Did you realise homosexual male (gay) relationships were only legalised 50 years ago?

Lesbian and gay men’s relationships are increasingly becoming part of the ‘wallpaper’ of our everyday lives and visible within popular culture. Turn on the telly or tune into the radio, chances are that the programmes are being presented by people who happen to be gay or lesbian. Popular soaps have story-lines that feature people in same-sex relationships facing ordinary issues, rather than narrow, sensationalist issues centring on their sexuality. Pop songs and music videos are equally inclusive. Take, for example, the track Symphony by Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson (2017) depicting one man’s grief following the loss of his male lover who was killed in a bike accident. Gay male relationships are also visible in TV adverts such as McCain’s (2017) We Are Family, which portrays two gay dads. In addition, the Lloyds TSB (2017) Taking that Next Step advert features a gay man proposing to his male partner, representing how Lloyds TSB are there to support the key phases of their customers’ everyday lives, such as the birth of a child, first day at school, first teen kiss, and relatives grieving at a funeral. These are remarkable transformations that have taken place in a relatively short space of time. With the ubiquity of gay male relationships in popular culture it may seem hard to believe that homosexual male relationships were once a criminal offence and were only legalised 50 years ago in 1967.