Jul 28A tale of two countries: equality and homophobia in the new ScotlandIn 2011 David Cairns, the MP for Inverclyde, died of acute pancreatitis. He was 44. He didn’t die because he was gay. He died because he had the terrible misfortune to develop a fatal illness. In 1995 my first partner died of AIDS. He was 37. He didn’t die because…Gay2 min readGay2 min read
Jul 24Jake Wightman’s victory in Eugene speaks to the best our sport can beAsked on the BBC by Jeanette Kwakye how many times he had watched back his gold medal-winning 1500m race at the World Championships, Jake Wightman’s answer, for all its modesty, was a reminder of the gulf between his participation in athletics and mine. He had seen it first while in…Athletics5 min readAthletics5 min read
Jul 1The day Pride came homePride is 50 today. It was a long way to here. And what a journey it’s been. Now, in late middle age, I can say without hesitation I’m proud to have been on it most of the way. But to begin with, I wasn’t really sure. Pride for me —…Pride5 min readPride5 min read
May 16All we have ever wanted is to live our best lives — Jake Daniels’ courage means many more might do just thatThe term ‘breaking news’ has become a byline for shocking news of late. So, when Evan Davies uttered those words towards the end of this afternoon’s PM, I braced myself. Was this to be news of yet further atrocities in Ukraine? I was, as it happens, driving home from a…Gay Rights5 min readGay Rights5 min read
Feb 27How I caught up with running — and why I won’t stop yetIt was a slightly indifferent way to end the season. My legs felt heavy after nine races in five months. And after a cautious start — at north of 10k, the course demanded it — I didn’t quite work my way through the field the way I’d hoped. …Running6 min readRunning6 min read
Jan 21‘It’s A Sin’ was so much more than a TV show — a year on, I carry it in my heartIn the dead of night over Christmas 1988, I became aware that hardly any of my fingernails had a lunula. I was 27. Until that very moment, their absence had completely passed me by. A lunula is the half-moon shape at the base of your nail, just above the cuticle…HIV5 min readHIV5 min read
Jan 4Historic sexual offences: A long night’s journey into dayYesterday was a good day in Scotland. It was the kind of day that reminds us why politics matters. And we seem to have had precious few of those lately. Nicola Sturgeon’s statement on the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Bill was pitch perfect. Here was the First…Gay5 min readGay5 min read
Nov 30, 2021It’s World AIDS Day again and the fight goes on — ‘We must love one another or die.’“At the moment I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.” The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume Three, 1925–1930 It’s World AIDS Day…AIDS6 min readAIDS6 min read
Oct 21, 2021And then there was one: a letter to a friend‘There is a time for the evening under starlight, A time for the evening under lamplight (The evening with the photograph album). Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter.’ T.S. Eliot, East Coker, Four Quartets And then there was one. Ever since I heard you…Love4 min readLove4 min read
Jul 10, 2021Plagues don’t end unless we care enough to stop them — but we knew that didn’t we?I’ve been thinking of writing again for a while. I said I might, didn’t I? I even said I’d let you know how this plague ends. But that looks hopelessly naive now. The way things are going, if I wait until then you could be hanging on a long time…HIV6 min readHIV6 min read
