The Intimacy of Being

Last year’s Gay Men's Week at Laurieston: ‘The dance between power and intimacy’, set me off on a 12 month roller coaster journey of self healing, spiritual integration and joyfulness which climaxed in this September’s week: ‘Pleasure, Love, Joy, Light- The intimacy of being’

I’d like to thank all members of the Edward Carpenter Community for supporting this magically facilitative network of loving men. Without it I could not have allowed myself to become the person I now am!

So, what happened? Last September I felt sad and friendless. Forty-nine years old and locked into an erotic-free yet physically, emotionally and romantically close relationship with my long-term partner who had been plagued with physical health problems for 6 of the 10 years we’d been together. Prior to my relationship with him I had enjoyed a reasonably vigorous sex life but when we fell in love we committed to a monogamous life together. So by the sixth year of attempting to be sexually faithful to a sex-less relationship, always hopeful that the illnesses would remit but perpetually disappointed by his consistently absent libido, something was going to snap. I didn’t want it to be our relationship. I didn’t want it to be my mental state. I didn’t want it to be my own physical health- though preoccupation with aches and pains were threatening to colonise my consciousness and make me old before my time.

Without fully understanding why, I found myself on last year’s Laurieston September week and it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.

By sharing my predicament in Heart Circle and Base Groups in the context of a programme of events encouraging openness to self and others, exploring the link between sexual and spiritual, I was able to discover that truth to myself lay in openly acknowledging my sadness. What had previously seemed to be a safe, powerful position of holding onto a mental armoury designed to project that I was a happily assimilated monogamous gay man, could now be seen as an obvious unhappiness-making mirage. I learned that intimacy in relationships grew from both trusting others to accept me in my vulnerability and allowing others to trust me with their vulnerabilities too!

With that important lesson learned as a foundation, I was able to return to my previously forlorn existence with a new lease of life. Could my relationship withstand some consensual, ethical, non-monogamy? Of course it could-and what a relief for both of us that we could actually talk about it! How would I develop my newfound fascination with the development of spirituality via sexuality? Why had these vitally important aspects of my personhood been perceived as mutually exclusive?

Four months later I’m experiencing the nature-bound healing spiritual Magick of a Faerie gathering at Featherstone Castle. Four months later I’m in community with beautiful Eurofaeries at Folleterre Faerie Sanctuary. Three months later I’m in Berlin for another week of Faerie frolicking in the company of queer folk allowing ourselves to be our very own unique selves! Two weeks later and I’m back at Laurieston focusing on Pleasure, Love, Joy, Light. Within days our community develops a deep physical, emotional and sexual intimacy allowing us to re-awaken an awareness of ourselves as sexual and spiritual pioneers. Learning the answer to the questions ‘Who do I want to be? What am I waiting for? What do I want to let go of?’

What have I learned in all this? Being brave enough to truly be myself (and this is not an insignificant piece of work in progress) is immensely pleasurable, gets me in touch with Spirit, inevitably invites genuine intimacy and generates joy in bucket-loads!

Thank-you to the organisers Shokti, Kevin, Adrian and Peter!

I’m looking forward to next year!

Pleasure, Love, Joy, Light!

Away with the Faeries!

