Sexuality | CLICK HERE for BISEXUALITY PAGES at bothways.com | |||||
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Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay was performed by the Tom Robinson Band and released on a a live EP called Rising Free in early 1978. It reached No.18 in the UK charts despite an unofficial ban on the song by the BBC - John Peel was the only Radio 1 DJ who ever played it at the time. Click here for an MP3 of the song, click here for the lyrics. I was the only band member who identified as gay, but we all played benefits & rallies in support of gay equality as well as Rock Against Racism, Amnesty International and women's rights. | |||||
Actually I'd always been open in interviews with NME and Melody Maker about having had experiences with women as well as men. In those days people often used the word "bisexual" as a cop-out, so I always preferred to identify as "gay" rather than mince words. But then in the mid 80s I inconveniently fell in love with a woman and incautiously said in a small interview. The Sunday People seized on the story and turned it into a centre page spread - a brief period in tabloid hell ensued. Finally in 1996 I released an album called Having It Both Ways. | ||||||
From Peter Tatchell's website: "In the 1970s and '80s, Tom Robinson was one of the most famous gay men in Britain. His hit song "Glad To Be Gay" was, for over a decade, the de facto gay national anthem. Then Tom fell in love with Sue Brearley! ...Tom Robinson has behaved rather commendably, in my view. Ever since the beginning of his relationship with Sue, he has continued to describe himself as "a gay man who happens to be in love with a woman". Who could quarrel with that? /more | ||||||