Celebrating LGBTQ+History Month in February

[PeterRS]

1. Naked Homophobia

There is one anniversary which I consider very important in our gay calendar which I will write at length about next month (yes, for those who don’t like long blog-type articles, please do not bother to read either this or it). There is an event about to take place in England which I now remark on here. Both refer back to major events in gay history around 60 and 70 years ago, one in the USA, the this one in England. Both should be remembered even at length when we consider the relative freedoms we all now enjoy as gay men. (As this post deals with England, American readers may wish to skip it, although it is no doubt mirrored by similar events in their own country.)

As most readers will know, the legal system in England and Wales is different from that in Scotland. The former decriminalised homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in 1967; the latter not until 1981. Whereas between the two World Wars homosexuality appears to have been rather brushed aside as a matter of little public import, in England the anti-brigade thereafter suddenly seemed to burst into life. We all know from the film The Imitation Game that the code breaker Alan Turing was gay. We know too that through his work he shortened the course of the War in Europe by, some say, two years. 

Gay relationships existed post war, but it was far from easy and most gay men found most sexual gratification through casual acquaintanceships, often in public lavatories, a practice known as “cottaging”. I do not know anything about Turing’s habits. All I am aware of is that he was discovered to be homosexual only because he freely admitted it to the police. His house had been burgled, ironically by a friend who himself was homosexual. That ‘friend’ was one of his casual sexual acquaintanceships, a 19-year old unemployed youth he had met outside a cinema. When explaining the events of that night with the police, he was confronted with the information about his friend. When asked if he, too, was homosexual, he did not try to hide it. Although he was the complainant, his solicitor urged him to plead guilty. He was then charged with “gross indecency” and given the option of two-years in jail or chemical castration. Had the police had any idea of his wartime service, the chances are the case would have been swept under the carpet. But he was bound by the terms of the Official Secrets Act and would have been subject to even greater legal penalties had be broken them.

Rather than go to jail, in March 1952 he chose chemical castration. It ruined him. He lost his security clearance and hence the job he loved. He was still able to travel in Europe and in more tolerant Norway did find another man he enjoyed being with, Kjell Carson. He invited him to spend some time with him in England. But the authorities intercepted the postcard on which Kjell had informed Turing of his travel plans. They then deported him before the two could be reunited. In June 1954 he committed suicide. The English establishment had effectively murdered the one man who had save countless hundreds of thousands of lives less than a decade earlier. 

Alan Turing - Photo: The Nationlal Portrait Gallery, London

Turing was just one of many rounded up in what became essentially a witch-hunt.  Entrapment was one of their methods. Young handsome police officers were actually trained how to troll around cottages, shown how to seduce men and then wait to be propositioned before making an arrest. One caught in this trap was one of Britain’s most famous actors, the recently knighted Sir John Gielgud. He was taken to court in 1953, like Turing pleaded guilty and was fined £10 for “persistently importuning young men for immoral purposes.” Although he had been allowed to appear in the dock under the pseudonym John Smith, a journalist in court recognised him. As this was splashed all over the newspapers, for many in England it was a scandal to revel in. Yet more evidence of the furtive, dirty lives of men who were deviants, no matter their reputation! For it was fact that those people who even considered homosexuality at that time did so with revulsion. Gielgud himself was utterly mortified. He believed his career was ruined and, as he told his biographer Sheridan Morley, he considered suicide. It was only thanks to the love and loyalty of his many friends that he remained alive. 

As the Turing case was made into a film, so Gielgud’s case became the subject of the 2008 play Plague ever England. Its author, Nicholas de Jongh, wrote at the time that he wanted to use the offence to illustrate the depths to which the law in 1950s Britain had sunk in terms of enabling the prosecution of tens of thousands of men simply because of their sexuality.

And as we know, both men are now held in the highest possible regard in Britain. Turing had the remarkable honour – and honour it was because he was one of less than a handful – to receive an official unconditional pardon not just from the Prime Minister but also from The Queen (although I am not sure why it should be termed an “honour” when he had to die before receiving it). His face now adorns Britain’s £50 notes. English heritage has had a plaque placed on the house where he lived. 

