Controversial Pride Opinion Status

I'm a proud Black Gay man. That's not the controversial part, stay with me...

I was raised in a religion that said I was an abomination.

I grew up in a society that said my life was less valuable than others. 

I'm old enough (I know it's...

An open letter in response to this article which seems to be circulating like a particularly antisocial virus.   Please, enough already of these poorly argued, puportedly trend-bucking articles.     If you’re going to do that you have to be good.   AA Gill good (RIP)....

I was just chatting to my good friend, Paul Darling online.   Darling by name, Darling by nature we were together marshalling our strength to kiss goodbye to this grubby, sad and disappointing 2016 and to make sure that 2017 would be Glorious!

I mentioned together,...

In the year Britain voted for Brexit and the day after Trump won the election, Leonard Cohen bailed out on us.  I spewed out this:

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the goo...

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilisations heal. – Toni Morrison

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the...

Note:  the week before Trump won the election, Susan Sarandon and Vivienne Westwood were publicly encouraging people to vote third party

Dear Susan Sarandon

Fuck you.  

Fuck your smug, self-righteous “I can’t bring myself to vote for Hilary” privileged elitism....

Intro:   I once happened to mention to a millennial friend that I tended to avoid arts circles and discussion groups with the word ‘queer’ in the title.  Not because it offended me but because I noticed that these events tended to be steeped in the organisers’ own unea...

Intro:  An unapologetic paen to self-pity, this was written when I was lying in bed with a fever in Sitges, Spain whilst all of my friends were out enjoying the madness of drumming and fireworks that is the Fiesta Major in August.

FEVER MAJOR

The drumming, the drumming,...

Intro:  This was written on our first year anniversary – which we celebrated in Sitges.  9 years prior to that, I had persuaded Jason to move in with me by pointing out that Tiddly (our dog at the time) was lonely and would like him to come live with us.

I was 43 w...

Note:  A sequel to the piece I wrote the day before A Sermon at the Funeral of Hope.    Written 5 days before the Brexit vote when there was still hope.

A better day.

A haircut in Splash. I love this place for being a melting pot of cultures and sexua...