“My fiercest supporter, my strongest critic”. Trafalgar Square, 25 August 2009

PHILIP I have been in a relationship with Philip for almost as long as I have known him. He is a former senior civil servant and known to Ministers of The Crown by name. Now retired, he is spending his time arranging my social programme, something for which I am very grateful. His hobbies are: going to the theatre and cinema; singing in a choir; and collecting comedy shows. He also has a passion for Mae West and a strange relationship with Julie Andrews, but nobody's perfect. Philip sings with The Pink Singers, and he has visited many parts of the world with the choir: Zurich, Geneva, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Dublin, Seattle, Denver, San Jose and Miami to name a few (also Manchester, which shows that life isn't all picnics and parties). Philip is now one of the longest-serving Pink Singers, having completed over 30 years with the choir. Philip has performed on most of the major stages in London. In 2009 he was compere for the Sugar Dandies show on the Fringe in Edinburgh, and he has guested on several radio shows. With the Pink Singers, he has also performed on the TV show Gimme Gimme Gimme. He has received many favourable critical reviews for his stage work and comedy.

Because of his early political activism, Philip has also appeared on the front page of newspapers. He was one of the 100 on in the first LGBT protest in August 1971, and one of the initiators of the first Gay Pride march in June 1972. Not many of the first 100 are left now, so he has status as a "community treasure". 2020 saw a march by the Veterans of GLF when the rest of Pride was cancelled by Covid.

Philip also appeared on the front cover of Lisa Power's No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles, in a photo from the first GLF Trafalgar Square event. He continues his activism in retirement, continuing to appear in radio programmes and podcasts about historical and current LGBT+ issues.

On 14 March 2014, Philip was invested by Prince Charles as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to Social Security and his voluntary work for London.

Any time left over from the above activities Philip devotes to nagging me to tidy the house. It’s a Sisyphean (as opposed to a cissyfian) task.

Links Pink Singers The Merchant of Venice, 1962 The Sugar Dandies: Ladies not Required, 2009 Radio Appearance, 2010 Radio Appearance, 2012 Honours List, 2014 Proud Voices Brian Kennedy Silver Award, 2015 Pride Hero, 2015 Queen Mary Reunion, 2015 What Pride Means to Me, 2019 Pride celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Gay Liberation Front, 2020 The GLF Veterans 50th Anniversary Pride March, 2020