Letters from
Narvel Annable in 2008
This letter was
printed in the Independent, the Daily Mail and the
Derby Evening Telegraph – 15.07.08. It was also
printed in the Pink Paper 24.07.08 - and in the August
edition of Nottingham’s QB.
Dear Editor,
Lillian Ladele may be interested to know that two evangelising
Christians came to my door [uninvited] to convert me to their
way of thinking. Like Ms Ladele, they also held ‘deep and
sincere orthodox Christian views’. It transpired that
these views were racist, espousing negative judgements against
people of African descent. When I asked them to explain
how they justified their claim that black people were ‘naturally
inferior’, they said –
“As a punishment, God turned Negroes black to remind us all of
their sins.”
This appalling statement was uttered in Detroit in 1964.
Although their perverted religious logic was at least challenged
– alas - back in those dark homophobic days, I was not brave
enough to argue comparisons between their bigotry and my own
homosexuality.
Ms Ladele may claim to hold her ‘deep and sincere
Christian views’, but, in reality, she is just as much a bigot
as the two religious racists who (if the law permitted) would
relegate Ms Ladele [who is clearly of African descent] to the
status as a charwoman. They would never allow her to rise
to anything as grand as a £31,000-a-year registrar. Helen
Mendez-Child of Islington Council was quite right to point out
that the registrar’s stance was blatant discrimination - akin to
refusing to marry a black person. As Ben Summerskill of
Stonewall said – ‘A public servant cannot pick and choose who
they deliver those services to.’
Yours sincerely,
Narvel Annable.
This letter was
printed in the Pink Paper 07.08.08 and in the Derby
Evening Telegraph 29.07.08
Dear Editor,
Just hours before John Barrowman [The Making of Me, BBC 1
24.07.08] had consulted psychologists and geneticists to prove
that nature, not nurture had determined his homosexuality
- I was approached by two neat, squeaky clean, smiling young men
who clearly desired a conference. It was, in fact, a rude
interruption to a peaceful sunny morning in the Valley Gardens,
Harrogate. My partner and I [of 32 years] were admiring a
splendid display of radiant begonias.
Pleasantries were exchanged before we were lectured on the
subject of sin. Typically, these Mormons trotted out their
tired old mantra of ‘love the sinner but hate the sin’. No
problem with that - until we revealed our sexuality.
Like Barrowman, we argued that we were born homosexuals.
We argued that our particular ‘sin’ and our homosexuality were
one and the same - they could not be separated – being gay is
not a lifestyle choice.
They parried by asserting that our conduct was ‘unnatural’.
In short, we could be acceptable to orthodox Christianity
if we remained celibate – and should do just that!
At some point in this fruitless discussion with these nice
people – that was the problem, they were so nice - they
expressed sadness that our minds would not be changed. One
offered me his hand as a gesture of friendship and courteous
conclusion to this brief meeting which I found very disturbing.
Refusing to accept his hand, without calling him a homophobic
bigot, I tried to explain how his ridged philosophy was
medieval, ignorant and cruel. It was insulting to expect a
victim to dignify centuries of oppressive discrimination with a
hand shake.
We got nowhere. It spoiled my day. It was so very
sad, because … well … they were so very nice.
Narvel Annable
Printed in the
October 16th edition of the Pink Paper
Dear Editor,
It was a heartbreaking irony! At the same moment when
hundreds of people were happily celebrating the culture of gay
life, last Saturday on the Bass Recreation Ground in Derby, one
vulnerable openly gay teenager, not far away, was suicidal.
Far above a jeering crowd, baying for blood, he was standing on
the roof of Westfield Centre car park, threatening to kill
himself. Seventeen year old Shaun Dykes, did just that; he
plunged to his death at 5.30pm. Two well trained police
officers had tried to help Shaun, but they were outnumbered by
despicable, taunting ghouls who had flocked to see death, after
the style of a public execution.
Shaun and I have much in common. We are both gay, have
both attended school in Heanor, have both been very unhappy to
the brink of jumping from a high place. Tragically, Shaun
jumped. I did not. I went on to write three
autobiographic books which explain the problems of being
homosexual in a society which is often very homophobic.
I did not know Shaun. I am not familiar with the
circumstances which drove him to commit suicide. I hope
the students at Heanor Gate treated him more kindly than some of
the more savage pupils of Mundy Street Boys School who subjected
me to a routine of physical and psychological torture. In
1957, my typical day started with prayers and hymns and ended
with a desire to be dead. In the autumn of that year, with
the assistance of a sadistic schoolmaster, head bowed and eyes
downcast, I had reached an advanced stage of humility and
obedience to the bullies who had broken me. It was the
end. On one particular day, 51 years ago – I had become
Shaun Dykes.
