![]() |
Matthew Todd | |
---|---|
Occupation | Magazine editor, writer ![]() |
Employer |
|
Awards | |
Website | http://www.matthewtodd.net/ ![]() |
Matthew Todd is a British writer, editor, and occasional stand-up comedian. He is the author of Straight Jacket - Overcoming Society's Legacy of Gay Shame, [1] a non-fiction title published by Bantam Press in June 2016 and the play Blowing Whistles which has been performed in London, Australia and the United States. He was the editor of the UK gay magazine Attitude [1] between 2008 and 2016 [2] [3] for which he won three British Society of Magazine Editors awards. [2] In June 2016, for his last issue as editor, Prince William sat for the cover of Attitude, [2] the first time a member of the royal family had appeared in a gay magazine.
Todd worked for LGBTQ+ rights group Stonewall in the early 1990s before joining Attitude magazine in 1996. He was editor of Attitude between 2008 and 2016. [2]
For Attitude he conducted Madonna's only UK gay press interview, Daniel Radcliffe's first and only gay press interview in the world, gay rugby player Gareth Thomas's first gay press interview, Boy George's first national magazine interview after he came out of prison, Stephen Gately's first interview after he came out in The Sun and Michael Sam's first UK gay press interview. For his last issue Prince William met a group of LGBT people who had experience bullying that had affected their mental health and appeared on the cover of Attitude, making history as the first time a member of the royal family had done so. He issued a statement to Attitude which said "No one should be bullied for their sexuality or any other reason". This was the first time a member of the British royal family explicitly condemned homophobia.
Todd has made numerous television and radio appearances including on Sky News and BBC News 24, NBC, Lorraine , The Wright Stuff and appeared regularly on the Kate Silverton show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
As a stand-up comedian, Todd was a finalist of the Mardi Gras Comedy Competition and The Big Big Big New Act Competition and appeared on the ITV show Take the Mic. In 2004–2005 he ran and hosted a popular weekly comedy night at the Yard Bar on Rupert Street in London at which performers such as Rhod Gilbert, Alan Carr and Greg Davies.
In 2017 he appeared as himself in the BBC Radio 4 play How Success Ruined Me alongside Christopher Green and Roy Hudd.
Todd's play Blowing Whistles is a dark comedy which seems to celebrate gay sex culture but ends up strongly critiquing it. It had a first run in June 2005 at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, where it was directed by Phil Willmott. Following this it was performed at Sound Theatre, off Leicester Square, London, in 2006, and it has since seen productions in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fire Island, Boston, Palm Springs and Fort Lauderdale. In 2012 it has been produced in San Francisco and Toronto.
It returned to London transferring to the Leicester Square Theatre in 2008 in a production by Jonathan Altaras, directed by Pete Nettell who directed the Sydney production. It received positive notices from such diverse publications as the gay press through to The Spectator , Sunday Express , Evening Standard and The Stage which compared it to the work of Larry Kramer. [4] Leading website Whatsonstage.com called it "the brightest gay play in ages" and popular theatrical website West End Whingers called it "the best gay play since Beautiful Thing ".
In June 2016 Todd's first book, Straight Jacket, was released by Bantam Press, part of Penguin Random House. A non-fiction book about the effect of prejudice on LGBT people, it received a positive reception. Singer John Grant wrote the foreword, describing it as "a much needed work of tough love". Elton John described it as "an essential read for every gay person on the planet", [2] Owen Jones called it "utterly brilliant" in The Guardian , singer Will Young on his podcast, Homosapiens, said "It's amazing. I do think it's going to be a seminal work. I think it will be used as a study book, it's that level", popular YouTuber Calum McSwiggan described it "as the book everyone is talking about", writer Juno Dawson said "I believe this powerful book will save lives", Michael Cashman called it "one of the most powerful books I have ever read" and Paris Lees said "This is a hugely important book for everyone. It's changed the way I see myself, other people and the world". Straight Jacket was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and was voted Best LGBT Book of the Year 2017 by readers of Boyz magazine.
Polari is a form of slang or cant historically used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals and sex workers, and particularly among the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced to at least the 19th century and possibly as early as the 16th century. Polari has a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppeteers, who traditionally used it to converse.
The Stonewall Inn is a gay bar and recreational tavern at 53 Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, which led to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. When the riots occurred, Stonewall was one of the relatively few gay bars in New York City. The original gay bar occupied two structures at 51–53 Christopher Street, which were built as horse stables in the 1840s.
Attitude is a British gay lifestyle magazine owned by Stream Publishing Limited. It is sold worldwide as a physical magazine and as a digital download. The first issue of Attitude appeared in May 1994. A separate Thai edition was published from March 2011 to April 2018, a Vietnamese edition launched in November 2013, and editions in Belgium and the Netherlands launched in February 2017.
