Gay Pride ad a new 'equality gap'?

The majority of children now are very aware (from tv etc) that some people are gay - they just accept it and see it as perfectly natural. If you take them to a stately home where it is pointed out that a former owner was gay they will probably think "So what?". On the other hand they may start to wonder why such a big deal is being made of it - and start to wonder if there is actually something wrong with being gay.

To set the record straight

I was brought up to believe homosexuality was wrong.
In later years I realised that homosexuality is not a choice and I fully accept that, no problem.
Whatever sexuality anyone has is fine by me.
However anyone who has differing views should be allowed to have them.

What is important is that we are all treated equally.

Nuff said !

The whole problem with any form of discrimination is that the person doesn't matter at all - just the fact of their sexuality, colour etc. I don't think 'shame' is the right word at all - thats why the word 'pride' is used but there are still plenty of examples of the various types of discrimination currently - discrimination of all types is not in the past although enormous strides have been made over our lifetimes. I wish discrimination were simply history. As for the idea that the past is history, I couldn't disagree more- the past shapes our present and our future ceaselessy and how we view and reinterpret the past is constantly changing.

You seem obsessed with outing people as if only their sexuality matters. The person matters irrespective of whether they are gay or not. You cannot decide what or what not this generous man wanted, the NT have not done themselves any favours in their treatment of this benefactor. I don't know who decided on the badges, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he or she was gay and using their position to further their cause, it has in fact done the opposite. There is no shame now in being gay, black or whatever, the past is history, concentrate on now or we will very falling out with the Danes. The post Smileless made sums it up elequently.

No, not the Bolton 7. The incident I mentioned took place in 1958 and was called the Horsfall case because he wrote to the papers and generally brought it to public attention. I don't know how to post a link. Sorry.

Blame the iPad
BOLTON 7

At least one of the "Boston 7 " was under age and I understand it was the "group nature" of the homosexual acts which still fell foul of the law. So not "sex between 2 consenting adults".

No, but Wallace and Gromit's A Grand Day Out was good. Have you seen it? Really good.

Okay, so you are not watching about how gays are treated in sport now, about how the gay captain of the Welsh Rugby team felt like throwing himself off a cliff because his life became so intolerable.

Kettle. Pot. Black.

You are getting more and more petty, Chewbacca.

If Nankate has the information, that's okay. She must have been given it somehow, either spoken or written, or whatever.

The story I put on won't be believed, either, trisher.
Annie says gays wern't put in institutions, so she must be right.
The people who know about it, and who it happened to, must have made it up.

My posts are no more ridiculous than yours durham. This for instance: "It's just obvious that you have to be told by someone in order to make your mind up." That's utter nonsense! Why does anyone, including NanKate have to be "told"? She, like any of us, has formed her opinions by observations and experiences; certainly not from someone on Gransnet who has delusions of being the most well informed, on every subject!
And what I watch on tv is my business, not yours.

But the original subject of this discussion was the suppressing of information about a gay man Chewbacca and if this was done M0nica wouldn't have the information would she?
Annie people were treated appallingly with aversion therapy. One man died because of it.
"Gerald William Clegg-Hill - Billy to his friends - did not volunteer. When Clegg-Hill, an army captain, was arrested in 1962 on suspicion of homosexual practices, he was tried at Somerset assizes, in Wells, found guilty, and sent to a military psychiatric hospital at Netley, near Southampton, for treatment. His half-sister, Alison Garthwaite, recalls the scandal, the newspaper reports of how her brother's promising army career had been trashed. "I was completely shocked when it happened," she says. "I could not equate my beloved brother with the seedy dirty jokes that were told about queers in those days. I pushed it out of my mind and only thought about it some six or seven years later when attitudes to homosexuality became more liberal.

"But ours was not a liberal family. My father was a brigadier in the Royal Artillery and did not discuss the issue with me at all. Mother was just glad that Billy was getting treatment because being gay was seen as such a shameful thing."

Tragically, Billy did not survive the treatment. The full details of his death did not emerge until much later. There was no inquest and the family did not discuss what happened. "Back then, it was seen as shocking and disgusting to be gay, and I told nobody the truth," says Alison. For many years, their mother explained Billy's death to Alison as being the result of an allergic reaction to treatment for a nervous breakdown. The truth was that he died in hospital during apomorphine aversion therapy."

