Why can’t Peter Tatchell leave Cliff Richard alone?

Leave Cliff alone! Peter Tatchell has weighed in on Cliff Richard’s refusal to declare his sexual orientation. Tatchell was spurred on by the reemergence of a video clip of Cliff declaring on Loose Women: ‘I don’t mind talking about things but there are things that are mine, that will go with me to my grave…I don’t talk about my family, I certainly don’t talk about my sexuality.’

This interview, from 2016, rattled Tatchell’s cage. As ever he can’t keep his nose out of anybody else’s business. ‘Sure, it is up to him,’ said Tatchell, ‘But –’. (As usual, everything after the ‘but’ is nonsense.) ‘Hiding his sexuality colludes with the idea that it is shameful. It’s not! It plays into homophobia & a lack of candour sets a bad example to young people’.

What a journey for Cliff – from being the unacceptably sexual face of teen rebellion to the unacceptably asexual face of pensioners. Yes, really, Cliff was a sex god. He had the same winning combination of coltish and very slightly chubby as Elvis, and was the first British rock and roll star. Just like Elvis, he moved into the world of all-round entertainment in short order. Unlike Elvis, Cliff’s response to being good looking and talented – and, as his recent autobiography My Kinda Life reveals, benefitting from an almost uncanny run of good luck – was to become a Christian.

So why do people use Cliff as a screen to project their own anxieties? The man is 83. He went through the most appalling ordeal a decade ago with ludicrously unfounded allegations of child sexual abuse which should’ve been immediately laughed out by the police and CPS. Instead he was exposed and humiliated in the most public way – not least by the BBC, from whom he rightly received substantial damages.

This was a revolting episode based on the worst kind of nudge nudgery and prejudice about single men; something that really does play into homophobia. And now up pipes Tatchell, who as a gay rights ‘campaigner’ and ‘community leader’ should know better.

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‘Community leaders’ speaking for you is agonising. Let me try to explain this to any readers who may be white or heterosexual or both. Your gut sinks as whatever random, self-appointed mouthpiece appears. Imagine that every time heterosexuality was discussed on TV it was a cue for the appearance of Russell Brand or Jordan to pop up. The people used to represent ethnic minorities are often even more awful; eccentric at best, plain nasty at worst; it’s like saying, ‘And here to speak for all white people, it’s David Irving’.

Tatchell is certainly brave and persistent as a campaigner. But is he effective? When he is introduced on TV as the man who advanced gay rights in Britain, I always shout involuntarily: ‘Yes, advanced to about ten years behind where they would’ve been without him!’

He makes me want to disavow my own homosexuality, grab the nearest single lady and woo her to the Register Office. Tatchell has the whiff about him of photocopiers and sparsely attended meetings in Lambeth in the 1970s. It’s hard to tell what his high-profile stunts – such as trying to perform a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe in 2001 – are meant to achieve.

Whatever daft fad or stupid theory is passing by, he latches on to like a limpet. Nowadays it’s ‘gender identity’, which Tatchell has said is ‘just as real as biological sex’:

‘Both are equally valid. And now scientific studies show that trans brain structures and processes are different from those of non-trans people. This means that trans identity has a material, biological basis’

If the leading LGBTQIA+ panjandrums decided tomorrow that the moon was filled with cream cheese, Tatchell would probably be on Talk TV by Wednesday night telling Piers Morgan that the core of every celestial body was pure Philadelphia Light. It’s excruciating.

At least when Tatchell threatened to ‘out’ gay bishops in 2014, he had the excuse of exposing hypocrisy. But when it comes to Cliff’s sexuality, what business is it of Tatchell’s? Or indeed anybody else’s?

Cliff has done nothing but spread happiness and entertain. He has as much right to a private life as any of us. Tatchell suggesting he is setting a bad example to the youth of today is hilarious. Of course Gen Z are not listening to Dua Lipa and Cardi B: they are too busy hanging on every word of their idol Cliff. You even see them twerking on TikTok to sex-drenched, up-to-the-minute hits like ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Mistletoe and Wine’.

Sexual ambiguity has been a part of many pop stars’ personae. And who can blame them for keeping things unspoken or mysterious? Look at the Pet Shop Boys, who were instantly reframed – from intriguingly distant and intellectual to the pigeonhole of tacky camp – when they came out in the 90s. Cliff’s sexuality is his own business. Peter Tatchell should leave him alone.