Simon Callow: 'I always told people that I was gay wherever I went'

Contents:

• SIMON CALLOW: PRAISE OF GAY SWEATSHOP
• HOW 1967 CHANGED GAY LIFE BRA: ‘I THK FOR MY GENERATN, WE’RE STILL A LTLE B UNEASY’
• SIMON CALLOW: 'I ALWAYS TOLD PEOPLE THAT I WAS GAY WHEREVER I WENT'
• SIMON CALLOW TERVIEW: ‘AS A YOUNG GAY MAN, TANGIER WAS ASTONISHG’
• #QUEERQUOTE: “I THK MY COMG OUT AS A GAY MAN WAS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE THGS I’VE DONE IN MY LIFE.” – SIMON CALLOW
• SIMON CALLOW BRANDS TOM HANKS’ REFAL TO TAKE GAY PHILALPHIA ROLE TODAY ‘DANGERO IA’: ‘IT KILLS LIBERATN’
• INTERVIEW: SIMON CALLOW ON DICKENS, PEGGY RAMSAY AND BEG GAY
• ‘MAYBE THEY’RE JT GAY’: SIMON CALLOW NMNS ‘TYRANNIL’ APPROACH TAKEN BY LGBTQ+ RIGHTS GROUP ON GENR INTIFITN

SIMON CALLOW: PRAISE OF GAY SWEATSHOP

Gay men and women who had popped their heads over the parapet ducked down aga out of sight, but they were jt bidg their thori began to feel embattled. By the 1950s, particularly durg the tenure of the fiercely anti-gay Tory home secretary David Maxwell Fyfe, prosecutns for “unnatural vice” rose drastilly.

HOW 1967 CHANGED GAY LIFE BRA: ‘I THK FOR MY GENERATN, WE’RE STILL A LTLE B UNEASY’

It was to a large extent the Wil se that had engenred the attus to homosexualy that prevailed throughout most of the first half of the 20th century. In the bigger world beyond my personal bewilrments, there was a rash of homosexual sndals which the participants variably end up prison or ad.

A pesal of DJ Wt’s wily available Pelin paperback Homosexualy (1960) yield the disuragg rmatn that my feelgs were a rult of my upbrgg, and that I uld expect a wretched life on the margs of society, perpetual nial of my te self, except perhaps, furtively, among my fellow holiday: Osr Wil on holiday Italy. The problem was, I was livg Streatham, not Sparta, and I lived terror of what might happen if I were to make advanc to a straight man – terrified, pecially, of the danger of beg exposed as a “homo”.

SIMON CALLOW: 'I ALWAYS TOLD PEOPLE THAT I WAS GAY WHEREVER I WENT'

“Homosexual behavur between nsentg adults private” would no longer be a crimal offence; parliament fally repealed the notor Crimal Law Amendment Act, 1885. I ma the surprisg disvery that both actors and gay people – this was the first time I’d heard the word this ntext – were jt like everyone else: some were brilliant and wty and sexy and flamboyant, some were surly and antisocial, others were solid and a ltle dull.

The amers of the 1967 act had ply hoped that homosexuals, though now legal, would not flnt their new-found eedom, but rema discreet and circumspect. Would we hell: we marched and we chanted, not so much to mand further chang to the law – though we did that, too – but simply to assert that we were here and we were queer and we were not gog the rabow banner of Gay Liberatn, homosexualy proclaimed self a hoe of many mansns: the varieti of gay sire were astoundg.

Whatever the pl or m of that, meant that the pk pound sudnly beme a signifint enomic lever, so powerful that the palists who would normally have been outraged by a gay prence their venu succumbed as soon as they unrstood that gay nights were outsellg all others the groom: Simon Callow and his hband Sebastian Fox on their weddg day, Mykonos, June 2016. Wh terrifyg rapidy, illns and ath brought the party to an abpt end, as reveller after reveller succumbed to what at first we thought was a gay ncer, but which soon, beme clear, was nothg ls than a gay transformed the liv and attus of gay men everywhere. People who had remaed discreet about their homosexualy emerged om their closets: what was happeng dwarfed anyone’s anxieti about their reers or the sensibili of their fai.

SIMON CALLOW TERVIEW: ‘AS A YOUNG GAY MAN, TANGIER WAS ASTONISHG’

The journalists were, they thought, protectg me, but they also knew that my clarg myself gay wasn’t a story; them fdg me out would have been. More and more proment figur started g out, until fally the promised land was sight: a world which didn’t matter whether you were gay or had always been my belief that spe the existence of small and vilent enclav of fundamentalist homophobia, the Brish people general rather like their gays. The short, unhappy life of Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act 1988 – which lol thori were prohibed om “promotg” homosexualy – end ignomly some 15 years after was enacted wh no prosecutn havg taken place.

Aga, proment gay men and women had been quick to nounce , and the general public beme ed to the ia of gay policians, gay lawyers, gay prits.

But more and more gay men and women wanted the particular blsg of a formal nsecratn of their mment to each had oddly been praged Richard Curtis’s wildly succsful film Four Weddgs and a Funeral (1994), which I had the privilege of beg the funeral. It was a powerful symbol, but the even more powerful one of marriage began to seem so, somewhat improbably, as profound a transformatn of the posn of gay people wh the life of the natn as any that has occurred Brish history me about unr a aln admistratn led by a Conservative prime mister, David Cameron, spe fierce opposn om a highly vol mory wh parliament and the untry self.

