Thought For The Day: Matthew Parris

Those of us who founded Stonewall had it easy. Not because the media and the establishment were sympathetic to our cause (at first they were not) but because we had sharply defined goals, mostly legislative. We knew what we were pitching for, and whom to lobby; and we knew what counted as success. Those formal battles have almost all been won. But in schools, in some police forces, in sport and in the workplace there is still prejudice. No law will change this. Cultural change is slow, untidy, formless — not a pitched battle between two sides — and persuasion is so much harder than legislation. Ian [McKellen], Michael [Cashman] and I don’t envy today’s campaigners. They should envy us.

Matthew Parris, The Times.

PS Comments include a brief exchange between Mr Parris and Mr Fagburn about Mr Cashman.