Earlier this year, actor Laurence Fox revealed that Harrow School had threatened him with legal action for making remarks about its ingrained homophobia. He wasn’t the first to speak out — Benedict Cumberbatch made similar comments about the London public school two years ago. Both were my contemporaries, and if this sort of hatred had a negative impact on these two heterosexual men (a timely reminder that it is bad for everyone regardless), it nearly killed me.
Being gay at Harrow in the early Nineties was social suicide. It is the most homophobic environment I’ve ever encountered. I don’t doubt that similar schools were as bad and I don’t imagine my experience was worse than anyone else’s.