If anything indicates just how regressive social attitudes were in Britain in the 1980s it has got be the reaction to television’s first on-screen gay kiss.

Two characters from ‘East Enders’ about to bring about the collapse of civilisation.

It happened during an episode of the BBC soap East Enders and, judging by the furore, you’d think it was some hot, horny number. In fact it was one man giving another man… a passionate kiss on the forehead! They were both fully-clothed; it didn’t even take place in the bedroom.

Nonetheless questions were asked in Parliament: unbelievably one of the criticisms was that it was inappropriate to show two men kissing because Britain was experiencing an AIDS crisis! Which only goes to show that ignorance and bigotry go hand in hand.

To no one’s surprise, Rupert Murdoch’s gutter newspaper The Sun came up with the headline ‘East Benders‘ and made various derogatory comments about ‘poofs’. The paper had been critical of the inclusion of gay characters from the outset, arguing that one of them was under the age of 21 – the legal age of consent at that time – therefore it was irresponsible to promote ‘under age’ sex.

Ridiculous age of consent notwithstanding, homosexuality in England had been decriminalised in 1967 – 20 years before this onscreen kiss. And yet the reaction to a kiss on the forehead was positively medieval.

Compare this to Australia, where homosexuality wasn’t decriminalised in New South Wales until 1984. And yet, in 1973, a television soap set in the Sydney suburb of Bondi featured the following scene without the sky falling in. (Admittedly, the two men in this one don’t actually kiss!)

Save