2 minute read
DON'T HIDE WHO YOU ARE
If you are hiding your sexuality from those closest to you, it is time to come out of the closet says the award winning writer Russell T Davies.
Speaking to MC Magazine, the man who has been working in the field of gay drama for more than 20 years (Queer as Folk 1999, Cucumber 2015, A Very English Scandal 2018, It’s a Sin 2021) said: “That closet limits your emotions, limits your choices, limits your love."
With a cautionary note he added: “Do it safely. Make sure you are in a safe place. “Remember that coming out doesn’t mean you have to have sex – it’s more of an emotional thing.
“It’s just honesty. Honesty is always going to be better for you in the end.” Russell grew up in a loving family in South Wales. Both his parents were teachers, his two older sisters followed them into the profession, and they accepted him as he was when in his early 20s he told them he was gay. But he realises that this won’t be the same case for everyone.
“Coming out doesn’t mean that your whole life will get better – you will still have money worries, family worries, but you certainly will have one less worry.
“I have never ever seen it harm anyone – unless they are already in a harmful setting. If you are living with a spouse who is violent, a father who is violent, your gayness is not the problem. “The truly homophobic family has something else wrong with it. How can you not love your son? How can you not love your daughter? If you have that much capacity not to love someone then there is already something wrong.”
It’s a Sin is set in the early 1980s when HIV and AIDS were as new to our lexicon as coronavirus and Covid in 2019.
In planning since 2015, Russell admits that he was nervous about launching the series in the midst of a pandemic. “For years people were asking me what I was working on and when I would say ‘A drama about AIDS’ you would see their faces fall!
“When COVID hit I thought ‘Do people actually want to watch a drama about a virus in the middle of a virus’?”
He needn’t have worried as Channel 4 recently announced it was their biggest ever instant box set with the most binged viewing to date. Asked if he planned the hashtag #BeMoreJill when he was writing the drama Russell laughed out loud.
“What a master tactician I would be if I had!"
Casting actor Jill Nalder as Jill Baxter’s mum Christine was partly a huge thank you to Russell’s old friend who had shared so many of her stories with him. He was just as surprised as she was when her story hit the headlines all around the world.
“Something magical happened with that cast,” he said.
“They were such a special bunch of people.
“They became activists. They know their HIV history, they know their laws, they know about treatment. They all take my breath away.”
• A T-shirt with the simple word La on it has raised more than £400,000 for the Terence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity. Designed by Mayor of Lambeth and clothing designer Philip Normal, the word was an in joke amongst the characters in It’s a Sin.
To order visit philipnormal.shop and search Terence Higgins Trust.
