Brave Journeys by David Mixner

Author:David Mixner [Mixner, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78869-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

As if on cue, at the Stonewall annual benefit dinner on May 20, 1999, Cabinet Office Minister Jack Cunningham announced that Blair’s government intended to finally scrap the twelve-year-old Section 28. “I can say quite clearly that the government believes that Section Twenty-eight serves no useful purpose,” Cunningham said in a speech. “We remain committed to the repeal as soon as Parliamentary opportunity arises. Section Twenty-eight was wrong in 1987. It is wrong in 1999. And it will go.” Immediately mobilizing, Angela Mason announced that Stonewall would institute a series of “Roadshow Meetings” around the UK as a focus for grassroots campaigners. “It will demonstrate to the government,” she said, “the great support that exists around the country for repealing Section Twenty-eight.”

Yet in February 2000 legislation to abolish Section 28 was defeated in the House of Lords—so Stonewall’s fight continues.

“Britain is changing,” McKellen says, undaunted. “I think we’ll see that gay openness—and the gay activism which has encouraged that openness—is just a part of a bigger self-awareness appropriate to a nation that’s proud of being law-abiding and socially responsible.”

He remains personally involved in Stonewall, gratified that it has grown into such an effective political force. “There’s a bit of awe in the office when he’s here,” says Matt Aston, Stonewall’s young information director. “But he’s very friendly and puts everyone at ease—very warm, very jolly, very happy. It’s so important to have someone of such stature to represent us here at Stonewall and the gay community at large. And people take great strength from what he’s doing for us. And quite rightly, a lot of people love him for what he does.”

Still, McKellen is always startled when people walk up to him and say, “Thank you for all you’re doing.” “And I think, ‘What are they talking about?’ ” he says. “Then they’ll say, ‘With regard to civil rights …’ and then you know that they’re gay. And you begin to see how wide the closet door is and how big it is inside and how many people who don’t appear to be in the closet actually are for the major part of their lives.”

Ian McKellen’s dual life, as actor and activist, has shown him that playing any part in life requires a simple prerequisite: rigorous honesty with oneself. “The big bonus of coming out,” Ian says, “I don’t think is necessarily the way you’re perceived or the jobs you might get, but rather is self-fulfillment and self-contentment and self-awareness and self-confidence, all wrapped up together. It means taking pride in being able to say, ‘I’m gay.’ And out of that self-confidence has come an emotional freedom that directors and friends have detected in my work. There’s nothing that I can’t do, and I don’t think that I could have felt that if I hadn’t come out. Get out, say it, and having said it, you can get on with living your life. You won’t be alone.

“The family I’m a part of, the nation I belong to, is the gay nation.

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