ON BEING A GAY DAD

Having children was never a big priority for me, but I know it is hugely important for a growing number of gay people. Now in the UK, via the process of adoption, becoming a gay parent is a welcome reality. Here three parents tell their story:

APOLOGIES FOR THE PRECEDING ADVERTORIAL

THE GUARDIAN GAY DADS REPORT

WELCOME TO 'LATELY GAY'

This is a community website dedicated to older gay men, and in particular, those who have come out in their middle or later years. "LG" is a forum for members to meet, share their experiences, offer advice to each other and gain support in the complicated world of the UK's gay scene - and beyond.

The gay community is a completely diverse mixture of ages, social backgrounds and family make-ups, but too often the focus of media coverage is concentrated on the 18-30 set. What about the guys who are only coming to terms with their true sexuality in their 40s, 50s or 60s upwards? Too often they can arrive feeling like they're late for the party and with hardly any formal or even informal support aimed at them. And all this, no doubt, in the turbulent wake of a marital break-up.

If this description strikes a chord with you and sums up where you find yourself at moment then, please, do come in and make yourself at home. This is a fledgling venture and may well be a little shaky as it takes shape but stick around and most importantly tell your friends about us. Within these pages you'll find the opportunity to tell your story, get a few things off your chest and discover that your are not alone.

Start your journey now with some of the attractions highlighted below ...

FEATURE INTERVIEW:
STEPHEN McKENNA
The LG Founder expands on his own experiences and how they've inspired him to create the LG space.





TALK TALK - THE GAY MEDIA: 40+ BLIND?
Is the gay media in danger of airbrushing older gay men off its' pages? Also ... 'How Gay Is Our World' & 'Gays The Word'

SHOUT SHOUT - KICKING OFF!Thinking the unthinkable - saying the unsayable. This is LG's free expression zone where kicking off and letting it all out are the order of the day: Enola Gays - an offensive label? Can you be an ungay gay? Is it porn or art?

HERE'S HOW TO ...
Handy tips for gay living you won't find in the Yellow Pages:

HERE'S HOW TO BE A HAPPY HOMO

HERE'S HOW TO GET A GRIP ON GAYDAR

MY GAY GODFATHER
Remembering the first gay people we knew and the ways in which they touched and shaped our lives.

ASK ARTHUR!!
LG's own Agony Uncle ARTHUR MARTHA licks his nib to pen wise words of wisdom in response to your questions and queries.

LG MOVIE HOUSE: "VICTIM"
Thanks to the unbounded wonder that is YOUTUBE we bring you an exclusive screening of VICTIM starring Dirk Bogarde & Sylvia Sym. Running at just 90 minutes it's a vivid depiction of illegal gay life in 1960s London and the very real threat of blackmail and intimidation faced by homosexuals at that time.

HOW GAY IS THE WORLD REALLY?

Living as we do in the liberal West, it is all to easy to imagine that the cause of gay emancipation is all but won. How wrong that assumption is was was brought home by last weekend's shocking attack on a youth centre in Tel Aviv resulting in the death of a 17 year old woman and a 24 year old man. Both had been attending a support group for Tel Aviv gays and lesbians. For sure, the symbol of the Pride movement is the Rainbow flag but colour the world's map according to nations' attitudes to homosexuality - as above - and it produces a picture of a very different complexion. Stephen McKenna goes global to find out how gay our world really is:

Last month, as I joined the London Pride March through London’s West End, I thought: ‘how fantastic – we’re turning the capitol gay for a day!’; and indeed we are at a very good place in 2009.

100,000 were estimated by police to have attended the different events – evidence of our growing social acceptance. We now also have legal protection against discrimination and binding civil partnerships.

Life is good. Well, certainly life is better, but at the Pride Rally that afternoon several of the speakers sobered up the revellers with reminders of the parts of the world where being gay can still be the death of a person.

It’s the story shown on the map above (click to enlarge) going as it does from a Wildean carnation green to a dark, bloody burgundy.

As you’ll see, it’s a gay friendliest world in California, Canada and parts of Northern Europe and getting friendlier all the time in neighbouring waters and in much of the Southern Hemisphere too, but across much of Africa, the Middle East and the sub Continent there is a very different reality.

Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Uganda and Pakistán, for example, are countries where homosexual offences may be punished by life imprisonment, while in Nigeria, Somalia and Afghanistan, in areas where Shari'a law has jurisdition, a death penalty may be imposed.

That's not necessarily some hypothetical 'may be', as last year Shari’a court in Northern Nigeria passed a sentence of death by stoning on a 55 year old man "for committing sodomy".

Elsewhere in the world of Islam the screws are being turned ever more tightly on homosexuality as it becomes increasingly snarled in the rise of fundamentalism.

A recent BBC/Radio Netherlands documentary tells the story of Palestinians desperate to flee to Israel because they will fare better there with a possibility of asylum as against the treatment they may receive at the hands of their own community. The gamble they face is that they can apply for asylum only once, and if rejected, Israel may return them into the hands of their likely persecutors anyway. This is the fate of 25 year Rami who fled to Tel Aviv as a teenager.

"I am afraid, really afraid. One of the last times I was deported, the Israelis left me on a deserted road. I saw a lot of people from my village and they started asking me what I was doing there. I don't speak very good Arabic anymore, so they started saying that I was a collaborator. I was afraid they would kill me . I fear my brother and Hamas more than the Israeli police, because if the Israelis catch me, they won't kill me. They will just arrest me. But Hamas will surely kill me."

Depressingly, the documentary concludes that in a situation as complex as the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the fate of homosexuals and lesbians is an easily ignored detail on a much bigger canvas.

So, here am I now a lately gayer delighted to have finally made the party, but also reminded by this map that there are many for whom the party will never begin. SM/LG


The documentary quoted in this article, The Gay Divide: Islam and Homosexuality (BBC Radio4/Radio Netherlands, is available for online listening by clicking on the programme title.

ADDITIONAL REPORTAGE: RECENT STORIES FROM THE GAY AND WORLD MEDIA RELATING TO THE OPPRESSIONS FACED BY GAYS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD APPEAR HERE:

TWO FILIPINO NATIONALS NABBED IN SAUDI 'GAY RAID' (31/07/08)

SAUDIS ARREST 55 AT "GAY PARTY" (30/07/08)

GAY NIGERIAN GRANTED UK ASYLUM (28/07/08)

Gay map has been adapted from a version published on Wikipedia (user: Silje/Murrayrbuckley) by 'Stevie Pics Photography' for 'LG' and is reproduced subject to the terms and conditions of GNU Free Documentation License

LATELY GAY FOUNDER SHOOTS!

Stephen McKenna writes: When I began this website I was featuring some of my male studio photography in a shameless act of self-promotion. However, I came in for criticism for concentrating on hot young bods while moaning about ageism in the gay media.

There's a point to be made, I suppose. So, for now, let me share some of my other photography in a series of shots taken in the last month and at locations no more than a couple of miles from my London flat.

I guess I'm lucky to live in such a photogenic area. Enjoy!