Russell T Davies says he feels like ‘an idiot’ for campaigning for gay visibility
Russell T Davies. (Getty Images)
It’s A Sin creator Russell T Davies has opened up about how he feels like “an idiot” for spending so many years campaigning for gay visibility.
Speaking to the i Paper on 5 June about his new show, Tip Toe, the showrunner shared that he thinks his efforts to make queer people more visible in the media, like with his iconic comedy series Queer As Folk, may have been a mistake.
“All our lives we’ve campaigned to be more visible, and I never thought what the end result of that was,” he said. “Now I look at myself like I’m an idiot. As if I ever imagined we’d reach a harmonious society. Our visibility is being weaponised.”
He also shared how Tip Toe was inspired in part by the rise of Reform UK and Nigel Farage in recent years. “They are just mouthpieces for any cause they can grab hold of. It was the online world generally really,” he said. “All Reform does is listen to what people are saying on X, whether it’s ‘we hate women’ or ‘we hate farmers’.”
He went on to say that he hates X so much that he demanded that the BBC stop advertising Doctor Who on the platform when he was the sci-fi series’ showrunner.
“It’s a public service broadcaster posting on a hate platform,” Davies said. “It’s not the town square it pretends to be. It’s a privately owned hate platform, owned by a megalomaniac [Elon Musk] who is pushing ill on many of us. The tone of voice on X is becoming our tone of voice in every single discussion ever made. I think it’s creeping into the real world – and we’re just letting it happen.”
Davis also named the current rhetoric around trans people coming from right-wing groups as a catalyst for Tip Toe.
“I completely accept that there are two sides. But who’s doing any research? Who’s doing any thought? Where’s the nuance on either side of the argument?” he said. “I’m meeting trans people who live in terror.”
He went on to share an interaction he had at a book signing, in which a trans couple told him they were scared every time they left their house.
“That’s when I decided I had to go and do something,” Davies said. “Specifically trans people, but actually, it’s happening to all of us [the LGBTQ+ community].”
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