Most notably for the gay community, Turing himself would probably be most pleased that parliament passed the Turing Law in 2017 which effectively pardons most categories of living and deceased gay men and is intended to wipe their criminal histories from the official records. Just one well-known name to receive the pardon is Oscar Wilde. While most welcomed the move, some campaigners to change the law claim it does not go far enough. Being pardoned automatically presumes one has been guilty of some offence. George Montague said he would refuse the pardon. Instead he wants a formal apology for government actions. Still, from saviour from war, to convicted criminal, to suicide, to becoming known to all in the UK in a very positive light and a gay martyr as a sort of icing on the cake, Turing’s existing family members must be in some senses pleased.

Sir John Gielgud - Photo: Godfrey Argent 1969

Sir John took most of a year off appearing on the stage following the publicity surrounding his conviction. He gradually worked his way back, first touring a one-man show and then in some of the many plays being written by the new generation of “angry young playwrights” like Harold Pinter, John Osborne and Arnold Wesker angry at the state of Britain and many of its communities. But first he had to complete performances of the play he was then appearing in. As one blog site (listed below) writes of that first evening –   

The day that the news broke of Gielgud’s arrest he was paralysed with fear. At the time, he was in Liverpool, starring in a performance alongside the formidable Dame Sybil Thorndike, and felt it almost impossible to go onto the stage that night. As the curtain was about to go up, something remarkable is reported to have happened. Dame Sybil grabbed Sir John by the arm and whispered in his ear, “Come on John darling, they won’t boo me”. With that, she led Gielgud out into the dazzling lights of the Royal Court Theatre. You can almost feel the tension as the expectant audience stared down at the two theatrical legends — one intent on giving her usual astounding performance, the other shaking like a shitting dog. There was silence. Not a shout. Not a boo. Not even a cough. And then…..a standing ovation. The audience cheered and applauded Gielgud, raising the roof of the Liverpudlian theatre. The message could not have been more abundantly clear. The people did not give two hoots what Johnny got up to in his private life, they considered him an outstanding actor and held him and his performances in such high regard. His sexuality did not matter.  

Dame Sybil Thorndyke; “a glorious actress” quote from the celebrated British actor Paul Scofield - Photo: unknown

That summing up may not have been entirely true, but it was to have two effects. The first is that Gielgud’s view against suicide was reinforced. Far more importantly it led to a far deeper public discussion about homosexuality and why it was regarded as such a heinous moral crime. It was to play a key part in parliament’s further enquiries and finally decriminalising homosexuality in England and Wales in 1967. 

It is important to realise that the law was not merely intended to ferret out homosexuals and parade them as deviants. Equally it played an important role in preventing gay men, however closeted, from certain professions. One was the law itself. As a young Jewish man born in 1951 who knew he was gay, Terence Etherton realised he was destined for a career in medicine or law. Even though the gay section of the law had been changed, the views of many higher up the profession had not. Etherton was aware that the conservative (with a small ‘c’) wing of the legal profession would prevent his becoming an elite Queen’s Counsel, the highest rank for a barrister, and that he could never become a judge. 

Although the law had by now been changed, the Conservative Government’s Lord Chancellor in the early 1970s, Lord Hailsham, had made his disgust of homosexuality. Very clear. Earlier when appearing before the Wolfenden Committee which had recommended parliament change the law, Hailsham stated, “The instinct of mankind to describe homosexual acts as ‘unnatural’ is not based on mere prejudice.” In a 1994 BBC programme he went a lot further. “All the homosexuals I have known have been extremely eager, like alcoholics, to spread the disease from which they suffer.”

Lord Hailsham - Photo: Getty Images

It is a mark of the progress made by the higher-ups in society that Etherton not only did become a barrister and later during the Queen's reign a Queen's Counsel. After retirement he was enobled. Terence Etherington, the boy who believed doors were closed to him because of his sexuality, became Baron Etherington. He died in May 2025 leaving behind his long-time partner Andrew Stone with whom he had entered a civil patrnership in 2006 which they converted to marriage in 2014.  

It is just possible that Hailsham may not have been aware of some of the more nefarious deeds some of his fellow Lords were up to! Or maybe he was and merely turned his mind from it. Robert Boothby had been a member of parliament for 34 years before being elevated to the peerage. In the 1950s he had been a prominent advocate for changing the law against homosexual acts. Perhaps Lord Boothby had a special reason for suggesting this for his personal life was, as been frequently described as colourful. Twice married he enjoyed an affair for many years with the wife of a senior politician who would become prime minister, Harold Macmillan. 

