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

Contents:

• HOW 1967 CHANGED GAY LIFE BRA: ‘I THK FOR MY GENERATN, WE’RE STILL A LTLE B UNEASY’
• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• GAY RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON: 10 WAYS WHICH THE UK HAS CHANGED
• MORE BRONS THAN EVER BEFORE INTIFY AS LBIAN, GAY OR BISEXUAL

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

6 was circulated, the ernment said the rmatn would provi evince about equali to tackle discrimatn and improve cisns ma about health re, tn, employment, hog and social servic for lbian, gay and bisexual people. However, prev surveys found 16-24-year-olds are more likely to intify as lbian, gay or bisexual, and recent years there has been a small gradual cle the number of people intifyg as exclively straight. “Let me remd them that no amount of legislatn will prevent homosexuals om beg the subject of dislike and risn, or at bt of py, ”After the Sexual Offenc Act was passed 1967, nvictns of gay men for gross cency actually creased, and gay people were still characterised as would-be sexual predators and threats to children.

The 1980s HIV/Aids panmic, ravaged a generatn of gay and bisexual men, attus towards gay people harned and a moral panic culmated the passg of sectn 28, banng the “promotn” of homosexualy schools: the first anti-gay legislatn passed sce 1885. Neverthels, this perd LGBTQ+ people flourished culturally and artistilly, while om the 90s onwards, hostile public attus cmbled precipoly as anti-gay laws were stck om statute as a remr that progrs is far om lear, Bra is the grip of another moral panic, this time directed at transgenr people. And while today’s LGBTQ+ muni are more uned fiance of ernment policy that any time sce sectn 28 (more than 80 anisatns pulled out of a ernment nference over s refal to ban trans nversn “therapy”), Stonewall, the untry’s ma LGBTQ+ civil rights anisatn, fds self unr siege, while homophobic and transphobic hate crim are surgg.

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

As a former edor of Gay Tim, he tapped to his extensive nnectns wh LGBTQ+ anisatns and queer activists and artists, and when he spoke to potential funrs, Galliano met nstant astonishment that such a mm did not already exist or even been attempted s own right before. Photograph: Jt Tallis/AFP/Getty ImagBra’s often tortured stggle for LGBTQ+ rights is reflected many of the photographs, such as the flamboyantly drsed yet straight Jewish Labour MP Leo Abse, who succsfully phed for the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy om the backbench. Mreen Colquhoun – the first openly lbian MP who died last year – fiantly holds a plard emblazoned wh “THE MPS MUST COME OUT”, while ’s difficult not to feel a pang of sadns at a photo of Jt Fashanu flexg his mcl: he was, of urse, Bra’s first and still only out gay male profsnal footballer who killed himself 1998.

It should be hoped, too, that the upg summer exhibn featur more imag of stggle: there are allns, such as a Black woman holdg a “LESBIAN AND GAY PRIDE ’83” balloon, but there are so many joyo moments to celebrate that are danger of beg fotten by younger LGBTQ+ generatns, such as the lbian activists who abseiled to the Hoe of Lords or stormed the Six O’Clock News to prott agast sectn 28. It will make mistak, but wh such mendable reprentatn among s tste and advisers, and a genue mment to listen to LGBTQ+ muni, there are huge grounds for the half-century sce crimalisatn of male homosexualy was partly repealed, Bra’s LGBTQ+ muni have ma dramatic ntributns to Brish culture and society, often while faced wh tremendo adversy. “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.

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

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.

GAY RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON: 10 WAYS WHICH THE UK HAS CHANGED

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). ”Brocklby rells the heady days of the early 70s, when the efforts of the rather sober Homosexual Law Reform Society gave way to the fiance of the Gay Liberatn Front, spired part by New York’s Stonewall rts.

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

In 1988, wh the Aids crisis at s peak, the Brish ernment cid to kick the gay muny while was down, g the famo sectn 28 to ban any “promotn” of homosexualy schools, cludg “the acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship”. Image ptn, Claire Pickerg Wakefield library imag the diary wrer speakg a Yorkshire accentA diary wrten by a Yorkshire farmer more than 200 years ago is beg hailed as providg remarkable evince of tolerance towards homosexualy Bra much earlier than prevly imaged.

Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy.

"In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships. Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural. "It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker.