Oscar, you’re wearing a Speedo I presume. The Office s3e23: Beach Party, Michael
Besides having sex with men, I would say the Finer Things Club is the gayest thing about me. The Office US s4e10: Branch Wars, Oscar
In 2013 it became illegal to tell anyone under eighteen that being homosexual was in any way normal. Gay and Under Attack: Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia, BBC 2015
I meet the homophobes who are out to get them. ibid.
I still can’t understand what makes the average Russian so homophobic. ibid.
There is ample evidence to show that children raised by same-gender parents fare as well as those raised by heterosexual parents. More than 25 years of research have documented that there is no relationship between parents’ sexual orientation and any measure of a child’s emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment. These data have demonstrated no risk to children as a result of growing up in a family with one or more gay parents. Conscientious and nurturing adults, whether they are men or women, heterosexual or homosexual, can be excellent parents. The rights, benefits, and protections of civil marriage can further strengthen these families. The American Academy of Pediatrics 2006
Homosexual conduct is not compatible with the aims and purposes of scouting and that a known or avowed homosexual does not represent a desirable role model for the youth in the scouting program. Boy Scouts of America website
‘In 1984 I was part and privileged to be a party to the greatest struggle on Earth.’ Pride 2014 starring Bill Nighy & Imelda Staunton & Dominic West & Paddy Considine & Andrew Scott & George MacKay & Joseph Gilgun & Ben Schnetzer & Menna Trussler et al, director Matthew Warchus, Arthur Scargill on tele
Gay marcher #1: I’m from Bromley.
Gay marcher #2: Don’ worry about that. We’re a broad church. ibid.
Di, your gays have arrived. ibid.
The pit and the people are one and the same. ibid.
Have some pride. Because life is short. ibid. friend to friend
Homosexuals ... want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers. Pat Robertson
To grasp the enormity of this moment is to understand that back then there was no Julian Clarey or George Michael, or Barrymore or Chris Smith or Ellen or Stephen Fry. Public figures could be like Larry Grayson or John Inman, but on no account could they admit to actually doing that thing with other men. In fact hardly anyone used the word gay. There were poofs, queers and benders. In pub etiquette, to call someone a poof was to crank up the stakes a couple of notches from cunt. Mark Steel, Reasons to be Cheerful
Most spectacularly, the 1985 Gay Pride march was led by a contingent of miners. So on a glorious day in July, a procession wound through Central London that must have left onlookers startled. Round the corner came the banners, the winding wheels, the portraits of Scargill and A J Cook, the legions of miners and the ompah pah pah of the band. ibid.
On Saturday male and female homosexuals converged on Hyde Park for an open-air rock concert, the climax of Gay Pride week. Stonewall 79 marked the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall riot in New York. World in Action: Gay Pride, ITV 1979
Homosexuals still complain of discrimination. ibid.
Proposition 8 built a constitutional wall around marriage and excluded gay and lesbians from access to the most important relation in life. The Case Against 8, case in court Theodore Olson, HBO 2014
A fundamental right to pursue happiness is being taken away. ibid.
In 2008 the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to get married. 18,000 same-sex couples were married throughout the state. Six months later, voters passed Proposition 8, a ballot initiative which defined marriage as between one man and one woman in California. A federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of two couples challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8. ibid. captions
The court sided with the proponents of Prop 8 and blocked the broadcast of the trial. ibid.
This steady stream of hate that came across the phone. ibid. plaintiff
Ted looks up from pizza and says, We won. ibid.
The proponents of Prop 8 appealed to the US Supreme Court. ibid.
It’s another 5-4 vote. ibid.
It’s better to be a dictator than to be gay! Alexander Lukashenko, cited Ben Zand, Dictatorland II: Belarus, BBC 2017
New York 1987: ‘You’re black and you’re male and you’re gay: you’re going to have a hard fucking time.’ Paris is Burning, father’s advise, 1990
Men gather together under one roof and decide to have a competition amongst themselves: Balls: I went to a ball, I got a trophy and now everybody wants to know. This movie is about the Ball Circuit. ibid.
‘You like the adulation, the applause … it’s an addictive high.’ ibid.
The arts have long provided a refuge for gay people in Britain. A place they could express themselves. Queer as Art, BBC 2017
‘If there’s one thing worse than homosexual art it’s heterosexual art.’ ibid. David Hockney
The stage was a sanctuary in an otherwise hostile world. ibid.
[Maggi] Hambling quickly became part of a scene whose liberal views about sexuality were far ahead of the rest of the country. ibid.
Dusty Springfield: for a gay woman Pop could be a lonely place. ibid.
At the start of the seventies a new breed of musician emerged. ibid.
For artists like Bowie homosexuality wasn’t so much a way of life, it was a splash of shock and colour in a grey drab Britain. ibid.
A new generation of outrageously camp comedians was bursting on to our screen. ibid.
In the early eighties in pop music the children of Bowie were coming of age. ibid.
Relax was met by a frenzy of moral outrage. ibid.
Gay women have remained largely invisible. ibid.
‘About one person in twenty of both sexes is homosexual. On any busy street you pass half a dozen every five minutes because contrary to popular opinion most of them don’t look any different from anyone else. You can only tell the obvious ones but they’re a tiny minority.’ Storyville: Queerama, black and white news report, BBC 2017
‘Homosexuals usually live two lives, one of which is completely concealed from their family and colleagues.’ ibid.
Between 1885 and 1967 75,000 men were prosecuted for ‘gross indecency’ which included touching, kissing, ‘inviting’ or ‘facilitating’ homosexual sex. ibid. caption
‘Homosexuality is one manifestation of a failure to fully develop.’ ibid. doctor
‘They become vulnerable to violence, blackmail and persecution.’ ibid. documentary/news report
The age of consent was equalized at 16 in 2001. ibid.
At the end of March we began receiving information from Chechnya in the south of Russia about the mass detention of gays. Initially it was just bits of information. People being detained, tortured, electrocuted, on orders of the Chechen leader. Storyville: Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge, BBC 2020
It’s a disgrace to be gay in Chechnya. And for a family to find out that someone is gay? It’s a shame so strong it can only be washed away by blood. Russian Federation Officials did nothing to stop it. ibid.
Families of these people are urged to kill their children and siblings. It’s unreal. ibid.
Chechnya is a largely Muslim state, a completely closed society with its own customs and language. ibid.
The UK is one of the most progressive countries in the world for LGBT rights. But last summer, hate crimes against LGBT people increased by 147%. One in four LGBT people have experienced violent hate crime. Is it Safe to be Gay in the UK? BBC 2017
On 12th June America’s worst ever mass shooting – a direct attack on the gay community at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. It shocked the world and brought the gay community together. Stacey Dooley: Hate and Pride in Orlando, BBC 2016
Come on, Randers. I’ve gotta boner for you, man. Trailer Park Boys s8e7: Community Service and a Boner Made With Love, Mr Lehey
In 1969 homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. That summer New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Few photographs of the raid and riots that followed exist. American Experience: Stonewall Uprising, PBS 2019
Something snapped – what? This is not right. ibid. dude
That’s what it was – it was a war. ibid. dude #2
The whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people began to crumble. ibid. dude #3