But Boothby played the field. One of his close friends was the openly gay MP, Tom Driberg. In 1979 Boothby began an affair with a man he appointed as his driver, Leslie Holt, a former burglar. At a gambling club he had been introduced to the notorious gangster Ronnie Kray. Allegedly Kray supplied Boothby with young men and arranged for him to attend orgies. When all this  came to the attention of the British media and hints were made, the government enabled it to be hushed up. After the German magazine Stern which was under no such restrictions published the stories, the British media finally went to print. Boothby denied everything, it was all hushed up again and Boothby received £40,000 for libel. Many were aware of Boothby’s indiscretions but all were afraid to mention them openly. it is said that even the Queen Mother was aware of his activities!

The ever ebullient Lord Boothby - Photo unknown

And it was all true. In 2015 government documents were released including files from the internal security service MI5 proving Boothby’s fondness for young men. The list could go on, for several peers and other notable figures from the 1950s, 60s and 70s were very much in the closet. Much is disclosed in the long article mentioned below Double Lives – a history of sex and secrecy at Westminster.

All this is a very long preamble to a new play that will be opening in the UK on 4 February in Salford outside Manchester, England. Naked Homophobia takes the audience back to the 1950s and looks in detail at the very first programme to be broadcast on the BBC on male homosexuality intended for 1954. As we know, the anti-gay law was then in force. As a result, the issue was so taboo the BBC mandarins decided in their wisdom to withhold broadcast for three whole years. They then edited it heavily prior to transmission. As today’s article in The Guardian points out the programme shines light on the experience of gay men in the 1950s and explores gay themes that still resonate today. The play’s author Stephen M. Hornby had access to the original BBC script -

“The overwhelming message I got from reading it [the original script] was either naked, foaming-at-the-mouth homophobia of people like Lord Hailsham. Or the more liberal voices who say conversion therapy works, you ought to give it a go at least – and if not you can live a quiet life of abstinence and not do anything which would scare the horses,” Hornby said.

The programme was presented by the man who would later go on to Chair the Homosexual Law Reform Society. A strange choice, perhaps, given that in the programme he describes homosexuality as “a sort of infantilism” and “an arrested state of development.” The author discovered that the programme makers had also attempted, although unsuccessfully, to involve the wife of a businessman and mother of three sons who had written a long expose on homosexuality in The Sunday Times newspaper. She had written – 

“It may seem a strange thing that a woman should write about homosexuality. But I think many mothers suffer from the fear that, through no fault of their own, their boys may be tempted or warped.”

 

Mary Whitehouse, photographed rather inappropriately outside a sex shop! Photo: BBC

That writer was Mary Whitehouse, a well-known and influential name in Britain as a crusader against what she termed “filth” in the media. She died in 2001 and is now almost totally forgotten.

When the edited BBC programme was finally aired, there was such a public backlash that the BBC took the decision there would be no more programmes on the subject.

Following its season in Salford, the play Naked Homophobia will tour to Birmingham, Brighton, London, Liverpool and Loughborough.

Primary Sources 

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/jan/16/bbc-first-programme-on-gay-men-homosexuality-1950s-stage-play

https://medium.com/the-pink-green-room/tis-a-blushing-shame-faced-spirit-gielgud-s-cottaging-catastrophe-95446be36325

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster#:~:text=The long parliament of,were published in the 1960s).

[Suckrates]

In America, Trump has STOPPED any celebration of GAY accomplishment and existence. 

[Suckrates]

 

A little "bone-me-up" to celebrate Gay history Month......   (yes, I know it's AI, but it still makes me Hungry)

 

 

[unicorn]

From Wikipedia:

"...In the United States, Canada, Armenia, Romania, the Netherlands, Southeast Asia, and Australia, it is celebrated in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day on 11 October and to commemorate the first and second Marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987 for LGBTQ rights. In the United Kingdom it is observed during February; in the UK this coincides with a major celebration of the 2003 abolition of Section 28. In Berlin, the capital of Germany, it is known as Queer History Month and is celebrated in May...".

[Blah]

20 hours ago, PeterRS said:

 

1. Naked Homophobia

There is one anniversary which I consider very important in our gay calendar which I will write at length about next month (yes, for those who don’t like long blog-type articles, please do not bother to read either this or it). There is an event about to take place in England which I now remark on here. Both refer back to major events in gay history around 60 and 70 years ago, one in the USA, the this one in England. Both should be remembered even at length when we consider the relative freedoms we all now enjoy as gay men. (As this post deals with England, American readers may wish to skip it, although it is no doubt mirrored by similar events in their own country.)

