Gay & Lesbian

Almost half a century ago, Liberace won a libel action against the Daily Mirror. Having sued the paper for the ‘disgraceful’ suggestion that he might be gay, the singer stood on the steps of the High Court in the Strand and – quite understandably – coined the phrase, ‘I’m laughing all the way to the bank.’ Not only a British libel jury, it seemed, but millions of fans worldwide were perfectly happy to participate in a mutual conspiracy of silence over the entertainer’s sexuality. Feature continues

In 2007, however, Mirror readers are in no doubt. Not only is a star like The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie Sells completely, openly, relaxedly gay. He regards his lesbian mum and her partner as his parents, something he’s as happy to share with Parky as Kenneth Williams once was to chatter about Louie. And Beth Ditto of The Gossip is as utterly, undefensively matter-of-fact with the tabloids about being lesbian as she is about her weight.

That’s one of the startlingly positive changes that’s taken place in Britain in recent years; a demonstration of the real results of a sometimes daunting march towards equality for gay people.

It’s to celebrate those changes that Stonewall now holds a major annual awards ceremony. This year’s, at the V&A on Thursday, will see 400 people watch artists such as Gillespie Sells, Ditto and Rufus Wainwright – all among the 2007 nominees – acknowledged for the way their lives represent a quiet twenty-first century activism in a way unthinkable even in the recent past.

Just as remarkable is that there are five successful openly gay authors – from Val McDermid and Charlotte Mendelson to Time Out’s own Paul Burston – to nominate as Writer of the Year, all of them contracted to mainstream publishers.

The Awards judges – who include Clare Balding, Matt Lucas, Nicky Campbell and Paul Gambaccini – will also acknowledge, very deliberately, a constellation of individuals and organisations who’ve given lesbian and gay people reason to celebrate in recent years but may not be gay themselves. Alongside Zoe Williams of the Guardian and www.bbc.co.uk, frontbench politicians Alan Johnson and Eleanor Laing are fêted. They’ve both recently made significant, quiet contributions to major new legal protections for gay people.

The fledgling London Paper is nominated for its understated but regular inclusion of gay columnists, gay news and gay personal ads in a publication that – just like Time Out – consequently looks something like the complicated capital it serves.

These join a catalogue of other lesbian and gay campaigners, politicians, journalists and individuals who give both their skills and time to help support other gay people in their everyday lives. Others – such as Victoria Wood, Graeme Le Saux and Mariella Frostrup – have raised awareness and understanding of gay people through their own work as authors, writers or agony aunts.

Taking place almost two years to the day after Jody Dobrowksi was kicked to death on Clapham Common, the Awards are an opportunity for a reality check, too. Six thousand Stonewall supporters have been voting for a Bigot of the Year. As voting closed, Jeremy Clarkson was running within a whisker of the Bishop of Hereford, who was found guilty at a tribunal of barring a talented youth worker from a job for being gay.

Frontrunner in the poll for Community Group of the Year is the remarkable London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, which has helped hundreds of thousands of people during its insufficiently remarked history. Switchboard will receive a £5,000 cheque on the night from Stonewall Awards’ sponsors Barclays. And perhaps that’s historic in itself. It was unthinkable 50, or even 10, years ago that a high-street bank would be prepared to endorse a high-profile gay event, not just because it wants to attract gay customers but because association with a major lesbian and gay celebration is a powerful demonstration to straight customers too of a corporate relaxedness with the modern world. Times really are changing.

As the most-played band on British radio last year, The Feeling’s four singles received almost 100,000 plays. Which means that Gillespie Sells, an openly gay man, is now heard in millions of British households once every five minutes. Mary Whitehouse must be twitching in her celestial bathchair. That really is something to celebrate.

Ben Summerskill is chief executive of Stonewall.