And you wonder why it is essential that the stories are told!

Eglantine I cannot trace any case involving Allan Horsefall, who was a much respected gay activist prior to the passing of the 1967 Act. The only case I can find involves the Bolton 7 and took place in 1998 over 30 years after the passing of the 1967 Act that decriminalise homosexuality and involved acts of 'gross indecency' nor covered by the 1967 Act.

dj How do you know that NanKate does not have the information she requires?

Annie is not correct. Gays were locked up in mental institutions in the sixties.

The quotation I put on to show you she is not correct is by a man who works for Liverpool radio. He was locked up in a mental institution for being gay in the sixties.
I presume you think he is lying?

I don't care how Nankate got her information. She must have got it from somewhere to make her mind up. I didn't think she was getting at me when she said that.
It's just obvious that you have to be told by someone in order to make your mind up.

Your posts are getting a bit ridiculous, Chewbacca.
I can't imagine you are watching BBC2 at the moment?
No, you don't need to be told about it. It seeps in by osmosis.

Correct Anniebach .

Isn't it possible that NanKate has been "given the information" she needs to have made her decision, even if the source of that information wasn't from you durham?

"Like thousands in the Sixties, I lived in fear of being outed. When my mother found out, she took it really badly. So I went to the doctor reluctantly, who advised me there was a cure and assured me it would work.

At the time, some of the medical profession were convinced, because of their god-like ability (I say that with tongue in cheek), they could cure freaks, as some would call us.

Same-sex relationships in those days in this country were seen as abhorrent.

The cure was like torture, something Hitler would have used in the concentration camps.

My “cure” lasted 72 hours, before I could tolerate it no longer. I demanded to be released – after all, I had volunteered. I was scared that nobody knew where I was or under what name, but I was locked up in a mental institution. After all, how could the NHS treat me while it was illegal?

If I told you the story about what the psychiatrist had done to me with aversion therapy and electrodes on my private parts, you would not believe it could be done in the name of medicine.

I never spoke about it for years. What made it worse was that, two months later, I found out that the psychiatrist who treated me was himself a homosexual. He must have loved watching me being tortured.

I’ve done several programmes about what happened to me all those years ago, to maybe help others. But a programme that I’ve just been involved in is very special.

An amazing programme-maker, Fergus O’Brien, who has a wonderful pedigree for making award-winning TV, approached me to play a very small part in Against The Law, which will be shown on BBC2, at 9pm, on July 26.

It stars Daniel Mays, who plays Peter Wildeblood, and it’s about the infamous Montague Trial."

Really, Annie?
Tell that to this man.

Gays were not locked in mental institutions in the sixties

How can you make your own mind up if you are not given the information in the first place?

Is there no longer freedom of speech ?

Why do we all have to be of one mind?

It is fine by me that anyone who is gay should expect equal rights and to get treated fairly.

It is also fine by me that People like Tim Farron (if that was his name) can voice their religious opinion on homosexuality.

I am fine that some people are vegan and some are not.

I am however fed up with being told what I should believe, I will make up my own mind.

Indeed not needed. typos sorry

Sorry Mnica but that's not so. One case as an example. The Horsfall case. In Bolton 8 men were arrested for having each other's addresses in their address books. There had been no acts amongst them, needed some of the eighth ad never met in person. The "ringleader" was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment,, the others given lesser convictions. I'm not being critical but I think it's important we are accurate.

The legality or illegality is not what mattered most, it was the stigma attached to it. It is unlikely that he would have been able to hold the positions he did if he had openly spoken of being gay. His life would have changed drastically. He had a copy of the Wolfenden Report and possibly he gave evidence to them, but without being identified. It seems all the more tragic to me that he was so committed to public service and yet unable to speak of his real feelings. It is something a number of older gay men, particularly those in the caring professions will identify with and yet another reason why his story should be told.

But if he didn't want people other than close friends to know he was homosexual he wouldn't have done either of those, particularly in his position.