For the first part of the 1980’s the Nottingham Post was my local newspaper. It certainly wasn’t my choice: Nottingham was a great city but had been blighted by this right-wing, homophobic rag long before my arrival.

Unsurprisingly, as lesbian and gay rights began to be rolled out by the City Council, the Post had much to say about it as well as giving a platform to those who agreed with them. And such was the case in 1986 when the City Council agreed to trial gay only swimming sessions following complaints of harassment and victimisation of gay men using local sports facilities.

One of the Post’s editorials, on November 28th, claimed:

“Persecution and victimisation of gays should never be tolerated in this day and age, but there was never a scrap of evidence that it was happening anyway.”

The ‘debate’ that ensued in the Letters column took the predictable line – outrage at minorities being given ‘special rights’, attacking the Labour City Council  as ‘the loony Left’ and, of course, the threat of AIDS that these sessions posed to the general public. On December 9th, for example, the governor of a local Junior School wrote:

“I would like to take up a point made by the Council, namely “gays are everywhere”. Sadly this is true. It’s one thing knowing one or two have used the water, but I draw the line at a whole army of them.”

This was relatively tame in comparison to another contributor:

“I find the fashionable notion that AIDS is now a heterosexual disease quite sinister and counter productive. AIDS is spreading through homosexual groups like wildfire, yet no-one has the courage to denounce homosexuality for what it really is. Namely, moral degradation of the most wicked and corrupt kind, punishable by AIDS.”

Having referred to the ‘evidence’ in it’s editorial, it seemed the Post was quite happy to ignore it at all costs. Yet again it was a case of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

Somewhat naively, perhaps, I attempted to challenge the Post‘s homophobia with my own letter:

“Contrary to your repeated assertion, there is a mass of well-documented evidence on the victimisation and persecution of lesbians and gay men in every area of life. I enclose a basic reading list of ten books as some indication of this.”

I actually wrote this immediately after, and in response to, their Editorial of November 28th. But, as is often the case when one attempts to rectify media mis-reporting, publication of a counter-argument is often delayed to the point where it becomes less and less effective. Such was the case with the Nottingham Post.

In the first instance I received an irate letter from the Editor of the Nottingham Post accusing me of distorting his words and playing political games. (Ironic? Hypocritical? Choose your own adjective.)

But as hurt and offended as he was by my unnecessary hostility, he would still print my letter in his newspaper in the interests of public debate.

And so he did. On December 18th – three weeks after his Editorial – my letter appeared in the Nottingham Post.

When I say ‘appeared’ that might be a bit of an over-statement. It wasn’t in the usual Letters column but was tucked further back in the paper, in some obscure little corner, completely unrelated to anything else. Such was the Editor’s commitment to ‘public debate’.

By sheer coincidence, Labour lost control of the City Council shortly afterwards. The Conservatives came in, abolished the lesbian and gay sub-committees then scrapped the Equal Opportunities Unit entirely. Such is the power of ‘public debate’!

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: I am grateful to the people at Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage website for reminding me of some of the details relating to this particular episode.