Some Good LGBT Things That Happened in 2014

Sometimes being a homo and reading the news can feel like being strapped to a chair and made to watch your own snuff film on loop. The stories of persecution seem endless. Despite our shared love of leather, shaved heads and moustaches, in 2014 it seemed that fascists and gays still couldn't see eye to eye.

It's a familiar standoff that led to all manner of fresh abominations. There was Putin's anti-gay propaganda law and the consequent effect it has had on the lives of Russia's LGBT population. And imagine how it felt to be an LGBT person in Uganda when the country's "Kill the Gays" bill was overturned in August, only to find out, last month, that another, even more draconian law was in the works. Merry fucking Christmas.

It's important not to forget the localized news stories and everyday bullshit
faced by gay people everywhere last year, but, for the sake of not giving homophobes the time of day, here's a breakdown of all the good things that happened in the world of gay in 2014.

WE GOT MARRIED

Lots of gay people don't want to get married because it's quite heterosexual and reminds them of their parents, but many do, and it's really only fair that they should be allowed to. In March last year that became a possibility in the UK and I was lucky enough to get drunk and cry at the first ever gay wedding. Despite not knowing a single person there (I was "reporting"), I ate till I felt sick, did the Macarena with the guests, and completely rinsed the free bar. Turns out that for all the perverse sex they have, gay people are really accommodating.

For now, same-sex marriage is legal in only 16 countries (there are 196 countries, to put things into perspective) and 35 states within America. Thankfully, some gay people found ways around that. An honorary mention should go out to the lesbian couple who managed to get married in Russia last year, right under Putin's nose. Then there was the determined gay couple who went right ahead and married each other in Egypt, despite presumably knowing what kind of dire consequences they would later face. (Both grooms and five other wedding attendees were jailed for three years for "angering God.") And finally, shouts to Grace Gelder, the woman who married herself.

CAMP HAPPENINGS

Because gay people are smarter than straight people, they have a whole other cultural currency, and it's called "camp." Lots of camp things happened last year – things that meant absolutely nothing to most people but made up landmark events in the gay calendar. Here are some of them: