The Trouble with Coming Out.

Paul Baker writes about the challenges that students face when they come out at university.

If you’re a straight teenager, in these godless ‘end times’, you’ve probably got a head-start on emotional growing up. You’ve probably fancied members of the opposite sex (and nobody’s bullied you because of it), you’ve probably had a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Sue Sanders

David Watters selects Sue Sanders for Polari Magazine’s list of LGBT Heroes. For UK LGBT History Month 2012.

Sue Sanders is a leading LGBT rights activist, and one of the founders of UK LGBT History Month.

The Hidden Cameras, Ban Marriage

The Readers Wifes thirteenth choice of song with LGBT significance. For 2012 LGBT History Month.

Joel Gibbs’ finest moment remains this chaotic, crazy story about a heterosexual union that comes off the rails at the alter. And does he really sing “There is splendour in the harshness of bum”?

Quentin Crisp

Clayton Littlewood selects Quentin Crisp for Polari Magazine’s list of LGBT Heroes. For UK LGBT History Month 2012.

In this ‘bear age’ of gay male culture that we now seem to be sheltering in, it’s the individuals that choose not to follow the herd, individuals that take a different path that I find the most interesting. And no one took a more different path than St Quentin.

k.d. lang, Miss Chatelaine

The Readers Wifes twelfth choice of song with LGBT significance. For 2012 LGBT History Month.

A woman dressed as a man dressed as a woman, living out hyperreal femme fantasies, tongue firmly cleaved to one powdered cheek.

Adèle Anderson

David Watters selects Adèle Anderson for Polari Magazine’s list of LGBT Heroes. For UK LGBT History Month 2012.

Adèle Anderson is an Olivier Award-nominated singer and actress, a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association, and one third of the internationally acclaimed and terribly British satirical singing cabaret act, Fascinating Aida.

The Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control

The Readers Wifes eleventh choice of song with LGBT significance. For 2012 LGBT History Month.

On this strident queer classic – to date the band’s most famous song – Beth Ditto delivered a rallying cry for outsiders everywhere.

E.M. Forster

The editor selects E.M. Forster for Polari Magazine’s list of LGBT Heroes. For UK LGBT History Month 2012.

Written in 1913-1914, Maurice is the story of a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality. It was passed amongst friends, yet it remained a secret, first because it would have been almost impossible to publish, and then because Forster guarded that secret, despite repeated attempts by Christopher Isherwood to have him publish.

Lesley Gore, You Don’t Own Me

The Readers Wifes tenth choice of song with LGBT significance. For 2012 LGBT History Month.

Tears, tantrums, traumas … can’t you just hear the mascara sliding down?

Ellen DeGeneres

The editor selects Ellen DeGeneres for Polari Magazine’s list of LGBT Heroes. For UK LGBT History Month 2012.

She’s enormously likable. She presents a human face to LGBT issues, and does not talk down to her audience or tell them what to think.