Charlie Condou is a British actor, columnist and LGBT rights activist. Condou secured a series of television movie roles during his teenage years in the 1980s. He later had guest roles in British television series during the 1990s. In 2007, Condou gained wider recognition when he took the role of sonographer Marcus Dent in the soap opera Coronation Street, which he remained until 2014. He also played the role of Ben Sherwood in the medical drama Holby City. Condou has used his fame as a platform to promote LGBT rights, becoming a patron for charities and being an advocate for same-sex parenting.
Boyz is a free, London-based magazine targeted at gay men and the LGBT community. It is distributed mainly through gay bars, pubs, clubs shops and saunas in the United Kingdom. In July 2019 Boyz moved from a weekly to a monthly frequency of publication with its August edition, its first monthly issue. Boyz focuses on news, features and photospreads about the gay scene.
Paul Burston is a Welsh journalist and author. He worked for the London gay policing group GALOP and was an activist with ACT UP before moving into journalism. He edited, for some years, the LGBT section of Time Out and founded the Polari Prize.
Fruit, fruity, and fruitcake, as well as its many variations, are slang or even sexual slang terms which have various origins. These terms have often been used derogatorily to refer to LGBT people. Usually used as pejoratives, the terms have also been re-appropriated as insider terms of endearment within LGBT communities. Many modern pop culture references within the gay nightlife like "Fruit Machine" and "Fruit Packers" have been appropriated for reclaiming usage, similar to queer.
Gay's the Word is an independent bookshop in central London, and the oldest LGBT bookshop in the United Kingdom. Inspired by the emergence and growth of lesbian and gay bookstores in the United States, a small group of people from Gay Icebreakers, a gay socialist group, founded the store in 1979. These included Peter Dorey, Ernest Hole and Jonathan Cutbill. Various locations were looked at, including Covent Garden, which was then being regenerated, before they decided to open the store in Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury, an area of the capital with rich academic and literary associations. Initial reluctance from Camden Council to grant a lease was overcome with help from Ken Livingstone, then a local councillor, later Mayor of London. For a period of time, it was the only LGBT bookshop in England.
Blowing Whistles is a 2005 British two-act theatrical play written by Matthew Todd, the former editor of the UK's best selling gay magazine Attitude. It centers on gay culture and the difficulties it presents gay men. It had a first run in June 2005 at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, where it was directed by Phil Willmott. Following this it was performed at Sound Theatre off Leicester Square, London in 2006, and has since seen productions in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fire Island, Boston, Palm Springs, Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.
A zap is a form of political direct action that came into use in the 1970s in the United States. Popularized by the early gay liberation group Gay Activists Alliance, a zap was a raucous public demonstration designed to embarrass a public figure or celebrity while calling the attention of both gays and straights to issues of gay rights.
Richard James Newman is a writer, broadcaster, and reality TV contestant, best known for participating in the seventh series of the British reality television programme Big Brother.
Owen Peter Jones is a British left-wing newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist, author and political activist.
The Coalition for Equal Marriage is a British campaign group created in 2012 by Conor Marron and James Lattimore, a same-sex couple, to petition in support of civil marriages for gay couples. The Coalition for Equal Marriage was created in response to the Coalition for Marriage, a Christian group campaigning against same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom.
St. Sukie de la Croix is a writer and photographer. He is most widely known for his 2012 book Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall. His works have explored the underground cultures and aspects of Chicago's LGBT community dating back to the 1670s. He has had several columns in Chicago publications, both in print and online: Outlines, Nightspots, Chicago Now, and Chicago Free Press.
The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBT topics.
Thomas Waugh is a Canadian critic, lecturer, author, actor, and activist, best known for his extensive work on documentary film and eroticism in the history of LGBT cinema and art. A professor emeritus at Concordia University, he taught 41 years in the film studies program of the School of Cinema and held a research chair in documentary film and sexual representation. He was also the director of the Concordia HIV/AIDS Project, 1993-2017, a program providing a platform for research and conversations involving HIV/AIDS in the Montréal area.
Naz and Matt Foundation is a charity based in the United Kingdom that tackles homophobia triggered by religious and cultural beliefs.
Matt Cain is a British writer and broadcaster. He is best known for the novels The Madonna of Bolton, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle, Becoming Ted and One Love.
Paul Baker is a British professor and linguist at the Department of Linguistics and English Language of Lancaster University, United Kingdom. His research focuses on corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, corpus-assisted discourse studies and language and identity. He is known for his research on the language of Polari. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts.
Mohsin Zaidi is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and management consultant, based in New York. His first book, published by Penguin, was the 2020 coming of age memoir A Dutiful Boy about growing up gay in a Muslim household in Britain. It won the Polari First Book Prize and the LAMBDA Literary Award for gay memoir/biography in 2021.