THEGAYUK

Category: Comment

  • THE UNDATEABLE GAY | Once Is Enough – Apparently…

    So I’m out in a gay club, dancing the night away in my best new loafers. I’ve a wine in my right hand but no man in my left. Someone get the violins out. It’s Saturday night and the only love in my life is Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough estate. But as if Paul Daniel’s just waved his magic wand, a potential date is suddenly upon me like a fly on sh*t.

    The music is loud and as my friends will inform you, my hearing is not the best. Many a time I have the television on so loud, the neighbours from two doors down bang away on my front door. Anyway, I struggle to hear this potential beau’s name but my inhibitions have been lost in a bottle of Blossom Hill. So I go straight in for a kiss.

    And in the profound words of Cher, it really is in his kiss. Instantly I feel a connection and I swoon. Maybe my long line of frog kissing is finally over, I excitedly decide. From this moment on, we spend the entire evening locked lipped and it reiterates my feelings that no more amphibians may cross my luscious lips.

    The end of the evening draws near and I sense mini me getting a little aroused. He thinks he’s going to be getting some action from this nameless man. My future beau walks to his taxi and I presumptuously attempt to join him inside the taxi. But to mine and minime’s dismay, he puts his hand up to signal no entry. Instead he slips me his phone number on a piece of paper. Not what I’d hoped he’d be slipping me tonight.

    I wake up with a start and quickly roll over, anticipating a Sunday morning session. My hopes are instantly dashed when my memory kicks in and I remember I ended up in bed alone. I pick my phone up, hazy eyed. I have a text from an unknown number. It’s from a bloke called Simon. Oh my god, so that was his name! The stark realisation hits me that my last attempt at romance was with that tosser from Mulberry. Also called Simon. Not a good omen but I remind myself of my religious upbringing and I promise not to judge a man by his name.

    We arrange a date for the following and he suggests a restaurant in Uxbridge, close to where he lives. Judgmental Mark kicks in and I decide he doesn’t have a lot going for him. One, his name is Simon and two, he lives in Uxbridge. But the memory of my Christian upbringing kicks in again, I will not sit in judgment.

    The following evening arrives and I find myself with sweaty palms and shallow breathing to deal with. I don’t know what I’m more nervous about, being in Uxbridge town centre or going on a date. And then something hits me like a wet cod around my boat race. I haven’t a clue what Simon looks like as I was so intoxicated, that part of my memory seems to have been erased by Sauvignon.

    Fingers crossed he’s not a dog. I walk in and I see a figure stand and wave. I’m no intellectual giant but I conclude this must be him. Not bad on the eye. I wouldn’t kick him out of bed.

    The conversation flows between us but unfortunately for my date, so is the Sauvignon blanc. As each glass glides down, my voice raises a decibel. We laugh, we talk, we eat. I really think it’s gone well. This is my future prince. Frogs are a distant memory. Boy, am I delusional. As I ask, “when shall we see each other next?”, he replies deadpan, “once was enough!”

    Open mouthed, I get deserted by him at the table. Note to self, avoid Simons.

    @MarkyWoollard83

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Alexander McQueen; Meathead Maverick or Melancholy Martyr?

    ‘I’d rather people left my shows and vomited. I want extreme reactions. I want heart attacks. I want ambulances’ – Alexander McQueen.

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  • COMMENT: Come On Gays Let’s Play Nicely. Why Is Camp A Problem For Some Gay Men?

    One would automatically assume all gay men blissfully rub their pumped-up deltoids alongside other homosexuals. Coexisting side-by-side in one big pink, glittery rainbow chum-fest. That’s not completely the Louis Vuitton case. Queer men can be just as homophobic as any straight man.

    Some of them have a grievance with those disco-ball-swinging, Kylie-loving, hot-pant donners – in other words, camp men. Graham Norton and Alan Carr have been set-upon via Twitter for being part of the screaming, mincing, flamboyant-clothes-wearing brigade. The verbal attacks have mostly come from the straight-acting, masculine trying-to-conform, anti-camp homos.

    The prejudice isn’t just from nasty little quips on social media but also on gay dating sites. Some sites will specify straight-acting only, while others have profile settings you can categorise yourself as straight-acting.

    Their beef: having stereotypical homos in the limelight gives the perception that all gays are lipstick-wearing fairies.

