“TANK-TOPPED BUM BOY” : A gay man’s diaries spanning six decades

Friday 22nd November 1963 - President Kennedy has been assassinated.I hope it wasn’t a Russian that did it or there’ll be a war.Friday 14th December 1973 - Miners on strike, train drivers on go-slow and no coal or oil.Going to be a three day working week and TV is going off at 10.30 every night.What a state this country is in. Tuesday 18th February 1975 - Dinner at the vicarage.There were gay vicars, gay Catholic priests and one extremely camp Rural Dean Thursday 18th December 1986 - A Conservative MP has called for the extermination of all ‘queers’ in gas chambers.Ninety percent to be killed and ten percent to see psychiatrists.Sunday 18th September 1994 - The fire door opened and two naked queens tumbled into the streets of Peckham.Wednesday 22nd July 1998 - A vote in The House Of Lords on the equal age of consent for gays.They voted against it and talked of ‘legalised buggery’.There wasn’t a word about love! Sunday 30th March 2014 - An historic day. First gay marriage! And in so many parts of the world to be gay means imprisonment or the death penalty.Tuesday 3rd July 2018 - Maybe she should now get rid of the bigots in her party, one of whom reportedly referred to a gay minister as a Tank-Topped Bum Boy.