The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Going Violet with Vanity

… or Purple with Pride.

We end our look at the 7 Deadly Gay Sins today with Vanity. In some sources vanity is replaced with Pride, but as Pride has acquired a new meaning within the lgbt community I didn’t want to use it for today’s Deadly Sin.

Christian tradition makes Vanity the oldest of all the sins. Lucifer’s vanity was the cause of him being expelled from Heaven with all the Fallen Angels.

I’m sure we all know someone in the lgbt community who is often referred to as “vain”, but the sin of Vanity is much more destructive than the desire to look good or praise your own achievements. Don’t confuse Vanity with arrogance or boasting. These belong to what the Medieval world regarded as the sing of Vainglory, one of the Deadly Sins that was dropped from the list a few centuries ago. Definitions have changed slightly over the centuries. An early definition of “vain” was “futile”, which survives in sayings such as “all his efforts were in vain”. The added meaning of “proud” and “narcissistic” came much more recently.

Which very neatly brings us on to Narcissus himself. This Greek man was so full of his own Vanity that he fell in love with his own reflection.

Vanity can really become deadly to others in the wrong hands. The gay serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer killed his many victims because he didn’t want them to leave him. This was a symptom of deadly Vanity, the desire to have your own feelings and needs dominate those of others who suffer as a consequence.

But let’s not dwell on those horrors and lighten things up. Vanity can be said to be the trait of the dandies, the impeccably dressed, sometimes over-dressed, men who attract attention. The most famous dandies in the lgbt community is Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron. Both dressed to impress.

Some of you may be recognise this famous portrait of Byron dressed in traditional Albanian costume. His usual style in both clothing and appearance led to a new word being invented to describe it – Byronic.

There’s one story I like about Byron from his days in Constantinople. He was invited to the Sultan’s palace and got dressed up in the most elaborate Turkish costume. He was ushered into the throne room, whereupon the sultan just uttered a greeting and Byron was quickly ushered out again. Naturally Byron assumed his fame as a renowned poet was going to get him a more meaningful audience. Needless to say his own pride was pricked and he stormed out of the palace in a suitably Byronic huff.

Another example of someone dressing to impress and getting a put-down as response comes with Douglas Byng (1893-1987). He was one of the UK’s leading drag and cabaret performers in the first half of the 20^th century. I’ve referred to him already in this 7 Deadly Sins series in relation to the sin of Greed.

Long before he became a performer he lived in Nottingham as a boy and young man. One of the traditional activities for a Sunday afternoon in Nottingham after morning church and Sunday lunch was for people to dress up in their finery and walk up and down Mansfield Road, the main road into Nottingham. This earned the name the Sunday Parade. One year young Douglas decided he’d join the Sunday Parade.

Having bathed himself in milk Douglas donned his best suit, a wig, a purple overcoat, tall cane, and tons of make-up and strolled up Mansfield Road like some Georgian dandy. He waved to imaginary friends, and his proud bubble burst when he was recognised by some neighbours and he sloped back home. “Was my face red!” he wrote in his autobiography, “Needless to say, it was, courtesy of Max Factor”.

One animal most associated with Pride rather than Vanity is the peacock. Earlier this year I mentioned the embarrassing situation of an American mistaking the rainbow-coloured peacock logo of NBC as the corporation’s support for same-sex marriage.

Another animal associated in the Medieval world with Vanity was the horse – I’m not sure why. They also gave Vanity the colour violet, and that means we can complete our 7 Deadly Rainbow Sins flag.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this 6-part series on the 7 Deadly Gay Sins. But wait! What about the 7^th, you’ll be wondering?

The last of the sins is Sloth – the sin of indifference, neglect, boredom and laziness. The Medieval world gave Sloth a colour as well – light blue. But as light blue isn’t on the Rainbow Pride flag I couldn’t be bothered to do any research into Sloth!

However, I hope to redeem myself next year when I look at the opposites of the 7 Deadly Sins and look at each of the 7 Heavenly Queer Virtues.

The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Going Blue with Lust

If there’s one sin which people admit to enjoying more than any other then surely it must be sex! But for sex to be included on a list of sins there has to be some concept of which kind of sex is considered acceptable and which kind isn’t. Every religion and secular philosophy have laws and regulations on sex, and quite often they contradict the others. In pre-Victorian times there was no problem in the UK with having sex with girls as young as 12 because that was the age of consent. Times, attitudes and morals have changed and today this would be classed as child abuse and paedophilia.

