329: Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell has been doing things in the Uk for about the last four decades, and is famous/notorious as the nation’s leading gay rights campaigner. At times this has brought him great opprobrium, although as the principles of gay rights have been legally instituted, he no longer seems such a strident figure. Also his attempt to perform a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe probably did a lot to endear him to many.

Tatchell first came to national attention when he stood as the Labour candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey byelection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermondsey_by-election,_1983 should probably give you all the context for what follows.
It was infighting in the Labour Party at the highest levels about the appropriateness of Tatchell’s selection which made for such good copy in the newspapers. And therefore made him and his homosexuality a matter of national discussion.

Here we have cartoons and gags about an out gay figure (although it was confused at the time by Tatchell’s attempts to “in” himself somewhat for electability). There were an awful lot of snide gags made about him at the time. But we shall discounting all the obvious homophobic abuse, (presumably thought to be killingly witty at the time by its perpetrators), and instead focus on how humorists and cartoonists portrayed Tatchell.

How is Tatchell as a gay man portrayed, and what use is made of his homosexuality as a club to beat the Labour party.


from “Private Eye”, 18 December 1981

On 7 November 1981, Bermondsey Labour Party selected Peter Tatchell. Labour Party leader Michael Foot declared "the individual concerned is not an endorsed member of the Labour Party and as far as I'm concerned never will be". Foot’s outburst was prompted by suspicions that Tatchell was of the hard Left, a part of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency, But then the Labour party’s objections all got confused in the public consciousness with revelations about Tatchell’s homosexuality.
So this column from Adrian Spart – an ad hoc adaptation of “Private Eye”’s usual left-wing activist Dave Spart. Spart’s typical contradictory and illogical ranting are employed to present a touchy homosexual who will take anything as opportunity for offense, rejoicing in his victimisation.

The controversy over Tatchell’s candidacy was largely played out in the press as a conflict between Michael Foot and Tatchell, so as to undermine Foot’s leadership
Such was the obvious conflict between the two that gags about gay coupledom were pretty much impossible.
This cartoon by MAC is the only I can find that makes an attempt. MAC presents Foot and Tactchell as a couple. Not only are they holding hands but the caption refers to Deidre and Ken from the soap opera “Coronation Street”, two characters then going through a tempestuous romantic reconciliation, a storyline making national headlines.


by MAC in “Daily Mail” 21 February 1983

The following three cartoons are all about the difficulties between Foot and Tachell. Whatever the point of each cartoon, the cartoonist employs certain elements from gay stereotypes to depict Peter Tatchell. Overly detailed eyebrows and eyes with large, pursed lips, and often stood in a fey stance. It contributes nothing to the gag but it lets you know that Tatchell is a gay man


by Keith Waite in “Daily Mirror”, 16 February 1983


by Nicholas Garland in “The Spectator”, 19 February 1983


by Michael Cummings in “The Sunday Express”, 20 February 1983


from “Private Eye” 25 February 1983
Another of the editorials by “Private Eye”’s fictional proprietor Lord Gnome is fairly accurate summation of the hypocritical conflation of politics with homophobia enjoyed by Tatchell’s opponents that marked the Bermondsey by-election.


Cover to “Private Eye” 25 February 1983
This however is just a cheap gibe. The tendency Foot referring to being The Militant Tendency. Hmmm, “Ducky”, is not advanced.


by Marc Boxer in “Private Eye” 25 February 1983
The embarrassed father's slightly posh son looks as though he’s an extra from “Brideshead Revisited” but as per usual, note the prominent almost rouged lips.


by Michael Heath in “The Spectator” 3 April 1983


from "Private Eye", 16 December 1983
And this refers to Tatchell’s book “The Battle for Bermondsey” at the end of 1983

So as you can see, in most of the above, outright homophobic jokes are usually outside the discourse of political comedy, but even caricaturists find it tempting to include some allusion or other to Tatchell’s homosexuality no matter how irrelevant. Although this si somewhat understandable since homosexuality was then unknown in public politics.
It would be profitable to compare this approach to Peter Mandelson’s treatment by the press. Coded phrases, double entendres, fussy descriptions of his clothes and manner, and allusions to Larry Grayson and “Are You being served” are all employed by cartoonists, impressionists and humorous political journalists. Mandelson’s homosexuality makes for a vulnerable point. Is it expressly homophobic? Well, the fact that Mandelson’s outing was handled so badly made him seem embarrassed and so a characteristic for mockery like boggle-eyes, corpulence, speech impediments or any other mockable trait.