As most readers will know, the legal system in England and Wales is different from that in Scotland. The former decriminalised homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in 1967; the latter not until 1981. Whereas between the two World Wars homosexuality appears to have been rather brushed aside as a matter of little public import, in England the anti-brigade thereafter suddenly seemed to burst into life. We all know from the film The Imitation Game that the code breaker Alan Turing was gay. We know too that through his work he shortened the course of the War in Europe by, some say, two years. 

Gay relationships existed post war, but it was far from easy and most gay men found most sexual gratification through casual acquaintanceships, often in public lavatories, a practice known as “cottaging”. I do not know anything about Turing’s habits. All I am aware of is that he was discovered to be homosexual only because he freely admitted it to the police. His house had been burgled, ironically by a friend who himself was homosexual. That ‘friend’ was one of his casual sexual acquaintanceships, a 19-year old unemployed youth he had met outside a cinema. When explaining the events of that night with the police, he was confronted with the information about his friend. When asked if he, too, was homosexual, he did not try to hide it. Although he was the complainant, his solicitor urged him to plead guilty. He was then charged with “gross indecency” and given the option of two-years in jail or chemical castration. Had the police had any idea of his wartime service, the chances are the case would have been swept under the carpet. But he was bound by the terms of the Official Secrets Act and would have been subject to even greater legal penalties had be broken them.

Rather than go to jail, in March 1952 he chose chemical castration. It ruined him. He lost his security clearance and hence the job he loved. He was still able to travel in Europe and in more tolerant Norway did find another man he enjoyed being with, Kjell Carson. He invited him to spend some time with him in England. But the authorities intercepted the postcard on which Kjell had informed Turing of his travel plans. They then deported him before the two could be reunited. In June 1954 he committed suicide. The English establishment had effectively murdered the one man who had save countless hundreds of thousands of lives less than a decade earlier. 

Alan Turing - Photo: The Nationlal Portrait Gallery, London

Turing was just one of many rounded up in what became essentially a witch-hunt.  Entrapment was one of their methods. Young handsome police officers were actually trained how to troll around cottages, shown how to seduce men and then wait to be propositioned before making an arrest. One caught in this trap was one of Britain’s most famous actors, the recently knighted Sir John Gielgud. He was taken to court in 1953, like Turing pleaded guilty and was fined £10 for “persistently importuning young men for immoral purposes.” Although he had been allowed to appear in the dock under the pseudonym John Smith, a journalist in court recognised him. As this was splashed all over the newspapers, for many in England it was a scandal to revel in. Yet more evidence of the furtive, dirty lives of men who were deviants, no matter their reputation! For it was fact that those people who even considered homosexuality at that time did so with revulsion. Gielgud himself was utterly mortified. He believed his career was ruined and, as he told his biographer Sheridan Morley, he considered suicide. It was only thanks to the love and loyalty of his many friends that he remained alive. 

As the Turing case was made into a film, so Gielgud’s case became the subject of the 2008 play Plague ever England. Its author, Nicholas de Jongh, wrote at the time that he wanted to use the offence to illustrate the depths to which the law in 1950s Britain had sunk in terms of enabling the prosecution of tens of thousands of men simply because of their sexuality.

And as we know, both men are now held in the highest possible regard in Britain. Turing had the remarkable honour – and honour it was because he was one of less than a handful – to receive an official unconditional pardon not just from the Prime Minister but also from The Queen (although I am not sure why it should be termed an “honour” when he had to die before receiving it). His face now adorns Britain’s £50 notes. English heritage has had a plaque placed on the house where he lived. 

Most notably for the gay community, Turing himself would probably be most pleased that parliament passed the Turing Law in 2017 which effectively pardons most categories of living and deceased gay men and is intended to wipe their criminal histories from the official records. Just one well-known name to receive the pardon is Oscar Wilde. While most welcomed the move, some campaigners to change the law claim it does not go far enough. Being pardoned automatically presumes one has been guilty of some offence. George Montague said he would refuse the pardon. Instead he wants a formal apology for government actions. Still, from saviour from war, to convicted criminal, to suicide, to becoming known to all in the UK in a very positive light and a gay martyr as a sort of icing on the cake, Turing’s existing family members must be in some senses pleased.

