Celebrating Pride Month

Honouring LGBTQ+ voices

This Pride Month we are celebrating by shining a spotlight on those individuals from the LGBTQ+ community who have inspired us through their courage, creativity, resilience, and advocacy. These people, past and present, have made meaningful contributions to society and also helped pave the way for greater inclusion, and acceptance.

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Zanele Muholi by Karen Henderson

It seems timely to choose someone whose career has focused on giving visibility to marginalised queer communities in the current context where rights are being dismantled at speed in the US, emboldening bigots to express prejudice more overtly, here in the UK.  What is scary is that hard fought progress that was assumed to now be embedded, can be rolled back so easily – and that our reality is as precarious as it is now turning out to be.

Muholi’s work addresses social injustice through what they call, visual activism, documenting and making visible the LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa – who continue to be oppressed by gender-based violence.  They have an ongoing project to document and make visible Black lesbian, trans and gender non-conforming people in South Africa.  Standing in a room of these photographs was emotional – these are the people who are not usually seen – now stacked 3 deep in a grid surrounding you and looking straight at you.  These are portraits made with connection and empathy and filled with dignity and respect.  They take up space and form a visible collective that is powerful in its occupation by bodies which are usually not seen and exist under the radar.    In some cases, individual testimonies detailing the racism, homophobia, transphobia, violence and discrimination endured by that individual, add context to the portrait, building a defiant narrative of lived experience in place of a silenced history.  These are real people depicted with empathy and their pain, strength and power is visceral.  And they are familiar.  As queer people, we don’t know them – but we recognise them, and their stories are part of our history.

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ALOK by Daniel Harte

Is an inspirational calming voice in a sea of chaos. They are a poet, comedian, storyteller, with curiosity and intrigue they approach key issues of the current societal paradigm, significantly around gender norms in a reverent and impactful way.
One of their most powerful quotes to me was around the idea of questioning the binary, which I try to carry into my day-to-day life and in my role as a designer to continue to question and challenge assumptions and to come from a starting point of ‘we’.

They say…
“I think that a lot of people can see my work and see me try to make cross roads around gender I think the deeper calling I have on the earth is to revisit every single binary, not just that between man and women and say this is holding us back from truth, one of those binaries that feels so insidious especially now is us and them – it haunts us, so what I am always asking myself to do with ‘we’ as a compass is to look at every single thing I judge and say how does that live in me too, every single thing I hate and detest in the world and to what degree does that still land in me, and to see myself in the world actually gives me hope, because I change me which means the world can change too”.

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Clare Balding by Fiona Smallshaw

Clare Balding is ‘the voice of British sport’ – a journalist, sports commentator, tv and radio presenter. She is an icon for advocating LGBTQ+ visibility, women in sport and minority representation in the media.

She has been a key individual helping to pave the way for women to be taken more seriously in sports broadcasting, a notoriously difficult male-dominated industry. She is highly engaging, intelligent and a thoughtful person with unwavering enthusiasm and humour.

Her continued presence on television from my adolescence to the present day offered a powerful sense of visibility and reassurance, demonstrating that an openly gay woman could succeed and be respected in mainstream media. She uses this well-earned platform to advocate for respect, inclusion and fairness.

She had hidden her sexuality for a long time, as she worried ‘coming out’ would end her broadcasting career due to discrimination and homophobia. Overcoming these societal battles and being unapologetically herself makes her a great role model in these current times.

“Fitting in is boring. But it takes you nearly your whole life to work that out.”

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Russel T Davies by Tom Waddicor

Screenwriter and Television Producer

I’m a big TV fan and grew up in the 80s and 90s in a terrestrial world of 4 (later 5) channels. It was a time when the BBC was prim and proper; ITV was accessible and fun; and Channel 4 was a bit risqué and best watched without parents. As I was finishing my A-levels, Channel 4 upped its LGBTQIA+ game – trumping the 1994 Beth Jordache kiss on Brookside – with the launch of Russel T Davies’ game-changing Queer as Folk. This wasn’t a diversity quota or a ‘shocking’ storyline in a soap opera – it was a confident and unapologetic snapshot of human life. It was so exciting and bold that, at the time, I was too scared to watch it.

I did eventually pluck up the courage to watch Queer as Folk and loved it. I recently re-watched it and it still stands up as a good piece of TV even though society and the political backdrop in which the series was set has now thankfully moved on significantly. I have watched and enjoyed much of Russel T Davies’ other productions. He is a great advocate for queer people in his work. Only recently I learnt he had been a writer on one of my childhood favourites – Children’s Ward. This was in the days that Section 28 was in full force, but Russel T Davies was earnestly challenging perceptions of HIV and homosexuality before teatime as the snippet below captures:

Jason Lloyd: You must be a poof if you’ve got AIDS.

Richard Higgs: I’m not gay, and I haven’t got AIDS; I’m HIV positive. But just for the sake of an argument let’s say I was homosexual. Would it matter? What difference would it make?

Jason: You’d fancy me, wouldn’t you?

Richard: There’s not a boy, girl, man, or woman alive who could possibly fancy you. Look around. Where’s this queue of people dying to ask you out? They don’t exist, Jason, because you’re stupid, you’re bigoted, and you don’t matter one little bit.

