Adrian Gillan looks back upon some of the key events of 2008 in the gay UK…

• JANUARY - Sir Ian McKellen is made a Companion of Honour in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. Former Stonewall and Women and Equality Unit chief, Angela Mason, is upgraded from OBE to CBE; and Kylie Minogue gets an OBE.
• FEBRUARY – Minister Kevin Brennan speaks at Schools OUT’s annual conference, which coincides with the start of the 4th LGBT History Month.
• FEBRUARY – Following an employment tribunal, The Bishop of Hereford is ordered to pay more than £47k to gay youth worker John Reaney, whose appointment he blocked in 2006.
• MARCH - Queer clubbing legend, DJ Tallulah, dies, unexpectedly, age 60.
• APRIL - Stonewall’s 10th star-studded Equality Dinner sees actors rub shoulders with ministers at the Dorchester Hotel in London, raising £320k for the gay mega-charity’s campaigning work.
• APRIL - Veteran campaigner Peter Tatchell, ambushes a bus bearing the Olympic torch, as it passes through central London.
• MAY – 81-year old Reverend Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland’s First Minister - once famous for his “Save Ulster from Sodomy” campaign – stands down.
• MAY - The House of Lords passes new protections against incitement to homophobic hatred.
• MAY – Tory Boris Johnson is elected the new Mayor of London; pushing gay Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick into third place.
• MAY – 58-year old Paul Patrick, Co-Chair of Schools Out and LGBT History Month, dies.
• JUNE - Iris Robinson, wife of the First Minister of Northern Ireland and MP for Strangford, tells BBC radio, “I have met people who have turned around to become heterosexual” - subsequently claiming that gay people are worse than paedophiles.
• JUNE - Thousands of walkers – including celebs Dannii Minogue and Alan Cumming - make the annual 10k Crusaid Walk for Life through central London, aiming to raise £400k.
• JUNE - The British Government initiates an official project requiring its 261 embassies, high commissions and other assorted diplomatic outposts around the world to proactively support and promote LGBT human rights in their respective countries.
• JULY - An estimated 500,000 people throng the streets of the English capital for the annual Pride London celebrations.
• JULY - A tribunal decides in favour of Islington registrar Lillian Ladele, who refused to conduct same-sex civil partnerships on the grounds that it conflicted with her religious beliefs.
• JULY - 51-year old Alan Duncan becomes the first Tory MP, and the first member of either the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet, to enter a civil partnership.
• AUGUST - Former MP, Leo Abse - who helped secure the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in 1967 – dies, aged 91.
• AUGUST - A spokesperson for 45-year old George Michael claims that the veteran gay pop icon is “not going to play any more big arenas” after the climax shows of his 25 Live tour – although he subsequently does!
• SEPTEMBER - 67-year old Christian pop legend Sir Cliff Richard confesses he has shared his life with a former Roman Catholic priest for the past 7 years – and is tired of the speculation.
• SEPTEMBER- Treasury Minister Angela Eagle enters into a civil partnership with her partner-of-eighteen-years - becoming the first lesbian MP to so do.
• OCTOBER - Hitherto gay EU Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, is made a Lord and appointed Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform in a Cabinet reshuffle - having twice previously resigned from former PM Tony Blair’s top table.
• OCTOBER - Little Britain star Matt Lucas becomes the country’s first celebrity gay divorcee.
• OCTOBER - The House of Commons passes the new Human Fertilisation & Embryology Bill which, amongst other things, protects the right of lesbian couples to access NHS clinics.
• OCTOBER - Former Mr Gay UK, 36-year old chef Anthony Morley, is sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his former boyfriend in Leeds back in April. Morley cut his victim’s throat, and stabbed him repeatedly, before cooking and eating part of his thigh.
• NOVEMBER - The 3rd Stonewall Awards are hosted by actor Richard Wilson. Winners include Hero of the Year, openly gay US Bishop of New Hampshire, Rt Rev Gene Robinson .
• DECEMBER - A new Equality Bill, is announced in the Queen’s Speech, that should place a duty on public bodies to actively promote LGBT equality in all their services.
• DECEMBER - Sometime-icon Boy George is convicted of “false imprisonment” after keeping a 28-year old Norwegian escort he had met on Gaydar, at his London flat, against his will.

World AIDS Day (1 Dec, http://www.worldaidsday.org/) proffers perfect excuse to skip first monthly Monday morning mews meet, on grounds of attending a “life-savingly unmissable awareness-raising event”, I tell Boss, reminding her there are 33 million people now living with HIV worldwide; and, whilst HIV has affected every country and community, gay and bi guys remain one of the communities most affected, globally. Indeed, as I subsequently learn, new gay-specific “HIV hotspots” are emerging around the planet as I type. In Asia gay men are over 18 times more likely to have HIV than the rest of the population; and in every major Asian city there are now epidemics of HIV among gay men. In America, gay men are over 33 times more likely to have HIV than the wider population. And in Latin America gay men make up anywhere from half to 90% of all infections. Africa, too, is beginning to recognise its own HIV epidemic among gay men, with Kenya, Senegal, Sudan and South Africa reporting that gay men are almost 4 times more likely to have HIV. It is impossible to say how many gay men are living with HIV around the world as some countries still refuse to even recognise that gay men exist; whilst, in others, stigma and discriminatory laws leave the true state of affairs unknown. And even here, in the UK, a worrying trend is emerging. While the number of heterosexuals diagnosed with HIV each year is beginning to fall, diagnoses amongst gay and bisexual men continue to rise. Over 2,700 gay and bisexual men were diagnosed last year here; and there are now over 30,000 people living with HIV in the UK. Over a quarter of them do not know it, because they haven’t been tested. Scarce a half of all gay men in the UK have ever had a HIV test.

