Tomorrow (11th October) is (Inter-)National Coming Out Day*.

I started coming out on 12th October 2000 at the start of my second year of Sixth Form when I was 17. I had been wanting to tell people for a long time and finding excuses not to (I've mentioned it before, but "it's raining" was definitely my favourite). Unfortunately in 2000 I only realised, too late, after school on the 11th that it was National Coming Out Day I vowed to come out the next day.

Last night rumours were circulating that the government was about to make a big announcement on same sex marriage. This morning I noticed a tweet from @EvanHD:

Observing from abroad, slightly surprised at how unexcited Twitter is at the impending announcement of gay marriage coming to the UK

The first thing that comes to mind is because, actually, this is not an announcement about a step forward in same sex marriage... this is an announcement about a consultation in six months time.

Well, I'm writing back to my MP with just a brief paragraph as below.

A few weeks ago, those crazy folks over at the Equality and Human Rights Commission - the uber body created by the Equality Act to oversee all different branches of equality and Human Rights - issued a press release advising they wished to intervene in four cases (well, four cases, joined into two for deliberation) before the European Court of Human Rights.

Next weekend is Liverpool Pride and I was going to write an entry about how important I think it is for Liverpool and why I would be going again. Then I realised I already did that - after last year's event:

Without doing anything that is or should be illegal, the EDL managed to completely fuck up my night.

I had just moved further to the back of the crowd at Warrington Music Festival to try and escape the smoking (when are we going to ban that, really!) and Bill Davro was starting his set when I suddenly noticed, in front of me, four people with black tops on and a red cross with "English Defence League - Widnes Division".

For those that don't know, the EDL is a political front for violent fascist thugs.

It was inevitable that the conflict between 'religious freedom' and protection for LGBT/Queer equality inherent in the Equality and Human Rights Commission's remit would rear its head. And how it has.

News is going round today about the lifting of the ban on gay men giving blood. This seems to be adding more flesh to a story from March. However, you don't have to get very far into this story at all to realise it's full of the same crap we already have.

So, Pink Paper reports that Ben Summerskill has opened his mouth and firmly inserted his foot again. Well, this time it's all there in black and white in his March eBulletin. Titled "Tick Amy Lamé's Box!" on the web version of the email, it includes the following P.S. to his introductory comment:

On the day that the Government launched a Charter on tackling homophobia and transphobia in sport, the government also released the followup to their June 2010 Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality" document detailing specific action steps and advances in policy.