“Gay men love me. And why not? I get what that experience is. I think children of alcoholics are wounded birds, and I think the gay experience is very wounding. I have always had great relationships with my gay friends, and I think that’s because we’re simpatico. We get one another. I know the wounding; I know how to find my way through. So do they.”

“Gay pubs and clubs have become so over-run with straight revellers, attracted by the ambience of the gay scene, that they have been forced to introduce strict quotas of heterosexual partygoers. Many clubs are now operating a ‘gay majority’ door policy to ensure that such places as Canal Street in Manchester and Old Compton Street in Soho remain as gay areas. But these strategies have become so severe that genuine gay people are also being turned away if they do not manage to convince the bouncer of their sexuality.”

“The right wing realized that gay marriage was as emotional an issue for some people as abortion, and they pushed it forward, and we let them do it. And then we got suckered into it – and said, ‘Oh, yes, sure, we should be married,’ and then we fell right into their hands.”