— Children’s Ward, written by Russell T Davies, 1993

His writing is honest, open and humane. Although many of his programs are ostensibly queer-themed, it is the depth of character development and not the character’s sexuality which is most engaging. In his 2011 mini-series Cucumber, there was a poignant episode that has always stuck with me: Lance, who in the closing scenes is victim of a brutal homophobic attack, reflects on the small and seemingly ridiculous moments in his life that play over and over and bring a reassuring structure to his daily rituals. He mentions that every time he washes up he thinks of Vanessa Feltz’s grandmother saying “water too hot to the touch” – a throw-away comment he once read about in Vanessa’s newspaper column. It reminded me of all those moments in my life that conjure visions of people I know or have known, who stay with me – living through the repetition of otherwise mundane moments. I now can’t wash up without thinking about what a brilliant piece of writing that was and – of course – thinking about Vanessa Feltz’s grandmother.

I applaud Russel T Davies for becoming a household name and seamlessly moving back and forth between trailblazing queer drama and mainstream entertainment on every channel (thanks Wikipedia for confirming his writing credits for three episodes of Chuclklevsion). I’m not a fan of Doctor Who and don’t watch it, but I love that Russel T Davies is as happy being openly geeky as he is being openly gay. Like his best TV characters, he doesn’t fit in a single box because he is a completely real person and he is most brilliant because he has never been afraid to just be himself.

Biography

• Russel T Davies is a screenwriter and producer.
• He was born in Swansea in 1963 and studied English at Worcester College, Oxford.
• He started his TV career in 1985 as a graphic artist for the kids TV show Why Don’t You, before going on to become a writer and producer.
• His writing credits are vast and include the 1997 straight to video special Coronation Street: Viva Las Vegas.
• In 2005 he re-launched Doctor Who as writer and producer for a primetime slot on the BBC.
• He has been included on 7 consecutive Pink Lists (top 100 of influential LGBTQIA+ people) by the Independent on Sunday.
• He was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to drama.

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Alan Turing by Steve Perkins

Alan Turing was a pioneering mathematician, cryptographer, and computer scientist whose work laid the foundations for modern computing. He is best known for his contributions to breaking the Enigma code during World War II, his theoretical concepts that led to the development of artificial intelligence, and his revolutionary Turing Test—a method for assessing machine intelligence. However, his legacy is also marked by the unjust persecution he faced due to his sexuality.

Born in 1912 in London, Turing exhibited exceptional intellectual abilities from a young age. He pursued his studies in mathematics at King’s College, Cambridge, where he quickly established himself as a brilliant scholar. His work on the foundations of computation led to the development of the concept of a “universal machine”—a theoretical construct that could simulate any algorithmic process. This idea became the basis for modern computer science.

During World War II, Turing played a crucial role in Britain’s code-breaking efforts at Bletchley Park. His work on cryptanalysis helped develop the Bombe, a machine designed to decipher the Enigma-encrypted messages used by Nazi Germany. By automating the decoding process, Turing and his colleagues significantly shortened the war, saving countless lives. His groundbreaking techniques in computational logic laid the foundation for what would later evolve into digital computing.

One of Turing’s most enduring contributions is the Turing Test, proposed in his 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence. The test evaluates whether a machine can exhibit intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from that of a human. It involves a human judge interacting with both a machine and a person through text-based communication. If the machine successfully convinces the judge that it is human, it is considered to have demonstrated artificial intelligence. Turing’s exploration of machine intelligence was remarkably ahead of his time. His ideas provided the theoretical groundwork for AI, which continues to shape technology today—from natural language processing to machine learning. The Turing Test remains an influential concept, fuelling debates about the nature of intelligence and the ethical implications of AI.

Despite his scientific brilliance, Turing faced immense prejudice due to his homosexuality, which was criminalized in Britain during his lifetime. In 1952, he was convicted for “gross indecency” under laws that prohibited same-sex relationships. Instead of imprisonment, he was sentenced to chemical castration—forced hormonal treatment that deeply affected his physical and mental well-being. His professional reputation suffered, and he was barred from further government work, despite his crucial contributions to national security. Two years after his conviction, in 1954, Turing was found dead from cyanide poisoning. His death was officially ruled a suicide, though some historians argue there may have been alternative explanations. Regardless, his treatment stands as a stark reminder of the historical injustices faced by LGBTQ+ individuals.

Turing’s genius was largely unrecognized during his lifetime due to the discrimination he endured. However, in recent decades, his contributions have been celebrated, and efforts have been made to rectify the wrongs he faced. In 2009, the British government issued an official apology for his mistreatment, and in 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous royal pardon. His legacy continues to inspire movements for LGBTQ+ rights, and his name is honoured in computing, mathematics, and artificial intelligence. The annual Turing Award, regarded as the Nobel Prize of computing, recognizes achievements in the field that he helped establish.

Alan Turing’s brilliance reshaped the world, revolutionizing codebreaking, computation, and artificial intelligence. Yet, his story is also one of injustice—a reminder of how societal prejudices robbed the world of a man who had already given so much. Today, as artificial intelligence advances and LGBTQ+ rights continue to be championed, Turing’s legacy stands as a symbol of resilience, intellect, and the fight for equality.

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Derek Jarman by Gavin Finnan

Gay activist, film maker, artist, gardener it’s hard to pin down this creatives unique contribution to our cultural heritage.

I was introduced to his work as a student and more specifically to his garden at Prospect Cottage on Dungeness by Florian Bagel & Phil Christo my tutors at the AA at the time. This miracle of creativity clings to life amongst the windswept shingle of Dungeness beach in the shadow of the nuclear power station.

A counterpoint to his work which was far from tranquil and domestic, often angry, dark and disturbing the garden had a big influence on my work at the AA which was very much landscape based.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit Dungeness and the Garden on numerous occasions over the years and am still overcome by the surreal beauty of the place.

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