Tatchell , Peter , b 1952 , gay and HIV/AIDS activist, social worker, journalist and author

Tatchell , Peter , b 1952 , gay and HIV/AIDS activist, social worker, journalist and author

Peter Gary Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1952. He emigrated to Britain in 1971 to avoid being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, which he actively opposed. He worked on a freelance basis in design and display whilst studying for a BSc in Sociology at the Polytechnic of North London, 1974-1977, after which he entered journalism.

Tatchell became interested in gay rights issues after hearing about the Stonewall Inn incident in New York village in 1969. After his arrival in Britain he became involved in gay politics after attending meetings of the Gay Liberation Front. He became a leading member of the group until it stopped meeting in 1974. He helped to organise the first Gay Pride march in 1972, as well as protests against police harrassment and the medical classification of homosexuality as an illness. In 1990 he co-founded direct action group OutRage!, which campaigns for equal rights for gay people, protesting against police entrapment, religious homophobia, censorship, the age of consent and homophobic lyrics in popular music. The group utilised a controversial tactic, 'outing', condemning those who lived secretly gay lives while denying it publicly. Tatchell also campaigns on behalf of the rights of gay people internationally, notably in Russia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. He has been physically attacked during protest action in Moscow and during an attempt to perform a citizen's arrest on Robert Mugabe.

In 1980 Tatchell became the Secretary of the Southwark and Bermondsey Labour Party. In 1983 he stood for election as the Labour Party candidate in the Bermondsey by-election, losing to Liberal candidate Simon Hughes. In 2004 he joined the Green Party, standing as a candidate for Oxford East in 2007, but withdrawing as a candidate in 2009 for health reasons.

Tatchell has also campaigned for anti-apartheid, anti-fascism, pro-Palestinian, environmental and animal rights movements. He was voted 6th on a 2006 New Statesman list of 'Heroes of our Time'; was named Campaigner of the Year in the 2009 Observer Ethical Awards; was named in the Evening Standard Most Influential Londoners lists of 2009 and 2011; and in 2009 was awarded a blue plaque on his Bermondsey flat.

Tatchell is the author of much journalism and several books, including The Battle for Bermondsey, 1983; Democratic Defense, 1985; AIDS: a Guide to Survival, 1987; Europe in the Pink, 1992; Safer Sexy: the Guide to Gay Sex Safely, 1994; and We Don't Want to March Stright: Masculinity, Queers and the Military, 1995.

For more information see: 'TATCHELL, Peter Gary', Who's Who 2011, A and C Black, 2011; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2010 ; online edn, Oct 2010.