In 1970, gay campaigners in the UK were in something of a quandary. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act had lifted only some of the criminal sanctions against sex between men and left immense social stigma unchallenged. At the same time, the media reacted to partial decriminalisation by largely losing interest in homosexuality.
Just one non-fiction television programme and two radio programmes were devoted to the topic in the late 1960s. In these programmes, like those before 1967 explored in my current project , all the gay interviewees were either anonymous or else spoke of in the third person and distanced themselves from “promiscuous types”.
The most prominent gay campaigner of the 1960s, Antony Grey, lamented in 1969 that . Though he encountered people who claimed to have come out completely and unashamedly, he doubted whether they were telling the truth.
In June 1970, however, Grey was contacted by Nigel Cronin, the secretary of Northern Ireland’s Elmwood Association, which brought together gay and straight campaigners for homosexual rights. Cronin had hit upon a tactic that suddenly became popular among gay organisations across the UK in 1970 and 1971: that of as an “out” gay man.
Coming out on television
The first purpose of coming out on television was its novelty value for broadcasters accustomed to conducting interviews with incognito homosexuals filmed in silhouette, in negative or wearing false beards. Having been unable to secure television coverage by other means, Cronin resolved that .
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