I’ve just returned from a Faerie Gathering in Berlin. It was my third one this year so I guess I’ve become pretty addicted to Faerie Magick! Each event was a spontaneous gathering-together in virtual sanctuary of a fascinating bunch of weird and wonderful queer creative souls with spiritual growth, sexual healing and transformational affirmation all in abundance.
I was introduced to my first gathering at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland back in February by a Faerie I’d met at a Laurieston Edward Carpenter ‘Tantric Sex Workshop’ at the end of last year. Featherstone is a wonderful, secluded, ancient castle where we celebrated the Pagan festival of Imbolic. Forty-odd gay men, a couple of bisexual women, a trans man and a trans woman came together [literally] in a ten day ecstasy of fraternal love and polyamory.
My second gathering was in June at Folleterre in Eastern France- the permanent home of the Eurofaeries. An old, secluded farmhouse in an ancient forest provided the backdrop for an intimate group of 20 of us to explore the concept of Rewilding [the opposite of domestication]. Every day for an hour we’d find our favourite sit-spot and would silently absorb the amazing-ness of nature without fear of interruption. Informal workshops on Trans-, consent, patriarchy, sex and permaculture were fitted around cooking, wood chopping, swimming, sunbathing, fire making, drumming, singing, dancing and dressing-up.
The gathering in Berlin was exclusively for male identified Faeries. Thirty-five men from across Europe and a couple of Americans ranging in age from 25 to 78 got the chance to get to know each other on an emotionally intimate level. Daily ‘Heart Circles’ allowed us to speak totally honestly from our hearts about what was happening in our lives, our trials and tribulations in general and our specific issues in the moment. What a vivid tapestry of authentic subject-to-subject relationships we found ourselves weaving together! And what a refreshing change from the less honest relationships that so often surround us.
By this third gathering I had learned to trust and be trusted by my Faerie friends. I awakened an awareness that my journey towards becoming an assimilated straight-acting gay man began with me as the sissy boy who hung around with the girls, skipping, roller-skating and talking about boys. I realised back then that the feminine aspect of my nature signalled to the bullies who policed the patriarchal status quo that my sexuality was other than totally straight. I learned to slap back any hints of femininity in my behaviour and I became a macho closet case determined not to be emotionally annihilated like the sissies in my school who either couldn’t or wouldn’t conform.
Gender role and sexuality stereotype expectations are writ large in the Sports Arena. The changing-rooms, showers and sports field have always been uniquely hostile environments to those of us who didn’t fit in.
Is this why sport and sissy sensibility don’t sit pretty together?
Write to me: gaysocrates@gmail.com

Queer Blogs- the Best LGBT News Medium

When I was a little coming out chicken the only gay media around was ‘Gay Times’. Back then in the early 70s this was a rather worthy publication. Back then there were lots of injustices, it wasn’t fair, it needed to change and so it was important to share information and maintain solidarity. GT helped us to do this.

Then came my first encounter with ‘Attitude’ magazine. It was sitting there bold as brass in my local newsagent’s- albeit on the top shelf but none the less out-and-proud and unapologetic. Those first issues were full of- well- attitude and humour. Not ashamed to be frivolous and to celebrate camp gay stuff. It seemed like the gay media had reached a level of self-assuredness. Sadly in my dotage I’m now less inclined to read gay beauty magazines. I follow Baz Luhrmann’s advice as stated in his immemorable ‘Everybody’s free [to wear sunscreen]’ diatribe ‘Do not read beauty magazines-they will only make you feel ugly’.

So how do I get my information about LGBT related matters now?
I suppose it is via my LGBT friends and of course GScene magazine [tee-hee]. I’ve certainly stopped trusting the conventional mass media. For me it has become totally toxic. It seems to just pedal misinformation and induces fear and mistrust.

The media of the new millennium are email, blogs, facebook, texting and tweeting. These media have allowed us to spread our social networks further afield and to cut out these poisonous mass media middlemen.

I now take time to develop friendships via the Edward Carpenter Community and the Faeries. These friends are the best sources of information for what is happening to them, their friends and to the planet.

Through my blog I’ve met a good few virtual friends. Rory is a deeply spiritual Taoist who lives with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the North East of Scotland [blog http://lucid-exposition.blogspot.com/]. Keith is a highly intelligent writer who battles with episodic unipolar depression in Hollywood [blog http://brokenwholeblog.blogspot.com/].

I met Spanish-speaking Marco whilst on holiday in Toronto. He now lives in Mexico and we keep in touch- by emailing in each other’s language. He struggles with the closeted-ness induced by the homophobia of South American Catholicism.

In the past 30 years or so in the UK we have moved away from a focus on civil rights and rectifying social injustice. We have enjoyed a dalliance with assimilation and are increasingly accepted into mainstream society provided we shut up and fit in. Sadly fitting in involves becoming part of an empty, shallow, consumerist, cosmetically obsessed, sex focused, death denying, planet poisoning, war-torn system with our intimate relationships tied to civil partnerships, property and wealth.

Let’s break free of our ties to this oppressing system. Let’s connect to each other on a deeper loving level and generate our own information and organisation. We just need to make a bit of effort and not expect to be spoon fed with information that is anything other than toxic waste to our unique natures as queer folk.

Why watch reality when you can live it?