Like Shaun, I was looking down to a pavement below. Not
Derby, this was a Heanor pavement, at Red Lion Square, beneath
our top bedroom window. Unlike Shaun, nobody was there to
help, neither was there anybody to taunt or humiliate.
That was an everyday occurrence at my Church of England school.
However, on this day, my pain felt like the wording of a
medieval ordeal – ‘As much as you can bear, and greater’.
Sleep well, Shaun. You died on the day of the best ever
Derby Pride. You can be sure that people like me will keep
using their skills to attack homophobia. You can be sure
that the Derbyshire Friend charity, indeed, all other homosexual
organisations will continue to keep working, to support young
gay people like you.
Narvel Annable.
Printed in the
September 18th edition of the Pink Paper
Dear Editor,
This is to
address the Jehovah's Witnesses who came to my door this
morning. Two inoffensive, elderly ladies who, alas, were
received with hostility and about as much aggression as I could
muster. You probably think this is an apology.
Wrong. However, these gentle souls are entitled to an
explanation for my [uncharacteristic] incandescent rage in the
doorway complete with face half shaved / half covered in foam.
Jehovah's
Witnesses are poison to gay men. Since 1879, untold
numbers of homosexuals have had their lives warped, effectively
destroyed by the active evangelism and rabid homophobia of this
evil sect. I can cite three examples known to me
personally. In 1964 I met Walter in Detroit. We enjoyed
friendship, fun and were good for each other. However, he
was uncomfortable with his sexuality and his bigoted Jehovah's
Witness family had already described both of us as ‘degenerate’.
After ten years of unceasing brainwashing he became celibate and
cut himself off from most of his gay friends. Last year he
became dangerously ill. His family, primitive, prejudiced
and cruel to the last, refused all access to his few remaining
homosexual contacts. Walter died in August, a lonely, sad,
sick, broken man – an unnatural, wasted, mangled life.
Nearer to home
in a remote, medieval North East Derbyshire mining village, we
have Trevor and Stephen – both gay, both Bible bashed, both
poisoned and both victims of the insidious indoctrination of
Jehovah's Witnesses.
So, gentle
ladies at my door; before you judge me as a rude nasty type,
consider what you represent to a gay man when you announced
yourselves to be Jehovah's Witnesses. Consider my own
suffering and the suffering of numerous blighted lives of people
like me.
This is the 21st
century. This is the age of the Rainbow Flag and Gay
Pride. We will no longer tolerate Jehovah's Witnesses at
our door. Go away and don’t come back.
Yours truly,
Narvel Annable
This letter
was printed in the
Nottingham Evening Post
and in the Derby Evening Telegraph on May 27th
2008.
Dear Editor,
After a lifetime of suffering snide innuendoes and sarcastic
slurs on my masculinity due to indifference on the subject of
football, the recent Nottingham Forest Players anti-homophobia /
anti-bullying poster was an absolute joy to behold. It
made my day - perhaps my decade! Coming from one of the
last bastions of gay hate, the cultural significance of such a
powerful message is immense and its potential good among our
young people - immeasurable.
It is a fitting memorial to former Forest player Justin Fashanu.
To the best of my knowledge, he is the only leading footballer
who has publicly admitted his homosexuality - and paid the
terrible price for that splendid act of bravery.
I take all this very personally. The unwelcome appearance
of a homosexual into my macho, working class family was
suspected when Dad proudly presented me with my first pair of
football boots to be used for my very first match at Mundy
Street Boys School in the hill-top colliery town of Heanor.
For father and son this event was a painful disaster. It
left a long shadow which darkened both of our lives: a damaging,
humiliating experience affording no mercy. A sadistic
schoolmaster encouraged aggressive taunts, brutal insults,
screaming jeers reducing a miserable boy to a very low level of
self esteem. Those boots used that one time in 1956,
[never again] became symbols of a life long hatred of all macho
sports.
All is forgiven. A big ‘thank you’ to the good players of
Nottingham Forest who have put their names and faces to a public
condemnation of homophobia.
Narvel Annable.
Printed in the
Derby Evening Telegraph 03.10.08
Dear Editor,
Only a few years ago it would have been impossible to write this
letter; inconceivable that I should sign it with my name and
address! It would have been unthinkable for me to admit
that I actually attended a large gathering of homosexuals.
This was Derby Pride – the biggest and best to date – guys and
gals celebrating gay life on the Bass Recreational Ground last
Saturday [28.09.08] afternoon under a perfect, autumnal blue
sky.
We are the lives whose achievements have been too long hidden,
too often unrecognised in the teeth of decades of negative
discrimination – hence our Derby Pride - a local, annual orgy of
arts, skills, enterprise and sheer ingenuity on show, unashamed,
for the world to see.
