Safety - a reflection for Pride month
When I was a younger chap, just embarking on my drinking career, I used to meet my friends in a pub that was next door to the rugby ground. It was a large, popular pub, traditionally laid-out with public bar, “best side”, function room and bowling green. It felt good to be part of something that was both grown up (lots of people older than me drank there) and youthful (it was very popular with local sixth-formers). You didn’t really need to arrange to meet friends there; we got to know each others’ routines and could reasonably expect to find someone to drink with every weekend. Having been lonely in my later school years, this was a very positive and affirming environment for me. However, something I learned early on was to suppress certain of my natural behaviours: lower the tone of my voice, keep my hands from flapping, avoid “un-manly” topics of conversation… To be fair, I had learned this in school, where I was shunned by peers who didn’t want to be associated with someone perceiv