And then there’s pornography. Porn and sexual material has been referred to as being “blue” for many decades. Historians have often debated why. Some claim it originates in places like the Windmill Theatre where nude female models were bathed in blue light. Others claim it originates in the English censorship of theatre administered by the Lord Chamberlain’s Office where material deemed not suitable for performance was crossed out of the script with a blue pencil.

None of the historians bother looking further back. They know that red means anger and green means envy, not realising that blue for sex originates in the same Medieval cultural belief in western Europe. So, LUST, the excess of sex, is entered on my Seven Deadly Gay Sins flag.

So, what can we talk about today concerning the Deadly Sin of Lust in the lgbt community? Don’t get too excited because I’m not going into gay porn!

We should never assume that all lgbt heritage is about “good” people. One of the most constant downsides of the lgbt community is the presence of those who practice the form of lust currently considered the worst of them all – paedophilia.

There was a time when the general public thought all gay men were paedophiles (some still do). This opinion was brought into the open in my home city of Nottingham in August 1977.

The Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) held their annual conference in Nottingham. This was the same conference at which the inspiration for the play “Bent” was premiered.

One of the guest speakers at one of the workshops was a Dutch MP called Dr. Edward Brongersma (1911-1998). As a member of the Dutch Senate he was instrumental in bringing the homosexual age of consent down to 16 in line with heterosexual sex (he had been imprisoned in 1950 after being convicted of having sex with a 17-year-old). What he is best known for, however, is his research into gay paedophilia. He was considered a world authority on the subject. So when it was revealed he would be attending the CHE conference in Nottingham there was a public outcry.

Protests were held outside the hotel where the workshop he was scheduled to attend was to be held. The hotel, fearful of losing business and of threats to the property, cancelled the booking. The workshop was moved to another venue (just across the road from my flat) and went ahead with Dr. Brongersma as the main guest. At the end of the workshop he was given a standing ovation.

Attitudes in the UK towards paedophilia at the time were, more often than not, not discussed openly. Today there is more discussion about paedophilia and its moral place in society. Child abuse in particular is a highly visible and almost constant topic in the media.

The lgbt community must be able to distinguish between paedophilia/child abuse and acceptable sexual practices in modern society. There have been several articles in the lgbt media this year about one man who has been hailed as a hero against Christian homophobia, when in fact he was a serial child rapist and abuser. Is he the sort of “hero” we want?

The man was brought to the fore last year when plans were announced of Pope Francis’s visit to Uganda to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the canonisation of the Ugandan Martyrs. The visit never actually went ahead but the lgbt media voiced their opposition all the same. The reason was because the Ugandan Martyrs were all young Christian men and boys who were executed by their king, Mwanga II, after they rejected his sexual advances. The visit was distorted into the Pope appearing to honour Christians who rejected homosexuality. Which was the greater sin – rejection of rape, or murder?

I gave a brief history of their martyrdom several years ago. The whole point about the killings is not that the Christian boys were being homophobic but that they were killed purely because they rejected the forced sexual abuse of a paedophile and child rapist who thought he had the right to rape who he pleased.

There was nothing good about King Mwanga’s sexual activities. The Ugandan Martyrs weren’t even gay. He used his power to abuse anyone he wished – gay, straight, male, female. This was part of his culture and the Christian missionaries realised (even if modern lgbt journalists don’t) that the human rights of Ugandans were being violated. Forget the religion. Would an atheist organisation have supported this violation? The fact that the boys were converted Christians is irrelevant. For the first time in their lives someone had arrived and said they had the right to say “No” to abuse.

For too many decades gay men have been portrayed as predatory paedophiles like King Mwanga. It’s the reason who so many people still oppose the idea of two gay men having children. I weep when members of the lgbt community start using their own religious prejudices to condone the rape of innocent boys. If I was murdered by a serial rapist because I said “No” I hope I’d be remembered as a hero not the villain.

The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Going Green With Envy

It’s time to get sinful again! This time we go green with ENVY.

Along with red and blue, green is a colour which is instantly associated with one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The association dates from Medieval times and entered Christian tradition (not to be confused with Christian doctrine). So we place ENVY on the green stripe of the Rainbow Pride flag.

