0:00:02 > 0:00:04I was invited to this party.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07It was the hostess herself who invited me.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09Cilla said to me, "You've got to be there!
0:00:09 > 0:00:12"The creme de la creme are going to be there!"
0:00:12 > 0:00:13So I thought, well, "Why not?
0:00:13 > 0:00:15"I might go along and see what this is like."
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Do you come here often?
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Extreme mincing was going on, effeminate behaviour,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24girlie names flying back and forth all the time, "Get her, Mary!"
0:00:24 > 0:00:27"Ooh, my dear!" and all that kind of stuff.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Then, about 12 o'clock, there's a ring at the doorbell.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31DOORBELL RINGS, KNOCK ON DOOR
0:00:31 > 0:00:33It was the polis and we're all arrested.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36When they discovered they were actually being nabbed
0:00:36 > 0:00:39and carted off - oh, my God, the horror!
0:00:39 > 0:00:40We had been locked up,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43not for having a party and drinking or dancing,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46but for being gay men in Scotland in 1964.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50MUSIC: Don't Leave Me This Way by The Communards
0:00:50 > 0:00:55For many, many years, Scotland just didn't do gay.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59The Bible clearly states that homosexuality is a sin.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01Homosexuality wasn't for Scots.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04It was dangerous, taboo, stigmatised
0:01:04 > 0:01:07and was actually against the law, right up until the 1980s.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09'For many of us, this is revolting...'
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Caledonia was a repressed country
0:01:12 > 0:01:14that seemed to take pride in its prejudices.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18The one thing that the Catholics and the Protestants could agree on
0:01:18 > 0:01:20was that they hated the gays.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24I remember seeing my name in a school toilet.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28"Robert's a poof," and I thought, "That's what's going on!"
0:01:28 > 0:01:31I got summoned to guidance and was I told, quite categorically,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35I cannot go around telling girls that I fancy them.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39The story of how Scotland transformed
0:01:39 > 0:01:43from a grey straight country to a rainbow of sexual diversity
0:01:43 > 0:01:48is a tale old fears, brave queers that ends in tears.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54There were decades of battling against bigotry.
0:01:54 > 0:01:55I think they're a disgrace!
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Moments that required great personal courage...
0:01:58 > 0:02:01- You mean men dancing with men? - And women with women, yes.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03It doesn't seem possible in Scotland!
0:02:03 > 0:02:07..and triumphant times when love overcame hate.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11We got married as the bells were tolling on the 31st of December.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15All this personal suffering, all the shame, all the guilt,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17disappeared in that moment.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20How did straights-ville Scotland
0:02:20 > 0:02:24end up being the country that can boast the best gay rights in Europe?
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Are you sitting comfortably?
0:02:26 > 0:02:31It's time for the queer, queer story of Gay Scotland.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34# A-a-a-a-a-a-ah!
0:02:34 > 0:02:36# Baby!
0:02:36 > 0:02:39# My heart is full of love and desire for you... #
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Post-war Scotland of the 1950s was not very gay.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Most people went to the kirk on a Sunday,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02more than half the population voted for the Conservatives,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06and the word "gay" described a jolly jig for the Gordons.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10And nobody ever mentioned - ahem! - (sex.)
0:03:15 > 0:03:18In Scotland, historically, there's been a reluctance,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21a hesitancy to engage with sex and sexuality in general.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25People were encouraged not to talk about sex.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30We had one hour of sex education the whole time I was at school
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and, er, we weren't allowed to ask any questions.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36I vaguely remember, in second-year biology,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40doing something about rabbits, but that was the extent of it.
0:03:40 > 0:03:41I remember buying a book
0:03:41 > 0:03:45entitled Everything A Boy Should Know About Sex,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48and it was Everything A Boy Should Know About Heterosexual Sex,
0:03:48 > 0:03:50but...no guidance for me.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54If discussing the birds and the bees was taboo,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57then the very idea of discussing the birds and the birds -
0:03:57 > 0:04:00the concept of homosexual sex -
0:04:00 > 0:04:03in Scotland was absolutely forbidden!
0:04:03 > 0:04:05I don't think I can ever remember
0:04:05 > 0:04:08homosexuality at all being discussed,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12anywhere within my family or friends.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15You just never heard it discussed.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17There is almost a bar on talking about
0:04:17 > 0:04:20same-sex desire and homosexuality, and that's, you know,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24familial, that's religious, that's medical, that's social.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Growing up queer in post-war Scotland is essentially occupying
0:04:29 > 0:04:32a social and sexual wilderness, a hinterland.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Male homosexuality was illegal,
0:04:38 > 0:04:40was hidden under a repressive silence,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and "Jessies" were to be scorned.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47As for the very idea of Scottish lassies being lesbians?!
0:04:47 > 0:04:48Ach, behave yourself!
0:04:50 > 0:04:51I did not know any lesbians.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54I didn't know that lesbianism existed
0:04:54 > 0:04:57or could exist. I just thought you loved your friends,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59but you married your boyfriends.
0:04:59 > 0:05:00When I was growing up,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03the word lesbian was in our vocabulary, but it was,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06it was a kind of fabled beast, a bit like unicorns, you know,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09you'd heard about them, but you never actually met one.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12It was always somebody's cousin once knew a lassie that knew one.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15If there's no language or understanding of what a lesbian is
0:05:15 > 0:05:17or what it is to be gay, what same-sex relationships are,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19then how do you understand that that's something
0:05:19 > 0:05:21that's actually feasible for you to do?
0:05:25 > 0:05:28The Scots were very proud of their image as
0:05:28 > 0:05:31hardworking, macho, unshowy people.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34CASH REGISTER RINGS
0:05:34 > 0:05:36And on the very rare occasion
0:05:36 > 0:05:38that homosexual people DID make an appearance,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43they were almost always feminine, flouncy, a bit posh
0:05:43 > 0:05:45and very English.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46What do you want these for?
0:05:46 > 0:05:50- I get these terrible headaches. - I said you shouldn't do needlepoint.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55I don't do needlepoint! Not now that I'm doing the lace mats.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57STUDIO AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:05:57 > 0:06:00'I think one of the things that was specifically Scottish'
0:06:00 > 0:06:05about straight people's attitude to the gay subculture
0:06:05 > 0:06:07was that you shouldn't be gay if you're Scots,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09cos we're all terribly butch.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12We're men's men! And it was thought that poofs actually belonged
0:06:12 > 0:06:15south of the border somewhere, um,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19and probably, the further south, the better, down near London, you know.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21Kenneth Williams types were seen as,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24if you were Scots, you're not supposed to be like that.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Ooh!
0:06:26 > 0:06:29You began to see identifiable people, like Larry Grayson,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32or like, um, John Inman,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35not people that you could relate to, but that was the kind of image
0:06:35 > 0:06:38'and you thought that's what a gay man would look like.'
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Being gay was the antithesis of that robust sense
0:06:43 > 0:06:46of masculinity and who you were, that physical and mental strength.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Therefore, many, um, cultural references to homosexual men
0:06:50 > 0:06:56were as these weak, er, weak-minded, weak physically, effeminised bodies.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00We like to stereotype. We like to suggest that you...