Raucous Circa Christmas Drinks Party at Arts Club in Mayfair on Fri 5 Dec. Drag Karl and Joshua along, newly ensconced since their splittings with Kev ‘n Charlie, respectively – Kev now back with Emma and her ex Sven’s not-so-little Inge “Thunderclapper”, Sven having gone AWOL; Charlie seemingly hooked up with the Boy, of no fixed abode… can hardly keep track. Bolly flowing freely. Lots of goss flying… like Prince Harry seemingly being “first in line” when it comes to gay love, with over a third (34%) of Britain’s gay single men wanting to date him, thereby pipping older brother, William (23%) - according to a recent poll. 10% apparently want a double-date with both young princes. However, a quarter (23%) of Britain’s lovesick lesbians say Willy’s Kate is their date of choice, trumping Harry’s Chelsy (18%). Laughter and hilarity: the Royals’ most vibrant modern-day function!

Party season hitting festive stride, lesbian sister Kerry lures me along, mid-Dec, to a social do at GLAM (Gay, Lesbian And Mensan - http://www.glam.org.uk/) - the independent group for LGBT members of Mensa, the high-IQ society, which currently boasts about 100 members throughout the UK. That said, if there are 3.6 million LGBTs in the UK, as Government estimates suggest, and they have the same general intelligence distribution as the wider population, then 72,000 LGBTs – the top 2% in terms of IQ - are actually eligible for Mensa, hence GLAM, membership. And if you followed this last calculation, you may well be one of them! If already LGBT and a Mensa member, contact Corinne on 020 8466 5632 or e-mail info@glam.org.uk - quoting your Mensa membership number. If not yet a Mensa member, but think you might qualify to so be, contact British Mensa at http://www.mensa.org.uk/. Kerry’s now a GLAM regular – less due to her doubtless dazzling cerebral hemispheres, more since her latest girlfriend is a member, and so she thereby automatically qualifies, as a partner! And I’m just blagging along in tow. Bit out of our depths, truth to tell. Soon find myself yearning for tad more earthy banter down my local Wardour Street boozer; or to be larking around with my weebie son, Toby!

Greatly in demand on Switchboard in run up to Xmas, our busiest time. Hardly surprising, given that LGB people are 50% more likely than straights to have suffered depression or anxiety disorders - according to latest research. We are also, seemingly, more susceptible to substance abuse and attempted suicide, scientists claim – adding that the high correlation between poor mental health and sexual orientation is most likely caused by sustained stress brought on by discrimination and exclusion, by families or wider society. Rarely more so, alas, than in the “season of goodwill”.

Nice relaxing time with my own mum back in Essex over Xmas, glad to report – a great gay-detox from my usual neon pink lifestyle… a kind of extreme non-scene… my queer lifeblood gradually leached out of me, by bowl upon bowl of Xmas pud, plus countless lashings of steamy vanilla sauce. Regardless, still find self yearning for the sights, lights, nights of the capital - and my beloved Soho. Give kitties Mous ‘n Cous some festive treats when back in pad – doggy bag leftovers from my Boxing Day lunch with Nutty, all the trimmings. Horrified to read in papers that evening that the Vatican - which is supposed to have something to do with Christmas, isn’t it? - has approved psychological selection tests to root out those wannabe priests with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” or “uncertain sexual identity”: despite Catholic priests being officially celibate. According to new guidelines, “psychological defects, sometimes of a pathological kind, reveal themselves only after ordination”. The tests are voluntary, but refusing to undergo one would most likely bar candidates from the priesthood. Also spy in papers that London School of Economics “humour researcher”, Deborah Finding, is certainly not amused – fiercely attacking the popular BBC comedy show, Little Britain, arguing that self-proclaimed “only gay in the village” Daffyd gets his laughs by ridiculing, and reinforcing mainstream fears about, gayness; claiming the series “does far more to promote racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism and classism than it does to satirise them.”

Pen final – if hardly seasonal - Capital Queer column of year, prompted by another newspaper report. A quarter (24%) of the British public apparently want gay sex to be re-criminalised, according to The Observer Sex Poll 2008 – despite all the recent legal advances; and despite 1 in 8 (13%) admitting at least some sexual contact with someone of the same sex during their lifetime, rising to 23% amongst specifically 16 - 24 year olds! Over half (56%) of those polled think gay couples should not be allowed to adopt children; 45% oppose gay marriage; and 40% want a higher gay age of consent. I ask whether homophobia is merely lightly sleeping below the PC surface of the Great British psyche? And whether it might even impinge on the implementation of our seemingly now-fair laws - if jurors, say, take an unduly dim view of any gays in the dock.

Steam me up Scottie! I take the high road to Scots capital, Edinburgh, with a bunch of Circa pals for a right old Gay Hogmanay - to mark the year’s end, and bring in the new! From medieval Old Town with Castle and Royal Mile, to Georgian New Town with stucco squares, this “Athens of the North” blends historic heritage with living culture and even boasts its very own “inner-city mountain”, Arthur’s Seat. Most of the gay action happens in the Broughton locale around folly-filled Calton Hill – up which great views abound, and men oft “take airs”; and, at the foot of which, pubs and bars keep pumping tunes and booze into the wee small hours. Not least when kilts are flying around New Year – an utter homo hoot!