I suppose, like many gay men, I’ve been guilty of envy many times. I’ve lost count of times I wish I was as young and gorgeous as Tom Daley!

Envy has often been substituted with JEALOUSY. In modern psychological terms the two are slightly different. Jealousy is the negative emotion felt at the uncontrollable loss of something which you want back (your ex, your job, etc.). ENVY is felt against people who possess something you never had in the first place, whether status, abilities or attributes of someone else. To the medieval mind there was no difference however.

If there’s one thing my researches have shown me over the years it’s that when it comes to envy its best NOT to be highly placed in society. In particular, it best not to be a male favourite of a king, because most of them have come to a sticky end because of it.

Of particular personal interest is the fate that befell the two favourites of my ancestor King Edward II of England (1284-1327). I know I’ve mentioned them several times on this blog, most notably in this article. But it illustrates well the role that both envy and jealousy played in the downfall of Piers Gaveston, murdered by the barons whose traditional positions at court and influence were given to the favourite.

King Edward’s next favourite didn’t fare any better. Hugh le Despencer (d.1326) rose to prominence as a royal favourite 700 years ago in 1315. He was among a group of nobles who supported the king in his battle against the Earl of Lancaster. When open hostilities broke out in 1321 Hugh was well placed at court. On Lancaster’s defeat Hugh received many estates that belonged to the rebels. In 1322 King Edward (accompanied by Hugh) came to Nottingham Castle to pardon all the rebels (including one Robin Hood of Wakefield).

Soon Hugh was being envied and hated by the barons as much as Gaveston was. Even Edward’s queen, Isabella, was jealous of Hugh’s influence. It was the catalyst for her rebellion and Edward’s forced abdication. Even though I doubt there was any sexual aspect to the relationship between Hugh and the king it’s clear that their contemporaries were sure of it. Hugh suffered the fate of all those condemned for treason in England – he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Even his 89-year-old father didn’t escape punishment – he was hanged and fed to the dogs.

But envy and jealousy can work the other way round. In one of my “Around the World in 80 Gays” articles a few weeks ago I recounted how the Byzantine Emperor Mikhael III fell in love with a hunky peasant called Basileios. With no legitimate heir to succeed him Mikhael quickly elevated Basileios into a succession of imperial offices of state, culminating in that of Co-Emperor.

Apart from the general political and dynastic rivalries that characterised Byzantine history there was very little envy on display. True, there was some envy of the former peasant’s rise to power, but he was wily enough to keep in everyone’s favour. Until, that is, the arrival of a new favourite.

In 866 the 26-year-old Mikhael found a new favourite, presumably one a lot younger than the 30-plus-year-old Basileios. The new favourite flattered Mikhael so much that he was rewarded by being given the emperor’s shoes to wear. Not just any shoes, but the official red jewelled shoes that were part of the imperial regalia. Only an emperor was entitled to wear them. Even Basileios hadn’t been allowed to wear them, and he was Co-Emperor. It would be like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” giving her ruby slippers to the Munchkins to play with. Basileios complained vigorously. Mikhael threatened to give the co-emperorship to the new favourite if he didn’t mind his own business. You can guess what happened next.

Basileios became jealous and envious of the new favourite’s position and feared losing this title, even if Mikhael didn’t really mean it. But to make sure that he remained Co-Emperor he decided to assassinate them both.

After a particularly alcohol-filled evening (Mikhael’s nickname was “the Drunkard”) the emperor retired to bed with the new favourite in the adjoining room, reserved for the most trusted imperial official. Basileios burst through the chambers and stabbed Mikhael before he could get out of bed. The new favourite was dragged away, and presumably executed, though there’s no actual record of what happened to him.

Basileios was now sole Emperor of Byzantium and he reigned for 19 years. It was his envy and jealousy that got him there, but he was actually a popular ruler – you couldn’t reign for 19 years in those days without being liked! So at least envy did someone a favour even if it IS one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

(NOTE: The reason I haven’t named Mikhael’s new favourite is because I didn’t want him to be confused with Basileois. The new favourite was called Basiliskos).

The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Turning Yellow with Greed

Regular readers will already have sinned with me on this blog with Anger and Gluttony. We sin again today with Greed. As with the other sins greed is represented in Medieval Christian folklore by a colour, on this occasion yellow. So let’s put Greed on our Rainbow Sins flag.

