Made short videos for three 5 star written reviews of FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS (the first is here, the second and third are here) into short videos to further promote the book.
Added Related Videos and Related Images sections to all of my book’s pages.
Added a CAPTCHA to my newsletter form to prevent bots from signing up and updated some server settings so that the newsletter would continue to send to readers.
Updated the contact form due to server security changes.
Updated my books banner to reflect FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS:
Made another short review video for a 5 star review on Amazon, which you can watch on Youtube here.
Added Related Videos and Related Images sections to all of my topic content pages, where I have related videos and images.
The Equality Act (2010) is a UK law that is intended to protect people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
This is to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
The Equality Act (2010) is about ensuring equality and fair treatment for all.
Before the Equality Act (2010) there were more than 100 pieces of other legislation that included details around protecting people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
The Equality Act (2010) starts by outlining the 9 protected characteristics:
Sex
Race
Disability
Sexual Orientation
Gender Re-Assignment
Religion or Belief
Marriage or Civil Partnership
Pregnancy and Maternity
Age
Next the act goes on to define what is prohibited, including:
Direct discrimination of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Indirect discrimination of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Harassment of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Victimisation of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Equality Act (2010) applies to all public organisations, all private organisations and all third sector organisations, making it all encompassing.
It covers accessing or buying services, buying of products, all education establishments, the NHS, Social Care (plus all other local authority services), employment (all aspects) and pensions.
It places a responsibility on all organisations to make reasonable adjustments for anybody with a protected characteristic and outlines the potential legal consequences for not adhering to this legislation.
I am choosing to write about the Equality Act (2010) now because a certain right-wing political party is planning to abolish this Act and the legal protections it provides if the party gets into power. Scarily, this political party appears to be getting increasingly popular with every day that passes. It is looking like this political party might get into power at the next general election.
So I thought I would use this platform to explain what the Act offers and hopefully help people realise why it is important for every one. Regardless of whether you have a protected characteristic or not.
I saw an announcement on social media about a new law in the UK, one that in theory will help protect girls and women from harassment. I posted a comment stating that I hoped that this law would be applied regardless of gender.
I was making a simple, but important point: That the law should be applicable to and applied equally, regardless of gender.
I found myself under attack from well meaning women in the comments. I never disagreed that the safety of girls and women is an issue in our society. Nor that boys and men are usually the perpetrators of harassment towards girls and women.
I replied to each comment, encouraging girls and women learn the lesson from the gay civil rights movement. The lesson is this: The gay civil rights movement made changes happen because they gained allies. I encouraged these women to gain allies, rather than go on the attack.
To girls and women: Know that there are many boys and men that are not harassing you. Know that many boys and men don’t share the views, attitudes or behaviours of those that harass you or might do.
This year, I have written, edited and published 52 blog posts, 1 article and 2 books. Here are some of the best posts, information about the 1 article and 2 books, in case you missed them at the time they were originally published:
The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard gained international news coverage at the time. I was reminded of his story because of Donald Trump’s targeting the LGBT community with his rhetoric.
In February, I published my Z-VIRUS Powers: Map of Anglesey. This post is about my Z-Virus Powers novel, a story about a zombie apocalypse where some kids develop supernatural powers.
The wonderful array of young characters (some with powers and some without) decide to go on a quest for the cure, after their powers that once aided survival are now becoming destructive.
The decision to rebrand the book was driven by feedback, suggesting that people assumed that My Royal Navy Friend was about the Royal Navy. The book was never about the Royal Navy.
My Royal Navy Friend was about maintaining a friendship with a friend who followed their life long dream of joining the Royal Navy through funny, entertaining and occasionally serious emails. So I rebranded, to better reflect what the book is about.
I had a fantastic time visiting Blackpool Zoo, sharing plenty of photos in a blog post I published.
You can see other recent photos on my regularly updated Photos page here.
In August, I published a post sharing the incredible story of Jonas Salk. In The Story of Jonas Salk and The Polio Vaccine, I shared Salk’s story of the development of the Polio Vaccine.
What is inspirational about this man, is not just that he developed the polio vaccine. But that he chose not to patent it. This meant that anyone could reproduce the polio vaccine without any payment to Salk.
If Salk had patented his polio vaccine, it would have made him several billionaire dollars. But he chose not to and in doing so, helped it become more widely available to the whole of humanity.
In August, I posted a blog post titled: Unsafe Places to be a Gay Man, detailing the places it isn’t safe to be an out gay man in the world.
To balance the above blog post, I later published a blog post titled: Safer Places to Live for Gay Men. In this post, I focused on places that are safer, more accepting and with better legal rights and protections for gay men in the world.
Safer Places to Live for Gay Men is a blog post I am really proud of publishing. I hope gay men looking for places where they are safer and more accepted in the world find this post. I hope they find this well researched blog post useful.
In this blog post, I explain what the subconscious mind is, how it operates, how it communicates with our conscious mind and how to heal a troubled, disturbed or traumatised subconscious.
I give ways to help heal the subconscious mind and explain that it takes both work and time.
But that the hard work is totally worth the benefits of healing the subconscious mind.
Dangers included: No Empathy, False Connection, Emotional Dependence, Bad Advice, Can Reinforce Negative Thoughts/Feelings/Behaviours, No Safeguarding, Lack of Emotional Growth & Data Privacy Breeches.
Given the dangers, as a minimum this apps should be regulated, if not banned.
Zack has seemingly appeared from nowhere to become the leader of the Green Party. In this blog post, I state that I wish I’d have known about him when doing research for my Influential UK Gay Men article, so that he could have been included in it.
In the post, I discuss Zack’s appeal, share his story (as available online) and state that I may have been wrong about there not being an out gay man as Prime Minister of the UK in my lifetime. In fact, I hope that I am wrong.
So there you have it. My Year In Review: 2025. I wonder what 2026 will bring?