0:07:00 > 0:07:03you couldn't be Scottish, you couldn't be a Scottish man and gay.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12# I'm just a lonely boy... #
0:07:12 > 0:07:15For most folks, the idea of a Scottish homosexual
0:07:15 > 0:07:18was a contradiction in terms.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22# ..all alone with nothing to do
0:07:23 > 0:07:25# I've got everything
0:07:27 > 0:07:29# That you could think of
0:07:30 > 0:07:34# But all I want
0:07:34 > 0:07:35# Is someone to love... #
0:07:35 > 0:07:40But behind the net curtains, and far from the factory gates,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43gay Scots furtively found one another.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50You met people in public toilets. That was really the only place.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53I don't know how you learned to go there.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57I think it was more of the fact that you once used a public toilet
0:07:57 > 0:08:00and saw something going on here, you know,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03so that sort of rung bells, so you would go back.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07There were, um... pubs near railway stations
0:08:07 > 0:08:10were often busy, so there was always somewhere.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14It was really eye contact, um,
0:08:14 > 0:08:18and perhaps flashing a little bit here and there,
0:08:18 > 0:08:22that made you know that you had met someone.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28Meeting in toilets and station bars may seem rather sordid,
0:08:28 > 0:08:31but for most isolated and stigmatised gay men,
0:08:31 > 0:08:33there was little alternative.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38It was a risky business and, in Scotland's bigger cities,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42gay men began to meet at secret soirees.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45The party was a great thing in Glasgow gay society,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48because, at that time, the pubs shut at 10 o'clock and you'd just had
0:08:48 > 0:08:51a couple of drinks and you were ready for more, and a party could be
0:08:51 > 0:08:55a kitchen in Govan with three people and a bottle of wine.
0:08:55 > 0:08:56We would dance
0:08:56 > 0:09:01and they always kept a pile of hymnbooks beside the front door,
0:09:01 > 0:09:06because, if there was a knock on the door and the police had arrived,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08we would all grab a hymn book
0:09:08 > 0:09:11and pretend we were having a prayer meeting.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13It was almost like getting on a plane
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and being shown the safety routine, you know -
0:09:16 > 0:09:20"If the doorbell rings, grab a hymn book in your left hand."
0:09:27 > 0:09:31When the chance occurred, on land or at sea,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35there was a bit of Scotsman-on-Scotsman action.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38It was actually 1958 -
0:09:38 > 0:09:41'58 and '59, I was trawling -
0:09:41 > 0:09:43and I didn't set out to act gay,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46but clearly, you can't hide what you are.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And just climbing on the boat and the things I do,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51I'd be like Julian Clary, I suppose,
0:09:51 > 0:09:52- in those days, you know! - HE LAUGHS
0:09:52 > 0:09:56You're giving yourself away the whole time.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Far out at sea, away from their womenfolk,
0:09:59 > 0:10:04Larry's fishermen friends talked coyly about "the golden rivet".
0:10:04 > 0:10:07The guys would say there was a golden rivet
0:10:07 > 0:10:11and I thought this was some sort of talisman put on every boat
0:10:11 > 0:10:14sort of there for good fortune.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17And, cos I'd asked a few people where the golden rivet was,
0:10:17 > 0:10:18they'd said, "You'll find it."
0:10:20 > 0:10:22Up comes the second engineer
0:10:22 > 0:10:25and he's got sweat running off him, the grease,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29and I says, "My God, you've got muscles, though, haven't you?"
0:10:29 > 0:10:34And he took my hand and says, "I'll show you the golden rivet."
0:10:34 > 0:10:35HE LAUGHS
0:10:35 > 0:10:38And, do you know, he showed me that golden rivet every day.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41LAUGHTER
0:10:45 > 0:10:49But because homosexuality was so taboo,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52even those just looking for a quick "Wham, bam, thank you, Tam!"
0:10:52 > 0:10:54were extremely vulnerable.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Because things could go very wrong very quickly.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The consequences of being caught were significant.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07You know, being excluded from your family, being sacked.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11You could just be sacked for, for even a hint of homosexuality,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13never mind a prosecution.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16There was also the worry that somebody might expose you.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19We used to call it "scream you up".
0:11:19 > 0:11:22For example, imagine you were walking through Central Station,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25you saw your cousin and you stopped to talk, and then some queen
0:11:25 > 0:11:28who knew you came up and went, "Oh, hello, Margaret, how are you?"
0:11:29 > 0:11:32People went to prison for two, sometimes three years.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Sometimes, they were admitted to psychiatric institutions.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41So the fear encompassed all points of their life.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44It wasn't simply that you'd become a criminal, have a criminal record,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47it meant you might potentially lose everything.
0:11:49 > 0:11:50I loved Scotland.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53It was the greatest place on earth for me.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58Except for anything to do with my sexuality.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01It was the worst place I could have been on earth, to be quite honest.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04MUSIC: Secretly by Jimmy Rogers
0:12:04 > 0:12:07But there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12After a series of homosexual scandals, after blackmail cases,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14after years of furtive flirtations,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18British homosexuals were about to get a more sympathetic hearing.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21# ..a secret rendezvous
0:12:21 > 0:12:26# Why must we steal away to steal a kiss or two?
0:12:28 > 0:12:33# Why must we wait to do the things we want to do? #
0:12:33 > 0:12:36In 1957, a committee, led by Lord Wolfenden,
0:12:36 > 0:12:40examined the laws around prostitution and homosexuality
0:12:40 > 0:12:42and the conclusions in his report
0:12:42 > 0:12:46shocked God-fearing folk on both sides of the border.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Now, what about the large section in this report
0:12:51 > 0:12:54which deals with homosexuality?
0:12:54 > 0:12:58What we've done, or what we've recommended, is that adults -
0:12:58 > 0:13:02consenting males in private -
0:13:02 > 0:13:06should not have their behaviour in this matter
0:13:06 > 0:13:08brought within the criminal law.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10But, unfortunately for gay Scots,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14our man in London would have no truck with these softie Sassenachs.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17The problem for Scotland was that
0:13:17 > 0:13:21there was a representative on the panel called James Adair.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24James Adair presented a minority report and, in it,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28he disagreed with almost all the suggestions
0:13:28 > 0:13:31that the main committee had come up with.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36He saw homosexuality as the first step into moral turpitude.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42The Scotland he loved would be lost.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47This upstanding moral, conservative, religious society
0:13:47 > 0:13:51would descend into decay and would be destroyed.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Addressing the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58James Adair fulminated that the Wolfenden Report
0:13:58 > 0:14:02would allow "perverts to practise sinning for the sake of sinning"
0:14:02 > 0:14:07and he was determined that Scotland was no place for homosexuals.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12In 1967, as the Summer of Love was in full swing,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14the Wolfenden Report's recommendations
0:14:14 > 0:14:16were implemented in England,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21decriminalising homosexuality for men over 21.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26But, thanks to James Adair, homosexuality in Scotland
0:14:26 > 0:14:33remained illegal, classified as criminally depraved behaviour.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38The permissive society certainly wasn't in Scotland.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Gay Scots were outcasts in their own country.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Anxious, alone, ashamed.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Many gay men and women made desperate efforts to fit in...
