Peter Tatchell: I, Tatchell

Full text of Peter Tatchell’s acceptance speech, on receiving a Honorary Fellowship of Goldsmiths College, University of London, presented to him by the Chair of Council, Baroness Estelle Morris, in a ceremony at the college on 10 September 2014.

Accepting the award, Peter Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said:

Okay, here is an edited version where I've just quoted the personal pronouns, basically...

I am My me I my I me. my I I I I I I  [That's 15 references to yourself, there already, Pete. Let us see how we proceed...]

I’m not special or unique. I do my bit for social justice, but so do many others.

My key political inspirations are Mohandas Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst, Martin Luther King and, to some extent, Malcolm X and Rosa Luxemburg. I’ve adapted many of their ideas and methods to the contemporary struggle for human rights – and invented a few of my own. [This is not a joke!]

I My I I I I I  [Lost count after 50...]

I have continued in the same vein [Vain, shirley?]

I I 

Looking back on my 47 years of human rights campaigning, my advice, for what it’s worth, is this:

To quote my fellow sodomite and socialist Oscar Wilde:

“I love me.”

Full disclosure: I made the last line up. All other quotes come from his short speech.

Saint Peter's given the same wonderfully unself-serving 'but it's not about me, so I'll talk about me' speech at least twice before, when he's been awarded honorary degrees for sending out press releases about Peter Tatchell.

Tatchell likes to bemoan how gay campaigning/'radicalism' has diminished, but maybe it's partly diminished because he's dedicated himself to a 25 year-long PR campaign where fools now believe 'gay campaigning = Peter Tatchell'?

'L'état, c'est moi.'

Change will come when people stop following people who get off on being followed.

'We shall all rise, when you fall.'