LOUD & PROUD: 14 Key LGBT Moments That Were Met With A Negative Reaction At The Time

In a seemingly simple act, but a pretty defiant one all the same, David Bowie raised eyebrows when he put his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson during a performance of ‘Starman’ on ‘Top Of The Pops’.

Dylan Jones, a Bowie biographer and journalist, commented that this felt like the moment “the future had arrived”, though it left a bad taste in the mouth of more conservative viewers.

A decade later, and Culture Club made their first appearance on ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1982, which turned out to be a true water-cooler moment, thanks to Boy George’s androgynous appearance, seemingly confusing, enraging and delighting viewers in equal measure.

George recalled 25 years later: “I stayed up all night trying to decide what to wear because Top of the Pops was such a big deal back then. I did use a lot of make-up at the time, and it really freaked people out. People couldn't deal with my sexual energy when they met me, and I loved that. It was my life's work.

“There were newspaper headlines the next day saying things like 'Is it a Boy or a Girl?' but the reaction from the public was completely different.”

The suggestive promotion in the lead-up to ‘Relax’ (that would be an ad featuring the slogan ‘ALL THE NICE BOYS LOVE SEA MEN’ and suggesting the band would ‘make Duran Duran lick the shit off their shoes’) helped create a suitable buzz, and the song’s lyrical content eventually saw it banned by the BBC.

The lyrics, while quite obviously sexual, weren’t anything compared to those sung by modern day artists… and the BBC’s ban had the reverse effect, with ‘Relax’ eventually charting at number one here in the UK.

‘EastEnders’ has the honour of saying it is the first programme to show a same-sex kiss on British TV, between actors Michael Cashman and Nicholas Donovan, who played Colin and Guido. The Sun described the moment, an undeniable landmark for LGBT people here in the UK, as a “love scene between yuppie poofs”, criticising the decision to air the peck before watershed.

Colin’s prior relationship with Barry Clark had also been heavily criticised by some more narrow-minded viewers.

Five years later, and ‘Brookside’ became the first show to air a kiss between two women before the watershed, between actresses Nicola Stephenson and Anna Friel. Such was the backlash at the time that the scene was removed from a subsequent omnibus showing of ‘Brookside’.

In 1998, George Michael was arrested for a “lewd act” in a public restroom in Central Park, with the ensuing media coverage outing him as gay and missing no opportunity to stick the boot in (lest we forget The Sun’s headling ‘Zip Me Up Before You Go Go’).

Describing the incident as a sting operation, George told MTV: “I got followed into the restroom and then this cop—I didn't know it was a cop, obviously—he started playing this game, which I think is called, 'I'll show you mine, you show me yours, and then when you show me yours, I'm going to nick you!”

He later took control of the situation, sending up the whole incident in his ‘Outside’ music video.

While ‘Corrie’ may have been the first soap to introduce a transgender character, they waited a full 14 years after ‘EastEnders’ to show its first kiss between two men, a moment which attracted 26 separate complaints from viewers.

Adam was curiously silent about his sexuality for almost his entire time on ‘American Idol’, coming out as gay a week before the final, so he made sure he had nothing to be ashamed of with his first performance of debut single ‘For Your Entertainment’ at the AMAs in 2009.

The shocking performance saw Adam walking one of his dancers on a leash, grinding against another and, crucially, kissing his male keyboardist on the mouth, a moment which was slammed as inappropriate by the Parents Television Council.

During a discussion on the following day’s ‘Good Morning America’, Adam’s kiss was censored, but a re-airing of Britney and Madonna’s kiss at the VMAs was not.

He said of the controversy: “Female performers have been doing this for years - pushing the envelope about sexuality - and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. We're in 2009 - it's time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people's eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I'm not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom.”