0:14:51 > 0:14:53..to straighten themselves out.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01I think it is almost impossible to overstate the role of conformity
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and the role of peer pressure to conform.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09It is absolutely a weight on people in this period.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Some sought out a psychiatric solution.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21I thought that I was going to get cured and it meant
0:15:21 > 0:15:24going to do group therapy.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27But you can't force someone to think straight.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31I mean, there were other guys there and one was gay,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35and I ended up jumping into bed with him, you know.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41Some doctors tried to cure homosexuals with hormones.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47My doctor gave me female hormone, which was the then practice,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49and you begin to grow boobs.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53You don't have to shave as often and...you get a bit concerned,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56but it didn't stop me wanting sex.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00And I still admired guys even more than I did previously.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02I even fancied the doctor himself -
0:16:02 > 0:16:04- he was gorgeous. - HE LAUGHS
0:16:06 > 0:16:09But most lesbian and gay Scots
0:16:09 > 0:16:13resigned themselves to living closeted lives.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15The pressure to conform meant actually just
0:16:15 > 0:16:19doing what you were told and getting married,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21against every urge of your own,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24against every instinct, against every sense of yourself,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27was just to throw in the towel and say, "I'll have to get married."
0:16:34 > 0:16:38In 1969, a brave group of gay Scots
0:16:38 > 0:16:41realised that it was daft to pretend to be straight.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48They couldn't, and shouldn't, have to change their sexuality,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51so they'd just have to change Scotland.
0:16:51 > 0:16:57And they set up SMG, a long-lost part of Scotland's radical history.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01SMG stands for the Scottish Minorities Group
0:17:01 > 0:17:06and its tag line was "for the rights and welfare of homosexuals".
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Rather than "homosexual",
0:17:11 > 0:17:16the word "minorities" was chosen, so as not to offend and, immediately,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21the lives of gay men and women in Scotland's big cities improved.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25We ran a little disco in the Cobweb,
0:17:25 > 0:17:30underneath the Roman Catholic Chaplaincy Centre in George Square,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32and that was very popular.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36# Sing if you're glad to be gay
0:17:36 > 0:17:39# Sing if you're happy that way... #
0:17:39 > 0:17:40No alcohol was involved -
0:17:40 > 0:17:44it was just sort of coffee and cakes sometimes.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46There was a famous Rule 5 - no kissing and petting -
0:17:46 > 0:17:49which was, of course, to try and conform with the law.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52SONG ENDS
0:17:52 > 0:17:54CHEERING
0:17:59 > 0:18:03SMG's funky discos weren't just for gay guys.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06For almost the very first time ever in Scotland,
0:18:06 > 0:18:11SMG Ladies Night meant lesbians had a public space to meet up in
0:18:11 > 0:18:14and that was thrilling.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Well, I had never danced with a woman before
0:18:17 > 0:18:20and I danced with another woman who was in the group.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24I told her that I'd never danced with a woman and she was astonished.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Women that I would never in a million years be able
0:18:30 > 0:18:33to rub shoulders with normally. I mean, they were all like,
0:18:33 > 0:18:35er, academics, professional women.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38They spoke very eloquently. I learned a lot.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43We have no other area that we can move about in or socialise in.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47Um, for instance, I can't imagine Sheila and I getting up
0:18:47 > 0:18:50in the Albany on a Saturday night and dancing together.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55You were perfectly safe. If you went up and chatted someone up,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58you wouldn't get a punch in the face for chatting the wrong person up.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01MUSIC: Dancing Queen by ABBA
0:19:01 > 0:19:05They wanted to organise events where people could meet each other
0:19:05 > 0:19:10in sort of a fairly sort of, er, open and respectable sort of way.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12The women met there every Tuesday night.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Tuesday night seemed to be when women always met, you know.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18They could never get pubs or discos on Fridays or Saturday.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20We were relegated to Tuesday nights.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24# ..you can jive Having the time of your life... #
0:19:24 > 0:19:28The early SMG discos attracted no more than 50 gay Scots,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32but word spread and the numbers grew.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36By the mid '70s, 700 people would travel from all over Scotland
0:19:36 > 0:19:38to get to SMG nights.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42Scotland was positively hoaching!
0:19:42 > 0:19:45We'd actually start to make money, so the group was, you know,
0:19:45 > 0:19:50gathering finances together and leased property in Broughton Street,
0:19:50 > 0:19:55number 60, and called it the Gay Information Centre.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58DISCO MUSIC PLAYS
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Whilst gay dancing, gay flirting
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and having a gay old time were very welcome,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08SMG was about much more than the social scene.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11They wanted to win over sympathetic straight Scots
0:20:11 > 0:20:14and to support gay Scots. They set up a switchboard
0:20:14 > 0:20:18to reach out to lonely gay people in the hills and glens.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21TELEPHONE RINGS
0:20:21 > 0:20:23Hello, SMG befriending service, can I help you?
0:20:23 > 0:20:26'I was on the befriending team, as it was called in those days.'
0:20:26 > 0:20:29You know, it was very, very sad! All the time!
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Er, occasions that, you know...
0:20:32 > 0:20:35I mean, a gay guy phoning from somewhere like Fort William
0:20:35 > 0:20:40and crying for 15 minutes on the phone, by the words he's just said,
0:20:40 > 0:20:42because he'd said the words, "I'm gay."
0:20:42 > 0:20:46They opened Scotland's first lesbian and gay bookshop.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49We called the bookshop Lavender Menace.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52One of the aims behind the bookshop was really to create a presence
0:20:52 > 0:20:55as an alternative to the bar scene,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58and it fulfilled that role very well, um,
0:20:58 > 0:21:03but it also distributed literature, which was just as important.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06But perhaps the most courageous act
0:21:06 > 0:21:08was simply to make gay Scots visible.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12BUZZ OF CONVERSATION
0:21:12 > 0:21:14At first glance, this might not look like
0:21:14 > 0:21:17one of the most ground-breaking pieces of television
0:21:17 > 0:21:19ever to have come out of Scotland.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Excuse me a minute, Malcolm. Hello, can I help you?
0:21:22 > 0:21:27But in 1976, this was pure TV dynamite.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29That's 25p, please.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32- Thanks very much.- Thanks.- Would you like some coffee while you're here?
0:21:32 > 0:21:35- Yes, please.- Right, well, let's get some over there.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39A 30-minute documentary produced by SMG for the BBC to show
0:21:39 > 0:21:44ordinary Scots that homosexuals were neither exotic nor scary.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47We're having a disco this evening, but not in here, I hasten to add.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50- A disco? What, you mean men dancing with men?- And women with women, yes.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52It doesn't seem possible in Scotland.
0:21:52 > 0:21:53It happens in Scotland, yes.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00I think Scottish Minorities Group deserves an enormous amount
0:22:00 > 0:22:04of credit for changing things. I think...
0:22:04 > 0:22:08their achievement in sort of changing public consciousness
0:22:08 > 0:22:09was, you know, was enormous.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Glad To Be Gay dared to show a lesbian couple
0:22:17 > 0:22:21that weren't ultra butch nor male fantasy objects.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26In fact, the documentary seemed to stress that Edinburgh lesbians
0:22:26 > 0:22:30could lead lives that were just as dull as straight people.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34I've been wanting this for ages! I thought it was out of print. Mmm!
