One of London's oldest gay pubs has called 'last orders' for the very final time.
The Coleherne in Earls Court has been serving the capitol's queers since the mid 1950s and by the 70s had become the UK's first leather bar. It has been immortalised in fiction (Tales of the City: Babycakes by Armistead Maupin), in song (Hanging Around by The Stranglers) and in notoriety (serial killers Colin Ireland and Dennis Nielsen met a number of their victims there).
Although at one time the heart of the city's gay scene, Earls Courts was long ago eclipsed by the growth of Soho and latterly Vauxhall. Another of the area's gay bars, Bromptons, has also put the shutters up having closed at the beginning of the year.
Ironically, the venue celebrated it's 50th birthyday just five weeks ago but according to Coleherne manager, Mike Shrewbrook, the past few years had been a struggle. It's believed the venue will reopen later in the year as a gastropbub.
Editor's comment: The Coleherne's closure is a wake-up call to all of us that we need to support our local gay boozers. Our pink pounds are being sucked clean by the rip-off vacumn cleaners that masquerade as gay venues in the likes of Old Compton Street and Vauxhall. Rip-off prices, rude service and overbearing door-staff are too often the order of the day in many of the venues I have occasion to visit. So, this weekend give that lot the cold shoulder and do what you do down at your local - and help make sure it stays gay. SM/LG
Normally, I'm not a fan of Celebritee TV but in the recent edition of the BBC's The Making of Me, it was the very the contribution of that star of stage and screen, John Barrowman, which ensured that this was one documentary about gay people that wasn't going to be patronising or condescending. This was the story of one man's quest to find out just what were the factors which had marked him and his clans folk out to be gay. It was not a curiosity born necessarily out of any deep angst about his sexual identity but rather a compulsion to know more about the biological factors at play in determining gay and lesbian sexuality. Here was one star witness who could talk from the horses mouth and say 'I couldn't be anything other than gay - now what made that happen?'. Well, thanks to the BBC website's Magazine feature, John takes up the story: (SM/LG)
Why is John Barrowman gay?
I was in the closet for three hours once in 1972. It was dark, uncomfortable, and really cramped. Plus, I was convinced I wasn't alone (a crumpled jacket lurking in the corner looked pretty dangerous). I was five and my brother, Andrew, then 10, and my sister, Carole, 13, had shoved me into the coat closet because, well, really for absolutely no good reason. I mean what baby brother has ever annoyed his siblings to the point of needing to be locked up or tied down?
This story still gets a laugh from my nieces and nephews. Depending on who's doing the telling, Uncle John was either locked up for 30 fleeting minutes or for three long, tortuous, oxygen-starved hours. As simple as the story is I think it's an apt metaphor for the way I've chosen to live my life - openly, honestly, with no regrets. And, whenever I can, I try to confront the monsters in the dark. As my favourite Jerry Herman song proclaims: "There's no return and no deposit. One life. So open up your closet."
My sexuality has never been deliberately hidden. I'm in a committed relationship with the love of my life, Scott Gill, and he is as much a part of the family as my sister's husband, Kevin, and my brother's wife, Dot. However, just because I'm comfortable with my sexuality doesn't mean that I'm not curious about it and that's one of the reasons I agreed to take this journey to discover the making of me.
I remember vividly when I first realised I was gay. I was nine and a few of my friends were looking at some mild porn in the playground during recess. While they were ogling the well-endowed female models, I couldn't take my eyes off the male members in the shot.
Growing up in the Barrowman household, conversations about sexuality were never taboo. Over the years, we've talked about many of the theories that may explain what makes a person gay. In fact, it's always been a bit of a joke in our family that my dad was responsible - he frequently dressed me up as a girl. In fact, he has some cross-dressing in his own past. He once dressed up as a tarty neighbour, pretended to crash his own party, and proceeded to flirt with the men in the room- all with my mum playing along for the laughs.