282: Anthony Blunt 3

At the beginning of November 1979 Anthony Boyle published “The Climate of Treason”. The book could not explicitly refer to Blunt, but it still raised suspicions that Anthony Blunt was the Fourth Man. That Blunt employed a lawyer to demand that the copy be vetted for any possible references was a disastrous action since it only drew further attention and at last gave reasonable grounds for journalists to make public comment. On 15 November 1979 the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, prompted by questions from a Labour MP, confirmed in the House of Commons that Blunt had been an agent and talent spotter for Russian intelligence. Immediately Buckingham Palace, where Blunt in his capacity as a respected art historian had been employed as personal advisor on art, announced that Blunt’s knighthood was cancelled and annulled. On 20 November 1979 Anthony Blunt gave a wholly unexpected interview to “The Times”, so providing his personal account. Thus the sudden if slightly belated interest in homosexual matters that results in everything below. Comment about commie queers prior to Blunt’s statements might have been a tad libellous. Blunt was rightly vilified across the press, although in the abuse heaped on him there may be some undigested elements of class hatred and homophobia. So what follows is a test of ingenuity as cartoonists and humorists vie for as many ways as possible to spin gags out of the idea that gay = spy


Mac in “Daily Mail”, 19 November 1979

So first off it’s a Russian boyfriend. For an aging civil servant, as Blunt was. Possibly some aspect of the idea we’ve seen before that the civil service is packed with ‘em, that the high-end of the bureaucracy is a veritable boy’s club for well-educated pooves. Although the humour lies in that it’s a phone call from a lover at the most inopportune moment.


Bill Caldwell in “Daily Star”, 20 November 1979

Then it’s a subversion of the previous macho spy stereotype of James Bond. Which we’ve seen Cyril Connolly do already fifteen years earlier. Besides a “Punch” parody from the mid-1970s when someone or other said the intelligence service was stuffed full of homosexuals: “The Spy Who Minced In”, it wa.


JAK in “Evening Standard”, 20 November 1979

As we’ve seen before, when homosexuality is the problem then Jak can be relied upon to turn the situation on its head, replacing the institutionalised homosexual – vicar, sailor, or whatever, with some definite instance of heterosexuality.


Cover to “Private Eye”, 23 November 1979

Can’t you see? Are you blind? It’s a pun – queen, her royal majesty, and queen, homosexual.


Michael Heath in “Private Eye”, 23 November 1979



Michael Heath in “Spectator”, 24 November 1979


Michael Heath in “Spectator”, 19 January 1980

This is Michael Heath’s regular trick of blanket assumptions of equivalency. Both of these assume that anything gay is therefore automatically associated with spying.



Mahood, in “Punch”, 28 November 1979

Assorted suggestive pictures to append speech bubbles to. You’ll notice that two men together in a semi-intimate setting could be either spies conspiring to pass confidential information or else a homosexual clinch. The phrase “fellow traveller” was used to describe the Communist sympathisers who sprang up in England in the 1930s


from “Punch”, 19 December 1979
a spoof article about the events of the 1980s
speech bubble reads “Shut that file!” – a play on Grayson’s catchphrase “Shut that door”.

It was sheer coincidence, but both Larry Grayson, the well-known camp British entertainer and Blunt had the same horse-faced mien. So here the writers employ Grayson’s camp, luvvie tones to retrospectively interpret the scandal of the previous weeks. So some of it is an attack on Grayson’s persona, his behaviour on TV, his treatment of his guests and his limp wrists. There’s also a slight denigration to Blunt in suggesting Grayson was the ideal man to play him. It’s the acceptable face of homosexuality, without hinting at any bedroom shenanigans.




The first 1979 series of “Not the Nine O’Clock News” had a sketch about the Communists and Western forces trading spies at a checkpoint. After the exchange, the camera follows the Russian spymaster leading his English double agent back to Russia. The English spy thanks his spymaster (Mel Smith), and enquires what work he will get in Mother Russia. The spymaster says “Don’t be foolish. No boyfriend of mine works”. So it’s back to the same assumption that any spy must be gay.