0:22:34 > 0:22:36I saw it at the bookshop up the road.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39Mmm, that smells nice.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42It was a positive image. It showed, um, that basically...
0:22:42 > 0:22:45all these gay people in Broughton Street coming out of the centre
0:22:45 > 0:22:48were actually just ordinary people getting on with ordinary lives
0:22:48 > 0:22:53and, hopefully, it was one of these defining moments of, er, making...
0:22:53 > 0:22:57gay people coming out into the open and saying, you know, "We're here!
0:22:57 > 0:23:00"We're not a threat, we're not dangerous, we're just ordinary."
0:23:00 > 0:23:03- I've got some bad news for you. - Oh, tell me the bad news.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08- The electricity bill came this morning.- Oh, how much?- 46.80.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10The programme ended with a sympathetic interview
0:23:10 > 0:23:14with a hairy Malcolm Rifkind and an even hairier Robin Cook.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Both politicians had been courted by SMG and both argued for law reform.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22I do not think myself now that there will be much difficultly now
0:23:22 > 0:23:24in obtaining a change in the law in Scotland.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Slowly, but perceptibly,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30the Scottish Minorities Group changed attitudes in Scotland.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35They developed a cordial relationship
0:23:35 > 0:23:37with the Church of Scotland,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40a cordial relationship with the Roman Catholic Church,
0:23:40 > 0:23:42a cordial relationship with...
0:23:42 > 0:23:45psychiatrists and psychologists and the medical profession.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49These are the people we had to win over to make legal change.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53They were actively pursuing an opportunity to change minds.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58And change minds they did!
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Do you know any homosexuals yourself?
0:24:00 > 0:24:03- Aye.- What do you feel about them?
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Just keep away from them. They're all right, though.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08As long as they dinnae bother me, I'm no' bothered.
0:24:08 > 0:24:09I've nothing against them.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12I think everybody's got the right to do their own thing.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15As far as I'm concerned, they're the same as me -
0:24:15 > 0:24:17we're all Jock Tamson's Bairns.
0:24:22 > 0:24:2513 years after the law had been reformed in England,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Robin Cook lodged an amendment in
0:24:28 > 0:24:30the Scottish Criminal Justice Act
0:24:30 > 0:24:33and, finally, after years of campaigning,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37after years of fear and fright, after years of discrimination,
0:24:37 > 0:24:44homosexuality was finally decriminalised in Scotland in 1980.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49CHEERING
0:24:52 > 0:24:56MUSIC: Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground
0:25:01 > 0:25:06# Sunday morning... #
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Scottish lesbians had never been illegal,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12but for most people they were inconceivable.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23It's hard to portray how invisible lesbians were.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28For me, lesbians just did not exist, it just was not an option.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31People like myself found their way towards their sexual
0:25:31 > 0:25:34orientation without any idea of what it was.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38I would have to look up the word "lesbian" in a dictionary
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and I'd no idea what it was.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43Even when lesbians tried to be more visible,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47the older generation of Scots refused to see them.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49I did read an article in a book
0:25:49 > 0:25:52and it was about two women that had lived together, and I was quite
0:25:52 > 0:25:55impressed with it, and my mother was in bed ill at the time,
0:25:55 > 0:25:57so I went marching through
0:25:57 > 0:25:59with this magazine and showed her the article
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and she said, "Why are you showing me this?"
0:26:02 > 0:26:04And I said, "Because what they're like - that's what I'M like."
0:26:04 > 0:26:08I was sayin', "I'm... You're heterosexual, I'm homosexual."
0:26:08 > 0:26:10And she went, "I'm no' like that!"
0:26:10 > 0:26:12So, it was the word "sexual" that jumped out.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21But by the 1970s, a new generation of lesbians set out to challenge
0:26:21 > 0:26:26the "meet a man, get married, have weans" narrative.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31In the very early '70s, things were changing,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34things were dangerous, but in a good way.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36There were beginning to be
0:26:36 > 0:26:39fragmentations in the old social relationships.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43We're one of the first liberated generations
0:26:43 > 0:26:47and compared to our mothers, grandmothers, it's a huge leap.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51We didn't have to marry to be in a certain position.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54We had the right to choose what we did with our bodies
0:26:54 > 0:26:56in terms of abortion.
0:26:57 > 0:27:001970s feminism inspired gay women,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04and gay women inspired 1970s feminism.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07It was really once the feminist movement got underway
0:27:07 > 0:27:11I had to restructure my whole way of thinking.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13A lot of times before that, you mimicked heterosexuals,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17cos that's the only example there was, but then this big revelation
0:27:17 > 0:27:21happened that you could actually all relax and treat each other as women.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Gradually, tentatively,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26lesbians began to make themselves more visible,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30challenging the expectations of the scone-nibbling
0:27:30 > 0:27:33ladies of Scotland in the process.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35I sat down in this Glasgow hairdresser,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37which was full of very sort of straight ladies,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40of the sort I no longer felt I was.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43And I said to the guy, "I need you to cut it really short.
0:27:43 > 0:27:44"Could you do something sort of
0:27:44 > 0:27:47"along one of these lines - whatever works for my face?"
0:27:47 > 0:27:50And he said, "Yeah, OK, I could."
0:27:50 > 0:27:53And as he started to cut and cut and cut and cut...
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Cos we're talking about, I don't know,
0:27:55 > 0:27:56it must have been about a metre of hair,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01there was this deep silence that fell over salon.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06"Look what she's just done to all that long, dark, lovely hair."
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Feminist sexual emancipation had yet to reach the small towns
0:28:13 > 0:28:14of 1970s Scotland.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18To be a lesbian was to be
0:28:18 > 0:28:21a target for relentless harassment and abuse.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25I was actually in fear of my life, going about my business
0:28:25 > 0:28:26whether walking to school,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30walking home from school, walking down the high street,
0:28:30 > 0:28:32living actually in fear of being attacked
0:28:32 > 0:28:34because I was attacked a few times.
0:28:34 > 0:28:35There was a lot of being spat on,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and when you go down the stairwell during class changes, there'd often
0:28:39 > 0:28:42be people positioned at the top waiting for me.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45So I often had my hair covered in spit.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48And I did get asked once - the class were laughing and the teacher
0:28:48 > 0:28:50asked me to leave the class and go and sort out my blazer,
0:28:50 > 0:28:52and I had no idea what she meant.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55And I went out and I had "queer" chalked on my back.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58Then, as now...
0:28:58 > 0:29:02many uptight Scottish guys found it difficult to accept lesbians.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Of course you'll get the people who'll say to
0:29:05 > 0:29:07you...that, "Within every lesbian is a man."
0:29:07 > 0:29:09- What would you say to that?- Rubbish!
0:29:09 > 0:29:10SHE LAUGHS
0:29:10 > 0:29:13You know all the insults that lesbian women
0:29:13 > 0:29:15get when they're out together as a couple.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Men see them, they either want to ask them if they want a threesome,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22they want to insult them...
0:29:22 > 0:29:24Because men are saying, "Why am I not in this equation?
0:29:24 > 0:29:28"I feel left out, my feelings are hurt, my masculinity's damaged,
0:29:28 > 0:29:30"and now I'm angry about it."