    I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been sipping a Cinzano in a gay establishment and heard “you’d never know you were gay”.

     

    Depressingly the homosexual recipient usually takes the remark as a massive compliment.

     

    Why is camp a problem to some gay men?

    They want all the joys that come with being a c**ksucker, but without the association or identity.

    Of course not every homo loves shopping, shiny things and Cher. Gays come in all shapes and sizes, have different attributes and mannerisms and come from all walks of life. Gay dating sites never say “effeminate men only” or “no gingham shirt wearers here”.

    With such prejudice against the limp-wristed row-of-tents lot, how is this affecting young camp gay men’s ability to come out, or simply be happy with who they really are, wherever they fit on the campness scale?

    Imagine a camp teenager living outside of London – the Big Smoke isn’t immune from homophobia but is probably the most accepting city. There’s no hiding he’s gay – camp isn’t a quality you switch on or off as you see fit. Yes, it can be accentuated while hamming up an anecdote or prancing around a dance floor with ya mates – but trying to hide the fundamental you 24/7 would be a hard challenge even for the likes of Meryl Streep.

    He would no doubt have come up against plenty of homophobia. Being the Iphone, android internet crazed society we are, this teenager is quickly going to scroll across such bigotry on social media and dating sites. What he should see from other gays is acceptance. Instead he could be pushed to self-loathing and internalise homophobic thoughts – all thanks to other homosexuals.

    Ask any gay man, outside the Big Smoke there isn’t such a high tolerance to homosexuality – especially in less privileged areas. Is it any wonder young gays still find it hard to come to terms with their sexuality. According to Youth Chances (YC), an organisation that helps young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people: 42% of young LGBTs have sought medical help for anxiety or depression; 52% report self-harm; 44% have considered suicide.

    Overtly queer young people suffer enough abuse and bullying from ignorant others. Do we really need to add more fuel to that homophobic fire?

    With so many in today’s society being derogatory towards stereotypical screaming queens, our own kind should be more accepting.

    Whether you’re a raving homo with a penchant for Gaga, a leather-clad bear or straight-acting lumberjack – let’s drop the prejudice and raise our tolerance levels. We’ve enough battles to fight without starting on one another.

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

     

  • COMMENT: Things We Have Learned thanks to Caitlyn Jenner

    When Caitlyn Jenner made her first appearance at the beginning of June, the world suddenly became acutely more aware of the T letter of LGBT. Her 8 part documentary series is due to be aired in America in July, and hopefully this will be totally different from the rather shallow and vacuous TV show that Caitlyn used to be part of. But what has this meant for what is usually the fringe part of the community and for the rest of us.

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  • COMMENT | How I Learned To Stop Worring And Love Kylie

    My mini joke was always that it was a homo crime for which I could have my Gay Card confiscated.

    And there have been times in the company of my peers I’ve been the odd queer out. But the truth is I never was a Kylie fan. Quite the opposite in fact.

    My personal opinion was that she was the poster girl for all that was bad in your average gay CD collection. And I was way hipper than that. My taste veers between skinny white kids with guitars to tortured hip hop ghetto types to electronic artists that are barely household names in their own households.

    By comparison Kylie Minogue always felt a bit, well, naff. From my cooler than thou music bunker, I had ruled years ago that she was kiddie pop sung mainly through her nose by a now middle aged ex soap star. Move on, nowt to see here…

    Anyway, with heavy heart then I accompanied my Kylie lovin’ other half to Hyde Park to watch her headining the BST Festival. When I say heavy heart, Grace Jones and Chic were on the bill, both acts that put a nicely designed tick in my hipster music box, so on paper it was not going to be a total waste of a day. Though of course as the selfless boyfriend I am, I would have to tolerate Minogue.

    Grace and Chic were excellent. Predictably so. I kind of knew that before both played a single note. But I digress. For this is not a column singing the praises of the support acts. Oh no. This is me relating the tale of just how I became a Kylie convert.

    The trade off of the big name summer outdoor gigs is always high ticket prices, restricted view due to distance from the stage in a huge area (we were not that far back but still felt like we were standing somewhere in Essex) and the sense that they are more about corporate interest and sponsorship than musical quality. At BST in Hyde Park all of this was on show. And yet…

    It was roughly three songs in, during the glorious glitter ball rush of Wow it clicked. I “got’’ Kylie. Yes, it’s a simple formula on paper; keep the BPM high and hit the chorus at full throttle. It is however brutally effective.

