Viva Brighton Issue #30 August 2015

literature.........................................John Gordon‘Sexuality isn’t a choice; but to act boldly on it is’John Gordon is the outspoken author of six novelson black gay life. He is also one of the drivingforces behind Team Angelica, a multi-talentedsquad that will try anything, from staging danceshows to publishing books. Gordon script-editedtwo seasons of the world’s first black gay TVshow, Noah’s Arc, and wrote the script for the 2010spin-off movie Jumping the Broom. His short filmSouljah, won the prestigious Soho Rushes BestFilm award in 2007.Your interest in black culture started in yourteens. As a white person from a wealthywhite suburb, why did you find it so alluring?Growing up in the suburbs, I felt that real life waselsewhere – as Quentin Crisp said, ‘a landscape ina state of pause without the least hint of expectancy’.Black culture became my elsewhere. I’vealways related to reality through books and I wasinstinctively unorthodox and anti-establishment.I was drawn to voices and subjects I wasn’t beingtold about. At that time – the late 70s and early80s – many writings from black American radicalswere out of print, so I would search out crumblingmass-market 60s paperbacks in second-handbookshops. Each writer and activist I discoveredcontained connections to another – JamesBaldwin to Amiri Baraka, Malcolm X to StokelyCarmichael, and so on. I found all of it incrediblyexciting. Profoundly erotic, almost. Theiropinions constructed my understanding of howsociety works. Black Power and Black Nationalistdiscourses became the first way I framed thinkingabout being a gay man in the world.Tell me about your experience of growing upas a gay young adult. Pretty much a nullity ofdistant longing, and that common feeling of beingwholly alone. I went to a private school, whichcertainly wasn’t the hotbed of homo sex people oftenimagine – though when I think back on it nowI can see undercurrents I didn’t see then. I hatedschool: it gave me a life-long sympathy for prisoners,and I became fascinated by African-Americanprison activists like George Jackson, GeronimoPratt and Angela Davis.Do you think the legal recognition of gay partnershipshas altered Britain’s perception of gaycouples? For the better, though it’s hard to sayhow much. The fact that gay partnerships are nowvalidated by the state is a transformative event thatshould improve people’s attitudes over time. Whenmy parents got married, homosexuality was stillillegal in the UK. Once a whole generation recognizesmarriage equality, a certain level of bullshitwill disappear. People feel threatened by anyonewho makes different choices from themselves (notthat sexuality is a choice; but to act boldly on itis). They fear that it somehow invalidates theirown choices. To give an old-fashioned example: ifI don’t bother to get married, your own burningneed to get married might seem less valid, necessaryand humanly central. You may become angryand upset. Feminism has the same effect.Your work takes a constant look at the interplaybetween race and sexuality. Why is thisexploration so important to you? I only reallyunderstand the one in terms of the other, so to methey’re not really separable. My significant romanticrelationships have all been with black partners,and those partners have all been male. That’s whatromantic love is for me. I believe race is a foun-....56....