James Dawson: This Writer Is Gay

The reason I am constantly harping on about sexuality is in the hope that some of those young people who are in hiding, can see and hear me – a vaguely successful and very happy gay man being successful and happy. My role model, Russell T Davies, was visible for me back in 1998 with Queer As Folk, so I'm happy to take a turn. I hope people will read This Book Is Gay with pride, because while we are as normal as the day is long, the rest of the world doesn't always see us that way.

James Dawson, YA (Young Adult, granddad) author.

In July, James was voted Queen of Teen books by readers, the first male author to win.

He is launching and talking about This Book Is Gay - a book about being gay for teh young gays - at Gay's The Word bookshop in London this evening. 

If you go, please give him my love. x

Stonewall TV Survey: T.V.O.D.

Several papers have run stories on the new report from Stonewall, Unseen On Screen: Gay people on youth TV.
Well, actually most of them have just reprinted chuncks of the press release, as per.
Hey, let's give it a try - beats working.
"Groundbreaking research published today by Stonewall has found that ordinary gay people are almost invisible on the 20 TV programmes most watched by Britain’s young people. Just 46 minutes out of 126 hours of output showed gay people positively and realistically. Three quarters of portrayal was confined to just four C4 and ITV1 programmes: I’m a Celebrity…, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and How to Look Good Naked. BBC1 transmitted 44 seconds of positive and realistic portrayal of gay people in more than 39 hours of output."
"Young people from across Britain interviewed by researchers said that gay people on TV are largely stereotyped, leading unhappy lives, are bullied and rejected by their families. They also said they rely on TV to learn about gay people."
Fagburn is actually going to read the report - and suggests you do the same - he will get back to you presently.
You can download a copy here.