    Plus as my other half so succinctly put it at her strongest, the biggest surprise is that thanks to some clever state of the art production Kylie sounds both ultra contemporary and like the future. Simmering beneath the pop sheen of a Can’t Get You Out Of My Head or a Get Outta My Way is something darker and quietly subversive.

    In a royal park on a summer Sunday night amongst the heavy branding of credit card company sponsorship, the moment the harsh electronic rhythm of Slow was cranked up, as heavy as anything in underground EDM became a mass communal moment.

    Then there is Kylie herself. After several decades in the business, it seems fairly redundant to say she is a polished performer. But likability without blandness is no mean feat to pull off. Unlike her contemporaries, the grim determination and often joylessness of Madonna for example, Minogue comes across as hugely likeable. Niceness is pop stars is so rare that in her case it feels refreshing rather that forced or insincere.

    I will always struggle to stay in the room for The Locomotion and I Should Be So Lucky still is the wrong side of cringeworthy. But after years and years of dismissing her, I can honestly say I have found corners of her back catalogue I genuinely love.

    Until the next time KM.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • OP ED | Sonia Leigh: Deeply In Love With Women and Men…

    First, let me start this off with my take on sexuality. This is only my personal view which everyone is entitled to. I believe sexuality is neither black nor white.

    I don’t really think for me, personally, I believe in or take to being labelled. I am not bisexual, lesbian, or straight. I am a person who follows my heart. When I fall in love I let myself and will always let myself love who my heart tells me to. Isn’t it pointless to go against it anyway?

    So before you go off with a headline saying Sonia Leigh the OUT country music lesbian stop there in your tracks. Let me make this clear, I am not a lesbian, straight nor bisexual musician. My sexuality has no bearing on my vocation. I am simply a musician/singer/songwriter.

    I am also a woman who has happened to be deeply in love with women pretty much my whole life. But that is not the platform for my music at all. Yes, I’ve loved a man before and Yes, I’ve slept with men, not that it’s any of your business, but I’m making my point clear that I’ve let myself be myself.

    Now, to the subject. I’ve been asked to write about how sexuality affects the Country music industry.

    This is a touchy subject for Country music isn’t it? Relax, relax!

    The world is changing and it seems to me a lot of older, traditional thinking persons are still in places of power all over the industry. This is changing because well, to be blunt people die. What everyone needs to keep their eye on is the fact that there is a new wave of people in the cigar seat calling shots coming in and that will continue to roll over every decade or so.

    Your sons, daughters, and grand children have and are growing up with, going to school with, making best friends with, played sports with, and even gone to church with, people who are not what YOU consider normal.

    I don’t hold this view against you; I think it’s about exposure. Of course, traditionalist are afraid of “gay” people or frown upon the different “alternative” lifestyles. The truth is you’ve been raised in an era where these sorts of things were not talked about or WERE talked about negatively. But really as time has passed these lifestyles are no longer alternative.

    Bare with me, I am setting up my point. The subject matters and the genre of country music has changed a lot. It’s a big debate amongst the country music scene. We’ve really now formed sub genres in country haven’t we? Way to catch up with every other genre of music! It’s about time! Before we all freak out and go bashing it, why not embrace it? It’s wonderful! it’s music! How blessed we are to have so much music! It’s a gift!

    Along with these changes in country music inevitably comes all sorts of artist who live “alternative” life styles (by alternative this means so much more than sexuality, mind you). Either way, whether you know about it or not, these different ways are real and they are there in the country music industry.

    A lot of these people are actually are doing quite well for themselves and are out!

    They’ve written and sing many of the number one country songs that YOU LOVE! They’ve made remarkable and very respectable names for themselves. So does sexuality affect the country music scene? Yes, but I don’t think it is relevant honestly. I think most people don’t care anymore. It’s no big deal. However, the music industry is a shark with an insatiable hunger.

