You'll wish you were gay: Channel 4's It's a S reviewed | The Spectator

Contents:

• C4 ANNOUNC NEW SEASON, 50 SHAS OF GAY
• IT’S A S IS A LOVE LETTER TO 1980S GAY CULTURE – AND HATE MAIL TO THE ERA’S HOMOPHOBIC HEGEMONY
• YOU’LL WISH YOU WERE GAY: CHANNEL 4’S IT’S A S REVIEWED
• ‘IT’S A S BROUGHT BACK THE SADNS AND ANGER OF POLIL IMPOTENCE AND IGNORANCE’: THE AIDS CRISIS REMEMBERED BY GAY NURS
• WHY ARE GAY MEN MORE AT RISK FOR HIV?
• 'IN THE 80S HIV WAS EMED THE GAY PLAGUE AND THOSE WH WERE TREATED LIKE SCUM'

C4 ANNOUNC NEW SEASON, 50 SHAS OF GAY

But now, thanks to Rsell T Davi’s movg five-part Channel 4 drama seri, It’s a S, we are all able to look at a vivid, troublg and yet ultimately upliftg picture of those dark and adly younger dienc, may be shockg to learn jt how exclud and hidn the gay muny was om mastream life. It was route, as It’s a S remds , for gay men and lbians to nceal their sexual inti om their fai and was the furtive environment which Aids surfaced. Then beme known as “Grid” – gay-related immune ficiency – before acquired immunoficiency syndrome was fally ed (Aids) spread to the UK, a muny that was jt begng to fd s public voice and nfince was hered back to the shadows by a homophobic prs mpaign.

Terms like the “gay plague” were wily ed and the belief was fostered that the disease uld be transmted by any kd of gay muny was held spicn by all sectors of society, cludg the health service where, aga as Davi shows, Aids patients were often placed harsh ndns of isolatn. As wh the current panmic, many people died lonely aths, only the se of HIV there was no medil reason for their as bleak as the perd was, also gave birth to an upsurge gay activism and support groups that helped transform the posn of the gay muny this, four people who were at the foreont of the stggl brought so powerfully to life It’s a S, tell their stori their own Whaker, the -founr of the Terence Higgs Tst.

His fay swooped and kicked out all the gay iends and forced him on his ath bed to rent his homosexualy and accept the last r or he was gog to burn had the most vile thgs done to people who were credibly vulnerable. But I thk we wouldn’t have gay marriage now if hadn’t been for Aids, bee showed first of all that we were real people and Whaker is a psychiatrist and one of Europe’s longt-survivg people wh HIV.

IT’S A S IS A LOVE LETTER TO 1980S GAY CULTURE – AND HATE MAIL TO THE ERA’S HOMOPHOBIC HEGEMONY

He -found the Terrence Higgs Tst, named after his partner who was one of the first people the UK to die om Aids-related illns July Power, left, who worked on the Gay Swchboard the 1980s. ‘It was a time of nfn and then a time of nsirable fear’Lisa Power, sexual health and LGBT rights mpaignerI was workg on the Gay Swchboard durg the Aids outbreak.

YOU’LL WISH YOU WERE GAY: CHANNEL 4’S IT’S A S REVIEWED

”This was the time when gay pubs didn’t have wdows, (a) bee they would have been stoved and (b) nobody would go if they uld be seen om the outsi.

This was a time when nobody was out as gay the police and very few were out as gay the health profsn, bee got you to all kds of there were thoands of people who got stuck all over the untry tryg to help out, lots of them lbians, lots of them other gay men, who were terrified but ntually faced their fear to provi sential Bton, send om right, who worked for many years as a nurse wh HIV patients.

‘IT’S A S BROUGHT BACK THE SADNS AND ANGER OF POLIL IMPOTENCE AND IGNORANCE’: THE AIDS CRISIS REMEMBERED BY GAY NURS

The channel will unver the history of homosexualy laws and the evolvg perceptns of homosexualy Bra over the last 50 years four documentari and a llectn of shorts. Not Guilty tells the stori of some of the 15, 000 Brish men livg wh crimal rerds for offenc mted unr anti-homosexualy laws UK and their experienc long after the 1967 Act to crimalise homosexualy Bra. The film shows how the aln overme homophobic prs, and the hostile voice of Margaret Thatcher, to create a mpaign that would change perspectiv about AIDS and the gay muny.

WHY ARE GAY MEN MORE AT RISK FOR HIV?

In 50 Shas of Gay, Rupert Everett lv to the chang gay life and culture over the last fifty years, speakg to men their eighti who had experienc wh palace guards, to young transgenr people g out ral parts of the untry. Everett livers his own personal take on how gay life has changed sce 1967, reflectg on how far people have e acceptance and openns, and what aspects of gay culture has fad to the mastream over the years. The documentary reflects on the fearls artists who ed pop mic and their stat to promote the acceptance of homosexualy after 's legalisatn 50 years ago.

'IN THE 80S HIV WAS EMED THE GAY PLAGUE AND THOSE WH WERE TREATED LIKE SCUM'

As well as the season of documentari explorg the years followg the homosexualy legalisatn, Channel 4 has missned three programm that look to the history behd explosive royal and polil headl. Epimic [w/t] tells how an unlikely aln of gay mpaigners, Tory policians, and pneerg doctors me together to fight AIDS the 1980s – and changed Bra the procs. Born This Way (w/t) reveals that while mpaigners were battlg Parliament for legal reforms, pop mic was changg hearts and mds, brgg gay culture to the livg rooms of Bra.

And Bra’s Great Gay Buildgs, famo fac such as Simon Callow, Lord Waheed, Anna Richardson and Mary Portas champn the buildgs where extraordary moments Bra’s gay history took place. Far om herg an end to prejudice, 1967 unleashed a backlash of homophobia enforced by the police and the urts, as many aspects of gay life ntued to be illegal. The film tells the stori of some of the 15, 000 men who fell foul of Bra’s homophobic laws durg the past half century - and expos how the jtice ntu today.

This landmark film tells the behd-the-scen upliftg story of how an unlikely aln of Tory policians, pneerg doctors and gay men me together to fight a adly disease wh no cure – and how Bra was changed forever by the battle agast AIDS the 1980s.