Sir John Gielgud - Photo: Godfrey Argent 1969

Sir John took most of a year off appearing on the stage following the publicity surrounding his conviction. He gradually worked his way back, first touring a one-man show and then in some of the many plays being written by the new generation of “angry young playwrights” like Harold Pinter, John Osborne and Arnold Wesker angry at the state of Britain and many of its communities. But first he had to complete performances of the play he was then appearing in. As one blog site (listed below) writes of that first evening –   

The day that the news broke of Gielgud’s arrest he was paralysed with fear. At the time, he was in Liverpool, starring in a performance alongside the formidable Dame Sybil Thorndike, and felt it almost impossible to go onto the stage that night. As the curtain was about to go up, something remarkable is reported to have happened. Dame Sybil grabbed Sir John by the arm and whispered in his ear, “Come on John darling, they won’t boo me”. With that, she led Gielgud out into the dazzling lights of the Royal Court Theatre. You can almost feel the tension as the expectant audience stared down at the two theatrical legends — one intent on giving her usual astounding performance, the other shaking like a shitting dog. There was silence. Not a shout. Not a boo. Not even a cough. And then…..a standing ovation. The audience cheered and applauded Gielgud, raising the roof of the Liverpudlian theatre. The message could not have been more abundantly clear. The people did not give two hoots what Johnny got up to in his private life, they considered him an outstanding actor and held him and his performances in such high regard. His sexuality did not matter.  

Dame Sybil Thorndyke; “a glorious actress” quote from the celebrated British actor Paul Scofield - Photo: unknown

That summing up may not have been entirely true, but it was to have two effects. The first is that Gielgud’s view against suicide was reinforced. Far more importantly it led to a far deeper public discussion about homosexuality and why it was regarded as such a heinous moral crime. It was to play a key part in parliament’s further enquiries and finally decriminalising homosexuality in England and Wales in 1967. 

It is important to realise that the law was not merely intended to ferret out homosexuals and parade them as deviants. Equally it played an important role in preventing gay men, however closeted, from certain professions. One was the law itself. As a young Jewish man born in 1951 who knew he was gay, Terence Etherton realised he was destined for a career in medicine or law. Even though the gay section of the law had been changed, the views of many higher up the profession had not. Etherton was aware that the conservative (with a small ‘c’) wing of the legal profession would prevent his becoming an elite Queen’s Counsel, the highest rank for a barrister, and that he could never become a judge. 

Although the law had by now been changed, the Conservative Government’s Lord Chancellor in the early 1970s, Lord Hailsham, had made his disgust of homosexuality. Very clear. Earlier when appearing before the Wolfenden Committee which had recommended parliament change the law, Hailsham stated, “The instinct of mankind to describe homosexual acts as ‘unnatural’ is not based on mere prejudice.” In a 1994 BBC programme he went a lot further. “All the homosexuals I have known have been extremely eager, like alcoholics, to spread the disease from which they suffer.”

Lord Hailsham - Photo: Getty Images

It is a mark of the progress made by the higher-ups in society that Etherton not only did become a barrister and later during the Queen's reign a Queen's Counsel. After retirement he was enobled. Terence Etherington, the boy who believed doors were closed to him because of his sexuality, became Baron Etherington. He died in May 2025 leaving behind his long-time partner Andrew Stone with whom he had entered a civil patrnership in 2006 which they converted to marriage in 2014.  

It is just possible that Hailsham may not have been aware of some of the more nefarious deeds some of his fellow Lords were up to! Or maybe he was and merely turned his mind from it. Robert Boothby had been a member of parliament for 34 years before being elevated to the peerage. In the 1950s he had been a prominent advocate for changing the law against homosexual acts. Perhaps Lord Boothby had a special reason for suggesting this for his personal life was, as been frequently described as colourful. Twice married he enjoyed an affair for many years with the wife of a senior politician who would become prime minister, Harold Macmillan. 

