Peter Tatchell: 'I still hold on to the vision of something better' [View all]

[oldironside]

When Downing Street hosted its annual reception for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender luminaries this week, the only real surprise of the night was one conspicuous absence. In a congratulatory speech to more than 150 activists, campaigners and celebrities, the prime minister paid tribute to many of the guests, and in particular thanked Peter Tatchell for his 21-year campaign for gay marriage. But Tatchell wasn't there to hear him, because he wasn't invited.

Tatchell spent the evening alone at his desk in his one-bedroom council flat, working on a campaign against homophobia in Russia. The desk and chair comprise the only discernible furniture in his front room. As I take in the scene, he murmurs nervously: "She's thinking it's a madman's home." In truth, that's what it looks like. Waist-high stacks of manila folders, ring binders, A5 posters and box files fill the room, the only visible carpet space a sliver just wide enough for him to reach his desk. The walls are more or less wallpapered with political posters and badges and radical iconography. I don't even realise there's a sofa until he nods to a mountain of paperwork along one wall, underneath which one is apparently buried. "But I haven't sat on it for about 15 years."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/26/peter-tatchell-vision-something-better

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Nice article about a man I admire enormously.