0:29:30 > 0:29:32A mountain of names...
0:29:32 > 0:29:35day after day, month after month,
0:29:35 > 0:29:40year on year, eventually those things become very painful.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45- Do either of you feel odd being gay women?- How do you mean, "odd"?
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Odd as people might think you're perverted.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51It's very difficult for heterosexual mainstream
0:29:51 > 0:29:52male culture to understand
0:29:52 > 0:29:55that lesbianism has nothing to do with them.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57In fact, its whole point
0:29:57 > 0:29:59is that it doesn't have anything to do with them!
0:29:59 > 0:30:04In macho Scotland, girl meets girl was a tricky business.
0:30:05 > 0:30:11I fancied a string of girls, and in my naivety I would tell them.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15I got summoned to guidance, and I was told quite categorically
0:30:15 > 0:30:20I cannot go around telling girls that I fancy them, it's not
0:30:20 > 0:30:25normal, it's not healthy, and it is a phase and I WILL grow out of it.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29MUSIC: Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat
0:30:29 > 0:30:33For most small-town girls and small-town boys, it was only when
0:30:33 > 0:30:37they headed for the bigger cities that they finally found love...
0:30:38 > 0:30:42When I left home and into the big city, Edinburgh, to be honest,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46as a women, one had to join the antinuclear movement to get laid.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Right? There was no question.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54I met this person and that was really exciting, it was, it was like
0:30:54 > 0:30:58a burst of, "Oh, my God, this is perhaps how life could be."
0:30:58 > 0:31:01And...you know...
0:31:01 > 0:31:03Yeah, that is it.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05It was like an unleashing of -
0:31:05 > 0:31:08that sounds like some sort of porn film - pent-up tension!
0:31:13 > 0:31:17The 1980s was the decade when the gays went to town.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23# Run away, turn away, run away turn away, run away
0:31:23 > 0:31:25MUSIC: Karma Chameleon by Culture Club
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Boy George stunned Top Of The Pops...
0:31:29 > 0:31:31# You come and go... #
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon...
0:31:34 > 0:31:36MUSIC: Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
0:31:36 > 0:31:37Frankie said, "Relax!"
0:31:40 > 0:31:41# Relax... #
0:31:41 > 0:31:46And in Scotland's big cities, the newly legalised gay culture
0:31:46 > 0:31:48began to have a fabulous time.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51# Relax... #
0:31:51 > 0:31:54In Glasgow, the gay Mecca was Bennets.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59# When you wanna come... #
0:31:59 > 0:32:02I remember really clearly when I first went to Bennets and
0:32:02 > 0:32:04I just thought,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07"I couldn't even have imagined a place like this existed."
0:32:07 > 0:32:10I mean, I had not even seen a gay club in film or in television.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18It felt like Xanadu, you could meet anybody, you could go anywhere.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20# Relax, don't do it
0:32:20 > 0:32:22# When you wanna go to it
0:32:22 > 0:32:23# Relax... #
0:32:23 > 0:32:27There was all sorts of people there, stockbrokers and bus drivers,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31leather guys, guys in suits, there were married guys,
0:32:31 > 0:32:33go-go boys, dare I say?
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Like hot pants, high kicking to Donna Summer.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42To walk into a room and to see all these men dancing together
0:32:42 > 0:32:46and kissing - I felt stressed, I actually thought,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49"Something's going to happen, something bad's going to happen.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52"These people can't be allowed to be having this much fun."
0:32:52 > 0:32:54It was like everybody
0:32:54 > 0:32:58who'd ever been bullied, in every school in the West of Scotland had
0:32:58 > 0:33:00somehow found themselves in a room with great music
0:33:00 > 0:33:02and great lights and good drinks,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04and I just thought, "This is great."
0:33:06 > 0:33:10It was all about finding a sense of community and sex
0:33:10 > 0:33:12and just...
0:33:12 > 0:33:14freedom, basically.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18I remember voguing, I remember dancing to Mary Kiani,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22really trashy Mary Kiani. And drinking Mad Dog 20/20
0:33:22 > 0:33:24and just vomiting and thinking,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26"I'm having the best time of my life!"
0:33:31 > 0:33:35In Edinburgh, Fire Island was home to disco queens
0:33:35 > 0:33:37and homosexual hedonism.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42People like Divine and Eartha Kitt
0:33:42 > 0:33:44in her disco incarnation came to play that club,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47and I do remember up at the back of the crowd
0:33:47 > 0:33:50while Divine was performing on stage, some policeman's son
0:33:50 > 0:33:53who was my "thing" at the time,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56sucking my cock while Divine's doing her act, and it's just...
0:33:56 > 0:33:58What a wonderful... You think,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00"Aye, this is life, hello."
0:34:01 > 0:34:04# Hello... #
0:34:04 > 0:34:07But this hedonism of Scotland's early scene
0:34:07 > 0:34:10was about to be shattered.
0:34:11 > 0:34:12A guy who I had shared a flat with -
0:34:12 > 0:34:15there was a group of us who shared this flat -
0:34:15 > 0:34:19and I saw him in Bennets, and he said he was kind of tired,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21he said, "I just don't feel very well."
0:34:21 > 0:34:23Almost as tiny as that.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25And he sat down for a bit,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29which I thought was, kind of, a bit odd that he was sitting down.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31But he was dead within a few months,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34seriously ill within, I think, days.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37The past weekend should have been a time of outright celebration
0:34:37 > 0:34:41for Britain's homosexual community, as a march through
0:34:41 > 0:34:44London ended Gay Pride Week, seven days in which they commemorated
0:34:44 > 0:34:47the start of the gay liberation movement.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50However, the festivities were overshadowed by fear -
0:34:50 > 0:34:52fear of a mysterious new disease that
0:34:52 > 0:34:57has hit the homosexual community in America and has now come here.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Reports of an awful, mysterious disease killing homosexual men
0:35:01 > 0:35:05began to emerge from gay communities around the world.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10And in the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS arrived in Scotland.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20We first heard about HIV, I think, in 1982, it was very much
0:35:20 > 0:35:26the same time as it was being publicised in the United States.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28It was a bit of a mystery,
0:35:28 > 0:35:32and people were dying from this strange disease.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38We were all suspicious of it, there was
0:35:38 > 0:35:41a quite commonly-talked-about idea that it was made up,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45that it was a form of prejudice, it was a discriminatory thing
0:35:45 > 0:35:49that straight people were making up, and it wasn't actually true.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54We didn't take the government propaganda seriously, of, you know,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56the falling tombstone.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02- JOHN HURT:- There is now a danger that has become a threat to us all.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05It is a deadly disease and there is no known cure.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09I was still living at home and it came on the television
0:36:09 > 0:36:12one evening, and there was, kind of, silence between Mum and Dad
0:36:12 > 0:36:15in the living room, and then Mum made some crack about,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17"Oh, that's what the gays get."
