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Dear Me, A letter to my 16 year old self

By Books & Authors, Gay, History, Reviews, Thinking2 Comments

I recently finished reading Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self. Celebrities have written letters to their sixteen year old selfs in aid of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. For each book sold a minimum of £1 goes to the charity.

Contributors include: Will Young, Sir Elton John, Alan Carr, Jonathan Ross, Peter Kay, Jackie Collis, Annie Lennox, Stephen Fry, Liz Smith, Emma Thompson, John Barrowman, Paul O’Grady and many more.

The hard-back book with glossy pages contained hand written letters, typed letters and photos of some the contributors at the age of sixteen. Their messages to themselves included: words of warning, regrets, messages of hope, reassurance that things would be ok, a need to conquer their fears and worries. The book made me laugh, cry and think about myself as a sixteen year old.

Interestingly a friend who knew me at sixteen CS recently got back in touch via Facebook. We had a long phone conversation (over two and a half hours) and are planning to meet for a coffee.

After a lot of thought about myself at sixteen and after speaking to CS I decided to write my own letter to my sixteen year old self. I have wrote my own letter to myself at sixteen (there a a few missed words – must start checking all my writing and edit it properly), here it is:





I would highly recommend you buy Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self for yourself and possibly for a Christmas / Yule present for some of your family or friends. I promise you and them will love it.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 15 November 2009

Unable to escape from Derren Brown

By Gay, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments

A few weeks ago it seemed like I was unable to escape from Derren Brown. He was on Channel 4 and I was facinated by his show which included an audience of both celebs and ordinary people from a variety of backgrounds. Since he has predicted correctly the lotto numbers.

I heard his prediction in the news (see Telegraph, Daily Mail) he had correctly predicted the correct lotto numbers. I was suitably impressed to say the least. But then I read the story on Pink News and was shocked to learn that Derren is gay. He apparently came out two years ago, I had no idea.

See gay people are everywere. In every job, role and part of society.

They say the statistic is 1 in 10 people are gay, lesbian or bisexual. I think it’s probably much higher. What do you think? Leave a comment.

Antony

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Monday 21 September 2009

A man named Alan Turning

By Gay, History, Political, Thinking2 Comments

There was once a man named Alan Turning. He is now seen as a hero for helping to break German Enigma code in World War two. However this wasn’t always the case.

As a gay man living in these times he was convicted of homosexuality in the heterosexual world he lived in. He had a choice to under go chemical castration or go to prison. He choose to under go the chemical castration and later committed suicide.

Looking back now he is seen as a brilliant and intelligent man. Think what he could have achieved in his life, if he hadn’t cut it short as a result of British law at the time.

Gordon Brown according to Pink News apologised for his treatment after a petition signed by over thirty thousand people. There has been some debate on Gordon Brown’s apology amongst the gay community. Peter Tatchell said to Pink News:

Peter Tatchell called the apology “welcome and commendable” but said an apology was also due to the estimated 100,000 British men convicted of similar offences.

He said: “Singling out Turing just because he is famous is wrong. Unlike Turing, many thousands of ordinary gay and bisexual men were never given the option of hormone treatment. They were sent to prison.

“All these men were criminalised for behaviour that was not a crime between heterosexual men and women.”
(Pink News, last accessed: 12th September 09)

However Zefrog said:

And this brings the next question, that of the worth of an apology. This is not a new debate. It is a particularly heated one, for example, in the black community around the issue of slavery, where it is complicated by the question of financial reparations.

An apology is, of course, a potent symbol…
(Zefrog, Last accessed: 12th September 09)

My opinion is that Gordon Brown could of better used his time and political influence to change the laws against homosexuality that still exist in the world. There are still places in the world were gay men (and sometimes lesbian women) are hung, shot or killed in some other way because of their sexuality. Because they have relationships and or sex with the same sex. You only need to look this world map below (provided by Wikipedia) to see how far spread homophobia still is in terms of governments laws against it.


(Click on the map for full size readable version)

Blog politically again soon,

Antony x



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Saturday 12 September 2009

Pride

By GayNo Comments

Pride has been a good weekend. I got to march in the parade under Peter Tatchell’s community entry.

I do think a lot of the gay community have forgot what it used to be like to be gay and what pride is suppose to be about. 10 Years ago there were no gay people in the media and we had significantly less rights. Less rights included Section 28 being law, sexual consent age 18 and no rights to marry (no society recognition of our relationships therefore meaning no legal recognition of our relationships). We also had label of HIV being a gay disease and lost many of our friends to this hidden disease.

And as if this wasn’t enough there was a lack of tolerence and respect for diversity. It was a hetrosexual world with many gay, lesbian and bisexual people experiencing homophobia and sometimes even hate crimes. We often felt isolated and those who were brave enough to come out of their closet were often made homeless. There was one gay pub now on Manchester’s highly populated gay village (the New Union), it required a secret knock to gain entry and was regularly raided by the police.

We have come along way, but are still fighting for true equality and to change some people’s values. Some people still believe it’s a “choice” and that according to their religion or moral values it’s “wrong” or “unnatural” (god I hate that phrase – homosexuality has been seen in almost every animal species, so how can it be unnatural?). There are even people who turn their views in to physical violence towards homosexuals.

Yes pride is a celebration of how far we’ve come (and gays know how to throw a party!), but we must not forget that we still have to keep the aim of true equality.

Take Care,

Antony x

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Sunday 30 August 2009
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