    Everyone always talks about the numbers. So let’s stick to that then if that’s the way you want to play the game. Let the numbers speak. Let the music speak. It shouldn’t matter what ones sexuality is. If the song is good and the artist is genuine and selling records shouldn’t they be played? Of course! Are they? A lot of times NO. The truth is the traditional big wigs in power are still the puppeteers. However, if a light bulb could go off and it clicked that people have to be exposed to things to become accustomed to them we would make some major, much needed progression in Country music.

    One day a “gay” person will be your boss, or a major music program director (there are some out there by the way) will be the one calling the shots. Would you want he or she to judge your music because you happen to be married to, in love with or dating someone of the opposite sex? Not at all. That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Tables turn and maybe I am optimistic in thinking change is coming. I think it’s already here and I am excited to be apart of it. I’m not an activist I’ve never really talked about my sexuality only because I’ve not really been asked.

    For the record I don’t feel I’ve ever been directly discriminated against. Maybe I am the “Ellen” of country… Ha! It may be naive of me but if I’ve not been supported because of my sexuality or because I don’t dress sexy enough

    (However I get told I’m quite sexy by men and women thank you very much) then that’s left on the conscience of the person who has robbed me of an opportunity I deserved. I don’t think that is something an article will change. BUT maybe it will and maybe that person is reading this and I’ve somehow made them see that the music is what matters. Period. Let’s keep it at that folks!

    Having said all of that I am so excited I’ve been able to share my music here in the UK. I’ve called it the #mindthegaptour because I want to bridge all the gaps in music and that goes for UK artist to America and vice versa. Let’s open the doors and let some music in and celebrate life together. That’s what it’s really about in the end. Not numbers, hit records and money it’s about living life to the fullest and connecting with each other while we are given this gift of life!

    Follow Sonia on Facebook | Twitter

    Sonia Leigh plays at The Islington tonight Doors open at 7:30pm

  • EDITORS LETTER | Porn Go On Admit It You Love It

    From the very first click of a camera, men, come on it’s always nearly men, were looking at ways to capture sexuality on film and from the first dark room developed photo to the naked selfie you took this morning, pornography is everywhere. It won’t surprise you to learn up to 37% of the net is porn and according to TopYenREVIEWS.com, it’s big business with over $3075.64 being spent on porn every second. Every 39 minutes a new porn movie is made in the US.

    Porn is a worldwide business. It seems that regardless of a country’s laws surrounding homosexuality, it doesn’t deter a midnight ramble on Google to find elicit images. The way in which we consume porn is rapidly changing.

    My first experience with porn was of an old discarded Playboy that some kid at play-scheme had discovered in the summer holidays. We’d sneak off to the woods and look at the battered, weathered pages, whilst drinking our Cherry Cokes and eating giant strawberries, marvelling at the nakedness in front of us…

    A little different to today’s kids who are viewing it on their way to school on the bus via their smartphones.

    Countries which repress homosexuality have actually found that gay porn is one of the most searched for terms. Interesting?

    So, here’s our very first porn issue, without being porny. In fact the only two phalluses you’ll find on these pages are of a dick shaped perfume bottle (we want) and the world’s largest Billy doll (we also want).

    We’ve interviewed 9 of the hottest porn stars around, at various stages of their careers. We probed and delved and may have had a look at their online presences too much. We also chat with Conor Maynard, Miranda Sings. Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Ian McKellen grace our pages for the first time. We also have Aaron Frew’s first Gay press interview.

    Why no peen? Well, we’re a little Victorian on the matter of willies here at THEGAYUK, sometimes the hint is better than the full thrust (actually that’s never true).

    The brand new issue of TheGayUK is available to download from Apple and Android stores.

    We hope you enjoy the show… Remember to keep your comments coming on our Facebook or Twitter.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • JOURNEY TO FATHERHOOD | The Journey To Become A Father

    “Click”, and with that I had spent twenty thousand dollars.

    But, I didn’t feel anything. Is this what the super-rich feel when they spend twenty thousand dollars, nothing? What if I did it again, would I feel ecstatic, excited at what was about to happen, a sheer sense of relief after all the months of agonising, or just more nothing? I still had four thousand five hundred pounds to spend on the surrogacy agency… At this rate, I might have to spend a lot more money before I felt something. If spending this type of money doesn’t garner a reaction I wondered, how much does?