0:36:17 > 0:36:20If you ignore AIDS, it could be the death of you,
0:36:20 > 0:36:22so don't die of ignorance.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Homosexual sex was once again portrayed as something to fear,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32a matter of life and death.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34The number of deaths in Britain to date
0:36:34 > 0:36:36from the disease stands at 293.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40244 of those victims were male homosexuals.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44If Scotland was in any way ignorant about AIDS,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48it was rudely awoken in 1985,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51when over 60% of injecting drug addicts
0:36:51 > 0:36:54tested at an Edinburgh hospital
0:36:54 > 0:36:55were found to be HIV-positive.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59As a result, the Scottish capital was labelled
0:36:59 > 0:37:02the HIV capital of Europe.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05"Edinburgh, the AIDS capital of Europe,"
0:37:05 > 0:37:08was written in some newspaper,
0:37:08 > 0:37:13by whom I cannot remember, and that has certainly stuck,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16and yet it was blatantly untrue.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21In 1983, The Times even warned that the Edinburgh Festival could
0:37:21 > 0:37:25"become a breeding ground" for the mystery disease.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27By the end of the century, there won't be
0:37:27 > 0:37:29one family in the United Kingdom that isn't touched
0:37:29 > 0:37:31in some way by this disease.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34With little information and a lot of fear,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Scotland's homosexual community were once again stigmatised.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Because it was associated with gay men and sex,
0:37:41 > 0:37:43there was a backlash.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47I remember hearing people say,
0:37:47 > 0:37:50"That's what they deserve." It was very much...
0:37:50 > 0:37:55It fitted in with the kind of Calvinist logic of, you know...
0:37:55 > 0:37:57"You do this, you get that."
0:37:57 > 0:38:02As far as we were concerned, that was par for the course,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05we'd lived with this for decades,
0:38:05 > 0:38:07so it didn't make any difference,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11what really mattered was how we were going to manage this ourselves.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Edinburgh's small gay community mobilised quickly...
0:38:16 > 0:38:20But nothing would ever be quite the same...
0:38:20 > 0:38:24Right from the start of me going to Edinburgh - '86 or so,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27I think, the topic of conversation of part of our nights out
0:38:27 > 0:38:30on a Friday or Saturday was who was sick.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34In 1986, ten homosexual men were reported to have
0:38:34 > 0:38:39died of AIDS in Scotland, in 1990 it was 24.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43In 1991 it was 47.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49By the late '80s, people were dying on a pretty regular basis,
0:38:49 > 0:38:53and it was pretty devastating, because they were people you
0:38:53 > 0:38:55would have known socially
0:38:55 > 0:38:58and a fortnight later, they were ill...
0:38:58 > 0:39:01and a month after that
0:39:01 > 0:39:02they weren't around any more.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Our pal Bill was a buddy at university.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14And when Bill came out with this diagnosis, it was a complete
0:39:14 > 0:39:16and utter devastating shock.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20That was it, it was the start of a long goodbye.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23MUSIC: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by Sleeping At Last
0:39:23 > 0:39:25# When I wake up
0:39:25 > 0:39:27# Well, I know I'm gonna be
0:39:27 > 0:39:32# I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you... #
0:39:32 > 0:39:35When I saw him, he was well into his illness,
0:39:35 > 0:39:36he just couldn't eat
0:39:36 > 0:39:40and he couldn't digest anything and he'd been living on liquids,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and he was a tiny, frail little creature.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45You know, I saw him about six weeks before he died,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47and leaving that hospital room,
0:39:47 > 0:39:53it was just a small, little frail lump under a pile of sheets.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56# And when I'm dreaming
0:39:56 > 0:39:58# Well, I know I'm gonna dream
0:39:58 > 0:40:02# I'm gonna dream about the time I had with you. #
0:40:07 > 0:40:10So we all knew people who had died,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13and despite the fact that
0:40:13 > 0:40:15I had a partner,
0:40:15 > 0:40:17we were both,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20we both had extra-partnership affairs, as it were,
0:40:20 > 0:40:22and we could have been more careful than we were...
0:40:22 > 0:40:28So...we both came down with HIV, so...
0:40:29 > 0:40:33And...I think
0:40:33 > 0:40:34it was just, you know...erm...
0:40:42 > 0:40:44Life-saving combination therapy
0:40:44 > 0:40:50arrived in 1996. Now, with medication, most HIV-positive people
0:40:50 > 0:40:52are no longer infectious
0:40:52 > 0:40:54and can expect to live as long as anyone else.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58That was a godsend.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00I mean, it was...
0:41:00 > 0:41:02This was, you know,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04at least a decade after it was
0:41:04 > 0:41:06first identified,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10so science and medical science had really come on leaps and bounds.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14And all of a sudden, people were beginning to survive.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16It was extraordinary.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19MUSIC: It's A Sin by Pet Shop Boys
0:41:28 > 0:41:33In 1987, amidst the HIV crisis and growing calls for equality,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government
0:41:35 > 0:41:38went to war with the gay community.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values
0:41:43 > 0:41:47are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49# It's a, it's a
0:41:49 > 0:41:52# It's a sin... #
0:41:52 > 0:41:57In the Local Government Act of 1988, Section 28 prohibited
0:41:57 > 0:42:01the "teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended
0:42:01 > 0:42:03"family relationship."
0:42:03 > 0:42:04What they meant by
0:42:04 > 0:42:09"pretended family relationships" was vague, and teachers risked breaking
0:42:09 > 0:42:13the law if they acknowledged that gay love was possible.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18Section 28 basically said you cannot talk about
0:42:18 > 0:42:22non-heterosexual relationships at school.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25The media eagerly stoked the prejudices of a public
0:42:25 > 0:42:28already alarmed by HIV.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30I obviously don't want children taught
0:42:30 > 0:42:34that the gay and lesbian lifestyle is natural or normal.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37It is not. It never has been and it never will be.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40People, I think, thought what we were stopping people doing was
0:42:40 > 0:42:44talking about hardcore sexual acts, and explaining them
0:42:44 > 0:42:48in graphic detail and maybe putting on a porno or something in schools.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Obviously not. Heterosexual sex education doesn't do that,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54so why on earth would same-sex sex education do that?
0:42:54 > 0:42:56Of course, it wouldn't.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59It was very clear that both
0:42:59 > 0:43:03this was a piece of legislation that was deeply stigmatising of
0:43:03 > 0:43:07people's lives, of whole communities,
0:43:07 > 0:43:09the idea that you can talk about
0:43:09 > 0:43:12"pretended family relationships".
0:43:12 > 0:43:14That's a deeply offensive thing.
0:43:14 > 0:43:15So it literally meant that
0:43:15 > 0:43:18funding for things... for switchboards, help,
0:43:18 > 0:43:20community centres, plays that were maybe trying to
0:43:20 > 0:43:23raise awareness about homophobia, all these things.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25They all got their funding cut,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28everything got shut down, closed, and that was just horrendous.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34Outraged gay men and lesbians came together across the UK
0:43:34 > 0:43:39and protested against the intolerance of tolerance.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42They even crashed the Six O'Clock News.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45In the House of Lords a vote is taking place...
0:43:45 > 0:43:46SHOUTS FROM SIDE
0:43:46 > 0:43:48..now on a challenge to the poll tax.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50Stop Section 28!
0:43:50 > 0:43:52But it was vulnerable gay teenage kids
0:43:52 > 0:43:56at school in the 1980s and '90s who suffered.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59I came out to my guidance teachers, and when
0:43:59 > 0:44:01I eventually actually told them I was gay, when I stopped denying
0:44:01 > 0:44:05it and used those words, they said,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07"We can't talk to you about this."