A few years ago I was quite partial to a bit of reality TV. The early series of Big Brother were a great opportunity for us all to be educated in the complexities of Social Psychology. Getting some insights into how, in a social context, we influence and are influenced by others is no bad thing I thought. 

However as the years have rolled by and the jaded palate of the viewing public has demanded increasingly grotesque and sadistic formats I have started to feel both defiled and guilty for watching, (and thereby perpetuating) these programmes. It is the same mixture of emotions I felt when Princess Diana died. My appetite for gossip and images about her relationship with Dodi Fayed had condoned and contributed in part to the frenzy of paparazzi who ultimately hounded her to her death. 

And so last year I decided to withdraw myself from the hoards of reality TV junkies and to stop living my life through the televised experiences of vulnerable, narcissistically driven wannabe celebrity egos prepared to endure endless humiliation and discomfort for the prize of our attention. Instead I resolved to start living my life in reality!

My first step was to move outside of my comfort zone and sign up for an Edward Carpenter Community retreat (www.edwardcarpentercommunity.org.uk). Out in the wilds of the Dumfries countryside there is the chance to openly explore who you are in the company of complete strangers sympathetic and supportive of who and where you are, who you want to become and where you want to go. 

My second step was to attend a faerie gathering (www.albionfaeries.co.uk/faerieevents.htm) at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland. Faeries create a queer magical space where you can be playful with your identity and experiment with ways of being truly yourself. Both retreats involved the co-creation of community outside of straight society meaning that conventional rules can be bent warped or broken for the sake of personal and spiritual development. Individual growth and creativity is celebrated. There is no danger here of being nominated for eviction by your housemates! 

At the end of each week everyone is encouraged to perform for the community. The Faeries call their cabaret ‘The No Talent Show’ which is a measure of the standard expected of participants. There is no Simon Cowel here to savage those brave enough to bare their souls. All performances are valued because they are ours and have become part of the fabric of who we are. 

Two life-changing weeks of my life away from TV. As a consequence I have become a more grounded human being. I have also become part of a living network of people seeking authenticity from life and from each other. 

Why not try it? It might even cure you of your realty TV addiction too! 

You can write to me at GaySocrates@gmail.com and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Come out of the Shadows and Shine!

I have been meditating recently on what is most likely to push me into remoteness from being fully present to myself and to others in the world. What is it which causes me to only half live my life, to fritter it away pining for better times gone by or hoping for a more favourable future? What are the themes that preoccupy me and push me onto the sidelines of my existence? 

I’ve come to the conclusion that my ego is the greatest distraction I have from what matters to me most because it tries, and often succeeds, in convincing me that something else matters more than living my life from moment to moment, fully aware of, and acknowledging my life as it truly is! 

For me there are three main facets to my distracting ego. The first I would describe as an anxious hypochondriac- frightened of death but even more afraid of existing with any of many ailments that might leave him plagued by chronic pain. The second facet I would describe as a screaming power queen- constantly considering her position within relationships and working out ways to avoid making herself vulnerable. The third facet is a craving sex fiend. He worries that I’m not getting enough and constantly plans how to get more! At any one time of the day I can pretty much guarantee that at least one of these characters will be sitting centre stage in my head reciting one of a series of very well rehearsed monologues. You, dear reader, will no doubt, have your own unique versions of these distracting egos. 

You may not have noticed, but one of the tricks that our brains regularly plays on us is that they somehow get us to overlook that a brain is simply no more than a clever tool we have developed for our survival and evolution. Our brain’s thoughts are not ‘who we are’ and these ego identities, masquerading as real personality in our heads, are just so much interference and noise distracting from our true selves- or souls which simply yearn for attachment with each other. I was reflecting with a friend today on what might be the source of these distracting ego identities for queer folk and wondered whether maybe we indulge these identities and consequently find ourselves accepting a semi-detached position from life because of the bullying we have encountered over the years. 

What a cruel and bullying society we live in which tells us from our earliest years that our identities and natural sexual impulses are wrong and shameful! Am I comfortable with my somatic, sexual and power preoccupations because it keeps me from the danger of revealing myself as truly different, exposing myself authentically but in so doing making myself vulnerable to attack, invalidation and ridicule? 

What is it that gets in the way of us being who we truly are? If it is the fear of a bullying society which is intolerant of diversity and authenticity isn’t it time we stopped being pushed into the shadows and started shining out your truth?

