Gay on the Inside
This month, National Prison Radio explores exactly what it’s like to be ‘Gay on the Inside’ with an exclusive documentary presented by Stephen Fry (pictured).
The well-known actor, writer and presenter of QI, is a former prisoner himself having spent time inside for credit card fraud at the age of 17. In this programme he uncovers surprising stories and shares his own recollections of the atmosphere in jail. He talks frankly about how far he feels this country really has come in tackling
homophobia.
We hear from Mark, pacing up and down the landing outside his cell in HMP Brixton. Mark couldn’t abide his cell mate, told him to pack his stuff and get out. Why? Because his cell mate was gay.
It’s not always easy to be yourself on the wings of a prison like Brixton or HMP Parc near Cardiff. Daniel, who has been held at Parc, reveals that on the outside he’d always been openly gay, but life in prison is different.
On the other hand, another contributor, Paul, made the bravest of moves: to ‘come out’ on the wings. He has since been released and was
surprised at how accepting his fellow prisoners were of his decision.
And Hayley in HMP Styal says being gay in a women’s prison is like being in a ‘candy shop’, but it’s a complicated place where being
straight on the outside doesn’t stop you having a girlfriend on the inside. Suzie, Nicky and Ashleigh have strong views and reveal them in this hard-hitting programmme.
Including opinions from serving prisoners, prison staff and prison diversity experts, the programme asks: is prison still a stronghold of
homophobia?
Gay On The Inside was produced by the Prison Radio Association during the first half of 2012, and was first broadcast on BBC Radio
4 in September. Listen to Gay On The Inside on National Prison Radio: Friday 16th November at 11am, repeated at 5pm the same day, and again on Sunday 18th November at 1pm.
wow I can\’t believe michael smitten comments. is he really that ignorant that he thinks every gay man would fancy him? heterosexuality is not normal its just common. By his reckoning every female staff member would be viewed as a sexual object and therefore should not be allowed in prison. Attitudes like his are discriminatory. To be forcefully housed with a black person, a disabled person is not a human rights issue so why should it be one if the person is gay? you got to hand it to people who hold bigotted views they really do warp things!
There seems to be an idea broadcast in the tabloids that in male prisons all men turn homosexual and engage in such acts. In a decade going through the system I was aware of there being gay men, as one would expect with 4% of the population being so; but as a known married and straight guy I was never proposition and was never aware of any \’relationships\’ going on. The nonsense recently spouted by the Minister about stopping such relationships shows how little he really understands – male prisons are predominantly \’male\’. The problem of drugs is far more serious but doesn\’t excite tabloid readers.
Why do we have prisons exclusively for males and others exclusively for females? Because a mixed prison, like mixed wards in hospitals, do not allow for common decency when it comes to personal privacy and separating people from possible liaisons that could prove problematic, including between staff and inmates. I would be like Mark in Brixton. How can I share a cell with someone that might view me as a sex object? I am not homophobic since I have no fear of sameness, the real meaning of the word which, like \”gay\” has been hijacked and is a euphemism for something more sinister. The male body does not have a natural receptacle for a penis so male homosexuality by definition is \”un-natural\”. Interestingly it was not me who provided the alternative word to \”gay\”, being \”straight\” – surely the opposite to straight is bent or twisted? I understand that a man may love another – I loved my late father and now my two sons, and have had close male friends – that is commendable, but physical love between two men is repulsive to most of us, but many are scared to hold this view publicly because the response is always to sneer and ridicule, the only effective way to maintain this fiction and make something horrible appear respectable. Homosexuality is not normal and nobody should be forcefully subject to it in prison or anywhere else. If there is a problem, house homosexuals in the same cell and in a separate wing, if possible. To lump homosexuality in with racial and sexual discrimination is to hide the bad within the good. But that is the law and I feel for anyone that is placed in the horrific situation of being imprisoned with someone who admits to enjoying sex with someone of the same gender. Homophobia is a misnomer, but I sincerely hope that gays and straights are not mixed in cells, ever. I am not moralising with gays; that