Pink Sauce

On Tuesday this week an advert appeared in the Times paid for (a full page advert in the Times is abou £25,000.00, if I remember well) by group of Christian calling themselves "Coherent and Cohesive Voice". This to protest against the upcoming Sexual Orientation (Goods and Services) Regulations (pdf file) (the SOR) which will make it illegal for anyone who provides goods, services, facilities, premises, education or public functions to someone else, to discriminate against that person on the grounds of their sexual orientation i.e. whether they are homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. The regulations also make harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation - and not simply overt victimisation - illegal. A consultation was launched by the government in March this year, which received, I think, one of the largest number of response ever for this type of exercise (over 2000). The responses were divided between LGBT people and moderate Christians supporting the proposed law a...

Bristol-Myers Squibb have set up a website with the US National AIDS Fund ( financial profile )and have pledged to donate $1 to AIDS research every time someone goes to there and "lights" a candle. Bristol-Myers Squibb is one of the large drug manufacturers with its hand in AIDS treatment medication. The cost of the necessary medications can be out of reach for many (or most) people who need them. It is so expensive that recent articles indicate the cost of these drugs to be as high as 6% of Botswana's national budget. It is time that those companies who benefit from this terrible epidemic start helping find a real way to assist those who suffer. Please forward this to your family, friends and contacts. It only takes a second to raise a dollar but millions are needed. Use the link below: www.lighttounite.org Tags: AIDS , donation , gay , LGBT , GLBT , World AIDS Day , National AIDS Fund , Bristol-Myers Squibb .

For some reason, Saturday, Sunday and Monday have seen several people (including myself) using a wide range of words to describe moi. For some reason, I was so receptive to this that I got inspired to turn this experience into what I will pompously call a work of art. And because I spend way too much time with Slightly, this has taken a typographic form. My typographic consultant (!) however tells me that, although it is an interesting idea, what I have just posted above is not finished. That it is a starting point and that I should "play with it" more. I am not sure what he means and I am not sure I can be bothered but who knows? As ever, watch this space... Tags: arty , self portrait , words , typography , art .

In a month's time exactly, it will be Christmas, that time of tack and excess. To get in the mood and make yourself jolly, you can come and see me with 150 of my closest gay friends onstage at the Barbican Hall. Prospective audience members could book online or by phone on 020 7638 8891 but it is now apparently sold out. Other opportunities to see the London Gay Men's Chorus perform (for free) include: Friday 1 December World AIDS Day - St Pancras Church, in aid of Cara . - 1.15 to 1.45pm 18, 19 and 20 December Carols @ Selfridges - Oxford Street, London - throughout the day www.lgmc.org.uk Tags: carol , London Gay Men's Chorus , gay , LGBT , GLBT , Christmas , Sandi Toksvig , Barbican , choral , singing .

Earlier today, I received a reminder email for an event at Waterstones on Oxford Street, tonight. It was the launch of the latest edition of Chroma ("an international queer literary and arts journal". It is published twice a year). Since I have nothing to do, I decided to go along. Four of the authors published in the current issue read extracts of their stuff. One of them turns out to be a blogger (now included to my blogroll), and I managed to track the following piece which he read and I really liked. It was definitely the highlight of the evening. ah, sweet pain! Eyes-to-the-skies it. Glance-at-the-walls it. Four weeks of loving him, of watching him, of being loved and watched by him. Holding him. His hands and fingers. Fingertips. Onto him. Onto his gaze. Into his gaze. Into his any-little-bit-of-him. To hold that. To have that. To have and to hold that. To have that to hold. Having that to hold on to. Having that. Doing that. Pin him down. Play pin him down. Play down....

Here is the second installment of Sir Ian's little speech for the launch of LGBT History Month 2007 at the TUC on Monday. The first part of this was posted yesterday , together with a short report on the event. Clip courtesy of Slightly www.LGBTHistoryMonth.org.uk Tags: London , history , gay , LGBT , GLBT , lesbian , bisexual , transgender , homophobia , gay rights , Ian McKellen , TUC , LGBT History Month .

Although, yesterday was Monday, I didn't attend Chorus rehearsal last night. Instead, I played truant and stuffed Slightly in one of my pockets and went to the "pre-launch" of LGBT History Month 2007 at the TUC's headquarters: Congress House, off Tottenham Court Road. I remember attending the first of those events, three years ago in the cinema of Tate Modern and the one last year at the Met's Empress Building in West London. Every year, a series of speakers are invited who make very interesting contributions. The highlights for me, this year, (out of the 10 speakers present last night) were the interventions by "Dame Ian McGandalf" (aka Sir Ian Mckellen), Allan Horsefall, Ann Marriott and Stella Duffy. Paul Patrick (one of the organisers), who was hosting the event, is also always good fun to listen to. Apart from being the major screen star that he is, Ian McKellen has been a gay activist for many years and he knows what he is (eloquently) talking a...

Last Wednesday, I became a piece of art for a while. Tags: London , Tate Modern . Being Art

Slightly had told me before I had a weird accent. I just thought he was taking the piss. It's true though... In February last year, I attended a recording of the BBC Radio4 programme Any Questions? Although I had come prepared, my question had not been selected to be read on air. Tonight however, in the rather grand Treasurer Office's Hall of London's Honourable Society of The Inner Temple , having study a bit more how successful questions are usually phrased on the programme, I was amongt the 10 people from the audience who were asked to come and sit in the front row. The panel brought together: * Lord Falconer : The Lord Chancellor * Ann Widdecombe MP : Former Home Office Minister * Martin Narey : Chief Executive of Barnardos * Patience Wheatcroft : Editor of The Sunday Telegraph I was number 6 and, in the event, the last to get a chance to read out his question. It ran as follows: Despite the positive image "Tony Cameron" is trying to spin for his party, ar...

"Seriously [sic], the whole of creation testifies to the genius of god's creative theory"... even, and especially, bananas... I don't even know where to start with this, another example of some Christian's lack of sense. Thanks Tags: banana , religion , Christianity , nutter , youtube , humour , sad but true .

Tonight marks the 15000th episode of the Archers ; Radio4's long running soap about the inhabitants of Ambridge, an imaginary village in the English countryside. I don't follow the show as such but since I listen a lot to Radio 4, I can't help but stumbling on it from time to time and I therefore have a good idea of what goes on. In March 2004, the series featured its first gay kiss . Since then, Adam and Ian's relationship has been developing nicely. They now live together and have been accepted by the community. In march this year, a report by Stonewall criticised the BBC for the way it represented gay and lesbian people but I have to say that they are doing very well with this one. Although all soaps have now had gay characters, they do not tend to last very long and are most of the time quite stereotypical (as in Coronation Street at the moment). By contrast, Adam and Ian give a positive and atypical representation of gay men. Of course say don't seem to have ...