There were many interesting stalls, but special mention should
be given to the conscientious team at Derbyshire Friend.
This excellent voluntary agency, a charity located on Friary
Street is giving sterling service, improving the lives of gay
people all year round, as indeed they have been doing for a
quarter of a century. I go back further - half a
century! I date back to the dark homophobic days when we
were barely tolerated in the passageway of the Corporation Hotel
in the old Cattle Market. I can remember being frozen out
by my own kind, the sneering, snobbish homosexuals who, in a
climate of fear, once ruled supreme in the Friary Hotel.
Derbyshire Friend has rescued me from all that. It has
delivered untold numbers of LGBT people from all such abuses.
The heterosexual majority should remember that human unhappiness
has effects far beyond the individual; it reaches out to touch
the lives of everybody. Accordingly, I urge everybody
to wish Derbyshire Friend a very happy 25th birthday
and many happy returns of the day.
Narvel Annable
Sent to the
Derby Evening Telegraph 13.10.08
Dear Editor,
Church of England priest Peter Mullen describes the gay
community as ‘militant’. You bet we are militant!
When a man of the cloth incites rabid hatred against homosexuals
we need to protest and protest loudly as we should have
been doing for the last 100 years. When called to account,
Mullen claimed he has some ‘dear gay friends’. Would any
of his ‘dear gay friends’ care to come forward and defend the
disgusting homophobic suggestions the rector now describes as
‘light hearted jokes’? If Mullen is in the mood for jokes,
I could think of a few choice comments to tattoo across his
bottom.
There is little good news in this appalling story.
However, at least we can take comfort in the fact that, thanks
to the alert, vigorous and vociferous LGBT movement, such
despicable bigots as The Reverend Mullen are now quickly exposed
to face the judgement of a more enlightened global population.
Narvel Annable.
Printed in the
Derby Evening Telegraph 22.08.08
On BBC Breakfast [18.08.08] as usual, the presenters
reviewed the daily papers. To my horror they selected a
tabloid feature about a matador tormenting an innocent bull.
Did they say that bull fighting was unacceptable in the 21st
century? No. Did at least one of them utter a
comment to the effect that a long drawn out public exhibition of
inflicted humiliation and torture on a dumb animal was cruel and
wrong? No. There was no reference to suffering and
death for the entertainment of unspeakable, blood-thirsty,
cheering crowds.
Instead, they mentioned the two main points highlighted in the
tabloid text. The matador was doing well to be still
employed in his work at the age of 66 and, also, that he was the
only British matador. Should we be proud?
This is the BBC! As a licence payer, I expect a higher
standard of morality.
Narvel Annable.
Sent to The
Observer 18.10.08
Dear Editor,
We are approaching the season when
the Salvation Army will be coming to our neighbourhood
collecting money. For the past 30 years, my partner, and I
[believing that they do good work] have been pleased to make
cash donations with a smile. However, they are entitled to
know why their collector will receive a frosty reception at our
door this Christmas.
In a Derbyshire colliery village, we know a vulnerable man.
He is a former friend of many years who has been attending a
Salvation Army bible
reading group. By inclination he is suggestible, easily
manoeuvred, easily influenced, often bullied and appears to have
been influenced by a nest of evil homophobes who are bigoted,
prejudiced, ignorant and plain poisonous.
This gay man
has lost much of his sense of humour and seems to have suffered
a change of personality. It is horrific - reminiscent of
the old 1950's science fiction films where aliens subsume human
bodies! He tells me that 'the Bible is anti-gay' and trots
out several well known homophobic passages which are frequently
aimed at the homosexual community.
I am shocked
that a bible group under the auspices of the Salvation Army, the
Salvation Army I have always respected, the Salvation Army of
the 21st century, should (as it appears) harbour such homophobic
intolerance! On the face of it, this is brain-washing of
the type we more commonly associate with Jehovah's Witnesses.
If this group have exploited self doubt, have induced self hate,
they have committed an act of wickedness.
I wrote to Major Jonathan Roberts at Chilwell about my concerns.
His reply was shocking!
“With regard to homosexuality, the Salvation Army takes the view
that people can’t help what they are – but they are responsible
for what they do.”
Effectively, he is saying that gay life is wrong and that the
bible group is right! Terry and I have been together for
32 years. Roberts had a chance to amend / clarify his
views, but held firm to his main point. He is telling us
that we must be celibate if we are to receive full respect and
dignity in the eyes of the Salvation Army.
This out of date homophobic attitude is unacceptable and
insulting to all who identify with the LGBT community.
So, Salvation Army; do not come to this address this
Christmas.
Narvel Annable.
