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BBC claimed its 1970s gay actors were ‘just waiting for the right woman’
The BBC claimed gay actors like John Inman were just ‘waiting for the right woman’ as no one was openly gay, according to a former newsreader and current MP.
John Nicolson, who left BBC Breakfast to become a MP for the Scottish National Party, has reflected on when he came out in 1999.
When he originally revealed his sexuality, he said he was tired of people assuming he was straight and that he wanted to show kids that camp figures like Dale Winton are not the only role models for LGBTI youth.
Taking part in a debate in parliament on diversity in public sector broadcasting, he said the BBC told him ‘no one in any field had ever been openly gay’ and effeminate 1970s like Are You Being Served’s John Inman was just ‘waiting for the right woman’.
He said: ‘When I came out as gay when I was presenting BBC Breakfast on BBC 1, which I did for a number of years, I found that I was the first mainstream TV news presenter to do so.
‘When I told the press office staff that I had given an interview to the Daily Mail, and that when asked about my home life I had been honest, they were aghast and told me that no BBC presenter had ever been openly gay before.
‘I said: “Perhaps in news nobody has been openly gay before, but what about other fields?”
‘They said that no one in any field had ever been openly gay. Larry Grayson and John Inman were, according to their BBC biographical notes, apparently just waiting for the right woman to come along.
‘That was in the year 2000, and I am not sure that much has changed.’
Nicolson insisted all faces and voices should ‘reflect the society in which we live – It is all about trust’.
The post BBC claimed its 1970s gay actors were ‘just waiting for the right woman’ appeared first on Gay Star News.
Joe Morgan
www.gaystarnews.com/article/bbc-claimed-its-1970s-gay-actors-were-just-waiting-for-the-right-woman/
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