Class Warrior

ADAM CLIFFORD IS THE ANTI-GENTRIFICATION PROTESTOR WHO WANTS THE GAY SCENE TO GET RE-POLITICISED...

WORDS BY PATRICK CASH PHOTOS BY LUXXXER

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

GENTRIFICATION VS THE GAY SCENE

IN APRIL, FOLLOWING A CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT IT FROM BEING TURNED INTO LUXURY FLATS, ONE OF THE UK’S LONGEST RUNNING GAY VENUES, THE BLACK CAP, WAS SUDDENLY CLOSED BY ITS OWNERS. IT WAS JUST ONE OF MANY LGBT VENUES TO CLOSE IN RECENT YEARS DUE TO GENTRIFICATION.

Adam Clifford likes to tell the truth.

“I don’t really like your magazine,” he says, as we take stools in a Camden pub. “But I thought I should get the word out there.”

I smile, and gloss over any potential awkward beginnings to the interview. Clifford is 36, and remarkably attractive. Even the bright peroxide blonde of his buzzcut can’t overshadow the effect of his sculpted cheekbones and full lips. HOMO is tattooed across the knuckles of his left hand. Rarely does he make eye contact as he speaks.

I am here to assess what the word he wants to get out there is, but first I ask him about his background.

“I went to drama school on a scholarship,” he tells me, explaining the slightly languid drawl to his speech. “But I found the acting industry to be very homophobic. If you go to Hollywood you’re on a contract and you can’t come out for four to five years and you have to have a girlfriend. How does that help anyone?”

Clifford, who describes himself as East End working class, struggled with his sexuality for many years, to the extent of getting married at 26.

“We had two sons, and then we broke up,” he says, scanning the busy pub with darting blue eyes. “When I officially came out, I was rejected by my family straight away, and my ex-wife. She was very middle class, she had a lot of money behind her, and she was very privileged. I felt very alone in that period. I always had the children on the weekends, and looked after them, and I’ve always been very honest with regards to the children, myself and my sexuality.”