213: Christmas 6

from “Punch”, 10 December 1980
by Stan McMurtry

A rather belated follow-up to Michael Heath’s Gay Christmas from 1974. And no more relevant or contemporary a depiction of gay men. These could all have been drawn anytime in the previous 5-8 years: self-proclaimed queens, fairies, would-be transsexuals, and a broad selection of catty types in figure-hugging trousers and flouncy shirts.

179: Gay Boxing 1

An illustration by Stan MacMurtry in “Punch” 2 May 1973

This was supposed to accompany an article about a more artistic appreciation of boxing. However, McMurtry’s boxer is more “artistic” then artistic.

171: Gay Sports - Football 2

On February 14, 1976 the newspapers all got rather excited over a report from the Football Association match and ground committee. A proposal was made to the F.A. executive and disciplinary committee that footballers who “kiss and cuddle” could be charged with bringing the game into disrepute. Most of the actual news reporters adopted a rather stiff up-lip - “I say, come on now, chaps” sort of a tone, attributing this kind of unmanly behaviour to having been picked up from foreign players. It’s always those continentals who induce our good innocent lads into all sorts of beastly un-British practices and spoil things for everyone. Cartoonists have the license to point out that it wasn’t exuberant exhibitionism making the crowds antsy, it was the full-throttle man-on-man lip action and what that could really mean. The no kissing and cuddling rule was ultimately rejected by the F.A as “not practicable”.

Stan MacMurtry (“Mac”) in the “Daily Mail”, 15 January 1976

“Giles” in the “Daily Express”, 15 January 1976
This one definitely revels in the taint of mano-a-mano attraction, with every player absolutely avid for a kiss.

Keith Waite in “The Daily Mirror”,15 January 1976
And here, it’s the suggestion that this is all too “adult” to be seen by children.

144: Police - Mac

by Stan McMurty (Mac) in "The Daily Mail, 16 May 1984

So Mac offers us fusty burly gay police offers in drag. As usual.
There’s a certain unintentional irony here. Mr Hampson, a happily married man, claimed to have gone into the club out of “devilment”. When in there, he had been attracted to a female plain-clothes police officer, who he thought might have been a drag queen, but in the process accidentally touched the male plain-clothes policeman. An everyday story, I’m sure you’ll agree. However this wasn’t revealed until much later. Mac offers us male officers wearing female garb, because his gay men always wear female garb.

140: Police - Stan McMurtry

by Stan MacMurtry (aka “Mac” of the “Daily Mail”) in “Punch” 16 December 1981

A temporary diversion from cruising in toilets and police persecution. This is from a 2-page spread, “Four Minute Warning”, about the last minutes before nuclear annihilation. And so: a belated declaration of love. Why policemen? Why in front of the Prime Minister’s residence? Maybe inappropriateness of lovers combined with the sombre propriety of the backdrop to kick up the surprise of the gag. But here it is. Make of it what you will.

100: GLC 2 – Mac

Stan McMurtry in “The Daily Mail”, 24 November 1981

Again, it’s “Mac” with those comical transvestites.
There is more than a hint of petty truth in this cartoon though. Much of the animus against the GLC is about tax money being given to some socio-political group or other, to which traditional white men by default don’t belong and therefore won’t see any benefit. Any right-thinking person would see just how ridiculous it is, and how enraging such a waste of public money must be, surely, yes, hmmm?

96: Stan McMurtry

in “Punch”, 20 March 1968

A joke taking a spin on other hackneyed jokes about an ever-increasingly permissive society. The 60s saw many cartoonists do the same joke: a school child coming through home and telling its shocked parent, “We did sex today”. Well, this one takes it the next step on. Homosexuality with the obligatory “sweetie”.

52 - Church outing 1987 (part 2)

When the General Synod convened, the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie refused to be railroaded by extremists. Instead the Synod was led to take a moderate approach which effectively fell between two stools. The Synod condemned “homosexual genital acts”, but refused to approve any expulsion of homosexual clergy from the Church. So homosexuals got a public beating from the church, but homosexual clergy got to keep their jobs. As “The Sun” so charmingly summed it up the next day, “Pulpit Poofs must stay”.


Stanley Franklin in “The Sun”, 13 November 1987
Stanley Franklin goes for the transvestite motif, and also gets to reuse the “Sun”’s own blatantly offensive phrase. Why think up something new when you can whip up someone else’s thick-witted second-hand vitriol.