But Boothby played the field. One of his close friends was the openly gay MP, Tom Driberg. In 1979 Boothby began an affair with a man he appointed as his driver, Leslie Holt, a former burglar. At a gambling club he had been introduced to the notorious gangster Ronnie Kray. Allegedly Kray supplied Boothby with young men and arranged for him to attend orgies. When all this  came to the attention of the British media and hints were made, the government enabled it to be hushed up. After the German magazine Stern which was under no such restrictions published the stories, the British media finally went to print. Boothby denied everything, it was all hushed up again and Boothby received £40,000 for libel. Many were aware of Boothby’s indiscretions but all were afraid to mention them openly. it is said that even the Queen Mother was aware of his activities!

The ever ebullient Lord Boothby - Photo unknown

And it was all true. In 2015 government documents were released including files from the internal security service MI5 proving Boothby’s fondness for young men. The list could go on, for several peers and other notable figures from the 1950s, 60s and 70s were very much in the closet. Much is disclosed in the long article mentioned below Double Lives – a history of sex and secrecy at Westminster.

All this is a very long preamble to a new play that will be opening in the UK on 4 February in Salford outside Manchester, England. Naked Homophobia takes the audience back to the 1950s and looks in detail at the very first programme to be broadcast on the BBC on male homosexuality intended for 1954. As we know, the anti-gay law was then in force. As a result, the issue was so taboo the BBC mandarins decided in their wisdom to withhold broadcast for three whole years. They then edited it heavily prior to transmission. As today’s article in The Guardian points out the programme shines light on the experience of gay men in the 1950s and explores gay themes that still resonate today. The play’s author Stephen M. Hornby had access to the original BBC script -

“The overwhelming message I got from reading it [the original script] was either naked, foaming-at-the-mouth homophobia of people like Lord Hailsham. Or the more liberal voices who say conversion therapy works, you ought to give it a go at least – and if not you can live a quiet life of abstinence and not do anything which would scare the horses,” Hornby said.

The programme was presented by the man who would later go on to Chair the Homosexual Law Reform Society. A strange choice, perhaps, given that in the programme he describes homosexuality as “a sort of infantilism” and “an arrested state of development.” The author discovered that the programme makers had also attempted, although unsuccessfully, to involve the wife of a businessman and mother of three sons who had written a long expose on homosexuality in The Sunday Times newspaper. She had written – 

“It may seem a strange thing that a woman should write about homosexuality. But I think many mothers suffer from the fear that, through no fault of their own, their boys may be tempted or warped.”

 

Mary Whitehouse, photographed rather inappropriately outside a sex shop! Photo: BBC

That writer was Mary Whitehouse, a well-known and influential name in Britain as a crusader against what she termed “filth” in the media. She died in 2001 and is now almost totally forgotten.

When the edited BBC programme was finally aired, there was such a public backlash that the BBC took the decision there would be no more programmes on the subject.

Following its season in Salford, the play Naked Homophobia will tour to Birmingham, Brighton, London, Liverpool and Loughborough.

Primary Sources 

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/jan/16/bbc-first-programme-on-gay-men-homosexuality-1950s-stage-play

https://medium.com/the-pink-green-room/tis-a-blushing-shame-faced-spirit-gielgud-s-cottaging-catastrophe-95446be36325

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster#:~:text=The long parliament of,were published in the 1960s).

 A fair summary, though I wouldn't say Mary Whitehouse is forgotten. There have been 2 excellent series about her: the 2022, "Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story" and the 2008 drama "Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story".

By the way, Tom Driberg was also a Russian spy.  His autobiography: 'Ruling Passions" is well worth a read. It leaves nothing to the imagination.

 

 

[Blah]

18 minutes ago, unicorn said:

From Wikipedia:

"...In the United States, Canada, Armenia, Romania, the Netherlands, Southeast Asia, and Australia, it is celebrated in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day on 11 October and to commemorate the first and second Marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987 for LGBTQ rights. In the United Kingdom it is observed during February; in the UK this coincides with a major celebration of the 2003 abolition of Section 28. In Berlin, the capital of Germany, it is known as Queer History Month and is celebrated in May...".

It's definitely not celebrated in October in Australia.... your source is incorrect.

[PeterRS]

19 minutes ago, Blah said:

 A fair summary, though I wouldn't say Mary Whitehouse is forgotten. There have been 2 excellent series about her: the 2022, "Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story" and the 2008 drama "Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story".

By the way, Tom Driberg was also a Russian spy.  His autobiography: 'Ruling Passions" is well worth a read. It leaves nothing to the imagination.

