August 07 - The Freedom Issue
Freedom, said Kris Kristofferson, is just another word for nothing left to lose. I, however, have a slightly different take – It’s about having everything to lose, being left alone to live your life with respect and dignity and the minimum of interference from external sources. It’s the right of association, privacy, travel – the right to dissent.
We’ve chosen the rather loose theme of Freedom for this issue, as we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of the passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. This law, while far from perfect – it enshrined discrimination in a different age of consent and gay sex being only permissible in private, between no more than two people, and only on Mondays. (I made the last one up, but you get the gist) – was a huge milestone along the hard-won road to freedom. We meet Leo Abse in this issue (p 72) who was the MP responsible for championing and pushing through the law. Richard Smith wanted to hug him at the end of his interview, and I felt the same after reading it. It’s rare you meet someone unknown who makes a positive contribution to the quality of your life; Leo Abse is one, a real hero.
Orwell wrote that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it, which is rather worrying if the results of our Generation Gap round table discussion (p 66) are anything to go by. We brought together a group of men, some of whom were already of an age in 1967, and some who had not yet been born, and we asked them to compare and contrast their experiences growing up gay. The older generation were shocked to find a total knowledge vacuum about our history and culture in the younger guys. To be fair, how are they supposed to know? From Schools? I don’t think so. It’s a silent tribute to the generation who came before that their work has brought about a freedom that is taken for granted by the younger people, but it’s also a dangerous slap in the face. Aside from the value of respecting your elders’ achievements, if you don’t remember where you came from, it would be all too easy to find yourself back in that situation without even noticing it was happening.
Onwards and upwards.