The founder of Gay’s the Word on how it all started

To mark its 33rd birthday on January 17, 2012, founder of Gay’s the Word, Ernest Hole, writes about why he started the bookstore.

Things have changed since those early days but GtW remains vital, a cornerstone of the gay community.

The world’s first pop-up shopping mall

Boxpark opened on December 3, 2011, and is home to the charities Art Against Knives and Amnesty International.

What is interesting about Boxpark is that it taps into the very identity of Shoreditch as a commercial and artistic hub.

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Coronation Street 2011 – Nowt so Queer as Folk

Coronation Street played it gay in 2011, but, asks Tim Bennett-Goodman, was that a good or a bad thing?

Needless to say, a cringe-making class conflict plays itself out over the dinner (or is that lunch?) table – Eileen: “dinner’s ready” Jools: “It’s a bit early for dinner isn’t it?” Todd: “She means lunch” – you get the picture.

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What’s your favourite seasonal song?

‘Tis the season, and so the editor asked Polari’s writers for their favourite song.

Yes, I called it Christmas in the title. I was brought up as an atheist – which made two old women from the local church look at me with pity and sadness when they came to my door to talk about the Lord – but I like the word.

The world’s next big P’opera star, Noah Stewart

Noah Stewart seriously impresses Polari‘s gig reviewer, Little Bastard, at a live show in a London church.

This is more than Neo Classical, this is a revolution. And the face of that revolution? A beautiful young man with a shaved head, the smile of Taye Diggs and the voice of Rolando Villazon.

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What are the LGBTQ characters in the new brand of Young-Adult novels like?

BJ Epstein, who teaches teaches Young-Adult ficiton on her courses at the University of East Anglia, talks about the LGBTQ characters in contemporary works.

Characters in YA books can often seem more like caricatures than fully developed people. There are distinct types for gay male and female. As is typical of popular culture in general, many gay males are portrayed as fashionable and funny, and sometimes a bit camp.

The Gay Rights Movement – A New BBC Archive

The latest collection on the BBC archive website charts the corporation’s coverage of gay rights issues. There are thirty segments from both radio and television that range from news reports to discussion programmes and documentaries.

It is fun to watch the Conservative MP Ray Mawby out of his depth and spouting off the sort of nonsense that the Daily Mail likes to scare its readership with: the dangers of promoting homosexuality, the need to protect children from homosexual predators, and the idea that if you allow homosexuality you may as well endorse incest.

Is Attitude’s “Issues Issue” helpful in any way at all?

Polari‘s editor takes issue with how Attitude tackles the issue of gay men and mental health in a publication that endorses much of the behaviour it criticises.

Attitude’s approach to mental health issues is a problem because it is not about living your life, but instead about adopting an alternative lifestyle defined by bullet points. The devil is not in the detail but in the overall message.

Jane Hilton’s Dead Eagle Trail photographs the 21st century cowboy.

The celebrated photographer Jane Hilton talks about her exhibition and book Dead Eagle Trail: America’s Twenty-First Century Cowboys, and the strong hold that the myth of the cowboy maintains over the American imagination.

“I mistakenly mentioned Brokeback Mountain once. That had a very interesting reaction,” she said with a mischievous laugh. “At first they denied knowledge of it, then one of them said, ‘I think I know what you mean. No, we won’t be seeing that’.”

What exactly was Christmas before Christians co-opted it?

The Christmas story is the result of a cynical exercise by Christian apologists, and is a cornerstone in The Greatest Spin Ever Spun.

It was not established until 375 AD that the birth of Christ occurred on December 25. It was through the Church of Antioch that Christianity was organised as a religion. The Roman Constantine inaugurated this change by adopting Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

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