Before we look at sinful Greed in lgbt heritage let’s look at how it has been defined. In some lists Greed is replaced with Avarice or Covetousness, but they mean much the same thing. The concept hasn’t changed much since Greed first appeared on a list of Christian sins in the 4^th century as “philargyria”. This translates as “love of money” and is, perhaps, the most common definition of Greed. It is only later that the love of power, possessions and assets was included.

Greed has also been defined as the non-distribution of personal wealth, however much or little you have. This includes not giving to charitable causes, and I’m sure everyone has given some money to one charity or another.

One of the most despicable manifestations of Greed is blackmail. There are hundreds of known instances of gay men being blackmailed because of their sexuality. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of others have gone unreported. During the pre-Stonewall era many unscrupulous people took advantage of the laws that existed prohibiting homosexual behaviour and demanded huge amounts of money, or valuables and property, to “ensure” that the authorities weren’t informed. Some men were blackmailed into spying on their country and revealing secrets of national security.

If there was any blackmail case which made a significant impact in the UK it is a fictional one. In 1960 film makers began planning a film about a gay man who is being blackmailed. Although it didn’t become a blockbuster it is regarded as one of the most influential films made in the UK between the Wolfenden Report of 1957 which recommended the decriminalisation of homosexual activity and the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which implemented it. The film was called “Victim”.

“Victim” was significant for several reasons. First, it was the first British film in which the word “homosexual” was spoken. Second, it was the first British film to feature homosexuality in a contemporary setting. Third, it was one of the first films to depict gay men in a sympathetic leading role.

It was also significant in that a well-known romantic actor took the leading role. Many actors turned down the role before matinee idol Dirk Bogarde accepted it. But more important than his acceptance of the role was his desire to see the film depict gay life realistically. He later wrote that he insisted from the start that “there’s no point in half measures. We either make a film about queers or we don’t”. It was only years later when it became apparent that Dirk, Sir Dirk from 1992, was himself gay.

There are reports of many closeted gay men going to see the film when it was released, creeping into the cinemas in darkness after it started and sneaking out before it ended, keen to keep their identities a secret. Many of these men may have been victims of blackmail themselves. It may also have encouraged some of them to stand up to greedy blackmailers.

To end on a lighter not, here’s a story of Greed involving a gay man which isn’t about his sexuality. Nottingham-born Douglas Byng was hugely successful drag and cabaret act in the UK. By World War II he had become one of the country’s best pantomime Dames. He had learnt to design and make his own outrageous costumes, most of which parodied the popular fashions of the time. In the 1930s one of the most popular fashion items any respectable woman had to have was a short fox-fur cape or wrap with several fox tails (I remember my grandmother having one – it gave me the creeps).

Douglas Byng parodied this fox cape by creating one for his pantomimes in which the fox tails were replaced by loofahs, a very common object found in bathrooms throughout the country. After the war broke out loofahs became more and more scarce. They were imported from Asia and, like a lot of other foreign imports, stopped arriving. The desire for bathroom loofahs didn’t diminish and it wasn’t long before their value increased.

Black Marketeers took advantage of this situation and soon discovered that people would be prepared to pay anything for a loofah. Douglas Byng knew that these greedy people would stop at nothing to get their hands on any loofah they could find and make a profit out of it. Consequently, Douglas realised his loofah cape was a prime target for theft. So we have the rather strange situation of Douglas Byng locking his loofah cape in safes in theatres, hotels and banks everywhere he toured.

And that is Greed. Once again we have seen the lgbt community being a victim of a Deadly Sin rather than a perpetrator. But take heart, because according to medieval Christian folklore those guilty of Greed will all get their punishment on Hell by being boiled alive in oil for eternity – and only the best oil, of course.

The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Going Orange With Gluttony

In February I began this sinful series with the Deadly Red Sin of Anger, symbolically represented in Medieval folklore by the colour red, the top stripe of the Rainbow Pride flag. Today we move one stripe down to orange. In medieval Christian folklore Orange was assigned to the sin of gluttony. I find it amusing that the colour used for gluttony is named after food (the colour was named after the fruit, not the other way round), and with tomorrow being Easter Day when the long weeks of fasting during Lent come to an end what sin could be more appropriate? So what parts of lgbt heritage can we find that illustrate the Deadly Sin of Gluttony?