#QUEERQUOTE: “I THK MY COMG OUT AS A GAY MAN WAS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE THGS I’VE DONE IN MY LIFE.” – SIMON CALLOW

Gay Reveler Gareth the 1994 Film 'Four Weddgs and a Funeral'Author of 1984 book 'Beg an Actor'Callow me out as gay publicly his 1984 book 'Beg an Actor, ' makg him one of the earlit public figur to reveal their homosexualy publicly.

Fox is a German management nsultant, 34 years younger than Callow is a Brish actor bt known for his role as gay reveler Gareth the 1994 romantic edy film Four Weddgs and a Funeral. He me out as gay publicly his 1984 book 'Beg an Actor, ' makg him one of the earlit public figur to reveal their homosexualy publicly. In an terview wh Daily Mail, Callow said that he cid to exchange the weddg vows Mykonos to embrace the civilizatn and culture of that place where homosexualy was an tegrated part of society.

Advocy on Gay MarriageCallow once risted the ia of gay marriage, but he later said an article published the Eveng Standard  2012 that he believed marriage is his right as a cizen.

SIMON CALLOW BRANDS TOM HANKS’ REFAL TO TAKE GAY PHILALPHIA ROLE TODAY ‘DANGERO IA’: ‘IT KILLS LIBERATN’

He said that gay upl served the right to marriage like heterosexuals, statg that marriage, which ronat wh rponsibili and a promise of permanency, mak them greater than they were. Beg gay – gay, not queer, not homo, not poof nor pansy, faggot nor fairy – was now a e, a csa; we were a separate and self-sufficient subdivisn of human kd, our liv centrally predited on sire.

And some very liberated gay men, who mostly me om Out There – those very ungay regnal and suburban hterlands – cid that maybe the theatre would be a good way of nnectg everyone up. So Gay Sweatshop me to existence, unr the umbrella of the Amerin granddaddy of radil theatre, the alternative Diaghilev, Ed Berman, who for a season opened his ltle venue to plays by, for and about gay men and I was asked, by this to me at the time hilarly named Gay Sweatshop, to read for the part of Toby Mart Sherman’s play Passg By, I was highly sceptil. I endorsed gay liberatn wh every fibre of my beg, I believed that more and better sex was the solutn to everythg, but I uld not see the pot of this sort of ghetto theatre.

I don’t believe I’ve done anythg more rewardg or more emotnally overpowerg on any stage or any was jt a begng for Gay Sweatshop.

INTERVIEW: SIMON CALLOW ON DICKENS, PEGGY RAMSAY AND BEG GAY

The women and men who ran were no slouch when me to personally fosterg the sexual revolutn, but their work was not dulgent or ivolo: reached out many directns – historilly, theatrilly, polilly – a termatn to affirm the place and existence of gay people wh society, that we’re here and we’re queer and we’ve been here and been queer for a very long time – sce rerds began. Once they started to wake up to all of that, then the rt of society did too, and we began to approach the better world (for gays) which we now Gay Sweatshop was a tremendo part of that transformatn attus, reachg out across the untry on tour after tour, as well as beg a remarkable theatril novator s own right, nurturg new wrers and tappg the talents of the tablished great on. They are there to discs one of the burng issu of the day – homosexualy – and rpond to a groundbreakg documentary shown earlier the eveng.

Now 83, she remembers that night as an important moment for gay visibily, but acknowledg that she was a posn of relative privilege. It 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”. Attus to homosexualy were gradually changg, spurred by the work of Sigmund Frd and Aled Ksey, as well as arguments about personal liberty.

‘MAYBE THEY’RE JT GAY’: SIMON CALLOW NMNS ‘TYRANNIL’ APPROACH TAKEN BY LGBTQ+ RIGHTS GROUP ON GENR INTIFITN

When John Wolfenn nclud 1957 that homosexual acts private should not be a crime, even the Archbishop of Canterbury agreed, sayg: “There is a sacred realm of privacy... Photograph: Eveng Standard/Getty ImagIn the wake of Wolfenn, prsure groups such as the Homosexual Law Reform Society formed, hopg to keep up the momentum. Rather, the legal suatn “was part of the general glooms which hung around beg gay – that you were likely to be a crimal or some terrible pervert or somethg”.

“When I went to work the theatre, I immediately saw somethg pletely different – which was an environment which there were lots of gay people who were all perfectly ol wh beg gay, although they never said publicly. Photograph: Alastair Muir/Getty ImagCallow agre that ’s possible to overstate the impact of the change the law on people’s liv – and that outsi subcultur such as the theatre gay life ntued to be very difficult. Callow not that those who uld do so still felt the need to leave the untry orr to live gay liv, wh Tangier, voutly Mlim Moroc, providg an atmosphere of relative openns for thoands of Brish left London 1968 to go to universy Belfast, which he likens to steppg to a time mache (the 1967 act didn’t apply there, and male homosexualy remaed illegal until 1982).

” There were gay men there who “had perfectly nice sex liv who managed to dodge the law refully”, wh scen to rival London and Tangier their bohemianism, if you knew where to look. “You’re talkg about a perd the north of Ireland when was difficult to be heterosexual, let alone homosexual, ” he says of the era’s strgent moral s.