otherwise.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

We’ve narrowed down the list to films easily available on DVD, although honourable mentn mt go to the über-rare Two Gentlemen Sharg (1969), a swgg slice of the 60s that hted at terracial homosexualy. Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release list should really be a Top 11 – the omissn of Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), the first Brish film to feature a gay kiss, is borrle excable. Tom Shkolnik’s betifully observed The Comedian (2012), which a possibly gay, possibly bi thirtysomethg (Edward Hogg) tri to make as a standup the pal, also narrowly missed cln.

A few d homosexuals n be found  Aled Hchck’s early work (check out the swishy drsmaker 1925’s The Pleasure Garn), while Ivor Novello’s films play up the flamboyant star’s androgyny, playg very odd, allegedly heterosexual men  The Lodger (1926) and The Man whout Dire (1923). Victim (1961)Dirk Bogar, an actor who never acknowledged the mours of his homosexualy durg his lifetime, took a real reer risk playg a lawyer who, followg a strg of blackmail attempts agast gay men, begs to realise his own sexualy.

GAY UNED KGDOM

It took another 10 years before partial crimalisatn took effect wh the Sexual Offenc act 1967, which allowed homosexual acts, private, between two men over the age of 21 – many feel Basil Dearn’s film helped liberalise attus and pave the way towards tolerance towards gay people. The Leather Boys (1964)The Brish ‘kchen sk’ dramas, foced around workg-class liv, that prevailed the late 50s and early 60s ocsnally ntaed sympathetic gay characters, such as Murray Melv’s stunt  A Taste of Honey (1961) and Cicely Courtneidge’s ageg actor  The L-shaped Room (1962). A newlywed (Col Campbell) havg marriage problems fds pe through mararie wh a biker gang – and don’t realise that his dynamic and fatly misogynist bt iend (Dudley Sutton) is gay.

The last scene, set a gay bar, featur a nga le of unlikable stereotyp, but at least Sutton across more sympathetilly than Ra Thgham, playg Campbell’s shrewish wife. Homosexualy is jt one of the topics vered  Hanif Kureishi’s amb, Osr-nomated screenplay, which also tak on racism, culture clash, and the state of Thatcher’s Bra. Betiful Thg (1996)This favoure remas one of the sweett of all gay films, tellg the story of two troubled boys – one bullied at school, the other at home – who fd love each other’s arms.

It’s a super play, but the film jt about tmps , thanks pecially to the performanc – Glen Berry retired om actg, Stt Neal played another gay role  The Bill, while the scene-stealg Lda Henry beme a fixture on Bad Girls and EastEnrs. When the Brish parliament passed the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967 – which stated that: “a homosexual act private shall not be an offence provid that the parti nsent thereto and have attaed the age of 21 years” – sought to legimate gay inty Bra, at least partially.

However, lbians do feature throughout the urse of this 50-year history and should be clud wh the bat around creased visibily – even if, when pared wh films about gay male experience, they are unrreprented. As Andy Medhurst explas his entertag and thoughtful search for “nebulo nanci” Brish films ma between the 1940s and 1960s, the aim of the queer spectator was to pick up on visual and verbal clu which would give away a character’s or actor’s “gayns”. It was not until the 1950s and the high-profile trials volvg Lord Montagu, Michael Pt-Rivers, and Peter Wilblood for homosexualy that the issue received substantial social attentn.

On the small screen, South, based on the play by Julien Green and shown as part of ITV’s Play of the Week seri 1959, is the earlit survivg Brish gay televisn drama. As well as suatg s gay polics wh a thriller narrative signed to appeal to a wir dience, is noteworthy for beg one of the first Brish films to st a well-known actor a gay tle role.

Extra-textual elements about Bogar’s own private life as a gay man lend the film and his performance addnal meang and an thenticy which flects his performanc later films such as Joseph Losey’s The Servant (1963) and Darlg (1965). Regardls of whether or not they were explicly scribed as beg gay, the tragic figur prented the plight of gay men who were sperately searchg for somewhere to “be themselv”. Canadian-Amerin soclogist Ervg Goffman, wrg 1968 (a year after the Sexual Offenc Act was passed England and Wal), clus homosexualy as a social stigma – that is, a marker which disqualifi an dividual om full social acceptance.

For the gay man, the uld range om (self-evint) sexual relatns wh someone of the same sex to ls obv symbols which have veloped society and culture over time – for example drag queens, effemate behavur and particular ways of drsg or actg. Stairse (Stanley Donen, 1969), featurg Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as a uple of “flamg queen” hairdrsers, drew the cril ire of Roger Ebert (and, one imag, some of the gay muny) for their portrayal of Harry and Charlie as a parodic “sishow attractn”.