Scottish gay

'And now – stare – Old Scotland is no more.

Gay men kiss at the Parliament’s door.'

Scots Makar Jackie Kay’s poem 'The Long View'(this link will open in a new window) sweeps through Scottish history with an eye to how far we’ve come. Looking back lets us look how much progress Scotland has made for Queer rights and representation, and how far we still have to go.

The coronavirus restrictions have ruled out looking for the lgbtq+ past in a physical library or archive this February. Don’t let this stop you investigating some of the mysteries of queer Scottish history from your own home.

Explore gender non-conforming Scotland

• how did the model for Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray end up functional as a priest in Edinburgh?
• did a petite Leith policeman really disguise himself as a child to stop public indecency?
• who tried to use a sheep to intimidate a Victorian lesbian medical pioneer?
• just how homoerotic were a Scottish king’s letters to his favourite courtiers?
• how did a transgender nobleman charm the Scottish nation dancing scene in 1960’s Aberdeenshire?
• which bisexual magician claimed to have su
  

  In a recent blogpost John D’Emilio argued that AIDS and its impact upon LGBT individuals and organisations, the militancy it provoked, and the heightened attention it drew to LGBT causes needs to be more fully documented and appreciated. This is certainly applicable to Scotland, and its responses, both social and medical, to the significant challenges that HIV/AIDS brought.

  My research engaged with the impact that HIV/AIDS had upon gay and bisexual men in Scotland, many of whom were relatively young when their lives were touched or influenced by this modern and sinister threat to life. Scotland had only decriminalised consensual gay sex between male adults in 1980, and the ride for equality was realistically still in its infancy. This blog post is not an attempt to document Scottish responses to HIV and AIDS but to reflect the experiences of gay and bisexual person men during the 1980s and 1990s.

  Chris was in his early 20s when the HIV/AIDS ‘dark cloud’ settled over Scotland:

  It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous. Horror, fear of something you had taken for granted that was a huge part of your self and how you discover joy and happiness and intimacy with other people that could sudden
  

  Why am I the only male Scottish footballer to come out?

  Is football homophobic and what can we do if it is? Those were the questions I wanted to acknowledge when the BBC Scotland Disclosure team approached me about making a documentary.

  My decision last September to become the first male Scottish senior footballer to come out publicly as gay was not an easy or hasty one. It took a lot of hard function.

  I had told my family and close friends 18 months before but it had actually taken 20 years to acquire to the stage where I was able to be my true real self and continue to play football.

  I'm now 31 and football is the game I have loved from the moment I started kicking a ball as a small toddler.

  I was obsessed. I played all the period and I was excel than most other kids.

  By my teens I was I playing for Motherwell's youth team but I was also first stage to realise I was different from my friends.

  I knew I was queer and I fought against it.

  I fought it because of the nice of conversations I was having in the modifying room.

  Craig Brown - SNS Group

  These were the sorts of conversations juvenile lads have - about girls, being tough, playing hard, an

  
  

  Being the First Scottish Professional Footballer to Come Out as Gay: This is How AyeFeel

  In this episode of This Is How AyeFeel, we talk to Zander Murray about entity the first Scottish professional footballer to come out as gay.

  Content warning: This video talks abouthomophobia

  You can also claim 100 Juvenile Scot Rewards points for listening to this episode – listen out for the code in the episode.

  For more resources and support check out our #AyeFeel page on who to contact.

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