All year, I’ve been recording a series of podcasts to mark the anniversary. I’ve chatted to influential gay men, including Paul O’Grady and Ian McKellen, about what it was like growing up gay before decriminalisation. I’ve heard about the horrors of the Aids crisis from Julian Clary, what it was like for Russell T Davies to make his first forays on to the gay scene in Manchester, and how Stephen K Amos struggled to reconcile his homosexuality with his Nigerian heritage.
I decided to call the series Attitude Heroes because I firmly believe that just to live openly as a gay man in the circumstances each of my guests described, constitutes an act of heroism.