Not having lived in the UK since 1979, I was not aware that Mary Whitehouse is still remembered. I do remember seeing her on an episode of The Dame Edna Experience and found she came across as very pleasant. But I resented what she was up to with her Filth campaigns. She reminded me a little of the wonderfully gay playright Joe Orton, very sadly bludgeoned to death by his lover when he was only 34. Whenever one of his three plays was on in London, newspapers would include indignant letters from one Edna Welthorpe saying such filth shold not be permitted. Welthorpe was none other than Orton himself just drumming up a bit of very good PR! I found this in an old issue of The Guardian

The wording seems quite tame now but was quite cutting in its day. She died just after Queer as Folk hit British TV. That surely must have made her vitriolic!

I have read several spy books, most recently two on the Burgess, Maclean and Philby episodes. I knew of Tom Driberg's Soviet exploits but have not yet read his book. 

[Blah]

Tom Driberg mainly focuses on his gay life in his book.  Many entertaining exploits in London, finding sex during WW2 blackouts.  😜 

Joe Orton's "Welthorpe" letters are quite valuable now, as are the library books he defaced. He served 6 months in prison for vandalising books - UK justice was tough back then.

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, Blah said:

Joe Orton's "Welthorpe" letters are quite valuable now, as are the library books he defaced. He served 6 months in prison for vandalising books - UK justice was tough back then.

The covers of the defaced books (two below) are now exhibited in the library from which they were 'lifted'. Some were even sold at an auction in 2019 which raised £50,000 for the library. I have a feeling Orton would be quite pleased about that, although less so his lover Halliwell if only because Joe's name would appear and not his! I understand that Halliwell hacked him to death with a hammer when he heard that Joe was going to leave him. He then took an overdose of barbiturates. From the movie and his diaries, I have always wondered what on earth Joe saw in Halliwell as their relationship neared its end.

Everyone seemed to like Joe. Even The Beatles commissioned a movie script from him, athough they never used it as they felt it was too gay.

[unicorn]

3 hours ago, Blah said:

It's definitely not celebrated in October in Australia.... your source is incorrect.

You may be right. Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable source of information. If you live there, you may know better. 

[jimmie50]

On 1/18/2026 at 11:49 PM, PeterRS said:

As this post deals with England, American readers may wish to skip it

Interesting article.  Thanks for your thorough and thoughtful post.  

[jimmie50]

On 1/19/2026 at 7:02 AM, Suckrates said:

In America, Trump has STOPPED any celebration of GAY accomplishment and existence.

Unfortunately, trumps idea of ‘making America great again’ means taking us back to the 1950’s.  He longs for the days before civil rights when society followed a white patriarchal standard.  He and his cronies want to turn back the clock to a time when discrimination based on race, sex, et al was legal.  They want to re-write history and whitewash what is taught in schools.  While the majority of Americans would say that we have made good progress to make society more equitable, the current regime is doing everything they possibly can to roll back that progress.  Trump and his followers perceive the progress we have made since the 1950’s as discrimination against white heterosexual males.  He didn't even acknowledge Martin Luther King Day yesterday with the standard proclamation until late in the day after an outcry from civil rights leaders across the nation.  Even though October is traditionally celebrated as LGBTQ+ History Month, I am pretty sure there will be no mention of it from this administration, nor will they acknowledge Black History Month, Women's History Month, Native American Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Month, etc.   Depressing as well as disgusting.  

[Suckrates]

2 hours ago, jimmie50 said:

Unfortunately, trumps idea of ‘making America great again’ means taking us back to the 1950’s.  He longs for the days before civil rights when society followed a white patriarchal standard.  He and his cronies want to turn back the clock to a time when discrimination based on race, sex, et al was legal.  They want to re-write history and whitewash what is taught in schools.  While the majority of Americans would say that we have made good progress to make society more equitable, the current regime is doing everything they possibly can to roll back that progress.  Trump and his followers perceive the progress we have made since the 1950’s as discrimination against white heterosexual males.  He didn't even acknowledge Martin Luther King Day yesterday with the standard proclamation until late in the day after an outcry from civil rights leaders across the nation.  Even though October is traditionally celebrated as LGBTQ+ History Month, I am pretty sure there will be no mention of it from this administration, nor will they acknowledge Black History Month, Women's History Month, Native American Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Month, etc.   Depressing as well as disgusting.  

And all because the are AFRAID of a little Melanin !   Sick and pathetic.