    The only other time I have spent this sort of money was when I bought my first house and had to put a deposit down. No, hang on, that was the bank of mum and dad, so actually, this is the first time I have spent this kind of money. Which sort of gives you an inkling of the kind of background and money that you need to have, to go through having your own baby as a gay man. It’s a bit like buying a house, except not as easy.

    It all started some three years ago. I had met the love of my life: tall, blond, blue eyes and muscular, in a languid kind of way. In fact, easy on the eye, *Grrr* – if you know what I mean ;o) (Sadly he knew it too…) I’m no looker, so I have to try hard to get a man’s attention. He was easy to get along with and we sort of clicked. We met when I was having the car serviced. Having said hello on Grindr before (this was outside my usual haunts), and with time on my hands, I suggested we had a bite to eat. We started to meet up each weekend, then had the monogamy chat, and the rest, as they say, is history.

    The first time we mentioned children was when we were talking about what we wanted to do with our lives. He wanted to work in finance, as for him it was like playing an instrument, music to his ears. I wanted to reach the top of my profession and one day get into politics. And then the ‘c’ word was mentioned. And what about having a family, children? I think it was me that said it. Lots of my friends agree that I have always talked about becoming a father. Both he and I were brought up in very traditional middle-class families, where, once we grew up, we would: meet a girl, get married, buy a house with a Labrador, park a Volvo in the drive and have 2.4 children. Well, obviously that plan hadn’t worked out for either of us. I had the house, a BMW, no pet, a new partner and was now thinking about children.

    “Yes, I would” he said and we left it at that. I think a gay man’s biological clock does exist, but unlike a woman’s, it is slower and the alarm doesn’t sound until your mid-thirties. I think I only met someone once who was in their twenties, who wanted to have children. It was way off my radar. My twenties I spend shagging, clubbing, being thin, losing my hair, getting more muscular towards thirty and developing a career path. I lived in London, Manchester, Leeds (long summer nights spent in the courtyard next to Queens Court, steadily getting more intoxicated with the growing throng of gay men buzzing in the background, like a flock of birds preening on a South Atlantic Beach), London again, Bristol and the West Country. At the start of my thirties, I settled once more in London. I didn’t have as much sex as some, but perhaps a lot more than others. Now however, in my thirties, what I wanted was changing.

    I didn’t want drink, sex and spending hours in an obligatory circle with friends in the middle of the dance floor till 5am. I wanted more ‘quality of life.’ I had reached a stage, where money wasn’t a struggle and more expensive holidays were the norm. (Think Italy, Barcelona, a Conde Nast Traveler top 100 hotel snuggled in the hills of Gran Canaria, half an hour from Playa Del Ingles.) I wanted to find a community (still do) a bit like Leeds, but down south, where I can pop for a pint after work and not just go through the endless cycle of work, home, bed, work, home, bed.

    We came back from holiday in August and I saw an advert for the ‘Alternative Parenting Show’. I looked it up online and found out that it was at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden. So, I suggested that we went along and have a look. Come late September, we headed out one summer Sunday through the tourists at Covent Garden tube, past the Mason’s Hall towards the Grand Connaught Rooms. As we got closer the butterflies in my stomach began to build. Unwanted thoughts started to enter my mind. “Oh no, we’re going to be identified as gay men in the middle of the day, out in the open!” and, “as a gay couple looking to start a family”. It felt like I was 18 and going through the process of coming out all over again. I had goose pimples and felt the hair standing up on my arms and back. As we approached the first step into the Grand Connaught Rooms, my mind shrieked out to, me, ‘run!’ Calm down I thought, I’m a 35 year old gay man and if I’m not old enough now to face life’s challenges, then, when will I be?

    And that was how it started. Having children is a complex business, it is a journey of feeling. Until I started the process, my life was governed by hard fact and judgements based on outcomes. ‘If I want this, what will it cost me, what are the implications, how will this effect where I want to be, how will this affect those around me, what else do I need to do to make sure this happens?’ Thinking about having children, starting the process and getting underway for me, has been unfathomable, as it’s not possible to judge, quantify the impact, people’s reactions, expected financial outcomes when so much emotion is involved.