Michael Cummings in “The Daily Express”, 13 November 1987
Michael Cumming’s strikes a slightly more moralistic tone. References to Sodom and Gomorrah being slightly more up market. Lot’s Wife is a strangely superfluous and touch, although I suppose it’ll jog the memory of any who can’t quite get what the caption is alluding to. Archbishop Runcie is the driver of the confessional car. This is about the only cartoon to put the event in any sort of context for the Church of England, and what it signifies for Runcie’s leadership. The rest just go for easy comic stereotypes about poofs. Cummings has though chosen to go for the twinkly eyed theatrical stereotype of homosexual.


Mac (Stan McMurtry) in “The Daily Mail”, 13 November 1987
Not an actual homosexual in sight. Just a comic situation. Although it could suggest that homosexuals are so predatory even young bridegrooms have no powers of resistance, or just that she had the wrong sort of taste in men. Anyway, if that’s the way Mac draws his matronly women, no wonder his transvestites look so damn odd.


Bernard Cookson in “The Sun”, 16 November 1987
I honestly don’t know whether to be offended or just contemptuous.


Jak (Raymond Jackson) “Evening Standard”, 16 November 1987
Again, 26 years later JAK reverts to the same blatant show of big-titted heterosexuality to sweep away the gayness as he did in #21
An interesting piece of gossip about JAK. You’ll notice the cartoon conspicuously features “Benson & Hedges” and “C.S.T Wholesale Meat” – which are both real business enterprises. You might think this is just for a touch of realism. But it was revealed that companies who featured in JAK’s cartoons would then buy the originals at surprisingly high rates, so that the companies were effectively rewarding JAK for advertising their brands in his work.

51 - Church Outing 1987 (part 1)

The first mass outing of gay clergy in the Church of England came from conservative elements from within. Possibly, because they felt homosexuality was morally wrong, or that homosexuality was fundamentally unnatural and disgusting, or just possibly that homosexuals constituted a large enough clique wihin the organisation that they were therefore a powerbase, and so this frontal attack was a way to make the way clearer for certain young thrusters.
A young Evangelical, Tony Higton, put forward a motion condemning homosexuality in the church of England, and also made statements as to the pervasion of homosexuals through the Church. His motion gained popularity throughout the summer and autumn to become the issue when the General Synod would convene in November 1987


Zoke (Michael Attwell) in “News of the World”, 12 July 1987
An early effort from when newspapers weren’t sure which way the wind was going to blow on the debate. Besides, the Royal marriage was getting into a frightful mess already and made for much more obvious material. Then again, the “News of the World has always been bitterly homophobic, so it really wasn’t likely to miss an opportunity. It is, however, a surprising forthright representation of what homosexuality actually means.


Mac (Stan McMurtry) in “Daily Mail”, 23 October 1987
At then end of Anglican services the vicar usually waits outside the cathedral to shake the hands of his parishioners. (The Kiss of Peace is Catholic, otherwise, who knows what the cartoonists would have run to).



Jak (Raymond Jackson) in “Evening Standard”, 23 October 1987
Again, the recourse to transvestism, although note how the pipe sets off the stockings. A surprisingly detailed background, and don’t forget to look at the stained glass window on the far right


Mac (Stan McMurtry) in “Daily Mail”, 27 October 198
The right wing, both the newspapers and politicians, were rather sick of being admonished by holier than thou liberal clergy. Homosexuality was a jolly useful stick to beat them off with. See how Mac offers us the same strange transvestite person as #23

23 - Gay Spies: Mac

Stan McMurtry in “Daily Mail”, 21 April 1987

Sir Maurice Oldfield was "C", director-general of MI6 between 1973 and 1978, died in 1981.
In 1987, Chapman Pincher claimed in “Traitors: The Labyrinths of Treason”, that Oldfield regularly used male prostitutes, including rent boys and young down-and-outs. MPs demanded a statement from Margaret Thatcher, who revealed that Pincher had been identified as a potential risk to security in 1980.

And so, with slightly less class, we get the same idea as Cyril Connolly. Connolly parodies Flemings style and the cliches of expertise in a Bond novel, and also explores ideas of frustrated masculinity and sexual power. Mac offers us nothing but the image of the ridiculous-looking transvestite which is tabloid-code for gay. Stanley Franklin in "The Sun" will offer us many more of them