g7uk.com in reply to Jonathan:

First of all I should say that I saw your performance at Get Bent! in 2007 and I have the highest regard for you as a performer. I’m sorry this annoyed you and that wasn’t the intention.

I was at the Vigil with two other people — one of whom is Black — and all of us noticed the lack of diversity. That is the only reason your race was mentioned: to highlight the overall lack of diversity. So, again, sorry if it was perceived as offensive by you or anyone else.

There are some events that really shouldn’t be used for political gain, especially by politicians. If someone has lost a relative or partner then, whatever their political views (and there are LGBT people who vote BNP), I feel they should be able to go along to the Vigil to remember that person without facing a ranting politician of whichever party. Anyway, I suspect it has completely the opposite effect to that which is intended.

I believe in freedom of speech, even for people who I don’t like and strongly disagree with. So, generally speaking, it disgusts me when we have opportunist politicians who will hijack an event, while at the same time they will happily seek to deny some other legal political party any opportunity to speak. That is not how you win the argument.

Looking at this incident as part of the lead up to the General Election, it was clear what was going on. Labour was terrified of losing and nothing was off-limits.

I used to have a lot of respect for Councillor Fairweather, going back to the days of the Mancunian Gay collective. However, after his recent comments in the Pink Paper about cruising being unlawful (which it is not) and his behaviour at the Vigil, I have less.

As the “comedian of colour” (really?) in question (By the way, what is it that makes my race so prominent an issue? Is it that you feel I was only there because of my race to lend some spurious diversity to an otherwise white event? Or perhaps you feel that my “colour” was insufficient in mitigating this same problem? It seems to me that you imply that being a “comedian of colour” is somehow problematic.) I feel I have to respond to a couple of points, more for my benefit than yours, as I suspect nothing I say can have any bearing on such clear, fixed and inflexible opinions as yours.

I cannot speak for Mr Stokes, nor have I any wish to defend the Pride organisation. I can, however, tell you that at no point has Pride or any other organisation or individual had any control or supervision of anything I have said onstage at the Vigil. I resent the suggestion most strongly. I am not part of the Pride organisation and they do not book me during the weekend or for any other events during the year. I did agree to be a Friend of Pride this year, in the hope that it represented some sort of bridge building on their part, but the Vigil remains the only time I appear at Pride and I deal only with the people that organise the Vigil itself. My relationship with Pride is frankly minimal, and I do not agree with the fencing, the charges, the lack of transparent accounting or the lack of access to the Vigil from outside the event.

I think your attack on Cllr Fairweather’s speech about the BNP is unfair and misguided. It is not party politics to express our antipathy to that organisation – calling it ‘party politics’ dignifies and sanitises what they stand for. They are a fascist organisation which would strip LGBT and HIV+ people of any and all rights, and consequently they must be opposed with all our strength if, apart from anything else, our friends and loved ones living with HIV and AIDS are to continue to receive care support and treatment, as well as the dignity and rights which any human being should enjoy. Had Lbour Cllr Fairweather spoken out against, say, voting Tory, your remarks might have been fair. Your own disavowal of party interest therefore strikes me as, at best, disingenuous, and at worst makes me want to review your remarks about my own colour again. I realise/hope/assume, however, this is probably not what you actually mean. I cannot help but wonder whether you would have been so vehement had the Councillor in question not been an individual you clearly dislike and disgree with, and a Labour councillor to boot.

I confess I am surprised that Annie feels so able to comment on an event she has not attended since 2003, but as I started hosting the event in 2002 (I didn’t in 2010/11 as they got celebs in) and as the fact that I am a comedian has been mentioned, I cannot but take the deeply offensive remarks “noisy comedy party” and “parody…[as opposed to] taste decency and reflection” personally. I would say that I am sorry that the Vigil is not at present to your taste, but as you have not actually been – you have only formed your opinions second hand from sources such as this – I see no reason to do so.

I have tried to conduct the Vigils in such a way as to allow people a suitable safe space in which to grieve, but also to bring passion, anger, conviction and pride to the proceedings in the hopes that people not only mourn but perhaps pledge themselves to future action. I am inspired in this by this by Chloe Poems, who performed at a Vigil years ago. This is what I have tried to achieve, perhaps I have not succeeded as well. Again I strongly resent the implication that there has been no “taste, decency or reflection” especially from one who does not even attend. I have tried to commemorate not only those from our own community who have suffered and died, but also people from other countries, and to include those who’ve suffered homophobic abuse/attacks and persecution, because I believe that the fight against AIDS is and always has been bound up with the fight against homophobia. I have also used gentle touches of humour at appropriate moments because they felt right, because a little laughter helps us all when we deal with grief and bereavement and because I thinks it’s important to remember our friends laughing and alive, not merely ill and dying. If that seems tasteless to you, tough. You’ll be delighted to know that the likes of Anthony Cotton (2011) and Anthony Crank (2010) will presumably be hosting in the future. They are not black either. I am most offended that anyone could interpret what I have done as a “noisy, comedy party”.

Having said all this, I do think the Vigil, whatever merits it may have is flawed and needs constant change to make it fresh. I hope that, at some point, this is what it will get. Personally I would love to see Gerry Potter/Chloe Poems perform at one again.

In 2003, Natalie Wilson was engaged by George House Trust, and it began to turn into a noisy comedy party instead. By 2004, fed up and disillusioned, I left the site before the Vigil took place.

I’m glad I haven’t been back… 10 years on, it looks like that moving, powerful Vigil I saw in 99 has become a parody of the event it was meant to be… a time for taste, decency and reflection.