Are you an Eco-Puritan?

A new Puritanism is taking hold of us all, which is promulgated by the polluters of the planet. Its main tenets are:
1 An environmental apocalypse is nigh!
2 If we love the planet we need to do something now!!
3 If we stop driving cars and use public transport, stop taking holidays abroad and recycle out bottles and boxes we can stop feeling so bad about it.
4 We should try not to get distracted by evidence suggesting that doing these things is effectively a drop in the ocean of what those countries with obscenely gigantic carbon footprints might be capable of, but just don’t get round to doing!

Suggest to an Eco-Puritan that there might be a small problem with tenet number 4 and you might as well be denying the holocaust at a Bar Mitzvah, or depicting Allah as a cartoon character to an ayatollah.

I take my bottles cans and newspapers to my recycling point like any good Brightonian. But I’m not a believer! However, in the spirit of ‘being the change you would like to see in the world’ I have taken to regularly attempting to raise my awareness of myself, in my body, in the world

This is how it works: Every day as I drive to work, I take a few deep breaths. Then, as I’m looking out of the windscreen, I become aware of those things on the glass that partially obscure my view- things like specks of dirt, raindrops, reflections of the illuminated speedo up on the screen. And I think about how what I see is affected by these obscurants. I then look beyond the screen to the open road where I see shadows underneath oncoming cars and beneath trees. Most cars today have a metallic finish so the images of the cars are made up of reflected light and mirrored, distorted, reflected images. There are light sources too: headlights, taillights, road lights, traffic lights. I become aware that all of what I see is simply light reflected off matter. Usually at this stage I start to feel more acutely aware of the moment I am existing in and I’ll be grateful that I’ve brought myself out of dwelling in the past or preoccupying myself with the future.

I’m grateful because the present moment, ‘now’, is all we really have ever had and is all we really ever will have. Choosing to aware-ly exist within it is probably one of the few things we can truly have an influence over.

I then look at something I might conventionally disregard as boring- like the tarmac on the road. But instead I see it afresh in the present as fascinating. I’m now getting to know lots of bits of road which, in the past I would never have registered! Then I look for imperfections on the road. For me, finding an imperfection in something is a sure-fire way of rapidly disregarding it. So I find an imperfection and see it as something to be aware of now. Spots of chewing gum, drips of paint, pebbles, grit. And finally I find something that is creatively perfection. Something which, because of its complexity, I would previously have overlooked- grass, wild flowers, trees, hedgerows. I’ve made friends with lots of trees along the route into work this way!


As a society we are increasingly divorced from our present and from the nature in the world that surrounds us. Please become aware of yourself in your present and love it!

As queer folk we have a special gift to be able to do this more easily than our straight brethren. Spread the word. The more of us who are aware of our present selves, as part of nature, the less disconnected will we be from our beautiful mother- Earth. Ditch the Eco-Puritanism and connect with nature in the present moment as often as you can. 

Oh- and mind you don’t crash the car!


Google the blog or email me GaySocrates@gmail.com

Equality: Ticket to liberation? Diversity threat? Or key to allowing intimacy into our lives?

Why is it, when I hear the word ‘Equality’, I get a rush of mixed feelings? Are all of us born equal? Certainly my political instincts twitch against the opposite, Orwellian aphorism that ‘Some are more equal than others’ with its attendant divisiveness and preferential treatment for a privileged few over the masses.

For us queer folk, rallying behind the Stonewall Equality banner in recent years has served us well in our battles against oppression and invalidation. However there’s a big difference between saying that we demand equality in terms of our human rights before the law, and saying that we deserve to be treated like everyone else because we’re no different from anyone else. For some, the route to achieving the former has been by living a lifestyle attempting to demonstrate the latter! Problem is, that whilst we’ve all been busy assimilating ourselves into straight society- we pair bond, shop at Habitat and IKEA, want the right to get married and nurture children- we’ve started to loose our edge.

Historically, our greatest contribution to society has been by providing our perspective on it from its margins. In our disenfranchisement, oppression and invalidation we've grown strong as individuals by the cultivation of our uniqueness, special-ness, and strangeness. The thing is, now we have the opportunity to be card carrying members of mainstream society, we have the choice of either joining with the consumer driven frenzy of it all or, just stepping back and taking stock.

