Earlier this week, Jeremy Joseph, owner of the legendary LGBT nightclub G-A-Y, posted a comment on Facebook which surprised me for two reasons – the racial overtones of the remarks, and the numerous supportive comments from his followers that it garnered. Joseph’s outburst read to me like just another remark in a long history of…
On Saturday, the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell interrupted the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s speech about domestic violence against women on World Human Rights Day – which in itself was an ironic act. Corbyn was about to speak when the Syria Solidarity UK protesters, led by Tatchell, took to the stage to protest. Tatchell alleges that Corbyn hasn’t…
On Tuesday gone at Vout-O-Reenee’s, I had the pleasure of moderating a Q&A with Bisi Alimi after his performance of Pwaangulongii Dauod’s ‘Africa’s Future Has No Space for Stupid Black Men‘ in collaboration with Granta Magazine. Afterwards people came up to me to express their thanks for my support of Bisi, with some commenting about how much they thought I genuinely admired him.…
In 2001, when I joined the police, homophobia was rife. In the Greater Manchester force I heard the word “queer” often, mainly from sergeants about prisoners. And when I came out to my senior officer, he told me he couldn’t condone what I did “as a homosexual”. In a secret document my chief superintendent wrote…
Despite the guilty verdict this week, Louise Mensch is sticking by her remarks that Thomas Mair’s trial – which resulted in his life imprisonment for the murder of Jo Cox – was potentially prejudiced. Mensch of course has a right to free speech and to her opinion. And she has raised some very interesting questions about criminal trials…
I was speaking with my American friend recently when she said I should take more of an active role in fighting discrimination, especially around the Black Lives Matter movement. She believes as well as my writing and advocacy for change within policing to make it better, I should be out there on the streets protesting along…
In an exclusive today, The Independent has learned that the Government has made a U-turn on one of its most controversial school policies. Previously, pupils would be required to provide information about their place of birth. It was a policy that would have targeted children as young as two years old – and it is only in…
Eight years ago, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. Today, Americans will choose their next President – a woman, or a so-called woman hater. America’s fate hangs in the balance, and during this stressful time, it would be pertinent to look back on Obama’s presidency. Since President Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination back in…
I shared an article the other day by an Arab man who said that many like him were glad that Trump had won the US presidency. It’s important to share different voices, even if I don’t agree with them. I then received a message which said, “Sometimes Mr Maxwell you sound a bit racist yourself.”…
Remembering those who fought fascism, and the impact of racism in the UK following Brexit It’s that time of year when we’re supposed to remember those who have sacrificed their life for their country, and that time of year when all those who haven’t, have an opinion on the wearing of poppies. Every year like…
Dear Kim, I just read your letter to me you posted. It is one of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time. You are right that people don’t do snail mail anymore, I can’t remember the last time I wrote such a letter. Writing has become a lost art, so it…
It is a good thing that Theresa May’s Conservative government is introducing an Alan Turing Law to pardon gay men convicted of historical victimless sexual crimes – that is what I wrote for The Independent last month. No one should be criminalised for being gay. At the start of the century, I was still policing these sex crimes…
Like most people, I felt wretched last year when I saw The Independent’s front page of Alan Kurdi, the three-year old Syrian boy lying face down in the sand after drowning in the Mediterranean sea – his family trying to get to Europe, from war-torn Syria. Then came the disappointing rhetoric of my government, but like most…
Until recently, I didn’t even realise I was a Black Gay Man. Gay – yes, but Black – no. Ridiculous, it sounds. I lived in a world in which I thought I was accepted because of my mixed-race heritage, so I had no reason to consciously think about my blackness. I was just me. That…
Last Friday, I decided to take a break from social media. That was until Tuesday gone, when I learned that Sky News had published a short film I had done with the channel about racism in the UK. Over the years, I’ve learnt that many deny racism exists in Britain. To live in such a…
I was speaking with my Lithuanian friend who told me that he and his friend read my posts about my mum, and that it was unusual a child has so much love for a parent, expressing it in the way I do. My friend is a good guy, who said my writing brought him warmth…