‘Visibly emotional’ Russell Tovey takes aim at Supreme Court trans ruling: ‘It’s f**king horrible’

Russell Tovey has discussed the differences he sees between himself and a younger generation of gay men, and equated the recent UK Supreme Court trans ruling to 1980s homophobia in a new interview.

The Years and Years actor, 43, recently starred in the Disney+ series Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes as Brian Paddick, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at the time of the 7/7 bombings in 2005.

In an interview with the i paper, Russell Tovey, who came out as gay in the nineties, touched on playing the out-gay police officer as well as his experience of coming out in the shadow of the AIDS pandemic.

Looking at who he calls the ‘Heartstopper generation’ he said “How lucky they are!” not to go through what he went through. “How wonderful that is!”

He also said that “Section 28 f**ked me up,” referring to Margaret Thatcher’s policy that prohibited local authorities from “intentionally promoting homosexuality” in schools between 1988 and 2003.

“Coming of age, realising that I liked men at the same time as AIDS. I would constantly mix sex and death. To have a generation that doesn’t even consider death around sex blows my mind,” Tovey said.

Considering his friend and Looking creator Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, which also looked at growing up gay in the 80s, Tovey said, “We can’t forget that time. It’s too important. It’s history now, but who’s to say it couldn’t all happen again?”

“Now the transphobia is horrific”

Continuing from there, Tovey discussed the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the trans-exclusionary definition of a woman from April, and the interviewer noted he became “visibly emotional” while replying.

“Derek Jarman said in the late 80s that if you wait long enough the world moves in circles,” he said. Referencing the widespread anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment at the time he then said, “There was blatant homophobia in the red-tops and the government. It was horrific. Then we had this great moment of openness.

“Now the transphobia is horrific. No feeling is finite. The world keeps spinning. You have to hope that it will turn around again. It’s f**king horrible at the minute. It’s just horrible.”

He closed by saying it’s important to keep making queer art so that we can “prove existence.”

Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes is streaming now.