Quentin Crisp once said of the joy and hardship of the queer’s role on the margins: “Never try to join forces with the enemy! You should make no effort to join society. Stay right where you are. Give your name and serial number and wait for society to come to you”

I recently came across another aspect of equality whilst reading the Gay Blogger CrazeeBee . He made the helpful observation that a lack of equality within power relationships between people eradicates intimacy. This really struck a chord. I realized that I often find I’ve either put myself, or others have positioned me, into very marked relationship power differentials. It’s like I’m the powerful one or I’m the weak one. The dominant or the submissive. I may seek to dominate or to be submissive. Others may seek domination or submission from me. And it’s all driven by fear of intimacy. Within extreme power differentials there is both the security and the profound disappointment that emotional intimacy will be kept securely under wraps.

So I thank the Universe for “Equality” and how it has served us well in our battles to be treated fairly. However I would urge against a full-scale stampede towards a tepid, insipid, and magnolia painted lifestyle within the mainstream. Keep remembering that we queers are different and some of us are more different than others! By continuing to be our fabulous, unique, beautiful selves, out on the margins, we will inevitably transform the world for the better. And don’t forget that to equalize the power differences within your personal relationships may be the way to find a more fulfilling and intimacy rich existence!

If this is what it’s like to be nannied- bring it on!

I’ve never had a nanny. Nannies are what upper middle class parents substitute for themselves when they’re too busy, or just can’t be arsed, to actually parent their children prior to sending them off to boarding school. I had real parents. They couldn’t afford nannies or private schools but still nevertheless somehow managed, with their unique parenting style, to fit in a fair bit of nanying in spite of everything.
Mary Poppins being the exception that proves the rule, the business of nannying has a fairly bad reputation generally speaking. Think of being nannied and you’re in a suffocating world, there’s an overblown sense of danger and you’re inhibited from playful exploration by a risk averse regime which is aimed at making everything safe. The result is a bland and unchallenging life for everyone.
Nanny States are the pendulum swing opposite of Laissez-Faire regimes. Statutory regulation proliferation is the order of the day and individuals are no longer trusted to regulate themselves responsibly. This all occurs in the context of an exaggerated sense of danger driven by the pincer movement of media sensationalist hysteria on the one arm and a whipped-up encouragement for people to complain and litigate when ‘things go wrong’ on the other. Regulation is especially aimed at powerful and respected groups within the emerging nanny society, who are perceived by the system as a threat to the process of power centralization. The net effect is that control is exerted through fear and an insistence that procedures are carried out following uniform protocols. The justification for the imposition of regulation is on the basis of a few horror stories of what happens when things aren’t regulated. The nurse Beverly Allitt. The Doctor Harrold Shipman.

The current administration is increasingly accused of nannying. And it’s true that we’re told what we should and shouldn’t be eating and how we should be exercising. Our teachers are monitored for how well or poorly they teach, and our doctors and nurses are forced to manage our ailments through protocol driven, relationship devoid, care pathways.
Yet without this nannying, which abolished section 28, it would not be seen as reasonable for teachers to talk about gay lifestyles without fear of being prosecuted for ‘promoting pretend family values’. Without this nannying plans would not be afoot for homophobic bullying to be taken as seriously as sexist or racist bullying in our schools next year. Gay and lesbian 16 year olds would still be criminalized, deprived of safe sex advice and made to feel like freaks. We would still be unequally treated regarding our rights as civil partners and as potential adoptive and foster parents.
Prior to this administration people couldn’t be trusted to regulate their bigoted behaviour and homophobia was enshrined in our society’s legislation.
So, for all the drawbacks of living in a nanny state, we haven’t really done that badly out of it. Maybe for some reason, Nanny has a soft spot for us queer folk. If it carries on being this good I could even get to enjoy being nannied. Next stop Paraphilic Infantilism! Anyone for nappies?

Enough fitting in-time for society to start fitting around us!

It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of non-heterosexual civil unions would have been considered unthinkable. Fifteen years ago, when I was getting together with Partner the idea that a queer couple might have their partnership recognised and protected in law just like any straight couple was something that seemed an impossible thing to happen in our lifetimes. Over the years neither of us have felt a pressing desire to nail each other into a legally and financially binding agreement. However, just 4 years ago when Civil Partnerships were sprung on us- almost out of the blue- it did seem like ‘a good thing’ in terms of equality and human rights. Surely shouldn’t we have equal access to those rights, privileges and protections that our straight peers take for granted? I thought so then but now I’m not so sure!