    In Britain, as an LGBT community, we have attained so much, from equality in the eyes of the law for the age of consent through to marriage. However, the attainment of children and family life as well as established conventional norms, for what it is to be a gay family are still being designed and formed. In the next few issues, I would like to share with you my experience, following my own trail, as a gay man looking to have a baby through surrogacy. I will explore some of the key issues, such as: investigating where to start; the money; family, friends and your community; Health issues; politics and legal issues; and of course, the journey including taking the leap, and the various steps I encounter (sperm donation, choosing an egg donor, choosing the surrogate etc). So follow my experiences in THEGAYUK and on Twitter.

    Next time, I want to take a look at the money. As the Thunderbugs once sang “It’s all about the money, dum, dum, de, de, dum.” At least, it is, to begin with.

     

    Follow Simon’s journey on Twitter @simonxhill

  • COMMENT: Is technology killing conversation?

    At the risk of sounding like Peter Kaye – do you remember the time when you had to call people on the landline and arrange to meet in the pub to catch up on all the gossip?

    When the phone was generally situated in the hallway, attached to the wall or placed on a telephone table and you had to close the sitting room door so your parents couldn’t hear your intentions. Harking back to a time before the internet and smart phones where we actually had to engage in the art of conversation.

    It sounds positively Dickensian nowadays but we actually had to talk to each other be that via the telephone, or meeting and enjoying the company of others.

    They have blamed the smoking ban for the demise of pubs and clubs, but I would have to attribute it to the technological age. Back in the day we had to make arrangements, there were relays of phone calls ensuring everyone knew where and when to meet. Thursday was the pre-amble to the weekend, where you would meet up at the local gay bar for a chat, and plan the weekend’s events. You had to describe your weekend outfit in graphic detail, no photographs available. No facebook, no twitter, no apps, no way of finding anything out apart from word of mouth. Now in the age of instant messaging, we seem to have lost the art of socialising.

    Online you can chat, arrange to meet, have full blown virtual relationships. I remember when you actually had to get out there, speak to people, engage in face to face contact. On screen, you are missing out on a look, a touch, the chance to experience another person’s charisma. Have we lost the ability to do this?

    I am not a technophobe and have reluctantly engaged in this new world of virtual friendships and break into a cold sweat at the thought of being unable to log into facebook for more than an hour, however it brought it home when I found myself and my partner sitting in the same room having an online conversation over a post, we were less than a metre apart. Is this a reflection of how far we have come, we now only communicate via memes and messages of less than 140 characters.

    Whilst I am not looking back to the pre-mobile age looking through rose tinted glasses, I am questioning whether or not the next generation will actually have the ability to converse without the use of hashtags and emojis. If meeting in the local gay bar will be a thing of the past and we all Skype from home drinking our own gin and never have to leave the comfort of our own underpants.

    Embracing technology does not mean we have to lose the art of socialising. However, I must now text my partner who is currently triple screening (phone, tablet and TV) to see if we can meet in the sitting room later and ignore each other for another few hours.

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Unsung Gay Heroes In History

    We look back into history and highlight other unsung gay men who have made an incredible different to our lives.

    Alan Turing (1912–1954)
    Alan Turing was a British pioneering computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and mathematical biologist. During the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s code-breaking centre. For a time he led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis and created the Turing Machine which decrypted the “unbreakable” German Enigma code. Turing’s pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic. It is said by some historians that Turing’s work at Bletchley Park shortened the war by two to four years and saved approximately fourteen million to twelve million lives. Nevertheless, Turing led a sheltered and castigated life due to his homosexuality. Whilst he was briefly engaged to fellow Bletchley Park worker Joan Clarke, it was a purely plutonic relationship and they soon divorced. Turing was prosecuted by the police in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison and became incredibly depressed. He committed suicide in 1954. Turing’s wartime heroics were not celebrated until he received an official pardon from Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009 following an internet campaign, and then a further royal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. From 9th March, 2015, the biopic of Alan Turing’s life and heroics, THE IMITATION GAME, will become available on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of StudioCanal.

    Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
    Bayard Rustin was the brain behind Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in 1960s America. Rustin was one of the driving forces behind the Congress for Racial Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Most significantly, Rustin organized the 1963 March on Washington — where King gave his legendary “I have a dream” speech. However, due to his homosexuality and his membership in the Communist Party, he has often received short shrift from historians and his integral role in the civil rights movement is often overlooked. At the time, Rustin selflessly avoided the limelight because he knew that elected officials and politicians would attempt to discredit the civil rights movement by pointing out his sexual and political leanings. Rustin was also heavily involved in the anti­–Vietnam War and gay rights movements before his death in 1987.

    Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)
    Sergei “Serge” Diaghilev was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, but also one of the first outspoken and unapologetically gay men of the early 20th century. Sergei Diaghilev reshaped that epoch’s ideas about art and performance, and was a pioneer in adapting new musical styles to modern ballet. He created the Ballets Russes mainly as a showcase for his lover and protégé Vaslav Nijinsky, who is still considered one of the greatest dancers who ever lived. Diaghilev had exquisite tastes, bringing the work of such artists as Balanchine, Picasso, Pavlova and Cocteau onto the stage in his cutting-edge productions, which were often unabashedly erotic. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Diaghilev was condemned as an especially insidious example of bourgeois decadence and his contribution to Russian art was written out of history by the Soviets for more than sixty years.

    Larry Kramer (1935-present)
    Every movement needs a voice of anger and righteousness, and when the AIDS pandemic hit, the gay community was lucky to have Larry Kramer, whose editorials and plays (particularly The Normal Heart) demanded that the government take action and that gay men take responsibility for their health. A fascinating author and a rabble-rouser in the best sense, Kramer continues to be a vital and often infuriating presence. Kramer co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which has become the world’s largest private organization to raise funds for and provide services to people stricken with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

    Harvey Milk (1930–1978)
    Harvey Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisor.
    Milk moved from New York City to settle in San Francisco in 1972 amid a migration of gay men to the Castro District. He ran unsuccessfully for political office three times. Nevertheless, his theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and Milk won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977. Milk served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. In 2008 a Hollywood biopic Milk, starring Sean Penn, honoured Harvey Milk’s transformation of San Fransisco into a mecca for LGBT Americans and in 2009 Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    The Imitation Game is out on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download platforms now , courtesy of StudioCanal

  • COMMENT | The Iceman Cometh…Out of the Closet

    Those of you with any connection to the geek world or the gay world, and especially those in the inner circle of the gay-geek world, will have seen that Marvel recently released one of its longest running characters from his hiding place in the closet.

    Superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed in All-New X-Men that the character of Bobby Drake, the man of Ice that we all know and love, is secretly gay.

    Unintentionally outed by fellow X-Man Jean Grey, the current version of which is much younger and has less control over her telepathic abilities, when she coaxes him into finally admitting to himself and to her that he is gay.

    There was a lot of adverse reaction to Iceman’s coming out throughout the geek world; not so much opposing gay characters but opposing changing existing characters to make them gay.

    The insinuation that Iceman would wear spandex even when he wasn’t fighting crime seemed more like sacrilege to a character that many of us geeks have been reading about for years.

    Not the First Gay on the Page
    This is not the first time that a major comic book publisher has changed a well-established character to make them gay. The original Green Lantern Alan Scott was reintroduced as gay in DC Comics’ “Earth Two” series. And even though we applaud DC for not hesitating to recreate this 1940s classic character as a ring-bearing mo, it was an alternate universe version of the original in a rebooted DC universe, which allowed the writers to take a lot of liberties in changing the characters. (I mean the Gay Green Lantern ended up not even

    However the fact that Iceman, a character who has been around since the X-Men were first published back in 1963, has come out as gay adds new depth to these characters.

    In an ideal world we all would be honest with our friends and family, and ourselves, from day one about our homosexuality. It wouldn’t be an issue we struggle with or anything that we would be ashamed of. In the real world that is rarely the case, and Iceman’s struggle and flat-out denial of his latent homosexuality represents a very honest real-life struggle that we all will have dealt with at some point in our lives.

    Add to this Iceman’s background as an underachiever, a class clown that has a tendency to goof off rather than admit to the scope of his full potential, and you have a character that a lot more of us can relate to.

    More Minorities
    The inclusion of more minorities within the comic book world is incredibly important, not just to have gay characters, but also characters of other ethnicities and the occasional female super hero.

    The ever-growing success of the Marvel Studios movies has made it awkwardly obvious just how aryan the creators of these comics were. Fair enough most of these characters were created in the 50s and 60s, when women, black people and gay people weren’t just considered minorities, they were thought of as being inferior, barbaric and a crime against humanity. And while some may still feel like that today, it is thankfully no longer acceptable to say so.

