The gay scene saved my life. Don't let it wither and die

This weekend, London's GA-Y bar will close.

- Matt Cain

Its owner, Jeremy Joseph, says he is sad but Soho is losing its LGBTQ+ identity and he must concentrate on his nightclub, Heaven. Many are predicting the death of the queer scene, not just in the capital but across the UK.

If this happens, I'll be devastated. Having grown up in the 1980s as a bullied outsider in a small town in the north, the queer scene saved my life. My first experience of it was in Manchester's Gay Village, in a bar called Manto that would later become GA-Y's northern outpost. I felt excited, fascinated and aroused, but also terrified. I'd been told

terrible things about gay men - that we were perverted, disease-carrying sexual predators. The scene helped me shake off that shame, and even more so when I moved to London.