I’ve been reading recently about the history of the Gay Liberation movement in the USA. It started in the early 1950s with the formation of the Mattachine Society, a group of gay men whose aim was to politically organise to overcome discrimination against queer folk as a minority group. From the early days of the movement there was an immediate split. There were the assimilationists in one group aiming to win equality with straight society and dreaming of fitting into society as it stood. In the other group were the radical faeries. They believed that queer folk were fundamentally different, that we couldn’t, and shouldn’t, fit in and that society needed to change radically to fit around us.

The gay political agenda ever since has been largely driven by the assimilationists and with every new milestone we become more and more equal. We now have an equalized age of consent, abolition of Section 28, equal rights to parenting as fosterers, adopters or as biological parents.

As the years have flown by since that very first CP, I’ve attended ceremonies of friends who were clamouring to be one of the first as a political act, friends who wanted to show the straight world that they could do a CP knees-up more lavish and camp than any straight wedding could hope to be, and most recently friends who are tentatively entering into legal arrangements as the only way of finding out if a relationship with a foreign national is based on love or simply their partner’s desire for British citizenship.

With equality comes acceptance and an experience of what it feels like to be part of the majority. My problem is that the more I feel like we’re just like everyone else, the less we have our vantage point of being on the margins and the more we loose our ability to hold a mirror up to straight society to help it see what it might do differently. Our different-ness has always been our most unique value and we’re now in danger of loosing it. Maybe now we’re almost equal it’s time to pull back from the assimilationist’s equality agenda and start focusing on our radical uniqueness for a change!

Why do we feel unsafe in our communities?

My man has the unfortunate habit of reading The Argus and is consequently exposed to a constant litany of the aggressive violence that takes place on a daily basis in and around our beautiful city. He reads out to me the most horrific stories. Last Saturday at 2 am a couple of students were set about by a gang of 5 drug-crazed youths in the centre of Brighton. The attack involved broken bottles and resulted in facial disfigurement ‘beyond recognition’ for the two victims.

 With each story I am thankful that I’m not the victim! I try to remind myself that hearing stories reported in this way is likely to engender a disproportionate sense of danger. These events are relatively rare yet hearing reports one after the other from the various corners of Sussex makes it seem like I’m practically guaranteed a good beating every time I set foot on St James’ Street.

 Yesterday my man read out yet another story: ‘GAY MEN INVOLVED AS PERPETRATORS OF VIOLENT CRIME’. Two gay guys had attacked an elderly woman in Kemptown. One had held her down whilst the other did her hair and make-up! Hmmm! Funny!

 When I was younger I used to feel more vulnerable to homophobic violence. Now I’m older and spend less time out in the city at night I just feel vulnerable to gratuitous drug fuelled violence. The older and frailer I become, the more I feel like a potential target when in the proximity of  ‘merry’ youths. This growing sense of insecurity doesn’t really seem to be the fault of inadequate community policing. It’s more like it’s the consequence of failing to address the cultural, moral, and aspirational poverty of an ever-growing underclass of unfortunates who live in our midst.

Having said this a couple of months ago my young friend Carl was out in town with his partner. It was late and they were both a bit drunk. They were walking by the Theatre Royal towards the taxi rank. Just as they walked by Mrs Fitzherbert’s they were approached by a couple of well groomed, well spoken, ostensibly straight men who asked them where the nearest nightclubs were. Before they could answer, one of the guys, noticing my friends had their arms linked and sensing they were gay said: ‘Oh fuck-a couple of queers’ and slugged Carl in the mouth knocking one of his front teeth out and flooring him. A witness in the pub immediately called the police who were there so quickly that the assailant could be pointed out  just a hundred yards down the street. But bizarrely, the police refused to pursue the attacker without confirmation from the unconscious Carl that he wished to press charges! The next day when Carl reported the attack he was underwhelmed by the police response which seemed more like politically correct lip-service- making sure the paperwork had been completed and the statistics compiled rather than there being any intention to attempt to apprehend this malignant homophobe.

We hear from our gay community police liaison officer that we must come forward and report homophobic hate crime but really with stories like this it does make you wonder what’s the point!