HomoQuotable – Patrick Strudwick

“What did it feel like to be a gay teenager back then [in the nineties]? The following
thoughts ran in a depressive loop: I will not be able to have sex
legally until I am 21. My teachers are not allowed to talk to me about
being gay. Any business can refuse my custom. Future employers are free
to fire me. Violence and hatred will stalk me, a prison for no
wrongdoing. AIDS could well bring a gasping, early death. I will never
have children. I will never enjoy the family life I was raised within. I
will never marry. Imagine inflicting those thoughts on a child.

“No one can go back and comfort me – or anyone from my generation. But at no time since then have I wished more desperately that I could return brandishing a newspaper to bring the Good News: Look! In 22 years’ time the law will be completely on your side! Protection and equality! Teachers can talk to their pupils. Drugs give people with HIV near-normal life expectancy. You can have children. And the change that would have meant the most, because we all lean towards love’s light like saplings: you can get married.” – Patrick Strudwick, writing for Britain’s Independent. (Tipped by JMG reader James)