First of all, let’s define “gluttony” as it applies to sin. The most obvious definition is “over-eating”, as exemplified in the character of Mr. Creosote in Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”. Mr Creosote eats so much that he explodes. Sinful gluttons would get their punishment in Hell, of course, and the particular punishment Medieval popular folklore believed gluttons received was, appropriately, to have lots of little horned demons force-feeding them with rats, toads and snakes (whether until they too exploded or not isn’t certain).

But over-eating is only one of several definitions that the Medieval church put forward. Here are 6 definitions of gluttony listed by Pope Gregory the Great (d.604) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274):-
Eating before proper meal times,
Desiring luxury foods,
Adding seasoning and sauces to meat,
Having too much to eat,
Eating too eagerly and quickly,
Eating food that is too elaborately prepared.

Judging by that list, every food programme on television can be called sinful to the Medieval mind!

In later centuries gluttony came to be equated with any sort of over-indulgence, whether it was spending, gambling, playing, working, or just enjoying yourself too much. During Britain’s only period as a republic under Oliver Cromwell every activity except work and prayer was seen as sinful! But let’s get back to food.

Let’s get sinful and see who those evil lgbt agents of the devil are, who tempt good folk like us into sin with their elaborate, delicious, pleasing, yummy, and often too expensive, food. In other words, let’s look at some lgbt chefs and cooks.

I’ll begin with James Beard (1903-1985) who, as far as I have been able to tell, is the only lgbt chef who has a culinary award named after him. He was, according to Thomas McNamee in his 2012 book on Beard, a man who sums up everything the old sin of gluttony represented: “Beard, a man of stupendous appetites – for food, sex, money, you name it…” wrote McNamee.

James Beard was one of the first media personalities in the food world. He had one of the first regular cookery programmes on American television and championed good American food as well as French cuisine. Although he is not that well-known outside America his influence was enormous. After his death the James Beard Foundation was formed which offers scholarships in the culinary arts.

Every May the Foundation presents awards to chefs, venues and organisations who have been significant in the food industry in the past year. Some of these winners are openly lgbt, including 3-times winner Corby Kummer, Art Smith (writer and ex-chef to Oprah Winfrey), and restaurateurs such as Clark Fraser and Mark Gaier.

Cookery programmes are very popular on tv, otherwise there wouldn’t be whole channels dedicated to the subject. This means that many lgbt chefs have become familiar faces, due mainly to the increase in cookery contest shows and “reality” programmes. The most recent “celebrity” to come out is Rudy Tandoh, a contestant of 2013 series of “The Great British Bake Off” who came out 2 days ago.

In my youth I watched a lot of cookery programmes, and the lgbt chefs I remember watching regularly were Robert Carrier, Richard Cawley and Ross Burden. Even Rabbi Lionel Blue would occasionally don a cook’s apron and rustle up some food on breakfast tv. Later there was “Greg and Max”, the first openly gay partners to have their own cookery series on British tv in the 1990s.

One programme I’ve always enjoyed is “Ace of Cakes”. In recent years the increase in same-sex unions and weddings has seen many couples being turned down from cake makers because of their homophobia. Duff Goldman, the genius behind the fantastic “Ace of Cakes”, has recently teamed up with the afore-mentioned Art Smith to form the 101 Gay Weddings Campaign. The aim is to promote same-sex marriage by helping 101 lgbt couples to produce their dream wedding. 

Although I can never call myself a chef I have dabbled in the profession myself. While I was duty manager at a hotel for 4 yeas I prepared food and room service meals for the many guests, including (shamelss name-dropping) Lady Gaga, Colin Firth, Ian Thorpe, Sven Goran Erickson, Gok Wan, the entire South African, Indian and England cricket teams, and the Chinese Ambassador to the UK.

At the hotel’s restaurant there was (and still is, I believe) an openly gay colleague, a chef called Thomas Buhse. Because of the popularity of cookery programmes Nottingham hosts its own food and drink festival every year. Last year Thomas, as a chef from the leading restaurant in the city, was invited to co-present a demonstration with a local butcher Johnny Pusztai. And what were they billed as? “The Gay Chef and the Merry Butcher”. Here's a promotional video.



I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry, and there’s another 4 hours before lunch time!

The Seven Deadly Gay Sins : Seeing Red With Anger

The most popular of my tours of lgbt Nottingham is entitled “The 7 Deadly Gay Sins”. The Medieval world assigned colours to each of the traditional Deadly Sins. Six of these correspond to colours on the Rainbow Pride flag. My tour deals with each sin, one at a time, and I build up the Pride flag as I take my guests around the city and tell them about the sinful gay/lgbt history of Nottingham.

