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Tom, Rose and Annie - Glad to be Gay [Good to be Gay]

from Coming Out - Ready or Not [an LGBTQ+ Charity release] by Homo Promos

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Glad to be Gay? Good to be gay? The lyric tag is 'Good to be gay', but this is the prototype of the more famous 'Glad to be Gay', and Tom describes it as trying out his 'songwriting chops'. This version, like the Bradford GLF songs, comes from the 1975 Sheffield conference of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
By 1975, the Gay Liberation Front had imploded like a supernova - from the weight of its internal contradictions and its thwarted energies. This left the more cautious, less glamorous Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) as the only game in town, as far as gay rights or liberation were concerned. In the summer of that year, CHE held its national conference in Sheffield; 2,000 people turned up for a weekend of passionate argument, direct action, campaign planning – and entertainment.
CHE was very strapped for cash at the time, and came up with a series of madcap ideas for raising money, including a gay travel agency, and having a record label. There was neither the time nor the expertise to run any of the projects, but CHEBEL got as far as just one EP, which you hear now.
Tom Robinson was a young GLF-inflected firebrand who moonlighted from the band Café Society by working on London Gay Switchboard, and also as a volunteer for CHE. Once a month he would go to Todmorden on the Lancashire/West Yorkshire border to help stuffing envelopes with newsletters for the 6,000+ members. This was not the only stuffing that went on, as the enthusiastic young volunteers slept collectively on mattresses on the floor.
Tom was just experimenting with song writing at the time of his coming out, and trying to combine the two. “I was trying to write a cheerful let’s-all-sing-along calypso.” It was recorded, with the jingle, in a limited edition of 200, to be sold at the Sheffield CHE conference, with the Bradford GLF tracks on the B-side. The moving spirit was the late Barry Jackson, treasurer of London Gay Switchboard and a dynamo within CHE.

lyrics

It's the same old story all over the world
When a boy meets a boy and a girl meets a girl
We all come together 'cos we're happy to say
It's a natural fact and it's good to be gay

We've been analysed, ridiculed and driven away
By our elders and betters, just for growing up gay
They trampled on our feelings till we hid them for shame
Now 'Glad to be Gay' is the name of the game

It's the same old story etc.

Now don't feel guilty if you're passing for straight
If you wanna be yourself, well it's never too late
People won't mind if you're honest and gay
You might even find they prefer you that way

It's the same old story etc.

Some sisters and brothers who are glad to be gay
Say they don't need to join 'cos they're doing OK
But we need supporting and we need it today
And besides, we've tried it and we like it!

It's the same old story etc.

credits

from Coming Out - Ready or Not [an LGBTQ+ Charity release], released January 1, 1983
Words and music - Tom Robinson
Rose ?
Annie ?

Additional remastering by Gerry Diver

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Homo Promos London, UK

The excitement generated by the audience at the largest gay benefit concert ever staged in this country is very apparent on this album. On December 8th 1982 the Albany Empire was filled to capacity with gay women and men eager to support this Lesbian Line / Gay Switchboard benefit, Though most of the performers will be new to you, at that time they represented over 50 years of LGBT music making. ... more

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