Media - Now that we have more or less equal civil rights, how have attitudes towards homosexuality changed? Cameras follow British Current TV host Graeme Smith as he confronts his past, examines events in his own life and looks at choices and compromises we have to consider when coming to terms with our sexuality. Along the way, his mum offers her own candid perspective as do some of the Britain's foremost experts in sexuality and civil rights activists. This Is Gonna Sound A Bit Gay is a documentary which celebrates sexual identity and provides an insight into gay rights in 21st Century Britain.



QS: What was the idea behind the documentary?
Graeme Smith (GS): We take a look at whether or not a person is defined by their sexuality. In a world were many gay people in the media conform to various stereotypes, we look at why people conform to these. We wanted to celebrate and look into gay identity. Why do we have a gay identity? Has it been useful?
We spent the best part of 6 months working on this. But most of our filming was done in April.

QS: How was it to work with your mum?
GS: It was great actually. Once you've gone over all this stuff on TV - its all kind of totally done an dusted. She was happy to do it provided we didnt create some camp entertainment show out of it. I was never going to allow that to happen. But it was great to get the sort of perspective and real life story that you dont see very often.

QS: Have attitudes towards homosexuality changed in 21st century Britain according to you?
GS: Attitudes have changed a great deal. But we need to bare in mind that there are still people out there with abhorrent views on many things. I get used to nobody caring and then accidentally tread on some awful homophobia. My mum was telling me about someone she knows, who had no idea she had a gay son, talking about "one of them queers". This was just a few months back. We think these viewpoints are dead, but they arent yet.

QS: Did you come across any challenges while making the documentary?
GS: Actually no. Everybody involved was incredibly helpful as they thought we had a good story to tell.

Check out the highly entertaining short film The History of Homosexuality, which will kick-start Current TV's This Is Gonna Sound A Bit Gay documentary:



This Is Gonna Sound A Bit Gay starts Thursday, 2nd July, 10pm on Current TV in the UK on channels Sky 183 and Virgin 155.