0:44:07 > 0:44:10I said, "What do you mean? You talk to me about everything else,
0:44:10 > 0:44:12"why can't you talk to me about this?"
0:44:12 > 0:44:14And they said, "We can't talk to you about this
0:44:14 > 0:44:17"because of a piece of legislation called Section 28."
0:44:17 > 0:44:20If I was being bullied, teachers couldn't actually say,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24"Well, you need to stop that because being gay is OK."
0:44:24 > 0:44:27So, they might just have been able to say, "Shoosht."
0:44:27 > 0:44:31But they weren't actually able to deal with the root of the problem.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35My best friend at school, who knew he was gay,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38and I knew he was gay and we were very, very, very close,
0:44:38 > 0:44:39you know...
0:44:39 > 0:44:43I'm here and I'm alive now. He's not, he's dead.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47He committed suicide when he was 21, and who's to say
0:44:47 > 0:44:50whether he would have made a different choice if he'd had more
0:44:50 > 0:44:54support at school from the people who were there to support him?
0:44:57 > 0:45:02In 1999, Scotland entered a new era, with the re-establishment
0:45:02 > 0:45:04of the Scottish Parliament.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07One of its first acts was to repeal Clause 28.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12It was the first chance to declare to the watching world that
0:45:12 > 0:45:16a devolved Scotland would be a progressive and modern country,
0:45:16 > 0:45:18a liberal and caring place
0:45:18 > 0:45:21which didn't discriminate against its minorities.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27But a businessman and born-again Christian called Brian Souter
0:45:27 > 0:45:31didn't fancy this vision of Scotland.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33Nor did the biggest-selling Scottish newspaper.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Nor the major religions.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38I hesitate to use the word perversion,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42but let's face up to the truth of this situation, that's what it is.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46With Brian Souter's money, they started a full-on campaign
0:45:46 > 0:45:48to Keep The Clause.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50Don't want to promote homosexuality in our schools.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54- It's a disgrace what they're doing. - It's ridiculous, isn't it?
0:45:54 > 0:45:57- Things are just getting out of hand. - It's terrible what they're doing.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59It was a battle that would define
0:45:59 > 0:46:02what kind of country Scotland would become.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06Brian Souter is bankrolling
0:46:06 > 0:46:09a crusade against the Executive's plans to repeal
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Section 28 - a law which currently prevents schools from promoting
0:46:13 > 0:46:16the acceptability of a homosexual lifestyle.
0:46:16 > 0:46:17I'd walk down the street
0:46:17 > 0:46:20and in just about every window, there was these,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23"Keep the clause, save our children."
0:46:23 > 0:46:25You know, and it felt...
0:46:25 > 0:46:27I felt hated, I felt despised,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31I felt like a Jew walking down the street and seeing swastikas.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34There was massive bill posters all over the place -
0:46:34 > 0:46:36there was one round the corner at the supermarket
0:46:36 > 0:46:40and there was one up at the primary school where our youngest, Gillian,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43was going at the time, basically saying that our family was wrong,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45that I was an evil person,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48that I had no right to be bringing up children.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Protecting children? Against what?
0:46:50 > 0:46:52Against homosexuality? What are they talking about?
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Paedophilia? What are they talking about here?
0:46:55 > 0:46:58It was a terrible thing to do.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Having plastered almost every billboard in Scotland
0:47:01 > 0:47:06with his provocative posters, Brian Souter upped the ante.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10The boss of Stagecoach, millionaire Brian Souter, said he's going to pay
0:47:10 > 0:47:13for a private referendum in Scotland on the repeal of Section 28.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17The prospect of an unofficial referendum on
0:47:17 > 0:47:19whether to keep the clause put intense pressure
0:47:19 > 0:47:24on the fledgling MSPs in the new Scottish Parliament.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28I think it was the last gasp, if you like, of the old Scotland,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31and that wasn't just Conservative Scotland,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34which still existed to some extent, but Labour Scotland,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38which had always included quite a strong conservative element.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41You know, working-class Scots did not tend to be liberal
0:47:41 > 0:47:44on issues like homosexuality.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50Souter held his unofficial referendum.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52But the parliament held its nerve.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55More than one million people opposed repeal in a ballot
0:47:55 > 0:47:58privately funded by the wealthy businessman Brian Souter,
0:47:58 > 0:48:00but the majority didn't vote.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03And despite the fury of the Daily Record,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06the result was an irrelevance.
0:48:06 > 0:48:12Then in June 2000, Clause 28 was finally removed from Scots law.
0:48:12 > 0:48:17Gay activists celebrated as Section 28 was finally scrapped in Scotland.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20Next step, they said, to persuade Westminster to follow suit.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Thankfully, common sense prevailed and people went,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25"You know what,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27"there's starving children in the world - who cares
0:48:27 > 0:48:30"who's sleeping with who, Brian Souter?
0:48:30 > 0:48:32"Clearly you're not getting enough."
0:48:36 > 0:48:39The new Scottish Parliament had set an important precedent,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43it had stood up for the rights of gay people.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47And the debate itself had forced notoriously uptight Scots
0:48:47 > 0:48:49to think about gay issues.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53It was discussed openly,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55but it was forced onto the agenda
0:48:55 > 0:48:57by the actions of the Scottish Executive, and it
0:48:57 > 0:48:59had to be discussed, and the Souter referendum
0:48:59 > 0:49:04meant there was discussion in the media and at public events around the country.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08And I think, however unpleasant and difficult it seemed at the time,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11it was quite a cathartic experience.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13MUSIC: Only Girl (In The World) by Rihanna
0:49:13 > 0:49:16# Want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world
0:49:16 > 0:49:20# Like I'm the only one that you'll ever love
0:49:20 > 0:49:25# Like I'm the only one who knows your heart... #
0:49:25 > 0:49:26Since the millennium,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31Scottish attitudes to homosexuality have changed dramatically.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34Surveys find that two-thirds of Scots
0:49:34 > 0:49:37now actively approve of equal marriage.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40And more than ever, it's homophobia that's taboo.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48Glasgow and Edinburgh have healthy gay scenes,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52with bars in Dundee and Aberdeen and LGBT groups in the Highlands.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58But you must know that - surely you've been in gay bar by now?
0:49:58 > 0:50:00MUSIC: Hung Up by Madonna
0:50:00 > 0:50:02Well, hello there, darling...
0:50:02 > 0:50:04You've never been in a gay bar in Scotland before?
0:50:04 > 0:50:06Oh! Follow me!
0:50:06 > 0:50:09# Time goes by, so slowly
0:50:09 > 0:50:12# Time goes by, so slowly... #
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Fix my camel toe, don't be lookin' at it...
0:50:20 > 0:50:25People think that in a gay bar it's just gay guys dancing to Cher and Madonna -
0:50:25 > 0:50:28dance, dance, dance... That just never happens.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40CHEERING
0:50:40 > 0:50:43See? Gay men playing sports...
0:50:46 > 0:50:48Hello, how are you?
0:50:48 > 0:50:50They love playing with balls, too...
