'It's A Sin - 'they really did leave our meals at the door' says AIDS survivor.'In a way, that's what made me want to take on Nightingales and start Birmingham Pride because I didn't want to live in secret.' Read More Related Articles
'But being gay was still kept very secret at that time when I told my mum about me being gay she told me I couldn't tell the family or the neighbours because there was this sense of shame there. He ended up becoming my first boyfriend and I've never looked back since. We became close friends and had a lot of common interests. 'I'd never really thought about men in a sexual way until this new man started work. I came out in 1989 after living my life as a fully-heterosexual man. He said: 'Coming out as gay in the 80s was an incredibly exciting but nerve-wracking time for me. Phillip pictured with security guards outside of Nightingale Club in the 90sīut the scene then was very different as the LGBT community became more cautious because of the rising death toll.
