Gareth on a lighter note can be seen every Xmas at the New Theatre Pantomine.
He camps his part up and it goes down brilliantly with the Audience.
That is certainly attention seeking but in a fond way.

Stan A. Einstein wrote:

pembsexile wrote:

Stan A. Einstein wrote:You will all know when homophobic abuse is not an issue. If that day ever comes gay people will no more need to 'come out' than do heterosexual people.

And what anyone's particular sexual preference is, is seen as no more important than the colour of their eyes. That which consenting adults choose to do in private is none of anyone else's business.

That's a bit of a stereotypical view and not quite correct Brendan. There are a few instances of a sexual nature between consenting adults that are illegal. No need to give you a list, you will know what they are.

Yes there are. Mostly in what is termed BDSM. My view is that only a person who was seriously mentally ill would consent to permanent injury or death. As such there is no informed consent. Their Lordships in their 'wisdom' outlawed in the infamous Spanner case many practices well short of this. In my view this is an unjustified infringement on the liberty of the individual. And as such in my view of no concern to anyone other than those involved. The House of Lords, now the Supreme Court are as wrong on this as they were when for centuries they upheld that a man could not rape his wife.They only recently got around to changing this.

I feel the same about drugs, censorship and a whole host of other matters. If you are adult and sane, so long as you don't infringe the rights of another you should be able to do anything you please.

Agree with all of that. As regards the drugs issue, making a drug class A or B etc does not prevent its use or protect an individual who uses it. What it does is provide an occupation for ruthless individuals to traffic those drugs and exploit addicts. Far better surely to have legalised outlets selling standardised drugs and with non-judgemental offers of help for those willing to accept it and fund those services from the profits? A pleasant side effect would be a decrease in petty crime from thefts and burglaries by hopeless addicts because most drugs of addiction are pretty cheap to produce, all you need is a greenhouse for one favourite.

I perhaps am qualified to respond to this post, being gay, a founding member and former Player/Manager for Stonewall Football Club, a Newport County Supporter and a founding Director of then Newport AFC.

The term 'gay' was adopted as a preferred term to homosexual, largely because at the time of adoption, homosexuality was considered by the WHO as a mental health disorder. Gay was chosen to make a statement that gay men/women were happy with their sexual preference and did not consider themselves mentally ill.

Stonewall was started by a group of men, who enjoyed playing and watching football, but felt alienated by the homophobia that they experienced by their teammates in sport. At University for instance there were two Colin's, Colin the crap footballer for the 25th reserve team at York and Colin, that would sneak in and out of GaySoc the on campus social meet for gay men and women, desperately fearful of being seen, by fellow members of the football team. Even when I left University, these fears did not go away and I never let on to any of the sports teams, running clubs or soccer that I had a second 'secret' life.

Move on a number of years to 1989 when we founded the new club, I was living with a long term partner, of 8 years, that my family, work mates new nothing of, consequently I was traveling from Slough to Newport and back to Slough on the nights of board meetings to avoid, seeing my family and having to discuss, my personal affairs with them, then the following day traveling to wherever it was we were playing Moreton, Newport et al. None of the founding Directors new that I was living with a same sex partner and that's how I wanted it to stay, the fear of loss of respect was terrifying.

I then accidentally became involved, in the formation of Stonewall FC and had an enjoyable few season in the Wandsworth and District league, this however was not without it's challenges as we became more and more established, some saw us a a freak show and sadly the worst homophobic abuse came from the female partners of our opposition teams and gosh did they hate to lose to us.

Then a Sunday Newpaper, (Times I think) ran a feature on us about Stonewall going to the Gay Games in New York and I was in the squad photograph, my personal fears about how this would be viewed by my family, friends and potentially Newport Supporters, caused me to decide to step down from the BOD. I was then hounded for a couple of weeks by Argus reporters looking for 'an angle' but my position was, that I was standing down for personal reasons.

Move on a few years to the present, there are now a number of gay football clubs in the UK, playing in 'straight league's, but as far as I'm aware, you do not have to be gay to play for them, but rather not be homophobic and welcoming to fellow players of all creeds, colours and sexual preferences. But then we move on to the question of, where are we as a society and club in addressing homophobia. My answer is very simplistic, as long as there are people using expressions like 'Benno', a derogatory name for gay men in Newport when I was growing up, which was used on a facebook post this very day, we will not have entirely eliminated the fears, of men and women being able to be comfortable in their own skin about their sexuality.

We have made great progress as a society in reducing but not eliminating vilification of same sex attracted people/ relationships, but there is further to go, a similar argument can be applied to mental health, we are better as a society than we were about supporting people with mental health conditions, than we were, but we have not yet reached full understanding and acceptance that mental health is as important as physical health.

As someone that can be subject to episodes of extreme anxiety, I have seen first hand people's reluctance to discuss or even acknowledge this condition.

Regards Colin

Interesting read that. That goodness as a society we have moved forward. Still a lot of work to do though.

Like a lot of people, I didn't understand why the word 'gay' had been used. I can see why now.

Your mention of the word 'benno' is enlightening. I've also heard the word Benson used. I have travelled all over the world during the last 47 years since I left Newpôrt and it is only there that I hear that word used. Unique to Newpôrt I think.

Fascinating insight. Thanks for sharing (and for your role in reforming the club).

Genuine question, because I genuinely can't remember, but was Stonewall the organisation that used to go round outing, or threatening to out gay people who as yet had not made their lifestyle known, along with the distress that such threats caused, to what were fellow gay people?.....

newgroundrodney wrote:Genuine question, because I genuinely can't remember, but was Stonewall the organisation that used to go round outing, or threatening to out gay people who as yet had not made their lifestyle known, along with the distress that such threats caused, to what were fellow gay people?.....

I think you're thinking of Peter Tatchell's OutRage.

newgroundrodney wrote:Genuine question, because I genuinely can't remember, but was Stonewall the organisation that used to go round outing, or threatening to out gay people who as yet had not made their lifestyle known, along with the distress that such threats caused, to what were fellow gay people?.....

I believe stonewall was a bar in Manhattan that was regularly raided by NYPD, until there were riot's. This led to the Gay Pride movement starting. There has been an anniversary of the riots recently 50? Years, and coverage of interveiws with those involved on radio 6.

SJG99 wrote:

newgroundrodney wrote:Genuine question, because I genuinely can't remember, but was Stonewall the organisation that used to go round outing, or threatening to out gay people who as yet had not made their lifestyle known, along with the distress that such threats caused, to what were fellow gay people?.....

I think you're thinking of Peter Tatchell's OutRage.

Yeah, now I see the name, I think you're right.
Why would they even DO such a thing?..
Surely it just adds to the climate of fear. I think there are a number of fronts that stop people, not just players coming out...

newgroundrodney wrote:Genuine question, because I genuinely can't remember, but was Stonewall the organisation that used to go round outing, or threatening to out gay people who as yet had not made their lifestyle known, along with the distress that such threats caused, to what were fellow gay people?.....

Stonewall is a bar in NYC at which the stonewall riots occurred, when a bar full of gays and 'drag queens' sick of being harassed by the NYC police, rioted, effectively beginning a gay rights movement.

That was a compelling read, back up the page, Colin. It's awful to think what persecuted people go through.