Nature or nurture?
The show actually gave me an opportunity to discover whether or not I had ancestors who were gay because years ago if you were in the closet you were so far in the closet you were in the house next door.
John Barrowman: The Making of Me
During the filming of the programme, I not only revisited my childhood, I was also subjected to a battery of psychological and physical tests, everything from comparing my DNA to that of my straight brother, Andrew's, to watching my brain light up like a fireworks display in response to certain erotic stimuli.
I've always been convinced I was born gay (and am happy that way). But over the years there are plenty of people who have argued the opposite - and some still do today. I really wanted to meet people like this, and the film gave me a chance to do so. In the unresolved argument about whether it is nature of nurture that makes us gay or straight, I was hoping for affirmation that nature decides. The risk I took in filming was that it would be disproved.
But in the end neither happened as the tests didn't provide that clarity. I learned that science has yet to find a fool-proof and definitive genetic test for gayness - at least in my case.
Hormonal explanation?
Yet I did find something unexpected and different. The latest science is concentrating on a whole new area of potential causality that I hadn't thought about at all. It's not genes, but it is biological, looking at hormonal effects in the womb.
Attracted to women? Barrowman's Captain Jack character flirts with Billie Piper Other psychological and physical tests told me more about my sexuality. Like whether I had any latent attraction to women at all. That one really caught me by surprise - at least for a moment. And in word association tests, men tend to be more factual and literal. But women and gay men tend to be much more descriptive and eloquent. I'm glad to say that was true for me as well.
Another test involved looking at moving images of different combinations of men and women. I had to press buttons to signal my reaction while lying in an MRI scanner which also measured my reaction so I couldn't lie.
I'm proud to say that in some of the tests I was totally off the scale.
So participating in this programme was exciting and provocative, but in the end, taking the personal risk to discover what makes me gay was worth it because on a daily basis I get letters from young men and women who are feeling the brunt of our culture's homophobia. If exploring this issue can bring comfort to some of these young people then I think the programme will have done a really wonderful thing.
Well, we read it in the currant bun so it must be true. Here's the story as they break it in their Friday edition (11 July 2008).
"CORRIE’s long-suffering Gail Platt is in for a new shock – when she finds out that her long-lost dad is GAY. Veteran actor Michael Byrne (pictured below) is to play her dad Ted Paige – a young soldier Audrey Roberts dumped when she fell pregnant with Gail aged just 18. His arrival on the cobbles will shake things up this summer.
A show source says: “Audrey wanted to settle down with someone so she could claim back son Stephen who she had when she was 16. But the man she fancied wasn’t interested so Audrey went for his best friend, Ted. “When she discovered she was pregnant by Ted, she fled as she knew he would propose - and she couldn’t spend the rest of her life with him.” But her new fella Bill Webster doesn’t need to worry – because it turns out Ted is now gay."
London Mayor, Boris Johnson, had a coming out of sorts on Saturday as he led the London Pride Parade on its annual march through London's West End. The event attracted huge crowds and was headlined by a rally and concert in Trafalgar Square.
Mayor Johnson hasn't previously endeared himself to the LGB community but in his new role he seemed keen to give the day his prominent backing, even if he did look a little awkward at times.
Pride revellers enjoyed unexpectedly fine weather and partying continued into the evenings with much of Soho closed to traffic.
PROUD TO SERVE: OUR BOYS & GIRLS STEP OUT! This year's parade saw the largest participation yet of serving gay personnel of the Army, Air Force and Naval Services along with the Civilian Services, the Met & London Fire Brigade. Civilian staff from all branches also took part.
Bring on the day when we can actually have the Band of the Royal Marines leading. Now that really would be a parade!
This is a community website dedicated to older bi & gay men, and in particular, those who have come out in their middle or later years. "LG" is a first-stop help-point for those taking their 'baby steps' in the complicated world of the UK's gay scene - and beyond.
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