    In fact this is an aspect that the writer addresses when Iceman comes out. (Quick catch up: these younger X-Men have been brought into the present time period from the past and so there are duplicate older versions of them that they have encountered… simple right?)

    When the young Iceman wonders why his future/current self isn’t gay, young Jean Grey suggests that being gay back in their original time would be difficult, or even impossible, and that being in the current time period Iceman will find people much more accepting and understanding. Iceman even considers being Bi for a moment or two before conceding to being a full-blown gay.
    having a lantern because of these changes. So he’s basically just an old gay who wears a green cape. There are plenty of people like that you can meet in real life).

    Why Iceman Needs to be Gay
    Every gay geek out there will know of and probably love Northstar, Batwoman and Wiccan as representatives of LGBT characters in comics.

    However the fact that Iceman, a character who has been around since the X-Men were first published back in 1963, has come out as gay adds new depth to these characters.

    In an ideal world we all would be honest with our friends and family, and ourselves, from day one about our homosexuality. It wouldn’t be an issue we struggle with or anything that we would be ashamed of. In the real world that is rarely the case, and Iceman’s struggle and flat-out denial of his latent homosexuality represents a very honest real-life struggle that we all will have dealt with at some point in our lives.

    Add to this Iceman’s background as an underachiever, a class clown that has a tendency to goof off rather than admit to the scope of his full potential, and you have a character that a lot more of us can relate to.
    More Minorities
    The inclusion of more minorities within the comic book world is incredibly important, not just to have gay characters, but also characters of other ethnicities and the occasional female super hero.

    The ever-growing success of the Marvel Studios movies has made it awkwardly obvious just how aryan the creators of these comics were. Fair enough most of these characters were created in the 50s and 60s, when women, black people and gay people weren’t just considered minorities, they were thought of as being inferior, barbaric and a crime against humanity. And while some may still feel like that today, it is thankfully no longer acceptable to say so.

    In fact this is an aspect that the writer addresses when Iceman comes out. (Quick catch up: these younger X-Men have been brought into the present time period from the past and so there are duplicate older versions of them that they have encountered… simple right?)

    When the young Iceman wonders why his future/current self isn’t gay, young Jean Grey suggests that being gay back in their original time would be difficult, or even impossible, and that being in the current time period Iceman will find people much more accepting and understanding. Iceman even considers being Bi for a moment or two before conceding to being a full-blown gay.

    All of this is a huge part of the struggle young gay men make when discovering their homosexuality. How many of us look back to when we were younger, in school or in any environment in which it would have been all-but impossible to come out as gay. Times have changed (for the most part) and the freedom to be openly gay is growing so much that even 50 year old comic book characters are comfortable coming out of the closet.

    Iceman’s movie counterpart Shawn Ashmore has even publicly commended Bobby’s decision to come out of the closet, tweeting his congrats to Bobby and not shying away from the changes in his on-screen persona.

    With fellow gay Bryan Singer still in charge of the X-Men movies franchise, we may even get to see a different side to Ashmore if he makes any further appearances as Iceman in future X-films.

    A Step in the Right Direction
    Comic books and sci fi books are an escape for those of us not quite coping with the real world; this is why it holds such appeal to so many gay people. Whether it’s our homosexuality or our social awkwardness that makes us an outcast, having these characters and stories gives us a way to escape the difficulties of reality during childhood that often follows us well into our thirties.

    Programming their readers from a young age to see American white heterosexual men as the champions and everyone else as either victims or villains is a sure-fire way to screw us up. Having lived life as a chubby, gay, geek, I for one would have loved to have seen more gay characters (or even any gay characters) in comics when I was growing up. It would have shown me that the answer wasn’t always found by a straight guy; that being straight isn’t the only way to be strong and be a hero; that being gay could be a part of your character and not something you read comic books to escape from.

    Things will be difficult for Iceman as he comes to term with being gay while at the same time fighting to save the world from evil mutants, but the real battle will be in the heart of the older Iceman. Knowing that his younger self has fully admitted that he is gay he will have to either admit how he’s secretly felt all these years, or bury his head even further into denial. A choice that plenty of closeted men have to face in the real world every day.

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.