The man who changed my views about practically everything.

…..was a work colleague named Gary Duckworth. I was eighteen and Gary was the first openly gay man I’d ever met. Where I came from, calling someone “a poof” was a grievous insult, and a playground punch up would inevitably ensue. Gary’s demeanour was sober, thoughtful and “normal”. Such was my ignorance and naivety, I just couldn’t process this. “Well,” he explained, “we don’t all look like Dick Emery or Quentin Crisp. I just live with my partner…..”. “Your “partner”??” I spluttered, having never heard this term before. But that conversation changed everything. It made me realise that people who are “different” aren’t that different at all. Gary and I had much in common, including a love of 60s soul gems like this. And as we celebrate 50 years since homosexuality was legalised, I think back to Gary Duckworth and wonder how it could ever have been a crime in the first place.