This short series of articles will deal with each sin in the same manner and I’ll look at the way they can be illustrated with lgbt heritage and build up our sinful Pride flag. The best place to start is at the top stripe as we take a look at ANGER and the colour RED with which it is inextricably linked.

Over the centuries the Christian church has included wrath, rage and fury. Impatience, revenge and vigilantism have also been classed as Anger. Indeed, patience is the corresponding opposite of Anger in the Catholic Church’s list of Seven Heavenly Virtues (to be covered next year).

One word which is included less often, however, is hate. It could be said that hate is the route cause of all the emotions under the Anger label. Recent decades have seen governments recognise hate as a crime in itself, specifically if it is directed against minority groups or opposing viewpoints.

Surprisingly, one word has never been (officially) listed under Anger, and that word is “violence”. This is very strange because the Medieval church said that the punishment the sinful angry would receive in Hell was to be torn apart alive violently.

Be that as it may, as far as the lgbt community is concerned it can be said without question that it has been a victim of Anger more than having been a perpetrator. The Medieval church said that the sin of anger can even be directed against yourself. This is why, until the middle of the last century, suicide was considered a crime, and the world still sees with sadness the high levels of lgbt suicides due to bullying or self-doubt.

There are many instances where the Anger of lgbt men and women has led to sinful deeds. Let’s look at a couple of them.

Close to home, quite literally, was the murder of Grenville Carter, a gay man who loved a few doors away from my old home in Nottingham in 1999. I wrote about this murder several years ago, but it’s appropriate to go over it again briefly to see how it fits our Deadly Gay Sins theme.

Grenville Carter was a lonely man who often walked through the cemetery behind our homes, offering rough sleepers the shelter of his home. One rough sleeper was Simon Charles, who had already served a prison sentence for attempted murder. Grenville Carter knew none of this, of course. During the month Charles lived with Grenville he became annoyed at his host’s habits, and his patience ran out and turned to rage and he murdered Grenville with an electric flex. Impatience and rage had turned to the Deadly Gay Sin of Anger.

When it comes to other lgbt murderers the name of several serial killers spring to mind (Denis Nielsen, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy). However, their killing sprees were motivated more by other sins (greed or lust, for example) rather than out of anger.

The lesbian murderer I’ve chosen to illustrate the Anger of impatience led to the death of an unfortunate neighbour.

The body of old Mrs. Chadwick was found in a Manchester street in 1948. Police first thought it was a hit-and-run attack, but a trail of blood led straight to the door of her neighbour Margaret Allen. Even though the victim was well-known as a cantankerous old miser, Margaret Allen’s reputation was worse. Margaret behaved like a man throughout her adulthood. She took on masculine jobs such as loading coal and building, and acted aggressively, and sometimes violently, to people she had little patience for. Unfortunately, this lost her a job as a bus conductor after passengers kept complaining about her pushing, hitting and swearing at them it they didn’t take their seat quickly enough.

After her mother’s death Margaret slipped into a series of mental health problems which could have been treated compassionately today. Bouts of depression and several suicide attempts drove Margaret to drink and smoke heavily. By 1948 she was calling herself “Bill” and claimed to have had some form of transgender operation.

On 28^th August 1948 old Mrs. Chadwick called at Margaret Allen’s home for a cup of sugar. She had enough money to buy some but often begged off her neighbours. Margaret refused to let her into her home and lost her patience. Grabbing a coal hammer she smashed poor Mrs. Chadwick’s skull several times and pushed her out of the door into the street.

When arrested a couple of days later all Margaret said was “I was in a funny mood”. Funny or not, her characteristic impatience and quick temper led to murder. Her trial lasted only 5 hours, and the jury took less time than it took me to type this article to find her guilty. She was hanged in January 1949 after a failed attempt by her only friend, Mrs. Cole, who had once spurned Margaret’s amorous advances, compiled a petition. Only 162 people signed it.

So, we can start to build up our Deadly Rainbow Sins flag with our first Deadly Gay Sin.

We sin again in April when we look at the sin associated with the next colour on the Pride flag, orange. The colour gives a clue to which sin we encounter, and we will see if it feeds our soul or our sinful appetites!