0:50:52 > 0:50:55# Waiting for your call, baby night and day
0:50:55 > 0:50:57# I'm fed up... #
0:50:57 > 0:51:01MUSIC PLAYS: We Are Family by Sister Sledge
0:51:01 > 0:51:04# I got all my sisters with me
0:51:04 > 0:51:08# We are family
0:51:08 > 0:51:13# Get up everybody and sing
0:51:13 > 0:51:17# We are family
0:51:17 > 0:51:18# I got all my sisters... #
0:51:18 > 0:51:22Civic Scotland is finally making amends for the wrongs of the past,
0:51:22 > 0:51:28and Scotland's gay community is now part of the wider Scottish family in a very real way.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34In 2005, the Scottish Parliament legislated for civil partnerships
0:51:34 > 0:51:36for gay couples.
0:51:36 > 0:51:41In 2006, same-sex couples were given the right to adopt.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46In 2014, at the opening of the Commonwealth Games,
0:51:46 > 0:51:50our country was being beamed out across the world to an audience of millions,
0:51:50 > 0:51:57and Scotland happily promoted its new openness with a kilted gay kiss.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01- PA:- Here's to equality in Scotland!
0:52:03 > 0:52:06It projected a view of Scotland that said
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Scotland is a liberal, inclusive and tolerant country - which it now is.
0:52:16 > 0:52:22Scotland has always been a romantic country, a sentimental country.
0:52:22 > 0:52:28A place many gay people have always had a great love for, and a sense of belonging to.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35And last year, Scotland finally fully embraced them,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39when the Scottish Parliament had a vote to legalise gay marriage.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44And as if to highlight how much our society had changed,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48the lesbian making the most personal plea for tenderness,
0:52:48 > 0:52:53love and kindness, was the leader of the Scottish Conservatives.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57We have an opportunity today to tell our nation's children that
0:52:57 > 0:53:00no matter where they live and no matter who it is that they love,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03there is nothing that they can't do.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05I was terrified about making that speech,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07but it was trying to explain that
0:53:07 > 0:53:10so many people out there take completely for granted
0:53:10 > 0:53:12the idea that if they find the love of their life,
0:53:12 > 0:53:15then they can marry them. It wasn't on offer to me.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18It was something I never grew up thinking I would be able to have.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22Yes - 105. No - 18.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25There were no abstentions and the
0:53:25 > 0:53:28Marriage And Civil Partnership Scotland Bill is passed.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30CHEERING
0:53:30 > 0:53:33When the vote was read out at the very end,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36the people in the gallery, the campaigners,
0:53:36 > 0:53:38stood up and applauded.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45They're not supposed to,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48the presiding officers don't really like that, but the MSPs,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50in turn, stood up and applauded the campaigners in the gallery,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53and again there was a real sense of that connection -
0:53:53 > 0:53:54the idea of a parliament
0:53:54 > 0:53:58that shares power with the people, the way it's supposed to.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05I just fell on my knees. I went down on my knees and I just cried.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08I'm getting emotional thinking about it, but, yeah,
0:54:08 > 0:54:11I get very emotional... It was a huge, huge thing for me.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14I came back up upstairs to my office, afterwards,
0:54:14 > 0:54:15and I just burst into tears.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17It completely surprised me,
0:54:17 > 0:54:19cos I'm not usually one for bursting into tears
0:54:19 > 0:54:21about passing a law, do you know what I mean?
0:54:26 > 0:54:28CHEERING
0:54:29 > 0:54:32In the first six months of 2015,
0:54:32 > 0:54:37over 1,250 same-sex couples have got married in Scotland.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41And men marrying men, and women marrying women,
0:54:41 > 0:54:43has become an everyday event.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47A fantastic, moving, beautiful, tear-stained, gushing,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50life-affirming, everyday event.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53For us, it was a really important place to get married.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55Didn't think of doing it anywhere else.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00It feels significant, and the closer it gets, it feels more significant.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03I just find it very emotional,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05much more emotional...
0:55:05 > 0:55:07Are you crying already?
0:55:07 > 0:55:10- I am crying.- He's crying already. - LAUGHTER
0:55:12 > 0:55:15We got married as the bells were tolling
0:55:15 > 0:55:16on the 31st of December,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19with the First Minister and Patrick Harvie from the Green Party
0:55:19 > 0:55:22as our witnesses.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24All the politics, all the pain,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27all the personal suffering,
0:55:27 > 0:55:31all the shame, all the guilt, all the negative stuff that had
0:55:31 > 0:55:35gone before us for 20 years disappeared in that moment.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Scotland was a fairer place,
0:55:38 > 0:55:42we're more in love than we ever have been,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45and it's just an enormous celebration. It was incredible.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47- Hello!- How are you? Hello.
0:55:49 > 0:55:50CHATTER
0:55:50 > 0:55:53APPLAUSE
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Good afternoon, everyone, we welcome you here to Scotland,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59to Glasgow's Art Club
0:55:59 > 0:56:01and to this, their wedding day.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03Equality is not a luxury,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06equality is not the cashmere bed socks of politics,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09equality is a basic human right.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Gay people's liberation is everybody's liberation.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18I, John, take you, Stefan, to be my lawfully wedded husband.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health,
0:56:26 > 0:56:28until death do us part.
0:56:30 > 0:56:35I, Stefan, take you, John, to be my lawfully wedded husband.
0:56:35 > 0:56:36To have and to hold...
0:56:38 > 0:56:43- VOICE BREAKING:- ..from this day forward, for better, for worse,
0:56:43 > 0:56:46for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49until death do us part.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51HE SNIFFS
0:56:51 > 0:56:55This year, a European human rights monitor called The Rainbow Alliance
0:56:55 > 0:57:02classed Scotland as the best country in Europe for LGBTI equality.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05Scotland has excelled itself.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10The legal protections that people now have are world-leading,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13and that is not hyperbole.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Scottishness and LGBT identity
0:57:16 > 0:57:19are not uneasy bedfellows in the way that they used to be.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22Certainly we've still got a lot more work to do,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26but I would say I'm very proud to be Scottish,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29and proud to be Scottish LGBT.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33I'm hereby delighted to declare that you, John, and you, Stefan,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38are now married, and may share your first kiss as husband and husband!
0:57:38 > 0:57:40CHEERING
0:57:40 > 0:57:42MUSIC: At Last by Etta James
0:57:42 > 0:57:44# At last
0:57:48 > 0:57:52# My love has come along... #
0:57:52 > 0:57:54We've grown from a intolerant country
0:57:54 > 0:57:59where gay people were criminalised, despised and discriminated against,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03to a welcoming place, where men can fall in love with men,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06women can fall in love with women,
0:58:06 > 0:58:11and have their love recognised and celebrated and protected by Scotland.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15And live happily, gaily ever after.
0:58:15 > 0:58:16# At last... #
0:58:16 > 0:58:20It was great seeing everybody that we know and love, crying, smiling...
0:58:20 > 0:58:22And I think they were all there with us.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25It's absolutely amazing, absolutely loved it.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27So, tell me, Stefan, how does it feel?
0:58:27 > 0:58:30It feels lovely. I'm going to cry again!
0:58:30 > 0:58:34# My heart was wrapped up in clover
0:58:37 > 0:58:42# The night I looked at you... #