TV drama It’s a Sin looked back at a dark era for the gay community. Here, some of those who remember it tell of the real-life agony – and the hope
It can take a long time for society to see the past clearly. In the case of the HIV/Aids epidemic of the early 1980s, it has taken almost 40 years. But now, thanks to Russell T Davies’s moving five-part Channel 4 drama series, It’s a Sin, we are all able to look at a vivid, troubling and yet ultimately uplifting picture of those dark and deadly days.
To younger audiences, it may be shocking to learn just how excluded and hidden the gay community was from mainstream life. Homosexuality had only been legal since 1967, the age of consent was still 21 and same-sex civil marriage was a quarter of a century away. It was routine, as It’s a Sin reminds us, for gay men and lesbians to conceal their sexual identities from their families and employers.
