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

Contents:

• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• MORE BRONS THAN EVER BEFORE INTIFY AS LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL
• GAY UNED KGDOM
• GAY BRA GLOSSARY
• 25 BT GAY LIVE CAMS: GAY CAM S TO VIS INCLUDG 100 PERCENT FREE GAY CAMS

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

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. 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). The ma tr may be straight, but the mera’s love of Pl Robon’s torso – the film was directed and produced by gay men – hts at an even more taboo love story.

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

Although ma at a time when homosexualy was unmentnable on screen, Hale’s gtur and waspish livery clearly the character as not the marryg kd.

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. Victim was released four years after the publitn of the Wolfenn report, a paper which remend that male homosexualy no longer be regard as a crimal offence. 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).

GAY UNED KGDOM

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. Sebastiane (1976)Few films outsi gay porn feature as much male flh as Sebastiane, the feature but of Derek Jarman (-directed by Pl Hums).

Some praised for s realistic portrayal of a gay teacher unsuccsfully seekg a lovg relatnship the newly sexually liberated clubs of London. Now Nighthawks n be re-evaluated as an valuable time psule of the late 1970s gay scene, the liberated perd between crimalisatn and the outbreak of AIDS.

Ken Robertson is very good as the antihero, pecially the film’s bt scene, when the teacher out to his homophobic class and nonts their prejudic. 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.

GAY BRA GLOSSARY

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.

An art historian disvered a 400-year-old portra of Gee Villiers, the former De of Buckgham who is thought to have been the gay lover of Kg Jam VI and I, the Brish ler om 1567 to 1625 who missned a btsellg book known as The Kg Jam Bible. Hovn’s bed ment may be more of a polil metaphor than a leral one — polics do make strange bedfellows, after all — but even still, Richard I has long been lnized as a gay in. The plays of both possibly-gay English playwright Christopher Marlowe and totally-gay English playwright Derek Jarman both picted Edward II as gay.

25 BT GAY LIVE CAMS: GAY CAM S TO VIS INCLUDG 100 PERCENT FREE GAY CAMS

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. As a rult, 1957, Lord John Wolfenn and his mtee published their report which had vtigated “homosexualy and s implitns for Brish social life and the law”. 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.

It starred matee idol Dirk Bogar as a closeted gay lawyer who is implited a blackmail rg which threatens to expose his gay inty and stroy his reer.