Today, 29th April, marks a haunting anniversary. In 1989, 16-year-old Albert Kennedy fell to his death from the Charlton Street car park in Manchester. If you read the Manchester Evening News coverage from that time, it tells you everything you need to know about how gay people were treated.
There was no sympathy for a dead child. Instead, the reporting focused entirely on his assumed status as a "rent boy" and the "killer disease" assumed to be in his blood. The cruelty peaked when the authorities simply hosed down the area where he fell. No criminal investigation was carried out; no evidence was collected. To the system, he was a non-person.
Society let Albert down, let his family down, and let the gay community down. He was a vulnerable teenager who deserved care, yet he was met with total indifference. It is devastatingly cruel, but we tell ourselves: "That was 1989. We’ve moved on."
But have we?
Years later, Stephen Port murdered four young gay men in Barking, East London, dumping their bodies like rubbish:
Anthony Walgate (23)
Gabriel Kovari (22)
Daniel Whitworth (21)
Jack Taylor (25)
The echoes of 1989 are deafening. Despite the bodies being found in the same vicinity, the police failed to investigate properly, blinded by the same old prejudices. Families were ignored, and a killer was left free to strike again.
We may have "gained" legal equality, but when it comes to the lives of gay men and boys, there is still no equality of treatment. The "hosing down" of Albert’s memory continues whenever the authorities fail to take our safety seriously.
Remembering Albert Kennedy. Gone, but never forgotten.
"Bernard, who do you vote for now Hitler's dead?"
The late absolutely brilliant Caroline Aherne, EFFORTLESSLY roasting the hideously bloated gammon that was Bernard Manning.
SACRIFICE THE WEATHERMAN!
I last posted this about a year ago so I thought I’d give it another airing. It’s one of my absolute favourite Armstrong and Miller sketches (from the Armstrong and Miller Show, of course) and should set your Tuesday evening up a treat.
Good day to you.